OPEN & CLOSED event catch-all with the Gundam Wings

[heeroics]

WHO: heeroics & braidedwonder & zerofive & YOU?
WHAT: three former military teenagers establish a base of operations in the play area of the abandoned mall, while they investigate the mall and the knife-wielding clown apparitions (among others) that are "haunting" them
WHERE: the mall
WHEN: during August event
WARNINGS: child soldiers doing their thing, will add as needed


Throughout the mysterious mall lockdown, Heero, Duo, and Wufei will keep the play area of the mall beside the food court secured and well-stocked with: food court pretzels, bottled drinks, as well as walkie-talkies and nerf guns scavenged from the Toys R' Us. Feel free to tag in with a wildcard @ the play area, or PM for an individual starter.

Comments

[braidedwonder]

Wufei is staring at the blade, but Duo is staring at Wufei. Now that his mind has had some time to process, he feels the pain of the stab, the way that breathing too broadly moves the blade in his chest and in turn amplifies the pain. Vaguely, he thinks that this is moving slower than he thought it would. Not that he had ever pondered on something like how quickly or slowly he would die if if was stabbed before.

Surely he intended to die by gunshot wound instead, which he hoped would be faster on all accounts. Already he feels lightheaded, but can't decide if it's his own buried panic or his body reacting to the new hole in it. Wufei guides him to the floor and Duo.. still can't quite gather up something to say. What does one say when he's staring down at the death sentence in his chest and trying to figure out how long this is all going to take?

Either to bleed out or to asphyxiate, either would take too damn long by Duo's estimation. Despite it all, as Wufei says he's killed him, Duo cracks a rueful smile, finally tilting his focus back to the ceiling. "Stop wishing. I'm not dead yet."

But then, in a moment of seriousness, he makes a request, trying to clamp down on the way his voice shivers slightly in abject fear of it all.

"Just pull it. This is gonna be too damn slow otherwise."

[zerofive]

"You did always hate a lingering death," he acknowledges.

It's odd, the things that occur to you in the moment; Wufei almost laughs, but he tamps down the urge to a grim and unpleasant little smile. No telling what hysteria lies on the other end of that idea. It was how they had met, after all, in the very real threat of a slow and lingering, mutual death.

And how they would part, at least temporarily.

"I have never wished for your death," Wufei says, his hands still foreign to him, reaching to grasp at the handle again, obedient as any other weapon, "You will not remember this, so I'll tell you, at least this once: I love you. You have been my friend, my brother-in-arms, and— I am sorry."

[braidedwonder]

“What’s the point in it? I always wanted to go young and pretty, but at least make it quick so I don’t have to deal with the ugly shit.” Like goodbyes or his own lingering fear about what the hell lay ahead of him after death. Yes, he joked about the subject often, made light of saying he’d returned from hell but … in the end he’s just as uncertain as anyone else about what lay ahead of him after all he’s done.

Before, during, and after the war. The only thing that’s stopped him from taking more lives is being here in this useless City with Heero and Wufei, and while he’s been reveling in this new connection with his comrade…

Well, Wufei’s speech because he won’t remember is mostly why he hadn’t wanted a slow death. He winces through a rueful sound, reiterating as he pushes his chin forward to cajole Wufei to do it.

“Don’t say shit like that.” It isn’t the most gentle thing to say to a man professing his love and apology in the moment, but Duo doesn’t disappoint by leaving out an explanation either. “People I love die, Wufei. And you’re not allowed to for a long time coming.”

Duo’s eyes close, steadying himself as he realizes his breathing is already deteriorating in to wheezes. “I’ll do it if you can’t.”

[zerofive]

"And everyone I have ever loved. Or who loved me... I killed them," There it is again, that laughing edge of horrified hysteria. It's right there, under the surface, bubbling, insistent pressure, "So this makes no difference."

His grip firms. No, he can do this; fulfill a dying lover's request. If nothing else, he has proven that before. There is a moment when the words all crowd into his mouth, logjam-dense and just as worthless. What to do with the body, what to say to Heero, a promise to meet him at the train station, to ask for a last kiss, to touch his cheek, anything at all. That last, desperate assurance for which he had begged Meiran; I love you, do you at least not despise to be near me?

"Goodbye, Duo," He says only, because none of it can matter, and Duo has already asked him not to say any of it. It is worthy of respect, "Goodbye, my friend."

The knife comes out easily, slick and red, and a torrential gush came with it, all in one blackish cupful. Not long now; shock would take him under soon enough, and bloodloss would kill him minutes after.

[braidedwonder]

"One difference." Duo reminds, sounding.. fairly calm despite the situation. Perhaps it's because he knows he will be back, or at the very least that Wufei is here with him, and will be here with him until he is gone. He reaches to touch Wufei's arm, making sure he has his attention. "I'll be back, here. So maybe it's the best place to beat that particular curse."

If Wufei wanted to call it that. A way to dodge that particular thing that keeps happening to them both if only because it all seems so pointless here, day to day.

Finally Wufei moves to remove the knife, and Duo, dully, makes a small groan in response. Biting back reaction is easy enough, and the change in how he feels is instantaneous. This would have happened, slowly, with the knife still embedded within, but this is like purposefully opening the floodgates. Color begins to drain from his face rather quickly, and for a moment Duo makes a fleeting motion to try and angle himself, to sit up a little further, his breathing slowing into bubbling wheezes that take up more energy to achieve, a cough painting his mouth red. Thankfully, the coppery taste doesn't even occur to him in his current state.

"Wu.." Duo pauses, clearly fighting to gather enough breath for thought as his oxygen-starved brain still tries to function, settling into shock. All at once he is consumed with the need to make sure the other man stays, that little kid within him that is terrified of being left alone pushing past the heavy stone of fatigue.

[zerofive]

"I'm here," He says, which is ridiculous, because he is very obviously here. Duo's lifeblood is splattered across his arm and chest, staining the cuff of his sleeve even now, thickly paint-wet, bathwater warm, "I will not allow you to die alone."

He knows what it is for family to die; someone must sit the deathwatch. Someone must perform the prayers. Someone must see to the body. Someone must do things properly, the way that no one ever could, for his own family, his own people. The way he could not, for Duo, not truly; what gods did Duo truly believe in, what meaning did he assign to this kind of death? But Wufei could do this much: no one who is loved, should ever die alone.

"Breathe," He says, watching intently at Duo's face, for those last moments. It's a deliberate form of torture; he deserves the agony of every moment, as it slips through his fingers, "While you can, breathe."

Deep breaths would only hasten the end, of course. But all things are finite, and Duo's life moreso now, than ever.