[open] the cat came back

[limbical]

WHO: Daan (limbical) & YOU!
WHAT: Augustcatch-all. Event, non-event prompts, you know.
WHERE: The clinic for non-event prompts, the mall for event prompts.
WHEN: August
WARNINGS: Typical warnings for Fear & Hunger content, which you can find in Daan's permissions here. I'll ensure to label CW in subject headers in case the subjects come up, but if you need to opt out please hit up my permission's post!

Comments

[limbical]

I don't know. I just know he's supremely fucked up. ...There's always something about how intensely he looks at you that you end up feeling filthy, even if all you're doing is standing there.

[Daan rolls his eye.] Oh, good for you. I'm so glad your boredom has been solved for the time being.

[blackwaterchild]

Well, I'm used to that... [She's a gravure model, she's used to being leered at and made to feel dirty, it's cool, this is fine.

She shoves her shoulder against his side and lets his arm go with a huff] If I had to lay around staring at the ceiling anymore, I'd actually start stabbing people.

[limbical]

Trust me when I say this is different.

[Well. Maybe not that different, but certainly intense.]

I'd almost rather you be doing that than this bullshit, to be perfectly honest. At least we can probably deal with an emotionally stunted teenager murdering people instead of whatever else is going on.

[blackwaterchild]

I...I feel like you're supposed to not encourage me to go on a murder spree? Maybe?

I mean, you're the doctor here, so what do I know.

[limbical]

And how would you respond to that, Miu? An irritated sigh and-- [Daan does his very best impersonation of her.] --yeah I know that, duh.

Anyway, I'm not saying you should. Just that it'd be more convenient than... dealing with him again.

[blackwaterchild]

[She laughs--she can't help it. She laughs more than it's actually funny, just because it feels good to laugh like that.

As she calms down, she loops her arm around his again, leaning heavily against his side]

Ahh, that was good, I needed that.

It'll be fine. There's gotta be some way to deal with him--or even better, he's probably not even real. This place loves messing with our heads, you know?

[limbical]

[Well, if nothing else, there is something kind of satisfying in hearing her laugh when she sounds withdrawn and bored all the time. Maybe that's just a defense mechanism or something, but he doesn't mind it.

Right now, he's just more of a mess than usual. That isn't her fault.

So, he takes well to her weight, not minding the contact. It's actually something of a comfort.]

...Hm. [Daan frowns, as if he hadn't considered that.] I suppose it is awfully convenient that he showed up not long after we ended up locked in this mall.

He's just... always followed me, all my life. I just assumed he found his way here, inevitably.

[blackwaterchild]

I don't think this place lets just anyone in. If anyone arrives, it'd be through the subway, and everything in these new areas is calculated.

[Her mirth sobers up, Miu looking a bit more calculated now]

Everything's to get some kind of reaction from us.. .We're definitely being toyed with.

Unless you see that thing out in the city proper, I wouldn't put too much stock into it, you know? This place keeps showing my mother and I know she isn't here, so I'm not going to let it get to me.

[She absolutely will but shut up no one needs to know that.]

[limbical]

He's never been one to play by any rules but his master's, but... then again, we don't even know all the rules of this place. Maybe he can't contest with it. I don't know.

[Usually, Daan is much more analytical, but being confronted with his personal demons -- some quite literally -- has completely thrown him off. It's less than ideal to have been so vulnerable in front of anyone, Miu or not, but he's slowly getting his composure back.]

Nah, you're probably right. So even if I told the damned cat "yes" this time, nothing would probably happen. Well, nothing useful anyway.

Your mother, huh. Good or bad relationship, or is that none of my business?

[blackwaterchild]

[Surely seeing your personal demons in the flesh should give some kind of leeway into being rational, but Miu just frowns, thinking about it.

Who knows what rules this place does play by, or how they enforce them? There has to be something, but Miu can't begin to fathom it.

So she remains quiet up until Daan asks about her mother. The way her body briefly tenses should be answer enough, but Miu slowly releases a held breath and shakes her head]

It doesn't matter. [it doesn't matter who knows] It's bad. She abandoned me when I was 3. We had similar sixth sense abilities, but the woman she left me with had none. So when my abilities started up, I didn't have anyone to turn to about them, so it was pretty miserable.

I have a bone to pick with her, and some fake made up by this place isn't going to cut it.

[limbical]

[Ah. Parental abandonment. For a brief moment, Daan wonders which is worse: being abandoned so young that you barely remember your own mother, or being abandoned at the ripe age of 13 so that you distinctly remember just how awful everything is. But he isn't here to have a contest over trauma. Mostly, he just honestly empathizes.]

Fair enough. Figuring that shit out by yourself must have sucked, though.

[Something he can imagine, to some degree.]

Anyway, kudos to you for being able to differentiate it. Here I was about to lose my marbles because I really thought that damned cat found me again. [Even if it's just a front by her, he respects that. Daan usually can at least pretend to have his shit together, but this situation did a good job of ripping that to pieces.]

[blackwaterchild]

They started up that same day, just about. It sucks worse that no one believed me. Like, if they believed me but admitted they couldn't help? That's one thing. But...

[She trails off, sighing deeply and shaking her head.]

Well, I guess it helps to know that something like that wouldn't happen... That is, my mom wouldn't chase after me. She wouldn't run from me like that either--she already did once. But I found her, before I woke up here. She didn't run. She was going to face me, answer my questions...

So it has to be this place messing with what I'm-- What it thinks I'm scared of.

[She scuffs her shoe against the ground, expression passive and carefully muted] And I don't like losing. So I'm not going to let this place win by seeing me unraveled by anything.

[Nevermind that later she's going to have a complete rage breakdown about being unable to catch her mom, it's FINE this is FINE, god.]