maskormenacelogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

WHO: Maxie and whoever!
WHERE: the house,
WHEN: mid march, one during the event early on
WHAT: Archie and Maxie are nerds, and Maxie doesn't know how to deal with this groundhog's day shit.
WARNINGS: gore in the archie prompt, otherwise nothing atm!

closed for archie; gore warning and self indulgent nonsense

[there is no pain, not really, but the pressure is there and firm and so very absolute. it presses harder and harder, around him, punctuated by a crunch each round. pressure, crunch, release.

he's dying.

that's not as firm a thought as it should be, certainly not as firm as what digs in and crushes him more and more each round. he's dying, and he can't scream, and he wants to scream. he opens his mouth to scream, but nothing comes out. what drips from him, saliva and blood and dark viscera, falls onto the ground beneath. it falls onto someone beneath, staring up.

he thinks the person is archie, or blue, or courtney or tabitha or matt or- he doesn't know and what he does know is it doesn't matter. what's left of him drips to them. the pressure gets closer to them. he tries to scream, but cannot. there is no way there is much of him left, yet he keeps dripping down.

the pressure, the teeth, the maw of something dripping with him is so close to that poor person now. he tries to scream. he tries to scream.

he wakes up screaming. he bolts up, dripping sweat but not viscera, not himself.

his hands shake as comes to, sucking in breath, camerupt making a soft, concerned sound as he shuffles closer.]

open;

[the day after that- that what? that death, that destruction, that event that had to be a dream- the day after that finds maxie wandering the streets of heropa, looking pale and shocked and a more than a little confused.

it didn't feel real, not yet, not at all, maybe. that's why he went out rather than bother the network for answers. he wants to see for himself, the city whole and not how it should be if memory served.

anyone can find him staring up at the buildings, brow furrowed.] Impossible...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[archie, in the same bed as maxie ~~five feet apart cuz they're not gay~~ would've been shocked awake by maxie sitting up without the screaming. he makes an alarmed noise, pulling himself up and rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palm.]

Wha- [he frowns, finally getting jolted out of sleep.] Y'okay?

[he shakes his head again, putting a hand on maxie's shoulder, giving it a little squeeze.]

[he was still breathing heavily, though his eyes widen at archie's presence for a beat. being half awake made him forget their absolutely not even remotely gay bed sharing, and for one long moment the dream came back to him in startling detail, only with archie's face the one staring up, dripping with gore.

he takes a shuddered breath and covers his mouth, trying to beat the nauseous feeling down. it takes a full minute for him to swallow and move his hand, letting it clutch at camerupt snuffling worriedly at his side.]

Y-yes, yes I- it's nothing. Go to sleep.

[he sits up properly, crossing his legs under the covers, leaning his elbows on his knees. archie casts camerupt a Look.]

We should be past this, Max Power. It was obviously something

[he sighs, rubs a hand over his forehead.]

You don't gotta-- talk about it, but...

Yes we should. This shouldn't be happening. [his weak tone goes frustrated and yes, they aren't talking about the same thing huh. what a shock.

he keeps running his hand over camerupt's snout until his pokemon huffs and nudges him in archie's direction, a clear 'talk to him' in the gesture. maxie exhales shakily, still glaring down at the sheets but hey, he speaks at least] You know, you are an absolute anomaly. I let you sleep in my bed, I put up with your ridiculous ideas, I even let you get away with saying rock juice.

It--

[he should laugh at hearing rock juice come out of maxie's mouth, but he doesn't. all he can focus on his how it seems like maxie is... not sure why he's doing it all. archie's just there, something maxie can't get rid of.

...well, he has been saying it all along. archie wonders if he's really so badly misread everything. archie looks away, chewing his bottom lip.]

I can-- [he wants to make some shitty joke about how it's technically his bed, because this is his house, but it doesn't come out.] Do you want me to go?

[maxie finally does look at him, brow creased, snapped a little out of his stupor by surprise] What? No, you idiot. I didn't-

[then he stops again, realizing how what he said could sound. he releases a breath, not sure who he was even irritated at.] You were my first real friend. [he's not sure why he blurts that out, or what he's even trying to say] I know it's ridiculous, I don't want to hear it, and I-

[he trails off, then returns to petting camerupt, tone almost huffy] First human friend, obviously. Camerupt is better than you in every way.

Can't argue with that, [he says, a little dully. still not sure what to think.] Y'don't gotta collect people or anything, you know? I only really knew Shelly for most of my life. Fuck knows you're the only Rocket member I ever talk to now.

[he leans back slightly, grumbling something irritably about imappropriate pokégear friend requests. archie says nothing else, though, not sure where maxie is going with it all.

ignoring the lump of anxiety in his chest that he's about to comment on how archie isn't the right one.]

[he nods, then goes quiet for a long time. probably too long. probably too awkward.

after about three minutes he finally does speak again, sorry archie's anxiety.] Thank you.

[he fucking hated the entire three minutes, spending it looking around the room awkwardly, not sure what to think, not sure what maxie is thinking. just that he knows it's not enough. he's not enough]

No... problem?

[archie's not sure what to do; he wants to press, but also doesn't want to find out if the answer is what he's thinking.]

Do you think you'll be able to sleep again?

No, no I... I'm going to take a walk. I'll sleep on the couch when I'm done.

[he starts shifting off the bed, and his intention is for his nightmares not to wake archie again. fucking idiot.]

Okay.

[archie gets up to, very clearly intending to come with maxie. he's already wearing trackies and one of matt's old tshirts, so he doesn't feel the need to change.]

I'm gonna go see if either of the Mightyenas are awake, if they wanna come along.

[maxie blinks]

What? You should go back to sleep, the point is so I won't wake you up again, you daft cretin.

I'm not really tired, [he lies easily, shrugging.] I like the fresh air, anyway. S'why I moved out to the middle of buttfuck nowhere.

[well. he can't argue that. he does squint at archie.]

You're not just doing it because you think I need company?

...

D'you really want the answer to that?

[maxie squints at him for a long moment.

still squinting.

then he punches archie's arm, lightly. as if full force would do anything.] That's your punishment. Let's go.

[archie snorts.]

Horrible. I'm suffering. [he quips, following.] Uh-- did you... wanna talk about it or anything?

[maxie considers for a moment, considers again how archie's been after everything. talking about it might put him somewhat at ease, at least more than keeping him in the dark.

give this nerd a medal, he's empathizing like people do.] I... it was about teeth, and- you know. [he pulls on his coat and camerupt plods with them.] Typical. I doubt I'll ever not have nightmares about it. It was more- there was someone underneath. Sometimes it was you, sometimes it was others. Tabitha, Courtney, Blue- etc.

I don't know why that... hurt as much as it did. I can't get it out of my head.

People who'd all try to save you, I'd imagine.

[...okay, he's not sure about blue, but. archie decides to leave the mightyenas-- they're both asleep on the couch.]

...It was pretty fucked up. [archie can't get it out his head, either, but recently his nightmares have done him the solid of moving onto relic stuff instead of house stuff.] Is it the same one every time?

No, usually it's just the death itself. It's unpleasant but nothing I can't handle, eventually. This... I don't know. I can't even understand why it's so upsetting.

[he rubs his eyes, heading down and out, waiting for archie and camerupt when needed] I hate psychoanalyzing this nonsense. Dreams should just be dreams.

Dyin' is fucking traumatic, Max. You obviously remember enough of it for it to fuck with you. 'Cause, y'know... back home there'd be no coming back. I guess our brains dunno how to deal with it.

[thanks, captain obvious. archie sighs, shaking his head.]

...Sometimes it feels like getting better isn't possible.

[for a moment, it looks like he's about to say something else. but he doesn't just leaving it there, following maxie. looking at camerupt.]

I know, it's... natural our minds can't comprehend such a thing. Trauma of that nature can change your very brain chemistry, it's documented.

[his lips thin at that. archie's not wrong] Maybe we need to redefine what it means to 'get better.'

...

I noticed you're not havin' daily breakdowns anymore. So. That's something.

[he huffs something almost amused. almost.] I've been worried about you. I've made my goal be well enough to be there if you need it.

Of course I then fail tonight with this nightmare nonsense.

Awh.

[get ready idiot!! you're getting your hand held!! archie grabs it, giving it a squeeze.]

Don't worry about it. I know you don't believe it, but you are human. That's like tryin' to stop eatin' or something... we'll get the hot robot bodies we deserve one day. Can't have nightmares if ya don't sleep.

[which is likely the actual logic they've been living by, but... . . . ]

[of course maxie makes a show of huffing about it but hey, who's not pulling away? this guy. his grip is even firm, and his hands are cold. clearly that's the reason he's allowing this. nailed it.]

Trust me, if I could find a way to conquer sleep I would have done so. Imagine how much time we waste! The work we could do! [there's the nerd. he's back.

he glances back over at archie a little more seriously] Despite our typical doom and gloom I do believe we've done well, all things considered. In some ways at least. I was more than ready to live out my days alone on a mountaintop in self flagellation when I came here.

I've met humanoid races here that barely need because of their biology. So close, yet so far...

[he clenches his free hand. so much lost.]

I mean, neither of us lost our minds, so that's good. [he laughs at the mountain comment, macabre as it is.] I literally lived at the bottom of a lake for a couple days! It wasn't fun. Didn't help. Don't recommend.

Lucky bastards. Maybe we can do some sort of gene splicing one day.

[there is no way this would end as terribly as possible, if you think about it.]

Hm, if you hadn't stopped me I might have lived in a volcano. I still think it's a waste I can't at least try it. [and he exhales] Yes, this isn't a terrible rate of improvement. Not ideal, by any means, but acceptable.

Absolutely not. Try it and I'll suplex ya.

[pokémon teams and gene splicing... not even once.]

I still think it's worth trying to see how you can function around that much lava... I can come and heal you if it goes tits up.

You have no sense of adventure. [says the guy who watches rock documentaries raptly for hours.]

Absolutely it is! Better to know now than later. [as if he'll fall into lava accidentally one day??? it's him so. probably] An experiment of sorts.

I know I'm done fucking with nature for a while...

[haha...... he snorts.]

Yeah. --Oh! We could go to Yellowstone! Geysers are like-- volcanoes. But water! That's both our thing!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only