The Hollidaze is Here Again - Open To All

[forgeabettertomorrow]

WHO: Darin Altway and you!
WHERE: All around
WHEN: Throughout the month of December
WHAT: Various shenanigans
WARNINGS: Mentions of extreme insomnia and holiday stress

-A- Nonah: Darin's Forge
[It had been a few weeks since the events of the swear-in ceremony on the moon. As the days wore on, Darin went from being his usual, upbeat self, to someone far more withdrawn. After working things out with Allura, he made an appoint to work normal hours at the forge. But that still didn't change the fact that he'd been averaging only a few hours of sleep per night, thanks to the fact that he can feel Diomuhr's presence now.]

[Anyone who comes by to see him will find him distracted. He has bags under his eyes and he's slightly off-color; paler than normal, despite not being sick.]

[Distracted by his thoughts and the presence lingering around him, he's also doing something he's never done before: making simple yet egregious mistakes. It's one such mistake that ends with Darin taking the piece he was hammering away on, a shield, and picking it up in his bare hands and crumpling it like it was nothing more than an aluminum can. He then pivots and pitches the solid ball of crumpled steel through the roof like a missile, complete with high pitched whistling sound as it disappears from sight.]

...Great. Now I have something else to fix...

-B- Maurtia Falls: Aegis Force HQ
[Darin was no stranger to exercise. In fact, before he was driven away from his home, he made an appoint to train his body every day. It helped maintain the illusion that his strength was natural, but it also helped him learn control and restraint. He'd more or less restarted his regiment again when he was Ported in, but Aegis Force HQ really gave him a place to cut loose and blow off some steam. And this blue-haired idiot was a kettle ready to boil over. Thankfully, someone showed him how to calibrate and use the Danger Room, which meant less time trying to figure the damn thing out. With all of his mental frustrations, Darin wanted to really go all out. After setting his opponents to 'robots' and cranking the difficulty to maximum, Darin enters into the simulation.]

[What follows, for about half an hour, is the sound of what one might assume is just explosions going off. Apparently 'maximum difficulty' is no joke when it comes to Danger Room settings, and Darin isn't taking the challenge lightly. Peek in on him, and you'll find him tearing through robots of all shapes and sizes with a ferocity that he's never shown before. The booming echoing out from the chamber isn't from the robots, it's from the force of Darin's kicks and punches. He's not even using his dao today, and at the rate he's going, he's going to destroy his limbs.]

Leave me...alone...! WHY THE HELL WON'T YOU LEAVE ME ALONE!?

[From his tone, it's possible he's not talking to the endless stream of robots.]

-C- De Chima: Shopping Center
[With Christmas fast approaching, Darin's taking a trip to De Chima's largest shopping center to get some ideas for presents. He's likely going to make most of the presents he wants to give out himself, but he's in some desperate need of some inspiration. He wanders from store to store, glancing over a list of names. Try to sneak a peek to see if your name is on the list? He might be too distracted to notice.]

[Or maybe you're in the food court, watching as shoppers bustle around. There's a hell of a commotion heading your way though. If you happen to squint, you'll notice a blue haired doofus running full tilt as a mob of angry shoppers chases him through the mall.]

YOU'RE ALL FREAKIN' CRAZY!! IT'S A DAMN TOY!!! YOU TICKLE IT AND IT LAUGHS AND SHAKES!!! KIDS CAN ALREADY DO THAT THEMSELVES!! WHY DO YOU NEED A TOY FOR THAT?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE?!

[Yup]

-D- Dawn of the Delts: Closed to Keith
[Okay, so the Danger Room might have been a bit too much. At least he can still hit the gym like normal. The only problem here is that he still has to make an effort to hide his power.]

[He yawns as he goes through a 'routine' that would make most people want to collapse. Now that he has a place where he can really push himself, this place seemed like small potatoes. What he really needed was a challenge.]

...Huh. Wonder if Keith is around. Last time we sparred, he was in demi-god mode.

...I wonder if he remembers me going toe-to-toe with him.

Comments

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Tch...

[Darin's already limping his way to the door. He shoves it open with a shoulder and parks his dumb ass on the floor next to it.]

[When Archie comes to check on him, he'll notice that Darin looks like hell. Bruises on his limbs aside, he's off-color, and the bags under his eyes are telling. He's a far cry from his usual, spritely self.]

[h2no]

[archie has absolutely the barebones of an idea of how to do this properly. he knows to get people to sit for their comfort, knows some of the motions to go through, at least.]

You look like shit. [blunt as ever.] Do you want me to do anything or let you heal yourself?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

You're the medic, you tell me.

[Guess we're just gonna go full teenager here, huh.]

[h2no]

[archie just rolls his eyes, pokes darin in the bruises on his broken arm then immediately puts his hand on his shoulder to start healing him, pushing him back onto one of the seats at the same time.]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Ngh...

Your bedside manner needs work, Doc.

[h2no]

Yeah, [he snorts.] and my medical degree would do well to actually exist.

[...maybe he shouldn't call himself a medic? that could spell legal trouble for aegis. damn, why didn't this stupid power come with a degree!! when it seems like he's done, archie leans back and curls his hand in front of his mouth.]

Still torn up about that moon base thing? [he asks, casually. interested. it's one of the worst things that's happened for a while.]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

... ... ...

[He sighs and leans his head back. He's just so tired.]

It's more than that.

[He doesn't know how to break this next part gently. He doesn't even know if he cares to at this point. Exhaustion has the better of him.]

...Diomuhr's awake, Archie.

[h2no]

Ah.

[that's probably the last thing he'd expected, but to his credit he doesn't react as poorly as when darin had first told him there's even something like that inside him, and that he might end the world. his thoughts skip all that and go straight to thinking of how to deal with it. falling immediately into despair is what he did with kyogre and it forced a twelve-year-old to take the helm. not again. never again.

he rubs his beard as he thinks this over.]

What made you realise this? Do you still have control?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

It woke up when I got stabbed with Falchion. For a second, I wasn't in control, and if I was any slower, I probably would have killed Lucina.

I heard him. In my mind. He was screaming in rage. And ever since that day, I can feel his presence, like a shadow but with actual weight.

I keep waking up in the middle of the night because I feel him there.

[h2no]

I see. So the smoke wasn't just nothing.

[he says that with a level of irritation that's clear he's not particularly pleased about darin ignoring it, but doesn't press on the topic in general. what's the point? he's not hiding it anymore.]

Does he make any other noise?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

No...it wasn't. Falchion was forged to slay demons. I'm technically a demon. The pain was enough to give Diomuhr a wake up call.

...Aside from him initially waking up? No. I haven't heard him since.

...I didn't know how to tell you. How to tell anyone.

[h2no]

[he nods-- he gets it. him feeling irritation at it doesn't mean it's necessarily well-founded irritation. archie doesn't say this, though.

for now, he just pulls darin into a hug, crossing one arm across his back and resting his other hand on the back of darin's head. he doesn't really care that darn is a threat to himself and potentially other people right now, he doesn't care about anything else other than the fact one of his friends is suffering so badly with no reprieve.]

It'll be alright, [he says, after a moment.] we'll work this out.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Darin doesn't make any move to resist. In fact, his entire body feels like lead.]

I'm tired, Arch...

I haven't had a full night's sleep since I got out of the hospital...

I know I'm worrying people. I know I'm worrying Allura. But I don't...

I don't know how...to tell the truth...

[h2no]

[he lets go after a few minutes, shifting to sit on the bench next to darin.]

No offence, Darin, but I feel like you'd worry her even if you didn't have a demon inside you. [he says it lightly and fondly, with a bit of a smile. cause, you know, darin doesn't need an archfiend to be a stupid bitch.] I know how badly insomnia can fuck with you. If you ever want company when you've been forced awake, just call me. If I'm not already up, I certainly ain't above hiding in one of the big-ass janitorial closets they got around here for a catnap to catch up.

[anyway--]

What is it keeping you awake, specifically? We got ol' Dio swinging' his dick around inside your head, does it make you feel unsafe? Does acknowledging his presence actively do something to you?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[He shakes his head.]

It's like...

Have you ever had someone watching you? A presence that you know is there but can't see it? You just...feel it? The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end?

It's that. I'll wake up out of a dead sleep and just feel him there. Waiting. Watching.

[h2no]

Only once, for a couple of days. I dunno if I ever told you about January, but I got possessed by a very powerful relic. Even then that was less... watching and more actively controlling.

[he shakes his head.]

So, no. I don't know what that specifically is like. [he holds his hand up, three fingers aloft.] Right I got three immediate thoughts here.

One, if he's been asleep for so long, does he even know he's not in the right universe anymore? He's cut off from everything that would enable him to do what he was going to do properly, no other Archfiends, no Dromas, no nothing. Does he even know this? In terms of prophecies and whatever else, he's pretty much shit out of luck.

Two, that makes me wonder if he can even do anything. If he does know, what would be the point of breaking everything here and trapping himself in the wrong reality? All he has is his impotent rage and power that if he utilized, could doom him forever. He doesn't even have you. He's never had you.

Three, related to the above, perhaps he's doing this on purpose. Specifically disrupting your sleep to exhaust you until you, [he gestures with his other hand towards the danger room door.] lose control because of exhaustion or your sanity being slowly whittled away.

[he stands up and turns away for a moment, clearly quite lost in thought.]

If you need the support to actually tell people you want to know this, like Allura, I'll come with you if it'll help. Or tell her myself. I gotta start writing all this down...

[forgeabettertomorrow]

I think that's why he hasn't done anything yet. He doesn't know where we are. He's gathering information. He's watching and biding his time. But his power is in me which means he can still do every horrible thing he wants if he takes over.

[He almost leaps to his feet when Archie talks about telling others. Especially Allura.]

No. You can't tell Allura. Not yet. She worries enough about me. She's been worried about me. I'll...I'll find a way to break it to her myself. She won't fall apart over it. If anything, she'll be trying to figure out a way to put him back to sleep.

I just...don't want to burden her with that just yet.

And you cannot tell Lucina, either. She's still upset at what happened at the swear-in. I won't have her think this is any of her fault.

[h2no]

I won't tell anyone.

[and he means it, though it's something he'd break if he felt he had to. sry darin.]

Your reasoning is you don't want Allura to know why you're acting out and also that you don't want people to help or start trying to work out how to solve this as soon as possible? [he shakes his head.] Darin, if you're going to keep something like this from everyone, please at least think of some good excuses, because those are pretty fucking bad.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

The new year.

I want to at least wait until the start of the new year. Let people actually enjoy this holiday for once without some ominous threat looming over everyone's heads.

I take so much from people, Archie. I don't want to keep adding to that. People deserve to be happy.

[h2no]

We already got one apocalypse in the works. 'Least this one could be easily avoidable. I'd say being honest with them about what's hurting you would mean more than some commercial holiday that doesn't even exist in half the worlds people come from here.

[he shrugs.]

You want to stop taking from people? Start by stop taking advantage of their trust by keeping something this important from them.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Darin winces and lowers his head. That one hurt more than he'd care to admit.]

I...

...Right. Fine.

[h2no]

Good lad.

[he doesn't like having to talk to darin like this, but he doesn't let up again. he'd rather darin hate him for this but listen to it than doing something that would enable it.]

I know it's hard, but-- you'd be surprised the collective amount of world ending experience people have here.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

...If it's all the same, I'd still rather not tell Lucina.

She's never going to stop blaming herself. I can't do that to her.

[h2no]

And when she found out later on, she'd likely blame herself for not being able to find out or do more.

[he remembers, starkly, lucina's frustration at feeling like she couldn't do enough for kaneki, couldn't solve his problems on the spot. he knows now it's partly a result of what she went through back home, but he's not gonna mention something lucina struggled to talk about offhandedly.]

If I know one thing about her, it's that any reaction she has will be with a far greater intensity if she's treated with kiddie gloves in the process.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

She already has to deal with one Dark Lord back home. I really don't like the idea of telling her that she just happened to wake up another, even if it wasn't her fault.

Besides, you and I both know what that conversation's going to eventually segue into:

She might be the only one that can kill me if I do decide to go all Apocalyptic on everyone. She puts the fate of everyone on her shoulders without a second thought. I don't want to add to that! She doesn't deserve it!