maskormenacelogs | (no subject)

[ God, this had been the weirdest day ever. Surprise visit from Abduxel in the morning + lunch with Yuri Petrov + driving lessons with Sasha = by the time Dorian gets home, he'll want to SLEEP. And drink, but mostly sleep.

He's got a crappy rental car because a) his sports car is stick shift, it's best if Sasha learns on manual and b) his sports car is a sports car, he's not gonna let Sasha drive on that no matter how much he wants to impress on her that he's a helpful person. As she approaches, he gives her a wave, gesturing to the car. ]

Of course it's safe! No people, no other cars, it's the perfect place for someone to learn how to drive.

[ Giving Sasha a smile, Dorian nodded to the car. ] Now come on. Hop in the driver's seat and we'll get started.

[ She wipes her sweaty palms against her jacket, moving closer to the car as instructed. Dorian's awfully nice for a relative stranger, but of course, she doesn't realize this is mainly a ploy to stay close to Will and that it isn't necessarily out of the kindness of his heart.

Giving the car door handle a tug, she eases the door open and slides inside the driver's seat. It's comfortable enough, but cold and she immediately doesn't like how obscured her vision is inside the vehicle. Just these windows to see out of? 3DMG feels so much safer in comparison. ]

What should I do now?

[ She pulls the door shut and sits still in the seat, staring ahead at the dashboard and all the little numbers and buttons. ]

Er...

[ hey now, part of this is also a ploy to try and rehabilitate Toby in Sasha's eyes. That's...two reasons why this isn't really out of the kindness of his heart, okay, bad example, moving on.

When Sasha slides into the driver's side, Dorian hops into the passenger's side closing his door behind him, giving her something that he hopes is a reassuring smile. ]

I suppose the first question is how much do you know about cars already?

[ She had to know a little bit, right? Right??? ]

[ What did she know about cars? She looks at Dorian, hands staying in her lap for the time being. ]

Uh, not all cars are the same, yes? Some are faster than others... some are made for specific functions, like working on a farm or if you have a family.

[ Although she's seen trucks in the city and family vans heading out of it, so she wonders if these differences are moot. ]

And there's airbags if you crash...

[ So...nothing. She knew nothing about cars. He's going to have to explain everything to her about cars, good Lord this was harder than he imagined. ]

So we're starting from relative scratch. [ he lightly tapped the steering wheel. ] This is the steering wheel. When you drive, turn this to change directions. [ he tapped the emergency brake ] This is the emergency brake, when it's up it's a nightmare to drive the car, but it stops the car from rolling away. Put it down when you drive, up when you park. [ and then he tapped the gear stick. ] This is the gear stick. Press that little button on the side and shift it to put the car in different states. P for park, R for reverse, N for neutral, D for drive, 3 for third gear, L for something you're probably never going to use.

[ All of this is said very matter-of-factly, but in a (hopefully) calm manner. ] Do you understand me so far?

Er.

[ It's a lot of information being loaded, but she nods slowly to convey she's getting some of it so far. She looks at the emergency brake, giving it a light poke with her index. ]

Wait, the car rolls? But we're not moving now.

That's because it's in park. Here, [ and Dorian hops out of the car, leaving the door open so he can still talk to Sasha. ] Press the button on the emergency brake to lower it. Then hit the big pedal in the middle of the floor with your foot while moving the gear shift to the N.

[ Dorian's plan is to go around the back and, once the car's in neutral, give it a little push to show Sasha that see, the car moves when it's in neutral, this is why you put it in park. The problem is a: he's grossly overestimating his strength and b: he's grossly underestimating how much Sasha actually knows about cars.

what could possibly go wrong??? ]

[ Where is he... oh. Sasha looks to the pedal on the floor, peeking at it as closely as she can to see where it connects. She can see all she needs to do is press her foot onto it. Alright, that seems simple enough. Not like 3DMG, but it's applying her weight, right?

She searches for the button on the emergency brake and then lowers it, a little too fast for her own taste, pausing before carrying on.

Someone should have told her about just how hard she shouldn't hit the pedal, because when she moves the gear shift to N as Dorian instructed, she just slams her foot into the pedal. ]

Edited 2015-11-10 05:59 (UTC)

[ By now, Dorian's made his way to the back of the car. He's about to call out to Sasha asking if the car's in neutral...when the car lurches backwards violently slamming into Dorian's leg in the process. Ah. So the parking lot had a slight incline. That stung and he couldn't help but make a face. For the first time, Dorian wonders about if doing this is sensible to begin with, but then, as with most Dorian decisions, that little voice inside his head got crushed beneath his overall thought of 'well hey, why not'.

Instead, he leaned against the back of the car, trying to push it forward. ]

Do you feel it moving? That's why when you want to park the car, you've got to put it in park.

[ the car's totally not moving ]

What was that?

[ She could have sworn she heard some kind of bump, but Dorian's the only one standing there (it's a relief he's still standing). She shakes her head, trying to ride past the nausea and focus on moving the car.

She should think twice about switching out of neutral, trying to figure out what else the lever does. She ends up shifting it to reverse and she can feel the car going backwards now, her foot on the accelerator. ]

Wait... what now?

[ In retrospect, this was a really stupid decision. Unfortunately, Dorian only realizes this was a really stupid decision after Sasha's accidentally put the car in reverse and is hitting the accelerator (why on Earth would she be hitting the accelerator?!) The car hits him with a much louder thump, flinging Dorian backwards, as he skids across the concrete. He's bleeding slightly due to the gravel and has a nasty hole in the elbow of his shirt but the worrying thing is that his leg's at an inhuman, obviously broken sort of angle...that Sasha can probably see as she reverses the car. ]

Put it in park! [ and then, because really, he might as well specify ] The stick, move the gear shift up so it's on 'p!'

[ There goes making a good impression. At least the rental car's still in one piece (oh God, he totally jinxed it, she's going to crash the damn rental car, great thinking Dorian). ]

[ Sasha can definitely feel the bump of a body against the car this time and the sickening noise that accompanies it. Panic-stricken, when her eyes snap back to the dashboard and steering to do as Dorian says, all the buttons look like gibberish and she can't remember which is which for the first few seconds.

She's stopped accelerating, at least, though she's screaming loudly in the car. ]

Ahhhhh, what did I do?! Oh god!!

[ Somehow, she manages to get the car in park again and as soon as it's stopped she throws the door open to scramble out of it.

Screw cars. This is legitimately terrifying. She'll take titans any day over this metal death trap. ]

[ Dorian...is just kind of sitting in the parking lot. He's not worried. This is more inconvenient than anything else, his leg will heal back up to normal soon. But because nothing can go well for Sasha today, the healing process starts right as she opens the door to look on him. Cuts on his forehead and arms heal back up, skin knitting themselves together. With his hands, Dorian helps push his leg back into place. He can't help but let out a little yelp of pain as his bones start knitting themselves back together, as his leg returns to it's normal, not-broken shape.

There we go. All better. He gives Sasha a small smile that's trying to be reassuring. ]

Shall we try again?

W-What just...

[ She might have seen Eren's wounds heal up faster than normal every now and then, but to see how quickly Dorian's body patches itself up without any medicinal or other assistance is still a shock. Her face is ghostly pale and drenched in sweat, her arms and knees shaking, lip quivering. ]

Oh... oh no, no... are you okay? Dorian, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you!

[ Why she accelerated, no one will ever know.

She stumbles toward him, trying to get a close enough look at any wounds he may still have. ]

Oh god! I'm the worst!

[ Dorian is taking this all too calmly. But, on the other hand, he doesn't have any wounds anymore. ]

Of course I'm okay, [ said in a 'well duh' sort of tone. But then...wait a moment. ] You do know I'm immortal, right?

[ Hey, it's hard to know who knows about Dorian's everything and who doesn't. He hasn't really interacted with Sasha that much outside of a 'he knows she exists' sort of context, so for all he knows, she doesn't know about the immortality and is wondering why the hell Dorian's leg managed to right itself like that in a matter of moments.

He's only going to connect the dots that 'Sasha is freaking out over hitting him' with 'Sasha is actually a good person and not like the shitheads who Dorian deals with that take pleasure from his pain' later. ]

Yeah, but this is still awful!!

[ It was one thing to accidentally elbow someone, trip them or bite them (shit happens), but it's entirely different one to ram someone with a car. Particularly when they're being generous enough to offer free lessons in how to drive a car in the first place.

Sasha's fingers grab either side of her head, yanking at her hair. She's wheezing, as if she might cry. ]

What if I killed you?!

[ She doesn't need any more bodies on her conscience, thanks. ]

[ She's worrying about him??? She's worrying about him. Dorian is not used to people worrying about him (and he's certainly not used to crying teenage girls) so he just kind of pauses for a moment, not so sure what to do.

Well, he knows one thing that might help. Dorian stands up, brushes himself off, walks over to Sasha and attempts to give her a hug. It's awkward as hell, like Dorian doesn't know how to give a comfort-a-crying-person hug, but the attempt has been made. ]

You couldn't kill me even if you tried. [ It's a matter of fact statement. Dorian's trying to be comforting though, a calm tone in his voice. ] So come on, there's a gas station next door, I'll buy you a drink and a snack, you'll calm down, and then we'll see if you're up for more lessons or not.

[ Their last substantial conversation involved churros, the only thing Dorian associates Sasha with is 'terrible food', gas stations had plenty of that. ]

[ Luckily for Dorian, she doesn't exactly reciprocate the hug so it's not too awkward (or is it more so because she didn't?). She sniffs loudly, wiping her nose with the back of her sleeve, then forces both arms down to try and cease the shaking. ]

Snack? Maybe... my stomach is bothering me now, but maybe food will make it better.

[ It should be the opposite, but she's not about to pass up an offer for food even after ramming someone with a car. Not this time, anyway. She'll just get ginger ale for her stomach to help relax it. ]

Are you sure you're okay? That looked and sounded painful...

[ Victory. He's not a totally terrible person, he can deal with crying teenage girls, he's got this! Eat your heart out, haters. Dorian can't help but give Sasha a gentle smile. ]

I've been through worse than that and I'll inevitably go through worse than that. [ and then, with a dumb little smirk, ] I'm indestructible.

[ no, not really, but it's easier to say that than 'portrait in the attic.' And yeah, it was very painful getting hit by a car. But if he plays this off as no biggie, then hopefully Sasha will think it's no biggie? Dorian's running on maybes and possiblys at this point, hopefully something will work and make Sasha at least feel better.

Christ, he's gonna have to tell Will about this, isn't he. Shit. ]

[ She isn't sure if that's supposed to make her feel better, so she'll pretend she didn't hear that. Instead, she gulps and looks at the car a tad nervously, like it's going to accelerate toward them and hit her back in revenge. ]

Some food... would be good now. An egg and ham sandwich...

Gas station food it is! [ Dorian remarked, trying to keep a happy-go-lucky sort of tone in his voice as he gestured to a nearby gas station, just the next building over. See, he's fine! He's fine, she's fine, the car's fine, no need to worry about any of that. ]

Now come on, [ said with a nod as Dorian started to walk over towards the gas station, expecting Sasha to follow. ]

Wait, can you walk fine? You shouldn't put too much pressure... unless that's okay?

[ She grabs his sleeve to keep him from going forward, at least until he clarifies. ]

I could teleport us if it's easier.

With my healing, it's almost instantaneous. [ most of the time. At least for this part. ]

So yes, I can walk fine.

[ and then to prove his point, he walks a few feet closer to the gas station before turning around and giving Sasha a reassuring smile. ] See?

If at any point you feel weak let me know!

[ She'll teleport them straight to a hospital and hyperventilate at the nurses.

She glances back at the car, gesturing to it as they walk further away from it. ]

What about your car?

It should be fine. I don't think you hitting me will mess up the bumper too much.

[ Dorian's like a hundred pounds soaking wet, he has faith that the car's fine. And, if not, he's got enough squirreled away to help pay for repairs. ]

Don't worry about the car.