[Mostly Open] So we'll press, and press 'til you can't take it anymore!

[groupiedrifter]

CHARACTERS: Precursors and you. And Eventually Newton. Hopefully!
LOCATION: A holding room in Ximilia Station.
DATE: Est. two days post-mission, after the kaiju is defeated and the orb is retrieved.
CONTENT: The precursors are revealed — and are finally removed from Newt's mind.
WARNINGS: Possession and the bodily autonomy issues that come with that. More will be added if necessary!

Closed and opened starters will be added as I go, which will be announced on plurk! But if you don't use plurk or would rather keep an eye out by email/tracking, feel free to use the tracking option and mark to receive notifs any new top level comments posted to this log! The log will involve an open starter to visit the precursors where they're cuffed/contained in the room, so stay tuned.

Also no rush once the open starters are posted!

Feel free to focus on the player plot log first and come back to this later.

CLOSED STARTER | THE DOCTOR
DARKLING'S TOP LEVEL | WHILE NEWT WAS SLEEPING...
OPEN STARTER | THE PRECURSORS, REVEALED
CLOSED FINAL CONCLUSION | THE PRECURSORS, REMOVED
OPEN PROMPTS | NEWTON GEISZLER'S RETURN

Comments

[morethan084]

Hey.

[Daisy speaks up just loud enough for Aleksander to hear when she spots him leaving the room she knows Newt is in. She must've been asleep when he had gone in.]

How's he doing?

[Scooting up so she's more upright, she only notices the closer he gets that something isn't right and her stomach drops.]

What's wrong? He's not--?

[cruelyethuman]

No.

[The warmth that usually slips in to his voice when he looks at her, doesn't come. It's cold as ice, dripping with it as his shadows slither around his ankles, crawling up the walls to dim the lights.

Ink on water, smearing out around the infirmary room as he takes a step close to where she's laid up in bed.]

He's not.

[Not for lack of trying, and he had been so close. Newton had already been drowning, the air pushed from his body and replaced with shadows.]

How are you doing?

[morethan084]

[Relieved to hear that Newt isn't dead, she follows the shadows he's got surrounding him with her eyes. Daisy isn't sure why he's acting like this but he's clearly upset about something.]

I see you got your powers back.

[Trying to read his expression as he steps closer to her, Daisy spots a few people in the room looking in their direction after the lights dim.]

I'm--

[In a lot of pain.]

Doing better.

[cruelyethuman]

Yes, lucky me.

[Snide and sarcastic, because he doesn't know how to be anything else. Not with the burning resentment and the impotent rage that still burns through his veins. That Newton still lives, that he still breathes when he almost took that privilege away from others.

His gaze slides from the walls and down to where she was shot, hidden from sight but still very much on his mind. The blood that still stuck to the ridges of his fingerprints and her pale face as he raced her down the train corridor.]

You couldn't have done much worse. You- Daisy, you were close. Too close. [The worry and warmth sneaks in, lacing through his words as he walks all the way to her bed to place his hands on the clean sheet. The shadows melt back in to the corners and crevices.]

[morethan084]

[Frowning at his remark, Daisy notices the moment his eyes land on her shoulder. As hazy as all of that was for her, she does remember Aleksander being the one that saved her life. She would’ve easily bled out if he hadn’t come when he did.]

Hey.

[Daisy reaches with her uninjured hand, placing it on top of his. Her skin feels cool and clammy to the touch.]

I’m here, and I have you to thank for that.

[cruelyethuman]

I might not be there the next time.

[He looks back towards the room that cradles Newton, keeping him safe and sound, when he came so close, too close, to fracturing them all. The careful trust that they had all been forced to build between them.

All dragged here from different worlds, different realities. Their goals differing, but they had to forge bonds to deal with the missions - to survive. And that little man in there, did more damage than every other mission combined.]

How much pain are you in?

[His hand flipping over, until they're palm to palm.]

[morethan084]

[Daisy finally connects the dots when he looks towards Newt's room again, her frown deepening as she gives Aleksander's hand a gentle squeeze to try and get his attention back on her. Ignoring his question about how much pain she's in.]

It wasn't his fault. He had no control over any of it.

[She remembers being on the other end of that. Racked with guilt, knowing there was no way to make things right. She didn't want to be forgiven, didn't feel like she deserved it.]

[cruelyethuman]

So I've heard.

[He doesn't believe it. Doesn't hold the belief that ignorance absolves Newton of anything - his hand held the knife, his finger squeezed the trigger. His eyes saw it happen and didn't stop it.

He had held lives in his hands, and had cruelly crushed his fingers together, letting the lives of the other orbers drip from his stained digits. No, Newton might not have been in control, but he had brought these things on board.]

Do you think that makes it better? Does it make what he did to you better?

[morethan084]

[His reaction isn't surprising, and it's fair for him to feel that way. But she can't. If anything she feels guilty for not pushing to get him help before all of this.]

I know what he's going through, because--

[Daisy can't look at him, afraid of how he'll react. It's not something she's ever talked about here.]

I've gone through something similar, and I remember coming out of it with this overwhelming sense of guilt. I'm not going to make him feel worse about it.

[cruelyethuman]

Why did you feel guilty?

[His hand tightens a little around hers, not to hold her captive, but to cement that he's here, that's he's right here, and so is she.

But he is going to turn the conversation away from Newt and what he's done, what almost happened if it hadn't been for Kovach.]

If you couldn't control it.

[Did he feel guilty about the death that his mistake caused? The countless dead and dying that was left in his wake, as he yielded a power too powerful for even him?

Should he feel guilty about the people dying to this day, because he miscalculated and failed? The Fold was uncontrollable, a blemish on his world and of his making.]

[morethan084]

Because I—

[If she tells him this there’s no turning back. She has no idea how he’ll react, and there’s a very likely chance he might see her in a completely different light. As much as she’s learned to live with it over the years, this whole experience has brought those memories and feelings right back to the surface.

She can’t look at him, and instead looks at their hands as she answers him.]

I killed when I was under their control, and I almost killed my partner. I betrayed my team. I opened up to the person who controlled me in a way I’ve never been able to before, and it felt good. Like, for the first time in my entire life, I was whole.

[cruelyethuman]

[He doesn't care about the murders, even the loss of innocent lives. Had everything been exactly the same, with one crucial difference - he would have let Newton wallow in the misery he brought on the station. Would have let him, or the ones inside of him, ravage the train to bathe in the blood that rained down with every explosion.

That Daisy has killed, is nothing.

But he wipes the traces of unfocused anger from his face, frowning down at her pale face.]

I am sorry, for what was done to you.

[Consoling was not a skill he had much practice in, but he draws circles on the back of her hand to show a measure of- comfort, perhaps. Solace. Daisy's story rings too close to his own lived experiences, to the thing he does not feel guilty about. His secret.

Instead of trying to find the words that would mean nothing in the end, he cradles her head in his free hand.]

[morethan084]

[Selfishly, Daisy’s relieved that he didn’t run the moment he found out the truth. It would’ve been a completely understandable reaction too, after what she’s just told him. Looking up at him, her brows pinched together in both and reliving the memories she’s done her best to push down, she leans into his touch at the feel of warm hand against her clammy skin.]

Can you—? Can you stay a while?

[She really doesn’t want to be alone right now, because she feels like she’s on the verge of spiraling from all the guilt rising to the surface.]

[cruelyethuman]

[Looking over his shoulder, at the closed door that holds the sleeping body of a man who should not be here, and Kovach, he shakes his head.]

I only have a minute. But I can spend it with you.

[Emotions still a furious mass of anger and rage, the violence that lingers just beneath the surface. The need to lash out and rend them all, if that would bring him closer to his goal. Closer to making this station safe again.]

Do you need anything. Water, perhaps?

[morethan084]

[She follows his gaze when he looks at the door where Newt was behind, her stomach dropping when she realizes something hasn't to be wrong.]

What aren't you telling me?

[He's been acting strange ever since he came in here, and she thought it had to do with what happened on the train.]

[cruelyethuman]

[Do you want a list trembles on his tongue, to lash out at her for being here, for being close enough to see his defeat.]

Later, Daisy. I will tell you everything later, when you're not- [Fingers brushing over the white sheet covering her, coming up to trail gently over her cheek.] when you're not this hurt.

Did the doctor mention how long you would be here?

[morethan084]

[Her expression hardens when he promises to tell her later, and she completely ignores his own question.]

If it has to do with Newt, I need to know. Now.

[And because she's fearing the worst.]

Is he dead?

[cruelyethuman]

No, he was breathing just fine when I left him.

[Gulping, dragging breaths, that sounded so painful that he wanted to gloat right in Kovacs' pinched face.]

Are you worried about him?

[morethan084]

Then why do you keep looking at the door?

[She's high, not stupid. And she knows him well enough to know when he's not telling her the truth.

Or she thinks she's does anyway.]

Of course I'm worried about him. And no one will let me get up and go see him for myself.

[cruelyethuman]

I had a- ah, disagreement with Kovacs. And I'd rather not restart that particular argument any time soon.

[But his hand falls from her face, resting on the sheet for a moment before he pulls back and clasps them behind his back.]

Didn't the doctor mention when you would be well enough to get out of bed? You came so close to dying, Daisy, don't make it worse. You need time to heal.

[morethan084]

[Frowning at his explanation, Daisy fights the urge to ask why he and Kovacs got in an argument to begin with. It at least makes some sense as to why he seemed so tense.

So she lets it go. For now.]

There wasn't really time to ask questions, but I'll be fine.

[It's such an automatic response at this point. When is she never not dismissing the severity of her injuries? Daisy limply raises her hand, trying to reach for his hand but he's got it behind his back.]

If you're worried about Kovacs, he wouldn't do anything here.

[Selfishly, she doesn't want him to leave.]

Besides. I totally kicked his ass that one time.

[Yeah. And she came back to the room she had shared with Aleksander all banged up. She left that part out.]

[cruelyethuman]

You are trying to protect me. [And for the first time since he stepped off the platform and found himself back at the station, a small smile flits across his face.] Adorable.

[But Daisy usually was - adorable and fierce. The paleness to her face and the tremor in her hands, shows him the truth behind her automatic response -that she is not fine. That this was closer to being the end than she wanted to admit to.

Watching her, hands twitching but still kept behind his back, he nods.]

Of course you'll be fine. No one has died here yet and the doctor is very good at what he does.

[morethan084]

Someone has to.

[Daisy says it dryly, as if that isn't the most hypocritical thing she's ever said. But she does feel that urge to protect him, regardless. Especially after seeing him be so vulnerable around her during the start of the mission.]

They all are, but I wouldn't have been fine if you hadn't come for me.

[She's not done thanking him for that. Probably won't be for a while.]

[cruelyethuman]

I haven't had anyone try in-- far longer than you've been alive.

[It is bitter-sweet, to be protected, to held at value. Not for what he can do, but for who he is when he's with her.]

I know. I know, and that fact will not be forgotten. Not by me any time soon. He almost killed you, Daisy.

[morethan084]

[Daisy frowns at that and reaches for his hand again,]

I guess you’re just going to have to get used to it then.


[Lips pressing together when he brings up that Newt had almost killed her, Daisy shakes her head.]

That wasn’t him. It wasn’t his fault.

[She reminds him again, gently.]