A Nightmare And A Wet Dream

Private, Pre-Announcement Day 2

Found in the center of a clearing in the woods is a lone tree with hundreds of shoes hanging or nailed to it. It is unknown who put the first collection of shoes on the tree, but it was thought to be in protest of some aspect of life on the island. Originally going untouched due to the anger of the leaders of the island's community, over time people started to add their own shoes to the tree until it became what is is now.
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Emprexx Plush
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A Nightmare And A Wet Dream

#1

Post by Emprexx Plush »

((Blaise d'Aramitz continued from If I Had Two Faces, Would I Be Wearing This One?))

Nasally grunts filled the morning air. He was pulling at a pair of sneakers, the only ones on this level that seemed to be anywhere close to his size. They did nothing for his outfit but he didn't care about that sort of thing, vanity was a sin he was disqualified from at birth. Bottom line was that he needed shoes and he didn't wanna shimmy his way up the tree to look for another pair just 'cuz the colors didn't line up right. That wasn't the sort of thing Carl would do. Carl would be just fine as long as he could get this dang blasted nail out without tearing them up too much awful worse. They looked pretty rugged as it was, but they were better than being bare foot, right?

Blaise was horrified at their actions. Slipping in deeper was a necessary evil but it was still evil, one that violated everything they stood for; Denim was one indignity and the ridiculous graphic on their too-big t-shirt was another, but at least they went together in a minimally acceptable way. These chromatic monstrosities were something altogether different. They wouldn't match anything, least of all themselves. Teal tongues and cross arch accents, magenta soles with random black jagged inserts, pale yellow bands on the heels, two completely different shades of blue in ill fitting patterns over the face and laces, all defacing an egg white base that could have been anything else. Anything at all. Someone had seen that most basic of starting points and decided embody artistic restraint into a living vessel, invite it out for the evening, and offer it some cold fast food leftovers from the floor of their van before prematurely ejaculating without so much as giving its now exposed anus the opportunity to be disappointed.

No one had ever or would ever sacrifice more for survival than they had. If it would not compromise their position they would state so as a matter of record for the public at home.

At least in a associative way they didn't have to imagine themself touching the abominations. That was Carl's job. One he was performing poorly, but at least it wasn't theirs. Eventually his hands would be theirs again, but by then surely they would be able to rob someone with better taste and put this whole thing behind them.
[+] SotF Characters
[+] V5 Characters
ImageG056, Alda Abbate(Adopted)
It was difficult to nail down exactly when the anger started. Remembering a time when it wasn't there, coiled up and waiting to strike or alive and thrashing, was growing more and more challenging. It'd been with her for so long that it no longer felt like an intruder in her mind. It felt like a part of her.
ImageB062, Garrett Wilde
I multiplied. Then I subtracted. That's what we do now. That's how we keep the most people around.
ImageB014, Joachim Lovelace(Adopted)
Your turn.
[+] V6 Characters

ImageG037, Abby Floyd:This place was vile. Overwhelmingly, terribly vile. Character Theme: Everything's Alright-Emily Scholz
ImageB016, Ty Yazzie: You ever wonder if you still got a home to go back to? Character Theme: Warrior People-Medicine For The People
ImageIsaac Brea(Adopted from Espi): Isaac's well of fucks was bone-dry. Character Theme: The Whiskey, The Liar, The Thief-Patent Pending
ImageG011, Caedyn Miller:So...how did you wanna do this? Feeling an open casket? Or is that dumb? Nah, don't say it, that's dumb. We'll be soup by the time they send us home anyway. Character Theme: Sleep-My Chemical Romance
ImageG032, Irene Djezari(Adopted from CicadaDays): Death was not worse than Meme Hell. Character Theme: A Beautiful Lie-30 Seconds To Mars
[+] V7 Characters
ImageB066, Blaise d'Aramitz: I am not fucking dabbing on a corpse, Carl. Character Theme: The Nurse Who Loved Me-A Perfect Circle
ImageG032, Helena 'Hel" Fury: I hope my family’s waiting. The one I made out here. I hope you’ll be a part of it again. Character Theme: Fix Me-10 YearsImage
ImageB073, Jeremiah Anderson: "GO--GO--GO." Character theme: The Big Sleep-Murder By Death
ImageG066, Marco Hart: I'm not satisfied anymore. I don't think I'd want to be if I could. Character theme: Maurice's Monsters-Small Leaks Sink Ships
ImageG080, Nikki Nelson-Kelly: The fools. The morons. The aBsOlUtE cReTiNs. Character Theme: Movement-The Whip
ImageG062, Tonya Collins: The girl, the person, the thing, the shape on the screen, that wasn't her. Character Theme: Get Down-Isador
User avatar
Zetsu
Posts: 615
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:58 am

#2

Post by Zetsu »

Megan didn't know the exact moment Princess had left her behind, the moment her little life was dropped or thrown away or slipped between Princess's fingers.

((Continued from I'm a Princess, Cut From Marble, Smoother than the Storm))

This isn't about Megan. It hadn't been about Megan when Claudeson and Princess had strode along, chattering to each other, their voices echoing in Megan's skull. Megan had fallen behind. She couldn't explain it, or the way the others kept moving, kept moving. Megan shouldn't have tired yet; this was supposed to be her element; Megan didn't have to begin taking smaller steps, stumbling, let her voice dwindle to nothing. Don't worry about me, she'd called, quietly, I'll catch up. It would be an absolute shame if the others would wait for her, realize her voice had disappeared, and realize how small she was.

They were at the top of the hill, and Megan was waiting for Princess to look over her shoulder. Then they were over it. Megan reached the top of the hill, and they were gone.

So it was.

There would be much, much worse to come.

Sitting down at the top of the hill, idly wondering if Princess would realize what had happened and turn back for her. Not that she'd expected it. She'd given up the right, after all, when she'd curled up in Princess's arms and waited for the right words, when she'd watched as they disappeared over the hill and said nothing, when she as good as declared that she wanted things to be given to her without her asking for them. So what was Megan allowed to feel? Not much, and so she did not feel much.

Megan had laid down, staring at the sky. Sometimes she'd let her gaze wander over to the sun, and then she'd close her eyes and see spots of blue and green and black. She'd get up, but she couldn't figure out where she wanted to go, and she was comfortable. And that was the day, pretty much. Half a piece of bread, nibbled at and whittled to nothing, sufficed to carry her through it, given how little she'd done all day. At one point she did go through her bag, starting with the map, which her hand had brushed while putting the bread back in, reminding her that oh, right, she hadn't even really tried to do anything, go anywhere. Not that she knew where she would go when she finished looking at it. There was a first aid kit. A flashlight. More food. Balls, primary-colored, which she left sitting out on the grass next to her, arranged neatly for someone else to come along and find and wonder who it had previously belonged to. She should be grateful, she supposed, that she hadn't been assigned a knife, a razor. It was an amusing thought. Proof that someone, somewhere, was watching out for her after all, that Megan didn't have to feel so bad.

Then she had finished. It hadn't been terribly important, what she was doing, but at least it had been an hour that Megan, melodramatic bitch that she was, hadn't totally wasted. Megan had kicked her legs, pretended that she was kicking herself. Yes, please, more where that came from.

Megan couldn't oblige herself, but nature could, the mosquitoes descending upon her as evening came, and Megan found herself swatting so much she might as well get up and move. Not that she had to do either of those. Megan could have just sat there, allowing the bloodsuckers to bleed her out. But, no. Dammit, Megan. Why can't you stay committed to your act?

Up her little body went, and off she carried it. One foot in front of the other, to wherever her feet led her to--and now that her feet were going on their own, she couldn't bring herself to stop them.

Couldn't stop them, that is, until she took a boot to the face, looked up, and saw, in the dim morning light, dozens, maybe hundreds of sneakers, boots, sandals, dangling like corpses from the ropy branches of the tree from which they'd been hung.

How long has Megan been walking towards this? What twist of fate, what power, had decided that this is was what needs to be in Megan's path, right here, right now?

Deep in the swinging shadows, without their hair, wrapped up in clothes so wrong for them that they somehow come back around to seeming very much themself, is Blaise.
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Emprexx Plush
Posts: 1678
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:37 pm
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#3

Post by Emprexx Plush »

The early morning light did not do them as many favors as the dark. They had sacrificed sleep to make it their ally through cosmetic enhancement. It had taken them at least an hour, maybe more, who could say in this place without clocks? Now would be the test of whether it was worth it. Someone was behind them. No one could recognize them yet, and they could run, but if there is even a hint of suspicion it would look bad. Rumors would spread slower here than in the school halls, but they would still travel. They could not be compromised so soon, and if the disguise fell apart under its first examination if was of no use to them anyway.

Covering their entire head with blended foundation was the only thing they weren't certain of, otherwise the transformation was complete. Lenses turned Carl's eyes a dark hazel green instead of their blue. His face was more square than theirs; contouring thickened his chin, widened his brow and nose, thinned his lips. They darkened and accented the bags under their eyes, patterned shadow but not stubble across their cheeks. Stubble might be worth the risk as the days dragged on, but it would never hold up to touch and as close as they were about to be it would seem off at its most generous impression. There were smudges of dirt on their face and head as well as all over their clothes, though those were genuine. All of it would confuse the average person just enough to throw them off. The boy standing before most of their classmates could not be further from the image Blaise had cultivated.

Carl turned to face his company, a nervous smile on his face and hand scratching behind his left ear. Eyes down, he wasn't the sort of man to make eye contact right off. "H-hey, ya scared me..."

They didn't realize they weren't lying until they saw her face.

Carl swallowed hard. Couldn't meet the eyes of such a pretty gal, especially when he didn't remember a thing about her. Not one. Not her name. Sure not things he'd whispered to her to feel the rush of vulnerability. No clue what her hand felt like squeezing his when she got nervous on the walk home. Reckon if you went and put a gun to his head he didn't have one stray recollection of the way her eyes sparkled during an improv set, or the heat of her blush beneath his fingertips when he complimented her after.

Mmmmmmmmmmnope. Can't say any of that came to mind. Be right strange, wouldn't it?
[+] SotF Characters
[+] V5 Characters
ImageG056, Alda Abbate(Adopted)
It was difficult to nail down exactly when the anger started. Remembering a time when it wasn't there, coiled up and waiting to strike or alive and thrashing, was growing more and more challenging. It'd been with her for so long that it no longer felt like an intruder in her mind. It felt like a part of her.
ImageB062, Garrett Wilde
I multiplied. Then I subtracted. That's what we do now. That's how we keep the most people around.
ImageB014, Joachim Lovelace(Adopted)
Your turn.
[+] V6 Characters

ImageG037, Abby Floyd:This place was vile. Overwhelmingly, terribly vile. Character Theme: Everything's Alright-Emily Scholz
ImageB016, Ty Yazzie: You ever wonder if you still got a home to go back to? Character Theme: Warrior People-Medicine For The People
ImageIsaac Brea(Adopted from Espi): Isaac's well of fucks was bone-dry. Character Theme: The Whiskey, The Liar, The Thief-Patent Pending
ImageG011, Caedyn Miller:So...how did you wanna do this? Feeling an open casket? Or is that dumb? Nah, don't say it, that's dumb. We'll be soup by the time they send us home anyway. Character Theme: Sleep-My Chemical Romance
ImageG032, Irene Djezari(Adopted from CicadaDays): Death was not worse than Meme Hell. Character Theme: A Beautiful Lie-30 Seconds To Mars
[+] V7 Characters
ImageB066, Blaise d'Aramitz: I am not fucking dabbing on a corpse, Carl. Character Theme: The Nurse Who Loved Me-A Perfect Circle
ImageG032, Helena 'Hel" Fury: I hope my family’s waiting. The one I made out here. I hope you’ll be a part of it again. Character Theme: Fix Me-10 YearsImage
ImageB073, Jeremiah Anderson: "GO--GO--GO." Character theme: The Big Sleep-Murder By Death
ImageG066, Marco Hart: I'm not satisfied anymore. I don't think I'd want to be if I could. Character theme: Maurice's Monsters-Small Leaks Sink Ships
ImageG080, Nikki Nelson-Kelly: The fools. The morons. The aBsOlUtE cReTiNs. Character Theme: Movement-The Whip
ImageG062, Tonya Collins: The girl, the person, the thing, the shape on the screen, that wasn't her. Character Theme: Get Down-Isador
User avatar
Zetsu
Posts: 615
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:58 am

#4

Post by Zetsu »

She'd promised herself she wouldn't ever, ever think like this again.

Megan looks, looks again, at the boy looking at her shoes, the boy whose soft eyes could open her up like a scalpel. Ice in her throat, which is funny because Megan is melting, melting into the teary-eyed doll she'd always known herself to be, the doll she'd been ever since Blaise had walked into her life and molded her from clay, blasted her in the furnace and carved their name in Megan's brain because Megan was theirs, theirs, theirs.

And God, Megan was still theirs. She had a traitor brain. It made sure of that, just as they had made sure of that.

Megan took a step. Took another step. She knew. Blaise knew. The score was there for all to see, and Megan still walks in, body shaking with the fear of a beggar dancing for change.

Don't, Megan. Please, don't do this. You know there's another circle of hell.

What do you even say? What do you say to that one, after all these years, and now they're finally looking at Megan, looking at her and seeing her?

"I? Scared you?"
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Emprexx Plush
Posts: 1678
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:37 pm
Contact:

#5

Post by Emprexx Plush »

Carl laughed nervously. "Well yeah, guess I didn't uh, hear ya comin' up through the woods, I was gettin' these squared and uh, well you kinda snuck up on me there ma'am." The voice held. There were moments were it started to crack but in a way that lent itself to the performance. The nerves could be explained, he was a nervous boy alone with a stranger in the woods. She was a stranger. Absolutely a stranger. They'd gone to school together and if he focused he could probably figure her name. What was it now, somethin', uh, buy some more time. "Just, we're out here lonesome and I've seen some bad types already, so...not that you're a bad type or nothin', but I'm jumpy, that's all, you understand yeah?"

Well that hadn't done nothin' for him. The sounds kept circilin' round and round from his brain to the tip of his tongue, but he wasn't any closer to gettin' the whole thing out. Kinda needed to just shoot the shot as they say, y'know? He stuck his hand out and tried to force a grin, though his lips were still quiverin' fierce. "I'm Carl. You're uh, Morgan, right? Think we had World History together back last year or somethin'? I dunno. Nice to see a friendly face though!"

Mmmhmmmm. Sounded right from one end to the other. Could be true to anybody lendin' an ear. 'Course it were. That's what he remembered.

Blaise couldn't be here right now. Megan was too much like him save for everywhere Dante found hope Megan found despair. A thing so broken that it no longer wished to be fixed, because what would it do with itself then? The idea of being functioning was an appealing fantasy, but it could never make progress, and Blaise could never do more than drag it to new depths. It was kindness to leave her when they were home, and cruelty to be with her now. So they remained absent. What they invented on impulse for him was all that rose to the surface. No one should be shocked that a sudden, booming voice across the island caused him to jump, yelp, slip across the dew moist ground in a panic. Perfectly reasonable that he would not look back, and that Blaise would have to guide him to the hiding spot of their supplies while maintaining the facade. That was all. A performance to cement that whatever she thought she saw, it could not be true.

The list of names was absorbed as they ran. Leverage. Warnings. Opportunities. Thrills they lived to explore, though muted. The lack of intrigue could be explained by how deep they had drifted into their cover, or that regardless of the distance they put between themself and their classmates this was a distasteful situation without the normal rush. Only a psychopath would find excitement here. Mm. Yes. That was all.

They ignored the sensation that every which way they turned they were being watched, or the flashes of hazel eyes wide with betrayal in the corners of their vision.

((Blaise D'Aramitz Continued In Shine Razor Eyes))
[+] SotF Characters
[+] V5 Characters
ImageG056, Alda Abbate(Adopted)
It was difficult to nail down exactly when the anger started. Remembering a time when it wasn't there, coiled up and waiting to strike or alive and thrashing, was growing more and more challenging. It'd been with her for so long that it no longer felt like an intruder in her mind. It felt like a part of her.
ImageB062, Garrett Wilde
I multiplied. Then I subtracted. That's what we do now. That's how we keep the most people around.
ImageB014, Joachim Lovelace(Adopted)
Your turn.
[+] V6 Characters

ImageG037, Abby Floyd:This place was vile. Overwhelmingly, terribly vile. Character Theme: Everything's Alright-Emily Scholz
ImageB016, Ty Yazzie: You ever wonder if you still got a home to go back to? Character Theme: Warrior People-Medicine For The People
ImageIsaac Brea(Adopted from Espi): Isaac's well of fucks was bone-dry. Character Theme: The Whiskey, The Liar, The Thief-Patent Pending
ImageG011, Caedyn Miller:So...how did you wanna do this? Feeling an open casket? Or is that dumb? Nah, don't say it, that's dumb. We'll be soup by the time they send us home anyway. Character Theme: Sleep-My Chemical Romance
ImageG032, Irene Djezari(Adopted from CicadaDays): Death was not worse than Meme Hell. Character Theme: A Beautiful Lie-30 Seconds To Mars
[+] V7 Characters
ImageB066, Blaise d'Aramitz: I am not fucking dabbing on a corpse, Carl. Character Theme: The Nurse Who Loved Me-A Perfect Circle
ImageG032, Helena 'Hel" Fury: I hope my family’s waiting. The one I made out here. I hope you’ll be a part of it again. Character Theme: Fix Me-10 YearsImage
ImageB073, Jeremiah Anderson: "GO--GO--GO." Character theme: The Big Sleep-Murder By Death
ImageG066, Marco Hart: I'm not satisfied anymore. I don't think I'd want to be if I could. Character theme: Maurice's Monsters-Small Leaks Sink Ships
ImageG080, Nikki Nelson-Kelly: The fools. The morons. The aBsOlUtE cReTiNs. Character Theme: Movement-The Whip
ImageG062, Tonya Collins: The girl, the person, the thing, the shape on the screen, that wasn't her. Character Theme: Get Down-Isador
User avatar
Zetsu
Posts: 615
Joined: Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:58 am

#6

Post by Zetsu »

((suicide ideation cw))

Gone. There were about ten emotions clamoring for attention in Megan's chest right now, and before Megan could even listen to any of them, let them tell her what to do, Blaise was gone.

Megan felt a cry for help that she shouldn't have even wanted to let out rise to her throat, and then die. She had been ready to jump ship, swim, drown, smash herself on the rocks, but not even the siren wanted her. Not even they would whisper in her ear, tell her that she was okay.

They wouldn't even look at her.

Megan knew, somewhere inside her, before the announcement came on, that Blaise had already killed, but still she ran. It was a half-hearted run, to be sure. Pointless. She didn't even make ten feet, the clever girl.

Megan sat down, took a drink of water. She should. She should be doing something. Besides this, anyways, after that. Or should she?

Her gaze drifted to a shoe dangling in front of her. Large, black sneakers. Long laces. Whoever wore them had probably had big feet.

It was just an idle thought, really. Almost a joke--she didn't really take it that seriously. But still, she reached out, shaky hands trying their best to undo the knot. For fuck's sake, just untie yourself. Just fucking untie yourself, you're making something hard that Megan probably wasn't going to do even harder. Do you want Megan to live, shoe? Fuck you. Fuck you and your family. You don't know Megan. Megan is very funny.

Megan is calm. Megan is very very calm.

Like, really, she isn't going to do it, but just in case she was, it would be nice to have it handy, so no harm done, right? If she doesn't use it then she just wastes a little bit of time, she really probably will not do it.

She doesn't even want to do it that much, really. This impulse really is grossly out of proportion with what just happened, what Megan has gone through, which would be fine and valid because you're allowed to feel bad even when things don't seem like they should feel all that bad etc. etc. etc., but it was also completely out of proportion with how she was feeling right now. It wasn't despair--or at least, it wasn't the kind of despair that Megan had survived before, the kind of despair that should have killed her but didn't and so she knew that she could survive anything.

She didn't want to die, but she didn't not want to die, either. It was a vague sort of preference. In these kinds of situations, you're supposed to flip a coin and see how you feel in the air--and, well, that was your answer. There is nothing for her here. There is no real reason for her to still be alive. It didn't make her happy. It didn't make anyone else happy. Nobody wanted her, and if she didn't deserve to be wanted, then how could she want herself? It was a logical chain of thought, yes really, it was, even if Megan is feeling a tad emotional right now. But it's true. It's true regardless of how she feels about it.

This would be around the time that Megan would call a hotline, ordinarily, but the terrorists had fucked that safety plan up. Thank you terrorists! In the name of all that is good and lovely, thank you! And she means this in a completely unironic manner, thank you very much! It's so much easier now! And her parents don't even have to feel guilty! Oh, it's all too perfect. So, so fucking perfect.

People on the island might feel guilty? Princess? Blaise? Noooo don't kill yourself Megan you'd make me feel so guilty for abandoning you aha. Not that that was fair of Megan. If the people who she cared about--and who cared about her even if they couldn't or wouldn't carry her--it's not, well, it's not like they owed it to Megan to take care of such a useless thing. No, they didn't have to or deserve to. She just wished that they wanted to.

See? More evidence that Megan should kill herself! Aha! Megan was being very logical about this--she's doing the thing that's best for everyone, right?--so that means the shoelaces wouldn't work anymore. But that's fine. There's a cliff, remember? So like, what if Megan was walking along the edge of the cliff, and then all of a sudden, whoops! There she goes! Nobody would have to know. Everybody would be free of Megan and nobody would even have to feel bad about it. Ha! Ha!

What a clever girl.

((Continued in We're Gonna Need a Better Boat))
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