[prp] this damp grows in my lungs like a plague [alexis/???]

[Daekie]

Quote:

a thread with Alexis discovering a mysterious lake within other ashdown (tag in whaler!)

"Help me," Alexis gasps out finally - they retch but again, it's only water, their hair thrown back by an unseen breeze. Their shoes are soaked through, their pants sticking to their legs - and they stagger along because they no longer have the strength left to run. (How long have they been running? Long enough that they barely recognize this area of town -- even if it echoes real Ashdown, they hardly run around at street level too often.) They're so tired. There's -- there are so many things that live here.

Stay here. Are here.

There's got to be someone, something around, who can make them just stop, and then nobody will have to worry about them hurting anyone else. Their gait is loping, fingers pressing angry white crescents into their hands in the odd moments they're not shaking too hard - it hurts, it hurts, it hurts that it doesn't hurt -- the water knows. The water will help them. It'll let them rest.

There's got to be a lake. A pond. An ocean. Something. Anything.

Ashdown Whaler

quoted in for quest rp as requested!

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The ocean is obvious but they have gone on too long, too long from it's direction.

Instead the path winds, the buildings give way to trees and since when are there this many in town?

Silence reigns.

Through the trees is a lake, black and seemingly endless. Should Alexis try to call it's water, it does not respond.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

It's reflex, at this point, to call the water to them and go with whatever it does -- but it doesn't listen to them at all, and Alexis laughs, a little unsteady. It's nice. It doesn't listen.

There is nobody here to stop them from doing what they need to do.

They shrug off the jacket, placing it on a curled pile of roots carefully; it's not theirs to destroy. If they don't come back, someone else will find it, and that person will know what they need to know. One step, two steps -- their stride almost evens out as they cross onto the shore, wet earth under their shoes -

Alexis steps into the lake's beginnings, letting the water wrap around their ankles, and stands there.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

There are no ripples on the water's surface, nor can what is beneath be seen.

It is black and does not even reflect the sky above it.

When Alexis steps into it, there is barely movement.

Instead a feeling creeps up over them. It is not unlike that feeling they inspire in others. A constant sense of unnerving. Eyes that never stop watching.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis swallows.

They can't go back from this, they know that, the odds they'll come back from this are -- not good. But. Nobody's here to tell them not to.

And with nobody to say no, they terribly, terribly want to.

(Their hands shake, but do not clench, and they take another step. And another. And another. Alexis keeps walking until something stops them, if anything does or can.)

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

There is nothing stopping them.

No, the water seems to welcome them into it's depths.

It is a caress against skin and, once they are more than waist deep, then things change. It pulls.

As if there's an undertow that wants to sweep them away.

Daekie

 

[Daekie]

Alexis steps off the silt beneath their feet. They do not resist - if anything, they move with the undertow, dreamlike and dazed.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

An endless void awaits them, pulling them under. The blackness of the water swallows them, pushing at them.

Taking from them.

Memories bubble to the surface of their mind, unbidden and potentially unwelcome.

Daekie

please roll a 1D6 and use the following table to experience a memory

1 - a memory wherein alexis has hurt someone close to them
2 - a memory wherein alexis is happy
3 - a memory of their family; their real family
4 - a memory wherein alexis has felt alone
5 - a memory wherein alexis committed a crime
6 - a memory wherein alexis feels strongly about another person

 

[Daekie]

Quote:

a memory wherein alexis has hurt someone close to them

The air leaves their lungs. They can't keep it there - they don't want to -

Autumn in her negligee in her bedroom, early morning, their hands mangled and their face bloody -- Autumn taking their hand in hers, her own hands growing wet and torn as she took their pain, things came into focus but they still hurt - they can't say anything right. She's crying, yelling; there is blood on the bed, and they are so tired, and even in the memory they can't tell if the glint of bone was there on their fingers - then hers - or if it was a trick of the moonlight.

They'd never seen her again. Four hours later, they had been a tithe, and Rill had taken their place - and so soon after their return, the void, and - they'd never get to tell her sorry for hurting her. For making her bleed in her selflessness.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

It's gone.

As soon as the memory plays out on the back of their eyelids, it bubbles away like air from their mouth.

No longer theirs to grasp.

Daekie

please roll another 1D6

1 - a memory wherein alexis has helped someone close to them
2 - a memory wherein alexis is happy
3 - a memory of their family; their real family
4 - a memory wherein alexis has felt alone
5 - a memory wherein alexis committed a crime
6 - a memory wherein alexis feels strongly about another person

 

[Daekie]

Quote:

4 - a memory wherein alexis has felt alone

Their mind blanks temporarily - one step further, one step further -

The car door slams - they'll need to walk home again, and it's not a problem, wouldn't be a problem, but it's raining and -- as much as they like the rain, there is nobody here, they have no jacket and no umbrella and nothing to protect them from the rain. This isn't a punishment, they know, they've heard it time and time again, but -- nobody will help. It is raining, and it is cold, and they are alone.

They begin to walk.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

Gone.

The memory is taken and the feelings attached with it.

The water continues to pull them along, it's depths seemingly endless.

Daekie

please roll another 1D6

1 - a memory wherein alexis has helped someone close to them
2 - a memory wherein alexis is happy
3 - a memory of their family; their real family
4 - a memory wherein alexis was comforted by another
5 - a memory wherein alexis committed a crime
6 - a memory wherein alexis feels strongly about another person

 

[Daekie]

Quote:

6 - a memory wherein alexis feels strongly about another person

Their hair drifts behind them - it's been knocked loose, and it floats freely, untethered in any braid or holdback. (One long strand curls lazily next to their throat.) Another thought -

Sitting alone, shaking -- but they're not alone, they're not -- they promised. They promised they wouldn't hurt themself while they were alone - Harper may not be old enough to be their father, but as things are, he's really the best substitute they have. On weeks like this, when their family is away, and they can't stand to be alone in their house - he doesn't ask why they're skipping school some days, why some days it's too hard for them to even get out of bed, why they can't -- he's all they have; not blood but better.

They promised. They'll do it for him, because he's important, and because he'd be sad. They have to -- they have to stay -

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The water carries them and as their memories are taken, one by one, even that fades away. It is them in darkness, cold and unending.

Their is no burn in their lungs, no choking on the water and gasping for one last breath.

They exist in nothing and the memories that make them up are continually stripped from them.

Daekie

please roll another 1D6

1 - a memory wherein alexis has helped someone close to them
2 - a memory wherein alexis is happy
3 - a memory of their family; their real family
4 - a memory wherein alexis was comforted by another
5 - a memory wherein alexis committed a crime
6 - a memory wherein alexis feels apathy towards people

 

[Daekie]

Quote:

3 - a memory of their family; their real family

it's so dark

(their brother cradling them close, tying their hair back and putting bandaids on their scraped knees, they are seven and he is twelve and he is gawky-adolescent, voice not quite sure where it stands - they are so tired and their legs hurt, because their schoolbooks are heavy and their bag is held together by safety pins and stitches and glue, but he's there when they fall and he walks them the rest of the way home and holds their hand tight so they won't stumble)

Ashdown Whaler