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 Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 12:31 pm
Quote: The Holidays are supposed to be a time for cheer, and yet there's something strangely dismal about tonight. You're out by yourself and you pass by a building completely coated in a strange sheet of ice. When you catch your reflection, you're trapped reliving your loneliest moment. The illusion can last for as long or short a time as you like, but the hollow sensation lingers even after the memory fades. What memory did you find yourself reliving and, now that it's over, what are you going to do to shake this mood?
Christmas brought with it a flurry of snow, presents but most of all: memories.
Ryan Darcy hummed softly to himself as he worked to make his way home, finals now officially finished and the semester finally over. Just in time for him to start shopping in the days to come for his mother and loved ones but for the moment, all of his plans centered around getting home and sleeping off all the restless nights spent studying and working on his class projects.
His satchel was tugged closer as the humming grew louder, the young man feeling unusually nervous that evening. For whatever reason (maybe the weather?) people weren't out and about on the streets like they normally were and it was... eerie, truth be told. The humming helped a little bit but his shoes picked up their pace regardless, willing him to make it home in a hurry and away from the strange evening going on around him.
That is.... until he noticed the building, off in the distance.
It almost seemed to gleam by the way it shined, causing him to frown as he drew closer. He took the same path two and from class nearly every day and never had he noticed any building shining before.
What in the world was going on??
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Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:14 pm
Astrid had just finished her shift. Working retail was always awful, but the holiday season that revolved around Christmas was a special kind of hell and while she was a seasoned retail vet, the teenager couldn't wait to escape the dreary corporate building that played non-stop christmas 'cheer'.
Santa Baby was still replaying in her head, the jingle worming it's way into her head space before she could stop it .
Her hair was tied up in a high ponytail, a scarf wrapped around her neck, tugged up to keep her nose from growing cold with the crisp winter air as she trudged, old water proof suede boots tromping across frost, ice, and what snow dared to creep into the sidewalks. Her hands were shoved into the pockets of last years fashionable peacoat but that didn't stop her from shivering nor from her teeth chattering as she hurried home.
Her path home required her crossing through the university campus as she lived in the neighborhoods not too far from it. She was vaguely aware of the humming from one of the few people also walking the paths, just like she was vaguely aware of the gleaming building, which...distracted her enough to make her run into the hummer.
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Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2018 6:50 am
His trek towards the strange, unfamiliar building was promptly paused when he heard the sudden THUD nearby. Ryan's humming stopped mid-lyric, eyes widening as he turned to locate the source of the sudden noise.
It wasn't that he was afraid of getting mugged - the joke would be on the mugger, once they found out he only had five or so dollars on his person and not a credit card in sight. He didn't believe in credit cards, they were a temptation he couldn't afford, so if someone thought they'd hit a jackpot by stealing the wallet of a poor college student, they...
Oh.
It was a young woman.
Not that a young woman couldn't be a mugger but this one seemed to have run into a parked vehicle. Maybe she slipped on some ice?
"Are you alright, miss?"
Concern laced his voice as he abandoned his journey to the building, widening his steps as he moved to investigate (and offer a hand to) the dazed woman.
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 9:29 am
Her hands were splayed out on the vehicle's hood as she caught herself, brow furrowed and lips pressed together in quiet irritation. Astrid was pushing herself back, head turning when she realized that she'd drawn someone's attention to her. Immediately she lifted a hand in an I'm alright gesture, her practiced customer service smile sliding across her lips easily.
"I'm fine, thank you," she replied, watching his wide strides with careful eyes before she moved her hands to grab a hold of the clip attaching her keys to the strap of her bag.
The gentleman seemed friendly and as if he was only approaching her out of concern, but years of dealing with male customers who thought they were entitled to her time made her wary.
"I didn't mean to derail you from your trek," she apologized, brows lifting to make her expression more sincere seeming.
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Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 11:16 am
Derail him from his trek?
"Uh... that's a pretty fancy way to phrase it," Ryan offered with a laugh, one hand moving up to comb through strawberry blonde waves as he stared down at her. It felt a little awkward, running up to help a stranger -- but that's what people were supposed to do, right?
Yeah, maybe she was embarrassed and that's why she didn't want help but with the odd way she was looking at him, he couldn't help but wonder what this girl was thinking when she looked at him. Did he... look suspicious?
Him?
It wasn't as if he could simply say don't worry, miss, I'm a senshi in disguise! so he simply shrugged his shoulders and smiled again, gesturing towards the general direction they both seemed to have been headed.
"Anyways, you didn't derail me -- I was headed this way anyhow, class just let out. You sure you're okay, though? That sounded like a pretty nasty bump."
Nuxaz I'm still orz at misinterpreting things @ last post
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Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 9:43 am
Her keys shifted in her hand subconsciously, her house key held between her knuckles as she watched him with more wariness in her expression that she realized. She felt her cheeks flush from the confusing flurry of feelings that rose when he pointed out that her phrasing might've seemed odd. Thankfully the cold had her cheeks nice and red as it were and she was able to hide it from her face even if she couldn't stop herself from responding.
"Is there a problem with my choice of words?" There was the tiniest hint of aggression hidden behind an otherwise friendly tone.
Astrid didn't know why it bothered her, simply that it had and she stepped away from the vehicle and rubbed her arm, trying to hide the reddening skin that he clearly was paying attention to.
"I'm fine, thank you." His smile was returned with a forced, practiced one that didn't make it to her eyes. "I was distracted, someone was humming and that building," she nodded her head at it, "looks different than it usually does."
Shiny was odd but she was feeling drawn to it. She didn't like that.
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Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 2:55 pm
Humming?
Oh.
It was Ryan's turn to blush, the tall boy looking sheepish as he realized he must have been one of the distracting factors that made the poor girl careen her path with that of the large vehicle's. He hadn't realized his noise making had been that loud -- that's what he got for not paying attention to things himself, clearly.
"There's nothing wrong with it, it's just... fancier than I'm used to, s'all."
His shoulders shrugged as he took a step back, feeling worse now over the fact he'd clearly offended the girl on top of injuring her, inadvertently.
Quick to find common ground (and away from any further potential discourse between them, as it appeared he was doing a fine job of mucking things up), he turned to the building she'd nodded at... the very same one he'd been walking towards out of curiosity.
"Yeah I... don't remember seeing anything that shiny on my way home from school. Did you wanna check it out together?"
Moving backwards, he stepped further onto the sidewalk and almost onto the grass itself, leaving the girl a wide berth to use, should she actually want to accompany him on his little detour.
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Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2018 6:46 am
Astrid's nose wrinkled, like she didn't quite believe the boy's words. Maybe he was like those annoying customers who had a problem with something but had to assert, so 'politely', that no, ma'am there wasn't anything wrong with the service, but in a tone that very clearly attributed to the idea that there was something wrong with the service. Still, she keep her reflex, customer service smile up even though it was clearly becoming more strained.
She was tired and she wanted to go home.
But this guy had noticed her, was making (mostly) polite conversation and was (seemingly) willing to let her go about her business but...if she walked on past him, then he'd be at her back and--
"Sure," she replied, surprising herself with the acceptance to the point her own brows lifted and she blinked, "after you." She gestured for him to lead the way.
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Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 2:45 pm
He looked at her rather oddly as she made the generous gesture of allowing him to walk ahead of her. It wasn't very gentlemanly of him to let a lady be forced to walk behind but Ryan already felt like he was messing things up with the poor woman --- so he didn't argue, choosing to accept her offer and resume his journey towards his neighborhood.
"I've walked down this path a million times before, I dunno why I've never noticed it before." The building was still enticing his curiosity; why hadn't he noticed such a peculiar thing before now? It wasn't as if construction crews could erect a building in just a day -- how long had it been like this? And why? "Maybe I'm just Captain Oblivious, haha."
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Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 11:26 am
Astrid fell into step almost beside him but a pace or two behind, her hands wrapped around her bag strap and her keys, one or two positioned between her fingers just in case.
"Winter is like that sometimes," she replied in a non-committal kind of way. Part of her wanted to point out that they lived in Destiny City and that the city had a tendency to have weird things happen often, even more so around the holidays but it didn't seem like it'd be worth the discussion.
So Astrid let it be.
"Ha, yeah," she offered in a false attempt to humor him. Her efforts were poor because she'd just finished a rough work day as a retail slave but she was trying.
He seemed nice enough.
"Oh, I'm Astrid," she offered, trying not to wince. If they were going to check out this thing, she figured she'd offer his name but after she'd done it, she'd thought about how it probably wasn't the smartest idea if the dude turned out to be a creep.
But he was giving her space and stuff, it was probably fine.
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Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 11:41 am
"Ryan," he was quick to respond back, turning to offer her a wide, genuine smile. "Ryan Darcy, at your service Miss Astrid."
Corny, he knew, but with her earlier formal comment he felt the need to fancy his own words up just a bit - maybe as a small tease, maybe to try to be amusing. Whatever the intent, the smile faded a little as they finally drew near to the building, the shine coming off of it almost... eerie.
Stepping forward (as it seemed to be the most gentleman thing to do, check things out in case of danger), he reached out and brushed his fingers across the smooth surface. A reflection of his face and suddenly the building was gone, the ice was gone, everything was gone.
And there he was, in the hospital hallway.
Ryan caught himself blinking for a moment as he worked to recognize the area. It didn't take long for figurative bells to ring in his head, not when he saw the familiar, older looking nurse that hurried her way into the open hospital room nearby, box of tissues in hand.
No...
He didn't take a step forward, he wasn't going to look. From the sound of sobs coming from the room, he already knew what he had stepped back in time to view - why was he being forced to see this again?
His body was stricken, mood sunk. He'd been trying to ignore the fact that wintertime brought with it the anniversary of his father's passing but some cosmic force apparently didn't want him to forget. Hell, he was being forced to relive the very moment when he knew he'd never see his dad again.
Was this Hell?
Nuxaz Feel free to have her visit his memory if she doesn't have one of her own, idc
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Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 11:00 pm
She responded to his bright, genuine smile with a deadpan expression, one of her perfectly drawn brows lifting when she pressed her lips tightly together, trying, to no avail, to keep the smile from tilting the corners of her mouth upward. His introduction was over the top, but in a fun way.
"Well, Mr. Darcy," she started, her tone lighter than it had been and her shoulders relaxing somewhat as if she were growing more comfortable around him, but something distracted her and she found herself closing her mouth abruptly.
There was a cold feeling that washed over her and without thinking Astrid stepped forward, brow furrowing while she tried to decipher what was happening before her. A hospital room, a nurse with a box of tissues-- wait.
This wasn't the hospital where her--. What hospital was this? Was...was this someone else's memory?
Astrid turned, looking for Ryan and when she saw his panic, colored drained face, she couldn't help but reach for his wrist. "Darcy?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2018 12:35 am
It was overwhelming, hitting all of his senses at once. The sound of crying and comforting words, the chill of the seemingly always cold corridor he'd walked up and down in far too many times. And the smell - the smell - that nauseating sterile smell with the tinge of death and sickness that permeated the air.
"I... I don't understand."
Panic and fear were taking over and his chest began to rise and fall rapidly, his lungs struggling to catch a breath as he neared the beginnings of a full on panic attack. "This can't... he didn't..."
His voice trailed off, words that wavered and then disappeared completely as he felt his knees begin to buckle. The loneliness was devouring him all over again. The mother who was lost in grief, the father still and expressionless in the bed - the father that never even managed a goodbye before drawing his last breath.
The gentle slip of fingers around his wrist snapped his focus back to attention. His head turned to see Astrid standing there and when he turned back towards the hospital doorway, eyes gazed back at his reflection against the icy surface.
Just like that, they were back on the sidewalk again.
He couldn't explain it, nothing made sense. Why had he been transported back to such a miserable memory? And how was Astrid able to pull him back from it? It couldn't have been a daydream, could it? No, it felt too real, it smelled too real.
"Did you...was that...?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2018 9:20 am
Astrid could feel the image fading away around them, but her pale gaze was fixed on the blonde boy who seemed on the verge of a panic attack. Part of her thought about just bailing out, chalking up the whole night to her exhaustion and the general whatever of DC but Ryan looked so freaked out that she was second guessing her desire to get the hell out of dodge.
With almost a resigned sigh, she took a hold of his hand and tugged her along with him.
"Whatever you saw? Not real. A trick. C'mon, there's a late night cafe around." Her place was closer but she wasn't taking a strange boy to her house on the first night she met him. "We'll get some cocoa, maybe something to eat and---forget about whatever you saw. Okay?"
Astrid didn't really wait for an answer, already leading them towards the place she had in mind. But her grip was loose and he could pull his hand free at any time. For now? She was going to distract. She was great at distracting from mad emotions.
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