Time is all around, except inside my clock

Dec 07, 2009 18:56

Ruvin has had several very startling realizations. The first, she's almost seventeen. In just under a week, she will be. She'd all but forgotten about birthdays.

The second--she's been in Chicago for a year, as of today. She's paused where she is, in the middle of crossing a street to look up at the sky in surprise.

Winny is standing in front of ( Read more... )

gail chandler, portia kilgaur, misaki kirihara, rachel dawes, ragnar, michael thompson, fritz antonius, elizabeth jules, desmond descant, francis barnam, ruvin, den varlis, amity mackenzie, liam booth, katherine kirschenbaum, juliet burke, zoe mallory, john dorian (j.d.), suou pavlichenko, martha jones, presley king, piper paxton, cy, marshall flinkman, cooper hawkes, lucy la barre, topher brink, adrian vela, maxwell smart, michael westen, dylan hayes, phoebe donovan, tabitha claypool, winny carpenter, karrin murphy, tomei wolf, vincent sterling, csp-04, aniki forfrysning, daniel faraday, jack bristow

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savesomelight December 8 2009, 07:02:05 UTC
Piper's just minding her own business, wandering aimlessly about Chicago, peering in shops, and wishing she had the money to buy gifts for her friends. Even if Santa comes again this year, she'd still like to give people personal gifts.

She's eying a Christmas display with her mittened hands pressured up against the glass when she feels the sudden surge of panic and anger from nearby that makes her back away. There's a lot of emotions around and she knows to filter them all out to keep herself from going insane, but sometimes emotions that are close by and don't blend into the others get through.

She rubs her head and wanders into the alley, gasping when she sees a man threatening another man. Her heart beats a bit faster, but then she remembers the man in the bar, the one who threatened her, the one she made complacent.

She doesn't even have to think anymore. She just reaches out and grabs the man doing the threatening's mind and forces guilt on him. You don't want to hurt that man. Leave him alone.Piper's getting a little too ( ... )

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crimeatthetime December 8 2009, 07:55:52 UTC
Guilt, in some ways, is a selfish emotion. It presupposes responsibility for a person's troubles, their feelings. It redirects the focus of an event onto oneself, even as it shows care for the others involved. Feeling guilty and feeling bad, sad, are different. Guilt turns the sharp edge of a situation on a person. Feeling guilty does more damage that sympathy every could.

Adrian has never just felt bad for things that happen around him.

You don't want to hurt this man.

The thought hits him on the heels of Piper's influence, and before he can even register that it's not his own feelings, it's not his own--

It is.

His mother, the starving of the refugee camp, Michel and his men, the victims of Dachau and the soldier who spoke to him, Mag and Natalia--Natalia, Natalia, who he loved and couldn't save. The dozens of dead he's left in his wake. Rachel. What Mag did to her. What that torturer did to her.

He should have been there. He should have been there, it should have been him ( ... )

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savesomelight December 8 2009, 08:20:37 UTC
....

She's never broken anyone before, and she can feel it, and all she can think is I did that, and I'm just like those demons in the books. The kind that twist and break for their own amusement. Tears well up in her eyes and she runs to the man, flailing at the other man to run away, run far away, and she'll deal with this.

Once he's gone, she kneels in front of the man she just broke, not caring that the packed snow is soaking into the knees of her pants, crying slightly.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I didn't mean to do it- I can fix it. Please let me fix it."

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crimeatthetime December 8 2009, 09:11:10 UTC
She's just a kid. What is she even doing out here?

"Nothing to fix." He doesn't even know what she's asking, not really. The words take effort. More than they should. He just wants her to leave him alone.

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savesomelight December 8 2009, 09:24:34 UTC
Piper wibbles. "Liar," she says, quietly. "You're hurting me."

Which is to say his emotions are. Broken people cut deeper into an empath's defenses and it hurts her. She reaches out tentatively, pulling her hand back a couple of times before she finally lays a hand on his cheek.

She doesn't even know that she's projecting a certain air of trust me over him until she's already done it. It was just involuntary. She was just begging him in her head to let her help and the emotions sprang back. She pulls her hand back and nibbles a nail.

"Please?" she asks, once more.

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crimeatthetime December 8 2009, 09:30:32 UTC
He relaxes, slowly, sinking into that soft, safe feeling. She's all right. Whatever she's asking, wanting to do, it's all right. "Yes," he says, still not sure what he's agreeing to.

He trusts her. Simply and completely. He's got no defenses, no will to recognize or fight what she's doing. He's a puppet on Piper's strings.

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savesomelight December 8 2009, 09:37:05 UTC
Piper doesn't want a puppet. She wants him to not be so broken. She bites down on her lip so hard that she tastes blood and wonders how she's actually going to fix this. Making people feel certain things- that's child's play. Blanket emotions? Those are simple ( ... )

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crimeatthetime December 8 2009, 09:56:09 UTC
He's not sure what's going on until Piper is half finished. By then--

By then it's too good to feel good for him to make her stop. He closes his eyes, practically limp against the wall. "Please," he says. He sits up a little bit.

Something small and ashamed briefly twists to life in his chest, wiped away moments later by the little demon. "Do--more. A little bit. Please."

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savesomelight December 8 2009, 10:02:26 UTC
Piper's mildly taken aback by that plead. She bites her lip. "...What do you want? I can..."

She can do almost anything, but she only just barely knows where to start smoothing over the broken bits. She doesn't know what to give him and that would be what she wants to give him, anyway. She'd rather, if she has to, give him the ones he wants.

...He's asking. It's okay when they ask. Despite the fact that it means they might become dependent on it.

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crimeatthetime December 8 2009, 10:10:30 UTC
A part of him knows how stupid this is. A part of him knows. Most of him doesn't care. It's like right after getting turned out of the camps, wanting anything that could make him feel--

Not even human. Just good. He fixes Piper with a hungry, cold look that Mag would find familiar. "As much as you can give me."

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savesomelight December 8 2009, 10:16:29 UTC
Piper swallows hard. "O....Kay. I'm just a kid, though. I don't..."

Right. She needs confidence. She sits up a little straighter and takes a breath. She builds up as much good emotion as she can until it eases into the cracks and trickles down, blunting sharp edges. It has the appearance of someone covering up a broken window with silly putty, but it'll hold for the moment. It'll feel good.

And, for the moment, it's the best she can do.

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