006 [Action]

[threeswordsoul]

[It's the day before Halloween. The costumes have gotten less and less amusing as they've started to shift and seem real, as the cries of friends have lured them to barrel out into the foggy night to return battered and without memory of it, as the hallucinations have started to tear at people, little by little.

Yeah, this damn experiment can be

Comments

Because Sith Lords should totally stick together :|a

[flicker_flash]

[This is Darth Vader.

Not that Zoro has any idea who that is, but apart from the mask the ensemble might look awfully familiar. She even has a toy lightsaber of her very own! Just, you know. One. Not three.

Darth Vader is an intimidating sight who strikes dread into the heart of all who see him.

...or at least he would be if he weren't less than four feet tall and running across the path in front of Zoro in pursuit of a small cat.]

There can be only two!!! ...Luckily there ARE only two here. >.>a

[threeswordsoul]

[Zoro isn't in a frame of mind to notice similarities in garb, at least at first-though he's not out of it enough to miss that the (lack of) height indicates a kid. Great. So he does come to an abrupt halt and shove up his mask in preventative haste as the cat veers closer.

The girl-echo that follows him around, on the other hand, takes no initial notice of Katie at all. She's preoccupied with keeping herself positioned directly in Zoro's line of sight-visibly upset but silent, her mouth and eyes tight, fists clenched as she stares hard and pleading at eyes that look straight through her.]

It's okay. We can force-choke any others we find.

[flicker_flash]

[The cat veers suddenly around Kuina - or empty space, depending on your point of view - and cranes its neck to look up at her, meowing softly before scooting out of Zoro's path. He might have stopped, but those are big booted feet he has and the aura of tension wrapped around him is impressive.

And Katie's glad for the mask, because she can take a good, hard look at Kuina herself, largely unnoticed, before she cants her head to look in Zoro's direction, pushing the mask up on her head. It'll fall down shortly, she knows, but it's rather hard to talk well through it.]

Are you all right?

1/2 I prefer stabbing with lightsabers, actually.

[threeswordsoul]

[She looks nothing like Kuina. Nothing like except for being a young girl with dark hair, and that's enough for a brief flash of facial overlay when she pushes her mask up-Zoro jerks an involuntary step backwards. No more of this, fuck.]

[gomugomunopwn]

[Well he's going to be noticing you swinging your door open Zoro, just as he was about to walk past it. He's been pacing around the house for a little while now. It's impossible for him to stay still since whenever he does the voices return. The voices of his brothers yelling for his help before the sound of a dying scream echo through his mind. Slowly fading out before it all starts again. Sometimes he can even swear he sees their faces in the window or around the corner of the house sometimes. Nothing major but subtly. Like in the corner of his eye. What's worse is he can't find Ace anywhere in Luceti.

He speaks to Zoro, but it's more out of a sense that he can see somethings wrong with him than a friendly gesture. Besides, talking is one of the things that help the voices subside. If not just a bit.]

Oi... Zoro.

[threeswordsoul]

[Zoro's mind, which so rarely looses its footing, is unsubtly scrabbling for some kind of grounding after being blindsided so badly, but it's not just that that has him halt at Luffy's voice as he moves quickly out of his room.

It's Kuina, and for that reason alone he's struggling with the need to find a way to leave any and all company and piece his composure back together on his own. ...On the other hand, it's Luffy, the captain, the center of the whole crew and the one person he absolutely can't walk away from, even for this reason. Especially when his voice is like that.]

...Yeah, Luffy. [What.]

[gomugomunopwn]

[He's going to stand firmly. He's not going away and leaving you like this. ESPECIALLY AFTER ALL THAT PREACHING YOU GUYS DO ABOUT HIM NOT TRUSTING HIS NAKAMA ENUFF AS A SIDE-AFFECT OF HIM BEING HERE ALONE.]

Are you okay...?

[threeswordsoul]

[The answer is automatic.]

I'm fine.

[Zoro gives an immediate internal grimace at shooting off blatant bullshit at Luffy of all people-it's not as if it's actually going to work; Zoro knows exactly how perceptive their captain can be. Retracting it after the fact wouldn't matter, either, though, so he'll just grunt, scrub a hand over his face in subtle concession, and shoot the question back.]

Are you?

possibly a placeholder >__>

[sniperkingftw]

[ If he happens to be making a stop out of the living room, he's free to join the resident twitcher Long Nose on the couch; today, he's decided, is not a good day for store-watching. ]

placeholders, whoo! /o/

[threeswordsoul]

[He's not stopping in the living room, actually. (Not yet, anyway. 8|) Instead, he's going to stalk through it into the open kitchen, stick his head under the faucet, and blast cold water over his head for nearly a minute.]

[sniperkingftw]

[ ...must have been a pretty bad one, then.

And it's not to say that Usopp is trailing behind Zoro because he has a tendency to mother-hen: of course not, that's, uh. totally ridiculous. He just happens to enjoy hovering in doorways/next to walls/behind furniture around friends who might not be totally okay.

That's all. ]

[threeswordsoul]

[He's totally okay, what are you talking about. Straightening up and scrubbing a hand harshly over his face as water streams down his head to soak his shirt, the tension knotting his shoulders so tight that nearly imperceptible tremors run through them at uneven intervals-that is com-plete-ly normal.

He's not going to say anything, but after a long moment leaning against the counter over the sink he'll grunt-a kind of acknowledging Ngh sound-to show he knows you're there.]

/tags you like...six times or something

[mikangirl]

[Coming to investigate, you say? It's a navigator coming to your door, Zoro, complete with something sharp to say, which is less about making fun of Zoro and more about checking to see if he is okay given what's been going on this week, but she may as well couch it in terms that he'll find as normal as possible.

Only the look on his face makes her eyebrows shoot up and the complaint go unsaid, because even if she allows for the fact that the hallucinations are hitting everyone, she never, in any stretch of the imagination, expected to see Zoro look so unsettled.]

...Zoro?

/confetti!

[threeswordsoul]

[He stays frozen, flung back against his bed, for long, disconcerting moments, eyes wide and unfocused, heart rabbiting in his chest. Then a violent but suppressed shudder shakes him from the suspended state-his eyes snap to awareness and he lurches to his feet, then he's inches away from Nami in a split second, staring past her over her shoulder into the perfectly ordinary hall and living room beyond.

His skin is deathly pale beneath his tan, and he doesn't say a word.]

[mikangirl]

[Nami jumps back just a little at that, eyes wide and wondering what she's done, or maybe what she looks like to him right now-- and it takes a second to realise he's not interested in her at all. She swings back from the door after a brief pause, holding on to one side of the door frame, giving him an unobstructed view into the room beyond, speaking cautiously.]

...There's nothing there.

[threeswordsoul]

[She was right there-...no, she wasn't, she's been dead and buried for ten years. Rage flashes fleetingly over his drawn face and his hands curl into taut fists-fucking kill the sick bastard who's doing this-before he wrestles it halfway under control. Nami's standing right there.

Speaking of which. His throat works for a moment to say something, but it's dry and recovering from momentary paralysis, so a harsh croak comes out first before he coughs and manages proper, if more than a little vicious, words.]

Right. 'Course not.

Oh hey look, it's the next morning :|a

[mikangirl]

[No, she's not worried. She's never worried about Zoro. Nor has she been up all night waiting for him to return home; that's just silly. Nami has maps to work on and nightmares to avoid and an excess of candles to burn and keep the darkness away so it doesn't look like it's dripping down her walls. See? Plenty of reasons.

Zoro's absence is just one of them. The fog is dangerous. So is Zoro, so she'll try and reassure herself that he's just working the stress off, but...all the same, she's sensitive to the sound of anyone approaching the house.

...she really hopes this is one time Zoro can find his way back safely. Otherwise, she suspects there will be a search party the moment the fog dissipates.]

And what a lovely morning it is! No trauma here, no sir!! ...>.>

[threeswordsoul]

[Blood stains the frame of the front door from small, mysterious cuts as Zoro stumbles out of the dissipating fog to lean against it. The unsteadiness from intense adrenaline-overdose-fight? flee? fight, but fight what...?-would infuriate him if his mind and body weren't too exhausted for even that.

There's a doorknob under his hand. There's something awful about that, something really, really-bad, but he's incapable of giving a fuck at this point. Sleep. Sleep fixes everything. Sleep and booze will make his head stop spinning and the icy, chaotic blur of the past twenty-four hours fade-

His hand slips, and the door creaks open inward. He's standing at the bottom of stairs. ...He stops breathing even before hearing the first thump.

More follow, but not many, because it happens fast. Thump thump crack thump thump and an animal moan tears from Zoro's throat as he crashes to his knees and Kuina's body tumbles down out of the dark into his arms

Oh excellent, I'll go back to my coffee then.

[mikangirl]

[Nami sets her half-finished cup of tea down on the map table when she hears the subtle, quiet thnk of Zoro leaning against the front door.

It's about time. She's allowed to be relieved here in the privacy of her room, after all; she'll just make sure her face is schooled back to irritation by the time she crosses the room, fully intent on finding fault with the amount of noise he's making, even if she can barely hear him at all.

Only he calls out, then, and she freezes, hand on the doorknob. She's never heard him sound like that and any faint curiosity over those desperate words (who's Kuina?) is buried shortly after in the realisation that whatever drove Zoro from the house earlier, he is still hallucinating--

--and so any pretense at annoyance is far from her mind when she yanks the door open and starts to step out, intent on snapping him out of it.] Zoro--

[threeswordsoul]

[Nami is just in time for a ring-side seat to the house getting cut in half. The destruction is heralded a bare instant in advance by a raw, tearing scream-it accompanies the unseen slicing rush past her face, flung from the wild swing of Wadou Ichimonji-then is swallowed by the immense splitting sound, like a too-close bolt of lightning cracking the sky-and the shockwave of force and devastation blasting through.

Away. Away. Make. It. Go. AWAY!]