Day 38: Sun Room

[paper-murdock.livejournal.com]

Matt had to bite his tongue hard to keep from insisting he would be perfectly comfortable in the library, really, and could he please stop being led around like freaking cattle? As the nurse drew him into the empty Sun Room, the answer to that seemed to be a resounding 'No'.

Great.

He was given the usual talk of 'be nice', 'maybe someone will come back and you'll have someone to talk to' and the strangely sincere 'we're getting a few books in braille, they just haven't arrived yet'. He was sure he believed that one, but it would be nice to not be singled out for a change.

Reminded him of grammar school actually.

What a coincidence, he hadn't been fond of grammar school either. Settling back on the seat he'd found himself in, the Daredevil closed his eyes and debated on the merits of a nap as he listened to the occasional person stop by and scribble something down before leaving. A message board or something? He'd have to ask someone about that.

(Free to any and all!)

Comments

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

This was a totally preferable subject. She grinned. "Yeah, I can still do some things. I don't have my zanpakuto obviously, and I can't walk on air any more. But I can still teleport." She didn't add in that it was a little harder here.

"And I can't get my big winds going, but I can do this." Senna moved her hand, and a small breeze was sent at Meche, ruffling her hair. In the closed room, even that small breeze couldn't be explained away.

[sheisthecause.livejournal.com]

Meche's jaw dropped, and her hand instinctively shot up to feel the swish of her hair against her face. "Wow," she said. "That must be great in the summertime.

"But if you can teleport..." She stopped. Obviously there must be some reason Senna hadn't just teleported home, or to Doyleton, or to the next nearest place where someone might actually listen to her. "I guess it doesn't exactly work the way most people think, does it?" she asked. "Still, that must be a pretty neat feeling."

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

Senna's grin widened. "Yeah, I'd think so." It'd be fun to see if it was nice in the summer. She... existed in the fall, so she hadn't had a chance to....

But she would. She'd try it sometime.

"Mm," she considered it, getting what Meche was saying. "Yeah. I have to see where I'm going, so it's within eyesight." It would be nice though, if it allowed her to go other places. She could see what else was out there....

She tilted her head, smiling. "But enough about me. You said your kidnapper visited you? What's up with that? Sounds like a good story to me."

[sheisthecause.livejournal.com]

Conversely, Meche's smile faded. "It wasn't exactly a good story to live--well, be in--and I don't know if it's all that great a story to hear either." She leaned back again, not sure she wanted to make eye contact while she talked about this. "You see, when I was first brought to the Land of the Dead, I ended up wandering lost alone in a place called the Petrified Forest. It wasn't supposed to happen that way, but it did. Long story." As usual, she couldn't stop the shudder. "I was there for an entire year. The person who finally rescued me was a man named Domino Hurley.

"He was a reaper--our version of a death god, I guess--and he told me he was going to take me to my eternal reward. Instead, he kidnapped me and forced me to sail across the Sea of Lament with him to an island at the edge of the world. He had an office there--that's complicated too--and he made me work as his secretary. I had to; he had hostages. I was with him for another year before my friend came to help us escape."

Something hot was stinging behind her eyes, a pressure that still felt alien to her. What was it? There was no way she was crying over Domino. "Like I said, he ended up getting killed by those coral crushers. But on Sunday, he just waltzed in, the same old asshole but with skin, and tried to get me to come back to work for him. But of course he was playing by whatever cover story Landel's has for me."

Meche closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, then looked back at Senna with a smile. "Sorry, kind of a long story there. It was just so strange to see him; I was really--shaken."

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

Senna followed that the best she could--her medicated mind smoothing over the areas that were a little rough. She found herself nodding again in sympathy. "Yeah, that sounds completely harsh. At least you're not in that situation any more. And... at least even the him that's here can't touch you while you're in here."

Those were words, pretty and empty, since words didn't make what happened any easier to deal with. "I... I sorta know how you feel. I'm a little different from other Shinigami. And there were these people. They were after me for awhile, and they finally got a hold of me."

Senna's eyes were anywhere but on Meche; the medication making her eyes dart from side to side. "They...." Her mouth worked for a minute, before she finally gave up, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "It was bad," she said finally.

"It wasn't a year or anything, so I don't have room to talk, but I can understand. And someone rescued me, too." She looked back up at Meche. Senna's eyes were a little more clear, some of the haze burned off in memories, if a little sad. She tried a small smile. "I guess we have a lot in common."

[sheisthecause.livejournal.com]

Meche nodded; whether out of politeness or actual agreement, she wasn't sure. Of course Senna was right that Domino couldn't get at her here. But the fact that there was someone powerful enough to get at both of them, wherever they were, was an even more unnerving thought. Any way you sliced it, Landel's wasn't exactly a safe haven.

But then again, she didn't have a lot of room to complain when other people had stories like the one Senna had just told. "Don't say that," she told Senna, the volunteer grief counselor in her kicking in. "The length of time doesn't make any difference in your right to feel what you feel. I mean, here I am complaining about a year when my biggest problem was a lot of paperwork." All right, that was a white lie, but now was the time to be validating Senna's experiences.

"I think you're right that we have a lot in common. But I have to say, I admire your ability to be so upbeat in the face of all this." Meche made a face. "I wish I could get myself to do the same thing instead of being in a funk."

[windstwilight.livejournal.com]

Senna laughed a little. "Yeah, but sometimes paperwork is killer. Don't worry about me; I'm fine."

Which normally she would be. The existing stuff, and dying... it stayed with her longer than she would have liked. She just needed to let it go, and let it slide like everything else.

When Meche called her upbeat, Senna grinned full-out. "I just don't let stuff get to me. Everything passes, right? So nothing really matters except for your ties with other people." And she needed to do that with the existing stuff.