Coby Ward (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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strangetrip2018-03-09 11:59 pm
st_rummer) wrote in strangetrip2018-03-09 11:59 pm
Entry tags:
[log] Otherworlds: Wisp of Misery (Coby & Sunny)
Coby and Sunny found themselves suddenly back at the inn when the connection between Madonna Inn and Asphodel Station slammed shut at midnight. Adjusting to the sudden shift was bad enough when not doped up on Wisp pheromones. Luckily for Coby, Sunny was there to help him out and make sure he was okay.
It was right for Coby to carry the bags and boxes for– Huh, he couldn't remember if he knew their name. They were the prettiest wisp – at least he remembered what species they were –Coby had ever seen. All this shopping was getting pretty heavy. No way someone so slender and delicate could have carried it all. He trailed along behind from one shop to the next, adding more purchases to his burden at each stop, hardly caring or noticing what his lovely wisp was buying.
"Come along." The wisp waved for him to follow them, a walking, talking dandelion bobbing in a breeze. Of course Coby followed, falling to one knee in his successful effort not to drop any of the packages as his foot came down on a cable cover over carpet instead of the even floors of the station. He blinked against the sudden assault of colors on eyes that had gotten used to sleek, sci-fi neutrals. Then blinked again in confusion. Where was his...? He turned, looking one way, then the other, standing so he could turn in a complete circle. He saw... the bar? But no sign of the wisp who had called him theirs.
Sunny had not been ready for that.
Well, her body had not been ready for that, certainly. The sudden shift in gravity as the door closed and she was thrown back into the inn was not an easy thing, and she instinctively phased into incorporeal state to deal with it. That relieved some of the pressure immediately. Not that she hadn't done this several times in the past two weeks, but she'd always been ready to do it.
So as she adjusted, she took stock. She was back at the hotel. She'd gotten all she needed to replenish her potion supply. But even as she'd been warned how it might happen, the loss of the door still hurt. Back to the crushing monotony. Only she couldn't think of it that way. She'd go mad if she did. Their lives were... what was that story? The Long Sheet. And they'd been wringing the sheet dry trying to earn their freedom. The door closing was just someone spraying it with a hose all over again.
She'd always wondered how those people felt at the end of that story. She was pretty sure she knew now, and it kind of intensely sucked.
But when she caught sight of Coby looking unusually lost, that snapped her out of her self-pity. Slipping back into physical reality, she approached carefully. "Coby? You all right?"
The disorientation had been so sudden, and the wisp's shopping already so heavy, Coby didn't notice at first how much heavier he and the bags felt.
Sunny. Sunny was here. And saying something. Coby shook his head, and that felt heavy too, and thick with fog. Not in a good way either. "Umm..."
Well, that wasn't good. "Crap," Sunny muttered, moving to take Coby's burden from him and set it down on the floor. If a basic yes or no question was that confusing... but she did have to try another one. "Did you take something?" Something simpler than what did you take and how much of it, which would be good to know.
Had he taken something? It was a fair question when it came to Coby, but one he had to think about. "...no?" He shook his head. He felt like he'd taken something. Or he'd cracked again. Fifty-fifty. "I don't remember taking anything anyway." He looked around again. "Did you see where they went?"
Sunny put a finger under his chin to gently guide him back to look at her. She'd take him at his word on that; whatever was wrong it wasn't something he'd had a willing, knowing hand in. And that was going to piss her off as soon as she didn't have to focus. "They?"
He looked, his eyes struggling to focus on her face, confusion pulling a wrinkle in his forehead. "The..." He waved his hand in a vaguely vertical, sort of wispy gesture. "Fuck," he said softly, prior experience filling in for present confusion. "They fucking roofied me, didn't they?"
Sunny's eyes narrowed to slits of green poison. It was a good thing, perhaps, that the door was closed, or else she'd need to go wreak havoc. She sighed, shoving away the anger. The anger wouldn't help right now; this required precision, not a fight. "I think so. I can probably help you get it out... it's not a comfortable process." Painful was relative, but Sunny felt right saying uncomfortable rather than painful.
Getting dosed with something was preferable to other reasons Coby had come to, confused and still half out of it. He was supposed to be doing something, something for... Sunny was here and wanted to help him. She wanted him to tell her it was okay, what she was going to do. He could do that. "It's all good, sunshine. You do you."
Sunny nodded and took his hand, already muttering under her breath as she did so. She traced the bones there, tendons and veins, before she began tracing something else entirely on the skin. Like all Nsibidi, the symbol had almost a life of its own. The symbol she drew was one for poison. And as she continued to speak, low and urgent, the symbol began to darken and grow like a leech. She called to the foreign substance in Coby's blood to come this way through his blood.
It was not a comfortable process, but she didn't dare rush it either.
No, it wasn't comfortable. Like ants crawling under his skin. There was some name for that feeling; he could vaguely remember one psych nurse or another telling him once, when he'd been coming down from something. He couldn't remember what, either the something he was coming down from or the medical name for the feeling. But that, and watching the symbol slowly fill with whatever she was pulling from him was enough to sort of, not exactly, but kind of distract him from the feeling. Enough to keep him still and from scratching what couldn't be scratched. Every once in a while, he glanced up from the symbol on his hand to Sunny's face, trying to judge... he wasn't sure what he was trying to judge.
When Sunny was satisfied that her working had done everything it could do, she gingerly peeled the symbol away from Coby's skin. She murmured a word and it went up in flames in her fingers. "I don't know if I got it all," she admitted. "When it's something new..." she shook her head. "Did I hurt you? How're you feeling?"
Normally he'd brush it off with it's all good or i'm fine, and his mouth opened to let one of those out, but he stopped himself long enough to consider first. "Like I could crash for a week, but okay I think." He tried to give her a smile, but wasn't up to his usual. "Thanks, sunshine. That's a neat trick there."
Sunny nodded, looking him over with critical eyes. The worn smile was understandable, but not entirely encouraging. Still, it was late, and who knew how long he'd been with that thing? "I'll see you to your room so you can do that," she said.
He nodded back, easily agreeable. Another night, another pretty girl, he probably would have said something cheesy but sincere about inviting her in. Tonight, he was wiped. And as happy as he would be to get to know Sunny more intimately, that particular approach would backfire, if it didn't get him punched. He didn't think about the various parcels he'd dropped. It wasn't like they were his. He didn't even know what was in them. And damned if he felt like carrying them any further than he already had.
Damn, not only not teasing her, not answering. Sunny pressed her lips together, then put an arm around Coby's shoulders and steered him away from the pile of crap she didn't want to deal with either. Someone would, eventually. Caroline if no one else did, probably, just because she couldn't have enough things to fuss at. Sunny didn't know if sleep would fix this, but she didn't think it could hurt.
He put his arm around her waist as they walked, but he was walking under his own power, not having to lean on her for support. After his time on the station, though – and he had no idea how long that had been – it didn't leave a lot of reserves for anything else. Still, he looked over at her. "You doing okay?" It wasn't like he knew anything about her magic, or how she might feel after getting back from the station.
"I'm doing fine," Sunny assured him, reflexively giving his shoulder a little squeeze. "Coming back that fast was jarring, but I think I've adjusted." Truth be told, she could probably stand to crash soon herself. She'd tried to budget her time on the station wisely so as not to make herself ill, but the difference in gravity was still very real and had real consequences. People did intense training to withstand space, which none of them had. The environment hadn't been meant for them. But it had been all the freedom they'd had in months.
From the main building, up the hill and then the stairs to Coby's room felt like miles up Everest, and Coby was glad he had Sunny there. On the other hand, if she hadn't been there, he would have been tempted to sprawl out on the grass and spend the night there, which didn't sound so terrible compared to the third floor. He wasn't sure if it would have been better or worse to try flying. "You all right to get to your room? You could come in if you want." It wasn't until he was opening the door to his room he remembered Jag wouldn't be there.
Sunny considered him with a critical gaze. "Given neither of us really knows what happened to you, I think maybe I should stay a while." If for no other reason, she had to make sure she hadn't possibly made the problem worse somehow.
"Mi casa es su casa." This was all pretty familiar to Coby. Well, not the having a spell cast on him to undo alien pheromones or whatever he'd been doped with. Not those parts. But he'd been on both sides of making sure somebody got home okay and sticking around after so they stayed okay, more times than he could have counted, if he hadn't been the one blacking out half the time. Tonight he wasn't planning to do much more than fall into bed and sleep for a week, but having Sunny around was good.
"... Made by Mattel," Sunny couldn't help quipping at all the pink. She glanced around the room, spotting the empty couch. "We expecting Jag tonight?"
Coby shook his head. "He decided it was time he stopped crashing here." He could have stayed as long as he needed; Coby didn't mind. But if it meant things were easier with Jag and Emma, that was good by Coby. "Moved into the room with Emma..." He had no fucking clue how long it had been. Seemed like it had just happened, but Coby knew better than to trust his sense of time right then. "I don't know. Some time since the station showed up anyway."
Sunny made a note to herself to check in with both Emma and Jag about that, but for right now, "Cool. Then I'm camping out on your couch tonight."
"Bed's big enough for two," he pointed out because it was true. "But if you want the couch, you can have it." Coby dragged his shirt off over his head, and was just together enough to pull down the covers before falling into bed. That left him up a few points from where he'd been a lot of nights, mostly thanks to Sunny, if he was guessing.
"'Night, sunshine."
It was at that, and it wasn't like he had it in him (or had terrible enough manners) to try anything. After a long moment of consideration, Sunny toed off her shoes and padded to the bed, slipping in on the other side. "Night."
It was right for Coby to carry the bags and boxes for– Huh, he couldn't remember if he knew their name. They were the prettiest wisp – at least he remembered what species they were –Coby had ever seen. All this shopping was getting pretty heavy. No way someone so slender and delicate could have carried it all. He trailed along behind from one shop to the next, adding more purchases to his burden at each stop, hardly caring or noticing what his lovely wisp was buying.
"Come along." The wisp waved for him to follow them, a walking, talking dandelion bobbing in a breeze. Of course Coby followed, falling to one knee in his successful effort not to drop any of the packages as his foot came down on a cable cover over carpet instead of the even floors of the station. He blinked against the sudden assault of colors on eyes that had gotten used to sleek, sci-fi neutrals. Then blinked again in confusion. Where was his...? He turned, looking one way, then the other, standing so he could turn in a complete circle. He saw... the bar? But no sign of the wisp who had called him theirs.
Sunny had not been ready for that.
Well, her body had not been ready for that, certainly. The sudden shift in gravity as the door closed and she was thrown back into the inn was not an easy thing, and she instinctively phased into incorporeal state to deal with it. That relieved some of the pressure immediately. Not that she hadn't done this several times in the past two weeks, but she'd always been ready to do it.
So as she adjusted, she took stock. She was back at the hotel. She'd gotten all she needed to replenish her potion supply. But even as she'd been warned how it might happen, the loss of the door still hurt. Back to the crushing monotony. Only she couldn't think of it that way. She'd go mad if she did. Their lives were... what was that story? The Long Sheet. And they'd been wringing the sheet dry trying to earn their freedom. The door closing was just someone spraying it with a hose all over again.
She'd always wondered how those people felt at the end of that story. She was pretty sure she knew now, and it kind of intensely sucked.
But when she caught sight of Coby looking unusually lost, that snapped her out of her self-pity. Slipping back into physical reality, she approached carefully. "Coby? You all right?"
The disorientation had been so sudden, and the wisp's shopping already so heavy, Coby didn't notice at first how much heavier he and the bags felt.
Sunny. Sunny was here. And saying something. Coby shook his head, and that felt heavy too, and thick with fog. Not in a good way either. "Umm..."
Well, that wasn't good. "Crap," Sunny muttered, moving to take Coby's burden from him and set it down on the floor. If a basic yes or no question was that confusing... but she did have to try another one. "Did you take something?" Something simpler than what did you take and how much of it, which would be good to know.
Had he taken something? It was a fair question when it came to Coby, but one he had to think about. "...no?" He shook his head. He felt like he'd taken something. Or he'd cracked again. Fifty-fifty. "I don't remember taking anything anyway." He looked around again. "Did you see where they went?"
Sunny put a finger under his chin to gently guide him back to look at her. She'd take him at his word on that; whatever was wrong it wasn't something he'd had a willing, knowing hand in. And that was going to piss her off as soon as she didn't have to focus. "They?"
He looked, his eyes struggling to focus on her face, confusion pulling a wrinkle in his forehead. "The..." He waved his hand in a vaguely vertical, sort of wispy gesture. "Fuck," he said softly, prior experience filling in for present confusion. "They fucking roofied me, didn't they?"
Sunny's eyes narrowed to slits of green poison. It was a good thing, perhaps, that the door was closed, or else she'd need to go wreak havoc. She sighed, shoving away the anger. The anger wouldn't help right now; this required precision, not a fight. "I think so. I can probably help you get it out... it's not a comfortable process." Painful was relative, but Sunny felt right saying uncomfortable rather than painful.
Getting dosed with something was preferable to other reasons Coby had come to, confused and still half out of it. He was supposed to be doing something, something for... Sunny was here and wanted to help him. She wanted him to tell her it was okay, what she was going to do. He could do that. "It's all good, sunshine. You do you."
Sunny nodded and took his hand, already muttering under her breath as she did so. She traced the bones there, tendons and veins, before she began tracing something else entirely on the skin. Like all Nsibidi, the symbol had almost a life of its own. The symbol she drew was one for poison. And as she continued to speak, low and urgent, the symbol began to darken and grow like a leech. She called to the foreign substance in Coby's blood to come this way through his blood.
It was not a comfortable process, but she didn't dare rush it either.
No, it wasn't comfortable. Like ants crawling under his skin. There was some name for that feeling; he could vaguely remember one psych nurse or another telling him once, when he'd been coming down from something. He couldn't remember what, either the something he was coming down from or the medical name for the feeling. But that, and watching the symbol slowly fill with whatever she was pulling from him was enough to sort of, not exactly, but kind of distract him from the feeling. Enough to keep him still and from scratching what couldn't be scratched. Every once in a while, he glanced up from the symbol on his hand to Sunny's face, trying to judge... he wasn't sure what he was trying to judge.
When Sunny was satisfied that her working had done everything it could do, she gingerly peeled the symbol away from Coby's skin. She murmured a word and it went up in flames in her fingers. "I don't know if I got it all," she admitted. "When it's something new..." she shook her head. "Did I hurt you? How're you feeling?"
Normally he'd brush it off with it's all good or i'm fine, and his mouth opened to let one of those out, but he stopped himself long enough to consider first. "Like I could crash for a week, but okay I think." He tried to give her a smile, but wasn't up to his usual. "Thanks, sunshine. That's a neat trick there."
Sunny nodded, looking him over with critical eyes. The worn smile was understandable, but not entirely encouraging. Still, it was late, and who knew how long he'd been with that thing? "I'll see you to your room so you can do that," she said.
He nodded back, easily agreeable. Another night, another pretty girl, he probably would have said something cheesy but sincere about inviting her in. Tonight, he was wiped. And as happy as he would be to get to know Sunny more intimately, that particular approach would backfire, if it didn't get him punched. He didn't think about the various parcels he'd dropped. It wasn't like they were his. He didn't even know what was in them. And damned if he felt like carrying them any further than he already had.
Damn, not only not teasing her, not answering. Sunny pressed her lips together, then put an arm around Coby's shoulders and steered him away from the pile of crap she didn't want to deal with either. Someone would, eventually. Caroline if no one else did, probably, just because she couldn't have enough things to fuss at. Sunny didn't know if sleep would fix this, but she didn't think it could hurt.
He put his arm around her waist as they walked, but he was walking under his own power, not having to lean on her for support. After his time on the station, though – and he had no idea how long that had been – it didn't leave a lot of reserves for anything else. Still, he looked over at her. "You doing okay?" It wasn't like he knew anything about her magic, or how she might feel after getting back from the station.
"I'm doing fine," Sunny assured him, reflexively giving his shoulder a little squeeze. "Coming back that fast was jarring, but I think I've adjusted." Truth be told, she could probably stand to crash soon herself. She'd tried to budget her time on the station wisely so as not to make herself ill, but the difference in gravity was still very real and had real consequences. People did intense training to withstand space, which none of them had. The environment hadn't been meant for them. But it had been all the freedom they'd had in months.
From the main building, up the hill and then the stairs to Coby's room felt like miles up Everest, and Coby was glad he had Sunny there. On the other hand, if she hadn't been there, he would have been tempted to sprawl out on the grass and spend the night there, which didn't sound so terrible compared to the third floor. He wasn't sure if it would have been better or worse to try flying. "You all right to get to your room? You could come in if you want." It wasn't until he was opening the door to his room he remembered Jag wouldn't be there.
Sunny considered him with a critical gaze. "Given neither of us really knows what happened to you, I think maybe I should stay a while." If for no other reason, she had to make sure she hadn't possibly made the problem worse somehow.
"Mi casa es su casa." This was all pretty familiar to Coby. Well, not the having a spell cast on him to undo alien pheromones or whatever he'd been doped with. Not those parts. But he'd been on both sides of making sure somebody got home okay and sticking around after so they stayed okay, more times than he could have counted, if he hadn't been the one blacking out half the time. Tonight he wasn't planning to do much more than fall into bed and sleep for a week, but having Sunny around was good.
"... Made by Mattel," Sunny couldn't help quipping at all the pink. She glanced around the room, spotting the empty couch. "We expecting Jag tonight?"
Coby shook his head. "He decided it was time he stopped crashing here." He could have stayed as long as he needed; Coby didn't mind. But if it meant things were easier with Jag and Emma, that was good by Coby. "Moved into the room with Emma..." He had no fucking clue how long it had been. Seemed like it had just happened, but Coby knew better than to trust his sense of time right then. "I don't know. Some time since the station showed up anyway."
Sunny made a note to herself to check in with both Emma and Jag about that, but for right now, "Cool. Then I'm camping out on your couch tonight."
"Bed's big enough for two," he pointed out because it was true. "But if you want the couch, you can have it." Coby dragged his shirt off over his head, and was just together enough to pull down the covers before falling into bed. That left him up a few points from where he'd been a lot of nights, mostly thanks to Sunny, if he was guessing.
"'Night, sunshine."
It was at that, and it wasn't like he had it in him (or had terrible enough manners) to try anything. After a long moment of consideration, Sunny toed off her shoes and padded to the bed, slipping in on the other side. "Night."