A Crab Dressed like a Dementor, Pack Lunches, and Pie

[myironeyes]

[Private to Ned.]

I need help.


[Spam for Kelsier]

[He gave Kelsier time to hide, because - well, he's not a complete hypocrite. But he's knocking on Kel's door now, and he's just as willing to pick the lock as he was on the other barge.]


[Private to Alpha]

I can't see anything on the communicator screens, so I don't know what your room looks like. But if you have not yet acquired a replacement for your recessed pit, I could make a fabric hammock.

They're...easier to move around than solid furniture, if you change your mind about what you want where.



[Spam for Nathan, backdated to several days after the mirror even but before White Flag - 5th or 6th?]

[He knocks only once. He has cherry-raspberry pie.]


[Open Spam all over the barge, from a few days after the mirror event through White Flag, particularly relevant to Jean, Cassel, Alex, Zane, and Ryan, because you guys now have a pointy extra shadow.]

[Several months of memories of being used as a brutal nightmare of a weapon have made Marsh even more skittish, if possible, than he was when he first board the barge. He skulks and lurks and generally keeps to the corners of the regrettably well-lit corridors. He ducks into empty cabins when people pass in the halls, and he collects food at odd times. It is, however, less absent than his usual hermitage, because he's actively stalking a few people at a distance whenever they emerge from hiding.]


[OOC: feel free to run into him while he's watching out for someone else, or if you want to say your character was chopped to pieces once or a dozen times by mind controlled!Marsh in the mirror event, he might feel obligated to quasi-discretely check on them too. Just let me know!]


[Open Spam, CES]

[It's pitch dark, except for the small area illuminated by the light spilling in through the open door; Marsh doesn't need light. The CES gave him the rebellion's cave systems today, and although there are torches stashed here in there in the tunnels, Marsh doesn't need them. The rock is solid, cool but not cold, and he's tucked just around a bend, holding still. Letting himself be still. He isn't sure himself if it's comforting or just stalling, but at least it is familiar.]

Comments

[Private]

[deadly_ned]

What can I do?

[Private]

[myironeyes]

I need someone who can see colors.

[Private]

[deadly_ned]

I'm relatively experienced with this skill set. I've been seeing colors all my life.

spam

[godsays]

[ This might be why he's spending so much time in the greenhouse. It's not like he can reach out and Soothe Marsh, not without it coming off badly, so he tries the plants. Green may not be something Marsh can see, but being surrounded by life has to help, right? ]

Does it hurt like this for you?

[ He breaks the topic without greeting, without even acknowledging Marsh's presence. ]

spam

[myironeyes]

[He likes the way the air tastes, here; he remembers collecting fallen petals as a child, planning to press and dry them so Kelsier could have some even though Ivy was telling adults to keep away. He still has them.]

Yes.

[He doesn't know how it feels for Zane, precisely. But it hurts.]

spam

[godsays]

I couldn't feel it before. Now I can barely breathe. When I woke up, I thought I was dying again.

[ He hasn't told anyone about how it makes him feel. Not directly. Just it hurts. Let them assume that the pain is lesser; let them stay unaware that if his tolerance were slighter, he would never find the strength to move. ]

It's good, right? My mind is different now. It's not the same as what Ruin made it.

spam

[patheticvillain]

[It takes Cassel a while, himself, to pull himself out of his own old-self haze. He knows who he is, it's just a matter of putting who he's not behind him enough that he can function. And he's getting there. He is. Just . . . slowly.]

[So it takes him a while to recognize the fact that Marsh is following. It makes him smile a little, but it also makes him fret. Marsh follows people even when people should be taking care of him.]

[Cassel lets it go on for a little while, then turns to face Marsh abruptly when they hypercoincidentally pass in the hall near his cabin.]

You can just ask if I'm okay, you know.

spam

[myironeyes]

Are you okay?

[This will not stop Marsh from following him around.]

spam

[patheticvillain]

I'm okay.

[He hesitates, and then shrugs.]

I'm gonna be okay.

Are you okay?

spam

[tolaywaste]

[Once he gets up and about, walking without wincing, Alex is all hunched, guilty shoulders and eyes at the baseboards. He doesn't bounce back as quickly from something like this. It was helpful to soak up the calm of Nathan's quiet presence, to talk to Aeryn, to become entrenched in Ben's stable instability for a while. But when he's alone, he drifts.]

[He meets Marsh's eyes squarely, when his presence registers, before his gaze drifts inexorably away, awash in guilt.]

spam

[myironeyes]

I am sorry for hurting you.

[And then he vanishes around a corner in a scuttling flurry of shadow. Alex will probably see him looming in a doorway again a few hours later.]

[with_my_teacup]

[The CES usually gives him above-ground settings-- when Riddick peeks in and sees caves, he perks up, and-- a little guilty-- decides to head in without taking Partner in. His dog is 90% of the reason he gets into the CES at all these days, since he's been burying himself in kitchen work and care work.

He strolls in and takes a few turn to leave the light of the door behind him, pulling off his goggles and looking around with interest.

He comes across Marsh by surprise, especially since he'd been assuming whoever in here had a handlight that would tip him off in plenty of time: his IR sensitivity isn't huge, but compared to the cool stone, Marsh is a red glow, brighter where he isn't completely covered in robing.]

Sorry. Didn't think I was gonna trip over anyone. [He waves.]

[myironeyes]

I don't mind.

[He doesn't unfold from where he's sitting. The spikes in his skull are steel, and he has nineteen other spikes of various metals complicating the heat map, blurred beneath his clothing.]

You don't need light either.

[ Spam ]

[surfaceshine]

[It's taken Dean a few days to get out and about on his own, or at least to be paying attention while he's out and about. Out and about in the sense of doing something besides moving from one place to another. The point is, he's either feeling more social or getting better about overriding the fact that he's not, because he's paying more attention now.

Which is why he's beginning to suspect that Marsh may be acting strangely.

He's still not entirely certain how the guy... you know... exists or functions, which is curious in and of itself in a horrible kind of way, but you can't lead nearly identical lives in completely separate universes and not pay a bit more attention whenever you see the other person. Or at least, Dean can't. He stands for a moment, realizing it's not the first time he's seen this behavior over the past couple days, and shakes his head.]

Do they have restraining orders where you come from?

[ Spam ]

[myironeyes]

[Marsh has marked Dean, but it's so strange, to know him and yet not know him. They are so deeply similar, and so utterly unalike on the surface. Marsh - as usual - has very little idea what to say or how to begin, especially after the work he did as the wardens' puppet. But he can answer the question.]

No.

What is that?

[spam]

[onlysurvivor]

[The door is unlocked and there's no answer for Kelsier. But he is in there, there's a steady thump of someone burning metal. Tin, specifically.

He sits on the floor next to his bed. One of his arms propped up on a knee, as he merely looks at his scarred hand.]

Marsh.

[spam]

[myironeyes]

Kelsier.

[He may have brought a small basket's worth of fruit. It goes on the table, piece by piece. Then Marsh scoots closer to Kelsier, who is going to get a hug unless he extricates himself very quickly.]

[private]

[composited]

Right now it's one half yoga studio, and one half prison with a tree in it. So, uh.

Yeah, a hammock might be cool. I still haven't figured out how i'm going to change it up yet, but 'tree house hotel room' still sounds cooler and cooler every day.

[private]

[myironeyes]

I don't know what yoga is.

spam;

[velocette]

[The thing about having spikes in your eyes is that it makes you hard to forget, even for someone like the Motorcycle Boy who can hardly register people as living objects half the time.

What he most recalls, though, is Marsh the Angel, Marsh with the interesting words. And once the Motorcycle Boy has recognized him in the deeper sense, it's suddenly harder to just approach and intrude.

But he does it anyway. He had camped out in his own quiet corner to read and people watch, and when he sees Marsh go in, he follows.]

Hey.

spam;

[myironeyes]

Hello.

[Marsh sees nearly everyone as people - even his enemies, even traitors and servants of the empire he fought to bring down. Scadriel was a hard world, and everyone made very hard choices.

This doesn't mean he has any idea what to say to people, most of the time, which is even more true now that he no longer feels - numinous.]

[fireincarnate]

[Jean doesn't leave her room often. She doesn't need to eat any more, not really. She doesn't need to do most things that human beings do, so she just sits. She reads books she hasn't touched since she was a teenager. She meditates, as if they could calm the storm in her chest. She pulls out old toys and makes them dance.

It can't last, she knows that. She needs to face the world and risk twisting it inside out. Risk being everything she hates, all over again. If she doesn't, then she might as well just die and clear up a room, because there's no reason for her to be here.

She steps lightly through the halls, feet barely touching the floor - as if the less she touches the world, the less it has to fear. She's not sure where she's going, at first, but she finds herself heading to the CES.

It doesn't take her long to notice someone shadowing her; less to realise who it is. A faint smile curves her lips as she stills, and turns her head.]

[myironeyes]

[He smiles back, just as faintly, gives a little nod in acknowledgement.]

Do you want company?

[Perhaps not. He is content to remain at a distance as well; it is good to see her emerge at all.]

[ spam ]

[neuropathy]

[ Nathan opens the door with some bemusement - he knew it was Marsh, the cloak cuts quite the figure through the frosted glass - but then ...you know, no one expects the Steel Inquisition to come bearing pie.

I am so sorry. ]

Hey. C'mon in, uh--y'c'n put that down somewhere she can't get it.

[ 'She' being Brownie, who is currently and quiveringly experiencing the existential quandary of all dogs everywhere, which is FOOD??????? vs. FRAND????? behind Nathan's legs. ]

[ spam ]

[myironeyes]

[She's very excitable. Marsh has sort of gotten used to Digby, who is just about the most mellow dog ever, so Brownie's antics leave him slightly bemused. He finds a table and sets the pie down.]

I let it cool before I came over.

[So. It's still kinda warm, but Nathan can eat safely whenever.]