PLAYER PLOT: fear is the mind-killer

[fullmoon]

CHARACTERS: You and all your least favorite things.
LOCATION: Shipwide.
WARNINGS: Violence, gore, monsters, psych trauma. (Please warn for any potential triggers—e.g. medical horror, eye stuff, recollection of past sexual trauma—in your subject lines.)
SUMMARY: Boggarts. See the plot post for a full timeline if you want to forward-date; otherwise, watch this space for updates.
NOTES: Whatever happens, however this ends, remember that it's Draco Malfoy's fault.

JAN 22

If you've been paying attention, you should already be on edge. Ward and Resnik have returned without many answers. There's the dead pirate again. The Tranquility is being pursued. People are talking about violent confrontation like it's inevitable, any cycle now. Any day. And now Morgoth is back, somewhere in the corridors.

If you keep an eye out, you won't find him. But you might find something else.

JAN 23

Never mind about Morgoth.

JAN 24

Despite very well-intended claims to the contrary (see above), the mounting evidence suggests that boggarts can be killed. Also, there's probably more than one. Sorry about that.

Comments

[talkingaintdoin]

"Wash..." She can't let her self think about that little girl being theirs. If she doesn't she'll be just as vulnerable as he is right now. No, she doesn't even look back. Her whole focus is on her husband and she pulls him to look at her only.

"That's not Emma. You know it's not."

[dino_zarf]

"I don't know why..." Zoe was right. Zoe usually was. It had to be a ship thing. But what about this ship would make him see their daughter? Their daughter who didn't even exist yet, who he'd never see?

"Daddy!"

"Doesn't make it any easier to hear." Every time the real Emma was going to need her daddy, she wasn't going to have him.

[talkingaintdoin]

Imagine that. Your wife being right. Novel idea. Except, she can't help the pull to run to the little girl herself every time she calls out.

"I know. How 'bout we get you somewhere else? Tyke's calling for everyone to stay in their rooms and departments if possible. Walking the halls is dangerous right now."

[dino_zarf]

"Couldn't it have just been Reavers?" Reavers were scary and dangerous. That matched with what was happening, right?

But no, it had to turn into the thing that really scared him. At least since Simon had told him. Reavers were scary, but not half as scary as the fact that he was never going to be there when his daughter needed her. That she would never even really know him.

[talkingaintdoin]

"Sounds like it'd be easy if you just got Reavers, Wash." Besides, she's not sure she's really ready for that just yet. "Come on. Back to the Shuttle Bay with you. Doesn't look like we're being followed yet."

[dino_zarf]

"Probably." He was wishing for Reavers. That about covered it.

"Daddy!"

"Staying here's just going to make it worse." At least she probably won't follow. Not when she can't even seem to see him.

[talkingaintdoin]

As a way to protect Wash from seeing that, Zoë steps behind him with every intent of pushing him either towards Shuttle Bay or to their room. But, as she does, she hears a growl that turns her stomach. It's the kinda of growl that can only come from what used to be a human being.

The rational part of her brain says that a Reaver can't be behind them, that there was a little girl screaming for a daddy she'd never know just a second ago. That doesn't stop every nerve in her body from tensing and her hand from reaching for her gun as she turns to face the horror.

What she sees, it takes a few long moments for her to breathe. Sure enough, there's a reaver, but that's not what has her near tears. No, it's the body under the creature. "Mal!"

[dino_zarf]

Or maybe Reavers weren't really that much better. There was a lot more potential for physical damage. And whatever was doing this had managed to come up with a way to hit just as hard as that little girl had.

They definitely couldn't stay any longer. "Not him." No way it could be him. Especially not when it had just been a little girl a moment ago. He wasn't here. And he certainly wasn't a Reaver.

Wash grabs hold of Zoe's hand. "Run." It's the only thing to do.

[talkingaintdoin]

She hears her husband's words, but she can't help taking that step forward. Mal was like family. He'd come for her when he got his ship finally because he trusted her. He'd supported her in everything, even if he hadn't been happy about it.

She knows it's not him.

But it's hard to ignore that when it's right in front of her.

Wash's hand on her own shakes her out of the trance terror had lulled her into. "What?"

[dino_zarf]

"We can't stay here." Not with Reavers. Not with Reavers that look like Mal. Not with a thing that was just trying to get to them.

Succeeding, not to put too fine a point on it. All the more reason to get out of here.

[talkingaintdoin]

She's trying really hard not to attention to what it is that the...Reaver is attacking. She's not sure she wants to know.

He's right and she can't afford to be emotional. Now when Wash was in danger. Plenty time later. When they were both alive and safe.

"Let's go." She tightens the grip on his hand and starts running.

[dino_zarf]

You never want to know. Not when it's Reavers.

"Going." Wash knows about running. And that's definitely what he's doing right now. Get away from that thing. Whatever it was. He didn't want to find out if it can do what a real Reaver can.

[talkingaintdoin]

Her husband is a smart man, she knows that. And he's proving it now. Zoë leads directly to their room, skipping Shuttle Bay, holding her rifle with one hand and Wash's with the other.