thirty-first form; stepping back into stride {private text/action for housemates}
//action - Solas Fide Bungalow
It's the early hours of the morning, one or two am. The air has finally cooled down - although it's autumn, the daytime temperatures are still high enough to be more than a little annoying, and the cooler nights are still looked forward to with some anticipation. Not too far away, the sea rumbles quietly, the tides slowly following the same path set down by the moon a milennia ago. A few Staryu float close to the surface, cores glittering with a rainbow light. Zubat fly squeaking overhead, and Spinarak wait calmly and silently for prey to wander into their nests. A few Oddish dance happily in the moonlight, and somewhere far off, a Noctowl circles, hooting.
Inside Nanao's house, the wash of the tides is only just audiable, and every member of the house is sleeping soundly, curled up or stretched out, and no bad dreams plague them. Except for one. The owner of Solas Fide bungalow swallows heavily in her sleep, and twitches. It's the same dream every night, one that starts out peaceful and slowly degrades like ageing film into something warped and twisted and full of death and terror.
Such is the luck of a Shinigami-turned-human. They used to be alright, until the bug apocalypse happened, and a new threat entered her dreams. Since then, with the Shedinja, and the Scyther attack, they've started to take their toll on her, both in her unconscious and waking hours - not that she could ever let it show, because there are people here who rely on her, and she cannot fail them.
Something else flashes behind her closed eyelids, and she twists, turns, and finally gasps awake, breath coming a mile a minute, heart pounding like she'd had to sprint from one side of Seireitei to the other. Bonita, her fluffball of a Meowth kitten, stares back at her owner, and reaches out to bat gently at her nose. Go back to sleep, it says. Go back to sleep, and maybe the night terrors will stay away this time. But Nanao knows better, and sits up. Sleep will not come to her again this night.
She reaches for the glass of water that sits on her nightstand, next to her glasses and the quietly ticking alarm clock, but it is empty. Still half-asleep, she untangles bare legs from their imprisoning sheets, fingers brushing lightly over the broad scars marring the back of her thighs, swings them over the edge of her bed, and stands up, ignoring her glasses, and grabs her glass.
Bonita stares confusedly at her master - this kitten has never ever seen Nanao stand, but as she walks out of the room, cotton nightgown falling to her knees, she jumps lightly off the bed, and wonders why she simply didn't do it sooner.
The floorboards are cool underneath her feet, and they creak with her body weight, but it's only when she reaches the kitchen sink that she realises what she's done. She's walked. She has stood on her own two feet and moved without any aid at all. And she stands there, looking out of the window yet looking at nothing while the taps burbles away happily, stuck in a sort of trance.
"I did it. I walked." She murmurs, gripping the edge of the sink. "I can move." And she stays there for a while, ignoring the Meowth twining around her ankles, ignoring the tears that slide unnoticed down her face, just revelling in the fact that she is whole, for the first time in months, she is whole and healthy, and god it feel good.
//text - locked to half of Johto France, Ken Hidaka, Souji, Yosuke, Rise, Atsuro, Envy, Tulio, Marona, Hitsugaya, Matsumoto, Byakuya, Otacon, Miguel, Shelly de Killer, Crow, Kaito, Gaga, Professor Layton, England, Cruz, and Cooper
So. It seems I can walk again. {Yep. Short, sweet, and to the point.}
It's the early hours of the morning, one or two am. The air has finally cooled down - although it's autumn, the daytime temperatures are still high enough to be more than a little annoying, and the cooler nights are still looked forward to with some anticipation. Not too far away, the sea rumbles quietly, the tides slowly following the same path set down by the moon a milennia ago. A few Staryu float close to the surface, cores glittering with a rainbow light. Zubat fly squeaking overhead, and Spinarak wait calmly and silently for prey to wander into their nests. A few Oddish dance happily in the moonlight, and somewhere far off, a Noctowl circles, hooting.
Inside Nanao's house, the wash of the tides is only just audiable, and every member of the house is sleeping soundly, curled up or stretched out, and no bad dreams plague them. Except for one. The owner of Solas Fide bungalow swallows heavily in her sleep, and twitches. It's the same dream every night, one that starts out peaceful and slowly degrades like ageing film into something warped and twisted and full of death and terror.
Such is the luck of a Shinigami-turned-human. They used to be alright, until the bug apocalypse happened, and a new threat entered her dreams. Since then, with the Shedinja, and the Scyther attack, they've started to take their toll on her, both in her unconscious and waking hours - not that she could ever let it show, because there are people here who rely on her, and she cannot fail them.
Something else flashes behind her closed eyelids, and she twists, turns, and finally gasps awake, breath coming a mile a minute, heart pounding like she'd had to sprint from one side of Seireitei to the other. Bonita, her fluffball of a Meowth kitten, stares back at her owner, and reaches out to bat gently at her nose. Go back to sleep, it says. Go back to sleep, and maybe the night terrors will stay away this time. But Nanao knows better, and sits up. Sleep will not come to her again this night.
She reaches for the glass of water that sits on her nightstand, next to her glasses and the quietly ticking alarm clock, but it is empty. Still half-asleep, she untangles bare legs from their imprisoning sheets, fingers brushing lightly over the broad scars marring the back of her thighs, swings them over the edge of her bed, and stands up, ignoring her glasses, and grabs her glass.
Bonita stares confusedly at her master - this kitten has never ever seen Nanao stand, but as she walks out of the room, cotton nightgown falling to her knees, she jumps lightly off the bed, and wonders why she simply didn't do it sooner.
The floorboards are cool underneath her feet, and they creak with her body weight, but it's only when she reaches the kitchen sink that she realises what she's done. She's walked. She has stood on her own two feet and moved without any aid at all. And she stands there, looking out of the window yet looking at nothing while the taps burbles away happily, stuck in a sort of trance.
"I did it. I walked." She murmurs, gripping the edge of the sink. "I can move." And she stays there for a while, ignoring the Meowth twining around her ankles, ignoring the tears that slide unnoticed down her face, just revelling in the fact that she is whole, for the first time in months, she is whole and healthy, and god it feel good.
//text - locked to half of Johto France, Ken Hidaka, Souji, Yosuke, Rise, Atsuro, Envy, Tulio, Marona, Hitsugaya, Matsumoto, Byakuya, Otacon, Miguel, Shelly de Killer, Crow, Kaito, Gaga, Professor Layton, England, Cruz, and Cooper
So. It seems I can walk again. {Yep. Short, sweet, and to the point.}