Jecca Mehlota (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jecca_mehlota) wrote2008-05-23 02:09 am
jecca_mehlota) wrote2008-05-23 02:09 am
Entry tags:
Original: Okame-verse: Five Incidents
I think this is supposed to be some sort of meme-thing where people request the subject, but no one ever asks for these two, and on the rare occasion someone does, they never include a prompt, and I WANT TO WRITE THEM, (and also I'm not sure if it's 5:1 or 4:1, but) so I'm utterly disregarding whatever rules that are possibly supposed to be had for this.
So there.
(Though I guess since I'm mentioning this, if anyone wants to request Jecca try this with anything else, go ahead. I'll try anything once, at least.)
Anyway, Jade and Okame, mostly Okame. Mostly Okame being crazy, or having crazy forced upon her, or something. ... The usual, really. No, I'm never going to stop posting about them. I like them.
Title: Five Incidents
Author: Jecca Meitahn /![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
twilit_wanderer
Wordcount: 1,810
Rating: T-ish - seriously, I never know how to rate these things
Warnings: Potentially disturbing, distinct lack of sanity, fem-slash of a sort (extremely mild, more like pre-slash)
Summary: Four times Okame had dreams (none of them nice) and one time she didn't.
Disclaimer: Jade's mine. Okame's not. I was given free use of her by her creator, and I'm going to assume this still applies, even though we no longer speak to each other.
She was sitting in the grass with her sister, making chains of flowers and laughing, when she remembered Kirichi was dead. She looked up from the yellow flowers bunched in her fists in surprise, and Kirichi smiled. Her mouth was moving but, though she strained, Hotaru couldn't understand her, couldn't hear anything she said.
As she stared, Kirichi's eyes became voids, black holes that pulled reality inwards and sucked the colors out of everything. "Stop," she begged, reaching for her sister's hands. The flowers she'd been holding turned gray and crackled as they slithered around her wrists, tying her and her sister together.
Kirichi was speaking again, but still Hotaru could hear nothing. Her ears were ringing, and her arms felt as if they were on fire. She glanced down to find the dead flowers around their arms were beginning to let off smoke.
With a cry, she tried to tug herself free, but the chains only wrapped tighter. Kirichi looked at her questioningly, leaned in close, and whispered, "Aren't you tired of dreaming yet?"
"Make it stop," Hotaru whimpered in response, staring pleadingly at her sister, her eyes stinging from the smoke and the pain.
Kirichi stared, her black eyes growing larger, skin bleaching out. She smiled serenely, then her jaw unhinged and she lunged for Hotaru's neck.
Hotaru gasped and recoiled. Her body felt too big and she staggered awkwardly, cracking her head on the trunk of a tree just as the pointed teeth of the massive lizard before her snapped shut to catch only air.
Someone shouted nearby, and a woman she'd never seen before pumped bullets into the creature as Hotaru stood, stunned, with no idea where she was or how she'd come to be there.
~-~-~
Jade had insisted on moving and unpacking everything she owned in one day. Fortunately, Hotaru discovered, she didn't own much. Unfortunately, most of her possessions were books, and books were heavy when packed tightly into boxes.
But the deed was done, and she was eager to get to bed. Her first night in her own bed! Her own room! How long had it been since she'd had her own real bed? Jade was crouched by the bookshelf, still arranging things as she saw fit. Hotaru had tried to help, but Jade had brushed her aside enough that she'd finally picked up on the message and settled into a comfortable position on the floor.
"I'm going to bed," she announced, and stood up.
Jade didn't answer, and Hotaru frowned. "Jade? Good night."
Still no response, though; not even a faint movement to acknowledge she'd heard anything. Hotaru pursed her lips, then crossed the room and clapped a hand on the other woman's shoulder. "Hey? Did you doze off?"
Her hand, she realized, felt damp. She pulled it away to find it covered in a slimy black substance. It reeked, and she gasped in horror. The poison!
She shouted wordlessly, and forced Jade to turn and face her. She stared at what she saw before drawing back. Whoever this person was, she didn't know them.
The stranger's mouth fell open as she stepped backwards across the room, and thick smoke poured out. The stranger staggered upright and lurched after her, nearly tripping over one of the many discarded boxes.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Hotaru demanded as she backed away. She'd nearly reached the next room when the lights doubled in intensity. She cried out in surprise and instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes.
When she lowered her hand again, the room was empty. She turned around and jumped in fright at seeing someone behind her. Jade glowered at her, the look only enhanced by the traces of sleep in her expression. One hand was still resting on the light.
They watched each other for a moment. "You could have mentioned you sleepwalk-talk-scream," Jade finally grumbled before turning the light off again and shuffling away back to her room.
~-~-~
It was in her skin.
She could feel it, pulling at her muscles, picking at her organs, biting her bones, clawing around inside.
What was it?
She couldn't move, couldn't raise her head to try and see anything. Couldn't raise her arms to try and pull it out. Couldn't call for help.
Couldn't breathe.
She wanted to gasp in panic, wanted to shout. Where was she? What was inside, killing her?
It hurt. It hurt and it stung and it burned and she wanted to sob, but she couldn't do that, either.
Then it was in her ear, whispering to her. Sinister sounds that she couldn't understand. 'Stop, please stop,' she tried to tell it, thought it with all her might. Shouted it in her head as loud as she could imagine.
It didn't listen - or maybe it did - and it crawled back away. She felt it tickle against her throat, felt the skin pull as it was forced to stretch to let it pass. Felt her heart shudder as it pricked against the chambers.
'Help,' she thought desperately. 'Someone help, I don't want to die. Don't let it kill me.'
Was it her own blood or some strange acid she felt now, warm against the inside of her skin? The bones of her ribcage expanded painfully, and she felt as if her chest could explode. Almost hoped it would, to stop the pain.
The liquid was creeping up into her mouth, but she couldn't taste it. It was awful. It was hideous.
'Just end it,' she begged, changing her silent plea as she felt traces of the same vile substance spreading throughout her body begin to leak from her eyes, her nose, her ears.
Without warning, her skin pulled away from her body and she screamed, surprise at her ability to do so seeping alongside the blinding agony.
As the shriek closed off in a sob, she blinked rapidly in further surprise. Jade, holding her bedding up in one hand, and Hotaru's own hands in the other, stared down at her, looking more disturbed then she'd ever been before.
Hotaru stared at her own fingernails, noting the red - blood! - gathered under them. Her chest stung painfully and, hesitantly, she sat up partially. Her nightshirt had been completely ruined. She didn't want to think on how she'd managed that. Her skin was red and raw and covered in scratches.
Jade released her hands and let out a breath neither of them realized she'd been holding. The bedding landed on the floor in a heap as she slipped out of the room. She returned a moment later with a damp cloth, a bottle of salve, and one of her own old shirts, all of which she shoved wordlessly at Hotaru before stationing herself on the floor by the door. Neither slept again that night.
~-~-~
Something was in the house. Something? Someone? She wasn't sure.
But she knew it was there, and she knew it was coming for her. It was coming for her sister. Their parents weren't home, and the woman in charge of watching them was missing. It was up to Hotaru. She had to do something.
Carefully, keeping to the shadows that weren't crawling ominously across the walls and floors and ceilings, she crept through the halls.
She needed a weapon. What did they even have?
Something whispered at her ear and she turned quickly, startled. Nothing. An errant breeze? There were open windows - that must have been how it got in - so the possibility was there.
She slowly worked her way into the kitchen and went through everything. Any sort of chemical, or something blunt, or something - sharp! The knives glinted in the pale light.
She grabbed the largest one and pressed herself into a corner. It would come through soon. It knew she was here.
There was a noise from far away and she nearly dropped the knife in shock. Kirichi! She'd left her alone! It would be after her!
She darted across kitchen and towards the room she shared with her sister. There was a shape in the doorframe. Yelling, she launched herself at it, knife out.
The figure started and - Jade threw herself out of her way, eyes wide. She dropped into a defensive stance, but Hotaru left the knife embedded in the door, scrambling to get away from it, whispering panicked apologies as she went.
She shut her door, and when she tried to leave the next morning, found that Jade had blocked the door from the outside.
~-~-~
Jade caught her by the elbow when she tried to go to her own room. Surprised, and a bit wary, Hotaru allowed herself to be led to Jade's own room.
"What are we doing here?" she asked, confused.
Jade pointed at her own bed. "I have stuff to do tomorrow. I need to sleep tonight." Without waiting for a response, she unrolled her travel gear and set herself in front of the door.
"Jade, this is - "
"I need to sleep tonight," Jade repeated, and continued, a bit rushed and awkwardly, "And I can't do that if you're trying to kill me or yourself. This way I can punch you while barely having to get up."
"I'll take the floor, then," Hotaru insisted, pretending Jade hadn't said anything more.
"Fine," Jade replied. "But you're taking the floor over there, away from the door. And don't you dare strip my bed. You're on the floor, you're on the floor without blankets."
Hotaru made a face, exasperated. "Suit yourself," she said, defeated, and crawled under the covers. Jade's response was to turn the light off.
It was hard to get comfortable, and after turning around in futility for several minutes, Hotaru sighed loudly and asked, "Is there a reason you can't just lock me in my room again?" It was easier to ask in the dark, when she couldn't be seen.
Jade was silent, and Hotaru was beginning to wonder if she'd fallen asleep already when she finally answered, "Then I have to unblock the door to get in."
"Then don't come in. Honestly, Jade, that should be obvious enough."
"You'd wake up the entire building. Or kill yourself. Or both. I'm not dealing with your sorry carcass if you kill yourself."
"Leave it for the next people? How thoughtful," Hotaru teased.
Jade was silent again, and Hotaru finally shrugged it off. She was just beginning to drift off when she heard, or thought she heard, as it was so faint she couldn't be sure she hadn't imagined it, "You always stop when I get close."
When Hotaru woke up the next morning after a blessedly eventless night, Jade was just finishing rolling her gear back up. They made eye contact briefly, then, without a word, Jade left to attend to her business of the day.
*END*
To clarify, Okame doesn't severely freak out every night she's by herself, and this went on for far longer than four days/nights before Jade clued in and moved Okame into her own room and took up residence on the floor.
Also, there's a line in the second part referencing a poison. I didn't expand on it here, because doing so felt extremely out of place, but that is established. See Jade's "brief" history here.
So there.
(Though I guess since I'm mentioning this, if anyone wants to request Jecca try this with anything else, go ahead. I'll try anything once, at least.)
Anyway, Jade and Okame, mostly Okame. Mostly Okame being crazy, or having crazy forced upon her, or something. ... The usual, really. No, I'm never going to stop posting about them. I like them.
Title: Five Incidents
Author: Jecca Meitahn /
twilit_wandererWordcount: 1,810
Rating: T-ish - seriously, I never know how to rate these things
Warnings: Potentially disturbing, distinct lack of sanity, fem-slash of a sort (extremely mild, more like pre-slash)
Summary: Four times Okame had dreams (none of them nice) and one time she didn't.
Disclaimer: Jade's mine. Okame's not. I was given free use of her by her creator, and I'm going to assume this still applies, even though we no longer speak to each other.
She was sitting in the grass with her sister, making chains of flowers and laughing, when she remembered Kirichi was dead. She looked up from the yellow flowers bunched in her fists in surprise, and Kirichi smiled. Her mouth was moving but, though she strained, Hotaru couldn't understand her, couldn't hear anything she said.
As she stared, Kirichi's eyes became voids, black holes that pulled reality inwards and sucked the colors out of everything. "Stop," she begged, reaching for her sister's hands. The flowers she'd been holding turned gray and crackled as they slithered around her wrists, tying her and her sister together.
Kirichi was speaking again, but still Hotaru could hear nothing. Her ears were ringing, and her arms felt as if they were on fire. She glanced down to find the dead flowers around their arms were beginning to let off smoke.
With a cry, she tried to tug herself free, but the chains only wrapped tighter. Kirichi looked at her questioningly, leaned in close, and whispered, "Aren't you tired of dreaming yet?"
"Make it stop," Hotaru whimpered in response, staring pleadingly at her sister, her eyes stinging from the smoke and the pain.
Kirichi stared, her black eyes growing larger, skin bleaching out. She smiled serenely, then her jaw unhinged and she lunged for Hotaru's neck.
Hotaru gasped and recoiled. Her body felt too big and she staggered awkwardly, cracking her head on the trunk of a tree just as the pointed teeth of the massive lizard before her snapped shut to catch only air.
Someone shouted nearby, and a woman she'd never seen before pumped bullets into the creature as Hotaru stood, stunned, with no idea where she was or how she'd come to be there.
~-~-~
Jade had insisted on moving and unpacking everything she owned in one day. Fortunately, Hotaru discovered, she didn't own much. Unfortunately, most of her possessions were books, and books were heavy when packed tightly into boxes.
But the deed was done, and she was eager to get to bed. Her first night in her own bed! Her own room! How long had it been since she'd had her own real bed? Jade was crouched by the bookshelf, still arranging things as she saw fit. Hotaru had tried to help, but Jade had brushed her aside enough that she'd finally picked up on the message and settled into a comfortable position on the floor.
"I'm going to bed," she announced, and stood up.
Jade didn't answer, and Hotaru frowned. "Jade? Good night."
Still no response, though; not even a faint movement to acknowledge she'd heard anything. Hotaru pursed her lips, then crossed the room and clapped a hand on the other woman's shoulder. "Hey? Did you doze off?"
Her hand, she realized, felt damp. She pulled it away to find it covered in a slimy black substance. It reeked, and she gasped in horror. The poison!
She shouted wordlessly, and forced Jade to turn and face her. She stared at what she saw before drawing back. Whoever this person was, she didn't know them.
The stranger's mouth fell open as she stepped backwards across the room, and thick smoke poured out. The stranger staggered upright and lurched after her, nearly tripping over one of the many discarded boxes.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Hotaru demanded as she backed away. She'd nearly reached the next room when the lights doubled in intensity. She cried out in surprise and instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes.
When she lowered her hand again, the room was empty. She turned around and jumped in fright at seeing someone behind her. Jade glowered at her, the look only enhanced by the traces of sleep in her expression. One hand was still resting on the light.
They watched each other for a moment. "You could have mentioned you sleepwalk-talk-scream," Jade finally grumbled before turning the light off again and shuffling away back to her room.
~-~-~
It was in her skin.
She could feel it, pulling at her muscles, picking at her organs, biting her bones, clawing around inside.
What was it?
She couldn't move, couldn't raise her head to try and see anything. Couldn't raise her arms to try and pull it out. Couldn't call for help.
Couldn't breathe.
She wanted to gasp in panic, wanted to shout. Where was she? What was inside, killing her?
It hurt. It hurt and it stung and it burned and she wanted to sob, but she couldn't do that, either.
Then it was in her ear, whispering to her. Sinister sounds that she couldn't understand. 'Stop, please stop,' she tried to tell it, thought it with all her might. Shouted it in her head as loud as she could imagine.
It didn't listen - or maybe it did - and it crawled back away. She felt it tickle against her throat, felt the skin pull as it was forced to stretch to let it pass. Felt her heart shudder as it pricked against the chambers.
'Help,' she thought desperately. 'Someone help, I don't want to die. Don't let it kill me.'
Was it her own blood or some strange acid she felt now, warm against the inside of her skin? The bones of her ribcage expanded painfully, and she felt as if her chest could explode. Almost hoped it would, to stop the pain.
The liquid was creeping up into her mouth, but she couldn't taste it. It was awful. It was hideous.
'Just end it,' she begged, changing her silent plea as she felt traces of the same vile substance spreading throughout her body begin to leak from her eyes, her nose, her ears.
Without warning, her skin pulled away from her body and she screamed, surprise at her ability to do so seeping alongside the blinding agony.
As the shriek closed off in a sob, she blinked rapidly in further surprise. Jade, holding her bedding up in one hand, and Hotaru's own hands in the other, stared down at her, looking more disturbed then she'd ever been before.
Hotaru stared at her own fingernails, noting the red - blood! - gathered under them. Her chest stung painfully and, hesitantly, she sat up partially. Her nightshirt had been completely ruined. She didn't want to think on how she'd managed that. Her skin was red and raw and covered in scratches.
Jade released her hands and let out a breath neither of them realized she'd been holding. The bedding landed on the floor in a heap as she slipped out of the room. She returned a moment later with a damp cloth, a bottle of salve, and one of her own old shirts, all of which she shoved wordlessly at Hotaru before stationing herself on the floor by the door. Neither slept again that night.
~-~-~
Something was in the house. Something? Someone? She wasn't sure.
But she knew it was there, and she knew it was coming for her. It was coming for her sister. Their parents weren't home, and the woman in charge of watching them was missing. It was up to Hotaru. She had to do something.
Carefully, keeping to the shadows that weren't crawling ominously across the walls and floors and ceilings, she crept through the halls.
She needed a weapon. What did they even have?
Something whispered at her ear and she turned quickly, startled. Nothing. An errant breeze? There were open windows - that must have been how it got in - so the possibility was there.
She slowly worked her way into the kitchen and went through everything. Any sort of chemical, or something blunt, or something - sharp! The knives glinted in the pale light.
She grabbed the largest one and pressed herself into a corner. It would come through soon. It knew she was here.
There was a noise from far away and she nearly dropped the knife in shock. Kirichi! She'd left her alone! It would be after her!
She darted across kitchen and towards the room she shared with her sister. There was a shape in the doorframe. Yelling, she launched herself at it, knife out.
The figure started and - Jade threw herself out of her way, eyes wide. She dropped into a defensive stance, but Hotaru left the knife embedded in the door, scrambling to get away from it, whispering panicked apologies as she went.
She shut her door, and when she tried to leave the next morning, found that Jade had blocked the door from the outside.
~-~-~
Jade caught her by the elbow when she tried to go to her own room. Surprised, and a bit wary, Hotaru allowed herself to be led to Jade's own room.
"What are we doing here?" she asked, confused.
Jade pointed at her own bed. "I have stuff to do tomorrow. I need to sleep tonight." Without waiting for a response, she unrolled her travel gear and set herself in front of the door.
"Jade, this is - "
"I need to sleep tonight," Jade repeated, and continued, a bit rushed and awkwardly, "And I can't do that if you're trying to kill me or yourself. This way I can punch you while barely having to get up."
"I'll take the floor, then," Hotaru insisted, pretending Jade hadn't said anything more.
"Fine," Jade replied. "But you're taking the floor over there, away from the door. And don't you dare strip my bed. You're on the floor, you're on the floor without blankets."
Hotaru made a face, exasperated. "Suit yourself," she said, defeated, and crawled under the covers. Jade's response was to turn the light off.
It was hard to get comfortable, and after turning around in futility for several minutes, Hotaru sighed loudly and asked, "Is there a reason you can't just lock me in my room again?" It was easier to ask in the dark, when she couldn't be seen.
Jade was silent, and Hotaru was beginning to wonder if she'd fallen asleep already when she finally answered, "Then I have to unblock the door to get in."
"Then don't come in. Honestly, Jade, that should be obvious enough."
"You'd wake up the entire building. Or kill yourself. Or both. I'm not dealing with your sorry carcass if you kill yourself."
"Leave it for the next people? How thoughtful," Hotaru teased.
Jade was silent again, and Hotaru finally shrugged it off. She was just beginning to drift off when she heard, or thought she heard, as it was so faint she couldn't be sure she hadn't imagined it, "You always stop when I get close."
When Hotaru woke up the next morning after a blessedly eventless night, Jade was just finishing rolling her gear back up. They made eye contact briefly, then, without a word, Jade left to attend to her business of the day.
*END*
To clarify, Okame doesn't severely freak out every night she's by herself, and this went on for far longer than four days/nights before Jade clued in and moved Okame into her own room and took up residence on the floor.
Also, there's a line in the second part referencing a poison. I didn't expand on it here, because doing so felt extremely out of place, but that is established. See Jade's "brief" history here.