InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Leslie, no. We don't negotiate"

Macbeth (sleepnomore) wrote in crownplazaic,
@ 2021-07-20 20:41:00

Entry tags:

!log/thread, adrienne frost, dan torrance

WHO: Adrienne and Dan
WHEN: 7/20
WHERE: Library
STATUS: In Progress
WARNINGS: TBD

There were several guests in the hotel with Shine-like abilities. More than he would have suspected with Telepathy at the very least. But unlike Abra, Dan was not quick to find interactions with others like them. He appreciated the Losers because they were from his world, but other than the one kid that soon after disappeared Dan had not gone out of his way to speak with others with abilities. Even when every magic user decided they wanted to chat, Dan felt more like an in-between no matter how much Abra tried to convince him that Shine was magic.

Dan smiled to himself at the thought as he took the stairs down to the library. At this hotel, he might not have a reason to fear the elevators, but he fully admitted to himself that as a five-year-old running for his life in a haunted hotel PTSD was inevitable. Elevators, fire hoses, and hornets. Haunted hotels were obviously on that list, but there was less he could do about that. The coffee cup in his hand shook slightly as the memories attempted to creep back; as the boxes in the wintery hedge maze in his mind shook with life.

Opening the door to the small library, he was used to one or two people in there. He saw Lois down amongst the books and paper often enough. Only this time, he felt a difference in the space before he even got to the door in the hallway. Stepping into the library, his gaze fell on the striking blonde.

“Hello,” he greeted softly. “I’m Dan Torrance.”

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

sleepnomore
2021-08-08 05:21 pm UTC (link)

"I think we see more of what the hotel does coming, but everyone seems equally affected by whatever it decides on. If not during one event, then during another." Dan pointed to the wall close by. "There's a door there, but there isn't. I can't tell when it will appear or who it might appear to, but I feel it there. I feel something deeper coming. Others without psychic perceptions might not feel that just sitting here, but they'll eventually experience it when it comes forward."

Setting his hands on the table between them, he sighed. "I am lucky to have Abra. My life might have fallen back had she not been there. I would have been far more shut-in than I am now."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

meridian
2021-08-08 06:03 pm UTC (link)

With his hands on the table in front of him, it was the perfect opportunity to satiate her curiosity. It had been building for some time, since he first started talking about the Shine. She was curious how it differed from the psychic abilities of her world. Granted, hers was its own breed. Unlike Emma, she didn't have telepathy and her manipulation was all her own doing. This was Adrienne's chance to experience more akin to what Emma does.

Adrienne leaned forward in her seat. Before she could think twice and talk herself out of being terribly rude, she grabbed both of Dan's hands. It was a mistake.

She felt like she was being sucked down a deep, dark vortex of swirling images. It reminded her of the scene in The Matrix with the rapid upload of information. The rush of memories that were not her own crashing over her again and again like waves. She grasped at the sense of anything familiar.

The distinct impression of the Rocky Mountains. A large sprawling hotel, not unlike the one they were currently in. Through Dan, Adrienne knew it was the site of many unsavory activities, including suicides, gangland hits, and many suspicious changes of ownership. She felt the panic and fear of a young boy, running from the man who had been his father. She could taste Jack Daniels on her tongue.

There was so much more, but a throbbing pain was starting to build. A massive headache. It took everything she had to disconnect, almost tipping back her chair as she jerked her hands back. Adrienne found herself breathing hard. A warm tickle in her nostrils. Adrienne swiped at her nose with her knuckle and it came away bloody. That had never happened before.

"That... I've never felt anything like that before."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sleepnomore
2021-08-08 07:23 pm UTC (link)

Gasping in a breath of air at the sudden contact, there had been no time to pull away his hands. Images flooded forward. Doors slammed shut to keep her from specific areas of his mind. Locks latched themselves around them to keep her at bay. But at the Crowne, the Overlook was a constant memory at the forefront. Her deep dive into his senses had dragged him down with her. Reliving the information he had picked up as a mere child in that damned place. Re-experiencing the dread and fear of running from his father being yelled at to take medicine while being hunted with an axe. Shifting the world of his mind away from those memories trying to get ahold of what she was doing, the years of drinking himself blind burnt his tongue with smoke, pain and grief.

His eyes turned white just keeping her from going places he preferred her not to be until he helped her disconnect with a push of energy that would have sent a shock through her system.

Standing out of his chair, he spun on her. "What were you thinking?!" He exclaimed. For a man whose voice rarely raised above soft tones of an introverted personality, he could command power in his voice. "This isn't some game, Adrienne. Far worst things could have happened." The locked away ghosts of the Overlook could have been released like the shake of the trunks when Abra attempted to show him how she entered Rose the Hat's mind.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tw: allusions to child abuse, spousal abuse

meridian
2021-08-09 01:51 am UTC (link)

She should have felt apologetic. She should have felt terrified at the things she glimpsed. Except she had never felt power like that before and Adrienne was a power monger. Unlike her brother Christian, Adrienne had never been one to dabble with substances, but what she just experienced felt like the best high ever. The elation had to have been reflected on her face.

It fell away soon after. Dan was explosive in his reaction. Adrienne visibly flinched as he towered over her. She was used to the explosive physicality of men.

Winston Frost was typically a cold man, but he was also a ruthless and at times violent one. The Frost home was not one of love and kindness but one of mind games and control. As the oldest, Adrienne had to be the best. She had to be perfect.

She thought she had finally gotten away from all that when she got married. She achieved her dream of taking over Frost Enterprises. Even though she was somehow their father's second choice, in spite of all her efforts, she had still won the inheritance. She sat at the head of a Fortune 500 corporation. But in her private life, she felt utterly powerless.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. The only words she could say whenever her father or Steven would be in one of their moods.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sleepnomore
2021-08-09 06:07 pm UTC (link)

The high she got off of his power and turmoil did not help Dan's reaction. It felt too much like what Abra had shown her of the True Knot's reaction to killing and eating the steam out of children. He had heard the words of Rose the Hat, from a moment that had not happened yet to him in his life back in his world, echo in his mind. You taste like whiskey!.

Never a man to raise his hand against someone in anger. That was his father. That was the alcohol raging inside of his dad. The wipe of his lip at the craving. Dan had melted into his alcoholism, hid behind it, but violence towards others never took him like it had his father.

Feeling the flinch, seeing the flickering glimpses of where her mind went at his current position, Dan sat back down with a sigh. He leaned away from her, keeping his hands close to his chest. "I'm not going to hurt you, Adrienne. But I'm disappointed. If you had given me warning or asked, I could have lead you without-" He let out a shaky sigh, pulling a handkerchief from his pant pocket and wiping the blood from her nose carefully. "Please. Don't do that again."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tw: more allusions to child abuse, spousal abuse

meridian
2021-08-10 02:54 pm UTC (link)

It was true, Adrienne took without asking. She was used to not asking. She learned that from Winston. Always the ruthless businessman more than the father figure. The fact that Dan might have been willing to show her if she had only asked hadn't even occurred to her.

He sat down immediately, which made her feel better, ashamed as she was at her own reaction. Weak. She shouldn't have shown him that weakness. She held herself tensely as he reached forward with the handkerchief. He was gentle as he dabbed away the blood, the square of cloth dotted with crimson. Steven could be gentle, too, at times. When he wanted something. Usually her compliance, in one way or another.

"I won't do it again," she promised. "I'll ask." Voice soft, eyes down, obedient. That was how to survive under the roofs of those men.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sleepnomore
2021-08-11 02:25 am UTC (link)

Brows furrowed, etching lines across his forehead. "I'm not them." He started. "I saw my father raise his hands too much in drunken stupor. Even at my worst, I refused to be that. I neglected a lot in my attempt to escape my Shine, but I would never raise my hand unless in defense of someone."

Once someone was threatened, like how Abra had been, or any of the kids with Shine that the True Knot had hunted down, that was when Dan did what was necessary. But his anger had always been directed more toward himself than anyone outside of him.

Leaning on the table, kerchief in hand, head tilted to the side. "Are you okay?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

meridian
2021-08-13 02:44 am UTC (link)

I'm not them.

Adrienne looked up at him. He saw through her. Whether it was because of his Shine or because it was simply that obvious based on her reactions, he had some inkling about what she has been through. She didn't know if that gave her relief or unnerved her. It was a weakness, an imperfection, in the story of Adrienne Frost. It was a chink in her armor for someone to know. Even though she took care of the problem in the end, killed Steven for crossing her, she still didn't like that she had any fear. She didn't like that she didn't meet her father's impossibly high expectations, even though she always strived to rise to the standards.

"I'll be fine," she said. Her voice was soft and low, but no longer tinged with anxiety or fear. Dan wasn't going to hurt her. He's made that very clear.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

sleepnomore
2021-08-16 09:55 pm UTC (link)

"I should go," he sighed. "I do hope the rest of your day goes well." Dan sat back, taking a moment to look her over from that position before standing. "We can talk more later. No matter what happens we're all kept here with each other."

He gave her a soft smile, grabbed a book from the shelves that he had intended to take back to his room and left her back with her thoughts and books. Once out in the hall, he took a deep breath. There would be nightmares that night, he couldn't escape that. She had brought to the surface another haunted hotel that he could only hope the one they currently lived in would not take a cue from.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -