InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "BOOYAKA!"

Antigone (thehighestlaw) wrote in nevermore_logs,
@ 2020-07-29 23:06:00

Entry tags:

antigone, asterion

WHO: Antigone, Asterion
WHEN: Wednesday afternoon
WHERE: A department store
WHAT: Don't ask the universe to be chill, Tiggers, it doesn't listen.
WARNINGS: Enclosed spaces

Antigone frowned as she looked at the label on this plain black shirt. The fabric felt fine enough between her fingers but the Made in India on the label make her stomach turn, thinking of kids fingers and rows of sewing machines, appalling conditions, no escape. She’d expected that, from a big department store like this one, but sometimes even when you know something bad is coming you still reach out to check. Fast fashion was a shitty, powerful, brutal organisation, harder, Antigone thought, harder to fight than Ares.

Although at least there were people - lots of people, fighting for children’s rights around the world. At least that was a fight that was... fighting.

Antigone gave up looking at the stupid clothes and wandered back toward the windows, but outside it was still bucketing down so hard the sidewalk looked like an actual river. There were still people out there struggling through the weather but Antigone knew that if she tried to get home right now she’d just get home in the foulest of moods and honestly, no one needed that.

Lightning cracked open the sky, reflecting her mood perfectly, and Antigone felt cruelly mocked by the heavens.

Maybe she should head up to the cafe on the top floor and get in touch with the local Unicef branch and see what she could do while she drank a coffee. At least she could tip the people working in the cafe, and maybe not think too hard about where the beans came from.

A woman and twins, all three of them dripping, stepped out of the elevator when it opened and just for a second, she thought it was Ismene. Her stomach clenched, and remain clenched, even after it became really obvious that it wasn’t.

If you could chill today Antigone asked the universe, the fates, or whatever Antigone-upsetting god was out to get her today. That would be great. She remained terrified of running into her sister before she worked out what to say to her.

Distant thunder rumbled through the city in answer and Antigone lay her head back on the wall of the elevator with a resigned sigh. At least, for the moment, she had the elevator to herself.

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asterius
2020-07-29 11:26 am UTC (link)

Asterion had a new job, and a new job at upmarket bar meant he needed new clothes.

Asterion hated trying on clothes. It was difficult getting anything to fit over his huge frame. But he didn't think his usual sense of casual fashion was going to cut it at the Diogenes Club.

After an hour of searching and not finding anything at all that would work, Asterion decided to head to the cafe as well. He would make sure the trip wasn't wasted by scarfing down some fries or something while the rain pissed out of the heavens. He stepped into the elevator, noting that someone else was in there. The faint buzz he felt around his belly let him know that they were immortal too, but he didn't recognise her. Therefore he didn't acknowledge her. He turned to watch the doors close, taking a deep breath as the elevator started to rise.

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thehighestlaw
2020-07-29 11:48 am UTC (link)

He was so huge.

Internally, Antigone’s whole demeanor changed when he stepped into the elevator with her. Throat clenched, shoulders stiffened. She straightened up a little, but she did not step away (‘what are you afraid of, love?’) she did not make eye contact (‘hey, beautiful, isn’t this my lucky day?) but she did give him a small smile, and I acknowledge you smile. An I’m not being rude smile that was also an I’m not flirting with you smile. A smile that she knew men would still take and twist and read into however they wanted because some days there was no way to win.

The relief that swamped her when he didn't acknowledge her made her feel pitiful and pathetically grateful. One battle she didn't have to fight today, though not because of anything she'd done, but because he'd made the call to ignore her.

When even riding an elevator's a lesson in your place in the world Antigone thought, mentally drafting an article she might start writing, after the email to Unicef. When you're -

Her thoughts were cut off as the elevator stopped so suddenly she grabbed at the rails, and they were both plunged immediately into darkness. She didn't make a sound, just gripped the rail - frozen for now - waiting.

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asterius
2020-07-29 12:00 pm UTC (link)

Time was, Asterion wouldn't have set foot in an elevator at all. Over the years, he had worked on ways to calm himself in small spaces, breathing exercises, counting, mindfulness - things that worked. He had used elevators for years now and never had an issue.

Until today.

The second they were plunged into darkness, Asterion was on the floor, curled into a (gigantic) ball. He let out a keening noise of fear as he felt his throat constrict.

Oh god. He was back there. Back in the dark. Back in the labyrinth where he would starve and rage to silence and nothing.

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thehighestlaw
2020-07-29 12:15 pm UTC (link)

What the fuck- Antigone pressed herself into the corner, hearing his sudden movement and reading it as something so different that she didn't understand the sound coming out of him as a sound of distress at all. She took a couple of deep breaths, but when nothing else happened she finally heard the noise for what it was.

"It's just a powercut," she said, her voice thin as a reed. "Because of the st-" She gripped the railings harder as the elevator started moving again, and the lighting panels flickered back to life, fainter than before. It illuminated how freaked out this guy was. "That's the battery power, kicking in," she said (still in her corner.) "It'll take us down to the ground floor and let us out, it's designed like that. Safety features."

The elevator rattled, moving too slowly.

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	asterius 2020-07-29 12:23 pm UTC (link)
	The elevator started moving and that, more than some random woman's voice, brought him out of the labyrinth. Of course he was still stuck in a lift. He covered his head with his hands, curling further into himself, his breathing laboured. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-07-29 12:31 pm UTC (link)

Antigone's breathing was shallow too, skimming the top of her lungs like a stone across water. The guy had stopped making those freaked out noises, and the elevator was moving and they were going to be on the ground, in a second, they just had to get through a few more seconds and they'd be out -

The lights above them fizzled, and one panel popped and died completely, cutting the light by half. Antigone pressed her hand over her mouth, telling herself, just a few more seconds. She could freak out in a few more seconds.

The floor rattled and jerked to a stop - Antigone tightened her hand over her mouth - and the second lighting panel failed as the battery, long overdue for an inspection and, indeed, a replacement, died, leaving them both trapped, between floors, in the dark.

Shit.

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	asterius 2020-07-29 12:35 pm UTC (link)
	No no no no no no no n- Asterion let out a low whine, and he scrambled up from the floor, pressing his back into a corner of the elevator so he could see any enemies trying to come for him. "Dark-" he cried out, not really to anyone in particular. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-07-29 12:41 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah," said Antigone, faintly. Dark as a cave. Dark as a tomb.

No - she told herself, cutting off the nauseating fear rising in her belly. It's not the same. Now you have a goddamn phone.

She pulled it out of her pocket (hands shaking) and turned on the torch. The walls looked a whole lot smaller than they had, before. Was that better, to see them? "Not so dark," she said, to the guy, pressed into the opposite corner. She could see he needed reassurance, but she was scrambling. "See... we've got light. Do you have a phone too?"

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	asterius 2020-07-29 01:00 pm UTC (link)
	"No phone," Asterion admitted. He hated the things, they were always so small in his hands. Too delicate. He tended to crush them. He opted for a tablet, but he didn't have that with him. His eyes blinked at the light, but at least it was something. He was still struggling to breathe. "Can't breathe," he said to her, bending over then, one hand on the floor. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-07-29 01:11 pm UTC (link)

Antigone should really use her phone - or the emergency call bell - to call for help, but the most massive man she'd seen in years was failing to breathe right in front of her and calling would have to wait. "You can," she said, and, hoping she wasn't making a terrible mistake but scared she was, she lowered herself to her knees in her corner.

It had been years since she witnessed anyone having a panic attack, longer still since it was someone this much bigger than her, and never an immortal, with all the weight of... gods knew what weight was crushing him. Gods knew what she was supposed to say. "You can breathe... listen to me - you can breathe."

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	asterius 2020-07-29 01:21 pm UTC (link)
	Asterion listened, clung to her voice like a lifeline. He tried to breathe in time with her, matching her breath for breath. Finally, he whispered, "Asterion," to her. She was trying to help him, she deserved to know his name. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-07-29 01:33 pm UTC (link)

Holy fucking shit she was stuck in here with the minotaur.

Her breath tripped and stumbled in her throat, and she shut her lips to try and make it less noticeable. "Hi," she whispered, trying to keep it all under control. "I'm Ant-" the urge to breath took over, for a moment, she had to squeeze her eyes shut to squeeze control back into her voice. "Antigone," she managed. What a terrible role model for breathing, she was. Antigone thumped herself hard on her knee thump thump thump letting the heel of her hand knock her back into her body. "You're alright, aren't you? Asterion. You're alright." It felt cheap, and untrue, but it was all she had.

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asterius
2020-07-29 01:53 pm UTC (link)

Asterion whimpered, but he was alive and he wasn't in the labyrinth and yes he was trapped but it wouldn't be years, surely. It couldn't be years. "Hi," he said back, trying to keep his breathing regular. His chest still felt so tight.

Antigone. Greek.

"Won't hurt you," he breathed, because she would likely be worried about that. Anyone would. He had worked so hard to try to keep himself from being a danger to others as long as they didn't try to harm him. He didn't want to be a thing people feared. Couldn't they see he was the one who was scared? He was the one locked away. Fed once a year.

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thehighestlaw
2020-07-29 11:41 pm UTC (link)

Antigone was surprised to find herself believing him. Maybe it was the curve of his back, his frantic breathing. Maybe it was the way he curled in on himself, instead of lashing out. Another man might have tried to put his fist through the dead buttons, but he was shaking on the floor. She licked her lips and said, with the barest of smiles, "...okay."

For a second she looked up again, into the dark shadows gathered at the roof of the elevator, at the walls that seemed to loom over their heads like a giant was slowly pressing them together. There'd been a little light in the cave, as well, light enough to guide her hands to make a noose so she wouldn't have to live here, in the enclosed black, after the torch had died. "Asterion," she said, using her own voice to pull herself back to the present. "We're going to get out of here. It's just an elevator, it's not... not what we think it is. Just an elevator. See," she rapped her knuckles against the doors. "Metal."

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asterius
2020-07-30 01:25 am UTC (link)

The ting of metal rang in his ears. He had spent years, years trying to tear down the walls that held him. Beating his fists against the rock until they bled. Not once had it ever sounded like that.

He took in a deep and shaky breath, exhaling it slowly. "Labyrinth," was all he said. Asterion was never one to talk a lot anyway, especially when he was panicking and he had less breath to work with. He hoped she understood.

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thehighestlaw
2020-07-30 01:49 am UTC (link)

Fuck, the things that had happened to them never really left them, did it? Romeo had said after all your long life, you can’t still believe in justice, can you? and Antigone could, did, must, but she believed in the weight of the trauma they carried around, too.

How long had he been trapped in the labyrinth? She supposed it depended on the telling, but also supposed it didn't matter. Long enough. Long enough to leave a scar thousands of years later.

Could you even call it a scar, though, when it was so much a part of you that there was no separating you from the wounded tissue? Take the stories that had scarred them away and what were they? Nothing. Forgotten. Long, long dead, or never imagined at all.

But no, they were here. Remembered. Hurt. Sick with it, sometimes. They were the ones who had to keep living with it.

"Not a labyrinth," she repeated. "Just an elevator. It's 2020. CE. We're in a shitty department store in a storm. This'll teach us for trying to keep out of the rain." She tried to give him a smile, but it really didn't work.

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	asterius 2020-07-30 02:20 am UTC (link)
	Asterion huffed out a short laugh then. Nothing about the situation was funny, but it really was going to see him using elevators a hell of a lot less. "Just wanted to look nice. For my new job," he lamented. He didn't really realise he was sort of inching closer to her, every cell in his body crying out for comfort. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-07-30 02:31 am UTC (link)

Antigone definitely realised what he was doing, and didn't know what to do about it. There'd been alarm bells ringing in her head since he stepped into the elevator, but they'd gotten so loud and confused by everything else that her instincts, whatever they were trying to tell her, were drowned out. Should she scoot backwards? Should she not? She didn't know.

She did know one thing, though. He sounded so sad. "What's your new job?" she asked. Talking was good, right. Talking about things that were happening now, or in the future, and not a millennia ago.

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	asterius 2020-07-30 02:39 am UTC (link)
	"Bouncer. Immortal club," he explained. He had just wanted to look sharp for the first week, at least. He knew people were afraid of him. Of course they were. He thought...just maybe if he was dressed a little smartly, they might not cringe away so much. "Sorry," he breathed. "Stuck here with me." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-07-30 02:51 am UTC (link)

Antigone bit her lips as she watched him. Maybe, if he was working there (it had to be the Diogenes Club, right? Could there be more than one?) then the owners trusted him enough to hire him. Antigone didn't know much about the running of the club, but it had a strange but distinctly safe feeling about it.

She softened, just the tiniest bit more, when he apologised. At least he knew how scary he was. That helped. That really helped. "Could be worse," she surprised herself by saying. Antigone was not usually a glass half full kind of person. "Could be stuck in here with much worse people."

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asterius
2020-07-30 03:04 am UTC (link)

At that comment, he finally raised his eyes to her. He gave her a fleeting sort of smile, holding her gaze. His breathing was starting to regulate, at least a little. And as it did so, he remembered he had granola bars in his pockets.

Asterion always had food on him. Literally always. Having been kept without for so long, he wouldn't be caught dead without some kind of sustenance tucked away on his person. He drew two of them out, chocolate chip and covered in chocolate as well, and handed one over. "Here," he said, trying to still stay a bit far away, even though he was reaching out to her. He didn't want her to think it was a ploy to get close. "Food."

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thehighestlaw
2020-07-30 03:23 am UTC (link)

Her smile was just as fleeting, it was like a scared rabbit of a smile, racing round the room, glancing over their faces as it sprinted back and forth between them. "Thanks," Antigone took the bar from him, her hands feeling a little slow and a little unsure how to go about opening it, her phone, the light, still in her hand. No signal the phone said, but it also said 86% so at least there was that, though it dropped down to 85% while she was looking at it.

She put it on flight mode, in case they needed the light, several hours on.

"I'm going to try the call bell," she said. "See if someone's-" noticed. "See what the situation is."

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	asterius 2020-07-30 03:50 am UTC (link)
	Oh right, the call bell. "Yes," he said, watching her as he opened hus granola bar and bit into it. Surely someone could help them. Surely. They had to get out of this soon or- Panic started to rise again, but he managed to keep it at bay. Barely. "Tell them help." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

thehighestlaw
2020-07-30 04:09 am UTC (link)

Antigone tried to give him a brave version of the rabbit-smile, and rose up onto her knees so she could reach the button. It buzzed, louder than she expected, and she jumped like the buzz had been electric. But the speaker did connect, to a harried sounding voice on the other end. "Yeah," he said, when she explained where they were. "You ain't the only ones. Someone'll get to you as soon as they can."

"How long?" Antigone deliberately turned her face away from Asterion, so he didn't have to see the look on her face.

"Soon as we can. It's not just your building, love."

It was like she went blind, for a moment. Love. Antigone ended the call and with a vicious swipe she punched the side of her fist into the wall panel, with a sharp clang against the metal. "Fuck," she said, in what was probably the least reassuring way ever.

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	asterius 2020-07-30 04:24 am UTC (link)
	Oh god. Antigone's fist hitting the metal made him jump, and he hid his face again, inching away from her. No no no no he could not be trapped here for hours, he could not be. "Dicks," he managed to choke out. Antigone had been calling for help and they had been so dismissive. "Hand hurt?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)