cleanestwitch (cleanestwitch) wrote in strangergamesrp, @ 2012-08-16 09:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | closed, log, observable, sophie hatter, uchiha shisui |
[Log] Witching Panic
Who: Uchiha Shisui, Sophie Hatter
When: August 2nd
Where: Shisui’s room, The grounds
What: Shisui freaks out. Sophie tries to help.
Open or Closed: Closed
Observable: Yes, when they’re outside.
*
Nasty feelings all around. Eyes settling on the back of his neck that weren’t real, but that didn’t last for very long. No. What was there was the deep-set feeling that something was distinctly wrong with the world. A crawling feeling that made Shisui want to scream.
He thought that the way he was walking was wrong. The perspective he had, his height, distance from his hand to his nose was all wrong, all of it, and Shisui was scared. Distressed. Stressed. He hadn’t seen Itachi all day, he hadn’t seen people all day. He had, but he had fled before they could talk to him. A twist of the chakra was all it took to run away before he was caught.
Shisui was pacing up and down a hall. Up and down wasn’t quite correct; he was pacing in front of a door, six feet down and up, towards the left and right side of the hallway. When he heard footsteps, it was a simple move to get inside the cleaning closet. It was easy to hide, and no one looked there.
There were things he had to do, places he had to go, but Shisui couldn’t bring himself to think of those. Couldn’t. He didn’t want to make a decision, because decisions were hard. Too hard. Instead, he paced and didn’t think of the memory gap before he started pacing, didn’t think of the fact that the forest would be a better place, but it wasn’t. Wasn’t because Izumo was there, and he had fucked up with Izumo, hadn’t he?
His head snapped up as footsteps sounded, and Shisui disappeared into the tiny closet. His breathing was too fast, his hands too shaky, but there was nothing to do. Just hide.
Sophie was feeling better. She wasn’t as shaky as she had been, and she was getting things done, which she very much liked. Sophie walked to the cleaning closet and opened it, humming under her breath and reaching for a broom. She froze as she saw someone was in the closet.
Even though Shisui was listening closely to the steps, he didn’t think, didn’t react until the door opened. He half-twisted his chakra, but then caught sight of Sophie and stopped. His eyes went wide. Wasn’t she... Hadn’t she...? He had come to some conclusion about her before, but now he didn’t remember. “Sophie?” He was shocked, and the anxiety rolling in his stomach spread.
“Yes, that would be me.” Sophie knew this person. He was her roommate, though they hadn’t really roomed together much since she’d had a coma and he avoided her like she had a plague. Sophie thought something was wrong. Was he hurt? Had someone hit him on the head? Bewitched him?
“What is wrong with you?” Because something was and she wasn’t going to be polite and just back off.
Instead of answering, Shisui stared at her for a few seconds. Edged backwards, closer to the wall. He didn’t like where she was, he felt trapped. After a few seconds, he realized she’d asked a question; it sounded delayed, less like she had spoken, more like he just knew she had said something.
He couldn’t remember what. Shisui shook his head and tried to slip past her.
Sophie sighed. “Shisui, can you tell me what happened. Do you need anything?” Sophie tried to be her most persuasive. She needed Shisui to calm down and talk to her.
“Nothing happened, everything’s just wrong,” Shisui muttered, not sensing anything out of the ordinary in her voice. Shaking his head, he hunched his shoulders and moved past her. He took two steps down one direction before he decided that he didn’t want that way, and whirled to go the other way.
“Shisui, I think you need to go to the room and sit down for a little while.” Sophie suggested. Sophie took a bigger breath. “I think it would be a very good idea if you went and calmed down.”
Shisui gave her a solemn look. Shook his head and wrung his hands. “No,” A pause. He had been rather mean to Sophie, hadn’t tried to figure out what had happened to her. Looking at her helplessly, he turned as if looking for an escape. “I--I don’t want to. I need to move. I need to know I can move, not be cooped up,” Even if it was his own room. Had he set traps? The thought brought a thrill of anxiety that made him claw at his own hands.
“Then why don’t we go sit and talk outside?” Sophie suggested. “Out in the open where you can run if you need to and calm down.”
Shisui shifted. Looked down, up, and back down at his hands. “Okay.” Fine, she could choose. He took another step away from her. Shifted. Outside was...that way, and he probably shouldn’t leave Sophie by flickering. He started walking, realized that he had put his back to her, and quickly moved so his back was against the wall. Which didn’t help the purpose of getting outside. Maybe he could shuffle with his back to the wall.
“All right, Shisui. Let’s go this way. Everything will be fine,” Sophie promised. She started walking towards the elevator, then wondered if Shisui would be okay in one. There wasn’t really any other way to get onto the grounds, though.
Shisui didn’t think it would be, but he followed Sophie anyway. When they got to the elevator, he gave both it and Sophie a horrified look, before getting in. He could function on direction, to a point. If someone told him what to do, choices weren’t so bad.
Jamming himself in the back corner of the elevator, he tried to get a handle on his breathing, but gods this elevator was small. He couldn’t see every part of it at once, and that just grated. There were probably things fast enough to hide where you weren’t looking. Not to mention the lack of space. Shisui’s breathing rate rose as he looked around the elevator.
“You should calm down. It’s perfectly normal. Odd, but normal. You’ve ridden in it hundred of times before and nothing had happened to you. You’ll be perfectly fine,” Sophie pressed the button to go down to the ground floor and kept talking.
“Really. There’s no reason to be alarmed...” The doors opened and Sophie stepped out. “See, we’re almost outside, and then you will calm down enough to think about what’s going on.” Her throat was feeling a little dry now.
Despite the panic, Shisui was starting to calm down. In small increments that didn’t banish it completely, but it was something. Until he realized that he was being genjutsu’d, but strangely, he couldn’t muster much alarm over that.
Once he’d managed to get outside, Shisui caught sight of the forest, twitched, and looked at Sophie. “You really need to stop that.”
“Stop what?” Sophie glanced around for something. What she found as a small flowering vine curling on the wall. She snatched up a flower and looked at it.
“You---you need to make Shisui calm down, but don’t tell him what to think. Just make him calm down enough to think things out, got it?” Sophie demanded of the flower, then she offered it to Shisui.
“That,” Shisui told her. He didn’t like the genjutsu she cast, or, or any of it! Eyeing the flower, he edged backwards and grimaced. Suddenly looked around, before finally reaching out and taking it. Right. Having his back to the wall was much safer. Giving Sophie a wide berth, he retreated to the wall and slumped against it, fussing with the flower.
“I’m trying to help you calm down so you’ll think about what’s going on. That’s all,” Sophie protested. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was just trying to help in the only way she really knew how to help Shisui.
Shisui shook his head, and then put it in his hands. Took a few shaky breaths and slid to the ground, bringing his knees to his chest, not looking at Sophie and methodically grinding the flower stem between his fingers.
Sophie sighed. She took a few steps back and sat down on the grass, her skirts billowing out around her. “You could do a better job,” Sophie told the flower crossly, then settled down to see if Shisui would right himself or not.
Shisui had the urge to defend the flower, but let it go, instead moving to crush the petals. It was working; his breathing had slowed down, and he didn’t have the urge to run screaming anymore. He still didn’t feel right, but it was an improvement. He curled up tighter and murmured something apologetic towards Sophie.
Sophie watched the flower be destroyed and wondered if it had helped at all. She set her hands in her lap and shifted. She wasn’t very good at waiting.
“Are you feeling better?” Sophie asked.
“Yeah,” Shisui mumbled. Twisted the flower around in his hands. “...Sorry. I...” How to explain a panic attack? This wasn’t quite it, more like a paranoid episode. He decided that would be a hard thing to do, but he would, if she pressed.
“Did something bad happen?” Sophie asked. She didn’t know what exactly would cause someone to act that way. She frowned, trying to think of something that would make Shisui panic like that.
Shisui shook his head. Breathed. “That just...happens at times. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. It just does.”
This didn’t sound like a good thing. “Are you cursed?” Sophie asked. A confusion curse would make someone act that way, she thought.
He almost laughed at that, because he would have liked that over what was really going wrong. “Not as far as I know,” Shisui told her. “I’m just... Messed up. I don’t completely know the cause, but... I have panic attacks. Other things.” Not a complete lie, but he didn’t want to talk about his jutsu.
Sophie thought that made sense. She’d never heard of anyone having something like that before, but Shisui had been honestly disturbed by something. She didn’t think he’d been faking. What she really wanted to know was how she could help him.
“I could make you a calming charm,” Sophie suggested, wondering if she could stick something into Shisui’s shirt if he refused.
A glance down at his hands. “You could,” Shisui murmured. “I wanted to apologize for avoiding you... The charms you put in our room weren’t bad, but I could still sense them, and it put me on edge?” Focus on that, the past things, so he didn’t have to think about having another on him at all times.
“I didn’t know you could sense them,” Sophie looked surprised. “Sometimes it happens by accident. I was only trying to help.” Once again, Sophie had blundered. She was struck be a veyr serious thought.
“Did my charms make you act like that?” She felt horrified. She didn’t know her charms could do that!
“There’s a...range of attacks, techniques, from my world that are a lot like that, in the sense that they affect someone like that... It doesn’t have to be bad, it’s just there,” Shisui explained.
Then blinked in surprise. He glanced up at Sophie and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.” He couldn’t remember the trigger, if there was one.
Sophie relaxed. At least she didn’t have to worry about that. She did have to wonder how she was going to help Shisui with these panic attacks. She frowned.
“Well, you need something to help you handle your panic attacks.” Maybe if it was something that only had an effect when he needed it? But it would have to be sentient enough to know that, which would probably bother Shisui. That or he would have to be aware enough to use some activation word....
Picking at his fingernails to avoid looking at Sophie, Shisui hesitantly nodded. “I... you don’t have to make anything, I mean...” What did he mean? He wasn’t sure. Grimacing slightly, he glanced back up at her.
“I want to help you,” Sophie almost demanded. She didn’t like seeing him like that, and, if she could do something, she was damn well going to do it!
Shisui held his hands up. “Okay, you can help me...” So long as she didn’t bite his head off. He honestly thought that Sophie was a very scary woman, if well-meaning.
“Good.” Now how? “Could you remember to turn a charm on when you started to panic?” Sophie asked as he thought.
“Um,” Shisui thought back to the rising fear, the feeling of being crushed and the utter conviction that in some way, shape or form he would be struck down where he stood... “It depends on what you mean by turning the charm on, but I wouldn’t think so?”
“You would have to say a phrase or make a motion to activate it. Maybe it could activate when you picked it up...” Sophie frowned. “I don’t think it would activate when you started to panic. I wonder if I asked it to not bother you, if it would...” She really didn’t know that much about magic, unfortunately.
Hm. “I could tie it to my commlink,” He raised the blue-beaded bracelet he had. “Maybe... it could measure how fast my heart’s going, my perspiration? Or maybe I could just hold it, and it would turn on?” Something like that.
“That might work.” Now Sophie would have to find something--no, she should make something. She clapped her fist into her palm and grinned. Yes, she could make something. That always worked best.
“What... Figured something out?” Shisui asked, raising his eyebrows, but giving Sophie a tiny smile despite it all. She was fun. Scary but fun.
“Yes. If I make something, it would be more powerful. If I can recognize when you’re panicked, maybe it could. I don’t really know, but I could try.” And it would work. Howl would probably be impressed if he ever learned about it. Sophie resisted the urge to cackle, though she might have chuckled.
She jumped to her feet. “I’ll have to ask Gin Charlie for a few things, but it shouldn’t take too long!”
Shisui looked up at her with wide eyes, and then grinned. “Trying’s where all the fun is!” Really. It made things worth it. “Okay... Here, I’ll go back to our room and clean up a little so you have more space...” More like take the traps down, but same difference.
“Right, I’ll be quick!” With that, Sophie turned on her heel and hurried back inside.
Smiling a little, Shisui threw his hands through a few signs and flickered to their room. Right, now to tear down the traps. Without killing himself. Fun.
~
After an hour, Sophie had everything she needed. She descended on the room with a basket full or ribbons, yarns, and a few silver charms. Sophie didn’t knock, but pushed the door open with a viciously wide smile.
Now they could start.
Aside from tearing things down, Shisui had sealed all his junk cleaned up his side of the room a bit more. Sophie’s side, for the most part, was untouched. It had been left alone for most of the time she was gone
When she came back, Shisui started slightly from where he’d been sitting. He gave both the basket and her grin a wary look. “You look like you’re planning a murder,” He told her, because she did.
“Nonsense. Planning a murder is a serious business, and I would have brought bigger scissors.” Since she didn’t have a good sewing table, Sophie sat down on the floor, taking things from her basket.
“I just need to measure you and figure out how fast is too fast for your heart. Then I think you can go,” Sophie nodded, thinking she would be nervous if someone watched her try and make a charm.
Shisui laughed at that, and stood up, stepping towards her. “Alright. I can stay if you want, but okay.” He crouched, glanced at the cloths, and nodded. He wouldn’t mind if it was something girly, he didn’t think.
Sophie reached out with a peice of string to measure Shisui’s wrist first, waiting for him to offer it out.
Humming, Shisui held his right wrist out, the one with the commlink. He pulled the metal bracelet up farther, so she could get at his wrist easily.
Sophie looped the string around Shisui’s wrist, pulling it snug, but not too tight. She marked the end with he finger, then pulled it away and marked it with a piece of string. Then she grabbed Shisui’s wrist and took his pulse, pulling a small pocket watch from her skirt’s pocket.
To be honest, he didn’t mind this so much. “You’re gonna make a bracelet?” He wiggled his fingers, and was tempted to poke her hand, just for the sake of disrupting her count.
“Yes.” Sophie whipped out a notepad and wrote a few numbers down. She pulled out a crocheting needle and some ribbon. Maybe...
“I’m going to make it onto your arm. Would that be all right?” Sophie asked Shisui.
“Yeah, sure,” Shisui dropped out of his crouch and settled onto the ground, pulling his commlink off and putting it in his lap. “Do I get to chose colors?”
“If you want. Just lay them out and pick out some charms.” Sophie commanded. She picked up the first bit of white string and her needle before starting the first thread.
“Now,” Sophie cleared her throat. “Your job is to keep him calm, you got that?”
“Right,” Shisui kept silent after that, just picking a deep blue and a misty blue and leaving them next to his knee, and then choosing a mauve. Just for the sake of matching his commlink, which had blue-purple beads that changed in the light. After a moment’s deliberation, he picked a fine silver thread as well. There. Now, charms...
He picked up a little maple leaf and put it next to the threads, before eyeing the rest of them. A silver drop joined it, and a sandal because he liked the design. It was simplistic and cute.
Sophie nodded. “But, you’re not going to tell him what to think. When his heart gets fast, you just calm it down so he can think clearly.” As she spoke, Sophie started crocheting the blue string in. Blue was a nice calming color.
The process would probably take a long time. Great. Shisui sighed, and resigned himself to playing with the charms, twisting them in his fingers. He thought she would do it well, though.
Sophie’s hands worked quickly. She kept chattering, now going into things that were soothing--the sound of the ocean or the wind in the trees; the smell of lavendar; the warm embrace of a loved one; knowing someone more competent than you was on the way to make everything better. The mauve string came after the light blue, then the dark blue was oven in. On this string, Sophie attached the charms.
As she tied off the last stitch, Sophie came out of whatever state she had been in. Her throat had almost closed up. Her voice was a harsh rasp, and her fingers felt a little stiff.
Here was someone who was better at speaking than he was, in a sense. Shisui recognized the lull of words, genjutsu like and powerful. He watched her closely, enjoying the feeling the words gave rather than they themselves. “You’re very good at this,” He noted, before glancing up at her. “...Do you want some water?”
“Nonsense. I’m an amateur,” Sophie croaked. She stretched out her fingers and started gathering the odds and ends of her work and put them back in her basket. She swallowed and shook her head.
“I think I’ll go find some tea, but thank you,” Sophie tried to clear her throat again and decided she was very tired.
Eyeing her, Shisui shifted and stood up. “If you tell me what kind, I can bring some,” He offered. “It’s the least I could do....” She had made him this, after all.
“Well, if you wouldn’t mind. You could just ask a Drone. They know what kind of tea I like.” Sophie moved to sit on her bed. She was tired! Did that mean the charm was a good one?
“Sure,” Shisui smiled at her and scampered out the door. It took a little looking, but he found the drone, asked it for Sophie’s tea, and told it where to deliver. When he came back, he left the door ajar, so it would be easier for the thing, and settled on his bed.
“Hey, thank you for this.”
As soon as Shisui left, Sophie leaned back on the bed. She sighed and closed her eyes. She really was tired. Would Howl he proud? Would he laugh at her technique. Sophie wondered what advice Calcifer might give her and yawned.
She hardly caught Shisui’s words. “I like helping people. I’m only good at meddling”
Shisui gave a tiny laugh. “Meddling works,” He paused, considered her, and then grabbed his book on the legends of Japan. He would read until her tea came, and then see if there was a game for him.
“Meddling works very well,” Sophie muttered. Before the drones arrived with the tea, she was asleep.
He wasn’t far into the book when she fell asleep, and he’d barely gone through three pages by the time the drones came. Granted, Shisui was a slow reader.
As he watched Sophie, Shisui decided it would be mean to wake her up, and left the tea covered by a little plate, before padding out of the room. It probably wouldn’t be warm when she woke up, but at least she wouldn’t be tired.