[MASK OR MENACE] IC Contact

[stylistic_disloyalty]

"Funny enough I'm not going to lie here-- I definitely saw your call but I'm going to decide whether or not to respond based on how interesting the message is. I'd make it good. Maybe I'll change your contact to 'Yeah, This is Worth Answering'."


( Voice / Text / Action )

Comments

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Laura, Laura stay with me.

[For the love of G-O-D, don't pass out Laura Wilson. If she went unconscious, Luci would be dead when she came to, no doubt in her mind.]

Call Magnus, he can fix this, but he should hurry. I can't move, but otherwise I feel alright.

[She can't feel anything at all, so it's mostly true. Hard to feel bad or in pain when you can't feel anything. Her nerves must have severed, small miracle.]

You've got this, you're going to do brilliantly if you just keep it together for a few minutes.

[Luci, on the other hand, doesn't realize she's not together at all.]

[pummelgranite]

[ She leans over, like she didn't hear her at all, and carefully puts a hand on each of her cheeks.

Then- something happens. It's hard to say, but suddenly they are face to face? ]

I'm still dreaming. It's OK Luci, this isn't- this isn't real.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[... what the fuck.]

[Luci can see the shape of her hip under the sheets out of her peripheral vision as she moves, and while she's not a doctor she's pretty sure her spine isn't this long.]

It better not be fucking real, why is my body down there.

[pummelgranite]

[ She looks back down at the body. She's dreamed of Luci's neck enough times, but even her unconscious mind rarely got it right- never remembered how it still twitched, how the pipes twitched and relaxed as the body died, instead opting for vague impressions and all the upsetting allegory her mind normally churned with. But this? This feels real. ]

It's not . . . ?

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Real? Or my body? Because it sure as fuck feels like both!

[It is a surreal feeling, not being able to move legs or arms she wants to move, feeling like she's floating or weightless. Like she's firmly resting in Laura's palms instead of just being touched.]

Okay. Alright. Alright if this isn't real, put me back down and we'll-- both go back to sleep and wake up and this will be fine. Turn it off, turn it back on again, picked up that trick from the internet.

[pummelgranite]

Right . . . Right yeah, OK.

[ She very, very carefully and gently lines Luci's head back up with her neck. In fact, she sits back on her heels for a moment, checking her work, before adjusting once more. ]

So we just-

[ Not thinking, one of Laura's bloodyied hands moves to scoot her bangs out of her eyes, but instead leaves a bright red hand print on her own forehead. She blinks, looks down at her hand. It's an odd expression, like she really just can't figure out what she's looking at. Then without a word or a sound her eyes roll back and she topples off the bed to where they'd piled her absurd collection of egyptian whatever throw pillows. ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Shit-- Laura, Laura!!

[Too late. Fuck. The one time Luci really, really wants to be able to get up and help someone who's passed out and she can't. Another wave of pure panic rises up over her and threatens to take hold, threatens to make her scream in terror, but she holds on by her metaphorical fingernails and squeezes her eyes shut.]

[This isn't real, Laura isn't unconscious, she's just Luci's lifeline and her subconscious is punishing Luci by taking Laura away. She's had terrible nightmares like this before, what's one more?]

[She closes her eyes. She can't do what she usually does to help her sleep, but she can sing-- 'This is Major Tom to ground control, I'm stepping through the door, and I'm floating in the most peculiar way...']

[And she actually does get to sleep, but when she wakes up, she has several minutes of realizing that nothing has changed. And she's a head, and somehow still alive.]

[pummelgranite]

[ There's a small noise from somewhere above her- Laura, clearing her throat. ]

Uhm, Luci . . . ?

[ She's washed some of the blood from her face, and as much as she can from her hands, and she's looking at Luci infinite concern and sorrow and care. ]

Are you . . . uh- . . .

[stylistic_disloyalty]

...Yes. Yes I am.

[Still a head. And there are so many questions she wants to ask immediately, but Laura passing out again is going to be counter-intuitive to getting answers. Luci doesn't have great self-control to begin with, but she can at least look out for her own self-interest when it's incredibly important.]

Is this more Porter Bollocks? Because that would be more of a comfort than... practically anything else right now.

[pummelgranite]

OK.

[ She looks steadier, at least. None of that haziness or vacancy to her gaze. ]

Mind if we get out of here? Away from-

[ the pause where she scrambles for something to say besides "your body" goes just a hair too long ]

- the bed?

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[There's that, at least-- Luci was almost afraid they were going to get stuck in a constant feedback loop of Laura losing her shit every time she woke up and saw what was going on. Until she just... removed herself from the vicinity. Luci would, at least.]

Only if you carry me like the fucking princess I am. [She huffs, trying to inject at least some levity into things so as to not aggravate Laura further. Having to be carried around like an extremely ugly clutch is humiliating though, and it rankles Luci to think that she's going to be dependent on somebody carrying her if this lasts. She can't insist it be Laura, even Luci isn't that evil, so... who?]

Don't look at the bed. [Her body.] You know this place well enough to walk with your eyes closed.

[pummelgranite]

[ Laura snorts. ]

What happened to "I, I will be king?"

[ She's already seen plenty of what's on the bed, but she still looks away as she picks up Luci's head carefully and picks her way towards the blown-off door. ]

Bathroom first?

[stylistic_disloyalty]

He was never this helpless. [Fuck. Fuck. The unpleasant feeling of being picked up like an object is insane, the vertigo is enough to make her brain twinge unpleasantly in what must be sympathetic-nausea. At least she had no stomach for piddly things like motion sickness anymore, silver linings or whatever.]

Laura, you're carrying me around like emotional baggage, are you sure you want to go somewhere with hard surfaces?

[pummelgranite]

. . . yeah alright. We'll use the sink in the bar. Less mirrors too.

[ And so she starts heading that way. ]

He never survived a beheading. Great quality to have in a monarch.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

...Laura I will laugh right along with you once this is not happening. All of this.

[She does have a good and clever point, but Luci is still acclimating to life as a head. What the fuck is she going to do? Be carried around everywhere all the time? Fuck that, her fans can't see her like this-- so what was the fucking point of anything?!]

[This was karmic retribution for every snide thing she'd said about anxiety disorders.]

So. Any tales of people surviving as heads because of Porter Bollocks?

[Please say yes.]

[pummelgranite]

[ Laura would disagree that Luci deserves this. But Laura is wrong about a lot of things.

She heads to the lovely minibar. Carefully carefully she puts Luci down upright on the highest counter. ]

No idea.

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Hell, she can't tell if she feels better being carried around, or set down on a goddamned shelf.]

Somebody would have been on about it. 'Look at me, look at me, I'm a head!' Can't keep anything off of social media if it happens to somebody boring. So...

[So that leaves the other option.]

...Laura. You would tell me if after Ananke found us-- if I--

[If she ended up less decapitated, and more 'lacking a body'.]

[pummelgranite]

If you were a severed head spitting hot takes? [ Instead of a severed neck spewing hot blood. ] Yeah. I'd tell you that.


Uhm, not to be weird but, do you mind if I clean you up a little bit?

[stylistic_disloyalty]

Right. Sure. [Yes, Laura would tell her that, of course. She might not have been quite so fucked if Luci had been like this, still talking and capable of independent thought.]

Probably a good plan, let's keep this as... [She swallows.] Clean as possible. [And after a beat:] You should call Magnus to. Clean up.

[What the flying fuck are they going to do with her body?]

[pummelgranite]

[ Laura turns on the water, waits for it to warm. Then wets a paper towel and begins cleaning Luci's face as carefully as she can. ]

"Clean up."

[stylistic_disloyalty]

It's a mess, it gets cleaned up.

[Luci's eyes follow the towel, but for the most part she doesn't betray how awkward this feels to her. It's going to take some getting used to.]

You weren't attached to that old thing, were you? Much more charmed by my quick wit and winning smiles.

[What a hideous joke, what the fuck is she even saying.]

[pummelgranite]

Already forgotten. Who even has a body anymore, right?

[ this is their second worst date hands down ]

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[At least she's still talking on this one.]

Passé, am I right? And hey, now I'm the right weight-class to finally pursue a modeling career. You think Gucci would take me?

[No, she hasn't acclimated to the idea of not having a body yet, but snark is easy and familiar while Laura is toweling her off.]

[pummelgranite]

I hear they're pretty strict about height.

[ cleeeaning. god her hair is a mess. how in the fuck will she wash luci's hair without sticking her head under the faucet which will not be happening under any circumstances. ]

What about cable news?

[stylistic_disloyalty]

[Quick, to online videos of astronauts washing their hair.]

Possible, I already have the coveted skill of laughing at the most inane bullshit. As long as I don't have to read the weather, should work out just fine.