Simon in April

[i_can_read]

Who: Simon and YOU.
What: Catch-all and specific top levels,
Where: Around,
When: All of April
Warnings: Horror genre references, body horror specifically, cult/religious trauma, dissociation and emotional issues, so much swearing, etc. Just Simon Things (TM)



A. Yeah my heart it spoke, and the stars replied -> OTA

Simon is easy to find on clear nights. He drops his shields for as long as possible--as long as he dares, because how long? is a question that dogs him, haunts him, taunts him, fills him with fear and forces the stones around him to close up once more--and floats or lies in the grass or rests in the fork of a tree, bathing the nearby area in a red glow.

What's he doing?

Looking at the sky. Specifically, he's looking at the stars--all the many hundreds of thousands of them, spread across the abyssal vault of heaven. Large ones, small ones. Shimmering curtains and waves, clustered scores of speckles barely distinct from one another. And bold, shining monuments to light, standing apart from any neighbouring gleam. He stares up into them with his own swirling pools of light--the pools of light that are his eyes--their radius so large and wide-armed that they almost evoke the galaxies above.

Small, pale, imitations of the miracle that dwarfs him. A tiny, feeble imitation in the lush world below. A world vibrant and verdant with life.

It almost--

It almost.... makes him feel like he was meant to. Like God is real. Like--like maybe this is what God is. This is God, or God's doing. But then, what is he doing here? What is he, Simon, doing? Here? What is he? What's it for? Why? Why--why is he, Simon, here, why him? And for what?

So it's not always a peaceful moment.

Sometimes it is, sometimes the wonder of it all eclipses the grief, the fear and confusion.

But sometimes... sometimes there are sounds. Quiet, muffled sounds. Like he might be... crying?

Don't worry, though--he'll stop the very instant he hears anyone coming. And his voice--sharp with paranoia and danger, or coarse with emotion and suspicion.

"Who's there?"

B. Plant Your Hope With Good Seeds -> Closed to Henry and Parvati

Despite a not-very edifying (or perhaps too edifying?) conversation with Umemiya, Simon is nonetheless undeterred. He's interested in the garden, and he wants...

He wants to do that. He wants to garden. Just a little. He doesn't know how, what with the utter lack of hands... or legs... or any way to carry or dig or bury or plant. He wants it so badly. It's like an ache--or a burn. A compulsion, an impulse, something nudging at the back of his mind.

He's been thinking about it, sitting there in the grass and under the canopy of nearby trees. Sealed up inside his shields, where he can see only darkness and hear the world only dimly. Protected. Encased and isolated, sheltered and solitary. Safe.

Ha. Safe isn't real. But it feels safer.

Bwcause if he stays in there, encapsulated by the darkness and the security of his rock shield, it feels like.... well, like the submarine. And when it feels like the submarine, it becomes easy to defy gravity.

The downside, of course, is that he can no longer even feel vibrations through the ground. And this leaves him completely unaware of anyone walking by.

But that's fine, right? It's not like he's going to drop his shields and scare the bejeezus out of anyone all of a sudden--

Or so he (doesn't) think, dropping his shields suddenly right as someone walks by.

C. Training wheels fell off -> OTA

[Simon still spends most days rolling around, opening his shields to look around and then closing them to follow his planned path.

Or else he's in the air--flying with his shields up like the world's most dangerous aircraft. Because he still navigates the exact same way he did back in the submarine, with the camera. He recognises the irony, but it's... kind of comforting, weirdly. It gives him something to do. And every time he opens his shields, he has a new vantage, a new vista to take in.

It's an experience that never gets old. High or low, terrestrial or aerial.

He just.... he doesn't have the best control while flying, so..... um. Possibly he falls. With luck, it's merely nearby. But sometimes he falls directly onto someone. Or onto a building, or onto someone's current project.

It's a work in progress, okay?]

D. Wildcard!

[Drop me a line at railerat or just throw something at me here and I'll figure it out!]

Comments

[i_can_read]

"What."

The word is delivered in a flat tone. Half threat, all instinct.

It takes a very precise kind of meaning to actually shake Simon. A lot of things scare him, a lot of things agitate him... but not a lot of things outright trigger him. Anasui has been setting Simon off since the beginning, and really it would be hard for the guy to say something fully inoffensive to Simon now.

Despite that, only one comment--the one about giving him some sort of use--has really stung Simon through his multilayered and pre-armed offense. But sting it does.

It stings, and its shock is followed by--well, not nausea, he doesn't have that kind of body any more, but he feels. Heavy. His levitation height dips, just briefly--a short drop of only a few inches, but that's quite a lot for something as small as he is. It's the only clue to the impact of those words, though. He has no visible body or physical muscles to tense up, and his expression can't be seen.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

[dripdrive]

"Hm?" Anasui stopping so he can glance back at Simon. He tilts his head slightly, both out of curiosity and irritation. What was the matter now?

"What the hell do you think it meant? Do I have to explain everything?" Anasui retorts. If he had arms, he would have one hand on his hip, so he could visibly show just how much he did not care for these stupid questions. "You clearly have a mouth because you keep using it. Look, you were asking how you could help and I gave a suggestion. I gave you two, if we count just asking Spinarak. Now come on, we're wasting daylight and I want to get this over and done with. Or do you have issues with that too?"

Well, now he really wants to start taking things apart because he's irritated but he's not going to say that.

[i_can_read]

"That's not what you said." Simon does move. He floats closer to Anasui--following, as the guy already surmised, the sound of his voice. He doesn't float all the way there, though. He keeps a respectable distance. Just a meter or so, but enough to propel himself--should he feel the need.

"You said you wanted to find a use for me." He hovers, rotating slightly. It's a strange rotation, one that maintains eerie precision with its direction. He is always facing Anasui, but in a way where it's clear that 'up' and 'down' do not mean anything to him inside that shell.

"I'm not going to be fucking used."

[dripdrive]

"I said, they can 'Give you some sort of use'. As in, for this job. As for building the fucking stairs. I obviously meant that in context to you not knowing how to help," Anasui says. He's shocked that Simon has misconstrued his words so badly - Is he in a shittily written drama? It takes every ounce of his willpower not to throw something at Simon's round dome. Instead, he rolls his eyes as he starts walking again, heading for the entrance to the Spire where Spinarak was supposed to be.

"For fucks sake- If you 'don't want to be used' then leave. I can do this job without you. Why are you doing quests if you don't want to do the work?" Anasui snaps. He had already explained himself which was far more than he thought Simon needed. He didn't need to put up with this.

[i_can_read]

"That's not what I mean."

Simon follows Anasui--floating, still, and at a perfectly equal distance. He's not hurrying to catch up. "I want to do the work. I want to help. Th-this place is--it's. It's different. It's d-different. I want to help them." He struggles for words, but he doesn't quit on them. He keeps talking, despite not having teeth to grit to make it easier, despite not having breath to steady himself with.

"I'm helping. Because I... because I fucking want to. Not becasuse I have to, not because anyone else fffffucking.... fucking decided, for me. Do you hear me? I'm not. Here. To be used."

[dripdrive]

"Yes, I hear you, because I'm not deaf like you keep pretending to be," Anasui says, evidently unmoved by Simon's words. "You want to help people. It's your decision. Yes, yes. Now shut up, listen to the spider, and then make a decision on how you're going to help with this. We're here."

The Spinarak looks between the two approaching them worriedly, somehow able to sense the tension. However, if Simon doesn't interrupt, they'll give them the instructions. They'll be laying walkways up and down the cliffside, if that's okay! And if there are no questions, Spinarak will lead them to the marked areas where the walkways need to be.

[i_can_read]

"Asshole," Simon starts under his breath, and it's quite possible that he was going to say something else too--but once Spinarak starts to speak, he shuts up immediately.

Laying pathways, cliffsides, follow this way--fine, okay, he can do that.

He still has no idea how he's going to do anything useful here, but he's determined. And he's even more determined to do it without being a dedicated gofer now that this asshole has proposed that specific idea.

And while it's easier by far to follow a voice, he can also follow the sound of footsteps. It's just more difficult. He has to concentrate a lot harder. But a spider (he'd never seen a spider back on Mars, but the COI's prison cells had them) has eight legs (and he can hear them, much smaller and lighter and quieter than the other guy's), which does add a certain consistency to the amount of sound he has to follow.

The effort required in not following that sound so closely he runs into the ground, however, keeps his mouth shut for the duration of the journey.

For whatever that's worth.

[dripdrive]

Anasui doesn't even need to hear Simon to guess what he may or may not have muttered but he doesn't care. He simply listens to the little Spinarak prattle on, the tiny creature evidently eager to fill in what would otherwise be tense silence. As they move, Anasui does see Simon dip lower and lower to the ground, and he even scowls lightly as Simon's rock grates against the floor. However, he still does nothing. He just... watches and nearly misses the door when Spinarak stops.

"If that's all clear, then I guess you two can get started!" Spinarak chirps, stopping in front of the storage room. The neatly open the door with a web and reveals that its filled with wood, stone, and any other material they could use. "Unless you have other questions?"

"None," Anasui grunts. The Espathra focuses and a soft blue begins to encompass some boards and they lift up off the ground. Without another word to either Simon or Spinarak, he walks off, the boards floating after him like a bizarre marching order.

[i_can_read]

Simon doesn't really have any questions, but it's less about knowing what he's doing and more about the fact that he doesn't know enough to ask anything.

He is aware of it, too; not consciously, and not in so many words, but he can feel the simple absence of any accompanying thought or question or commentary in himself, and he from that, he knows he has to figure this out.

This is familiar to him. He is familiar with being given a task, an assignment, a mission that he has to complete, and very little instruction other than get it done. He's familiar with problems or events that require solutions that no one his instructions to.

He's more familiar with that than he is any other part of life here, and so this is actually less daunting than anything else has been.

For example: once the asshole he's paired with has walked away, Simon lowers his shields and is able to take an actual look inside the room. He glances, briefly, at the spider (now he can see it, and it's kind of a weird looking thing. He can't judge.)

There's a lot of stuff in there. Most of it, he looks at but it doesn't seem to present any answers. The sheer quantity of wood takes him aback for a second--and then he realises, of course, of course wood is cut and stored in quantities that he couldn't have imagined. Trees are everywhere. They're mundane. They're common. They're just wood waiting to be used.

(He finds this distasteful and spectacular in equal measure. The awe with which he regards all those trees is so anachronous here. He's not used to that yet.)

But that's not important. What's important is the stone. He picks it out immediately, and the connection is made. He already lifts and controls rock, even without hands or legs. He doesn't need his mouth for that, either. He can fly himself, and that's being a Flying type. But he's also Rock.

He stares at the stone--some of it raw and irregular, some of it pre-cut and shaped. He stares at it, and he concentrates. He thinks about how to move it. Thinks about it lifting, thinks about steering it, about piloting it, the way he did the sub and the way he does his own stone-shielded star-body. He thinks about the way the sub turns, the way it feels when its power moves it. He thinks about how it felt to move with that kind of clarity and purpose.

And somewhat against his will--his mind wanders. He thinks about doing things he doesn't want to do. He thinks about about carrying...what, a rock? A piece of wood? One at a time in his mouth for that bastard. He thinks about going down there to the bottom of the blood ocean again, about ramming that monster for samples, about begging--over and over--to live, just to fucking live. The dismissive 'indifference' of the COI, pretending to ignore him in order to wield him to their purpose, and the similar supposed 'indifference' of the Pokemon he's met twice now, and trusts about as far. He's not going to drag wood around. He's going to do this himself, by himself, because he wants to. He's going to help, without needing to be used.

He doesn't make the leap to 'pulling' the stones with him consciously, but it happens--somewhere in the back of his disconnected self, he pulls the stone to him...

And just like that, it begins to move.

[dripdrive]

(Man, if Simon was mad about the excess wood, he's going to blow a fuse when he inevitably gets lost in the forest).

In contrast to Simon, Anasui knows precisely what he's doing. Construction was so similar to deconstruction and modification - Anasui was in his element. In his mind's eye, he's already planned out the walkway around the assigned markers, and all he has to do is put everything back together. As he walks, Anasui sorts the lumber by height and weight, and by the time he's at the start of the proposed walkway, all the material is ready to go. Anasui gently releases the planks onto the ground and starts building.

Despite having only a fraction of the grip he had on his psychic powers compared to his mastery of his Stand (and having no hands), Anasui is still incredibly fast when it came to putting things together. Not caring whether or not Simon had his own plans for the walkway, Anasui starts laying down the planks with his psychic abilities, then ties them tight with a combination of his talons and his mouth. It's simple but elegant; stylish, precise and, most importantly, functional. Plus, it would be extra secure after he started nailing and/or gluing it together. He hadn't decided yet.

... Admittedly, it's entirely possible that because he's so wrapped up in the rhythm of building, Anasui's forgotten Simon was supposed to be working with him. Scratch that, he's definitely forgotten.

[i_can_read]

"Come on..... come on--!!"

As the stones pull towards Simon, his shields rise around him. It is again not a conscious decision. And yet it makes perfect sense as mere moments later, the pieces of his stone shell close over him and the hewn rocks encircle the sphere of his form.... almost as though in orbit.

"Fuck! Yes!"

Of course, this means he can no longer see. But that's actually for the best--navigating the forest visually would be almost impossible for Simon. He didn't see the route to this storage, for one. For two, the sheer density and diversity of the forest still overwhelms him often and easily. And the amount of focus and direction required to keep his control over all of this is immense. He doesn't have teeth to grit or a jaw to set, but if he did, he'd be baring his teeth, his eyes ablaze with determination.

He's all too aware that he has no time--or energy--to waste. He's in a race with not only Anasui, but his own limits.

So he says nothintg to Spinarak, and he definitely doesn't bother to make sure he didn't make a huge mess before he leaves. The way he remembers the path is in distance via time, by degrees turned with rotational direction reversed. A spatial puzzle performed blind. No point in checking his work--again, he wouldn't know what to look for--but even if he tried, it would only distract him. Every single second he holds onto this, the difficulty grows.

He has to trust his memory.

There's a touch of dark irony to that. But unlike the passage of time or the tenuous gradients of reality, this is the kind of thing his brain does hang onto.

And so it is that Simon arrives at the site of Anasui's ongoing construction--late, but triumphant, floating two metres off the ground and surrounded by multiple concentric rings of precut stone.

Stone that he releases from his power all at once, and which hit the ground with enough gravity-induced power to force a small local tremor of the earth.

WHMMM-DDD--

[dripdrive]

Despite being fixated on his project, Anasui does sees Simon with the asteroid belt of stones since he usually makes a point to be aware of his surroundings. The bird raises a thin eyebrow as the Minior approaches but says nothing, even as the ground rattles with the force of the rocks and one of the boards crack with the impact. Anasui simply replaces them quietly.

Simon is a lot stronger than he looks - that much is clear, and Anasui takes a moment to note the man's abilities. Gravitational forces. Mastery of rocks and weighted, balanced flying. It's different from a levitating Solrock or Lunatone but just as fascinating.

(The fact Simon's powers seem more gravitational than psychic in nature twists more uncomfortably in Anasui's stomach than he'd ever admit).

Eventually, Anasui leans over and looks at a few of the rocks. After a moment of perusing, he uses his psychic powers to levitate one over.

"Convenient. This one will do nicely," he says, going back to work.