Grave digger, grave digger | October Catchall

[lasergrenades]

Characters: Pepper Potts, Devin Parker, and you!
Date: Throughout October
Location: Around Keeliai
Situation: The spooky happenings has everyone a little on edge, and Devin is having an especially bad month.
Warnings/Rating: Death, possible mentions of violence and abuse. Will specify as needed.


A. [Pepper] KPD | Throughout October | Open

The uptick in crime doesn't leave the KPD extraordinarily busy, but between the rise in illegal activity and the strange, unsettling things resulting from the odd planar activity, things are definitely more tense. Pepper tries to just focus on work, but occasionally she'll do something slightly odd around her desk, such as tossing grains of salt over her shoulder. She does try to keep the superstitions out of the office, for the most part, but the creepy incidents are more distracting than she'd like. Sometimes, she's actually quite cheerful, and begins decorating some areas of the headquarters as though nothing is amiss.

B. [Pepper] Jade Dojo | Mid October | Bakura

Pepper has taken to spending some nights over at Bakura's apartment lately, complete with having claimed one of his drawers for some of her things. The concerns over the planes thinning hang over most of the city, but nothing explosive seemed to be happening, and really she ought to be more accustomed to ghosts and spectres given who she's dating. Lounging around together under the blankets seems like a good option to distract from anything unsettling, especially as the temperature starts to drop since cold weather is not at all Bakura's favorite.

C. [Pepper] Earth Sector | Mid October | Raine

So, ghosts. Yeah. That's-- that's a thing that's happening. That's a thing that's currently happening to her, along with lots of other people in Keeliai, and it's unsettling and scary and also... kind of amazing, in some ways. She hasn't seen her mother since she was six, and a ghost is still better than nothing, and everyone at the house has something going on, so instead of rambling her panic/excitement at Tony and Gene and Bakura all month, she goes to visit Raine. It's been a little while since they've just hung out, and if anyone can help her find some more calm about this situation, it's her friend. She knocks a little hesitatingly on Raine's door, glancing at the redheaded ghost over her shoulder with a nervous smile.

D. [Devin] Sky Sector | Early October | Open

The chill in the air doesn't both Devin at all; England was cold and misty for no small part of the year. The sudden shift is a bit odd, but that was par for the course in this city as far as he could tell. He spends part of his time continuing with his mapping routine, and while he's at it he considers more seriously where he might move to. Devin has very few possessions, so one of the smaller lodgings made available to Foreigners would be ideal. He's more aloof and even irritable, avoiding extended conversations and familiar faces.

E. [Devin] Metal Sector | Mid October | Open

Devin returns to the Metal Sector to test his memory of the streets partway through the month. The tension in the city is evident wherever he goes, and while he's not immune to it, routine has always helped. That is, of course, until he spots two faces he hasn't seen in over a century, and his blood runs cold. He stops abruptly as their attention turns to him, frozen in what can only be described as fear. This is dread he doesn't even know how to hide - so he runs, darting away in a blur and only halting when he's half a sector away and hidden in an alleyway.

F. [Devin] Turtle's Head | Mid-Late October | Open

His family hasn't ceased haunting him no matter where he goes, and now it's all five of his siblings as well as his parents. The sense of calm at the turtle's head helps a little, but Devin keeps away from anyone else who's there, finding as secluded an area as he can. He's shaken in a way he hasn't felt in years and years, and he's giving very serious consideration to leaving the city altogether in an effort to distance himself from it's inhabitants and battle with his panic in peace. If anyone decides to interrupt the spectres currently following Devin with abusive, personal diatribe, they should be prepared to deal with a nasty vampire. See: cornered animal.

(OOC note: Let me know if you want a specific starter, or feel free to write up your own!)

Comments

[annihilist]

Devin gave a single, sharp laugh. "I don't recall inviting psychoanalysis. I was born a monster, and I can't change that fact. All I can change is what direction I'm pointed in and try to balance the equation a little bit."

It would have been easier if guilt had failed to dig it's claws into him, but for some reason he had never moved beyond the point of caring. He wasn't sure why, and he'd rationalized that it was only fair punishment, like the scars he'd accumulated.

[iseeall]

"Hey, I'm not psycho-analyzing you! I just know a thing or two about feeling worthless." His circumstances were a lot different from Devin's, but there wasn't a day that could go by where he wasn't reminded that the price of his cowardice has been these eyes. Even if Klaus had...that's right! What Klaus said to him!

Well, it probably wouldn't work on Devin being as stupid and stubborn as he was, but it was honestly what had made Leo stop and think, that maybe somehow there was a part of the world that could accept him and that he was useful. That they wanted him around.

"Mr. Klaus said something to me once when I first met him. Like....when I was sounding a lot like you. He told me as long as one faced towards the light and took even one step forward, that means the human spirit could never, truly die. You're not running away from where you're going and-" Leo took a breath before he got too emotional. "You may not be human, but you certainly act more like us than you do your vampires."

[annihilist]

The arrival of his family had apparently left Devin more raw than he realized, if Leo could read him so well. 'Worthless' was putting it mildly. He was too much a vampire to ever be human, and too human to ever be considered a true vampire - he was somewhere in between, in an endless tug of war.

But there was an irony in that statement that Leo couldn't know. Devin could hear the emotion in the young man's voice, hear how much he believed what he was saying. Light was what had landed him in front of the firing line, and occasionally saved him from the bullets.

"You've done your due diligence," Devin sighed, continuing to look at the distance he was walking towards. "Rest assured I understand your point, possibly better than you realize. I release you from the burden of responsibility you seem to think you have."

[iseeall]

He wanted to feel hopeful; he wanted to feel like Devin finally listened to him, but it somehow at the same time it felt like the guy was just dismissing him again. "I don't have any obligation! I just don't like seeing you be so hard on yourself when there's no reason for it."

Leo's short legs had a harder time keeping up with tall people, but thankfully HSL was a good place for aerobic training. "Do you really get it, or are you just saying that so I stop bothering you?"

[annihilist]

The vampire's jaw tightened for a moment as he bit back an angry reply. There were so many reasons for how he treated himself, albeit not all of them rational.

"Those things are not mutually exclusive," Devin pointed out. "I can understand something and not act upon it." Or agree with it. "And even if I hypothetically wanted to, the results of a century of war cannot be undone with a single platitude."

[iseeall]

There were many reasons that Leo hated himself too, even if he knew they were stupid and unreasonable. It felt unfair that people like Klaus had such faith in him when Leo couldn't even convince himself or this person that either of them had worth but well...he couldn't run away.

"I wasn't expecting you to act on it. Or something. Mr. Klaus said that to me like a year ago and I have a hard time believing it still, but if you don't have a person to say that to you, it's the least I can do to try and help." Years of self loathing didn't vanish. He knew that, gods he knew that, but he didn't even know if Devin was listening to him or not.

[annihilist]

It was admirable, what Leo was trying to do. Devin simply wasn't in a good place to hear it at that moment - although if he's told the same thing enough, it might start to stick. Someone would need to be incredibly stubborn for that, and incredibly patient.

He let out an irritated huff. "Strange as it may seem to you, allowing myself the luxury of that line of reasoning will only create problems." Or rather, it could, but believing himself to merely be a monster among monsters actually made his job a lot easier. Giving in to the hatred took less energy than always fighting it off. "Go spend your time with someone who won't waste it."

[iseeall]

"Oh yeah sure, sorry I was bothering you from going and sinking yourself into depressive thoughts on the side of the street," Leo said. He may have been stubborn but patience for idiots wasn't his....okay, well he had to deal with Zapp. That took a lot of patience.

"Sure, just keep acting like hating yourself is gonna let you do your job better. I'm sure the other vampires won't capitalize on that at all. Girls love the angsty brooding type anyway. I'm sorry for reminding you that other people exist in this world."

He'll kick your ass, Devin.

[annihilist]

Leo was very lucky he had a pulse, or his thin level of restraint would have evaporated a while ago. He was usually better at faking his demeanor; he needed to improve even more, if the haunting by his family had shaken him this much. To be honest, Keeliai as a whole had shaken him. The Foreigners, at least, wouldn't leave him be.

"Your sarcasm is noted," Devin replied darkly. He had to switch tactics; hopefully Klaus wouldn't cave his face in for it. "The insincerity suits you. That must earn you a lot of friends."

[iseeall]

Leo was absolutely not lucky at all and he had scars and all-seeing god eyes to prove it, but maybe his humanity for once gave him an edge with a crabby asshole vampire.

"At least I have the ability to MAKE friends, unlike you and your shitty attitude. I'm not the one lying to everyone about how cool and stoic I am!"

[annihilist]

The fact that Leo used almost the exact same words as Aly had a few months ago was a touch ironic.

"You have a peculiarly damaging way of trying to help people - one moment it's platitudes and the next it's insults," he observed, settling cold eyes on Leo finally. "So much for stepping forward towards the light."

[iseeall]

For a moment, Leo forgot how to speak. Did he just...it was impossible for Devin to see, but Leo stared back, straight at the vampire-like aura and the cold, almost dead look in his eyes.

Suddenly Leo felt scared, but he wasn't backing away. He couldn't be a coward NOW of all times, when it was just some guy being a dick. Some vampire being a dick.

"What the hell do you know about helping people?! I even told you something special to me and you just fucking threw it back in my face!"

[annihilist]

Ah, there it was. After all his years, it was too easy to resort to this. Too easy to take someone's vulnerability and twist it into a weapon. It was as simple as breathing. It shouldn't have been; Devin wasn't so far removed from normal people that he didn't know this was injurious to others.

He didn't expect Leo to ever forgive him.

"At least I'm not the one lying to everyone about how much better I am for their attention," the vampire said, spitting Leo's words back at him again.

[iseeall]

"You-" Leo wasn't a violent person. He didn't even really like fighting back that much, but this was a time when his hands moved before him again and tried to seize Devin's collar to drag him down to Leo's height.

"Don't you dare insult Mr. Klaus like that!! He deserves far better than shit like me to say that to. I would never lie about something like that-you-you don't know anything!"

[annihilist]

As before, Devin dodged away from Leo's grip, the motion almost lazy in its appearance. Reassert control, shift the situation to his advantage - tactics and training, all of it.

"Klaus has tough enough skin to defend himself from petty insults, if he sees fit. He doesn't need you to do it for him," the vampire replied blandly. "Unless that's your pitiful attempt to repay his efforts, in which case you might consider working on a thicker skin for yourself."

[iseeall]

"Shut up-you don't know him!" Leo wished he could add 'like I knew him' but the fact of the matter was that Leo really didn't know him either. He wasn't even sure if Libra liked him that much, but all he could focus right now on his throat burning from held back emotion and that Klaus had SAID to him that he liked him. Leo the person, not the holder of the eyes of gods.

Even if no one else did. "I don't need it. I don't need you to say any of that shit either. I'd rather die than trouble him any further."

[annihilist]

The analytical part of Devin's mind wondered if Leo was an especially easy target for the exact reason he had identified earlier - that they were similar in how they treated themselves. He knew where to apply pressure.

"You'll be hearing little else if you insist on following me like some lost puppy. I am not interested in your company or your utterly naive sense of loyalty," he lied. If telling Leo to leave wouldn't work, he'd just have to drive him off. "Your idealism is a shield and nothing more."

One he regretted trying to break down, but he meant what he'd told Leo: he was, in so many ways, what his parents believed him to be. He was a monster by birth, and had learned to play the part both for vampires and for humans. Besides, he didn't deserve loyalty or companionship, and people like Leo didn't deserve to suffer the disaster Devin brought with him. Simple math.

[iseeall]

Devin could probably just see the way Leo's spirit was crushed in that moment, even just by looking at his facial expression. Devin had just said exactly what he'd been fearing the entire time when he was at Libra; that they just tolerated his existence and his attempted friendliness was just stupid.

"I..." The one good thing about having closed eyes was that it was hard to see the tears welling up. Leo had to get out of here before Devin saw anything, so he took off down a side street, certain the vampire would not follow.