deercountry | october catch-all [ota]

Entry tags:

october catch-all [ota]

Who: Clarisse + anyone!
What: October catch-all
When: Throughout the month
Where: Two prompts that are out in town + one for just the house

Content Warnings: Just The Depression™

01 | loneliness kills [ota]

[ At first, Clarisse thinks she's hallucinating. It seems like the natural progression to whatever's been happening to her head since she came to Trench. First the unbearable tense energy, and then the onset of migraines and the whispy white figures she can sometimes catch in the corner of her vision, and now... walking corpses. Sure, makes sense. Except the corpse doesn't go away. It walks steadily behind whoever's approaching her, glassy eyed and silent.

The corpse doesn't seem violent, which is the only thing that keeps her from attacking it, but her entire body tenses up like a cat waiting to pounce, and she's staring at whoever is making their way toward her. Or, more accurately, she's staring at the dead thing behind whoever is making their way toward her. ]

You... there's... [ Finally, lacking the right words to explain what she's seeing, she resorts to pointing a finger. ] Dead person.

02 | ~~welcome to the black parade~~ [ota]

[ Even misanthropic migraine sufferers need to leave the house every once in a while.

Clarisse is standing near the shop window of Shape of Blood, where she's been ogling a set of knives, and trying to avoid taking a strange mask in the shape of a monster's face from a native. They've clearly just explained something to her, because she's shaking her head. ]

I don't need protection. Ugh—seriously, I don't—back off!

[ Looks like someone isn't planning on showing up for the parade this month. ]

03 [closed to housemates]

[ Clarisse is lying on the couch, curled up and facing inward, her back to the room. At first she might seem to be asleep, but if someone enters the room, she twists the slightest bit so she can see who's there, before turning back to press her pale face against the cushion.

Her head hurts, all the time. Last month, Luna's potions had eased some of her restless energy, and talking with Bella had helped her feel less crazy, but it's abundantly clear that things have gotten much worse with the onset of October. The pounding behind her eyes, the crushing loneliness of everyone around her. She's suffocating under the weight of it. All she wants to do is sleep and forget about this place, but even when she sleeps, she has a headache. Even in other people's dreams, she's sad.

After a few seconds, when she doesn't hear the person exit the room, Clarisse's shoulders tense. She doesn't lift her face from the cushion, and her voice is muffled when she says, sounding almost defensive, ] What?

04 | wildcard!

[ Wildcard option! Feel free to have your character show up at the house looking for Clarisse (or anyone she lives with, if you'd like her to just be the one to answer the door or something). She'll be pretty much AWOL aside from some very rare appearances this month, but this is one way to catch her. ]

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[Stiles is trying to get a good lay of the land, memorize all the streets and locations and landmarks. Which is extremely hard when there's no street signs for most of them. It's a practical and strategic thing, but also a good distraction from the absolutely bonkers place he's landed himself in and hadn't yet figured out how to cone to terms with.

He's a bit too distracted trying to visually imprint everything around himself to notice there's anything strange about the person behind him. Then the young woman ahead points it out and he turns to see-]

AHHHH! [Cue Stiles leaping backwards towards Clarisse somewhat like scooby doo getting into Shaggy's arms, though not all the way. He's used to Scott being near him when stuff like this happens and he always grabs on to his best bro like he's an anchor. You get to be subjected to that now.]

[ To her credit, Clarisse doesn't flinch when Stiles practically grabs onto her in a panic. She has no clue what's going on, but she's used to keeping her cool in weird situations. Besides, the corpse version of the guy next to her doesn't seem to be attacking them. Or doing anything, really, besides following him. ]

Okay, so I take it you don't know why this is happening either.

[ She's gonna do the dumbest thing ever and try talking to the zombie. ]

Hey, hello? You in there?

[Stiles lets go of her a second later and tries to play it off cool by running his fingers through his hair. But it's a shaky movement because yeah, it's not every day you're faced with a corpse version of yourself. Also, he hasn't had his medication since he got here.]

Yeah, you think? [Then he squints at the corpse Stiles suspiciously.] Hold on, there's only one other guy with my face in this town, and he's a big enough dick to throw on the thriller make-up and follow me around… I think. Probably.

[He heads over to his corpse self and starts snapping his fingers in its face.] Hey, replicant. I can keep this up all day.

Wait, wait. [ Clarisse holds up a hand, like doing so is going to stop the zombie from attacking them if that's what it wants to do. But... there's a couple things to unpack here! ] Replicant? Like Blade Runner?

[ But now that he mentions it, she thinks she remembers seeing a guy who looks very similar on the network. This corpse version is... super realistic, though. Like she doesn't think this is makeup. ]

[Stiles looks over his shoulder at her as he keeps snapping his fingers in the corpse's face.] No, like the early 2000s classic movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme that literally nobody remembers.

[He lets out a breath and stops snapping, stepping back and placing his hand on his hip while the other runs through his hair roughly.] Replicant is just something I call my evil twin to piss him off. But I'm pretty sure even he woulda dropped the act by now.

You're right. I don't.

[ But 2001 was right around the time things started getting bad for her with monster attacks, and it's not like she was going to the movies much. Or... at all. Replicant, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, must have hit theaters and then left them without making a blip on her radar. ]

Okay, so... what are we gonna do with him. [ The dead guy, obviously. Clarisse normally wouldn't be so quick to involve herself in a total stranger's weird corpse problem, but it's been a while since she ran into a problem she could potentially solve, and she's kind of jumping at the chance to figure this out. So it's "we" now. ]

Edited 2021-10-21 01:45 (UTC)

[His sarcasm is sometimes lost on others, or maybe he's just lost his touch since coming here, either way Clarisse was right the first time and he was being a sarcastic ass. But either way they have more pressing concerns here, like the corpse twin of himself standing right there, so he leaves it be.]

Well, he hasn't tried to eat us yet, so probably not a zombie. But we could shoot him in the head just to be sure.

[ Well, also Clarisse kind of sucks at being social with most people, so really, who can say?? ]

You carrying? [ She gives him a once over and smirks knowingly. If he has a gun on him, she's about to feel like a real asshole. ] Wanna borrow my knife instead?

[At that question he looks over at her like she's just suggested he should walk down the streets of NYC dressed like a soldier with a rocket launcher on his back.] No I'm not carrying, where would I be hiding it? My jeans? Do I look like a guy who'd have a gun shoved in his pants? No, because I'm not an idiot.

[Can you tell he's stressed? At this point it's pretty obvious, but he makes himself take a breath and let it out.] ...do knives work on zombies?

[ Look. Listen. Clarisse has walked down the streets of NYC dressed like an (ancient Greek) soldier with an electric spear strapped to her back. That seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do! ]

Man, what crawled up your butt? I'm just trying to help, [ she snaps, not helpfully. ] I've never done this before.

[ Shit. She kind of wishes Nico were still here? He'd know how to deal with this... this very specific problem. ]

I can try un-summoning it, [ she suggests finally, though she doubts it will work. It's not like she summoned it in the first place. ]

[One day Stiles would love hearing all about that. Right now, he's letting out a slow steadying breath and shaking his head.]

Sorry, I know, shit. It's just- I saw this happen to a guy I know, only the zombie wasn't him, it as just someone he knew. And I've got no idea what it means that it's me, you know? Like, is it trying to warn me about something in my future? About myself? Should I be having a full on existential crisis right now?

[As he's talking, he gesticulates animatedly with his hands at the docile zombie version of him. Then the last thing she said catches up to him.] … Wait, what do you mean "un-summon it"?

[ Clarisse listens to him ramble without much reaction. Those are all pretty valid reasons to be freaked out. And honestly, this place being what it is, the implication behind the corpse could be anything. ]

Yeah, hold on, I'll try it. [ She still doesn't think it'll work, but it's worth a shot. Clarisse takes a step closer to the corpse, holds out her hand, and switches from English to ancient Greek. ] I, Clarisse, daughter of Ares, order you to return to the Underworld.

[ ... He doesn't, though. It totally makes sense; he isn't one of her dead soldiers, he probably owes nothing to Ares, and for all she knows this isn't even an actual corpse but just some kind of manifestation of something else. Still. It's a bummer. ]

Damn.

[He steps away from the corpse to let her work, and watches with his hand aggressively covering his mouth. He has a lot of nervous energy and that's his ay of containing it.

And then it doesn't work and he moves his hand to his hip as he lets out a shuddered breath.] … "daughter of Ares"?

[Yes, there is skepticism there. He may or may not be thinking it didn't work because it was total bullshit. But he's open to it not being bullshit too. He's a detective, a healthy balance of cynicism and faith is what he runs on.]

The one and only.

[ It's a joke, because Ares has so many kids, get it? Get it? Anyway.

Clarisse takes a step back and offers Stiles an almost apologetic shrug. ] This guy isn't one of mine, so he won't follow my orders. It was worth a try. [ Now they're just throwing stuff at the walls to see what sticks. Next she figures they'll try killing it the good old-fashioned way. ]

[He just sort of watches her apologetic shrug and easy response like she's ignoring a big loud noise all around them and how can she just dismiss that and act like it's normal??]

…Right, sorry, I'm still stuck on the whole Greek God thing.

[He gesticulates with his hands wildly as he says that, looking at her with a frustrated desperation for answers.]

Are you really just gonna gloss over that like it's a regular corpse banishing Tuesday?

No, [ Clarisse says, then adds with a sigh, ] Okay, maybe.

[ It's kind of awkward, right? There isn't a good way to tell someone your dad is a Greek god. That kind of reveal is always going to seem out of place. Even here, with a corpse hanging around. ]

Just thought we should get rid of this guy first.

[Stiles glances over at his dead doppelgänger and lets out a huff.] Okay, fair point. But I'm getting the feeling the answer to that's probably not out here on the street.

[He rubs the side of his neck to try and ease his discomfort.] Unless you got any other ideas, the archives seem like the best bet.

[ Clarisse gives him an odd look. Oh, right, the archives. The archives full of books. The books full of words. ]

What, like doing research? [ She feels so tired already, and she hasn't even tried to wrap her brain around whatever nonsense is waiting for her in that library. ]

[Stiles just looks at her for a second, gathering pretty easily because he's observant like that, that she's not into that.]

Let me guess, you'd rather keep throwing stuff at my zombie clone's face until something sticks.

[ She rolls her eyes. Sure, she could just tell him she's dyslexic and doesn't want to be embarrassed, but in this house we keep our vulnerabilities to ourselves. ]

Hey, if you want to go waste time looking at books with your buddy there, be my guest. When you want him skewered with an electric spear, you can come find me.

[Stiles squints at that reaction, and then her words catch up with him a second later. He looks to his double, then to her, then to his double and back to her as a feeling of dread starts to fill him.]

Wait, you're just gonna leave me here with it??

I'm not leaving you here. You are leaving to go to the library.

[ If Stiles feels kind of like he's arguing with a giant five year old, welllll... Clarisse can be like that. ]

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october catch-all [ota]

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