worthallthis | IC Inbox: In the Night

This is sounding weirder and weirder. Is it not a shapechange? Will Sora actually turn into a dog, or just act like one? Soldat nods hesitantly. "Is there anything I can do to help? If it hurts."

Hm! They'll find out real soon! Sora just smiles. "Maybe just. Try not to worry? Not that that'll put you in any danger. It's just so I feel better."

Sora looks back. There's about a twenty foot radius where the light is pretty bright, then it peters off sharply into the gloom. He'll start heading toward that radius and turn his back toward the darkness, facing the soldier. Okay.

"So, I'll keep you updated as long as I can. Just, you know, I'll say if things are still okay until I go under. I'll stop if something really not right happens, promise. The longest I've ever been transformed was like, less than a half hour? So." He nods. Last chance. "Any questions?"

"No. Just get it over with," Soldat says, pretty clearly more nervy than annoyed. "So I can stop worrying and just see what happens." All this lead-up is just making the potential event itself seem worse. God, they really hope this isn't going to be actual!Sora acting like a dog, rather than an actual shapechange. That just sounds fucked up.

Oh, good, he's sold it. Sora flicks up a thumb and, without much further ado, begins to walk backward out of the little circle of light. The flame in his lantern gutters a little, and he feels a little ill, but that's a normal lantern separation thing. He nods, takes a few more steps.

On step three, his foot lifts away from the snow, and there's black smoke rising from the footprint. Sora looks up at Soldat and nods. Fine. That's normal.

Another step. He begins to shiver. The light in his lantern dims even further, and black mist starts seeping from the ground right behind him. "I'm okay," Sora manages. His hands are shaking, his eyes are fluttering shut. His head tilts to the side as though he's suddenly lost equilibrium.

Another step. The shivering has rapidly progressed to a shake, his hands contorted and moving involuntarily. "Th-This is what happens, it's fine," he says, but it's slower, as though he's trying to pull his mouth into the right shapes. On the last word, a tendril of black smoke escapes his mouth.

The snow has disappeared under a slick pool of swirling darkness. "It's fine, it's fine," he repeats, teeth clacking, mouthfuls of darkness escaping and curling around his face. "It's fine, it-"

He stumbles as though he's missed a step off a sheer cliff, falls backward and disappears into the ground.

Then something very fast pulls itself from the pool and launches up to land in a nearby tree.

It's just a cluster of darkness on this branch from this far away from the lanterns, but Soldat will at the very least see two lantern yellow dots somewhere in the tendrils of smoke. Red rimmed, perfectly round, side by side. They sway a little, like the movements of a bird of prey. They do not blink.

That is horrible to watch. Soldat bites back demands that Sora come back right now, fist up both hands to remind themselves to stand the fuck still and let Sora do this. It is not fine. It is awful. Sora is in pain and they can't do anything to help.

Seeing him literally disappear does make them twitch that direction, take a couple steps, but before they can even get out of the circle of lantern light, there's... something? There? "Kid?" they call over, clearly anxious.

The two little lights pop up at the sound of the name, and that should almost be familiar, except perhaps with a slightly more animal edge. Yes, that's the little pop Sora does whenever he's caught in a moment of doglike interest.

The two little globes pause, then swing out of the tree onto the floor, or at least they make it halfway. Now that the initial darkness of the transformation has dissipated into the air, it should be more obvious that some black silhouette is hanging from the tree, upside down, wisps of darkness floating away from it, back arched like a monkey as it continues to stare in Soldat's direction. Its foot is hooked around the branch in a way that should be impossible, as though the darkness has decided to merge his heel with the wood so he can hang, arms curled and hands loose, staring at the soldier. It tilts its head at them. It knows that name.

The spiky haired silhouette should be obvious by now. It's even wearing his clothes. It's as though he's been dumped in ink, but it's clearly him. It may be a bit too dark to pick out his face, but it's there like a mask, eyes replaced with yellow spotlights, unblinking.

It seems to hang there for a moment, perfectly still, and it seems like it could hang there forever. But its head turns sharply in another direction. If it's quiet enough out and the Soldier's hearing is good, they can probably hear it sniff the air. It cranes in that one particular direction, arms reaching out and grasping, almost as though it can take hold of whatever scent it's caught and pull it in its direction.

In the next moment, it disappears out of the tree in a puff of darkness. It reappears in the direction it was looking on the snow, on the ground and on all fours, but it almost immediately rears back, and if things were eerie but relatively calm before, the way it digs a hand into its black hair and smashes its head into a nearby tree trunk is a different matter.

It repeats this once, then twice, leaving cracking indentations in the wood, then starts ramming its head into the ground, launching itself drunkenly away from that direction. It smashes into more trees, eyes still perfectly round and staring. The smoky tendrils billow out and start multiplying. Sora is silent through all of this, even as he throws himself against another tree, leaves and branches shuddering and falling to the ground. His hands and feet claw into the ground as he moves between the trees, leaving deep trenches in the snow, deep enough to dig up the soil underneath. This may probably look like some sort of tantrum. This was almost certainly not what Sora had warned the soldier about at all.

It looks bad, is what it looks. Soldat plucks up Sora's lantern, not wanting to leave it behind, and moves to follow, maybe even catch up. They don't look or sound any less anxious than they were a second ago-- probably, actually, it's more. "No, no. Kid. Hey. Hey. Don't hurt yourself, it's okay."

At the sound of the name, to the rhythm of the admonishments, Sora's body seems to fling itself heedlessly at them, hands in claws rending into tree trunks, scrambling like an animal with a leg in a bear trap in the initial throes of panic. However, if the soldier gets within distance of the darkness engulfing Sora's body, the mass will will bend around them, creating a more or less clear path. Will they get hit with the occasional tendril? Sure, but it won't hurt. (Or if it does, it only feels a bit like razor wire stroked gently across the skin.) If anything, it just feels cold, silky. Tenuous. Not exactly afraid, but definitely lost. Uncertainty in physical form. Like there's nothing else but this. Like there was an exit, but it's gone now. Like that moment right before waking where you don't remember who or where you are or what will happen next.

Anyway, Sora will continue to lunge in their direction if they keep talking. However! If they happen to get within clawing distance, it'll throw itself at them, but disappear in another puff of smoke before it makes contact, reappearing at a safer distance nearby. It doesn't seem to be breathing in any sort of physical exertion, and those eyes still do not blink, but it's shaking with the strain of... something. Of moving, maybe.

Getting closer with the lantern doesn't appear to be working to change him back. The light within the lantern will get a bit stronger as they get closer, but that's the only change. At least it doesn't seem to be particularly afraid of nor attracted to either lantern. It seems more interested in Soldat's voice and whatever it can find to smash itself against next.

It's easy to tell that when they stop talking, the banging of heads on trees picks up, so Soldat attempts to keep it up. Even if it's mindless repetitions of, "It's okay. It's okay, kid. We'll figure it out. It's okay." The slivers of darkness don't really bother them-- they don't hurt, and they've got a metal arm anyway, just in case.

And then there's lunging. Soldat flinches back automatically, arm coming up with a mechanical whir in preparation of launching Sora back off him if need be, except then they've suddenly lost track of him. They whirl, looking for the glow of eyes, a stare at Sora's whatever-this-is. "Kid. The fuck are you doing," they say more than ask, baffled and worried and frustratingly full of useless adrenaline now.

Sora’s head will swing around at their bewilderment, tilting gently. Despite the wild abandon with which it’s tried to splatter itself on everything, there is no strain on its face or in its breathing or, at the moment, even in its body language. Despite the very unnatural movements, the predator-like gait and the way its head swings around and shudders like a bird of prey, it’s all very smooth. Almost serene. Like things are supposed to be this way.

Well, its head whips in the direction where the Problem exists and it throws its hands into the ground and lashes dirt and snow everywhere, but that little moment was nice.

Still, there is eventually a breaking point. If the soldier consistently addresses Sora, it will eventually dig a hand deep into a fallen tree - just slam it in there - and it will not move from there, even if, bewilderingly, it will continue to struggle to move as though it doesn’t remember that it's now trapped and has completely forgotten it can teleport out. Again, there’s snow and darkness flying everywhere, but the darkness will always bend right around or roll harmlessly off the soldier. (They may not be so lucky with regards to the snow.)

It doesn’t seem to be tired, but it’s very much still trying to escape its self-imposed hand trap. Ridiculous. Any thoughts, Soldat? Sora seems to have trapped himself here for a reason.

Snow doesn't hurt, it's just mildly annoying, so. Soldat ignores the snow. They creep closer, approaching with the lantern in hand, trying to make soothing noises. "S'okay. It's okay, you're fine. Just calm down. We'll get you back. Somehow."

What can they do to get him back? What can they do that they can do? Ruffle his hair? Use his actual name? Throw snow at him, back?

"Talk to me, kid. Or. Communicate somehow. Can you do that?"

Sora will turn to the soldier's voice, unblinking. It'll turn away a couple of times, as though to check in That Direction, but having them close seems to be distracting it sufficiently, even if it doesn't appear to be doing much of anything else.

It shivers, but its breathing doesn't appear to go with it. Apparently, it just moves like that. And then it'll... sniff in their direction. At them, and then at their lantern, and then back at them. It doesn't seem to be doing this in reaction to what they're asking Sora to do - it actually just seems like it's being distracted between something very interesting and something almost as interesting. Hmmm.

It's been a few minutes now. Perhaps five. It sits back on its haunches, rattling its hand uselessly within the hollow treetrunk. And that's a pretty hefty rattle, actually... almost as though there's something else inside. Well. You have its attention now, at least. Any minute now, right? Any minute... now....

The adrenaline spike calming enough that it doesn't seem like a touch would result in violence, Soldat holds out the flesh hand, aiming to smooth down the shadowy spikes of Sora's hair. Or what they presume is his hair. "That's it. You're fine. Nice an' calm. I've gotcha."

Sora doesn't appear to notice the petting at first, and nothing changes? It's more like as the soldier's adrenaline dies, the miasma of darkness surrounding Sora melts away, disappearing into the darkness of Beacon or sliding back into Sora, soaking up his feet and into his skin. And as that happens, Sora stops trying to get his hand out of the trunk. No change in expression whatsoever, still on its haunches, other hand limp on the ground. It's not like there's a tail or anything for it to express emotion. (If it has any?) The little tendrils drifting off of him are just that - tendrils. About as expressive as smoke from a fireplace.

Nah. All that happens is that its head starts bumping into Soldat's hand. Is there actual communication happening here? Who knows! That seems to be a thing it's chasing, though. Congrats, Soldat, you've reached dog mode. Things seem fine now! Or as fine as they could be. This will wear off soon, in any case.

Dog mode is better than hurling himself at things and banging his head on things. Soldat keeps up the hair-petting, assuming this is supposed to be normal? The curls of darkness and the lack of communication make the whole thing seem surreal and alien, and actually kind of depressing. There's nothing they can do, Sora doesn't seem to understand anything they're saying, and even the stroking doesn't seem to be doing much.

"Kid," they say wearily, "You're kinda making me nervous. How much longer is this supposed to last."

Congrats, it's been like ten minutes, so now-ish is about the answer! Sora will suddenly pause, then shake his head, pulling away from their hand, and the shake sprays motes of darkness into the air around them. He shivers one last time, darkness wafting off him like a lid lifted from a boiling pot of water...

- and it all drains into the floor, puffs right into the air, and Sora looks... okay. He rolls from his animal squat and sits on his butt hard, his hand slipping from the hole in the tree trunk. He coughs, and a tiny wisp of darkness escapes him, but besides that and maybe the slightest hint of a bruise on his face next to a split lip, he seems to be okay.

"Okay, before you say anything," he says, putting the palm of his hand to his nose and pulling it away to check for blood, "that sort of wasn't fine, but it wasn't your fault, it was mine and I'm sorry." He blinks. Okay, maybe a tiny nosebleed. "What happened, exactly?"

"Yes. That clearly wasn't fine. You were hitting yourself against trees," Soldat says. Almost exclaims. For their general subtle tone, that definitely counts as an exclamation. "And you shoved your hand into that one. Kid. What had you so riled up? It's like there was something out there. That upset you."

A wince. Yep. Uh, yep! Definitely deserved that! He rubs his hand against the snow, looking at the hold in the tree trunk, then casts Cure on himself, glowing green and plants sealing up his lip and melting the bruise away. See? Nothing happened.

He coughs again, and the darkness that comes out is really just a little baby mist this time. Okay, there. That's the last of it. (He hopes.) "That doesn't usually. Happen?" Sora pauses, thinks back. Man, it's so hard picking through his memories in Rage form. It doesn't think in words. It doesn't think. "I, uh. Wasn't." He's about to say he wasn't upset, but that's not true, obviously.

"I was just sadder than I thought I was. I think." He shakes his head. "I'm sorry, the last time that happened, it was a lantern thing, and I could still sort of. Steer. Steer isn't the right word, um." He looks at the snow. "I usually don't need to steer. That... I don't. Think that'll happen again." He looks extremely unsure about this.

"We're going to try and keep it from happening again," Soldat says firmly. "You can't communicate. You don't understand when people communicate with you. And you hurt yourself. Not good things. So keep your lantern close to you, okay?" They offer it back to him specifically. Pointedly, even.

Okay. So here's where the willfulness comes in! Because Sora's first reaction is to tell them no, that they can't tell him what to do, that it's his fault he's like this and that he can fix it because even he can't figure out how to explain what happened with his words he knows in his heart what happened and that he can make sure that that doesn't happen again -

And he actually gets that "No" out before he realizes that even if he fixes that one thing, that doesn't fix any of the problems Soldat pulled out. He can't communicate. He doesn't understand when people communicate with him. And even if he does everything perfectly and the form does come out exactly as intended... In order to fight things, the form does need to continue hurting itself. Not in the way the soldier's thinking, perhaps - Sora remembers enough to know that it didn't pull that particular trick out of its pocket - but there is definitely a part of the form that does hurt itself in order to do what it does. And Sora doesn't have any control over whether it decides to use it or not.

He takes that lantern back, but man, this is a really deflating sort of moment. And honestly? He's kind of pissed. Like, with tears in his eyes because he's Sora, but he's still furious in a way that Soldat probably hasn't seen out of him before. This isn't the playful puffing he usually does when he knows he's supposed to play a part. This is just really useless anger. "It won't hurt anyone." That's the one certain thing he is stubbornly holding onto.

Edited 2020-03-15 03:20 (UTC)

Apparently Sora has built up enough trust that Soldat can face an angry Sora and not shut down. It's a near thing, and there's a visible little tremor and ripple of arm plates, a dropping of expression, but they keep their head from dropping and tone from going blank.

Especially because that's a lie. Maybe Sora doesn't think it matters, but there's still someone getting hurt here, as evidenced by the need for a cure spell. "It hurts you," they point out. Slow and careful, but not entirely flat. "If there's better. Easier. Safer ways to do things. Should do those, not this."

Sora doesn't notice those plates go off, but the stilted way of talking catches his attention, makes the blood drain from his head a little. Just a little. It's enough to make him bite back the next thing he says and rethink it a little. Probably not enough.

"It's better than me." Even if he hadn't remembered it from his first life, Helene told him plenty about what he did with it in the second. He looks down at his hand, at the odd knot of scar tissue on his right thumb. Skyler misses her too.

"It's a way better fighter than I am. It doesn't think enough to get scared or anything. It's my heart, okay? It's a little lost, but it wants the same things I do." He drops his hand into his other and grasps them together, locking his fingers. No sleeve picking. "If I start like - panicking, if I break." It's fast. An emergency switch. It's a way to make him worth something, even if his heart rebels so hard that he shuts down.

So Sora's heart wants to hurt itself? Destroy trees? Launch itself at Soldat, but then disappear? If that's really true, then Sora's heart has as many problems as Soldat's brain.

Soldat hesitates a beat, then steps closer just once, carefully putting the metal hand on Sora's chest. "Your heart is right here. And it's fine." The touch only lasts long enough to say that before falling away. But it seemed like the kind of statement that needed it.

Their expression is sober, but it's actually an expression again, when they say, "Kid, I've tried being the mindless, fearless, attacking thing before. It really ain't worth it, I promise."

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