[open] coping mechanisms

[shacklebreaker]

Who: Simon Blackquill (shacklebreaker), Taka, and you!
When: 21st December/early hours of 22nd
Where: Various
What: The Twisted Samurai spends the day alone for some personal reflection.
Rating/Warning: AA5 spoilers. Mentions of death/implied suicide. Drankin.

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i. AFTERNOON - CERES GARDENS

[Blackquill's brought his hawk to the gardens to give him some exercise. At the moment he's throwing scraps of meat for Taka to snatch out of midair, making the bird work for his food. If Taka catches it successfully -- which he does without fail, every time -- the hawk is whistled back and rewarded with another treat.

It's not a training session, but rather, a way to get Taka to stretch his wings. The hawk is already well-trained enough that Blackquill doesn't even need a hood or jesses for his bird. The last thing he's interested in is tying his faithful companion down when Taka can fly free, and it gives him a calming sense of peace to watch him soar and dive through the air.

Once Taka has eaten his fill, Blackquill can be found strolling through the gardens. His hawk is hidden in the trees, although anyone observant might notice the bird never strays too far away.]

ii. LATE EVENING THROUGH TO 1AM - NOVUS/REPLEA

[Given today's date, there's morbid appropriateness in stowing away for the evening in what the locals knew as the 'entrance to the underworld'. The bar might be considered seedy to some, filled with criminals and rebel activity as it was, but after seven years on death row, Blackquill is more comfortable with this brand of drinking company than anything else.

Not that he's interested in socialising. He's too wrapped up in his own thoughts for that, nursing a drink at the bar and trying to numb the dull pain that has hung over him all day.

He'd spent seven years in a cell. Seven years, waiting for his own willing demise. For seven years of sleepless nights, confinement and isolation, the past replaying over and over in his mind, he'd marched, slowly but resolutely, towards the end.

Then, at the very last moment, she'd reached out and snatched him from the jaws of death.

Were all those years worth it? Yes, if it was to serve the one more important to him than life itself. But now after all that pain, here they were, in Cerealia. Their world had been destroyed, and they owed their existences here to data. The more he thinks about it, the more he feels he'd failed her. And that her struggles, too, had been for nothing...

But such thoughts are enough to drive a man to madness. Better not to think on it. He downs the last of his beer, and slams down a hand on the bartop for another.

Tonight is going to be a long night.]

iii. EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING - APARTMENTS

[It's almost 2am when Blackquill returns to the apartment complex. He'd hoped to slip in unnoticed, but as he fumbles to find his room key, the plastic snowman Athena had put outside her room a few days prior bursts into song. Yet again.]

Curse you, you noisy thing-- [He mutters under his breath, rifling through his pockets with more urgency. He'll try and get into his room before anyone on the floor is woken up...]

Comments

[shacklebreaker]

He wouldn't happen to be related to the rabid ducks discovered roaming the park, would he?

[He produces his Cerevice, showing Archer REAL LIFE PHOTO EVIDENCE of a wild Gilduck.]

[swordboning]

[Part of him wishes he had never come into existence now. Thanks, Simon.]

I'm not going to put anything beneath that man.

[shacklebreaker]

[you're welcome bruh]

So we have a lady with a frightening stare, and an angry rich fellow with a striking resemblance to a species of duck. [Also with the name of a legendary hero, but he doesn't bring that up. Archer might get the wrong idea and think he actually believes that whole heroic spirit thing.] Anyone else?

[swordboning]

Those are the obvious ones to me. But I'm biased because I knew them both before showing up here. I'll let you know if I find anyone else.

[shacklebreaker]

Very well. And I shall do the same for you, if I discover anyone in the meantime.

[He would want to know about any potential threats to his Master, after all.]

[swordboning]

That sounds like a fair deal.

[shacklebreaker]

Cooperation is only the most sensible thing to do. If the authorities here have no interest in protecting us from whatever madmen they dredge up, then we can only watch our own backs.