station72 | [DAY :043]

[Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Late in the evening, the pervasive thrum of Nirad's mental presence returns to Bearings. It winds higher - unwrapping, lengthening, widening: small flashes of silver, memories like the scales of so many fish glimpsed through the lapping water of some distance, unfamiliar water. A wet street reflects the glow of neon signs above it; a doorway, rain drizzling off the landing above it; a stream of traffic glittering through the half light--]

( Hi. We're back from following that Ahtaliah Ven guy. Aoba's head is hurting him so he's going to take a break I think but I guess I can tell you what we saw? )

[He doesn't sound hesitant so much as he does distracted.]

( Honestly I didn't see anything very interesting, but maybe it was a bad day for him? Maybe you can't be a bad guy every day of the week, right? Anyway, he worked pretty late then me and Aoba followed his car to a place where he got dinner. It's a nice car. He met with someone there. A lady. A friend, I think, but I don't really know. Maybe we should have followed her instead though because after they had dinner, Ven went home. So we have his address and how to get access to his building and I know which apartment he lives in and if we wanted to get in it seems like it might be pretty easy because he spends so much time at work, you know? I'm sure he's got some super high tech security at home but it's not like he owns the building so it's probably just inside his penthouse or whatever. Uh. Yeah. )

[BUZZZZZZZZZZZZ.]

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[Things happen quickly between minds and there's a piece of him, a broad stretch of him, that finds this attention-- pleasant. This is the loudest it's been in his head and the cacophony of it is exhilarating. He doesn't like parties, not the kind that Concordians like the throw, but he imagines for a moment that if those things meant anything to him then maybe this is what it'd feel like: every mind open in his general direction, just waiting for him to widen the channels between them.

For a second or two he's staggered by it. Nirad can taste his pulse thumping, rattling in time to the rise and fall of Aoba's mental activity beside him, to the trashing sensation of Shiro, to Bellamy slicing between two points like a blunt knife, to the Darkling who reaches somewhere deep and low like a hand sinking down through black water. Fingers pressing down to some muddy sea bed--]

[ Controlling Shiro's rage is a Herculean task. Bellamy's head feels like it's in a vice, pain stabbing at his temples while he attempts to keep his arms locked around Shiro's chest. It's not going to hold out forever. A desperate, wordless plea flickers to the Darkling just before he and Shiro bounce off the wall together.

They're just grappling. Bellamy's hands come apart as they stagger, and he latches onto Shiro's shirt as they collide with the edge of the bed frame. Pain bursts in counterpoint to the phantom migraine. Bellamy catalogs the pain and dismisses it as his fingers twist hard in the fabric of Shiro's shirt as he tries to get leverage. There's no finesse involved in this. Bellamy's just trying to cling to Shiro any way he can, red-faced and panting and incredulous at both Shiro's physical strength and the force of his rage. ]

( Stop! Stop it and listen to me! ) [ The pitch of Bellamy's thoughts is escalating; if he were speaking aloud he'd be bellowing, raw-throated. ] ( You're going to hurt yourself! )

[ Or someone else. Some part of the Nest. The flash of yellow eyes catches in Bellamy's mind, and he doesn't know what it is, but he's afraid of what happens if Shiro manages to claw his way out the door. All the rug burn and bruises are worth keeping this from turning into an out and out brawl. ]

[ i was almost surprised that missy had strangulation icons but reminded myself what aoba's canon is all abt so.

bellamy - grappling with an enraged member of their brood, pleading. he concedes to it, like a cat that's been arching its back away from stray hands. his own hands, dark and menacing, wind around aoba's throat. the bright blue of his mind, the needle-sharp stabbing of his desires. were aoba in any better shape, this fight might go south, and fast. nirad buzzes along (shut up nirad). aoba hums pleasure and pain. bellamy pleads. shiro snarls. so much noise, none of it organized.

he attempts to smother aoba into submission. clinical and remote - and back to bellamy, he reassures. more hands, everything is hands (hands that strangle, hands that console) - his physical body caught in the mental struggle going on, he's still in the hallway. feet unable to move in one direction or the other, unless he can knock aoba out (nirad SHUT UP, and attend to your yaois). eventually, he can move. slipping through the hall until he crashes into the midst of the struggle between shiro and bellamy, filling the doorway with

a mind

full of ice and knives ] Stand down, [ he adds his real voice, a whip, to the soundless struggle. a military voice, versed in command and used to being obeyed.

if it doesn't work, he's fully prepared to lunge at shiro too (and in the distance, his mind is still wrapped tight around aoba's throat - how u like that breathplay kink boyo) ]

[He just wants to fight. That yellow-eyed face is still out there. He hasn't taken it out yet. It could still threaten them all. He has to do something about it, doesn't he? It came for him, he has to deal with it, he has to fight it. In his mind, there's just fight.]

[Outwardly, he's breathing like he's been running a marathon. No recognition in his face, or anything even remotely rational. Arms and legs shaking while he grapples with Bellamy -- can't Bellamy see he's doing what he has to? Why is he being restrained? Rolling into furniture and walls. Uncaring of any sort of minor injury. Uncaring of the lingering feeling of pain in his head.]

[No, he needs to get free.]

[And he will do whatever he has to. Including trying to headbutt his broodmate.]

[You're going to hurt yourself! - no that doesn't matter. Why would that matter? His well-being hasn't ever mattered since ... since a long time. That's all he knows, all he cares about right now. Getting free and ending this is infinitely more important.]

[He honestly looks prepared to bite the restraining hands before cold and sharp and another mind appears, and his head whips around, face already twisted in a defiant sneer that isn't anything like himself.]

[But this animal in his brain is, if nothing else, operating on instinct. And his instincts scream to listen to that tone. If only for a moment. In that moment he goes still, suddenly, abruptly -- still tense and angry and raging and... and so tired.]

[Maybe it was the combination of time and distraction, or of energy expended against the man holding him. Who knows? The wall of anger and defiance and noise suddenly goes quiet at the same time Shiro's face abruptly goes slack. Along with the rest of him.]

[... sorry about the sudden dead weight there, Bellamy bro.]

[ The coil around his throat isn't real, but if he allows himself to go along with it, he can practically feel it. Cold and tight, and it makes him cough and exhale with a shudder. Though where more minds open to him, one closes. He can feel Bellamy struggling, but he stops to glance in the direction of his bright gaze. The Darkling is preoccupying himself with brood, gripping him still but growing distracted, and Nirad, whom he always welcomes inside, lazes beside him. But the one he was primarily interested in, he feels fade to an unwilling sleep. Shiro's rage is snuffed out as quickly as it was ignited.

How disappointing. He was hoping to feel Bellamy ripped to shreds, and looking forward to the same for himself. So anticlimactic - Shiro would need to develop better stamina. ]

Tch.

[ He hisses quietly where he lies, exhales again, and rolls over to press himself against Nirad. The grip the Darkling has over him is sharply severed as he shuts his mind down similarly, pulling away as he gives himself up to sleep. The yellow eyes close, and only then does the pain and the nightmare

cease. ]

[DAY :043]

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hi nirad

throws this tag into the garbage

wooooooooowwww

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