asgardeventide | [video]

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[video]

[it's the small hours of day 330 when a video feed starts broadcasting on the network. it's obviously accidental, because the image is sideways, moving in long, sweeping motions, and mostly showing a wall. it's dark, but there are marks on the wall, shining lightly, wet. this goes on for about a minute, when suddenly everything goes still, then shudders.

there's a raggedly indrawn breath, and the clatter of a spray can falling to the ground. still sideways, the video feed comes up, like the person wearing the bracelet just lifted their hands to their mouth. it's still dark, but now the writing on the wall is clear enough to read]

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[because her hands are over her mouth, the words come clearly over the feed despite being a bare whisper.]

Oh, god. Not again. Please, stop. Please.

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It's not worth your life. It isn't. Don't -- Just -- where are you? Are you okay? I can come to you.

[seeing an unfamiliar face pop up is the first sophie's aware that she's broadcasting, and she makes a startled noise.]

I'm not--it's not--I didn't--

[it hasn't yet occurred to her to turn the bracelet toward herself, so all that's showing is the wall, sideways.]

Baldr.

Stay put, but keep talking to me. Okay? Just keep talking. About anything, doesn't matter. [ Buffy's already out the door and on her way. ]

[Nope. Nopenopenope way too close to losing Jade. He's not having it.]

Hey. Sophie. [It's also not that comforting when he's having his own internal demons to fight off.] Can you hear me?

[the video makes her jump, sending the image skittering, but at least draco she recognizes, and it occurs to her to turn the bracelet.]

Draco. I didn't...I don't...

[she looks terrified as she drags a hand down her face, eyes flicking between him and the message on the wall, and she shakes her head.]

I just want it to stop.

[He sighs heavily. Yeah, he wants it to stop, too (even if they're two different things.) He pinches the bridge of his nose with two fingers as though he's fighting off a tension headache, trying to remain calm.]

Where are you?

...Baldr. I'm...I'm right by the apartment.

[the words come out hollow, horrified. she's written thiazi's message all over the side of her own home.]

Don't move, all right? I'm at the shop, I'll be there soon.

Mm.

[she doesn't move. in fact, he'll find her standing exactly where she was when the video cut, still staring at the wall. all that's changed is that her arms are hanging by her sides, now, and the spray can has rolled itself into the gutter.]

[He didn't trust his powers at the moment, so he'd practically run from the apothecary to Sophie's location, slowing to a half when he finds her there. He's careful to approach as to not startle her, walking up to her side to look at the wall.]

...wow. [And that's all he says at first.]

[it's this wall, and several others, like she started at the paid housing and was just working her way down. if he's been around the hospital or the library, he might even recognize her handiwork, although the words were slightly different elsewhere. a progression, in fact.]

It keeps happening. I don't mean to sleep. I can't even...

[she's wearing the same clothes as the last time he ran into her on the street.]

I didn't realize it was this bad. [He's reading the words over, though he's moving in a little closer to her.] ...are they your words, or hers?

I don't know anymore. I hear them all the time. He can't be here, but I hear him.

[the devil, she means. draco has a unique perspective on what kind of hell that might be. there's nothing violent in her at all now, there's almost nothing in her at all. no tension, no inflection, just a soft, steady emptiness. ]

[There's absolutely no question who "he" is.] ...and what precisely is he saying?

That. Mostly. Sometimes other things, but they're things he always said.

I know it's not real. Not him, not the burning. They just won't stop.

We need a diversion, I think. Where's Connor, home?

Gone. He's been gone. In the city somewhere, but when I saw him he ran.

I think...maybe he doesn't know it isn't real.

What do you mean gone? I don't have to track him down for you, do I? [He's suddenly being a hero...this probably has to do with Jade being gone.]

[the laugh she gives is sick, humorlessness.]

Don't you dare. He could kill you, if he doesn't know.

Someone needs to not leave.

...Jade's gone, too. [It's a very quiet admission, though he's not sure if she knows or not. She has to know.] I don't plan on leaving anytime soon.

[she didn't know. the slow wash of horrified realization is the first thing that makes her actually look like herself instead of a hollow shell. she reaches out and catches his smallest finger with hers, the habitual silent permission to hold his hand.]

I can't promise to be good company.

[Odin took her away and he's pissed at Thiazi and he's upset he couldn't do anything and he's definitely not stopping Sophie. His hands hurt, but he figures he's doing her a favor.]

We can be bad company together. How about that?

[her fingers are icy cold, and she holds his hand carefully, because she remembers blood, gashes in his palms, even if she doesn't remember when that was, exactly. she's lost so much time that trying to hold onto it just seems pointless right now. her head leans against the side of his shoulder.]

It's better than being alone. And I know you're real.

[He does his best not to pull away, keeping a grip on her. He doesn't even object when her head finds his shoulder.]

We'll be fine. We should go away from the scene though...it's unnerving to look at.

[she wouldn't have blamed him, if he had. she's tainted, after all, poison, abomination. and in the more practical sense, she's disheveled, not as clean as she usually keeps, and obviously going mad.]

Mm. Where?

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