blooded | MENTAL LINK ❰ ɪɴʙᴏx ❱

( Hey, new guy. )

[Shepard is nothing if not direct. She doesn't like coincidences, and she doesn't like bothering people when they're disoriented-- well, no, that's not true.

Still, just woke up and not enjoying it isn't the best of all times to make friends, if friendship could be called the goal.]

( You got a minute to talk? )

( elena has only actively chosen to use the mental link to communicate a handful of times since arriving. mostly it just makes her feel uncomfortable, if she's being totally honest, and she's never missed the simplicity of a phone call as much as she does now. she could track damon, the way he had with her, but she can't quite decide which feels weirder at the moment. is it more bizarre to follow someone's mental footprint through your hive of a space station home, or to literally speak to them in your head?

in the end the pseudo stalking wins out. she's not trying to mask her approach, but even if elena was making an effort she'd likely be all too obvious anyway. she's wary of the work being put into this particular skill now, conscious of the cost that could occur. lexa's warning is ever-present in the back of her mind now: Is that what you want?

there are a great many things that elena will sacrifice for the greater good, but she's not sure if she wants her entire sense of self to be one of them.

elena doesn't have to focus too much to be able to follow the distinct signature of damon, a shade different from everyone else around them. he's easily the person that she's had the most contact with since being here, bizarre as it still might feel he's the closest she's been with anyone. it's relatively easy to narrow it down once she's close enough, and by the time elena catches up with him they're in the rec room.

it's pretty immediately clear that she's here to talk serious. )

It's later.

( really, she thinks she's been very patient. there's so much eating her up about the kind of information that damon could be withholding, it's a wonder that she hasn't exploded. or that her brood haven't gone insane. she'll have to apologise for the turmoil she's causing the place one of these days, but for now at least her primary concern lies with what she still doesn't know. )

[ He hadn't had to ask who was responsible for Ilde's injuries when he went to heal them any more than he'd had to when he saw the marks on Elena's wrist - though of course, the two bites were very, very different. Elena'd said she didn't think Damon would be a danger to the rest of the Nest, and honestly, Sam's inclined to agree with her - or at least, not any more of a danger than Ilde or the Darkling or Seviliia.

Still, he reaches out to brush against Damon's mind anyway. ]

( Did she throw things at you, too? )

[Beth reaching out is like a hand on a pane of glass, almost too gentle.]

( How are you feeling? )

[You been gettin' into trouble, son.]

[Being in the same brood as Damon is bad enough, what with his anger and his adoration for that girl. Things that Kavinsky can't connect to on the same level, but there they are, swimming into his skull and ricocheting around like bouncy balls spit out of a circus cannon. They bring up memories he's been stamping down, wrapping up in warning tape, pretending aren't even there until they're made to resurface and he has to begin the process all over again.

Whatever. Earth is a long ways away.

The last time he touched his mind this blatantly to Damon's, he'd ended up shoved against a wall and threatened. Pity that they're too far away for a redux.]

( Hey, Sal. I've got a proposition for you. )

[ The connection between them slowly grows a little more prominent, a little more focused, as Sam turns his attention on it and reaches out.

Knock knock. ]

( You at the hotel? I found something that reminds me of you. )

[ There's a distinct lack of panic from her end, but she's high-strung, the anxiety she usually hides under a careless persona having come to the forefront. ]

( Damon. I need you to do something for me. )

( it's a long waiting game. stefan and elena made it back to the ship long before there's any word on damon and his crew, and unsurprisingly all of that time is spent worrying. she tries to convince herself that she would know if anything had happened, that she'd feel it, but the minutes tick by and it gets harder and harder to believe that nothing has gone wrong.

elena has just turned to somewhat frantically scribbling a barebones, distracted update of what exactly happened on shril into the half used journal that she has claimed as her own when she realises that they're back. just like that she's up, journal and pen abandoned in the rec room as she rushes off to find the group, and her very obviously broadcasted relief announces her presence long before elena can actually be seen.

the place is practically a maze, but it's easy enough to navigate now, and it's only a matter of time before elena tracks damon down. there's no warning before she's launching herself at him, arms tight around his shoulders as she very bodily drags him in tight to her. he could, of course, resist. she's been working out but she's no vampire. still she's pretty determined to hold onto him at the moment, it'll take some effort to shake her off, and she exhales quickly before muttering against his ear. )

Damon, Jesus, you worried me.

[ There's a flurry of activity in the training wing going on, but Sam's mind is somewhere else as he focuses his attention on the connection between him and Damon. ]

( I think the Station is alive, and I want to try to talk to it. Whattya think, terrible idea? )

[ Yes would be the answer to that question, probably, but that's not necessarily going to stop him. ]

[ The warm burn of a swallow of alcohol travels across their connection, along with the end of one Marvin Gaye song and the opening notes of another.

Hi, Damon. ]

[ Misato's body is as much a tool as it is a component of her self, and she can regard with an impassive eye any offense done against it (endless shifts sans sleep mirroring endless days rocking inside a safety chute with red skies above, red seas about).

So when the torture begins, she is an observer as well as a victim, standing in the doctor's shoes as well as her own-- no, this isn't quite her lying on the cold table feeling the tap, tap, tap of the doctor's hand against her (no, not hers) belly, a deceivingly tender gesture compared with what's to come. Feel: a scalpel cleanly cutting through skin, flesh, gracing bones but it's all wrong, this, her scar extends over her sternum, up higher. When she sees the glint of a blade on its way into the socket of her (not her) eye, she thinks first of Asuka. When, so soon after, she feels the flesh beginning to stitch itself together, she thinks of Sam.

Only when she senses the unbearable hunger rise like bile in her throat does she finally place the nightmare's true owner. The language the doctor speaks rings clearer in her mind, the body being mutilated is that of a man, pale skinned. Damon.

She wakes with a start, never with a scream, no, she has willed that habit away a long time ago. Still it takes her a few moments to gather enough of herself to decide what to do.

This could be as easily done through the mental link, but to bridge physical distance is her way of offering a semblance of sympathy without the additional violence of invading his mind. She even affords a knock against the wall that leads to what amounts to his room. ]

Hey. I'm stepping in, okay?

[ There is the sense of stumbling, of someone leaning on something familiar and expected that is suddenly no longer there and grasping hold of what is in order to steady themselves. Then he lets go, distancing himself once more. He doesn't say anything, but the impression of an apology is clear across the mental link - sorry, man, I'm backing off now - as well as an added note that Sam is still there, if there's anything Damon needs. ]

[ Here she is, this motherfucker. ]

( Vampire. )

[ There's a brush of wings over Damon's mind that's unmistakably Sam as he focuses a little more purposefully on their connection, instead of the absent background awareness he usually has. It's accompanied by - well, by barely restrained happiness with an equal amount of amusement, and an underlying sense of a bewildered sort of contentment.

Sam has the feeling both of their love lives went somewhere unexpected. ]

( How was your day, kitten? )

[ Elena's been doing some hard thinking after Lakshmi's public broadcast about the private space in the sauna. Just days earlier, she'd lingered longingly outside the sauna tent that had been set up, wishing desperately that she could go inside and soak up the heat, pretend for a little while that it was a southern summer day and she was outside without her costume. That hadn't happened though, and now... She's uncertain, but tempted.

There's a slight nudge at Damon's mind, a brush of playful affection with just a hint of that uncertainty lingering like an aftertaste. ]

( So what do you think about this sauna business? )

[ Sam is - exhausted. He knows he's exhausted, knows he's past the point where he's really even capable of being much use to anyone - knows exactly what happens to you when you don't sleep for days on end, that's why he's so damn determined to get people in the Nest to sleep properly - but he can't help it.

He can't sleep. He has to look after Bucky, make sure they don't try to come take him back to the Station, and if he sleeps - if he sleeps he leaves his mind unguarded. If he sleeps he might not be able to stop himself from slipping under.

Sam's been focusing on the connections of the people he's closest to, here and there, trying not to be too much for any one person, reaching out to hold on just for a little while. His mind's brushed over Damon's before now, just wanting to reaffirm that he's there, that at least Sam still has him -

But now it's less of a brush and more of a startled grab. He'd caught himself almost falling asleep, and there's the feeling of a jolt as Sam's mental presence suddenly floods their connection. It's brief, and then Sam pulls back a little, but he still lingers. ]

( Sorry, man. You, uh. You awake? )

( I'm gonna ask you a question, Damon. You answer it right... We'll see where this goes. )

[If he doesn't? No further questions, of course. But the calm, businesslike demeanor is only the mask to a sort of dark pleasure living in Shepard; she's up to something.]

( I don't know about patience, but I consider myself to be a fairly reasonable person. So are you as tired of the whole cloak-and-dagger pace around here as I am? )

[ Sam listens to the option presented to them by those that've been on this mission the longest, listens to everyone's questions and responses, and then reaches out to those closest to him.

He knows what he wants to do, but he also knows that being back on the Station with Damon and Elena planetside would be... difficult, to say the least. The way Sam cares about Damon might be unspoken - aside from the time that Sam told him he knows what it feels like to love Damon, and Damon was gracious enough not to bring it back up - but it's still there.

There's no world where Sam isn't gonna check in on where Damon wants to do. ]

( What're you thinking with all this? )

BLOOD its burden is a beast	FEAR
FURY	LOVE i will always choose you

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day 019 » all of these times i've tried to make you forget me

after his fight with Ilde

day 22 or smth

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day 32-33ish idk

DAY :037

» :039 | i wanted to run away with you, and i will bring all my dreams and fears

DAY 44

late day 47

DAY :049 | cw: torture

at the beginning of the mission, when Steve falls into a coma

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