PLAYER PLOT | Forgetti Catchall, now in the right comm

[wythersake]

WHO: Ennaris Tavane, Julius, Bastien, Viktor, Clarisse La Rue + OTA
WHAT: Strangers arrive at the Gallows.
WHEN: A week in Haring.
WHERE: The Gallows / elsewhere
NOTES: Check out this OOC Post for details.

This is a catchall post for threads with or about the forgotten characters plot. Feel free to thread about it elsewhere as well!

• OOC Info
• Rookery Post

 

Comments

[laruetheday]

It's not that Clarisse has never seen this look on Abby's face before, but having it directed toward her is new. It doesn't feel great. If Abby had left things at "this is my room," it wouldn't have been okay, but she wouldn't have been mad about it—she's passed annoyance and landed somewhere in pathetic desperation when it comes to the idea of Abby forgetting her, maybe forever—

but she just can't let the comment about the sketchbook slide.

"This isn't your book." She squeezes it even tighter against her chest in case Abby tries to grab it from her. Abby's book, the fuck? It wasn't under Abby's bed, was it?

[armd]

"Yes it is," she argues, taking a single step forward — the stranger is wasting her five seconds — pausing when she redoubles her grip, holding it firmly to her chest. Huh. Well, it's technically true that it isn't actually her book because it was Ellie's, but she left it behind and Abby hasn't been able to throw it away. That's why it lives underneath the bed.

She can't wrap her head around why this girl would dive underneath of it just to try and steal it. She could have taken anything in this room; Abby would have assumed the money would be of the most interest — her little coin collection scattered across the extra space on her bookshelf — but it's completely untouched, as is her mace and good set of leather bracers, or anything on her side of the room.

Confusion wrestles with anger.

Still she looks plenty threatening when she adds, "Don't make me take it from you."

[laruetheday]

"That's not true."

Abby does look threatening, but Clarisse doesn't back off. She doesn't step closer, either. She doesn't want to fight Abby over the sketchbook, which ultimately doesn't matter. But she isn't going to hand it over.

"This was Ellie's. And this is my room and my bed and my coat," by the way!!!

[armd]

Abby blinks. It doesn't make any sense that she knows this about the sketchbook — she must have seen Ellie's name inside of it, she would have written her name in it somewhere.

The rest is pure delusion.

"No it isn't! I know what you're all doing, you know. You can't fool us."

Mostly. Honestly, Abby is feeling like a pretty big fucking fool for having no idea what is going on right now or even how to react to it. This girl isn't trying to fight her or get away, she's acting crazy. She looks a little desperate and punching her, which had been Abby's original plan, is probably going to make her feel pretty bad.

She'll still do it, but—

[laruetheday]

"We're not doing anything," Clarisse says through gritted teeth. Who else but the dumbest spies in the world would try to get to Riftwatch this way?

The problem is that she knows everything she's saying sounds insane. Nobody remembers her, or anyone who went on the mission. And the stuff that doesn't make sense, like their names being written down all over the paperwork in the Gallows, all their things still sitting in their rooms, everyone is just writing that stuff off somehow, skipping over it like their brains won't let them understand.

This is like the worst flashback to all the times she tried to convince somebody that she'd seen something nobody else did, or didn't do the thing everyone else thought they saw her do. It had felt this way then, too, like... almost embarrassing to have to plead her case over and over again, but frightening at the same time. Not being able to trust her own thoughts and memories, wondering if it was only going to get worse.

"Look, just—" She sits down on the bed and opens the sketchbook on her lap, flipping past what feels like hundreds of sketches of griffons and horses and random people before she gets to the first ones of her. Seeing them makes her want to cry with relief. "See?"

[armd]

Well at least she didn't sit down on Abby's bed but she's by no means relaxed about any of this, is still standing with one fist curled at her side and held in reserve. Should she be feeling threatened by this? She doesn't but that doesn't mean she likes it and wants it to keep happening, either. Mostly she feels insanely uncomfortable, kinda like back in the FOB when other members of the WLF would try talk to her in the halls as if they were friends when they weren't.

Even so, she looks.

"... See what." The drawings? That kind of look like her?? She snorts suddenly, the tension suddenly bursting. "What, you think that's supposed to be you?"

[laruetheday]

Clarisse tries really hard not to let her face show how hurt she is, but Abby's condescending tone hits like a slap, and she's never been great at hiding her feelings.

"Don't be a fucking bitch." She flips through more of the pages, only so she can have an excuse to stare down at the sketchbook instead of up at Abby, but she's not really looking at them anymore.

This is so, so bad. She wasn't sure what she expected, that she'd show her the sketches and Abby would snap out of it or what, but she had to see them for herself and she had to at least try. But she can tell just from the way Abby's looking at her that she doesn't care.

Clarisse's stomach feels sick as she thinks about having to try and rebuild a friendship with Abby when Abby already fucking hates her and thinks she's crazy. At least, she thinks, she didn't kiss her again on Satinalia. There's that. Because that—whatever came of it—that would have made this whole thing a thousand times worse, and it already feels about as bad as it can get.

"You really don't remember me at all?" she asks finally, hating the desperate, weak way her own voice sounds.

[armd]

Abby's mouth drops open. "Are you aware of the situation right now?"

But the girl isn't looking at her any more, she's paging through the book like she's searching for something. Abby watches her, momentarily distracted by the expression on her face: mouth in a thin line, brow furrowed. She's upset. Really upset. The intent to beat her up unless she leaves is so far away from this moment she could have made that threat days ago.

"Look," she says, sounding different this time. Not condescending or aggressive, just sort of... exasperated. Calm but firm. "No. Am I supposed to? I have no idea who you are, and I don't get why you're here. I think you should go find the other people who came in with you.

"You can... take the book. If you want." She's just going to be in the Gallows, right? Abby can get it back later. She's been avoiding it up until now anyway.

[laruetheday]

"I don't want it," Clarisse snaps back, even though it isn't true. She really, really wants the book. But now that she's said otherwise, she can't take it with her, so she stands up and lets it drop onto the mattress.

Somehow Abby telling her, calmly, I think you should go find the other people who came in with you is even worse than everything that came before it. Like, she really does think Clarisse is just some crazy person who broke into her room. Never fucking mind that half of the shit in here isn't even Abby's, including the shield that has Clarisse's name engraved in it.

Anger is a comfort. It's familiar. It feels so much better than being sad. So Clarisse knocks her shoulder against Abby's as she walks past her, hard enough to jostle her, just to prove that if she felt like it, she could do worse.

"You're all being so fucking stupid," she says as she exits.