The Killing Game

[quaerit]

Who: The Raven crew: Gansey, Blue, Adam, Ronan and Noah
What: Blue targets Gansey during the Assassin event
Where: The Raven House.
When: During Rage's Assassin event
Warnings: Attempted murder, the full list of swear words known by Ronan Lynch, teenage angst.

[ As far as Gansey knows, it's an ordinary morning in their house. He's yet to venture outside, and hasn't seen any of his friends emerge from their rooms. Given that his own is the living room these days, and also given that he struggles to sleep most nights, he typically finds himself wandering around alone in the mornings. This isn't a place with a great prevalence of cereal boxes, and his beloved car is still at home, so his usual methods of distracting a wakeful mind are unavailable.

That's why, on this particular morning, his friends will arrive to discover Gansey has built some approximation of the Eiffel Tower out of a range of the house's cutlery. There may have been one or two minor crashes, when his efforts collapsed on him, but really, that should just make everyone glad that he didn't decide to use the plates. This is a lot harder than it looks. He's in the kitchen, minding his own business, and setting this monstrosity up on one of the counters. There's also some indeterminate can of something being warmed in the microwave; let no one say he never attempts to cook for his friends.

Oblivious to what's started to happen around the city, Gansey goes innocently about his model building, and waits for the first of them to wake up. ]

Comments

any day

[ampliat]

18th-20th ( the prelude )

[ An angry Blue comes as no surprise to the inhabitant of the 1303. Blue comes in many flavors, with sarcastic and angry being mass produced by the day.

However this anger is a bit out of place. Soured almost. Same old Blue flavor, printed in a new label that doesn't quite match the old branding. Perhaps because it's too frequent. Plastered everywhere. Almost inescapable. Or maybe it's just the target. Being angry with Ronan is one thing. Anger and Ronan went just as hand-in-hand, and putting Blue and Ronan together for too long was just waiting for their sparks to ignite the keg full of gunpowder between them.

Yet it wasn't him she directed her anger at. It was Gansey she was too frequently glaring at. Gansey who took the full bite of her tongue these days. Gansey who bore the brunt of her murderous gaze.

It starts off simple. Maybe he said something that rubbed her the wrong way? That wasn't too unexpected. Blue was always seeing things in ways people couldn't imagine, and Gansey as always saying things in ways he couldn't imagine. Yet it doesn't take long for simple to turn sarcastic, then downright biting. After awhile, it's almost like the two of them can't be in the same room together.

Or exactly like. Especially as Blue seems to get up and leave a room every time Gansey enters it. ]

21st ( the climax )

[ The anger keeps escalating. It keeps filling the room. Soon no one can doubt that Blue not only is angry with Gansey, but she seems to downright hate him. Anyone who mentions his name to her gets her snapping viciously, criticizing the way he leaves his things all over the living room ( don't even try to point out that she displaced him there ). Or that he's got his nose buried in a book instead of trying to make himself less of a liability to them. Or how he's always a liability. How their lives were normal before him.

That thought takes root inside her mind. It plants itself deep in her head as she imagines everything she's gone through since meeting him. The loss of Persephone, the people she left buried in a cave, Dittley, and more. So many people hurt and lost to his quest for a fallen king.

On that last day, she snaps. ]

Oh look. There you are. [ Her lips drip with venom as she drops her bag on the table after getting back home. ] Like you always are. In the way.

21st-23rd ( the resolve )

[ After, it's hard to tell if anything is better. It doesn't seem better, but it seems....

contained.

Blue keeps to herself over the next few days. Shuts herself to her room, locks the door, and rarely leaves for anything beyond basic necessities. Something's not right in her head. She can feel it. It's not as tangible as the Third Sleeper but it's just as deep. Maybe deeper.

Isolation is her best bet. So isolation is what she excels in for the next two days. ]

21st

[unknowable]

[Adam is very familiar with isolating yourself in order to work through whatever shit is going through your head. He's done it himself often enough, but he never thought it was something Blue would need to do. Nothing here ever seems to be normal, though, and Adam knows by now more or less what's going on - he got shot, after all. His shoulder is still bandaged, still aching.

He knocks on Blue's door, quiet and careful. He won't press his presence on her, but he thinks she could use someone to talk to. Gansey is normally better at this sort of thing, but - well. That's not gonna happen. Adam will have to give it his best try.]

Blue?

[ampliat]

[ She's sitting on her bed, head back against her wall, mirror between her fingers and the bed. She spins it slightly, toying with what she may want to see. Debating if seeing anything will solve whatever's wrong.

What is wrong with her?

The longer she's away from him the clearer her head gets. But if she thinks about him currently, it just makes it all worse again. That's why when there's a knock at the door she tenses.

Until she hears the voice.

She's up quick enough. The drawbacks of her self-exile are that she can't take care of Adam enough. Seeing his shoulder nearly makes her flinch as she opens the door. She doesn't stop herself from looking, though, taking in every detail while he's present. Checking for any new injuries.

What's wrong with them all?

She relaxes a little, looking up at him with a mix of suspicion, wariness, and somewhere in there - shame. ]

Adam.

[ She swallows. ] What did you want?

[unknowable]

[Adam is as observant as ever, and he catches the emotions in her look - if nothing else, it seems she knows that something is wrong, that this isn't normal. He thinks that's good. He can't stop it, probably none of them can, but at least if she knows it isn't normal than it might be a little easier to deal with. Maybe.]

I wanted to see if you were okay. And to talk a little, if you want.

[He won't push it on her, since honestly he doesn't know what to say. But Adam is a good listener when he wants to be, quiet and attentive, and she might need that right now. And he is worried. For both of them, really - if it were him on either side, he knows he'd be coming to pieces, slowly but surely.]

[ampliat]

[ He's not wrong. It's a struggle for her trying to sort her head out. When things clear she knows things aren't quite right. That this isn't how she really feels. Then she really thinks about Gansey and that anger builds along side that love...

And then she breaks. And the two conflicting emotions become too much. And you get what happened only moments ago.

She slides away from the entrance, letting him in and stepping back to retreat back inside the room. The self-exile thing is a little much, but it works in the interim. ]

I'm fine. [ She dismisses anything about herself easily enough. ]

What about you? Your arm?

How is it doing?

21st

[quaerit]

[ For days, she's been strange with him. Gansey doesn't understand it. It's not the first time he's ever annoyed someone without meaning to, but this time, he really has no idea what the problem is. He doesn't know what he's done, cannot remember fighting with her, and can't remember doing anything that should have particularly bothered her. It makes wandering around the house akin to walking on ice, and hoping desperately that it doesn't break beneath him. He tries to stay out of her way, avoid arguments, move when she's close, all of that. He's hoping that if he gives her enough space, she'll calm down.

It doesn't work that way. If anything, things seem to have gotten worse. Today, she comes into the house and he jumps, startled. He'd just been doing dishes at the sink, and hadn't actually thought he was in anyone's way. He stares at Blue for a moment, genuinely shocked by the animosity in her eyes.

What is going on?! ]

I wasn't -

Look, I mean to say, if you want to get in at the sink it's all right with me.

[ He even steps aside to let her. His whole expression is quizzical, though there's also hurt in his eyes. He doesn't understand. ]

Listen, Jane. Have I done something wrong? These last few days, it's like you can't stand the sight of me.

[ He says this like it might be a joke, though honestly it's really not. Something's wrong with her, and for some reason, it's all aimed at him. ]

[ampliat]

I can't. And that's the problem.

[ She can hear herself snapping. She can see the words forming in her mind around the read haze, ready to shoot down anything that he might try to say back. What she can't understand is where the red haze comes from. There's a million reasons.

So why now? What's so different?

She can't find where it changed, but all she knows is that it was probably him. It's always him. ]

You're everywhere. It's like I can't get a moment away from you. Even when I come home to just relax.

[quaerit]

[ Gansey's face changes, hurt crossing it in the moments before he's able to shutter it away. He doesn't understand why she's saying this, why she even wants time away from him. He's frozen, his body very still as he looks at her. ]

I didn't know I was crowding you.

[ Carefully. Is this because he talks to her at night? Does she want him to stop? He'd always thought she liked that. She'd said that she liked it. ]

If you want space, you only had to say. I thought...we were getting along well, actually.

[ampliat]

Things change. [ They do.

But why?

She just knows that suddenly she woke up one day and everything he said and did frustrated her. And the more her friends came back hurt, the more she thought about how often they were hurt or in danger. ]

I do want space.

Not just for me, though. [ Her eyes are harsh on his, her body stance almost aggressive. Poised for something. ]

I think you put the others in danger. And in a place like this, they need one less danger in their life.

19th

[casperdisaster]

[Noah's noticed this change, and while he's absolutely hating of confrontation, he's still eventually following after Blue as she heads up to her bedroom because Gansey came home. He shuffles his feet before he knocks on the door finally.

Instead of his ever-present smudge he had back in Henrietta he's sporting his awful bruise and slowly healing cut on the same cheek. He'd ran into trouble a few days before. Trouble looked like it almost took his face off, but he has sadly had much worse.]

Blue? It's me, Noah...

[ampliat]

[ For a moment, she almost expects to hear Gansey's voice on the other side of that door. She pauses, waiting, until Noah's voice comes through.

When she opens the door, she frowns at the sight of his face. It's almost like his smudge from before, except this bruise is so much more alive. It's purple and red and angry with the blood beneath the surface. It's that much worse knowing that this is a mark he's gotten recently.

She gingerly reaches up to touch his face, careful not to put any pressure on the bruise. ]

How is it? [ She doesn't ask why he's come to see her. She can guess. It's not as important to her right now. ]

[casperdisaster]

[Honestly he's mostly just come as a distraction, hoping to take her mind off of whatever has made her so upset at Gansey, with the sub-goal of maybe figuring it out. Even with the pain though, he's never going to protest Blue wanting to touch him.]

It hurts. A lot.

[He still smiles a little when he says this.]

Can I come in?

[ampliat]

[ She can't help but mirror his smile, if only because he's smiling despite the pain. She carefully withdraws her fingers, not wanting to make it too much worse. ]

Fun being alive again, huh? Or kind of alive.

[ She's trying to alleviate the tension she knows she's about eighty-five to ninety percent the cause of currently. Her anger isn't with Noah.

Which is why she withdraws, giving him room to come inside. ]

Shut the door behind you.

at some vague time during the event!

[unknowable]

[for gansey]

[Things are weird. Things are always sort of weird here, but this is another level, involving murder and injuries and hatred that seems to have no real source. And seeing Blue angry at Gansey - well, it's not like Adam hasn't been angry at Gansey plenty of times himself. But this feels different, feels more dangerous and somehow less personal. Whenever any of them fought at home, it was always for reasons that made sense. This doesn't make sense, but there's no way to fix it. They just have to try to ride it through and hope nothing ends up broken too badly on the other side.

Talking to Blue was one thing, and needed to be done. Talking to Gansey is something else. Adam is worried about him, Gansey who is always so effortlessly easy to like being hated by one of the people whose approval he wants most. He leaves his room, looking for Gansey where he'd expect to find him - on the couch in the living room.]

[for ronan]

[The house is tense, even with Blue and Gansey separated, and Adam hasn't been leaving - not when he knows how dangerous the rest of the city is. He doesn't know where the woman who shot him is, doesn't want to chance running into her when he's still injured. He's safer here with the others, as tense as it sometimes is, and he isn't going to tempt fate.

He pulls the collar of his shirt aside, enough to check the bandage on his shoulder. He's not really bleeding much anymore, but it still needs to be changed, and with his arm injured it's impossible to get it to an angle where he can reach his shoulder. He'll need help.

It's strange, sort of. Not so long ago Adam would have thought it over, weighed the pros and cons of letting someone help him like this. He'd have taken his time deciding who he'd feel most comfortable making himself vulnerable in front of. It's not that he doesn't trust his friends, it's just that he always is careful about these things, afraid on some level of showing weakness. And really, he knows he could go to any of them, especially for something like this. But he doesn't spend time thinking it over like he once would have. Instead, he goes out onto the balcony connecting his room to Ronan's and knocks on the door softly, in case he's sleeping.]

[open]

[He's too prudent to leave, especially on his own, especially when he's injured and there's someone in the city that wants him dead, but Adam's never been the sort of person who's entirely comfortable sitting around doing nothing. Maybe he should learn to be - he could use the relaxation. But with everyone keyed up and who knows what kind of murder happening outside, he does need to take his mind off things.

So he's cooking, because he also needs to eat. They all do, and Adam does not entirely trust anyone else's cooking skills. Not that his are particularly impressive, but he makes do.

He's reaching up into one of the overhead cabinets to get a pot when his wounded shoulder twinges in pain and he drops it, the pot crashing to the floor in a loud display of incompetence. Adam winces, more at the sound than the pain, and reaches up to test the bandage, make sure he didn't pull something open. Hopefully no one was sleeping.]

[greywaren]

[Ronan is mad as hell.

Yes. That someone attacked Adam, that someone hurt him, but more than anything, that Ronan wasn't there when it had happened. He'd track down who did it, he'd hurt them right back, destroy them a hundred times over- but he can't do it now, not when Adam is injured and needs him here, undamaged and there for him.

This comes at the tail end of all that, after Ronan is done pacing angrily and after he's done getting ready to charge out there and demand the culprit and after he's been convinced to stay. It's good that it does because he's a little calmer now, even if he's still in a sullen mood, and he's laying in his bed when Adam comes to knock, throwing a softball angrily against one of the walls of his room and catching it on the rebound.

It's going to cause a dent. It's caused a dent already, upset the plaster into flecks of dust drifting down on his floor, but he doesn't much care.

Still, the knock on his patio door makes Ronan pause immediately, the ball suspended in his hands. Only one person would be knocking on that door, and he shuffles himself up quickly and tosses the ball over on his bedspread before moving to the sliding glass door and opening up the curtain normally covering it. Of course it's Adam, and Ronan fucks with the lock on the door, before slipping it open to allow Adam inside.]

Hey man, [he murmurs, as if he didn't get spitting angry when it was revealed that someone had hurt Adam, as if they don't sometimes push one another against walls and kiss until they're breathless. Ronan shrugs, shoving his hands into his pockets.]

How're you doing?

[unknowable]

[He's relieved to find Ronan there. Adam didn't really think he'd be anywhere else, but there was always the chance he'd run off despite everything, off to hurt someone or get hurt himself. And while some part of Adam is deeply affected by Ronan's willingness to fight for him, that desire to protect him that no one's ever shown before, the practical side of him can only be relieved that Ronan is here, that they talked him down. He doesn't want Ronan to get hurt again, and with one arm already broken he isn't exactly in the best shape to play avenging knight, as much as Adam finds the idea upsettingly endearing.

And Ronan is still Ronan. He's outside the Blue-Gansey issue just like Adam is, running damage control in his own way. It means that for a little while Adam doesn't have to worry about that minefield. He can just be with Ronan, and somewhere along the way that became more of a comfort than nearly anything else.]

Hey. I could use your help.

[He holds out gauze, tape, extra bandage.]

I can't reach to replace it myself. It's not dirty or anything - you don't have to do anything but change the bandage.

[greywaren]

[Ronan takes the tape from him, all at once a little unsure, but he nods anyway and stands aside to let Adam in. How many times has Adam stitched him up? Changed his own bandages? Even now, with his arm still in a cast, how many times has Adam asked if he was doing alright with it, has helped him adjust with it? It's absolutely fair that he ask Ronan to change his bandages as well, just this once, when he can't do it- but Ronan is suddenly not sure that he's up for the task.

He's gotten the supplies for the clinic since its inception, but he's never attended a first aid class. He's wound up in the hospital back home multiple times for various stupid injuries, but he's never actually paid attention to how they stitched him up. He's changed bandages before, of course, but maybe this is different.

Ronan guides Adam back to his bed- it's the biggest surface in his room, and the only one not covered in knickknacks and baubles. There's an ineffective windchime in the corner made of barbed wire and what looks like bits of animal bone, there's an array of zippo lighters dumped on the floor, some of them squat and square and some of them curling, ornate devices, there's a painting leaning against the desk of an empty pictureframe up on a stark wall. Dozens of things, cluttering up the place, and so Ronan sits on the bed with the gauze and the tape, crossing his legs in front of him.]

You're gonna have to walk me through this.

[unknowable]

[He's used to the impossible dreams that clutter Ronan's room, or as used to them as anyone can be. That just means he doesn't let himself get easily distracted by a shimmer of something that might be glowing, the careful carved curves of the lighters, the almost-sculptures filling the room. He could look for hours, but he doesn't, instead carefully settling on Ronan's bed.

He's been here before, but it feels different now. Now that he knows how Ronan's body feels pressed against his, now that he's lost count of the times they've kissed. But Adam pushes the thought of that aside, as distracting as it is. He did come here for a reason, not for a booty call.]

It won't be hard.

[Then he hesitates, just for a moment, but it's not like he has any other choice. A second later, Adam is pulling his shirt off, the fabric stretchy enough that he can take hold of the hem and pull it over his head with his good arm. He doesn't need help with that, at least. That would have been too much, asking Ronan to undress him.

He tries not to think about it, about whether Ronan has ever seen him with his shirt off before. There was that time in Harborview, he remembers, but Ronan was pretty out of it. This is much more real. He's embarrassed, a little - he eats okay here, but he's still skinny, all ribs and thin wrists and dusty skin speckled with freckles and, here and there, faded scars. Maybe Ronan won't look that close, except part of Adam wants him to.]

Just take off the bandage. The wound itself should be clean, but it can't hurt to wipe it with some antibiotic ointment - but you don't have to. Then put on more gauze and tape it down.

[quaerit]

[ It had been bad enough when he just thought Blue was angry with him. No matter what's been going on in the city, Gansey had never actually believed he was in danger from her. She wouldn't actually hurt him. None of his friends would.

That's why it's so frightening, now, to think about what's happening. She's not herself at all. He knows that she would hurt him, if given the chance, but he also knows that when this is over, when she gets back to herself, she'll hate all of this. He doesn't want that to happen, and the only control he can hold over any of it is what he does with himself.

All of which amounts to the growing feeling that he cannot stay here. Not while his friends are struggling to keep Blue away from him, not when the very sight of him might send her over some edge. It would be better for both of them if he went. So he is on the couch, for now, but his whole posture is tense. When Adam comes in, he's honestly trying to work out a way of telling him that he needs to go. Because he does need to. He can't see any other way around this.

He looks up, and his face softens. He knows that Adam has been hurt, too. It's not safe for him to leave the house. Gansey purposely shifts over, making space on the couch. ]

Hey. How's your shoulder?

[unknowable]

[He settles next to Gansey, looking him over, worried but trying not to show it too much. He knows this can't be easy. He thinks about how it would feel if any of them wanted to hurt him, to kill him - how it would feel if Ronan did. It makes his stomach clench with anxiety or fear, and how much worse must it be for Gansey? Adam can't fix it. All he can do is be here and offer whatever help he's able.]

It'll heal.

[He thinks about trying to brush it off, saying he's had worse or something else, but he doesn't. It's true that Adam has been in more pain, and far more personal pain, but neither of them want or need a reminder of that.]

I might have a pretty nice scar.

[That, he does say with a faint smile.]

How are you doing?

[quaerit]

We should've been there.

[ With Adam, when he was hurt, so that they could stop it. If that shot had hit him somewhere else - like in his chest, for example, or his stomach - he might not even be sitting here now.

A scar is better than that.

As for that question, Gansey really doesn't want to answer. He has no idea how to answer. He doesn't know how to deal with any of this, with Blue. He tells himself again that it can't be natural, that it's not really her. That no one can help what's going on.

That doesn't make it any better. ]

I don't know. [ It's honest, at least. He also switches track very quickly. ] How is she? I know you talked to her.

[unknowable]

You'd only have gotten hurt.

[It's a little cruel to say that, maybe, but it's true. He doesn't want anything to happen to Gansey, and he knows Gansey isn't much better at fighting than he is. Worse, maybe, because he lacks Adam's deeply ingrained wariness and caution. Adam is glad Gansey wasn't there, even if that means he was alone.

He bites his lip, hesitating for a moment over how to answer.]

She's all right. She knows it's not natural, I think - that the whole city is going crazy.

[That they shouldn't be blamed too harshly for these things that have happened. But Adam doesn't think it's his place to offer excuses or forgiveness, even if he's rather sure Gansey will offer both things even more easily once this is all over.]

It'll go back to normal. But for now - I don't know. Avoid her.

[casperdisaster]

[Noah is also too prudent to leave - of course, that's largely because he came back on the first day all this started with a giant bruise covering the left half of his face with cuts on it to boot. They've been bandaged, and he has had worse, but it's still clear he took a beating and almost lost a good portion of his face. He'd been content to hide out inside after that.

The crash summons him like magic, lurking at the doorway for a moment before he steps in to fetch the fallen pot.]

... You okay?

[unknowable]

[He turns to see Noah there, sighs and pushes a hand through his hair - notably not using the injured arm.]

Yeah. Just pulled at the wound a little.

[He has to get used to it, and he knows he will. It's not like Adam is a stranger to getting hurt, after all.]

You doing okay?

[casperdisaster]

I've had worse.

[It might be a joke. It could be a joke. It'd be a bad one, though. Noah lifts the pot a bit.]

Do you need another set of hands? Since you're kinda short one.