retraced: (it must be hard always winning)
widowed heroine ([personal profile] retraced) wrote in [community profile] sirenspull_logs2012-08-02 06:56 am

a wound like this isn't enough to kill me

Who: Gilbert Nightray, Oz Vessalius, Ahiru
When: Backdated to after the raid on the hunting grounds
Where: Gil's bedroom
Summary: Fake-canon updating is painful.
Warnings: Spoilers for recent Pandora Hearts chapters, graphic descriptions of blood/injury

Gilbert Nightray has been cut down before. He's no stranger to the sight of his own blood. For as weak of a personality as he's always had, his stamina has always been on par with that of Pandora's strongest fighters, even when he was still a child and he'd stepped in front of his master's blade to take, what should have been, a fatal blow in order to keep him from making an even bigger mistake.

The wound had bled, infected, but quickly healed into an ugly reminder of his pathetic failure to protect Oz down the front of his chest. He'd been poisoned later, and though he'd been close to death, he'd recovered. The Cheshire Cat had sliced him through with his claws just before pushing him back into his realm of Alice's hidden memories, and though he'd had trouble, he still healed quick enough to return to his master's side once again.

Break had told him...and then later, Vincent as well, that he'd once been carried through the Abyss, a child half-dead in, what he assumes, could only have been another failed attempt to protect what was most important to him. And no matter what lies Vincent has told him, he knows the truth. He remembers that warm feeling that Jack had given him, that feeling that he had a place to 'belong', something to protect, someone who needed him. He remembers...

He remembers this warm feeling of blood and pain erupting in his chest as the bullet hits its mark.

As soon as he collapses, pain shoots through his head as well. It's familiar, and familiarity is painful. The rest of the fight is chaotic enough that no one notices Gil crawl his way over to hide himself behind a bunch of bushes, hands shaking as he attempts to pull his cravat off and use that to staunch the bleeding. But the more time goes on, the more that he's sure that he must be bleeding out and getting to the point where he should maybe call for help, he...doesn't get worse. He's still bleeding, yes, but he's not feeling the symptoms of blood loss either. For a long while, the sound of fire and fighting turning to white noise in his head, he simply stares down at the wound as though he's expecting it to get worse.

Eventually his breathing evens out, the pain starts to dull, and he finds himself coming to his feet and...simply walking away.

The police and ambulances have enough to deal with that one more bloodied man escapes their attention. Others were injured far worse, and he's not asking for help. He's just trying to get home and keep whatever lost memory trying to surface in his head from actually becoming clear. It hurts too much; much worse than the wound in his chest.

He can't just walk in the front door like this, so he pulls a maneuver that he used on his brother only a few months prior when he was still here. He climbs up the side of the house and pulls himself through his own bedroom window in hopes that he's escaped notice from the other residents of the estate, despite the fact that he's been missing since early the morning.

He'll check his NV for messages after his hands stop shaking and the bloody clothes are thrown away.

[ooc - idk how you guys want to do this TIME PARADOX THREADING?!]
motioned: (bodyswap; wtf even is)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-02 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
She doesn't reach forward to keep him steady again, but the concern visibly escalates, and she takes a step closer to him. The desperation in her voice is evident, as well as the fear.

"You don't know? Is somebody hurt out there? Dad, you have to tell me what happened, please!"
motioned: (bodyswap; maybe it's maybelline)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-03 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
She goes completely still for a minute, not saying a word. When she does speak, it's soft and fragile.

"Did they take you?"
motioned: (bodyswap; wtf even is)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-03 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
There's confusion for a moment, before she recalls her conversation with Mary recently. But that had to be a mistake, didn't it? He wouldn't—

All of a sudden, she realizes that he's never been one to care about his own safety. Again, it takes time for words to come to her, and she wipes at her eyes to stop the tears that are welling up rapidly.

"You went there? Why would you do that? You could have - look at you, you're covered in blood, you could have gotten hurt even worse! You could have been killed, and I would have never... You didn't say anything, and you could have just never come back, and - what would I have done?"

She realizes how selfish that sounds, and suddenly, the bulb in his light fixture shatters, raining glass down onto the floor. She gasps, frightened, and then quickly reaches up to wipe at her eyes again.
motioned: (bodyswap; are you high rn)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-03 12:54 am (UTC)(link)
Even before he pulls his hand away, she's taking a step back, frightened and moving away from the touch. She looks up at the light fixture in fear for a few seconds before taking a deep breath to compose herself. Her words are carefully controlled when she begins to speak again, though it's not hard to tell that she's still angered.

"Don't act like this isn't a big deal! What would Oz have done? Alice? Ciel and Alois? You can't just - do things like that!"

It's hypocritical, of course, but she can't deny that she feels betrayed somehow.
motioned: (bodyswap; maybe it's maybelline)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-03 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
She senses, somehow, that she's gone too far, and the anger ebbs away all of a sudden. All that's left if the source of that anger: fear. Would she have been so furious if she wasn't terrified about the prospect of losing him, and never seeing him again? Of course not. The tears, which had stopped for a short span of time, resume, and she wipes them away with her thumb, taking in a shaky breath.

"Don't apologize, just..."

With a grimace, she moves back towards him and wraps her arms around him. It's different in this body, awkward and unfamiliar, but that feeling is overridden by her need to know he's really there.

"Please let me take you to the hospital."
motioned: (bodyswap; wtf even is)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-03 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
She puts her head against his shoulder, trying to stop the tears from leaking out. Her hands tense into the fabric of the back of his shirt, too, and she waits until she's sure her voice won't crack to speak.

"At least let me call a healer. There could be a bad scar, or it could get infected somehow..."
motioned: (bodyswap; maybe it's maybelline)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-06 06:20 am (UTC)(link)
"If you could take care of anything yourself, you wouldn't be like this now!"

It's harsher than she's meant, snapped, and she immediately finds herself regretting the words. She sighs, disappointed, but it's more at her lack of control than anything he's done this time.

"Dad, I..."
motioned: (bodyswap; i blew up the tv)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-08 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
She looks away, her posture communicating an apology, but she doesn't speak for a minute or so. What if she says something that makes it even worse? It's clear her last comment had hurt him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say something like that."
motioned: (bodyswap; i blew up the tv)

[personal profile] motioned 2012-08-12 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"No, you didn't."

She winces in sympathy as her attention is drawn to the injury again, and then takes a deep breath.

"Do you need me to help? Do you want me to leave?"