feral kou AUs for shutsdown

[miraculess]

AND AGAIN :')

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I'm just going to reuse this post TAKE THREE

[miraculess]

[ she is a wreck.

yet another attempt to end her suffering had not only failed but backfired spectacularly, leaving her exhausted and ill, barely able to think straight. it's a terrible combination; she can't escape herself at all, can only sit and stew in half-delirious misery and self-loathing with no way of distracting herself and not enough resources to put toward healing.

it's also the combination that leads to her breaking into a bookstore in a part of town she would normally avoid, the area too prosperous for her to easily pass as someone merely fallen on very bad times without drawing desperately unwanted attention. but needs must, and right now her needs are something she can lose herself in, and... maybe, if she gets lucky, something to eat. it doesn't look like the store owner has much in the way of security, after all... ]

[shutsdown]

[so about that security...

no alarms sound, no lights flash. when she steps into one of his traps, delicate chains of silver form around her, thin enough to be of the sort used for jewelry. however, the more force she uses in trying to pull away from them or break them, the greater the force inexorably dragging her to the ground is. there aren't many of them, only a few crisscrossing her body once their work is done, but they're quite effective. she can neither move nor speak, chains around her head keeping her from opening her mouth.

she's left to stew like that for a few hours, though it's still the dead of the night when the light creaking of someone going down the stairs behind the counter can be heard, a totally sedate pace.]

[miraculess]

[ hours later, and she's still trying to struggle— not with anywhere near the little energy and focus she'd had at the beginning, but still aimlessly trying to writhe her way out of those chains.

that wearing struggle exhausted her enough that it takes a few moments before she registers the sound of his approach... but when she does, she panics, throwing herself against the binds heedless of the fact that they've squashed her almost violently to the ground already. ]

[shutsdown]

[he has a glamour up and seems fully human for now.

Kou approaches her fearlessly, still at that sedate pace, kneeling beside her and letting the chains holding her mouth shut slither away.]

And who are you?

[miraculess]

[ ...

hisses, raw and thick in the back of her throat, and spits at him. it's bloody. ]

[shutsdown]

[neatly dodging her spit, sorry.]

That's some attitude from a trespasser.

[miraculess]

[ SENTIMENT STILL EXPRESSED AND SHE GOT GROSS ZOMBIE BLOOD ON YOUR PROPERTY. ]

Go to Hell.

[shutsdown]

I'll pass. What do you want?

[miraculess]

[ grits her teeth and glares balefully ]

[shutsdown]

You've already proven you can speak. Tell me what you came here for.

[miraculess]

No.

[shutsdown]

Yes.

[miraculess]

[ growls— or starts to, rather, and then ends up coughing and has to put her head down ]

...doesn't matter.

[shutsdown]

Does too. My trap didn't cause internal bleeding, either. Were you seeking shelter?

[miraculess]

[ into the floor ]

No.

[shutsdown]

You'd be a poor assassin... Thieving, then.

[miraculess]

[ shame somehow still has the ability to both blindside and blind her; she's snarled and thrown herself sideways against the chains again before she can try for any kind of rationality. the familiar haze of unthinking rage is right there; the only thing keeping her from gladly accepting the excuse to stop thinking is the exhaustion making her want to curl up and cry and the fact that it'll make her look no better than a trapped animal. ]

[shutsdown]

Well, something like that is acceptable. Look at me?

[miraculess]

[ what if she mashes her face into the floor where he can't actually see her start angry crying instead, though ]

[shutsdown]

[He still knows, though.]

How were you poisoned?

[miraculess]

I drank it.

[ congratulations, she's upset enough for some straight answers ]

[shutsdown]

I see.

[Taking that pretty much in stride.]

I'm not seeing the logic between attempted suicide and breaking into a bookshop.

[miraculess]

...

I just wanted something else to think about.

[shutsdown]

[Goes quiet. Then... walks away.]

[miraculess]

[ the fight has officially gone out if her; she doesn't even protest being left there bound aside from a suspiciously sob-sounding hiccup. ]