#thread: parker | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

longislandcharm · 9 months ago

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PARTIES: @longislandcharm and @wonder-in-wings TIMING: Late November LOCATION: Outside the Elysium/Around town SUMMARY: Determined to get Winter out of her gooey situation, Parker goes to the hotel with a pizza and an offer to help get her to where she needs or wants to go. The day is interrupted by a surprise visitor. CONTENT WARNINGS: Implied parental/familial abuse (mostly talking about the scars it left behind), Under skin tw (a parasite)

Most of the reports hadn’t been kidding when they said that there truly was vile black slime everywhere. Parker’s route was carefully planned and he had to take more than one detour as he circumvented the shiny trails of ooze. He was on his way to the Elysium Hotel and Casino, a place of luxury and affluence, a place that’d been (perhaps begrudgingly) turned into a temporary shelter for the displaced. The Warden never held any remote interest in either hotels or gambling but he wasn’t going there out of his own interest. He told Winter that he would go retrieve her. That and he owed her a pizza, which was sitting in the passenger side seat, covered by his black leather jacket that he finally had to pull out of his closet as the weather had gotten too biting to ignore. Parker wasn’t a fan of cold weather, with the low temperatures and large amounts of snow easily working their way onto his list of least favorite things about the town. It didn’t seem like snow was there quite yet, however, as he carefully made his way around the more covered areas of the road and, indeed, it seemed like the goo was dissipating as well the closer he drew to the hotel. Eventually, as he pulled into one of the nearby parking spaces that had a rather clean path from it to the door, he found himself wondering why she couldn’t just leave. Sure, it was oppressive in a lot of other places but she didn’t seem to be as trapped as she thought. Or maybe there was just something Parker was missing; was this a metaphor? He was always poor with those, or so Walker told him. However, he started to relax in his seat when a sharp pain on his upper back made him suck air in through his nose and he immediately opted out of leaning back. No, he leaned forward instead, not sure what that was on his back but he could neither see nor reach it so there was little point in worrying too much about it. Pulling out his phone, he texted Winter. “I’m out in front. [...] Where are you? I have a pizza.”

“Holing yourself up in the room isn’t healthy, you know that, right?” Winter threw Henry a glare as she tossed her wallet into her bag. “I’m going to start calling you dad if you don’t stop. I wasn’t holing myself up, I just didn’t want to risk being stuck in that crap. Do you see how many things are caught in it right now?” Henry rolled his eyes at her, not believing that someone like her wouldn’t take a risk to go get a pizza. “Seems like you’re hiding away in here.” She was about to say something back to him when her phone beeped at her, the medium smirking as she held it up to show him the message. “See? I’m leaving right now, smart ass.” He threw her a look while she threw her purse over her shoulder and hummed with satisfaction before turning to head out.

She didn’t bother to text Parker back as she made her way past the extra people in the halls, one woman squeaking as the ghost trailing Winter walked through her. Why did she love when he did that? It was always entertaining to watch people look around them with alarm when she knew it wasn’t anything other than a cold chill.

His car was pretty easy to spot. The only running vehicle in the area while most of the guests now staying at the Elysium had been walk-ins. Was Parker squirming a little as she walked up to the passenger side door? That didn’t seem right. She knocked on the window, wanting to alert him of her presence before trying to open the door in case he got spooked and ninja'd a dagger at her or something. She knew what he was capable of with his fists, no telling what he could do with a weapon. “Oh my god, you actually brought a pizza. Parker, you care.” She placed a hand over her heart as Henry scoffed. “Should have made you go get it yourself.”

A look was thrown over her shoulder before Winter grabbed the box and took her place in the car. “Henry says hi, by the way. Do you let people eat in your car? Do you want some?” Her good mood must have been attributed to finally getting out of that room. Henry couldn’t even bring it down while he glowered in the back seat, probably upset that he couldn’t have any pizza himself. “You know you didn’t have to come out here, right? I know you hate it here. But it has given me something to look forward to.”

Smartly, she had knocked on the window to indicate to him that she had arrived. He supposed it made sense given how… on edge their first in-person interaction was. Parker turned his head to regard her, one of his eyebrows twitching faintly as she seemed surprised that he followed through on his bringing her a pizza; he wasn’t sure what about him indicated that he held empty words, that he wasn’t one to actually do as he said he was going to do. Did people just think that he said things to placate them? She looked over her shoulder before getting in - either she had heard something he didn’t, she was regarding the ghost known as Henry or both. When she said that the specter said hello, Parker’s own glance drifted to the backseat. Assuming the ghost had decided to sit in the back seat. It was a little surreal, to take someone’s word that there was an undead spirit lingering right in front of him though he couldn’t remotely and would never see it. “You may eat in the car. Just try to… keep the mess in the box.” He remarked mildly, blue eyes resting on her once more. He wasn’t about to tell her that the inside of his unassuming silver car had seen decidedly gorier things than flakes from a pizza crust. “I don’t…” It would’ve been a lie to say that he didn’t actually hate it there, so the sentence faltered in his mouth. “It’s… more tolerable in the vehicle.” The Warden faced forward once more, moving rather carefully as he rolled one of his shoulders. “Also I… told you that I would. I don’t like lying. Or… saying things I don’t intend on keeping my word on.” A pause accompanied with an inhale through his arrow-straight nose. “Where would you like to go?”

It was a little amusing to watch him glance towards Henry knowing that he couldn’t see what she saw. She knew better than to think that he would be jarred by the sight of Henry and his detached arm but it was still funny to imagine the scene unfolding. In fact, she’d gotten so used to it that somebody else being frightened by the missing limb might have even surprised her a little. Henry waved at Parker, even while knowing the hunter couldn’t see him, and Winter rolled her eyes good naturedly as she turned back to the food; the wonderful food that Parker had now given her permission to eat inside of his car. She wasted no time, her mouth full by the time he had said to keep the mess contained inside the box so she nodded to acknowledge that she’d heard.

Swallowing the bite before speaking, she shook her head at his words. “Is it though? I mean, I get why you don’t like it out here. Some of the places have character but for the most part this place is not ideal. I’ve been looking for something else but I…am too hard to please.” She had rejected a high rise in Los Angeles just because she didn’t like the height of the cabinets in the kitchen but Winter had a feeling she was going to have to settle for some place around here.

She looked over, another bite of the pizza being chewed on thoughtfully while she tried to explain her doubts. How did she come right out and say that most people in her life ended up disappointing her so she’d come to expect it without it sounding mean? “I wasn’t trying to imply that you wouldn’t but most people don’t really keep their word, especially over small things like this. But I guess you’re not most people, are you?” It’s not like she would have been angry if he hadn’t brought the food, she’d suffered worse blows before, but it was refreshing to be around someone who wouldn’t say one thing to your face and turn around and do the opposite. “That’s pretty cool.”

Winter closed the pizza box after scarfing down the first piece, her mind now going to the potential stores they could hit. “There’s a boutique in Harborside I wanted to check out. I’ve never shopped at a small town store but anything with the word boutique has to have something quality in it. But I’ll also give you one last chance to back out because this is going to test your limits, I know it.” Henry snorted from the back seat, not able to resist adding his own comment. “I’ve seen her online shop, she’s not wrong.”

Well, if nothing else in this trip mattered, at least he had gotten her the right type of pizza. Either that or she was just so desperate not to eat hotel food anymore that anything would’ve sufficed. Then as she responded to his comments about Worm Row, Parker decided to get them going - the sooner they were out of that general vicinity, the sooner he felt as though maybe whatever few nerves had worked themselves up inside him would calm down. So he started driving, slow, rather leisurely, still carefully weaving around the spots on the ground on the off-chance that hitting it would spontaneously freeze his car and envelop it. “I’ve… been informed that I’m not like most people, no.” Parker replied, keeping his eyes on the road though he made it evident that he was still listening to her as well as he possibly could’ve. “I understand that there’s a general casualty to words.” He said. “I’m very careful with my words. I said I would bring you a pizza. I said I would take you shopping. I don’t make false offers.” As he spoke, his mind planned a map for him to take that would avoid the problems with the roads and still head over to Harborside. And yet, as Winter assured him that this shopping trip would test his limits, the Warden scoffed through his nose; the closest he’d ever come to laughing in over two decades, perhaps even more. “You know it?” He asked, his expression softening ever-so-slightly as what seemed to be the ghost of a smile tugging on the corner of his mouth. “You know what my limits are?” It was playful. An attempt to… loosen up. This was a new interaction between them.

“That’s not a bad thing, everyone being the same is boring.” Some of the other residents of Wicked’s Rest floated through her mind after saying that which prompted her to add under her breath, “Well, some people could stand to add a little boring to their life.” She was starting to think she was included in that comment. Ever since Henry had become a part of her life things had spiraled and normal was a different world away. Winter had learned so much about herself and the world and yet she still had so many unanswered questions. Especially when it concerned her past and how her family factored into all of this. Had her parents known all this time that she was able to see these things or were they just as clueless?

“I will keep that in mind then.” Winter looked over at him again, regarding him silently. It wasn’t often a person came across someone who stuck to their word, even the little things, and she felt a little lucky that she’d found someone who would do that. The question was: Was she able to do the same for him? If friendship was a transaction in her mind, an exchange of good deeds and care, then she owed it to him, right? It was probably time to start being more careful with her words, and not just around Parker either, around everyone. “But I also want you to know that if you promise something as small as a pizza and you don’t follow through for whatever reason it’s not that big of a deal.”

An eyebrow quirked at his reaction, the girl glad that he was able to relax enough around her to be humorous in his own way. It also felt a little like a challenge which she loved. There was nothing more amusing than a competition for her and Winter was always confident that her win was imminent. “Maybe I don’t, but I’m sure I’m going to find them today.” Henry leaned forward between the two of them, his expression grim. “Dude, just stop now. I’ve never seen anyone so willing to push a person’s buttons before.” Winter smirked at the words, deciding not to relay the message. This was going to be a fun day.

The Warden felt the ghost of a smirk of his own tug on the corner of his ever-downturned mouth in response to the medium’s playful challenge. “We’ll see.” He said, realizing immediately after he said it that he had sounded more like his own father than he had in a while. That was a rare thing, as Parker recalled it now; they were on a trip, one specifically for the younger Wright as the four of them were in the car, passing by unfamiliar landmarks and environments. When asking where they were going, taking a break from his curious staring out of the window, his father, with a half smile on his face, raised his brow with a knowing look and said ‘we’ll see’. While the situation wasn’t exactly the same, it did carry a reminiscent feeling with it and it was those moments, the rare memories where things seemed… almost normal, in their own way, that made Parker insist that he didn’t have a bad childhood. He was the exception to the general rule that hunters all had troubled upbringings. He was the outlier. His father was strict, but Parker only ever got in trouble because of things he did wrong, or ways that he was wrong; deficiencies, shortcomings, weaknesses. He appreciated his father’s patience with him.

Patience that he could extend to Winter as the two (though Henry was presumably there and tagging along whether he wanted to go or not) went to the first store on her mental list. And thus began what turned out to be a morning, though how eventful it was was purely going by Winter’s personal approval rating - they’d go to a store, where she’d try on different articles of clothing while he waited. He’d provide commentary or constructive criticism if she asked, and she would suggest things for him to wear in turn though Parker always politely declined; he was doing what he considered to be a suitable job hiding it but he was having trouble blatantly ignoring whatever was on or in his back, aching his muscles, feeling weighty as it would twinge uncomfortably and sharply whenever he would move a certain way. The most annoying part was realizing that he couldn’t reach it. Despite this, he reacted to her quips with his own dry sense of “humor”, rolling with her punches and though he didn’t wonder himself, it could’ve been curious how malleable he was, all things considered. His brother had noted it before, when they had gone to do things together, how Parker was a follower and a receiver of instructions without asking questions. ‘It don’t matter what you’re thinkin’. You’ll do what I say, won’t you boy?’ After all, he wasn’t here for himself. He was here for Winter, and now they sat in the car after the fourth store. The Warden checked his watch absently, though the dashboard clock was right there. “It’s about 2pm.” He said. “Would you like to break for lunch?” He asked. “Or do you want to keep eating your pizza.”

Winter had to give Parker props. Usually by the third store whoever she was shopping with would bow out or at least start looking like walking into traffic sounded more enjoyable than whatever hell she was putting them through but the hunter was keeping up quite nicely as they went along. In fact, she might have been the one getting annoyed with him. It was time to get Parker out of the henleys but everything she suggested fell on deaf ears. She just wanted him to broaden his fashion horizons, was that so much to ask?

Apparently, it was and Henry was living for it. Every ‘no’ that the medium got, no matter how polite, would send Henry into a fit of laughter as her face fell. She was starting to think she needed to find a way to get rid of the ghost again before she remembered her salt necklace she had gotten for Christmas. Threatening him with it sure shut him up every single time too.

She had noticed something off with her friend though. As enjoyable as the day had turned out to be she could see that something was bothering Parker even if he was trying to hide it. It sort of felt like he was trying to make sure he didn’t ruin their simple time together with whatever was going through his mind and for the longest time Winter had chosen to ignore the occasional slight squirm or the twitch of annoyance on his face. Only because she appreciated his own desire to ignore whatever was going on. She, more than most, could understand not wanting to talk about an underlying issue. Most people assumed that she didn’t care much about what others were going through, and didn't notice when something was off. The truth was, she wasn’t someone who would force someone to talk when they didn’t want to but after the fourth store she couldn’t pretend anymore.

“I’d rather talk about what’s bothering you.” Food was the last thing on her mind, shopping was even taking a backseat right now which was a rare occasion. She loved those damn fitting rooms. “Are you really not getting bothered by how many stores I’ve dragged you to or are you hiding it? I can tell something’s up and I don’t want you to pretend you’re okay with all of this if it’s torture to you.” And Winter would love it if he admitted defeat. The satisfaction it would bring was too much for her to ignore. Even Henry was sick of shopping and he got to mess around and spook the other patrons while they were out.

At Winter’s response, Parker was admittedly a little taken aback which was displayed to her via a slight tilt of his head. He knew that she was intuitive, but he supposed that his ability to suppress whatever irritation was on his mind, especially now that he had control over his emotions again, was stronger than her intuition. That being said, though she was able to discern that there was indeed something on his mind (or rather, on his back), she came to the wrong conclusion and after the initial surprise, he shook his head. “No, it doesn’t bother me. Really.” He added, giving her a rather earnest look as though to nonverbally convey that nothing she was doing, suggesting, or wanting was annoying him. But… The expression shifted in subtle ways that he wouldn’t have been able to explain and Parker broke eye contact with her, turning his head and looking out of the front windshield. Then he shifted in his seat slightly, a twitch of his eye escaping as he did so. And yet, the sharp, precise pricks of pain were preferable to the pressure of feeling his father’s eyes on his back as he tended to when he was at risk of exposing anything about himself. They bored into him now, simultaneously making him want to shy away from their unwavering glare and also straighten his spine, which he always did so instead. Eventually, after a longer moment of silence between them than was necessary, Parker blinked and shook his head as though pulling himself back into the present. Or out of his head, he wasn’t sure which. “Sorry.” He apologized first. “I have… It’s… I’m not sure what it is but…” Every few words were punctuated with a pause or a falter, something on the tip of his tongue that he couldn’t spit out. ‘So just… say it. Quit wasting her time.’ “I think… there’s something on my back. A… splinter or… I’m not sure.” As though she could see it, he leaned forward slightly and gestured to it. “And I can’t reach it.”

Damn. He really didn’t care that she had dragged him all over each store that they had been in. It was no big deal though, at least the day hadn’t been wasted in any way. Winter now had quite a few pieces to add to her wardrobe and a few gifts she had bought for others…including a shirt that wasn’t a Henley for the man next to her even if he wasn’t going to wear it. Still, something was up with Parker and the implied ‘but’ after his sentence lingering in the air between them like some uncomfortable secret trying to break free.

She almost rolled her eyes but decided a little grace was needed. Parker had never been one to shy away from what he was thinking but sometimes he needed a little time to get to his point. She could see his mind spinning slightly as she watched him, the little signs recognizable thanks to her years of studying the body language of others to help with her show, but she stayed quiet. The medium even looked down into one of the bags from their latest store to hopefully make whatever this was more comfortable for him, glad that for once Henry was silent as well.

Her eyebrows rose as he started to stumble over his words, Winter never having seen Parker this unsure of what he wanted to say. It almost scared her and she was surprised when the worry started to make her heart pound a little.

That worry was crushed as he revealed what it was. An itch? That’s what this was about? “Parker, why were you so tight lipped about that? It’s not a big deal. Let me look, I’ll see what it is.” Winter set the bag down on the floorboard and turned to face him. It was a back, there was nothing to be shy about but she didn’t think that maybe that’s why it was awkward for him in the first place.

Her question wasn’t answered immediately; no, it stewed in Parker’s head, with the voices of his family deciding to chime in for their own reasons or explanations. ‘You turn little things into a big deal for no reason.’

‘Who the hell knows what information you choose to share and withhold? Your brain’s always been busted.’

‘It’s just something else you’ll need to repay.’ The Warden’s brow furrowed as blue eyes darted back and forth, looking at the ground and moving as though he were reading something fervently. It wasn’t a big deal. Nothing was a big deal, they were just things that Parker twisted and corrupted and turned into monumental things for reasons he couldn’t explain. He couldn’t have told her it was embarrassing that he couldn’t take care of it himself. He couldn’t have told her that his misplaced sense of pride that had been instilled in him told him that he was supposed to do everything on his own. ‘You don’t have friends, after all.’ Inhaling through an arrow-straight nose, tension evident in something so simple, the hunter wordlessly rotated in his seat. His arms crossing over themselves in front of his chest, Parker grasped either side of his familiar gray henley and started to hitch the shirt up, revealing a disorganized web of scars on his skin; small, razor-fine lines, deep, discolored claw marks and even a few that were curiously raised, that both overlaid and underlaid the segmented abdomen of a dragonfly tattoo that aligned with his vertebrae. The rest of the tattoo still hid under his shirt, which he was very careful not to lift excessively, already feeling far more exposed than he’d have liked to. What wasn’t hidden under the shirt, eventually, was a large, pulsing insect about the size of a tennis ball and garnet in color as it twitched absently, its head buried in the Warden’s flesh just to the side of his spine.

The shock of all of the marks on this man’s back took her aback, Winter feeling as if her brain was currently rebuffering and struggling to do as such. She couldn’t process everything at once and she was suddenly very aware as to why he might have been hesitant to do this. Was this his life? Just constantly being slashed and broken by the things he was sworn to protect everyone against? Wide eyes scanned over the raised flesh, onto the deep divets, and finally over the unexpected sight of a tattoo that disappeared under the rest of his shirt. What else was he hiding under there? Did she even want to know?

She decided that she didn’t. This was enough of a glimpse into what he’d been through in his lifetime.

Feelings of discomfort upon seeing the damage his body had taken quickly turned into feelings of disgust when she saw the cause of his irritation. “Oh, fuck no!” Her body jerked back slightly, startled by the sight of the large tick that had burrowed into his skin. Henry was torn between laughter and his own discomfort, wanting to immediately make fun of Winter’s reaction but also noting the damaged skin on the Warden’s back. She was glad he stayed quiet, already distressed by the bug in front of her.

“What the hell have you been rolling around in? There’s a freaking tick latched onto you!” Throw Winter in the middle of a spriggan attack, a goo filled hotel, but put a bug in front of her and she was going to lose it. Her composure was broken, a rare sight indeed, and didn’t care one bit. “Oh, god, I have to take that out, don’t I?” She would. Only for certain people would she even consider doing this for, but she would for Parker. She just had to freak out first and she hoped he would let her without feeling too put out by it all. A whine filled the car, the girl closing her eyes to take in a few breaths, and she started to shake her hands in an attempt to pump herself up for this. “Okay, okay, I think I can do this. I just need a minute.”

Shame wasn’t an emotion that Parker wore often, nor did he wear it well; he had been made acutely and harshly aware of it when he was very young, and as such was quickly trained not to respond or acknowledge it. As such, few things gave him the feeling and one of those few things was the perception that the scars he’d accumulated over the years were abhorrent. Ugly things that caused one to recoil in fear, disgust, anger, or whatever else. He knew this, just as he knew that the same scars that tensed him up as she retaliated in such a spirited way didn’t seem to cross his mind at all when he went swimming in the indoor pool that he frequented during the colder months. Maybe it had something to do with how he couldn’t have cared less about what strangers thought of him, but he knew Winter better now and with the introduction of… friends (if he could call himself and Winter that), there was an unspoken set of rules that Parker had to follow. Certain facets of himself that he either couldn’t or wouldn’t display for the benefit of others. This wasn’t a stranger at the pool. Instinctively, the hunter started to lower his shirt again as though to nonverbally apologize for affronting her with the markings– Then all the shame flew out of the window when she mentioned the singular word: tick. Instantly, Parker felt himself relaxing and if he had been less robotic with how he reacted to everything, a little closer to a normal human, he might’ve even laughed at how foolishly he was overreacting to a misunderstanding. It wasn’t the scars she was viscerally reacting to; it was an insect. Rather casually, he turned his head slowly though instead of looking at the young woman, he acted as though he could see the thing on his back and he hummed absently. “Mm. I wonder where I acquired it.” He replied in his usual flat affect. “You don’t have to–” He started to follow-up his musing with the insistence that he wasn’t about to ask her to do such a thing; she was obviously not a fan of bugs and if this one was as impressive as it seemed to persistently cause him pain (something else unusual for Parker) but in his peripheral vision he caught her movements. Quietly, he turned his head back around instead of staring at her expectantly, though the grip on his shirt tightened subconsciously. “You don’t have to. I can have it surgically removed.” He said, now feeling more childishly embarrassed that there was an insect on him that he could neither reach nor was aware was even an insect, feeling quite inadequate at his job, skills and interests but not enough for him to react particularly strongly to it.

For a moment she was more than ready to take him up on the offer to get this thing surgically removed but the thought of diseases that spread through these things hit and she just couldn’t let him go with it in his back for longer than he had to. “No, no, what if you got lyme disease or something because it was in there for too long?” Shit, was it already too late for that? Winter didn’t know how these things worked, whether the contracted diseases through them were instant or if it needed some time, but she still wasn’t letting him go with this thing embedded in him for any longer. He was clearly annoyed by it, if not in pain. “Besides, it’s causing a lot of discomfort and there’s no need for that.”

“Brave girl you are.” The ghost was being sarcastic with her? In these conditions? She shot a glare Henry’s way but he was still smirking under the fierce gaze. What a dick.

Winter was still pressed against the other side of the car as she moved to grab her purse from the floor board. Tweezers were an essential tool on the daily for everyone. One could never know when a stray hair needed to be plucked from their eyebrows, after all. “Alright, uh…I’m throwing these out of the window when I’m done but you’re lucky I keep these on me.”

The medium paused in her movements after she came back with the tweezers, Henry laughing at the disgust filling her features while she looked at the pulsating bug on his back. She took a deep breath in to calm her nerves before she reached out with the tweezers, removing the large tick as quickly as she could. Winter probably should have been more careful with it but she didn’t care as her hand came back with the entirely too large insect, not noticing there was something missing. It was out the window as soon as she could roll the glass down, tweezers and all. “Ugh!”

Surprise crept onto his features when she turned down his offer to remove her from the undesirable job; she was obviously less than enthused. Parker didn’t blame her, either; he liked insects, even the parasites and given how he could feel this one, it must’ve been particularly… unpleasant-looking. “The likelihood of a disease affecting me is incredibly low.” Despite her reluctant willingness to help, he still wanted to make sure she was privy to his strengthened immune system, just in case. ‘Just in case what, she changes her mind and decides not to just remove the thing?’ His brother asked. ‘Like you’re gonna go to a doctor. You hate those, remember?’ The Warden shook his brother’s voice out of his thoughts and he looked back over his shoulder as he managed to hear her rummaging through her purse before mentioning that she was going to be ‘throwing these out the window’. Throwing what– oh. For a moment, Parker had half a mind to tell the young woman to just use one of the blades from his belt but it wasn’t in his mind for very long; she didn’t seem like the type to be particularly proficient with a knife. No offense to her, of course. Maybe that was something he could teach her if she wanted. For now, though, his gaze flickered to the tweezers before resting on Winter’s face for a moment longer and eventually turning his head back to face the opposite window, feeling just a little more heat from what was probably embarrassment on his cheeks. “I’ll buy you more.” He offered, ignoring the stinging sensation from the tick in favor of breathing deeply and calmly, in a rhythmic fashion as he attempted to help settle her nerves. How successful it was, Parker wasn’t sure but it was all he could do in the moment, partially for her and partially to keep his own emotional reaction under tight control. He was in control. But man could he feel when she was pulling that insect off of him. A sharp inhale was the only reaction she got, however, and it felt as though a physical weight had been released from Parker as she presumably threw the insect as well as her beloved tweezers from the car with her spirited verbal effort. If nothing else, her disgust for it helped get the task done quickly. Fluidly, he pulled his shirt back down, ignoring whatever blood would’ve gathered around the bite mark and he flexed and extended his shoulders, rotating back in his seat as he rolled his neck. There was still a residual thump, a small heartbeat in his skin but he knew that would be gone within the hour. It felt so foolish, he realized. To be affected by something so completely insignificant. However, unlike the last two times they’d interacted, both of them had control over their emotions and Parker turned to regard Winter again, finding her eyes with his own and his expression… softened. Still rather robotic and any emotions worn on it subtle but there. “Thank you.” He said quietly. “I… wouldn’t have been upset if you couldn’t do it. But… I knew you could.”

“You don’t have to buy me anything. Besides, I have a few at home.” Despite how soft Winter was speaking she couldn’t get the disgust out of her tone. Why did it have to be a freaking tick? Those were the worst of the parasitic creatures and that was including the ones who used to be human. A little shiver ran through her but it wasn’t due to the cold at all.

“That makes one of us, then.” When she opened her eyes at his words, hazel meeting blue, she raised a questioning eyebrow at the look he was giving her. It wasn’t just the softened gaze but the red cheeks to go along with it and for a split second she couldn’t understand why Parker was staring like that. Was he embarrassed? Shit, she had embarrassed him, hadn’t she? Winter didn’t think Parker could get embarrassed but she seemed to have found the trick to doing so. Now whether that was because of the grossest bug known to man on his back or the scars etched into his skin was anyone’s guess but his.

Another thing hit her after that thought….Parker had said ‘thank you.’ It might have been the first time she’d heard him utter those words and she wasn’t really sure what to do with them. A feeling of discomfort filled her chest as she realized how much that had meant to him, the medium always faltering when it came to the whole feelings part of things, especially when those mostly confirmed that their budding friendship was now a full blown thing.

“Right…no, yeah, you’re not supposed to thank me, remember?” That seemed right. Reminding him of his small error was the way to go here. Winter sat back against the door of the car as Henry scoffed, the girl just imagining the ghost rolling his eyes at the two of them. “It was no problem, not even worth the thank you.” She wouldn’t look Parker in the eye as she added one last thing. “But….you know, anytime you need something you know you can come to me.” She fought a gigantic bug for the guy, that was enough to prove she would stand by his side during most anything. It wasn’t everyday the Winter Cahya would go into the throes of battle with such a thing.

She would only do so when it mattered.

#Threads #Thread: Parker #The Ever Uneven Scale #under skin tw #parental abuse tw #abuse tw

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longislandcharm · 1 year ago

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PARTIES: Winter (@longislandcharm) and Parker (@wonder-in-wings) WHERE: Gallow's Grove TIME: Strongest night of the August blue moon SUMMARY: Winter is having trouble concentrating with too many ghosts trying to get in contact with her at once so she calls Parker for help in testing out a theory. WARNINGS: Mentions of blood and fighting as they talk, suicidal ideation, all the ghosties

She hadn’t wanted to end up in the cemetery that night. In truth, it was the last place she wanted to be but she had to test a theory that had been floating around in her mind. For days, the medium had been hearing voices in her head along with the images of different people flashing before her but that night they seemed to be the most overwhelming they had ever been. She couldn’t figure out what it was before, thought maybe she was cursed by something in this town, but now she was certain that she had a good idea of what was going on. How to fix it was the issue. Winter had been told of a few things that could make ghosts disappear but her custom made bracelet had yet to make it to town so that only left salt to try and stave off the voices.

Had she absolutely needed Parker’s help to test this out? No, but even through the fog surrounding her mind she remembered that he’d wanted to know whether the salt worked or not. Even with the way things had been left between them a few weeks ago she trusted him more than most in this town and Winter did not want to be alone in this cemetery at night. Who better to have with her than a man she knew could defend himself as well as her if anything happened? So, she’d finally answered his message that he had sent and after a brief conversation she did her best to stay as alert as possible even with her affliction.

He needed to hurry though. She wasn’t sure just how long she could keep this up. Winter’s eyes kept closing as she flinched with each static-y ghost that popped into her vision. She so desperately wanted to enclose her hands over her ears in an attempt to keep the voices out. But if she did she would be defenseless against anything else that might be out there, the possibilities of who or what were endless. The salt was sitting next to her. She could try to end this now but Winter didn’t trust her shaky hands to do the job so all she could do was sit in the soft grass and wait.

It was strange, when he thought about it, how he seemed to settle back into his regular routines. Parker was a man of stringent rituals and habits so old they might as well have been carved into his bone. After the incident (that he was leaning towards referring to as simply the “Pendulum” after much deliberation and time wasted frustratingly thinking about it; after all, it wasn’t as though he was ever going to tell anyone what happened unless it was paramount), he was in such a state, so desperate to return to a semblance of normalcy that for the first couple of days, obviously, he swung in the complete opposite direction. Everything had to go on lockdown. Nothing could escape. No joy, contentment, happiness. No grief, sorrow, empathy. No irritation, frustration, anger. Nothing was made evident and he… didn’t really remember those days. It was as though Parker’s mind went on autopilot while it cleaned up the internal and external messes that were made - he had to consistently hydrate. He was worried that his eyes had suffered permanent damage because of how often he’d cried, which was decidedly more in those couple of weeks than the entire rest of his 47 years on the planet combined. He still found pieces of the mirror he shattered in his bathroom. And yet, Parker hadn’t forgotten anything. The days tended to run together, for sure, but he remembered what had happened on each day: the museum. The bodega. The Workshop, the jaguar. The nymph, the leviathan, the cabin. The bathhouse. He also remembered two different days with two different mediums in two different alleys. The circumstances were alike in that they were both female, arriving immediately as Parker was acting as the aggressor after being confronted first. They both asked what he was doing, taking the defense of whatever victim found itself against the Warden’s knuckles. They were different, however, in what had actually happened. Parker thought of Winter on occasion, about how she almost witnessed him commit a murder, albeit against a nonhuman. He thought about their rather cordial conversation online and how that was harshly juxtaposed against their first in-person meeting. He thought about how she had offered kindness underneath the defensiveness, which she was right to have considering how he looked and acted towards her. He had cleaned the bottle of nail polish remover she’d offered to him that day and placed it on his shelf; something that held no obvious value but she’d given it to him. The Warden looked at it and thought about that day, associating it with her. He owed her. So when she messaged him asking if he would go Gallow’s Grove, Parker was expeditious. He didn’t ask more than one or two questions out of necessity for preparedness before he grabbed his utility belt and headed to the location despite it being in Worm Row - he owed her. The Warden wasn’t sure what he was walking into with zero information as he got out of his car and glanced around the graveyard for her but it didn’t matter - he owed her. “Winter?” He called, clearly but not aggressively as he made his way between the rows of tombstones, only affording a second or two to look at the mausoleums before going back to scanning for the medium.

A new voice joined the ranks of the dozen or so already reaching out to her, the medium flinching once more. Whether that was because of who it belonged to or that it was adding to the immense overstimulation was anyone’s guess. She knew that voice at least, it was ingrained in her mind now that she’d dreamed of that night over and over. Winter couldn’t find a way to make the dreams stop and in turn she’d heard Parker yelling about what she was after smearing blood on his face almost every night now. Thankfully he didn’t come off as wildly desperate this time, more assertive than anything, and she was able to call out without her own vocal chords betraying her.

“I’m over here.”

Before the man could even make it to her she grabbed the full cylinder that held the salt and held it up, having it ready. As soon as he got there she wanted this tested and hopefully over with. Winter just prayed this was what she thought it was and not another problem entirely or else this night was going to go downhill very quickly. They were stronger than they had been all week, a week she had barely gotten through, so if she had to keep going with them getting worse and worse she was ready to go to greater lengths to make it stop.

Seeing him come into her eye line, Winter looked down to the ground in front of her but still held out the salt. It was hard to see him and not picture the body of the spriggan he’d beaten but she was determined to push those images out of her mind. It was also hard to even focus on the man when so many different people were flashing in and out around him. Maybe the graveyard wasn’t the best idea for this but it was too late for that now. “You wanted to know if the salt worked, right? Can you put a circle of it around me? Make sure it’s not broken in any place and that it’s a wide one.”

It had to be precise. Lil had been so helpful to her on that first day they had spoken but she’d also remembered a lot of the books she had read that said the lines couldn’t be broken. It made sense, if they could get past the salt it wouldn’t help at all, right? Thankfully, Parker was somebody who seemed capable of being meticulous with his work if their previous encounter was any indication. The clean up was nothing but. “I think there’s enough there. I hope…” Her voice was thick, coated with fatigue and the pain that Winter had been experiencing for days now. “Please?”

Despite his deficient hearing, which instinctively turned his head more than it usually would’ve needed to so he could identify her location, her voice managed to reach him and Parker abruptly stopped in his aimless meandering. He turned abruptly, stepping over headstones and weaving around others until his blue eyes fell upon her visage, sitting on the ground and holding something in her hands. For a reason he didn’t seem to be able to identify, he was placed on edge - maybe it was the fact that they were in a graveyard. Maybe it was how she was sitting, avoiding looking him in the eye (though given their brief-but-established track record, that wasn’t new). Maybe it was the lack of opening dialogue that he himself rarely used but he’d long since grown accustomed to it from others. She appeared distressed, which he could tell from her messages just prior to this interaction. And now as she sat on the ground, holding up what appeared to be a container of salt like an offering to a deity, a small part of him ignited inside. It felt like a residual thing from the Pendulum, a flicker of something unusual. He felt– Parker blinked just once to push the feeling down and kept staring at her, listening to everything she was saying, what little there was. He wordlessly took the container of salt as the instructions repeated themselves in his mind: Make a salt circle around her, wide and with no breaks. Immediately, as she gave him those simple instructions, he could feel his imagination sparking. Parker was many things, most of which things that people would never learn about him either through a lack of information or not bothering to ask. One of those things was an artist. She couldn’t have known that but his own knowing that information, feeling it to be true about himself, instinctively made him want to do this if not for her, than for himself. To prove that he could. “Very well.” He replied with his usual flat affect and he didn’t think on it for long before he went to work, feeling the weight of the salt, how much there was, how thick he should’ve made the circle. “Why are you here?” He asked as he worked; he was also a proficient multitasker and while he wasn’t great with people, he could tell that she was obviously overwhelmed with whatever was going on and he found in his experience (though he wouldn’t say how personal that experience was) that talking about mundane things tended to help. Then again, asking why she was there wasn’t really ‘mundane’, so he cleared his throat. “How have you been.” He opted to ask instead.

The fact that he didn’t ask questions and just accepted her request made Winter sigh with relief, her breath coming out shaky and uneven. She didn’t want questions, not now, not when she could barely think. It was as if whatever was causing all of this was getting worse by the second, and what she suspected to be ghostly voices were starting to grow stronger. All she wanted to do was place her hands over her ears, knowing after the day before that it would help just a little bit.

But the questions did come unfortunately and she found herself slow in answering him while she was trying to sift out his words to keep them from mixing with the others. His voice was thankfully starting to stand out as she focused on it, Parker’s proximity helping her identify his words as opposed to the wails and the groaning about problems she didn’t know how to fix. They were so, so loud.

“I haven’t…been great.” There was no point in lying. It was obvious that she wasn’t her normal self even if Parker had no idea what normal was for her. She was slightly hunched over now as he started to pour the salt, her eyes closed with him at her side. She didn’t know this man very well but Winter was confident that he would protect her if something were to interrupt this interaction despite the things she’d witnessed. He’d really done nothing but that since they’d started talking online even if that protection came in the form of information, it had still helped. She could forget their first physical encounter for the moment even if it would come back to haunt her once more.

She made the mistake of opening her eyes just to see how close he was to finishing only to be met with the sight of Henry standing just outside the line that Parker was making. He looked concerned but the two of them had learned throughout the week that there was nothing he could do, the ghost flashing in and out of her vision more rapidly than the others. He was almost like a strobe light to her and Winter found herself closing her eyes again without even checking the line. “I couldn’t go back to the hotel…I shouldn’t even be in Worm Row right now. It was better downtown but I didn’t know where we could go down there without a ton of people around.”

Her reply had come slower than the work he was doing, already seeming to find something of a stride and when she did answer, it was about to be expected nowadays, from anyone. At least she didn’t lie to him, though part of Parker would’ve found himself mildly amused by whatever explanation she wanted to come up with to insinuate that whatever was going on could’ve been considered ‘normal’. Nevertheless, he continued to work as she spoke, reminded of a few weeks ago with Lil in the alley. He kept in mind that he wanted to ask more about the tools that mediums used but now didn’t seem appropriate, not when she already felt so overwhelmed by something that he couldn’t see or hear. “Is it something to do with Henry?” Parker asked absently, reaching what he thought was the final quarter of the circle, still wondering if it was satisfactory briefly before ultimately deciding that she could’ve either asked her other medium friend to come help or done it herself so his job was satisfactory enough. “...I don’t like Worm Row, either.” He added after a pause. “It smells weird. Too many people wanting to start fights over nothing they can see.”

“Sort of.” She paused with her answer, the medium trying her best to concentrate on Parker's voice and nothing else. “He's not causing it but he's part of it, yes.” She wanted to make it clear that her new friend wasn't at fault for this. Even if the ghost had been a dick to her through their first few months together, Winter was aware that she hadn't been pleasant to deal with either and Henry had been just as confused as her. Not that she would admit that. Since their talk in the hotel a few weeks prior they'd gotten friendlier with each other even if the two were still smart asses most of the time. At least they weren't at each other's throats anymore. In fact, he'd actually been trying to help her figure this new slight out and had eventually pointed out the salt solution to her after she'd realized the voices were physical and not in her head.

If she hadn't been trying to keep her stomach settled from the wave of nausea that passed through her, most likely from her splitting headache, Winter would have laughed at Parker's comment. Worm Row did smell. She'd gotten used to it since staying at the Elysium but this part of town was no stranger to what she felt was decay. That might not have been the complete source of the smell but it surely mixed in with the rest of it and made it pungent. “For some reason, the further I got from here the better this...ailment got. I slept in my car one night...” Another pause as a woman's cries of anguish cut through her thoughts, Winter flinching as her eyes shut tighter like that would keep the noise level down. “It wasn't pleasant but this...is worse.”

She really did think she would be sick if this wasn't over soon. Never in her life had Winter experienced a headache so bad that it made her physically ill but the overstimulation of all of this was enough to do so it seemed. She needed Parker to keep talking, she needed something to fixate on so that she could continue to block out the other noises around them. It took her a moment to reach back into their conversation and come up with a way to do that but soon she was turning the tables and asking him a question. “Start fights over nothing they can see...what do you mean by that? Elaborate...about everything. Even if you think it's not important.”

As Parker worked, probably not going as fast as Winter wanted or needed but he also refused to do what was expected of him in a poor or rushed manner, he picked up on the young woman's replies, spoken through a filter, the process of receiving too much information at once with an attempt to keep the words coherent. Parker was familiar with the sensation, recalling… ‘Every time a room filled up with too much noise?’ Granted, Parker never seemed to be completely alone in his head, but he either didn’t or couldn’t afford to mind it at this point. ‘It’s because you love us.’ ‘It’s because he ain’t got internal monologue. If you looked inside, all you’d see is bugs.’ The Warden shook his head faintly as he managed to catch Winter’s request. He didn’t have to think long about why - she was trying to focus on something real, something that he could also see and control. Something she could touch. Then again, he thought mediums could interact with ghosts but surely there was something to having Parker there and not… he wasn’t sure. Lil? Winter had other friends, right? He supposed it didn’t matter; he was there now, he was able and willing to assist her, especially after she had treated him when he was in a decidedly more ill-tempered mood before. ‘Because you’re weirdly sentimental like that. I thought you had no friends?’ He didn’t. Winter was an acquaintance, only there until she realized there was some aspect about him that she didn’t like or couldn’t tolerate. That’s how it always went. And he would still assist her both as a Warden, a responsible adult (for what that meant around a town like Wicked’s Rest), and as a human. So, she asked him to essentially make small talk. It wasn’t one of Parker’s strong suits, especially when it didn’t concern something he was particularly interested in, which Worm Row certainly wasn’t. However… “A lot of arguments and fights start, in my experience, because of a difference of perspective.” He began as he worked, allowing his icy eyes to dart to her on occasion, if only to give her the impression that he still knew she was there, that he saw her and maybe even to give a nonverbal indicator that he wasn’t going anywhere unless the ghosts suddenly… what did ghosts do, carry people away? One has physically rammed into Lil, but could one do that to him, too? “They… pretend to steal a wallet. Or they think they see something. Or think they hear something.” He was over halfway done, now. “I suppose it’s not just in Worm Row. But…” He fell silent for a moment. Or silent to him, anyway. “When you think about it, a lot of it is something one can’t see. Sometimes it’s the idea of money. Oftentimes is power or control.” Parker rolled his eyes, his face otherwise emotionless. “Fools grasping for things they assume are there.”

She'd never been so grateful to another human being in her life before, the girl focusing on every word leaving Parker's lips as if it was the most interesting conversation in the world. And right now, it was. He was somehow drowning out everything else around her while Winter zeroed in, the ghost's fading to the background and becoming a dull chatter behind the main act. If she kept her eyes closed it would be a piece of cake to get through the rest of this compared to the last couple of days. She was hoping that once she couldn't hear them anymore they would all leave her alone, stop flashing in and out of her sight like the jumpscares that they had turned into. As he spoke, she nodded her head gently so as not to make the headache worse until she found the opportunity to jump in again, maybe get him talking a little bit more.

“They see what they want and know they can't have.“ She'd fallen victim to such things before, especially growing up in an area known for following dreams and what not. When people realize the things they want are unattainable they get greedy, desperate, unwilling to accept that they need to move on to other things to be happy. Hell, she'd not only been a victim of it, she'd done it herself. Maybe not to the extent that Parker had been speaking of but jealousy had gotten to her a few times in life. ”So, they convince themselves that others have it and they can tak-“

She was cut off as it seemed one of the ghosts was not happy to be sharing her time with the hunter. The same woman's shriek tore through her thoughts as if she was standing right next to her, screaming into her ear, making Winter's body jerk from the sheer surprise of it. That was almost worse. Forgetting the voices were there as she focused on what Parker was saying and then suddenly having them tear through her line of thought was just as unpleasant as the voices constantly barraging her. She wouldn't stop this time either and Winter lifted her hands to cover her ears in an attempt to block it out as much as she could. The ghost was crying out with...despair, is what it sounded like, searching for a lost love that she had no chance of finding. It was getting louder and louder and the medium couldn't hold back the whimper of pain as a sharp ache went through her head. This was it, this was how she was going to die. Overstimulation would soon cause some sort of aneurysm and she would be gone in no time, the pain disappearing from her life for good.

Or maybe it was wishful thinking. She'd take death right now. If it meant making this stop, if it meant sleep even if eternal, she would gladly take it with no complaints. Never in her life did she think she would wish for something like that but Winter couldn't help it while the woman's cries got louder, as if she were trying to claw her way into the medium's mind so that she could experience what the ghost was feeling. ”Please...s-stop, please.“

A plea to a ghost who didn't care whether the human was in pain or not. She just wanted to be heard, to be seen, and Winter wasn't giving her that. Tears started to fall from hazel eyes that were still tightly shut, the sudden wet streaks on her face cooling the heat that had risen, the only reprise she had from how awful she felt. This had to end. Winter didn't care how. Her hands pressed harder against her ears but it did nothing to help block out more noise, resulting in Winter curling into herself even more. ”Parker! Please!“

Whatever conversation was happening was inconsequential, Parker knew that. He was a proficient multitasker, that had already been established, but at her whimpers that almost went by him and his deficient hearing unnoticed, her pleas to stop whatever sound was pushing through her thoughts, and especially the cry for help, prompted the Warden to work more resolutely. He felt like he was running out of salt, a sensation that he wouldn’t allow himself to be stunted or altered by. He couldn’t recall if he’d ever heard his name called like that, not even by his mother or brother. He couldn’t recall if someone had ever expressed so purely or desperately that he was needed. It was an idea so foreign to him, a code that didn’t seem to fit into his sequence of ideas and robotic thoughts, that he couldn’t even have been certain that he was assigning the correct emotion to the tone he heard laced in her voice– no, ripping through it like lightning against the stormy water. Her body language was a visual indicator of whatever was going on inside her head and even if she hadn’t shouted, he would’ve been able to tell that she was in pain. The only thing he was worse at than casual conversation and small talk was offering… Parker wasn’t even sure what it was called. ‘You might be thinking of… wait. I don’t know the word either.’ He breathed evenly. Almost done. ‘It’s that feeling when you feel sad or upset because someone else is sad or upset.’ “Why?” He found himself asking aloud this time, responding to his family’s bickering. As he asked, he kept moving, kept moving, until the last of the salt was poured from the container, closing the circle. A perfect ring of white surrounding the diminutive, trembling figure inside with her hands over her ears and tears on her face. ‘It’s called empathy, my son.’ Parker’s steely blue eyes focused on her, his expression carrying… what might’ve been called concern, if only faint and subtle. “Winter?” He asked, his voice clear but with something unfamiliar clinging to the tone.

The shrieking was only getting worse and the more it filled Winter's ears the more she wanted it to go ahead and physically tear her apart. This woman insisted on being heard, cackling with a higher pitched tone each time Winter let out a sob. It was as if she liked inflicting the pain that she felt onto others. If the medium hadn't been so out of it she would have realized it was a poltergeist intent on harming anyone in her path, especially those that could interact with her. But she was too busy trying to push it out, trying to make the noise stop by any means. She couldn't focus enough in that moment to remember that Parker was even there, suddenly lost to the noise that was surrounding her like a barrier that had been put between the two humans.

And then it was gone. Her ears were ringing with the sudden drop of the decibel level, the girl shaking as she kept her hands clasped over them as if the silence was a trick the ghost was playing on her. It hadn't been this quiet in days, no more noise other than the normal sounds of the night around her. It was like paradise. She felt like she could fall asleep right there in the middle of the cemetery, exhaustion enveloping her and constricting around her like a serpent sent to lull her to sleep.

Winter took a deep breath in through her nose and slowly lowered her trembling hands. It worked. The salt had cut off the voices of the ghosts that hadn't left her alone, the medium having collected them throughout the week like little trinkets. They were all gone. All but one. Parker's cut through the silence but she didn't even mind. It was so nice to only hear one person that she laughed softly at the sound despite the small detection of...was that concern lacing his tone? No, she had to be hearing things. Most likely a side effect of the wall of sound from before.

“It worked...the salt worked.“ She reached up as she spoke, wiping away the tears that had streaked her face even while more continued to slip from her eyes...eyes that she still didn't want to open. Even if the salt had cut off the noise from the ghosts she knew they were probably still standing outside the circle, all flashing like they had been before. Unless they got bored and decided to leave they would most likely be there all night. Keeping them closed, Winter started to raise her head, still hunched over from what she'd just experienced. ”Thank you...for helping me.“

To him, nothing had changed except that there was now a nice, neat circle of salt on the somewhat uneven ground. To her, though, the difference was night and day. Parker had long since come to accept that though he wanted to, there were things he’d never have been able to see. While he didn’t know they existed on the same plane as them, ghosts were now one of those things; all he could do was… trust that the mediums he’d acquainted himself with weren’t just lying to him, playing these things off as ploys for attention. She visibly relaxed, though the damage of what had been sightlessly assaulting her still clutched her frame, watered her eyes, shook her hands. Parker, by comparison, moved very little, every motion and gesture just as calculated as the last. After all, he had lost nothing, he wasn’t spurned or urged by anything other than the desperation in Winter’s voice. It was done, the container empty and Parker didn’t remove his vigilant stare from the young woman until she spoke to him. Another ‘thank you’. Another unwarranted ‘thank you’ that he didn’t earn. And that meant it was another ‘thank you’ that Parker wasn’t sure how to react to. So the Warden opted out of replying immediately, feeling his mind being tugged into different directions by the internal voices of his family. Wordlessly, the man removed his gaze from Winter and messed with the empty cylinder of salt, fingers brushing against the metal spout. Clearing his throat, he looked out and regarded the dark, eerily silent graveyard with its varied tombstones where his sharp eyes scanned the environment almost like a hawk before he lowered himself to the ground until he sat on the outside of the circle, facing the same direction as her as he kept his gaze looking forward. “I’m…” Happy wasn’t the right word; he didn’t experience happiness. He wasn’t sure the last time when he had. “It’s no problem. I’m– It’s fortunate that I was able to assist.” He lowered his head as he sat there, loosely locking his fingers as they were wrapped around slightly raised legs before he looked over at Winter. “How long do you have to stay in there… do you think?”

She could hear Parker's movements as he settled down next to her, the rustling on the ground joining the ringing as it slowly started to die down more and more. Winter could have hugged him, forgotten about the encounter weeks before, forgotten the sounds his fists made against the face of the spriggan in favor of showing the gratitude she felt towards him but she knew that Parker would most likely not enjoy something like that. He didn't seem like the type for affection. Besides, her head was still pounding and she didn't feel like making it worse with sudden movements. Deep breathing to try and calm her wrecked nerves and maybe slow down the tremble in her body was all that she could muster.

“I don't know.” Winter hadn't thought that far ahead. All she'd wanted to know was if this salt trick was going to work, she'd never thought about what would happen afterwards if it had. It wasn't like she could wear a circle of salt around her to keep these voices away so she was stuck here until she could see that whatever was going on was over or she was ready to brave the screaming poltergeist once more, not to mention the many others. Now that she knew, though, she could plan ahead for another salt circle if it was needed. “I guess until I'm ready to face that again. It's lucky there's not a lot of wind tonight.” Why had she chosen a freaking cemetery to do this in? She clearly hadn't been thinking correctly when she'd tried to work this out and now that the fog was dissipating little by little she was starting to see her mistakes so clearly.

As she straightened more, she let her eyes flutter open even as she kept them lowered. She didn't want to look up yet so she set her gaze on the ground in front of her while she used the sleeve of her cardigan to wipe away the remaining tears that had flowed freely. Finally, she lifted her gaze from the soft grass below her, her eyes landing first on the white line now surrounding her. “Damn...it's so precise.” Winter should have known not to expect anything less. The night she'd helped clean up his mess he'd been very meticulous with everything but this was just a circle of salt. She really hadn't expected him to make it so perfect.

A flash of feet caught her attention and Winter lifted her line of sight even more to find Henry still standing at the edge of the circle, looking a lot more calm than he'd been before. He was still going in and out, as were the other ghosts standing around watching them, and though it wasn't pleasant to watch it was a lot easier to take in without the shouts of all of them mixed in. Now that she could see how many there were she could understand why she'd been so overwhelmed. Not wanting to focus too long on the mass of ethereal people standing around them, she finally turned her head to look at Parker, a weak smile being sent his way. “I don’t even know what’s causing this so I don’t know if it’ll go away on its own or not. I think...I should be okay now, though.”

Throughout his life, Parker only managed to learn most of what he could display through the observation of others, whether that was checking for physical symptoms of pain when a fae was obviously lying to him or careful mimicry of when he would inevitably upset Walker. His attempts were always shoddy, stilted, artificial. Now, as he sat next to the anxious girl in a graveyard where there were several ghosts presuming to be lingering around them without him being able to see a single one, he felt similarly. He wasn’t good at comforting others, offering an arm to steady them without them explicitly telling or asking him. Winter needed someone more emotional, perhaps. Parker knew that, as he sat next to the anxious girl in a graveyard where there were several ghosts presuming to be lingering around them without him being able to see a single one. She needed someone to give her gentle words, a comforting smile, assurance that everything would be okay. Parker wasn’t emotional and he tried not to be a liar, an unpleasant combination when confronted with someone who needed the opposite. So when she looked at him, a small smile crossing her tearstained face, he didn’t reciprocate with a smile of his own but he did regard her with a slightly different facial expression, one that was less harsh, less like he was scrutinizing her. “Okay.” He said with a small nod, lowering his gaze in thought. “I’ll stay here with you until then.” He wasn’t asking, not directly, but this was as close as he could get to supporting her without outright saying or perceiving it that way.

As much as she wanted to protest him staying with her, her own pride making it very hard to accept help if she didn’t absolutely need it, Winter couldn’t find it in herself to argue. Parker had already seen her at what she presumed was her worst, a hunched over mess whose words were barely decipherable. He’d already seen the tears flowing freely, something not many in her life had ever witnessed. There wasn’t much more weakness that she could show him. It was…humbling, if anything. Besides, her head still felt like it was splitting and it was comforting to have someone sitting next to her, even if that someone wasn’t the most gentle of people. His presence alone was enough.

“Guess this makes us even then.” Her attempt at humor was lackluster at best but she was the type of person who thought humor could help any situation, not to mention someone who always kept a score in her head. She had helped Parker, now he had helped Winter. They were even in her mind. Still, it probably wasn’t the time to bring it up with her head low and the two of them sitting in the middle of a cemetery inside a circle of salt to keep the ghosts at bay. It was most likely time for something else, something that she dreaded; an apology. “Sorry…that I had to call you out here. I’m sure there are better things that you could have been doing tonight.”

He assumed the levity was for her and not himself, as he had since thought he established that he wasn’t one for humor. Nonetheless, Parker managed to scoff lightly, quietly as he lifted his head and glanced out into the quiet night, the “empty” graveyard that apparently wasn’t so empty after all. “Yeah, we’re even now.” She couldn’t have known but the Warden often considered things like that as well, as though good deeds were on an ever-shifting scale that could easily be reallocated, made up for on a one-to-one basis. Finding him in the alley that day, knowing nothing about him yet offering that bottle of nail polish remover in the hopes that it would help, offering to assist him, asking questions… she had tipped the scale and he still considered that this, perhaps, wasn’t entirely equivalent. The Warden didn’t really do anything, after all. For all he knew, she really could’ve just been unstable, as he was that day. Parker also supposed that maybe it didn’t matter; she had helped him, of course he would help her even if she didn’t. ‘It’s these moments of gentleness that show me that you’re human, my child,’ his mother encouraged softly, a memory in his head, a bloodied hand on his cheek as he expressed concern over a gash in her arm. The source was irrelevant, especially given how resolutely and effortlessly she’d cut its throat moments after and even as he recalled the words, he was just now recognizing the harsh juxtaposition they provided against the battleground they were on that day.

“...No need to apologize.” He added, keeping his gaze looking out into the distance. “It’s fortunate that whatever things I could’ve been doing instead are of little urgency. They will still be there when I return to them.” Parker absently fidgeted with his fingers now, feeling the calluses on his skin, the shape of his knuckles, each blood vessel that barely protruded from the back of his hand. “I’m… happy to have been able to assist.”

‘It’s fortunate that whatever things I could’ve been doing instead are of little urgency.’ Despite the downplaying of other activities that could have had his attention that night, him saying this struck Winter. She thought back to the messages she’d sent him to get Parker to the cemetery and realized he hadn’t needed much prompting at all. She’d called, he’d come running with very little questions asked. Had that been because of the assistance she’d given him not two weeks ago? Or was there another reason?

Bringing her knees up, Winter layed her cheek on top of them, her hazel eyes fixed on the hunter for a moment. Had that been concern etched on his face earlier or had she been imagining things? Their limited interactions should indicate the latter was true and yet the two of them were somehow helping each other with something that could potentially turn dangerous each time they met in person. Right out of the gate, Parker had been helping her navigate this town, teaching her about what should be unknown to everyone and yet seemed like a natural subject of interest around here.

Something deeper was going on here. They were connected and had been ever since she’d decided to stay in that alley with him, maybe even since their first conversation online. Most people in Winter’s life had never been able to see her so vulnerable and yet she’d offered that on a silver platter to the other man. Sure, he could protect her and that was a big reason as to why she’d messaged him that night but for some reason she cared enough to not let their first meeting scare her away. Maybe it had been the look in his eye that night, the raw emotion radiating off of him, or maybe it was his willingness to provide a random stranger online with the help she didn’t know she had needed but either way Winter came to a conclusion.

Looking away from him, her chin now on her knees as she stared forward, she sighed softly as the thought hit her, knowing in her heart that this was something she needed. Maybe he needed it too. “I’m glad we’re friends, Parker.”

#Threads #Thread: Salt Lines #Thread: Parker #tw blood #tw suicidal ideation

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