Miguel O'Hara (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninjavampire) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
nightlogs2023-11-13 11:02 pm
ninjavampire) wrote in nightlogs2023-11-13 11:02 pm
Entry tags:
talking to ghosts
Who: Miggy & You??
What: Miguel stays behind to do dead honoring activities
Where: the Pole to start
When: Late October, Early November (Day of the Dead time)
Warnings/Notes: themes of mourning, though it can be lighthearted also
Miguel would be reluctantly absent during the action around Halloween. A strange enough decision, given his first instinct would be to throw himself into the fray as a distraction.
But as of late, he couldn’t hide that something was eating at him. The gloomy spell over his mood seemed more intense than months prior, burning away his patience and making short tempered remarks and the flashing of fangs more easy to let slip. He'd done okay keeping things somewhat under lock, but it was clear now something was definitely wrong.
And so, after some tense, but persuasive conversation just convincing enough to accept staying behind, Miguel finds himself idle on a quieter and lonelier Pole for a few days.
((prompts incoming - brackets or prose are fine))
What: Miguel stays behind to do dead honoring activities
Where: the Pole to start
When: Late October, Early November (Day of the Dead time)
Warnings/Notes: themes of mourning, though it can be lighthearted also
Miguel would be reluctantly absent during the action around Halloween. A strange enough decision, given his first instinct would be to throw himself into the fray as a distraction.
But as of late, he couldn’t hide that something was eating at him. The gloomy spell over his mood seemed more intense than months prior, burning away his patience and making short tempered remarks and the flashing of fangs more easy to let slip. He'd done okay keeping things somewhat under lock, but it was clear now something was definitely wrong.
And so, after some tense, but persuasive conversation just convincing enough to accept staying behind, Miguel finds himself idle on a quieter and lonelier Pole for a few days.
((prompts incoming - brackets or prose are fine))
cw: cannibalism ref, child death
"My people tried to protect us, but sometimes the Bergens surprised us and came between Trollstices. They thought the kids were - that we -"
He breaks off because he doesn't want to go too deep into something as dark as ;they thought we were more delicious.' Children were happier. Children' had more joy inside to suck out.
"So I know better than to - than to say certain things."
You didn't say that it wasn't someone's fault, especially if you didn't know the situation. You didn't know if they'd been there, desperate to save their child as they were ripped out of their arms. You didn't know if they'd tried to knock them out of the way of a massive hand but were a second too late. You didn't know if they blamed themselves for letting them play outside at all, even if it wasn't Trollstice.
Even if it really wasn't their fault, kind words wouldn't change that they felt it was.
(There's a lesson in there, somewhere, maybe, about fault. About how Branch can grant that grace of "it was the fault of the aggressor" to everyone but himself. But he doesn't see it yet.)
"But one thing I do know is... is how much parents are willing to give for their kids. That they'd give anything. Everything."
His hand tightens on the door frame, and now he locks his eyes on the floor outside.
His voice gets subtly raspier. "Because of what my grandma gave up for me."
It isn't something he offers up easily to anyone. It's not something he's told the people he gets along with more, like Stacia. But in this place of grief, with someone else who apparently knows grief like he does - because there is no other way for a parent to lose a child than that child being ripped away too soon - he finds the words.
"I also know sometimes the world makes that not matter." He quickly adds, "I'm not going to ask anything or say anything else about that, just that I wish -" He thinks of Miguel's face when he saw the design on the puzzle, of the two hands, and about how many troll-lings had been ripped right out of their parents' arms, and about how if his grandma had been a second later, she might have been one of them. "I wish the world had let you hold on."
He doesn't wait for a response, doesn't elaborate further, doesn't want Miguel to feel pressed to offer up anything more, doesn't want to look him in the eyes, and certainly doesn't want to be in a position where he feels like he has to elaborate more about his grandma, so he books it after that, away from the door and quickly down the hall.