forum Apocalypse rp (open for now!)

Started March 04, 2023 by @Eli-the-transboi group

tune

Cathal stays where he is for the rest of the night, rocking back and fourth and only focusing on teddy and the fidget he had in his hands.

Tohru drags his pencil across an empty page. His lead breaks. He almost immediately forgets what he was trying to draw as he fumbles for a sharpener. Tohru’s hands are still very unsteady. His pressure on the page is alarmingly hard.
Doing sketches isn't quite working its magic on keeping him calm as it usually does. He's restless for the remainder of the night. Occasionally drifts off holding his book. Yet, he feels more on edge than he has in a while.

After a moment, Cathal walks over to him and hands him a pencil sharpener. He holds up a paper saying: ‘It works better.’

"I-uh… thank you," Tohru says, "This one's definitely dulled a lot from how much I used it."
He sharpens the pencil a bit and passes Cathal's sharpener back. His hand is still trembling. Tohru shows his shaking hand to Cathal and shrugs.
"I think maybe this is my problem."

Cathal frowns, then writes something else. ‘Don’t beat yourself up over it. Shit happens.’

Tohru presses his hand down to the book resting in his lap.
"It'd be nice if I could actually do the one thing that kind of helps me relax," he laughs.

Cathal nods, showing he understood. He sits down next to him.

Tohru takes a deep breath.
"I'm sorry," he says, "I shouldn't have escalated everything like that. It was very careless of me."
With his newly sharpened pencil, he starts to work on the outline of something new over the ghost of the old, erased lines.
His hands are still incredibly shaky, so it's not his best work, but it's still very clear that he's started on a sketch of Teddy.

Cathal shakes his head, dismissing his apology. He then watches Tohru sketch, smiling.

"I always find it easiest to just draw things I see when I'm… like this, I guess," Tohru says. He flips a few pages back. There are other sketches of people and plants, but mostly lots of birds.

Cathal smiles softly, then writes. ‘I like it.’ He looks at Tohru.

"I've got a thing for birds, if you couldn't tell," Tohru says, "I already did, but I feel like they're one of the few animals that's really held out through this apocalypse."
If he'd been paying attention earlier, Cathal probably would have noticed the Phoenix tattoo across Tohru’s back, and maybe a couple of his smaller tattoos, most of which were various birds of prey.
"But really, I just think they're nice to look at. And drawing feathers is fun."

Cathal nods, then writes. ‘Is that why you have so many bird tattoos?’

"Oh… well, yeah, I guess so," Tohru replied, "People do ask me a lot if they have deeper meaning, since they're often a symbol of freedom. But I mean, sometimes people just get tattoos because they look cool. And frankly, I'm one of those people."
He flipped back to the page where he'd started drawing Teddy.
"I don't think I'm going to be sleeping anymore tonight. Sorry if I'm keeping you up or anything."

Cathal shakes his head, writing. ‘It’s ok. I’m not sleeping either.’ He smiles at Tohru and watches him draw, petting teddy absently. After a while, Cathal mutters, “I like it…”

Tohru’s a little surprised that the other has spoken finally, but a sense of relief floods his limbs. Even he is doing a bit better; the trembling in his hands has leveled out as he draws the animal next to them. It's still not his best work, but it's very definitively Teddy. He's got all the same markings, the same goofy expression, all the small details that set him apart. Tohru is glad that honing in on the details has grounded him a bit.
"You can have it when I'm done, if you'd like," Tohru offers.

Cathal smiles brightly and nods. He seemed to have this almost childlike excitement in his eyes.

Teddy seemed to take interest in Tohru’s drawing as well. As soon as he got a glance of it, his tail wags happily.