OOM and EP: Max Caulfield

[little_pieces_of_time]

(OOM: (Needing to have reality confirmed and experience enhanced by photographs is an aesthetic consumerism to which everyone is now addicted. Industrial societies turn their citizens into image-junkies; it is the most irresistible form of mental pollution.)

Breaking the early morning quiet of the bar, Max Caulfield stumbled backwards through the door, the impact sending the door swinging open to bounce off the wall behind it. Beyond its frame is a trashed dorm room, clothes and books strewn across the floor and with angry red graffiti scrawled across a photo collage wall over a twin bed.

With shaking hands, Max grabbed the door and shut it firmly, leaning against its solidity to brace against the dizziness that threatens to overwhelm her and trying like mad to regulate her shallow, frantic breaths into something that will calm her racing heart.

[oom content warnings include bullying, depression, reference to potential sexual assault, terroristic threatening]

Comments

[old_monster]

"Can you breathe with me for a moment?" Ye Baiyi asks.

Really, what did these people teach their disciples?

[little_pieces_of_time]

Max looks at him, unsure. It's an odd request.

But then, it has already been an odd day, she is still off-balance, and Milliways has always been an odd place.

"Yes?"

[old_monster]

"Breathe in, two, three -- hold, two, three -- out, two, three -- hold, two, three -- in, two, three --"

He does that for about five rounds.

[little_pieces_of_time]

She follows, nodding briefly. She recognizes this pattern - many apologies to her therapist back in Seattle - and it helps to have to focus on the counting.

Her breath still shakes at first, but definitely smooths out as they go along.

[old_monster]

"Now, sip your tea again," Ye Baiyi says.

[little_pieces_of_time]

Max feels more like herself, and less like she needs to scream or run away or break things and cry, by the fifth round of measured breathing.

The urge is still there, in the tightness at the back of her throat and the quiet fidgeting of her fingers against the cup of tea, but in the background. It is in no danger of erupting to the surface.

She sips her tea again, as instructed.

[old_monster]

"What happened?" Ye Baiyi asks. "Were you attacked? Are there vampires?"

It seems a common danger, in many worlds out there.

[little_pieces_of_time]

"Vampi-" Max echoes, mildly confused. "No, nothing like... that."

Or maybe it is, in a metaphorical way. The Prescotts certainly were sucking the lifeblood out of Arcadia Bay, but that was not... relevant, here.

"There's just a lot going on, all at once. I had just..." She isn't sure she wants to talk about the details of Kate's situation. It's not her place. "...got some very upsetting news about a friend going through a bad time of things, and then returned to my room to find...um... it had been broken into and trashed, some of my things stolen, and... there were threats."

Unspoken threats, but the intention was clear.

[old_monster]

"Threats to harm you next, unless you did what they wanted?" Ye Baiyi guesses. "Or stopped what they don't want?"

Pause.

"Do you know what they want?"

[little_pieces_of_time]

Max glances at him, hesitating, then looks down at the partial cup of tea in her hands. "Threats to harm me next, if I get in their way."

She sips the tea, slowly. "They want me t-to be too scared to try and help my friends."

[old_monster]

"So your friends are the ones that don't do what these people want," Ye Baiyi says. "Do you know what kind of people they are? Professional criminals? Just generic low-lifes? Corrupt officials?"

[little_pieces_of_time]

"My friends are the ones who have been harmed, and need help," she replies, quiet. "The person doing the threatening is the son of a very wealthy and influential family."

Some problems are universal, unfortunately.

[old_monster]

"Corrupt officials once removed, huh?" Ye Baiyi says.

Because without those, anybody could go seek justice. That's universal, too.

"You don't happen to know any martial arts, or other skills you can use against them? You seem shaken enough to think about massive counter-measures."

[little_pieces_of_time]

She can't help but smile a little at the earnest, genuine question whether she knows martial arts, though the smile is faint and doesn't last. "No, unfortunately I don't know any martial arts."

She will only ever metaphorically be the Blackwell Ninja.

"I informed the school principal yesterday when I caught Nathan Prescott - the one doing the threatening - with a gun, a weapon not allowed in school campus. He... He had threatened my friend Chloe with it. Today, I found out Nathan has also caused my friend Kate a lot of pain, as well; I suggested she go to the police - law enforcement - and then came back to find my room trashed."

"It's been a busy couple of days," she adds, shaking her head. And the second of those days had only just begun.

[old_monster]

"Martial arts are very useful," Ye Baiyi says, pointing his thumb at the very big sword on his back. "Even corrupt officials hesitate to argue with those."

[little_pieces_of_time]

"Fair point," she admits, a little wry, "though I don't know if anyone would be intimidated by me even if I knew martial arts, and 'might makes right' is kind of part of the problem I'm dealing with."

Max has regained her sense of equilibrium enough to realize there's a guilty admission she has to make. "I'm really sorry," she says, holding the cup of tea in both hands. "We met once in the kitchens and there were pancakes, but I'm afraid I've forgotten your name."

[old_monster]

"I'm Ye Baiyi," Ye Baiyi says. "Of course the pancakes were more important! I think Doctor Lecter made them, and Wen Ning was involved as well? They are both very good at making food. I am only good at eating food."

[little_pieces_of_time]

"D-Dr. Lecter was there, yes, and Wen Ning, and... another person who said he had been banned from helping in the kitchen for his lack of cooking skills," she gives a slight smile. "I'm another whose only food skill lies in enjoying it. It's... good to meet you again, Ye Baiyi."

"And... thank you."

[old_monster]

"Oh yes, that little imperial detective," Ye Baiyi says. "About as strong as a leek, but he could definitely eat!"

[little_pieces_of_time]

"If there weren't anyone who liked to eat, those who like to cook wouldn't have anyone to cook for," she smiles.

See, they're helping! Even if they're strong as a leek and don't know martial arts.

"Does everyone study martial arts, where you're from?"

[old_monster]

"Depends on how you define 'where I am from'," Ye Baiyi says. "Of course, there are farmers and merchants and officials who don't study it. But everyone in the jianghu does. It's a world of its own."

[little_pieces_of_time]

"The only people I know who have studied martial arts, I've met here," she admits. "Blackwell - Blackwell Academy, where I attend - is for students who want to go into the arts and want the career kick-start that a prestigious program can give them, or who want to go into the sciences. They don't offer anything like martial arts."

All the other arts, sure.

"Though, knowing the students, that's possibly a good thing."

[old_monster]

"Oh?" Ye Baiyi says. "Why is that? Martial arts are good for your body and your soul."

[little_pieces_of_time]

"I-I imagine they would be," she allows. "But from what I've heard -"

Seen in movies, she means.

"- martial arts training should start waay before someone would be old enough to attend Blackwell."

"And, um," some of that anxiety spikes again as her fingers absently rub across the faint, finger-shaped bruises on the side of her neck, "there are a number of students who... really don't need access to more ways to hurt others."

[old_monster]

"A good teacher would weed those out," Ye Baiyi says. "And while you are right, and true martial artists start training as children, it is never too late to learn at least a little. It's not all hurting others, either."