It gets to you

moderate activity, selective multi-muse blog featuring Alice “Daisy” Tonner avatar of The Hunt as well as other The Magnus Archives and Welcome to Night Vale characters - will have horror and supernatural themes

Written by Beth (GMT, 21+), this is an OC and crossover friendly blog. Established 17th January 2021.

Below links to rules and verses are google docs for mobile;

    carrd     //      daisy’s timeline     //      promo     //      starter & plotting call

Ah. Shit.

“Well I don’t seem to be dead now, so we probably shouldn’t worry about it too much.” It’s a terrible attempt at deflection that she’ll wince about later, when she can think past the throbbing pain inside her skull. Or the hole in her side. It’s a shame, she really liked this shirt.

Focus, Char!

One final prod at the wound, just to make sure her guts aren’t going to spill out if she moves too much, and Char finally looks at Daisy. Knowing that there’s no chance the other woman will just drop it, but hoping that maybe she could leave it alone for now.

“I take it you won, then.”

Daisy is stunned, like her world has been put off kilter; everything she thought she knew about Char has been upended but she tries not to let it show. She should be glad that the other woman is okay, she shouldn’t feel concerned over how she’s alive. She should just be glad that she is.

“You were dead,” she repeats, her hand going back to check her pulse where she had before. She couldn’t have missed something, she never had before.

    @huntloyalty​​    :     “  you haven’t stabbed me yet  ” (and for Siv! This is as optimistic as Daisy gets)

  ❛    𝐘𝐄𝐓     ❜    𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘  𝐄𝐂𝐇𝐎  𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊  ,  𝐎𝐍𝐄  𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑  𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐃  𝐓𝐎  𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃  .  the  tension  stays  for  one  -  two  -  three  more  ,  artificial  breaths  ,  before  siv’s  laughter  cuts  through  .  cold  and  unaffected  it  may  be  ,  but  laughter  nonetheless   ❛    now  …  why  would  i  do  that  ?     ❜    hands  clap  together  and  remain  there   ❛    i  have  no  knife  and  i  hold  no  grude  against  you     ❜    come  to  think  of  it  -  siv  held  neither  a  positive  nor  negative  opinion  on  daisy  .  to siv  ,  she  merely  existed  ,  as  long  as  siv  did  not  end  up  on  any  hitlist  .  though  ,  if  that  was  the  case  ,  neither  of  them  would  be  sitting  this  calmly

    then  ,  another  idea  pops  into  their  head  .  a  playful  gasp  ,  a  wink  and  another  ,  airier  laugh  .  eyes  wide  open  in  curiosity     ❛    unless  you  want  me  to  .  you  into  that  kind  of  stuff  ?     ❜    were  they  any  closer  to  daisy  ,  their  elbow  would  have  gently  found  daisy’s  side   ❛    shouldn’t  you  take  me  out  to  dinner  first  ?  and  -  oh  woe  is  me  -     ❜    the  back  of  their  hand  finds  its  place  on  siv’s  forehead  as  they  lean  back  in  their  chair   ❛    just  how  will  i  explain  to  river  that  i  will  not  be  coming  home  tonight  nor  catch  the  closing  shift  ?     ❜    truly  ,  a  born  actor  -  or  maybe  a  charmer  ?

Daisy didn’t enjoy people like this, people who used an extra flourish in their actions, in their words, in their personalities. In her experience, it was always used to hide something and she was convinced that here it was the same. She wouldn’t relax, but they were far apart that she wasn’t in any immediate danger. Nothing she could pick up on, at least. “A knife? You’d go pretty old school then.” She couldn’t remember the last time she was stabbed by something as usual as a knife.

Her green eyes narrow slightly and she shakes her head. Whether she’s into that kind of thing or not, she is, she isn’t going to fall into this trap. She doesn’t like the theatrical performance of the other, the large gestures of winks at her, something she hasn’t been on the receiving end of for... years, maybe? One look at her serious face stymies a lot of this kind of flirting. 

“Tomorrow?”, he blurts out, every movement freezing for a moment. The mere thought of staying in the same room with a corpse all day makes Martin’s stomach turn. How can Daisy endure this? Obviously this isn’t even the first time for her. But he has to admit that she’s probably right about the police station. 

“I-is this where you’ve brought them … before ?”  Before she’s ended up here, got dragged into the whole mess their lives have become. A deep breath, as he tries to remind himself that they’re all sitting in the same boat and that any conflict won’t help at all. His stern expression begins to soften and his fingers relax on the keyboard, though he still avoids looking at the dead man on the office floor. 

“Yeah, just tomorrow.” Obviously it isn’t the first time for her. Bodies are bodies are bodies and it makes no difference to her where they come from, or who the person was in life. She isn’t concerned about the effect of the body on anyone else; why would they be afflicted when she’s so clearly fine? 

“Just once or twice,” she says, shrugging. The itch in her hands is returning already; she needs a cigarette and to quieten her mind a little. The body is better here than in her car, reminding her of the thrill of the Hunt over and over until it’s too much for her to bear. “It’s not a big deal or anything, sometimes you need to store a body and it’s climate controlled down here.” 

                      𝚁𝙸𝚅𝙴𝚁  𝙷𝙰𝙳  𝙻𝙾𝙽𝙶  𝚂𝙸𝙽𝙲𝙴  𝙳𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙻𝙾𝙿𝙴𝙳          a  sixth  sense  to  single  out  the  customers  they  had  to  keep  a  closer  eye  on    .    those  that  came  to  browse    ,    not  understanding  the  less  natural  properties  of  what  ensued    ,    that  saw  a  new  building  down  their  street    &    came  to  investigate    ,    certain  to  have  forgotten  about  it  the  moment  it  disappeared  again    .    this  new  face  could  not  be  counted  among  those    ,    few  people  that  had  moths  swarming  around  their  head  could    .      “  are  they  browsing    ,    too    ?  ”      river  bristled  their  nose  when  one  of  the  insects  chose  it  as  a  resting  place    ,    trying  to  hold  as  still  as  possible  while  not  thinking  too  hard  about  being  nibbled  on    .    one  never  knew  with  moths  of  supernatural  property    .    at  least  they  were  unlikely  to  set  something  on  fire    ,    they  could  handle  a  few  holes  in  the  cushions  of  their  old  couch    .      “  if  so    ,    i  may  have  something  of  interest  to  you  both    .    i  just  received  a  handful  of    ——    library  books    ,    if  you  will    .    &    some  other  knick  -  knacks  that  i  didn’t  have  time  to  properly  assess    ,    but  you  are  free  to  take  a  look    ,    of  course    .  ”

Aiobh turns her attention to her darlings, smiling mildly before her attention lands onto the shopkeeper. She was right in her suspicion; few people looked at her moths and mentioned them so casually. “I think... they’re mostly... tasting.” Her word choice probably wasn’t the most comforting to someone with a moth currently perched on their face, but it was the most accurate way of saying it. Moths didn’t browse like humans did, they usually let themselves be guided by other senses much better honed than their sight. 

Being thought of as scary didn’t make Anh feel any better, but that was between her and Jon.  She wouldn’t treat Daisy as an arbiter between them so long as Jon didn’t prove to be as elusive as their current Institute Head.

“Yeah, basically you’re checking things off.  This is just the inventory of seeing if we have the Artifacts we know we’re supposed to have and if they’re where they’re supposed to be.  Later, I’ll pass through and make sure we don’t have a repeat of the calliope nonsense.”  That had been fun.  “But, yeah, the list has the Artifact, a brief description, I’ve handwritten some warnings for some of them?  Most are pretty stable, but some don’t like being jostled or looked at or do mildly unsettling things in a certain radius.  That list should be the mild guys, so you should be fine.  Oh!  The list also gives the object’s location.  My shelf labeling is… very basic - alphabet and numbers - and this place is… vaguely a mess but I believe in you!”

Anh beamed.  “Just check ‘yes’ on the form if you found the Artefact and initial and date.  Check ‘no’ and initial and date if not, and I’ll reconcile the missing ones myself later.”

“Jon’s just got a lot going on at the moment,” Daisy adds into the silence. It was true that he had more than usual happening, and since he was the one who went into the Buried to get her back, she did feel like she was someone who had to defend him. Without him and his elusive, erratic management style, she’d still be down there and suffering.

She had to smile back to Anh as they placed trust into her, looking down at the list. It was pretty basic, the same kind of system as a lot of police stations seemed to use for evidence storage. By the end she got lower ranked staff to get things for her, but she could still do this.

Her eyes lift for a moment, an expression that clearly states that she’d threaten to leave Daisy to look after herself if Char thought for a single second that she’d give a shit, so instead she’s going to have to deal with someone looking after her for a change.

It’s a very versatile expression, even if she does say so herself.

“I mean there’s definitely a woman a few streets over from me that has a pet wolverine in her third floor flat, so it probably wouldn’t be that unbelievable. London is weird as fuck. This is going to sting,” she adds, before dabbing peroxide onto the open cut. Then “And sure, you can smoke. Just try not to set yourself on fire.”

Daisy looks away at the expression, resigned to the fact that Char is going to be taking care of her whether she wants her to or not. 

“Pretty sure keeping wild animals like that is illegal,” she mutters, although now she’s so far removed from the police she can’t say she’ll actually ring anyone and tell them about the fact she’s heard rumours of someone having a wolverine. They’d probably not get around to looking, anyway.

   a moment of silence before a final ‘huh’ in response.   he reaches out for the cigarette,  the cold air against his lungs almost too drying.   the drag is much slower,  allowing the smoke to sink in before finally exhaling.   he flicks off the accumulating ash from the tip,  watching the greyish white flecks settle onto his sleeve and hand.   smoking was no longer a compulsive act but neither was it particularly pleasurable.   in a way,  it felt necessary.   ashes to ashes.   a cycle of destruction coded into his blood. 

     ❝    when i was—   ❞    he nearly says drafted.   almost showing his age there.   the draft was abolished years ago.   ❝    when i first signed up to the army, i thought i was doing the right thing. serving my country and all that. didn’t really tell me about the rest, but that’s how they get you in the door, s’pose.   ❞    though he could have hardly imagine the rest of what would happen when he first got his orders.   he heard enough stories from his grandparents about the civil war that he was well enough aware of what the fighting did to you.   after the fall was a different kind of horror.   ❝    why’d you join? thought you were gonna help people?   ❞    

Daisy takes a deep inhale, letting the hot smoke fill her lungs with the kind of burning she really liked to just feel, sometimes. She exhales slowly as she speaks, wanting to hear every word of his if she could, seeing herself in his words so vividly that she noticed his readjustments through words. There was something unspoken from both of them, for sure, just under the surface but the most closely held secret in a conversation like this. Strangers would never understand, no matter how similar they seemed.

                  𝚃𝙷𝙸𝚂  𝚆𝙰𝚂  𝙽𝙾𝚃  𝙷𝙾𝚆  𝙸𝚃  𝚂𝙷𝙾𝚄𝙻𝙳  𝙷𝙰𝙿𝙿𝙴𝙽    .          this  was  not  how  it  had  ever  happened  before    .    felix’  had  never  been  caught  in  a  lie    .    not  since  he  had  been  given  the  ability  to  freely  place  them  in  the  minds  of  others    .    make  them  not  only  believe  but  think  it  was  the  only  truth  they  had  ever  known    .    that  was  how  it  worked    ,    how  it  had  always  work    .    running  into  complications  was  new    &    he  did  not  like  it    .    which  was  not  synonymous  with  him  seeing  what  a  waste  it  would  be  to  keep  up  the  lie    .      (  𝙸𝙼𝙼𝙾𝚅𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙴  𝙾𝙱𝙹𝙴𝙲𝚃  𝙼𝙴𝙴𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶  𝚄𝙽𝚂𝚃𝙾𝙿𝙿𝙰𝙱𝙻𝙴  𝙵𝙾𝚁𝙲𝙴  )      “  give  what  back    ?  ”      he  asked    ,    innocuously    ,    almost  sheepish    .    numerous  eyes  staring  at  the  back  of  his  head    &    felix  thought  he  could  feel  the  disappointment  of  his  patron  like  a  physical  pain    .      “  i  have  nothing  of  you    ———  ”

Had her patron not also been the Eye, which she had now worked under for a considerable portion of her life, perhaps it would have been different. But she had, so when Dawn’s pocket was one purse lighter, she instantly Knew about it.

“My purse,” she replied, holding out her hand towards the boy. She meant that she wouldn’t say anything or take it to the police if he just handed it back; she knew boys well from her own sons and the embarrassment alone would keep him behaving for at least a little while.

“One day we’ll have someone competent running the place,” Anh commiserated before beaming at Daisy’s agreement of her plan.

“Fantastic!  I know this nice little sandwich shop.”  She shuffled off to find her jacket before meeting Daisy at the entrance of Storage.  “It’s run by the brother of one of the guys from my wood workshop.  He does upholstery too so he made all the furniture in the place and the guy’s work is,” they kissed their fingers like a chef.

The shop, a short brisk walk from the Institute, was a hole in the wall place.  While it was rather small, the expertly crafted maple wood furniture and light walls gave the sense of more space than there was.  It had a playing card theme - with the far wall painted with a mural of the four aces.  The menu behind the counter had embellishments resembling blue back cards and there were coasters for every card in a deck - though the proportions were altered to fit in a square.

“I don’t think people competent run anywhere,” she said with a shrug. Daisy’s experience was that even in the police the people at the top didn’t have too much of a clue; it was their direct superiors who always controlled exactly what she did.

“Sandwich shop sounds good,” she says, following Anh as closely as she can do. She already had her jacket, since after months in the sweltering heat of the Buried, up here always felt cold.

She struggled to keep up with their fast pace, not really noting the details of the furniture in favour of thinking that she really wanted to sit down. “It’s nice,” she commented, looking around and trying not to sound too exhausted from what really was a short walk. But couple that with the stairs in the Institute, the exercises she did earlier as well and she was tired.

   well,                     if    it    was    between    this    and      death,      it    was    pretty    clear    which    option    sasha    was    going    to    choose.    it    still      sucked,      though.            ❛           what    if    i’m    wrong,    though.    what    if    there’s    a      third      option    and    i’m    just    not      seeing      it      ?           ❜

Elias fished around in the little cooler he had insisted on bringing despite how much furniture needed to be hauled out for the burning and grabbed one of the bottles of beer.  He moved as if to lightly toss it to Daisy, though thought the better of it at the last moment.  Navigating without his sight was easy now, but he didn’t think he had the skill necessary to aim for a casual toss.

He properly handed Daisy the bottle before returning to his own perch.  A beat.

“… Fuck this means I’ll have to buy replacement furniture, yeah?”  Somehow, he hadn’t thought quite that far.

Daisy opened the bottle confidently and takes a long drink, feeling more relaxed for the drink already, even though logically she knows that’s just the placebo effect. 

She hadn’t really thought that far ahead either, just jumped onto the opportunity of burning up some furniture and being helpful. She hadn’t actually thought about the fact he probably would need the furniture.