GAH-- there is no better word.

Well, I'm just so successfully distracting myself from this essay and I missed Alba and-- Ugh. Justice League fic is the inevitable result. Loneliness and procrastination. Good stuff.



Drumbeat
R
Summary: People go crazy.
Spoiler for 'Wild Cards'. Kinda.
Author: Lena ban Obsidian
Reason: ...see above.

It was almost worse because he /can't look away, can't, gotta, but/ his body wasn't responding anyways. He was standing there.

There were beats echoing through the air. Loud and heavy. Drumbeats. Getting closer. Who was immune to the TV? He didn't know, but the beat was shaking him. Making him stumble. Louder. /Closer/. Why was he afraid?

/Drums are bad?/ Apparently. His head was pounding with them. Tchak-gin-gin, and Ra-ja-ja-ja, tak-ta, what the *hell* was going on inside of his mind? So loud. He couldn't even hear his thoughts...if he was having any. Couldn't move and then, suddenly...

He could.

The drums, he could see them now, they were coming closer. A procession, fifteen dark-skinned women with masks over their faces and vivid-colored dresses, dancing in front of fifteen men with drums, several different kinds, big drums and small and the men were wearing masks too.

They were getting closer. He wanted to run, but his body was moving towards them.

He felt sick.

He wanted to drop to his knees and hold his head until the drumbeats went away.

The rhythm kept getting faster. Tak-i-ta, ga-gin, ra-gin, gin-- what was going *on*? Raging headache, and the dancers with their great hideous mask were so close he could see.

That the masks weren't masks.

Superman would know, he thought, know exactly what to do about this except /upon turning around/ it seemed that Superman was actually Parasite and Parasite was bent on grabbing his throat, choking him to death or sucking him dry, whichever came first. The drums were so loud he couldn't hear himself scream /choke/ dying, could only struggle and pretend he was deaf while his head throbbed and he tried to breathe, tried to kick, punch, get away.

GIN-GIN-CHA, RA-GI-JA-JA, so loud, close, the sticks blurring before his eyes and this terrible sensation in his gut like something about to rip free and, fuck he wished he hadn't thought about that movie with the aliens because /pop/ there was something there clawing through the inside of his stomach lining and that hurt, he couldn't breathe, fuck, he was going to die...

The mask-people were making catcalls, the sticks were their fingers, they were monster made out of trees and cat's fur and bright, bright colors, and their drums were strange things, hollowed out...

/people/

and not tree trunks and, oh god, it wasn't...really...Parasite, was it, with the green skin and vines curling around him and his head and suffocating, they were hollowing him out, the thing, the thing in his stomach oh *god* what the *fuck*--

He collapsed to the floor shivering, hands to his head, gripping so hard the mask strained and split under his fingers in some places, letting soft hair out. Trembling didn't ease for an agonizing ten minutes. Sobbing /he hadn't even realized he was doing it until Superman put a concerned hand to his shoulder, a faint dizziness in those familiar eyes/ didn't stop for a bit longer.

They both got to their feet.

"...so," he tried, but his voice was a little low, little ragged. "So, uh." Swallowed, scratched his head. "...guess we won? Saved the day?"

Superman had this weird way of seeming to be staring off into the distance when you just knew he was thinking. It was the strangest habit. Like ol' Supers never looked inside himself for answers, but out to the world that had adopted him.

"We didn't lose, at least."

He cocked an eyebrow, frowned a little. Grabbed onto humor desperately for the familiarity it held, and the security it gave. "That's winning."

"Not always."

Somewhere inside of himself he was still sobbing because, ugh, being ripped apart from the inside out while still alive and still *conscious* for that matter was now his new least favorite possible way to die. And that was why he didn't really say anything, just looked off in the direction that Superman was looking, as if he could see what the older man saw.