Trauma hangovers are no fun.

[browbeater]

WHO: Mako, and you?
WHERE: I have prompts for him on duty, and prompts for him being a hipster around town.
WHEN: The first week of October
WHAT: After living life as a recluse for the past 2 weeks, Mako is trying to force himself to go out and be back to normal. It has... mixed effects.
WARNINGS: Mako is very much suffering from PTSD. The topic might come up.



THE POLICE STATION

i. – the Precinct

[the nightmare week was over. Or… well, it looked like it. Mako didn’t look like a zombie anymore, but he was obviously still making dumb mistakes on paperwork that were just… not characteristic for him. He was still prone to rereading paragraphs of text multiple times before comprehension finally hit him.

And he was entirely too reliant on coffee. And even then, his sleep debt was huge.

There was definitely more than one time he could be caught catnapping in the break room… someone save him before his supervisor finds him, and all his effort over the past two years goes down the drain.

Or don’t. Let him wake up with a jolt, knocking everything off of the table in front of him, while his eyes try to refocus on the present.]

ii – Patrol

[he dreads any sort of patrol duty in downtown. He used to beg for those shifts, but now, he looks miserable. He’s trying to pretend everything’s okay, but it’s obvious that something is setting him on edge here.

And the first, large, unexpected sound, when he quickly covers his ears and closes his eyes tightly… it becomes easy to see that something is still wrong. He’s still reacting involuntarily.]

IN RECOLLE

i – Coffee

[Mako loves coffee. But all the problems that plague him when he’s on duty… they make him on edge in his personal life too. So, say something when you see him casting long looks around.

Especially since you might not have seen him before? Or ever?]

ii – Cat Naps

[or… just catch him catching a cat nap. Either the large, unexpected noise jolts him in the worst way, or the nightmares do.

But it’s going to take a moment for the panic to disappear from his heart. Even though he’s trying to force himself to go back to normal as fast as possible.]

Comments

ii -cat naps

[hadeir]

[ It's a good day for people who have yet to feel the horrors that having a Retrospec app might throw at them. Celine has just finished sending a postcard to her little brother, and has gotten herself pumpkin spice lattè. The walk in the park is an added treat. (Also she's saving money so maybe she'll get a taxi later on, when the ride is shorter.)

But what's this? Why is someone sleeping in the park? In the middle of the day? And he doesn't look like a hobo, but it still looks sad in an inappropriate way. She should wake him. Oh, but she doesn't want to let go of her lattè.

So she jumps, her heels clacking loudly on the paved pathway. ]

[browbeater]

[luckily the sound is not quite loud enough to send him into a total meltdown, but he does jump awake, his eyes snapping open and his body tensing up before immediately forcing himself to relax. How... had he fallen asleep here?

He glances at her, and realizes that she's starting at him, so he resists the urge to rub his face.]

Uh-- hi.

[he stands up-- mmmaybe he should go home?]

[hadeir]

[ Good. He's awake. The bench is free for her to sit on. He looks clean, it should be safe.

Anyway, it's her bench now. ]

Why are you sleeping on the park bench. You don't seem homeless.

[ She sips her coffee and smiles, because she thinks that that's a decent thing to say in a friendly conversation. On a tangentially related note, sometimes she wonders why she doesn't have friends. ]

i. – the Precinct

[blessmefather]

[ He doesn't mean to disturb him it's just that he didn't know someone was actually sleeping in the break room. Without much thought ADA Matthew Murdock comes into the break room just as loudly as he normally would, which is to say he swings the door open at it's normal speed, allows it to shut with its usual clink, and then taps with his cane a few times on the hard floor before making a straight line for the counter where the coffee maker is. If the extra background noise isn't enough to wake Mako then the cabinet doors likely will be. Everyone knows they need to oil those hinges but everyone always forgets to bother maintenance. So when he fetches one of the mugs he and Mako are both treated to the lovely groan as the cabinet is opened and closed, plus the thud of wood on wood when it closes. Thinking he's alone, Matt starts tapping on the counter while he waits for the water to heat up. ]

[browbeater]

[normally, he wouldn't be sleeping here. It's just... one of those months? Weeks? He jumps at the sound of the closing cabinets, that finally being what woke him up. When he jumps, his chair scoots back automatically. Though, thankfully, he doesn't knock his empty coffee cup onto the floor.

The glass shattering would have been... bad.

He glances at Matt after taking a moment to rub his face.]

... I got second dibs after you.

[blessmefather]

[ Matt jumps at the sound of Mako's jump, head snapping in the direction of the noise, glasses just barely hiding his wide eyes. Oops! He blinks a few times, looking stunned, before concluding that someone had been at the table the entire time. The sound of Mako rubbing his face gives away that he was waking up from a nap. ]

Sorry, nobody told me you were resting in here. [ He pushes his glasses up his nose. ] Uh. Do you need a mug or do you already have one?

ii - patrol

[redarm]

[Noah had just finished up his shift at the Confectionary and was heading out for the night. He's not in uniform anymore, that's all been shoved away in his locker and the backpack on his back. Timcanpy's on his shoulder, stretching out after napping in a locker all shift.

It's by chance that Mako walks past them. He blinks in surprise]

Whoa...you look like shit.

[browbeater]

[ugh.... He was close to being on his way home, and when Noah sees him, he stops and offers a wan smile.]

It's been a long day.

[which could have been part of the reason, sure, but not all of it.]

[redarm]

Yeah? That bad?

[He questions it a little, since Mako seems off for just a bad day. More like something was preying on his mind]

II - patrol

[standalonehuman]

There's not much excuse for not noticing how bad off his colleague has been. Togusa was involved in a very quiet search for a missing person, and then adjusting to a change in perspective last month. But it means that when he's paying closer attention to what he is normally on top of, but let slip for a month? He is seeing sharp changes.

Like in Mako. Togusa is far more used to downtown patrols, so it's easy to adjust his route to cross over some with Mako. If it's nothing, then this just looks like a coincidence. But if something is going on, then Togusa can't help if he doesn't know.

The normal noise of the city is broken by a loud series of sharp cracks, a worker throwing out some broken wooden pallets into an alleyway behind his store. A slight jump out of Togusa, but a reaction more severe out of Mako. Togusa verifies that things are safe, but then quick-steps towards Mako.

"Lou?" Voice pitched low, but insistent, not getting withing hand range. "Are you all right?"

[browbeater]

Give him a minute-- the reaction is pretty involuntary on his part, but once the sound has stopped, and with the additional pushing of someone actually bothering to talk to him, he can come out of the flashback much more quickly. He pulls his hands away from his head, and glances at Togusa, eyes coming into focus.

"Togusa-- I didn't know you were on patrol today."

It's not an answer. But he needs to buy himself time. Even though he knows, there's no way that this looks good. But he doesn't need to get placed on leave or something-- he needs the money right then, and he low on vacation and personal days (thanks to the last paycheck, he had a couple of hours).

[standalonehuman]

Nice avoidance there, Lou. Togusa stays back a few steps, eyeing Mako cautiously. Breath, pupil response, take in all of the things Fai told you about. "I'm out here most days," Togusa's voice stays quiet. "You got time for a break, though?" Give him an out, but also offer a good excuse to get out of the situation. Help him get his head back around him.

ii!

[usurpers]

[ It somewhat depends on what sort of situation Eren can assess with precision. He can either be a complete block or a bull's eye hitter, especially when it has to do with a person's state of being. He might not know what one is keeping from him, but he'll know there's something out of the loop.

And Mako looks completely out of orbit as he passes by, doing— research, some papers in hand about shows and a few scribbles of dates and times as he gets back to his car. It's the blatant misery that gets his attention first, already getting Eren to recalculate his route and go give him some attention.

It gets just a little bit more concerning when a car beeps, and Mako looks like he's about to take cover for something ten times bigger than that. Eren's heard more about PTSD than he remembers his geometry. Time to quicken his steps, but definitely considerate enough to not startle him a second time. ]

Mako?

[browbeater]

[this... is a fucking nightmare. One that gets more annoying any time he reacts when he wasn't planning on it. He's quicker about pulling himself back to the present, it's not a long, torturous process where he could get stuck in the past for 10 or 20 minutes at a time. But it's annoying. He will never stop being angry about having to go through this process again, after having already lived through it as a child.

Thanks, Retrospec. Couldn't even spare him in this life, too.

He pulls his hands away from his head, and straightens as quickly as he can.]

... Eren.

[usurpers]

[ Given the uniform, it's clear he's on duty, and while Eren would be one person to strictly support active patrols, he approaches, voice low and sturdy, but also clearly concerned with more than one thing. ]

What're you doing on duty?

ii

[buncho]

[ You know, Mafuyu dreads these patrols too, mostly because she's the sort of person that necessitates patrols. She thought it was her lucky day seeing that it's Mako who's in charge of the streets today, and that large, unexpected sound is her hollering his name— and breaking off suddenly, because that's usually the reaction she gets when stomping up to somebody and fuming in anger, not what she thought was a friendly, if deafening, hello. ]

[browbeater]

[oh god mafuyu why-- once the sound passes, he has to pull himself out of whatever funk he'd slammed straight into. It wasn't exactly... easy. And he glances around, finally seeing Mafuyu.

That sound came from her? He sighs, and slowly exhales, rubbing his face.]

You surprised me.

[more like-- scared him? somehow?]

[buncho]

[ Yeah, that's not the reaction of somebody who was "surprised" and she's not buying that for a moment, standing right in front of him with her hands on her hips and trying to read his expression. She can't read his expression because she lacks in empathy, but at least staring hard enough to hold him there. ]

What're you so jumpy for? October's just started— spread out those horror movie nights.

I - the precinct

[thisloveisjustice]

[Sometimes Tatsuo needs an afternoon coffee, sometimes he doesn't. Today he does, along with about half the crime lab. After a quick debate, Tatsuo's coworkers decided he should be the one to fetch the coffee and sent him off with a specimen tray full of mugs.

He's not really expecting to see anyone in the break room, so he pulls up short when he realizes there's someone there. And that they're slumped over the table asleep. Softening his steps, he walks over to the coffee pot, snagging Mako's own mug as he walks by.

Once he starts the pot of coffee, he turns to see just who is tired enough (or brazen enough) to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon. Ah, Mako Lou. Beat cop, two years on the force, and fellow victim of the Retrospec app. Generally not one he'd expect to see taking a nap. From talk around the precinct, he's gotten the impression that Mako was pretty hard working.

Walking over, Tatsuo knocks a knuckle against the surface of the table.]

Best wake up, Lou. Don't want the Captain coming in here.

[browbeater]

[he jumps a bit when he hears the knock, and sits up quickly. He wasn't sure when he'd fallen asleep, but he was definitely still looking tired. But better someone else wake him up than a nightmare. He rubs at his face, and then looks for the mug he'd had? He definitely needs more coffee at this rate.]

Right-- sorry. At least it was my break...

[then he turns and sees the much with Tatsuo. Oh.]

[thisloveisjustice]

[Tatsuo follows Mako's gaze to the cluster of mugs on the counter next to the coffee pot.]

Oh, yeah, I noticed yours was empty, so I snagged it coming in. I was needing to make coffee anyway.

[He might have put in a little more coffee than strictly necessary. He knows his labmates won't mind and from the looks of it, Mako could use a little caffeine jolt. He gives the younger man a quick look over now that he can see his face. ]

You alright?

coffee

[wordcarvings]

[ Since Koutarou pays visits to the station regularly, with a best friend working there and all (though he did cause Togusa some trouble last month by going missing for a whole week) he does recognize most of the people from it. And though he's trying to distract himself from the things that caused him to run for the forest last month.

He was out for coffee and to draw, so he's got a sketchpad and pen out with his paper cup, when he spots Mako and he does notice that there seems to be something wrong with this officer. ]

Lou-san, are you alright?

[browbeater]

[he doesn't even remember what he was dreaming about. But he does know that the mug is teetering on the edge, and he has to lunge before it falls over. He didn't need his mug breaking, in addition to all the random odds and ends from the coffee table that had fallen onto the floor below.]

Huh?

[he glances over at Koutarou and tries to think of a good lie.]

Yeah, I'm fine.

i

[burlyheart]

[It's simultaneously for the better and worse that Officer Hoboken of all people in the office is the one to find Mako. Better because he's someone else also on Retrospec and Peter from his recollection of seeing this man setting things on fire the week back has a very good idea of the cause of his tiredness. Worse because Peter is one of the very most likely to wake him up.

Peter tries at least to not scare him, though his ability to do that might be limited given that the first thing Mako is him towering over with his "neutral glare". ]

Hey.

[browbeater]

[well, it is a good thing he isn't his supervisor, because Mako absolutely would have jumped all the way to attention, if necessary upon waking up. For now, it's a slow start, and then a sudden jolt of sitting up straight... Which could have been anything, right?

But no, he knows he wasn't supposed to be sleeping. And he's lucky he got who he got.]

Uh-- Good morning. [a glance at the clock-- it was at least still morning.]