[It's a mantra Donnie mumbles under his breath, inching along beside Leo. His eyes are darting from side to side but there are way too many around them to keep track of.
Except it is real to him, because it's not merely about horrifying visuals, of places and people he'd rather not see. There aren't any emotional attachments there. The horror still clearly exists on a sensory level and that's not something he can easily ignore.
His breath hitches as more hands and grasping appendages reach for them curl around his arms, brush his legs, nearly entangling his already faltering footsteps as every step seems to sink them deeper into an unsettling pool of-]
I-I can't-!
[Donnie's clinging to Leo's arm, trying to drag his thoughts away from the deepening blood lake around them. Must...be...closer, they've got to be- He just has to lower his goggles. Keep moving ahead, they all have to just keep moving.
Those particular words echoing around him then make him go rigid, familiar words spoken years ago but it tugs a very intimate thread, and they have no business being spoken by complete strangers. It jabs at a tender little knot of raw emotion, an exposure only amplified by the creeping sensation he can feel as slender fingers and tentacles grasping at the edges of his battle shell.
He can't shut out the words, can't shut out all these bodies around him, grasping, clinging, constricting. He's started to hyperventilate. Leo might not be able to feel his arm for how tightly Donnie's locked himself around it, the compounding horrors around them ratcheting his nerves to their limits. ]
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[It's a mantra Donnie mumbles under his breath, inching along beside Leo. His eyes are darting from side to side but there are way too many around them to keep track of.
Except it is real to him, because it's not merely about horrifying visuals, of places and people he'd rather not see. There aren't any emotional attachments there. The horror still clearly exists on a sensory level and that's not something he can easily ignore.
His breath hitches as more hands and grasping appendages reach for them curl around his arms, brush his legs, nearly entangling his already faltering footsteps as every step seems to sink them deeper into an unsettling pool of-]
I-I can't-!
[Donnie's clinging to Leo's arm, trying to drag his thoughts away from the deepening blood lake around them. Must...be...closer, they've got to be- He just has to lower his goggles. Keep moving ahead, they all have to just keep moving.
Those particular words echoing around him then make him go rigid, familiar words spoken years ago but it tugs a very intimate thread, and they have no business being spoken by complete strangers. It jabs at a tender little knot of raw emotion, an exposure only amplified by the creeping sensation he can feel as slender fingers and tentacles grasping at the edges of his battle shell.
He can't shut out the words, can't shut out all these bodies around him, grasping, clinging, constricting. He's started to hyperventilate. Leo might not be able to feel his arm for how tightly Donnie's locked himself around it, the compounding horrors around them ratcheting his nerves to their limits. ]