What's my secret? Frankly, dear, forgive my candor.

[therapize]

Who: Cami O'Connell and You! (Also Dean)
Where: Anywhere! Although not where there are people as the event progresses.
When: 12th-15th (aka the Ghoul Event)
Rating: PG-13, maybe higher depending on what happens.
Summary: Cami's a ghoul, which hasn't been a problem to date. Now it suddenly is.
The Story:

[Every day of her life, Cami has lived under curse and blessing alike. She is a ghoul, as all O'Connells have been despite their position in New Orleans. Yet the kindness her family is noted for mixed with their position within the city has allowed them to live in peace there, even as protectors of the humans from other supernatural creatures. The coroner's office was always happy to help, since the city kept their pockets well-lined and their secrets safe. Then the witches used their magic, not once but twice, risking exposing the truth behind the O'Connell name to all that lived there. It had been a power grab of the most insidious kind, costing far too many lives, and it made Cami want to reject her family legacy.

But it's something she can't escape from, any more than she can stop the hunger. Even being brought to Wonderland, an entirely different realm hasn't changed who she is. Yet with all the hardships, at least Wonderland still provides what she needs to live and survive, the human flesh that sustains her granted through magic, without forcing her to do harm.

Or it did provide it, until one otherwise ordinary morning when the kitchen cupboards came up bare rather than offering up anything she could eat for breakfast.

With a wary look around, she opens and closes the doors again, several times as panic starts to set in. She can't keep trying, not with more people filtering in and out of the kitchen. Cami manages a grin and holds herself together long enough to get a cup of coffee before rushing away from the tantalizing smells, not of bacon or toast, but living humans, bustling about as they get ready for their day.

Whether its a glitch in the magic or a sign of an event, Cami doesn't know for sure. All she can do for now is go about her day; a sudden change in her routine is a dangerous sign, one that could expose her to those in the mansion unaware of her secret. It's something she can't risk, especially now that she's taken up the role of mansion therapist. Hannibal had been ousted thanks to his habit of murdering people to devour them, and so far as Cami knows she's not even a ghoul. Far worse for her and the people who trust her should they know the truth.

It isn't so easy, however, to focus on therapy when her patients smell so delicious. The coffee she drinks throughout the day does nothing to tamp down the hunger, or cover the scent of each person coming through their door. She tries to hold out as long as she can, but eventually Cami has no choice but to leave a message that she's ill, but would resume sessions as soon as possible.

There are other stops she makes--by the diner for one, to see if maybe the kitchen is the only place refusing to offer food, the bar to attempt the same. She stops at the latter, so hungry she forces down a cheeseburger just to have something in her stomach, even if it's the most wretched thing she's ever tasted.

Even if just a short while later, she rushes to the bathroom to be sick.

At the end she just gives up, resigning herself to staying in her room until whatever this is has passed. That isn't such a simple thing, however, when the scents and odors of the people around her still filter through her door. The joy of living with heightened senses and a hunger clawing at her from within, driving her mad with the want and need to eat. She tries to read, monitors the network to see if anything else has been said (if she's been discovered), even resorts to pacing just to keep herself moving and distracted.

Sometimes she ends up in the hall without realizing it--sometimes further. And the first time she actually runs into a person--

Cami's terrified of the thought.]

Comments

12th!

[singloversing]

[Wirt doesn't catch Cami in the kitchen, since he spent a lot of time bouncing back and forth between there and the library in the hopes that it would make the kitchen work again, but when it becomes apparent that this isn't working, Wirt has no idea what to do.

So, he heads upstairs to the sixth floor, to seek the advice of one of the only people remaining in Wonderland who know what he is. Cami has always been kind, and she understands in a way most don't - she's a ghoul herself, and she's been keeping it secret while she runs her therapy practice. Wirt's always thought that was admirable of her.

It's later in the afternoon when he knocks on her office door, and he hopes she's still around, and that she's not already in a session with someone else.

(Not that this is a session. Pfft. That would be ridiculous. He's just...visiting. Because he's concerned about things.)]

Cami? ...Are you here?

Re: 12th!

[therapize]

[Luckily Cami has no one sitting in her office right now—for Wirt and herself both. When she hasn’t been occupied, she’s found herself sitting there, breathing, inhaling the aromas of the people walking by. So many beating hearts passing down the hall, and she’s already feeling the pains of missing breakfast and lunch both. Still, she’s trying to stick it out; a glitch in Wonderland’s magic might mean an event, which means this would last a few days at most. She can go without eating for a few days; she’s done it before.

And maybe if she tells that to herself often enough while constantly downing coffee, she might believe it.

She’s actually just made a fresh pot when Wirt knocks, not only because she needs it but because the scent of it is strong enough to block out others. She’s cautious as she opens the door, only to let out a soft breath of relief when she sees Wirt standing there.]

Hey; come in. [Although she smiles, Cami can already guess why Wirt is there. They share the same affliction, meaning that Wirt has to be just as hungry as she is—maybe more for the fact that he’s a teenager.] Let me guess. You’re having no luck finding something to eat?

[singloversing]

[Wirt slides inside the room and is very careful to shut the door behind him. Anything they talk about here needs to remain private, and for more than the usual patient confidentiality reasons.

The scent of coffee is a welcome relief at this point. It successfully covers the scent of any nearby humans - a scent that Wirt has been growing increasingly aware of throughout the day.

He rubs at his arm and glances away for a moment, unsure how to put it into words after hiding it all day. He's always a bit awkward like this when they first start to talk, absorbed in the lies he tells everyone else.]

I...yeah. [He shakes his head.] I couldn't get anything out of the kitchen. Um, does that mean...i-is it not working for you either? Are they not working for anyone?

[He kind of knows the answer, but he still feels the need to ask.]

[therapize]

[Far more so, and Cami does something she normally doesn't, even when in session: she locks the door. While everyone has been nice enough to knock thus far, or leave some sort of message, she doesn't want to take it for granted that someone won't come bursting in in a fit of hunger or fear. Cami's got her own secret to keep, sure, but in its own way she wants to protect Wirt even more. She's lived as a ghoul for nearly a decade longer, had more time to learn how to cope with it. Wirt's still young, and so anxious besides. She wants to keep him safe from the reaction this sort of event is bound to cause, both in the ghouls and the humans around them.]

Obviously no one is really talking about it, but, no. I haven't been able to get anything either, aside from coffee. [And of course human food, but Cami's got enough experience to know how horrible that stuff is. She motions towards the pot on the side wall.] It's fresh if you want some.

[singloversing]

[Wirt assumes she's locking the door more for her own benefit than for his, but she isn't wrong. He's a very young ghoul, and one who's lived a relatively fortunate and sheltered life. He's never had to cope with starvation on this scale before.]

Oh, um. Thank you.

[It's not even so much that he wants coffee, but having something warm in his stomach might make it ache less. At the very least having something warm to hold in his hands might ease his nerves a little.]

...Do you think this is an event? I-I mean, I know events have made the closets stop working before but...it's kind of weird that this is the only thing happening this time, right? Or at least, it seems that way.

[Which is enough to make him worry that maybe it isn't an event. Maybe the closets just don't work for ghouls anymore, and perhaps this is all just leading to a horrible new development in Wonderland, and an alarming rise in its murder rate.]

[therapize]

[It should help more than it does; for vampires the burn of alcohol can ease the need for the heat that comes with fresh blood, and shouldn’t the ghouls have something that provides similar relief?. But while coffee is something, it is a meager something, certainly not a replacement for the meat Cami has willfully trying not to think about since her day began. Worse, while alcohol can mellow the caffeine in their drink adds energy, bounce, jitteriness to nerves already frayed.

Come to think of it, maybe she shouldn’t have offered Wirt any after all.]

It has to be. [Hopefully he’ll hear logic in her words rather than desperation; Cami doesn’t want to think of what might happen if somehow the mansion’s core has truly changed its fundamental operation.] It’s the right time for one, and besides, this is the only thing we know of that’s happening right now. There might still be more coming.

[Which isn’t so comforting a thought as she means it to be, is it? Cami shakes her head, blaming the hunger for throwing her off.] I mean, something that affects everyone, not just the ghouls.

[singloversing]

[Maybe not, but coffee is better than nothing at all, so even against better judgement Wirt is going to spend the event drinking it continuously.]

R-Right. Right. [He'll take the logic and ignore the desperation, even though he's sure he hears it. It's terrifying to think about, that this is something that's unsettling Cami too. So his reply is more logic, in the hopes that he can do for her what she's trying to do for him.] Plenty of events have been like that, right? Where they start off with just one thing and then build to...other stuff.

[He's not good at being reassuring, or at least he doesn't feel like his is. It's difficult when he's not confident, when he can't make himself sound absolutely sure things will be okay. It's probably doing more harm than good.]

...I-I mean, Wonderland wouldn't just. It wouldn't just stop feeding us. ...Right?

[Gosh, he hopes that's the case.]

[therapize]

[Wirt won’t be alone in that. Hunger leads to desperation—and Cami doesn’t want to think of what follows after that, for either of them.]

Right. [Although Cami doesn’t want to point out the other part of that precedent to him, that whatever follows has typically been worse, some sort of escalation of the circumstances already in place. Mounting paranoia, worsening hallucinations, and perhaps in this Wonderland might seek to make all the ghouls suffer through a hunger that drives them insane. She can’t put that on Wirt’s shoulders; Cami outright refuses, which is why she forces a smile and a sense of hope she doesn’t truly feel when she turns back to him.]

It wouldn’t. Whoever or whatever’s in charge here, it’s made it clear that it wants to keep us alive. [Why else bring them to a place where they don’t age or suffer a lasting death?] We just have to get through the next few days. We’ll be fine, Wirt.

[Somehow.]

[singloversing]

[Wirt nods. He doesn't actually feel very confident in all of this, but Cami would know better than he does. She's an older, more experienced ghoul. She's been around the block.

He's glad he has the warm coffee to hold, because really he just wants to curl his arms over his aching stomach, but that's not going to help.]

Yeah. ...Yeah, it wants everyone alive, so.

[If it really wants to keep everyone alive, it wouldn't force the ghouls to get so hungry they can't stop themselves from killing anyone anymore. But that's so uncomfortable to talk about, so Wirt changes the subject.]

U-Um. ...How are you holding up?