notafuckingnut | [031] Like a memory long gone past, here in an instant, gone in a flash

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[031] Like a memory long gone past, here in an instant, gone in a flash

[A/N: Backdated to the day after the Quirks Flood ended.]

[Something's...not right.

Everything was empty, quiet, for days, and looking back that had really been the weird thing, but once the flood wore off it all started to creep back. Flooded, really, inch by inch like a hole in the bottom of a barrel, nagging, prodding, filling the emptiness with words and noise until everything's too bright, too sharp, too everything, and he closes his eyes to try to escape it but it follows him there too.

They're watching. Just waiting for you to slip up, make a mistake, and you WILL. You always do. They KNOW. HE knows. He can see everything, remember?

Little by little, drop by drop, over years, it had been tolerable, barely noticed until it was too late to remember anything else anyway, but all at once, like this, it's more than he can handle, especially after it had all been taken away long enough for him to get used to its absence. It's a fleeting memory, but he still remembers the quiet, and that, above all, is what he wants right now, even if only a little piece of it, for a little while.]

[PUBLIC - audio]

[It's an accident, the first time he flips the feed on, a coincidence of fingers and a need for something tangible, and while there's no image to accompany it, the voice is recognizable, although...uneasy, bordering on anxious.]

Just...stop.

[The feed cuts out as suddenly as it started.]

[PRIVATE to Castiel - audio]

Stop looking. I'm not doing anything.

[PRIVATE to Lua - audio]

You holding at all? I need...something.

...Stop the planet of the apes, I wanna get off.

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...What condition?

[Both glass and bottle are eyed skeptically, but it's Castiel. The guy's an angel, they're not allowed to cause harm, they're like doctors (not that he particularly likes doctors either, but the principle's the same for both), so he reaches for the unfrosted glass. Temperature's not the important thing, it's what's IN the glass.]

You look tired. You didn't look that way the last time I saw you.

[It's top shelf whiskey. Nothing more, nothing less. He takes a gulp of his own and sits down.]

[Richie copies the motion, swallows gratefully and drops down onto the bed. He shrugs, words defensive.]

I didn't sleep much. It happens sometimes.

If you want, I can help you sleep. Do you dream?

Doesn't everybody?

[Not that it would help; his dreams aren't a whole lot better usually.]

Unless you're like...a robot. Or a ghost. Or dead in general.

I suppose people who sleep, dream. I don't sleep.

I can help you sleep dreamlessly, if you so choose.

...Well yeah, pretty sure they've got drugs that do that.

Hmm.

[He considers this for a few moments.]

If you think that's a wise choice, though I tend to lean towards my own strength. I simply want you to be healthy.

...I'm not saying I want 'em. I'm just saying, there are drugs for that. So you saying you can do that doesn't really sound all that impressive.

[A pause as he thinks over Cas' words, then:]

You just want me to graduate. So you can get your deal.

It's not my intent to sound impressive. I just want to help.

What's important to me is that there are more better people in the world.

[He rolls the empty glass between his hands for something to do, something to occupy them or else it's back to fidgeting, to picking at them, chewing them, worrying them for somewhere to direct his energy.]

But there aren't. Everybody wants something, they're all out for themselves. They're always watching, waiting for the mistake or the wrong move or the thing to take advantage of. The opening so they can chew you up and spit you out. Or eat your soul. There aren't any better people.

[The bottle is there to pour yourself more booze if you want to, Richie.]

That's not true. There are some people who will draw themselves to the mud to make others happy. Some that will toss themselves into the very Pits for another. Others that will accept apologies for the worst acts.

I'm just... sorry you don't know those people. There's nothing better than to have them in your life.

[An offer which he will gladly take advantage of. Booze is...almost as good for distracting and numbing as drugs. A shot's worth, more or less, and down it goes. After a few minutes he'll start to get a little more relaxed, a little less amped up.]

...Seth's like that. But that's different, he's my brother. That's what you do.

Your brother takes care of you?

[The similarity almost hurts him, deep in his chest.]

That's noble of him. Family is the most powerful thing you can have.

...We take care of each other. [With an undertone of "that's how it WORKS", even though it's usually Seth who does the caring seeing as how Richie can barely take care of himself most days.]

That's good. I'm glad you have someone. That someone has you.

He doesn't. We don't.

He's not fucking here. He doesn't even remember. [And THAT comes out downright miserable.]

He'll be there when you go home, after you've graduated.

No. He won't be. 'Cause he's dead, he wouldn't have been here if he wasn't.

How do you know? Did he die before you came here?

No...

[What's that got to do with anything?]

So then how do you know that he's passed?

'Cause he was an inmate here? Everybody who's an inmate's dead. And anyway, he said so.

[He considers this for a few long moments.]

There is a chance he might still be alive.

Says you.

Re: action

trenchcoatedly - 2012-05-10 11:32 (UTC) - Expand

action

notafuckingnut - 2012-05-10 13:07 (UTC) - Expand

Re: action

trenchcoatedly - 2012-05-10 22:52 (UTC) - Expand

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