Hurts like a fucking son of a bitch, thanks for asking

[PUBLIC video]

[The Richie that greets the network today is much smaller than usual, in the ballpark of seven, although even now he's mostly limbs, like a puppy that hasn't quite grown into itself yet. He stares at the screen with wide eyes, fear currently kept in check, but it looks like it could spill over at a moment's notice; he's seven today, and for the next few days. Seven wasn't exactly the best of years.

He's got his knees pulled up to his chest and skinny arms wrapped around them, and he chews on the inside of his lip for a moment before actually addressing his communicator.]

Seth? Are you there?

I can't find Buster.

[Buster's a green stuffed bunny with two different button eyes Richie didn't go anywhere without until he was about ten. Honestly? He's probably under the bed, but like hell is Richie looking under there right now. He is most definitely on TOP of the bed.]

Take 1: Plan For the Witch

There's something about the older ones. The dresses faded and worn from years of washing, outdated and shapeless. It's not the pull of the cougar, older but still vivid, everything still in the right place before gravity and age have taken their toll, with a knowing look that speaks of Experience, tricks not yet seen; it's more than that, beyond it. Some days it's the old witch with the gingerbread house, kindly grin to hide the sharpened teeth and bony claws, and on those days you stay away, find other streets to frequent because you don't want to wind up in a cage, poked and prodded and fattened up like a cow before slaughter, no matter how welcoming the outside. And no amount of pleading justification will pacify your brother for a broken granny, even if there was an evil witch lurking inside.

( But more often than not they're harmless... )

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Take 2: A Rabbit in a Dress at Least Has Principles

Richie wasn't picky when it came to cartoons. Not really; they were all kind of the same when you got down to it, just riffs on the same things with different talking critters to mix it up. Sure, some companies did it edgier than others, cut close to the things you weren't supposed to say on television while others steered clear and kept it to the kiddie stuff, but it was all the same when you rooted the rest out. Life lessons cut down to a few minutes with a candy coating of comedic violence where nobody ever died no matter how many times you blew up the duck or smacked the dog in the face with a hammer.

( Mickey used to be a rabbit, you know. )

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Take 3: Black and White and Red All Over

Richie dreams in black and white. In harsh edges and bottomless pits, in pretty faces with teeth lurking under the skin, in shapeless forms that linger at the edges of vision, just waiting. Watching. Sleep is as much a wild expanse of hostile uncertainty as being awake is, only the rules never apply, they're never written down and they're always changing. He can never keep up, no matter how hard he tries.

( Sometimes it's empty, blank. Pure nothing, whitewashed with the peace Seth promised but could never deliver on. )

[The camera shows the ceiling of his room and all its varied cracks, and...that's it.  Off-camera you can hear Richie shouting at...something and the occasional crash of one thing or another toppling from its usual spot.  The camera view shakes once, then stills again.

Fortunately he doesn't actually have that many belongings to break.]

Stay. Still.  You fucking COCKROACH.

[Another crash as something shatters into pieces.]


a/n: Someone's room has been invaded by faeries.  Well.  One, anyway.  His door's open, so feel free to stop by if you hear the ruckus!

[Here Barge, have a very pleased-looking Richie; SOMEBODY was enjoying himself during the flood.  Don't mind the lump on the bed, it's nothing important.  I'M LOOKING AT YOU, WILL.  Don't look.  Really.]


Well that was fun.  More things like that and I could get used to this place.





[Because the mun was minor!fail this week, just pretend this is the day after the Flood ended.]