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 Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 5:19 pm
It had been some time now. A lot of talks, hugs, sympathies and kicks in the a**. Otto was feeling a little better. he didn't need the booze to cope with his own feelings. The plentiful bottles of empty Southern Comfort lay in the sink. His room was still a mess. He'd been sleeping on the couch; blankets, pillows and some clothing lay in a nest atop it. His bedroom hadn't been touched much, aside from Maebe messing up his bed in a fit of teenage spite, and piles of laundry laying around the carpet.
Opened and stale bags of chips sat on the coffee table. Wrappers from candy bars with half eaten chocolate lay about casually.
He hadn't eaten much. Kostya had scolded him for it. He was getting better. He'd properly eat again, slowly.
For now though, he sat in his nest of blankets, slowly licking a Popsicle. They were easier on the stomach. His hair was a rat's nest. He was showered, at least, but his pj's were wrinkled and likely needed a wash.
A loud disaster movie blared on the TV screen.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:28 am
Molly did get busy. It happened. It happened when you were a silent work horse and very reliable and dependable. Molly didn’t know when she was being overworked, but it happened, and she never said no…so she ended up taking on a lot of other duties that other hunters had shafted in favor of who knew what, and it ran her from sun up until sun down for quite some time. Finally, she got through them…and she realized she had done any of her usual chores! Oh no…hopefully Jeremy still had clean clothes to wear and Otto too! Ah! No good, no good! So earlier that day, Molly went ahead and took care of Jeremy’s laundry, and her own, and then it was time to go get on top of Otto’s cleaning duties! She had her hair pulled back into a messy curly bun as she came to Otto’s door, and…well…used that lock pick set like she always did to open Otto’s door, cleaning supplies in hand, and well… The sight that greeted her when she opened the door… Her bucket and cleaning supplies hit the floor with a noisy thud and clatter, and Molly’s hands slapped to her cheeks in complete and utter shock. “OH MY GOODNESS!” She exclaimed, eyes comically wide.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:11 pm
Busted.
And now that he was feeling better emotionally, he once again had the capacity to feel things other than grief.
Things like shame.
He'd let the place go. Worse than when he simply didn't give a damn about being tidy. This was low even for him. The teen sank in place, wishing to become invisible. A low, almost inaudible apology was uttered as he hid on the couch behind a Popsicle.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:18 pm
Funny enough, Molly wasn’t mad. Molly didn’t know how to get mad, anyways. She was just in shock, that’s all. Complete, utter shock. She continued to stand in his door way, slowly looking this way and that. She didn’t even know where to start with cleaning his room.
It took a while, but she managed to temporarily tear her gaze away from the disaster of a room, towards the lightly moving lump on the couch. Molly blinked a few times, her hands slowly lowering from her face instead to clutch at the front of her button up sweater. She stood like that for a moment before she finally stepped into the room…stepped over and around things, pausing to close his door quietly, and then made her way over to the young man himself.
“Otto…” She started, softly, and reached out to placed a hand on the lump. “…What happened?”
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:23 pm
Otto fidgeted even as Molly softly reached out for him. He didn't want to worry her, but he coveted her kindness she brought. "Um.... things got kinda... bad. See uh.. Nevada, my girlfriend.. she died about.... eleven days ago." Had it been that long? He'd been counting the days. Each day that passed without her beside him. A hollow emptiness in his heart that nothing would fill.
"So.. just kinda.. stopped keeping up.. with the place.."
He took another lick of the Popsicle. "Sorry."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:28 pm
Molly had started to rub the lump comfortingly…until it spoke anyways. The freckled hand on the lump froze at the news, and once again Molly’s eyes went wide as she stilled. Nevada…The image of the beautiful and vibrant young Mist with the one eye who had confided in her that she felt ugly since that that loss appeared in her mind. Nevada…died? Granted, Molly had heard some hunters talking about something lately…but she never paid close attention since she was preoccupied with her duties…
She…died?
The Mist trainee was currently frozen as she processed this.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:31 pm
Oh... right. Molly was also in Mist. Did she not know? No, of course not...
Otto looked up, raw blue eyes staring widely at the redhead. "Oh.. Molly, I'm sorry. I.. I dunno if you knew her or... are you okay?" He put aside his own pain, desperately worried about his favourite surrogate mother.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:46 pm
Oh…oh poor Otto…oh…oh poor Lance. The talk she had with her Division lead flooded her mind, and she bit her lip. Poor Lance. She should…she should go check on him soon. Like, really soon…but ah! Otto…! Poor Otto too…oh no…so many things…so many people who had horrible things happen to them…
Molly gasped, and snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of Otto’s voice, poor Otto, who was telling her sorry, which made her heart swell and ache with sympathy for the poor young man. She teared up, and her lip wibbled. “Oh!” Her voice was thick as she shook her head. “No, don’t be sorry! I’m sorry.” She reached over the back of the couch to just grab the young man, pulling him up to with with blankets and Popsicle and all. She hugged him tightly to her, lightly nuzzling his rat nested hair before she pressed her cheek against the top of his head.
“I’m sorry, Otto.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 4:51 pm
Poor Molly sounded so upset. His heart broke hearing it. He wished he could've done more for Nevada. Wished he'd stopped her. Wished he'd found a way to break that wall and stop Alex.
The motherly hug warmed his chilled regrets, even as awkward as he was to be pulled up from behind the couch. He clutched his dripping Popsicle wearily, his gaze cast down in shame for what had happened. He'd made Molly sad. Maybe he should have lied. Maybe he should have taken better care of himself.
"No... it's okay..." He lied, wishing Molly didn't need to cry or feel pain. "I... I couldn't save her. It's my fault. There was a wall there, and I couldn't break it down. I should've made her leave the house before he came.. I should have tried harder.. It's my fault."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 5:52 pm
Otto was getting sad, and Molly’s heart was breaking even more as she listened to him. The way he spoke, the way he sounded, it struck her hard, and right now, she felt as if she was listening to herself. The blame and guilt she placed upon herself when her younger sister died…
The trainee teared up even more, and hugged him tighter. “Shhh. I’m sure you did all you could, Otto. Some things are just…beyond our control, no matter how hard we try. I’m sure you did everything you could. It’s not your fault.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 6:06 pm
********. He missed her so much all over again. It had been nearly two weeks, and that raw guilt and loss just never left. It hid, waited, and came again when summoned. The sadness of another made it even harder.
He really wanted her back. Why was she taken away from him? Were it not for the company he kept, and Molly's warm hug, he was fairly sure he'd have died. Somehow, his emotional turmoil would have killed him. Drowned him. But his friends, no matter how close or not, pulled him up from going too far down.
He couldn't die. Not while he still have loved ones who wanted him around.
"I'll help you clean." Otto murmured, dreading being let go at any moment. So warm and secure in Molly's squishy soft hold on him. "Sorry."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 6:20 pm
Luckily for Otto, well, Molly didn’t seem to be letting go anytime soon. Instead she just kept holding onto him, as awkward as it was over the couch. At his words, she gently shook her head. “It’s okay.” She murmured. “I got it…and don’t apologize.”
She held onto him quietly for a few minutes longer before she gave him a gentle squeeze, which was the cue that the embrace would end for now. She eased the young man back onto the couch, and with renewed energy and purpose, as sad as it was, she moved back to the door to right her cleaning supplies, and then stood straight up, lightly clapping her hands together once. Right. Okay.
She’d start with the clothes.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 7:23 pm
Otto curled back into his blankets, turning enough to watch Molly from over the back of the couch. He slowly ate his treat, wondering what Molly would do. What should he do? She said it was fine not to do anything. And to be honest, he still didn't want to do anything. He had become listless in the week or so he'd been holed up in his room.
Maybe when his room was once again clean, the bad and foggy feelings would lift. Otto mournfully watched Molly, sulking in his blankets.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:13 pm
For a chunk of time, Molly came and went. She collected all the clothes she could find, and then set off to getting them going in the washer. Okay. One task down for now. It was a good start, actually. When she focused on one thing at a time, it helped make the overall concern not so bad…Just doing something helped keep the weight of a good person’s death from being overwhelming, too. That, and trying to help out Otto. As Molly collected Otto’s laundry, she had been rolling around with some thoughts…and before she started the next task, which would be picking up all the food and wrappers.
Molly paused next to the couch, staring at the wall, and wrung her hands a bit anxiously before she let out a sigh, and turned a bit, offering a small smile to Otto.
“I had a little sister...before Deus. Her name was Bree. She was born with a weak heart, and had to go to the hospital a lot. Our parents passed away in an accident around the time I finished high school, and to take care of her I had to work a lot of jobs, because I wanted to make sure she could still go see the doctors, and to take care of us both, of course…” She trailed off for a moment, her eyes lidding. “So I left her home alone a lot, because a baby sitter was an extra thing I couldn’t afford on top of the medical bills that were piling up…but when I left her alone…the shadows…the monsters would bother her.” Her voice grew a bit hushed. “One night, when I was returning home from a late shift…one of those…those monsters scared her…it scared her to death, because her heart couldn’t handle it.”
Molly paused, and reached up to wipe at one of her eyes. Talking about it still wasn’t easy. “I blamed myself for her passing away. Maybe if I had just been there…maybe if I worked more I could have afforded to send her to a baby sitter…maybe if I had…done something else…” She shook her head a bit. “I know now, though…I had done all I could at the time…but…” She smiled a bit guilty at the young man, and then turned to start picking up the wrappers.
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:22 pm
Otto finished his Popsicle in the time she tidied up. He'd been biting on the end of the stick until Molly stopped. He looked up, worrying about the face she was making. Her story as she told it broke his heart. Molly was a wonderful woman. Charming, kind and caring. To think even after all of that happening, she managed to come out as she was...
She began to pick up wrappers, but Otto's thoughts were stuck in Molly's past. He imagined it, and it hurt. So much so he felt overwhelming empathy for a little girl he never knew.
His eyes began to water. He sniffled. Nevada's death seemed to throw his emotions in a blender. He'd never been this sensitive in his life.
He wished he'd never known. He wished Molly was just always this way, without ever having lived such a life. But then she'd never have come to Deus as a result. And he liked having her around.
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