|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:15 am
He hears some Life trainees chatting about it in a small group, and almost doesn't grasp what it means. They say things like three times this week and strapped her down and reckless. Maybe he just refuses to believe it, honestly, until one of them says something about neon blue and green hair.
It's hard to ignore evidence like that.
He rushes to the infirmary after that and loudly demands to know where she is. They stare at him in confusion until he bites out "Chelsea Craft. Where's her bed?"
They point to a closed curtain, and he has to take a fortifying breath. Apparently he'd still been hoping they'd say he was wrong.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:20 am
Chel is no longer restrained as the rumors were milling, but there were reddish marks on her wrists and other spots as evidence for what had happened. They were fading by now, but it is not something so easily wiped clean.
When Chris comes in, she is on her side, facing the room. Not asleep, just laying and staring. She is in an awkward situation; she is functioning and the techs say she should be ejected, but no one is comfortable doing so just yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:26 am
Chris approaches the bed slowly, watching as she just stares. He reaches out to gently brush aside her hair and looks at the scars arcing around her eye. They're new enough that he hasn't seen them before, but old enough that they've healed over. Interesting.
His eyes drift over the other evidence of her time here, but it all seems fairly light. Nothing that would explain why she'd been here three times.
"What's goin on with you, Sunshine?" he asks quietly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:32 am
She barely registers Chris' presence at first. It isn't until Chris touches her that she flinches, eyes snapping to his. They are bloodshot, and she hasn't slept- not without sedation.
"True love," she says as a joke, putting her hand on top of his. She uses it as leverage to sit herself up. Enough time has passed that she has relearned how to function, but only as glued together pieces. Even when a plate is fixed, it is not a plate anymore, it is a fixed plate. It has a new title, one that denotes it is not as good as it once was.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:37 am
His eyes crinkle in the corner, a sign that he's trying not to smile. "True love sucks. I'll take shitty 99 cent love any day," he squeezes her hand, trying to be the anchor he always is. "Wanna talk about it?"
He leaves it up to her, easy for her to say no and move on. He'll back down. He's too worried about her to press too hard. She seems too fragile.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:39 am
"Don't let them take me to a pod," she confides in Chris. "I'm not crazy." It seems like she only has those two sentences to say.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:45 am
"Whoa, hey," he says, furrowing his brows. "No one's sending you to the pods. Why would you think that?"
His mouth sets in a hard line. "Did Evan do something?" It's probably a little funny that he still believes this to be the most pressing issue. Or maybe just a little sad.
Ava growls in his head, a wrathful presence.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:50 am
There is a long silence as she recalls Evan and why he might be relevant. Evan is a relic of the past.
She shakes her head as the only response she can give. Guilt stabs her as she watches Chris' features harden. She is hurting him too, she can see it better than anyone at Deus. "How are you?" she questions selfishly. She is tired of talking about herself. A different sound needs to fill the infirmary.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 10:57 am
Her deflection wasn't even particularly subtle, but he obliges. "I'm okay. Ava has me trying to make friends, or some s**t. She thinks I need them," he bit his lip and shrugged. "I trained with Finn and Jack, and had drinks with them. I guess that's a partial success?"
He turns to sit on the bed with her, bumps his shoulder up against hers. "Making friends seems juvenile. I'm not in kindergarten anymore."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 11:07 am
She listens, taking it in. Chris is developing a life; one without her. "You have friends," she says. Noemi and Lydia- lots of friends. "You always got me," she says softly. She understands that it's okay if Chris doesn't want to have her anymore.
She pulls her legs off the edge of the bed, knees bumping against her chest. "I don't know what I am anymore." Not who. What.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 11:25 am
"Yeah, I know," he says with a small smile. It fades, though and he looks at her for a long moment.
"You're a pain in the a**," he says first. "But you're important. You're important to me and your friends. You always somehow make people care about you." He pulls her into a hug, awkward knees and all. "You're not crazy. I don't know why anyone would think you are, but I know you're not."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 11:53 am
"You're s'posed to say that," she retorts. She accepts his hug and puts her face in his jacket. It's a hug she's need for a long time.
Without detaching herself, she says, "What do you want to know?" Because lately it seemed that everyone wanted something out of her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:12 pm
"Nah, It's true."
He thinks quietly for a second. Ava tells him to ask her for everything, but he won't. Not right now at least, if ever. "Whatever you're comfortable telling me. Maybe why you've been here so often?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:17 pm
She begins with a short recount of her night with Jack. She spares details, for Chris' poor familial mind. She expresses her confession in short, sparse sentences, explaining Jack's rejection.
"So ... true love," she interjects in her own story.
She pauses, and then dives into her encounter with the butterfly girl, the dragon and Shun in the haunted house. She doesn't bother hiding Shun's identity anymore, because it doesn't matter with Chris and the end result of her death is inevitable anyways.
"That was the first time," she says softly, touching the lines along her face. "Don't say they're not bad. I know they are. I'm a ********' monster now."
< One that can see, > Tenebrae chimes.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 12:26 pm
It's a lot to process. More than he'd expected she'd tell him. He listens quietly though, and does his best not to interrupt like she'd asked of him that day in his room. He doesn't know what to say about Jack, though he knows he's definitely angry. Angry that the guy could make his cousin feel like this, and then look him in the face only a couple days later like he hadn't done s**t.
He doesn't focus on that. Doesn't think he could and still be here for Chel.
"You're not a monster." He watches her fingers trail across the scars. They're ugly by themselves, but they don't make her ugly. If anything, he thinks they're fitting. They flatter her personality. "They're badass. Everyone wants a scar with a story. Remember that time I fell out of that huge tree in my backyard? And I got that gash on my knee. I wanted it to scar so bad, because then I could tell everyone about how I fell out of the tree and survived. It didn't though."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
