[DRP] Annabel Lee (Horace + others)

[The Semblance of Unity]

For a while, they'd kept Horace sedated - his thrashing in his sleep too damaging to let persist. The stitches Jan had given him had been perfect: no need to restitch the empty place where his ring finger had been. The wedding ring finger, he thought, and banished the thought, feeling his mouth twist. When he was not sedated, Horace thought, or he avoided thinking, or he read, or he simply stared at the curtains that hung around his bed and for the first time since he was a child - he wished for windows.

And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul-

He set the book down, feeling the wound on his chest stretch. Minutes stretched into hours, flew in seconds, time was twisty when he wasn't paying attention to anything very much at all. He told no one he was he; Horace didn't even have a phone anymore. Everything hurt and nothing did. He was not good enough to hurt.  

[Enoh Love]

SCREECH

No matter what Horace had been up to that particular moment, the result was the same; a loud, horrified screech that was aimed in his general direction and, two whole seconds later, the appearance of one surprisingly frazzled-looking redhead.

"HORACE!" She cried, unhappily, as she mother hen'd at the edge of his bed, wanting nothing more than to jump on it with him and smother his wounded self with what she pretended was healing affection. As it were she only hovered, holding her hands over him like she wanted to touch him and take all his pain, but clearly knew better. All it really did in the end was bring to sharp clarity her own recently bandaged wounds that bound up her right wrist and forearm of one hand, and a few minor bandaids on her fingers.

"Ohh Baby Bro, Baby Bro~! Why are you - your finger!" She cried, nearly shrieking again, and rushed around the bed to be at his left side instead, twisting her hands together as if it prevented her from grabbing his. Oh, oh this was terrible - horrible, even! The sight of the gaping space where his ring finger used to be was enough to bring tears to her wide blue eyes.

"What happened?!"

the semblance of unity

 

[Grey Dragon]

Jello or Candy?

It hadn't taken too long for Oliver to learn that Horace was in the infirmary. The naturally quiet and nonintrusive Life intermediate often overheard to the rumours and gossip while he went about his day to day work, and although politeness demanded that he pretend to hear none of it, there was no way he could pretend this information away.

He used some awkward excuse to get out of the lab for a time, used another awkward excuse to hover around the infirmary where he occasionally had his own shifts, and finally arrived at the place where his friend was settled. At first he was merely a nervous shadow on the curtains, unsure of whether his presence would be welcome, or just an intrusion. Finally the boy decided it didn't matter.

"Horace, um, h-hi!" Oliver said in a little voice as he pulled the curtain back just far enough to admit his head, not wanting to wake up the trainee if he was sleeping. He could have been more prepared had he read Horace's chart, but outside of his duties, that would have been horribly rude. "A-are you awake?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

SCREECH

The screech would have normally made Horace jump, laugh, tell her to stop being so goddamn loud. Now, he just turned his head slowly and watch her with a detached expression on his face. It was like watching an old piece of machinery turn over and refuse to start.

"Oh, he said monotonously. Horace scooted over in bed - it was the correct thing to do, he reasoned blankly. Hattie was his sister and of course, even if he'd told no one, she would've found him. His breath caught in his throat. Horace swallowed uncomfortably against emotions. It was easier not feeling or thinking. "Hattie, I-" It was all his fault.  

[Enoh Love]

SCREECH

The look on his face caught her more than the wounds on his body. They sent up clear warning bells in her head, screaming their distress over the distinct wrong in the way he was looking at her. This was Horace, her mind argued, but it also wasn't; he was all wrong. All wrong.

Horace scooted over, and Harley took it for the invitation she clearly imagined it was. She crawled onto the bed with him without a second thought, balancing herself on the edge of it without a care in the world; if she fell, she fell, but she was going to stay as close to him as possible until then. If it even happened.

"Oooh~" The noise escaped her in a whine of distress for his state of being as she twisted her torso towards him, gingerly sliding her arms around to hold his head and shoulders. "It's okay, It's okay, I promise, It's okay. You're safe now and I'm here." If she hurt him, she would stop, but until then, she only wanted to hold him, hoping that it would be enough to move that damaged engine.

the semblance of unity

 

[Bittiface]

BROMANCE

Dylon had spotted him once before during a short duty shift helping the Lifers in the Infirmary. He returned hours later, this time more prepared for him.

He slipped behind the curtains, edging towards the bed where the hurt man lay. "Hey, man." Dylon said uncertainly, smiling as he always did. The man looked terrible, and it sank the Moon's stomach in dread. "Did a mission go wrong?" He asked worriedly, sitting down in a chair beside the bed.

"I brought you stuff. Um... I don't have any smut novels... but I have shoujo manga!" He grinned, holding up a burlap tote bag heavy with mangas. "No smut in them, but lot's of cheesy fluffy stuff. And um..." He set the bag down, digging into his leather jacket's pockets.

He held out a little black book.

"I made one for you! It has Hattie's number and mine. You can add all the lovers you want!"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Guardian

"I am up," he agreed quietly, because it was a matter of fact and Horace did not have to think too hard about it. He vaguely remembered Peyton had been the one to come with him to the infirmary - America and Taym had taken Jan away. Away, apart, elsewhere, not present, absence. His mind tumbled synonyms around in his head but they all felt wrong. Instead, he looked not quite at Peyton, but at a point slightly above her left shoulder.

He shifted in the infirmary bed, the movement slow. "I am-" A strange look flickered over his face before it smoothed neatly back out. Everything was his own doing. "okay." A pause and the fingers of his good hand smoothed a wrinkle out of the sheet. His chest hurt, his neck hurt, his hand hurt, but it felt very far away, apart, absent. After a moment, Horace blinked.

"Why did you come?"

beejoux

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

SCREECH

Horace hissed lightly as she wrapped her arms around him, but it was alright. It was Hattie, so it was alright. He turned into her, tucking his head against her, although he was careful to make sure his bandaged chest did not touch her. "Sorry for making him bleed on you, sweetheart," as though his blood were filth; he was unimportant.

"I want to hold her heart in my hands and feel it beat its last, yet I know that even that steady drumbeat would not sing to me the truth of her. I did not want to rip out the music in you, I did not want to understand it." Not good enough.

"It's my fault," he whispered, parroting back Jan's words, America's, countless people in his past all whispering that this is what he deserved, this is what he got. "E-everything. I d-did this." He didn't care that it hurt; Horace leaned into the slight, bony comfort that Hattie offered and he cried.

enoh love

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Guardian

Peyton was the kind of friend he fought with, that he offered support for if she needed it. She'd seen him weak, bloodied, the product of his own willfulness. It was funny, ironic perhaps, that Pey was friends with America, that he knew America was valued more. He wondered how many times he would meet this recurring theme. His fingers pinched up a wrinkle in the bed sheets and smoothed it out again.

"Should someone be saved from what they deserve?"

beejoux

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

BROMANCE

By the time Dylon came around, Horace had remembered how to pin a smile on his face. It was a useful skill, that. And while he wasn't good at it, it seemed to make people feel better. "Hi, Dylon. Not... not exactly. It's an... interpersonal affair." His thumbs ran over each other in anxiety-ridden circles, but he was careful to avoid even looking at the gap where his finger had been. His eyes flicked up to Dylon's tote bag - romance, shoujo. He accepted it with a smile because that sort of thing was what he liked... But Jan was nothing like the people in manga or books. Horace didn't know what he was like.

"Thanks. You do know I don't read smut all the time, right?" He tried to inject a teasing tone, but was afraid it fell horribly flat. The black book was looked at with a warmer interest, and he flipped it open to stare at the names. Horace smiled for a second and it wasn't forced, but it faltered and fell at the mention of 'lovers'.

"I don't n-need other lovers." He swallowed. "But thank you. How'd you know I was here?"

bittiface

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Jello or Candy?

Horace had been staring blankly at the ceiling for some time. It was simply easier to not think. If he started to think his thoughts ran in circles and there was no where for them to go. So when the curtain twitched, he almost welcomed it, though Horace did not welcome the pretense that came with it.

"Oh, hi, Oliver." He raised his head slightly. "I am awake. They've stopped giving me sedatives. You can come in, you know."

grey dragon

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Guardian

Horace didn't flinch from her touch, but merely raised his eyes to finally look at her.

"Of course I d-did." His breathing hitched. He waited a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice had taken on a much lighter edge. "Even America said so." He smiled suddenly, brightly, at Peyton because he did not know what else to do.

"Enough." (And his choice of word was just so funny because he wasn't enough.) "Where did they take Jan?"

beejox