maskormenace | text - absence makes the heart grow until it explodes

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text - absence makes the heart grow until it explodes

YO. I KNOW THERE'S ONE THING A LOT OF PEOPLE DON'T REALLY WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE BECAUSE WE ALL GET IT: HOMESICKNESS. I KNOW EVERYONE IS MISSING THEIR HOME AND THEIR FRIENDS. I'D BE SURPRISED IF THERE'S PEOPLE HERE WHO AREN'T. NOT TO SAY IF YOU AREN'T THAT YOU'RE A WEIRDO, OF COURSE, I SUPPOSE YOU'RE JUST A BIT LUCKIER. NOW, I'M NOT GONNA ASK YOU TO TELL ME ABOUT THE PEOPLE YOU MISS OR THE PLACES YOU MISS. THAT WON'T HELP, IT'LL PROBABLY JUST MAKE YOU FEEL EVEN WORSE. I AIN'T EVEN GONNA GIVE A BIG SPEECH ABOUT HOW WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER AND WE GOTTA TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER, BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THAT CRAP AIN'T GONNA HOLD UP. BACK HOME I HAD A LARGE TEAM OF PEOPLE WHO VARIED IN AGES. A LOT OF THEM GOT HOMESICK AND WHEN IT OVERWHELMED THEM THEY WENT ON A DOWNWARD SPIRAL. THING IS, IT'S REAL EASY TO LET IT OVERWHELM YOU. MAKE A LIST OF EVERYTHING YOU MISS. EVEN IF IT'S SOMETHING YOU THINK IS SILLY, LIKE THE TREE THAT WAS NEAR WHERE YOU LIVED, OR A CAFE THAT DID THE BEST VERSION OF A FLAT WHITE COFFEE YOU'VE EVER TASTED. ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF. EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT FROM EARTH. I GUARANTEE YOU THERE WILL BE SOMETHING HERE THAT IS SIMILAR ENOUGH IT'LL BE LIKE BEING AT HOME. EVEN IF IT'S JUST A GIANT ROCK THAT'S THE SAME SHAPE. NOT TO MENTION GETTING OUT AND GETTING FRESH AIR ALWAYS HELPS. DO STUFF YOU DID AT HOME. DON'T GET WRAPPED UP IN THE FACT THAT IT'S NOT THE SAME. YOU HAVE TO ADAPT TO HELP YOURSELF, THAT'S LIFE. BUT THAT THE SAME TIME... DON'T SINK INTO IT. DON'T THINK OF NOTHING BUT WHAT YOU MISS. IGNORING IT WON'T WORK, BUT NEITHER WILL DIVING INTO IT. FIND A BALANCE. DON'T LET IT OVERWHELM YOU.

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...

Crobat's nocturnal. We woke him up.

[archie nudges crobat with his foot. it lazily swipes at his leg with one of its big wings.]

He's a third stage evolution, so of course he's big. He started off pretty small!

Yep. Your world thing. 'Cause I may skip school more than's healthy but I did get into AP Biology, evolution doesn't work like that back home.

For sure. Remind me one day to show ya somethin' cool with a shark.

[he stretches slightly, then watches crobat snoring on the ground.]

Uh, I was gonna head back. If ya wanna come with, go ahead. If not then... don't. We got three rooms to choose from at the moment. Though there might be a blonde kid hanging around. Just don't scare her, alright?

I'm not big on water, sorry. [It ties into too many corpse-related memories as is. No need to bring sharks into it.

He shrugs, raising his right foot and cracking his ankle the way other people might crack their knuckles. Well, that hasn't healed fully yet, apparently. But it doesn't hurt, at least.]

Sure. I got nothin' else to do around here and I stand a better chance of not getting lost if I tag along with you. But what's the deal with the blonde kid? [So many protective instincts as his brow furrows.] Someone do something to her I oughta know about? [Does he have to throw someone's ass in prison because it may take some doing but young, blonde and female hits all his buttons.]

Fair enough.

[he returns crobat and gestures for brendan to follow.]

She's, uh. She's goin' through some things at the moment. Doesn't like talkin' about 'em, but I told her if she wants a place to stay, food to eat or to play around wi' Crobat or Mightyena she's welcome to come by. She might not be around. Her name's Tara.

[he rubs the back of his neck a bit awkwardly.]

I ain't sure what. Didn't really press, ya know?

[Brendan follows, frowning.]

Damn. Can't help if I don't have details, but I guess I'm too new right now t' help either way. I've... sorta been in this position before. Reachin' out to someone who might not talk the hand you're offering. I don't expect her to trust me and I ain't looking for that, but you keep an eye on her, make sure she knows you're there for her. Cornered girls get desperate and desperate leads to bad decisions and the next thing you know you're at their funeral.

[He hadn't gotten to go to the funeral before he got here. He'd gotten as far as getting confirmation the right person was charged with murder before collapsing into bed and staring at nothing, coughing up blood and bile until he passed out on his stained sheets, too weak to even grab for the phone and ask for help - not that he'd tried. He didn't want to be helped.

He didn't want to live in a world where he kept failing people. And yet here he was. Damn it.] ...how old is she? [Please, don't let her be Emily's age. If she is, he's hitting the bottle hard.]

Cornered anyone does that.

[it's clipped; he doesn't like thinking about this. his shoulders hunch slightly.]

Dunno exactly, but young. Probably barely into her teens. She has other friends, though, so don't expect her to be there. Just-- you sure it's a good idea for you to be around that kinda situation right now? I know she's got other places she can go, and I trust the people she'd stay with.

Don't worry, I'll keep out of it if she doesn't want me in on it. [Shit, she's so young, just like Emily was - he can practically feel the weight of this bad idea wrap its' hands around his neck, but maybe he can change things here. He's got power, now. Other people involved. It doesn't have to end with a body in a drain pipe-] Look, I'm just gonna worry more if I can't lay eyes on her and offer up whatever help I can. Besides, I got school and I'm trying to learn what's what around here. I'll be busy and outta your way.

I don't want ya out my way. [he says immediately.] I just wanna make sure you're not gonna get into a spiral by gettin' involved in something that'll hurt you.

[he turns, forcing a grin.]

She can take care of herself, believe me. She can throw rocks and shit around with no effort at all. Ain't no-one gonna be able to hurt her. She just needs some stability, ya know?

I'll be fine. Can't hurt any worse than I can deal with. [Even if something happens to Tara, it can't be as bad as Emily, because Brendan's not romantically involved with Tara. And given how his last relationship went he has zero desire to get involved with Tara romantically. That didn't end well. He's starting to learn you can protect someone or you can love them, but both never works out.

Brendan raises an eyebrow, not voicing the thought that around here, rocks were probably not enough to promise safety.] I can do stability. Clean, cook, all that jazz. I'm not totally useless.

Ya don't have to hurt, ya know.

[he snorts.]

Good enough, kid. I believe ya can take care of yourself well enough, you don't gotta prove anythin'. The other guy in the house is called Hunk, he's about your age and is real nice. Real smart, too. Engineer, I think.

[Brendan shrugs at that, like the idea of not hurting isn't worth discussing. Life always hurts. Even the good parts. The key thing is to be stronger than what it throws at you.]

'Hunk'? Someone actually named their kid that? 'm not scientifically talented, not really. AP Biology and college level Literature, average everything else. Below average math, actually.

Ey, don't be shitty. A name's a name and he's a nice guy.

[the letters AP mean nothing to archie, because kids go on adventures at ten where he comes from, but whatever.]

I hate math too. My best friend got a PHd in math stuff so she does it all for me. Ain't here, before ya ask, so you gotta do all your homework yaself.

I'm not gonna say anything to him about it. Just wondering why everybody I meet, here and home, can't have normal names. [Except Tara, although Brendan was from a Latino-heavy enough area he associates it with girls who don't look like her.]

They're gonna make me redo my sophmore year anyway here. Not sure homework makes a difference one way or another thanks to that. It was January back home, it's May here. I can't learn the months of classes I missed so I gotta redo the whole damn year.

Ain't no such thing as a normal name, really. Different cultures, worlds... nothin' is static, here.

[fuckin KIDS]

'Least you'll get an opportunity to make friends your own age. I work at the school and there's a buncha clubs an' shit.

...

Wait, it's not gonna be weird, right? I'm the swim teacher.

I'm not great at making friends. Or clubs, unless it's Drama.

Don't worry, I'm aquaphobic and if somebody signed me up for swimming I'd skip regardless of who's teaching. It won't be weird, because it won't be a thing. [Brendan Frye: model citizen.]

[he laughs briefly again.]

Well, I haven't seen the new class rotas yet, so if you're on wi' me I'll just tell 'em you show up. Take it as a free period, yeah?

You're a true friend, [he says, and it's half deadpan, half total sincerity.] One day I'm gonna have to face up to that whole water thing, but this isn't a great time to do it. [With the whole moving to another world, superpowers and dead girlfriend thing on his plate already, he's got a full load.]

Yeah, maybe get settled in, first. We're here, by the way.

[he gestures to a... pretty nice looking house, actually.]

Just, uh. Ignore the stains on the walls by the kitchen. That was Muk. An incident happened.

Huh. House like this'd be way above my parents' pay grade back home. [It's hardly the Ritz, but it looks better than he was expecting.]

'Incident'? [Have a look, Archie.]

It's way above my pay grade but... whatever, right?

[he shrugs awkwardly, digging in his pocket for the keys.]

One of my friends broke in by accident, Muk wanted to protect me so released itself and got... gunk everywhere.

If it has air conditioning and a decent bed, that's all I need.

How does someone break in on accident?

Yeah, I'm still tryin' to figure that out.

[he opens the door, gestures inside.]

Mine room is the one with the scratched door, Hunk's is down to the left. Pick one of the last three.

Which has a window that won't let in a ton of sunlight? I can't sleep for shit these days, but that'll make it worse.

[Though he does pause before he checks the room to walk to Archie's door and observe the impressive scratches. An unspoken question of 'how' is there, but he decides not to ask it, instead shucking off his jacket to tuck under one arm. There are nasty bruises above his elbows, dark rings of purple where he'd been lifted off his feet and pinned to the wall and - well, that's all back in San Clemente. Healing factors being what they are, he's sure they'll fade sooner rather than later. He just didn't want half the eyes of Heropa on him so he's been sticking to his jacket despite the May heat.]

Hn. Think the one next to you gets the best light, and by best, I mean next to none. Don't worry, I don't snore. Got it from several reliable sources I sleep like the dead, when I manage it, anyway.

That makes two of us, kid.

[archie just watches this entire selection process, not saying anything about the bruises.]

Ya could always get blackout blinds, you know.

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