05 ☼

[deviances]

Who: Eithan and YOU!
Broadcast: Yes!
Action: SS Blue Fish, or a random planetside bar, if you so choose!
When: Right heckin' now.

☼ Waking Up → SS Blue Fish
[ He's been out for days - no movement, no sound, nothing. Just sleep. Or... something like that. Everything changes when he wakes up - and he wakes with a start, heart racing and mind reeling.

He remembers. A vast sea of stars - different from space. Walkable, breathable, wrong. He remembers names and faces of people he grew close to, and the way his reality began bleeding into others' because of it. He remembers running. Fighting. Struggling to survive, facing down horrors that shouldn't have been. He remembers the shop - remembers waking up in the back of it, being left to figure out what that meant and the changes that came with it. And... he remembers how that didn't hold a candle to the way it felt when the bladed hand of some shadowy creature slid so easily between his ribs, straight through--

It's too much.

So of course, the first thing out of his mouth is a very heartfelt: ]

Fuck...!

[ He wishes it was all just a nightmare, but he's pretty sure it wasn't.

Crewmates or visitors can find him in his room, or eventually he'll start wandering the halls, looking hella distracted and even paler than usual. Long story short: yeah, he's not okay. ]


☼ Network post → Text
Looks like it was my turn for Atroma to knock me out and give me memories or some shit. So that's awesome. Good times.

So to "celebrate" I'm gonna be hanging out in a bar on the planet, corner of 5th and Boulder streets. Can't miss it it's got the bright as hell red roof and the weird cactus neon sign thing out front. Seriously. It stands out.

I'd say drinks are on me but I mean drinks are free! Literally all of it. Anything we want. But hey if you really want I'll make it for you. For the hell of it. Anyway come hang out. Let's make it a party. Why not?


☼ Planetside bar
[ And yep, there he is, just like he said he'd be. He's already made himself a rather large drink, and he's sitting at the bar staring into it, as if the place wasn't completely empty around him and he really was just... in a bar, somewhere populated, where people hadn't died from radiation or what the hell ever. Doesn't help that this reminds him a lot of a certain other always-empty, always-restocking bar.

... Goddess, he really needs a distraction. Or to get wasted. One of the two. Feel free to catch him either just getting started, or already well on his way to drunk. ]

Comments

[monolike]

[There, that's better. Reaches over to rest a hand on Eithan's arm soothingly.] Not too long, considering. Days, but no more than a week or so. [Not like Sorey can be sure exactly when Eithan passed out, since he only found out once he popped over for a visit.]

[deviances]

Wow, only days. That... definitely makes time feel even less real. [ Time is definitely fake. Ugh. This is all incredibly disorienting. He rubs at his eyes. ]

Sorry, man. That was just... a lot. I mean, I got slammed with like, a ton of memories. I think. ... Anyway, I'm... really glad you're here. Thanks. ... Wait. How long have you been here?

[ Are you okay?? ]

[monolike]

[LMAO OK......Sorey is giving Eithan a very worried look, squeezing his arm a little.] Not long...I only came here for maybe an hour or two a day, to read to you. Just in case.

[deviances]

[ Dear goddess Sorey how are you such a good friend jfsdkl He actually cracks a small smile at that. ]

Heh. That's really nice of you, man.

[ But that look on Sorey's face, coupled with the memory of the mini-scolding he got from him back on the bullshit cannibal planet... Yeah, Eithan doesn't want to make his friend worry even more than he probably has been. Time to try and kick the deflecting habit before it gains momentum. ]

... You, uh, got some time to hang out for a bit? [ He takes a deep breath. ] It's cool if not, I just... It's nice not bein' alone right now.

[ ... Baby steps. ]

[monolike]

No no, I've got time. [That hesitation couldn't be plainer if Eithan had painted I'M TRYING REAL HARD on his forehead. Sorey smiles and pats his arm before withdrawing again, reaching for the book.] Wanna know what I was reading to you?

[deviances]

[ He smiles in return, grateful. ... Also very grateful to latch onto something else for just a little bit. HE'LL SPILL THE BEANS, JUST... in a minute. Maybe his mind can stop reeling first. ]

Oh hey, yeah, what was it?

[monolike]

[Yeah dude take your time, Sorey locked himself in his room for like a full day after he woke up] It's this romance novel. [Shows Eithan the cover, where two aliens are locked in what's probably a passionate embrace for the species.] It's one of the languages I'm trying to learn so it's slow going, but I'm pretty sure that one, [points to the taller] is some kind of exiled royalty and that one, [points] is their elicit out-of-traditional-bonding-rituals fling.

[deviances]

[ He tiiilts his head as he looks at the cover. Is that a passionate embrace? Probably?? ]

... Wow. Even aliens like stuff like that, huh? [ Amused~ ] Wait. So like, how far into it are we?

[ Sorey have you been reading alien sex scenes out loud while he's been unconscious ]

[monolike]

[It's probably a passionate embrace???? It sure is a passionate something

Kind of like the glint in Sorey's eye] The Grand Courtier just told their lover that they have to be apart forever, since they can never go back to that quadrant of space but their lover is still in the military as a ranking officer. So they started to...I think kiss...they did something, I'm not really sure, and now they're crying.

"and now they're crying" fjdskl i s2g lmfao

[deviances]

[ yep you totally read at least one alien sex scene out loud while he's been unconscious. dear goddess. ]

Sooo, alien version of the last-night-together thing. I'm followin'. [ And grinning - kinda incredulous, mostly amused. ] Sounds about as dramatic as usual. Think they're gonna get a happy endin' at all?

[monolike]

[At least you were unconscious for it???? Gosh don't be such a prude Eithan]

I sure hope so, because I'm getting darn invested.

[deviances]

[ Snrk ]

You're gonna let me know how it ends then, right?

[ He might have been unconscious for it, but he absolutely can't deny he's curious. ]

[monolike]

I could always just keep reading it to you. [Cheeky.]

[deviances]

If I remembered anything about it. You'd have to start over. [ Ha~ ]

[monolike]

Oooh, you're right. Wanna borrow it? Or I can just start over. [Gladly starts flipping the 100-odd pages back to the beginning]

[deviances]

[ That gets a laugh out of him. ]

You read it first. Then I'll borrow it. You can even quiz me on it. Deal?

[ He was never good at quizzes. But whatever~ ]

[monolike]

You sure? [Flips through what he has left.] I can probably get through this by tomorrow morning. You won't have to wait too long.

[deviances]

(( ooc: mostly back from the dead!! if you'd rather not keep this going, no worries~ u know where to find me ))

I'm sure. Though fair warning, I'm definitely not as fast of a reader as you.

[ Belthazar tried, bless him, but even he could only get him to read so much... ]

'Sides, I kinda owe you an explanation. For wakin' up like, uh, that.

[monolike]

[Sorey lowers the book slowly, sliding his finger back between the pages to keep his place.] You don't owe me anything, Eithan, [he says softly. An out, if he wants to take it.]

[deviances]

[ He kinda wants to take it, even still - but the part of him that needs someone else to know is winning, for once. ]

Nahh, it-- I mean, it's fine. [ Way to words good, Paine. He fidgets a little, sits up a bit straighter while he tries to decide where in the hell to start. ]

So... uh, Atroma set me up with memories of home while I was sleepin', yeah? But... apparently I was in another "people from different worlds all showin' up in the same place" [ hand-waving! ] situation, too. So... I remember all of that now too. Which... is all kinds of weird. You know?

[monolike]

[Eithan has Sorey's undivided attention, at least, regardless of how well he's using his words.]

Wow... I'd heard about that, but not while someone was out. Were you really somewhere else while you were asleep, or did you just remember stuff that happened to you before you got here?

[deviances]

Yeah no, I think I just remembered. Hard to tell for sure, but... that makes more sense, if I was only out for a few days but it was over a year with that other place.

[ But still only a few months passed in his own world. So no, really, time is absolutely fake. Gotta be. ]

It was different from the Fleet, too - I wasn't even stuck there! Like, I could go home whenever. ... 'Course, that seriously messed with some things back home, but... still.

[monolike]

[That doesn't sound...horrible, especially since Eithan could go home and even remember the times he went home, but the way he'd woken up screaming doesn't fit in with that idea. Something must've happened.

...Eithan definitely wants to talk about it. Maybe he needs some encouragement. Permission, almost.] I don't understand...that kinda sounds good.

[deviances]

Some of it was. Thanks to bein' able to sneak there from home, I'm not in as much trouble as I could be. [ Bit of a smirk there~ but his whole heart isn't in it. It fades pretty quick. ] But uh... it messed shit up, too. Like... all our worlds were sorta bound to this place, and so things started gettin' kinda crossed. Buildings and things from my friends' worlds ended up in my world, and mine in theirs. And out in the ocean in my world, this huge vortex opened up to goddess only knows what - no one can see the bottom, and anyone who gets too close to it just goes crazy.

And the place itself? Not a good thing. Experiments would happen, and they'd change somethin' about us. Or do somethin' to us. Never really figured out how... they were kinda like augment glitches, actually? ... For one of 'em, they took control of me. I burned down the library and almost killed two of my friends, and I just... had to watch.

[ A pause, and a deep breath. ]

And I died there. ... Twice. ... Both times hurt like hell. [ Snort. ] A-and came with some more changes. That I think I've still got, which proves it wasn't just a dumb dream or somethin'.

[monolike]

[Burned down the library

almost killed two of my friends

just...had to watch

Sorey's hands clench around the book at that, though he doesn't say anything.]

...what kind of changes?