ITP: LARS DEALS WITH STRESS POORLY (A SHOCKER)

[mossbuds]

Who: Lars and YOUUUUUU
When: S1:D41 morning, afternoon and late night
Where: 1) home trailer, 2) ferriswheel, 3) misc right
What: Lars gets his first changes! And also, loses his mind a little! He's shaken up by changes, and also the events from the Matrix finale.
Warnings: As always, Lars's potty mouth. But also, booze?????

BTW i will mimic format- so if you wanna do prose or action either's cool


➨ 1. Holy Fuck Not This Shit (closed to Strange)
Lars wakes groggily, feeling exhausted. His sleep schedule's all fucked up—he hasn't been able to sleep well since the shooting at the Big Top, and not having work to drag his ass out of bed just makes the problem worse. Miserable as he is, on top of sleepless nights, it's so easy to just stay in bed all day. But even for Lars, it's been a lot of sleep.

Having concluded his 13 hours of recent sleep around 2pm, Lars finally pushes himself up. He then realizes his mouth feels—weird. He moves his tongue in his mouth, which feels too full, and finds his teeth feel... thinner. Horrified and suddenly very awake, Lars lurches forward, parting his mouth a little bit to touch his teeth—which are all thin, long and sharp, doubled in number.

In response, Lars lets out a pretty long, shrill scream.



➨ 2. Drown Your Sorrows (or Don't)
It has been a pretty dang shitty couple of weeks. Besides having his second harrowing near death encounter with Steven, wherein he was almost shot one or nine times, that which Lars has been anticipating with dread for several weeks has finally occurred. After following up the horrifying discovery of his first transformation with an undoubtedly infuriating exchange with his annoying roommate, Lars has decided to finally get the hell out of the trailer, for better or for worse.

Overwhelmed with despair, anxiety and this momentary anger, Lars decides to follow some very stupid advice, because he's completely at a loss. He doesn't have any friends here—besides Steven, who Lars wouldn't want to unload on (he has trouble opening up to even his best friends; he wasn't about to make a kid listen to that), and he doesn't have any sufficient distractions for his rapid firing Gen X brain. So after a few cursory inquiries, Lars gets to the cook house. And with entitled confidence, he swipes a bottle of liquor, but does wait until he's positive he won't really be caught.

He shoves into his bomber jacket side, zipping it, and squeezes it in place with his elbow as he storms out. Kind of following another thread of advice, Lars heads for the ferris wheel. It's currently unmanned, since it's off week, and Lars abuses his POWER OF KEYS!! to open up the gate around it and clamber into one of the low hanging carriages.

There, he shoves himself down on the seat, scowling. He fishes out the bottle, grumbling as he screws off the cap of it, his head a dumb echo chamber of self pity—and naturally, follows that up with a swig of what appears to be some heavy, brown liquor. His eyes immediately go wide and he sputters, only managing to swallow half his swig before he spits the rest out gracelessly. This dissolves into a bunch of coughing and a hard, full body shudder as Lars winces his eyes shut, hiding his mouth behind his sleeve as he attempts to recover.

Whyyyy do people drink this shit, actually?????



➨ 3. Panic! At the Center Stage
Having failed miserably at unwinding his tension that day, and having woken up rather late, Lars is wide awake and anxious around midnight. He made it back to his trailer earlier in the night, but is feeling restless again. He gets up, grabs his bomber and abruptly departs again.

He decides going for a walk—a sober walk (not that he'd even gotten drunk) at night in the crisp air might soothe his brain a little bit. Well, maybe. So he just anxiously strolls about at a quick, unrelated pace, his arms shoved into the pockets of his jacket with stiff, uncomfortable posture. As he's walking, he feels himself actually begin to get worse—he increases the pace of his steps to a jog as he feels his heart race for no reason.

He squeezes his eyes shut as he begins to run, veering away from the center stage in a hurry. He stops somewhere near the misc right, winded, and rests his palms on top of his knees as he hangs his head. Once he kind of catches his breath, he hiccups a little with a small sob, chin dimpling. He straightens up, putting his hands over his face as he takes a deep breath, trying to get himself to calm down so he doesn't cry in public like a complete fuckin' baby.

[ooc: for reference, he looks like this!]

Comments

3

[waitingforplayer2]

Chiaki rarely has much reason to extricate herself from Yuugi, who she cuddles with on a fairly regular basis now, every night. But sleep is coming to her slowly, and the stumping walk outside her trailer disturbs her. She rouses herself and looks out the window -- and manages to recognize the lanky figure turning the corner.

This isn't her business, she thinks. He probably just wants to be left alone.

She goes looking for him anyway.

Her hops aren't exactly quiet, and she doesn't have much of a lead on where Lars went. But it isn't blind hope leading her as she eases herself out of the trailer, still in her nightshirt. Her keen ears follow Lars' walk, eventually a run, and she begins to hop after him, as quietly as she can. It's not until he stops that she manages to catch up.

[mossbuds]

Lars is too distracted by his debatably petty turmoil to notice Chiaki, and he sniffles, wiping his eyes and cheeks. Occasionally, thick tears drop from his eyes. He isn't crying a heavy, messy cry, and he hasn't since his coworker trapped him on an island, really—it's just a dam that's been waiting to crack, but Lars has been doing a good job keeping it at bay. He doesn't wanna lose the entirety of his shit now.

Grumbling, Lars takes a deep, deep breath, wiping his eyes for what's hopefully the final time. He clenches his fists, trying to veer his mind away from the fact that he's turning into a hideous monster—and that he misses his parents, and Sadie, and the entire dumb city. He focuses on his breathing, but can still feel he's uncomfortably teetering on the edge of a breakdown.

"Calm down," he mumbles at himself shakily. "God, calm down, calm down, calm down..."

[waitingforplayer2]

This isn't her business, she thinks.

It's not entirely clear to her what to do, really. Her coworker is just standing there sort of talking to himself. He's obviously not okay.

When she isn't okay, sometimes she just needs some time to herself. But sometimes she doesn't. She hasn't really figured that out herself.

She fiddles with the game console in her pocket, and flicks the on switch by mistake, causing the little machine to emit a loud musical chime -- startling her as much as it does Lars.

[mossbuds]

Lars jumps, then wheels around wildly. In the dark, it takes him a moment, but he spots Chiaki pretty easily. His eyes widen, his personal nightmares coming true&well, some of them: someone catching him crying, it's someone he works with, and it's a girl.

"You!" He says with unintentionally scathing bite, then hurriedly wipes his eyes with the back of his hand. "What're you doin' out here?! Augh!"

Now his anxiety is tripling, and he's super embarrassed. He's fighting his instinct to book it.

[waitingforplayer2]

She goes bright red, and for a moment she just freezes. So obviously this wasn't the right move. She shouldn't even have come here. This was a terrible idea.

But then she sees Lars' panicked face and realizes that that's her responsibility now. She needs to fix this.

She slowly pulls the game console out of her pocket, illuminating the space between them and her own regretful face.

"I got it back. It's your turn now, isn't it?"

[mossbuds]

Lars looks at Chiaki with wide, watery eyes, clearly hesitant. Somewhere, he feels a little surprised. He hasn't been especially mean to Chiaki or anything, but...

"Wh—y'lost it?" He sniffs, furrowing his eyebrows suspiciously.

Well, it was better than scotch... Which is disgusting, by the way.

"Y'don't—gotta do that, or anything..."

[waitingforplayer2]

She swallows the truth. "Yeah." Lost it. Let's go with that.

"So I've been playing a lot tonight. So... that makes it your turn, right?"

Gala Omega's cheery tune floats up from the controller, waiting for a player input.

[mossbuds]

This is kind of loaded soft spot of Lars's. He recoils almost bashfully, his fingers curled at his collarbones, elbows bent. He wants to get mad that she's pitying him, but she's also actually been pretty consistently kind to him. So maybe... he shouldn't shit all over that; he's learned his lesson about taking tenacious kindness for granted, to some extent.

He sniffs, then glances away as his face goes hot, scowling as he rubs the corner of his eye.

"...Yeah, alright."

[waitingforplayer2]

When she hands him the console, she's a little startled to see his face.

But he wouldn't be the first person to get mad about her mentioning that, if she did. So she holds her tongue.

"I'm really glad I got it back. Sometimes I play it when I can't sleep."

[mossbuds]

He takes it, inspecting it —it's no game he recognizes, but he isn't surprised by it. Even if it's not to his specific taste or whatever, it'll be nice to have something to play.

He looks at her a little suspiciously.

"Yeah? And how often's that?"

With Lars, it's basically always. Big fan of naps.

[waitingforplayer2]

"Less often now, I guess... it's been easier to sleep at night, with the work, and with Yuugi-kun... but sometimes, it helps."

She stands on tiptoes looking over his shoulder to see how he's doing.

[mossbuds]

Lars blinks. Does she live with that kid?? Are they dating?

—Shit. Lars misses sharing a bed with someone, even if it was infrequent. His shoulders sag a little, as it's getting increasingly difficult to not reminisce about his coworker from back home.

"Well, you're doin' better than me, then."

With the way Chiaki peeks unsteadily, Lars relents, privately a little bit fond. He's used to accomodating short people. He's doing alright with it—Lars had a game a little bit similar on his phone.

[waitingforplayer2]

She blinks up at him. (And it really is up-- but she appreciate him leaning down to her level a bit, nonetheless.)

"You're not sleeping well, much?" She looks up at his strangely-colored eyes and his mouth full of teeth -- a bit strange, but only small changes to the face she's come to know as her colleague's.

"Do you want to borrow it sometimes?"

1/2

[mossbuds]

"Meant more with someone in your bed," he jokes straight-facedly, eyes on the screen as he keeps playing at the awkward slant so Chiaki can monitor him. It seems like he's done something similar a few times, based on his comfort.

[mossbuds]

But of course, he was really referring to his dismal sleep. He just didn't want to make himself look any more pathetic than he already had. He pauses the game, though, and blinks at Chiaki.

"...Really? You'd let me borrow it?"

[waitingforplayer2]

She splutters a little bit and goes bright pink again at Lars' first statement. When he puts it like that...

Technically, she's in his bed, but... details.

"... Yeah. I don't need it as much anymore, I guess. Especially with--" She stops herself and shrugs, watching Lars play. It'd just feel awkward to say it again, even if there is a slight smile on her face now.

[mossbuds]

Lars can't help himself—he glances sideways at Chiaki, grinning obnoxiously and he lifts his eyebrows. Now he thinks he gets it—he found himself distracted less and less by his phone and his games as the frequency of Sadie's visits increased, as did their—uh. Activity.

Of course, they weren't dating, because Lars is a confused asshole afraid of commitment. But still, the vicarious fondness is present.

"Yeah?" He wiggles his eyebrows, then goes back to his game. "I gotcha. Always easier to sleep when you got somebody with you." His expression becomes more even as he reapplies his focus. "I never even noticed how difficult sleeping was for me 'till I started havin' somebody over like that."

[waitingforplayer2]

"Really?" She lowers her voice, looking around as if somebody might catch them. But it's way too late, obviously. They're alone.

"Mm... I have fewer bad dreams. And then I wake up and he's warm, and..." She splutters. "S-sorry, I'm probably saying too much, um..."

She ducks her head and nods towards the screen. "But, yeah, you can borrow it for as long as you want."

[mossbuds]

Lars laughs—it's almost a guffaw, and it's brief.

"Hey, no sweat," he says through an impish, dorky laugh, elbowing her gently. "I get ya. I mean, I'm on your side, just for the other team, know what I mean? Girls are better than video games. But since my uhh—" Lars's eyes widen, suddenly becoming tongue tied, realizing he has no idea how to describe his relationship with his coworker back home—so he opts instead to choke and cough into his fist. "—since I don't got that here, video games are the next best thing. So...thanks."