everything's fine

[mylastchance]

Who: Lauren and Annabelle
When: 76 or Something
Where: Alola on da Beach
What: Swimming and being Drunk and Losers.

Lauren is having the worst time of it lately. Saying mean things to his brother, sharing his problems with people on the radio, both were things he never thought he'd do before this week. He had though, and despite his desperation or maybe because of it, nothing had helped. In the end he'd simply decided to pretend everything was fine, if only so that he could move on with his life and away from all the terrible feelings the drama stirred inside of him. However, running from the problem wasn't really working either. He wasn't arguing with Susan, but instead he just felt like a failure. It was even harder to act like things were normal when Susan himself was so distraught over the loss of his own abilities.

If he were smarter maybe he'd have a solution, but as he was it didn't seem possible. Susan wanted to stay overnight in Alola, and Lauren hadn't fought it. He couldn't sleep though, so after Susan's dozed off he finds himself wandering his way down towards the beach. The sound of the waves hitting the shore is constant, even at night when everything else is silent. It does nothing to calm him, instead every lap of the water causes some new anxiety wash over him. He'd managed to find some kind of liquor here, and though he wasn't even sure what it was, he'd bought it. He's got it with him now as he sits there open and a few sips already taken. Relying on something like this to calm you down wasn't healthy, but if it was only one night then... Just tonight he'd pity himself, than tomorrow he'd be normal again.

Comments

[mylastchance]

He takes it, looking at the label while he thinks. She liked him. Did he like her? Was it okay that he didn't know for sure? She was funny though, and easy to talk to. She hadn't laughed at his question like Carly had. She'd been easier to talk to as well, though in the end Carly's advice had likely been the most helpful. He glances to her again. Susan had liked her too, hadn't he? She wasn't a bad person at least.

Of course last time they were together there'd been that ridiculous argument. Susan had misbehaved, and he had said some rather stupid things as well. He winces at the memory of it. He should apologize, but it feels trite to do so after she's said something like that. Maybe it didn't need to be said.

"...Thanks." he finally acknowledges before putting the bottle back on the ground beside him. He pushes it into the sand to keep it from spilling. He looks up to the sky, full of stars he can't name or recognize. It was strange being in a world completely different from his own. He missed Faerun, but at the same time, he wondered if it was really home he missed or just the familiarity of it that he craved.

"I don't like it here."

[forkedroad]

"I gathered," Annabelle says, folding some hair behind her ears. She rests her cheek on her arms, folded across her legs, and stares at the dark lapping water. The moon ripples along the surface in time to the soft sound of the crashing waves, and she can still see how the sand darkens where the water touches it.

"I can't say I relate, but... I also am aware that I haven't gone through what you've gone through."

Being turned into a vampire didn't seem even a little bit fun, and Annabelle found a thrill in even the darkest things.

[mylastchance]

At least she wasn't like Susan before, talking about how great this place was, or giving him those sad guilty looks if he even dared to complain. Still, it wasn't like he was having the best time of his life back home either. Was there something wrong with him that he could never be satisfied with what he had? It's a depressing thought.

"What was your home like?"

[forkedroad]

Annabelle drops her head so that her curly hair falls everywhere, and she laughs through her nose a bit, pushing her fingers through it as her forehead rests on her arm.

"Boring. Dreary. No civilization for tens and tens of miles; only the gray sky, black sea and the shoddy cabin itself."

She turns to look at Lauren, her hair kind of a mess. "My home world itself of course had countless untold wonders... Hundreds of beautiful civilizations, languages, cultures, climates... I just never saw it."

[mylastchance]

It didn't sound too different from Faerun in that aspect. There were many strange and beautiful sights to see their, different people and cultures as well. Lauren had even seen some of these wonders himself. He still remembered the shock and disbelief he experienced when they discovered the Pool of Radiance. Somehow thinking of those wondrous things didn't make him miss it. He didn't have a particular desire to see any of those sights. He didn't miss any of the towns and hardly none of the people. He wasn't happy here at the carnival, but he was starting to wonder if his unhappiness and his environment were non-consequential. Maybe... There was something wrong with him? Was it something he could change?

"... Did you want to?"

[forkedroad]

"With everything I have, I did!" Annabelle exclaims, rolling her eyes up as she shakes her fists in frustration, teeth clenched.

In her case, the Carnival was doing well to entertain her in those aspects... but it still wasn't the same. She's going to new, exciting worlds on someone else's whim, which in and of itself doesn't bother her necessarily—but it's still not exactly what she wanted, back home. It's just a very close approximation.

She then also flops back with a heavy sigh.

"If I go home, I intend to have my way."

If she went home.

[mylastchance]

His eyes widen at the statement. Her energy isn't infectious, but it's comfortable, almost subdued. She had things she wanted to see and do. Apparently, for her home didn't even need to be part of the equation.

"If you go home?" he asks, voice a bit softer than before.

[forkedroad]

"Yes," she answers, understanding that this might not be a popular stance despite her conviction. Her arms are crossed as she stared up at the sky. "Even if I grow the bottom half
of a slug, I'm not confident that I would wish to return home."

[mylastchance]

His eyes widen in terror.

"Has someone been half slug before?"

[forkedroad]

She looks over at him as she lays in the sand, smiling. A little bit of a giggle escapes her.

"I don't know. It just seemed like a feesible worst-case scenario."

[mylastchance]

He shakes his head in disbelief, trying to push the image of a slug person from his mind.

"Even if you were part slug you'd stay here?" He can't believe it. Was there something really wrong with her home?

[forkedroad]

Annabelle laughs, conceding to his point as she realizes how ridiculous that sounds in retrospect. She lifts her legs so that they're bent at the knees.

"Okay, perhaps I would be a little frustrated and wanting of a form with more mobility. But, feesibly? It's a lot more interesting here than at the hermit's hovel."

[mylastchance]

He nods, gaze falling back to the stars. He wonders why she couldn't have just gone out on her own, but he's sure there's a reason. If she disliked it that much there's no way she would have stayed unless she had to. Just hearing how much she wanted to see her own world made Lauren feel bad for not caring about his own. He wonders if he would have felt the same if he'd wound up here before the Tears of Virulence attacked. There's no way he can ever know for sure.

"... It isn't really the changing that bothers me... I don't like being caught off guard."

[forkedroad]

Anna pauses, still watching him for a moment.

"I haven't experienced the awful things you have."

Before, she was so eager to tell Lauren he was wrong. Then, well, he got eaten and turned. That was all very shitty, or so it seemed; Annabelle knows it's not her experience to describe.

"Even if I can't relate, I think I'm beginning to understand, a little bit."

[mylastchance]

Something about the way she says it, make his chest ache. He knows she doesn't even mean the things that happened back home, but he thinks of them anyway. He thinks of Phlan being destroyed, and he thinks of the way things were when he was a kid. Honestly, it's better that she can't relate. He looks down lost in his thoughts.

"Though I don't know if it's any better back there..."

He's already seen and experienced some pretty painful things. He's sure everyone has their own tragedies to bear, but sometimes it's easy to feel overwhelmed by it all. "Maybe I'd feel the same no matter where I was."

[forkedroad]

She peeks back at him, unsure of what to say. Is Lauren just—always sad? She knew he was always kind of cranky, but she's starting to see another side to that. She's never had conversations like this, never met people like him.

"Maybe."

She nudges him with her foot, gently. "But maybe not. People change. You're young. We're resilient, and we grow. I often hear that growing is painful, so perhaps your feelings are merely the seeds of something transformative."

[mylastchance]

He laughs grimly. Was he still growing? It didn't feel like it. He felt like he'd been all grown up for years now. Realistically though, he was probably even younger than Annabelle on some biological level considering she was fully human and he was not. Regardless, if this was the a transformation of some kind it had taken long enough already.

"Or maybe they're weeds." It's a grim statement, but he there's a certain lilt to his voice that implies he's kidding. "I finished growing when Nana and Father died."

[forkedroad]

Annabelle raises her eyebrows when he says that, and she actually laughs a little herself, mostly in shock. She doesn't think about how inappropriate it might be to laugh, but... She sits up, sand clinging to her back, and pushes her hair back, tucked under her ear as she often does.

"First of all—I'm very sorry to hear that." Her smile dissipates, eyes searching Lauren thoughtfully. "Secondly, death is the most transformative thing of all. Would you say such a terrible thing didn't change you?"

[mylastchance]

He looks away from her gaze, almost unable to talk about it while he's looking at her.

"Of course it did." He murmurs, voice barely more than a whisper.

[forkedroad]

Annabelle doesn't press him any further about the details of his emotional relationship with the passing of his family members; it's clearly and understandably a tender subject. Her eyes fall.

"You're probably growing, even as we speak."

She leans over him—torso kind of near his face—and rudely helps herself to his bottle. Once she gets it, she properly rights her posture again, taking a swig. She places it in the sand between them.

"Don't compare yourself to a weed. It insults my personal taste for having interest in your company."

[mylastchance]

He's very glad he's looking away as she starts to shove her body against him. He laughs as she takes the bottle, smiling as she takes a big swig.

"You insulted your own taste when you started wanting my company first."

[forkedroad]

Annabelle just looks at Lauren with a sharp turn of her head, then frowns, deciding to push him. A juvenile and unproductive approach? Yes.

"I did not. Your brain is just in sad tangles, and it's making you stupid."

She smiles, a little, despite trying to be annoyed.

[mylastchance]

He laughs, he barely moves as she shoves him what with his back flat against the sand, and that somehow makes it funnier.

"Sad tangles?" he asks, not even really aware he's said it out loud. It's just such a silly thing to say, like his thoughts were going in strange unending circular sad knots.

[forkedroad]

"Yes!" She responds insistently, clearing up some laughter as she grins. She takes another sip of his alcohol, and gives it back. He would get sick if he drank the whole bottle, after all, right?? Right.

Her head swims pleasantly, and she finds it interesting; most alcohol is a struggle for her to get down, to some extent, so she's never been terribly indulgent. The only tell with this bottle is how it burns a bit on its way down, but otherwise, she honestly wouldn't guess it was alcoholic...

"Take this back, it's gross."

[mylastchance]

He just laughs again shaking his head.

"It is gross." He takes the bottle regardless, sitting up to take another sip before putting it aside in the sand. Everything here was so sweet. It was starting to get on his nerves. And it was hot, during the day at least. Right now though, it was cool. The sand was cool, the ocean breeze.

"It's too hot here."