lostcarnival | everything's fine

Entry tags:

everything's fine

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.

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His eyes widen in terror.

"Has someone been half slug before?"

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."

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?

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."

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."

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."

Edited 2017-04-06 03:09 (UTC)

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."

Edited 2017-04-06 03:27 (UTC)

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."

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."

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?"

Edited 2017-04-06 03:47 (UTC)

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.

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."

Edited 2017-04-06 04:08 (UTC)

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."

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.

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.

"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."

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."

"The sun is a bit relentless, yes," she agrees, smiling. She brushes some sand off her bicep. "I sort of like it, though. I'm so used to the cold. Everyone here seems so comfortable."

He doesn't agree, but not coming from a cold climate himself he doesn't think he should argue. He takes in a breath, smelling the salt in the air.

"We should go in the ocean." he suggests suddenly.

Annabelle pauses, clearly seeming taken off guard for a moment from how she rolls her eyes up to stare at Lauren. Then she grins, her posture straightening.

"Absolutely," she agrees. "Back home, I was never able to go into the water, or else you would freeze to death!" She glances at the water, looking excited. "I'd been considering it earlier."

She stands up, brushing off the backs of her thighs.

"Let's go, then!"

His grin spreads as she agrees, and when she stands he jumps up. He grabs the edge of his shirt with his hand before pulling it off himself and tossing it beside the bottle. The bottle spills and the liquor inside of it soaks into Lauren's shirt and the sand, but he doesn't even notice.

"Beat ya." he comments lightly, before sprinting down to the shoreline.

Annabelle is beyond surprised by how he springs up, yanks off his shirt and takes off. But she responds immediately, racing him to the shore. Annabelle hates exercise, she hates running, but isn't awful at sprinting—her long limbs are a bit of help.

Once her ankles kick through the water as it simultaneously recedes away from the shore sand, she turns to look at Lauren, jogging backwards a little bit. She's a little winded, and she puts her hands on her knees, leaning forward a little as she laughs.

He must not even care much about the competition because when he gets to the water he keeps running before leaping forward and diving under the surface. It probably isn't a great idea since he doesn't even know the depth of the water there, but he doesn't hit his head since he breaks from the surface just a few feet away wiping his hair out of his face. He look around and sees her still on the shoreline and he shouts at her.

"Coward!"

"I was waiting for you!" Annabelle calls after him, unable to even feign indignation for how funny she's finding him right now. But too be honest, he's not sure if she can manage a leap and dive, like he did.

So she walks forward, and, yes, it's clearly with some timid-ness. She jumps a little when she feels the water hit her knees, and while it's kind of cool, she decides that it's taking too long—so she steps forward with wider strides, lifting her legs higher with each step, and eventually settles onto her belly as she swims forward. The cold takes the breath out of her lungs, though, and she laughs. She knows she'll get used to it.

She glances at Lauren.

"Stars, it's cold."

He laughs at her, especially when she jumps as the water hits her legs. He comes closer with the idea of splashing her, but she's already swimming forward by the time he gets nearer. It is cold, but Lauren's already adjusted, plus being drunk makes you care less about that sort of thing.

"I thought you were used to the cold!" he says with a laugh.

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forkedroad - 2017-04-12 16:27 (UTC) - Expand

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