[log] Screw up to the beat of my own drum [closed]

[spoileralert]

Characters: Stephanie Brown, Stephen Strange, Alphonse Elric, Hugo Vasquez
Location: AAB8 - 271
Date: Day 229
Summary: Event Shenanigans and a Reunion
Warnings: In comment subjects, please!

271: A small, enclosed bus stop that probably serviced the building inside the fence back when things weren't abandoned. The bus stop is enclosed completely in glass, making it possible to spend the night here, though the benches are a little uncomfortable to sleep on. Interestingly, the lights here still work, on and off--at night, the lights flicker on and off at random, which may also make it difficult to sleep. The vending machines here are smashed open, but food and drinks are still placed inside them. They do not restock when people are staying here, so make sure you don't run yourself out of food! "ALPHONSE ELRIC, DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY SEVEN, FOR ANY ASSISTANCE PLEASE CONTACT @LELRIC." is written on a wall.

Comments

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen's jaw tightens, and he takes a deep breath in and out as he worries at that thought like a sore tooth. Instead of answering, though, he turns a question on Al.]

Tell me about Martel?

[armoured]

[He doesn't really want to, but it's only fair and maybe it'll distract Stephen for a bit, so he nods.]

Martel was a-- she worked with someone called Greed, and they were hiding from the Amestrian army. I was where their hideout was when the military attacked, led by Fuhrer King Bradley, and the others told me to keep Martel inside me and get her to safety.

[Sort of true, skipping the part where he'd only been there because they kidnapped him in the first place.]

Most of the others were killed and she wouldn't-- she kept fighting me, trying to take control of my body from the inside. She tried to strangle Fuhrer King Bradley, and so he ran me through with his sword and... there was so much blood, they had to open me up to get her body out.

[His voice is tiny and tight by the time he's done.]

I should have fought harder, she didn't deserve that.

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen shudders, his gaze having locked on Al's anomaly -- on that-which-is-not-Martel -- as he listened. His hands twist together in his lap, and after a moment's hesitation he leans gently into Al's side, just enough to feel him there.]

You didn't deserve that, either.

[armoured]

Maybe not.

[His voice is small and sad, but not hopeless.]

It doesn't change the fact that I failed her, and she's gone so I won't ever be able to put it right. Maybe that's why she's here.

[thewarningafter]

No.

[Al's just given him quite a bit of perspective on his own guilt over the anomaly that looks like Christine. Time to try to give him some perspective in return.]

Christine isn't dead. I was awful to her, but she's okay, back home. She knew when to get out -- and I can't make that right, but I don't think that's why she's here. She's stronger than that, she knows how to move on. That's not why she's here, so it's not why Martel's here, either.

[armoured]

You really think so? Maybe it's just because these are the people we feel guilty over, and they're here to remind us of the things we've done wrong.

[In which case, that anomaly could look like any number of things, and he's almost glad that it's Martel. She's not the least of his sins, but she's easier to see than his mother, or Nina.]

[thewarningafter]

Or these things don't really look like them at all and our minds are projecting old associations onto them.

[armoured]

How do you even think that would be possible?

[thewarningafter]

With this many of us seeing the same set of hallucinations? It'd be the nanomachines. Winter told me once that they can broadcast our perceptions over the network, make everyone share the same hallucination. It's why the thing in the morgue looked the same to all of us as it did to Doctor House.

[armoured]

That's horrible.

[It makes him feel more like a puppet than almost anything else has done.]

We should-- you should try to rest, stop watching her. Okay?

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen lets out a pained sight. He doesn't think he's getting any rest tonight whether he watches her or not.]

Yeah. Sure. You too, though.

[armoured]

[It's better than an argument.

After one last hesitant moment, Al slips a short distance away to give Stephen his privacy again.]