event } you're never gonna fit in much, kid.

[seeingyou]

WHO: Open to all passengers.
WHAT: Teen time!
WHERE: Anywhere on Navi.
WHEN: The next two weeks (Sept. 11-25).
WARNINGS: Add these to your comment subject lines as needed! And if your teen angst includes a body count, please report it on the death page.

When Navi wanders through this particular nebular cloud, you may find yourself feeling sleepy. Wouldn’t a nap be fantastic right now? Of course it would be. Treat yourself - you deserve it.

When you wake, however … that’s perhaps less of a treat. Where are you? (Or maybe who are you?) How did you get here? And why, when you look in the mirror, do you look so much older than you remember?

Comments

[imarealistnotacynic]

Bobby liked dogs. Richard didn't mind babysitting the boy because he was smart and funny and shy - the kid reminded him of him when he was smaller. He was just a child looking for a friend group.

Bobby loved dogs though. He wanted a big one more than anything and Richard was happy to take him to the dog park - laughing at his own private little joke, and join the kid as he walked up to various people - standing by the little boy's side to remind him. Ask to pet the dogs. Always ask if you can pet them.

He would read him dog facts. Bobby wanted to be a vet. To help animals. He'd never get a chance to and Richard would spend the rest of his life wondering if it was the dog park trips that had shown the boy off to predators.

The tone makes him stop and frown. Abrupt. Pained. His heart isn't hardened quite yet, so he nods mutely.

"...Doesn't make it any less hard. Nobody should be left behind like that. Nobody. Nobody deserves to die like that. To be left alone like that in the darkness where..."

In his mind the cat twists and whines, yowling.

He rises. The shadow men. They are always an enemy - even when the enemies are humans. Every day he tries to convince himself they aren't real even though he knows, suspects, believes they are.

"Nobody deserves to be left alone like that. Not anyone. You or me or anyone."

He feels every year as he starts to rise to his feet, "...I'm sorry. I need a glass of water before I keep talking. I..."

Ow.

"Christ. How old am I? A hundred?" Sixty is not a hundred Richard. No matter what you might think.

[bilocates]

Dogs. Why was his mind full of dogs? Of all the peculiar... Simon shook his head. Shaking out the smell of damp grass and dog breath. He didn't really need that injected into his brain, thank you very much. Honestly he'd appreciate it if Richard could keep his memories to himself a little more.

They really have a lot of work to do.

"Didn't say it would." Simon is only a man of many words when he wants to monologue at Alex's voicemail. Beyond that he keeps it curt, concise. "You have to stop dwelling on it." Guilt wasn't constructive. It wasn't going to get them anywhere and it sure as hell wasn't going to get Richard anywhere right now. Other than more drunk, and judging by the look of him he was doing a fine job of that on his own.

"Close enough." He smirks. Get your water already, Richard. Stop stalling.

[imarealistnotacynic]

Having missed out on a whole life and jumping right into the AARP years is enough to make his stomach roll again but he rises further, glares at Simon, and returns a moment later wiping a hand over his face and carefully, carefully sipping his water.

"My father said I was a liar. He-"No. Despite his father's abuse and blatant disdain for every part of his son except the part he was trying to mold into the so-called "mantle of the dragon" he was raised right. Respectfully. You did not and do not say that to people, "He was full of shit wasn't he? I knew it. I knew it was all possible. Even if there's mysticism that doesn't mean it's bad. It might just be science we don't understand yet. Lingering parts of energy we just don't ...don't comprehend yet. Like a song you're learning the words to in school."

Funny that.

He sips at the water, struggling not to be animated, "I mean there are some things that have to be ridiculous. The church for instance, a sop and a blanket for fools and the manipulated, but the rest? The shadow men..."

He pauses, "Please. Please sit. You have to tell me, you know, I need to know."

[bilocates]

He'll get those memories back and when he does Simon is never letting him live it down. 100 Year old Richard Strand whining about his father is definitely going on his greatest insults list for later. Thank you for feeding him future ammunition, Richie.

"You've always known," A beat or two. "Too bad you spend most of your life following his footsteps." Elusive as ever. Simon is not and has not claimed to be nice. He's someone you absolutely want in your corner lest you find him in the corner against you, but he's not nice. At the comment about the song he freezes, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Yes... like a song."

Exactly like a song.

After several long moments where Simon seriously weighs just... noping out of this conversation entirely he eventually drags over a stool to perch on like the weird staring gargoyle he is. He'll entertain this... for a little while.

"What do you want to know?