InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Sugar sugar how you get so fly"

David (memoria_rasa) wrote in age_of_miracles,
@ 2008-03-22 23:53:00

Entry tags:

mermaid, postman

Thread: Mermaid and Postman
Who: Arla Lawrence and David de Souza
When: March 22, lateish
Where: The swimming pool
What: David's in desperate need of exercise after getting himself rather thoroughly beaten in Washington ... and figures of all the places to have an accidental run-in with Arla, the pool is a decent bet.

It had been five days since David had returned home from Washington - via Chicago - and if the thought alone of jumping hadn't been to painful to consider, he would have been bouncing off of the walls. It wasn't something he really thought about very much, but exercise was an integral part of David's life rituals. Living clandestinely got one used to a certain amount of excitement, he supposed, which was normally used up in daily jogs, training, or spontaneous games of basketball.

None of those were really an option at the moment, not with the tender feeling in the grand majority of his bones. David had received a bit of treatment when he'd dropped Shatter back with the Morlocks, at the hands of a well-meaning but not particularly skilled young girl they had recruited since he'd left them to fend for themselves. She'd fixed two broken bones, and given him the worst charlie horse he'd ever had, which meant that he was too healthy for the medlab, and too injured for pretty much anything else.

Sinking into the comfortable waters of the swimming pool now, David wished he'd remembered it earlier. Swimming was a way to use up his energy, as well as take his mind away from the images that kept playing back in his head. Death, chaos, destruction, pain, some of each at his hands. And Chicago, coming and then leaving again, had its own pain. Pushing off from the edge of the pool, David turned his mind to the calming, repetitive movements of swimming lengths.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

mathemafishian
2008-03-24 10:30 pm UTC (link)

"I bet," said Arla rather sadly. It was kind of nice to know that a group of people who called themselves Morlocks were still alive, but it just reminded her of things she didn't really want to think about. "Anyway."

She cleared her throat, looking up at the ceiling. Now that they'd run out of things to talk about----which was easy when you were just sitting with someone and not really doing anything----it felt a little bit awkward. Pleasant, but awkward. She attempted, a few times, to drag on the conversation.

"So! How's your..."

"What about the ..."

"Did you ever..."

But all the attempts ended up dying and Arla was floundering. She wasn't ever good at the small talk, David knew that, and then she ended up with: "Have you ever killed someone?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

memoria_rasa
2008-03-25 12:01 am UTC (link)

Some people were unfortunate with small talk, but this stopped before even small; abortive tiny talk. David was half tempted to make up answers to the questions Arla didn't end up asking, offer them back and then make her guess what exactly his answers were in response to. Nothing massively clever was coming immediately to mind, though, and he couldn't think of any good questions what would end in 'purple' or 'pumpernickle'.

Her last one was much more interesting anyway, though David blinked at the unconventionality. And for such a direct question, the answer was far from simple. When wasn't it? "It depends," he answered slowly. "I mean, yes. However you look at it, yes, I guess I have."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	mathemafishian 2008-03-25 12:21 am UTC (link)
	"What do you mean, it depends?" Arla asked, raising her eyebrows. "I don't think it depends. You either do or you don't. I have, if it makes you feel better." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	memoria_rasa 2008-03-25 12:36 am UTC (link)
	"It depends," David explained, trailing a hand through the water, "whether you're asking about death, or loss of life." It wasn't, he'd admit, a distinction very many people had to make. "Or, making it possible for someone else to commit murder." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	mathemafishian 2008-03-25 04:21 am UTC (link)
	Arla's nose twitched and she looked away. "Well, I didn't mean for you to need to make all those distinctions," she said, looking back to him. "But it sounds like you've got an awful lot on your plate, counselor." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	memoria_rasa 2008-03-25 04:40 am UTC (link)
	David winced, pushing away from the wall to drift into the middle of the pool. "I'm sorry," he apologized, shaking his head. "It's just ... my powers don't kill, but they don't need to. I spent a long time figuring out what that meant, once upon a time." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	mathemafishian 2008-03-25 05:08 am UTC (link)
	Arla considered this for a few moments. David really could destroy someone without killing them. "Which is worse?" she asked, knowing she was being nosy but it was better than talking about stuff no one cared about. "Which is worse... actually killing someone or taking their life but letting them survive?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

memoria_rasa
2008-03-25 05:35 am UTC (link)

David closed his eyes for a moment, just listening to the sounds of water moving around both of them. "If you believe in an afterlife," he said finally, "what I do is worse. Keeping that tiny useless part of a person here means they can't go on. On the other hand, if you believe in hope, then maybe there's still a chance they can go back to being people again."

He opened his eyes, a faint smile on his face. "I've never been particularly religious, myself, and I haven't quite given up on hope. It's a thin line, but I tell myself I'm on the right side of it."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

mathemafishian
2008-03-25 03:24 pm UTC (link)

Arla shrugged. "Dunno what to tell you, David," she said, thinking on this for a while. "Wish I did, but I don't." She didn't know what she believed. She knew, mathematically, she couldn't prove the existence of God. But, really, with the beauty of how the world worked, mathematically, she couldn't disprove an intelligent hand in it, either. Still, God let some pretty shitty stuff happen if he was looking down.

She grit her teeth before grudgingly saying, "There isn't an answer to every problem. Some things just are." She craned her neck to one side, like this statement hurt, like it had been forced out of her. Really, she had to say that. But she didn't believe it. Everything was solvable. Everything had an answer, everything had a root, everything evened itself out in an equation; some things were just harder to prove and discover than others. "But... there might be a way out of your little... memory-wipe thing. You never know."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

memoria_rasa
2008-03-25 11:17 pm UTC (link)

"Oh," David's smile lightened, almost through sheer force of will. "I'm not looking for answers from you, Arla. Don't worry." He laughed. "I like fixing things, but metaphysical ethics go beyond even my range."

In truth, while it had once seemed simple, David didn't know whether he even wanted her to be right. Helping Erica would always be one of his dreams, but the others? However many innocent men he had condemned to blank oblivion, there were just as many villains who, in David's mind, didn't deserve a second chance. Something else at the back of his mind reinforced that; if his powers could be undone, bad things would follow.

None of which was even remotely relevant. He'd answered her question honestly, but the last thing Arla needed was to be dragged into his head. "My turn," he said lightly, bobbing in the middle of the water. "Tell me one thing you're absolutely disastrous at."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

mathemafishian
2008-03-26 03:29 pm UTC (link)

"One thing I'm absolutely disastrous at..?" Arla stared at him, rubbing at her eye for a moment before rolling her head back to look at the ceiling. "We're just putting all the cards out on the table, huh... I guess you could say I'm disastrous in English, but that's not what you're looking for. I'm incredibly intolerant of French people, and I hate French Canadians, so I guess I'm disastrous at being diplomatic. I... I have a hard time relaxing, I'm no good at chess, and I'm absolute shit in relationships even if I've been told I'm good in bed."

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -