Strange Introductions
Who: Pat and Chiri Where: Park When: mid day Warnings: Language
Patrick had needed some time away from the bar to clear his head. He’d be back there later tonight but right now there was too much to think about within the walls. He headed to the park and made a point of finding a nice place to sit, a nice place to figure out what the hell it meant now that the doors were locked. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled slowly, wondering what it would mean for the bar if the doors stayed shut for too long.
Chiri was back at the park. Since spending a few days there, communing with the spirits, she found she liked returning, even if they were invisible again. She didn't know that they were actually gone, though she'd had no luck yet on any new EVP from them. Today she had a notebook and an obnoxious pink pen, and a sketch pad with a little box of crayons. Paying no attention to the fact that other park benches were unoccupied, she dropped down right next to Patrick. "Hi!" she said brightly, smiling at him. "I don't think I know you!" She stuck her hand out toward him. "Chiri." she introduced herself.
….Well, all right then. This girl was definitely not what he was expecting. He'd come here for some time to think, some time to get his mind together again, but now there was this bright girl beside him and it took him a moment to really get accustomed to this. "….Hey," He started cautiously, watching her then her hand. Awkwardly, he took it and shook a couple times before putting it back on his lap. "Patrick. If we met anywhere before, it'd have been the bar…" But she didn't look nearly old enough to be in the bar.
"I was in there the other night, consulting on the current crisis!" she said with a smile. "It's a nice place. I'm not in there much myself. I'm not so big on the drinking, as it were. I mean, sure. Sometimes a girl just needs to get silly drunk and see where she ends up in the morning, y'know? But it's not a regular thing." she assured him. "How're you?"
The last time he'd gotten silly drunk, he'd ended up with a one-night stand getting pregnant, but he didn't mention that. He never really wanted to bring up his family anyway. "I was probably in the back. Who were you consulting with?" He said, looking her way again. "I'm…fine," He said after a moment, not saying anything until he realized his manners had failed. "And you?"
"Rose. She helps work for the dome. We're trying to assess how to deal with everyone now that there are some issues." Chiri said, happy to share. "You didn't really look fine. You looked lonely. So, I thought I would fix that!" she told him. "And if nothing else, if you didn't like my company, you would be annoyed, and that would still be better than 'lonely and sad'." she tacked on. "I'm fine! Thank you for asking!"
This girl was way too much. Patrick only ever put up with this kind of cheeriness from Eily when she wanted to be cheery and even then it was still kind of a hard thing for him to deal with. How did someone come out of something as shitty as what they'd all been through and have this much happiness still in them? "We're all sad and lonely. We're at the end of the damn world. There should be at least some sad and lonely in all of us."
Chiri blinked at him. "Do you really believe that?" she asked. She also waited to go any further, since his answer would absolutely dictate her response and direction in this conversation.
"You don't believe it? Not even a little bit? How can you get through something like the end of the world without feeling some sort of sad or lonely?" Patrick asked, looking back at her. This was absurd. Why was he having this conversation with a brightly colored kid?
Chiri reached out and put a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "It isn't the end of the world." she told him first. That seemed to be quite the important distinction. "And I don't feel lonely, because there isn't a reason to. We're surrounded by people. We're safe and warm, we have enough food, and we're learning to be people again. Together." she assured him. "As for sadness, that's never helped anyone move ahead. I'm here, I'm alive, I'm helping children cope with the tragedy looming in our past, and sometimes I sit down and talk to strangers who look like they can't find the bright side."
He was not really ok with this girl touching him, no matter how soft her voice was when she did it. It was supposed to be soothing, he was sure of that, but Patrick ended up scooting away from Chiri enough to free his shoulder from her hand. "Not everyone came out of this with that sentiment," He said, looking away from Chiri and straight ahead as she mentioned children and his focus waned. Would his kids know Chiri if they were alive today? Would they be here with him, coming to tell him stories about what Miss Chiri had told them that day? "…Fuck…" He murmured, running a hand through his hair as he closed his eyes.
"Of course they didn't." Chiri said, letting him get away. "If they did, no one would need any help, and frankly, humanity doesn't quite work on that. There are a lot of people who can only ever see the bad side of things. That just also doesn't make it 'right', or the way things 'should' be." she told him, voice gentle. "You said there 'should at least be some sad and lonely in all of us'. Do you really want that? Everyone to look at the world and see a bleak landscape, not seeing the people around them, not seeing the world for anything but darkness?" she asked. “You’re hurting, so you want everyone else in the world to hurt too?”
Ok, that was enough. Turning, he set his eyes on Chiri. "Look, I don't want to be a dick to you. You're sweet and I don't know you that well but you can't come wandering up to people in the park and just start poking holes in them. That's not cool. I didn't ask for any therapy or any advice and you don't know my story so you don't really get to sit there and tell me what is best for me or the rest of the world. I'm sorry if that makes me sound like an asshole, I'm really not trying to be rude here. I just…do not feel comfortable talking to you about this." Not to mention he was not one of her kids that needed someone to talk to. He was very fine with, and actually pretty good at, bottling this kind of shit right up.
"I'm sorry you're finding this upsetting--but we are just talking. If this is too much for you? You've got a lot of issues you need to deal with, or that picture in your head? Of being sad and alone? That's going to happen. Not because that's how the world is, but because you led yourself there." she told him, with a note of genuine sympathy in her tone. "I do wish you the best, and hope someone can crack through to you. Otherwise it'll be a much sadder end than anyone deserves." She stood, and gave a little half bow to him. "Good day, sir. But for the record, you are being a dick, and you do sound like an asshole. So perhaps if you truly don't mean to do these things? You should just not do them." she said, with no actual bite to her tone in the slightest. More she was just telling him, in case he wanted to know. She waved, then turned to walk away.
This had to be the weirdest interlude Patrick had ever had, and he'd had some strange ones. As Chiri walked away, Patrick had to relive the last part of their meeting to even really know what had happened. Confused as hell, he ran a hand through his hair and stood up, starting out of the park in the direction of the bar because he needed to be somewhere that just made sense.