Room 323 [Wednesday, Afternoon]

[comeoutwrong]

Yeah, even if class hadn't been canceled the last couple days, there was no fucking way that Effy was going out there. The last time things had gone this haywire and it'd hit her was still far too fresh in her mind, and even looking out the window at the changing island was making her feel beyond twitchy.

No. Staying in, curled up on her bed with her arms around her knees, smoking, and listening. Not to anything anyone else could hear (well unless they were the sort who could eavesdrop on internal chatter), but-- Listening.

Maybe she should be trying to block all that out, go out and help with... Whatever was going on. But at moments like this, when things were going wrong around her, it became that little bit too much effort to do anything and, well, this use of time did give her a masochistic sort of entertainment.

[[Door's closed, but the post can be open. Effy, as usual, is all messed up.]]

Comments

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"What bad shit?" Alex asked, shaking his head. "What? I haven't seen you in fucking weeks and now there's bad shit floating around all the sudden. What's this place done to you lately?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Look around." He couldn't have missed everything. "It's not to me. To everything." It didn't have to be direct trauma to throw her off balance. If it had happened to her, she'd be freaking out far more than she was right now. This was just off, not broken.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"And you having trouble handling it or something?" Alex asked, crossing his arms.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"I'm handling it," she assured him firmly, halting her pacing to look at him. "It's just... there." Making her think about it. Which was a little frustrating, and a lot disturbing.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, you said you were handling it last time," Alex reminded her, rolling her eyes. "And were you handling? I don't remember that happening at fucking all."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"That was different." Well, not that different. But enough. Worse, and the fucking had been with her, not just the world around her. "Not totally freaking out, am I?"

She was here, talking to him, in a mostly sane sort of way. Twitchy, and - like he'd said - weird, but not hiding under her bed or whatever the fuck else she'd been at before.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"No, you're not totally freaking out but you're also acting like I'm a stranger or something when it comes to this shit," Alex pointed out, shaking his head.

"So, what is bothering you so much about this shit today?" he asked again.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"Makes you think, doesn't it?" she suggested. "People disappearing, island losing bits every day-- Creepy fucking creatures stalking around."

"Had my fill of all that."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Think about what?" Alex asked, shrugging. "It makes me think that this island is fucking weird."

Still, he paused and looked at her.

"Planning on leaving or some shit?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"No." Effy frowned. Not such a quitter that she'd bail after this long. She shook her head with a repeated, "... No."

"Just-- It gets in my head, and stays there, and reminds me. That's all."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"So, get it the fuck out of your head because I'm thinking you're just gonna fuck off in the dead of night," Alex said, unable to let some frustration slip into his voice.

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"It's not that easy!" If only. Things that crawled in without her permission weren't always so simple to toss out again. "Think I don't try?"

"Still not just going to quit on you." One thing she was determined not to do.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"No, I don't think you try!" Alex snapped, glaring. "I'm sitting here, aren't I? You could fucking tell me but you're just arguing about how hard it is. Well, fucking do something about it."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy spun back towards him, taking a step that way. "Like what?" Her version of trying just didn't quite match up with everyone else's. "Can't just forget. It doesn't work that way. So what?"

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex rolled his eyes. "You could tell me what's going on instead of letting me imagine what might be wrong. I'm asking, Effy. Jesus fucking Christ. Wake up."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Talking. Didn't really think that was a solution, but still took a couple steps closer, tapping her finger repeatedly against her palm.

"Last time this sort of shit happened," she told him, "I woke up where it was raining ash, foot fucking long bugs everywhere. It was all dead things, and tortured people and--" There were many things about that weekend really want to relive in her head as regularly as she did. "He wore their skin, like some kind of fucking trophy."

"When this happens," she jerked her thumb towards the window. "That's what I think of."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex had to steel himself not to react to...those new facts. They were bad just hearing so he knew they had to be worse to have experienced. He kept his face mostly blank.

"You know you're not there anymore, right?" Alex checked. "I know it's still vivid and shit but what's blocking you from grounding yourself back in reality?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy pursed her lips, hovering as she decided how to answer that, and twitched her shoulders in a small shrug. Even she wasn't sure how to decipher her own mind sometimes.

"Better than it was." And she for one would take that. Wasn't that enough? Anything else in her head had been there before, and since, and maybe it wasn't helping, but-- "Nothing's ever perfect."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"That didn't answer my question," Alex pointed out, shaking his head. "You purposefully avoid that or you just don't have an answer that makes sense?"

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

"It's not one of those things where you just have an answer." That'd be option two, then. "Probably more than just one little thing you can just solve."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I wasn't really looking to solve anything," Alex said, shaking his head. "But you're acting like you might fucking crack any minute. You'd be pestering me to talk too."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy exhaled a short breath, reigning in a little more of that annoyance, and shook her head. "Seen me closer to that than today," she said honestly.

"And I don't think you really want the details." Bad enough she had to think about it. "Not exactly nice stories to be telling."

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

"You know, if I asked, I fucking want to know," Alex said, rolling his eyes. "Don't speak for me. If you don't wanna tell me, that's different."

[pastmewrong.livejournal.com]

Effy managed to keep herself from arguing that point, simply by pressing her lips together.

In an attempt to stop her own fidgeting she sat, taking up the other end of the bed.

"Next time I'll forget your delicate ears," she said. Despite the dry way she said it, she did actually mean that.

[fratboybitch.livejournal.com]

Alex rolled his eyes. "My ears aren't delicate. You're really looking for excuses not to talk to me, aren't you?"