peektuttut | ➹ 97

So Claudia had this great idea a few weeks ago, and given the lightness of the mood around here lately...Well, we were thinking laser tag would be a great addition to the Barge. I've been messing around with laser weapons, and vests - it's a really basic transmit/receive system - and I might have a few almost finished prototypes.

Would anyone actually be interested in a game? [Slightly sheepish, he isn't sure if he's too old to be asking about laser tag, but laser tag is awesome so shut up doubts.] We could throw in elements of capture the flag, make it really involved. It would be a good way to spend some excess energy, I figure.

[Private to Claudia]

Hope you don't mind I spilled the beans, but I do have a prototype, if you want to take a look at it. It's still really basic. [I.e., feel free to upgrade it. 8)]

[Private to Dick]

Want to watch a movie?

[Private to Sara]

Hey, uh. This is a little awkward, but Dick mentioned running into you during port. Did he seem...himself?

[Private to Luther]

How do you feel about basketball?

[Open spam]

[Usually, Tim would just eat in his cabin. He had his whole apartment in there, and his kitchen tended to be better stocked than the Barge kitchen, especially when they were low on help and they ate sandwiches for days on end. Tim had gotten picky(er) about his food in the past few years, and day after day of ham sandwiches were not conducive to putting on spandex and kevlar and doing backflips.

So normally, he'd keep to his dining room, with his egg whites and his salads, but today he was tired of staring at the same walls, with no one there to eat with. So he headed out in the afternoon, pausing long enough to lock his door (which looked simple as a key in a lock, but really was much more complex than that ~~because Tim is a paranoid weirdo~~) before heading down the corridor to the mess hall. There he got the dreaded, calorie consuming sandwich, and a soda. He hadn't had a Zesti in way too long, and what they had here wasn't an exact match, but it was close enough.

He picked a table closer to the center of the hall than he usually sat, but kept his back to the emptiest section, keeping the entrance in view. Old habits die hard.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Luther stares at him for a moment, surprised, because oh shit. That's definitely a good reason to be somewhere like here. He carefully passes him the ball back, still looking a little unsettled.]

What happened?

[Tim dribbles, watching the ball instead of his inmate, thinking of Roy, and Ollie, and Lian.]

The city where she lived was attacked. A building collapsed, and she didn't make it out.

[He moves to the side of the basket, lining up his shot.] She was five. Maybe six. [He shoots, and it bounces off the far rim.] She deserves better. [Passing the ball back to Luther, once he grabs it.]

[He caught the ball, still a little rattled by the story. He might have killed Robbie (and sort of David, even though he really didn't feel like that was his fault because he hadn't meant to, he'd slipped and kicked Luther in the face so it wasn't like he could have caught him), but he didn't like violence, hadn't been exposed to a lot of it. The fact that that sort of thing could just happen to a five year old kid was kind of horrifying, something you heard about on the news but never had to come in direct contact with it.]

Sorry. [And he doesn't really know how to ask this, so.] Who was she?

[He was hesitant to say too much, and maybe it was manipulative of him to d ecide to go on, but - he could see it in Luther's face. Despite the shit he'd done, things like this weren't lost on him, and Tim knew how important that was. He'd made mistakes, but he wasn't a fucked up person, and Tim wasn't going to do anything to ruin that.]

Lian Harper. She was a friend's daughter. He didn't...[God, Roy's life.] He lost his arm, a little while before it happened. He wasn't there.

[And again, he doesn't know what to say to that, because that was just so far out of anything he'd been through this far in his life. How was anyone even supposed to start coping with that?]

Sorry.

[Drugs and poor decisions, apparently. Tim just nods a little, eyeing the basket and backboard.]

So am I. [He looks back at Luther.] That's not the only reason I keep pushing you, you know.

I don't think I could blame you if it was, [He says, dryly, before taking another shot.]

[He smiles a little at that, shrugging like he agreed.]

I know it's not easy. Talking about all this, trying to make things right. Changing, when you don't want to change.

[Luther's tempted to insist that he doesn't want to change anything, that he just wants this all to be over, but, well. That would mean talking about it. And he doesn't want to.]

Speaking from experience, or are you just trying to play shrink? [It's not really accusatory or trying to get a rise out of him, not after what they'd been talking about but.]

I'd make a really bad shrink, [he says dryly, and shrugs.] Things change. Sometimes you need to change with them, sometimes....I don't know. Like I said, bad shrink. [And he is taking his shot if he has the ball idk.]

You're not the only one who's made mistakes and tried to run from them.

I guess that explains why most of us are here.

Good to know you're not alone at least.

➹ 97 | Voice

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm

spammmm