Home
by Queenofinsanity6 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 12:49 am
Nils had shot Esperanza a message the day before asking her to meet him for lunch. He knew they had a break in classes at the same time on Tuesday and Thursdays, and they'd met for lunch many times before. Now the only question was if she WOULD meet him. They used to be close, and now ever since he'd told them about what he could do every last one of them had treated him differently. He had expected it, there was a reason he hadn't told anyone before now. He wanted to help, though, and he could only do that by being honest with them. Too bad it looked like he may lose his friends in the process. He had to talk to Esperanza before he lost her for good.
He sat down at their usual spot with his food and waited for her to show.
by Tuck » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:06 am
"Hey you." a voice said from over Nils' shoulder. As he turned, he saw Esperanza standing behind him, her trenchcoat fluttering slightly in the wind.
She walked over and sat down next to Nils on the edge of H2O fountain, setting her purse down between her feet and removing her sunglasses with a sigh.
"Look... before you say anything... I'm sorry. I haven't been very understanding with you. All of us have been taking Chrys' death hard. She was like a sister. I know we all have our own ways that we need to deal with that. I just..."
She looked up at Nils, her normally bright face looking tired and worn.
"...whatever you need. I want to be there for you." She looked back down for a moment and added, almost as an after thought, "All of you."
by Queenofinsanity6 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:54 pm
Worried as he was about the upcoming discussion, he couldn't help but smile when he saw her there. It was good to spend time with his friend while not haring about solving supernatural puzzles. The smile didn't fade as she spoke, he was incredibly relieved to hear her be open to if not understanding, then at least accepting that he wasn't insane. She was his friend again, instead of the shrieking skeptic that had been making his life hell.
"I..." He sighed. "Thanks. I know this has been hard for you, too. We've all been running ragged trying to figure things out." He paused, uncertain of how to continue, and took a bite of his food to give himself time to think. "Look, I know you don't believe me when I say I can do... that. I don't blame you, I wouldn't believe it either, if it weren't for the fact that I've been dealing with this since I was a kid. I know what I'm doing, the others believe me, is it really so hard-"
He stopped himself and shook his head. "That's not important. Either you believe, or you don't, that's your own business. But the things we're learning while looking into things are just as weird. You're going to have to come to terms with that if you want to help, instead of-"
He sighed heavily. "Damn it, Ronnie. We've been at each other's throats for too long. I'm sorry. What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to believe me, you don't have to believe any of it, but could you at least accept the fact that the rest of us do, and stop flipping out on us the moment anything heads that direction?"
He smiled shakily. "I miss you, Esperanza. I wish I could talk to you about this sort of thing, now that it's on the table."
by Tuck » Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:34 pm
Ronnie bit her lip slightly as Nils talked. She wanted to say so much, but she knew that this wasn't the time, if their ever would be a time. She opened her purse and shook a long, slender cigarette out of a cartoon and lit it. Her hands were shaking very slightly.
"I... I'll try. Whatever you and the rest have to do, whatever you have to believe, I'll support you. It's just... the police have already botched this case badly. I don't want us getting distracted by things that aren't real. I don't want Chrys' killer to walk free because we want so badly to believe that this was done by some demon or vampire or... whatever. It makes it easier to think that it wasn't a person that did this, I know. But I believe it was. And I believe we can find them and make sure that they never do this again. We owe it to Chrys. I owe it to Chrys."
As she spoke, tears began welling up in her emerald green eyes, but she quickly blinked them away.
by Queenofinsanity6 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:18 pm
Nils smiled broadly at her, so relieved he couldn't put it into words. Instead, he gave her the biggest hug he could. "Thank you, Esperanza." He told her warmly, trying not to cry himself. "We'll get this figured out, you'll see!" He let go, moving back so he could beam at her. "Now that we're all working together again, we can finally get things done."
He turned to hand her a cup that still had a bit of steam rising from it. "Here, drink, relax. We've all been so stressed out lately, some tea will do you some good." He took the opportunity to take another couple bites of his lunch.
"Look, Esperanza. Can I ask you a question, and have it not affect our truce? I promise not to take your response personally, as long as you don't take my response to your response personally." He looked deathly serious, a look he seemed to be wearing a lot more often lately. The happy-go-lucky Nils of the past was getting more or less obliterated by his role in solving the mystery of Chrys' death, and it showed in the bags under his eyes and how tired he looked in unguarded moments.
by Tuck » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:31 pm
Esperanza sighed and accepted the steaming cup with one hand, her other careful to hold the cigarette away from him, a polite habit she had picked up when she started smoking at age sixteen.
It unnerved her to hear Nils use words like "truce" and asking her permission to ask a question. He was talking like she had been the enemy, and that was a sobering thought for her. Had she really been so shaken that she had allowed herself to distance her closest friends? She saw the sunken look in his eyes and the not-typical somberness of his face and sighed. For the thousandth time she wished that she could just go back to how things were only a week ago.
"Of course...." she said, taking a sip of the hot tea, sweetened just the way she liked it. Whatever else you could say about Nils, the man knew his tea.
by Queenofinsanity6 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:42 am
He swallowed nervously, unsure if he really wanted to open this can of worms, but he wouldn't be able to be comfortable with her until he heard her answer. "Esperanza... can you really, after all this time, look me in the eyes and tell me I'm hallucinating? Is there really no room in that mind of yours for another answer?" The look he gave her was desperate. He'd lost too many friends over the years to this secret of his. If it were up to him, he would never have been able to do any of it. "I know it's hard to believe, I have trouble believing it, and I experience it on a daily basis. It's been complicating my life for years, and I wouldn't be able to stand it if one of my best friends thought I was crazy because of it." Now he really did cry, impatiently brushing away the tears and busying himself with his lunch to hide them. "Do you really think I'm crazy?"
by Tuck » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:34 pm
Ronnie sighed and hung her head. She felt horrible. This was not how things were supposed to be. She didn't want to have to choose between her integrity and her friendship.
"I don't think you're crazy." she said, finally. "I don't know what's going on. We have some of the pieces, but I'm not smart enough to put everything together yet. But I am smart enough to know that there are things in life I don't understand. I can't say that I believe that Steve is a vampire, or that you can sense the past from touching things. I just can't. But strange things are definitely happening. Maybe... maybe things outside the realm of my understanding."
She stared at the half smoked cigarette in her hand for a moment before letting it fall to the ground, her head still hung.
"I'm sorry..." she said, "That's the best I can do."
by Queenofinsanity6 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:43 pm
Nils smiled at her a touch wistfully. "I know this is hard, Esperanza. And to be honest, I don't know what to think about Steve, either. I know something weird is going on with him, but Vampirism does seem a bit of a stretch. As for me... well, I guess you'll either come to believe me or not, but I have been right about everything we've gotten confirmation from. Doesn't that seem a bit too coincidental to you?" He turned to continue eating, trying to maintain a neutral tone and expression. "Have you really never thought there might be things out there that modern science can't explain?"
by Tuck » Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:07 pm
"Of course I have. All of science looked like magic at some time or another." Esperanza said, picking up her cup of tea and taking a drink. It was beginning to cool.
"Maybe it's just... when I was growing up, my mother always used God as an excuse. 'It's ok, Lancha, God has a plan', she would say. Or 'God will provide'. But all that type of thinking ever did was make sure that we stayed poor. If there is a god, then he only helps those that help themselves. And that's not a god I want any part of."
She looked up and watched for a moment as the college students buzzed around them, completely ignoring them.
"I've always been wary of anything that smacks of the supernatural. It always sounded like an excuse to me. I've never seen or felt anything that convinced me that there's anything other than what we see."
by Queenofinsanity6 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:29 pm
Nils nodded understandingly. Her reactions the past couple weeks now made much more sense. "But maybe all of that is a result of free will? I mean, if there is a God, then he gave us all free will, and to intervene directly is rather strongly interfering in that. It's like a little kid expecting his mom to steady his bike when he's learning how to ride. If she does that forever, he'll never learn to ride on his own. Now, what if-" He cut himself off. Now was NOT the time to get involved in extended discussions about philosophy, tempting as it was.
"Give it time, then. I know for a fact that it exists, because it's been making my life hell from the time I was old enough to talk. I can't sleep on anyone's couch or bed without bringing my own sheet or blanket and putting it between it and me, I always have to be careful of what I touch, and I have all these people's deep dark secrets floating around in my brain, simply because they happened around something I happened to touch. I wish I had the luxury of not believing, because my life would be so much simpler."
He knew it probably wasn't fair to dump all of this on her now, but he'd been completely unable to talk to anyone about it in years, and all the pent up frustration seemed insistent on making itself known NOW. He would have to apologize to her in a minute when he stopped blathering.
by Tuck » Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:48 pm
Ronnie started to move to hug Nils, but realized that that might not be the best idea at the moment.
"Well..." she said, unsure of how to respond, "At the very least, I know what it's like to have people's old, dark secrets rolling around in my head."
She looked up at Nils and managed a smile.
"I'm sorry I haven't been the best of friends lately. When Chrys... I think I'm just still in shock. I hope nothing this big happens again anytime soon. I don't think I could deal with it."
by Queenofinsanity6 » Sun Feb 28, 2010 3:54 am
Nils noticed her move to hug him and stop with a twinge that was part pain, part guilt, and part things he wasn't quite able to identify.
"I know. It's been hard. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to dump on you. I guess I'm just stressed too." He reached over for his own tea, in an insulated mug and took a large swig before continuing. "I do kind of hope that nothing more big happens, but somehow I get the feeling we're not going to be let off quite that easily. We still don't really know what happened to Chrys."
He sighed. "In any case, maybe we should just try to enjoy what downtime we have."
by Tuck » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:34 pm
Ronnie smiled at Nils and sipped her tea.
"Yeah." she said "That sounds like a good idea."
After all, things had to look up soon. It wasn't like they could get much worse.
Nils had shot Esperanza a message the day before asking her to meet him for lunch. He knew they had a break in classes at the same time on Tuesday and Thursdays, and they'd met for lunch many times before. Now the only question was if she WOULD meet him. They used to be close, and now ever since he'd told them about what he could do every last one of them had treated him differently. He had expected it, there was a reason he hadn't told anyone before now. He wanted to help, though, and he could only do that by being honest with them. Too bad it looked like he may lose his friends in the process. He had to talk to Esperanza before he lost her for good.
He sat down at their usual spot with his food and waited for her to show.
by Tuck » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:06 am
"Hey you." a voice said from over Nils' shoulder. As he turned, he saw Esperanza standing behind him, her trenchcoat fluttering slightly in the wind.
She walked over and sat down next to Nils on the edge of H2O fountain, setting her purse down between her feet and removing her sunglasses with a sigh.
"Look... before you say anything... I'm sorry. I haven't been very understanding with you. All of us have been taking Chrys' death hard. She was like a sister. I know we all have our own ways that we need to deal with that. I just..."
She looked up at Nils, her normally bright face looking tired and worn.
"...whatever you need. I want to be there for you." She looked back down for a moment and added, almost as an after thought, "All of you."
by Queenofinsanity6 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:54 pm
Worried as he was about the upcoming discussion, he couldn't help but smile when he saw her there. It was good to spend time with his friend while not haring about solving supernatural puzzles. The smile didn't fade as she spoke, he was incredibly relieved to hear her be open to if not understanding, then at least accepting that he wasn't insane. She was his friend again, instead of the shrieking skeptic that had been making his life hell.
"I..." He sighed. "Thanks. I know this has been hard for you, too. We've all been running ragged trying to figure things out." He paused, uncertain of how to continue, and took a bite of his food to give himself time to think. "Look, I know you don't believe me when I say I can do... that. I don't blame you, I wouldn't believe it either, if it weren't for the fact that I've been dealing with this since I was a kid. I know what I'm doing, the others believe me, is it really so hard-"
He stopped himself and shook his head. "That's not important. Either you believe, or you don't, that's your own business. But the things we're learning while looking into things are just as weird. You're going to have to come to terms with that if you want to help, instead of-"
He sighed heavily. "Damn it, Ronnie. We've been at each other's throats for too long. I'm sorry. What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to believe me, you don't have to believe any of it, but could you at least accept the fact that the rest of us do, and stop flipping out on us the moment anything heads that direction?"
He smiled shakily. "I miss you, Esperanza. I wish I could talk to you about this sort of thing, now that it's on the table."
by Tuck » Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:34 pm
Ronnie bit her lip slightly as Nils talked. She wanted to say so much, but she knew that this wasn't the time, if their ever would be a time. She opened her purse and shook a long, slender cigarette out of a cartoon and lit it. Her hands were shaking very slightly.
"I... I'll try. Whatever you and the rest have to do, whatever you have to believe, I'll support you. It's just... the police have already botched this case badly. I don't want us getting distracted by things that aren't real. I don't want Chrys' killer to walk free because we want so badly to believe that this was done by some demon or vampire or... whatever. It makes it easier to think that it wasn't a person that did this, I know. But I believe it was. And I believe we can find them and make sure that they never do this again. We owe it to Chrys. I owe it to Chrys."
As she spoke, tears began welling up in her emerald green eyes, but she quickly blinked them away.
by Queenofinsanity6 » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:18 pm
Nils smiled broadly at her, so relieved he couldn't put it into words. Instead, he gave her the biggest hug he could. "Thank you, Esperanza." He told her warmly, trying not to cry himself. "We'll get this figured out, you'll see!" He let go, moving back so he could beam at her. "Now that we're all working together again, we can finally get things done."
He turned to hand her a cup that still had a bit of steam rising from it. "Here, drink, relax. We've all been so stressed out lately, some tea will do you some good." He took the opportunity to take another couple bites of his lunch.
"Look, Esperanza. Can I ask you a question, and have it not affect our truce? I promise not to take your response personally, as long as you don't take my response to your response personally." He looked deathly serious, a look he seemed to be wearing a lot more often lately. The happy-go-lucky Nils of the past was getting more or less obliterated by his role in solving the mystery of Chrys' death, and it showed in the bags under his eyes and how tired he looked in unguarded moments.
by Tuck » Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:31 pm
Esperanza sighed and accepted the steaming cup with one hand, her other careful to hold the cigarette away from him, a polite habit she had picked up when she started smoking at age sixteen.
It unnerved her to hear Nils use words like "truce" and asking her permission to ask a question. He was talking like she had been the enemy, and that was a sobering thought for her. Had she really been so shaken that she had allowed herself to distance her closest friends? She saw the sunken look in his eyes and the not-typical somberness of his face and sighed. For the thousandth time she wished that she could just go back to how things were only a week ago.
"Of course...." she said, taking a sip of the hot tea, sweetened just the way she liked it. Whatever else you could say about Nils, the man knew his tea.
by Queenofinsanity6 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:42 am
He swallowed nervously, unsure if he really wanted to open this can of worms, but he wouldn't be able to be comfortable with her until he heard her answer. "Esperanza... can you really, after all this time, look me in the eyes and tell me I'm hallucinating? Is there really no room in that mind of yours for another answer?" The look he gave her was desperate. He'd lost too many friends over the years to this secret of his. If it were up to him, he would never have been able to do any of it. "I know it's hard to believe, I have trouble believing it, and I experience it on a daily basis. It's been complicating my life for years, and I wouldn't be able to stand it if one of my best friends thought I was crazy because of it." Now he really did cry, impatiently brushing away the tears and busying himself with his lunch to hide them. "Do you really think I'm crazy?"
by Tuck » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:34 pm
Ronnie sighed and hung her head. She felt horrible. This was not how things were supposed to be. She didn't want to have to choose between her integrity and her friendship.
"I don't think you're crazy." she said, finally. "I don't know what's going on. We have some of the pieces, but I'm not smart enough to put everything together yet. But I am smart enough to know that there are things in life I don't understand. I can't say that I believe that Steve is a vampire, or that you can sense the past from touching things. I just can't. But strange things are definitely happening. Maybe... maybe things outside the realm of my understanding."
She stared at the half smoked cigarette in her hand for a moment before letting it fall to the ground, her head still hung.
"I'm sorry..." she said, "That's the best I can do."
by Queenofinsanity6 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:43 pm
Nils smiled at her a touch wistfully. "I know this is hard, Esperanza. And to be honest, I don't know what to think about Steve, either. I know something weird is going on with him, but Vampirism does seem a bit of a stretch. As for me... well, I guess you'll either come to believe me or not, but I have been right about everything we've gotten confirmation from. Doesn't that seem a bit too coincidental to you?" He turned to continue eating, trying to maintain a neutral tone and expression. "Have you really never thought there might be things out there that modern science can't explain?"
by Tuck » Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:07 pm
"Of course I have. All of science looked like magic at some time or another." Esperanza said, picking up her cup of tea and taking a drink. It was beginning to cool.
"Maybe it's just... when I was growing up, my mother always used God as an excuse. 'It's ok, Lancha, God has a plan', she would say. Or 'God will provide'. But all that type of thinking ever did was make sure that we stayed poor. If there is a god, then he only helps those that help themselves. And that's not a god I want any part of."
She looked up and watched for a moment as the college students buzzed around them, completely ignoring them.
"I've always been wary of anything that smacks of the supernatural. It always sounded like an excuse to me. I've never seen or felt anything that convinced me that there's anything other than what we see."
by Queenofinsanity6 » Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:29 pm
Nils nodded understandingly. Her reactions the past couple weeks now made much more sense. "But maybe all of that is a result of free will? I mean, if there is a God, then he gave us all free will, and to intervene directly is rather strongly interfering in that. It's like a little kid expecting his mom to steady his bike when he's learning how to ride. If she does that forever, he'll never learn to ride on his own. Now, what if-" He cut himself off. Now was NOT the time to get involved in extended discussions about philosophy, tempting as it was.
"Give it time, then. I know for a fact that it exists, because it's been making my life hell from the time I was old enough to talk. I can't sleep on anyone's couch or bed without bringing my own sheet or blanket and putting it between it and me, I always have to be careful of what I touch, and I have all these people's deep dark secrets floating around in my brain, simply because they happened around something I happened to touch. I wish I had the luxury of not believing, because my life would be so much simpler."
He knew it probably wasn't fair to dump all of this on her now, but he'd been completely unable to talk to anyone about it in years, and all the pent up frustration seemed insistent on making itself known NOW. He would have to apologize to her in a minute when he stopped blathering.
by Tuck » Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:48 pm
Ronnie started to move to hug Nils, but realized that that might not be the best idea at the moment.
"Well..." she said, unsure of how to respond, "At the very least, I know what it's like to have people's old, dark secrets rolling around in my head."
She looked up at Nils and managed a smile.
"I'm sorry I haven't been the best of friends lately. When Chrys... I think I'm just still in shock. I hope nothing this big happens again anytime soon. I don't think I could deal with it."
by Queenofinsanity6 » Sun Feb 28, 2010 3:54 am
Nils noticed her move to hug him and stop with a twinge that was part pain, part guilt, and part things he wasn't quite able to identify.
"I know. It's been hard. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to dump on you. I guess I'm just stressed too." He reached over for his own tea, in an insulated mug and took a large swig before continuing. "I do kind of hope that nothing more big happens, but somehow I get the feeling we're not going to be let off quite that easily. We still don't really know what happened to Chrys."
He sighed. "In any case, maybe we should just try to enjoy what downtime we have."
by Tuck » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:34 pm
Ronnie smiled at Nils and sipped her tea.
"Yeah." she said "That sounds like a good idea."
After all, things had to look up soon. It wasn't like they could get much worse.
