Event Log: A Hope for the Future

[hadrielmods]

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for the A Hope for the Future event
Where: All over the city!
When: April 15th-April 19th
Warnings: Stealth Rock

It's finally time to reap the rewards you've earned from all that hard work collecting and returning the Hope orbs! Be careful walking the streets during the small earthquakes, but feel free to admire the scenery as your beautiful city reassembles its way back into its former glory.

There are new houses where the destroyed buildings once were, and they're perfect for a single person or pair of lovebirds. In addition, you'll find that the electricity to these new houses, and all other homes and shops in the city is restored. The food is better, the monsters are gone- hey, this city might be livable again!

To cap it all off, we've got a feast waiting for you on the 19th! Come one, come all, and enjoy all of your favorite foods, drinks, and party games. It's been awhile since we've all gotten together to celebrate something good, so get your party on and toss all your troubles away!

► This log covers April 14th-April 19th.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well!
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you get hit by levitating rubble or eat a food that wasn't meant for you, please let us know here.

Comments

[murderpotato]

[Maybe Gren should just go steady with carbs to fill the void that Wade has left in his life. It would be better for him than his current liquid diet, anyway, so that's something.]

[But it looks like she picked out some good shit, and Gren feels the vaguest stir from his long forgotten appetite. Or it's just his busted-ass feelings acting up again, who the fuck knows. Fuck it, whatever, he's going to drink some fermented bee spit.]

Not fuckin' really, but here we are.

[He pours a drink out for himself and some for Lup, too. At least he's not chugging straight from the bottle like some kind of heathen.]

[It takes a while for Gren to talk. His mouth is kind of like a wind-up toy that runs on his own pissiness, and without something to get properly worked up about, silence is easier. But he also told her to come over here, so silence isn't a viable option. He'll have to talk, and maybe if he plays it right, it'll at least be a short conversation, even if it couldn't ever be painless.]

[He thinks, a mental appraisal of this whole bullshit for whatever part of it hurts the most, like probing a sore tooth for the cavity. Cut straight to the quick, don't waste anybody's time. Self-reflection isn't exactly Gren's strong point, because he never learns from his mistakes until it's too late to do anything about it, but he's old enough that he should be able to figure out the shape of his own misery.]

It ain't just that he's gone, there ain't shit I could've done about that. [No explanation is really needed as to who he is.] It's that I didn't tell him a goddamn thing, I think.

[restinglichface]

[Gren takes some time to actually talk and Lup doesn't push, doesn't judge him for his silence, doesn't prod him to go faster. The woman just slips in close to him, just enough to where her knee casually bumps against his, and sips her drink, her gaze drifting out to the party happening around them.

It's a good party, more than most folks in this place have come to expect from the ones in charge. But the music is good, the food is better, and the booze is flowing freely. Yet even with all of those fantastic elements in place, if this had happened even two weeks earlier, Lup would be in the same boat as Gren, wouldn't she? Drowning in heartache, wanting to lose herself to liquor instead of facing the whole unfair center of her hurt. She can't fault him for his pain, for not being able to manage the hurt he's facing, but Lup wants to be the kind of friend that he needs in this moment.

So at least he doesn't have to face the whole happy room alone.

But finally he speaks, getting straight to the point and god, Lup loves him all the more for it. There's no dancing around the topic, no pretending that nothing is wrong. Just right to it. Straight to his pain.]

I know, hun. [And she does, or at least, Lup assumed as much. His grief had seemed so much bigger than just losing Wade. It was the unspoken between them that hit him the hardest.

Maybe the touch isn't completely welcome so he can always shrug her off, but Lup reaches over to rest her hand over his forearm, her touch light and warm. For her, physical touch is the most important reminder there is that she is real and that others can see her. Maybe he won't get exactly the same comfort out of it, but hopefully she can help him stay grounded.]

And yeah, maybe you shoulda told him earlier, but you can't beat yourself about what ifs. You didn't know. He didn't either.

[murderpotato]

[He didn't know, and no one could have really predicted that Wade would fuck off into the ether that particular day. It's just that sometimes Gren lays awake in a bed that's too small for how goddamn empty it feels, replaying conversations over and over in his stupid head. Every place where things should have been said (but weren't) stands out when he looks at it in hindsight, whole new branches that should've been made in a narrative that didn't happen. Which is a fucking problem, because maybe there's some alternate universe where Gren didn't fuck up and let the love of his stupid, waste-of-space life man who should've been his boyfriend disappear without telling him the things he needed to know, but that's not the universe that Gren's living in.]

[He's in the shitty one, and he has to live with that.]

Yeah, yeah, I fuckin' know that. I just wish I could've...

[He makes a short noise in his throat, annoyed at his own goddamn self, and sort of points his eyes in the general direction of the party-goers, looking through them more than at them. There's no way to end that sentence that isn't stupid; he could wish for all sorts of shit but that doesn't mean that it matters even a little bit. Lup's hand settles gentle on his arm, and he tenses just for a second before letting go. Letting her give comfort in the way that she knows how. The sentiment behind it is the important thing, more than the method.]

Closure's bullshit, isn't it. Closure's a fuckin' lie that we tell ourselves because we want to pretend that our shitty stories could have a better endin'. [Which is a lie in and of itself, because the stories don't really end. Nothing ever really ends.] Wantin' it's like a fuckin' leash. It's supposed to be a key or some shit, supposed to let you outta the cage of your past, but it... ties you to it.

[He settles back in his seat, his limbs in a graceless sprawl, and huffs.] Me, I guess. Fuck.

[restinglichface]

Total bullshit.

[Lup focuses on each piece in turn - the short noise he makes in the back of his throat, the tension that builds up so briefly beneath her touch, the way Gren's gaze lingers after the party-goers - each one drawing her back to him, back to the pain he's trying so desperately to manage. She both gets it and doesn't. There's a part of her that can't help but feel the squeeze around her heart, the tightness that clutches at her chest at the thought of Gren's heartbreaking pain, at the emptiness and sense of loss he must feel. But on the other hand, what does she possibly have to compare it to? This is just so much more. So much left unsaid.

But even in his pain, Lup doesn’t indulge him; she refuses to let him hide.]

Look. I'm not gonna coddle you and we both know you wouldn't let me even if I wanted to. But here's the thing, Gren. What you're feelin'? Right here, right now? That's just the present. And I don't mean in a 'tomorrow's a better day' kinda way, I mean in 'our lives are fucking bullshit and totally unpredictable' way.

[Her fingertips, warm and calloused, drum lightly at his forearm.]

Our lives are too long to be stuck running forever. At some point, we just deserve to stop.