anewlanguage | Forward dated to after Iris-Roderick shenanigans

Forward dated to after Iris-Roderick shenanigans

[Private to Barbara Gordon]

We oughta do a check in, you and me.

[he's seething but managing to hide it. Kind of.]

[Private to Iris]

[This is the first time she's ever death tolled that he hasn't waited at her side for her to wake up. But he knows himself, and he knows that right now the safest thing for everyone is if he is nowhere near her.

So instead there's a message waiting for her.]

You've got a lot of fuckin' nerve doing what you did, darlin'.

[spam]

[And between all that he'll be wandering, mostly hanging out at the pool, which so far has only pretty happy memories. Nothing that he has the urge to scream at or shoot; progress!

Feel free to come poke the bear.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The answer, of course, is neither. There's no one for him to wait for and drowning isn't on Dean's list of plans - too much room for error, too much agency from his own body and too many heroes around. If he's going down he wants to go down quickly and with certainty, not with the risk of brain damage or never waking up again.

Actually...

Nah. Dean switches the cigarette in question between fingers without looking, head tilted so he can see Cain from the corner of his eye but not looking at him either; he's looking at the water, or maybe through it.]

Depends on what you mean by that. Had this particular one about two days.

Yeah? Huh. This place is so boring you gotta throw in a habit that you won't be able to get a regular fix for?

[Since not many people on board smoke, and Cain doubts the Admiral hands them out for free.]

[The supply is actually the least of Dean's problems; it seems plenty of people around here will give him access to things just because of someone they knew once who is nothing like him, and it's been difficult not to take advantage of that for the sheer prolificness of it.

This is just one such example of that. Being in this room at all is another. ]

Maybe it's the habit that's too boring for me to bother committing to.

Hell, even an exciting habit might not be enough for you to put a ring on.

What does that even mean?

[He gives him a dry look] You don't need a translation. Besides, even if I gave you one, you'd get your hackles all up. If you're gonna smoke you may as well get fifteen minutes to pretend you're relaxing.

[Dean, unimpressed by the look, gives it straight back.]

Which is, naturally, why you're talking to me at all.

Yeah, well, it's not like I'm keeping you from it. D'you even know how to relax? Cause I can't read a single muscle in you that seems like you do.

Is this the part where you expect I admit you're right, see the error of my ways, and learn how to take the bad with the good into the sunset?

[He laughs] What, do I look like your yoga instructor? Do I look like a guy who thinks taking the bad is a good idea?

Then why the fuck do you care if I know how to calm my chi or not?

I don't give a fuck about your inner peace, Dean. I just hate the smell of lung cancer brewing.

[Dean, too. Define irony.]

Good thing it ain't lit then, isn't it?

[He smiles in a way that's agreeing with him at first, but flickers a bit to something like a warning. It wouldn't stay lit, if Cain was in the room with it.]

I take it you're feeling pensive, then.

[It's enough of a challenge to make Dean's vague annoyance solidify into something slightly sharper. If he wanted to light the damn thing, he'd light it, because apparently being contrary is something coded into his DNA right along with being stubborn.]

Is that a crime around here? Because honestly I can't figure out what is.

Seriously? You can't? Uh, why do you think people get so pissy with you every time you kill someone?

Wouldn't know, I haven't killed anyone yet.

Hah. Right, I've pulled that one before. But like it or not, on this ship, the vampires and werewolves and bogey monsters count as people, so your job from back home's as bad as mine. And here, assault's still an offense.

Edited (I could've sworn he'd killed Jerry sorry!) 2015-02-09 02:06 (UTC)

Assault is a laugh.

[Dean transfers the cigarette up to his mouth, freeing up his hands to stretch like he doesn't care about any of this at all. In point of fact, it doesn't.]

It's not my job anymore. It's just the way things are. And this place sure as shit isn't fooling me, even if Hell doesn't typically come with a pool with chlorine in it.

[He gives him a long look, then grunts and looks away]

You think you'll ever get out of Hell?

[Dean is watching him, still and cool and detached, and absolutely serious.]

Hell isn't the kind of place you ever get out of once you've been to it.

...Guess it wouldn't be. [Cain is really studying him now, spurred on mostly because he can't read him much.]

But there's always a tier-system. There's gotta be, what, 'shittiest day I can't describe' on up to 'only thought about eating a bullet once'.

[Dean - animated, heart on his sleeve, restless, hyperactive, everything-110%-or-nothing at all Dean - sits very nearly motionless where he's stretched out on the pool chair, some kind of rabid creature that has had every warning sign or tell it ever had beaten out of it. There's some there, of course, because Cain is Cain - but he's no longer an open book at a glance.]

Not really. And even if there were, it's not like it's the kind of thing I could describe to you. Or that I would want to.

There's the first day, and then the day after that, and then the rest of it. That's about it.

I meant here, Dean. I'm gonna guess things don't go the same here as they were going back home. Bet you never had downtime back home. Or a pool, right?

[He, for his part, acts as naturally as he knows how, which means he's very still most of the time and very fluid and fast when he's moving. He tries to tone it down and telegraph more for most people, but not for Dean.]

[Back home. It's funny that after everything, that's a word that still bothers him; Chitaqua wasn't home. A ruined world wasn't home. The Impala was home but she's gone now - where is back home?

He knows what Cain meant, of course, and shakes his head.]

Of course not. So?

Forward dated to after Iris-Roderick shenanigans

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