video 01 | Aortic Aneurysm

[clussy]

(You know who is not going to react to this situation decently no matter how many times it's explained to him? Eddie. You know who doesn't have a good game face against fear? Also Eddie. He's alone, he needs an adult, and he's pretty sure they don't restock on inhalers here. He knew he didn't need it, not technically, but he also knew that his lungs were contracting at a rate that lead to hyperventilating and as far as he was concerned, that was exactly what an asthma attack was all about. He was having an asthma attack. Maybe. His body was thinking about it.

By the way, he's definitely just been staring at the video for a couple of silent seconds, his jaw working back and forth as he just tried to remind himself that he was actually capable of breathing. This kid......)

My mom's going to fucking kill me.

(The words are whispered under his breath and he would think twice about swearing if he realized how many adults might be watching this video. He was enough of a loser that he could get the whole communication device thing, really, that was fine. But he wasn't quite able to wrap his mind around the full extent of it all.

After a second, he decides fuck it. He needs his inhaler. It goes up, he gives it a few shakes, and takes a deep, deep breath in with it. Holds. Holds.

Then his whole body deflates, his eyes rolling up. He closes his eyes and thinks about how he would talk to the police in Derry. Ha. If that wasn't the biggest fucking joke ever. When he speaks next, his voice is pitched higher than before, that typical 'I'm trying super hard to be polite and endearing' voice that he uses to call his mom 'mommy' when he's real apologetic. He's not even trying to be a suck up. The kid's just scared.)

Um. My name's Eddie Kaspbrak. I'm Sonia Kaspbrak's son and I definitely need to be home for dinner which is like, in an hour. So if anyone can help...I would really appreciate it.

.....God, I really hope this isn't that creep who was taking all those kids.

Comments

video;

[otiosity]

[The relief is endearing. And she 's glad to hear his mother wouldn't kill him. She certainly knows that relationships with parents can be... tense to say the least.

But she laughs a little at the comment and shrugs.]

They exist and they're boring. The same stuffy, snotty, vomiting things they are back home. No growing any extra limbs or turning purple for a few days which is what I would have imagined for a space disease.

And technically I've been here for... 18 months. Minus one where I was frozen in Cyro, if you want to be technical.

video;

[clussy]

(Definitely wouldn't kill him. But Sonia Kaspbrak had a different kind of cruelty in stock for her Eddie-bear.

Eddie feels oddly proud for making an adult laugh and he smiles for the sheer fact of it.

The fact that there seems to be no bizarre illnesses comforts Eddie to some degree- even if normal sickness still freaks him out. It's one less thing he has to worry about.)

Thank God. I think if I got an infection from a foreign body from actual space I would literally, like, actually combust on site.

-Wait, frozen? Like ice-cube type frozen?

[otiosity]

I'd definitely advise against combusting. It sounds painful and also messy for the rest of us. I'd suggest just laying down and dying out of sheer trauma. It's clean and, from a certain perspective, relaxing.

[Oh good, he's smiling so she'll keep up the nonsensical joking tone. At least he's not horribly traumatized forever. ...Yet. It might be good to keep it that way.]

Exactly that. I was stuck frozen in a tube and apparently missed the literal end of the world before we ended up here. Which is apparently a place close to where we used to be but 300 years in the future. Or something like that. The details start to get exhausting around here.

[clussy]

(Thankfully Eddie's gotten some magical amnesia going on as far as his trauma is concerned. For the time being anyway. As for your average daily trauma?

Yeah, she's doing a good job of distracting him from it- as can be told from the fact that Eddie starts to giggle.)

Yeah I don't think anyone wants to pick up my guts from the floor. Not sanitary at all. (He curls his lip downward in a very dramatic frown, shaking his head back and forth.) Disgusting.

(His mouth opens up in surprise and he's doubly impressed by this lady.)

How'd you survive that?

(Probably some science way that goes beyond his mind. Eddie blinks - 300 years in the future? Gosh, it barely felt it.)

It doesn't really feel like time is here. I mean. It's not like you can look up and see where the sun is or anything. Maybe that's why.

[otiosity]

Very disgusting.

[She agrees like this is all a very sensible discussion to be having in the first place.]

And I dunno! I slept through it all. Sometimes people just end up in cyro and then pop out a bit later all covered in goop but perfectly fine. ...Which sort of adds to your point about the issue of time, now that I think about it.

[clussy]

(Why he thinks she is so funny, he doesn't know. She's just saying stuff that's getting him right in the funny bone. His tongue comes out in a brief expression of disgust though because-)

Eugh. That sounds really gross. That's like. Being born again. Literally. (That was...a gross comparison but alas, gross humor is in the nature of boys his age.)

Oh! Um- I forgot to ask, what's your name? I shouldn't talk to someone if I don't know their name I don't think.

(...Even though they're kind of past that. It's cool. He remembered.)

[otiosity]

See? Perhaps that's why we don't remember being born. It spares us all the gory details and the resulting trauma.

[She grins. Usually her irreverence is mostly a shield to get by and navigate around other people with, but if she can make a scared kid far from home laugh, then she's going to do that. She's not so heartless as to not care.]

And it's Hawke. Yes, like the bird since I know you were going to ask, but with an E at the end.