pc catchall for dick (heh) (unpredicktable)

[uncurtained]

shitpost incoming

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week three, monday.

[uncurtained]

[It's about late afternoon, moving into early evening, when she heads into the tech lab and sees Dick there. She hesitates for a long moment; she's been giving him space over the weekend, but she doesn't exactly want to avoid him, either. Still, it takes her a few moments to decide on a conversation starter that won't be awkward.]

...Hey, you. Liking the new rooms?

[Nailed it.]

[unpredicktable]

[ dick's got a screwdriver in one hand and a pile of electronics in front of him, and he smiles a little when he sees beck. he doesn't look 100%, but. he's trying? ]

You ever realize how much you know is entirely based off of having a handy-dandy database to look up?

[ so, yes and no? he misses blueprints ]

[uncurtained]

...I do miss Wikipedia.

[That's not really the same thing at all, but anyways.]

What are you making?

[unpredicktable]

[ he huffs out a laugh, but twirls his screwdriver ]

Hopefully something that lets me take notes on the fly, but I might settle for something else. I'm still in the figure it out stages.

[uncurtained]

Like, something that transcribes audio...? You think you've got the stuff to make something like that here?

[unpredicktable]

Ha, no. [ he looks at the eclectic mess and shrugs ] More like some kind of tablet so I can just write on it. [ tho... hmm ] Maybe take pictures, too. There's bits of recording equipment around.

[uncurtained]

Overachiever.

[It's a joke, but then she notices something lying near the work table. It looks like... a sack of pancake mix? Weird. She's already getting up to take a look at it.]

How did this get in here?

[unpredicktable]

Always.

[ it's a joke right back, but he looks at what she saw with a blink and stands up a bit to look at it ]

Did ... someone bring this here from the kitchen?

[uncurtained]

...No way.

[She glances back towards him before looking at it closer.]

This is - okay, this is going to sound weird, but me and my dad had this thing where we would make pancakes together on Saturday mornings sometimes, and we would get this special brand of batter that came in different flavors. I swear this is the exact same kind we made.

[Which is why she reaches out to touch it, and it vanishes immediately - while a barrier comes up and engulfs them. Hm.]

[unpredicktable]

[ hm.

what the fuck. ]

--It's not sounding that weird anymore. [ WHY ARE THEY TRAPPED NOW ] Was it a booby trap? For... you?

cw drug abuse, overdose

[uncurtained]

But... Then why would you be stuck, too? That doesn't make sense.

[Regardless of whether or not it does, soon enough he'll experience a memory.]

[unpredicktable]

[ cool dead parents that's neat

dick had taken a step to touch the barrier before it started-- but once that memory ends, dick jumps back as if he'd been burned. he looks around himself as if disoriented, and he is, a little, but more than that--

had that been... ]

Beck? Did you-- did you see anything, just now?

[uncurtained]

[From her spot with her hand on the barrier, she turns towards him, tilting her head slightly.]

Uh... Like what? Did you see something?

[unpredicktable]

I ... yeah. But I wasn't... here. [ he frowns, looking at himself ] Or myself. I-- there's no nice way to say this. Beck, did your father die of an overdose?

[uncurtained]

...What?

[The way she freezes, and the stricken look on her face - it's at least a sign that he's hit something raw, something deep inside her.]

Why would you ask that?

[unpredicktable]

Because I think... no, I know-- I saw it happen.

[ he turns to look at beck, grief on his face ]

I'm sorry. I don't know how, but... It was like I was you, in that moment.

[uncurtained]

But that's not...

[Possible, she wants to say, but - how many times has she already thought that, here? She takes a breath, looking around, and as she crosses her arms:]

I remember... How I was sure he was dead, right, when I found him? I remember how scared I was. [...] The ambulance ended up coming in time. So it's not what you thought.

[She should probably sound happier about that, but.]

[unpredicktable]

[ dick... hesitates, before moving over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder ]

We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

[ an overdose like that isn't exactly a great sign, fatal or not. ]

[uncurtained]

[She glances at him for a second once he puts his hand there, before looking back down at the ground.]

There isn't much to tell. For a while it seemed like it was a wake up call, but then he relapsed and abandoned us. Shocker.

[There isn't much, she says, but there's clearly a lot there - even if it's buried, it's not hard to hear the resentment in her voice.]

[unpredicktable]

[ dick doesn't know what to say to that resentment immediately, so he just squeezes her shoulder silently. ]

... I'm sorry. That can't have been easy.

[ to think she might have saved him only for him to still die like that later. dick can't pretend to understand that. ]

[uncurtained]

[She doesn’t know quite how to deal with that sympathy, but while she seems a little bit uncomfortable with it, she tries for a small smile.]

...We’ve all got our own childhood trauma to work through, right? He cleaned up a little a few years after he left us, so... He seems much happier now with his new wife and kids.

[Which comes with its own set of emotional baggage for her, but. She’s trying to make this conversation less awkward.]

[unpredicktable]

[ OH OKAY THAT KIND OF ABANDONMENT DICK AND I COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD THAT ]

Ah.

[ luckily for dick, the effect seems to take pity on his dumb ass, so instead of him having to talk, beck gets to experience his family dying ... and maybe more. Except it's not narrated in five comic pages, but it's 2am and i need to go to bed, so, tl;dr: it starts with dick asking to participate in and being rebuked on what turns out to be a very cool and neat aerial show that sure ends in a first person POV of five (eh, four and a half) people falling to their deaths in a pretty gruesome way! the crowd screaming, panic, dick climbing down-- then a man, coming out of the crowd.

and then nada. ]

[uncurtained]

[Well! That's horrifying. By the time it's over, she's just looking at him with a hand pressed over her mouth, clearly concerned. She takes a deep breath, moving her hand away.]

...I get what you mean. The - memories.

[unpredicktable]

[ the good news is. now that both of them have seen memories the barrier falls away!! yay. otoh, that and what she says means dick turns to look with a worried frown ]

You... saw something too?

[uncurtained]

[She nods, and then, softly:]

I saw your family... [She takes a breath.] I'm so sorry.