Mirth

Radio Free Metropolis

I'm in the pad as well.

When Five Becomes Four [Mirth and Book Thief]

That would work perfectly, since they'll all be milling around and poor Matt'll finally be with them.

When Five Becomes Four [Mirth and Book Thief]

Noah is officially resurrected, ish!

When Five Becomes Four [Mirth and Book Thief]

“Yeah,” Arty all but growled, her eyes shooting off sparks. Nathan had always been weird about his emotions, burying them as best he could and deflecting any questions about how he really felt. This wasn’t the time or the place for his bullshit, and Arty was in a brawling sort of mood. If he pushed her, she wouldn’t be too grief-stricken to haul off and bust his nose. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d squabbled.

Luckily, Audrey all but dove between them to diffuse the tension. She was a petite as ever (although, to be truthful, everyone was petite compared to Arty) and her smile still somehow worked itself into Arty and made her want to return it. “This is the first time I’ve been back since Christmas,” Arty ventured, letting Audrey steer the conversation away from the minefield between Nathan and herself. “I haven’t gone home to see my parents yet, but I knew they were coming here anyway.” The first time she’d seen her folks in months, and it was at a funeral. She couldn’t excuse it, even when she’d gotten off the plane choked with tears and had run to the nearest bathroom to cry her eyes out.

Nathan’s quiet comment flung them back into depths too painful to delve. Audrey visibly shrank, and her voice was tiny when she whispered a response. "You really think I don't know that?"

Arty’s fists clenched and her shoulder went tight, ready to unleash a right hook that would knock him straight out of his seat when he broke down too. All the tension went out of him and he just crumbled. "I'm sorry. Arty, Audrey, it really is good to see you again, I mean it."

Her own shoulders curled into themselves; Arty felt so very tired and drained. She felt weak, and she never felt that way. When Nathan asked about Matt, Arty leaned over the back of the pew Audrey and Nathan were sitting in. “A’s right—he took it real hard. Ross found him half-dead under a bridge somewhere a couple days after it happened.” She cast her eyes up the aisle; Matt was slumped in the otherwise unoccupied Logan family pew. Noah’s mother and father were still talking to guests. Ross wasn’t in sight.

After a long beat of silence, Arty wrapped an arm around Audrey’s shoulders and dragged her into a hug. “I don’t know. If I did, I’d… I’d have killed it for him.” She gave Audrey a squeeze and sank her teeth savagely into her lower lip to prevent the building tears from falling. “Hmm? Eighth grade?” She held Audrey off her shoulder to look at her. “Ooooh, that trip. Pah, I thought Nate was gonna die, he screeched so loud.” Arty turned to analyze Nathan’s reaction to the old story, but nothing doing. He was shut down.

"Those were good times." He finally said. Then, up at the front of the cathedral, someone tapped a microphone and cleared their throat. Arty looked up and saw a priest in flowing vestments opening a prayer book. He began to read, a pair of golden reading glasses perched upon his nose.

Arty’s throat slammed shut. She couldn’t breathe. Her face heated up. The ceremony was starting. After this, it was the burial at the cemetery.

No, no, no nononono. Too much, too real, make it stop.

“Welcome, brothers and sisters. We gather here to honor the beloved memory of Noah—“

The words weren’t making sense, suddenly. The priest was mumbling gibberish that sounded obscene. Arty tried to suck in a gulp of air but it just wasn’t working. Her chest hollowed and ached and burned. No, no, stop, you can’t do this, THIS ISN’T HAPPENING no no no NO NO NONONONONO!

Arty stumbled sideways out of the pew, tripping on the end of the kneeler and almost falling. Ross, who was coming up the side aisle behind her, caught her elbow to steady her; as he looked into her face he grew alarmed and tried to hold her still but she shoved him and someone gasped and the priest spoke stern words into the microphone that boomed all throughout the cathedral and Arty was striding up the side aisle and her chest was too tight and she couldn’t breathe and she was looking at the casket and tearing the ceremonial sheet away and ripping the top open. Were there nails? Had there been nails holding it shut? Didn’t matter, Noah’s face, Noah’s sleeping face—they were going to put him in the ground, no, no, they couldn’t do that, anything but that—PLEASE GOD NO ANYTHING BUT THAT—

“How could you do this to us?!” A voice screamed and the stained glass windows rattled and sang from the force of it. Arty’s throat hurt and she banged on Noah’s still chest and kept screaming. “You selfish son of a bitch how dare you do this to everyone who loves you—” Strong arms wrapped around her shoulders—definitely Ross—but she swung her head back and connected with his nose and she managed to slam her arm one last time into Noah’s chest. “DON’T YOU DARE DIE LIKE THIS! DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE!”

Noah’s eyelids fluttered. His throat twitched. A soft breath fanned from his lips. He breathed. His chest rose and fell at slow, irregular intervals.

Radio Free Metropolis

I want to continue, obviously, lol.

Yu Yu Hakusho [AU]

It was late afternoon, almost four o’clock. The cat sat at the front gate, swishing his long tail and watching the double doors. Any moment now, his girl would emerge, stride across the lawn, and give him a pet. He squinted in the anticipation of happiness.

Soft orange light gleamed across the cat’s sleek, striped fur and splashed to the ground all around him; he cast no discernible shadow. Students from the elementary and middle schools passed along the sidewalk behind him without sparing a glance. No one even looked down at him. A little girl’s foot passed directly through his haunches without stirring a hair. Even when he began to purr, no one stopped to see him. The cat did not care. The only human who mattered was still inside the building he watched.

The doors swung open suddenly, shoved with great force, and the cat’s ears twitched, but the humans who appeared were not his girl. He was only disappointed for a moment before he returned to his blissful vigil. The next time the door opened it would be her, he was certain of it.

Again and again the doors opened, but the girl was not among the throngs of students leaving after-school clubs or cleaning duties. The cat continued to wait, his tail swinging absently back and forth.

Finally, as the sun blazed to the horizon and the orange light grew red, his girl appeared. He saw her face for a flash in a second-story window, her hair catching the light, and a minute later she was outside, tugging a sleeve down. She lifted her eyes and spotted the cat immediately; she walked towards him. “Hey, Mochi-Mochi,” she said as she crouched to ruffle the fur between his ears. He melted with joy, purring and kneading his insubstantial claws against the cement. “Who’s a good kitty?” The girl scratched the underside of his chin and his purrs grew louder.

“That’s Ikino, right? What… What the hell’s she doing?” Across the street, a pair of other high school students had stopped to talk; one of them was staring at the girl who rapturously petted air. They were not in her class, or they would have recognized her instantly.

“No clue. Leave her alone, though. She threw a desk at the last guy who said something to her,” the other student said, slanting a quick look at Ikino to make sure she wasn’t hearing anything. “Sarezawa’s his name. He says she almost chased him out of class throwing shit. What a bitch.”

“Her or Sarezawa?”

“Both.” The two laughed at that and turned away from Ikino, who continued petting the cat they couldn’t see. She hadn’t heard their conversation, but if she had, she would have let it go. Sarezawa had picked a fight, had purposefully tried to hurt her, and she had dealt with him. She didn’t have time to deal with the ones who talked behind her back, just the ones that were stupid enough to talk to her face.

Mochi patted her leg with his paw. As the dark closed in, Ikino got up and headed towards the cemetery, the ghost cat trotting along beside her. He could float, if he wanted, but he preferred walking.

Radio Free Metropolis

Echo.... Echo....? Obviously a few of us are here, but TB is missing. Something's probably going down on his end

When Five Becomes Four [Mirth and Book Thief]

Well, the main crux of it would be that he might never actually wake up, and he might be, for all intents and purposes, dead, but it keeps the reality in without killing Noah off completely. It does change the dynamic of the story, but it also puts a lot more stress on the characters since they now have to deal with the idea of their friend being a lifeless husk.

But I digress, we're gonna General Hospital this shiz and save Noah's adorable ass!

Avengers (Mirth and Chello)

“Doesn’t look like you’re eating enough to sustain your weight,” Cy said, tucking her wayward hair behind her ears. He was gaunt, but with any luck a steady diet and some attention would fill him out. The fig bar was a good start; it was full of nuts and dried fruits suspended in a sweet fig paste and surrounded by a soft, cookie-like pastry crust. Whenever she didn’t have time to eat a real meal, Cy ate one of the bars, and it kept her going until she did had time. The supermarket sold bulk packages of them, thirty bars to a box. She made a mental note to buy a couple and bring them here.

Resting her hands in the pockets of her jacket, Cy leaned back, crossing her gangly legs. For her size, she had long legs, and it gave her whole body a loose, lanky appearance. Her nickname in high school had been various derivatives of “Gumby”. Apparently her walk reminded others of the Claymation character. It annoyed her immensely, and even when she’d discovered her powers years later she’d had to stop herself from trying them out on some of her old adversaries. Revenge would have been so sweet.

“You got any particular things you like? Seafood? Cheese?” Cy prodded; even if he had one single food he would eat, she could figure out the rest later. He needed to get up to a normal, healthy weight before he could really help anybody.

When Five Becomes Four [Mirth and Book Thief]

I had an idea-- we could keep it more realistic, but still have a lot of soul-searchy pain-pain stuff going on if Noah's not actually dead. What if Arty loses it and runs up to the coffin, starts banging on it and stuff, grabs Noah, and discovers a heartbeat? A coma leaves hope for Noah's life! ^_^