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Who: bb!Seth and You
Where: Around the mansion
When: Friday 2/9 - Sunday 2/11
Rating: PG for language
Summary: bb!Seth being pissed as hell that he's here, alone, and what the hell is going on?

"Arriving"

Dad is laying on the couch, passed out with an array of guns on the coffee table before him and an open beer can next to his hand. Seth reaches back for him even as Richie tugs Seth towards the door.

All around them flames crackle as they consume the curtains, the carpet beneath their feet, and crept closer to the sofa where their father lay unconscious.

Bursting out the door, Seth gasps for air. For a brief moment he loses his touch with Richie, stumbling as he catches himself. Bent at the waist, his elbows bracing on his knees as Seth tries desperately not to puke.

"Richie? What happened? What about Dad?"

His voice was rough, raw from the smoke as he lifts his head, frowning. Nothing was right. He wasn't in the alley behind the house. It wasn't dark out from what he could see through the windows of whatever... house, giant fucking house, mansion what the hell even he is standing in the middle of. Standing there in his pajama pants and a tee shirt, barefoot and his clothes and face tinged with soot.

His eyes are wide, lips parted as he looks around.

"What the fuck is this?"

Wandering around

This place is nuts. It's huge and it's nothing he's ever seen except on television. The people are kind of weird, and he has no idea how he got there. Worse? There is no Richie. He can't find his brother and it's driving him nuts. He's never not had Richie around since the moment the little brat was born, and Seth hates admitting he doesn't really entirely know what to do without him.

Or why his brother would be hiding from him but he has to be somewhere, and Seth isn't giving up until he finds him. And gets some answers about this place. Someone has to have a clue what's going on, right

So he wanders in and out of rooms, including hitting up the bars he finds if he can get his way in and to a drink. He's snuck a lot of his dad's, after all, and just trying to explore every room he can to figure out what kind of game this is.

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Waking up to find a pint-sized Freya in her living room had set Chloe up for some serious expectations when it came to the newest event. Once she made sure Lucifer was still himself, she settled Freya in safely with the puppy to keep her company and started out on a mission to track down her friends. Whatever caused this hadn't touched her, at least not yet, but since Freya seemed to have no memory of Wonderland, Chloe, or anything that had transpired since the age she became, Chloe could only imagine how terrifying this must be to anyone else in the same boat.

She does a few quick sweeps, coming back to check on Lux occasionally. The second time around is when she finds the little boy in the bar, her body stiffening because this one she recognizes. She might have figured it out anyway, but she still remembered exactly what he looked like from the memory she'd seen. That was one event that was going to stick with her for a while.

"Seth?" Chloe moves up next to him carefully, doing her best not to scare him off.

Settled into the back of a booth, Seth had hoped it would mean he might go unnoticed. Between all the other kids running around, and not to mention the dinosaurs, he figures that he's safe.

Right until someone says his name.

His hand shot out, snatching up the glass he stole off someone else's table and hid it beneath the table top as if she hasn't seen it.

"What? No?" He frowns, peering at her. "Who are you?"

"Yeah, no."

Chloe reaches under the table, yanking the glass out of his hand and pulling it away. Just because he's the child version of her very of age ex-boyfriend does not mean he's going to be drinking on her watch. Sorry, bitty Seth.

"I'm Chloe. I'm yo-" She pauses, taking a breath. "I'm a friend. How did you get in here?"

"Hey! It's not like you're my mom," he says, chin lifting and glaring at her. "I know, because she left."

He waivers a bit as he says that, looking away, almost as if looking for an escape before looking back to her.

"Yeah, no. I only have one friend and I don't know where he is," he admits, folding his arms over his chest, not caring that his shirt is still tinged with soot. Though that tough guy look falters once more, thinking about where he is, and how Seth last saw his father.

"And I walked in the door. Duh. How'd you get in here?"

"I might as well be your mom until this-" she waves her hand at him, huffing a little when she remembers he doesn't have any idea what's going on. "I'm a mom. That makes me qualified enough and rule one is, absolutely no alcohol."

Chloe pauses, taking him in for the first time properly. She notices now the ash on his clothes, the way he looks. He's not just the same age as he was in Seth's memory, it looks like he stepped right out of it. That would be a typical Wonderland move; turn back time to the point of your worst memory. Chloe's had only been a few months back, so maybe that's the reason she was spared.

"I live here. Well, upstairs." She gestures towards the door of the penthouse, only then wondering how Lucifer was going to feel coming back to Freya in there and now likely Seth. He was not going to be happy about this at all. "Seth, if you're talking about Richie..." Chloe lets out a breath, sliding into the booth so she can be closer to his level. "He isn't here."

"No. I don't have a mom," he says, not even letting that one go. "Guess I don't have a dad either anymore."

His tones are softer then, bitter, but he can't help the way his voice waivers when he says that. He has no idea what happened to his dad. All he knows is that yesterday there had been a fire, and now everyone and everything he knew was gone.

"Well, aren't you fancy," he says, using that sarcasm to cover up how upset he is. He didn't want anyone to know how worried he was, even scared, but he isn't going to let this lady know that.

"Bullshit. He wouldn't leave me. He didn't leave me in the house, and he isn't going to leave me here either. So nice try but not buying it."

Chloe's mouth opens slightly, but she can't quite push the words out. She thinks back on the memory, on the boys escaping the burning house and Seth desperately trying to see if his dad was alive or not. If the fire had taken his life or something - someone - else. Reliving it had been torturous enough for him, she can't even imagine how much shock he must be in having just come from it.

Of course, Seth is handling trauma the way he handles everything. He isn't.

"He didn't leave you," she tells him, shaking her head. "He just... Can't be here right now. It's really complicated."

She's not sure how to explain Wonderland to a child, never mind the child version of her best friend, the one who introduced her to Wonderland in the first place. All Chloe knows is that she has to take care of him, protect him... And he won't make that easy.

"You're going to be okay."

It's the first time she's ever blatantly lied to Seth. This little boy isn't going to be okay. He's going to grow up angry and lost, he's going get drunk and rob banks and throw his life away. He's going to kidnap a teenage girl and watch her family die, fall in love with her and lose her. He's going to wind up here and maybe, almost, be okay for a little bit, all the while knowing it's going to go away.

Seth has never been okay and he's never going to be, and there's nothing Chloe can do about it.

"I'm gonna look out for you, okay? I promise." At least that is true.

Oh he was handling it. With stealing and alcohol! Okay, so he was not handling it, and not handling it badly.

Just like he's not handling this either, staring at her as if she's kind of lost her mind. Though he's in a place he's never seen, and someone mentioned dinosaurs, so there's a chance that he believes she, and everyone else including himself, has.

"Yeah, okay, that's believable. Sure, I'm fine," he says, leaning back against the booth, almost as if worried he'll get popped for arguing with her, but not enough to run. Not yet.

Though his eyes narrow then, making a face though not as angry as before. No, now he's definitely confused.

"Why would you do that? Not that I need anyone to look out for me but me and Richie looking out for one another but why?"

Because even then his mind can't wrap around anyone caring, because no one has.

Knowing Seth as well as she does is at least helping her make sense of all of this. It's heartbreaking, really, seeing the genesis of the man who became her best friend, who had opened up to her in ways he never had anyone else, because he had been let down and hurt so many times in his life. Dogs who are kicked enough eventually bite back, but they also expect to keep getting kicked, which is the sadder part.

"I told you. I'm a friend."

Future ex-girlfriend and best friend are probably a little much for a kid to take on at the moment, so Chloe just wants to keep it simple.

"There's a lot of kids showing up here right now. I have a daughter of my own and I want to make sure everyone is safe, including you."

"Funny, I don't remember you," he points out, which isn't entirely unreasonable. "And you look too nice to be one of dad's friends," he adds, looking her up and down with obvious distrust and trying his best to hide his fear. Fear only got you hit, and he isn't taking that chance right now.

"Where's your kid?" Because he's not stupid, and he knows how it works saying things like that, or about kittens, to lure a kid away.

"I'm not a friend of your dad's." Knowing what she did know, lying about that wouldn't get on Seth's good side. Seth talked about his father only marginally more than Chloe talked about hers (which, when it came down to it, wasn't much at all from either side unless specifically prompted), but she believed at least part of Seth loved his father, regardless of the son of a bitch he proved to be.

"She's... Not here." Her voice trembles slightly. Being around all these kids is certainly bringing up emotions she's fought to get a handle on. She's never stopped missing Trixie, she's just gotten better about it not consuming her completely. "That's why I'm trying to look out for you, because I can't protect her right now."

"That's a start," he says, not sounding at all convinced that it made it okay, but it is a tiny bit better. "But you know you still sound creepy, right?"

Because it never occurs to him to lie about that.

"Especially since your kid ain't here or anything," he adds. "Sides, I don't need no help. I got clothes, and I got some food, and I got everything else I need," he says, shifting on the sheet, pressing back against the booth where the gun presses into the small of his back.

Chloe snorts, laughing a little. "Yeah I guess, thinking about it, I probably do sound creepy."

At least she knows Seth, certainly well enough to not let him think she's friends with his dad, and definitely well enough to not mention being a cop. That worked with some of the kids; Seth would probably just make a run for it.

"Maybe you don't need a lot of help, but there's a lot about this place you don't know and I've been here for a lot longer than you. So you need a little help."

"I know the closest give you shit," he says, smirking then and looking amused. "I know no one cares except you if I have a drink. Even my dad doesn't care." He shrugs then, because he realizes he can't care now, but he's not repeating that. Correcting himself will get old. "I know there's dinosaurs outside. You live in a strange place, Lady."

But he decides to give her half a chance, because maybe there's something she might be able to answer.

"Okay so... You know me and Richie. You know Richie's not here. So how'd I get here? Huh? You know that?"

Apparently Chloe is going to have to reinstate the swear jar.

"I do care," she argues, knowing that it likely won't matter. Seth won't believe her. Hell, he had a hard time believing it when they were similar ages and in a relationship, never mind as a kid who just watched his father die. "Other people here care, too. Not everyone is out to get you, Seth."

Not that anything she says will make a difference, but she wishes it would.

"This place is called Wonderland. Like the book. It is able to take people from their worlds and it traps us here. No one knows why or how, we just end up here. I know that doesn't make a lot of sense but I promise you, it's the truth."

"Unless Richie's here? No one cares," he says, repeating that, firm, believing it as he glares at her. "You're wrong, and it's only going to get worse." They were alone now, and the state would come for them, maybe split them up. He felt terror running up his spine at the very idea of that.

"Yeah, you're right. It doesn't. You sound kind of crazy, Lady." Not upset though, not in the least. Serious though, and fairly intense.

Edited 2018-02-27 02:57 (UTC)

"You really have always been this stubborn, haven't you?"

She tilts her head. Chloe knows she shouldn't be saying anything about knowing him in the future (he wouldn't believe her, not to mention there are some uncomfortable questions she might have to answer), but she can't help the quips. The kid's a pain in the ass. Typical Seth.

"My name is Chloe, not Lady. Chlo-ee." She lets out a long suffering sigh. "You want something to eat?"

"All eight years," he says, because the rest of the things she is saying don't make a lot of sense. "Stubborn keeps you safe."

Or, as he thinks of it, alive. Stubborn, attentive, and if he was smart, watching his smart mouth. He isn't always smart.

"Okay. Chlo-ee," he says with a drawn out sigh. "Got it. And I guess. Sure. Whatever."

And then his stomach growls, making him roll his eyes, hating his body turning on him like that.

"You're kind of stubborn just pushes people away."

Chloe rolls her eyes in response to his, and she pushes herself up from the booth. It's going to be a long next couple days. At least tiny Freya is sweet and far easier to deal with, which will hopefully give her the patience to deal with Seth as gently as possible.

"What do you want to eat?"

"Okay. And?" His nose wrinkles up, making a face at that. "I've got Richie. Who else do I need? A mom that runs away? My dad?" He made another face. "Well... guess I don't have that anymore."

He's fighting to keep his tones even when he says that.

He shrugs.

"I don't know. Whatever. If you start with salads and all though, I'm outta here."

Edited 2018-03-04 00:59 (UTC)

Chloe frowns, staring at him. She knows that his father's death was far harder on him than he ever admits. They both share that loss, granted, in completely different ways. But Chloe saw Seth going back into that fire looking for the answers he needed, and she knows regardless of how he acts like nothing bothers him, he's hurting far worse than most people.

"Just because I'm an adult doesn't mean I'm going to torture you," she responds, rolling her eyes. "I've got an idea. Hold on." She heads to the downstairs closet to pull out a special order just for him.

The man he is now, as close as he is to Chloe, he can share that pain he still carries. Right now? In this moment, with his abuse literally hours away in his mind? It's harder to show his pain, especially to someone that to this boy is a stranger. It's something that will hit Seth hard when this is all over.

"Yeah I'm gonna have to take your word on that," he admits, not sheepish but showing more pain in is tones than he had previously. Watching her, wary and uncertain as his head cants, curious despite not wanting to show that.

Chloe does her best to hold back the most epic eye roll that she feels bursting up from inside of her. Instead she concentrates on his food, bringing back a plate with a steak and baked potato, and a large glass of chocolate milk. She's not even going to make you eat greens, Seth.

"Here," she says as she places the plate in front of him. "And don't pretend like you're not hungry. Remember I'm a mom, I know these things."

He looks at the plate and then up at her. His fingers inch for the plate and then pull back. "What's the trick?"

There has to be one, right?

"And I don't remember the last time I was hungry."

Never admit it. You do and it can be used against you. He knows that.

Jesus Christ, Seth.

She lets out a sympathetic sigh and sinks back into the chair across from him before she pushes the plate closer to him.

"There's no trick. Sometimes people are just nice for the sake of being nice, Seth."

He reaches out once more, picking at the food. He takes a bit though, even if he chews slowly, staring at her as if she's lost her mind.

"Yeah, uhmmmm... no? I mean... Maybe people that are your family or love you or something, but no they don't." Maybe Richie, but beyond that he isn't sure he can believe that. Not with what his father did to him.

"You just haven't met the right people yet."

That much she knows is true. Besides what he does through at home, one day he'll come to Wonderland and find a place he wants to be, people he cares about - and more importantly, people who care about him, even when he doesn't want them to.

"Yeah well... I'm eight. I've met my mom, who left. My dad... who is dead I guess. And Richie." And there were more, and it was bad. Guys his dad spent time with. No one he's going to talk about, or experiences he never wants to repeat. Ever.

"So let me guess. You're the right kind of person, huh?" It's what he expects her to say, after all.

"Maybe. Maybe not. You're really the only one who can make that call."

She stares down at the table, tapping her index finger thoughtfully against the surface.

"My dad died too, when I was younger. It's not an easy thing to go through."

The fact that she doesn't insist he see her that way helps. Enough so that he takes a bite, and then another one. Taking his time as he steals glances between her and his food that he isn't pushing away.

"What... Can I ask what happened to him?"

Chloe watches him take a bite of his food, her eyes glancing to the table for a moment. She doesn't talk about her father anymore in Wonderland than she ever did back home, even to Seth. For all they shared, that was still one of the hardest things for her to discuss, and the fact that she never really found any real closure, the fact that his killer ultimately walked, didn't do very much to help her move past it.

"He was murdered," she admits, resting her chin in her hands as she turns her attention back to him. "He found out something he wasn't supposed to, and a very bad man killed him for it."

Seth takes another bite, but he's watching her even as he does. He gives a nod then, setting down his fork for a minute.

"That sucks." And he means it. Even if he isn't sure about sorries in this moment. "How old were you?"

"I was nineteen."

Her eyes look a little distant as she thinks back to that day, and the more recent debacle that was the trial for her father's killer. He was dead now, but that didn't help in giving Chloe any closure. He should have been in jail, paying for his crimes.

Granted, knowing what she knows now, she can rest assured he is paying for what he did elsewhere.

"That probably seems old to you but you'll see when you get there, it's not. I was still just a kid."

"It's only like twice what I am now," he says, shrugging. "My dad says most kids are just brats anyway getting away without pulling their own. So it's not that old."

He feels old though, already, at nine.

And then, he's not even sure why he says it, but he does.

"Our mom left when we were babies. We never saw her that I remember, and I'm the oldest."

Her eyebrows lift thoughtfully. She always knew Seth's dad was pretty bad, but the little things he keeps sharing didn't help. Chloe had always been so much closer to her father than she ever had been to her mother; really, John Decker doted on his only child, showered her with love, believed in her when it felt like no one else did. Losing him had been devastating.

But at least he hadn't left her by choice, and for as much as Chloe's relationship with her mother was strained, at least she tried to be a mother, even if she wasn't always a particularly good one.

"I'm sorry to hear that," she says, watching him thoughtfully. "You don't know where she went?"

He shakes his head, shrugging as if it's nothing. Yet his gaze drops again, looking at his food and picking at it. He's hungry, but his gut is all knotted up thinking about his dad, and the woman that left them, and Richie. So much about his brother.

"I... No. Dad said she left because of me and Richie, that we drove her away but she left before we were ever old enough to know her so don't know how we did," he says in bitter tones, taking a bit to try and ignore how this is making him feel.

"I know I have no idea about your situation, Seth... But as a mom? I can't imagine what would be bad enough for me to leave my child."

Chloe would never abandon Trixie, even if it meant dying. But not all mothers were like that. Still, there isn't any point in reinforcing the possibly that his mother didn't want them, or that their father drove her away and she chose to leave them anyway, or whatever other reason could have led her to making what had to be a painful decision, on some level.

"I don't believe it could have been because of you and Richie. Maybe it's just something your dad said so he didn't have to deal with the real reason."

The implication being that she thinks the real reason probably was their father.

"Yeah but she did leave." Except that is what they had been told, what their father had told them, but they couldn't ever know the truth. Not unless they found her... or her body. He just never wants to think about that. Especially at this age when all he has is a man that forces him to take apart and rebuild a gun over and over again.

"He drinks all the time. I can take apart a glock and rebuild it in under three minutes. Maybe that's why," he says, but he's not looking up at her, pretending as if all he cares about is the food on the plate in front of him.

Chloe lets out a small breath. Seth is as stubborn at this age as he is as an adult, but for good reason. Hearing him talk about his dad, even thought she already knew a lot of this, is even worse coming from him as just a little boy.

"I'm sorry, Seth." She's not really sure what else to say. She doesn't know why his mom left, or why his dad is so screwed up. Worse of all, maybe, is that there is nothing can do about it.

"Why?" He frowns, even if he still isn't looking at her. "You didn't do it, and not your fault. It's my fault." And he's had that pushed into his head since day one. "I get that, but you don't gotta be sorry."

Then he glances up at her, looking worried she still feels that way. "I mean it. You don't gotta be."

She feels her face crumble at this look and manages to pull her gaze away before it breaks her heart. This has shed so much light on where Seth and came from and how he became who he is now, and Chloe finds herself both angry and sad. She offers a quick nod and slides out of the booth, patting the table twice before she gets to her feet.

"You should finish eating. Once you're done I'll show you around upstairs."

He is quiet, watching her for a long time. It's obvious he's thinking over what she's saying and has said. After a time, he nods.

"Sure, that works. If you want."

He isn't sure he trusts her, but he's willing to try. For now.

((ooc: end there?))

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