+ Guilt Runs Deep

[vitaelamorte]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The Mansion
When: Feb 23-25
Rating: Please warn in top level subject lines for potential triggers/NSFW
Summary: Various residents are trapped in their own guilt, watching their guiltiest memory play on a loop.
The Story:

Welcome to the gathering post for the event. Please see the plotting post for more information + the bulletin board link. Have fun!

Comments

[theenforcer]

[The heat is a kind of heat that Barbie is used to. Years in Afghanistan and the Middle East taught him to handle the heat as well as his childhood had taught him to cope with the cold. Spying a shape ahead, fairly certain it's someone he talked to in that damn sex motel, Barbie hurries his step to try and catch up with him.

All he can think about is what the hell is Wonderland thinking, and where's Julia. For once she's the last thought that should be on his mind. He hasn't even gotten halfway through the pass when he suddenly the ground behind him rumbles and there's a sound and it's familiar and terrifying and wrong all at the same time and Barbie doesn't have a chance to run. Seeing Dan coming back towards him, knowing he needs to turn, to turn, and then the world goes black.

There's a sound in his throat, a yell, a shout, and maybe a prayer, and then the sun is brilliant overhead and the word catches in his throat and he's closer to Dan now, and still making that horrific sound as his mind realizes what his gut had known the moment the land began to rumble.

Choking back the sound, rushing forward towards the other man.]

[thecourier]

[He isn't sure how long he's been living through these moments, vaguely aware of the cycle of it with the push of 'turn back' only a prickling scream in the back of his mind. The addition of someone else is an unexpected one, and not an entirely welcome one, either, but he can't control that any more than he can control the outcome of what happens here.

It's a well-travelled path, but not at this time of day. Smarter people are sheltering from the hot midday sun, and smarter people certainly don't think to run. Dan glances back over his shoulder, and--]

Oh, hey.

[Did he actually get this guy's name? It doesn't come back to him right now, if he did.]

Didn't think I'd see anyone else out here.

[theenforcer]

Not sure how I ended up here.

[Maybe he shouldn't make the admission, but he's utterly confused and not certain at all what is going on. ]

I... What's happening? What is this?

[thecourier]

Y' taken too many hits a' whiskey, kid?

[He sounds amused, but there's a danger to this, too. A danger that he won't even fully recognise what's going on, and will never get out.]

Only one reason t' be goin' this way. Hopeville's on the other side a' the mountains. 'M goin' home. How 'bout you?

[theenforcer]

[He snorts, shaking his head. ] I walked into a room, that's all. Found myself here. [He arches a brow at that.] Do you know where we are? What's outside that... [ Except there's no door there.] I was just in Wonderland.

[thecourier]

In where? [There's a flicker, just for a moment, like something reaching out from behind how deeply Dan has sunk into this repeating loop of the worst moment of his life. The pace of his steps doesn't falter, but his expression changes.]

... This isn't right. This isn't how it happened.

[theenforcer]

Honestly? One of the guest rooms? I just was looking for a different closet to try and get something that my closet was giving me issues over. [ And in his mind, all of that makes absolute sense. Likely not for another though. Frowning at him though, confused.] You mean Wonderland, don't you?

[thecourier]

[None of this makes any sense, and Dan is suddenly questioning why he's walking this way, what this package in his hand is, who this guy is and why everything suddenly feels ever so slightly off-centre.]

Wonder-where? [Give him a second. Fuck, this whole thing is just...]

You know what's over those mountains? 'S a trading settlement. Mine.

[theenforcer]

[That inkling was there, the memories of the past in this place, and so that means this is definitely an event then. He's glad for that in a way, rather than the thought of stepping into a place of Wonderland they've yet to experience.]

What's waiting for you there?

[They've talked about his world before, and so Barbie isn't sure this is a good thing for either them.]

[thecourier]

[There aren't many places here where a person might be so happy to be heading to as Dan looks right now. There's a gentle spring to his step, a lightness to it, as if he's on his way to something dear and keenly missed.]

It's home. [He says, and he lightly tosses the package in his hands from one to the other.]

Been gone a while. All the way out t' Navarro.

[theenforcer]

[Barbie tenses though, frowning because of what happened a moment before, and what that means about this place.

His gaze drops to the package.] Mind if I ask what that is? And uhmm....

[He stops, not sure how to talk about what he has seen.]

[thecourier]

Package, from the NCR. Somethin' they picked up in Navarro that they want deliverin' out here.

[And, god, why had he never questioned that? It was such an innocuous request, such a simple one, he had never thought twice about it.]

Ain't my job t' ask what it is. Jus' t' take it where it's meant t' go.

[theenforcer]

Is that normal? I mean for you to run things around for... whoever they are like that? [Yeah, this is about to get ugly and he is worried he can't figure out a way to explain this.] What happens if you open it?