evowhisperer: Made by Zalein! (Outside looking in)
evowhisperer ([personal profile] evowhisperer) wrote2014-12-17 04:18 pm
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IC Voicemail

 *There's nothing but a long silence after the ringing stops. If the caller's been looking at their screen, there are plain black-and-white letters on display:*

Please leave a message after the beep.

*Beep.*
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (Odds are you won't live to see tomorrow)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-04-24 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[Lazarus kneels to help. Since getting surgery on his tendons and actually getting usable, somewhat dexterous hands again, he tends to jump at chances to use them.]

I would hope so... considering they were brothers, to leave him behind would be both strange and callous. Did the fact that the nanite was inside him complicate matters, though? To your knowledge? How would that be isolated from a human being?
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (I was the little Jew who wrote the Bible)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-04-24 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
That tends to be how business with Pulses goes. We only get part of the picture, snapshots of a life we're supposed to be able to use.

[He places the few pieces he's gathered into the bowl alongside the fruit Cesar's already placed there.]

I'm lucky. Misa and Nathan's others are both from the same world as mine, so... we've been able to piece together more than most people by merit of comparing and speaking with one another about it.
oncedevil: (What's it to you?)

[personal profile] oncedevil 2015-04-26 01:45 am (UTC)(link)
Hard to say, he hasn't gone out of his way or anything. Maybe he's content to leave well enough alone?

[One can hope?]
oncedevil: (Are you trying to tell me that's not but)

[personal profile] oncedevil 2015-04-27 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
You read my mind.
dead_black_eyes: "Everybody's Changing" (I don't see how you can)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-04-27 04:50 am (UTC)(link)
[For most of his life, Lazarus has been unneeded. Chess prodigies are, in the grand scheme of things, superfluous, a curiosity that intrigues a niche crowd in a modern world, but is of little practical use elsewhere. A tyrannical, unscrupulous uncle had reminded him of it often enough, the fact that he was only anyone because he knew how to dance on black and white squares, and humanity was composed of more ambiguous shades of grey that denied a chessmaster any genuine access.

This is more than access, it's an invitation to go above and beyond and prove that he can move between those shadows he'd been warned away from as a child. He can be attentive, he can care, and he can put the needs of someone else first, even if this ranks up there among the very strangest days of his life. Besides, doesn't he owe Cesar for his monstrous doppelganger dragging him into this mess?]


Um... sit still, please. I'm going to get the bandages, now that you're all cleaned up...

[He says so after he's finished his careful, meticulous cleaning. Something he's always been good at, taking contaminated or sullied things and making them pure again. He stands and fetches the kit, bringing it back and starting to pick through and look for the best options to smear with neosporin.]
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (When the violence causes silence)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-04-27 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
[L glances up when he notices Cesar's fingers creeping toward the box to poke ineffectually at its contents. He offers him the damp cloth he'd used to clean his injuries.]

Don't trouble yourself. I've got this.

[He selects several larger bandaids, holding them at several angles to determine the best and most efficient way to cover the scratches. He uncaps the neosporin, putting a generous amount of the ointment on the soft, cottony part of the first bandait before carefully pressing it onto Cesar's hand. Silently, he starts on the second one.]
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (Definitely something going on upstairs)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-05-04 07:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[Careful though it is, it's something of a bang-up job and Cesar won't have fantastic mobility without tugging some of the adhesive strips loose. That being said, L's been meticulous and gentle, and it's probably as good as it could have been without hospital-grade supplies.]

I need to figure out what I'm going to do with him, now. I know what I want to do, but... I have to try to be better than him in at least that way.
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (Razor sharp razor clean)

*cuddles*

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-05-06 05:08 am (UTC)(link)
Convenient?

[He laughs, the sound wavery and a little overwhelmed.]

Something like that. It's almost like whiplash sometimes, to be honest. Months wouldn't be unwelcome, if only for a break. Or getting echoes back that aren't traumatic or don't point to worse things about my Other, but the more it goes on the more I'm convinced he was some kind of psychopath.
dead_black_eyes: "Ange et Demon" (Personne ne sait ce que vraiment je suis)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-05-06 05:41 am (UTC)(link)
It is a change... I used to want to be as good as him. Now I'm just kind of hoping that I don't up as bad. I have trouble with expressions, sometimes, but... I think he didn't even have a concept of empathy, and that scares me.

[He leans against the counter, staring at an indeterminate spot over the sink.]

Even if it's hard, I think empathy is something humans need. Not only an ability to see consequences, but a concern for them. Without it, I'm not sure how much of the human actually remains.
dead_black_eyes: "The Phoenix" (Put on your war paint)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-05-08 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
[Lazarus' eyes glance in the direction of the drawer, and he chews his lower lip, snapping his gaze back when Cesar begins signing.

He nods, then holds out a hand for the bottle.]


I've quit so many times, but unfortunately, it's not something that gets better with practice. Can I...?
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (Don't you know I suffer?)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-05-12 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
[Lazarus turns the bottle in his hands for a few beats before raising it and taking a small swig.]

Um... I mean just what it sounds like. My problems tended to be with harder things than alcohol, but it's all a part of the same big tangled web of trying to escape life's difficulties. The problem with quitting is that the problems are still there, they're just louder, so... I don't like to say that I'm a recovering alcoholic or addict. I'm just recovering, period.
dead_black_eyes: "White Rabbit" (Go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-05-13 06:36 pm (UTC)(link)
No... I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, if you are. It's a mess I got myself into when I was trying to self-medicate for other issues, and it's had a lot of power over me, but part of recovering is shaking that control off. The world has bad things and vices in it, and I can't live a full life and expect to avoid them. The problem isn't the alcohol, or the heroin or cocaine or whatever, it's me. Fixing it starts from the inside-out, as cliche as that sounds. And I'm working really hard on that.

Does it smell good?

[He glances back at the oven.]
dead_black_eyes: "Secret Agent Man" (They sentenced me to 20 years of boredom)

[personal profile] dead_black_eyes 2015-05-13 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[He has to glance away for a second, but even though he tries earnestly, there's no real way to hide how conflicted he is about it. He brushes aside his hair to indicate a small, new tattoo, a delicate stem with dark green leaves just under his ear.]

Differentiation isn't the problem, so much. I just worry about what he'll do the world, given the chance. I'd rather I took the damage, but... I recognize that the world might be better at taking care of itself.

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