sunshine, you're the best time i ever, ever had

[justneedsomehelp]

Who: Marc Spector and you
When: Early June
Where: Various locations
Summary: Just trying to get his sea legs, so to speak.
Warnings: Some cursing, some references to substance abuse. Nothing major. Will update later if needed!



I. a little shopping trip

It's the restless urge to be up and doing something that has him browsing through the shop, maybe grabbing a chocolate bar, browsing through the paperbacks. He's not really one to read all that often, but-- there's Steven and maybe he's trying to decide on a book or two to bring back to their cabin and leave inconspicuously on the bed so he can begin hoarding up a new room. It won't be French poetry or books on the Gods, but... honestly. Screw the gods. He'd rather read some trash paperback about some bosomy chick and her dangerous ex-soldier solving some mystery and falling for each other or whatever any day.

When he's not staring down whatever trash novels are in this place, he's plucking up a few extra toiletries on the way out, maybe a few pain meds for any unfortunate hangovers he might acquire along the way.

He might turn a curious eye to anyone who's in there with him and ask, "Does anyone actually see how this stuff's restocked?"

Or who keeps this shit clean and dust free or whatever. Yeah, yeah, ghosts or whatever. But there's got to be more behind it, right?

II. let's hit the sauna

Self-care might come in the form of alcohol and other substances for Marc, maybe the odd brawl here or there, but here he is, trying a little bit of a healthier way at the spa. It's a good thing there aren't any massages -- he'd not be interested in them anyway. But the sauna? Oh, yeah. He can get behind that.

Really get behind it. Marc finds a time when it seems to be empty enough that he can stretch out with his towel spread out over his lap, eyes shut. Fake some of that peace and quiet he's never truly known in his head, maybe.

It's when someone comes in that he seems to go back to alert, sitting up a bit straighter and clearing his throat. "Oh-- uh. Sorry."

He'll even scoot over to give plenty of space to whoever decides to join him.

III. big pills, little pills

Somehow, Marc ends up int he infirmary. Well, not just... by chance. He's curious, just in case he ever needs to perform surprise minor surgery on himself or needs a hit of something stronger when the alcohol isn't enough to knock him out or bury the bad memories.

That doesn't mean he doesn't scowl a bit at some of the-- medieval torture devices, er, medical supplies. "What the fuck is this thing?"

Do they... do they do lobotomies around here still? Bleed people with fucking leeches, what?

But once he finds the pills, he seems to perk up a little bit. "Hey, they got some of the good stuff..."

Guess who's gonna be sleeping a little easier tonight?

IV. tauva

Maybe this isn't his type of joint, generally, but he's finding himself enjoying the atmosphere... and the whiskey doesn't hurt it either. Better than the place that keeps playing Billy Joel too, in his opinion. He might be huffing out a quiet laugh when he picks up a bottle with yet another weird date he's pretty sure is a lie. Whatever. It could have been back from the beginning of time and he's not gonna be choosy.

"Hey," he'll start if he notices someone close enough with an empty glass. "You want a refill?"

Never let it be said he can't be nice on occasion.

V. wildcard

[Want something else? Leave a prompt or hit me up through PP or at noassgardian]

Comments

[justneedsomehelp]

"Yeah? Maybe..." Although Marc's relatively sure the only prescription for him is a nice, padded room somewhere and he's not gonna go for that. But he doesn't want to get off on entirely the wrong foot here.

"I've noticed that's not too uncommon a complaint from people here... the sleeping stuff."

[firewalled]

Rich was pretty much on his way to a nice padded room before things turned around. Marc would not be judged, honestly. Rich shrugs at the comment.

"Well, to be fair, I've heard it's hard for some people to sleep on cruise ships. More than that, though, I think it's probably just the people who get brought here. A lot of us have got things we're recovering from. Leads to a lot of restless nights."

[justneedsomehelp]

Hey, well, at least he's in... well, maybe not good company. But familiar company. Something like that.

"What, is that some sort of common denominator? They pull people in that are well-on the way to being insane?"

[firewalled]

"From the way it's been presented to me, yeah. It'd be shitty to dismiss them as just insane, but we've certainly all got baggage. I mean, I literally got yanked out of the hospital before I ended up here."

Rich gestures at the ugly scar on his face as some kind of proof.

[justneedsomehelp]

"It's not dismissing them. Never said I wasn't insane either. I know I am." But his alternative personality seems to be outside his body and running around the ship right now, so go figure.

He looks at the scar when the other guy points it out. "What happened?"

[firewalled]

Well, the other entity in Rich's brain seems to be having a small glitching meltdown, so... they're both better off, right?

He still winces when he's expected to clarify about his own baggage, though, still uncomfortable giving all the gory details.

"There was an accident at a Halloween party I was at. Bad house fire, I got caught in the middle of it." He won't. Explain why he was in the middle of it, but you know.

[justneedsomehelp]

Maybe. Maybe none of them are better off in a place like this, but--

He's trying to not focus too much on whatever doom and gloom is hovering over their heads. "That's rough, buddy," he comments after a moment, frowning.

Fortunately, Marc isn't gonna pry too deep. He knows how he feels when people start doing that to him. It puts him on edge, makes him want to run. He's not gonna do that to someone else.

"Did that happen just before you got dragged here?"

[firewalled]

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. Zuko would be proud of me." He hasn't heard that one before, but the comparison is apt. Or maybe he's just making a dumb reference and no one knows what he's talking about, as usual.

"But yeah. Just a couple weeks before I ended up here. I was doing a lot better, and they moved me out of ICU to the burn ward..." Part of that was getting his mind back in control again, but he's not clarifying all that. "Still had a lot of treatment and therapy to cover though."

[justneedsomehelp]

"Who's Zuko?" Sorry, man. Marc is the least knowledgeable about memes or entertainment guy there is. It's a little sad really, someone should change that about him sometime.

"Are you getting any of that here or-- is it just... you're on your own?"

[firewalled]

"Oh... uh, never mind. Just a dude from a show I used to watch as a kid." If only Rich had his beat up laptop. He could truly expose Marc to a world of dumb nerdy stuff. And also potentially porn, but you know.

"I've got help... my roommate found me having a bit of a breakdown, and I was lucky one of his boyfriends is a doctor. He was able to find the antibiotics I needed again. He's been making sure to keep my bandages changed and stuff, so... if you need help, he'd be the guy to go to."

[justneedsomehelp]

"If it was a cartoon, I'm sure my twin, Steven'd know all about it." He's so obsessed with anime and cartoons and-- just being a giant nerd in general. He shakes his head absently, picking up another pill bottle to look over.

"Yeah? What's his name?" Not that Marc and doctors ever go extremely well together. Might be handy to keep in mind though.

"Good thing you found the help. Burns-- they're not any joke."

[firewalled]

"Yeah? I don't know much. Just watched it a lot with my brother growing up, so." Really, he's kind of an ex-giant nerd, so he needs to brush up on half of his references.

"His name is Watson. He seems nice enough. A little stuffy and old-fashioned, but... helped me a lot with the burns. And you know, the brain stuff." Not that Rich is going to go out of his way and mention the anti-psychotics, but he was definitely having a breakdown that Watson helped him through.

[justneedsomehelp]

"Brain stuff, huh." He trails off, looking over at the other guy thoughtfully. "Do they actually help? I mean, I don't know what your deal is or anything. Just never liked the thought of being put in a padded room all my life, doped up."

But isn't that what they'd do with someone as violent as him?

... But here, it wouldn't hurt-- Steven at least.

[firewalled]

"...It's a long story, what's wrong with me. Let's say for now, I got treated for some stuff that was legit, like bipolar and whatever, and then they kind of mistook something that was actually happening to me as a hallucination, so they put me on an anti-psychotic. I was withdrawing from it a couple days after I got here and it was really bad so... even if they know what happened to me was real, I'm still on it just in case."

Hopefully he can come off it slowly, though, because he hates the fact that it was prescribed in the first place.

"That said, as someone who... who was probably headed to that padded room back home, Watson doesn't treat me as someone dangerous. He helped with the stuff I can't get medication for. He and his boyfriends talked me through a lot of bad thoughts, and it helped." He looks sheepish and rubs at one of his arms. "I... It's embarrassing to talk about it, I know, but I don't think he'd like, lock you up or anything."

[justneedsomehelp]

"That's-- gotta suck." He means that. He's been drugged before. He hates that feeling. He hates feeling disconnected from himself, not in control, even if the medication's supposed to have the opposite effect.

"... I might talk to him." He needs help. He knows he does. But-- it is embarrassing. And it twists his gut, the thought of anybody ever asking him what caused it all. That's a whole hell of a lot of nightmares he doesn't want to get into.

"It's not easy for me to do that though. Uh, think what I got'll help me for a bit."

[firewalled]

"Yeah... it kind of does." It's been hard for Rich to admit as much, for fear of looking like a charity case, but from one crazy person to another, it's a little easier to say he feels upset about the way it turned out. "Wish someone would have listened to me before I got here, but y'know."

He smiles a little gently, trying not to push. "I get it's not easy. Believe me, I ran away from him first time we met because I was sure he'd think I was a basketcase. Talking about garbage that's private is hard enough without it being stuff we're sure we're gonna be judged for."

[justneedsomehelp]

"Yeah... yeah. I know." It's complicated. He wishes he'd had a normal, happy life, but if he hadn't-- well, his 'twin' around the ship wouldn't be here right now. He'd have never had Steven in his head. Some would probably be relieved, not sharing headspace with someone else, but...

The idea is depressing to Marc, if he's honest. Steven's-- everything he's not. He deserves to live and exist.

"Mm, yeah. Tell me about it. Looking at you like you're a ticking time bomb or like you're something to be pitied..." Or worse, that nothing you say or do should be listened to or believed... It's not a good way to live.

"But hey, maybe I'll go talk to him. Eventually." He probably will, but probably not about any real issues. Marc's good at avoiding the real stuff.

"Right-- uh. I'm Marc, by the way."

[firewalled]

"Yup. Got those looks all the time from the nurses. You know they colour-code medical bracelets? I had one for 'dangerous to self and/or others.' They never told me that, but I spotted it on the charts. I mean, I know I was freaking out when they yanked me out of the fire, but still... made me feel a little shitty when I was feeling better and they still looked at me like I was gonna launch at them and gnaw their arms off any second now."

Ugh. Just saying all that... it gives him an icky feeling, but he does feel his shoulders almost feel lighter. Did he really need to talk about this stuff? Ew... makes him sound like some weirdo burdening everyone with his own issues. He really needs to try to keep things more positive. So, without really realizing it might go poorly after what he admitted, he thrusts his hand forward to offer a handshake.

"I'm Rich. Rich Goranski. Nice to meet you, Marc."

[justneedsomehelp]

He lets out a chuckle, although it's not mean. It's not malicious. He's just-- been there. "I get it, but yeah. It's not-- great. They ever sedate you when they think you're getting a little too riled up? Even if you're not... trying to do anything."

There's a difference between being upset and needing to be jabbed with shit that keeps you from even being able to focus for longer than five seconds.

It doesn't make him feel burdened really. It's-- refreshing, in a twisted way, to see someone else who gets it. Even if he sucks at talking.

But either way, he reaches out to return that shake, offering up a brief smile. "Yeah. Nice to meet you too, Rich."

[firewalled]

"Oh, duh. Of course they'd do that. Usually if I was talking nonsense, or they thought I was, anyways. I wasn't going to do anything to them, could barely move with how toasted I was, but that didn't stop 'em." Rich pulls a face, but he... feels a little relieved too. It's nice to joke about this stuff without someone looking pitying or horrified.

He beams and follows up the handshake with a pair of fingerguns.

"Pleasure's all mine. Nice to know I'm not the only psychopath here, I guess."

[justneedsomehelp]

There's a chuckle at that. "Yeah, well. Same here, I guess. Don't tend to meet many of them."

When you spend your whole life trying to hide it from everyone around you and all that. He collects the couple bottles of pills he found and gives a nod of his head. "Think I'm gonna get these back to my cabin real fast. See you around, buddy."

[firewalled]

"Right. Um, good luck with that... If you need anything, you know who to talk to."

Meaning either Watson or Rich, if the guy really wants to talk to a kid about his issues. Even if he doesn't, Rich is pretty sure he should keep an eye out and try his best to seem like someone trustworthy. God knows how hard it is when it feels like you should just shoulder everything on your own.

[justneedsomehelp]

"Yeah. Same here, y'know."

If he gets the nerve to talk to Watson about it, he might. But hey-- Rich might be a kid, but Marc will probably... want to keep an eye on. He's been this way since he was-- much younger than him. He knows how rough it is. Maybe he doesn't need someone else to lean on, but-- maybe it'd be helpful having another nutcase to share shit with, yeah?

Either way, he'll see him around, he's sure.