video || Day 83

[dowhatisays]

[Charlie doesn't look so good right now. Seems to be a theme with him when he's desperate enough to actually post on this thing. But the welled up anger and frustration about this whole situation is itching under his skin to do something. Like subject the whole town to his dark-circled eyes and ridiculous curly haystack of hair. You're welcome.]

Anyone got a fucking soup recipe or some shit? Like we even got anything to fucking cook with.

I got shit to trade for it if you do got any.

[He gives the camera a glare, clearly seeing if he has any other reason to say anything. Apparently not. The feed ends.]


[ooc: After the 'Meyer getting attacked by a tiger' plot. Charlie is home with the sicky and not happy about it.]

Comments

[nedofpies]

[ Charlie has a point, there. No use apologizing after the fact when it isn't going to change anything. It's not giving Charlie any peace of mind or making Meyer any less torn up. Ned watches Charlie pacing, notes again the exhaustion in his restless movements. ]

Look, I don't mean to be rude, but have you gotten any sleep since last night?

[ He's pretty sure Charlie hasn't, but it seems more polite to ask rather than observe ] If you want, I can stick around a while. Wake you up when Meyer wakes up. Make sure he doesn't get outta bed.

[ He's not sure the offer will be appreciated, but he feels he has to make it ]

[dowhatisays]

[His first reaction is to snap that he can look after Meyer just fine on his own. Which is true. But Ned didn't mean anything by offering.]

This ain't the worst scrape we pulled through. Ain't my first all nighter, neither.

[nedofpies]

[ Maybe he should just shut up and leave well enough alone. But part of him knows that Charlie's increased snappishness is a sign of how tired he is. ]

I didn't say it was. I just meant... it's not like I've got a busy schedule to get back to or anything, so I don't mind.

[dowhatisays]

[God he's sick of all this. He's tired of arguing and tired of worrying and tired of being tired. He's not cut out for this, not like Meyer, who never seems to turn his brain off from the constant worry and forethought and calculations. He's supposed to be the one without a care, the one who throws himself into booze and sex and drugs and not give a shit about anything else.

Maybe that's why he gives too much of a shit about one thing and one thing only.

He groans, low in his throat, and then he's throwing himself on a kitchen chair again, head buried in his arms, ready to not move for a week.]

[nedofpies]

[ Ned thinks that it seems like Charlie's reached that point of exhaustion where you stop being able to act like an adult and become utterly childish ]

C'mon. I promise I'll wake you up the moment he makes a peep, alright? You're no good to him if you're falling asleep on the kitchen table.

[ He's only chiding Charlie with words, but he takes off his coat, a clear sign that he intends to stay, now. Ned drapes it over the other chair and says ] They say sleep deprivation slows your brain down just as much as getting drunk. You need to... need to sober up.

[dowhatisays]

I just need ten minutes or something.

[If only the couch didn't seem so far away. He could try to make it for the spare bedroom but... well if Ned followed him in it would become painfully obvious how spare that bedroom really is. They've been using the single bed mostly as storage, it's stacked high with papers and nick-knacks.

So instead Charlie throws himself up again and slumps over to the couch, landing himself face down.]

This place is fucked up, y'know?

[nedofpies]

[ Ned doesn't question Charlie's decision to sleep on the couch rather than in his room. He probably thinks that it doesn't count as much, this way. Like he is just catching a cat nap, rather than really getting sleep. If he does fall asleep, there's no way Ned is waking him up in just ten minutes, though. ]

You're telling me.

[ After all, Ned didn't exactly escape from last night unscathed, though his injuries are minuscule when compared to Meyer's. Besides, that's the least of what's happened to him while he's been here. ]

Remember how we met?

[ Ned hopes Charlie doesn't mind him bringing it up - he's just trying to get him to smile, or laugh, or at least think about something other than the state Meyer is in right now. He remembers, vividly, the way back to what he'd assumed was Charlie's room, and it occurs to him to put that knowledge to use. Charlie looks perfectly comfortable, mashed into the couch, but he's going to be cold if he falls asleep there. ]

[ Thus, Ned heads back, without asking permission, to his room to fetch a blanket. He opens the door, notes the amount of clutter on the bed, the fact that it doesn't seem very tidy. There's so much stuff, but then again, Kenzi has more stuff than this in her room. Still, that looked...lived in, in a way that this doesn't. Ned doesn't pay too much attention, though. He snags a folded-up blanket from the foot of the bed and heads back in to the main room to give it to Charlie ]

[dowhatisays]

[His only response is to mumble into the couch cushion. It would be pretty damn hard to forget a night like that.

He's starting to drift off already, his brain clearly jumping on the opportunity and not wasting any time with it. He's vaguely aware of a blanket being draped over him, and clumsily a hand shoots out, wrapping around Ned's wrist.]

Check on Meyer, yeah? Gotta make sure he's still breathing. There's stuff, he's in pain...

[But his brain isn't keeping him up much longer and it descends into a babble of Italian as he drifts off.]

[nedofpies]

[ Ned murmurs a quick: ] I'll take care of it. [ He removes Charlie's hand from his wrist gently and sets it back on the couch, sees that he's drifting off even as he speaks. Once he's sure Charlie isn't going to be getting up again, Ned leaves and goes to sit with Meyer for a while. ]