Text > Video | discussion of parent death

[pheromonecoffee]

Let's set the scene here.

Bridge. Late night. Green full moon.

Six year old alone in the backseat of a car. Front seat? Two coffins.

Giant explosion. Car destroyed. Boy not destroyed. Coffins in car probably destroyed. 90% chance of coffin destruction.

Giant monster. Robot teenage girl fighting monster. Robot girl losing.

Robot girl stuffs giant monster into six year old. How? Fuck if I know.

Moon stops being green. Bridge is on fire. Car is on fire. Six year old is not on fire.

[Video flashes on. Matt's hanging around LCU's campus. It's pretty dead since it's only summer sessions and he's not by the library or anything. He'd come to pick something up, and... Well, the walk here had been eventful. He should drive more, as attested to the scrape on his cheek. He's a lucky kid.

That aside, he looks... not very amused.]

So if we're playing the crazy echoes game anymore, I think I'm winning. [He laughs a little, covering his face with his hand in sheer exhaustion.] Coffins in a car? You know what the craziest shit about this is?

I seriously think I just watched Minato's parents die. That's... that's some fucked up kind of thing to show a guy. And that... thing. That monster.

[And Matt completely freezes. And then he laughs. And it's not a good laugh--it's a kind of crazy, kind of broken laugh.]

No wonder he had to die. That thing inside of him... [And then his laughter just completely stops and he drops the phone he's recording on. That thing. That thing looks so similar to Thanatos. And Thanatos... Thanatos is Phillip. His friend. He curls himself up where he sits, resting his head on his knees and the video just shows the summer sky.]

Let's just pretend. This never happened.

Comments

action; midnight

[darkhourdear]

[Phillip sees this post when it goes up. But he doesn't say anything. Matt doesn't want to talk about it now, and that means he might just not talk to Phillip at all. But there's a way Phillip can get to talk to him.

When midnight hits, he's a little surprised it worked. It's not a full moon, or anything. But apparently knowing he needs to talk to Matt is enough for him to be able to do so, the boy just appearing on the edge of Matt's bed, wide awake and waiting.]

...Hi.

Re: action; midnight

[pheromonecoffee]

[That... that was weird. Matt is sitting in shorts, legs crossed, playing a video game. He's used to weird things, but--

He blinks, pausing the game and setting the controller down. He seems pretty unfazed, all things considered. He's doing better than he was this afternoon, too. He just looks very tired.]

Shouldn't you be asleep?

[darkhourdear]

[Phillip just shrugs, moving so he's sitting next to Matt.] You probably should be.

[He's quite for a minute after that- he doesn't really know how to do this. He doesn't need comforting, but he feels like if he mentions that he knows what happened then Matt will try. But he's pretty sure Matt is taking this whole thing a lot worse than him.]

...Sorry.

[pheromonecoffee]

It's okay. Not like you can get it under control that great, right?

[He's assuming he's talking about the teleporting thing. He doesn't even know that Phillip knows what monster he was talking about.]

[darkhourdear]

This was actually kind of on purpose. [sort of. he should probably test it more. maybe he could go talk to other people too?]

[pheromonecoffee]

[He blinks in confusion.] Good job. But why'd you stay up this late...?

[darkhourdear]

I wanted to see if it worked. And... I needed to talk to you.

[pheromonecoffee]

I have a phone. [Matt pats his head for a moment without thinking.] Can't wait until tomorrow?

[darkhourdear]

You wouldn't want to talk about this over the phone. And no. [look he's being serious!]

[pheromonecoffee]

[He sighs. He sounds exhausted. Resigned?] What is it, Phillip?

[darkhourdear]

[Well fine then. Phillip will just hug you before talking.]

...You don't have to take care of me. I'm ok. [for the most part.] But you need to make sure you're ok too. And I mean like actually ok, not pretend ok.

[pheromonecoffee]

[He found you crying in a closet, once, Phillip. Bullshit. He pats the boy's head with a smile.]

I'll be fine. I'm a resilient person.

[darkhourdear]

[Well... bad words back at you too, Matt!]

I saw the network post. [so basically he doesn't believe you right now.]

[pheromonecoffee]

... It's not a big deal. I just didn't let it sink in long enough.

[darkhourdear]

[Phillip is trying to make a serious face at him, but it comes off much more like a pout.]

It's not us.

[pheromonecoffee]

[Cute.]

I know it's not. I'm much handsomer. [did you ever think Matt wouldn't try to brush it off?]

[darkhourdear]

[uuugh Matt.]

Talking to you helped me out a lot, you know.

[pheromonecoffee]

[A smile. He's not taking the bait.]

I'm glad. I was worried--that's a lot for a kid to handle.

[darkhourdear]

It's a lot for older people to handle too. [POINTED STARE.]

[pheromonecoffee]

I've got it under control. [You keep your stares to yourself young man.]

[darkhourdear]

[can't stop won't stop still staring.]

No you don't. [...yup. that's his argument.]

[pheromonecoffee]

Pretty sure I do. I made it home safe, I didn't even get hurt.

[darkhourdear]

But you were upset. That doesn't just go away. [he should know.]

[pheromonecoffee]

Maybe not. But it can be dealt with.

... Are you okay?

[darkhourdear]

You can't deal with it if you ignore it.

I'm fine. [he actually means it, too. This was not nearly as scary of an Echo for him.]