OTHERWORDLY.

[yoloed]

Otherwordly Meme

Sometimes all you need is a word to spark off an idea.

1. Post a comment with your character's name, canon, and any preferences you may have (no shipping, no smut, etc.)

2. Leave the comment blank or post a word or two in the body.

It may also help if you list scenarios you would like to play.

3. Reply to other people, either with words you picked out, or words they posted as prompts for a thread.

( A cleanup of the previous Otherwordly Meme. )

Comments

[honeywithlemon]

"Even Fred keeps busy," Honey added, wrapping her arms around herself and smiling wanly as she considered it. Out of everyone, Fred was probably who she texted most. Usually he talked in nerd code that she couldn't always decipher clearly, but sometimes he brought up what he was actually working on. From what she understood, he did a lot of volunteering, though she wasn't sure where. That was a different sort of busy than the college course-load sort of busy everyone else was falling prey to, however. "I would have fun with the cupcakes. I could talk to your aunt, we could get everyone together, and we could whip up a--"

"Tadashi? Are you okay?"

The instant Tadashi turned away, Honey stopped as well. Her eyebrows drew closer together in concern as she noticed his posture and she quickly moved to stand beside him again, automatically attempting to sooth whatever was wrong by rubbing his back. "Hey, talk to me? Are you feeling sick?"

Whatever was wrong, it had occurred so suddenly that it alarmed Honey.

[immolating_inner_demons]

He tried to say something in reply, but for a moment all that came out was a ragged breath. Screams. He remembered screams, choked off by something, something that sounded like liquid hitting the ground- gasoline. It hit him suddenly. The police's report had mentioned excellerants. And then Tadashi felt positively light headed, and slumped against the nearest building to stay standing. After a few seconds, that ceased to be enough, so he slid down until he was sitting.

A secondary, different panic hit him: he had to explain this to Honey. He had to come up with some kind of excuse. Keeping her out of this was top priority, no question. Still struggling to keep his food down, he took deep, slow, deliberate breaths, trying to make something up. An idea finally fumbled out his mouth half formed.

"S-sorry. Don't usually eat sweets on an empty stomach, or much at all. That's really Hiro's thing. Guess my stomach isn't thrilled with me skipping meals, either."

Those are weak enough seperately, but maybe together, they'll work? Either way, he can honestly say, "I feel dizzy." Is that a low blood sugar symptom? He hoped it was. Anything that could give his lies a bit of a credibility was always welcome.

[honeywithlemon]

To Honey, Tadashi had always been an upstanding person. She would never suspect he was lying without something to give her an obvious clue. And even then, she would be slow to give in to suspicion -- she tended to try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Swallowing the lump of panic that formed, Honey nodded quickly to the explanation.

She couldn't panic. Keeping that firmly in mind, she switched over to a no-nonsense tone and whipped out her phone. "I'm calling your aunt to come pick you up."

Though she didn't have the number programmed into her phone, she knew the name of the cafe and it was easy enough to pull up on the internet and select the number. She pressed the phone to her ear and placed a comforting hand on Tadashi's shoulder. "Don't worry! We'll get you home and to a decent meal in a jiffy. Just don't move for now. Everything will be okay -- I promise."

Once Tadashi felt better she would give him such a lecture for skipping meals often enough for this to happen. It was exactly what she had been worried about -- Tadashi wasn't taking care of himself at all.

[immolating_inner_demons]

He groaned. "Aunt Cass is going to kill me." And oh God, that was not a lie. She expected this kind of thing from Hiro. She didn't like it, but she could tolerate it in Hiro because it seemed to be a phase geniuses went through. Tadashi was supposed to be past this point. He was supposed to be the responsible one.

But arguing with Honey not to call would just raise more questions, questions he didn't have answers for because logically he should have wanted to go home. Tadashi would, if he was really just running on low blood sugar, accept the barrage of his Aunt Cass's questions and dutifully eat and go to bed. So he lets Honey make the call and just facepalms, hard, trying to focus on the moderately cold ground and not on the horrible mental images still lingering in his mind's eye.

[honeywithlemon]

Honey, still crouching down, shuffled slightly to put her back to Tadashi as she listened intensely to the woman on the other end of the line grow more high-pitched. She talked quietly into the phone, giving the proper directions and assuring the older woman that, yes, she would look after Tadashi until she got there and, of course, Cass was not a bad parent and Tadashi would be just fine after some food and rest. Once the conversation was finished, she hung up the phone and turned sheepishly back to Tadashi.

"She says she'll be here soon. Do you want some -- I think I have some water in my bag." Not waiting for an answer, she shuffled things aside, looking for the water bottle she was sure should still be in there. Honey Lemon found it near the bottom, still unopened, and pulled it triumphantly free. "Found it!"

[immolating_inner_demons]

That sounded bad. He hated that he had worried Aunt Cass like that, because at points her volume grew to the point he could hear it from his point on the ground, and he winces because he's put her through so much already. It was so selfish that he wished he could tell someone about the real reasons behind this when it would hurt them so much.

He blinked slowly, taking his hand away from his mouth where he'd been biting at his knuckles. "Thanks. I - I'm really sorry, Honey. This hasn't happened since high school, so I just. I don't know, I guess I sort of figured I was past this." Tadashi was referring to a totally different 'this', but it was true, and he wasn't sure if that time gap between public breakdowns would help or hurt his case with Aunt Cass. Inhaling slowly, panic subsiding even as the nausea remained, he muttered quietly, "You don't have to stay with me if you don't want to. I know I messed up pretty badly, here."

Honey was the last person he wanted seeing him like this. She deserved so much better from life, from her friends, and if he could go back and do life over he'd push her clear of the blast radius that was his life. Exhausted, he sipped at the water, feeling his heartbeat in his head and his friendships crumble and crack with the weight of all his bad decisions, willing and otherwise.

[honeywithlemon]

Honey eyed the spot on the ground next to Tadashi for just an instant, then settled herself down gingerly beside him so that she didn't drop too hard to the pavement because of her platforms. Once settled, she folded her hands over her knees, her shoulder not far from his and offered a smile.

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I'm going to stay." She couldn't think of a single reason why she wouldn't. Tadashi was in trouble. And it was up to her to save the day. "Did I ever tell you about the time I messed up a chemical reaction under the kitchen sink?"

She paused for effect, looking at him over her glasses, then lifted the fingers of her hands slightly in a gesture of 'surprise!'.

"The answer is no. Because I haven't told anyone. I was so embarrassed. I was trying to find just the right formula to get the level of viscosity I needed. I was experimenting with potassium, but then I forgot that I'd promised a friend to help her with her outfit for the weekend." She made a face as she talked with her hands, making it very obvious that her story was about to take a turn for the worse. "What I didn't know was that our sink had a leak. My dad went to get water for coffee and BOOM!"

She fluttered her hands before dropping them to rest on her knees again and biting the inside of her lip. "No more kitchen sink."

Leaning over to nudge Tadashi's shoulder slightly, she offered another smile. "We all mess up sometimes. It's okay -- that's life, right?"