they live inside us

[thememening]

FIGHTING YOUR INNER DEMONS

Everybody has them. Some are louder than others. Some are stronger. Some are overwhelming, and sooner or later you just give up fighting. But there are other people around you who want to help you - maybe they're suffering too, either because of your inner monster or their own. Or maybe they're one of the lucky ones with demons that don't howl so much.

You can help each other. It's better than the alternative.

• Leave top levels with your character name and info.
  
• Specify what you're running from, or if you're running at all, or if you just want to help.
  
• Details may be useful, but are certainly not necessary.
  
• Tag around for great drama and profit.

Warning: responses to this meme could potentially contain triggering material.

Comments

[dearestandonly]

Well maybe the previous owners put them in.

[He'll try a different tactic, then.] How was school?

[cometobe]

Maybe.

[She shifts against the piano gently.]

It was fine. We had art class.

[dearestandonly]

I bet you're a wonderful artist. From what I've heard of you playing the piano.

I love drawing. I need to get a sketchbook, so I can go outside and do some work, while they weather's still nice. Maybe you'd like to join me, some day.

[cometobe]

No.

[Said almost too quickly. She doesn't need him seeing how she paints.]

I mean, I'm not that good. Average at best.

[dearestandonly]

Oh, India. [His voice lowers a little, deepens into something darker. Fond, but weighted with something. Promise, maybe. Or a dare.]

I don't think there is a single thing about you that is average.

[cometobe]

[She swallows thickly, looking away.]

You think so?

[dearestandonly]

I absolutely do. There's nothing I believe more.

[cometobe]

[She's silent for a moment, biting her bottom lip.]

You barely know me.

[dearestandonly]

But I'd like to. If you'd let me. [He watches her. Her teeth against her lip. A strand of hair falling over her cheek.]

I wondered, you know, why you never wrote back to me when you were old enough to. But now I'm guessing that you never got any of my letters. I wrote to you everywhere I went. I was so excited about you. To learn about you. I thought of you every day, what you might be doing while I was walking along the Seine. If some day you might like to come with me to Paris, or to Provence, and I could show you the lavender fields.

But you never got them, did you?

[cometobe]

[She keeps her gaze downward. It's uncomfortable when he talks like this, but it starting to be in a different way now that he's been here a while.]

I never got any letters. I didn't even know about you until...

[Until her father died.]

[dearestandonly]

I'm sorry for that. I've always been something of a black sheep in the family.

But I'm here now. And we can learn about each other, can't we?

[cometobe]

If you want to know so much about me, then why weren't you here? Why was it letters I never got?

[She sounds a tiny bit angry about it all, but she's still hurting from the funeral. Her father was the one person who truly knew her.]

[dearestandonly]

[It's his turn to duck his head and bite his lip. Glancing down and away. Out the window, trying to ignore painful memories.]

There were arguments. Things that were said that I regretted. It drove a wedge between me and Richard. That's probably why he didn't give you the letters I sent.

We were very angry at each other for a very long time. And it breaks my heart to think that -- that we never got the chance to forgive each other.

[He sounds very young, voice cracking with tears at the end.] But I loved him. I always loved him.

[cometobe]

[She's oddly not overcome with emotion as he seems to be, not even at the mentions of her father, as raw as she still feels about it. But he seems sincere enough and she looks back at him once more.]

You think he'd have wanted you to look after us.

[dearestandonly]

I hope so. It's my way of trying to make amends.

[cometobe]

That's.. really nice of you.

[dearestandonly]

Thank you, India. It means a lot to hear you say that.

[cometobe]

[She's still not sure about it all, regardless of how genuine he sounds. And she doesn't want to be unnecessarily rude.]

I could show you the grounds tomorrow, if you wanted.

[dearestandonly]

[It all comes from a place of sincerity, anyway. Even if there are a few lies. Some stretching of the truth.] Tomorrow, then. I'll hold you to that.

[cometobe]

Okay.

[Another slight, awkward silence and she makes toward the hall.]

I've got homework.

[dearestandonly]

I'll be here. Whenever you need me. [He smiles and leans back against the piano. Watching India as she moves away.]