july 2019. welcome to the void.

[modblob]

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: First Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of July 2019
Where: Around and outside the city.
Warnings: Please add any warnings in the subject lines.

Redshift: Welcome to the v͖͕̺̲̘̱̜͎o̴̦̣̠̦̘̹͞i̯̖d̛̪̬͈̱̦̝͍̕.

Click here to read what characters will experience when arriving in Anchor.

a. bot party.

A few hours after the first arrivals, odd noises start to filter up from the pavilion and park at the base of the city. Limp whistles, the gunfire pop of small fireworks, and music from what sounds like a broken kazoo. It seems as though the still-functioning robots of Anchor are trying to welcome their new human overlords, based on programming that hasn't been exercised in... uh, shall we say "a while"?

Three of them have formed a tiny off-key band playing unfamiliar tunes from crackling speakers. One of the three punctuates the music at odd moments by smashing together a pair of cymbals that seem to have been constructed from a flattened pot and a trash can lid. Two others man the refreshments table. Some of the food looks downright inedible, but there are piles of wild berries from the upper floors. Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries. Apples and cherries. Fruits that shouldn't be in season together but somehow still are. There's a strange and vaguely triangular pastry that tastes like hot cinnamon candy. There are piles of vegetables, too, though the only preparation they've had is to be washed and dumped in baskets.

One of the chef bots has put some work in, though, and there are a couple of stews and soups available for the adventurous. All of them are made with the raw ingredients available to eat on the tables. One of them even has meat in it, though that's best consumed by people with very hardy stomachs.

At the end of the refreshment table is a cluster of fresh-pressed juices and unlabeled alcohol bottles, with uneven stacks of cups stationed around them. (Careful, some of the cups are cracked.) Even the good old bar bot is doing his part, pouring out glasses of orange juice and straight shots of tequila. A very generous compromise in place of his usual tequila sunrises. Right? Right.

The most conspicuous robot is the one setting off fireworks. It’s already blown off one six-fingered hand, but by god that hasn’t stopped it. With every small cluster of colorful explosives, the thing throws back its chunky head and gives a sound that can only be described as a metallic cackle.

Might want to watch that guy.

b. life signs in the wasteland.

In the wee hours of the morning after the robots' attempted welcome, the impacts against the dome overhead start. Meteorites, some of them as large as a person's head, bombard the shield and the area around for miles. The alarms that start throughout the colony are enough to wake anyone up, if the thunderous noise of the cosmic storm wasn't enough to do it.

And the alarms aren't for the meteorites. The red shift is rising up around the colony, that phenomenon that no one from the past had the foresight to give more than vague warnings about. New residents who have done some digging will know exactly what’s going on, but for those who’ve avoided even thinking about what’s happened to them, well. It could be a nasty surprise.

Anyone sensible would stay inside with all of that going on, but there's something else: life signs. The communication devices given to residents on arrival light up, indicating the presence of no less than five flecks of life out there in the wastes. Odds are good that at least a few of them are monsters from other worlds, or twisted radioactive creatures warped by the planet itself. But one of them is very human, and has been here for a very long time.

Should residents venture out to investigate these life signs, they’ll find the farthest one to be a man in protective gear, flickering like a badly received signal. As the red shift starts to fade, he solidifies, and as the shift finally dies away, he wrenches off his helmet with one hand and falls to his knees. He's as twisted as the creatures the planet has corrupted, one eye socket nothing but a depression sealed by flesh. His lips on that side curves sharply upward, barely hiding teeth too sharp and long for a human mouth. It's clear now while he pulled off his helmet with one hand--the other is a wreck, a blackened stony mass sealed to the cuff of his radiation suit.

He can hear you coming, if you're brave enough to approach. He can hear you coming, and will turn his one orange-irised eye to watch you until you speak.

c. hairy repairs.

Welcome to Anchor, where sometimes you're the only thing between you and the catastrophic failure of life support systems. After the red shift ends, the radioactivity warning alarms will at least fall silent. The cosmic storm has passed, and for a little while there's quiet under the dome.

But those exploring the upper reaches of the city might hear new alarms, much softer and less insistent than the radiation alarms. They're coming from one of the survey rooms near the garage and the exits to the surface. It might take a little doing to pull up the screens triggering the alarms, but you'll be glad you put in the work. It turns out, those meteorites damaged several of the exterior sensors and one of the major radiation and light transfer panels that help keep anchor supplied with energy--and help keep the shield dome in good working order.

While the damage is easy to see and isn't too hard to fix for those with some technical know-how, there are life signs moving slowly closer to the colony. It's quite possible to fix the damage and get back inside before those life signs arrive, but there's also the risk of being caught in the open and facing down some of the planet's native creatures.

In this case, they're large, furry millipede-like creatures no less than seven feet long. They're perfectly harmless, if you don't count the fact that they seem intent on trying to eat the protective gear and tools you've brought out onto the surface with you. It's not their fault that your arms are inside those delicious radiation suits.

d. shadows of the past.

A few days of genuine quiet follow the fixing of the exterior damage. Time to explore, to get lost, to drink more than your doctor might recommend at the colony's only serviceable bar. Enough time to feel the weight of Anchor's emptiness.

The next time you walk into the bar, there's a see-through stranger at the pool table, smiling warmly in welcome. "Want a game?"

Get too close, and he disappears. But he was there--he was clearly there. The cue he was holding clatters to the ground and rolls over to rest at your feet.

Down in the pavilion, there are children playing in the park. Throwing balls, playing tag, their laughs echoing somehow in the open air. Invisible parents call for them to be careful or slow down. Now and then one of them will vanish midstep, only to appear again back where they were ten minutes ago and start their run through the park all over again. They can see you. One or two might even invite you to join their games, taking your hand in their own, leading you toward their fellows. And when they do, you can hear their parents' voices exclaiming in shock. A rush of shadows scoop up these phantom children and whisk them away into some invisible world where you can't follow, only hear the children crying in fear.

All around the colony, shades appear and vanish, some solid enough to touch, some just barely visible. Some are inexplicably aggressive, attacking anyone who tries to talk to them or get too close. Just as many run screaming or sobbing at the sight of you.

But there are others, too, who seem to recognize you. One of these is a young woman holding a gun like she has no idea how to use it. When approached, she almost starts to cry. "Oh, thank god. We have to get the kids to quarantine. We have to get them into lockdown. Those bastards-- Those sons of bitches-- The kids should at least have a chance."

She starts to turn, and a laser blast rips through her, lancing across the wall right where a deep score mark still exists, not in the least ghostly or unreal. If you touch it now, it feels warm.

e. ping from the rubble.

As though the presence of past residents sets it off, a persistent signal begins to broadcast from the collapsed library. It turns out there's a section not buried quite as deeply as the rest. A row of broken terminals, ending with the one sending the signal. A warning signal about the structural integrity of the library complex and the need to back up crucial data. Too little, too late, but with time and patience some of the partial files on the terminal could be reconstructed....

For those less versed in computers, there's a mysterious door just past the terminals, partially blocked off by rubble. If that can be cleared, the door leads into a dusty room with more broken terminals, but beyond that, there's a small library of real hardcover and paperback books, with comfortable chairs (some of them needing TLC), low tables, and lights (currently broken). The books are in a variety of languages, both Earth-based and alien. A flickering "skylight" at the top of the room shows a blue sky flanked by swaying trees, or a thunderstorm, or other, stranger but still friendly skies. It blinks off, sometimes, but seems determined to keep playing its peaceful scenes for those below. With some cleaning up, this could be a good retreat from the sometimes oppressive emptiness of Anchor.

Navigation.

Comments

IV {Watching you unravel in the hospital

[deadlycurves]

Ben had mentioned Klaus being here. Here and busted up, laid up in a medbay somewhere not far off. The place was easy enough to find with his brother's instructions. Much like everything else in this place, it seemed largely empty. Which made it really easy to spot the one, occupied bed. He knows who's in it, but still approaches cautiously-- always err on the side of caution and suspicion, it's safer-- until he comes to a stop with near-silent steps at the foot of the bed.

Diego feels something sharp and jagged twist somewhere deep in his chest and get between his ribs. This isn't a sight he thinks he can ever really get over. Any of his siblings, unconscious and battered in a hospital bed. The thought of Allison, throat slashed and blood everywhere, months back now, flashes through his mind, quickly on the heels of this very thing-- Klaus, propped back on a bed in a hospital. It was only weeks ago at this point. Looking frail and weak, snapping sharp remarks about how shocked he was to see them there, to know they cared enough to be at all.

This time it's different. This time... he's not even awake to make snide, ruthless comments. He's just small and still, the only movement or sign that he is alive at al, the easy rise and fall of his chest with each breath. He can't stop the stray thought of just... how many times did this happen, how many times had Klaus narrowly dodged death in the last decade and none of them even knew? Diego didn't expect to be greeted with this sight again so soon, and he has no idea how his brother ended up so bruised and beaten.

He doesn't make a sound as he watches Klaus with an acute sense of the seconds that pass. But he doesn't deign to wake him up, instead only silently grabs what had probably been a doctor's stool once upon a time to sit on as he waits.

[substances]

After Ben had gotten him cleaned up and bandaged and sorted out, Klaus hadn't had the energy to keep exploring. They'd agreed to keep their phones on and ready, with the volume up, before Klaus had been comfortable letting Ben go out to check and see if he could find anyone else, before Ben had been comfortable leaving Klaus to sleep here. Once Ben had gone, Klaus changed into some of the clean clothes from the bag he'd had at decontamination - his pink knee-length sweatpants he'd gotten at the shops in Hadriel, a long-sleeved grey and black striped shirt from home - and climbed into the nearest bed after shaking the dust off it, stealing a pillow from the next bed over. Curling up on his left side, knees up, in a semi-fetal position, he props his head on two pillows to keep his shoulders straight, puts the phone on the bed beside him, and passes out immediately.

When someone enters the room, Klaus slides slowly out of deeper sleep into something lighter, wary as ever and sensitive to his surroundings. Crashing on people's couches and not knowing who might come in and out has made him a light sleeper, even when he's this exhausted, and so when there's more movement, he hears someone moving and breathing in the same space as him, he starts to wake up. It's a long process, because the person is quiet, unobtrusive, not moving or doing anything, and Klaus is truly exhausted, but after a few minutes he shifts, groans softly in his throat, and his lashes flutter a bit.

Rolling onto his back, he grunts and his brows furrow with pain for just a second before his forehead smooths again, and he opens his eyes. At first, he thinks it's a dream or a hallucination or something, but he's pretty sure that, sitting at the end of his bed...

"Diego?"

[deadlycurves]

He can see the way Klaus stirs, half-tilted toward trying to wake up, but really, really resisting doing it yet. Too worn-down to want the dreadful feeling of awareness in all directions and of every sense. But it's a process, slow and steady, and then he's moving and making noises until he's staring right him, looking like he saw-- well-- a ghost isn't exactly an appropriate turn of phrase in Klaus' case, is it? "Hey, Klaus." his voice is soft, with some kind of hidden layer of disappointment behind it. Even if this isn't the same moment, even if the reasons are completely different, it's still disheartening to see it so soon. "Ben told me where to find you." And he really doesn't sound all that freaked out at having actually talked to their long-dead brother as one might expect, either.

[substances]

It's almost a little surprising when Diego is still there after a few blinks, and he says his name in that soft voice with a hint of...what? Disapproval? Klaus isn't entirely sure. Wrinkling his nose, he looks up at the ceiling for a few moments, trying to remember where he is, and work out how long he was asleep. All the same aches and pains he'd had in Hadriel are still there, but this is nothing like that. Not like his apartment. Not like Drake's apartment.

Parting his lips, he makes a soft noise of discomfort, and looks down at Diego again when his brother says that Ben told him where to find Klaus.

This has got to be a dream or something. Klaus' brain feels like it's slowly rising out of a tar pit. Ben? Right. Ben. He remembers seeing Ben too, except Diego doesn't look surprised about Ben being there, and Klaus remembers being surprised. Another few groggy blinks, green eyes wide, and he makes a little whine in his throat, lifts his left arm and puts it over his face.

"Hey Diego. When did you get here?"

[deadlycurves]

"I don't know... few hours ago, I guess." He shrugs; he didn't exactly check the time or anything. The silence drifts between them for a long moment as Diego tries to figure out what else to say. There are so many things running through his mind at once, and he isn't sure where to start. "What happened?" seems like the best place to begin, though, and he waves vaguely at the bruised and battered state his brother is currently in. "Lost a fight with a freight truck?"

[substances]

Pushing his left elbow into the mattress of the bed, Klaus sits up groggily, hisses a little as he leans back against the headboard and lets his eyes sink shut for a moment. Diego seems less than pleased to see him and Klaus sighs softly, instinctively tries to work out what Diego might be disappointed in him for this time. He's exhausted, his whole torso is aching and he can't take any painkillers because he's sober-ish, and Diego is asking him what happened as if he were a cop taking a statement.

Sighing deeply, Klaus tilts his head back and looks back up at the ceiling.

"Oh, nothing serious. Just a two week long robot war in a jungle, and I didn't have any grenades. The usual."

[deadlycurves]

Something sharp and bitter swirls with a cotton-cloud fatigue into Diego's head and for a moment or two, he can't even think through the haze of it. But Klaus is talking and he focuses on the words his brother is saying, a frown of concern instantly creasing across his forehead. "What?" it's thrown dumbly into the air between them at first, a knee-jerk reaction with no actual thought to it; it might sound doubtful, but it's just this side of surprise if he had to put a real name to it. He rolls the stool he's sitting on closer to the bed, one hand on the edge to steady himself. "Are you fucking serious, Klaus?" He's... confused. Nothing about that statement matches anything he remembers and he's pretty sure his siblings would have mentioned a jungle robot war at some point in the last month.

[substances]

Of course Diego doesn't believe him - that's pretty much what he'd expected when he'd so casually commented on what happened in Hadriel. Opening his eyes, he raises his brows at his brother, lifting his left hand to rub at his face for a few moments, still feeling groggy and tired.

"Yeah?" he says, dropping his hand. A moment more and he sits up straight, wincing a little as it tugs on the freshly stitched up puncture wound on his chest. It's not visible under the shirt, and his face is mostly fine, thankfully - the goose-egg and cut from getting thwacked in the side of the head with a log is mostly covered by his hair now.

"I mean, I didn't expect you to take me seriously or anything, but yeah. Robot war in a jungle. Why?"

[deadlycurves]

For once, the reason for his disbelief is not shaped at all like a question of exactly how high Klaus might be and instead is more-- "No, I don't-- get it. Where were you? Because... you were with me, before. And we were...definitely not in a robot jungle war..." Those last three words still get some dubious tint to them, but... really. It's less outright disbelief and more confusion than anything at this point. He knows 'other worlds' exist-- everything in Nonah, and so far in this place, is proof enough to that-- but the idea that one person could somehow exist in multiples of those worlds is a little above his paygrade.

[substances]

"I wasn't with you." he protests almost immediately, "I was by myself. I missed you!"

Klaus is starting to get confused now, and he lifts up his hand to rub at his face again, green eyes a little wide as he looks across at his brother.

"I missed Ben too. I was...really, it was just me. Where were you? It...it wasn't me, that you were with. I was in a place called Hadriel, I know Ben wasn't there, I just I just I..."

The confusion overwhelms him and he makes a little gulp, leaning in a little bit to cross his legs on the bed and rest his elbows on his knees, wincing a little.

[deadlycurves]

"Yes, you were. We were all there, until like a week ago, and Vanya disappeared." Ever-ready on a hairpin trigger for a fight or an argument, Diego's words have a little more snap to them than might be necessary in the moment.

The dizzying wave of confusion is disorienting and he has to brace a hand against the edge of the bed to steady himself. Fuck, he hates this. Whatever those assholes did him, really twisted something up in his head. "I was in a city on North Carolina called Nonah." he finally answers Klaus' earlier question.

[substances]

Klaus can tell Diego is getting irritated with him because their stories aren't matching up, and he makes a frustrated sound in his throat, shaking his head.

"I wasn't. I was in Hadriel, and none of you were there." he says, his voice rising a little, protesting, "And I've never heard of Nonah. Why were you in North Carolina? I was on a whole different planet, Diego."

The pain is still there, every time he moves, and the exhaustion is still clouding up his head, but he ignores it because now he's just confused and a little angry.

"Stop yelling at me, asshole."

[deadlycurves]

"I don't- I don't know how it works, but you were. You were there. I mean- you spent more time in other places, but...you were there." He groans, frustrated. He doesn't have the words to explain it, not really. Five would be able to, but neither of them would probably understand it in the way he would explain it, either. "I'm not," he snaps at the implication. A beat passes and he sighs. "I'm not... trying to, I just... I don't know, okay? But it's true. We were all in this other world and half of us were living in a house together and..." He sighs and braces a hand over his eyes. "It happened, okay? A lot of shit happened, and honestly, I'm still kind of pissed at you for some of the shit you've said, but-- you already OD'd, like, a week or so ago and now you're sitting here telling me you were in some fucking war and none of this makes sense."

[substances]

At first, Klaus is just as frustrated and confused as Diego is, sitting shakily in bed and pushing the blanket down over his lap, expression slightly dazed while his brows furrow. Annoyed that Diego is being so short with him when he hasn't done anything wrong, but not genuinely upset.

Except then Diego says he's pissed at him for some of the stuff he's said, that he had an overdose, and it's like getting slapped in the face. Immediately, a rush of righteous indignation underpinned with an intense hurt wash through Klaus, and he feels his throat go tight. It's so easy to forget, sometimes, when he's missing them, how his siblings can make him feel two inches tall in half a second - especially Ben and Diego, the ones whose opinions he cares about most.

"I didn't say shit to you, I haven't seen you in two months!" he says, voice obviously frustrated, and he lifts his left hand to push back through his hair, expression pinched with anger and hurt, "And I haven't done anything harder than a joint in over two fucking months. Not even alcohol! Whoever you were hanging out with, it wasn't me."

[deadlycurves]

Diego isn't sure what to name whatever he's suddenly being slammed with like a ten-ton brick on top of his chest, but he doesn't like it. The hurt is clear-cut, obvious as the sun shining in the sky, and all he knows is it isn't his, it does not belong to him at all because he has no reason to feel this way. But he still hasn't pieced together the full picture of this thing that's been happening to him since he disappeared-and-reappeared at that godforsaken military base in Florida. Diego's head snaps up at that, frowning deeply at the things his brother is saying. Everything either of them say is completely different from one another and... maybe something is starting to click in Diego's brain. Glacier-slow and uncertain, but maybe. "This alternate timeline-universe bullshit gives me a fucking headache." He rests his head on top of his arms, folded against the mattress, giving a soft groan. The silence that passes is longer than anything that feels like a normal lull in conversation, as he tries to think through all of this, and the fact that Ben is Ben without being the Ben riding motorcycles and chasing a death-wish bucket list in Nevada. In the silence, a distinct humming-buzz has taken up residence in Diego's head. "Fuck," he mumbles. "what is that?" He doesn't realize, yet, that it isn't an external sound, that other people won't ever hear it when he does.

[substances]

Klaus watches as Diego's head snaps up and he groans, comments on the whole alternate timeline alternate universe thing and how it gives him a headache before dropping his head on the mattress and making more misery noises.

Snorting in his throat, Klaus sits back heavily against his pillow, eyes screwed shut, and tries to get his irritation under control. He can't touch the hurt at what feels like Diego assuming the worst of him right off the bat, but the anger he can get under control.

"Well, other-me sounds like a prick. I didn't do those things, so don't take it out on me, Diego." he says, voice a little rough, and he rests his right forearm across his belly, wincing as his body jars slightly and a stab of pain goes through his chest and shoulder.

When Diego asks what 'that' is, Klaus looks around them, brows furrowed. The room is silent, aside from the two of them breathing, and Klaus makes a noise in his throat.

"Nothing? It's just you and me."

[deadlycurves]

"He was." He admits, too easily maybe, but he's still sore about the underhanded comment about Grace that other-Klaus had given him weeks ago now. He tilts his head to look up at Number Four, frowning a little. "How bad is it?" There's a pulsating sense of discomfort thrumming from somewhere and he knows it must be Klaus.

"No, it's- like a buzz... or... hum? I don't know." he frowns and reaches up to wiggle a finger against his ear, like that might help dilute the noise. "It's annoying."

[substances]

Klaus doesn't know much about whatever version of himself Diego had been hanging out with. Some alternate version who picks fights with the only sibling who's consistently given him second chances. And that gets it going in his brain - if that hadn't been this Diego's Klaus, then how is he to know who the siblings he'd grown up with were, compared to these alternates...and that thought hurts his head and his heart so he shoves it down to be examined later when he's alone...or maybe to be talked about to Ben.

But what he does know is that he's missed Diego and he's hurting and he doesn't want to fight with his brother, even if he still feels hurt.

"Here, I'll show you." he says, shifting carefully and pulling off the long-sleeved shirt he's wearing. Underneath, his body is marked up in multiple places with aging bruises, yellow and purple and grey, there are shiny pink cauterized wounds from laser burns and scabs over cuts and scrapes. The most prominent injury is covered with a bandage right now - a neat white square just under the ball of his right shoulder.

"I got hit with a brain scrambling beam and stumbled around. Landed on a branch." he says, voice calm and sort of idle. Leaning his head back, he sighs softly.

"And no, I don't hear it. There aren't even any ghosts in here."

[deadlycurves]

He frowns a little and watches as Klaus tugs the shirt off and the wounds come into a very clear sort of focus. Not that he's never seen his siblings with some pretty wicked marks, but it's been awhile, especially with Klaus. He hadn't been in the middle of any huge battles in... well, Diego wouldn't know the exact number to put to it, if he's completely honest with himself. "Jesus, Klaus..." he mutters quietly. "A brain scrambling beam?" His gaze slides up to Klaus' face again. "What-- are you okay? I mean- I-- that sounds awful and...potentially permanent..." Which is kind of terrifying, when it's stated quite so plainly. He frowns a little when Klaus says he doesn't hear the noise. "Seriously? You're not fucking with me?"

[substances]

Klaus shrugs his left shoulder when Diego breathes his name out like that, and picks up the shirt, wincing a little as he slides it over his head again, hands moving to pull the sleeves down his arms, green eyes locked on his brother across the room.

"Not permanent, but I did get hit with them twice. This was the first one..." he gestures vaguely at his shoulder, and then, "The second one, I got a nasty concussion, just bleeding everywhere, but Drake took care of me..."

His voice trails off at that, and a wave of loneliness washes over him and he tries to tamp it down again, biting his lower lip for just a moment to distract himself.

"Anyway, no, I'm not fucking with you. Robot war."

[deadlycurves]

"Who...?" That's not a name he recognizes at all. This is all getting so much more confusing with every passing second and comment from either one of them. He's at least getting in his head this is not, by any stretch, the same Klaus he'd been seeing and talking to for the last two months. Klaus' loneliness finds its way into Diego's head and chest, and tangles with his own that he's not really yet admitted to since arriving here. Everything feels so different, his family so far away except the two brothers he's found so far-- and yet, they're still not the ones he'd been talking to and he isn't sure how to feel about it. Somehow, it's like that's the only thing he can focus on suddenly, even as he feels Klaus do something that almost seems to lessen the feeling himself. Maybe it's because the feeling only ended up heightening his own to a brighter, clearer level, but he feels it clawing to escape from the center of his chest. Diego drags a hand roughly across the back of his neck, trying to ignore it, to not get lost in it, and keeps telling himself it isn't real. That it's in his head and he's fine. And not alone. Clearly not. Ben is here. Klaus is here. That counts for a lot and is better than being actually alone. But if it's in his head, and it isn't (at least all, or completely) his, it has to be Klaus', too, right? He props his head up, a fist resting gently against his free temple to stare up at his brother for a moment or two. "What's wrong?" The question is hardly the most characteristic of him, but he can't help asking-- that loneliness from Klaus is still so obvious to him.

[substances]

"Oh. Drake. Someone I met in the last...in Hadriel. Where I was before here." Klaus says, his voice soft, and he shrugs his good shoulder again, not looking at Diego, "When I first showed up there, he saved me from some monsters and took me home for a bath and stuff."

Another shrug, and Klaus' head is down a little, he's looking at his own knees, and the wave of loneliness washes over him again, "He helped me get an apartment, then get through the first month of getting clean, which, like...really super sucks."

It occurs to him that Diego asking what's wrong isn't totally normal, but he's a little bit too overwhelmed and exhausted to really try to unpack it right now. Idly, he picks at a thread on the edge of the hospital blanket, eyes a little blurry with tears and exhaustion.

"And we fought together in the stupid fucking robot war."

[deadlycurves]

He listens to Klaus explain who this Drake guy is and he can tell-- in the way he keeps his voice soft, the refusal to really look at him as he speaks, the fidgeting-- that whoever he is, he managed to become important to Klaus in the short time he was in that last place. Hadriel. "He helped you get clean?" Well. The guy gets bonus points for that one, it's the exact opposite of what Klaus' friends back in Jeopardy were doing for him. Providing the drugs and enabling him, instantly slotting themselves onto Diego's shit-list. He'd nearly pummeled Cassidy on more than one occasion even in just the month and a half or so he'd been in that world. He almost can't stop himself, the need to ask even the hardest of questions suddenly just overwhelming. "You're gonna stay that way, right?" His voice is softer than usual, here, too, bordering on something almost desperately hopeful. He knows it won't be easy, that no matter how many days away from the last time he took a hit or shot the temptations would always exist and burn under his skin. But it doesn't mean Klaus can't stick to a decision he's made. For himself, even if Diego hates to admit that; that it wouldn't matter at all if it were for anyone else, because addicts can't put their dependency in someone else's hands. It never works that way-- people disappoint, people screw up, people break trust. The only person anyone can successfully put their addiction and recovery on is themselves. And it kills Diego to know there is nothing he can do to change that, or make the process any easier on his brother. He's too much of a fixer and a doer to sit by idly and watch, but it's all he can do in this case. Sit and watch and hope it could be different this time.

cw: mild suicidal ideation

[substances]

"I mean, I didn't really have a choice there, there was nothing harder than pot and alcohol, but yeah. He helped a lot, really encouraging and said he believed in me and stuff. I might've just offed myself if he hadn't been there."

Another shrug, because he's still feeling that depression that comes with getting clean. He's never really been this clear for this long since he was a kid, even with the pot-smoking, and he'd almost forgotten how bad it gets after, that nagging depression, like life is over and not worth living if there's no drugs in the near future. Like he can't be happy without them and won't ever be happy again.

Pushes that down and takes a deep breath, smiles at his brother again - at least until Diego asks him if he's gonna stay clean. Klaus can almost feel the pills burning in the pocket of his backpack where he stashed them after the robots gave them to him. Guilt mixes in with the loneliness and sadness, because he should've thrown them away, not asked for stronger ones. Shouldn't have stashed both bottles in his backpack.

He picks at the thread on the blanket again, then looks up at Diego, meets his eyes, "I want to."

[deadlycurves]

"Oh..." Forced sobriety was different than a real choice made. The realization of it makes something in his chest tighten and he tries to ignore it. But it doesn't compare to the feeling of ice water filling his lungs when Klaus makes such a casual, off-hand remark about suicide. How easily it might have happened, if he hadn't had someone there for him at the time. "What?" he breathes the word out, barely more than a sigh with some sound attached to it. "Klaus..."

He doesn't actually know what to say to that, how he's supposed to respond, and his gaze drops to the mattress as a frown creases across his forehead. He isn't stupid. He knows that Klaus has been depressed for a long time, him expressing something suicidal? Doesn't surprise him at all. But what crawls its way under his skin is how casual and normal it is to him. Like it's just a fact of life, no different than the weather, or that grass is green. Diego doesn't know what to do with that, except be a little scared of it, somewhere in the back of his mind.

There's a pinprick twinge of something he can't completely name from Klaus suddenly that makes him look back up at that quiet confession and Diego manages a small, quiet sort of smile. The kind that doesn't look happy or reach his eyes, but instead rests sad and resigned on his face. "Good." He nods a little. "Then... we'll make sure it stays that way, yeah? You, me, and Ben."