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Post by airlock on Aug 21, 2006 18:37:26 GMT -5
Mid to late afternoon
After the phone call from Tish Trilby, or whatever her name was, Lars had lain in a puddle of beer for a good twenty minutes, snoring gently until the barmaid took pity on him and shook him awake. He had sat up with a panicked start and immediately slid off his seat under the table. He was a regular at this particular bar and the barmaid, a pretty girl by the name of Susie, who had flirted with him on several occasions took him out back and force fed him several cups of the kind of coffee in which you could stand a spoon vertically and hear working as it corroded the metal.
It did little to sober him up, but did cause him to burst into floods of drunken tears which made him feel a little better.
Susie offered to get a cab for him, but he didn't want to go back to the office, or back to the roach infested motel. He was too out of his head to contemplate further drinking; indeed, his liver was shrinking from the very idea in terror.
Which left him one possible place to go.
Back to Rogue's Place.
The cab pulled up some twenty minutes after he'd left the bar and disgorged a very, very drunk Swede who could barely stand. In fact, he fell over his own feet at least twice on the way up the path, then proceeded to trip over the top step and landed in a heap at the door.
He knocked anyway. Imagine the look of surprise on Lee or Marie's face when they opened the door and he sprang up from his curled-up position on the floor and went 'BOO!' at them.
The idea gave him the giggles.
The more he giggled, the more his oxygen intake increased, until he was as high as a kite on both oxygen and alcohol.
Eventually, he realised his plan wouldn't come to fruition unless he knocked.
Which he did.
With his head.
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Post by lee on Aug 21, 2006 18:50:32 GMT -5
Lee had just gotten off the phone with someone at the X-mansion, confirming Jubes' news about their conditions and the fact that no one (that Lee knew anyways) was significantly injured, when she heard a car pull up in front of the house. She was still on the back porch, and pocketed the phone in the side of her green cargo capri's as she stood up to walk around to the front of the house.
She could hear giggling, and moved around the corner of the house to the sight of Lars, sitting with his head against the door, a very amused expression on his face. And then she realized that it was he who was giggling. And that in itself made her laugh before she even entered his highly oxygenated space.
When she did, she noticed first the smell of alcohol before even the light-headed feeling that began to take over. She crouched down and patted his back, "Lars? Are you alright?" She gave a little giggle herself, trying to keep herself under control. "Maybe you aught to stand up, walk around, get some air..." and then she realized that he was suffering from too much air, and found the idea highly amusing.
Without being able to help laughing, she tried to pry him up from his possition on the ground, lacing his arm around her shoulders and lifting with all her might, before she collapsed in a bundle of giggles next to him.
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Post by airlock on Aug 21, 2006 19:12:17 GMT -5
This served only to increase Lars' mirth and hilarity until he sank down onto his belly and literally pounding the porch with his fists. A vague idea filtered into his mind that perhaps he ought to back down the oxygen levels somewhat, but another vague idea stamped up and down on it and mostly ignored it.
Mostly.
After almost passing out from the quantity of oxygen, he took several calming - albeit drunken - breaths and managed to sit up and fix Lee with the sort of earnest, serious look that drunk people often achieved.
"I drunk," he said, seriously, "I've had too think to much."
A pause.
"Or sumfink."
More giggles, then a hasty verbal self-reprimand.
"No, Lars, bad Lars, STOOOOPID Lars. Control. Control. Control." He looked at Lee, his blue eyes unfocused - which given the nature of his mutation was probably for the best. He thrust his sleeve out at her.
"M'a hero," he said, happily. "Some woman rang me up an' said, Lars, she said, Lars, you stopped this ROBBER an' everyone finks you're GREAT, she said an' she said..."
He paused.
"M's'posed to be backin' her ring," he said, earnestly. "She wants me to do a NINTERVIEW! Imagine, me. Bein' NINTERVIEWED!"
He hiccupped loudly and slithered down the wall again to lie briefly on his back staring up at the sky.
"Oooh," he said. "Blue. Fluffy clouds. That one looks like m'sister's husband, look at the NOSE on it."
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Post by lee on Aug 21, 2006 19:30:19 GMT -5
"I drunk," he said, seriously, "I've had too think to much."
Lee broke out in a fresh peal of giggles at his very serious pronouncement, and then his reprimand. It had been a long time since she'd laughed so whole-heartedly, and it felt good, even if it was the result of someone's using their power over her. Laughing felt good.
"Of course your a hero!" she squealed through her laughter, "you bought me cheetos!" In the back of her mind she registered the fact that he'd stopped a robber, and that a real reporter wanted to interview him, but she was too happy to really let it register.
As he fell on the ground again and stared up at the sky she felt herself begin to calm, the extra oxygen leaving as she exhaled. And then maturity began to slowly return, and Lee sat up and held her forehead as the porch swirled around her dizzyingly.
"Lars, maybe we'd better get you sobered up." Still laughing a little to herself, she tried again to get him up from the porch.
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Post by airlock on Aug 22, 2006 12:28:26 GMT -5
"Do I wanna sobrup?" He was still laying on his back staring up at the sky. "M'kinda happy dreeing bunk. S'nuffink t'worry 'bout when m'drunk...oops, s'my phone. Where's m'phone?"
An entertaining forty or fifty second phone hunt ensued during which Lars dug in all his pockets, triumphing finally and holding the phone aloft. "Oooh," he said, gleefully. "S'my boss." He snapped the cell phone open smartly.
"Hello Mister Kennenenenendy. This is Ars Landerssen speaking, former employee, former collage, college, colleague s'word...innit...wha'?"
A pause.
"You're darn tootin' right 'v'been drinkin'. Else s'pect me to do?"
Another pause.
"Wha' meetin'?"
Another pause. This one rather fraught with anxiety. Lars' personal oxygen level began dropping - visibly. His skin became faintly bluish in tinge and he sat up properly, trying to deal with the difficult concept of keeping himself balanced and talking on the phone. Multitasking when drunk. Not a good thing.
"D'you know, I don' care anymore. Job's finished, bye bye. Oh, an' Mister Kennenenenendy?"
Another anxious pause.
"M'a'mutant."
Lars burst out into fits of uncontrollably giggles, then stopped, the blue tinge to his skin turning noticeably green. "M'goin' to throw up now, bye Mister Kennenenenendy, have a nice life."
Lars stood up, took one step forward and fell down the steps to the house, landing face-first in the grass at the bottom.
Mr. Kennedy's angered shouting could still be heard on his still-connected phone.
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Post by lee on Aug 22, 2006 18:42:22 GMT -5
All the giggly oxygen left her brain abruptly as Lee realized that after only two days on the job, she likely didn't have a job anymore. What was he saying? Ex-employee? Have a nice life? No wonder he was drunk. Oh my god.
Trying to decide if she should go help Lars who had just fallen on his face, or try to smooth over things with the boss, Lee finally left the phone and the angry man behind it and scurried down the steps towards Lars, who seemed to have passed out face-down.
"Lars?" She was slightly apprehensive about coming too close to the man - if he wasn't passed out he might just decimate her own oxygen level as well - but shook his shoulder briefly before stepping back out of the way. "Lars, its time to wake up now," she called in a sing-song voice.
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Post by airlock on Aug 22, 2006 19:11:36 GMT -5
It took a few moments to shake him awake, but Lars eventually surfaced from his alcohol-induced unconsciousness and slowly sat up, bleary-eyed and confused, no longer giggling, but looking decidedly unwell.
"Lee," he said, in a tiny, tiny voice. "I think I just screwed my life up."
He allowed her to help him to his feet and gingerly guide him up the steps, him leaning on her and in one of those rare moments of sobriety that only the truly inebriated can manifest, managed to concentrate on maintaining the air at an appropriate level.
To add insult to injury, he trod on his cell phone on the way up the stairs and broke it.
"That," he said, in a sad sort of voice, "sums it up, really, doesn't it?"
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Post by Admin on Aug 22, 2006 19:18:03 GMT -5
"I suppose it does, yes." Lee said herself as she looked back at the broken phone while she opened the front door. "But, its not so screwed up as all that. You yelled at your boss, while drunk... and actually he's not really your boss anymore anyways. You probably wont get a good recommendation out of him, but you are a smart guy, and good at what you do, and I know you can get a new job quick as all that."
She was speaking as they went up the stairs, and without knowing where else to put him, eased him down onto her own bed. "You said you stopped a robber today? Tell me what happened." She hoped focusing his mind on something would help him to keep from falling into despair and killing them both.
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Post by airlock on Aug 23, 2006 14:20:23 GMT -5
He lay down on the bed and closed his eyes. His breathing was a little strange as he struggled to keep himself at a manageable level. "Robber? Wha'? Oh, yeah."
His eyes opened again and he propped himself up on her pillows to look earnestly at her. "Some woman got her bag pinched," he said, "an' she was callin' for some help, an' I sorta made the bloke pass out. Bop!" He clapped his fist into his palm. "Flat out."
The young Swede managed to look exceptionally proud of himself for a moment. "An' then people started starin' at me, so I got outta there...an' then this Trishby Till woman rang me...I wrote her number down somewhere, where was it..." He began patting his pockets for the phone number on his sleeve.
"Said I'd call her back when I'd thought 'bout bein' interviewed."
He paused.
"But I haven't got a phone now. Poor phone. Bye-bye."
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Post by lee on Aug 23, 2006 14:42:44 GMT -5
Lee nodded encouragingly as he told his story about stopping the robber by making him pass out. "Oh good for you!" she clapped softly and bounced once on the edge of the bed, "you're a regular ol' X-man, saving damsels in distress!"
As he began talking about the reporter, she noticed the number on his sleeve, and guessed that was what he was looking for, but didn't bother mentioning it, as giving an interview just now would probably not be a good idea.
"Well, no, I guess you haven't, but you can use ours when you need to call her. For now though," she pushed him back down onto the bed, "you really aught to get some sleep and sober up. And no killing yourself with your powers, you got me?" She looked down at him with a mock-stern face on, hoping that he wouldn't kill himself if he fell asleep drunk. How did he control his oxygen when he was asleep? Obviously it was unconcious, because he was still alive, but she was slightly worried nonetheless.
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Post by airlock on Aug 23, 2006 15:01:36 GMT -5
"Soap and sleeber up? Not a bad idea," he said, realising just how tired and light-headed he felt. "S'difficult t'kill m'self with powers," he said. "S'like tryin' to strangle yourself with your own hands. You pass out first. Watch."
He then promptly demonstrated. And passed out.
After a few moments of uncertainty, his breath began rising and falling evenly as his natural equilibrium took over. One arm came up and covered his eyes and then he began to snore lightly, obviously asleep.
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Post by lee on Aug 23, 2006 15:24:58 GMT -5
"Watch."
Lee's brain screamed at her to make him stop when he started to turn the tiniest shade of blue, but her morbid curiosity, and the one part of her brain that still had some logic attached and said he couldn't kill himself, kept her from it.
His skin returned to a healthy (well, healthy for a drunk in any case) shade of pink and he began to snore. It eased her mind a little, to see that he was not in trouble for the time-being, and she shut the door behind her quietly as she left the room. She went downstairs and picked the phone up from the porch - maybe he had some sort of insurance plan on it? She'd save it just in case.
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