(no subject)

[paidinbeer]

When Orc woke up it took him five minutes before he had his first thought.

Dry.

His craggy lips felt entirely too dry. In fact his mouth, throat, his skin felt like he'd been sand blasted and thrown into the desert. The only moisture that he was aware of came when he slowly rose from the table to find a string of drool coming off his lower lip to a puddle on the table. Half of it was on his cheek, but he couldn't feel that.

His head began to pound as another powerful hangover settled in. How long had he been in this bar? He'd lost track of time.

That was fine, it was all fine. There was more beer here. He could wash away the pain in his head and subsequent painful thoughts. All he had to do was get himself out of the booth and over to the bar.

...

That might take more effort. He couldn't seem to will his heavy body to do more then sit up just yet. Days spent in a drunken stupor had caught up with him and were spinning his stomach like a blender full of misery and yuk.

Comments

[paidinbeer]

"Huh." Not the most intelligent acknowledgment. Orc struggled to imagine himself as being more important then just a wall of solid muscle for moving things and smashing things.

But home didn't have free alcohol and food so Howard was right for at least one point. "Better." He agreed quietly.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Good." Howard's been trying to hear that out of Orc since Orc showed up. He rests a hand on Orc's shoulder, protective despite knowing full well that there's nothing he can protect Orc from an that usually it's the other way around. "They treating you alright in here?"

[paidinbeer]

"Yeah." He'd been left alone for the most part. "I can only have five beers now." He added remembering the recently imposed limit on his nightly binge that had only just been put into place by the barkeep. Maybe Howard could fix that too. If not Orc reasoned he'd just have to make do somehow.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I can talk to Kang for you about that. He owes me one." And if not, Howard will just make trips to the beer tree for Orc. As much as he'd rather Orc not drink himself to death, he also wants to keep his friend happy. And he hasn't thought this through that far. "Five beers to you is like an appetizer."

Five beers to Howard would probably be alcohol poisoning, granted.

[paidinbeer]

Orc accepted this with barely a nod and if you didn't know him as well as Howard did, you might make the mistake of assuming he was deep in thought. While something troubled his mind, it was the same subject that was always troubling him, only augmented by a headache that his fresh beer was soothing. In reality he had no thoughts outside of the present. Thinking ahead was something people with hope did. And thinking about the past was too painful.

Let that awkward silence roll. The floor is yours Howard.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Awkward as the silence is, Howard doesn't think much of it. Plenty of nights in the FAYZ, Howard knew that if Orc wasn't in the mood to talk, Howard would just have to live with being bored. That's all there was to it. It's not an insult or a sign so much as just a fact of life - sometimes, there will be awkward silence.

"You know, there's a roller coaster park around here. I know a few rides you'd fit in." Not now, obviously - Howard doesn't want to risk adding motion sickness to Orc's hangover. "We could go and just pretend it's like that one Disneyland trip we took with my parents."

Playing pretend: it's the best coping mechanism.