Day 263 - Wednesday, September 10th

[papalobo]

[By morning, Max's texts are mostly jibberish but the article he delivers to Peter at 3:30 AM is well polished, especially given in the e-mail and subject body the entire line was off by one or more--- 'yjr stiv;r er ys;lrff snnpiy' for 'The article we talked about' and the body was similarly incoherent.

Everything hurts. He knows Ash would tell him to take a damn sleeping pill already. He knows a lot of things. He knows Ash is tired of his pity party. He knows even if Ash were to tell him something comforting, he wouldn't believe it. But being in this brain-rotted state of sleepless delirium is actually further from consciousness. In sleep, he dreams, and there he is. Right now, there's a state as far from himself, as if his self has decayed, like inebriation, and that's nice enough he decides it calls for some actual inebriation. They've got hard liquor and his publication calls for some, so he's going to toast to himself at sunrise, and let the cats hear him tell them in loud, slurring detail about the time Eiji saved Ash in the sewers, that their Ash is all sewer stinky now again, and that Ash won't come home because he's fantasizing about better times with a better useless sidekick, and also he's probably blowing Blanca to get magical answers, or maybe just because he likes men who can react. At any rate, they should come outside with him he decides, and he will also pour alcohol into shot glasses that he'll set on the ground level for them.

By 8:00, he's Shawn's problem. His texting skills have deteriorated enough to switch to voice.

Shawn puts up with it for about fifteen minutes, but he's got things to do, like wait in the bar for Ash to wake up and see how things have been going.

He is then Jenkins's and Charlie's and even Kent's problem. All of them are surely grateful to Ash for having encouraged him to build and reach out to a friend group a little more.]

Comments

[jadedlynx]

Max!

[ It's also an open space so once he's relatively close, it's not hard to see him! ]

Max! I told you I was coming!

[papalobo]

Hung on. That might be Asch.

Ash!!

[jadedlynx]

I'm behind you!

[ He's going to lock the damn man up. ]

[papalobo]

No, this one's real probably. Hey, Ash, tell Kent you're feel.

[He holds out the phone. Although as soon as Ash might take it, Max will try walking again.

His other hand has a bottle of bourbon.]

[jadedlynx]

[ But Ash is willing to fight him for both. First, the burbon. ]

Come on. You're going back inside.

[papalobo]

This's my breakfast, get your own.

Can I hang up now....

[jadedlynx]

Yes!

[ It's said as Ash is willing to physically fight it from Max. ]

I brought you actual breakfast!

[papalobo]

Hi, Ash. I've gotta get back to work, so also bye Ash.

I'm not going back, go have it with Enka.

[jadedlynx]

Bye!

[ This isn't what he needed right now. Ash never expected the world to bend to his needs, but it could not make things worse. ].

Max, Eiji's in Japan. Get your ass in the house!

[papalobo]

I got you the plane ticket!

[jadedlynx]

Max, I want to eat! Get back to the house!

[papalobo]

[The whites of his eyes are fully pink, looking more striking against blue irises, with oversized pupils and a look that seems earnestly more confused than truly petulant. But he does manage to make sense of the fact that if he does whatever this angry hot thing is telling him to do, Ash will eat, and that's still something he can comprehend as good.]

Alright.

[jadedlynx]

[ He still tries to take the bottle. Max is going on a lot of days with no sleep, Ash knows that.

He's bad at this. ]

Then come on. I have bacon.

[papalobo]

[No, instead he will drink from the bottle, as if Ash is trying to take it thinking he's done.]

[jadedlynx]

[ For a moment, he almost fights that, but in the end, decides to pick his battles. If Max is following, Ash will lead. ]

Can I see the bottle?

[papalobo]

No.

[jadedlynx]

I need a drink, too. You think spending all day in the sewers was fun?

[papalobo]

I mean the bottle's clear. You can't see it. Where is it? I 'unno.

[Sip.]

[jadedlynx]

Let me have it. I brought breakfast, that deserves a drink.

[papalobo]

Why're you here?

[He hands the bottle over. Ash is going to take it away. But it's over anyway. He'll have to take his pills and dream, and then, after dreaming, wake up more awake, more present than ever. Like this, he's less here. His mind's further gone, and the longer it lasts, the more a part of him can almost believe he won't quite fully come back, not even drug through dreams to get there.]

[jadedlynx]

[ At least it's not a total lie. Ash needs a drink. ]

I didn't know I had to justify coming back to my own house. Why don't you want me here?

[papalobo]

[For his trouble Ash gets a vague, noncommittal grunt. Ash doesn't want to be here. He hasn't been in three days. But Ash will just get annoyed at his pity whoring, or have to lie and fake it, or pretend he's useful, try to play Eiji.

Not of Max plays Eiji first.]

Tie Dye Mom.

[jadedlynx]

[ He doesn't know what to do. Blanca trained him to fight, and it's looking like he can't do fuckall if he wasn't trained because he can see that Max is getting worse instead of better. He thought he was getting better.

Maybe this is why he usually fell for the people good at this. He could offer something to Eiji. He could... Kind of protect him. What was he doing for Max?

Ash eats his own omelet without comment. Max gets bacon and eggs on toast. They both know he's getting drugged after this. ]

[papalobo]

[He tries to also give Ash toast, deciding his meal doesn't have enough carbs. In his mind, Ash hasn't eaten since he left, because he hasn't seen it. Another part of his mind knows it's not true. But he tries to stay quiet. Anything he says is conditioned to be hung up on or... He doesn't know.

He doesn't want to go to sleep. He doesn't want to see Ash fucking other people anymore.]

[jadedlynx]

Max.

[ He pushes the toast back. If he wanted toast, he'd have gotten toast. ]