as_damaged | ☎ voicemail [v 2.0]

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☎ voicemail [v 2.0]

❝You've reached Allison Cameron, please leave a message.❞

☎ voicemail

☎ text message

☞ action

[ooc: retired thread, for reference, here.]

[The water gets a dubious look. He knows alcohol, knows he's gone through too much to easily dilute, especially taking the kind of small sips that won't unsettle his stomach too much, or wash off the clingy patch she's applied to his lip. He makes a face after a small mouthful, looking for somewhere to put the glass down that doesn't require any kind of leaning movement.]

Tastes like chemicals.

[Or maybe that's just his cut mouth.

Eventually he attempts to push the glass between the couch cushions, scooping the cat up one handed to attempt this, slowly sinking more until his elbows are all that keeps his head above the seat.]

I mean... thank you.

[The position is too much to look at, and really all she can think is he's lucky that the cat still likes him enough to be disturbed from her chosen spot. Cameron doesn't laugh, but the smile does pull at the corners of her mouth, just a slight, wide curve. With him, not at him. Really.]

That should wash out.

[Antiseptics are rarely tasty, after all. She decides, for once, to be merciful, and takes the glass so it doesn't spill, setting it back on the table.]

[The cat deigns to stalk back and forth in front of Chase's face, his eyeline now somewhere level with Cameron's lap, but blocked by a small patrol of purring grey fur which nudges it's face against his nose on every pass until he finally relents to stroking it.]

You should meet my... my new-old cat.

[It's not completely clear whether he's talking to Grey or Cameron, but no matter. A few moments later his elbows have skidded forward enough that it's a small drop to rest his head and curl in, blond hair mussed against her leg.]

I'm just

[Struggling to keep conscious. Quietly losing the fight.]

Just. Trying to be better.

[He's trying to feel better. It's the more possible (still unreachable) choice.]

[She doesn't realize she's holding a breath until she lets it out, slow and quiet and wavering a little. Now there's no second-guessing her decision to ask him to stay.

She puts a hand out for the cat to sniff, not far from Chase's cheek but not quite in danger of brushing against him. It's a gesture of indecision. Whatever this is about... really about, whatever it is that pushes him to this... She can't bring herself to want to know.]

Better,

[She just echoes quietly, a little numbly, half hoping he won't say anything more.]

[If he closes his eyes he can listen to her words, and her breath, the faint perfume that still lingers at the end of the day. He can take this small offering of human contact and grasp it like a life raft.]

Shouldn't be so hard.

[Hard to live with. Doing the right thing.

If he could just stay awake. If he wasn't drunk. If he could keep this memory.

If he wasn't already gone, breathing turning laboured and deep as a blank, empty sleep pulls him down.]

[Aside from the fact that she doesn't have any answers-- she never has, not really, but these days it's more strained than ever, the inconstancy, the uncanny way he is and isn't who she remembers him to be-- it's obvious that he's not waiting on one. Absentmindedly she scratches the cat's chin, unwilling to move too soon in case it wakes him up. She'd rather not have to argue him into staying.

But soon enough his breathing's evened out enough, and she deems it safe to stand-- slowly, cautiously, slipping a cushion onto the end of the sofa in case he stretches out a bit, into the space now unoccupied.

And maybe, just for a moment, her hand lingers on his shoulder after tossing a throw over him. Who's to say?]

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☎ voicemail [v 2.0]

hold my hand, ooh baby it's a long way down to the bottom of the river

hold my hand, ooh baby it's a long way down to the bottom of the river

hold my hand, ooh baby it's a long way down to the bottom of the river

hold my hand, ooh baby it's a long way down to the bottom of the river

hold my hand, ooh baby it's a long way down to the bottom of the river

hold my hand, ooh baby it's a long way down to the bottom of the river