hugtopia_logs | July Idiocy

♥ Who: Coil Lenn + Carl Grimes
♥ Where: Trashboy house + the party
♥ When: Mid-late July
♥ What: Storytime + dressing up
♥ Rating: PG-13?

For some stupid reason, Coil had thought that he'd be able to dodge most of the stupidity by staying home. The town was giving him unpleasant flashbacks of suffering in space for an unseen audience, so he had hunkered down in the house, planning on an extended stay of hiding from the outside world.

Curled up on the couch, he boredly pages through the network, looking through the new stories that have appeared for anything interesting... until one in particular strikes a sudden pang of horror in his chest.

It doesn't take him long to realize that there are too many familiar things about the pair of one-eyed teenage protagonists to be a coincidence. The traumatic backstories, the unexpected reunion in a new town, the struggle of trying to live on their own together.

At first, Coil reads out of sheer panic, horrified at the absurd, embarrassing things that the author is having these characters think and do... then, as time goes on, morbid fascination sets in.

By the time that Carl comes home, Coil is so wrapped up in the lurid tale that he doesn't hear the front door. Eye wide and fixed on the screen, device balanced on his drawn-up knees, one hand pressed over his mouth, nothing exists to Coil except the chapter he is on now: the pair's first trip to a hot spring...

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He can't really argue with the logic, because there's nothing either of them can do about it if the gods decided to send them back home. Honestly, it kind of scares him to think about. He doesn't want to die again, it was painful enough the first time.

'I think they're different. They've never done anything bad to us. Not like the A-t-r-o-m-a.' It's about the best defense he's got of this place and the bad thing that did happen wasn't even that bad in comparison. Likely not their fault, either.

He nods a little, at least taking in the information and trying to absorb the possibility of it being true. He'll undoubtedly be chewing on it for a long while after this.

That's one anxiety down. Now, onto the next one.

Nothing is even being said, but in the silence that follows that last point, Coil's apprehension is visibly winding up again. Whatever thoughts are quietly surfacing in his head, they're stressing him out. He gets fidgety, looking down at his hands--running a thumb over the thin, scarred lines on his hands.

Carl pulls his hands toward himself, arms crossed loosely as he thinks. He knows the things that Lup said, and he tries to take them to heart. Offering a half-hearted smile, he stands up.

"I'll um. Give you some space so you can think about stuff.. Whatever you decide or think is best, it's all okay. I'd rather have my best friend than nothing."

Whatever is going on in Coil's head, it's consuming enough that Carl standing up from the couch is a startling shift for him. Blinking in surprise, there's a hanging second or two--processing what his friend is saying--before Coil suddenly realizes that the thought of him walking off into another part of the house yet is something he very much doesn't want.

He starts signing before he thinks to wave and catch Carl's attention properly, and it's clumsy, so he's left correcting what he's signing almost immediately. It's all kind of a mess.

'Not allowed' gets corrected to 'wasn't allowed' before some hurried other signs, and there's a 'don't know' in there somewhere.

He doesn't anticipate Coil's disjointed signing, tries to follow along, but only catches a few phrases out of the bunch. 'Not allowed' and 'don't know' are the ones he manages to pick out. The answers are a bit loaded and he frowns, but doesn't really move from where he's standing.

"I get it. Back home, before everything happened, it wasn't really allowed, either. It wasn't.. normal. To like somebody the same gender. A lot of people thought it was wrong. I don't really remember how my parents felt about it.."

He sighs. "Then we met Aaron and Eric and they acted like it didn't matter. Like it was the most normal thing in the world. And the Fleet was different, people did what they wanted. I guess that's all anybody has in these places, right? Doing what they want."

Even just hearing Carl talk about it causes an embarrassed tinge to start coloring his cheeks again, and he nods in agreement. That's definitely the worldview that he'd lived in for the vast majority of his life, and the continued teasing from the most important person in the world to him certainly didn't help.

On top of that... He forms the sign for 'and' with much more intention than the small sign usually deserves, before continuing with a wide gesture kind of encompassing everything. 'Wasn't allowed with anyone. Not only same.'

It seems like such an odd thing, no sort of relationships being allowed, but he doesn't know the first thing about the world that Coil's from. Maybe he should get to know it the way he knows Coil, but that's not for him to decide. He will take the time to ask more questions about it, though.

'Why not?' is the sign he comes up with, wanting to understand. People didn't survive long without others.

At first, Coil only shrugs and sums it up by calling it 'wrong,' but it's not something that he'd ever put much thought into beyond that. It had been labeled as so wrong in his head that he'd even felt guilty for thinking about it, so... he'd tried his best to avoid doing even that.

After some consideration though, he explains it as a 'family rule,' and then belatedly tacks on the clarification of 'first family,' since he'd essentially been raised by two.

'Was just something okay for other people. Not me.' Another very awkward shrug. 'First family, it was wrong unless chosen for an arranged marriage later on. Second family, there was nothing but work. No distractions.'

Carl watches him sign, his expression serious. Just for clarification, he asks 'is Z-h-a-s part of your second family?' He thinks over everything Coil has said, worrying his lower lip between his teeth as he shifts where he stands.

'Were you happy with no distractions?'

To the first question, Coil nods. Zhas had been an entire third of his second family, in fact.

Then, the following question has Coil's gaze immediately sliding off to the side as the color spreads from his cheeks to the tips of his ears. His hands begin to fidget with embarrassment.

'I would get distracted anyway,' he eventually answers.

Carl offers him a smile, can't help but think the way Coil flushes is kind of adorable.

'It's not a bad thing.'

Coil glances back to Carl in time to catch the signs and he shrugs into his shoulders a little. He might be a formidable necromancer and the bane of dangerous undead creatures everywhere... but the look on him right now could only be described as shy.

'Hard to believe that,' he admits.

'I get that.' It's hard not to just go through the motions, even if it doesn't seem like that's what's happening.

'We can do things we want to do here.'

It's hard for him to accept this as fact, but he tries. After rubbing the back of his neck, pretty much radiating self-consciousness, he eventually nods a little. He'll take Carl's word for it.

July Idiocy

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