It is, actually. Most of the time, anyway. Especially if you're not super into... people.
[ well - it's not that stiles isn't into people, but more that he's into his privacy, and being able to half-trick himself into believing he's living a normal life in a normal city. the further away from society he is, the easier it is to believe, and it helps that the locals tend to avoid the beach like the plague - probably for this very reason, but who really knows.
but also it's that stiles kind of doesn't like people. ]
Anyway. Yeah, see. Tiny little problem there. I have a tendency of doing the opposite of what people tell me I shouldn't do Sometimes just for the hell of it, sometimes because Well, it doesn't really matter why But here's the thing - you can't tell me "oh. yeah, I'm in the down" and then ten seconds later, "by the way, stay out of here, it's dangerous" and not expect me to like Come down there and find a way to get you out Weird truth-bats aside, you're like One of the few people here I actually kind of like In a completely platonic, non-weird way.
( it's a joke, albeit a not particularly funny one. laura doesn't actually dislike people so much as she doesn't trust them, so much as she has a hard time connecting, so much as it's easier to stay detached. but 'laura dislikes people' makes for a vaguely amusing punch line, at least. it's not like she isn't fully aware that she gives off a certain impression when people meet her.
hell, even some of the people that have known her half her life would probably still have that impression. )
i'm not trapped here. i had reasons to stay. but if you are already somewhere safe then you should stay there. your baseball bat won't be much help against flood waters. and i would be bothered if you ended up dead. (in a platonic non-weird way)
Maybe. We could be neighbors. And when I say neighbors, I mean in the sense that you'd be like... half a mile away as opposed to half a city away. Everything's pretty spaced out out here.
[ but laura would probably have to get a dom for that, or at least approval from a dom, and just - based on their previous conversations, she seems - understandably - pretty resistant. so. and anyway, he's just kidding, mostly. ]
Baseball bats are actually a whole lot more versatile than you'd expect. Also, not to brag or anything, but I've survived a lot worse than a wimpy flood. I'm also pretty good at not drowning. Lots of experience there, actually.
[ but then again, he's also... drowned... before. granted, it was willingly, and voluntarily (sort of), in a successful attempt to save his dad's life, but - eh. details. ]
is that why you decided to live there, because it's so far away from everything else?
( she doesn't actually care about the property market in duplicity, at all, but. the distraction is nice. besides, she isn't interested in real estate, but she does have some vested curiosity in stiles. he's...
interesting. )
they must be, because i would expect they'd be useful for playing the game and hitting people very hard, and that would be about it. maybe i haven't been thinking creatively enough.
if i remember rightly you have experience of actually drowning too. trust me, this isn't the place for you right now.
i'm fine. i'm not going to stay long, there are just matters i have to attend to first.
( if that's what you can call 'self-flagellation by way of sadly staring at the walls of my dead dad's abandoned business until he resurrects', anyway. )
Mostly, yeah. What can I say - I like my privacy. But also, real estate is cheaper out here. Or it was, I don't really know what it's like now. Been a while since I checked. But the locals weren't coming out here for much, so this place was going for cheap, and at the time, we didn't have a whole lot of money to throw around. It's probably even cheaper now that people know this area is susceptible to flooding.
[ fortunately, stiles' house is kind of elevated, so even with the flooding so far, he's pretty safe. ]
I can't tell you all my bat-secrets. I wouldn't be Batman anymore if I did. Also - that was completely circumstantial. And necessary, and I volunteered to do it, so it doesn't count.
[ even though stiles likes laura, it still makes him a little uncomfortable that he told her about - that whole thing. it's not something he regularly talks about, not something he likes to revisit if he doesn't have to - but it helps ease the anxiety to know he knows stuff about her too that she probably wouldn't have mentioned, either, if it weren't for meddling bat-rabbits, or whatever they were. that's... probably fucked up, but. well. ]
As long as you're fine. I'm not gonna pry, but like - if shit gets worse? Don't stay, if you can help it. At the very least, let me know you're still above water every now and then? Try to stay warm, too.
I can walk you through how to make a makeshift space heater if you need it. So long as you can find the supplies.
right, there is local legends about the ocean isn't there. i'm sure this will only add to that. it's very biblical.
( a few people had handed over information early on about this place, and laura has definitely been reading up. not that it helps her position much to know that the local have some eldritch horror-sounding fear of the ocean, but she likes to know things. )
I can't imagine it's a pleasant memory, no matter the circumstance. There's something (multiple somethings?) pulling people under down here. If they're in the water too much.
I don't need to stay warm, but you can tell me how to make a space heater if you feel like it. Actually I do have a question. Do you know how long on average people stay dead for here? There is a lot of conflicting reports.
Pulling people under Like - definitely not a current, definitely a Something or a Someone?
[ what the fuck. anyway, onto... a more uncomfortable topic. ]
Um. I can't really say for sure, but I think it varies. I think most commonly, if, or... when people die, they're resurrected right around the time they bring new people into the city. Usually get dumped back into orientation with everyone else. So I guess it depends on when they die.
[ stiles pauses here, and the silence maybe feels significant. he chews at the inside of his cheek, then switches to biting at the skin around his thumb nail as he contemplates how much information he wants to give laura, only because it's - personal, sort of, and something he really, really doesn't like to talk about or think about. ]
( she hadn't meant to be invasive with the question, but when stiles responds as honestly as he does, it makes her pause. it's hard to tell if he shares because he wants to, or because it's trivial information for him but either way it feels
significant.
enough that she deliberates over her own response for a long pause, trying out a few messages before she settles on one. )
i'm sorry.
my...dad, i guess, is in the city. he drowned.
( quid pro quo, or something like that. something significant for something significant. )
[ there's no reason why someone else's parent dying strikes stiles as hard as this does, but he has to take a second to just - exhale, when he reads the text. when stiles first arrived in duplicity - the first time - he'd briefly wished his dad was here (and then immediately changed his mind, because picturing his father in bonertown? no thank you), but this place has never, ever been kind to the people it drags in. stiles can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose him like that, regardless of whether or not he's guaranteed to come back. losing his mother was already hard enough.
it's gotta be rough. ]
Man.
[ that's... a shitty start, but stiles doesn't really know what to say. he's been through enough to understand that sometimes there's nothing anyone can say to make a situation better, but he can't just not say something. ]
Laura, I'm so sorry.
[ it clicks, then, that the 'matters' she has to attend probably consist of... waiting for her dad to come back. whenever that may be. ]
He will come back. I don't think anyone's ever died here and not come back.
[ that, he can't be so sure of, but nobody to his knowledge has kicked it permanently yet. which, hopefully, is at least slightly reassuring. ]
he's tougher than he looks too. we don't usually die.
( drowning, conveniently enough, is one option on the incredibly short list of ways to successfully kill a wolverine, conveniently enough. but then he's dead back home too, by her timeline at least, so the guaranteed return doesn't soothe things over quite as much.
she can see where this is leading. 'are you waiting by yourself' becomes 'i'm going to check on you', becomes another person down here, and this one can't levitate on telekinetic platforms and keep himself dry, as far as she's aware.
it's not...unwelcome. it's just a layer of stress she doesn't feel entirely ready for, so she heads it off at the gate. the idea of company isn't an unappealing one. the idea of stiles wading through waist deep waters to get here absolutely is. )
yes. i will come to you, if you have a problem with that.
[ interesting. something stiles will file away to revisit later, when it's more appropriate. for now, though: ]
I don't have a problem with that. Well, not a big problem.
[ ... ]
Okay, kind of not super into the idea of you just sitting around waiting alone while everything is slowly being washed out and there are, apparently, creepy grabby hands in the water. I'm not like - trying to imply that you're not capable of looking after yourself or anything, so please don't get the wrong idea, because I think we both know better, but I don't know.
I'm not gonna ask you to leave. It's not my place, and I get it But it'd freak me out a little less if you could just like Keep in touch? You know. Periodically.
i'm not sitting in the flood water, if that helps.
( she's sitting on a roof top again, which is much more reasonable clearly.
laura doesn't actually like to text in the same way that she doesn't particularly like to talk, but the distraction is-- helpful, right now. enough that there aren't big stretches between responses like she might normally. laura leaves a lot of people on read. )
i'm reasonable at both. we can play hangman, if you want.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Most of the time, anyway.
Especially if you're not super into... people.
[ well - it's not that stiles isn't into people, but more that he's into his privacy, and being able to half-trick himself into believing he's living a normal life in a normal city. the further away from society he is, the easier it is to believe, and it helps that the locals tend to avoid the beach like the plague - probably for this very reason, but who really knows.
but also it's that stiles kind of doesn't like people. ]
Anyway.
Yeah, see.
Tiny little problem there.
I have a tendency of doing the opposite of what people tell me I shouldn't do
Sometimes just for the hell of it, sometimes because
Well, it doesn't really matter why
But here's the thing - you can't tell me "oh. yeah, I'm in the down" and then ten seconds later, "by the way, stay out of here, it's dangerous" and not expect me to like
Come down there and find a way to get you out
Weird truth-bats aside, you're like
One of the few people here I actually kind of like
In a completely platonic, non-weird way.
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( it's a joke, albeit a not particularly funny one. laura doesn't actually dislike people so much as she doesn't trust them, so much as she has a hard time connecting, so much as it's easier to stay detached. but 'laura dislikes people' makes for a vaguely amusing punch line, at least. it's not like she isn't fully aware that she gives off a certain impression when people meet her.
hell, even some of the people that have known her half her life would probably still have that impression. )
i'm not trapped here. i had reasons to stay. but if you are already somewhere safe then you should stay there.
your baseball bat won't be much help against flood waters. and i would be bothered if you ended up dead.
(in a platonic non-weird way)
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We could be neighbors.
And when I say neighbors, I mean in the sense that you'd be like... half a mile away as opposed to half a city away.
Everything's pretty spaced out out here.
[ but laura would probably have to get a dom for that, or at least approval from a dom, and just - based on their previous conversations, she seems - understandably - pretty resistant. so. and anyway, he's just kidding, mostly. ]
Baseball bats are actually a whole lot more versatile than you'd expect.
Also, not to brag or anything, but I've survived a lot worse than a wimpy flood.
I'm also pretty good at not drowning. Lots of experience there, actually.
[ but then again, he's also... drowned... before. granted, it was willingly, and voluntarily (sort of), in a successful attempt to save his dad's life, but - eh. details. ]
Seriously though - you're safe?
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( she doesn't actually care about the property market in duplicity, at all, but. the distraction is nice. besides, she isn't interested in real estate, but she does have some vested curiosity in stiles. he's...
interesting. )
they must be, because i would expect they'd be useful for playing the game and hitting people very hard, and that would be about it. maybe i haven't been thinking creatively enough.
if i remember rightly you have experience of actually drowning too. trust me, this isn't the place for you right now.
i'm fine. i'm not going to stay long, there are just matters i have to attend to first.
( if that's what you can call 'self-flagellation by way of sadly staring at the walls of my dead dad's abandoned business until he resurrects', anyway. )
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What can I say - I like my privacy.
But also, real estate is cheaper out here.
Or it was, I don't really know what it's like now. Been a while since I checked.
But the locals weren't coming out here for much, so this place was going for cheap, and at the time, we didn't have a whole lot of money to throw around.
It's probably even cheaper now that people know this area is susceptible to flooding.
[ fortunately, stiles' house is kind of elevated, so even with the flooding so far, he's pretty safe. ]
I can't tell you all my bat-secrets.
I wouldn't be Batman anymore if I did.
Also - that was completely circumstantial.
And necessary, and I volunteered to do it, so it doesn't count.
[ even though stiles likes laura, it still makes him a little uncomfortable that he told her about - that whole thing. it's not something he regularly talks about, not something he likes to revisit if he doesn't have to - but it helps ease the anxiety to know he knows stuff about her too that she probably wouldn't have mentioned, either, if it weren't for meddling bat-rabbits, or whatever they were. that's... probably fucked up, but. well. ]
As long as you're fine.
I'm not gonna pry, but like - if shit gets worse?
Don't stay, if you can help it.
At the very least, let me know you're still above water every now and then?
Try to stay warm, too.
I can walk you through how to make a makeshift space heater if you need it.
So long as you can find the supplies.
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( a few people had handed over information early on about this place, and laura has definitely been reading up. not that it helps her position much to know that the local have some eldritch horror-sounding fear of the ocean, but she likes to know things. )
I can't imagine it's a pleasant memory, no matter the circumstance. There's something (multiple somethings?) pulling people under down here. If they're in the water too much.
I don't need to stay warm, but you can tell me how to make a space heater if you feel like it.
Actually I do have a question. Do you know how long on average people stay dead for here? There is a lot of conflicting reports.
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Like - definitely not a current, definitely a Something or a Someone?
[ what the fuck. anyway, onto... a more uncomfortable topic. ]
Um.
I can't really say for sure, but I think it varies.
I think most commonly, if, or... when people die, they're resurrected right around the time they bring new people into the city. Usually get dumped back into orientation with everyone else.
So I guess it depends on when they die.
[ stiles pauses here, and the silence maybe feels significant. he chews at the inside of his cheek, then switches to biting at the skin around his thumb nail as he contemplates how much information he wants to give laura, only because it's - personal, sort of, and something he really, really doesn't like to talk about or think about. ]
When I died here, it only took three days.
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( she hadn't meant to be invasive with the question, but when stiles responds as honestly as he does, it makes her pause. it's hard to tell if he shares because he wants to, or because it's trivial information for him but either way it feels
significant.
enough that she deliberates over her own response for a long pause, trying out a few messages before she settles on one. )
i'm sorry.
my...dad, i guess, is in the city. he drowned.
( quid pro quo, or something like that. something significant for something significant. )
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it's gotta be rough. ]
Man.
[ that's... a shitty start, but stiles doesn't really know what to say. he's been through enough to understand that sometimes there's nothing anyone can say to make a situation better, but he can't just not say something. ]
Laura, I'm so sorry.
[ it clicks, then, that the 'matters' she has to attend probably consist of... waiting for her dad to come back. whenever that may be. ]
He will come back.
I don't think anyone's ever died here and not come back.
[ that, he can't be so sure of, but nobody to his knowledge has kicked it permanently yet. which, hopefully, is at least slightly reassuring. ]
Are you waiting alone?
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( drowning, conveniently enough, is one option on the incredibly short list of ways to successfully kill a wolverine, conveniently enough. but then he's dead back home too, by her timeline at least, so the guaranteed return doesn't soothe things over quite as much.
she can see where this is leading. 'are you waiting by yourself' becomes 'i'm going to check on you', becomes another person down here, and this one can't levitate on telekinetic platforms and keep himself dry, as far as she's aware.
it's not...unwelcome. it's just a layer of stress she doesn't feel entirely ready for, so she heads it off at the gate. the idea of company isn't an unappealing one. the idea of stiles wading through waist deep waters to get here absolutely is. )
yes. i will come to you, if you have a problem with that.
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I don't have a problem with that.
Well, not a big problem.
[ ... ]
Okay, kind of not super into the idea of you just sitting around waiting alone while everything is slowly being washed out and there are, apparently, creepy grabby hands in the water.
I'm not like - trying to imply that you're not capable of looking after yourself or anything, so please don't get the wrong idea, because I think we both know better, but
I don't know.
I'm not gonna ask you to leave.
It's not my place, and I get it
But it'd freak me out a little less if you could just like
Keep in touch? You know. Periodically.
[ ... ]
You any good at tic tac toe?
Hangman?
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( she's sitting on a roof top again, which is much more reasonable clearly.
laura doesn't actually like to text in the same way that she doesn't particularly like to talk, but the distraction is-- helpful, right now. enough that there aren't big stretches between responses like she might normally. laura leaves a lot of people on read. )
i'm reasonable at both. we can play hangman, if you want.
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I don't want to bother you.
Just kinda want to
Be here? I guess.
If that's cool.
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thank you.
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Alright.
Category is: sports.
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No E.
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S.
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No S either.
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A.
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Why, afraid you're gonna lose?
I thought you said you were good at this.
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i don't think i said good.
T
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Better?
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I'll give them a little hat, maybe a tie if it comes down to it.
Looks like you might be coming back from that rough start though.
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R
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I'll see what I can do.
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