[oopfsb / darkest timeline] Curtis

[stilljustandrew]

It's not that he hasn't been eating. It's that he hasn't been able to muster the energy to do much more than unwrap a granola bar or a stick of beef jerky or open a packet of chips, once or twice a day. And even at that rate, he's run out.

He made himself take a shower yesterday, which means his clothes have only been slept in once, so he can probably make it through the bar without attracting too much attention. There's a baseball cap to hide his bedhead, and obscure his face a little. If he's lucky, maybe he won't run into anyone he knows.

Down the stairs, one step at a time, and towards Bar.

Comments

[stilljustandrew]

"I guess," hesitant still, "as long as you're comfortable with this one."

[2goodarms]

"You have to get used to anything like this when you first got here?"

Mentally, Curtis doesn't classify Andrew as from the front, but he doesn't come across like somebody from the tail, either. He's got a feeling Andrew's adjustment period wasn't as bad as his own.

But there's also people from goddamn Mars running around here, so, you know.

[stilljustandrew]

He shakes his head.

"Not really. I mean, there was stuff I had to get used to, but not ..."

Almost unconsciously, a tiny crooked smile starts at one corner of his mouth.

[2goodarms]

"Yeah?"

Unconscious or no, the smile's pretty encouraging.

[stilljustandrew]

"It was a little ... weirder than that. In a different way."

Beat.

"First day I was here, I was recognizing people here from stories. Books, movies, TV shows ... stuff that's fiction in my world."

[2goodarms]

"...No shit." Curtis is smiling a little now, too. "So what, like Mickey Mouse walking around here?"

He remembers Mickey Mouse. Barely, but that's more than pretty much any other cultural touchstone.

[stilljustandrew]

"Basically yeah? I don't think I've seen actual Mickey Mouse, but I definitely saw Bugs Bunny once. And ... bunches of others. And like, I thought this was the best thing ever, right?"

[2goodarms]

"Yeah, it sounds like it'd be pretty cool."

He folds his legs, resting his right leg across his knees as he leans in a bit.

[stilljustandrew]

"So of course I screwed it up."

He looks away, the temporary animation draining out of his face.

[2goodarms]

Curtis cocks his head.

"What happened?" he asks, quietly, after a moment.

[stilljustandrew]

He breathes out.

"Do you guys have the Batman story in your world? Costumed hero who fights crime in Gotham City?"

[2goodarms]

"I don't remember," he murmurs.

[stilljustandrew]

His tiny indrawn breath is audible.

Because that --

He didn't see that coming, and it hits the harder for it.

"I'm sorry," he whispers, tears stinging his eyes again.

[2goodarms]

So much for no pity. Curtis looks away, with another awkward shrug.

It's not like Batman's the worst thing he lost. Pretty damn far from it.

"So did you meet him here...?" he prompts.

[stilljustandrew]

"Y-yeah. But. The thing is." He swallows. "The reason he becomes Batman in the first place is because when he was a little kid, his parents were killed in a mugging. He was there, he saw it happen. And ... I didn't meet him here as a grown man, I met him as that little kid. Like, only a few months after. And ... all I could think was here was this hero I grew up reading about, and how cool it was that I got to meet him, and ..."

Another swallow. The old shame has never quite left him.

"I scared him. I didn't mean to."

[2goodarms]

Well, yeah. That'd do it.

"What'd you do after that?"

(Because that's the important part: what comes next.)

[stilljustandrew]

He swallows.

"I had a little help clueing in. And ... I told him I was sorry. And left him alone after that."

[2goodarms]

Still quiet:

"Doesn't sound like you screwed it up that badly, then."

[stilljustandrew]

Low: "I mean it could've been a lot worse I guess."

[2goodarms]

"Yeah. It could have been," he says.

If Curtis found out that, a few universes over, the story of his life was being viewed as entertainment...he's not sure how he'd react. Anger, certainly.

Resignation and helplessness, after everything that happened over the course of the rebellion, seem like pretty likely candidates, too.

"You were talking like it was a permanent screw-up."

[stilljustandrew]

"I mean it kind of was, though." Subdued. "Not a huge one maybe, but ... I screwed up the thing I wanted."

[2goodarms]

Curtis considers that for a beat.

"You got to meet other fictional characters, though, right?" he asks. "That wasn't a thing that just stopped."

[stilljustandrew]

"... yeah," he admits. "And made friends with a lot of them."

[2goodarms]

He turns over his hand, gesturing to Andrew as if to say there you go.

"Not a big, permanent screw-up."

[stilljustandrew]

"I guess."

He tries for a smile. "Sorry. I'm still kind of ... not in a great headspace."