Comments | aphelion_rpg: June 15 // OPEN

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June 15 // OPEN

Jun 15, 2010 18:01

Date: June 15
Characters: OPEN to all characters.
Location: The corridor, near Room 4
Summary: Something goes very wrong and very very strange, and Richard Hammond dies.
Warnings: Death, blood, grotesqueness, trauma, plot points.

Note: Screw the posting order, I have money. ...Or something.

( Well that just isn't right... )

[red vs blue] pvt. leonard church, [sega!sonic] shadow the hedgehog, [bones] dr. lance sweets, [top gear] james may, *log: open, [teen titans] robin

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phdlancelot June 16 2010, 06:05:39 UTC

Sweets had seen some really grisly things in his time at the Jeffersonian, but that didn't mean he had ever gotten used to the smell and sight of dead bodies. Still, as he joined the hushed crowd in the darkened corridor, following quickly on the heels of Robin's announcement, he went pale, but didn't faint or gasp or anything ostentatious. He rested his weight against the wall, covering his mouth and assessing the situation. His immediate reaction was to gauge the others, rather than to look at the wounds on the body as Dr. Brennan might have done. Robin seemed to be handling it fine, and Church was a soldier and clearly coping, but James was another story ( ... )

boy_wondering June 16 2010, 09:47:41 UTC

Robin glanced over at Sweets, catching his eye. He glanced at James, then back to Sweets, nodding a little. James had received a huge shock, and he was going to need a lot of support. Dr. Sweets could take care of James, probably better than anyone else could. He was a psychologist. It was what he did.

Robin wished he could be there for the kind, older man he considered a friend, but right now the most important thing was figuring out who had killed Richard Hammond, how, and why.

This was what Robin did.

jamesmayrpg1 June 16 2010, 11:27:41 UTC

James faintly heard Sweets by him, but he let himself be led away from the gruesome scene. So many scenes were running through his head, so many what about .. his wife, children, friends.

The blood, he was not comprehending the situation.

He didn't feel the hands the directed him from the scene.

James walked as he was directed away so others could look over the gruesome blood bath.

Dining Area phdlancelot June 16 2010, 16:52:15 UTC

Sweets led the older man away from the darkness and the gore, steering him slowly away, into the light, into a seat at one of the innumerable tables. It was a large room, big enough to fit almost five times as many people actually populated the colony. To Sweets, the scores of empty chairs under the bright lights was a dismal and depressing sight, but he knew that James was hardly going to be effected by the scenery one way or another while he was in shock like this.

Once James was seated, Sweets took the seat next to the man, rather than across the table. He let James sit for a while in silence, not pressing him yet with questions or consolations, giving him a little time to be quiet and to adjust. When he was ready to talk, Sweets would be there.

Re: Dining Area jamesmayrpg1 June 16 2010, 17:07:47 UTC

"He had a wife ... children." James started out with. "He was the golden boy, always up to challenges and doing things."

James brought his hands to the table and stared at them. "I ... he... he was my best friend. With all this, I know he was upset with being here. We all are."

James shook his head, "Why would someone do that to him? Butcher him?" he said with anger. "He would never hurt anyone." James made a fist and hit the table with a pound.

It was all confusing. Then the blood came back to him, and he moaned at that short memory, the blood and smell. He brought his hands up to his head. "The blood," he mumbled.

Re: Dining Area phdlancelot June 16 2010, 17:15:25 UTC

Sweets did not stop James from hitting the table. So long as he wasn't lashing out against himself or anyone else, venting the anger in that way was a healthy part of the healing process. He steeled himself, thinking back to college and his experience in the field. For all that this was his chosen profession, Sweets hated seeing people like this. It didn't matter if they were almost complete strangers - they were human beings, in pain. That was why he had become a psychologist. To help people who were in turmoil and pain, to alleviate their confusion and doubt and hatred and suffering. But he knew, for James, that wasn't going to be possible for quite some time.

"Tell me about him," Sweets said. He restrained himself from making physical contact - sometimes it could be useful, in times of extreme grief like this, but the time didn't seem right yet. He wanted to take James's attention away from the immediate, visceral memory of the corpse. "How did you two meet?"

Re: Dining Area jamesmayrpg1 June 16 2010, 18:18:15 UTC

"We met at motoring shows. I was working for a motoring magazine, while he was breaking into the cable business."

They had seen each other in the same circles and finally talked to each other.

"He was so young. His short hair and his large eyes, and eager personality." James said remembering their first meetings.

"We liked old cars, and motorcycles and soon we were at each other's houses playing with the engines. We were good mates."

"Over the years, he got on with Top Gear with Jeremy Clarkson, who was like the man in the business, and when an opening came up, he suggested I interview for it."

Richard saved him, in more ways than he ever knew. "I .." he what. Loved him. But he never told him. Not to his face.

Re: Dining Area phdlancelot June 16 2010, 20:10:43 UTC

Sweets listened attentively to James's recollections, eager to keep him talking, to keep his attention on the life of his friend, rather than his recent, abrupt, and bloody demise. He knew that nostalgia was no panacea for grief, but the exercise of thinking back on their friendship seemed to be helping James to calm down, if only slightly. Sweets endeavored to keep him talking.

"How long did you work together?"

Re: Dining Area jamesmayrpg1 June 16 2010, 20:36:27 UTC

"Eight years, on the show," James answered. He thought of the many times they went out, doing the challenges and filming, drinking in pubs, helping out on each other's pet projects, working on cars or motorcycles in their garages.

Then it struck him, on odd tangent, the children, to never see their father again, if they got out of this. "Oh god," James' heart ached for them. "The children." His two little girls, the spirit that filled him in being a dad to them.

James shook with his emotions, he wasn't one to let go easily. He fought to keep them under control but it was a battle he was loosing.

Re: Dining Area phdlancelot June 21 2010, 00:41:24 UTC

"You don't mind if I stay with you, do you?" Sweets asked in a low voice. Some men, he knew, particularly of an older generation, found it easier to express their grief in a private way. He wanted to allow James that option, though he would stay nearby. Besides the possible danger of another mysterious attack - which Sweets, if he was being honest with himself, could hardly help to prevent - he wasn't sure that James should be left alone in this frame of mind.

There had already been one suicide, right around the time of Sweets's arrival here. He didn't want there to be another, not on his watch.

Re: Dining Area jamesmayrpg1 June 21 2010, 00:55:05 UTC

James nodded, "I don't mind," he said haltingly. "I just don't understand it. To have him like that, it's crazy." James felt at odds.

"I know that he didn't like it here, that he was having a hard time with it. But to have this done to him, it's not fair." James took a deep breath.

"He was my best mate," James said in a sad voice. "We were pulled here together for a reason. And now..."

James was feeling very alone on the inside. Being seperated from Jeremy and with what happened to Richard.

Re: Dining Area phdlancelot June 21 2010, 01:02:00 UTC

"It isn't fair," Sweets concurred, his voice trembling a little. He cleared his throat - he had to hold it together. His fear was not important. What mattered now was helping this man through his grief. "I'm the first to admit that. Losing someone close to you suddenly is hard enough. The circumstances in this case are ... calculated to make the loss even more traumatic." Such a violent death, and the way James had discovered the body, and the fact that he was now without his best friend on a colony being run by absent but malevolent beings. "But there are other people here, who have come to like you and who will help you through this. And you'll never forget him."

Re: Dining Area jamesmayrpg1 June 21 2010, 01:09:01 UTC

James nodded. He thought of the young Robin. Out of the rest it has been Robin that had taken the time to talk to know him.

"Just being here is stressful, bringing us here from our homes to do what? Survive? Figure out how to get off? What?" he asked.

"And then to allow this to happen? If they, whoever they are, are supposed to be watching us, why did they allow this to happen? He had a family for God's sake."

"And now ..." he stopped, about to say now he was alone, but he wasn't but they didn't know him did they? Didn't know what made him tick, like Richard did.

The tears started, he no longer could hold them back. He tried to hold it but it wasn't to be.

Re: Dining Area phdlancelot June 21 2010, 01:25:34 UTC

Sweets didn't say anything for a while, allowing James to cry. It was a cathartic process, he knew, and he didn't want to interrupt him. After a few minutes, he thought it about time to say...

"Different people deal with the random evil of the world in different ways," he said. "Some people find religion, some people turn to therapists, some people produce books and pieces of art. I'm not going to tell you that there's a reason for all of this. I'm not going to diminish the injustice of your friend's death by saying that."

Re: Dining Area jamesmayrpg1 June 21 2010, 01:31:59 UTC

James nodded, it was an injustice. Something happened. He hoped Robin would find out what had happened.

James was feeling tired after letting it loose like that. He couldn't go to his room not with Richard and the blood right at the door.

"I'm feeling a bit tired," James admitted. His emotions were pulling at him.

Re: Dining Area phdlancelot June 21 2010, 01:48:36 UTC

"You should get some rest," Sweets said at once, getting to his feet, "Maybe..." he paused, cleared his throat, "Maybe in a room where the power is working." Away from the crime scene, he mentally added, "You're welcome to join me in 14. I wouldn't mind a bit of company, and I can't really be of any use to them. Unless you'd prefer to be alone."

Sweets wanted to keep an eye on James, but he was also a little scared to be by himself, after whatever had happened.

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