(Untitled)

[horacegauge]

Horace was sleeping. He didn’t get to sleep for thirty years because of that damnable island, until Torque arrived and freed him. He had thirty years of insomnia to catch up on, and after that, he’d probably sleep some more. Sleep was nice because in his dreams, She was still alive. In his dreams, there was no pain. In his dreams, they could be

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[mitcandis]

"How did you do that?" Victor asked the man as he appeared by the window. And he didn't say it with alarm, just a sort of amiable curiosity.

He'd seen too many strange things here.

[horacegauge]

"What?" Horace turned slightly, shrugged. "Oh, that? I don't know. I just do." He took a few steps further away and stared, curious. Normally, people ran away when they saw him: he did look like an eyeless, electrified zombie, after all. Torque was the only one who ever hung around to talk. "Did you bring me here?" he asked, slowly shifting his weight from foot to foot.

[mitcandis]

Eyeless, electrified zombies were only as scary as bad-tempered poisonous ghosts, after all, and Victor had had a nice drink with one of those. A man had to have perspective.

Even if the no-eyes was creepy.

"No. Nobody knows who brings us here. We just come here."

[horacegauge]

"Too bad. I'd like to say thanks." Then, almost to himself, "Been stuck in that fucking hellhole way too long." He sighed, and looked back up. "So where are we, anyway? Some kind of airport?"

[mitcandis]

"You will be stuck here, too. But it is no hellhole," Victor said, frowning. "Even if we have no food. And yes, it is an airport. But not one that I know. I do not even know which country it may be."

[horacegauge]

Horace smiled. "Eh, being stuck anywhere's better than Abbott. This place is fucking paradise compared to it. Even if there ain't any food." He shrugged. "I'm a dead man walking anyway."

[mitcandis]

"...Ja. I can see that," Victor said after a moment. "Hallo, my name is Victor. I have been here for.. um.. several months."

[horacegauge]

"Horace." He took another step back and started pacing. "You ain't been here alone, have you?"

[mitcandis]

"Oh, no," Victor said, shaking his head. "There are maybe fifty of us. Not many dead men, though. Only Herr Haight... and perhaps Max. He is not dead, he is television."

And he had helped blow up the restaurant. Victor was hurt and angry.

[horacegauge]

Horace didn't hear the last bit. Angry sparks ran down his arms. "Haight's here?" he demanded. Figured it was too good to be true. There was much hope in his tone when he asked, "Green floaty guy? First name's Hermes?"

[mitcandis]

"Ja. Hermes Haight. Very brooding," Victor said with a nod. "No friend of yours?"

[horacegauge]

"That fucking bastard," he muttered under his breath. "No. He's not my friend." He stopped pacing long enough for a sigh. So Haight was there too. At least, it still wasn't Abbott. He shrugged. "Well, it can't too hard to avoid him in a place like this."

He shook his head and took the tiniest step forward. "Sorry. Don't mean to go off like that. You spend so many years by yourself, sometimes it's easy to forget how to act around normal people, you know?"

[mitcandis]

"No, not really," Victor said honestly. "I have always been around people. But it is okay."

[horacegauge]

"Sounds like Heaven," he sighed. "So where you from, Victor?"

[mitcandis]

"Schwerin. In Germany," he said, slowly adjusting to ... well, there were no eyes and that made his stomach a little uneasy, but the man seemed friendly. "But I traveled with the army and I was in Antarctica a while before I came here."

[horacegauge]

"I'm from Baltimore," Horace said, privately grateful that Victor hadn't run away yet. It had been too long since he had anyone to really talk to, and he didn't realize how much he missed it. "Most exciting thing I ever did was get," killed, "married. How was Antarctica? Aside from fucking cold, I mean." He smiled.