And the skin you call your home holds a heart that quits

[with_coffee]

((OOC: Sorry for all the new posts this one is necessary though. -_-))

Robin Rice has finally made it back to the hotel. It took longer than he anticipated but his brain isn't exactly functioning at its peak at the moment. He has a large bottle of pills to take two times a day. They make it difficult to care about much though he can still manage a

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[please_see_me]

Dusty has been convinced, through the judicious application of cupcakes and boppies, that this is indeed real. She still hasn't found Ruvin, and she's afraid of making a journal entry and not getting a response. She's kept an eye on the network, and she knows some people disappeared last week and never came back. Not dead, just... gone.

There's a feeling in the pit of her stomach that she hasn't been able to shake that maybe Ruvin didn't come back either.

Seeing Robin... well, she knows it's Robin, and that he's not nearly as attached to her as he is to Ruvin, but he means a lot to her, and he's someone familiar. So when she sees him walk in, she decides to pass up being polite and not invading his personal space to (as she's been wont to do with him) rush him and cling, ever so tightly.

And then, almost instantly, she pulls back, looking tired and worried and a little sick, to ask, "Have you heard from Ruvin?"

[with_coffee]

Robin is not really capable of emotion or thought at the moment. By the time that he realizes that she's hugging him, she's already pulled away again. He feels empty and heavy at the same time, sluggish. The world doesn't seem to exist on the same plane of field that he's on.

He doesn't even have the energy or ability to wish that he could tell her something else though hearing that question sends this pang of painful worry through his heart.

"...no."

[allmydiredreams]

The sound of bare feet slapping on the Kashtta floors is the only warning of incoming Babel, and a few seconds later she's slammed into Luke and wrapped him in a giant bear hug. Bear glomp, really. Bear glomp with kisses.

[calicoway]

Luke has been more perceptive lately. Ever since he was under the impression that he could be killed at any second, he tended toward the hyper-perception. To the point of noticing sounds and movements that weren't there.

He's less overly afraid at this point but he still hears the running before he's attacked. The force of the hug almost knocks him over, and it does end up pressing him up against the counter behind him, reaching one hand out for a moment to keep his balance. Luke laughs as he wraps his arms around her because it was so unexpected. And really. With her. It shouldn't be.

When he gets the chance, he'll press a kiss against her lip or chin or neck or wherever he can reach honestly.

[allmydiredreams]

For awhile, Babel just clings and kisses. She knew the firstborns (most of them) returned, sure, but it's still a relief to actually see him again, feel him.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," she says, after a moment. The words are remorseful, but she's grinning one of her impossibly wide grins rather than looking all that chagrined. She's mostly just glad to have things back to normal. Relative normal, anyway.

[calicoway]

"It's alright," Luke insists, pressing another kiss against her cheek this time and gathering her close in his arms, glad to have her here again. "I'm alright. It was alright in the end, yeah? And disappearin wasn't so bad for me so."

Not bad at all. It reminded him of who he is underneath it all, of the moments that made him into who he is, and even parts of that person is a bit wrong, even if it's unhealthy to be the sort of person that he is... it's enough to pull him out of his own head. He can't have sex with people but he can kiss, he can press his hands against, he can hold. He can still show people that he loves them, wants to make them happy.

[rattle_thecages]

Rachel spends most of the day away from the Conrad. She and Liam--and Rosie since the puppy seems to follow her every now and then--took a long and aimless walk nearby. Whenever her calm seems to evade her, Liam's confidence and peacefulness always seem to restore it and center her in turn.

You're still here.

Unfortunately.

It's not what she expected and Rachel isn't sure why. She'd hoped--because isn't hope such a terrible and beautiful thing?--for something else entirely and now that that's been shattered with those hurtful words practicality has returned with a vengeance.

She really does hate the power invested in that word.

Rachel hasn't slept, not since the plagues began. Even now, bones tired and body spent, sleep is the last thing on her mind. She's curled up in her room, Rosie at the foot of her bed. Her thoughts leave her restless and her chest is heavy and burdened.

...Careful where you tread, Robin.

[with_coffee]

Robin does not want to be here. He wants to be dead. He wishes there was some way he could force himself to not feel like that before he steps up to Rachel Dawes' room but there's not. And if he can't die, he wants to be near her even if she's angry at him now, even if she half hates him. Thankfully, in his current state, not much can touch him. Maybe.

Maybe he were off these pills he could be happy enough about their return- her return at least that the desire to kill or be killed wouldn't be so strong and present in every movement that he's made since stepping out of Wyatt's office.

He knocks on her door waiting for a response or not. Either way. He's here.

[rattle_thecages]

All of her cases and her tough schooling, all the blows she has been dealt up to this point, and it still doesn't quite prepare her for the sight of Robin. She was gone, and now she isn't. Both of them are alive he doesn't want to be, you can't change that, why are you so determined-- it shouldn't be like this.

Rachel releases a lonely breath, one it seems she's been holding for days. Yes, she's been angry and dismayed and disappointed, her pride not allowing her to be hurt for too long. But for now, she'll allow herself the relief he's alive, whatever the reason. She wraps her arms around him tightly and she doesn't let the possibility of him pushing her away stop her. "Robin."

[with_coffee]

Robin doesn't pull away. He tenses when she wraps her arms around him at first. He's not sure what he was expecting when the door opened. He was half expecting that it wouldn't open. It's like he wasn't altogether convinced that she'd actually be there. A few sentences over a journal are not nearly as convincing as actual flesh, as arms wrapped around him, and the smell of her which has become so familiar to him.

And then he wraps his arms around her too once he registers that that's what he wants to do. It's like this is what he needed, this is what he needed for the days that he spent tied to a chair in Wyatt's office forced through his version of therapy and heavy drugs. He can feel that tenseness that has been in his heart since he realized what these plagues are begin to fade.

He needed to know. And now he does

[thehighestwing]

Phoebe is eating those twizzlers, Danny. Not that she knows it was you who stashed them in her room. She's got the attention span of a fruit fly, it's been established, and while she doesn't remember buying the twizzlers it doesn't mean that she couldn't have at some point.

She plops down on the floor across from where he's pummeling the punching bag, chewing lazily on the licorice. She's bored and she was going to work out, but working out takes time and it is exhausting. So even though she's changed into her sportswear, she's decided to sit and people watch instead.

"You know, short bus. The apocalypse is over. I think you can take it easy now."

[ohboythepipes]

Danny stops punching at the sound of Phoebe's voice. He'd known she was there obviously. Every good archangel is always aware of his or her surroundings. It didn't seem necessary to say anything though until she speaks. He twists around with a tiny, cocky smirk on his face.

"Nah, see, that's where people make mistakes. This particular end of the world type of deal may be over but there's another one waitin' right around the bend for us. Not to mention your every day nasties that lurk out on the sidewalk. Best to be prepared."

Yeah, he hasn't even looked at her twizzlers. This is how cool of a cat that he is. He can't even slightly acknowledge that she has the twizzlers that he knew she should have cause he gave them to her. Bad ass.

He may steal a twizzler from her again. No, he hasn't learned at all.

[thehighestwing]

Phoebe rolls her eyes. That cocky smirk always makes her feel irrationally violent. It's not like she can wipe it off his face, though she could sure try.

He hasn't given her reason to. Yet.

"You're not gonna be no help to nobody if you stretch yourself so thin you like, pass out or something. Your hand? Looks like it needs a time out."

Not that she cares.

She totally doesn't give a flying fluck.

[ohboythepipes]

"Woah. Woah, hold on to your panties, shortest stack. I'm more 'n capable of knowin' how much I can handle. I ain't even usin the broken arm seein' as it's broken and that would hurt."

Danny grabs the punching back to keep it from swinging anymore then he walks over to her and pulls a twizzler out of the bunch that she's holding, sticks it in his mouth, and grins.

"Nice of ya to care though."

[beanshield]

Bean is wandering. She's been doing that a lot lately. Mostly it's been to sort of force herself to see that things aren't quite over yet; that she can rest, but not fully relax. She's also been delivering cupcakes, sometimes to friends, sometimes to random people. She's also been collecting materials for amulets; and practicing her powers whenever she has a spare moment.

She and Potato have found themselves in a bad part of town again, but surprisingly, Bean isn't lost. That focus and determination she felt during the plagues hasn't left her yet, and she's trying to make sure it doesn't--hence all the wandering and practicing. As she passes a church, she spots a familiar figure sitting on the steps. She stops and then climbs on up, smiling as she draws closer.

"Hi, Cheeto. What's up? I have cupcakes."

[pplrunincircles]

It takes Elizabeth a moment. She's lost in her thoughts and the music so Bean's presence takes a second for her to adjust to and to remember where she is and who she is. Not in an apartment with Josef and Trevor. Not on a sidewalk with a hand around her. Not with his lips pressing against her skin again what she's craved since it happened. There's a moment of who am I supposed to be for her? that's less of a coherent thought and more of a feeling. But it's pretty easy to know with familiar faces.

She jumps to her feet and smiles, descending the stairs and wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug, careful not to smash the cupcakes as she does so. Yes, Bean gets no choice in this. She's her friend, and there were plagues, and everything has gotten really messed up in the worst kind of ways but they're still alive. So it's something.

"Green Bean! It's so good to see you. Especially after... uhm, well, everything," Elizabeth says as her big grin fades into a tiny smile as the weight of that everything (and all that must remain hidden

[beanshield]

Bean frowns a little at the delay, but then she puts the smile back in place. Something's wrong with Elizabeth, really wrong, but then, something is wrong with everything right now. Not right now. Whatever it is, they can't address it right now, and Bean has no right to try and force it--not yet, anyway.

"It's good to see you too! I was really worried till I got the journal reply thing from you." She hugs Elizabeth tightly, shifting the box of cupcakes so she doesn't drop them.

She beams at the mention of the cupcakes, blushing a little. "Yeah, I mean, I figure if I can't hand out amulets to everyone I should at least hand out cupcakes since they're easy to make and all. It's just--I dunno. People need bit of niceness after all that. You want one? Or like, five?"

Potato walks up and snuffles at Elizabeth's hip, his tail wagging slowly. He reaches up and licks at her hand.

[pplrunincircles]

"Yeah, it was like weird. I think everybody who was a firstborn... like instead of dying they went somewhere in their past. Like they were really there. I don't know." Elizabeth wrinkles her nose and shakes her head like it doesn't really matter cause they're here now. Alive.

It's something. There's hope and light in every dark corner. If one just takes the time to look, she's sure of it. Just like there's hope for Josef still. There has to be. She can't give up on him. She can't.

If there was no hope at all, what would that say about her? No. No. No time to think about it.

Elizabeth smiles. "That's really sweet, and yes, I would like two and a half. Maybe." She hasn't actually eaten since breakfast. The world is distracting. Elizabeth reaches down to scritch Potato first before she grabs a cupcake out of the box and then she sinks back down on the lowest step. "So. How are you holding up? What happened to you during the plagues and stuff? Anything really crazy?"