[Closed] I can hear them running chains around our door

[firewalled]

Who: Rich and Trunks
Where: 2-B
When: Backdated to late night Jelly 2.
What: Rich returns back to the sleeper car after bolting on Trunks, and most likely after realizing a few things about the incident on the network. Bonding over trauma ensues.
Warnings: Discussion of mind control, physical and mental abuse, homophobia/transphobia, likely suicide by fire... anything about Rich's backstory might come up here so avoid if any of that is too difficult to read about!



Rich hardly dares to breathe as he steps into the room he shares. His steps are as light as he can make them, and he doesn't bother with turning on any lights. Honestly, he had been planning on just napping in the quiet car, but with how he had bolted out earlier, he had a feeling at least one person in the room wouldn't appreciate that.

God, Trunks must have been worried sick, and Rich certainly can't blame him. At least, not with the context. Even if Rich wouldn't want the concern, after what he witnessed between Jack and Rich, and after Rich had convinced himself it all was nothing...

He had been pretty messed up, and he's lucky he's started to recover himself now. It's a slow process, but healing always is. Now, if he can just make it to his bunk without interrupting someone else's process... will that be possible? Or has Trunks stayed up waiting for him?

Comments

[firewalled]

"Ah, yeah, that's kind of what I expected. Go back in time to solve problems, and more will just pop up, unfortunately. Were these androids worse than the last two?"

Trunks said there was a happy ending, though, so they must have solved the problem eventually.

[light_of_willpower]

"They were, although at least we could take them as a group. But Dr. Gero escaped, and was able to activate Androids 17 and 18. The two that I was familiar with, only....these two were stronger. They killed their creator, and activated android 16, and then we lost track of them. My mom in that timeline had been alerted to a different problem."

[firewalled]

"Yikes..." That makes sense, of course, but must have been miserable for Trunks to deal with. Rich knows what it's like for your desperate sacrifices to end up not meaning anything... "What did your mother find out about?"

[light_of_willpower]

"Mom found another time machine. But one that looked like it had been there for years. It was the same as the one in my possession. We...found out there was yet another android. Named Cell. He'd come to absorb 17 and 18, and gain his perfect form. Apparently in the timeline he came from, I'd found a way to deactivate the androids, so he couldn't use them. So he killed that version of me, and came back to a timeline where they existed. Then he waited."

[firewalled]

Oh god, the amount of timelines to keep track of is getting a little too complicated for Rich, but he's trying his damndest. He frowns in concentration, as much to show he's listening as it is to actually focus.

"So... did he find them and manage to use them? Or did you stop him before that happened?"

[light_of_willpower]

"So, it's about to get a bit more complicated, as I was pulled in the middle of the mess. Cell found 17, and 18, and eventually absorbed them both. We've been fighting to try and stop him, but...well..." Trunks shrugs. Too much to explain really. "Anyways, he decided he was gonna hold a tournament for the fate of the world. I was in the middle of training for that, when the train pulled me."

Pausing, Trunks reaches up and brushes his fingers through his bangs.

"I know we survive in at least one-timeline, thanks to Piccolo and Mother and Father being here. I don't know more, and I don't want to know the details, but well...that's hopefully the happy ending."

[firewalled]

Rich is quiet for a long moment, seeming to be stuck absorbing the details of the story. The longer he sits there, though, the more something seems to nag at him, and when it comes to him, his hands curl into fists.

"But that might not be a happy ending for you. You might not be in the timeline that survives!"

[light_of_willpower]

"I know a version of me is." Trunks said. "The point I was pulled from, he's about 7 months, maybe." So at least one version of him got a 'happy ending'.

[firewalled]

"...So you're okay with that? With one version of you being happy, even if you might have to keep suffering?" That sounds like something a lot harder to accept. Maybe Rich is just frustrated for his friend's sake.

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks raised an eyebrow, and took a breath to keep himself calm. "What do you want me to say, Rich? Of course I'm not happy. I want nothing more than to kill the androids in my own timeline because I want to protect people. But even if I'm not in my timeline, I'm learning to be stronger, and better, so I CAN go back and do that." Another deep breath, before Trunks reached up and rubbed at his forehead.

"I honestly don't want to know my own future, because it'll just create another branched timeline. This stuff is not easy to deal with, alright?"

[firewalled]

"...I-I'm sorry," Rich finally offers, his body language tense. It's a shame these chairs don't really let him curl up into a ball to hide away entirely. "I didn't mean to piss you off, I just... I just wanted to say it's okay. If you're still upset about it. And it's okay if you don't want to talk about it either."

God knows Rich has made him say too much already.

[light_of_willpower]

Rich was far too tense, especially for one just listening. "You haven't pissed me off Rich. It's a frustrating subject, but you asked, and I don't mind sharing." A half-smile. "I'm not upset with you, in any way, alright?"

[firewalled]

"I... okay. I'm sorry." He winces as he realizes he's apologized again. "I guess I'm just nervous. You're at the end of your story, so it means I should tell you mine."

[light_of_willpower]

"You're allowed to be nervous. But I promise you, I'll listen patiently alright?" Trunks settled in to do more listening now. "My story, roughly, until I got here is done. It's not the end though. Nor is yours, just you're getting to the point oyu were brought here."

cw abuse, mental illness mention, alcoholism, parent death, homophobia/transphobia.

[firewalled]

"Yeah... right. I guess things will keep on going from here." It's hard to imagine where things are possibly going to end up, considering all the things that Rich has to work on fixing back home, but it's best to have hope, isn't it?

"I guess I'll start from... a couple years ago. I wasn't, uh, in the best space, I guess. My mom passed away when I was little, and my dad took it really hard. He kept medicating with alcohol, and when me and my brother were upset and making noise, he'd take it out on us."

He breathes out a sigh. "My brother, Reese, was the only one who could really take care of me, and he left for college right when I was starting high school. I couldn't make any friends while I was there, and I didn't even have him to fall back on. Had a bunch of confusing feelings about girls... and uh, guys for that matter. Plus I had a shitton of other mental problems I couldn't get help for, because my dad believed in 'manning up' rather than actually taking medication. J-Jokes on him, he didn't even know I was a man, but I started that transition beginning of high school too." Rich chuckles gently at his own bad joke, but stops himself there. That was certainly a lot to put on Trunk's plate.

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks listened patiently, and was quiet. Although he offered a small smile at the bad joke. It really was a lot to go through.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all that. It all sounds about as difficult as what I was going through, just in different ways."

[firewalled]

"I don't know, man. I think trying to save the world is a lot more stressful to deal with. I'm just... the product of a lot of bum deals."

Rich shrugs his shoulder and then continues on.

"Speaking of bum deal, I guess all of that mess led to me making a plan. I stole some of my dad's booze money and went to this place some guy at school had been talking about... where they were selling SQUIPs. If I took one and let it implant in my brain, then it'd be able to give me all the guidance I needed to survive high school." He can't look Trunks in the eye, ashamed of his old self's decisions. "I thought anything was better than being invisible for the rest of my life, so I took it.

"When it activated, it took the form of my mom, and it got to work."

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks reached out, putting a hand on Rich's shoulder in support. Silent support, reminding him he was there. Honestly, he didn't know what to say--but he wanted Rich to know he was listening.

[firewalled]

Rich didn't really expect Trunks to have a lot to say, considering the strangeness of this story. The touch still encourages him to keep going, at least.

"It was great, for a while. I mean, she did a lot of messed up stuff, taking over my body, or shocking me when I was out of line... but she helped. Teachers didn't bug me about not playing attention, I made friends with a bunch of popular kids... I had to kick the other nerds down a peg, but I-I was just showing people how tough I was. The only problem was that I had to try to sell SQUIPs to other kids who had been losers like I was before."

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks tilted his head, before speaking softly. "It sounds like a drug almost, except worse."

[firewalled]

"Yeah... it definitely messed with you like a drug. And it loved spreading through peer pressure. But sometimes even that wasn't good enough for it, so it got me to start stockpiling. The plan was that at our Halloween party, I could dump a bunch of the pills in the punch and mass dose everyone there. If I started SQUIPping that many people, then the human error that kept foiling all the SQUIP's plans for me wouldn't be an issue. We'd all be... connected together. Literally."

Trunks doesn't even need to see the sick look on Rich's face to hear how disgusted he was with that plan.

[light_of_willpower]

"I'm sorry you felt you needed the SQUIP, and to go through all of this." Trunks said softly, sympathy clear in his tone. "Whatever you did, you clearly regret though, and I'm pretty sure just from knowing you a bit, that you'd try to atone. Which means you have a good heart, Rich."

[firewalled]

"N-No, that's... not it. That wasn't what I did. I was already regretting giving it to people voluntarily, so when the Halloween party came up, I-I knew I couldn't go through with it."

His knockles turn white as he grips the arms of the chair, like if he let go, he might float away to that distant place he was staring at.

"But I couldn't deactivate it. I didn't have what I needed to get rid of it, so my only choice if it was controlling my body was... was to make sure it didn't have a body to control anymore. So I tried to burn it out of my skull, to k-kill the both of us. That's... why I look the way I do."

That's why his face and arms are covered with nasty red marks that he can't stop himself from picking at right now, why he tenses up when he smells smoke, like he swears he can in this moment.

[light_of_willpower]

"Some would say that what you did was honorable. And in a way it is, because it took courage." Trunks said, serious and quiet in his tone. "But--having killed before, I also saw more evidence of lost-lives before I was in double-digits than I care for. Death is a hard choice to choose, and once needs strong convictions and courage to wrestle with it." Rich clearly had that courage, and strong convictions, to Trunks' way of thinking.

"In some ways, your scars are badges of courage, that you survived. And that's what's important, if you ask me."

[firewalled]

"I thought maybe it was honourable, for a while. Now... I think I just think it was selfish. It didn't actually do anything to stop the SQUIP. Jeremy just took over for me after I was in the hospital. And... I kept thinking if I died, it'd probably be a relief."

Is it strange to say that? Rich is almost certain it is. He looks away, still picking at the scars on his arm.

"I mean, if I had died... I wouldn't have to figure out how to get away from my dad, how to pay my hospital bills, how to make it up to everyone around me for dealing with the shittier version of me. If there even is a better version of me at all, right?"