Richie's Not Group Therapy Session

[mrsklover]

WHO: Richie and his band of depressed Losers(OTA)
WHERE: Cayde's Bar
WHAT: NOT therapy. Not therapy and not an AA meeting. Just hanging out.
WHEN: Few days after the Town Hall
WARNINGS: Probably some substance abuse/addiction talk.

Richie sent off a message to the whole network just a few hours ago:

It was for his Not Therapy session that he had proposed at the town hall meeting. Just a way for people to get together and to talk about shit happening here. Maybe get a support network that will keep some people sane. Richie knew how effective that was; his own Loser's Club had stopped him from being stupid after Eddie's death more times than they even knew about. It was important and, after learning that things around here could be just as randomly cruel, necessary, he thought. His mind kept returning to Tony at the bar with his sealed bottle of liquor. The talk of loss and all of that... 

Yeah. People around here seemed like they could use a social get-together that allowed them to talk about lost friends or loves. People came here and people left without warning. It was a hard way to live, being that powerless. But really, was it any different from where they came from? Really? 

Richie sighs as he gets to the bar early and grabs himself a drink of something strong and foul-tasting. He wants to make sure he sips it instead of slugging the whole thing down in one go. No chance of that with this. He sits down at a chair and drums his fingers on the table. Part of his brain is telling him this is stupid and pointless and that he looks stupid for even trying. He buries the thought under another sip and an off-tune humming rendition of 'I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts'.

If no one shows up he's still got his drink. That'll be just fine.
 

Comments

[heypartner]

Cobb had this habit long before coming to Tembra. He would make a sweep of Mos Pelgo as the miners came back and after they got settle in the cantina he would wander in for a drink and all the town gossip. He had kept the habit going in Temba.

After a hard day fixing up houses Cobb took a moment to clean himself up, grab something to eat and then made his way over to Cayde's bar. On the way there he got the message about a Not Therapy Session. He still didn't understand exactly what that meant but he figured it'd mean people in the bar to hear gossip from.

He sauntered into the bar with something of a tired swagger. Cobb was used to hard work but this much all day long took a little toll. "How's your little meeting goin'?" he asked Richie as he walked up to the bar. He got one of the bottles of spotchka from behind it and poured himself a drink.

Cobb leaned back against the bar, one foot up on the railing of the stool next to him. While he drank he studied Richie, the moisture boy who bought banthas without any knowledge of them. He was an odd one.

[mrsklover]

Richie looked over at the new arrival and gave him a smile. "I'll let ya know when more people show up. So far it's just you and me. But really, that's not so bad. Maybe everyone got over their trauma overnight. That would be pretty cool, right?"

Richie looked Cobb over and saw what was probably the residue of some hard work getting done. Richie sipped his drink a little, guilty that he'd neither really looked to help out in that way nor was likely going to in the future. His physical skills started and ended with throwing around bats and axes. He'd probably have an entire house fall down on him as soon as he'd fix it up.

"You look like you had a pretty rough day?"

[heypartner]

"It'd be a miracle." One Cobb wouldn't trust if it happened to him. Probably because there was alien information riding around in his brain and he'd assume any miracle cure was tampering.

He shrugged a shoulder. "Not a bad one, though. It doesn't get to be a hundred and sixteen in the day and there's always water on hand. Makes the hard work a lot easier."

There was a sense of satisfaction in the work as well. Cobb didn't like to sit idle and before the off planet trip that was exactly what he was doing. The days are a lot more tolerable doing something instead of not. "How are your banthas doing?"

[mrsklover]

Richie blinked, suddenly feeling like he had never had an honest day of work in his entire fucking life. "Is that...hyperbole? You can't really mean a hundred and sixteen degrees, right? With no water? Unless....uh. Are you really some alien that just looks human and is instead like a camel or something?"

He almost didn't even register the question about his banthas.

"But. Uh, yeah. Bantha are good. Being big and dumb but oddly adorable."

[heypartner]

Cobb was starting to get used to that reaction to Tatooine. Everyone outside his galaxy never believed the stories about his home planet. They all seemed baffled. "Yeah, a hundred and sixteen. And there's water. Just not a lot of it. No alien, just a human from a harsh planet."

Agra-10 was real easy in many ways compared to Tatooine. Cobb could tough out just about anything this place threw at him for standing water and a roof over his head.

"You should start brushing them," he offered helpfully. "Their coats might mat with all this moisture. It's not healthy for them if they get matted up. You're lucky they're still small. Once they get big it'll take you all day to keep them groomed."

[mrsklover]

Richie blinked, clearly not having thought about that. "Uh," he started, looking around the bar as though a giant comb would be there, somewhere. "How would I go about brushing them, then? I kinda have been using a weird stick to make sure my hair isn't all tangled up. I don't think that's gonna work on them..."

Okay. Maybe he should have done a little more research before buying alien animals and taking them to a whole different world. Maybe.

[heypartner]

"Could ask for a brush. There's the replicator thing. You just want a big wide one with metal teeth. That wool's real hard to get through when it tangles." Cobb was glad to see the guy was finally thinking about this like he should've before he bought banthas.

He pushed off from the bar and invited himself to Richie's table. Cobb pulled out a chair and sat down, stretching his long legs out as he made himself comfortable.

"You been gettin' along alright otherwise?" They had come here to talk about problems hadn't they? Might as well ask how Richie was doing.

[mrsklover]

Richie had heard about the replicator and the little box that spits out items that may or may not be what you ask for. He made a mental note to head over and give it a shot.

At the question he looked up and gave a Press Release Smile that he'd practiced for years. The smile of 'I have no idea what my face might say and Twitter is ruthless so here. Take this.'

"I've been fine. Debating on one of those data thingies but I'm still not sure. Otherwise just getting around. Getting to know people. Getting used to a whole alien planet with people from different universes on it. So, yeah. It's all good. You?"

[heypartner]

Cobb sipped his drink as he considered Richie. Being fairly good at bullshit himself he had a feeling he wasn't being completely honest about how he felt and how he was settling in.

"This is certainly the strangest things I've ever dealt with in my life," he answered honestly. The lack of resources and hardship weren't that bad, really. The whole mess of people? The whole owned by aliens? Cobb wasn't quite happy about that.

"You got someone from your world, right?" He thought he'd seen them sitting together at the town meeting. Another man. Friendly enough but terrified about the hospital. Made an impression.

[mrsklover]

Richie nodded as he fights a complicated expression on his face. Half smile and half thousand-yard stare. It's the look he gets too often when he thinks about Eddie and the fact that he is here, now.

"Yeah. Eddie. We were friends when we were kids and lost touch for twenty years or so. Then reconnected for some frankly horrifying bullshit and. Yeah. Now we're here."

Finally he smiled a little.

"I can't say I'm upset about it even if it does mean he's part of the kidnapped party here."

[heypartner]

"Nothing like horrifying bullshit to bring people together." Cobb raised his glass in a toast. He wouldn't ask for details because then Richie might do the same but he understood how surviving awful, awful shit could bring people together.

His whole community was built around it, after all.

"It's easier to settle in when you've got someone who understands. Though, folks here ain't bad. Odd, but not bad." At the moment, Cobb wasn't sure if Richie was odd or not. He was impulsive. Cobb wanted to call him stupid but that was unfair when he didn't really know the man.

[mrsklover]

"Odd but not bad. Yeah. That is pretty much what I have been experiencing around here."

Richie rolled his glass between his palms and contemplated the whole thing.

"How long have you been here, then?" The answer would be both a comfort and a knife to the heart in some ways. The comfort would be in the answer representing how much time he might have with Eddie but the rest of it would be how long he could expect to be on this alien world, out of control of his own fate.

[heypartner]

"Not long compared to some of the others." Cobb scratched at his chin for a moment, trying to think of what he's heard others say. "I think Cayde's been here close to two years. Me? Three months or so."

The way Cobb was used to measuring time was slightly different. His home planet had longer days and nights. The little communication device kept time for him but he still felt thrown off.

One sun still seemed wrong.

"But people also come and go it seems. Disappear. Reappear. Can't predict it. That seems rare though." Another fact of this place that reminded Cobb uncomfortably of his life before freedom.