[b]Lynn[/b]

There was only one steady thing in this world and it was the tree behind her. And the ground. That was two things. Were they one thing? Maybe they were all one thing. [i]oh God I'm one of those drunks[/i] Lynn thought, trying to blink the dizziness away. She rolled the flower over in her hand, focusing on how soft the petals felt to distract her from the tipsy-topsy-turvy mess that was her stomach. Somewhere, like a single ray of sunshine in-between a sky of storm clouds, a lone sober thought broke through to the front of Lynn's mind: [i]I think I should've eaten dinner before this.[/i]

Lynn focused on taking deep breaths. Before the Promise, she'd been better at this. She could just beat back whatever was lurking around in the back of her mind. Che or all the homes - [i]heh Holmes[/i] - or the trial. No matter how many times, each time the trial crossed her mind it stung just as badly as the day it'd happened. For a minute, her black t-shirt was a scratchy orange jumpsuit, her neck tight against the cold steel. Lynn shook her head like a dog and it went away. But here at the Promise it was like it was all right there under the surface just waiting. The cafeteria was just pain in her shoulder and looking down and seeing a butcher knife in her knee, or every time she walked into the [i]Vaquero's[/i] kitchen she remembered - [i]vaporized[/i] - or coming into the woods she saw that body with all the scars and that reminded her how close she was, if any of them, Gennedy or Radvi or any of them, if they found out. They brought her on the Promise strapped to a chair, and she had a feeling she was ending her time here the same way.
 
There was movement to her left and Lynn was too slow to react - fuck, fuck, she was too slow, she was going to get her, she hadn't killed her, she'd made it out the restaurant and - Lynn blinked. It was Eli. Lynn clumsily raised a hand and grunted for a minute, letting her skin glow and fill the few feet around her with soft light, the shadows dancing as her hair changed colors. Something in the alcohol had dampened whatever kept Lynn on such a hair trigger, and the heat was pleasant in the artificial autumn air. The forest was pleasant at night, if a bit spooky. It smelled like the real world out here, not like some squeaky clean lie up in the stars. Lynn hadn't ever got to play around in forests, growing up in the city. She had to leave Earth to see this many trees. Lynn stared up at Eli with woozy yellow eyes. "Eli?" Lynn slurred. She could hear the slur in her own voice which meant she was probably slurring like fifteen times worse. [i]well it's not like they thought i was a rocket scientist before[/i] Her voice was full of surprise. She hadn't...why had Eli come? And with a bottle of water? Was she trying to dowse her? That wasn't enough water to - oh. She wanted to help. Well that was nice.

Lynn fumbled with the bottle's cap for a minute, smacking back more bottle memories and taking a sip. It helped wash away the acidic taste in her throat. "Thanks," Lynn mumbled, swaying a bit. Eli was close to her. Just kneeling. She didn't have one hand casually by her belt or one ready to grab her. She was just there. Eli was being really nice. Eli didn't look at her the way the others had, like she was just one wrong word away from killing them. That was what Lynn wanted, you know, so they wouldn't fuck with her, but it - she didn't - this was nice, was all. "Some other fire para threw up over there so you should watch out," Lynn said, hoping for humor and unsure if any of the words were intelligible. Lynn sipped again on the water and looked at Eli for a minute. It was kinda hard to look at much else since the corners of her vision were a bit dark and most certainly blurry. At least the ground was soft, and there were lots of flowers. She was nice. Keaton was nice too but Keaton was really smart and there was - well Lynn didn't blame her, because Lynn didn't fully trust Keaton either, and she didn't trust Eli, she'd only just met her, but Lynn thought someone who could fuck with your mind was going to be a terrible person and Eli wasn't, and she'd known enough fake snakes to know the difference, and - 

"Eli," Lynn said quietly, her head too full of noise for any one thought to get through. This was a terrible idea but Lynn did not care. Continuing to breathe on this damned station was a terrible idea. There was a block in her throat she had to push past but once she did the dam just split and all the alcohol-thoughts came out in a slurred whisper as quiet as Lynn could manage, like maybe if she spoke quiet enough it wouldn't be true. "Eli I...Eli you shouldn't be nice to me, I..." Lynn's words slipped off for a minute. [sub]four[/sub] "Eli I had to...there wasn't...she was gonna kill me if I hadn't, or do something to Archie, but...but I don't think that's why I did it, I think I..." the words came spilling out like a jug that burst in half a dozen different places and Lynn couldn't keep track of which stream came from where. "This place is fucking evil, they're doing shit, they...I - I can't sleep, there's...I just wanted to get fucked up for one night to celebrate 'cause of Gary, and not think about - then he had to bring her here and - I didn't mean to burn him, he grabbed me and I - and everybody thinks I just...fuck just go back to the party, I don't want to ruin it, I'm fine, I-"

There was noise [i]Gennedy[/i] and Lynn flinched back against the tree. Had she been less inebriated, she might've notice the scrape on her neck as a result. It slowly stitched itself back up. It was Amelia. She hadn't heard, Lynn didn't think. No...no chance. She was speaking so softly. [i]you're so drunk you probably weren't even speaking English anyway.[/i] She thought an iron ball had been dropped in her thoughts and dragged her drunk back down to reality. [i]Shut the fuck up right now, you idiot. She's one of them. She'll tell her friend Radvi or tell Keaton you're fucking losing it and then they'll lock you up. Amelia or Nat will snitch. That one with the Rolex would just shoot you. They'll put the needle in you.[/i] Lynn took a sip of the water. [i]That doll wasn't far from here when I found it.[/i] Amelia was trying to be nice. Maybe. Lynn didn't know what Amelia was doing sober let alone drunk. [i]she's getting a kick out of this I bet. at least she doesn't look scared anymore.[/i] Even Lynn's pride was not so great as to admit this was probably pretty funny for them. At least she wouldn't remember it. "You can only fuck my hair back if you hold me." Lynn frowned. "No, shit. Damnit. That would've been funny. Shit." she sipped at the water again. "Thanks for the water," Lynn murmured. "I'm okay, though, you guys can go back to the party. I think I - " Lynn coughed for a minute, a false alarm of a dry heave passing as quickly as it came. "I think I could sober up pretty fast but I would probably set some stuff on fire if I did that. I got bitchslapped by the lizard I'm not gonna die from some - " Lynn burped, pausing. Nope. She was good. "Some tequila." She paused, swaying. "I mean it was a lot of tequila. But whatever." she sat back, the bark of the tree more comfortable than any chair in recent memory. The tree was solid. The tree was good. Lynn didn't fully realize she was doing it, but she shifted one of her legs to the left, leaning it against Eli. Eli felt warm. Eli was solid and good too.