New kind of victory.

[etcircenses]

Who| Everyone on the District Tours.
What| The Celebration dinners for all the Districts.
Where| Specified in thread.
When| The second night they are there.
Warnings/Notes| Find your district below. Leave any questions here. And please add any needed warning into your subject line when appropriate.

Comments

[the_marshal]

"Young man, then," he said, correcting himself for Orc's benefit - though to be honest he hadn't really meant it that. He'd just been saying that Orc was human again. "An' all the more reason to take it easy. Yer gonna those wits a lot longer yet, don't go drownin' 'em all now."

[callmecharles]

That made Orc laugh, which as it turns out was a booming loud sort of laugh. He'd been depressed for so long he'd forgotten the sound of it.

"I ain't got any wits to begin with!" He slurred. "That's Howard's job." He added shaking his head and leaning heavily on the railing.

[the_marshal]

"Howard ain't here," he pointed out, shifting slightly, reading just in case Orc decided he might take an inadvertent dip over the railing. "Yer on yer own this time."

[callmecharles]

"It's better that way." He sighed and turned so his back was on the railing "That way I can't hurt anyone."

He slowly began to sink till he was sitting on the ground dumbly. "Yeah...Howard's safer without me screwing shit up."

[the_marshal]

Wyatt exhaled heavily, relieved that Orc was no longer dangling over the railing, but not particularly enjoying yet another upsetting turn in conversation.

"I reckon he'd be jus' as upset if ya got yerself in trouble."

[callmecharles]

"Nah." He waved a hand dismissively, "I don't think he likes me as much now that he's got other friends." A confession he hadn't yet shared with anyone else.

"Smarter friends. Back home I was his only friend ya know?" A sad truth he had already shared on camera no less.

[the_marshal]

"Maybe," Wyatt drawled, breath fogging in the chilly night air. "But yer the one he comes to check on in the middle'a the night."

Yes, he knew about that. He'd seen the boy come and go, at least as often as Max came to see him.

[callmecharles]

Orc's formerly craggy brow twisted in confusion.

"He still does that huh?" It was something he'd started doing back in the FAYZ...maybe even before that but Orc would never know. "It's not like before. I don't piss the bed like I used to...I get drunk yeah but the bathrooms right there." He waved a hand aimlessly gesturing in relation to the bathroom.

"Sometimes I used to wake up and he'd just be ontop of me ya know? And I'd have to pee but I wouldn't wanna wake him up so I held it as long as I could."

[the_marshal]

Wyatt's eyes closed, brow wrinkling for a moment as if he were in pain - as if he'd just been forced to swallow something bitter.

"Son--" His eyes cracked open again, peering at Orc reproachfully as he held up a hand, palm out in a universal gesture to cease and desist. "So long as everybody's happy an' willin' to be there, I really do not need to know what ya'll get up to."

It was like the conversation about him and Max all over again, but even worse.

[callmecharles]

"Up to?" Orc looked puzzled and took this moment to haul himself to his feet, making the railing creak and groan under his weight. If he had still been made of stone it would have been tooth picks by now.

"We don't do anything, he just...lays there. I dunno why. I asked him once he said I was imagining it."

[the_marshal]

Wyatt blinked at him, eyeing him flatly.

"Sounds like ya need to either ask him again, or learn to let it lie."

It wasn't like Wyatt had the answer for him, not about something like that. (And to be honest, Wyatt didn't want to. The matters of man's heart aught to be his own.)

[callmecharles]

"Guess I will." Orc didn't sound too confident in either of those options though. It was becoming more apparent to him then it used to be that Howard didn't trust him with total honesty. Did he ever? Who knew?

The door opened again and the music caught Orc's attention. He felt better now that he'd expelled the excess from his guts.

"You coming back inside?" He offered glazing over the last few minutes awkwardness as if it hadn't happened.

[the_marshal]

"Not yet," Wyatt told him with a shake of his head, snow falling free of the brim of his hat. "I need a bit more time, before I'm ready face those girls again."

Insatiable lot, they'd have even given that charmer Bat a run for his money, Wyatt bet.

[callmecharles]

Orc gave a gentle nod, "Alright...but come in soon. It's cold out here. Ya oughta be where it's warm."

And with that Orc vanished inside, probably none the wiser for this conversation. Who knows if he'll even remember it after all the drinking.