Fiftieth Theory [Voice/Action for Housemates]

[i_speak_softly]

[When Don opens the door to the storage room, he immediately forgets what he went there for. His housemates will hear him shouting:]

No!

[Later, when he's calmer, a Voice post:]

Derek Bliss has gone home.

[... That's all he can manage.]

Comments

[Action] SO MUCH FOR THAT HIATUS. /SOB ... replies will be slow but I'll be here. >_>;

[ninjacane]

[Splinter is there in a matter of moments.]

Donatello?

[Action] /just threads here if that's okay?

[honorthecode.livejournal.com]

[Leo's there quickly, too.]

What happened? [He'll look around the room, but he will notice things missing.]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don just gestures wordlessly into the suddenly-much-emptier storage room. What can he say? Splinter and Leo were more familiar with Derek's belongings than with the man himself.]

[voice---later.]

[all7seas]

[This is an announcement Jack Sparrow has to process. Derek is gone? One of his oldest friends---true friends---here in Luceti? There is a hollowness at Smart, Traitorous Turtle's words. There is only one way to try to fill that sudden gap.

Derek has gone home to die.

The pirate grabs the surfboard Derek found for him and makes his way to that one spot where the two men often enjoyed hitting the waves together. His first ride ends in a spectacular crash. Then the next. And the next. But the fourth ride is a success---a freeing, wondrous, blissful success. Derek, his friend, has gone home to die. He has to do some living before he can face that.

Finally, a breathless, soaked pirate sits on the beach and opens his journal. Talking to Donatello has been an infuriating task ever since the threats leveled against his Joanna. But he feels he has to say something about this.]

He was a good man, was Derek. Better than us.

[i_speak_softly]

[In better times Don would agree quite emphatically to the assertion that Derek is a better man than Jack. Right now, he still agrees, but in the simplest possible terms.]

Yes.

[all7seas]

[And Jack shuts his journal. He's not interested in conversations with Donatello. He doesn't trust the turtle one bit.]

[Written]

[shadedsunlight]

[Derek? No, that wasn't right. They'd just talked about rebuilding the flats and platforms from the play. They were going to start up a rock band and perform at Cloud Nine or other venues around the village, they were supposed to meet later to discuss it. He couldn't be gone.

But it's not the sort of thing one jokes about in Luceti.]

Thank you for letting us know.

[Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

[It takes him a few minutes to notice the written message, a few more to place the associated image. Like with all the others, he doesn't know what to say.]

It's the least I could do.

[herotypical]

H-home?

[ the vampire slayer -- a compatriot, a colleague, a comrade -- can hear her own voice shake. derek is the man she went to when other men went home. who, then, could help her shoulder this loss?

don't cry don't cry don't cry. ]

Are you sure? He didn't just...maybe he's in the caves again. Donatello. I'll check the caves. I have to check the caves

[i_speak_softly]

Buffy... all his things are gone.

[Part of Don wants to believe that Derek snuck into the house and carried away all his possessions, but - it's just too implausible. The man is gone.]

[herotypical]

I'll check anyway.

[ stubborn. she will not lose him. ]

[Voice]

[consultmybooks]

[...Giles' reply is a while in coming.

He has some feelings to sort out.

Finally:]

Th-Thank you for telling us.

[i_speak_softly]

Are you okay, Giles?

[consultmybooks]

[No. No, he isn't. "It's better this way" is far more of a lie than usual, right now.]

...I'll, um, I'll...be all right. It's just, um, i-it's...always a bit of a shock.

[Then he checks himself.]

I will miss him. A-And, I'm...s-sorry it had to turn out this way.

[Voice]

[wise_maiden]

[... She'll stop by the house Derek had been staying in first.

Just to be sure.

Maybe to even see if that little plant was still there.

Haha, after all of that... well. It happened to everyone eventually. It was supposed to happen eventually, and may have even been what he wanted. But the happening...]


That's...

Thank you for letting us know, Donatello.

[i_speak_softly]

I'm sorry, Professor.

[Voice]

[no-use-running.livejournal.com]

Donatello. I'm sorry.

[i_speak_softly]

[Only a lifetime of learning to control his emotions keeps him from spilling them out to Ami right now. In person, maybe, but not over the journals.]

[no-use-running.livejournal.com]

[She really only knows one thing to do, what she'd want someone to do for her.]

Would you like some company?

[Voice]

[ufo-fanboy.livejournal.com]

[No... not another...]

I'm sorry, Don.

[i_speak_softly]

[In some ways, Don sees Derek in Mulder. The similarity gives him conflicting impulses: to forge a closer relationship with the investigator, in order to replace what he's lost, or to stay away from him, so he won't be hurt the same way again. For now, he just whispers:]

Thank you.

voice

[ahappylie.livejournal.com]

...Thank you for telling us. I'm sorry that he is gone.

[i_speak_softly]

[Don doesn't even know who this is. The experience of sharing grief with strangers is still a strange and unsettling one for him.]

That makes... a lot of us.

[voice]

[justicereigns]

Hn...

Sorry Donatello.

I don't know how much help it is, but if you ever want someone to work on bikes with, I'm still... It's not as good as him but... [Wow. Still always bad at this.]

They really have a fucked up way of deciding who goes or stays.

[voice]

[i_speak_softly]

[He - can't think about that right now. Forgive him if he doesn't answer.]