ceasetoexist | 55 - Let's have a Wreck, Let's have a Train Wreck

[Pokey wasn't exactly the best he could be emotionally. In fact, he never was, but the last week hadn't helped matters at all. Having some of the worst parts of himself thrown at him by the doppelgangers of people he knew and had come to care about, to shrinking for a day (which was probably the easiest of the things he went through), to thinking the few friends he had left might be dead had put an additional strain on him he couldn't really deal with. Since then, he had tried to be as scarce as possible, only occasionally leaving the house or bothering to respond to anything on the phone.

On Friday, he didn't leave the house at all.

On Saturday and Sunday, he won't even leave his room. In fact, it'd be hard to tell unless you checked to see if he was in the room at all, considering he seemed absurdly quiet in comparison to how he usually was.

He won't bother to appear again in town until Monday, when, oddly enough, he'll show up not just for school, but early for class.]

[Action - Mayfield High]

[Seeing Pokey bother to attend school isn't particularly odd. He plays hooky often, but he'd still show up. Usually to be obnoxious to the teachers or other students, or to pointlessly end up just falling asleep in classes.

Today? He's unusually polite. The teachers will find he's incredibly attentive, answers questions correctly and without screwing around, and sits quietly, doing absolutely nothing disruptive. For the moment? He could be an ideal student.

At lunch, he sits by himself. Which isn't out of the ordinary either. He'd usually try and sit by himself. But this time? He's tucked himself away in one of the further corners of the lunchroom, like he's trying to hide.]

[Action - Library]

[There's a boy going through each one of the books he can find. He takes one down, reads it for a little bit, and then puts it back. He does this repeatedly, methodically, almost instictively.

Sometimes, he seems to shift his glances to a certain area of the library: a specific table, or spot on the floor. And just stares for a minute or two, not noticing anything else going on around him. After a moment of this weird staring, he returns to the book he has in hand.]

[Action - Park]

[Pokey paces around the park. There's no real pattern to his exact movements, but he does seem to gravitate towards certain spots that he walks over to again and again and again. He mumbles to himself sometimes, low and usually inaudible. Sometimes it sounds like he's just grumbling. Other times, it sounds like he's imitating something someone has said to him. And others? It just sounds like he's talking to himself, saying things, mulling over things, that don't really make sense to anyone but him.

Sometimes he picks up a branch from the ground and swishes it around aimlessly, not particularly caring if he hits someone or not.

He isn't here right now.]

[Action - 502 Ricardo]

[Pokey can be found sitting at the table, studying. Not goofing off. Not having put something else in his actual textbook and reading that instead. Genuine studying and doing the homework he's been assigned, not making a single noise or distraction. Just being a good little student.

The trashcan in the kitchen seems to have been filled up, mainly with notebook paper and graph paper, detailing designs of odd little devices Pokey had thought up on his spare time. Detailing notes and ideas he had had about the town.

There was no point in keeping them. He didn't really need them any more.]

Threaded | Flat

From:

brotherseyes.livejournal.com

[This is weird behavior. Even for Mayfield.]

Is something wrong?

From:

stealsluck.livejournal.com

[Strolling over to his corner of the lunch room.]

Heeeeeeeey. What's going on?

From:

strike-you-out.livejournal.com

[When Pokey returns home from the park, he'll find something unusual hanging from the knob of the front door before entering. It's the black cat Halloween mask Slugger had worn on the night he and Pokey played the prank on homecoming. What it's doing here is a mystery, although it seems to have been hung very recently considering no one else has removed it yet.

There's no note attached to the mask or anything to indicate Slugger's reasons for putting it there. Perhaps it's only meant to be a sign that he's still around.]

From:

deaths-heritor.livejournal.com

That... is correct.

[Susan pauses and squints a bit. She'd been suspicious when Pokey had first raised his hand, but it seems he was actually participating in earnest. Bizarre.]

...And so the repetition of consonant sounds is called...?

From:

badend-replay.livejournal.com

[ Rika doesn't have much of a lunch routine. She's not above eating alone just to enjoy the solitude. But today she finds Pokey in her usual hiding corner. It seems like a good excuse for sitting next to him. ]

Is this seat taken, Pokey?

From:

imjustpicky

[Where had Pokey been, these past few days? He had promised that he'd talk and tell him everything (surely there was lots and lots to tell) soon... wasn't it soon? It was later, at least. Sooner than later?

Monday after school, Picky went to the park like he had gotten in the habit of doing. Maybe he'd swing on the swings. Maybe he'd find someone to play ball with him.]

...hey! Pokey!

[Or maybe he'd find his brother. Grinning from ear to ear, he breaks into a run and dashes over to him.]

From:

echidna

[ Jade is never without someone to sit with at lunch. Between her friends from home and the ones she's made here, she's always talking and laughing amidst a group of people.

It's on her way to her usual table that she spots Pokey, hesitating even as she's waved over by her friends. She clutches her try to her chest, approaching carefully. ]

Hi.

From:

have-your-lives.livejournal.com

[It's not normal for Schuldig to go to the library; he doesn't read much, as a rule, and Mayfield's selection of material is terrible anyway. Nor is it normal for him to take an interest in Pokey...especially when the boy is too obviously broken to be any fun as a plaything. Schuldig rarely breaks his own toys(at least, rarely breaks them completely); a toy someone else has broken holds no interest to him.

But, as it happens, he's not looking for someone to toy with today. And that's more unusual than anything else about him...even more than the lack of his usual smug smirk.

The fact is that he's closer to breaking himself than he has been since he left Rosenkrüs, and Pokey's current breakdown strikes uncomfortably close to home. It's sparked the closest thing to empathy that Schuldig is capable of - enough to get him to take a personal interest.

He approaches Pokey, but simply leans against the bookcase the boy is currently working on. He watches in silence for perhaps a solid minute, waiting to see if he's acknowledged, though he's not really expecting it. Eventually, he speaks without prompting.] It doesn't help, you know.