The Park, Late Sunday Morning

[soniaroadsqueen]

Crazy Apple was sitting on a park bench, her legs folded beneath her in silence. Her breathing started off slow and steady, almost like she was meditating or something.

The thing about Crazy Apple was that she knew she wasn't really some sort of other personality of Ringo's. Not in the way people usually meant when they talked about that sort of thing. It wasn't the same sort of thing as what Agito and Akito had back home. Neither of them really remembered much of what the other had done, leaving some odd fuzzy areas in both of their memories. But Crazy Apple knew everything Ringo had done, and Ringo, underneath it all, could see and hear what Crazy Apple did.

Crazy Apple was who Ringo became when she felt overwhelmed and couldn't deal with the things she was seeing or doing, but she kept seeing and doing whatever it was, which meant she'd either have to deal with it eventually or keep being Crazy Apple.

Still, Crazy Apple was independent enough to make decisions, and while she wasn't particularly interested in what Ringo ultimately decided to do, she still had little ways to influence that sort of thing. Like what she was doing now: sitting still, clearing her mind of distractions, leaving herself with few ways to avoid mulling over the thoughts swirling in her head.

Or maybe you can start dealing with your own shit like the rest of us do, Ringo, Dante had said. Fake split personality bullshit ain't cute.

Her breathing slowly sped up, becoming a little more ragged, as unformed thoughts of outrage and betrayal and an undercurrent of shame and worry slowly swirled beneath the surface of Crazy Apple's active thoughts. Ringo's emotions. The ones she didn't want to deal with. They weren't enough to push Crazy Apple aside. Not enough to pull Ringo to the surface where she could curl up and cry herself out from too many competing feelings. So Crazy Apple continued to sit there, trying to keep her breathing under control and let those emotions keep swirling.

Wondering if anything would come of it.

[ooc: Open.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

"Why?" Dante asked, frowning. "Why the hell are you still doing this?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Another shrug. "I don't entirely know. I think a big part of it is that the nightmares still haven't gone away."

And, honestly, the trip to Limbo City hadn't exactly helped with those.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante frowned at her.

"You did this - all this - because you were having nightmares?" he said, and thought of Kat.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Crazy Apple's eyes narrowed. "This wasn't the first option." Her lip curled up in a sort of twisted smile. "Tried to talk about if, work through it."

Only Alluka had seemed all that interested in helping with that approach.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante frowned at her. "Like when?"

Because accosting a guy about how he was doing didn't count in his book, so she couldn't have tried that with him.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"What? You care now?"

Which wasn't fair of her, and Crazy Apple knew it, but underneath the surface Ringo was kind of pissed at Dante. Or maybe you can start dealing with your own shit like the rest of us do, Ringo, he'd said. He'd said that!

The fact that she'd mostly just tried to act normal while fighting the nightmares, expecting people to just notice and ask what was wrong, was something she was going to ignore for the moment.

[rebelseekspizza]

What? Dante had always dealt with his shit. Not always in the most healthy way possible, but at least he wasn't running around pretending to be somebody else.

"Of course I care," he snapped. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Any time Ringo's come to you asking for advice on dealing with anything, you've blown her off telling her to just get drunk, laid, or both."

Except for, you know, all the times that he'd just been there for her when she needed a friend. But she was just going to ignore that for the moment.

"You didn't even notice what was going on for weeks." Which also wasn't fair, given that Dante had kind of been dealing with the whole "having a brother" thing, and then everything that had come with it.

Her lip curled. "Funny way to show you care."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante stared at her.

"You never came to me about nightmares," he said.

[soniaroadsqueen]

She just sort of stared at him.

"You saying you'd act different if she did? That you wouldn't just tell her to get over it?" She didn't sound like she believed that.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Maybe," Dante said warily. "You never tried, did you?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Of course. You're the good guy here. You dismiss Ringo's worries all the time, but it's her fault for not reaching out to see if this time you'd care."

Which, yeah. That was kind of true. After all, he had cared before. More than once. For some of the most important stuff.

[rebelseekspizza]

Well. Fuck. Dante had absolutely zero idea how to deal with this. It didn't feel true? But he wasn't exactly a miracle with feelings, so maybe it was?

"Stop saying 'Ringo'," Dante snarled, because anger was easy. "You're Ringo! If you're so pissed at me, at least fucking say so to my face without pretending to be somebody else!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Her smile was cold and triumphant, like she'd just won something.

"Everything's gotta be so simple for you. This all has to be some game. I'm faking it."

"She's scared, Dante. Most people run away when they're scared. It's just that most people don't have someone to take their place if they run."

[rebelseekspizza]

"You're not someone else, you're Ringo," Dante maintained steadily. "But you know what-- I know you. You're that fucked-up part of her that went nuts on me last year, aren't you?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Yep."

"And I suppose that's not a bad way of describing me."

She chewed on her lower lip for a couple of seconds. "It might be more accurate to say that I'm the parts of Ringo that she wishes she didn't have. Ruthlessness, cold-blooded calculation, a sense superiority. That sort of thing."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Fantastic," Dante snarled. "I remember last time we met, 'you' nearly made 'her' do something she was gonna regret. So is this what 'you' do? Ringo feels bad and things aren't changing fast enough, so you show up to make shit worse?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Her sudden smirk wasn't like Ringo's at all. Way too cold.

"I'm not really the one who decides if I'm around. Oh, sure, sometimes if things get crazy, the line between us starts to blur, but for something like this?" Her lip curled again. "I'm basically the one Ringo hides behind to keep from facing what she's not ready to."

Which almost certainly wasn't an even remotely healthy way of dealing with anything ever.

"As for making shit worse?" Shrug. "Who's to say?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Me," Dante said flatly. "You-- she tried to kiss me when she didn't want to 'cause you were at the wheel. And now you're being a fucking jackass to all of your friends while whining about how they won't listen to you. What the hell do you think that's gonna do here, huh, Ringo?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"I don't know."

She fell silent for a moment, head tilted to the side as if thinking about something, or listening to a voice that only she could hear.

"Maybe someone will pay attention."

Not a fair little dig to get in, but Crazy Apple didn't really care much about fair.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Or maybe next time you can just come to me and say 'hey, I'm having trouble', like you've done before," Dante said irritably, "Instead of saying nothing and then throwing a monthlong hissy fit at everyone around you."

Sorry, Crazy Apple. But three days hadn't done much to restore his ability to cope, and he hadn't exactly been full of tact to begin with.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"What?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "You weren't grateful that Ringo wasn't bugging you all the time? Banging on your door at all hours, demanding you talk to her about stuff you hate talking about?"

At this point she was mostly picking at him to pick at him, despite the fact that she knew it wasn't helpful.

[rebelseekspizza]

"I would've rather had that than you being a vicious dick," Dante shot back. "At least that woulda been honest."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"It takes a lot more energy to keep reaching out to people when they push you away. Even Ringo was bound to run out eventually."

"And if it's some sort of dishonesty when I'm a dick, what is it when you are?"

Even if that had been a real question, and not just another little dig, asking it this particular weekend wasn't exactly calculated to get a real answer.

[rebelseekspizza]

She had him there. But only to a point.

Dante pulled a face. "I don't act like a dick at people and then turn around and whine they're not paying attention to me," he retorted. "Maybe if you - if Ringo said what she actually fucking wanted for once, she'd actually get somewhere."

You know, like the times she'd shown up on his doorstep crying and obviously looking for help, as opposed to all the times she'd shown up on his doorstep, picked a fight about something stupid, and barged off.