fandomtownies | Caritas, Sunday

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Caritas, Sunday

Atton didn't really want to leave the apartment. He'd tried to work out the blubbering mess of his thoughts outside the building once, and all it had gotten him was a headache off someone else's ambient emotional debris.

This island was a pain in the ass for an empath. Doubly so right now.

But he needed to do... something... if he didn't want to wind up wearing a worse hole in the back of the living room. He just... he didn't know what. Until Sunday came around. Sunday was Caritas time. His shift.

It was a subdued Atton who settled behind the bar that evening. Sure, he'd still snark at you if you spoke to him, but whenever anyone left him alone, he could be caught staring at the far wall.

Coping. Or something.

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The zombies had been playing slow Metallica songs all night. No word on whether Atton had anything to do with it.

Still, it was pretty late in the night - an hour before closing, maybe less - before Atton himself actually managed to drag himself out from behind the bar. He'd swapped out his back-home clothes for his Earth clothes, at least, before coming to his shift; a light brown button-up over dark brown pants, the only relic from back home his fingerless gloves.

It made him feel a little more distant, which is what he'd wanted. Now he didn't know how he felt about it.

He cleared his throat as he got up on stage, taking a swig from a glass of brown liquid he had on hand. He set the glass down. Nodded at the zombies.

Hummed along with the start of the music.

Then he leaned in towards the microphone.

"How could he know this new dawn's light
Would change his life forever?
Set sail to sea but pulled off course
By the light of golden treasure
Was he the one causing pain
With his careless dreaming?
Been afraid, always afraid
Of the things he's feeling
He could just be gone
He would just sail on
He would just sail on

How can I be lost
If I've got nowhere to go?
Searched for seas of gold
How come it's got so cold?
How can I be lost?
In remembrance I relive
How can I blame you
When it's me I can't forgive?"

The song was long. He was fine with that, shouting it all out through his voice - always decent in song, now ragged around the edges.

"Forgive me... forgive me not. Forgive me... forgive me not... Forgive me-- why can't I forgive me?!"

He would not be taking questions as he got off stage a few minutes later.

But anyone who wanted drinks could find him back at the bar.

Edited 2018-09-02 11:07 (UTC)

Hang out at the bar. Try to get Atton to snark at you.

Usually when Kitty ran into one of her employees working it was because she was just leaving her office. These days it was her just coming in to get stuff to do when she got too uncomfortable and annoyed to sleep.

"Welcome back," she greeted him.

"Congratulations," Atton drawled, "I didn't get eaten by my galaxy, so you've got a Sunday guy again."

Just give him a couple more days, and he'd get the worst of the flatness out of his voice.

"Well, I'm glad to have you back and you didn't get eaten," Kitty said with a little smile. "Settling back in here okay?"

She didn't know what the flatness was for, but at least if she could make the night on the job easier...

"I've got a bar full of drinks and the zombies aren't missing any important limbs," Atton confirmed. "If I can get through the night without someone bringing their best sad sack impression in here, it'll be fine."

"That I can't guarantee," she said slowly. "But if you get any of those, that's when you throw it to Tino and say you need to restock some stuff."

"He is the master of obnoxiousness, I guess," Atton said. "Not a bad idea. Thanks."

"I've learned," she said. "Anything you need?"

He was one of the people who'd checked in on her with the whole space bullet thing, she could do vague check ins here too.

"I'll be all right," Atton said. His mouth curved for a fraction of a second, then fell. "I lost a friend, but I'll get over it."

She'd earned a little bit of honesty.