When You Comin' Home? [Velveteen]

[Hosea (DELETED 5738)]

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you, Dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"

It was your typical Friday night. Downtown was absolutely crazy, as to be expected, and there wasn't a single club around that hadn't already been packed for hours.

It was the perfect time to celebrate the legality his new age had bestowed upon him (despite already hitting the milestone for 'drinking as a minor' several years before).

Only a few friends were needed this time around. Just a few. Every other birthday had been a scene to be reckoned with, each one including at least a house party and no less than pretty much everyone blacking out and crashing in someone's house. They were like pretty much every other night of the week, really, save for more alcohol was (somehow) consumed on nights deemed someone's birthday. That's why tonight needed to be different.

The fruity, almost coin-ish taste still lingered in Hosea's mouth from a few minutes before, and he worked his tongue around his teeth almost involuntarily as a result of it. It wasn't an altogether unpleasant taste, nor was it foreign to him at all, but it still made him feel this overwhelming sense of apprehension, like he didn't know if he was going to have one of the most creatively productive nights of his life, or if he'd end up naked and locked in his best friend's closet talking to a Slipknot t-shirt (again). Or sitting there for hours arguing about why, exactly, the letter A was red and not blue (though that might have had less to do with blotting paper and more to do with the 'associator' status his therapist had once labeled him with when she finally told him what the hell lexical synesthesia was. She'd also said something about sight-to-sound, but.. he always attributed that more to the LSD than anything else).

Hosea stared idly at the small (read: large) collection of beer cans sitting on the kitchen table in his best friend's apartment. Amos was talking to his girlfriend about... something or other. He wasn't paying enough attention to actually be able to discern conversation right now. "Dude," he interrupted.

"Dude. Dude."

"What?"

"I wanna be outside when this hits me." Hosea managed to shove himself up from his seat WITHOUT falling over this time, meandering toward the door as though he fully expected the other two to think this was a wonderful idea and would follow him without question.

They did, and resumed their conversation as they closed the door to the West Towers apartment behind him.

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home, Dad
I don't know when, but we'll get together then
You know we'll have a good time then

Once the lobby had been reached, Hosea actively made a valiant effort to appear not quite as drunk as he actually was. Making people suspicious wasn't normally an issue, but several run-ins with the courtesy cop in on the main floor of the complex had left a different kind of metallic taste in the man's mouth on more than one occasion. He didn't need **** started tonight.

"Hey, Amos."

"What, dude?"

Hosea looked over his shoulder to Heather, knowing it would be better for both him and his best friend if he asked her instead.

"Can we just walk?"

The bleached blonde looked at Hosea like he was high (he wasn't, yet), but after a painfully incredulous few seconds, she pressed herself up onto the tips of her toes in front of her boyfriend of three years and gave him the kind of kiss you'd expect a military wife to give her husband before he was deployed. It was a fair move, really. She had no idea what sort of ******** they might get themselves in to, and neither did they.

"Call me if you get arrested. I'll be at Jess' place, okay? She wanted a girl's night, anyway."

Amos made a show of squeezing over the woman's *** (with love, if that's possible) before giving it a slap to send her on her way.

"Yes, ma'am."

Now down to just the bromantic pair, Hosea shoved his hands into his pockets, and wandered again, a little less aimlessly than he likely appeared to be.

"What's up?"

Hosea shrugged.

"I just wanted to walk. Be around you. Spend some time with you. It's been awhile since it was just us hangin' out, you know?"

Amos lifted an eyebrow, and filled his obligatory quota for teasing the **** out of the man for the day.

"I'd swear you were gay sometimes. Jesus Christ."

"Oh shut up."

Hosea shoved the man's shoulder with his own as they continued on toward the outside of the city.

"You know I love you. I just can't say it with Heather around. She'd ask if she could watch. Where are we going, anyway?"

"You know that big *** tree out past those farms, and the corn maze?"

Amos nodded. It was hard not to know what tree was being talked about.

"Ain't been out there in awhile. What's on your mind?"

My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"

"Nothin', really. Just never peaked while I've been out there before. Seems like it'd made for a fuckin' awesome twenty-first memory."

They continued walking, chatting away about anything and everything that crossed their mind. Where they thought they'd be by now, why they weren't there, how they were happy about it anyway. Hosea probably had another half hour before he started feeling the effects of his not so recreational anymore drug use, he realised after checking the time on his phone, and stood from where he and Amos had been sitting at the base of the tree for... who knows how long now. Fifteen minutes at best.

"Where you goin' now?"

"Up."

Amos laughed.

"Good luck, dude. I ain't goin' up there. No climbing while drunk. 'specially not this son of a ***** here." He rapped his knuckles against the bark behind his shoulder.

"Sucks for you, then."

Amos stood as well, then, and hiked his jeans back up his hips. "Whatever. If I don't see you in two days, I know where to send to police to look for you first. I'mma go crash. Happy birthday, buddy."

They hugged. Awwwh. How sweet. Three pats on the back. ("I'm. Not. Gay.") And then he was gone.

Well, he came from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while"
He shook his head and said with a smile
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please"

Hosea climbed, and despite his intoxication, managed to not even give himself any major scraps as he hauled his weight up using the knots in the twisted wood underneath his hands as foot holds while he ascended. By the time he pulled himself up to one of the first large branches he could find, he looked out into the sky to the moon and stars, a silvery gold shimmer coating everything he looked over.

It was starting.

A little green fleck on his hand caught his attention as he kicked his legs up in front of him, balance carefully kept as he leaned his back against the trunk. He lifted his fingers up closer to his face and tried to discern what was on him.

A small praying mantis was perched on his knuckle, one not even the size of a metal BB. It sat there, just... cleaning its forelegs and antennae, seemingly completely unaware of the vast world around him.

More staring, and some incredibly deep contemplation later, Hosea had a thought. One that absolutely blew his mind the more he considered it.

Every single person on the planet was like this little bug, especially him, in that moment.

You can't truly understand the magnitude of the world around you. You can only climb as high as you can get, and then take it all in.

I've long since retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man in the moon
When you comin' home son
I don't know when, but we'll get together then, Dad
We're gonna have a good time then

[Velveteen]

Long, slender fingers, that would look skeletal under stronger light, punched at the keyboard in a seemingly random manner, though almost instantly the wall of security monitors came to life. Velveteen was in a mood. Micah had just left with something that needed her signature and he was none too happy about it either. She hated it when they fought. While this event in itself wasn’t what she would consider a real argument, it certainly held a lot of potential to become something rather explosive...if she let it. Not gonna happen. They had wasted too many nights already on that nasty skank.

A sly grin stretched her pale lips as she sunk down into the executive styled, leather computer chair where one could watch the entire Eyrie in silent comfort. An initial scan showed that nothing seemed out of order and no alarms had been set off. Another quiet night it would seem. Possibly one spent alone. Her head rolled back to rest against the cool, soft cushioning and her eyes wandered the ceiling rather aimlessly, as if that that was above her was somehow new but only vaguely interesting. For the most part though she was paying a whole lot of attention to the details up there as her mind was elsewhere. Why was she so stubborn? Why was he more so? The fact that both were so bullheaded made it surprising that things ever got resolved at times but yet they did. She smiled. A soft, wistful smile that often appeared when she thought of that man.

The ceiling circled above her. She wasn’t sure when it happen but at some point during her thoughts her feet had started moving and before she knew it she was spinning. Idly going round and round. The look of the chair might have said business but the motion said fun. A soft laugh filtered past her lips as she transported back in time. How as a kid the first thing she did when visiting her father’s office was to run and jump into that big chair and just spin. Her father would just laugh but her mother, who was all about propriety and good behaviour would admonish not only Velveteen, but her husband for ‘encouraging the child’. Sometimes…when she allowed herself to remember, she would miss them. And sometimes when she remembered for too long, the sadness would seep in. Tonight that would have been an easy thing to do, so then she could go about feeling sorry for herself. Something she only ever did in private. To do otherwise would be displaying a weakness and those...people used against you. The spinning came to a dead stop. Not tonight.

A hand came up to hastily brush away the tear that had managed to escape just as something flickered in her peripheral. Ebony tendrils fell across her face as her head snapped around to get a better look at what might have caught her attention. It was in one of the lower left screens meaning that it came from one of the cameras on the grounds surrounding the tree that housed the Eyrie. Her silver gaze narrowed and she watched for several minutes but saw nothing. A false alarm perhaps? Just as she was about to write it off one of the sensor alarms went. Locating the camera closest to that sensor she watched the smallish screen for what could be causing it. It was possible the system was glitching but she highly doubted it. That was when she saw him. He wasn’t someone she recognised which meant he should not have been there, besides the fact that any and all Tytonidae members knew what a minefield it was down there. The woman leaned closer to the screen and narrowed her gaze even further. How the **** did he manage to avoid all those traps anyway?

Monochromatic eyes watched the matching images as she followed the unidentified male from screen to screen with mild amusement. They didn’t get too many visitors out this way which was exactly how she liked it. He seemed to be staggering quite a bit and his efforts to climb the tree were nothing short of comical but somehow….he managed to do exactly that. Velveteen stood when the man boy settled on a single branch. Perhaps it was time for a little closer investigation. That was if he didn’t fall before she got there.

[Hosea (DELETED 5738)]

Everything, and everyone, was insignificant.

The thought of the little bug on his finger jogged his memory to a Dr. Suess story: Horton Hears a Who.

He already knew that the universe was huge, and that there were star systems far, far beyond the one that he was barely a part of, in the grand scheme of things.

But maybe even all that giant, vast space combined was still just an insignificant little speck to something larger, and only in the right conditions could anyone hear them calling out for the salvation they so desperately sought after.

Tripping balls wasn't easy sometimes, man. Hosea always tended to go for the more philosophical things whenever he took hallucinogens, while his friends always seemed to be the ones who ended up with turtles in their mouths followed by fifteen hours (give or take) of melting faces, talking cats, and being in what had sounded like the horror scene from Dumbo

(look out! look out! pink elephants on parade, here they come. hippity hoppity.)

Despite what many would consider to be a crippling drug addiction, Hosea's view of his recreational activities was one of sheer enlightenment. Probably only BECAUSE he had yet to experience any sinking sensations at all, but there were a lot of things that had crossed his mind while he wasn't in his right mind that he felt had helped him mature, and get to know the world around him a little better than some did, even if they had actually finished high school and ended up getting a college degree (like he had not done).

He looked back to his finger to find the mantis still sitting there on his fingertip and entirely refocused his attention on the little bug. He traced the miniscule silhouette of the creature with his pupils; almost microscopic legs, tiny body, not even close to sinister arms. One day, it would grow up to be a great hunter. You know, for its relative size. And if it happened to be female, it would make the rest of humanity jealous once it decided to reproduce. He knew more than one woman who would love to be able to get away with killing an ex once they'd fucked, especially if she'd ended up with a kid as a result. He'd never be able to wrap his head around how ridiculous women were, sometimes.

"Fly free, little bug."

(they're here, and there. pink elephants ev'rywhere. look out! look out! they're walking around the bed, on their head, clippity cloppety.)

The man tried to lift his arm up, but found the task a little more difficult than he imagined it would be. Instead, he lowered his hand down to the branch he sat on and lightly scraped his finger over the tree bark, edging the mantis off as slowly as he could without causing it too much bodily injury. Or so he hoped. Maybe he squashed it on accident.

Who knew.

It was too dark to tell, anyway, no matter how much he stared down at the spot he'd set it to see if he could watch it make its way into the great, wide, insignificant world that lay before it.

(arrayed in braid, pink elephants on parade. what'll i do? what'll i do? what an unusual view!)