letting the days go by, into silent water [open]

[yardbird]

CHARACTERS: Murphy Pendleton and you.
LOCATION: Anywhere. This is pretty much a free-for-all of CR.
WARNINGS: Insert the usual Silent Hill disclaimer here.
SUMMARY: Insomnia hits. Friendly neighborhood convict takes a little stroll.

---

He couldn't sleep.

Granted, this was nothing new and exciting. If nothing else, it was fucking tedious. His brief spell of excessive sleeping habits died real fast after the jump wired Murphy up all over again.

It wasn't always this bad. In fact, he used to sleep a fair bit. There wasn't much else to do during his alone time in prison, so it had been the only resort next to going stir-crazy with boredom.

Even with Anne in the same room these days, Murphy still felt the nagging urge to escape the closing walls of his cell bedroom. Unlike Ryall, he could at least work off his restlessness by stretching his legs. There were still places that he hadn't yet seen, grounds that he hadn't yet covered. He could scratch this itch. He could.

So he just wandered for awhile. Aimlessly, as usual. He almost felt dazed. But it was good to be out. Not free, not safe, though close enough to settle on the fact that his present situation proved to be more favorable than where he had been coming from, in ways.

That was just sad.

Murphy, this is your life right now. Take a good long look at it.

Comments

[yardbird]

Of course, he already had an idea as to what the answer to their mental states were. With Alex not seemingly like he was on the road to self-destruction at the moment (those last three words being the magic phrase here), Murphy wasn't too concerned about that.

They both had their share of getting pretty banged up. Unlike Murphy now, though, Alex didn't have an overly concerned roommate to keep him in check when he let things get too bad.

"Good. Doubt they've got any shortage of those at the medbay here." With any luck, they'd probably have something even better in stock -- future technology and all.

[unsoldiered]

The dramatic term 'I'd kill for this or that' is hard to say nowadays. So he just leaves that out altogether.

"They better not. What kind of advanced crazy sci-fi ship would this be if it didn't at least have a decent cabinet of pain killers?" It would be only the worst giant shuttle ship thing in the history of ships. "Hell, maybe I'll stock up extra. In case something tries to blow up the med bay."

You never fuckin' know.

[yardbird]

"Around here? I wouldn't be surprised if somethin' like that ever happens. It's why I keep a extra kit in my room, just in case." He paused. "Though I... I'm not sure if hoarding that kinda stuff is allowed."

Murphy may or may not have taken it while none of the medical staff was looking, the last time he visited the medbay. Because, yeah. You never do know what crazy shit was bound to happen. Silent Hill survival instincts at work, right there. And maybe also Murphy's answer to a very simple moral quandary -- it's permissible if no one notices what's missing.

[unsoldiered]

The pain in his leg is already receding at last when Murphy replies, and he snorts in amusement. "If they were that strict, they would've booked you for vandalism. What with your artistic birds and all."

Yeah, and like the time you wrote crazy words into the walls and he had to scratch them back out. The things he does for weird convicts, man.

[yardbird]

"Point taken."

Murphy dropped his head down, his arms hanging at his sides. Alex had to go and bring that up again, huh?

"Can't blame a guy for doin' what he can to keep himself from going stir-crazy with boredom sometimes." It might've also been a little tick that he had picked up after awhile, from lack of anything better to do for a very, very long period of time.

Convicts.

[unsoldiered]

"Hey, we did say we were gonna practice art when I was dragging you around the halls... Unless I just imagined that part." He wouldn't exactly be shocked, all things considered.

He stuffs his hands into his pockets, dog tags jingling quietly as always. "Maybe I'll take it up, scribble drawings all over the ship."

[yardbird]

"You didn't, but I did almost forget about it." Actually, he didn't. Murphy tried to humor the thought, though. He shifted his eyes at that familiar jingle noise he just heard. "We should get right on that sometime."

It'd probably be better than some of the more... crude drawings he had seen scribbled on the walls here and there. Murphy was pretty sure he didn't do those, unless if he was in a worse mental state than he initially thought.

Here's to hoping that Alex didn't assume that all of the wall drawings were Murphy's doing...

[unsoldiered]

Oh, you mean those crude drawings? Mission Accepted. He'll turn them into innocent works of art in no time. But until then, he's turning on his heel, smiling a little. In good enough spirits--which was weird, wasn't it? Bringing up depressing shit, telling people your innermost feelings, it's not supposed to feel this liberating... is it?

He wouldn't really know, having done it so sparingly in his life.

"Until then, I'm gonna go pilfer the med bay before it gets any worse. If you don't hear from me, they threw me out the airlock for stealing."

[yardbird]

Actually, it did feel a lot better. In his head, everything was self-deprecating and abysmal. Out loud, shared with someone who he trusted well enough to not treat him like a charity case of pity, it was different.

Everything about his life was just different -- and it wasn't just because he was on a spaceship these days.

Murphy scoffed. It was humor in poor taste, considering that this was Alex and Murphy involved here. Something about that just made it all the more ironic.

"Sure. Just don't get caught."

That was his motto, usually. The exception being, of course, if you were actually intending to get caught. In which case, don't do that, Alex.

[unsoldiered]

He raises his eyebrows, humming, walking toward the direction the lift would be in. But he offers one last jab before he goes.

"And you don't throw out your back carrying crap around."

A pretty simple request, Murphy, because if shit goes down and you've got a crick in your back, he'll laugh at you regardless of how doomed they all are. On the bright side, he's left this conversation with a few details he hadn't affirmed before. One of which being that Murphy Pendleton was most definitely a friend. A friend with a hideous sense of humor.