Open RP Post

[greatdeliverer]

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[finalrequest]

"I was a fool. Desperate for somebody, anybody, to notice me." It's too much to admit to Sam, but he doesn't care. He's so tired. He'd been convinced the confrontation on the Beach was his last act, that he was going to be whisked on to the other side.

"Sometimes I wonder why me. Was it my DOOMS?"

[greatdeliverer]

"Your DOOMs helped. But like you said. You were desperate for someone to notice you. She feeds off of that. Gives you that attention that you crave. Makes sure she's all you'll ever need."

He pushes his fingers through his hair with a sigh, pulling it back into a ponytail so it's out of his face for a bit. "I know because it's what she did to me. Made sure Bridget didn't pay me any attention, so all I had was her."

[finalrequest]

Higgs doesn't respond to that.

Sam's right, it's that simple. That someone could have so much power over him is chilling. "Some people want nothing more than to be able to get under your skin."

Maybe that's too much of an admission that he knows about Bridget, but Higgs doesn't think it matters. It's not like even if he wanted to leave the shelter, that anyone would believe the word of a terrorist.

[greatdeliverer]

"The spider web you put her in was apt." In the end, that's all she was. A spider, pulling at the threads of her web. Making all the poor flies caught in it dance.

Sam wouldn't be surprised, not entirely, if Amelie had told her sob story about being separated from her body. Poor soul, helpless to watch her body grow old and die. Sounds like a tragic tale, if you don't know how she used it to her advantage.

[finalrequest]

"Oh, that." He scoffs. "That wasn't my idea, you know. Nothing I did was my idea. Besides the pizza. That was my idea."

He'd been used. In the depths of madness, he'd thought he'd be helping people by ushering them to a quick demise. What utter bullshit.

"I was just the boss fight. I was never meant to stop you."

[greatdeliverer]

"At first I was seriously pissed about the pizza. The first delivery, I was bitching the whole way. But then it got to be one of the more fun ones. Way easier than transporting delicate fossils and antimatter bombs.

Besides, you sent nice e-mail and gave me great reviews. Can't complain." He smiles a little, genuinely. Happy to have something to talk about aside from her.

[finalrequest]

Higgs can't help the little smile. "'Course I'm gonna pay a guy well for bringing me food." That had always been the plan. He'd been a porter too, after all. And he hadn't entirely wasted Sam's time. Given outlandish orders, yes, but Higgs had been operating on the assumption that he was going to die an imminent death at the time.

He's still not sure what to think of the fact that he's not on the Beach.

[greatdeliverer]

"Fancy food, too. I hadn't seen Iberico ham since they were trying to push me into government shit. All those government types loved that fancy stuff." He leans back on his hands, looking thoughtful. He hadn't talked about his time in the White House for -- who knows how long.

"Prosciutto wrapped dates and deviled eggs topped with caviar. I'd eat it, obviously. It tasted good enough. But I didn't care about the ingredients."

[finalrequest]

Higgs snorts. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure I got any of that fancy shit. Ain't like I could tell the difference." He's a poor prepper; when he was a kid he wouldn't have been able to pronounce Iberico, let alone know what it meant.

He's learned; he doesn't have a whole lot of experience with the real thing. "The champagne was pretty damn tasty, though. Drank that whole thing on one sitting one night."

[greatdeliverer]

"You better have enjoyed it. Busted my ass bringing it here." He finds himself smiling. He shouldn't be having fun with Higgs. Having pleasant conversation with him like this. Shouldn't be making friends.

But fuck he's been so lonely for such a long time. And from the sound of Higgs's journal, his e-mails, Higgs has too.

Maybe this could be good. Maybe this is growth, as Lucy would say.

"Tomorrow, I'm using your terminal to put in an order for a crib and some blankets. I don't give a shit about sleeping on the floor, but Lou needs something better than this."

[finalrequest]

He opens his mouth like he's about to protest and then shrugs. "Sure," he says instead. "It can get pretty cold at night in this shelter, even with the heating on. And babies need comfortable beds." Hell, even Daddy hadn't been heartless enough to keep an infant Higgs on the floor.

"Whatever you need to get, it's fine."

[greatdeliverer]

It's just for a little while, he tells himself. Just until he figures out where he can go. Who else would take him in. But in the meantime, Lou can't sleep on the floor like this, and he's be too afraid she'd roll off the cot. So a crib it is.

"I appreciate that. I do. She means -- everything to me."

[finalrequest]

"It's not like I can really say no to a plea like that." He sounds a little more helpless than he'd prefer, but he's not about to reject Sam's request.

"Like I said... whatever you need. We can rearrange some of this if you need space for baby things." He has absolutely no idea what that would really involve, but it's fine.

[greatdeliverer]

"I -- thank you." It would be stupid to get choked up over something like this, but no one's ever offered anything like that. To make room for him, to adjust their lives to fit his. It's a startling revelation that a lot of the people in his life, while often well meaning, are kind of shitty.

"She doesn't need a ton of room. Not yet, anyway. She mostly sleeps. Eventually she'll learn to crawl, but that's not for months yet."

[finalrequest]

"I never had space of my own, growin' up. A tiny corner to sleep in, but that was about it. Just me and the bookshelf." He's not sure why it's so easy to open up to Sam, who until just now had likely considered Higgs an enemy. He's just that desperate for companionship.

"I don't know nothin' about kids, though."

[greatdeliverer]

And Sam is, too. Always has been, since he was young. It's why he clung so hard to Amelie, why it was so difficult to get free of her. Why it hurt so badly, to learn what she'd done. And now without her there...

Higgs fills a void in his life he hadn't been entirely aware he had, he was so used to it being there.

"I don't know much about kids, either. But we can learn. She's pretty good at telling me what she needs, so far. Smart kid."

[finalrequest]

"Probably got her DOOMS to thank for that. You notice a lot more, like that. Though mine wasn't awakened until I was a lot older than her." Maybe not as much as he thinks, though. He glances to her, sleeping as soundly as a baby that young can, on his raincoat, even.

He doubts she's forgotten him, but maybe she's just too tired from the journey here to really be taking anything in.

[greatdeliverer]

"I've got memories from when I was about her age. Scattered. Snapshots, really. But they're there." He's not quite ready to share that part of himself with Higgs. Not yet. Not sure he's ready to share it with anyone, all he's seen. Everything he witnessed from his pod.

Lou has not forgotten Higgs. Not at all. And she'll be mad about where they are when she has the energy to be. But for now, she's cozy and safe and her dad is nearby, and that's all that matters.

[finalrequest]

"I've got 'em too." Not that he needs to say as much. Sam's read the journals.

He stands finally, just to have something to do. "It's quite the disadvantage, as far as I'm concerned." Higgs isn't so sure he wants to talk about it too much longer, but at the very least he's going to keep himself busy as he starts picking up the books strewn about the place.

[greatdeliverer]

"Here, lemme help. Make myself feel useful." Sam doesn't much want to think about his memories, either.

He hadn't really looked at the books that Higgs had, before. But he's not at all surprised to find several on ancient Egypt. "Where do you want these? In the cabinets, or do you have a place for them?"

[finalrequest]

"The cabinets are fine." There's nothing in particular in any of them; more books, some miscellaneous objects. There's absolutely no blankets or pillows anywhere to be seen, which is possibly concerning.

Not only are there a lot of books on ancient Egypt, there are a lot of novels with apocalyptic or dystopian settings. There's also multiple copies of what appears to be a Jack Ryan rip-off, if Sam has any idea about Tom Clancy. He has like three copies of the same book for some reason.

[greatdeliverer]

The apocalyptic stuff isn't a surprise, either. What is, though, is the action-adventure novels. Three of the same one, even. He shrugs and puts them next to each other in the cabinets.

"I never got to read much. I mean I had to, when I was younger, for school. But once I broke out on my own as a porter, I was either delivering or sleeping. Never took much time for myself."

[finalrequest]

"Shame," Higgs says, shaking his head. "I'm not really sure where I'd be without books. That's what I did most of the time. Read. Even on deliveries, where I needed to stop somewhere overnight." He sighs. "Nobody got it. Told me to get one of those damn ugly tablets instead."

Not that he'd been treating books very nicely at the end. "I used to buy big boxes of 'em without even knowing what was inside. It was kind of exciting, to tell the truth."

[greatdeliverer]

He doesn't say he knew part of that from reading his journal. He's not gonna shut Higgs down like that. Instead he says, "Yeah? For school I'd read off my tablet, but I liked going into the library just to look at the real books. Felt like stepping into the past."

He sets the last of his stack of books in the cabinet and leans against the desk. Looking somewhere over Higgs's shoulder. "That sounds... fun, actually. Getting a surprise every time."

[finalrequest]

Higgs is quiet for a long moment. "I've never had one. There were a bunch of pre-Stranding books in the shelter where I grew up. None of that digital shit." It's probably not a shock, though, since Higgs is a second-generation prepper. Children of preppers grew up with the objects people were able to save.

"A lot of the time, more than one of the books was too damaged to read, but that didn't stop me from trying to read it anyway." He's stubborn like that, though Sam knows only too well. At least trying to read damaged books is harmless, compared to other things Higgs has done.