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ic contact (quiet place)

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(Eddie had originally wound up again at the hospital in exploration for art supplies for Bill. But truthfully, as he made his way to the children's ward, he realized that he could bother with getting Jake something too. He'd seen him doodling a couple of times, and while he hadn't asked, he knew Bill enough to realize someone who liked to draw when he saw one. So he grabs a lot of everything for both boys. Maybe they were all a little more mature for their age, but that didn't mean boredom wasn't going to be their number one way of dying here. Especially when they had to be silent.

Turns out the children's ward was well stocked. Not just in the actual play area itself, but the individual patient rooms as well.

This winds up with Eddie setting up a little gift on Jake's bed when Jake was out of the house. He sets it on top of a clean baby blanket he had found so that things would stay neat and out of the way. He'd found some sketchbooks in some of the rooms, and Bill and Jake got the most blank ones while Eddie kept the rest in his room for this or that. Jake's probably had about ten drawings in it from some kid, but the rest was ready for Jake's art. Then there was plenty of scrap paper. Eddie didn't know Jake's medium, so like Bill, Jake got something of everything. There were traditional pencils as well as colored (with a pencil sharpener too), crayons, markers, and watercolor paints (non-toxic of course for children). Along with that were various craft supplies in general that seemed to be everywhere. Stuff like colored pipe cleaners, poms, glitter, scissors, clothespins, and a few sheets of decorative scrapbook paper.

One of those papers, decorated with flowers, was folded up on top of the pile with a simple note inside.

I'm not really sure what you use. But I hope this makes life a little nicer here for you.

-Eddie.)

_{[It's not home, this place--nothing will ever be home like it once was--but house eleven offers the closest thing to safety. They've been working long hours to soundproof it as much as humanly possible, driven by a need to secure at least one place in this whole world where they can relax, just a little.

Jake is eager to get indoors most days. It's not natural, living in complete and total silence, and he looks forward to the times when he can let down his guard a little. He'd like to learn to live like the natives, but not become so good at it he gets used to it. He's just swinging his bag off his shoulder--something scrounged up among forgotten belongings to replace the one he had before--when he notices the bundle on his bed. It stands out in the otherwise unadorned room. Aside from the bed, which had been a donation from someone else, Jake hasn't seen fit to outfit it with much. (Truth be told, he doesn't like being left alone in his room; he prefers to spend time elsewhere, with company.)

The gift breaks the utilitarian monotony in the most unexpectedly thoughtful way. Jake spends time running his fingers over the pencils and sketchbook and colored craft supplies--aged, but a lot of it still usable. It looks like a Michael's threw up twenty-year-old inventory all over his bed and Jake couldn't be more pleased or touched.

He'd never thought to be sentimental about ephemeral paper notes like letters or birthday cards before he'd started hoarding clippings of his father's accident. Now he knows he'll be folding Eddie's note and carefully tucking it away where it'll stay safe.

A scrap of paper will find its way under Eddie's door before the day is out, waiting its turn to be read. Written with one of his new pencils, there's a doodle of a simple stick figure in the corner, hand lifted in a friendly wave.]}

I can't believe you got me a gift basket and it's not even my birthday. Thanks, it's awesome. Really.

- Jake

(Eddie doesn't know why he's surprised to get a note back. It makes his chest squeeze up with a small burst of warmth and excitement to see that piece of paper on his floor upon opening his door one day. It really did disrupt the monotony of a living situation like this in the best possible way. He spent plenty of time with Jake whenever he wasn't busy with classes or over at the greenhouse working. Similarly, he wasn't a very big fan of being alone. None of them seemed to be.

And not unlike Jake, the note he receives is carefully tucked away. Eddie would need to begin a new box for his special things, and he makes a note on the whiteboard (collected also from the hospital) that he had sealed to the back of his bathroom door. On the whiteboard was mostly an inventory of medical supplies, but also little notes like this one.

After he writes that up, he gets out a piece of paper and writes a simple note back:)

When's your birthday??

Mines Nov 15

(This note gets folded into an airplane and attached to a strong that he leaves hanging from Jake's doorknob.)

_{[This is--? Cute, what the hell. The escalating note exchange makes him smile. This time Jake adds more to the paper plane note, refolds it, and sets it to rest in one of Eddie's potted plants like a airplane crash landed in a jungle canopy.]}

October 9th. We're pretty close.

How old are you? ___

_{[A helpfully supplied blank awaits Eddie's answer. 10 points for every correctly answered question on this pop quiz.]}

(It's pointless, really, to exchange letters like this when they could technically just...talk. But somehow this was just. Fun.)

How old are you? _12_ ___?

(He draws in a little line right after the 12 he fills in so that Jake has to fill it in too.)

Just turned :)

Where did you grow up? ________

(This plane winds up sticking straight up out of Jake's pillows on his bed.)

_{[After Jake retrieves the paper from its nosedive into his bed, it might take Eddie longer to unearth the note depending on how often he changes his pants. Jake waits until he steps out one day before smoothing the plane down and hiding it in a pocket. It really is stupid, but now that they're doing it, he can't resist. It makes him laugh thinking of Eddie wondering where the next one's going to be.]}

How old are you? 12 11 Good thing we didn't do this by birth year. You'd be older than me by double digits.

Where did you grow up? New York ______

I mostly sketch and color, btw. How'd you guess? I haven't been doing much drawing here.

Edited 2018-02-28 09:48 (UTC)

(What the hell was this kind of bullshit. Eddie hates that he instantly giggled out loud the moment he finds the note in a pocket. He claps his hand over his mouth. He had honestly started to think Jake was done with note passing.

He was...stupidly exhilarating to discover that he wasn't.)

Technically this means I could be your sugar daddy. Make sure you respect your elders, Jacob. We're fragil.

Where did you grow up? New York Maine <- literally never go there. You might actually die. I'm half convinced it's the first layer of Hell.

I didn't guess. I saw you drawing in the sand and the only other person I know who does that kind of thing is Bill. So I just figured.

Why no drawings? You and Bill could make this house like 100% prettier and nicer :) I sure as fuck wont.

(To prove his point, Eddie attempts drawing a turtle. It mostly looks like some cobble stones and a black oval for a head with some legs.)

What's your family like?

(Eddie's note arrives with a very tiny potted mint plant. The note was carefully folded up and tucked under the leaves, the pot left inside one of Jake's shoes.)

Edited 2018-02-28 11:50 (UTC)

_{[In a shoe? Damn it, Eddie. You better believe he stepped on that in a half-asleep daze. You also better believe he's not going to admit that.]}

Slow your roll, Hugh Hefner. I'm probably not going to college so you don't have to worry about footing the bill for my tuition. What's this plant?

You know, Roland told me once some places have thin spots where demons and monsters and things get through more easily than other places. Maybe that's what happened in Derry.

_{[It's the thought that counts. Eddie's drawing has character; its misshapen proportions gives it charm. Not really knowing why, Jake finds himself drawing a sphere over top of the turtle's back, coloring in the continents of Earth, penning a rhyme trickles in from the back recesses of his mind beside it.

See the turtle of enormous girth
On his shell he holds the Earth]}

It's not that bad. I didn't bring my sketchbook with me, but you solved that. That's cool Bill's into it, too. We'll have to compare sometime.

_{[Up until this point, it's pleasant. Up until this point, it's like passing notes to a classmate or handwriting a letter for his grandma's birthday--fun, light-hearted. Eddie's last question is no doubt meant to be just as fun and light-hearted as the ones before. He can't know it gives Jake a pang to try and answer it, pencil tip hesitating over page as he realizes he's never really going to be able to answer a question like this the same way again.]}

It was just me and my mom and dad. They were good parents. It's just me now.

_{[This time he tapes the note closed and takes it to the greenhouse during one of Eddie's shifts, asking one of the greenhouse workers to pass it off to him.]}

(It's a bit of a shock when he's given the letter at work. For some reason, it makes his entire face burn, and he holds the note against his chest as he quickly darts out of the greenhouse to read it privately on a lunch break.

It's a sensitive question, he knows. He knows because...well. It's sensitive for him too. But he wanted to know Jake and sometimes that meant asking sensitive things.

He notices the little sphere drawn over the turtle and Eddie thinks that's exactly right. For some reason, he doodles a weird splatter coming out of the turtle's mouth, shading it in and then erasing star shapes from the lead colored galaxy.

I got a bellyache.)

Pfff trust me I'm not Hugh Hefner. Thats all about girls and stuff.

it's mint. it smells nice but it can also help bellyaches and headaches. can help keep your mouth clean too. some other stuff.

Maybe. I dont know. I wouldnt be surprised honestly. It felt like that sometimes.

Hes drawn awesome cowboy stuff for me before. It's great.

(Eddie chews at his lip, wishing partly that he was there to talk about this in person. He realizes it doesn't really matter though.)

My daddy died of cancer. My momma's crazy. She made me think I was sick. But I met a lady on the space station- Clara. shes like a mom i never had before.

it's not just you now. you have roland.
and you have me now.

(He doesn't know how to put his sincerity into the latter. So. Well.

Perhaps it isn't quite as clever as the other delivery methods but the note this time is tied around one of the glass bottles of coke he had gotten from a native. He's stuck wild flowers in the string holding the note to the bottle and let it be just in the middle of Jake's floor.)

_{[Finding the small offering in the middle of his room brings him up short, despite the melancholy turn the last part of the exchange took. Jake colors to see it, moved by the generosity, and by the spirit in which its meant. Flowers and a bottle of soda. Is Eddie trying to catch up for the eleven birthdays he's missed by giving him a bunch of surprise gifts?

(It's not just you now. He rereads and rereads that part, tracing the letters in his mind even long after the paper's left his possession.)

He's careful when setting the flowers aside. They're nice, like the sort of memorial he'd arrange by his mother's headstone that doesn't exist.]}

You don't want to send girls to school?

So a mint plant's good to eat? You know way more about this stuff than me. I hope you get to meet Roland one day, he knows a lot about the same stuff and more. And he's a gunslinger in his world. That's like a cowboy but more badass.

_{[The pride he feels writing that helps steel him for the cheerless section that comes after. You know your family is dysfunctional when you have to go to space to find a better one... The somewhat removed quality of reading the words without having to say them aloud makes it slightly easier to digest, and to find it within himself to share more of his own.]}

I'm sorry about your dad. Is that what you meant on your wall about her lying? She told you there was something wrong with you and it wasn't true?

My dad died fighting a fire. He was a fireman. _{[There's a blot of grey here, as if a pencil tip rested heavily on the spot in deliberation of continuing.]} The people who were after me killed my mom and her new husband, but Roland helped stop them from making me use my power for them. That's why I owe him.

I'm glad we met.

And I'm here, too. We don't have families, but we can be there for each other.

_{[Eddie doesn't have to worry about sincerity. It takes Jake a long while to get it all out because there's so much sincerity, almost too much when getting by in Reims has meant withdrawing a bit into himself to protect a bruised underbelly.]}

PS: It's lucky I found something for you, too, or I'd feel guilty about you giving me so much without returning the favor. I left it by the oil can on the porch. Maybe you can use it.

_{[He simply leaves the note on Eddie's bed this time, saving the scavenger hunt for if Eddie should follow the directions outside. There he'll find some spoils from raiding an old shed that Jake has cleaned off as best he can: a vertical planter on wheels that he's oiled, thinking maybe it's the sort of thing tomatoes or other vine plants could grow on. The second is a gardening bag with a bunch of tools still left in the pouches.]}

(Maybe it was to make up for missing out on Jake's birthday. Or maybe it was just because. Eddie was known to be generous, and he hadn't exactly ever had the money to be back home. Funny how being in this place made stuff like gift giving more accessible.

Besides, maybe Eddie was kind of thanking Jake too in a small way. That and Jake wasn't alone anymore. There were good people here. People who cared.

The first statement has Eddie tipping his head this way and that way. He's not entirely sure how to answer that best.)

I guess not?

(He did his best.)

Yeah. people can chew it but I guess you could make tea with it. Baaarely. I'm still learning. "Gunslinger" sounds like a really cool title. I'm not so sure if there's such a thing more badass than a cowboy but I'll have to trust your judgement, huh?

It's okay. And yeah. I mean. I guess there's a lot of stuff wrong with me, it's just not the stuff she said was wrong with me. It's complicated.

Oh. He was a hero then? Firemen are total heroes. (He knows that doesn't bring Jake's dad back, but he sketches in a small heart next to the words because he doesn't want Jake to think he's gliding over the fact that his father died.)

I'm sorry your parents were killed. I bet you had really special parents. Roland really helped you then? Man, where I come from, adults would sooner spit on you than help you

Glad you and me met?

You're already here for me a lot. Way more than you need to be. I'm glad though.

(It was surprisingly a lot easier writing these letters, confiding in Jake about more personal things than telling him straight on. It felt more personal than texting too.

He does smile a little at the P.S.)

PS: You dont need to give me anything back. But thank you anyway. That bag is super useful. And the planter is gonna be fun. I've been working mostly with medicinal and food stuff but maybe I can put something pretty there :)

(It would be nice, wouldn't it? It's a little selfish, maybe. He could probably plant some food stuff...but...

This time it's Eddie's turn to deliver the letter to Jake while Jake was at work. Of course this time, it's far less subtle. Eddie comes walking right up to Jake and slides the note into his hand outright. He gives Jake a small smile, before walking backwards a couple steps then promptly turning around to head off before anything could be said.)

_{[It's getting to be a well-worn, crinkled sheet of paper, having been folded one way and re-folded another, littered with scribbles and squished letters where they've squeezed in sentences close to the margins, but it's a comforting token to feel in his hand while he laughs and waves at the one who put it there.]}

Why's that? Equal rights are going to be a thing in the future.

Way cooler, believe me. It means being like a knight of the round table. They go around upholding the law in Mid-World. Or they did. Roland's the last. But he said he'd show me how to be one. I bet at least some of them used to wear awesome cowboy hats, too.

Dysfunctional families are still a thing in my time, that much stays the same. Think of it that you beat the odds by not coming out crazy, too. You seem all right to me. My parents were normal and I still came out pretty crazy.

_{[He doesn't think Eddie's being dismissive--it is what it is. What can anyone say, really?]}

Yeah. I'm glad we met.

Just returning the favor. I don't need to, I want to.

_{[After some thought:]}

Like roses.

_{[Letter retrieval: hard mode. Jake ups the ante by rolling his response into a scroll shape and popping it into the now empty soda bottle to make a message in a bottle. Better hope there are some tweezers in your medical bag.]}

(They were going to have to resort to a new sheet of paper soon. It made him wonder who would get to keep the first one.

It's rather perplexing to read that and he has to stare and stare and stare forever.)

I guess I don't really get why I'd be sending girls to school in the first place. Has nothing to do with equal rights.

Holy shit really? Does he have an Excalibur then?

Wait

Does this mean YOU'RE A gunslinger??

(Hahahahahahahhahaha Eddie's pretty much taking the feeling that thought gives him and putting it in a cement box and burying that fucker in the bottom of the Nile river.)

If I'm not crazy, then you're definitely not crazy either. Nothing about you seems crazy.

(He has to set the paper aside for a bit to breathe. Jake was glad they met. Okay. Okay.)

I'm glad we met too. Really glad.

Jake. (His cheeks puff up and he exhales. Jake was- too much.)

Roses are pretty. I can plant roses in them. Do you like roses in particular or something??

(Son of a bitch though if Eddie didn't fuss when he got the letter in the bottle. Thankfully he did have some tweezers laying around. Eddie gets an idea though- one that has him smirking. He knows Jake's shift enough by now to pull it off. It's a royal pain in the ass, but it was sort of funny too.

When Jake gets back from work, he'll come into a room where the floor was literally covered completely in flowers. Completely. At least Eddie had left them off the bed. Eddie had plucked them in bunches from all around the town, gathered them up, and had a good old time pouring them over the floor. He left a fresh note folded in a triangle on Jake's bed that had a smiley face on it: Enjoy trying to find the note!

The best part was that the note was actually not anywhere in the room. Eddie simply left his bedroom while hearing Jake in his own room and went to put the note in one of Jake's shoes. Again.

He can be a little shit too, Jake.)

_{[Oh my god. He's not sure whether to laugh or groan when he walks in and finds the remains of an ecosystem on his floor. 1950s boys are savage. The shoe is just the final touch that proves it.]}

You're a dick, you know. Is part of being a sugar daddy helping clean flower droppings off the carpet?

He has special guns that were made from Excalibur. They've been passed down in his family forever. He let me try them once. _{[Now that Eddie's done the equivalent of tarring and feathering his room, he feels like he's earned this one. #humblebrag]} I guess I'd be like an apprentice.

Aside from a shine I only know a little bit about? There's that.

_{[His name getting a whole line to itself like that assigns a visual significance that makes him smile to see. He should be ticked off with you for the flower carpet bombing, don't charm him.]}

I dream about them. A whole field of them. I can't make it out, but sometimes it's as if they're talking. Or singing. It's hard to explain. I told you, crazy. :)

_{[He tapes the note onto the bottom of a chair during the next Town Hall meeting. If Eddie wants a tedious scavenger hunt, he'll get a tedious scavenger hunt.]}

Edited 2018-03-15 10:43 (UTC)

(Oh Jake. Eddie knows where you sleep and he is going to kill you. Finding his note was a challenge. It takes Eddie a while to find the note, but truthfully, it doesn't take nearly as long as it should. He mostly makes a direct beeline for it, checking under seats as he goes, but he comes to it without much problem and under an hour.

It could just be that he was lucky, but there was a certain directness to it that was a little odd.

The note has gotten so full that Eddie folds it gingerly and puts it somewhere safe. He starts a fresh sheet of paper.)

Okay your move was a WAY bigger dick move than MY move.

Nope. I'm not really sure what a sugar daddy's role is except to be older and pay for stuff.

(Eddie actively has to stop himself from rolling around in bed though because gunslingers sound so cool. He had met a lot of people with super powers and the like, but none quite so up his alley in terms of types of people he already admired.

And Jake apprenticing as one? Yeah. That's....

Wow.)

I literally cant even put into words how cool that is. Why is everything about you so cool. Why do you even talk to me. Oh my god.

(He's good at being charming though. Even though he doesn't try too hard to be.)

How is dreaming about singing roses crazy? Jake you're an idiot sometimes. You could dream about worse things.

(Like boys laying around in the sun. He draws in two roses at the bottom of the page. He's certainly no artist like Jake or Bill, but he's old enough that the flowers are at least obviously roses. He gives them little smiley faces on them before adding music notes over them. Then he draws an arrow to one to name it 'Jake' and then the other gets an arrow and 'Eddie'.

Eddie considers this note-giving task and folds up his note carefully. This one's a lot more simply given. He winds up walking next to Jake at some point, just heading somewhere to hang out, when he reaches out and slips his hand into the pocket of Jake's hoodie. He leaves his hand in there for a while, simply grinning up at Jake. Then he slowly removes his hand after sometime, leaving the note behind. He tells Jake not to read it until later, and that's that.)

_{[While funny to watch Eddie scan the seats with his eyes looking hopeless at first, Jake had hung back ready to step in if it looked like Eddie was having too much trouble. He needn't have bothered, though. Eddie finds it faster than expected.]}

No, it wasn't. I still had the carpet to clean.

I don't even know what we were arguing about with that.

_{[Just because it's cool doesn't mean he's too good to talk to anyone. Twelve-year-old boys say the darndest things sometimes.]}

Because you're my friend, and it's not the only thing I dream about.

_{[If he dreamed about singing roses as cute and innocent as Eddie's, maybe it wouldn't make the Dark Tower's sickly condition so ominous and unsettling where it sits in the middle of the field of roses, jutting out like a compass point.

Unfortunately for Eddie, he doesn't have anything interesting in his pockets to take if that's what Eddie's up to rooting around in there. The paper is so fresh and crinkle-free it seems a shame to ruin it so soon; he simply leaves his reply folded up in the same condition on Eddie's dresser, held down by an interesting rock he'd found that he'd kept, thinking it was a neat color.]}

I'm sorry :)

My knees got scratched up because of you so I feel like we're even.

I don't either.

(Well maybe he did a little, but whatever.)

You mean you dream of OTHER things besides roses and creepy men? What else do you dream of?

Do psychics like you have normal dreams? Like do you ever just dream of a pool full of ice cream?

(They are pretty cute and innocent, huh.

Eddie wasn't really aiming to take anything out of his pockets. He was more or less just wanting the excuse to reach out. The rock is nice, and Eddie is quick to put it on his windowsill. Jake's note is returned as simply as Jake had done, but instead of a rock there is a rather pretty snail's shell. No snail though.)

_{[You are not sorry, don't even lie.]}

I'd say you could've just felt under them instead of crawl, but I don't want to diss your war wounds.

I had a whole sketchbook I could show you if we were in New York. Some of it I don't understand. A lot of it has to do with the Dark Tower. It's this huge tower in the middle of the roses that stretches up so high you can't see the top. Roland told me it's a special place. It holds all of our worlds together and keeps them safe.

Not a lot anymore. If I do, I don't remember them. Can't say I've ever had the ice cream pool dream. My therapist probably would've analyzed what flavor it was.

I like the shell, thanks.

_{[With mind to Eddie's abused knees, he'll take it easy by leaving it on Eddie's breakfast chair in the morning. Not under the chair, just on it.]}

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ic contact (quiet place)

Delivery - 2/21

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i cant believe this has cured my insomnia

did it give you asmr tingles, tho', the important q

a lil

:')

i cant believe 'you dont want to send girls to school' is code for being gay

a stingy gay

stingiest

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