(the quiet place) IC inbox

[scarecrowed]

[ texts | action ]

Comments

[scarecrowed]

other than seeing everything everything in black and white, i'm fine.

are you alright?

[tornadoed]

yeah, same

[ a beat. ]

i guess i'm worried about what's next
i mean we already can't really talk
now it's all black and white

[scarecrowed]

[ Wow, those thoughts never entered his head, until now. Now he's worried too. Thanks for that, Dorothy. ]

I'm sure it'll wear off.

[ Fulfilling his role as one of those guys who says 'don't worry about it, everything's gonna be okay', like she said. ]

we can actually talk in my apartment. i accepted one of the permanent ones. they're soundproofed.

[tornadoed]

[ they've been circling in hers for hours now. ]

i hope so
i can't figure out what would do this

[ but whoa - wait. ]

you did?
why

[scarecrowed]

[ Only focusing on one part of her message: ]

you think i'd go back to a world where i hurt you?

i won't.

[ Talk about a romantic gesture. ]

[tornadoed]

[ ah.

well - ]

but it's home, isn't it

[scarecrowed]

i don't have a home, dorothy

[ He thought he did, but not anymore. ]

[tornadoed]

you do

[ the next words physically hurt to type. she still remembers him turning to her. "they came first." ]

with glinda

[scarecrowed]

that name means nothing to me.

[ She's gonna have to explain it to him. ]

perhaps we should talk in person. [ He'd prefer that to texting. ]

[tornadoed]

yeah
where's your house
i guess i'll come by

[ she kind of wants to run the other way - not because she's scared of lucas right now, but because she hates this sort of thing. emotional confrontations. talks. responsibility. ]

[scarecrowed]

it's near house 12

[ Still far away from her. ]

the one with the scarecrow outside. [ He built it thinking it would scare away the noisy birds. ]

[tornadoed]

be there in a bit

[scarecrowed]

i've left the door open. let yourself in.

[tornadoed]

[ it takes her a little while - part of that time might just be procrastination. telling lucas about glinda... she's not sure she wants to. she's not sure she can live with who she'd be if she didn't.

so she shows up eventually. ]

Hey.

[scarecrowed]

[ He's standing in the middle of his living room waiting for her, apparently too anxious to sit and wait. He turns at the sound of her voice, expecting another grey person... ]

...Dorothy. [ He's not surprised to see her, of course, he invited her over. But he is surprised to see her so full of color it's practically blinding, yet everything around her stays the same, dull. ]

You're... [ He blinks, thinking maybe he's imagining it, but no. If anything, every shade of color that makes her up as a person stands out even more against the black and white around her. It's like seeing her in that red dress again. ]

[tornadoed]

[ dorothy's blinking back at him, eyes wide, because - he's in color in a grey world, too. he's still beautiful and handsome and she doesn't want to think about that, not when he leaves like everyone else and worse. it's hard not to, when he's the best thing in the entire room. the entire world, right now. ]

Yeah. [ it comes out soft. a little wondering. ]

[scarecrowed]

I think my vision is returning to normal. You look...

[ Probably for the best if he doesn't finish that sentence. He moves over to the window and looks out - there are people passing by but they're grey too, like everything else. ]

...It's just you. [ He turns back to look at her and this seems cruel somehow. To make the person he can't stare at that way anymore in color. And the thing is, when those colors are stripped away from you, all you want to do is look...

What did Dorothy come over to talk to him about again? Belinda or somebody??? ]

[tornadoed]

[ he looks at her like that, starts a sentence like that, and dorothy's heart skips a beat. she thinks she must look at him the same way and it's probably a good thing he turns away because - he leaves. he chooses glinda over her. he tries to kill her.

she can still feel his hands around her neck, but more and more, it feels like that was someone else, a lifetime ago. she can't forget, but it's getting harder to connect it to lucas. to the man who looks at her like this. ]

No weird poison should be able to do that.

[ magic? ]

[scarecrowed]

You've never encountered something like this?

[ He moves closer to her, as distracting as she is right now. ]

Do I look normal to you? [ Or was it just him? Something about her face says they're experiencing the same thing. ]

[tornadoed]

You're in color.

[ normal. does he look normal? he looks amazing and it's wonderful and terrible. she wants to touch him and she wants to turn on her heels and run. ]

[scarecrowed]

[ He hesitates before his next question, but - ]

Do you wish I wasn't?

[tornadoed]

[ does she? ]

No.

[ it slips out before she has a chance to consider whether she should say as much. she doesn't wish he was black and white and greyscale like everything else. she's glad to see colour. she's —glad that it's him. ]

[scarecrowed]

[ Lucas smiles, just a little. ]

It's good to hear your voice, Dorothy... I was afraid I might forget what it sounded like.

[tornadoed]

[ even after everything, seeing him smile still makes her her want to smile back, still makes something in her chest flutter. ]

Yeah.

[ she forces herself to look away. he chooses glinda. he tries to kill her. it's getting harder to remember that even if she thinks she'd still instinctively recoil if he raised his hands to her throat. ] Me too.

[ the admission costs her. the follow-up does, too: ]

So, Glinda.

[scarecrowed]

Yes, Glinda... Tell me what you know about her. [ He leans against the nearest doorway, having no idea of the bombshell that's about to be dropped his way. ]