[open]

[rainscented]

Characters: Rat, every Disney film ever, and YOU.
Setting: Floor 14
Format: Up to you.
Summary: Rat drowns out months-worth of his dead world by watching cartoons about talking animals.
Warnings: Dystopian angst and Lion King spoilers idek. Potentially boys kissing other boys if when Shion shows up.

[ He's been back for barely a day, and it's a nightmare. Eating is still off-limits, the idea of consuming anything more than a little soup makes him nauseated. He can't sleep, too jumpy to relax and too full of thoughts to close his eyes. He'll be forced back to his bed eventually, but he's resisting for as long as he can. So instead, he's reclined in a bean-bag chair on the media floor, watching an old film about lions. Animals are safe. He doesn't remember animal corpses.

And then a film about mice. Fairies. Dogs. Birds. Foxes. Cats. And then another about lions. He's never seen half of these animals in real life.

He's not going to move for a while. ]

Comments

[rainscented]

Eyes now fixed back on the song-and-dance number going on in front of them, he nevertheless reached out sideways, caught Shion's chin with graceful fingers and turned his head to face the screen.

[savedbyasong]

Shion stared at the film wondering idly why the lions weren't eating the other animals, they were predators... "Who are they? Why does that cub want to be king?"

He asked the questions outloud because in the space of thirty seconds the colourful cartoon had utterly confused him. "Why is that bird trying to control two lion cubs? It seems like a dangerous occupation."

[rainscented]

"The cub is Hamlet," Rat pointed out Simba. "The bird is Zazu, adviser to the king... who hasn't died yet. It's a film for sheltered children, so they're saving the death for a more dramatic moment. You'll love it."

[savedbyasong]

Oh so it was Hamlet with lions and singing... whichever world this came from was a very odd one. He frowned though at the last and pulled himself away from Rat, though he didn't go far, insulted that he had been called a sheltered child.

[rainscented]

Rat's shoulders stiffened at the withdrawal, but other than that he continued watching apparently unaffected. The song ended. A new scene began. He shifted. Working out how to phrase his decisions regarding Shion in his head was taking an irritatingly long time.

[savedbyasong]

Shion watched as Hamlet and the girl lion, he thought was probably Ophelia? Wandered to the one place they had been told not to, he soon got distracted though and went back to watching Rat, still hurt and a little annoyed that even now Rat so flippantly called him a sheltered child.

[rainscented]

"It's a very flimsy transformation," Rat remarked, finally. Like it had been written by someone who'd read a sentence out of a review of a single playing of Hamlet. Or something equally asinine. "Are you just going to keep staring? I can turn it off if you are."

[savedbyasong]

"I guessed that from the fact the main characters were lions." Shion blushed but didn't quite manage to turn back to the screen. "Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?"

[rainscented]

"No," he didn't roll his eyes, but it was a close call. "I'm tired, hungry, and I haven't seen a living human being for over a month, but I'm not hurt."

He turned to Shion, then, eyes narrowing. "But I wasn't in this damned tower. So the more relevant question is: are you hurt?"

[savedbyasong]

There were more ways to be hurt than just physical, if there was one thing Shion had learned in the tower it was this. Shion wondered if he should go and get food, not that Rat wasn't capable of fetching food himself, but for some reason he hadn't.

Shion had once been in his dead world for two weeks and that had been an awful long time, Rat had been there for more than twice as long.

He shook his head at the question, "Not at the moment."

[rainscented]

He bit back an angry comment about that 'at the moment'. As sensible as it was, it meant that Shion was living in a constant state of expecting pain or injury. He'd been trying to instill that state in the guy back in West Town, but now that he heard it so casually, it bit into him.

He settled on a gruff, "Good."

[savedbyasong]

Shion continued staring at him, still worried. "Do you want me to go get you some food?"

[rainscented]

Dammit, Shion. He wasn't Rat's nursemaid. The boy looked up again, eyes flashing.

"Drop it. If I could eat, I'd have done it by now. You're making me miss the film, so just sit quietly."

[savedbyasong]

He couldn't eat? That was worrying. Rat's anger didn't phase him, but his refusal to answer questions and his attempts at changing the subject did. Shion reached over and grabbed the remote, clicking off the TV. "Why can't you eat?"

[rainscented]

"I said drop it," he flared up, half-reaching for the remote. "It's not important. Just some stupid psychological thing. Turn it back on."

[savedbyasong]

"No." Shion held the controller behind his back. "It is important if you can't eat. Psychological illnesses can be as damaging as physical ones, sometimes more."

[rainscented]

"If I'm starving in a few days, I'll look into it." Was it worth it to reach in earnest? After a moment, he just rolled his eyes and got up to switch the TV back on at the source.

[savedbyasong]

Shion reached with his free hand to grab Rat's wrist. "Stop avoiding things, isn't that what you always tell me off for. Concentrate."

[rainscented]

"Pay attention, Shion," he didn't turn around, letting his arm be pulled back. "That's what I'm trying to do."

[savedbyasong]

"No you're trying to avoid things by watching Hamlet played out by singing lions." Shion tugged on his arm. "When was the last time you slept?"

[rainscented]

"There's anything better to do here?" He blinked at the question - the expression luckily unseen by Shion - and spent almost a second trying to answer before his irritation overcame his need to get the last word. He sank back down into his beanbag chair.

[savedbyasong]

"When did you last sleep?" Shion repeated the question, turning to face him properly now that Rat was sat down again. "How long have you been back?"

[rainscented]

"I got 'back' yesterday," as far as he remembered, anyway. It was hazy. He repeated his ignoring of Shion's question.

[savedbyasong]

"And have you eaten or slept since then?" He is not letting this drop Rat.

[rainscented]

"Of course, because you've never seen me go without food for a day before."