Room 503, Saturday Evening

[exspeedydotcom]

Roy was having a weird day. It started out with some girl calling him about a coat. He'd returned her call, but then Bobby called about secret identities, and what was wrong with people in this place? Really. He'd called him back, but then Karla decided he needed her help or whatever, and possibly Roy was a little rude in telling her he didn't need or want her help right now. You know. Maybe just a little.

He'd promised Dinah, his Dinah, he'd call her today, but he was in no mood to do so whatsoever. Later, he would realize this had probably been a good thing.

((Establishy, but can be open!))

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[exspeedydotcom]

"Not quite that bad?" Roy said as he sat down. "There haven't been any love spells yet, anyway. Just...a lot of unexpected stuff, and a lot of new stuff, and I've been a jerk to a couple of people I shouldn't have been a jerk to?" He shook his head. "I was dealing with some stuff before I got here, though, that's a lot of it."

[bitten_notshy]

"I noticed you don't look well," Jack admitted. "My apologies if that's too personal. I'm not asking, just commenting."

He shrugged at the rest of it. "I think people know it's overwhelming here sometimes. I wouldn't worry too much about having been a jerk."

[exspeedydotcom]

"No, it's okay, it's true. I know I don't look great. I don't feel great, but--I'm getting better. I fucked up for a long time but I'm getting better," he said, sounding determined. He looked down at his hands for a moment, then back up at Jack.

"But I don't like being a jerk, you know? And then you have to apologize for being a jerk and that means admitting you were a jerk and it's like a whole big thing." He snorted. "Guess I have to, though, I mean, I'm not Ollie."

[bitten_notshy]

And now Jack was wildly curious what Roy was getting better from, which had him trying to decide if he wanted to be asked, or wanted to be nodding at.

He went for the mushy center.

"If you want to talk, I'm here," he said. "Who were you a jerk to? Dinah's usually forgiving, as far as I can tell."

"And who's Ollie?"

[exspeedydotcom]

"No, not Dinah. Someone named Tony, and--well, I would have been a jerk to someone else if I hadn't gotten the wrong number.

"Ollie's the guy who adopted me. My guardian, I guess, since he hasn't gotten around to legally washing his hands of me or whatever." Roy said. "He kicked me out." There was more to this story, of course.

[bitten_notshy]

"Tony mentioned that to me," Jack commented. "He's a friend -- we used to go out. He asked you something about secret identities?"

He was testing, yes. Mostly because he didn't know what Dinah and secret identities had to do with each other and he very much wanted to.

His face darkened at the rest of what Roy had said. "He shouldn't do that," he said. "I have a guardian, too. They made promises to us. We aren't kittens you drop in an alley when you're sick of us."

[exspeedydotcom]

"Yeah, it was--you know what, I'm not going to freak out at you, too," Roy decided, and forcibly restrained himself from doing so. "It was just one more thing on top of a lot of shocks and I flipped out, and I should probably call him and apologize or something." Some day when the phones weren't spazzed out.

"I can't really blame him that much," He said with a shrug. "I screwed up. I was--uh. I was on heroin." He paused, remembering something Jack had said about being a universe over. "Do you...know what that is?"

[bitten_notshy]

"At home it's a new opiate they're giving it to morphine addicts," Jack said. "It's in our cough syrups, the good ones at least."

... Victorian drug laws were special.

"I know it's not quite the same here." He'd picked up enough odd references to understand it had been criminalized, which he didn't really feel one way or the other about. It was too far outside his experience. "You were -- dependent on it?"

[exspeedydotcom]

"No, it's--not the same at all. And yes. I was dependent on it. I spent every dime I had, and then I did stupid, stupid things for a hit. And when Ollie found out he flipped and threw me out." Roy was leaving out the part where Ollie punched him out, because people flipped out about that and Roy wasn't looking for pity. "I'm clean now. And I'm gonna stay clean." He shoved his hands in his pockets and lifted his chin.

[bitten_notshy]

"I believe you," Jack said evenly, noticing Roy's determination. "He still shouldn't have thrown you out, not unless he'd been through every other option, but that's --" he gestured, vaguely. "Bygones. Fresh start here, isn't it?"

[exspeedydotcom]

No, that had been Ollie's first reaction, actually. Because he was Ollie. "Right. Fresh start. That's the idea."

[bitten_notshy]

"I know it hasn't been an easy one," Jack said.

Somehow, he hoped this was vaguely encouraging. He just forgot to say encouraging words.

[exspeedydotcom]

"I don't--I don't think anything worth having is," Roy said, then laughed, short and harsh. "Look at me trying to be philosophical. Sorry, man, I know it's heavy."

[bitten_notshy]

"It's life," Jack said. "I'm glad you told me, and if there's anything I can do, that is why I'm here - and I will lock you in your room, if you need it."

He said it lightly, but he wasn't joking.

[exspeedydotcom]

"Yeah, I already did that part," Roy said, trying to be wry about it and mostly getting there. "I'm doing my best to not wind up back there, but--thanks, man."

[bitten_notshy]

"I figure it goes with being a sibling," Jack said. "I'll be checking in with you, though. I promise."

[exspeedydotcom]

"I don't know much about siblings, but...thanks, man."