All My Luck [Dated Early March, open to all]

[noonelaughed]

Chris reckons he's mostly just lucky that he's got something to keep his mind off it.

Tony's not exactly his best mate, but he's still a mate, so finding out that he's disappeared like so many others is kind of fucked. Though, everything sort of works out for Tony back home, doesn't it? Yeah, so he's in the accident and it's really, really shit, but he gets through it. He's Tony, so of course he does, just like he said he would that day at the pool. He'll just go back to all that.

If that's even how it works when people leave. Maybe it'll be different for Tony and it won't even happen at all this time.

Either way, it mostly just reminds Chris of how he can't go back, and how he's not gonna see his mate again unless the island brings him back. It's fucked up that it works that way, that there's nothing he or anybody else can do about it.

But fuck it, sitting round, being sad about it's not gonna do anyone any good. It's not gonna bring Tony back and it's definitely not gonna make any of this make sense, or make him stop thinking about what'll happen if Maxxie or Cass wind up being next.

Or anyone, really.

The hut's been up for over a week now and the tanks are in place, but he's still got to get the stuff to go in them. Rocks and plants, fish and water. Over a month and he still hasn't got a fucking clue how he's gonna get all the water in it. Or exactly how he's gonna manage to get the massive rock he's found not only up the beach, but into the hut with the tanks, then into the actual tank.

He should have known he'd be shit at this.

Flopping down on the sand next to the rock, he sighs and leans against it, then closes his eyes for a second as he digs his fingers into the sand. When he brings his hand up again, there's something clasped in his palm, something that was there, just under the surface. It's not real gold, of course, but it reflects the light just like Chris reckons it might if it were real gold.

It's not like it matters that it's not real, though, mostly cause Chris know just where it's come from. Maybe the details are all fuzzy from when he first got it on account of the drugs they gave him in hospital, but he does remember bits. He remembers Jal's voice, for one.

Not that any of that really matters all that much, anymore, what with him stuck where he is, knowing that he's the only one he knows who won't ever get to go back home.

Chris wipes grains of sand off of the coin, then turns it over in his hand.

Luck. That's all this is.

Comments

[just_dance_it]

Ever since Tony's been gone, Maxxie's been quiet. Quiet for Maxxie, that is, which isn't really quiet at all but subdued. He talks to fill the silence around Effy, for both their sakes, but elsewhere he's got a look like he's in his own head a lot. The constant smell of marijuana clinging to his clothes has got a lot to do with that, too.

He doesn't shout out to greet Chris right off the bat when he sees him, but shuffles across the beach, hands in the pockets of his shorts and a joint clutched between his lips. He doesn't notice what Chris has got in his hand, only that he's got something.

"Pirate treasure?" he murmurs, sitting down beside his mate.

[noonelaughed]

"Nah, mate. Just found it in the sand," Chris says, and he pockets the coin, as much as he wants to keep holding onto it instead. In some mental way, it's a bit like having a piece of Jal right there with him.

He knows it doesn't make any fuckin' sense at all, but that doesn't stop him thinking it anyway.

"'Spose there could be treasure round here somewhere, though. We've got dinosaurs."

[just_dance_it]

He takes a pull of his joint, letting it sit in his lungs for a moment before responding in an exhale. That Chris slips the coin away so quickly doesn't even register with him. It just is.

"And Captain Jack Sparrow," Maxxie points out. "Suppose that means empty rum bottles more than treasure though, yeah?" He cracks a thin, tired smile before offering Chris the joint.

[noonelaughed]

"Is that the guy with the boat?" Chris asks as he accepts the joint from Maxxie and takes a hit off of it before handing it back. "There's this woman, right? Delirium? She says she might be able to convince him to let us have a go on it."

It feels like it's been ages since they talked about it, so he should probably make sure the offer's still good sometime soon. He probably shouldn't even have mentioned it until he was sure.

[just_dance_it]

"It's--" Maxxie starts, but he's interrupting Chris as he does it and immediately shuts up when he hears what Chris is telling him.

His eyes slowly grow wide.

"On Johnny Depp's boat? She's gonna get us on Johnny Depp's boat?"

[noonelaughed]

"I thought you said his name was Captain Jack Sparrow," Chris replies, expression confused as he looks over at Maxxie.

[just_dance_it]

"Yeah," Maxxie confirms eagerly, and hesitates two seconds too long before explaining.

"Captain Jack Sparrow. From Pirates of the Caribbean. The movie starring Johnny Depp. And Orlando Bloom."

Another two beats.

"And Keira Knightley in a corset?"

[little_moons]

He's quiet, which isn't like him.

It doesn't take a fuckin' genius to figure out something's happened. So, when I sit down next to him, I'm quiet, too, knees drawn up to my chest and my bare feet sinking down into the sand.

"What's that?" I ask, nodding to the coin in his hand.

[noonelaughed]

"Found it in the sand," Chris says, not looking up from the coin for a moment. He knows it's not really an answer to his question at all, but he hasn't decided if he really wants to answer it yet.

"Pretty sure it's from home."

[little_moons]

"Shit," I say, my chin resting on my knee as I turn my attention toward the water, "'s it good or bad?"

When the fuck is it ever somethin' good? Hardly fuckin' ever.

[noonelaughed]

"Neither, really," he says, and just then realizes just how little he's told Neil about his life back home. He doesn't know about the thing with his head and he definitely doesn't know about Jal.

"It was— it was my girlfriend's. She gave it to me once. It's supposed to be lucky."

It definitely hadn't turned out that way though, had it? Though, nothing can really be lucky forever, Chris thinks.

[little_moons]

"Supposed to be?" I ask, even though it feels like prying. He doesn't talk a whole lot about home, and it'd be easy to just figure that's 'cause there's not a whole lot to him, but I know that's bullshit.

We don't exactly spend a lot of time talking about his fuckin' feelings or whatever.

[noonelaughed]

"Yeah," Chris says, "Can't be too lucky though, endin' up here, right?"

And it couldn't have been too lucky, since he'd just died anyway, after all that. Maybe it's only got so much luck in it. Chris doesn't really know how all that's supposed to work.

[pointzerothree]

Though there's nothing really novel about it after over a year on the island, Eduardo still finds that he spends a lot of time on the beach, if only because it's too convenient when he lives just nearby. He's never been given to too much time for leisure, but here it's unavoidable, especially with the school term over, and there are few better places for it. Spotting Chris there, just sitting in the sand, is unexpected, but instinct brings him over anyway, smiling automatically as he takes a seat at his side; his expression fades slightly a moment later. He isn't used to seeing Chris look thoughtful like this, so still, making it almost impossible not to guess that something might be wrong. It's unsettling, but it just makes him glad to be out this way.

"Hey, man," he says, chin lifting in greeting. "What's that you've got?"

[noonelaughed]

He hears Wardo sit down, but doesn't look over right away, still running his fingers over the edge of the coin. Part of him wishes that there was a chance that maybe Jal was there and dropped it or something, but he knows that's not the case.

"Gold coin," Chris says, and he's holding it between two fingers as he shows it to Wardo, "Well, not actual gold or anything. At least, I don't think it is. S'not like it matters either way."

[pointzerothree]

Eduardo is pretty sure that Chris is right, that it isn't really gold, but it's beyond clear that that isn't the point. If it were just something found in the sand, he doubts it would be having this kind of effect now, noticeable if only because this is so unlike Chris as he's used to seeing him. Frowning a little, he worries at his lower lip, then finally decides he might as well just ask what he's really wondering.

"Is it yours?" he asks carefully, glancing from the coin to Chris again. "From home, I mean."

[noonelaughed]

"Yeah," Chris replies, then thinks better of it, "Well, no. It was my girlfriend's, back home. It's supposed to be lucky."

He doesn't think he's told Wardo about Jal. He hasn't told Wardo about much of anything, having to do with him back home, really. Chris figures it's probably better if he doesn't, though, considering what happened when he told Claire.

[pointzerothree]

He falls silent for a moment at that, thoughtful. Though it's not like it's any real surprise that Chris had a girlfriend back home — he's good people, Chris — it's nothing that's ever come up in conversation before, leaving Eduardo unsure of the significance of this. "You miss her?" he asks, quiet, the best guess he's got. It seems like it, from what he can gather so far, but that's no reason to just assume.

[noonelaughed]

"Yeah, mate." Chris says, "I figure she's probably better off back home though, yeah? I mean... she's gonna be famous."

It's been over a year now, and Chris wonders how she's doing at music college. He knows she got in. They'd have to be fuckin' morons not to let her in.

[yeah_wow_lovely]

"Don't be sad, Chris," says Cassie, coming alongside him as quietly as she ever does. She's sad herself, albeit for far different reasons, and in her pining has decided to be selfish. She's not certain she can bear both their losses.

Reaching down, she smooths his hair. "Whatever is so awful will get better."

[noonelaughed]

"No, no, it's okay," Chris says, because it really is. Mostly, he's just been reminded of how much he misses Jal, but it's been that way ever since he arrived on the island. Maybe there'd been Claire and there'd been that one girl he shagged on his birthday, but missing Jal never went away, not really.

Sometimes he wonders if it ever will.

Chris looks at the coin for another moment, then pockets it, even though it's still got sand clinging to it.

"D'you think there's any way we can get this rock up to the aquarium?" he asks, changing the subject, gesturing to the massive rock in the sand he's leaning against. It's only about half as tall as he is sitting, but when it comes to weight, about half as tall as he is sitting is really fuckin' heavy.

[yeah_wow_lovely]

"Magic," says Cassie, something sad in the word, but she leans, too, eying the rock. "Liang would know," she says, even before she's truly considered it. Liang, she believes, could do anything.

"But we could put logs down. Like they did at Stonehenge, yeah? Roll it."

[noonelaughed]

"What, like on top of them or something?" Chris asks, frowning, trying to work out just how all that would go.

Even rolling it, it'd have to be like... really fuckin' heavy anyway. Maybe they can get Billy's boyfriend to help out or something; he has bigger muscles than Chris does, he can help push.

[yeah_wow_lovely]

Even having left her teenage years, there's still something in Cassie that doesn't trust adults, nor does it at all occur to her that anyone other than Liang would help. "I suppose that bloody big robot is gone now. We can't lift it, Chris. We shall have to be creative."

[noonelaughed]

Chris can think of a few people who might be up for it: Olive, maybe Wardo and Neil. Though even the whole lot of them would probably have trouble, just getting their hands on the rock to lift it. Plus, it's like a mile just back to the tanks.

"Alright then," he says, "I suppose we've gotta go find some logs, yeah? Since the giant robot decided to fuck off."