2019-08-21 - A Fond Remembrance of Terrible Things

The door to the apartment is open a little, a cool breeze blowing in from the balcony. Easton is on the couch, looking like he started drinking a while ago. There are a few empties on the coffee table and some war movie on TV. It's just Easton in the apartment, Bennie had to take the dog out for yet another walk apparently.

Geoff hows up, plastic bags hung over his arms and a clam shelled container of seven eleven nachos in each hand. Luckily since the door is open he just sort of nudges it open and calls "Hey, heads up this definitely isn't the police." a grin pulling at his lips as he makes his way in. His clothing a simple pair of cargo pants and black work shirt left unbuttoned to reveal the undershirt beneath.

Easton's dressed for an evening in, gray jogger sweat pants and a black tee-shirt. He's bare-foot with his feet propped up on the coffee table. "I don't worry about the police Turner, I'm not a ex-con." Easton replies without even looking up but then looks up when he hears Geoff bringings things in. "Told you, I have beer." He sounds drunk too. Not messy drunk, but actually drunk which takes a good amount of drinking to accomplish for him. "But I don't have gross take-out food... well, I mean I guess I do now?"

Geoff walks ove to drop onto the couch beside Easton, passing him the nachos "Yeah you got gross take out food now, with enough jalapenos to make your asshole preemptively pucker." setting his own nachos on the table he unloads the bags which contain a myriad of snacks on the table before them before he is standing to go grab a beer "See you gotta have /some/ food while drinking."

"Yea, that's what I look for in my food assured asshole annihilation." He accepts the nachos and opens them with a reverent, "Awww, yea." He glances over at the amount of food and nods, "Apparently I need to consume a small squad's worth." Truth be told, actually eating something instead of just drinking beer would be a good start to getting him back on track for tonight. He calls over his shoulder, "There's beers in the fridge" (and not much else besides some weird keto meal prepped meals and takeout leftovers) "And whatever else you'd want.." They usually drink at Geoff's so the full bar's worth of liquor in the cabinets is a change. Even if Easton does usually stick with beer most nights.

Geoff simply grabs two beers and makes his way back to the couch, setting one down on the table before cracking his open and taking a deep draining gulp from it "Hey if you aren't looking for the triple A in your foods I don't even know what you're doing." opening his nacho pack he takes on of the chips loaded with liquid cheese gold and devours it with a lick of his lips "So have you just been drinking all day? Looks like you have a head start on me."

An easy, drunken laugh causes Easton's head to roll back to the couch at the talk of a very specific type of Triple A. He likewise cracks into his nachos, happily licking his fingers clean after each chip. The question gets a turn of his head, as if interested in the reason for it. He says cautiously, if not defensively (yet) "I started early." But seeing as it's Geoff he forces himself not to shut down at that. He just shrugs and says, "Shitty day."

Geoff rolls his eyes before tilting back his bottle and draining it, cracking open the second bottle he decides to take his time here "You know you could have a least called me and gotten me in on the drinking action." taking another sip he asks "Want to talk about it?" not prodding but simply putting it out there that he'd put up with the drunk unloading his miseries.

"Yes, but at the time I was angry sober, I had to get drunk enough to text you." There are rules to angry binge drinking and one of them is that Easton's going to be an ass for at least the first part, and probably the last part so it's best those are done solo. He knows this. "But I appreciate you showing up." He gets up to get his own next drink, just another bottle of beer from the fridge. He sits back down and shakes his head with a shrug. "I don't know. Shit just sneaks up on me sometimes. Bennie's good about giving me space.." He sounds a little regretful at that part. He's unsure if he's worried that she's afraid not to, or worried that she's right to be afraid. It's probably both. "It's weird. On the one hand I'm so glad to be out. On the other sometimes it hurts like fuck and I miss it like .. I don't know. There's nothing I can compare it to."

Geoff quietly sips his beer and nods along, especially the points at where he says he had to get drunk enough to text him "That's good that you guys are working out man, she seems pretty great." toying with his bottle he frowns slightly at Easton's admission "Can't say I know what that experience is like man, but have you thought about getting in contact with a support group who do? I could have sworn there were bowling leagues full of folks bonding over this sort of thing."

"Bennie? She's the best. Just the fucking best." Easton takes a big gulp of beer as if to punctuate that statement. The talk of a support group gets a bit of a grumble from Easton. He mutters "Probably." Ironically it's probably what he would tell Tyrone to do in his situation. Make sure he was talking about it, find other former Marines who would understand. But that's all well and good for other people. "Too bad I hate bowling and I'd rather sit here and bitch at you about it." He cracks a joke and goes back for more nachos.

Geoff closes his eyes as he digs deep within him to try and find his inner marine, and instead just finds the ex con "Is the part you miss the danger of it all, the never fucking knowing if the dude passing by you would try to be shank deep in you by the end of his stride. The excitement of acting on that danger and, and the thrill of the life or death fight?" he holds the bottle between his hands "Because you know...Sometimes I miss it, it's fucked up to say, but I miss the survival of the fittest shit, the kill or be killed."

"I mean, usually they'd try to blow us up, but yea, that's part of it." Easton smiles as Geoff understands, even if it's not exactly the same thing. He happily munches nachos while Geoff talks though and just shrugs, "Some times it's simpler. You accomplish the mission. You keep your men alive. You stay at the absolute top of your game because otherwise someone dies, or in your case, you do." The plurality of Easton's experience is missing in Geoff's sure, but there's still similarities that he is thankful to bond over.

His voice drops a little quieter to admit, "I still fuckin' hate being alone. I spent so long with other Marines watching my back, constantly interacting, constantly being another set of eyes and ears and then I'm back here and it just .. I'm still not used to it." It's about as close as he's going to admit why he just started showing up at Geoff's unannounced and passing out there.

Geoff claps Easton on the shoulder "Exactly, you got to be physically peak, mentally peak or someone is going to fucking pay for it." Taking a deep breath he holds it for a moment before exhaling "I kind of get that. I miss the life of the block, that there was always that chatter that feeling was there were folks about you...Even if shit wasn't tight, there was always the fact we had that common enemy of the asshole wardens trying to make life hell for us, the common experiences of spending years of our lives working and fighting beside each other." he shrugs once more "Man I'd never want to go back, and yet at the same time when I'm alone at night and there's just /nothing/ it just feels wrong like the calm before a storm."

Easton rolls his head sideways to look at Geoff, a bit of curiosity, unsure if that was current tense in that statement about needing to be at the peak. "Yeah..." Easton just nods as Geoff explains his own version of it. It's not the exact same thing but a highly charged dangerous environment that you are forced to be in for a long time changes you. He gulps down more beer and says, "Maybe I didn't have to wait until I was drunk to text you." But after another nacho he reconsiders, "Nah. I did."

"Man, I'm pretty sure I'm best handled with at least a couple beers down on a good day." Geoff cheerily relates before finishing off that second beer and stacking it on the table, which is apparently the cue for showing a bit of love to his nachos and working on a few of them "Not sure how much it relates to you man, but after you got our did you ever just look around and ask yourself what the fuck you were supposed to do out here? You're accustomed to a kind of life, you got a set of skills, and none of it applies in any sort of useful way out here."

"I know I like handling you that way." Easton grins and even chuckles to himself at this. He sets aside his plate of nachos, apparently having decided he's ensured his intestinal distress later. He laughs and says, "I literally trained for it, spent all that time learning trying to be the best leader I could and now? Who the fuck cares?" He shakes his head and says, "I didn't plan on ever coming back. I didn't have a fallback."

He then looks at Geoff and sighs, "But. I had something most people don't. Sure I was missing a leg, and a career and a couple people, but I had daddy's money." The use of 'daddy' there used in a mocking tone, he would never actually call his own father that. "After spending so much time running from that, I took it." He points at the apartment, "hence, this."

"Most people like you don't have that kind of net to fall back on."

Geoff gives a dismissive wave "No shame in that man, you got connections use them. If I wasn't riding the whole 'not risking going back' train I know a couple places where I could be making bank." sighing he runs his fingers back through his hair "But yeah, it was rough choosing to do shit on the up and up. Luckily I'd learnt to tat in there and tattoo shops don't really care where you come from as long as you've got the skills to back it." with a wry grin he mentions "The ex con thing kind of gave me a bit of street cred so some wannabes thought they were more legit coming to me or something like that."

"Yea well money fucked me up as a kid." Easton is in the sweet spot of drunkness where he's rambling out things he wouldn't otherwise say, but that's okay. He doesn't seem phased by the talk of making less than legal bank. "Yea, I mean those other valuable prison skills are still illegal in the state." He laughs, again finding himself more hilarious than he should, especially since Geoff already clarified that he made it through prison without that kind of comfort.

He stands up a little unsteadily and heads out to the balcony for a smoke, lighting up as soon as he steps outside. "And don't forget, that ex-con thing also gives you that air of 'danger' that girls just can't resist."

Geoff cracks a wry grin "It's only illegal if you get caught, and I'm convinced that one of these days knowing how to inflict the most amount of pain with my hands in a fight is going to come in handy." As Easton gets up to go take a smoke he stands and heads back to the fridge to grab more beer "Yeah the ex-con is how you score a girlfriend way out of your league. That air of danger and then you realize your going soft and are losing edge due to having a woman in your life." this is said with an exhale as he tilts the beer back to take a deep swig "Wouldn't change it though."