Roll: 3
Annie slept fitfully that night, dreaming o a long hospital hallway, filled with children on cots, on the floor, standing in clumps or alone. She passed one child with a lollipop stuck in her ear, and another boy holding his detached arm out, telling a doctor that it was the wrong one, and didn’t have enough green scales, like a lizard. Two girls seemed to be stuck together at the waste, one’s feet dangling out the side, while the other girl’s arm was pinned inside the fusion. They were asking for ice cream. Further on, the wounds grew more gruesome, and less random, with blood becoming evident on skinned knees, bruised elbows, broken bones, lacerations and worse. The random babble of a meaningless dream gave way to sobs, complaints, and silence. Vacant stares haunted Annie as much as the sight of the blood did. She awoke in the morning covered in sweat, with deep purple bags under her eyes - remembering little but troubled nonetheless.
Roll: 1
Starn closes his eyes and wishes the straps away, as if they were never there to begin with. Believing that confidence is the key to success, he acts as if the straps were truly gone and tries to stand. The straps hold, and Starn’s thrashing earns him close attention by his attendant, who leans heavily on Starn’s chest to keep him still. “Hold still, you’ll hurt yourself, mister. It’s going to be okay. Tell me, what’s your name?” She talks soothingly but firmly, almost maternally. Starn can’t help but to trust her a little.
Roll: 3
Jack leaves “work” and heads out to his familiar hunting grounds - the soup kitchens around town. It is a long walk, however, and he manages to make it to only one before they all close. He gets a small meal of soup and bread - enough to keep him going, not enough to fill him. He is unable even to get a customary doggie bag to take with him today.
Roll: 2
Stan enacts a reasonable plan to attempt to train himself to act in this new reality. Unfortunately, it takes more concentration than he currently has to remain vertical. Somehow, each time he concentrates on one aspect of gravity, mass, balance, and direction, another slips from his grasp. In a more lucid moment, Stan discovers himself slumped in a “corner,” - a meeting place between two vertical surfaces - on his knees, half tilted forward, with his chin resting against the wall and his head tilted upward, staring at a … is that also called a corner? That place where THREE planes meet?
Roll: 2
Jeremy sinks into despair, forms grasping him from all sides, pulling him apart. He tries to close his eyes to it all, but they are held open by tiny little hands, and the light glares into him, revealing every stain in his soul. Jeremy tries to escape somehow, anyway, but the chains wrapped about him are tight, leading back into the flesh of his tormentors - those he tormented, and those he couldn’t prevent from being tormented. The bars of his cage wouldn’t bend - he could not escape the things he had done, the things he had seen.
Roll: 6
Joe begins thrashing about violently, nearly convulsing in his attempt to rid himself of darkness. The vigorous motion, the pain, and the hacking cough that accompanied it all served to expel the smoke and the voices until inside, nothing remained but silence. Silence and wheezing. Joe lay on the concrete, staring at the streetlight above him, and the dimness beyond where the night sky probably is. After some time, Joe reflects, perhaps unwillingly, on the events of the day. It had not been a pleasant one. Nor a fulfilling one, he ponders, as his stomach joins his lungs in uttering their protests against his current lifestyle.
Roll: 2
Edward increases his speed, and loops a few more times to lose his tail. It is of no avail, as he sots the guy again not two blocks before arriving at his parents’ place, this time sitting on a back porch with a beer in hand. The man raises a hand in greeting as Edward runs by. He saw Edward seeing him!
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Topic: Insanity: Roll to Keep it Together (Read 33051 times)