fifth; video + action (give me a shot to remember and you can take all the pain away from me)

[bekommen]

[Nick is infinitely more sober than the last time she appeared on the network, though the location is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the same. The only difference is that this time, Nick is standing behind the bar, not sitting at it with a drink in hand. She appears slightly uncomfortable, no doubt due to regret over her past broadcast. She clears her throat and nods at the camera.]

So if you didn't already know, I'm working at the bar now. Delight asked me to help out, and it's what I used to do back in Chicago, so.

[She shrugs. Obvious connection is obvious.]

I know I said a lot of shit last time I talked to everyone on this thing, but as I'm sure you all noticed, I was pretty fucking drunk. [She sighs, rolling her eyes, mildly irritated with herself.] I didn't mean most of it, and I'm not gonna, like, poison anyone's drink while I'm working. I also don't drink when I'm on the job, so you don't have to worry about any more dumb bullshit like before. I'm a professional, OK? Just so we got that out there. And yeah, that does mean I'll cut you off if I see you acting like an asshole.

[She reaches over to kill the feed, then remembers she has one more thing to say.]

Oh yeah - leave your fucking pets or whatever at home. I know we don't got health inspections to pass or anything, but that shit still ain't sanitary.

[There, now she's done. She hangs up, but will respond to any replies in between serving patrons of Delight's bar. Perhaps you're even one of them?]

Comments

[bekommen]

Do you even have water at home? Last I checked, everyone had fucking Skittles and shit coming outta the faucets still.

[She frowns at him, not moving yet.]

Look, if you think I'm gonna let you go wander around in the dark while you're fucked-up drunk, you better think again, Chris. You could get eaten by a bear, or trip on something and break your neck, or pass out in a ditch somewhere and choke to death on your own vomit, OK?

[She may be angry, but he's still her friend, and he's stopped her from making a huge mistake while drunk in the past. The least she can do is attempt the same.]

[thechoiceisyours]

I-I'm not staying here, Nick, okay?

[His voice is pitched up unintentionally, strained a little from stress, and the words come out before he's even really thought about them. He knows she's right, logically, but the idea of just sitting down and drinking some water and waiting to sober up sounds like a horrific ordeal. He feels claustrophobic, suddenly, despite the size of the bar, impressions of hazy memories he can't quite grasp through the alcohol just continuing to snowball the need to get out.]

I-I'll be fine, we have water bottled and the alcohol hasn't even kicked in that much yet, so I just... Please.

[bekommen]

[There is more that she could say here but doesn't. She could try to be more honest about how the idea of Chris getting hurt because he's drunk upsets her; she could say something like please, don't leave me too, but she doesn't. Everybody leaves eventually, whether it's by the door or through death or just plain moving on with their lives and leaving you behind.

Isn't it better if she just stops trying to hold on to people?]

Fine. Leave.

[She unlocks the door and pulls it open.]

Fuck me for giving a shit.

[And she turns and walks away, back to the bar. She has a mess of broken glass to take care of in the sink.]

[thechoiceisyours]

[Chris doesn't respond or even look at her, just bolting through the gap made by the open door and out into what passes for night in the cave, then circles part of the way around the building to an out of view wall and stops to lean back against it. His heart is pounding and his hands are starting to shake, and he feels utterly ridiculous on top of everything else that's come to the surface while in the bar.

He wants to just stay right there until fake sunrise, suddenly too exhausted to want to even think about walking back home, but it really isn't that far and he needs to get there. So he walks, wishing the alcohol was doing for him what it used to instead of just making his thoughts cloudy and emotions harder to manage.

There is at least a silver lining to losing Ashley and Josh: there are less people to risk waking up when he enters the house at whatever hour it's ended up being. Fortunately he and Emily had thought to bottle water a few days earlier for whenever the candy was pouring from the faucets, and he doesn't bother to check if that's the case now and instead just forces down one of the bottles. It's not nearly enough for how much he drank, but some part of him feels he deserves the hangover and he retreats to his room.

He'll figure out what to do about all of this tomorrow.]