riverviewlogs | The Secret Life of an Irish-American Nerd [Open]

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The Secret Life of an Irish-American Nerd [Open]

who: Ronan Lynch and Open
what: The Butterfly Effect strikes Ronan. He sprouts hair and loses his tattoo and PTSD. Now he can no longer hide the fact that he’s a nerd. Reading Virgil and playing bagpipes by a river happens. Ronan has no clear memories of his stay in Riverview but will remember how he feels about people he’s met here.
when: June 15th-24th
where: Communal floor one, Buttercup Farms, by a river like the magical creature he is, the library, and with his boyfriend
warnings: He’s rattled from almost being killed by a demon but nothing other than that.
Also as always, can switch to brackets

a. Library
No longer oozing black goo, Ronan needed a day to calm down. After a night spent listening to Gaelic music and struggling against nightmares, Ronan headed to the library. His predecessor-- him-- God, that was confusing, hadn’t left behind any books.

He grabbed some works by his favorites, Virgil and Seneca, adding Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations later. His last addition came as a surprise to him. Books on demons didn’t belong in the Lynch family household and certainly not at Aglionby. Ronan hesitated, running his fingers over the spine of one book before taking it. Just in case.

When he finally found a place to sit, he went back and forth between books, but the one on demons remained untouched for a good while.

If anyone who’d previously met him ran into Ronan, they could be forgiven for not recognizing him what with the curly dark hair, lack of tattoos, and the books.

b. Communal housing floor one

Ronan had lived with his parents and two brothers. He had also, basically lived with his best friend Gansey and a ghost, when he and either his father or Declan (or worse, both) kept butting heads. But this did not prepare him for sharing a whole floor with other people, even if one of them was Adam.

He moved as quietly as possible, worked even harder to keep control of his dreams, and did everything he could not to attract attention. Unfortunately, he was still Ronan Lynch, which meant that aside from being a messy eater, he radiated magical energy without even trying. But even if one didn’t notice that, the fact was that the angry eighteen year old with a shaved head and a tattoo was replaced by a amiable if anxious eighteen year old with dark curly hair without a tattoo in sight. Whatever his roommates thought of it, it unnerved his raven Chainsaw, who’d taken to flying away from Ronan and screeching at random intervals.

c. ~~In a van~~ Down by the River
Even without the trauma of his father’s death, Ronan was still different and, some would say, difficult. For instance, his hobbies could be considered incredibly annoying. In the case of bagpipes, Ronan had learned that the sound was something of an acquired taste. Back at Aglionby, he’d used that to his own advantage several times just to piss people off late at night. Here, he wasn’t keen on having his embarrassing hobby discovered.

Sitting by the river, tempting fate like all the heroes in the fairy tales his parents told him, Ronan serenaded anyone who came close with the unmistakable sound of the uilleann bagpipes. Even out of practice, he wasn’t bad. But not many people appreciated the music of his people, especially when he played “Mary Had a Little Lamb” just for kicks.

d. Wild Card!

[OOC: Ronan’s all over the place. Your character can find him checking out Riverview and also working at Buttercup Farm with a very distressed raven watching from a distance.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ronan had heard of odd things taking place. Something about a cup messing with time and reality. But he didn't think it had anything to do with him. In this case, forewarned was far from forearmed.

As usual, he was with Adam. There wasn't any point in Adam having a job if Ronan couldn't bug him during it. Chainsaw seemed to agree, having moved off of Ronan's shoulder so she could stand next to Adam and watch him.

Ronan leaned against the wall. He wasn't currently staring at Adam, which meant that he was working something over in his mind.

"Are you really set on this apartment cause--" Ronan didn't get the chance to finish.

The change wasn't slow but instantaneous. One moment, he was Ronan Lynch the orphan, the high school drop out, the collector of speeding tickets. Then, he was Ronan Lynch, stripped of all of that. This was the future he'd been robbed of. Ronan had a full head of black, curly hair that made him look like most other Aglionby students: dashing with a hefty dose of immature that showed in his actions and smile. His tattoo and scars were all gone. He would have been beautiful, were he not seconds away from being unmade.

Ronan crashed onto the floor. His lips were blue and his face paler than ever before. Black flowed from his ears and nose. He choked on it as he gasped desperately for air. The moment he could move his hand, he clawed at the floor in an attempt to bring himself up.

He couldn't be dead. This wasn't hell, was it? He couldn't be. No, no, he wasn't.

A lot of the time, Adam enjoyed having Ronan bother him at work. Most jobs were automatic for him by this point, nothing that required too much thought, and it was nice to have a distraction instead of thinking about all the things he needed to do after work. His responsibilities were less so here, but he'd taken up enough side-projects to keep himself busy.

There had been a lull in the conversation, which he also didn't mind. Silence with Ronan was often just as nice as talking. He was finishing up cleaning some of the tools that he'd been using, leaning comfortably against a counter as he idly teased Chainsaw with the shininess of a wrench.

It was obvious that Ronan was thinking about something, which probably meant they were going to argue. He prepared himself and pursed his lips as Ronan began, ready to refute whatever he was going to say about the apartment idea.

He didn't look over once Ronan cut himself off, but the drop startled him and he immediately set the wrench down. He would have run over instantly if not for the confusion that the sudden head of hair brought. It was only a moment of hesitation before he ran over.

"Ronan, Christ, what the―" There was something familiar about this, though. He saw the black ooze from him and suddenly he lacked for air as well. He was watching Ronan dying all over again, watching the demon kill him, which meant that it could use Adam to do its dirty work just as it had before. He coughed out a gasp and scrambled away, trying to get his hands as far from Ronan's neck as possible.

He couldn't do anything. Gansey wasn't here to save the day, Adam was useless without Cabeswater, he would have to watch Ronan die.

Wherever Ronan was -- Riverview, Quarantine, his mind whispered -- the demon wasn't here. It no longer dragged him back into unconsciousness as It choked the life from him though his neck still has red handprints around it. His lungs stopped burning and the sensation was replaced by the sudden awareness of splitting headache.

For a time, Ronan hadn't the energy to do more than gasp and scrabble for ours has in the floor.

He stared at Adam, who looked about as terrified as Ronan felt. But he couldn't watch him for long as he began to cough violently. He pressed his forehead to the floor and hacked up what darkness had oozed down his throats while he breathed. A minute or so later, he pushed himself up in a sitting position and slumped against the wall. Hand shaking, he wiped the black nothingness from his face. Still gasping and wide eyed with fear, he glanced around.

No Gansey or Opal or Blue. Just them and some raven freaking out on a workbench.

"Are you-- is everyone-- alright?"

Adam was doing his best not to look at Ronan. He had to get a hold of himself and call someone who could actually help. With all the gods and superheroes, there had to be someone who could revive a person and perform a couple exorcisms.

He was in the process of that when Ronan spoke, and he allowed himself to look over. Ronan was not dead. He was breathing and not being unmade, though he didn't look entirely well.

In fact, he looked like a different person. The hair was the biggest thing, but Adam couldn't help but notice his face was completely foreign. He seemed unguarded as a whole, and there were no lines around his mouth that indicated years of scowling. Adam wanted to move closer to him and actually help him, but he also spotted those marks around his neck.

He knew they had to be replicas of his own hands. The guilt of all those months ago sank into his stomach again. He'd somehow managed to hurt Ronan all over again without even knowing. Surely he couldn't have done that just now, but he couldn't trust himself.

Belatedly, he thought to answer Ronan's question. He looked over to Chainsaw, wishing she would help him out.

"Chainsaw's fine," he tried, which was mostly true. Adam didn't know about himself, and he figured it didn't matter. That was everyone.

He supposed this had something to do with that thing screwing with time, but Ronan didn't look that much younger, and he was pretty sure the demon had never attacked him before.

"Why do you have hair?" Probably the most important question.

Perhaps Ronan had been too quick to trust what memories and knowledge remained of Riverview. Adam's respones made so little sense that Ronan questioned if he was in purgatory after all.

"What?" Ronan reached back and touched his hair. It was just the same as ever, or it least it was until Ronan introduced the ooze into its fine strands of hair. "What kind of-- I mean Gansey and--"

He couldn't ask about Matthew. Adam would have no way of knowing if he was alright. Ronan's parents would. They were home and one of the last things he'd heard had been his father's ringtone while his friends argued.

"He was about to get himself killed."

Why didn't he know what had happened? Ronan remembered that he'd been here for months, even if he didn't remember anything in detail. That meant he should know if Gansey and his family were alive but he didn't. And Adam thought he was talking about Chainsaws?!

He couldn't deal with this. He couldn't breathe or think past his headache. If he weren't in shock, he'd scream. This Ronan had never previously lived through an event that shattered him to the core. The one Adam had known had done everything he could to hide what vulnerability he couldn't crush beneath anger. This Ronan had few coping mechanisms in place, healthy or otherwise.

Adam frowned at Ronan's hair. It wasn't like it looked bad. It was the same color as Declan's and curled like Matthew's. Ronan looked even more like the picture of Niall Lynch he'd found. He was as handsome as ever, but different in a way that unnerved him. He could tell Chainsaw was feeling the same way.

"Gansey―" He wasn't sure how to answer that. He couldn't put it past Gansey to be almost getting himself killed somewhere in the multiverse, but he was so confused. "Gansey's not here. He's fine. I think. Last I saw him was at graduation."

Which seemed like a weirdly long time ago. He scuffed his shoe on the floor, keeping his distance from Ronan both out of a concern for him and wariness of his strange appearance.

"What do you... last remember?" He seemed to know Adam, but Adam had never known him with a full head of hair.

"I was being unmade." He hated saying saying the words, let alone going through the process. "You all were arguing about letting Gansey sacrifice himself like an idiot." Ronan tried to stand but his legs gave out beneath him, still shaking from trauma, physical or mental.

Even if his body was mostly out of commission, Ronan's mind worked faster. If Gansey had graduated, then he'd lived. Or he'd sacrificed himself and Cabeswater brought him back somehow even if they hadn't been on the ley line. Realizing that alone helped Ronan breathe easier, enough that he could let out a little laugh.

"That sucked. So we made it?" Ronan finally noted how far away Adam was. "Uh Adam, the demon didn't hitch a ride. You should be good."

That didn't really explain anything. He could understand if Ronan had been sent back to that horrible day, but everything was still weird. Maybe time travel made hair grow instantly. It wouldn't be the strangest thing.

"We made it." He still hesitated. Logically, he knew if Ronan was fine then the demon was not here. And even if it were, Adam was not connected to Cabeswater anymore so it couldn't control him. But he still saw those marks on his neck. How could Ronan want Adam close when he'd just had that happen? His boyfriend was as awful at self-preservation as Gansey was.

"You... remember this place?" He carefully made his way over, kneeling down next to Ronan. He couldn't help but reach out to put his hand in Ronan's curls, and glanced over to Chainsaw. He beckoned her over. "And you're not upset about your hair?"

"Give me a break. My hair's allowed to look like shit right now." Even if he was being snitty, his tone carried far more warmth than usual. "Quarantine for Riverview? We have to stay five years. I've been here for a while, right? I remember we hang out a lot and uh--" Yeah, his feelings told him they got up to a lot more than what they'd previously done at home. "I can't remember anything specific. What happ--"

Before he could finish asking his question, Chainsaw interrupted them. She had, reluctantly, trusted in Adam and flown closer. She stopped a few feet away, moved closer. Stopped, moved closer, rinse and repeat until she was close enough to stare into Ronan's eyes.

She screeched "Kerah!" Her wings beat frantically before she flew to Adam. Landing on his shoulder, she stared at Ronan.

Ronan stared back.

"Jesus, Adam. You got a pet raven?" Ronan clearly found this amazing, even if the bird appeared to be terrified of him.

Closed to Adam Parrish

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After the Event (Also for Adam)

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C

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