Mr Marble - Blog Posts

Chapter Two: We fucked up.

Part 1

My ao3

That same scenario runs through his head over and over on repeat the entire walk home, and it was bad enough that he was out of cigs or else he'd be turning to crying or something.

It's all he's thinking.

𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘰, 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵. 𝘛𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘢, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘦𝘵 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵. 𝘑𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵, 𝘈𝘭𝘳𝘰. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘬𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴? 𝘈 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘵?

Sighing, he drags his feet over and over to get home with a deep pout and frown on his lips. He just wants to go home. He doesn’t want this lifestyle anymore. Not the fame or… not the fame it brings. He's not happy. It's doesn't feel right to be here, controlling and being supposed to look after people when he can't even look after himself. Twenty eight years old and he can't even do that: take care of himself. It's pathetic.

__

Opening the door to he and Manjusha's shared.. apartment(?), he drags himself inside with slumped shoulders and a pout. Making the smart decision to at least close the door before slowly trudging his way to the kitchen after stopping by the couch and grabbing a blanket to tightly wrap around himself like his mom used to - But it's /his/ blanket, his worn to softness, rocket blanket that nobody else can touch, not even Manny- before trudding all the way to the fridge. Cool-aid seems like the only thing Manjusha will let him drink these days, after what happened.. he doesn’t think the scar will fade. But at least it wasn’t all that bad.. right? Right-?

But a loud clatter coming from his bedroom tears him out of his thought, already in a bad enough mood given today, not to mention that he's all out of red cool aid.

Taking in a sharp and shakey breath -don’t fucking cry, you pussy- he waddles a little closer to where the sound had come from. His upset pout quickly gone when hearing the commotion, just to be replaced by a scared kid. Arlo may be an odd 6ft something, but helped by the day he's had with all the sounds, bright coulors and lights, he though it was safe enough for him to put his gaurd down even just for a little bit. But he was wrong. He's always wrong.

So instead of walking closer, he quietly whimpers to himself. Stood frozen in the middle of the kitchen with a kids blanket wrapped tight around him and unshed tears in his eyes, he watches as what made the loud sound walks out of his room.. he can't move from the spot he's in, there's so many monsters it could be..

𝘧𝘶- 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵, 𝘔𝘴. 𝘉𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪'𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘪 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘥-

And oh.

It's…. Dave.

"Ah- shit. I /seriously/ need to ask Arlo what the hell that is-"

Oh.

Of all people, It's Dave who has to see a scared, younger looking Arlo stood terrified in his kitchen. Eyes glasses over with what could be tears, or just that childlike way his eyes get when seeing something particular. Not that he'd know exactly, but he's seen it first hand, and yep- okay. He's crying.

"Uh, shit, hey man. It's- hey, it's okay. I wasn't trying to rob you guys-" and, okay. Internally he's cursing himself for not parking his car out front, but he didn't know this would happen, okay??? He wad just trying to do something kind, and..

"I am NOT doing that, are you kidding me??? Look, Sasha-"

"No, Dave, shut UP. /You/ are going to fix this, and /you/ are going to cheer him up if it costs you fucking everything just because I can’t be there for him. You're basically like an older brother to Arlo" Sasha exclaims while looking at Dave through her glammed out mirror, trying to get 'these damn lashes on-'

"I have known him for two MONTHS! How does that make me- I'm just not. That guy fucking hates me and I'm not going to go babysit him because he can't take care of himself"

And oh did that hit something in Sacha.

Tightening the grip on her tweazers, Sasha visibly shakes in anger with a glare as she turns in her stool. Trying and failing to fully control herself as she stands up, dropping her prized tweazers and poking Dave hard in the chest when face to face.

"Arlo is, /NOT/ a fucking child" she grits, voice thinly avoiding the tone of pure murder before continuing.

"That boy has been through so fucking much just to be here, and don't think for a /second/ that he's keeping you here out of pity and not because he's the sweetest fucking person you'll ever meet. That 'Manchild' is who's giving you a fucking job and you're going to help him when I can't. Say no one more fucking time and you can see what it's like being in a coma for twenty years. Got it?" she says lowly through gritted teeth as she looks Dave dead in the eye. Shit she's gotten closer-

"Yes. Yeah- I- I've got it. Got it." He says with shaken breath and a stiff nod acompanied with a tight smile to sell that he knows Sasha's being seriously, and that he much appreciates being alive once she mentioned it.

And with that, she nods and steps back enough for Dave to realise he needs to breath. Not realising he'd been holding his breath.

"Good. You better make sure he's okay, I'm not fucking kidding /Dave/." Sasha spits as she backs up, putting on a fake smile after checking her hair in the mirror and throwing the thin strap of her bag over he shoulder. Spitting out his name like it was some sort of poison she didn't want on her breath anymore.

Yeah, yeah, whumptober with your favorite characters, yeah.. what about BRCU?? Sick Arlo, all at home trying to make mac 'n cheese before slumping down on the couch to feel better?? Tissues all over the ground, he doesn't know what he's doing, he hasn't been this sick in.. ever. His fever is high, nobody bothers to worry when he doesn't show up at the studio because it's a good day when he does show up. He doesn't know why he feels hot and cold at the same time, maybe he's dying? It's his best guess.

Maybe 2 days go by, Manjusha's wherever, maybe at work. And maybe Sasha eventually shows up, walks right on in because the door was left open and unlocked. Maybe she calls Arlos name a few times, get a sad sniff in response. Just maybe, she finds a sad, red nosed, sick Arlo huddled up in his rocketship blanket with enough tissues surrounding him to be a fire hazard and a half, looking more tired than usual. More... pathetic.

(Picture below is the scene for reference, more all over the place like. Just replace Ms.Bory with sasha :)) (NOT A SHIP BY THE WAY!! She's just worried)

(Also posted to me ao3(@Arloooh), and I hope to write it out fully there soon enough:))

"Hi, um, i'm Arlo and I'm looking for my parents. Do you think you could help me?"

Just Arlo walking out into the roads looking for his parents after being 'asleep' for 20 years, and meeting Manjusha. Her helping him and seeing how childlike he is in while watching TV and eating all sorts of things packed with sugar. I can't stop staying on the thought that, yes, Arlos now 26 (at the time) but must still have such a childlike mind from 'sleeping' through so much life and experiences. But then we skip to 2 years later, no longer is the childlike Arlo that first walked into the Tv30 studio, but someone completely different on the outside that had to grow and 'man up' in such little time and pretend to be so adult so quick. But on the inside? He's just a kid. A kid looking for his parents.

He had to go from 6 to 26 (and now 28) in a matter of months? (Mentally that is) along with trying to find his parents and being is all senses of the phrase, a completely different person than who he was before the incident. A mental age of SIX. And now he's supposed to act like he's got it all together? Go get a job? The kid was six just moments ago to him, but now he's a grown man. In matters of an instant to him. I can't even imagine the out-of-place-ness that he would have felt, does feel, so lost completely and just seeking out to find his parents, and then boom: 'adult' and going around smoking and drinking just because he's an adult now and that's what adults do.

You can SEE that he's still so young to himself in the gif when he first meets Manjusha, god It makes me want to give him a hug so bad.

Age regression wouldn't even be able to begin how he must feel, I just want to read something where Arlo finally gets the comfort and time to be like a kid that he needs :(

I can link the 2 or 3 fics I've found that Include comfort and time to be a kid again for Arlo if anyone is looking for something like that to read!

Just thinking about Arlo and how scared and sad he looked in that scene when he wakes up and the first thing he sees is Ms. Bory running over to his side to comfort him after being in a coma for 20 years. Poor guy didn't know how old he was, where he was, where his parents were, and what happened after he got hit in the head :(

The last thing he seen was his parents fighting, the last things he seen of his parents was them fighting

Waking up in his childhood room with all his teenage, and childhood years gone by; birthday cards left on his nightstand with the same wallpapers and bedroom he had when he was just a kid; the only sense of normality and comfort that he has. He's just a kid.

I'll never get over how bad Arlo's got it, and it makes me so sad that there's only 2 or 3 fics out there that highlight Arlo's childish tendencies and antics, how how struggles mentally or how sad he must be from having such a huge reality shift from being six to 26 and now 28. He's only been awake for 2 years and he just wants to go back to sleep :(