[ laugh ] for your muse to laugh at something mine did. Rathie at Kid!Charles?
@mnstrvm
Charlie had been practically mute the entire evening, locked to his own thoughts that ran wickedly away from him. It had been presentable upon his countenance , seeping through sporadically at the crease of his brow, or the tip of his lips that would tremble under each anticipating memory of a world he only visited twice. He was uncertain how it worked , trying to pick away the puzzle ; a daze as he cleaned tables for the identifiable dinner ran by a mom and pop ; an elderly couple that took pity on him wandering the streets alone.
Little could even begin to conceive, they had been in contact with the local orphanage out of concern. The boy had come to them with blood drenched clothes and no recollection of how he even arrived. No one even heard of the name Manx. Yet the youth seemed broken both inside and out, as if the light only flickered back on rarely and it would draw too far in between. When it had, he could propose a cheerful, respectable even downright normal facade. As a boy his age should.
Though to their worry, he was more the broken shell of what they perceived was his former self and somewhat hostile toward men who aimed to only engage in conversation. It was clear his trust was stripped at some point and he suffered with obtaining any from anyone. A delicate case that was too intricate at the roots , it would prove impossible to get out of him, particularly for a couple nearing their eighties. As much as they obviously felt for the youth, they could not keep him.
So it was to no surprise that a patron - with how Charlie was often distant with every male there, that a gentlemen and a regular, decidedly lured his leg out in the aisle for the kid to trip over. The boy lost his footing almost instantly, crashing into a rickety old table that sat with photos of a memorable past and history of the dinner. Glass shattered upon impact , both wall and floor littered with it’s debris. Some embedded into the boy’s palm as he hit the wall and slid onto the floor. The pain more so than the sudden fling of gravity hurled out from beneath him, it was the pain that broke his daydream with a grimace to follow.
Hues darkened on the individual and with that glare simultaneously static crackled in the background on any mechanical device present. Veins of frost started to snake up across the outside window. Just behind the man and his meal that steamed in contrast to the sudden temperature drop. The oddity in such a display had been how hot it was outside, 65 degrees was nowhere near cold enough to accumulate frost. It was the barrier between worlds that had been unstable, however. It only came in a wave and only Charlie was the one who seemed to be aware of the chill. Like a door that could not be unlocked from where he stood, yet only a glimpse at the expense through keyhole .
He didn’t realize he had grappled with a shard of glass , gripping it so tight that blood poured from the grip. The thought of slitting this man’s throat was apparent at the cost of his expression, or how his entire body trembled with rage. It was only when he heard that laugh did it jolt him from the trance, tottering back to a frightened state of confusion. Hues sought the source of the laughter , he hadn’t noticed him until then. How could he have not seen this man prior, or even at all - registering him a stranger and a newcomer to the establishment.
