Ask and you shall receive, dear readers. Finn’s paperwork arrives, unimpeded, to Charlie, who attempts to read it for the first time. This is only a small part of Finn’s WRU paperwork; there is much more to come because I enjoy a slow-burn reveal. Tag list at the bottom. Please enjoy!
warnings | bbu, wru, wru paperwork; invasion of privacy, personal information, details about family life; angst, memory loss, emotional stuff.
~*~*~
Charlie weighed the envelope in his hands. It was larger, heavier, thicker than he expected it to be. It had arrived by special courier that morning, wrapped in plain brown paper and addressed to him. Finn had answered the door and brought it to his room for him. Charlie’s gut twisted. At least the package bore no mark of WRU.
At least Finn couldn’t read.
There was a very slim veneer of respectability in that gratitude. Charlie’s nose curled up in self-disgust. He didn’t know how he’d begin to explain his reasons to Finn if he did know what the envelope held. He didn’t know how he’d explain being in possession of it without telling him at all. He didn’t know how to convince himself to open the folder.
That’s all it was. A brand new file folder labeled in crisp, black handwriting Ruvenacht, 394286 “Finn.”
He ran his thumb over the edges of the pages like it was a deck of cards. There was so much here, just under his fingers. Charlie bit deeply into his lower lip, casting a wary glance at the ceiling of the music room. He thought he was hearing footsteps. He wasn’t. Mercedes was at school, his father at work and his mother out shopping with his grandmother. Finn had gone still and quiet this morning, a sheen of sweat showing on his forehead in the telltale signs of an oncoming migraine. Charlie had sent him to bed after pushing a pain pill into his palm, and Finn hadn’t argued. He’d given him a small, grateful smile.
He had a nice smile.
He wouldn’t smile at what Charlie was doing now.
His finger caught a paperclip hanging from the folder’s front. Inhaling deeply, holding it until his lungs burned, Charlie flipped it open.
A photograph looked up at him. A young man with soft looking hair, a smattering of freckles and a brush of sunburn sat on his cheeks and nose. A gray sweater stretched across his shoulders and biceps. His eyes were bright, his head tilted giving him a curious look.
Charlie swallowed roughly, his throat suddenly dry and sticky. He had the same smile. The same small, slightly crooked, soft as homemade marshmallow smile. He braved a glance at the page opposite. A name. He needed a name.
Previous Alias: Ezra Anselm Southerns
He’d been 21 two years ago. He’d be 23 years old in two days.
Charlie swallowed again, finding it no easier than the first time. He clasped his hands in his lap, his legs straddling his piano bench, and bent forward to read. He couldn’t tell the difference between abdomen muscles clenching to keep him upright or keep the nausea down.
DATE OF ACQUISITION: 01.16.20XX
TIME OF ACQUISITION: 09:48.00 AM
LOCATION ASSIGNED: FACILITY 004
SUBJECT: 394286
PREVIOUS ALIAS: Ezra Anselm Southerns
AGE: 21 years old
DATE OF BIRTH: 01.07.19XX
HAIR: Reddish-brown
EYES: Hazel-green
HEIGHT: 5’11’’
WEIGHT: 147lbs
SEXUALITY: Gay; no current relationship but sexually active.
DESIGNATION: Domestic, specialty care training (*see Training)
KNOWN SKILLS: mechanical engineer, former R.A., search/rescue protocols, field first aid, advanced first aid, cooking.
HOBBIES: antique repair, historic mechanic reproduction, hiking, swimming (competitive swimmer in high school),
KNOWN CONCERNS: No known concerns. Recommending preliminary mental and physical evaluation before and after IV drip. Subject appears to be suppressing emotional distress.
KNOWN IMMEDIATE FAMILY: Joseph Southerns (father), Rosalie Kessler (mother), Conrad Southerns (brother, twin), Linnea Southerns (sister). Family contact information was given voluntarily, “just in case.”
OTHER KNOWN FAMILY: Extended family not asked about at this time. Commentary made regarding familial disapproval of the impending divorce.
METHOD OF ACQUISITION: Voluntary, walk-in
ACQUISITION DETAILS: Subject arrived shortly after opening for the morning, asked to meet an acquisition agent. In meeting subject detailed current quality of life and a desire to “walk away from it.” Subject is an engineering student at a nearby university, described himself as “too involved” in campus life; has a number of friends in his program and clubs.
Claims to be a good student; works at a local cafe and repairs antique machines (clockwork, music boxes, record players, gramophones, etc.). Subject produced a mechanical bird from his coat pocket — claims to have made it out of clockwork himself, chirps and hops along table; very impressive if true.
His family — parents, two siblings, extended family — lives on the west coast. Catholic, traditional. Mother is adherent; subject says him, his siblings, and father are not. Parents are divorcing and distracted; subject did not comment further. Subject and twin do not get along. Claims only his sister will miss him.
Family and friends are not aware of his decision. Family and friends are not aware of his whereabouts. Cellphone was turned over voluntarily. Subject does not show signs of exhaustion, injury, inebriation, or visible mental illness. Subject turned over folder of medical and identification information (accompanying this form). Subject is being recommended for mental evaluation as well as physical evaluation before and after I.V. drip.
SIGNATURE PROVIDED VOLUNTARILY, SUBJECT NOT SEDATED FOR SIGNING. SUBJECT SHOWED NO VISIBLE SIGNS OF INJURY AT TIME OF SIGNING.
CONTRACT SIGNATURE: Ezra Anselm Southerns
CONTRACT SIGNED: Jan. 16th 20XX
PRESENT AT TIME OF SIGNING: Handler Nora Khan. Attorney Sabrina Morales, WRU Legal Counsel. Attorney Elle Hickman, WRU Assistant Legal Counsel.
I, Ezra Anslem Southerns, consent to being filmed throughout my evaluation process and contract signing. My consent has been given voluntarily. I attest I am of sound mind and body, that I have not used drugs or alcohol in at least 12 hours, and that I am over the age of majority. E.A.S.
Signed: Ezra Anslem Southerns
CURRENT LOCATION: Medical Eval., room 2
ASSIGNED HANDLER: Handler Nora Khan
ASSIGNED MEDICAL: Dr. Insung Cho
Charlie took in a shaking breath, closing his eyes. His palm rested flat over the page on top. He’d made it through two whole pages. There were at least thirty more -- maybe even more than that.
He didn’t know what he was expecting. He didn’t know how he expected himself to take this well.
So much of Finn -- Ezra, he repeated internally, trying to commit it to memory -- lay inside this stack and all it’s text. A whole life reduced to black ink and white computer paper. So much that Charlie could swear he felt a pulse beating through his skin.
He had chosen this. Had walked in to walk out of his own life.
Charlie’s skin felt numb. His hips ached and he shifted on the piano bench.
To any passerby, he was studying sheet music. No one bothered him when he was wrapped up in his music; not even Mercedes, who was developing a taste for posting him all over her social media, pretending that they didn’t hate each other’s guts. Pretending that Finn was just a sweet friend for comments and likes.
Charlie coughed in a closed fist and reached for his phone. He opened it, found his way to the internet browser, then froze. His fingers hung over the digital keyboard, the letters daring him to type something.
Ezra Anslem Southerns was his first instinct. A strange name. An old fashioned name. A deliberate sort of name, which was something he knew a little something about having been saddled with Charles Augustus Ruvenacht.
What his fingers spelled out in the search bar was Anselm name Catholic.
He stared at the words, brow creasing in confusion. Maybe his brain was finally getting in on the avoidance tactics; a feeble attempt at protecting himself from his own ill-advised curiosity. When the page loaded, an older many in red robes with a golden shepherd’s crook stared back up at him.
Saint Anselm of Canterbury
Charlie couldn’t shake the feeling that it meant something. It had meant something to someone twenty-three years ago, almost to the day.
~*~*~
tags | @vickytokio @boxboysandotherwhump @deluxewhump @mylifeisonthebookshelf @melancholy-in-the-morning @itstrueiwasthewraithberry @whumpthisway @wolfeyedwitch @thecyrulik @whump-for-all-and-all-for-whump @warm-my-whumpee-heart @winedark-whump (let me know if you’d like +/- to the tag list, thank you!)
