"so you had the old sniparroo and got to read from the torah at 14..or is it 15? fuck if i know. i know it like 12 or so for girls. so i guess that old thing about girls maturing faster than boys is true." erich starts this off as a joke,but his laughter fades. in this case,a woman did mature faster than he did. he's still kicking around just dandy and this man's mother was dead. erich sort of chuckles along with micah and looks around as well. ipswich was pretty far away from the urban sprawl and decay of london. there was no elsie would have seemed like the most glamorous person in town,even if she had toned down in her later years and it sounded like she really didnt. well,other than becoming an actual and decent mother. the woman erich knew was about as far from that as possible. but... maybe people change. even if he didnt. once he took leave of this man,erich had some thinking to do. that much was sure. "well,the adicts are from here and i think they're the oldest touring punk rock band with the original line up. ipswich has that. i'm frankly disappointed there arent more people in bowler hats round here. still cant see her as a mother,but it looks like she did a bang up job. she was a sweet person..even if she probably never took you on night raids to destroy public property. "erich laughs softly. micah seemed to turn out fine. he hadnt tried to stab him yet,so elise either taught him right...or taught him to lure people into false security THEN stab them. "she looked happy when she performed,even when we had like 10 people in a crowd. thats a the mark of a professional." erich told micah with a sad smile.

erich frowned slightly at the assessment of derek. but he understood,or at least the proper words did. it may not have been the most fun choice,but sometimes one should do what is best for their offspring. he had never had to make this decision,his own parents certainly didnt. but in a way,he could understand through erica. she put off finding a real partner until she had found just the right one. if gretchen wasnt amazing,erica would never have involved her in takara's life... jesus,was ada making the right decision to bring him back into marlena's life? maybe he had changed a little towards the better. "real life certainly sucks when it muscles in. if it wasnt for the need for a safe choice,dull people would remain single forever. " erich said,trying to make as light as he could of this. it was certainly getting more and more personal for micah. the old days would have been a mystery to him,but these times were probably very clear. erich had a pretty witty observation on just what caroline was to elsie. but he wasnt about to make a sex based joked about this kid's dead mother. but erich was sure that nobody in the history of man was ever fucked properly by a man named derek. now a caroline that also sold drugs? that was a far better prospect in that department. "caroline could have been a tiny taste of the old life that life with derek didnt deliver. unless she was a full service drug dealer with a focus on customer service,i think she had to be more. especially if she visited in the hospital and was the only one."erich said optimistically. he didnt like where this conversation was going. it was fun anymore to get towards the end of this story. his curiosity was up and he felt now was the right time to ask. "if someone had told me,i'd have come to see her...so...wo what finally got her?"

it was tragic circumstances for sure,but erich nodded and shook micah's hand. " mr micah,i presume." he said with great flourish.



ooc: now im picturing elsie and caroline as the women from absolutely fabulous.

Edited by user 29 March 2020 03:03:12(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

"its a fucked up world,so whatever gets you through it without being those westborough baptist fucks." erich replies with a shrug. he wasnt one to really pay any mind to religion until it was used against people. he wasnt even sure exactly how much it played a part in marlena's life. he knew she went to temple every now again. "plus sticking with it,you do get a cool hat.so you got that going too micah." erich grins. he may not be into religion,but he loved the trappings of it all. he was a man that for all his simplicity,he also loved pomp and circumstance. erich laughed loudly when hearing about elise getting arrested while micah was in school. "that certainly sounds like her. a belly full of fire in that one. she wasnt one to take shit from anyone.so that had to be either horrifying,or gave you lots of street cred at school. the ladies do love a bad boy."
he says with a wink. there were certain things in life where ones parents getting arrested would be cool. slugging a rude man? cool. getting busted with meth while turning tricks? not cool. erich did like that micah seemed to see his mother as someone who did like the odd bit of adventure and not someone who was a screw up. some children may not be so forgiving of the idea of their parent getting arrested.

when the method of how elise met her end is revealed,erich sighs and looks out at the water. briefly the thought of how much the fuel the duke was going to cost crosses his mind. it was better than thinking of the person he knew as a vivacious 19 year old meeting her fate in a hospital bed. yellow and with hoses running in and out of her. liver failure wasnt a pretty way to go. "god damn. i am sorry." erich says to micah softly. how many gallons of liquor had the pair taken in during the short time they had known each other? how many had erich had since? yet,he was here,right as rain and seemingly in the prime of life? life had a funny way of choosing who lived and who died. hell,erich was half drunk right now. "music in one of the few professions in the world where doing it drunk is considered fine. fucking awful way to go. alcoholic sounds so negative. it wouldnt be right to describe her so." erich says sadly.

erich shoves his hands back in his pockets. the shorts have such a strange feeling as opposed to his usual jeans. the coins and knife seem to bounce about more freely in the loose material. he answers micah with a little nod. "erica and nina would remember her. nobody else would. karoliena didnt enter the picture till a bit later." erich says with another sigh. he was sure this was very hard for micah. erich knew it made him feel his own mortality. even if he knew full well that he would live until 2077. he was slated to die on the 100th anniversary of elvis presley's death. "not to be a bastard,but if she was talking about us...i'm not a hard man to contact. as the kids say, my dm's are open."

"i can appreciate that. i mean there are dereks in this world for a reason,right?" erich says with a little grin. he figures micah's change is really due to the fact it was easier to speak of his mother during the fun years,not the decline. he also assumes this was micah's way of saying elise didnt want to be seen in that state by people who knew her back then. erich would be the same way. he wouldnt want people to know when life was having its way with him and he wasnt the person they remembered. "that life would be hard to bring a child up in. the parents i do know in this business still seem to have one parent that stays home more than the other. karoliena has cassie,erica has gretchen,i have ada. though i think we're still hammering out particulars in the last one." erich tells micah optimistically to support his mother making the right choice. she sounded like she did a perfect job as anyone could. probably better than most since she had a few marriages. erich doesnt really put the dates together. "well,i guess that's as a good a reason as any to leave. she should have said something though, we could have had a going away ice cream social or something. we were all degenerates,but we'd never give a pregnant woman alcohol." erich chuckles. he assumed an ice cream social would be the perfect going away party. he'd certainly want one.

erich didnt interrupt micah as he spoke,as it got clearer and clearer exactly where he was taking this. when it was finally out,erich stopped his strolling and stood in place for a moment. while it was entirely possible,there was no way it was POSSIBLE. lets get serious here,everyone was fucking like rabbits in those days.if it were possible,there'd be a lot more kids running around,right? right? erich chose his words carefully as it didnt want it sound like he was disparaging this man's mother and a woman that played a large part in erich's early life. " i...i .. how could she know? neither of us were exactly exclusive to each other. we were close,but we didnt have that sort of relationship,micah." erich explains,now really wanting to get out of here. this wasnt fun anymore. he had no want of other adult children. he had dustyn and that is how things were. randy did the same thing for him,erich did the same for dustyn. that is just how life is. there isnt a weird guy who is erich's biological son. the guy didnt even look like him.

erich's eyes narrow more and more as micah speaks. there is a probable chance that he is correct. he and elise were rather....frequent. so maybe she is..was correct. but...there was a smaller and uglier thought growing in erich. what if none of this is true and erich was the best option to send micah to? erich couldnt help feel lied to over this and elise wasnt here to discuss this with. " well..." erich starts,not quite as jovial as he was before. his demeanor could be described as being more offended than anything. " a lie of omission is still a lie. you know what? i'll fucking buy that she's right about me. while not exclusive,there probably wasnt time for anyone else. but...20 years? again,i'm not a hard man to get a hold of. i frankly do feel lied to." erich states. he doesnt want to take his bitterness out on this man,but its getting harder not to.

"well,she wasnt wrong there. " erich says with a humorless laugh. "i guess your mother had the maturity to see that writing on the wall. i can barely do the dad thing now." he says with a shrug and looking back towards the duke. doing the math in his head,its going to cost about 116,000 dollars to fuel the duke. diesel is far easier to come by than the uranium needed for the reactor. who'd have thought sketchy soviet era reactors would be inefficient. more to the point at hand,he had forgotten it was only a few months after elsie had passed. it'd be a real dick move to lash out at micah.for elsie's sake,he would not. she must have had her reasons not to tell erich. maybe the more time passed,maybe she saw the type of person erich was and didnt want her son around that. erich couldnt blame her for that. still,maybe she should have left micah's parentage out of the picture. will erica ever tell takara that some boyfriend of nicole shade's was the father? maybe. but erich couldnt see how it would ever be important. "maybe she did make the right decision by keeping the secret. i guess i cant fault her when you put it that way." erich says,now finally studying his son. yeah,they could go the route of a paternity test,but elise was wild,but not THAT wild. if she said it was him,then by god it was him."i...guess we go back to what we were doing before? i dont think playing catch out here on the docks is really going to do much. you have your girlfriend to get back to,i have a girlfriend to get back to..." erich says while trailing off.

"if i was reading you a bedtime story,i'll be damned if its that one with the kid and his mom. the cover has a little kid in a bathroom. fuck that nonsense. once reading that is a enough. " erich says firmly. years ago some one bought it for marlena. erich read it once and threw it away directly after. "unless you have a tiny kid. you probably wont know the book." he quickly adds. it did hit erich that micah was about the age he was when he...uknowingly helped install micah. jeez. they were just kids. hell,he was older than erich and erica were when they had their little incident. erich really didnt know what to do. it wasnt like he and elise would've ever been more than what they had been to each other. especially since it seemed like she grew up and he didnt. erich paused and thought awhile about what micah was asking. his first instinct was to tell him absolutely not..but the young man had a hell of a time and it'd only been a few months since his mother died. erich could be cruel,but he couldnt be that cruel. he'd agree for now and eventually micha would lose interest. easy peasy. "yeah. you know how to reach me. i dont have a phone that works as a phone. so.." erich trails off and holds up his phone with a shrug. it was in rough shape and had the microphone and camera taped over. in spite of using the internet ,erich was scared of robot overlords spying on him. " i get why you didnt message me this. its probably better you didnt. i'd probably have told you to fuck off." erich laughs,but its clear he is serious. its far easier for him to be cruel when he isnt face to face with someone. "i guess you should know you have two half sisters. marlena von wannemaker and eris summers. jesus christ,you'd think for someone rendered sterile from the duke i'd have less god damned kids."




no. seriously. fuck this book.

Serenity was almost astounded to find herself in this position. Of course her and Ryan had known each other for years and had remained cordial after their date but after all of the aftermath of the new few months to come, they had both parted ways. At least on a romantic front. She had no ill feelings towards him and was a big believer in timing and everything happening when it was supposed to happen so when the two were exchanging messages back and forth, she was interested to see where this might go. Now, Serenity had her long list of men she had heart broken or had a broken heart from but she never let that deter her. When they had a chance meeting at the FCAs, she didn't think much of it but now a few weeks later they were meeting up for drinks. She wasn't sure if they were meeting as casual friends or if it was supposed to be something more but she wasn't going to let that be on her mind all night. As far as she was concerned, she considered a friend.

She decided for herself that she didn't want to ruin things by dressing way too extravagant for just a night out and found herself in a black mid drift with lace at the bottom of it and a red and black plaid skirt that was high enough to expose some of her skin but low enough to cover what needed to be covered. She also had a black leather jacket hanging around her arms since sometimes the weather in LA was unpredictable. She had recently chopped her hair and was sporting a cute wavy bob. When she arrived at their agreed meeting place, she walked inside to see if she could spot her accomplice for the evening. As soon as she does, she turns toward him and walks over, a wide smile creeping on her lips. "Well, hello there. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for long?" Serenity had one of those smiles where not only did her lips physically turn upward but her eyes also smiled along, making her look like a happy-go-lucky teenager sometimes.

Serenity chuckled a little before hugging Ryan back. "Well...yeah you're right. I wouldn't be honoring the tradition if I came any earlier." It slipped her mind how tall Ryan was, but to be fair Serenity was only 5'4" so everyone she met was taller than her. She was pretty small in nature but she made up for that with her personality. When Ryan complimented her outfit, she pushed a piece of her hair behind her ear, grinning. "Thank you. You look wonderful yourself." She sits down in front of him at the booth, letting her jacket sit comfortably on her shoulders. Even though the pair hadn't been out together in a long time, she didn't feel that awkwardness of meeting someone again after a few years. It felt as though they hadn't missed a beat really. Though, they had been conversing through text messages so that could also be a reason but she thought it was nice to have that air of familiarity between them.

"No, you definitely are not the easiest person to plan things with but I do love the challenge." She giggles a little before looking around the cozy venue they were in. "I don't think I've ever been here before. I honestly do not come to LA as much as a person who lives near here might. You'll have to help me get better acquainted." She smirks at him, almost giving him an invitation to allow them to meet up more often if things went smoothly tonight. As much as most celebrities would say they avoid the tabloids, Serenity didn't. She didn't mind reading headlines about her or her friends and either laughing thinking how completely off base they were or scratching her head to figure out the truth. Ryan was no stranger to tabloids of course and she did buy into the whole 'bad boy' image he as painted in but she had much more interest in figuring him out on her own. Or at least attempting to.

"Oh, I have a feeling there's never a dull moment when you're around." Serenity laughs shaking her head. Serenity herself was someone who enjoyed a good time and didn't mind not playing it safe if it meant she would get more a thrill.

She noticed his reaction when she mentioned them possibly spending more time together in the future and it made her even more calm. It was a good sign that he did enjoy her company even if it had been so long since they were physically together. They did tend to have some pretty interesting and entertaining conversations so she was certain that they would always be able to at least just talk. "Ah, I'm glad. Now I might have a good reason for visiting now. Do you live in LA or close by or..?" The thing that most people realize when talking Serenity is she isn't shy to ask questions if she really wants to know the answer. She always felt like things would get nowhere if everyone was scared of asking questions all the time. When he makes a joke about her age, she can't help but to smirk. She was well aware of the medias portrayal of him having a thing for younger women. "Ha, ha," she said. "Very funny. Actually, I was like 22. Plus the drinking age in Korea is lower anyway so I know my way around a bottle." She tilts her her head, giving a playful smile and chuckle.