Waving Through A Window

There were the normal things that could go wrong: being out of their favorite tea, finding they were out of some of the art supplies they needed, finding the store to be out of the paint colors they wanted, their allergies were acting up. Then they had accidentally broke their glasses frames and had attempted to fix them with duct tap while they waited for new frames to arrive. But the thing that had pushed their already bad day over the edge was when they were bringing their newly finished painting outside to dry and tripped, landing right on the canvas and ruining the entire thing.  Rolling over, their clothes were ruined as they just laid in the grass next to their ruined canvas - their glasses having fallen back apart and were laying somewhere in the grass, Cassia couldn’t see well enough to pick them back up. “That’s it, I’m done.” they quietly announced, though really what it was they were referring to was beyond them. Maybe it was the day, maybe it was art, maybe it was life, Cassia honestly didn’t know - and then was surprised to see someone looking over them. And had probably seen the entire thing.

The last few weeks had been a blur. Hell, the last few years had been a blur, but ever since Mom had gone missing, things were especially hard to piece together. The amount of alcohol he’d been consuming on a daily basis probably didn’t help — still, December was really beginning to think it went deeper than that, and something was actually wrong with him. It was a terrifying thought, one he’d rather put off, so the cycle continued. Another drink down.

Facing the cluttered desk in his room, he turned when he heard footsteps outside of the door. “Hey there, come on in,” he spoke to the passerby with an only slightly slurred voice. “Don’t mind the mess.” (The mess being laundry, crumpled papers, chip bags and empty cans and bottles tossed all around the room, even the foot of the bed — the only place spared the chair he was currently sitting on.) “Guess I’m still not used to picking up after myself. Kind of sad when you think about it, but at least I can make an episode of Hoarders in enough time… better attention than the kind we get around town, right?”

Cassia was glad to actually see December. Out of their siblings, December was one of the ones that they actually liked and felt less anxious being around. And while things were clearly not going great for him (even though Cassia wished that they knew how to help) it was still nice to see him there in one piece.  

“No, honestly I think my room was worse when we were growing up,” Cassia admitted, trying to dance around how depressed they had gotten and how hard it was to even get out of bed, let alone thinking about cleaning, “When I finally got around to cleaning it after I got out....” they paused for a moment, not really wanting to even mention their hospitalization, “After everything, I found a completely uneaten moldy pizza under my bed.”

“Poetry is not about whether you are good or bad at it, but i wasn’t really reciting poetry,” he shrugged tiredly. “I was just saying what i felt in that moment. What i continue to feel.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Cassia said, not really knowing how to explain their point which just made them pretty sure that it wasn’t really worth making, “What’s got you feeling like that then?”

Cassia’s suggestion paints such a pretty and peaceful image, an escape from the insanity of the day (really, of the insanity from their father’s death until now). It’s as if her sibling had looked inside of her mind and discovered exactly what she needed to feel better. “Cass, you don’t know how good that sounds right now,” she smiles, relief clear on her face. 

As Belva slips off her shoes by the door, she glances over at her sibling. “I’m a tea fan, too. I mean, I try to avoid caffeine, but some teas are super tasty.” It doesn’t take long for them to get to the door to Cassia’s bedroom, and Belva lingers by the door as she thinks over tea flavored ice cream. “What kinda tea was it flavored after? That actually sounds pretty good.”

“Well luckily there’s plenty of noncaffeinated teas, plus I read somewhere once that drinking tea counts as drinking water, which I don’t really like water, so that definitely makes it easier,” they admitted with a smile, “But the ice cream was green tea flavored. It was only offered for like two weeks though at the ice cream place I got it at. Though I’m sure that you can find some somewhere.”

settling back on his legs, looking up at them with a small sad smile on his face. he wasn’t surprised to see people approaching him anymore, it had become almost a part of his everyday life. constantin shrugged, nodding his head in reply, fixing the flowers together once more. 

“not write, but i did come up with it on the spot. i suppose feelings sometimes bring out the words in me.”

.

“Well, I wrote poetry for a little while.  I wasn’t really that good at it, but I’m pretty sure that still counts as writing it,” Cassia offered, trying to give him a small smile, “It doesn’t really mean that you type it out or put a pen to paper.”

“there’s a museum for this sort of thing? wait, you work at a museum?” erebus asked quickly, thinking about said museum. a museum that answered the questions his little childhood self hadn’t even able to explore on his own, that made him wonder. what else was out there that would speed up the process of getting to know himself, because he’d begun to get bored quickly. nothing seemed to keep his interest for longer than an hour, always fidgeting before moving to hit something. “mmm’nothing.”

.

“Yeah, I work at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham. Or...I did....or kind of still do. I’m on a leave of absence while all of the Dad stuff gets worked out,” Cassia explained, “But that piece was either about the amount of junk in candy or about consumerism, I don’t really remember, I just remember that the statues themselves were pretty cool.”

…

Like a small child distracted from a skinned knee by the promise of sweets, Belva brightens slightly at Cassia’s response. “Ooh, he sounds like he could be a winner. I would love that.” Her Instagram followers had recommended the show, knowing how much she loved romance movies and television shows, but not knowing how weak her stomach was. 

The matter of fact way that Cassia says they know she couldn’t have committed the crime she was brought in for is a further comfort, and that warmth rises in her chest once more as she speaks with her sibling. Picking herself up from the rather uncomfortable front steps, the blonde feels a bit better after running into Cassia, and at the prospect of a sweet treat. “It’s super tasty. Haven’t tried a flavor I don’t like yet. Well, except coffee.” Belva pushes the front door open, holding it open behind her for Cassia, the house rather shadowy in front of them.

.

“Maybe we can do that now? Get the ice cream and go hide out in my room and just watch clips,” Cassia offered, giving their sister a smile, “Plus I doubt that anyone would come looking for you in my room, so if you don’t want to deal with a lot of people asking you about everything, it gives you an option to hide,” they suggested. Really, Cassia would be hiding if what had happened to Belva had happened to them, so it seemed like it was a good progression. 

“Well I don’t really like coffee either - the flavor or the drink,” they admitted as they followed Belva, “I prefer tea. Once I did have tea flavored ice cream though, and it was really good.”

Dollhouse as The Umbrella Academy 

Part 5: The Passionate 

July - Leonard Peabody 

Bluebell - Helen Cho 

Chloe - Jill 

Chandler - Keechie 

Ace - Elliot 

Angel - The Suspicious Woman 

Ashante - Odessa 

Dollhouse as The Umbrella Academy

Part 4: The Innocents

Adina - Detective Patch 

Alex - Detective Beaman

Constantin - Raymond Chestnut 

Florence K. - Sissy 

Nathaniel - Dave 

Harley - Grace 

Dollhouse as The Umbrella Academy

Part 3: The Parental Figures + The Commission 

Vidal - Reginald 

Florence A. - Mom

Remy - Pogo

Azra - The Handler 

Demir - AJ

Cecilya - Dot 

Neek - Herb 

Dollhouse as The Umbrella Academy

Part 2: The Assassins (...And Agnes)

Verity - Hazel

Miles - Cha Cha 

Max -  Agnes 

River - Lila

Erebus - Axel

Estelle - Otto 

Emilio - Oscar 

Dollhouse as The Umbrella Academy 

Part 1: The Academy 

Horatio - Luther 

Irma - Diego 

Graciela - Allison 

December - Klaus 

Roman - Five 

Cassia - Ben 

Belva - Vanya 

settling back on his legs, looking up at them with a small sad smile on his face. he wasn’t surprised to see people approaching him anymore, it had become almost a part of his everyday life. constantin shrugged, nodding his head in reply, fixing the flowers together once more. 

“not write, but i did come up with it on the spot. i suppose feelings sometimes bring out the words in me.”

“I mean...I attempted to be a poet once. I wasn’t very good, but I’m pretty sure that still counts as writing it,” Cassia offered, though they weren’t really sure if they were making much sense, “But I understand. That’s kind of how I am with my paintings.”

Belva blinks, lips forming a pout at Cassia’s response. “You mean I can’t even like McDreamy?” Perhaps Cassia had meant to comfort her, to assure her that she hadn’t actually been missing out on much, but her frazzled mind just registers as disappointed. 

Like a small child, however, her distraction is easily pulled away from the thought, eyes widening slightly at her sibling’s comment. “Cass, that’s so nice,” she responds, voice slightly odd in tone as she resists the urge to tear up all over again at her sibling’s kind action. Eyes focusing on the bag, she moves to get up off of where she’d been slumped on the front steps, ice cream as good a motivator as any. After the day she’d had, she felt as if she could eat an entire carton of the stuff, even if there’s a voice in the back of her head that sounds suspiciously like the nutritionist her father had taken her to warning her about all of those calories. “You wanna have a bowl with me?”

.

“No, but there is McSteamy and he’s the better option,” Cassia shrugged, though really it didn’t matter because Grey’s Anatomy went extremely downhill, “If you want I can show you some clips without the blood and guts if you want to see,” they suggested, hoping that was a way to distract their sister from what was probably a traumatic morning. 

“I mean, I guess, I just figured you’d need something considering everyone knows you couldn’t have done that,” Cassia said, after all while they didn’t trust most of their siblings, they did trust Belva. She just didn’t seem like she’d be able to do something like that, she was too much of a good person. “And yeah, I’d love to have a bowl with you. I haven’t ever tried vegan ice cream before.”

AWWWWWWW THANK YOU

in front of him lay the holy grail of holy grail. every piece carefully selected from the ten pound bag he had bought. he had filled a couple of bowls across his apartment with the ones he’d deemed subpar, knowing that he wouldn’t let them go to waste. now sitting down on a bench somewhere in nature he began to unwrap one of them, eyes calculating it slowly. he’d posed this question to himself when he was a tiny child, wondering how true the commercial was. the center was filled with incredible chocolate taffy, making the wait worth it. however, it wasn’t the center that mattered at all, o no.

“what truly matters is how many licks it takes to get to it,” he whispered to himself, giving the tootsie pop its first lick. emilio had told him to find himself, to decide who he truly was rather than who he forced himself to be. unsure about whether such an idea could become true, because he’d been this way forever. “what if i’ve become what i’ve created.”

“You know at the museum I work at, we had an exhibit come through that kind of worked on that question, in a weird kind of way.  It was very fringe art, but still kind of cool,” Cassia said, though the more that they spoke, the more they would be sure that Erebus didn’t really care.  Not that anyone would really care about that, they told themself, “But what do you mean?”