Dealing With Loss [after classes]

[momslilassassin]

"Hey, everyone," Ben said, smiling around the room. "We'll keep this short because the Homecoming Fair has really astral free food and my grandfather in a dunk tank, and so isn't to be missed."

He crossed his legs out in front of him. "I guess the question I want to ask today is what brought you all here to this group? I'm not really one for wallowing in the past if I can avoid it, but I've been in Fandom long enough to realize that I'm not the only person without certain family members, you know?" He smiled. "And there are certainly more people who've lost people than are in this group, so what drew you here?"

He tried to meet each person's eyes individually. "If you want to talk about it. I'm not going to push. We can also just sit around and drink coffee and eat ice cream."

Comments

Sign in [10/22]

[momslilassassin]

As you do.

Re: Sign in [10/22]

[glacial_queen]

Karla

Re: Sign in [10/22]

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

William Murdoch

Re: Sign in [10/22]

[lordofthecats.livejournal.com]

Lion-o

Chat with each other [10/22]

[momslilassassin]

What brings you to the club every week anyway?

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[glacial_queen]

Karla had only a small bowl of ice cream today; there was a carnival and she was going to fill up with fair food there, instead. "I was nine when my parents were killed," she said quietly. "And everything in my life went topsy-turvy after that. Here, at least, I can talk to people who'll understand at least a bit of what I felt during that time and not feel I'm treading on someone's sympathies."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "I'd like to think we're going to be a pretty good group of listeners," he said.

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[glacial_queen]

"I'd say from experience you already are," Karla said, giving him a slight smile. "Though I'm still a bit leery at the idea of talking about everything that happened after my parents died. It's just...a lot."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"I was six when my mother died," William shared. "I was the one who- found her body. There are times when I feel that, if only I'd known some of the things then that I know now... perhaps I could've saved her." He fidgeted a bit with the hat in his hands. "I think what drew me here is the fact that- well- the place I spent the rest of my childhood, all the other lads had been through similar losses, so it wasn't really- there didn't seem a point in talking about it, then."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[momslilassassin]

Well that certainly captured Ben's attention. "I found my mom, too," he said quietly. "I was fourteen and have definitely wondered what I could have done differently to change things."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

William nodded. "Logically, I know there is very little I could've done, as small as I was, but perhaps if I'd been more observant..." he trailed off.

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[glacial_queen]

"I didn't--find them," Karla admitted. "But I also wonder that, a bit. If I had been smarter, more observant, something, could I have saved them?"

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"There were signs of the illness," it wasn't the most accurate word, but there were things about the circumstances of his mother's death he wasn't quite willing to impart to anyone just yet, "in the days before her death. I didn't understand what they meant, at the time. But in the years after, when I did a little research- she needn't have died at all, had anyone recognised those signs for what they were."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[lordofthecats.livejournal.com]

Lion-o stayed away from the coffee (he'd noticed that it made him so hyper that he started bouncing off the walls) but he did have a little bit of ice cream. It was a nice consolation for digging into a difficult subject.

"My home planet doesn't exist anymore," he said. "It blew up. We all managed to get off the planet in time -- all except for my father."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[momslilassassin]

"I'm so sorry," Ben said sympathetically. "Was it very recently?"

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[lordofthecats.livejournal.com]

"Last year," said Lion-o. "I went home for the summer and barely recognized the place. The damage from the constant tremors and volcanic activity changed it so much. In the end, the planet ripped itself apart."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"My mother died when my sister was born," Elphaba said. "Nessa came too soon, and it was more than my mother could bear. She'd been eating milk flowers at my father's behest. Milk flowers all the time to make sure their precious new chid was of better color. And Nessa was born with tangled legs, and mother never woke up again."

She actually felt a bit better, sharing that out loud. "That is why I come here, each week."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[glacial_queen]

Karla winced at that. She didn't really have a comment beyond something derogatory about Elphaba's father and that was probably unhelpful.

"I...don't suppose...you father learned? Uh, anything from that?" she asked, trying for delicate.

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

"Learned?" Elphaba said, giving Karla an uncertain look. "What was he supposed to learn?"

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[eyesofahero.livejournal.com]

Cloud considered the question carefully.

"I suppose...here I can close my eyes and just think about my life without remorse." Well, not as much as he usually felt. "And maybe later- maybe I can find a good reason to forgive and be forgiven, and move on." That, in his opinion, sounded terrible.

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[momslilassassin]

"That second part can take a lot of time," Ben said quietly.

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[onlymistaken]

"My parents were killed in an accident about four years ago; the landing mechanisms on their ship failed during descent." Cally felt a twinge of misplaced guilt that it wasn't difficult to speak of it; that time had passed, though it had taken much of those four years, and driven her and Zelda even closer together than they'd already been.

"My sister and I -- we're twins -- were the only family we had left, and now I'm here, with no way to contact her, no surety that I'll ever see her again." That part was far harder to face than the old ache of spaces in their life that they'd learned to fill with each other. "I can't say it's good to know there are others feeling the same separation, but..." She spread her fingers. "It's something."

Re: Chat with each other [10/22]

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded, looking sympathetic. "It's nice not to be alone, even when it sucks that other people get what it feels like?"

Talk with Ben [10/22]

[momslilassassin]

Who's the only Skywalker around right now.

OOC

[momslilassassin]

Come on brain, turn on...