💾 Archived View for hankprince.smol.pub › 8_dreamless captured on 2022-06-03 at 23:18:55. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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Ronald had slept like he'd never slept before. Not haunted by nightmares he wished God's light would banish, nor enthralled by dreams that he sadly had to leave upon waking. There was nothing but soft comfort and clean-ish blankets. He wished he had a bed lifted off the ground, but still, Frank's couch was an upgrade from a tent by I-5 filled with pests.
Ronald stepped into the shower at Frank's place. Even though they split all expenses down the middle, Frank insisted that it was his place, because he was there first. Ronald thought that was a bunch of B.S. and that Frank was being a Pharisee, but he put up with it because it was better than living at I-5 with godless freaks like Leo. A mere speck of inconvenience instead of a log of iniquity.
The hot water from the shower head cleansed him. It wasn't the first time he'd taken a shower, but it sure felt like it. If only medieval people had access to hygiene like the people of today... Perhaps if they were cleaner in body, they would also have been cleaner in spirit, and never committed deicide. It was these sorts of thoughts that entered Ronald's mind when he showered.
He remembered, though, a time when the shower was the one place he could dispense with his worries. Worries about Hilly getting into a good school. Worries about bills and savings, back when he had those things.
After hitting rock bottom and bouncing back up, Ronald was not much of a worrier. He could tough out anything.
In his life before everything went to Hell, Ronald wore a suit and tie to work. People were a bit more formal in the line of work he'd once had on the East Coast. Now, Ronald Freeweeber wore a badge. No, he wasn't a cop, it was the badge he would scan when he went into the Valvazon sorting facility, in an industrial town south of Seattle. He was allowed to wear anything he wanted. He felt like it was a bit too much freedom, work shouldn't be a fun place, in his honest opinion. He missed wearing a tie, but when you're packing boxes with stuff, ties could potentially get caught in the belt, or stuck inside cardboard while trying to shut it.
There was also the fact that Ronald didn't own a single one. But, in his heart, in his Heavenly Body Up There with Nancy and Hilly, he wore a tie. They stood there, held hands, and flew anywhere they wanted. Perhaps the tie was an article of clothing only meant for his past self and future self, beyond time, in the world above the clouds. Ronald put on a white t-shirt and blue jeans, then left Frank's apartment.