#David doesn’t like people who abuse drugs and use them as an excuse for shitty behavior

[a-chaotically-small-lunta]

Impulsive defense

This is a short-ish story of Blair, a young child who David took in as his own. After receiving a note from Micheal, David made his way to the city.

Warning: mentions of abuse, drugs, alcohol, blood, death, and fights.

The city was loud, cars rumbling around and people always having someplace to be. David had a love hate relationship with cities. On one hand it was where he was raised and provided so many resources to borrowers that no one would miss. Not to mention people who see borrowers in the city think they’re just large rats. On the other hand though, the city was dangerous. Too many people not watching where the go or what they do, all the cars and vehicles, not to mention the rats…both human and animal.

David eyed the alleyway waiting for the group of drunk men to leave. He was planning on visiting his friend, Micheal. Micheal was a borrower David had met while traveling around the city looking for anything useful and to spot any safe places for other borrowers. They met after David entered the human’s home and noticed the walls weren’t just filled with the usually dust and scraps, but rather were clean, had tools, places to rest, and many other signs that there was a borrower living here. David was invited to stay with Micheal and his wife Yael. They all bonded quickly, David was even invited to meet the birth of their child, Blair.

Once the drunk men had left, David quickly made his way across the alley and behind the large dumpster. Scanning the wall he found the small broken brick. He moved the small piece, exposing the inside of the walls. Quickly he ducked in and moved the piece back in place.

As David walked along he thought about why he was invited. Micheal said his wife had passed away, and that he just needed a friend for comfort. David understood all to well the feeling of losing a loved one, so when he received the message, he quickly made his way to the city off in the distance with the help of Laura who offered to take him after he told everyone about the note. A storm was going to pass by and she was willing to get a hotel for the night.

Eventually he found the small wooden door and knocked. Rustling could be heard from the other side until the door swung open revealing Micheal. He looked terrible, sickly even. His usual bright brown eyes were darkened and his dirty blond hair was a mess, with parts sticking up at odd angles from unknown substances. David didn’t want to know or even ask.

“Oooohhhh David! What are you doing her bro??” Micheal said leaning against the doorframe and slurring his words.

“Uhh ya sent me a letter talking about Yael, I thought I’d come by and ya know support ya.”

Micheal paused and stared off for a few seconds, “oooooohhhhh Right.” His voice sounded harsh before quickly changing back, “well come innnn….”

David, a bit confused, walked in while watching as Micheal flopped back onto the puff balls of a couch. Looking around he noticed that the house was a mess, tools and items scattered across the floor. A few pieces of furniture were flipped over and broken. The place didn’t used to look like this, it was a nice house and now everything was destroyed and gross. David noticed a dresser made of a matchbox and other materials was pushed in front of one of the doors that lined the wall.

“Uhhhh kinda let ya-self go huh?” David said glancing around trying not to stare at the globs of mold and food in the corner of the room and the ceiling.

“Brooooooo….yea maybe. Yael has been gone for awhile.”

“Yeah…when did she die?”

“Like a few months ago”

“Ohhh, and ya only told me now? I mean that’s fine and I’ll be here for ya but I would’ve been here earlier to help ya out and stuff”

“Nah nah it’s fine, soooo fine….”

“Okay…so you okay?”

“yeeeeee dude I’m TotAlly fIiinnnee. Happier toooooo wooooooo”

David paused a bit confused, perhaps he’s just drunk right now, his mind is lost a bit, “Mmh…where’s Blair by the way? How did they take it?”

“Who? Oh!!! Yeah he’s fine…but he uh is grounded right now”

“Oh…why?”

“Mmmmh lil dude almost got us caught the other night, so he has to be grounded…dude you want something to drink?”

“Uh no thanks…”

“Nahhhhhh bro lemme get ya something”

“Micheal” David said in a stern voice, “are ya okay? Ya seem out of it”

Micheal froze and stared at David, his eyes seemed to never focus fully on David.

“Yea..yea…I’m fine just…need a pep up or something…” Micheal got up and walked over, “stay here, make yourself comfy I’m gonna grab some stuff…it’ll be a sec…good stuffs in the storage heh” as Micheal clumsily walked away David looked around the torn up house. What happened here…it’s a mess. He seems way out of it…like he’s been drinking but where’d he get the alcohol? Jeez I didn’t think he’d let himself go so fast. Only a month and it looks like he’s been out of it for months. His muscles and body are thinner too…man what did you do.

David sat and thought as Micheal walked away, the second the door clicked behind Micheal a small knock was heard. David whipped his head towards the knock, which seemed to come from the blocked door. Another knock was heard and a soft muffled cry came from the other side.

David quickly walked over and shoved the dresser out of the way, unblocking the door. He pulled the door open and in front of him was Blair but the poor kid looked terrible. Blair had brown eyes and dark brown hair but usually the kid seemed so bright. On David’s other visits the kid would happily bounce around and looked full of life. Happily talking about adventures and asking David about any cool new stories. The Blair in front of him looked drained. Their hair was matted, they look like they haven’t had sleep in days. Their skin looked sickly and they were covered in bruises.

“Blair? What happened to ya kid?”

Blair stood and glance at the door Micheal had left through before looking back at David, who had crouched down to be even with the kid.

“Da-d…”

David froze in shock, “what do ya mean?” Blair froze as if terrified to say anything, “it’s alright, ya can tell me. Ya can tell me anything okay?”

Blair took a shaky breath and looked at David, tears threatening to fall out of their little sad eyes.

“He..for a-awhile he’s be-been finding stuff…st-stuff that ma-m-makes hi-m act weird… he start hitting m-me…and m-mommy… mommy tried to d-defend me whe-when he got tha-that way…he said if we let you kn-know that he’d h-hurt us…hu-hurt us worse…dad…he…he hurt mommy too much…sh-she stopped moving…I…I” tear spilled out of the kids eyes as he cried out, “I WANT MY MOMMY!!!”

David was shocked when the kid ran and wrapped their arms around him. He gently wrapped his arms around the kid. “Hey it’s okay…I’m here. I’ll protect ya…I have so many questions but I’ll ask ya later..” He held onto the sobbing child, how long has this been happening? Years??? Why did Blair tell him now? Were they desperate? What made them break out of their father’s forceful grasp?

“Let’s get ya ou-“ David paused as he felt the child grip onto him tighter as the door clicked, revealing Micheal

“What did you say” Micheal’s voice was stern, serious. In his hand was a homemade glass bottle…it was filled with a clear liquid that had a thin layer of powder on the top. David didn’t know everything about alcohol or drugs, but he knew enough that mixing them was not good.

“WHAT DID YOU TELL HIM?!?!” Micheal shouted at Blair, stepping forward. David quickly moved the kid behind him.

“Enough! Back off Micheal! You’re not okay, whatever you’re doing is not okay. You need help. I’ll help you but I can’t let you near them.” David stood firm as Micheal glared at him.

“YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT! IM THAT BASTARDS DAD! I DECIDE WHEN TO PUNISH THEM! And it needs punished.” Micheal started to step forward and David slowly backed away. The small child whimpered gripping onto David.

Micheal smashed the bottle, flinging glass and alcohol everywhere. “BACK OFF DAVID…Don’t make me hurt you too. Back off and listen to me. Unless you wanna get hurt too”

He shock his head, David wasn’t gonna leave the kid alone. He wasn’t gonna hand them over to them. He felt torn, his friend was lost…he wanted to help him…but he needed to get Blair out of here. When he didn’t move, Micheal started to run towards him.

David froze, everything felt in slow-mo. Micheal running towards him, the child screaming. But David’s mind was racing.

No no no. I can’t.

*Step*

“Don’t try anything fucking insect”

*Step*

no no…don’t hurt them please…they were just protecting him.

*Step*

Can’t let him hurt them. Won’t let them hurt them.

*Step*

Images flashed in David’s mind. Seeing his friend in a drunken rage, and seeing that drunken bastard’s fist dripping with blood.

The second his friend was readying to strike a punch with the bottle, David drove a fist right in Micheal’s face.

Micheal stuttered and looked back, astonished at what happened.

“Get to the door Blair. Don’t look back.” David whispered. Blair quickly ran to the door and Micheal tried to chase him only to get punched in the stomach by David.

“No no, ya ain’t going anywhere. Ya staying here to sober up…get help.”

Micheal slashed the bottle cutting David’s face. David tripped Micheal and grabbed his blue knife, holding it in defense. He’d worry about any cuts and bruises later. His body was shaking.

Micheal glared before chuckling, “oh using your mommy’s knife??? Mmmmmmh???? Are you scared David? Of me? All drunk like this? Remind you of something?”

David glared and tightened his grip, “Ain’t gonna let a drunk fucker ruin another child’s life. Don’t care if you’re their dad, don’t care now.”

“Ohhhhh David, what are you talking about? I’m fixing it.”

David quickly wielded his knife to block the lunging bottle.

“You aren’t like this? What happened?”

David pushed forward, staggering Micheal a bit.

“What do you mean? I’ve always been like this! I’m just a good actor. Ever since that kid came into my life, shits always been about it. Never on me.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was the man he knew just a facade? Something to make life seem normal? Why would he do that?

“Micheal we can work this out, we can find you help”

“I DONT NEED HELP!!!” Micheal lunged and tackled David to the ground. Trying to stab his face with the bottle. David was quick and blocked the bottle, earning a long cut on his arm. They stared into each other’s eyes.

“I just need you to join your parents. Ironic that’ll you’ll die the same way the did…just at a smaller scale.”

Why would he say that? WHY WOULD HE

David lost it, he threw Micheal off him and slashed the knife at him. Aiming for his chest. David slashed and slashed in blind fury, he thought he was seeing red before, but now it was brighter. He didn’t care anymore. He was on edge when he first saw him and every second this Bastard talked pushed him closer and closer. He finally snapped. Telling Micheal about his past was something he thought would strengthen their bond, show his trust. And he used it against him.

The two men wrestled around knocking things around and off places. Smacking each other’s heads into furniture and walls breaking most of them. David punched and slashed, eventually shattering the bottle with the knife with a well placed stab. With his weapon gone Micheal became more furious and tried scratching and biting David, but David quickly dodged and using his knife as a shield blocked most attacks. Sometime during the fight he pulled out the other knife and duel wielded them against his former friend. He pushed Micheal around until he managed to stab one of his knives into Micheals hand against the floor, causing a scream of agony to fill the air. David held Micheal down and with a knife to Micheal’s throat leaned down and whispered “I’d kill ya, it’d be like putting down a sick animal. But I’ll give ya a chance to fix yourself. Doesn’t matter if ya do though. Ya ain’t ever gonna see me or Blair again. So stay down, or I’ll keep ya down forever. You know it’s not my first time killing someone. Don’t make me add to my count.” David hissed out the last part before, slowly backing off the exhausted man. He yanked his bloodied knife out of Micheal’s hand and shoved his foot onto his chest. Glaring down for a second before walking to the door.

Micheal didn’t stand back up, and laid on the ground breathing as David walked out the entrance. He looked over and saw Blair against the wall, covering their ears and curled up.

“It’s over kid…let’s get out of here.” David said, extending a hand to the kid.

“Di-did you k-k-kill him?” Poor kid looked worried over their father. It made sense, though. They did love their father and just wanted the best for him, even though his father didn’t love him back.

“Nah kid, just knocked some sense into him. He’ll be okay, but for now I’m gonna watch over ya until he’s better alright?”

The kid looked down almost sad but relieved about the news. The kid nodded and grabbed David’s hand.

“Alright, let’s go then. I got a friend who brought me here, and she’ll bring us back to my home okay?” They nodded and David paused, “just so ya know…they’re a bean,” he watched the kid stiffen in fear, “but don’t worry, she won’t hurt ya. I trust her fully. She’s a good one, promise” the kid loosened a bit but still seemed on edge.

David guided the kid back towards the alley and walked through the walls of each building until they came across the hotel. He was grateful that Laura had offered to bring him to the city due to the bad weather. Flying a bird in a storm is never the best idea, and David only did that if there was no other options and he needed to leave. David watched the kid, noticing the kid eyed some of his cuts. Oh yeah…wounds…forgot about those..whatever.

Eventually the pair made it into the hotel walls. Heading up, David looked into each room trying to find Laura. He knew the floor she was on but had forgotten which room. Soon he found her room by peeking in and seeing her laying upside down on her bed. Her long curled brown hair a frazzled mess as she had a bored look on her face. Her rectangle glasses were on the verge of falling off but she didn’t seem to care.

Carefully David stepped out of the wall, holding onto Blair and giving them a gentle rub reminding them that everything was okay.

Once near the human David shouted, “Hey Laura! I’m back!”

Laura was startled and instantly slide off the bed, hitting her head on the floor. She glance over and smiled, “ow, you’re back that was quick, so ho-“ she froze spotting the child, “did you kidnap another kid?”

“First off, I’ve never kidnapped a kid. I tend to find them alone or abandoned, secondly…yes in a way but it’s fine…I’ll explain everything later.”

Laura made an annoyed face before awkwardly pushing herself off the ground and back onto the bed. She swung her legs around and got out of the bed before she lowered herself onto her stomach in front of the pair, “alright well you better explain, but for now.. Hello there, I’m Laura. You must be Blair, David’s talked about you and how you’re so brave and have this call to adventure.”

Blair stood behind David, clearly terrified of the bean, but as she softly spoke he slowly poked his head around and started to get closer.

“Don’t worry I won’t hurt you. Even though I’m a bit of a clumsy mess,” she chuckled, “hey you look hungry,” and with a glance towards David, “and like you’ve been through hell. Want something to eat? I got snacks and stuff”

The kid shyly nodded and with that Laura pushed herself up to a sitting position before extending her hand onto the ground, “go ahead and climb on. I’ll set you two on the bed and grab the snacks okay?”

With a small nudge of encouragement from David the pair of borrowers climbed onto her hand. Once they were secure and settled, Laura slowly lifted them up and onto the couch, not once standing. They both walked off with Blair still holding onto David, Laura stood up and walked over to a bag that had been thrown into the corner of the room. She returned with a small water bottle and two clear bags, one filled with snacks like pretzels, chocolates, nuts and the other with bandages and creams.

She set the items down and opened the bag of snack and water, setting them both down in front of the pair, “go ahead and get what you want, just don’t eat too fast” she smiled and watched as the kid cautiously approached the bag. Reaching in they grabbed a few things and snacked on them. Sitting next to the bottle watching the bean.

David walked closer to her grabbing some bandages to treat his wounds, “so you’ll tell me what happened?” She asked.

“I’ll give ya a summary, Dad’s a drunken addict who abuses the kid so I fucked him up a bit”

“Oh…oh, you okay?”

David paused as glance at Laura who was giving him a concerned look, “I’ll be fine…”

“Talk to me if you aren’t okay?”

“I will.”

“You’re lying but okay.”

David glared at Laura who only smirked, “what it’s true,” she said defensively, “you usually don’t like talking about stuff like that and that’s okay. I’ll be there when you want to.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m just worried about the kid is all.”

They both looked over as the kid was enjoying themselves with the snacks.

“It’ll be okay, we’ll figure it all out tomorrow. It’s late and you guys look like you need some sleep”

David simply nodded as he worked on bandaging himself up.

Eventually Laura laid onto the bed next to the pair yawning, “alright it’s probably best we get some shut eye, so…”

Laura squeaked as she felt a hug around her finger, which was causally laying on the bed near the borrowers. She glanced down at her hand to see the tiny child holding onto her.

“Thank you for the snacks”

Laura smiled, “it’s no problem. Here may I try something?”

The child nodded, and Laura gently scooped the child up and moved herself to laying on her back. She placed the child right on top of her heart as she laid back against the pillows and pulled the blankets back over her lower body.

“You okay there or do you want to sleep on the other pillow with David?”

David who had already laid on the other pillow looked over to see the scene. He shook his head. Laura knew that her heart beat was soothing to kids, hell David knew it was soothing, he just didn’t like being held for so long. Made him feel powerless.

The kid listened to her gentle heartbeat and shook their head, “this is nice” they snuggled up and Laura gently placed the thinner sheet over their body as a blanket. It didn’t take long for the kid to knock out.

“I’m surprised they took to ya so quickly” David said

“Well you showed them I was trustworthy so I guess it was easy to build trust up with them. Poor kid though…with everything that happened…”

“Yea…” David glanced away

“Don’t worry we’ll talk about it later.”

“We’ll have to ask the kid for more details. I don’t know much. Hell I don’t know who or how that letter was sent. Ugh I’m so confused and frustrated!” David pouted angrily.

“Hey calm down, you have your reasons for what you did. Just rest for now okay?”

David sighed and nodded. With a smile Laura took off her glasses and laid down to fall asleep, one hand carefully over the sleeping child. David however wouldn’t fall asleep, he stayed alert watching the shadows and walls for a few hours. Making sure Micheal wouldn’t come out of them. Eventually David passed out, he’d have to deal with this tomorrow morning sometime but that’s for later. The kid was safe now and that’s all that mattered right now.

[summerofsmiles]

Hello this is the same anon that talked about Eric Clapton. Another thing that I want to say is that I always used to watch the arms concert on YouTube. And I remember that when Jimmy would play, Eric would give him dirty looks. It irritates me because Eric dealt with substance abuse back in the 70s. Also at least Jimmy never went on a racist rant during one of zeppelins shows. What I’m saying is that I see people trying to excuse craptons racist rant with the fact that he was on drugs and alcohol. That doesn’t excuse it he has no right to say that. Because other musicians such as page had suffered from substance abuse, and the worst thing that would come out of it is his not so good guitar playing. Also he shouldn’t be in the top 3 best guitarists. It should be Jimi Hendrix Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page.

Agreed! Racism is one of those things that’s just inexcusable in the most black and white way. There’s no gray area. It doesn’t matter what substances you’re using or what the situation or time it is, you’re either a racist, or you’re not. There’s no excuse of racism and nothing to say to defend it. Anyone who makes it a non black and white issues and tries to defend it is also part of the problem. And he has carried his bigotry with him to this day. It wasn’t the time, it wasn’t substance, and it sure as hell wasn’t the environment because when the Beatles were preaching anti war, and Pink Floyd was wildly progressive and liberal, and Jimmy and Robert were protesting Nixon, Eric Clapton, from the same time and industry, was going on racist rants. Especially seeing him today, I think It’s absolutely safe to say Eric Clapton’s horrible ideologies weren’t because he was a man of his time or circumstances. And it also infuriates me when it gets lumped in with wild rockstar behavior. It wasn’t a one off occasion like many other questionable antics in the 70s, and it wasn’t ‘fun gone too far’ like Bonzo riding a miter bike in a hotel. People were hurt. Eric Clapton is just a horribly bigoted man, who gained a platform through appropriating the music of the people he was bigoted towards, and then used that platform to say horrific things about them. Its absolutely sickening.

About the ARMS tour, I never noticed that! I had heard a bit from somewhere I can no longer recall, about Clapton giving Jimmy shit during the ARMS tour, which I think I didn’t believe because it just seemed so shitty and juvenile, and seemed like middle school behavior, not established artist behavior? But nonetheless, if he was being an ass, that is just not nice? Being nasty to someone trying to recover from addiction is, once again, just a shitty thing to do. I’m sure it took a lot of courage for Jimmy to play in a major tour, knowing he wasn’t at his best and after everything that had happened, and I’m sure that Clapton wasn’t sounding all that wonderful when he took his hiatus when trying to get off of heroin. Again, just major asshole behavior.

And agreed, my top three guitarist will always be Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and David Gilmour