“I *want* to get better,” bubbled a depressed Messed Up from a similarly colorful and confusing couch. “I — have a new love in my life. I’m motivated!”
“That’s great, Ms. Up,” responded Dr. Young Kane (played by Axis aka TronAxis). “I’m glad you have a reason to change. Makes my job easier.”
“You — may know him actually,” Messed Up sloshed haltingly again, knowing more than she let on.
“Oh?”
“Yes.” And then she spilled his name.
—–
“Young *Harris*,” spat out Dr. Young Kane later to his imaginary wife sitting below him, more cartoonish tonight than usual but still sporting the perfunctory blue-green hair.
“The reason you came *here*,” she returned. “Where are we going with this?”
“I — was going to ask you that.”
“I think — we should go to bed now. We can think better in the morning. With our coffee, eggs and tea.”
“*No*,” Axis said firmly. “We’re going to *figure* this out *tonight*.” His voice was pitched just below a yell now. “*Why* is she here?”
“New patient,” said Venus cooly from below. “You need the money.” She stared at The Sun between them, the rays. “It’s the Corona–”
“*Stop* saying that word. I’m sick to death of hearing it.”
“–V Drink,” she dared to finish. “The deal is almost done.”
—–
He finds himself in a different place, sporting the Esso t-shirt once more. Peter Oesso now, formerly Peter Osseo formerly Peter Esso. “Like an opossum,” he explained to Randolph the pirate beside Storybrook’s Gatcha Warehouse about the newest name. Fresh from another hand washing he is.
“Possum; opossum. I *think* I get it.” He turns toward the effigy of Mr. Fix It against the Black Elephant with the graffiti art. “So that’s It, huh? The man you killed to get that gas station.”
“I *didn’t* kill him. It was just a — convenience.”
“Convenience *store*.”
“In the future,” Peter Oesso admitted to the bastard buccaneer.
“So, are we on for 500 more cases of the often deadly brewskies? Or are you done with it now? The killing and all.”
“I — have a confession.” And it was here Peter Oesso told Randolph the Bastard Pirate about the conjoined trunks streams.
Sunklands 