[log] I JUST DIIIIIED IN YOUR ARMS TONIIIIIIGHT [closed]

[devoutish]

Characters: Alfie Solomons, Emily Kaldwin, Fiona, Royce Melborn
Location building 41
Date: evening of 157 through morning of 158
Summary: Alfie bleeds to death in the blood house, for maximum Snowhell fun
Warnings: graphic injury, death and dying

Step into the only remaining room in this house and you'll be in for a shock--at first blush, it looks like you've stepped into a room that has blood all over the floor and walls. Look closer, though, and it's actually paint. This was once an artist's studio, judging by the canvases stacked up in the corner. It seems like there were paintings on the canvases once, but now they're muddy or blacked out entirely by thick paint. Some of the paint on the walls has been scraped away, revealing yet more paint. Some of the canvases have had their paint scraped off, or have been taken apart entirely.

Comments

[bywolves]

[ Was, like his body isn't right there. Was, like the odds are so much worse when it's your second time coming back. Royce's fingers dig into his pants leg. He doesn't look at Emily, but he doesn't push her away or make her let go of him. ]

He'll either come back or he won't. [ Royce says in that same tone. Was your friend. He won't even argue the point. ]

[empireofrats]

[GOD, ROYCE. SHE IS ONLY TEN, CUT HER SOME SLACK.]

He'll come back. You told me that people come back when they die, so I think he'll come back. If he doesn't, then maybe he went home, and he can be with his Jewish family at the bakery. [The hug that comes this time when she slides up between his knees and under the blanket isn't as warm and bubbly as the last.

This time it's desperate. It's heavy, and she clings to Royce's shoulders when she wraps her arms around like he's a life-line.] He'll come back. [It sounds like she's trying to reassure herself rather than Royce.] You said that people usually come back.

[bywolves]

[ When Emily hugs him, Royce goes stiff and tense, as usual - but it's reflexes, really. He eases into it after that initial response, and - in a rare moment for Royce - he hugs her in return, arms around her tightly, one hand resting on the back of her head. ]

People usually come back. [ He agrees softly, pulling the blankets closer around them. He doesn't want to get his hopes up, but he won't destroy hers. ] If he doesn't, he went home. You're right.

Either way it'll be okay for him. Don't worry.

[empireofrats]

[Admittedly, the hug reminds her a lot of the ones she gets from Corvo since typically she throws one onto the man in surprise. It makes her think of him, Corvo, and it makes her miss him terribly.

And it makes her realize that Alfie has, in fact, just died, and his body is lying cold and motionless on the floor of the house they're stuck in. Like her mother who she won't ever see again.

Gently, she buries her face into Royce's shoulder and tries not to let the hot sting in her eyes turn into wimpy crying. Only little girls cry, and she can't be a little girl anymore because she's Empress.

The soft sucks of inhale are the only thing that give it away.]

[bywolves]

[ He hears it, though. He hears her cry and just holds her a little more tightly, tucking her head under his chin and closing his own eyes. It's - weird, to feel like this, to have someone like Emily. A little girl that he gives a damn about, a little girl he doesn't want to see cry. He's not very good at being comforting, but he wants to try, so he does what he thinks Gwen might do. What Hadrian might do.

He rubs at Emily's back a little, and then murmurs: ] It's okay to cry. You don't need to hide it. [ He won't, because... because he can't. But she can. ] He'll come back, Emily.

[empireofrats]

Corvo wouldn't cry, so I won't either. [Soft and muffled in Royce's shoulder. (She's still crying a little.) Maybe Corvo had cried--about Jessamine. Emily just hadn't seen.

Her fingers curl into Royce's clothes.] I know he'll come back. It's what you said.

But he looked sad.

[bywolves]

[ Royce keeps up at rubbing her back. Feels like the right thing to do. ]

He didn't want to upset you. [ Royce tells her. ] You know that he'd tell you it's fine to cry. Don't make me repeat him.

[empireofrats]

Crying means you're not a grown-up. Only children cry. So I won't cry. [But that's okay. She'll cry just a little to get it out, but without making so much noise and without showing her face.

Instead, she settles down in Royce's lap, turned sideways, and tucks against his chest with the blanket covering nearly all of her. It takes a while for her to talk, just to make sure her voice doesn't sound wimpy.] Are we going to leave him here tomorrow?

[bywolves]

[ Royce makes a disapproving sound when she says only children cry, but he's not going to argue with her. It's not his style, honestly, and he figures someone like Alfie or Tifa will be better equipped to say something about it.

He shifts with her, making sure the blanket does cover her, and that she's warm. He sort of hovers over her protectively. ]

We have to. We can't drag him with us. [ Royce rests his head on top of hers. ] We have to leave his things with him as well.

listen

[empireofrats]

Okay. [Her little voice from the blanket.] So he'll have them when he wakes up. [It's kind of strange to talk about someone dying and then waking back up.]

We can't say anything, though. He wouldn't say what the prayer was because it's bad luck to say it to someone who hasn't died yet.

If everyone wakes up, do you think Mother woke up, too, but they had already put her in the ground?

no u

[bywolves]

[ Jesus, Emily. ]

No. [ Royce says that firmly. ] That did not happen for your mother. That isn't how it works in other places. Only here. [ He's not about to just let Emily think her mother woke up in her grave. Even Royce isn't that heartless. ]

[empireofrats]

Okay. [It's a relief, for sure. They buried her mother, but there was no strange coming back, and her mother wasn't trapped forever underground.] I'm glad.

I'm glad she isn't awake in the ground.