[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

[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.