[log] it's in the air and it's all around [closed]

[devoutish]

Characters: Alfie Solomons, Emily Kaldwin, Royce Melborn, Tifa Lockhart
Location building 241 and building 242, then ???
Date: morning of 162 through ???
Summary: rescue, hallucinations, eventual mourning of dead people; it's gonna be a party for sure
Warnings: n/a; will edit if anything comes up

Catch-all for EVERYTHING - rescuing the blind gangster asshole, dealing with the event-induced static, etc. Top-level and tag as you see fit.

Comments

[empireofrats]

[For a moment, she's quiet, shuffling what she has around in her hand, feeling it, looking it over.

Then she holds her arm out, resting it against Alfie's own to let him know it's there, it's outstretched. She offers her palm, the thing in it.] I dunno. [It's clean and dry, thankfully.

But when Alfie feels it, there's nothing there.] It was in my bag, but I don't remember picking it up.

[devoutish]

[He lightly prods her palm, his frown deepening. Maybe his fingers just aren't finding it? He really wishes he could see.]

What does it look like?

[empireofrats]

[Weird! Because he's absolutely touching it! Totally.] Um--

A stone. It's grey. It has an eye on it, like someone rubbed it with charcoal.

[devoutish]

Emily.

[He says this carefully.]

There's nothing like that in your hand.

[empireofrats]

[She pauses as if she thinks this may be a joke. Ha ha. Is he going to flick her nose, too?]

It's... there. A grey rock. [She flexes her fingers just a bit, making the stone move. She can feel it.] You're touching it. It has an eye on it.

It always comes back to my bag. I left it in the bathroom to see.

Then it was stuck in my throat, and I threw it up.

[devoutish]

There's nothing.

[He taps her palm again.]

Either you're hallucinating it being there, or I'm hallucinating it not being there. Right? Which do you think it is?

[empireofrats]

[Her face darkens, not that Alfie can see. If it's a joke, it isn't funny, she thinks. She's not playing some game here. There's no time for games.] I can feel it. [Her voice is curt.] I can feel it and touch it.

I can leave it places, but it comes back all the time. It'll be in my bag. But then it was in my mouth, and then it was in my stomach, too. And that's how I know it's not me.

[devoutish]

This place, it makes you see and feel all sorts of things.

[He could be imagining her right now, he thinks, and he'd never know the difference. He pushes that thought away.]

When did this start?

[empireofrats]

[Boy, Alfie, you missed the whole not-real shebang by, like, a day. Now you know how they feel!] I don't know when it was first in my bag.

I found it yesterday when I was putting my drawing things away. It was in the bottom, looking at me. The eyes look like all the ones that Duster is scared of, like the ones he said he saw before. The ones watching him.

[devoutish]

Put it in my hand.

[He holds a hand out.]

[empireofrats]

[Hesitantly, she fiddles with the stone in her palm a moment, worrying the burn emblem with her thumb. It's not that she doesn't want to give it up, it's that she's worried it'll be in her stomach again if she does.

Reluctantly, she tips her hand over and drops it into Alfie's palm, but he gets nothing.] There.

get out

[devoutish]

[His hand stays flat and steady. It doesn't bob down with weight.]

See there? Does it look like you put something in my hand?

[empireofrats]

Yes.

[devoutish]

Tell me how. What happened to my hand?

[empireofrats]

Nothing? [She reaches over and picks up the stone with three fingers, just half an inch or so, then lets it drop back lifelessly into Alfie's hand. She watches his face, his arm.]

It fell in your hand. I dropped it again. You don't do anything. [She picks it up once more, but doesn't give it back this time.] I can feel it. [Insisting.]

[devoutish]

Here.

[He takes off his one remaining bracelet, handing it to her.]

Now drop this in my hand.

[empireofrats]

[Carefully, Emily takes the offered bracelet. She feels it, thinking it feels quite like the stone in her hand. She compares the two, one in each hand.

Then she drops the bracelet back into Alfie's palm.]

[devoutish]

[His hand sinks slightly with its weight, and his fingers instinctively curl around it to catch it.]

There. You see how my hand moved? Now, if your stone was real to me, that would have happened when you gave it to me too. And I can't see, so I couldn't've made sure to keep my hand still; I couldn't've pretended.

[empireofrats]

[Emily frowns at Alfie. Both because this is frustrating to explain and because it seems to her as if Alfie is calling her crazy without calling her crazy.] I can feel it. [Insistent.

Her eyes drop to the bracelet, then to the stone she turns over in her fingers.] It was in my belly, and then I threw it up. I felt it.

[devoutish]

I've seen things that aren't real here. Felt them, too.

[empireofrats]

[Again, she frowns at Alfie.] Then how do we tell what's real and what's not real?

[devoutish]

[They don't. But he can't tell her that - not that bluntly, at least.]

Yeah, it's hard. We've got to reason it out, like you and I are doing here.