[log] love, let the poison bleed out of me [closed]

[bywolves]

Characters: Alfie Solomons & Royce Melborn
Location: Downtown, Building 150
Date: Day 229-230
Summary: A couple of girls chase a couple of guys.
Warnings: Nothing out of the usual - violence, description of anomalies, language. Event stuff!

150: A small toy store that sells old-fashioned toys. Dusty, long-forgotten dolls, wooden blocks, and rubber balls line the shelves. There are a few board games, and even some stuffed animals, with polar bears and seals being favored alongside more traditional teddy bears. While the building seems normal enough, it has an eerie feel to it. Are the dolls moving around while you're not looking at them? There's a door near the back that leads to an employees only area, but it's completely empty except for one a chair that has a note glued heavily onto it. The note reads "dont trust the toys. i took a marionette apart and it put itself back together overnight plus every other toy moved up against this door. the chair kept the door closed fine but i still wouldnt trust them". At least there's also a public bathroom readily available.

Comments

[bywolves]

If I stay here, I won't be able to leave. The poisoning is getting worse. I need to keep moving to stave it off.

[devoutish]

... Yeah. All right.

[He doesn't like it, but he'll do it.

There's a soft tapping at the window. Fiona's there, looking down at them - her features distorted in Royce's view, and her face smooth and blank in Alfie's. He shifts the hat out of the line of her sight.]

[bywolves]

[ Thaaat's really not cool. Royce pulls his hood down further. ]

Had to be her, didn't it. [ Royce mutters. ]

[devoutish]

[If he wants to try looking on the bright side, he'd glad that it's not Emily, or Kesara, or someone from home. But it being Fiona is still pretty damn terrible.]

Why her, do you think?

[And are there others wandering around?]

[bywolves]

[ Royce keeps his eyes closed. ]

Did you love her?

[devoutish]

Yeah. In a way I did, yeah. Would've courted her properly, if she was from home.

[By "from home", of course, he doesn't just mean from London - he means if she were part of his community; one of his people.]

[bywolves]

Could be because of that. Someone you love. Not the worst person it could be.

[ Gwen is not the worst this place could have thrown at him. ]

[devoutish]

Loving them makes it worse, to me.

I didn't know her long. It wasn't a deep love, I suppose. Yeah.

[bywolves]

Could've been Emily. Could've been Tifa. Could've been any member of your family. [ Wow, cool, he's upsetting himself. ]

I don't know what I'm going to do if my memory of Gwen is tainted by this. [ He knows what he'll do, he's just not going to say it. ] Every time I look at that thing, distorted and broken - it makes it harder for me to remember her face.

[ That depression effect is - really digging in. ]

[devoutish]

Well, that won't do, will it. Close your eyes, then. Remember.

[bywolves]

[ He's trying. His fingers clench into a fist and then relax by his side, over and over. ]

[devoutish]

Tell me a story about her?

[bywolves]

Years ago. Six, almost seven years ago. [ Royce says, softer. ] Riyria took a break. The winter was awful that year. We stayed in Medford the entire season. I stayed with her. Hadrian and I spent the days fixing leaks in the roof and the holes in the walls.

At night, Gwen and I ate our meals together and stayed up far later than we should have. Talking, about everything. Who we are. Where we came from. I've never --

[ He's never connected with someone like he did with her. His breath catches. ]

When I told her that I was mir, her response was she didn't know it was a secret. She knew.

[devoutish]

[Alfie closes his eyes, leans his head back against the wall, and listens.]

How?

[bywolves]

She just - did. She knew everything about me. I was always an open book, to her.

[ Deep breath. ] She could see the future. I don't know if I ever told you that. She read palms. She read mine, but seeing my future never explained how she could piece me back together the right way, every time I needed her to.

[devoutish]

[Well, that's... a surprise. But sure, why not. Royce is from a world with elves - why not actual fortune tellers?]

And Mercy was born after that winter?

[Look, he can do math, okay.]

[bywolves]

[ He snorts, a little. ]

She must've been. Talking wasn't all we did, that winter.

[devoutish]

[It's not the sort of answer he would have expected from Royce, and it makes him chuckle.]

Not much else to do in the winter, eh?

[bywolves]

[ Listen, Alfie, he's not going to deny he had sex with his practically-wife, he's just not going to brag about it. ]

No, not exactly. It was an excellent way to keep warm during the coldest parts of the night.

[devoutish]

Fucking hell, Royce, you're making me nostalgic.

[But he's also making him laugh, so it's a win.]

[bywolves]

[ Okay, okay - there's a smile under that hood, now. ]

I think about it more often than you'd think. [ And now he'll never get laid again. RIP. ]

[devoutish]

[Royce you're gonna live for like a thousand years, please remarry]

All men do, I think.

[He sighs.]

I can't anymore. I had some chances to, but...

[bywolves]

[ NEVER ]

Here, or home?

[devoutish]

No, no; I've got no problems at home. Here.

[bywolves]

Not very many women left, no. [ Now that he thinks about it. ] You had chances that you gave up on?