IC contact for wethelost

[devoutish]

Solomons & Melborn
1108 Sweet Cream Street

[Feel free to use this space for letter/package deliveries as well as visits/knocks on the front door!]

Comments

[bywolves]

The dying was familiar. [ His voice goes a little flat. He can talk about this sort of thing if he distances himself. ] The rewinding - I didn't feel it the same way, but that. That was.

[ A pause, and then he shakes his head. ]

[devoutish]

Yeah.

You don't have to talk about it. Just eat your bread.

[bywolves]

[ He eats his bread. And when he finishes it, he reaches for Alfie's hand and holds onto it tightly. ]

[devoutish]

If you hadn't come back--

[Nope, never mind, he can't finish that sentence. He squeezes Royce's hand, hard.]

[bywolves]

Zephyr would've tried. [ Royce mumbles. ] He -- they.

I'm supposed to bring something back for them. Out of the Void.

[devoutish]

Are you gonna go back in?

[bywolves]

Yeah. [ Royce closes his eyes. ] Not today. But I want to go back in.

[devoutish]

Will you stay out of the mines?

[bywolves]

That's where I get the most color. [ Royce says, but it's a little weak. ] ... I'll be careful. More careful. I didn't listen the first time.

[devoutish]

You were careful. I was watching you. You had bad luck.

[bywolves]

[ He shakes his head. ]

I am bad luck. [ Like always. ] I mean with Xanthous. This was what he must've been talking about.

[devoutish]

[Alfie grunts, displeased.]

You're not bad luck.

[bywolves]

[ He shrugs vaguely. He won't argue, but. It's still a thought that constantly lurks at the back of his mind. ]

[devoutish]

Ah-- Royce, Royce, Royce.

[He balances the rest of the buttered bread on Royce's stomach, then rolls over and presses against his side.]

[bywolves]

[ Royce takes the buttered bread, picking at it absently and popping pieces of it in his mouth. Bear lets out a low, rumbling sort of hruff sound, nosing at Royce's back, and Royce startles so badly he nearly drops the bread, breath catching. ]

[devoutish]

I do worry about you.

[Alfie threads his fingers through Royce's hair. He still hasn't touched the bread himself.]

Less because you do dangerous things.

[bywolves]

[ Willing himself to stop being so jumpy, Royce brushes his hands off after just - giving Bear the bread. He doesn't want to reach to the table to put it down and Bear is more than happy to be a garbage disposal. He sinks back down into the bed, just in time for Alfie to run his hands through his hair. Royce shivers. ]

Why do you worry, then?

[devoutish]

[Royce, that bread is not for dogs. Alfie makes a slightly scandalized sound in the back of his throat before answering:]

I always worry about you thinking badly of yourself when you don't deserve it, mate.

[bywolves]

[ Well, maybe you should've eaten it, Alfie!! ]

I don't think badly of myself. [ Royce says, with a sigh. He shifts away from the fingers, sitting up and pulling his knees to his chest. ]

[devoutish]

You do sometimes, yeah.

[But he pulls his hand back, just watching Royce.]

[bywolves]

[ Royce looks over his shoulder at Alfie with a flat expression. ]

Don't you ever get tired of arguing with me about this?

[devoutish]

Yeah.

[Can you be angry with this face, Royce.]

But I'm not gonna stop, all the same.

[bywolves]

[ No, he can't, which makes him grouchy. He turns his head back to face the front and curls up into his knees. ]

I get tired of arguing with me about this.

[devoutish]

Yeah.

[He knows. He stays where he is, staring at Royce's back.]

cw: gore

[bywolves]

[ Royce doesn't say anything else. He doesn't have much else in his head, at the moment - he's tired, and he's weirdly sore, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. He touched his own insides, earlier. He can't get that out of his head, the image of his broken bones and organs spilling out of him. The deaths he had in Norfinbury weren't ever like that.

If Alfie doesn't say anything else for a few more minutes, Royce actually gets up and heads to the bathroom. He doesn't throw up, but he does come close, trembling over the sink. ]