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!]

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[devoutish]

I'm glad you've got him, mate.

[bywolves]

[ Royce is silent for a moment, staring at the screen. ]

He's the only constant I had at home, other than Gwen. [ The movie is on its way to ending, but Royce keeps talking, soft. ] Did I ever tell you about the wagon full of mir?

[devoutish]

No, you didn't.

[bywolves]

We accompanied Arista on a journey. Princess. We ran across soldiers asking us for documentation, and they had four wagons. Filled with elves. Packed like fish in a shipment crate. Men, women, children, dirty and starving. Pleading for water.

[ Royce's fingers dig into the fabric of his pants, kneading out of anger. ]

[devoutish]

[He'll feel Alfie stiffen too, going still.]

Where were they going?

[bywolves]

Don't know. We were posing as nobles, and nobles wouldn't have cared enough to ask.

[ His voice is careful and calm, but it's clear he's furious just thinking about this. ] Hadrian had to pull me aside. I wanted to kill every soldier responsible, but he reminded me why it would've been a bad idea.

[devoutish]

Why would it have been?

[Alfie, for all his faults and willingness to murder, isn't trigger-happy, and he's a big proponent of waiting for the right time to act. But what Royce is describing, with women and children...]

[bywolves]

Didn't have the resources. The power to do so. We were outnumbered, and as good as we are, trying to protect the Princess and fight off a troop of guards would've ended with us dead.

I should've done it anyway. But I am alive because of him.

[devoutish]

[And Alfie's immeasurably glad that Royce is alive. He goes boneless against him, and is quiet as the credits roll.]

[bywolves]

[ Royce is too, resting his head against Alfie's and watching the credits. He's hesitant, and he almost doesn't say it - when he does, it's quiet and almost reluctant, but. Alfie will understand, he thinks. ]

It isn't a real place, but I would like to visit Rivendell.

[devoutish]

To see more of how they do it, you mean?

[His voice is still quiet and a little hoarse.]

[bywolves]

Yeah. To see how they run it. [ There's more to it than that, though. He closes his eyes. ]

[devoutish]

[Again he says:]

Tell me?

[bywolves]

[ Alfie is really good at sensing that there's more. Royce shifts, pulling away just a little. ]

To see how they live. If they're a community or not. Looked like they were.

[devoutish]

Mm--

[There's something Alfie's leaving unspoken too, and Royce can probably sense that.]

[bywolves]

[ Royce pauses, and then: ] What?

[devoutish]

I was only thinking - Watson's got books about him; he's a fiction in some worlds. Stark and Romanov and the other Avengers are the same. Maybe the people in this film, in some world...

[bywolves]

[ That's a fair point. Royce thinks about that. ]

Could be a real place, somewhere. [ He's picking at the bedsheets now, almost agitated. In a tone that's trying really hard to be wry: ] Who knows what their thoughts on half-elves are, though.

[devoutish]

Maybe that'll come up, in the next two films.

[bywolves]

Yeah. [ He's nervous about it. ] Doesn't much matter. It was just an idle thought.

[devoutish]

It matters.

[Royce wouldn't have mentioned it if it didn't.]

I'm thinking about your elves, that's all.

[bywolves]

[ He's actually sort of upsetting himself, thinking about all of this. ]

I don't know how to feel about them.

[devoutish]

What do you mean?

[bywolves]

The elves. I don't know how to feel. I don't know if I want to be part of their culture. Almost feels dishonest, somehow. You'd think that wouldn't be an issue for me.

What did you mean, thinking about my elves?

[devoutish]

[He stares through the skylight, blinking up at the slowly-appearing stars.]

The ones you saw, starving and packed away, crying for water. The women and the kids.