[ if david's good at anything, it's compartmentalising. does it mean he has tons of unresolved shit because he just boxed it up and put it away? maybe. but it also means he gets back to baseline pretty fast once a situation's done with. some people might call that "unhealthy" and "slightly concerning", david prefers to think of it as being adaptable. always ready for whatever bullshit gets tossed his way next. ]
[ he takes the rag, it's not far off what he's used to these days anyway (though he is in no way adverse to sneaking into a realm to shower,) and wipes up as best he can. just so he feels a little less gross at least, fuck knows if he'll get a chance to clean up properly before he's sucked into a trial, and then it won't matter anyway. ]
[ once that's sorted he tosses the rag in the bucket, fixes his shirt, and carefully slips off the table to pull up his pants. (ignoring the ache and the way his legs feel just a bit uncertain still.) or rather, he pulls off his boot with an annoyed huff and drops it next to him on the workbench when he can't just shove it through the leg of his pants, then he pulls them up. ]
[ for evan, getting back to baseline is easy enough - he's got a voice in the back of his head all the time, making demands he can't ignore, and there's the entity in there, too. he knows there's only so much time to ... wind down, he supposes might be the right way to phrase it, before he's expected to kill again. which is fine. he's used to it by now.
he half-watches david pull himself back together and smirks, just a little, under the mask. ]
[ he could swear he can hear the smirk and looks up at evan, unamused. gives him the same tired look one might at a friend making an entirely expected and obnoxious joke at their expense. he contemplates telling evan he's a pain in the ass, but the look probably conveys that well enough. plus he's not about to give him that one for free. ]
[ david grabs his boot and pulls it on, gets down on a knee to fix the laces, ignoring the fatigue starting to creep up on him. it can wait until he gets back. ]
... Do you sleep? Like, at all?
[ the question probably seems a little sudden, out of nowhere, but it's just a funny thought that occurs to him, thinking about how nice a nap sounds right about now. do any of the killers sleep? sure nobody really needs to as far as he knows, but it's a luxury the entity hasn't taken yet. and the mental image is kind of funny, killers cosied up in bed under a duvet. ]
[ no response - probably for the best, he figures - but before he can get back to whatever the next problem is to clean up, david asks him a question.
maybe not that strange, considering, but it's a little surprising coming from someone who's been here this long. sleep isn't really a requirement here, and all the survivors know that. but the urge to do so still lingers. exhaustion still exists. sometimes it gets too strong to resist, although sleep is still probably the wrong word. passing out is more the norm. ]
Not really.
[ it's the basic truth, and not much of an answer. for once, he elaborates. ]
No point. Got a lot to do, all the time. But when shit goes to hell, sometimes it helps out.
[ no explanation on what shit going to tell might entail, but it's from his perspective. generally, the entity's involved. ]
[ that makes sense. probably. he thinks evan's way too high strung about defending his territory, but it's not like he doesn't get it. even without the fucking ego, it's his right. all he's got and all he's ever gonna fucking get. doesn't mean david's going to stop thinking he should ease up a bit though, or stop stealing from him. ]
[ david stands once he's done his boot up, gives evan a curious look. ]
[ evan picks up his cleaver, and then david asks a followup question; he pauses and looks at him, back to being the monster that haunts the collapsing mine and abandoned macmillan estate. he considers whether that's a question he wants to answer.
it isn't, really, but survivors have imaginations. the simplest explanation is probably enough to stop this line of questioning in its tracks. ]
When you get everyone out and follow 'em before I find you.
[ david can follow that one to its logical conclusion. entity's gotta get its pound of flesh from somewhere, killers have gotta feed it somehow. it's the kind of thing that everyone knows once they've been here a while, (some killers are pretty forthcoming about it,) but it never occurred to david that it'd take its toll. ]
[ he's curious, it's obvious in the look he gives, it's not like he knows what it's like — he's fucking dead when it takes what it wants from him — but he doesn't think he wants to stoke evan's temper like that right now. ]
Can't picture it. [ he shakes his head, turns to pick up his jacket off the bench he threw it on. ] You sleeping. D'you get all cosied up? Fluffy blanket and a pair of PJs?
[ maybe he's fine with stoking evan's temper a little. ]
[ the followup isn't mockery and therefore not exactly what he expected, but it still makes him grimace. if it wasn't for the residual satisfaction clinging to him, he might have run david out for that. ]
Come around often enough and you might find out.
[ there's a few other rooms off the workshop, ones that really shouldn't be there but the entity saw fit to drop in for him ages ago, that survivors generally don't know about. there's nothing in them to steal, so no reason to try and break in, but if he needs to sleep, that's where he goes.
evan hangs up the cleaver in its place by the door and opens the front of the furnace to stoke the coals. the rush of heat and light casts a fresh illumination in the room, and sends a little cloud of smoke and coal sparks up. most of them die in the air; a few land on him, and make no difference to the burns on him whatsoever. ]
[ david snorts, still picturing evan in a set of comfy pyjamas — little sleep mask and all — and slips into his jacket. ]
Maybe I will.
[ this is so stupid. he zips up his jacket, all the way so it covers his neck, and tucks his chin under the collar for good measure like he would somewhere cold. watches evan at the furnace, the way the sparks die on his skin and he doesn't even flinch. ]
[ it being a mystery seems ridiculous, but some survivors are fascinated by the idea of the killers doing 'normal' things. anything to rationalize that this isn't just another form of hell, maybe.
he can just about see david pulling the jacket on and zipping it up high enough to hide the bites, and smirks a little again. it's not an insult to him. he knows most of them don't want the others knowing exactly what they get up to out here. them having to hide it is another little point of pride he probably shouldn't be taking, but he does. even the complaints are something to get smug about, although as yet david hasn't complained.
considering how much he seems to like getting bitten, he's probably never going to, evan considers. ]
You're gonna be disappointed.
[ he shuts the grate on the furnace and pulls a twisted, broken trap out of a crate nearby. when they get mangled like this, he just melts them down and remakes them. he's not in the mood to go hunt down trespassers right now. a little too satisfied to bother with it. ]
[ david shrugs a shoulder. it's not a big deal, not really — so some guy sleeps, big whoop — but there's just something fascinating about it. like the time someone told him moose get hunted by killer whales and david couldn't shake the idea it was wrong somehow until he saw a picture of them swimming. ]
[ someone explaining how fucking massive moose are helped too. normal animals aren't gonna deal with that, are they? ]
[ plus there's the gentle implication of getting to sleep in a bed, and christ david can't even remember what that's like. sleeping bag if he's lucky. usually just finds a soft patch of dirt under a tree like a fucking animal. though when ripley's in a trial, sometimes her cat'll sleep on him and that's nice actually. ]
Be seein' you.
[ he picks up his bag and slings it over his shoulder. time to start the fucking arduous task of getting out of this fucking place. ]
[ evan grunts, an acknowledgement that david's be seeing you could mean almost anything: in the next trial, in the next fistfight that leads to a brutal death, or in the next moment they decide they need a distraction. maybe all three.
he works at the forge until he hears david's footsteps disappear into the mine, and until the sixth sense that tells him when his traps are being tampered with stops its rigid focus on every movement out in the darkness. he waits, in fact, until he's dead certain he's alone, and only then does he roll his shoulders in exhaustion, lean back against one of the center workbenches and wonder, not for the first time, if fucking survivors is going to backfire on him.
well. doesn't matter right now. david's already put an end to him once. might be enough to satisfy the bloodlust. if anything, it's the ones who keep the rage pent up that are going to end up being the problem, he's pretty sure.
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hardlydead) wrote2021-11-01 05:44 am
no subject
[ he takes the rag, it's not far off what he's used to these days anyway (though he is in no way adverse to sneaking into a realm to shower,) and wipes up as best he can. just so he feels a little less gross at least, fuck knows if he'll get a chance to clean up properly before he's sucked into a trial, and then it won't matter anyway. ]
[ once that's sorted he tosses the rag in the bucket, fixes his shirt, and carefully slips off the table to pull up his pants. (ignoring the ache and the way his legs feel just a bit uncertain still.) or rather, he pulls off his boot with an annoyed huff and drops it next to him on the workbench when he can't just shove it through the leg of his pants, then he pulls them up. ]
no subject
he half-watches david pull himself back together and smirks, just a little, under the mask. ]
Woulda been easier my way.
[ logistics during aside. ]
no subject
[ david grabs his boot and pulls it on, gets down on a knee to fix the laces, ignoring the fatigue starting to creep up on him. it can wait until he gets back. ]
... Do you sleep? Like, at all?
[ the question probably seems a little sudden, out of nowhere, but it's just a funny thought that occurs to him, thinking about how nice a nap sounds right about now. do any of the killers sleep? sure nobody really needs to as far as he knows, but it's a luxury the entity hasn't taken yet. and the mental image is kind of funny, killers cosied up in bed under a duvet. ]
no subject
maybe not that strange, considering, but it's a little surprising coming from someone who's been here this long. sleep isn't really a requirement here, and all the survivors know that. but the urge to do so still lingers. exhaustion still exists. sometimes it gets too strong to resist, although sleep is still probably the wrong word. passing out is more the norm. ]
Not really.
[ it's the basic truth, and not much of an answer. for once, he elaborates. ]
No point. Got a lot to do, all the time. But when shit goes to hell, sometimes it helps out.
[ no explanation on what shit going to tell might entail, but it's from his perspective. generally, the entity's involved. ]
no subject
[ david stands once he's done his boot up, gives evan a curious look. ]
When shit goes to hell?
no subject
it isn't, really, but survivors have imaginations. the simplest explanation is probably enough to stop this line of questioning in its tracks. ]
When you get everyone out and follow 'em before I find you.
no subject
[ he's curious, it's obvious in the look he gives, it's not like he knows what it's like — he's fucking dead when it takes what it wants from him — but he doesn't think he wants to stoke evan's temper like that right now. ]
Can't picture it. [ he shakes his head, turns to pick up his jacket off the bench he threw it on. ] You sleeping. D'you get all cosied up? Fluffy blanket and a pair of PJs?
[ maybe he's fine with stoking evan's temper a little. ]
no subject
Come around often enough and you might find out.
[ there's a few other rooms off the workshop, ones that really shouldn't be there but the entity saw fit to drop in for him ages ago, that survivors generally don't know about. there's nothing in them to steal, so no reason to try and break in, but if he needs to sleep, that's where he goes.
evan hangs up the cleaver in its place by the door and opens the front of the furnace to stoke the coals. the rush of heat and light casts a fresh illumination in the room, and sends a little cloud of smoke and coal sparks up. most of them die in the air; a few land on him, and make no difference to the burns on him whatsoever. ]
no subject
Maybe I will.
[ this is so stupid. he zips up his jacket, all the way so it covers his neck, and tucks his chin under the collar for good measure like he would somewhere cold. watches evan at the furnace, the way the sparks die on his skin and he doesn't even flinch. ]
Solve the mystery and all.
no subject
he can just about see david pulling the jacket on and zipping it up high enough to hide the bites, and smirks a little again. it's not an insult to him. he knows most of them don't want the others knowing exactly what they get up to out here. them having to hide it is another little point of pride he probably shouldn't be taking, but he does. even the complaints are something to get smug about, although as yet david hasn't complained.
considering how much he seems to like getting bitten, he's probably never going to, evan considers. ]
You're gonna be disappointed.
[ he shuts the grate on the furnace and pulls a twisted, broken trap out of a crate nearby. when they get mangled like this, he just melts them down and remakes them. he's not in the mood to go hunt down trespassers right now. a little too satisfied to bother with it. ]
no subject
[ david shrugs a shoulder. it's not a big deal, not really — so some guy sleeps, big whoop — but there's just something fascinating about it. like the time someone told him moose get hunted by killer whales and david couldn't shake the idea it was wrong somehow until he saw a picture of them swimming. ]
[ someone explaining how fucking massive moose are helped too. normal animals aren't gonna deal with that, are they? ]
[ plus there's the gentle implication of getting to sleep in a bed, and christ david can't even remember what that's like. sleeping bag if he's lucky. usually just finds a soft patch of dirt under a tree like a fucking animal. though when ripley's in a trial, sometimes her cat'll sleep on him and that's nice actually. ]
Be seein' you.
[ he picks up his bag and slings it over his shoulder. time to start the fucking arduous task of getting out of this fucking place. ]
no subject
he works at the forge until he hears david's footsteps disappear into the mine, and until the sixth sense that tells him when his traps are being tampered with stops its rigid focus on every movement out in the darkness. he waits, in fact, until he's dead certain he's alone, and only then does he roll his shoulders in exhaustion, lean back against one of the center workbenches and wonder, not for the first time, if fucking survivors is going to backfire on him.
well. doesn't matter right now. david's already put an end to him once. might be enough to satisfy the bloodlust. if anything, it's the ones who keep the rage pent up that are going to end up being the problem, he's pretty sure.
after a while, he gets back to his work. ]