OPEN.

[bloodandbrass]

Comments

[bloodandbrass]

except you use it once and you're out on your ass.

[hardlydead]

Don't be like that. Just imagine it, me all "come on, Chuck," in your ear.

[bloodandbrass]

didn't know you liked celibacy that much.

[hardlydead]

Cute that you think you're the only action I get.

[ how could david pettily avoid evan for months at a time if he wasn't getting some elsewhere. ]

[bloodandbrass]

[ ??? how??? ]

better be from your side.

[hardlydead]

Better be?

[bloodandbrass]

if you want this shit to keep going.

[hardlydead]

Nah, you're fucking how many other survivors and you wanna get all jealous and pissy over the idea I might be fucking another killer?

What I do when I'm not with you is none of your business.

[bloodandbrass]

[ evan having possessive jealousy issues? unpossible ]

depends on who it is. some people i ain't getting near even secondhand.

[hardlydead]

You think there's nobody on this side I'd rather gouge my eyes out than be eskimo brothers with?

[bloodandbrass]

doubt i'm fucking them.

[hardlydead]

I don't know, and I don't wanna know. I just live in wilful ignorance about it. You should give it a go.

[bloodandbrass]

[ but he's already so ignorant. ]

not like you're telling me anyway.

[hardlydead]

And I'm never going to.

[bloodandbrass]

still don't wanna hear you saying 'chuck'.

[hardlydead]

I can't promise it's never gonna happen.

[bloodandbrass]

[ no response. he mad. and for reasons he's not 100% sure about, because a stupid nickname shouldn't push him to this point. ]

[hardlydead]

[ david rolls his eyes when he realises evan isn't going to reply, sits and stews on it a little while until he decides, for the second time today, he's sick of letting evan just do that. this time he decides to head over there, evan can't just refuse to reply in person. at least not as easily. he doesn't even bother changing, clothes still torn and bloody, body cut up from the trial. mostly healed, it's little more than scrapes and bruises, and david tries to pay it no mind. the clothes, he figures, will end up as they were during some period of inattention like usual. the lingering injuries on the other hand. ]

[ since the masquerade, he's been turning up to trials already injured more than usual, and david doesn't know what to think about it. did he piss off the entity somehow? or is he somehow manifesting this problem himself? david doesn't know, so he elects to just act like everything's business as usual and hope this isn't his new normal. whatever the fuck evan's deal is is clearly more pressing right now anyway. that's something he stands a percentage of a chance to get an answer for. ]

[ it feels like it's been forever since he's been to the estate (barring trials, obviously) but nothing changes. david pauses once he's there, thinking, and then elects to make the same choice he always does. just head for the workshop; either that's where evan already is, or he'll notice someone's going that way and head over to check it out. ]

[bloodandbrass]

[ evan's not in the workshop, but as ever, he can just tell there's a problem. no traps are spring and there's no visible footsteps, but after five minutes out working on the coal tower he gets an itch in the back of his head that doesn't suggest he's about to go to a trial. it's a sense that's gotten more refined over the time he's been here, but it's never really clear what it's telling him. sometimes someone's in the workshop. sometimes they're just fucking around.

given the recent conversation, he gets the feeling it might be david. wouldn't be the first time he's trespassed to finish a conversation evan thought was over. he give it another ten minutes repairing a crumbling chunk of foundation on the tower before heading back.

he dumps those supplies just outside the mine, because they're not as important, and heads in. all the traps are still set. someone careful. or just not looking to piss him off. or very, very sneaky.

but it's david down there, as he guessed. he glares at him from the doorway. doesn't say a word - just waits for him to start the conversation. ]

[hardlydead]

[ tempted as he might be, david doesn't fuck around with any of evan's stuff while he waits, partially out of a lack of desire to start a fight about it if he walks in, partially because he's been very intentionally avoiding even speaking to evan for a while now, so it feels a bit weird to be down here after all that. just sets his claudette-mandated go bag (because everyone's sick of him turning up looking like hell) down on a workbench and hoists himself up to sit on the same one. ]

[ it takes evan longer to turn up than he expected, but he does eventually, standing in the doorway with a glower on his face that david is much too familiar with. ]

No way you're this pissed because of a nickname.

[bloodandbrass]

[ what evan wants to do, and feels the urge to do, is hurl his cleaver directly at david's head. or storm over there and put it in his chest, feel his ribs snap and shatter under the force of the blade. he's not very good at self-control anymore. never has been, actually.

but he does have some hints of it, and they manage to keep him from launching himself directly at david to kill him. instead he snorts and slams the workshop door behind him. ]

Don't wanna fuck someone with bad taste.

[ ultimately that's not the truth of the matter, but he has to begrudgingly acknowledge that he can't control david or any other survivor. outside the workshop, off his property? they can do whatever the hell they want, and cutting himself off from them out of spite only costs him. and meanwhile someone else is benefitting. ]

You look like shit.

[ he heads to a workbench away from david and slams his cleaver on it. he still, in his own head, has work to do. ]

[hardlydead]

[ david watches the little hints of evan's anger — the door, the cleaver — with the tired resignation of someone who's used to it. evan knows, and is likely pissed off by the fact, that david isn't scared of him anymore. hasn't been for a long time. the fear of death hasn't quite left him, especially not in trials where that shit's all turned up, and sure, evan can give that. can surprise him, make him panic if things align right, but he, himself, isn't particularly scary to david. not even enough to make him flinch at the way he slams his cleaver down. ]

Rough trial.

[ but hey, he survived. just barely, dragging sable along with him like a wet cat, but he did. ]

[ who cares about that though, evan's seen him looking like this and worse a million times over. ]

Everyone except you's bad taste are they? Because that's all you seemed to give a shit about.

[ which is both funny and kind of insulting to david, the idea that he'd be fucking any other killers. as if this isn't something almost unthinkable to him. as if he hasn't walked through the woods sick to his stomach with the knowledge he was sleeping in this fucking place while evan was off sacrificing people he cares about. ]

[ he curls his hands into fists in his lap, suddenly unsure of why he felt the need to come out here. why he keeps doing this. but he's here now, othing to do about it but see yet another bad decision through. ]

[bloodandbrass]

[ rough trial? they're not supposed to be that roughed up afterward. evan considers questioning it, but this is david. he probably got into a fight on the way out, or the way over here. something stupid. the thought sticks, though, so he puts it away for later.

of course he's focusing on this, though. evan tries to keep his temper in check. he doesn't need to be accused of this bullshit here and now, and not by a survivor, either. ]

Half of 'em. [ he pulls a broken trap jaw out of a crate near the work bench, sets it in front of him and tries to focus most of his brain on fixing the twisted metal. it shouldn't be hard. ] Don't think you'd be into anyone I hate that much anyway. Shouldn't piss you off this much.

[hardlydead]

That's not it.

[ david watches evan work, a frown on his face. he wouldn't say he's pissed, but maybe he is. it wouldn't exactly be unreasonable if he was anyway, it's evan who's the problem here. ]

It's you trying to dictate where I put my dick like you're my-- [ ew, wait. ] Like we're in a relationship here.

[bloodandbrass]

[ if he wasn't so pissed off, he'd laugh at that. like we're in a relationship. as fucking if.

as it is, he twists the metal so hard it cracks, which is just one more thing to fuel the rage. evan slams it back down but doesn't turn around to look at david, just yet.

he wants to snarl something. about how taking what evan have to offer is a trade. that if he wants this then he has to follow rules. but - that's a lie, plain and simple, because there are no rules here, even in trials sometimes. he just doesn't want to think that someone who could come to him would go to someone else, and for once, he does realize that.

he also knows that voicing it will have david off the workbench and out the door in an instant, probably unlikely to come back ever. the rope was bad enough to drive him off until now. ]

Didn't realize you couldn't take a joke.

[ half of one, really. ]