bloodandbrass

[ it gets easy to lose himself - and lose control - in this. especially being able to hear, clearly, the effect this is having. he used to think he'd never find an upside in the ability of some survivors to constantly run their fucking mouth, but time told him otherwise. david's never been the type to shut up, and that carries into this. funny how things work out.

that self-control is starting to give way now, though. he's pretty sure he can outlast david but one of these days that's not going to be true. the bites get harder, closer to breaking skin. his grip tightens, nails digging in where they can. he'd say something, but that would mean he'd have to let go briefly, focus, try to get words out ... and besides, at this point, anything he'd say would just break the intensity. he's sure it'd be enough to sabotage this. ]

[ david could restrain himself, (or at least he likes to think he could,) but why would he? at a basic level, it feels good to let himself be this vocal, but he knows evan gets off on that shit too. ]

[ it doesn't take much more to push him over. david grits his teeth on a breathless almost-- between moans, the harder bites making him grip harder at the back of evan's head, the hand on his back digging into his skin as if he wants to rip chunks out of it. as if the skin to skin contact isn't enough and he would bury himself in evan's flesh if he could. ]

[ it doesn't take much more to push him over, the tension in him snapping suddenly, thighs clamping at evan's sides, squeezing and pulling him in as he comes. ]

[ that's what does it. every time. the intensity of it, the pressure, the sensation of it all. it drags him over the edge right on the heels of david's orgasm, making him snarl something wordless against his skin and tighten his grip to the point where it might actually hurt - for the arm around his back to potentially do damage. it's not intentional, but fuck.

maybe it's been a little too long since he last got david in here.

it takes a little while for him to get control again, and he doesn't hurry that along. his grip loosens eventually but he doesn't let go or pull away once the world starts coming back. it'll happen later. for now he stays right where he is, fingers moving off the bruises he's probably left on david's hip only to curl around a spot a little higher, fist uncurling from david's hair to rest on the back of his neck instead. ]

[ the way evan's arm is around him makes some pained noises slip out among the others, it hurts enough to take david out of it a little, but not enough that he doesn't immediately sink against evan once it's passed. his own grip loosening too, hands resting lightly on his neck and back. ]

[ he has the same thought: maybe it's been a little too long since he was last here. ]

[ a slow, growing awareness of his body starts to come back as he comes down and it's a bit more pain than he's used to from evan, but that's not even entirely his fault. small aches coming into focus, his back where evan likely tripped over one or two of those injuries, another that makes a quiet part of his mind hope evan didn't do any damage with that last squeeze. he's also fucking exhausted, he realises as his body relaxes, idly letting his thumb brush back and forth over a spot on the back of evan's neck. ]

[ time passes in some ways around here, and eventually aches start to settle in on top of the perpetual pains. so does david's little gentle touch against his neck, which is unsettling in ways evan doesn't think about much.

so he finally pulls himself away, or at least off, arm unwrapping from around david's waist and his other hand sliding off his neck to support himself against the workbench as he pulls back. not enough that david's about to hit the floor but enough to pull out of him, then settle back in closer. he can feel david's weight against him. it's almost all of it. he's about ready to pass out, if evan's any judge.

normally this would be the point where he gets whoever's here by the arm and toss them out into the cold with their clothes. that in itself is a step up from what he used to do, which was kill them so they'd get out of his way and back to the campfire faster. but right now he just stays where he is, because it wouldn't be the first time david's crashed here.

although he's got things to do, so he doesn't stay there that long. ]

You gonna pass out on me?

[ david grimaces when evan pulls out, never really a fan of that feeling, but other than that evan stays still, so david settles again. he knows he has to get going eventually, but that was a lot on top of an already injured body. it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that he's worn the fuck out. ]

Might.

[ there's an amused lilt to his voice at the idea, a tired half a smirk blooming as he puts a hand on evan's good shoulder to push himself upright. ]

Go find a corner to curl up in maybe.

[ the response means david's got enough strength back to hold himself, which means evan can probably let go. he gives him a little more time. enough to make sure he still has a grip on himself, mostly, but he can pretend it's for david's sake. ]

Just use the damn bed.

[ it's not like it'd be the first time, and nobody goes back there anyway. well. not right now, at least.

evan pulls himself away when he's fairly certain david's going to stay upright on the workbench and pulls his waders back up, buckling them back in place and reaching for his mask again. he doesn't pull it on right away but keeps a grip on it, just in case david's too exhausted to stay in place and slides straight onto the floor and he needs both hands again. ]

[ david raises an eyebrow, surprised by the offer. it's not the first time, sure, but evan is particular about his property. about his space. and david gets it, it's why he'd never assume something being okay one time means he has an open invitation, wouldn't necessarily even ask about it a second time unless he had something to give in exchange. ]

You sure?

Wouldn't offer if I wasn't.

[ there's a hint of annoyance there, because since when does he offer anything without meaning it? but he's not in the mood to get really pissed off. besides, the wariness is warranted. anybody else would be the same way.

he swipes david's clothes off the floor and drops them in his lap, not caring about any mess that might spread around. ]

Better than you passing out halfway back and drawing some scavenger over here.

[ david makes a tired attempt to catch the clothes before they land in his lap, it's really only partially successful. at least it's on the leg of his jeans rather than somewhere more embarassing. either way, david dumps them on the table next to him, because he might fake stability well, but he knows he's in no fucking state to move or get dressed just yet. ]

Just don't want you getting pissed 'cause I'm still here an hour from now.

[ partially joking, but it's also a fair assessment, he thinks. ]

An hour from now I'll be killin' your friends again.

[ it's not said with any particular malice. it's just a fact. another fact of this place, of the life they live. in a hour he'll be too busy to care, essentially. and once he gets back he'll probably forget david's there at all, because he doesn't use the bed on his own time, and who knows if the entity won't grab david before he even wakes up?

the injuries come to mind again, and he looks them over. the angry red marks and welt at his shoulder that's a familiar injury to every survivor. they shouldn't linger like that. ]

Just don't fuck around and I doubt I'll remember you even went in.

[ there's some visible discomfort that david can't quite conceal at what evan says; sure, it's a fact of this place, but he tries really hard not to think about it when he's here. thinks about the last two times he woke up here and the way he felt at the realisation evan wasn't here because he was in a trial. he might prefer it if evan's here when he wakes up, just for his own sanity. ]

[ the moment passes and evan keeps talking, david reaches behind himself for the tattered rags that used to be a t-shirt and uses that to clean up with a soft snort. "don't fuck around," when does he anymore? ]

What am I gonna do in there anyway? Change the lightbulb?

[ even if david doesn't get off the workbench yet, evan moves away. doesn't pull the mask back on yet, but goes back to the other table, the one where his work is always waiting. because there's always something else to fix or repair or make more dangerous. ]

Ain't that room that's the problem. Be surprised if you could fix that light. Never worked before.

[ it was a joke, he knows, but god forbid he fail to take any idle comment seriously. ]

When's the last time I touched any of your shit?

[ he's even made a point of learning how to spot traps, figuring out how to get around them, closing less every time he's here just to avoid stoking that bit of evan's temper. it's a shame that doesn't seem to have carried over into trials, but what can you do really. ]

[ hesitantly, david slips off the workbench while he speaks. very suddenly about ten times more aware of various aches and pains, but at least he doesn't fall on his face even if his legs still feel a bit rubbery. he's stable enough at least to pull his underwear on and slowly start toward the bedroom. ]

I'm not gonna mess with your stuff, don't worry.

[ evan sifts through the metal on the workbench, more as a distraction than anything else. there's always something new to repair here and he's looking at a trap that looks like someone put a metal pipe in the middle to set it off. teeth broken, jaws just slightly bent out of shape. not enough to make it ineffective but enough to piss him off.

he hears david moving around behind him and pulls the mask back on. ]

Good to know.

[ he believes him, which is as much a surprise to him as it might be to anyone else. so far, david's lived up to not being as much of a pain in the ass as he could be outside trials. that's enough, really. not everyone has that kind of awareness. ]

[ the lack of argument or shitty comment is a surprise, but david's mollified by it, he doesn't want to fight over something so stupid this soon after sex like that. ]

[ he's a little baffled by the way evan just gets back to work, it felt like that was a lot for him too. stands and watches him for a moment, but it's probably just one of those killer "benefits." that and whatever the fuck is wrong with evan that he couldn't stop working like his entire existence depends on it. david shrugs it off and heads into the bedroom without a word, leaving the door open a crack to let some light stream in so he doesn't bash his leg against the stupid thing again as he clambers into the bed to sleep. ]

[ he's tired, although probably not as tired as david. but there are benefits to being on this side of things, and one of them is that exhaustion doesn't hit as hard. they have to be ready for a trial at any time, and however much the entity might think it's funny to toss them in at the worst possible time, it does need them to do their job. so they benefit.

evan listens as david heads into the room, and then his attention fixes back on his work. at least, it mostly does. it's been a while since things went sour, with him unintentionally pissing david off, and now that they're back on the rails he's gotten a pretty good grasp on what's different between what they have and what he has with other survivors. it's ... a little concerning.

but if he doesn't think about it, it won't be a problem. that's served him well his entire life. and when he feels the tug of a trial maybe half an hour after david falls asleep, he doesn't waste any time getting a weapon and leaving. ]

[ he's a little bit more aware of the dustiness of the room this time around, probably because they didn't just fuck in it, it irritates his nose a little but not enough to be a problem. david just lays down on his back and settles in, drifting off relatively quickly. ]

[ when he wakes up a few hours later, he just lays there for a little while. partially because he is so much more sore than he was when he went to sleep, but also some of the weirdness of this has just sunk in. this is weird, there's no getting around that. even accounting for how fucked up it is to be hooking up with a killer, or whatever the fuck evan's deal is, this is a strange situation. ]

[ he rubs his eyes with the heels of his hands with a tired groan, staring at the ceiling afterward. listening for the sound of evan working outside to try and figure out what leaving's going to look like — or rather, how much he's going to have to pretend he's definitely not in any pain at all. ]

[ there's a trial, and then another trial, and then he's back in his workshop, and then there's something out on his property, fucking around. by the time david wakes up he's still out there dealing with it.

he's been gone long enough that the fire in the forge-slash-furnace has faded down to a dull glow, leaving the workshop barely lit. the few lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling are off. the whole place is mostly shadows, hiding anything that might be a trap.

although he doesn't trap the workshop these days. he leaves what he needs to deal with trespassers on high shelves for when he catches them. it's outside, just past the door, where the traps start. what gets missed on the way in generally catches on the way out. except most people are getting good at avoiding them. it's almost pointless now.

david won't have any issues leaving, but once he's outside he'll hear the clear sounds of a struggle not all that far away. because it's the thing that is and isn't a person out there, the one nobody has a name for, caught in four traps and still trying to beat him to death or whatever it does, and evan really doesn't know how to deal with it. ]

[ eventually, david decides he's alone and elects to leave. slow and ungainly as he pads out to the workshop to gather his things and get dressed — in hindsight, he thinks as he pulls a clean shirt out of his bag, maybe he should've brought his stuff into the bedroom with him. getting dressed is quick, even if his back protests a little when he crouches to tie his laces, and david does his best to brush off the discomfort of being here alone on his way out. ]

[ he's almost out of the mineshaft when he hears it. not the struggle, though that comes through just after. what he hears is the voice, the one that makes something in him sieze in a cold panic. after this long, there isn't much that still scares david (that he knows of,) but that thing does. makes him contemplate trying to wait it out until he realises what the rest of the noise out there is. ]

[ for some reason, he'd feel bad leaving evan to deal with this on his own. ]

[ he takes a deep breath, puts on his game face, and heads toward the noise. the sight is almost as absurd as it is upsetting, he doesn't want to look directly at it, ends up looking away to evan before he's fully processed the sight of it somehow caught in four traps at once. now he's here, he really has no idea how to deal with it either. ]

There's easier ways to get me to stick around, you know.

[ he's still got jokes though. ]

[ the only reason evan's not already ash on the ground is because of the traps. both of those fucked-up legs are caught, and so is one arm that managed to get two. it keeps tripping over itself no matter how it twists and turns. but the one arm free has an axe that it keeps swinging at his head.

david's voice catches him by surprise and it's only because the bigger threat is in front of him that he doesn't turn. he's pissed about it all, though. david's not supposed to be able to sneak up on him. ]

You wanna go in there and get killed to make it fuck off, go ahead.

[ it's a snarl. he has other traps he could lure it into, since it doesn't seem to understand how to avoid them, but that's only going to do so much. he has to be able to get in range to kill it, and between the axe and the pulsating whatever on its back, he doesn't have much confidence in doing that. ]

Yeah, nah. Get killed enough by that thing as it is.

[ it twists its head around to look at david where he is just behind and to the side of evan, in its awful, trilling, almost-human (almost dwight if he pays attention) voice it says "help... can you help?" as if he's not looking directly at it. he visibly shudders and looks toward evan again. ]

[ it hasn't got out its awful... throat proboscis at least. maybe it can't use it with the position it's stuck in. ]

-- hang on.

[ it's a longshot, david's never tried this outside a trial, but those journals said something about killers being averse to light, right? why would that be different just because they're not in a trial? who fucking knows, it's been years since they found them, but david swings his bag off his back anyway and starts rummaging for a flashlight. zero hesitation between finding one and immediately shining it at the thing's sockets, hoping for the best. meg's shined these things in his eyes when she's pissed enough times for him to know it fucking hurts and is disorienting even without a supernatural weakness. ]

[ he doesn't take his eyes off the thing. being watched doesn't seem to make a difference to whether or not it attacks, but he's not going to give it even a second.

he's not afraid of it, but it's offensive, in a way. pretending to be a person so badly. even ghost face knows how to fake that better when he has the chance. then again, that might be the point. it's not supposed to fool anyone for very long - just long enough to get them in reach.

and then david's reaching in his bag and pulling out a flashlight, of all things. evan doesn't say anything, doesn't even look over at him incredulously, but inside he wants to bash david's head against the nearest tree, or maybe into a trap. it's a stupid move. idiotic. flashlights are a problem in some trials, but as max proved ages ago, light isn't always a threat, and outside trials the damn things are better projectiles than anything else -

but the thing recoils. not much, and not far, but it does back off, tripping over its trapped legs. something splits along its spine - or chest cavity, fuck if he knows anymore - but the tendrils he's expecting don't erupt. not yet, anyway. ]

That ain't gonna kill it.

Obviously.

[ he's not stupid, he knows this is just a temporary inconvenience, but the unknown recoils, disoriented and pained. that's enough for david to feel comfortable with the idea forming in his head. ]

You're gonna kill it. I'm gonna keep it from knowing where you are.

[ it's a simple plan, how could it possibly go wrong? ]

[ it takes a lot of effort to not turn around and smash david's face in. only the sight of the thing in front of him keeps him in one place. ]

Yeah? You think that's how it works out here?

[ it's true that that thing doesn't like the light - that it's turning its head, trying to avoid it, while at the same time following david and not evan. but that's just where it's looking. he has no idea how it actually sees; there's no eyes in those sockets. ]

Turn it around. Ain't going at it from the front.

[ he's not sure how he's going to kill it at all. he's not sure if that's even possible. ]

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how... did i post an entire tag in courier and not notice

the number of times i've done small instead of courier in text threads is astronomical

we're so good at html 🙏

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