[ david stumbles back when the tentacle comes loose — thank god it already stepped in the nearest traps around here — tossing it to the ground with a snarl that says plenty about how ready he is to dive back in and try to finish this thing off. there's a part of him, fuelled by rage and bloodlust, that sees it skitter off into the dark and wants to chase it down. teach it to feel regret and make it regret coming out here. ]
[ the haze doesn't clear so much as the fog has made him really good at pushing past it, at recognising that he's lucky to still be standing. if it was just him and evan wasn't here-- ]
[ shit, evan. david looks over at him, concern rising at the state of his face. he steps over, pulls his sleeve over his hand and carefully raises it to try and wipe some blood away, try and see where it actually got him and how bad it is. ]
[ evan can hear the thing vanishing into the darkness, and that pisses him off, but he's just slightly relieved, too. if it had sprouted more tentacles they'd both be dead. not that it really matters in the long run, but he's not used to getting killed outright even if david is, and it's a matter of pride, and ... honestly, he doesn't want that thing killing him.
he feels his jaw. painful, but not broken, the teeth aside. then suddenly david's in his face, wiping at the blood, and that makes him jerk back like it burned him. it's only partly because of the pain. ]
I said I'm fine.
[ except even he knows he's not. his jaw might not be broken, but the eye's gone. he can tell that much. a very light exploration of the socket tells him there's something still in there but it's ruined. it'll fix up eventually but it's different than a stab or a broken bone. ]
[ david pulls a face at the way evan jerks back, but he doesn't say anything about it. whatever happened, he can deal with it on his own for a second. how dare he forget evan's allergic to any kind of help ever. unless it's somebody throwing their body in the way, apparently. ]
Who the fuck knows how it does anything.
[ david doesn't, and honestly he doesn't particularly want to either. he turns to grab his bag and look for wherever the flashlight landed since the battery died, but he suspects it might be under the bits it left behind and david doesn't particularly want to touch those tentacles again. wipes his hands off on his jeans just at the thought. ]
[ he does spot evan's mask while he's looking, but hesitates to pick it up if the blind asshole's gonna be this weird with him. let him find it himself, who gives a fuck. ]
[ it's a long-term allergy, cut him some slack plz.
being half blind in the darkness isn't great. knowing his luck, he'll get pulled to a trial - with both eyes back but still disoriented, still seeing wrong, and that's going to go over great, isn't it? that's the sort of thing the entity would do, seeing them work together.
he hears more than he sees david staggering away. still on his feet, at least. something's gnawing at evan, at his brain and what's left of what might be his soul: that david jumped into that fight without a second thought, just because he could.
was it to help him? or to take revenge on something that's probably incredibly hard to get revenge on? either way, he could have walked off. evan would have dealt with it (probably), but he'd be in worse shape by now (probably).
so it might be delayed, but - ]
Thanks.
[ no elaboration, no explanation. just one word as he turns to look for his mask in the dark. ]
[ that surprises david. enough he almost doesn't respond, his brain confused enough by the thanks that words are suddenly very difficult. he plays it off as just picking his bag up off the ground. ]
Yeah.
[ quick, simple. merely acknowledging it and moving on. david does, after swinging his backpack on a shoulder, go retrieve evan's mask from where he saw it. sighs through his nose as he brings it to him. ]
[ david hands him the mask. he takes it a few seconds later, wiping more blood off his face as he does so. it's cracked, but that's not new. it'll fix. or he'll fix it. or just replace it. wouldn't be the first time.
he doesn't pull it back on, though. his vision's already fucked up. no need to eliminate the peripherals at this point. ]
Next time say somethin' before you run straight into a fucking mess like that.
[ there's no real anger to that, though. maybe that thing would have understood, and maybe it wouldn't have. at the very least evan would have been able to run his own distraction, provided it didn't have eyes on both sides of its whatever. ]
Nine outta ten times, that's exactly what "I'm gonna do something stupid" means.
[ evan can be forgiven for not knowing that since he's usually the fucking mess david's running straight into, but david rolls his eyes anyway. this from the man whose response to losing a fucking eye was to tell david he's 'fine'. ]
Besides, you could've told me you couldn't fuckin' see.
[ so they both need to work on their communication. what else is new. ]
[ as far as he's concerned, everything david does is stupid, but. ]
I could see. Just not half. Had worse around here.
[ technically true, but nobody's ever blinded him in an instant like that. and nobody's ever been so ... that thing. he can deal with egos, psychopaths, people losing touch with humanity, even the fucking demogorgon. but that thing? nothing even comes close. even the dredge at least has the grace to look inhuman.
his eye's still leaking something, maybe blood and maybe not. he grimaces as he wipes at it again and fresh pain ripples through his face. ]
[ that just gets a raised eyebrow and a "uh-huh" out of david, but he doesn't push back more than that. evan doesn't know how to trust or rely on other people, this place hasn't humbled him like that. if anything it's pushed him in the exact opposite direction. that's why he says he's fine when he's clearly fucking not even though it would be extremely helpful to maybe say he just lost a whole fucking eye. that's why it bugs him not knowing what david's about to do. ]
[ that's how david sees it anyway. not in so many words, more a vague sense that kind of amounts to the same idea, but he knows it's something he doesn't have the energy to push evan on right now. ]
Not exactly gonna say "hey I'm gonna jump this thing and try to grab it" where it can hear, am I?
[ it might, actually. evan's just so irritated and enraged on seeing it (not afraid, of course he's not scared of it, obviously) that he assumes it's got the mental capacity of the demogorgon, or the xenomorph, or the dredge. just because it can parrot human speech doesn't mean it understands anything it's saying.
he has to believe that, because he can't believe anything else. something like that has no right being intelligent. ]
Don't throw the goddamned flashlight next time. Almost blinded me completely doing that.
[ there's at least some capacity to understand in there, david's sure of that. david's been killed by it plenty, and the things it says when doing the deed itself aren't coincidence. there's just no way. ]
Rather not take my chances on that one.
[ though maybe he can concede that he should've turned the flashlight off before he threw it. he won't, dismisses evan's comment with a wave of his hand because he is not accepting criticism at this time. especially not from a man who won't even let someone take a look at his wounds. ]
[ evan snorts, even if it hurts. every word hurts, actually, but his eye's too obvious an injury to admit to a lesser one, like a fractured jaw.
he spits out a tooth into the grass regardless, and looks at the weird blackish blood on his cleaver. ]
Better not be back. Ain't losin' more traps.
[ he doubts he'll find them later, or at least not in one piece. just more work to do. he flicks some of the blood away and turns back toward the workshop, where he'd much rather be at this point. ]
[ david thoughtlessly walks just behind evan, using the way he walks to tell him where's safe to step. if he doesn't have to think about it, why would he. ]
Its whole thing is playing on people's sympathy, or going after people who've been thinking about it. [ at least that's how it was explained to him, but some people have a flair for dramatic storytelling that can make the facts of it hard to parse. ] Doesn't exactly make you a prime target.
[ was he thinking about it? of course not. aside from it being a freaky piece of shit he'd barely consider, he doesn't focus on other killers - or at least, not ones like that. ]
Probably on its way to kill someone else.
[ he did hear a whine in the darkness, right before he saw it. but that wasn't what drew him; he just tripped over it. like most of the things here, it probably thought he was easy prey, except that it was embedded with traps by the time he saw it. ]
Either couldn't tell or didn't care where it stepped, either.
Can barely control those limbs as it is by the looks of it.
[ probably can't feel much, if anything at all through its stolen skin. david shakes his head like he's physically shaking something off, a slight grimace in his expression. he doesn't particularly want to think about it any more than he already has. something about thinking on it comes with this feeling he could really only ever describe as an emphatic "nope." ]
[ david hates a lot of things, evan's sure, but it's the first time he's really heard him say it that clearly.
he'd bring it up, except he thinks he gets it. just looking at it makes him want to kill it. not in the 'you're trespassing on my property' way, on a visceral, bone-deep, borderline animalistic level. not that he think that far, he just knows it needs to die, maybe top priority over anything or anyone else. ]
Shit luck for you there.
[ he stops at the mine and takes another second to grasp the internal pain. fuck, but does his face hurt. ]
[ david pauses when evan does, takes the opportunity to get a look at his face, at the ruined eye. he also notes with a little disappointment that the marks he left earlier are gone, even if it's to be expected after he's been to trial. ]
Shit luck describes just about everything about this place.
[ he snorts at that. it's not wrong. shit luck for every survivor, and for some of the killers, too. not that he'd ever say that out loud. ]
Better hope it don't hold a grudge.
[ if that's even possible. he still doesn't think it has anything beyond wanting to kill, like the other things, but there's just enough human aspect to it that he can't feel certain about that. ]
[ his shoulder hurts where it pulled on his arm, and he's not sure if the back of his shirt is wet with sweat or with blood after it hit him with that trap-laden arm, but david will take both of those over a wrecked eye and whatever else it did to him. ]
Those tentacles don't fuck around.
[ he rolls his shoulder as he says it, trying to relieve some of the pain now he's more actively aware of it, thanks evan. ]
[ with the way david's moving, he's pretty sure there's something wrong, but it's not like that's permanent. nothing's permanent here. it's a positive against all the negatives. otherwise he wouldn't be so calm about losing an eye. it'll be back, although it'll probably hurt on the way in.
so he doesn't say anything about it. ]
Nothing does around here, except your crowd.
[ which doesn't always work out for him in the end, but most of them take pride in fucking around anyway. ]
[ david highly doubts it's coming back any time soon, but what does he know? maybe it's lurking around the edges of shelter woods, waiting to catch one of them on their own. down two tentacles and a damaged body though, david's willing to bet money it's gonna go hide and lick its wounds first. ]
Lemme patch your eye so you're not leaking all over the shop first.
[ it's just really gross and he doesn't think evan has anything except old, grody bandages that he'd have to wrap half his head with to use. ]
[ the look he gives david is flat, but inside he's incredulous. patch up the eye? why bother? ]
Not the worst thing that floor's stained with.
[ on the assumption david's not going to ask, he turns and heads back into the tunnel to the workshop. but he doesn't tell david to get lost or stop him from following him. if he really wants to follow and help, evan's not going to kick him out. ]
[ david doesn't particularly want to know what worse stuff evan means. that's not even the point. it's a mix of things; seeing evan with an injury like that, it hits david with an urge to get it patched up that he can't really explain, but also he knows that sometimes leaving a wound to the open air like that, especially if it's bleeding or weeping, can be way more distracting or annoying than if you slap a bandage over it. ]
[ anyway, he just follows evan in, not thinking at all about the why of this, as per usual. ]
Feel like it'd drive me nuts after a bit, just havin' blood and- juice runnin' down my face like that.
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[ the haze doesn't clear so much as the fog has made him really good at pushing past it, at recognising that he's lucky to still be standing. if it was just him and evan wasn't here-- ]
[ shit, evan. david looks over at him, concern rising at the state of his face. he steps over, pulls his sleeve over his hand and carefully raises it to try and wipe some blood away, try and see where it actually got him and how bad it is. ]
Didn't realise it hit you this bad.
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he feels his jaw. painful, but not broken, the teeth aside. then suddenly david's in his face, wiping at the blood, and that makes him jerk back like it burned him. it's only partly because of the pain. ]
I said I'm fine.
[ except even he knows he's not. his jaw might not be broken, but the eye's gone. he can tell that much. a very light exploration of the socket tells him there's something still in there but it's ruined. it'll fix up eventually but it's different than a stab or a broken bone. ]
Don't know how the fuck that thing can aim.
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Who the fuck knows how it does anything.
[ david doesn't, and honestly he doesn't particularly want to either. he turns to grab his bag and look for wherever the flashlight landed since the battery died, but he suspects it might be under the bits it left behind and david doesn't particularly want to touch those tentacles again. wipes his hands off on his jeans just at the thought. ]
[ he does spot evan's mask while he's looking, but hesitates to pick it up if the blind asshole's gonna be this weird with him. let him find it himself, who gives a fuck. ]
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being half blind in the darkness isn't great. knowing his luck, he'll get pulled to a trial - with both eyes back but still disoriented, still seeing wrong, and that's going to go over great, isn't it? that's the sort of thing the entity would do, seeing them work together.
he hears more than he sees david staggering away. still on his feet, at least. something's gnawing at evan, at his brain and what's left of what might be his soul: that david jumped into that fight without a second thought, just because he could.
was it to help him? or to take revenge on something that's probably incredibly hard to get revenge on? either way, he could have walked off. evan would have dealt with it (probably), but he'd be in worse shape by now (probably).
so it might be delayed, but - ]
Thanks.
[ no elaboration, no explanation. just one word as he turns to look for his mask in the dark. ]
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Yeah.
[ quick, simple. merely acknowledging it and moving on. david does, after swinging his backpack on a shoulder, go retrieve evan's mask from where he saw it. sighs through his nose as he brings it to him. ]
Here.
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he doesn't pull it back on, though. his vision's already fucked up. no need to eliminate the peripherals at this point. ]
Next time say somethin' before you run straight into a fucking mess like that.
[ there's no real anger to that, though. maybe that thing would have understood, and maybe it wouldn't have. at the very least evan would have been able to run his own distraction, provided it didn't have eyes on both sides of its whatever. ]
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[ evan can be forgiven for not knowing that since he's usually the fucking mess david's running straight into, but david rolls his eyes anyway. this from the man whose response to losing a fucking eye was to tell david he's 'fine'. ]
Besides, you could've told me you couldn't fuckin' see.
[ so they both need to work on their communication. what else is new. ]
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[ as far as he's concerned, everything david does is stupid, but. ]
I could see. Just not half. Had worse around here.
[ technically true, but nobody's ever blinded him in an instant like that. and nobody's ever been so ... that thing. he can deal with egos, psychopaths, people losing touch with humanity, even the fucking demogorgon. but that thing? nothing even comes close. even the dredge at least has the grace to look inhuman.
his eye's still leaking something, maybe blood and maybe not. he grimaces as he wipes at it again and fresh pain ripples through his face. ]
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[ that's how david sees it anyway. not in so many words, more a vague sense that kind of amounts to the same idea, but he knows it's something he doesn't have the energy to push evan on right now. ]
Not exactly gonna say "hey I'm gonna jump this thing and try to grab it" where it can hear, am I?
[ okay, maybe he can push a little. ]
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[ it might, actually. evan's just so irritated and enraged on seeing it (not afraid, of course he's not scared of it, obviously) that he assumes it's got the mental capacity of the demogorgon, or the xenomorph, or the dredge. just because it can parrot human speech doesn't mean it understands anything it's saying.
he has to believe that, because he can't believe anything else. something like that has no right being intelligent. ]
Don't throw the goddamned flashlight next time. Almost blinded me completely doing that.
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Rather not take my chances on that one.
[ though maybe he can concede that he should've turned the flashlight off before he threw it. he won't, dismisses evan's comment with a wave of his hand because he is not accepting criticism at this time. especially not from a man who won't even let someone take a look at his wounds. ]
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he spits out a tooth into the grass regardless, and looks at the weird blackish blood on his cleaver. ]
Better not be back. Ain't losin' more traps.
[ he doubts he'll find them later, or at least not in one piece. just more work to do. he flicks some of the blood away and turns back toward the workshop, where he'd much rather be at this point. ]
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[ david thoughtlessly walks just behind evan, using the way he walks to tell him where's safe to step. if he doesn't have to think about it, why would he. ]
Its whole thing is playing on people's sympathy, or going after people who've been thinking about it. [ at least that's how it was explained to him, but some people have a flair for dramatic storytelling that can make the facts of it hard to parse. ] Doesn't exactly make you a prime target.
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Probably on its way to kill someone else.
[ he did hear a whine in the darkness, right before he saw it. but that wasn't what drew him; he just tripped over it. like most of the things here, it probably thought he was easy prey, except that it was embedded with traps by the time he saw it. ]
Either couldn't tell or didn't care where it stepped, either.
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[ probably can't feel much, if anything at all through its stolen skin. david shakes his head like he's physically shaking something off, a slight grimace in his expression. he doesn't particularly want to think about it any more than he already has. something about thinking on it comes with this feeling he could really only ever describe as an emphatic "nope." ]
Christ I hate that fuckin' thing.
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he'd bring it up, except he thinks he gets it. just looking at it makes him want to kill it. not in the 'you're trespassing on my property' way, on a visceral, bone-deep, borderline animalistic level. not that he think that far, he just knows it needs to die, maybe top priority over anything or anyone else. ]
Shit luck for you there.
[ he stops at the mine and takes another second to grasp the internal pain. fuck, but does his face hurt. ]
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Shit luck describes just about everything about this place.
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Better hope it don't hold a grudge.
[ if that's even possible. he still doesn't think it has anything beyond wanting to kill, like the other things, but there's just enough human aspect to it that he can't feel certain about that. ]
It get you?
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[ his shoulder hurts where it pulled on his arm, and he's not sure if the back of his shirt is wet with sweat or with blood after it hit him with that trap-laden arm, but david will take both of those over a wrecked eye and whatever else it did to him. ]
Those tentacles don't fuck around.
[ he rolls his shoulder as he says it, trying to relieve some of the pain now he's more actively aware of it, thanks evan. ]
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so he doesn't say anything about it. ]
Nothing does around here, except your crowd.
[ which doesn't always work out for him in the end, but most of them take pride in fucking around anyway. ]
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[ some of those other killers are pretty annoying actually!!! ]
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Almost nothin' except your crowd, then.
[ some killers might as well be survivors for how obnoxious they are. ]
Better get going before that thing comes back to finish the job.
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Lemme patch your eye so you're not leaking all over the shop first.
[ it's just really gross and he doesn't think evan has anything except old, grody bandages that he'd have to wrap half his head with to use. ]
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Not the worst thing that floor's stained with.
[ on the assumption david's not going to ask, he turns and heads back into the tunnel to the workshop. but he doesn't tell david to get lost or stop him from following him. if he really wants to follow and help, evan's not going to kick him out. ]
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[ anyway, he just follows evan in, not thinking at all about the why of this, as per usual. ]
Feel like it'd drive me nuts after a bit, just havin' blood and- juice runnin' down my face like that.
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david: bullies your characters specifically
that's why mikaela bullies him with tarot
mikaela please the cards are so mean to him
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