bloodandbrass

how the fuck do you get so much sleep around here?

[ "so much" meaning literally any at all. evan's not sure he's slept since arriving, outside of being unconscious occasionally. or dead.

but the response isn't a no. ]

Not having a mine to take care of leaves a lot of gaps in my schedule.

not what i mean

depending on what you bring you get a couple hours

What do you mean then?

[ sleep is easy. he might not need it, but being here is exhausting. ]

[ he's checking his stash while he texts; whisky's easiest to come by, ormond and glenvale both have plenty of it, sometimes vodka or gin but that's less reliable. he figures maybe the residents drink those ones more. that and wine, but he knows evan's not a wine drinker. ]

You like brandy?

how the fuck do you even GET sleep

better than nothing

[ actually, brandy's a better choice. that was one of the ones they kept in the house, back before. it has a few good associations and a few bad ones. fortunately, most of both have been long since drowned out. ]

[ only a few of the others like brandy, so david doesn't feel bad bringing a bottle to evan. he shoves it in his bag and heads out. ]

Well sometimes when I feel tired I lie down and close my eyes.

didn't think it let you

[ but survivors get different kinds of leeway. he'd assume sleep keeps them sane, except he knows they're almost all completely fucking insane.

he leaves the deeper depths of the workshop to head to the area where he actually gets work done, this time with an old trap that was meant for horses, not bears or humans. it doesn't work, and he's not sure why he has it, but that - fucking - thing is still out there. maybe this will actually kill it if he can get it working again. ]

Doesn't it let you?

when the fuck you think it's gonna let me have time for that

How's it gonna stop you? Only so many trials it can put you in.

use your imagination.

Maybe it just hates you more than the other killers.

sounds about right.

i ain't got all day here, hurry the fuck up

I'm on my way, relax.

You in the shop?

for now

[ as if he's going to leave. the trap's half dismantled by this time, and he has no idea if he can even get it working again. nothing to do but keep at it. ]

[ david doesn't reply, he just turns up a little bit later, knocking on the door before he lets himself in. he swings his back down off his shoulder as he approaches evan and takes the bottle out; it's a bit dirty, but sealed. ]

Here.

[ he turns when he hears footsteps, but it's just david, as promised. he glowers anyway, even if it's not visible through the mask, even after david produces the liquor.

but he's not going to be actively ungrateful. this is a trade. not even close to the first time he's done something like this, although it's not usually for the chance to sleep. ]

Not bad. [ he takes it, eyes the ripped, faded, illegible label, the color of it through the dim burned lighting of his own workshop. it'll be fine. ] Won't ask where you got it.

Good.

[ not that he remembers where he got this one; a house in badham maybe? either way it's probably for the best. ]

I'll be out of your hair in a few hours.

[ evan shrugs, gestures to the little room in the back that shouldn't be there but is, and sets the bottle down on another table, just to keep it out of the way so he doesn't break it on accident. ]

Still don't know how you can even fall asleep around here.

[ outside of passing out from exhaustion, anyway, which he sees a lot. ]

[ he turns by the door to look at evan with a shrug of his shoulder. ]

You're welcome to come try.

[ he doesn't even give david a glance at that, just snorts instead. ]

Yeah, right. Maybe later.

[ he doesn't believe it'll happen. and he's not about to drop what he's doing to try, either. maybe next time they fuck and david doesn't immediately leave, he'll think about it. maybe. ]

[ he's not disappointed, why would he be, it just means he doesn't have to try and navigate all of evan's bits while he's sleeping. david just quietly slips into the room and pulls the door over, leaving it cracked open enough to let just a little light slip in. ]

[ there's no ceremony to it, david doesn't even bother undressing to get more comfortable. slips off his jacket and dumps that on the floor next to the bed with his bag and then climbs on to get settled. he wouldn't have asked evan if he wasn't tired enough to sleep anyway, so it doesn't take david long to drift off in there. ]

[ evan assumes things will be normal. he'll work. forget david's there. be almost surprised when he resurfaces. just like every other time.

he works, and forgets david's there, but that's about where it stops, because something sets off a trap after a while. there's been a lot of that lately - deliberate fucking around, pissing him off - and so he grabs his cleaver and goes to find out what's happening, who the fuck is doing shit this time. he can rule out david, at least.

to his surprise, it's not a survivor. it's not that thing back for round whatever. it's not even ghost face. it's the demogorgon, of all things, roaming again, looking for ... he doesn't know what. food? prey? it doesn't speak or even have eyes. there's nothing he can understand with that. it might as well be an animal, and as far as evan's concerned, it is.

it stepped in a trap, but got out by the time he arrives, and now, bloody and angry, it attacks. all it has are claws and that godawful maw of a mouth, which shouldn't be a threat to someone like him. but he didn't fight a lot of wild animals hand-to-hand. this isn't like dealing with a person.

it gets him. bad. he kills it in the end, cleaver hacking off a forelimb and ripping open its threat, but in the process it got a hand full of claws locked around the hook in his shoulder and just about ripped it out of him. he's not sure if that was intentional or if it was just grabbing at anything it could find to pull him closer and try to eat him. doesn't really matter. it did enough damage.

he manages to get back to the workshop and sinks down against the wall. the hook's at a strange angle. more painful than it normally is. he detaches the waders from it, reaches behind his shoulder, and manages to finish the job the demogorgon couldn't with a noise that's just about loud enough to shake the workshop, metaphorically.

now he's bleeding worse, but the pain isn't as bad. he just sits there for now, forgetting completely that david's already down here. ]

[ well, there's one way to wake up. ]

[ david's up in an instant, rocketing out of the room alert and ready to fight. eyes wild as he looks around the shop, but there's no one here? ]

[ no, that's not true. evan's there. it takes a moment for his mind to settle enough to spot him, brain slowly winding down from looking for a threat to try and figure out what's happening, and when he spots evan something in him lurches. doesn't even think about it before he rushes over and takes a knee next to evan, hesitantly reaches for his shoulder but stops himself from touching it when he fully processes the open wound and the blood pouring from it. ]

The fuck happened to you?

[ if he sounds a bit panicked or worried, it's probably just the adrenaline in him after being woken up like that. ]

[ david's appearance doesn't help things right away. evan snarls, only seeing an enemy at first, wondering why the fuck someone is on his property again, but even through the pain and rage he does eventually remember that he let him come down here. it's why he doesn't smash the bent hook into david's skull when david crouches down next to him.

he's ready to get mocked for this. it's fine. he'll pay him back later. ]

Made a mistake.

[ there's other, smaller wounds, from claws and teeth, but they're not a problem. his skin's rough enough at this point that most other injuries aren't major. but this is a bad one. he knows there's a cracked bone in there and there's no solution to that but waiting. same with the torn, gaping wound the hook left even before he pulled it out.

he'll just have to put up with it until the entity's gifts see fit to set in. if they do at all. ]

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