OPEN.

[bloodandbrass]

Comments

[hardlydead]

I'd say it's pretty unlikely.

[bloodandbrass]

sure.

[ he kept that last text, for what it's worth. just because ]

kick her shit in and i might ignore the next time you steal something.

[hardlydead]

If she starts something, I'll finish it, but I'm not gonna go starting fights just to curry a little favour with you.

[bloodandbrass]

your call. just keep in mind you're a dead man if i find you passed out drunk in the mines.

[hardlydead]

Considering you'd try and kill me if you found me awake and sober down there, feels like that much goes without saying.

[bloodandbrass]

just a reminder, since you keep showing up. makes that death wish look real obvious.

[hardlydead]

I don't have a death wish.

[bloodandbrass]

bullshit you don't.

[hardlydead]

Got no interest in dying. Pretty sure you'd have an easier time of it if I did.

[bloodandbrass]

half of you maggots go running straight at the first trap you see just to get my attention and you think that ain't a death wish?

[hardlydead]

My job to get as many of them out of a trial as possible, course I'm gonna come for your attention straight off.

[ he can't speak for the others. some of them are like him, some of them are... not very aware of their surroundings. ]

[bloodandbrass]

but not yourself?

sounds like a death wish to me.

[hardlydead]

Just because you don't know what it's like to give a shit about other people doesn't mean I'm out here chasing death.

[bloodandbrass]

[ that'd hurt more if he actually thought about it. ]

keep telling yourself that. looks the same to me.

[hardlydead]

Course it does, you heartless fuck. Doesn't mean it is.

[bloodandbrass]

until there's nothing left of you to protect them.

[ this brief moment of awareness of their surroundings brought to you by the chill wind of the entity saying trial time. ]

[hardlydead]

We're all on borrowed time here. Doing what I can with what I've got.

[ he's already painfully aware he's probably going to burn out and get tossed long before anyone else, thanks. ]

[bloodandbrass]

that make you feel better about it all?

[hardlydead]

Why do you care?

[bloodandbrass]

i don't.

just seen this happen before.

[hardlydead]

Bullshit you don't. Wouldn't be asking me all these questions if you didn't. Not exactly known for being a chatterbox, are you?

I know how shit goes for me here. Don't need you dredging it up to entertain yourself.

[bloodandbrass]

this shit doesn't 'entertain' anybody but the ghost.

you've all got a death wish. you're just too dumb to realize it.

[ any other replies will have to get a clap back when he's done with the trial, because that's when the entity snatches him up, leaving the whole estate empty and only partly protected again. at least for a while. ]

[hardlydead]

[ david could reply, or he could stew on this until it makes him angry enough to storm over to macmillan and argue in person. ]

[ surprise, surprise, he's going over there. always an eerie quiet about the place, so it doesn't occur to him that trapper's not even there right now. depending on how long it takes him to navigate the place versus how long that trial takes, he might not even find that out. ]

[bloodandbrass]

[ the forest is as empty and silent as ever, and so are all the buildings, devoid of any sign of his presence. there's all the traps, obviously, but without him around to patrol between them. to make sure they're all set and that nobody's opting to trespass.

that means the mine is empty, and his workshop unguarded other than the traps littering the way in. with no signs of life anywhere, the whole realm may as well be abandoned.

trapper isn't back for a while. whether david wants to wait for him, or just leave him a mess to get pissed off over, is up to him. ]

[hardlydead]

[ it's a little confusing at first, the second time david disarms a trap and doesn't see or hear a hint on trapper coming his way to find out who's on his turf this time. it does click eventually, that the ornery bastard must be in a trial, because where else does he go, and that leaves david kind of impotently angry. ]

[ he could just leave, that would be sensible. contemplates breaking a bunch of traps the way they used to just to get some of that anger out, plus the added bonus of knowing it'll righteously piss off trapper when he gets back. ]

[ could make himself useful while he's out here, which is the logic that has david slowly make his way down toward the workshop. see if he can't nab a couple of things that'll come in handy later. well the first thing he does when he gets down there is stop to hastily clean and bandage a hand after one of those traps snapped closed faster than he expected and gouged a chunk out of the side, but then. then he will peruse the goods. ]