OPEN.

[bloodandbrass]

Comments

[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. ]

[bloodandbrass]

[ the silence continues as david moves, and it's the silence of an empty world, an empty mine, an empty workshop. the silence devoid of life, instead of the silence of someone waiting without making noise. for now, he's in the clear.

the workshop is as it always is. organized, surprisingly so, even if the workbenches are cluttered with tools and fragments of traps. weapons and masks hang on the walls alongside old traps. the forge, a real-ass old-fashioned forge, glows dully along one wall. broken crates stacked in corners hold his tools of the trade that make the traps that much worse: bottles of dye and foggy liquid, springs and coils shining with something that may or may not be blood, and broken traps, repurposed for new uses.

one workbench has schematics for new traps and tools. another, bloodier, is one used for fixing up the inevitable injuries he winds up with over time that sometimes need a weld rather than a bandage. there's darker corners, shelves covered in dust and cobwebs and sheets. and no set traps - not in here.

survivors have scavenged from his workshop for ages now, adding to their toolboxes and sometimes their personal souvenir collections. it's frustrating to have gotten used to it. but a trap in here is one he might step in, so evan's opted not to set them. just outside - and there's other traps, too, instead of bear traps, that tell him things that survivors might not realize, like when someone's crept in the permanently unlocked door of his workshop. ]