twenty-seventh.

[ice_echani]

Simon is dead.

Comments

[spandexisyouth]

Oh. That is what that meant.

[flenceburgsbest.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've always wanted to see what he looked like on the inside.

[treeleopardess]

Enough, Lezard.

words are dug into the page

[ice_echani]

Do not make such a comment on my journal again.

[flenceburgsbest.livejournal.com]

[Drawing of arrows to Handmaiden and Bastet's handwriting, and a 'tsk tsk tsk'.]

[snowburned.livejournal.com]

[What's this? Could it be Kazahana going into the break room and setting all of Lezard's muffins on fire?

Why yes, it is! Enjoy your charred baked goods, jerk boss.]

[flenceburgsbest.livejournal.com]

[Oh behbeh, then his job is complete.]

[seeya-next-life.livejournal.com]

Simon? Dead? [Long pause/] What happened?

[ice_echani]

I do not wish to say here.

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

...right. Do you need back-up? Where are you?

man my HTML fails this morning

[ice_echani]

On [okay so how does she write this without getting a mantis friend too] the island of history. I am uninjured. But I do not know what to do about the body.

It's all good XD

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

You know---

On my way. Stay where you are, and stay aware.

QUICKLOG

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

[Stoneface slams his journal shut and hurriedly shoves it in his pocket. He's halfway out the door before he stops, remembering not to let his instincts and his urgency take control. He grabs a few bedsheets, enough to wrap the body of a man who's not overly-large in. He puts on his chainmail shirt, his breastplate, his helmet. Only a suicidal man will go to the site of a gruesome death without protection.

Everything in place, he allows his body to take control, and he runs as fast as he can to the jumping point, speeds around corners, elbows anybody who will get in his way, because he knows Handmaiden, and Handmaiden's got a Beast. He doesn't hesitate when he gets to the jumping point as he usually does, and leaps off immediately, feeling none of the adrenaline he usually does.

He slows to a walk when he sees Handmaiden, and treads beside her, staring down at the body, then back at her.]

Handmaiden.

[It's the Watch's duty to stop this from happening. Simon was a fool, but this is still murder, just one they can't possibly solve. He puts his free hand on her shoulder. Nearly a year of sparring together, and he can read her body far better than he can read her face, and nothing about her body language is good. He raises the blankets, worry knitting his brows together for a moment.]

We'll take him back in these. [A pause. He looks at her, carefully, and speaks slowly, kneeling beside her. He cannot feel the Force, but he can feel the despair, the desperation, the darkness swirling in her. Another name for the Beast.] You told me about the darkness, before. Keep it in. Save it. Hold it. There's nothing you can do now.

QUICKLOG

[ice_echani]

[Handmaiden doesn't look up at the sound of his tread. With her Force sense all keyed up like this, she can easily sense Stoneface's arrival on the island. She does lift her head at the hand on her shoulder and looks at the blankets. Her voice is almost leaden when she speaks, but not quite emotionless.]

...I know. I heard its call again when I felt what had happened. I can still hear it now. But I will not give into it... you need not fear that. I did not accept its help in battle.

[Although her refusal to use the dark side did not prevent her from killing the mantis very, very dead. She still has bug goop on her feet from where she kicked it through the head.

She stands, taking one of the blankets and looking back at Simon's body. She can't seem to stop looking at it. The fool.]

Where shall we take him? To Wellspring?

Re: QUICKLOG

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

[Stoneface exhales slowly when Handmaiden admits that it's still there, and knows that as long as she's aware of it, she'll fight it. He keeps his hand on her shoulder for a moment longer, then nods.]

To Wellspring. They've got a morgue.

[He lays the blankets down, and turns Simon's body onto it, facedown, barely flinching when he sees his ravaged back. Stoneface had never been very squeamish, having seen the insides of too many torture chambers, the results of too many domestic disturbances to have the smell of blood bother him any longer. Still, it's not a pretty sight. It looks like it hurt when he went. He folds both sides of the bedsheet around the body snugly, ignoring the blood that seeps through. He knots it neatly and turns the corpse back onto its back, face up, more out of a contrived feeling of respect than anything else.]

Let's wrap him one more time and take him there.

[ice_echani]

[Also that was thoroughly inked just after writing it 'cause yeah.]

[blindedmewith.livejournal.com]

Mr. Stoneface, do you [pause] need me?

[stonyfaced.livejournal.com]

No, Rosalind, not for this one. I'll call you if I need you.

have the angriest icon I have

[darcyredux.livejournal.com]

NO

MR. SIMON

[violent mark]

[redrobinhood.livejournal.com]

[ooc: Nothing to be said here, he tried to warn him. So he's just gonna slam his journal shut and go hug his sister]

This is all she can say right now.

[weaver-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry.

daddyrage!

[floating-bamboo.livejournal.com]

HOW?

>:

[ice_echani]

A giant insect.

[It's smeared out before it dries; she's short on ink right now but wants to be careful.]

[floating-bamboo.livejournal.com]

His body. Where is it?

[trustingtruth.livejournal.com]

_{[He doesn't say anything because he didn't know him- but he's watching this entry.]}

[iattractmushi]

[Cloud sees this, recalls Simon's entry, and wonders how many more people are going to get it into their heads to either be stupid or go insane.

He doesn't write anything... he only knew Simon because of the first aid classes, really.]

[ice_echani]

[loool. BETTER START A TALLY, CLOUD.]

[notpissedoff]

[Rain's first thought is 'that was fast'. He's not writing it, though. Or anything else. But have a couple pentaps. And now he's curious to see whether Simon will be reborn or not.]