🔥 gale

[ablazement]

Comments

[alldoomnogloom]

[ what if he falls down the very dark stairs and fucking dies, karlach.

at least she glows, so he can pick his way down here without too much trouble. also tara just without prompting goes to sit herself down in karlach's lap. there there. ]

Hello, Karlach.

[ablazement]

[THEN SHE'LL HAVE TO BE SAD ABOUT TWO LAME MEN TONIGHT

hello tara! she doesn't mind this - she sets the wooden figure aside carefully (it is a very good, lovingly whittled figurine of karlach herself) and pets tara. she also looks up at gale.]

Hey, Gale. [a little sniff.] You good?

[alldoomnogloom]

[ he will, if only for something to do with his hands, reach over to carefully pick up the figure and toy with it. gently.

tara purrs happily, stretching out against karlach's warmth. ]

Oh yes. Quite alright, all things considered. [ he will rarely answer anything else, though. ] You're upset.

[ablazement]

[normally she wouldn't either - nobody else really needs to see her this sad, but it's gale, so. like astarion, he's going to see through whatever it is.]

... You know he and I have a lot in common. [she says, with another little sniff. her eyes are down, looking at tara.] I told him a lot. Came easy.

[alldoomnogloom]

I understand.

[ he does! toying a little with the karlach, back and forth back and forth between his hands. ]

I've told rather more than I meant to to several here. Sometimes it is something of a relief to open the floodgates of it all, humiliating and exhausting as it is.

[ablazement]

[she thuds her head against the wall, watching him do this.]

Right? [...] Both of us spent a long time not getting to tell anybody anything, so maybe that makes sense.

He's a good person. Boothill, I mean.

[alldoomnogloom]

Did you speak to him, after?

[ablazement]

... Yeah.

[which didn't help!]

[alldoomnogloom]

Is it as we suspected, then? A possession of some sort?

[ablazement]

Seemed like it. He was going on about needing to see blood spilled to fill some emptiness. Ranting. Raving, even.

[alldoomnogloom]

[ yikes. ]

I didn't know him well, but I imagine he was a good person. Is a good person. And I'm quite sorry he was taken by whatever madness this is-- it's ... unfair.

I don't know if it is a comfort or not, but I believe Death's demise had nothing to do with us. It was a warning to the others.

[ablazement]

... He's still in there, you know. He all but asked me to make sure he dies before he hurts someone else.

[double yikes. she sniffs, rubbing at her face. and then thuds her head back against the wall.]

That's what Famine said, yeah. [...] It's what we figured, right? Punishment.

[alldoomnogloom]

That is quite a bit to put on you.

[ especially because this guy has only know karlach, what? a week? ]

It seems an undue burden, almost, to ask it of you.

[ablazement]

[maybe, but also consider: she's the worst]

I don't want to. [she'll just. admit that.] It's the big heroic thing to do, right? Take on the burden.

But I don't want to.

[alldoomnogloom]

[ well that makes him deeply, terribly sad. and a little guilty. isn't part of his problem that he's piling all these things onto her as well. making it worse. the world really might be better-- ]

You don't have to. I know you will, but please know that you don't have to.

[ ... ]

I think I'm coming around on the idea that overly heroic is a tad overrated.

[ablazement]

[she drags in a breath. holds it.]

I kind of do though. [he asked, and she hates breaking promises. silence, for a second, and then:]

... Yeah? [her too, a little. she's just so tired, is all.]