milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

Hel and her player have a lot in common. Not species, looks (thank God), size, or abilities, but both of them have hips that hurt like demons are sitting on them and prodding them with pitchforks.

The player is on drugs. Hel is not. Coherency may be skittish, but Hel is around to be spoken with, should people so desire. Even, one supposes, Desire, although the only real relationship with it that she has is that of interested observer.

I mentioned drugs, right? Right.

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Tea is the elixir of life, he would be crushed if he found that out. He figures that it is simply a Norse thing, after all, Svava doesn't really like tea all that much either. Odd girl.

"Chocolate is is then, my dear."

He returns shortly with her ~~bucket~~ cup and his looking ridiculously tiny next to it.

"Aside from the cold, how have you been faring?"

"Thank you."

She takes a sip, then shrugs,

"I...have been. I am more or less alive. I am home. It could be worse."

Merely being alive does not necessarily mean living, but he lets it pass. He reaches over and pats her hand gently.

"I am glad that you managed to come back."

Did he say that before? He can't remember, but that doesn't make it untrue.

She was mostly pointing out that she's half dead. Eh,

"Thank you. I am glad that I was allowed to come back as well."

She smiles at him when he pats her hand, and dips her head in a tiny nod.

Archie can be affectionate at times, if not terribly demonstrative. He is British, after all. But he likes making her smile.

"Was the time there terribly dull, or did you have enough to keep you occupied?"

He really doesn't know how many books and such she managed to take with her.

"I made a sword."

From the sounds of it, that took a long, long time to do,

"And I read about genetics, and computers, and other things like that. It...has been worse."

If he knew what the making had entailed, he'd be socked and amazed.

"It must be quite a sword."

How could it not be?

"You are better versed on those things tan I am then, I still haven't a clue about how those things work."

Also appalled: she gave it to Ramon.

"It is."

She is quietly proud of it. Of course, with something like that, loud would be too much.

"I had a lot of time."

Her voice is dry and wry.

"But you had a purpose to cary youthrough that time? And things to learn about."

He doesn't harbor any illusions that the time there was anything less than horrible, but she was occupied, surely that counts for something.

"Not really."

She says after a moment,

"It was just something to survive. Something to pass the time."

"Then it is good that you had that to work on."

He bites his lip to keep himself from saying that he wishes that she didn't have to go back there. He knows. Svava told him how she dies. It breaks his heart to know it all. To know what she has, will sacrifice.

She gives him a look that says she knows, she knows that he's not saying something. He's one of the dead. She knows the dead.

She does not, however, ask.

She's good at that.

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