(no subject)

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae enters the bar with the stiff soreness of someone three times her age, exhausted, covered in bruises and a few scabs where a cut on her scalp had briefly bled and where her lip had split. But on the other hand, she is alive, whole, and - nearly as important, in her view - blessedly clean. She smells of soap and antibacterial ointment and no blood other than her own. She smells human, the sick, charnel-house scent of something long-dead having been viciously scrubbed away.

For the moment, she doesn't care that it is nearly dawn back in her world and that she is finally dressed in her pajamas - it is early afternoon here, and it is a beautiful day. She can see the sunlight through the window. After the night she has had, the light pulls her more strongly than the thought of sleep. Rae wastes no time going straight through the bar room and through the back door. She weathers the first impact of brightness like a person dying of thirst being hit by a wave, stumbling over her feet to half-collapse onto her favorite bench by the edge of the garden, where the rambler roses overhang in a wave of dark green and brilliant red.

Now that she is seated and catching her breath, the touch of the late summer sun upon her bare, bruised shoulders and arms - the warmth of it seeping through her camisole to the bruises beneath - becomes less overwhelming, more comforting. Sunlight is almost as good as sleep, right now, and contains far fewer nightmares.

Her breathing gradually slowing, Sunshine closes her eyes and lifts her face to its brightness.

as one leaves, the other returns

[athelstanthescribe]

But if you ever tell anyone about them...

He won't show the king his fear, except in the widening of his eyes that he couldn't control. Athelstan takes his leave of the Roman library as quickly as he dares, and his steps speed up as he moves through the palace, but he won't let himself run.

By the time the door to his rooms turns out to be Milliways, he's breathing fast and trying to go through what Alana taught him to calm himself, but Ecbert's coolly spoken words keep ringing through his mind, louder and louder.

...I will let them crucify you.

He barely reaches a chair, ashen-faced and looking like he might vomit, before his knees give out.

(no subject)

[is_the_motion]

[oom: Bonnie is cornered by Turtle and forced to face up to things. It goes better than she hoped.
TW: discussion of alcohol misuse.]

(no subject)

[faithful_lt]

[OOM: Millitimed back a few months to just after this...

A difficult dinner conversation.

]

Exit post

[bigarmy_strangepants]

After having waited for Athelstan in the bar for several days, first with little Sigurd, then again after bringing the goats, Ragnar Lothbrok slinks out, dejected.

Seems they're really not allowed to see each other.

Ragnar leaves a message with the bar, downs a horn cup of strong ale, and then goes.


[[OOC: Catch him at the bar before he leaves -- but mun is travelling from tomorrow until Monday evening, so everything after tonight will be slowtime. Thanks!]]