wildestlands | (no subject)

Bunny, what happened?

Long story. You awake?

[Nog's still up once Bunny gets back to him, even if he it looks a little like he probably shouldn't be.}

It's not like I'm going to be getting back to sleep after that.

I didn't hear anyone get hurt, so I'm assuming everything's fine physically?

Nobody's worse than they were before we argued. Come meet me and I can fill you in, if you're sure you're not gonna get any more rest.

[Nog gets to his feet, rubbing sleep out of his eyes before heading Bunny's way.]

Okay. I'm here. What exactly happened?

[Saturday's feet are moving before her mind finishes working, despite the fact that they're 75% road pizza and wrapped in blood-stained bandages. Details don't matter right now; find the problem, stop any violence, secure both parties away from each other. She hadn't been expecting something like that this, but she hadn't been not expecting it either

Admittedly, Bunny being one of the parties was a surprise.]

[The circuit Bunny's keeping around Elle and Price has them both within hearing range. He intends to interfere if Price makes good on any of his threats by attacking Elle, even though Elle is certainly one of the better equipped party members to respond to violence. She's still a kid. She still deserves to know she's supported in the face of violence.

But this also lets him run interference on anyone responding to his broadcast wanting more information, or wanting consequences. He's not particularly surprised to see Saturday making a quick response.]

Oi! [He calls out loud enough to get her attention, hopefully just out of range of Price hearing.] You look like you could use some context.

[He's sure ready to provide it.]

[Bunny is calm, and separated from Price. So Saturday stops where she is, footsore.]

No one's in immediate danger?

Price is running his mouth, but nobody's in danger right now. [Bunny is exasperated more than anything else, rolling his eyes as he delivers the report.] I told him he'd already used up the last of my goodwill before he pulled a knife on me, though, and I don't want to hear about him pulling one on anybody who can't safely take it from him.

[Which means letting people know he did. There aren't a lot of members of their party who couldn't easily take Price, but that doesn't mean they couldn't use the forewarning.]

Elle's talking him down. I got 'em in earshot.

Why was he doing that? [Saturday was in medbay, then stuck in desert frog hell when the shit on the Rig went down; she's not even a little looped in] He done this before?

[Hearing that Elle's on it, too, Saturday relaxes a tad. The big cat lady can definitely take care of herself, and anyone else not fast enough to get away]

What can I say? I have that effect on some people.

[He's annoyed - unthreatened - enough to joke about it, but it's not really a joking matter. Dan tried to help Price and got pushed in a river. He tried to help Price - in a much less gentle way than Dan - and got a knife pulled on him. How the heck is Price going to get by in this group without assaulting someone who isn't going to hold back?]

He shoved Dan in the river. I went to give him a talking-to for doing it - wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, you know, maybe he doesn't understand germ theory, maybe he doesn't understand hypothermia, maybe he doesn't understand there aren't any hospitals out here - [He has to pause, consider the conversation, really pinpoint what he thinks Price thinks went wrong.]

He thinks it was justified, on account of Dan ignoring him for about a month. He promised he'd kill me if I preached at him again.

[That was the word. He filed it away for analysis.]

I'm not saying I'm the easiest person to argue with, but I am saying my threat was to let everyone know the next time he made himself a menace. Here we are.

Dan's okay? [She's assuming so, because Price is alive, but it's polite to ask]

So he fucked around and found out - okay. Do we know what brought this on, for real? The ignoring thing sounds...

[Thin? Bullshit? Like the tip of a much larger iceberg? Take your pick, they all apply.]

I don't know Price that well.

Eh. [Bunny half-winces, half grimaces.] I don't want this to sound like a dismissal, but the man is not well.

[He pauses, before adding.] Dan had an infected wound even before he took a dip. He needs medical attention as soon as we can get it.

[The unspoken 'we might not get it' is not, in Bunny's opinion, worth dwelling over just now. They're heading to a place that, according to the messages left by the trolls, is a place of healing - until proven otherwise, he just has to hope it's enough healing. Saturday's Dan's friend. She deserves to know.]

What do you remember from all those callout messages the freelancers were giving about Price? What I know is that he used to be in a position of military power, and he used it to abuse a bunch of his soldiers, but I didn't get nearly enough specifics back when.

[Saturday absorbs the news about Dan with a small nod, and an almost imperceptible tightening of her jaw. She almost asks to know exactly what kind - regular, or from those Nargyle motherfuckers - but there'd be nothing she could do about it either way. There's nothing she knows about wound care and field medicine that Bunny and Dan don't, and probably a fair bit they know that she doesn't. One problem at a time.]

I don't remember any of that. I was in medbay a while after the psycho redhead gutted me, then that stupid desert thing - I thought he was just weird?

A lot of people had a lot of axes to grind with him. It might be helpful if any of them were around now.

Last I heard, Dan was his only friend, and the last we talked he was begging me not to tell Dan to stop being his friend. Now, near as I can tell, he thinks the way Dan's hurt his feelings justifies any repercussions there might be from dunking him in the river - [What was the way he phrased it?] I told him to walk it off rather than pick violence next time someone got on his nerves - he told me to walk it off if Dan died from his wounds.

[His fur stands up in anger again as he recalls. This is the sort of thing Price thinks are equal. This is how much Price feels hurt - how much he's willing to hurt others for stepping on Price's last nerve.]

He says he understands the difference between someone hurting his feelings and him hurting them physically, but I'm not convinced he believes the difference is real.

[Saturday goes on a bit of a face journey: concern, pity, confusion, and finally - when Bunny talks about hurt - a deep intake of breath, and something like understanding]

Oh. Yeah. Oof. That's a tricky one. We know anything about his history? Other than the freelancers - did any of them come with us?

[She's falling into problem-solving without a second thought: what do we know, who knows more than us, what can we do about what we know? Then a thought arrests her]

And are you gonna be okay? If you'd rather be with Dan, I can watch the perimeter - I don't hear like you do, but I've got my own tricks and they're well inside range.

I caught a flash of something from his young adulthood in a memory storm once. That was a long time ago to be judging someone by when I have plenty to judge them on from five minutes ago.

[This is something Bunny appreciates about Saturday. They've both fallen into it together, nailing the problem to the wall, identifying it from every angle they've got to come up with the best way to address it.]

That's kind of you to ask. [It knocks a little sense into him, too, that she does ask, as he sniffs the air and notes there's a lot more of a smell of blood than he knows he ought to be smelling.] Dan's sleeping it off, he's not a morning person. I'm gonna let him rest. I want to keep an ear out for Elle. I gotta talk to her about this too. [He pauses before asking.] Are you wounded?

If he's as fucked as you say, that suggests to me either some kind of physical damage or disorder, or someone made him that way. If it's the second one, then it needs different handling from the first, at least the way I see things.

[The toddler-esque inability to distinguish between types of harm rang a few bells for Saturday. People don't get arrested at that level of development by accident.

Of course, Saturday also once released a demon from its prison basically because it was sad and in pain and promised to be good. Surprisingly, it worked out; it seems leaps of faith sometimes do.

She blinks at his question, glances at her feet, and shrugs.]

Lost m'boots in the sandstorm, then had to rabbit - er, sorry, run around - in the attack. I cleaned everything out and wrapped it up, it's just that I can't exactly take it easy right now. I'll last til Rivendell.

[She's probably right. The blood isn't actively flowing, more gently seeping as movement inevitably disrupts the forming scabs. It hurts, sure, but Saturday's definitely had worse.]

I'm not sure it isn't both. He might be less - less like this if he'd had a better system to grow up in. I don't think the world he did grow up in did him any favors.

[And he feels deeply sad about that. Some kids are born having a harder time just getting along with their peers. But whatever would have happened to Price in a better world, Bunny is sure that it wouldn't have all happened if that world hadn't been harder, less kind than his, readier to drop difficult kids out of the system as soon as it was legally convenient.

He nods through Saturday's explanation, sympathy growing.] And you ran all the way here? D'you want anything to make it more comfortable, willow tea, pine sap, honey?

[Saturday had been thinking along the same lines - how easy it is to break a child, especially one that already doesn't quite fit. If that happened to Price, and there's even a chance of unfucking it, then not trying doesn't sit right - but maybe Dan and Bunny already had. Not enough information, not yet.

So she just nods.]

I was only a couple hundred yards off. Willow tea is like old timey aspirin, right? Could probably use some, yeah.

[Good heavens, look at the time. It's time for Henry's signature catchphrase.]

What the hell?

[Mio has no idea what the things she is seeing entail, but it can't be good. It doesn't seem to be a problem she can solve with her Camera Obscura, unless some is possessed - it's not like it can be excluded -, but either way she has the constant urge to do something.]

What is going on?! Do I need to come there?

Oh, hello Dr Price, how are y-- Wait.

[Jennifer stops at the mention of threats.]

Is everyone alright?

[The mirror is pushed down and no one is in sight.]

Hello?

[She notices some pretty flowers on the ground.]

Oooh, daisies!

[Is she . . . is she for real.

Bunny doesn't like enlisting the help of someone as young as Jennifer with someone as unpredictable as Price, but neither does he think it's remotely a good idea if Price wakes up to see him still there, and Sawbones won't do it, so -]

Jennifer, I got a favor to ask of you. I'll owe you big. Are you friendly with - [Ugh, an honorific.] Doctor Price?

Sure, I'd love to help!

[She tilts her head when she perceives Bunny's disgust at mentioning Price.]

Oh yes, we're friends! We didn't speak much in the woods, but he's always very nice to me, and he was happy when I said I was going to give him a blanket.

[Beat.]

I think I might've forgot to give it to him. Do you want me to bring him a blanket? I'm on my way!

[She gets going before Bunny can say anything.]

Edited 2022-02-18 16:26 (UTC)

Hmm. Knew dere was a reason I avoided de homme. Al'ays gave off some bad juju, dat one.

What treachery is this?

[ Uh oh. ]

You and me ought to talk.

[Loken is Dan's friend, Loken will want details on anything to do with Dan's safety.]

I'm listening.

[ Given that he's stabulated and barely hanging on after his wounding from the Nazgul, Loken sadly may be less help than he might otherwise be should it come to a problem with Price. ]

Edited 2022-02-19 08:28 (UTC)

Where are you? This is better talked out in person.

Lying in a litter under a tree. Sarah is asleep right now.

I'll keep my voice down.

[The camp is small enough that everyone's fairly easy to track, and Bunny makes his approach loud enough to let Loken know he's coming, without being loud enough to disturb Kerrigan's rest.

Bunny crouches by Loken's litter, doing a quick once-over to see if there's any sort of plant medicine Loken hasn't got yet that he might could use.]

The short version is, Price and I had a disagreement over him shoving Dan in the river earlier tonight. I told him if he put anyone in danger again I'd make sure everyone knew he'd done it, he pulled a knife and promised to kill me if he got a chance. So I kept my word.

[And here they are, having this conversation.]

He didn't care much for being held accountable. He's passed out now. Dan's -

[Dan's not fine, but then, neither is Loken in peak form.]

Dan needs medical attention, but there's enough of us in that boat.

[ SOmeone. Probably sawbones, has done as much as they can for Garviel, though he still looks absolutely awful ] You should speak to Mamzel sawbones, she can probably do more than anyone else here, unless we have another trained medicae I'm not aware of. As for Price... [ He looks like he's going to get up, then stops halfway off the litter, sweating and obviously drained from even that much effort. ] Between this and his behavior on the rig, I would gladly slay him, but I have been rendered unable to fight by the creatures that assaulted us in Agrabah. I cannot even walk much right now.

Yeah, well, don't go killing anyone on our accounts, once you can again. It'll make Dan sad, and I can do my own killing. But I appreciate the thought.

[He says it jokingly. But he sobers up to ask-]

What else do you remember from him on the Rig, besides all the ways he confessed to abusing the soldiers who worked for him? Did he pull anything else like this?

He assaulted me with his powers, attempted to provoke me to kill him. I found him pathetic, and spared his life. Had I known he was going to harm Dan...

[ Well, it hardly needs to be said what would have happened that day. ]