[Audio]

[pimp_hat]

[Grooooan....]

Ah sweet titty fuck...my everytin' be hurtin'...

[With a great amount of effort he pushes himself into a sitting position.]

We all still be alive here?

[People he loves you know who you are.]

So how's ouh paradise lookin'? Dere be a bar? Could really use a drink right now.

[Someone obviously has yet to see the carnage.]

Comments

[Audio]

[thequeensown]

Kevas ..

[While Talia seems happy to hear from her beloved over the communicator, there is also something else to her tone. Something .. not good. Perhaps that might have something to do with what she found after waking.

She had stayed on the beach a good while, making certain Kevas, Van and Remy were all well enough. Then, following the lead of many other passengers, she had gone exploring. She had been bombarded by grief only a few steps in and made a point to tighten her shielding down.

It hadn't taken long at all to find the source of that grief, passengers scattered about and mourning over bodies just a short distance away from where they had all come to rest on the edge of the beach.

Bodies .. hundreds of bodies. Familiar to those morning them, without a doubt. She hadn't really understood, and perhaps she still didn't .. until she stumbled across a sickeningly familiar form .. Kevas.

She was still there, before the long dead corpse .. it was only that she still felt Kevas at the edge of their bond that she hadn't rushed back immediately to ascertain he was still sleeping on the beach.]

I do not believe that we will be finding much in the way of alcohol .. although we will all surely need it ..

[Serious response is serious. Talia is just a liiiiiiiiiiiittle freaked out right now. Even with her stamping down her shields like whoa he's likely to pick up something. Unease, confusion .. whatever you'd like!]

[Audio]

[pimp_hat]

[Kevas doesn't need their bond to know that something's wrong. Just by the sound of her voice the troll can tell something foul is afoot.

He tries getting up again but he's right back down in the sand. Everything just hurts too much to respond correctly. His muscles are screaming from being overworked and his wounds still haven't healed enough. Dammit, he's so useless right now! And it's going to get worse once withdrawal sets in.]

Talia where are joo?

[Audio]

[thequeensown]

[Talia's stomach tightens and she has to look away for a moment, breathing through her mouth rather than her nose. She clutches the communicator tightly in her hand and raises it to her lips, fingers going white at the knuckles.

She tries to send something soothing along the bond, but it's strained and comes up short.]

A short ways .. inland. Not too far from the beach .. There are ..

[She breaks off, closing her eyes to cut out as much of it as she can.]

Kevas, there are bodies .. hundreds of bodies ..

[Audio]

[pimp_hat]

[You might be trying to help sweetheart but right now all you're doing right now is making him worry about you.]

Bodies? From where? How?

[Did he wake up on the wrong island?]

[Audio]

[thequeensown]

[Talia's intention is certainly not to concern you, love; she will try to avoid doing that if at all possible. She continues breathing through her mouth, swallowing around the tightness in her throat.]

Yes .. They .. They have the same red whorls that .. That the infected passengers had after the Halloween party..

[She turns then, looking down at Kevas' corpse once more.]

The other passengers seem to know many of the fallen .. I only know one.

[And her shields have never been tighter.]

[Audio]

[pimp_hat]

[Again Kevas curses himself for not being able to move. If only he was there with her right now. At the moment, all he can do is sit here and try to fit the pieces of the picture together.]

So dey...dey all been infected? Den dat be meanin'...

[The End got here first. Now that thought sends chills down his spine. What if it had been planning to ambush them here? Did it just get impatient? Whatever the case might be Kevas is glad it's dead now.]

What? Talia joo be alright love?

[Oh hell he's really starting to worry now. Kevas' mind is racing. Just who did she find? He knows she was once in love before him. Could that be who she found, or maybe the Companion that she had tried explain to him, or maybe it's family? Kevas has no idea. All he knows is that he wishes he could be there to help her right now.]

[Audio]

[thequeensown]

[Talia hears the change in Kevas' tone as he realizes the implications of the whorls being on the bodies. The fact that the End had come to the island before them is bad enough, but that it slaughtered all of these people; that these people were all familiar to those that have only just arrived.

Her tongue moves over her lips in an attempt to wet them and no small amount of unease. But what did this mean? To find Kevas laying her amongst the dead, but knowing he was speaking to her from the relative safety of the beach.]

Kevas ... it is .. It is you .. You are ..

[It makes her sick to even suggest that he is laying dead in front of her, his body marred by the infectious red whorls of the End. She swallows convulsively and looks away again, focusing on distant rubble that marks some building.]

[Audio]

[pimp_hat]

...Me?

[Kevas feels a great many things when she tells him this. Confusion of course being high among them. Last time Kevas checked he was good and alive. Busted up to be sure but alive. He even places his hand over his hart to feel its beat. Yup, still alive.

Strangely, just after that, Kevas feels relief. Shocking that it may be to find him dead, Kevas is still there and breathing. She hasn't lost anything that can't be replaced. Always good to have a spare right?]

Baby I be right here, well and alive. I made a promise dat I wouldn't leave joo behind, and I don't know 'bout him, but I intend on keepin' it.

[Though Kevas can't help but wonder if this other Kevas has his hat with him.]

[Audio]

[thequeensown]

[Talia lets that answer sink in for a moment, turning her gaze toward the almost inappropriately blue skies overhead. Kevas was right, of course, and she knew that. He was clearly alive and well and, more specifically, speaking to her right now.

Still, the shock of seeing his form before her, laying amongst the dead is no less; it's sobering and rather disorienting. Her voice is soft when she replies next, releasing a shaky exhale as she nods once.]

You are right .. I even know that .. this is just .. [A pause.] Unsettling.

[A longer stretch and then she answers that very question he found himself wondering.]

He is even wearing your hat, love .. and has the same blades, as far as I can tell. Should .. I should gather the weapons at least, yes?

[She is not concerned about handling the body, feeling she can do so safely without exposing herself. She cannot see the sense in leaving the blades wehn they will be of no use to the deceased and possibly life saving to the survivors.]

[Audio]

[pimp_hat]

[Kevas sits and thinks. Saying yes wouldn't be disrespectful right? After all it's not like he's robbing another person's corpse. This is his body so he should have some say in what should be done with it.

He sits in silence a while longer before finally deciding.]

Aye, take all joo can salvage from...[Me? Him? It?]...da body.

[He might not be as shocked about the appearance of his body as Talia but this is still pretty weird.]

[Audio]

[thequeensown]

[Talia isn't concerned about desecrating the body, truth told. Knowing Kevas as she does, she believes that he will see it as more of a sensible approach to strip the body of everything they can.

He would be needing clothing, after all, wouldn't he? And he was the only one his size amongst all the passengers that she knew about. Certainly, she could sew him together clothing, as could others, but a complete change on hand would be far more suitable.

She waits patiently for his answer, nodding once to herself when he affirms that she should take all she can.]

Alright ..

[And so she does, and though dead, the corpse is just as heavy as Kevas is now. It takes some struggling and brute force on her part, but in the end she has the corpse stripped of not just weapons, but any clothing she can manage. She hooks the cord of the purple hat over her neck, hanging it down her back, swords tucked into the heavy leather belt at her hips near her own that survived the trip to the Shore. The clothing she has bundled in her arms, thinking it best that they clean any of it before Kevas himself wears it.

Her gaze moves to the body that she has just, in essence, raided and she closes her eyes, speaking a soft prayer before stepping back. She speaks into the communicator as she begins her trek.]

I am on my way back ..

[Sobering? Oh yes .. Talia is going to appreciate a distillery as much as any of the men by the time this is all done.]

[Audio]

[pimp_hat]

I'll be waitin' fuh jah love.

[Because there's little else he can do but sit in the sand and hope that this is the worst of the news.]

[Audio]

[thequeensown]

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