[Semi-open] Officers meeting ... not a happy one

[sugarforteatime]

Characters: The officers on the Winding Way
Content: A very somber discussion about what to do with Hughes's body
Setting: L's quarters
Time: After the Way lands in Garrettstown
Warnings: Possibly gloomy

Comments

[right_hand_cat]

Ranulf's ears were pinned back against his hair, his tail limp and lifeless, hanging down and dragging though the floor as he paced. He found sitting still during these meetings only made his agitated. He thought better when moving.

He had yet to really let Hughes death sink into his heart. His mind knew it very well, after all he had helped bring him down from the mast. Investigated the murder scene. But grieving could wait until vengeance was had.

His first thought was that if Hughes was a Beast Tribe warrior his body would be set out for the predators, returned to the earth. but he knew that was not the average way for Beorc, so he held his tongue.

"Normally I'd say we take him home. But we can't afford the delay in chasing that Witch... and keeping the body here won't help the crew move on." Assuming they could manage the magic or ice to keep it fresh. He flinched at the idea.

[godofrustration]

Garibaldi looked like hell. He'd hardly slept since the attack, running himself ragged. If he never stopped moving, never stopped focusing on work, maybe he wouldn't have to think about the fact that Hughes was gone.

"Hell..." he said to nobody in particular. "Well, I guess we either bury him here or bring him back to his family. Only problem is, none of us are undertakers, we can't keep him from rotting. Might be kinder to the family to just put him in the ground."

[sugarforteatime]

"I believe we have some appropriate chemicals, but you are correct, we do not have the expertise." He tapped his lip and considered the options, stood and started to pace as well, cutting a different track in the floor from Ranulf.

He didn't like that option. Normally he would have Watari take care of a notification like this, hell, Wammy's was right around the corner practically, they could get a ship.

"Perhaps he should be left here to have body preparations made. This is not a small town, and I am disinclined to return to his wife with no body." He knew that Gracia had probably been prepared for such an eventuality, but Hughes ... Hughes was not a man for the front line, he was not supposed to die like this.

[right_hand_cat]

"We could possibly manage it with a skilled mage, but... I agree. Let the experts handle it. It's the best we can really do for him." Ranulf sighed, tail lashing a little in aggravation. Just talking about it was rubbing salt into wounds. Less grief for Hughes, and more for the wife and child left behind. The Way wasn't staffed by fighters. none of them should have ever been in that situation. And that fact that those that could fight, himself included, were so throughly thrashed was once again turning sadness into rage. He could understand Ichigo's frantic need to train very well at that moment.

"Has anyone contacted his wife at all?"

[godofrustration]

"Oh god, his wife..."

Garibaldi considered it for a moment. "I'll do it. I've got experience."