Born again

[not_snake_bite]

We can only suppose it is the fact that he was, er, utterly destroyed that would explain how slow his return might be.

Steerpike is back, half amnesiac - he only remembers the Mansion in patches. Specifically, he remembers faces.  A woman, good to him, beautiful and sullen.  Something about a watch. And he might place a few faces, without

Comments

[hardlyagravated]

And of course, of course, the first person he runs into would be Laurel. Laurel, whose life has been ashambles long before she met him, but he threw the shattered pieces into sharp relief.

"I have something of yours," she says, low and steady.

[not_snake_bite]

He starts, cowering from her, hiding his face, though whole it is.

"Would it be my name?" he murmurs, broken and lost. He steals a look, and her face is so.... there might be a gasp of wonder.

Her name, he knows not, but her face is beauty and happiness.

"Lady?" Tentative.

[hardlyagravated]

"Yours is Steerpike. Mine is Laurel." A pause. "Are you hurt?"

[not_snake_bite]

"Laurel..." the name is whispered like a prayer.

"No," he murmurs. "But I am..." his hand on his face, and... lord.

"By the stones."

He just realized the skin is smooth, where it should be waxy.

[i_flynomore]

Him again? Lynn pauses and looks at him, frowning a little. Something's different now.

[not_snake_bite]

Oh yes. He's maskless, and very disoriented.

He looks at Lynette a long moment - he tries to remember whether he knows her or not.

[i_flynomore]

What she really wants is to walk away--he scared her a lot the first time she met him--but instead she says, deferential neutral, "Are you all right, ser?"

[not_snake_bite]

Oh did he? Interesting. He’s definitely not murderous right now - all the memories which made him a killer have been wiped out - he’s closer to the sane, if broken youth he used to be than he ever was.

“Lost, Madam,” he says, hesitating. He can’t seem to place her, yet the way she spoke…

[permanent_blur]

Impossibly cheerful, "Oh, it's you -- !"

[not_snake_bite]

The reaction startles Steerpike, and he looks at Rosencrantz with curiosity.

“Forgive me, I don’t recall…” embarrassedly. The face is familiar but… gods. How does he know this guy?

T: Oh, yay, Ros is here ! We like Ros a lot !

[permanent_blur]

"No? That's all right -- I forget things, too. It helps to write them down, but I can never remember which things I've already written ..."

[not_snake_bite]

A beffuddled look. "And your name?" Because he's had this conversation before. Maybe. Or something.