(Untitled)

[gotpoetryinme]

There's a man in a bowler hat and a fur overcoat sitting in a snowbank out back. He's currently looking out at the frozen lake, pistol in hand.

Not much interesting about him except for the fresh, gaping, self-inflicted headwound.

He's a little upset, but botherable.

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Let me know if I'm too late to join in

[starrydome]

He can smell the blood as he exits the stable, like a flash of red iron in the clear, cold air. He sprints down the path and doesn't stop till he reaches the Man in the snow; even if he at quite a distance can already tell that something is not quite right. You shouldn't be sitting upright with a wound like that.

He could tell him to sit still, but he is already doing so. Asking if he is hurt is foolish, but things are not what they seem here, not always, and so a simple question of, "Do you need help?" seems a good place to start.

His fingers are itching to do something about the wound.

Tall, imposing, clad in a dark grey woolen cloak and with unbound dark hair cascading like water and mist down his back, and eyes lit with the light of stars, he does not look human at all.

[starrydome]

"In my world, Men do not know where their spirits go when they die," Elrond replies. "But you know?"

[gotpoetryinme]

"I can guess," he says. "There's a place f'r good men 'n a place f'r bad men. I wasn't a good man in life."

[starrydome]

"At least, you know this," Elrond points out. "Many wouldn't."

The truly evil ones never seem to acknowledge that this is what they are.

[gotpoetryinme]

"Ain't hard sometimes," he says. "I gambled, ran a whorehouse, 'n probably drank too much."

And may or may not have shot a man during a poker game a few years ago. It's not entirely clear.

He shrugs. "Then again, maybe not. Never really bought in to what the preachers were sellin' on matters of life 'n death. Though I reckon I'd believe just about anythin' now."

[starrydome]

"At any rate," Elrond says, philosophically as he removes the cloth to check on the wound again, "You have thought things over now, differently perhaps than when - before you came here."

It seems harsh to put it any other way.

[gotpoetryinme]

"Well, all things considered, I'd rather not have to think about it," he says. "Too many things I regret."

[starrydome]

Elrond gets a distant look in his eyes. "Regret. Yes. I think we all have things we regret."

[gotpoetryinme]

"Yeah," McCabe says. "Never was much for all this hindsight 'n philosophizin' shit when I was alive. Always tried to move on somewhere else once the grass started growin' in my brain. Now that it's over I wish I'd done more thinkin'."

[starrydome]

"I think that is a common trait of Mortal Men," Elrond remarks, a little dryly. "With the short time you have alotted to you, action seem more important than reflection."

[gotpoetryinme]

"Yeah, well, if a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his ass so much, now would he?"

[starrydome]

That startles a laugh out of him. "I do not think I have ever heard it put that way exactly, but no - I suppose he would not."