tushanshu_logs | I'm not sleeping (November Catch-all)

Characters: Erskine Ravel and anyone?
Date: The month of November, with some slight backdating to the end of October
Location: The Healer's Guild, maybe venturing out into the city?? Who knows!
Situation: Erskine's recovering from his pre-Keeliai ordeal at the Guild. If your character would have any feasible reason to be at the Guild, or to find out he's back, feel free to visit! If you'd like a starter please poke me, or just toss something up yourself. I don't mind :)
Warnings/Rating: Probable mention of torture, lots of mental trauma/anxiety/fogginess. Possible spoilers for the Skulduggery Pleasant series--if you'd rather not be spoiled, please mention that in your tag and I'll do my best!

Awareness comes and goes. There are good days, here and there, more as the days progress. It's all a fog at first. The expectation of pain. The confusion of where he is, when he is, which world this is. Who's still alive? Is he even still alive, anymore?

For now he haunts the Guild, huddling in the room they give him at first, wrapped in a blanket like it's a shield. After a few days he begins to venture out of the room, wandering through the Guild, trying his best to avoid confrontation wherever he can. There are dark circles under his eyes, his pretty face lined with exhaustion and fear. Sleep and Erskine have never been the best of friends, but it's only gotten worse since he's returned to Keeliai.

Keeliai. They've explained it to him, where he is, how he got here... more or less. It rings some bells, but nothing seems very clear. More like the memory of a dream, with faces and names not always connecting. Some are familiar... and some that should be here, aren't.

It will get better. At least, that's what they tell him.

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Klaus was fast asleep in a chair when Erskine next woke. He'd had obligations at the hotel he couldn't avoid and had, unfortunately, missed the man's initial bout of consciousness. But when he wasn't attending to his job, he was at the hospital, by the bedside.

At the present time, Klaus had his hands folded neatly over a book of number puzzles, and a pink and... slightly darker pink checkered eyemask pulled down. Yes, those were little white daisies in the light pink squares.

He had dozed off a little after midnight. On the table next to Erskine's bed was a vase of vibrant flowers. Since Klaus had gotten that macabre little rabbit's paw, his greenhouse had been thriving, even taking into account his considerable talents with flora.

Erskine had indeed woken during Klaus's absence, and while he'd been conscious that time he'd managed at least to get cleaned up and get into a set of real (borrowed) clothes. Raine's healing magic had taken care of the bruising. The only thing they hadn't managed to get to was shaving--Erskine's hands were too unsteady, and while it wasn't necessarily a good look for him, it was only cosmetic. The actual damage that had been done to him had been more important at the time.

While he'd been asleep he'd burrowed down into the blanket; his fingers curled in the blanket now as memory started to seep in and panic rose in his chest. How long had it been? How much time did he have left--

No. Calm. He had to stay calm. Raine had told him he was safe. Darquesse's magic was gone.

Erskine peered around the room, taking stock of the situation as a soldier would. Old habits and all. The man in the chair was... Klaus. Raine had supplied the name to aid Erskine's faulty memory. Klaus. A friend.

Finally he extricated himself from the blanket just far enough to reach for the glass of water on the nightstand next to the vase of flowers, his gaze never quite leaving the large figure asleep in the chair. Unfortunately his hands still weren't very steady, and coupled with the divided attention, the glass slipped from his fingers to shatter on the floor next to the bed.

The shattering glass jolted Klaus awake.

He made a muffled, sleepy noise, somewhere between a grunt and a snore, seemed to come to some realization, and pulled the eye mask off.

The first thing he saw was Erskine awake and upright.

Klaus shifted in his seat, setting aside his pencil and book of number puzzles, offering what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Alas, Klaus just had the kind of face where that wasn't really possible.

Fortunately, his tone was softer and gentler than his face.

"It is good to see you up, Mr Ravel. How are you feeling?"

For a moment after the glass shattered, Erskine remained frozen in place, staring at the figure in the chair as the giant started to move. He didn't necessarily fear the man--even with that less-than-reassuring smile Klaus offered--but he felt badly for waking him. And of course, for the mess he'd made.

"I...."

He'd been given hot tea the first time he'd woken and that had helped to soothe his throat, but it still felt raw and rusty as he tried to use it this time. His voice, like so much of the rest of him, was a work in progress.

"Better." He offered a small smile, the best he could muster. He almost couldn't help but feel better after the shape he'd been in before, but that didn't make it less true. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to wake you."

"Please, Mr Ravel - it's fine," Klaus reassured.

He stood and stretched, popping the crick in his neck and then knelt to carefully gather the glass.

"I'm relieved to hear you're feeling better, at least." He smiled, just a bit, as he wrapped the shards in paper towels and disposed of them in the bin.

"And... it is good to have you back."

Even if it wasn't the same Erskine or one from an earlier time.

Erskine was tempted to climb down from the bed to assist with picking up the glass, but handling those razor-sharp shards probably wasn't the best idea with his hands this shaky. He didn't necessarily want to stay lying under the covers while they talked either, however, like some kind of an invalid. He compromised by throwing the covers off and sitting up, swinging his legs down over the side of the bed so he was sitting on the edge facing Klaus.

"It's good to be back." Again, it was a vague statement that couldn't help but be true. Anything was better than where he'd been.

"You're Klaus, right? You're... the one who found me." Erskine lifted a hand to run through his hair, to scratch idly at the little bit of a beard that had grown over the last two weeks. "I'm sorry. My memory... everything's a bit fuzzy upstairs. Raine had to explain a lot of things."

"Thank you. For bringing me here."

It was fortunate that Klaus had been bent over, mopping up the water with a few towels when Erskine next spoke. The man's face fell when it became clear Erskine didn't remember him.

Still, he was quick to regain his composure and stood, giving a small nod.

"I am. And there is nothing to apologize for. I'm just glad I found you when I did."

He located another clean glass, and filled it, offering the water to Erskine.

"How much was Raine able to explaine?"

The fresh glass of water was received with another small smile of thanks--and this time he was very careful to use both hands to hold the glass, and tucked it against his chest after he'd taken a sip.

"That... I've been here before," he said slowly, staring down somewhere around the vicinity of his knees as he spoke. "I've had flashes of... I don't even know if they're memories or dreams. Or if I'm remembering something from here or back home. I remember you finding me here. I remember... Hopeless." Raine had already confirmed for him that Hopeless had been here, in Keeliai, but Erskine didn't elaborate on that part. The thought of Hopeless alone made him pause for several seconds before continuing.

"Raine used some sort of magical healing on me. That part seemed familiar. The rest of it...." He shook his head. After a moment his grip on the glass tightened, as did the line of his jaw. When he spoke again it was in a much smaller voice, even accounting for the hoarseness.

"She told me Anton's not here anymore."

Klaus's head lowered, his eyes falling to the ground. On one hand, he was relieved that he didn't have to break the news to Erskine. On the other, he wasn't sure what to say to this beyond a small nod of affirmation.

"Yes," he said softly. "You two were quite close when he was here."

Klaus generally didn't make assumptions, but when two people shared a bed, he was pretty damned sure what that meant.

"The hotel vanished with him. I took over as proprietor of the building it attached to."

"He was my brother," Erskine said quietly, as if this should explain it all. "We were Dead Men. Even of the Dead Men, I think he was one of the few that was still willing to put up with me. If he hadn't... I don't know what I would have done." That, at least, was something he remembered. Hiding behind Anton. Leaning so heavily on the brother he'd wronged so badly.

Erskine had no idea, of course, that Klaus had come to the wrong conclusion about him and Anton. During their previous time in Keeliai he'd actively flaunted the image of it, just for laughs, but that was how the Dead Men were. Affectionate. Closer than most people who'd ever met them could really understand. And perfectly willing to mislead or let rumors swirl just for the hell of it.

(He would have clued Klaus in at this point, however, if he'd known.)

"And that was... where I was. Where you found me."

I'm not sleeping (November Catch-all)

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