devoutish: (Beeswax‚ Not Yours‚ Inc.)
Alfie Solomons ([personal profile] devoutish) wrote in [community profile] snowblindrpg2016-05-24 04:18 pm

[log] two assholes walk into an abandoned building and... [closed]

Characters: Alfie Solomons, Royce Melborn
Location building 102
Date: evening of 121 through morning of 122
Summary: Alfie and Royce run into each other by chance, and decide to travel together for a few days
Warnings: n/a; will edit if anything comes up

During his week in Norfinbury, Alfie has settled into a tentative schedule. He wakes early, searches the building he'd spent the previous night in, and gets an early start walking. He searches most or all of the buildings he comes across, only finding a place to stay shortly before lockdown begins. By then he's usually too tired to do much physical activity, so he takes care of various other things until he's ready to sleep through to the morning, when it's time to search the building. Rinse, repeat.

On the day of his arrival, he'd told someone - he can't remember who now - that he couldn't imagine having to fight boredom here. Now, seven days in, he's forced to eat his words. His days are monotonous and solitary, and worst of all, they feel pointless. Everything is based around day-to-day survival, and despite the theories and plans flying around, he doesn't feel like anybody is close to escape. He has questions to ask and potential clues to share, but with everybody else worrying about the Joker's bombs, he's holding off.

At least his hearing is back to normal. He's incredibly relieved about that.

When he arrives at his house for the night, he begins his now-familiar routine. His outer clothes (a big coat, and the trash bag that he wears under it) come off immediately, and are set out to dry. The boots are next, as is everything inside of them (socks, plastic sandwich bags, bits of fuzz and insulation). He dries any wet skin off with a piece of dirty paper towel, which is then set out to dry next to the shoes. Now that he has two bath towels, the one that he's been wearing around his shoulders all day (always under his coat and trash bag, but above his vest) gets switched out for the other. Finally, he sinks down into the living room armchair, stretching his legs out and shoving his bare feet under one of the couch cushions. His fingers are worrying him a bit - he's managed to avoid frostbite, but only barely. He's still keeping a close eye on them, tracking their state using his tablet's camera and hoping that the gloves he'd found the day before will help keep them from getting any worse. And that's where he'll be until lockdown - sitting alone, tablet in hand, taking multiple close-up shots of his hands to compare to the previous days' pictures.
bywolves: (distant stare.)

[personal profile] bywolves 2016-05-28 08:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"No," Royce answers, sliding over to pack up his stuff. He's got his blanket, pillow and assortment of sharp pointy things in the middle of his bag or hidden on his person, and now he's got his broom handle, holding it like a staff.

"Spring, summer, fall, winter. I suppose there's someone out there keeping track of what day it is. Monks. I don't."
bywolves: (Default)

[personal profile] bywolves 2016-05-28 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Huh. That's inventive. Royce watches Alfie pull on his outfit with some interest, leaning slightly on his broom. Might take a page out of Alfie's book if he runs across any of this stuff in the houses.

"Your people?" Royce asks, looking at Alfie's boots rather than the man himself.
bywolves: (say what.)

[personal profile] bywolves 2016-05-28 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Royce walks through the door that Alfie has open for him, and - Alfie's going to notice Royce totally keeping his back slightly turned away from Alfie as Royce slinks his way outside. Habit.

And, as always, guess who has absolutely no tact?

"I don't know what that is. Jewish." Royce squints at the cold, pulling on the mittens over his gloves. He keeps his tablet close as well - and his expression sharpens when he remembers the obituaries from earlier.

He thinks he did a decent job of hiding how pissed he was, but Royce doesn't doubt Alfie is more observant than most people.
bywolves: (uptown funk u up.)

[personal profile] bywolves 2016-05-28 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Royce scowls at Alfie. "Fine."

Not fine. He's not even really sure why he's mad about this, just that he is. He also refuses to explain why he's mad. He gestures impatiently for Alfie to start walking, and starts making his way through the snow. He's very careful to keep them side by side - Royce doesn't walk behind or in front of Alfie, not wanting either to be taken the wrong way.

Of course, that means that when his tablet buzzes, Alfie can probably see Royce's reaction to a certain lady sending him a message. Royce nearly drops his tablet, cursing quietly, and then glances at Alfie.

... He really doesn't want to answer while Alfie is right next to him.
bywolves: (shadows.)

[personal profile] bywolves 2016-05-29 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
When the conversation is over, Royce hangs up and goes back to being silent and sullen. Whatever decent mood he'd had before is now completely gone. He's not incredibly thrilled that Alfie got to hear that.
bywolves: (distant stare.)

[personal profile] bywolves 2016-05-29 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
"That's where I'm going." No obligation to stick together, but Royce isn't going to argue one way or another. A beat, then, almost like a joke if his tone was less tense: "Looking to mess up your notes three times in a row."
bywolves: (Default)

[personal profile] bywolves 2016-05-29 12:57 am (UTC)(link)
... Okay, it gets a snort out of Royce. He glances at the screen, and then looks back out toward the snow in front of them. Dryly, wryly: "Curses. Foiled again."