Arthur/Open

[ceaselesslabor]

It had been a long night. Arthur had been up far too long, far too late, and he knows better than to try and push through on so little sleep. Parker had gone to sleep hours ago, providing bo outlet for the pounding sense that he has to go out and do something.

The city is unusually quiet, a fact that Arthur clocks almost immediately. It's dark. It's damp. There's a heavy, oppressive nature to the entire place, like moments before a storm. Except, in this case, the night sky is clear. The wind is still. The moon casts an eerie, hazy film over the sleepless city.

He hears a loud cry, a sharp sound in the strange stillness.

It sounds like someone calling for help.

He rushes towards the disturbance, shoes pounding against the pavement.

Comments

[youflail]

What he finds is basically that 'call an ambulance, but not for me' meme. The person crying for help is now lying on the pavement, very obviously bleeding, though the jury's out if it's fatal or not. The perpetrator stands over the bleeding body. Olgierd von Everec: a man with red hair, noticeable muscles, a few noticeable scars on his head and arms, and a bloody knife in his hand that he's wiping off on a handkerchief.

His shoulders shift slightly as he hears Arthur approach. But Olgierd doesn't do anything. Instead, he says in a British accented voice, "He'll live. And if he doesn't? No great loss."

Olgierd talks about the possible death of a man casually, like one would talk about the weather or sports scores. This doesn't mean anything to him. Nothing means anything to him, not since that night when he made a remarkably stupid deal with a remarkably powerful...he still thinks 'man,' even though Olgierd knows damn well that Gaunter O'Dimm is no man.

[ceaselesslabor]

The sight of the man crumpled and broken on the ground gets his immediate attention first, so much so that it takes him a good second to realize that there's someone else there. At least until the man speaks and it's such a jarring moment of foreign familiarity that he nearly asks him to repeat himself. That accent catches him completely off guard, but he's already reaching for his gun.

Or at least where the gun should be at his side. His hand comes up empty and he swallows back a flash of fear.

"What happened here?" he asks, taking a step towards the body. Maybe he can still help him.

[youflail]

The similar accent gets a slight eyebrow raise. Well. How unexpected.

The knife is sheathed and slipped into a coat pocket. The handkerchief is idly crumbled up and tossed to the ground, blatantly littering.

"His mouth started a fight that his fists couldn't commit to," Olgierd dryly responds. There's a slightly detached tone in his voice as he looks down at the bleeding man. This doesn't mean anything to him - expected, but a pity nonetheless.

"Doubt he'll be making that mistake again any time soon."

[ceaselesslabor]

Arthur rushes to the man's side and looks up to the attacker. "You fucking killed him! In the middle of the street!"

He looks around, but there is not a soul around. No one but these three...now two, as Arthur feels the thrum of the man's heartbeat fade into nothing under his hands.

"What's going on?"

[youflail]

"What I said," Olgierd says, with a calm tone in his voice. The fact that the man on the ground is dead doesn't seem to be registering to him—or if it is registering, he just doesn't care.

"If you're rattling your mouth off, talking things up, trying to start a fight to prove yourself and prove your worth, don't be surprised if someone takes you up on that offer."

[ceaselesslabor]

"You can't just - kill people in the streets!" he shouts as the skies begin to fill with clouds. He shudders, looking up. "Where - where the fuck did you come from?"

It's hard to say what sort of man that this is. It's hard to really tell what he's done with his life to end up here. But he obviously has something to do with this.

[youflail]

"Velen," Olgierd answers, like it's an obvious answer. There's a moment before he admits, hint of irritation in his voice, "Somewhere that is obviously quite different from here."

What the fuck is asphalt, guys? And why