welcome to the party, pal

[branchifer]

Who: Branch, Miguel, Tim, Boba, Dan, and Stacia
What: The supply and prisoner exchange
Where: The emptied out workroom floor
When: After all of Branch's chaos.
Warnings/Notes: Some blood, eventual cw mentions of cannibalism probably when Branch is hashing it out with Dan and Stacia, I'll put warnings in the subject.

[It's going to plan. And the heightened chaos is making it exactly as distracting and chaotic a situation as he was hoping for. The floor is cleared and there are people leading Elves and yetis to areas they've cleared, but traps can still be heard going off, sometimes randomly. Occasionally there's the angry argleblorgleblorg of a yeti getting chili powder exploding out of an air cannon to their face.]

[In some areas where traps were already set off and cleared, somehow (read: thanks to his 14-year-old secret accomplice) they've been reset, only to go off again.]

[It leaves things nice and unsettled and distracting.]

Comments

[mostdangerousbird]

[ He’s not heartless. Maybe he’s a little numbed to people having meltdowns after they’ve been caught, but there’s a difference. This isn’t raving as one’s being tied onto a stretcher about how they’re going to get you and your dog.

Tim crouches down when Branch drops to his knees. This is - this is devastation, not anger. Tim would know.

Because it reminds him of Victor Fries. (Liar.) ]

They’re not going to kill you. You’ve barely done anything wrong, and I’m only holding you here until you can make the decision with a cool head. And without major blood loss.

[ And without… whatever this color change is. This must be where the idea that trolls turn to rocks comes from. ]

You can -

[ Be happy. But he doesn’t want to make promises that he can’t keep, and Branch will see through it. Hell, Tim sees through it. If you can’t even lie to yourself… ]

You can still decide to leave once you’re in decent shape. And I’m not leaving until you tell me too. Actually, I probably won’t leave then either.

[branchifer]

[He doesn't believe him. And there is a part of him that wants to turn his back. It'd be considered deeply insulting to his own people to just turn his back on someone talking to him. The visible rejection.]

[The same way it's insulting to stomp on a party invite.]

[But he doesn't have the energy to even do that.]

[He just briefly glances up at him with a dull expression and then lowers his face again. He doesn't have the energy to react and he's given up.]

[Later on, though, he will remember this. Alongside all the trying to coax him into understanding he's safe, even as he held Tim captive. Alongside insisting that there are people that won't let anyone hurt him. He'll remember that Tim offered that protection and then refused to leave him.]