[L had meant to hide the book before anyone arrived, and with Lycka rushing from his side, he knows that's likely to happen.
It has to, after all, or he's going to slip into shock and die, whether he takes an opiate or not. So he doesn't; he sits, curled, trying to conserve energy and warmth and stay grimly awake. The book sits where it was dropped on the floor beside the bloody remnants of his melted hand, decorated with random splashes of red.
His stomach heaves when he looks at that spot on the floor. He fights back a wave of nausea, swallowing and and closing his eyes where he sits drooped against the couch that would have been his barricade.
When he opens them, blearily, Paul is here. Either he's been unconscious for awhile, the stump of his wrist and its tourniquet cradled in the crusted dried blood on his lap, or Paul really made it here in record time, with Lycka floating and darting agitatedly at his side. He swallows again, difficult because his mouth is so dry; he hadn't heard, but he nods, doing his best to piece together through context what was asked.]
A portal opened... I was attacked.
[The truth. Not the whole truth, of course, but a decent part of it, containing, importantly, the inciting incident.
Pay no attention to the Emperor's blood-spattered journal.]
no subject
It has to, after all, or he's going to slip into shock and die, whether he takes an opiate or not. So he doesn't; he sits, curled, trying to conserve energy and warmth and stay grimly awake. The book sits where it was dropped on the floor beside the bloody remnants of his melted hand, decorated with random splashes of red.
His stomach heaves when he looks at that spot on the floor. He fights back a wave of nausea, swallowing and and closing his eyes where he sits drooped against the couch that would have been his barricade.
When he opens them, blearily, Paul is here. Either he's been unconscious for awhile, the stump of his wrist and its tourniquet cradled in the crusted dried blood on his lap, or Paul really made it here in record time, with Lycka floating and darting agitatedly at his side. He swallows again, difficult because his mouth is so dry; he hadn't heard, but he nods, doing his best to piece together through context what was asked.]
A portal opened... I was attacked.
[The truth. Not the whole truth, of course, but a decent part of it, containing, importantly, the inciting incident.
Pay no attention to the Emperor's blood-spattered journal.]