Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Setting: Various reasons, none of which are important enough to recount here, but can be boiled down to his needing to leave Dol-Makjar for a bit, mean that Bolaire is currently on the road with Thaisha's merry little band of seekers.

At Rise: Thaisha and Vaelus are bickering, good-naturedly. Julien is keeping an eye out for any concerns, while Aranessa and Occtis chat quietly, Occtis scribbling in his notebook as they walk.
Bolaire is keeping half an eye on Occtis, because there is simply no way that he has settled into his body so soon. It takes Bolaire a hot minute, and he's built for it.

(BOLAIRE is the one who spots it.)

BOLAIRE (alarmed)
Ambush!

(BOLAIRE darts forward, JULIEN at his heels, and pulls on Act II, Scene 7. He ditches the dialogue, because it wouldn't make sense, but he leans into the stage directions.)

(Twist here, jab there, a well placed he's behind you, and-)

(JULIEN cannot get there in time. None of them can. Except for BOLAIRE.)

(BOLAIRE takes the hit. The actor loses an arm but that's fine. He pulls Act III, Scene 5 out of storage and slaps the relevant stage directions into his current script like they were always meant to be there.)

(BOLAIRE forms an arm made of glass, though it doesn't stop the actor from slowly bleeding out. He stabs AMBUSHER ONE who, of course, stabs him right back. Worse. There is blood gushing from places BOLAIRE is quite certain should not be leaking. With his dying breath, BOLAIRE slits the throat of AMBUSHER ONE.)

(There is no salvaging this body. OCCTIS is hovering in horror, THAISHA trying desperately to stem the bleeding while the rest of them take out the AMBUSHER'S.
BOLAIRE'S stupid actor doesn't even have enough breath for him to tell them to take the mask with them.
He quietly resigns himself to spending the next century under the dirt.)

(End scene)

Thaisha stares, blankly, at the body of one of her best friends. What is she going to tell Hal.

Oh, all the dead gods, what is she going to tell Hal?

"We should- take him home," she manages, eventually.
"Hal's going to be devastated," she whispers, brushing Bolaire's hair out of his face. Well. Off the mask.
She debates taking it off him, but... it is a cursed mask. She'd rather not risk it.

Hal's chatting quietly with Azune when Thaisha and her companions trudge in, holding the body of-

Bolaire.

No.
Bolaire's actor.

"How long..?" Azune breathes, and Hal almost doesn't want to hear the answer because it's sure to be awful.

"Two weeks," Thaisha whispers, pained.

Hal's next inhale shudders. Two weeks. Two weeks of nothingness. Is he even aware that time is passing? Would it be worse if he was?

Vaelus lays Bolaire's actor out on to the table where Thjazi so recently lay.
With carefully steady hands, Azune pries the mask off, sits down, and slips him on.

Setting: Hal's house, which is a nice suprise. It doesn't even look old, which is a nicer suprise.

At Rise: His actor is sat in a chair, Hal leant forward in his own. Thaisha, Occtis, Julien, Vaelus and Aranessa all look scandalised.

HAL (teasingly)
Is our favourite overdramatic theatre prop back with us?

(BOLAIRE takes quick stock of his actor. Too boobless to be MURRAY, and too tall besides, HAL probably didn't go kidnap some random actor for BOLAIRE off the street, which leaves...)

(BOLAIRE snorts slightly, shakes his head.)

(It's at about this point that MURRAY bursts in. They know it's MURRAY, despite facing away from the door, because no one else would dart into HALANDIL FANG'S house and crow-)