Lay me down on a bed of roses

[indirectcause]

Who: Ben and YOU!
What: Arriving in Paradisa
When: 28th
Where: Lobby
Rating: PG13 kid has a mouth. Here be your spoiler warning for the game.


[Ben had never really thought much about how fast it takes for a bullet to do its work. Not until he needed it to, anyway. He'd heard the shot, but after that, nothing. It went fast, really fast. There was a vague feeling of gratitude as Kenny pulled the trigger, giving him a mercy he knew he didn't deserve from the man. He'd surrendered to the blackness willingly, no longer a burden to the ever smaller mish-mash of humanity that was their group.

The blackness doesn't last, and that's when he appears on the floor of the lobby of Paradisa, his letterman jacket covered in blood. His blood. Walker's blood. It's a mix, really. He takes in a panicked gasp, scrabbling at the floor and looking around in sheer panic. The alleyway is gone. The walkers are gone. So are Kenny and Lee. ...The pain too.

He glances down at his stomach, the metal that had been sticking out there, a final, horrible promise that he wasn't getting out of that alley is missing. His hand automatically goes to his head, his hair matted with blood (definitely all his own this time) but no hole. Did Kenny miss? He couldn't have. He brings his hand back down to stare at the blood for a moment, before turning to glance around him again, looking for any signs of life.

He's definitely not in Georgia any more]

What the fuck is going on?

Comments

[willrememberthat]

[... really, Ben? That's like hotel food, and Clem isn't fond of it anymore. Still, she takes it, watching him carefully.]

I ate too much when I got here. I got sick. [Because so much real food after so long without does not make a body happy.]

Mmhmm. Like that, but they're nice. They do the cleaning and bring us stuff.

[indirectcause]

[Hey now hotel food is better than no food young lady, gosh. He sheepishly slows his chewing because, yeah, she's probably right. Plus he's still not exactly sure if his stomach is actually healed or not. Oh well, too late now]

So they're like...maids. Ghost maids in a magical castle. Okay, that's pretty out there, but so are a lot of things. [He's note sure how much he wants to believe that, but he's pretty sure she'd have no need to lie to him about it]

Anything else I should know?

[willrememberthat]

[If there are dead people trying to eat you, ghosts aren't too crazy, right?]

Umm... oh. The castle takes something from you. It can be a thing or a memory, or something else, I think.

[She touches her head. No hat :( ]

[indirectcause]

[It's hard to deny anything is possible after the dead come back to life, that's for sure. He frowns at the empty spot her hat used to reside]

And you can't get it back?

[willrememberthat]

[Clem shakes her head.]

Everyone says no.

[indirectcause]

[Sounds about right for their run of luck]

I guess I'll figure out what it is eventually.

[willrememberthat]

I hope it's not too bad.

[indirectcause]

[Clem, honey, everything in his EXISTENCE is bad]

Yeah, me too. [He'll tilt his head, thoughtfully] So how long have you been here, now? You seem to know a heck of a lot about the place.

[willrememberthat]

Since December. [A pause.] It's June, now. Almost July.

[indirectcause]

Wow that's... that's a really long time. [Man this is confusing] Will it be that long back home? Before you get found again?

[willrememberthat]

I... I don't think so. It didn't take Lee long.

[indirectcause]

Even if you've been here for months? [How does time even work here Clementine, because that's not normal]

[willrememberthat]

I think... I don't really know for sure.

[indirectcause]

Maybe this is a parallel dimension where time runs slower. I'm sure there was a cheesy TV show about that once.

[willrememberthat]

[Ben...]

There's a big movie room here.

[indirectcause]

[Nope, he'll just go right ahead and use Twilight Zone logic on this place, you try to stop him, missy]

There is? I wouldn't have called a movie room very castle-y.

[willrememberthat]

There's a room that changes into the beach or a snowy place, too. Maybe we can go soon.

[indirectcause]

...I'd ask how, but I guess you're just gonna tell me it's 'magic'.

[Relaxing at the beach or just messing around in snow. That sounds pretty nice. Something he'd given up along with most normal things. Besides, he struggles to deny Clementine anything on a good day]

Sure, Clem. We can go.