eat your young (earinor & marquis)

"Most of the time, yes. But sometimes I just can't be around fatty stuff.", Lucy chuckled. Somtimes she just craved an apple or a pear. Winter was coming, so they'd not have any then and it was back to meat and bread and maybe sometimes some cheese. At least milk was around for the whole year. She wondered if they could have their own, for fresh milk, caring for one or two more animals wouldn't be that hard, right? "They are pretty at least, aren't they? So many colors... I wonder how they make those." Musing she looked at the tower of macarons. Would they all taste different? They somehow suited the circus, at least when it was open, otherwise everyone just wore old, colorless clothes and lately everything was extra muddy. When they arrived the patch of land they set up on usually was still growing grass too, but after so much rain and people and wagons trampling doen everything, there were more dirt patches than grass left. When it snowed it was the same, too many people walked over the paths for the snow to stay. Winter in general wasn't a fun time, the tent was warm enough when it was filled with people, but for their training it was usually pretty cold.

"That's no problem, I just threw them in with the rest. Someone has to do it after all.", she smiled. Usually not every single person had to wash their clothes themselves, that would take way too long. Like a well oiled machine everyone had their duties and sometimes they also switched tasks so it didn't get boring or unfair. In the past couple days they were still adjusting to missing Leila and Conny and everytime it came up it was painful, but the cogs were still turning. "Well I thought about that. You can't do your act and you shouldn't carry too much, but maybe you could help out in another act. There are some easy ones, just making the crowd laugh a bit between acts and such." Louis did that mostly, but not all of the bits inbetween and he was needed backstage often as well, getting the right people reay, especially the kids, or quickly fixing a ripped costume. Josiah usually didn't talk during his act, but he was perfectly capable of it. Some acts between also didn't need any talk, they could surely come up with something. "What if they are a gift to you. you'd not bum off on me.", Lucy chuckled and nodded, grabbing a spoon and eating the stew. She made quick work of it before it grew cold.

Today’s dinner wasn’t around for much longer after that - Josiah made quick work of his plate and Lucy, likewise, seemed to want to get it out of the way. Fine with him, too. “Sometimes it rags on, I know. I’d rather have some more fruit or vegetables at times.”, he agreed quickly. Food was good, in any form - like machines needed oil to keep running, the needed food, or else they’d keel over eventually, turning into fine dust as they withered away silently and painfully, but in the end, they also were picky and, at times, not exactly starved of choice, which lead to more troubles than it was worth, necessarily. “Hmm, they are. I suppose it’s either chemical or plantbased dyes, not that that’s bad. It’s not the hair colors I concoct at the very least.” Thankfully not, or they’d have burns down their throat and in their stomach lining - Josiah didn’t like the thought of that one bit, not when it already plagued parts of his scalp, neck and hands. Why even dye his hair, still? What a question that was - one that didn’t belong at the dinner table when he had Lucy to be mesmerized by, who - unlike him -, was a natural beauty in his eyes. A gemstone in the rough.

“And yet you actually didn’t have to.”, he murmured before grabbing her empty plate alongside his own, setting them aside on his shelf so they’d have more space on that table pf theirs. Smells intermingled by now - there was the wafts of incense that overtook the general smell in the trailer, alongside the cooling tea that still was fragrant enough to make a difference. Jo smiled at Lucy as he let himself fall back into his chair, then grabbed his cup to warm his hands on. “Hah?”, Josiah expressed in confusion, taken aback by the suggestion - he let it settle in him for a few seconds. “I guess … I don’t know, I doubt Louis would ever want to give up those tidbits, or have me talk out there - my act rarely involves talking, if ever.”, he retaliated, his gaze meeting the amber liquid in his cup, before it drifted to the chipped corner. Why did he care about that, now of all times, too? Because of her? Sure enough, that had to be it. “Why would you gift me something that expensive? Come on now, we can treat each other to something, together. I don’t mind, it’s really not a hassle!” The last time someone gave him money - Louis, that was - he also staunchly refused to use it for anything and it would stay that way. Regardless, he grabbed one of the macarons, lifting it up to Lucy’s lips. “Open up.”

"I remember the times when you refused to eat meat altogether.", Lucy chuckled. That was a long time ago, but Josiah eventually didn't do all too well without any meat, so he relented. He was always so sweet and loving and even a chicken or pigeon was too precious for him to kill for his own sake. He changed, a bit at least, he probably still didn't want to kill anything, but he became a man and he felt dutybound at times. If it had to be done for the childrens or Lucys sake, he'd do it. He always wanted to do right by others after all. "Maybe we could color some of the food we sell, I bet that would boost the sales!", she suggested. Another task that could fall to Josiah maybe. Only because he worked with dangerous chemicals now, didn't mean he couldn't broaden his horizon and dye some popcorn or potatoes. It surely would be unique and fun, but maybe Lucy was trying too hard to find something Josiah could occupy himself with for the time being.

"I don't mind taking the washing duty and I didn't make the clothes as dirty as the children did, they were full of mud and gras stains." She didn't complain, she laughed about it and it was still warm enough to not have freezing cold hands doing the washing. She watched Josiah put the plates away and leaned a bit forward when he sat down again. She liked looking at him. His hair did lose a lot of color, but if he didn't feel like dying it, she wouldn't pressure him. He was cute either way, it was simply a sight she wasn't used to. "Louis always has to be at ten places at once during the show, I'm sure he's fine losing a bit of responsibility." Lucy didn't know that, but there was no harm in asking, only that lately he she rarely even saw him. The children were happy about having more free time, but given that he'd always been so strict, it was kind of odd. Maybe Leilas death was harder on him than she thought and while Lucy and Jo and Mara and James had eachother, Louis was kind of alone. Lucy didn't want to bring him up again, even if she wasn't going to badmouth him this time, instead she smiled at Josiah and somewhat surprised opened her mouth like she was asked. The macaron was already pushing against her lips and eventually Josiah put it in her mouth. It was a bit big to take in all of it, so she bit off half of it, then held her hand in front of her mouth while she was chewing. She giggled. "It's really good!", she announced once she swallowed it, then took the half Josiah was still holding out of his hand and likewise held it in front of his mouth. "Now you."

"That was a long time ago, and a pretty bad idea in hindsight.", he admitted with a smile in both his voice and on his face. To be that staunch an opinionated at such a young age didn't help him prosper at times, not at all; he butted heads with older residents of the circus more often than not, especially when he didn't eat what was served or lamented the death of an animal that none of them knew to begin with, earning him the ire of those that either didn't understand or refused to. Louis, though, always endured his moods and stupid ideas, even when he wasn't supposed to, or he expected him to oppose him try and change his mind, but that had hardly ever happened way back when to begin with. "I'd have to figure out a way to make the color digestible first, which might take a bit." His colors weren't safe to begin with, but he'd rather spare Lucy the details. If he thought about it, in the end, Lucy wasn't so different from Louis - they used to be best friends, now, though, they diametrically opposed and his pleadings felt like they often fell on death ears - things stopped mattering eventually, people grew up and drifted apart, and stuff like that. That was what becoming an adult was supposed to be like.

"Getting those out is such a pain, I remember having to scrub and then scrub some more when I was a kid and got my good clothes dirty." And half the time that left them worse for wear to begin with. Circus life wasn't easy, let alone was it for everyone, and while Josiah enjoyed it lots, he knew that it came with a certain set of hardships that some people simply weren't used to and would never get used to. "That's true, I'd love to help him and take some pressure off of his shoulders, too.", he explained himself and looked at Lucy with a smile on his lips. Her ideas were always right on the money and this one, well, he simply would have to bring it up to him when he had time. Speaking of, he hadn't seen him at all since their last talk and that worried him, but Jo knew, too, that he wanted nothing more than to hopefully be left alone by him, or, well, all of them, really. As soon as he thought about that once again, he let go of a sigh he couldn't hold back, but perhaps, given the context of the situation, it sounded almost dreamy instead, which would definitely work in his favor, if anything. Lucy was delicate about all of this if anything, and Jo could chuckle about it - it was a good distraction from their drab everyday life; he grinned by the end of it. "Now me? Cute." He opened his mouth like he was asked to and ate the other half out of her hand - it was sweet, alright, and maybe a bit crunchy, but the cream in the middle was a delight. "Mh! You're right! They're pretty good!"

"I think it could have worked out, with some careful thinking.", Lucy chuckled, "But then you'd probably hadn't grown as tall as you are now." Suddenly she started laughing as she remembered something. "Wait, wasn't that how we got you to eat again? I think Louis was growing a bit taller and you were a bit behind and so we told you it's because you didn't eat right and we didn't need to say more for you to suddenly chow down a whole chicken." It had been so easy back then, but it felt easy right now too. There was nothing wrong with reminiscing of the past a bit. "If anyone can do it, it's you... or well maybe there are books on the matter and then you don't have to invent anything on your own." Surely other people have thought of that, for example to color the macarons. There had to be a technique they could learn and use here as well. If it was expensive they just had to charge more!

"Come to think of it, we didn't have many people look out for us like the kids have now, huh? Some of the others were already here when I ended up in the circus, but they didn't really play with us." Ruth, Alice, Roy and the others were older than them,, they'd been grown ups when they were children, but they already kept to themselves. Some other older ones left eventually. The whole circus grew quite a bit actually. Conny was one of the older ones now that she thought about it... but she was always very focused on her training. "You should bring it up then.", she smiled. Josiah just needed to catch Louis at the right time. His moods were fluctuating a lot at the best of times. When Josiah ate the other half of the macaron, Lucy giggled. "Now I'd feel bad if ate all of them at once. Do you think they are as good tomorrow? Should we share them? This would be easier if they were disgusting." She chuckled again. They were a rare treasure, they should probably savior them, not that they had a whole lot to begin with, if they wanted to share with the children they'd have to break them up into chunks first. When he looked up she stretched out her head without thinking, wiping some remnants of the macaron off of Josiahs face. Then she looked at his hands and how he clutched the cup of tea a bit. "It's pretty cold today, isn't it? Wanna cozy up in bed, we can talk there just as easily, right?"

"And careful planning, which a ten year old isn't exactly capable of.", Josiah reminded her - he was right. "True that, but I'm not even that tall to begin with." There were other people that were taller than him, both part of their so-called family and in their audience and Josiah, as he was, was average at best. Not like Louis was much different, which was a sigh of relief to him and his childish mind. "It was a whole chicken? Was I starved or something?", he asked with a giggle, knowing that, why, he probably had just missed the taste of it all and then realized just a bit too late what it was that he had missed so much - a meal shared was a good one and a Louis slighted a funny one. Still, they were hardly children anymore and Louis had his own set of problems, just like Josiah, but his seemed miniscule in comparison to the pulling force behind whatever kept Louis in check and made it worse for all of them. To not be able to talk about the simplest of things was a detriment, quite a big one at that, and Jo couldn't help him, even if he wanted to. "Me? I'm not that great, but I can try, at the very least. Maybe I can sniff out a recipe the next time I make it to town." Whatever town that would be, really.

"Hm, now that you mention it, not really." Their numbers naturally thinned over the years, sure, yet, the circus ensemble had been way smaller when they were younger, too. Had they grown in popularity? Josiah doubted it, somehow, and instead believed this was going more out of fashion than anything else, but who was to say? Being right on the money wasn't always fun. "I'll do that.", he nodded along, knowing that it would be a difficult discussion already. Did it help that, after the last words he shared with Louis, he was afraid of and for him, in case they'd break out into another avoidable fight? "They should be fine, I think." Lucy asked him questions he didn't know the answer to either - if they had to throw them out tomorrow, that would be a shame, whereas indulging themselves right now could take care of that problem ahead of time, only for Lucy to still think about the others above herself. For that, he adored her once more, and he chuckled in turn. "How about we keep one or two for ourselves and share the rest? I think that would work well, and we should be able to break them apart if we give them to say, the kids? Besides, even if they are stale tomorrow, I don't think they'd complain about that.", he suggested to her with a smile and beamed at her all the while she put her fingers into his face. Were there any crumbs left? It seemed so. "I like that idea, we should finish the tea first, I wouldn't want it to go to waste." Josiah was quick about it and simply slammed it back, soon returning an empty cup to the table as he stood up. "After you."

They were a cruel bunch, the lot of them, and if anything, he hated being treated like dirt on their heel at times - fetch this, fetch that, go get this, go do that. Just because they had seniority in both life and whatever this state of being was didn't mean that they could commandeer him around - he was an adult too, damnit! Why was it him, of all of them, that had to get the short end of the stick? Blair could grumble all day about it, but that didn't change the fact that he'd been told to 'go check out whatever Louis was doing', for some godforsaken reason. Roy was a nosy motherfucker, all things considered, and he himself didn't want any pieces of his pie, but ... he'd rather not get himself sliced up for disobedience, or reprimanded by that bonehead. Griping with the fact that good-old Roy wasn't so good in the first place, he had looked for Louis in his trailer, but when he hadn't found him, he'd gone looking - not asking - around for him, only to wind up walking into their pantry, supply closet, whatever one would call it, to get himself a nice, shiny thing for his troubles, or just take an apple, whatever would catch his eye. Much to his chagrin, he found Louis lying there, out cold, in a pool of his own blood - Blair could've left him there, sure, but something told him that he likely shouldn't, which meant he hoisted Louis up as gently as he could and dragged him back to his own trailer, stuffed him in his bed and went to get a washcloth, some bandages and a bit of gauze to treat him with. Not that he'd ever interacted with this guy, or cared for him in the first place, and yet, anyone that cut up Roy and showed him his place was a friend of his, and thus, this felt necessary - he cleaned him up, examined the wound and found it minor enough to simply clean it thorougly wrap it up, before leaving again and getting some painkillers, water, tea and whatever the others had had for dinner that night, or what was left of that. God, he didn't miss hanging out with that lot either - actually, he hated both of them, and he would wish he could leave at some point, but it was looking less and less likely that that day ever came, especially now that he sat in Louis trailer, taking a gander around the perimeter as he waited for the sleeping beauty to stir, or maybe confirm he'd died.

"You're tall enough, perfect even. When I talk to James I always have to bend my neck uncomfortably, your height is better.", Lucy chuckled. "I think you just wanted to make up the nutrient you missed out on to catch up with him." Josiah was cute and he was somewhat still the same, or would be, if Louis was still the same too. There was no way Josiah would forget about him and since Lucy cared for him deeply, maybe she should help Louis, to help Josiah, or something of that sort. "Who else? Also, isn't your chemical stuff similar to cooking? Following certain recipes, punching things together in a big bowl of some sort, all that." It sounded kind of similar to her, but she also had no idea what Josiah was doing in here when he worked on his hair dyes or experiments. "Even better then we are there for them. Not that our childhood was terrible, but I think it's better the children have someone looking out for them. The ringmaster did much more with us though, well not a whole lot, but he was around. Now we barely see him." She wasn't sure what changed, maybe he was just growing old, but he actually looked fairly young. He had to be much older than them, but he didn't look the part. Lucy looked at the macarons again and nodded. "You are right, that sounds good. I'll put them back in the paper bag, maybe that helps them stay good." Smiling she put all but two back to give to the children tomorrow. Then she nodded and downed her tea as well. The two leftover macarons she kept on the little plate which she moved a bit closer to the bed in case they wanted them, then she crawled inside and other the thick blanket. With Josiah joining her it would get all cosy and warm, as every past night. "Do you want to read? Or would you rather turn off the lights already?", she asked. If they put it out now they didn't have to later and they didn't need the light for a chat, right? Lucy felt a bit giddy today, her stomach tingled for no reason while she waited for Josiah to finally join her. She longed for his embrace more than she should.

Louis immediately sat up when he came to, confused about what happened or where he was. His head immediately stung and he raised his hand to the most prominent spot. Was that a bandage? And was this his trailer? How did he get here? Only then did he notice he wasn't alone, which sent a shiver through his bones. It was rather dark in here, but he recognized the figure soon enough. "Blair?", he asked confused. More and more of them seemed to stalk around him, first Alice, then Roy and now Blair was in his trailer. Louis overstepped with Luke and now it seemed the vultured were out to get him. He preferred it when things went to shit, but were somewhat under control, as opposed to the madness that ensued now, where he couldn't even trust himself, or at least less so than before. Louis looked to the side to his table on which there was some bandages still, some rubbing alcohol and also a stew that was probably cold by now. Usually he remembered everything he did when he changed, so this wasn't like that, right? He hoped so... maybe he just overdid it. He felt weak and his hands were slightly shaking. That didn't explain Blairs presence though.

"Now you're just flattering me, but I'm glad you like my height, at the very least.", Josiah responded in earnest, still smiling all the same. Truly, he wanted nothing more than to be liked for what he was and also be liked by himself for what he could do, which in his opinion, often was very little, even if that wasn't right to begin with. "I missed out on a bunch, so of course I have to reclaim what's mine eventually. Well, I did, I'm agreeably sized, I'd argue." Not small or tall, just around the norm, and that was good, it seemed, or else he'd have Lucy hurting her neck when talking to him standing up - that wasn't something he wanted, even if being James' height was enticing at times. "You're right ... and I guess it is, just a but more dangerous than I'd like it to be for someone like the kids. I could probably figure some safe stuff out, but that would also take a while." Something to let the kids experiment with all those chemicals if they wanted to, well, not the ones that burnt and hurt, but maybe the ones that, at worst, were irritating to the skin ever so slightly if you didn't wash them off - maybe, if there were more of him and less vulnerabilities, something like a fireworks show wasn't too out of the question. Josiah, as he was, liked the ring of that and had to giggle at the thought, which was nice to begin with. "Mhm, thank you." And with that, they were ready for bed, were they not? Josiah wasn't sure if he could sleep, even though he felt somewhat fuzzy, but he felt like a hug from Lucy would fix him right about now and they'd talk for hours on end. "Do you even have a book? Do you want me to read something to you? Or just share one of mine?", he asked her, knowing that turning the lights off right now wasn't in anyones favor, not when he tucked himself in after Lucy and fled into her embrace - he put his arms around her and pulled her close. "I don't know what it is today, but this feels ... kind of right."

Before Louis even sat up, he'd kind of heard him stir - he'd sit there, in the dark, and probably wonder who it was that had allowed himself into his home, but no, Louis was almost like him, like them, just slightly off and he could discern who it was pretty much immediately. "Yes, Louis?", he returned the question of his name and turned around to walk back to his bed. He'd seen ... a bit, and he liked it, honestly. Where were his manners, then? Ah, right. "I apologize, I did intrude into your trailer without asking, that might be confusing." Given the fact they hardly ever had interacted past their childhood and whatever had happened right now, it would indeed be confusing to have a stranger in his home, just looking around, while he was visibily injured. "I found you passed out in the supply trailer, I wanted an apple or something else to eat, but I couldn't in good conscience leave you lying in your own blood.", he explained away and grabbed a chair to pull up to Louis' bed and look at him up close. "How are you feeling? The wound on your head should heal, I think you hit a box or something when you fell." If he did, that was - thankfully, being no longer human, or, well, whatever Louis was, usually sped up the process. "I wanted to make sure you were alright, well, alive actually, before I left."

"Not all my compliments are fabrications, actually none of them are. You're so bad at receiving them.", Lucy complained with a smile, but it was true. Josiah never wanted to see what was right with himself, only what wasn't and even then he made things up. "Maybe if not for the meat break, you'd be taller.", she teased, sticking out her tongue for a moment. "Well surely color is achievable with something that has a lot of it's own...? But not much taste I guess. Spinach maybe? Blueberries? Strawberries?" The truth was Lucy had no idea and Josiah was better suited in figuring this out. "Uh no, you're seem a bit dry to be fair and I didn't bring one of mine today." Lucy shrugged, but kept smiling. No reading then maybe. "So lights off anyway?", she asked, "We can still talk."Josiah was already there hugging her though, maybe a bit tighter than he usually did, but that was a good thing. She cuddled up to him, feeling like her place was exactly there, as if her body perfectly fit Josiahs. Over the scent that hung in the air, he still smelled like fresh air, from their journey today. "Yeah, it does, doesn't it?", she smiled, her voice a bit more somber as she closed her eyes, not to sleep, but to enjoy the moment. She was still careful not to squeeze him too much, Josiah was still hurt after all, but she cuddled up to him anyhow. Josiahs shirt was every so slightly too big for him and not fully closed to the top. His chest was only partly exposed, but she took it as an invitation to put her fingers on the spot, yet it felt like she'd ruin the moment if she moved anymore. "Do you have a topic in mind...?", she whispered, her own brain kind of empty today, maybe the journey to town was more exhausting than she thought it would be.

Blair was almost acting strange, but wasn't he always? He was the youngest of the bunch, by looks too, if that meant anything, which Louis doubted at this point. Louis looked at him in the dim light, seeing his human form, but also the shadow flickering around him. This situation was confusing alright and Louis needed an explanation Blair provided only very slowly. For a moment Louis wondered if Roy was responsible for this, but he actually doubted it. It seemed nothing much but a headache happened and that could ahve hardly satisfied Roy, unless he just wanted to keep Louis from other shenanigans, but that too seemed unlikely at this point. He hardly paid attention to anything going on around him lately anyway. When Blair sat down next to his bed, Louis scooted away a bit, unsure what to do with this situation and with Blair. They barely talked usually. "I'... I'm okay now, I guess.", Louis slowly answered. "Thanks." He swallowed down the sound of a question at the end of this. "Maybe you should leave now..." Blair had been around when he apologized to Roy, but Louis wasn't sure if he got the full picture. Everyone of them knew Louis hurt him, but the rest depended on what Roy told them. "I'm alive, yeah... just a headache and... tired. I'll be fine." Louis looked at his hands, noticing that he clutched the blanket for some reason and slowly let go. Then he looked at the stew, which he should probably eat.

“Am I now? I just think you flatter me a little too much, that’s all.” Josiah knew he wasn’t the greatest, the tallest, the strongest or the most talented out of the bunch of them, but he could take compliments, at least at times. “Just because of that? That’s unfair.” Which would mean Louis was naturally short, then? Thinking about it made Jo’s head spin. Soon enough, he discarded the thought altogether and put a pin in it, vowing to return to it at a later date when he had actually given it a thought and reached a conclusion he was happy with, even if it would wind up being the wrong one, possibly. “If you want the taste to come with them.” Which, at times, wasn’t part of the plan, not that anyone would eat cotton candy the taste of carrots or spinach, or willingly pay for it - Jo couldn’t imagine it, the taste and consistency definitely did not go hand in hand with one another. “You’re right, they’re dry … lights out it is, then.” Josiah stretched one of his arms out of bed as he reluctantly turned away from Lucy, snuffing out the oil lamp on the nightstand and enveloping the trailer in thick, blinding darkness in the blink of an eye. Her fingers had found their way into his shirt as he returned into her arms; Jo couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re quite cute today, not that you weren’t before, but something’s different.” Or he’d been dense to Lucy’s charm up until now, which sounded quite like a him thing.

Each minute that passed with him being here, Roy would likely grow more impatient and while Blair was quick to worry about what would happen if he pissed him off, if he played his cards right, maybe Louis would shut off dimly lit lights in Roy’s brain soon enough, just like he’d done once, for a few minutes. “Mhm.” When was the last time he had dealt with anyone seriously hurt like that? His fellow demons all lived long lives and brawls went on forever, as their wounds healed a bit too well at times, so this felt alien to him, even when it had hardly been ten? twelve? fifteen? years since he’d become one of them. “I should, you’re right.” Keeping Roy waiting, or anyone, never boded well in this fine establishment - a steaming pile of shit with a bit of glitter on top to distract their customers, their moneybags, and reel them in with cash cows, time and time again. “All motor functions working fine? Arms? Legs? Hands? Feet? Fingers? Toes? Does your neck hurt when you move your head?”, Blair asked as if he recited a list of things that he’d memorized, and maybe he did; to have a personality out here was like signing a death warrant. “That aside.”, there was something that burned at the back of his throat. “Roy and Ruth, they were mocking you, weren’t they? If … there’s anything you want to know, I’ll tell you - I owe you one, after all.”

"When have you ever just accepted a compliment, hm? Maybe I just like you just the way you are.", Lucy asked with a smile. Josiah lived in his own head more times than he joined them in the real world, she knew that, but she was happy even more that he spent his time with her, in the here and now. "You can still grow, you're not that old. Just eat enough.", Lucy giggled a bit. "Spinach popcorn sounds disgusting but it would look neat if it was green, don't you think?" Josiah was the one who had to figure out how to make that happen, not her. For a moment Josiah let go of her and it felt cold and lonely for a second, even though he was right back, after he put out the light of their lamp. She blushed when she heard his next words. "Cute...?" This came as a surprise, Josiah wasn't usually so brazen with her, or maybe she misunderstood. "Different how?", she asked. Did she want to know what he would say? She felt nervous, even though she lay in his arms so many times. She was always a bit nervous, but not like now. She softly hid her cold nose by his neck, even though it was too dark for him to see her blush anyway.

Blair sounded almost worried. Louis wasn't to go to test all of his limbs right now, but his neck did feel a bit stiff, that was probably nothing to worry about though. Nobody knew what Louis was, would he be able to shake off a serious wound like Roy, or would he parish after all? He didn't want to try, but it didn't help in determining how serious his wound was. "Neck's a bit stiff... are you... worrying about me?" Louis knew nothing much about Blair. He remembered playing with him when he was very young, possibly before Josiah joined them in the circus, but other than that he rarely spoke to him. "And you're not... mocking me I mean?" He was mistrusting of all of them. "If anything I think I owe you..." Maybe, the circumstances were hazy. "Aren't you scared of me?" Roy wasn't either, probably, if someone couldn't die, why would they be? Yet that wasn't his question, not one he wanted or rather needed an answer too. Was it even fine to talk to Blair? Was he again letting his guard down? Not that Roy had done anything besides being elusive, whether it was on purpose or not. Louis looked at Blair, trying to see if his answer would be honest. "You're the youngest of them, aren't you...? When did you...?" Become what he was now.

"Never. If I get compliments, I want to earn them, not hope to get them thrown at me randomly." Lucy was too nice to him - if Louis praised him, he'd have to do something for that first and to Jo, that was how it was supposed to be, but maybe opinions differed ever so slightly from person to person on what was acceptable or not. "I'll think about it", he chuckled. "But it'd probably taste disgusting, tho, spinach and corn are both vegetables." Salted spinach just sounded less exciting, as a flavor and as a whole - Josiah would eat it, no doubt about that, but that wasn't a good thing anyway; he'd eat anything if times were dire, like lots of people in their troupe had to when they couldn't make ends meet. Thankfully, that hadn't happened in ages and they did well for themselves at this point in time. "Yes, cute." More than that, honestly. "I don't k- ack! You're cold!", he yelped in surprise, though, didn't want her to move from where she now was. Lucy, to him, was beautiful and cute at the same time - she rarely was nervous or shy, and it seemed ill-suited on her, like a dress that was the wrong color for her complexion, something he embraced all the same, not wanting to let go. "I don't know ... something's different today, that's all." What was it, though? He couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Maybe I just never noticed how beautiful you are?"

Louis was a peculiar case, they'd all told him that and Blair hadn't understood what they meant, at the very least initially, when he thought they were just gawking and fawning over a new addition to their inventory, and then, he never actually joined them. "That should go away soon enough. If not, try to not make any sudden movements and give yourself some more time to rest ... I'm sure someone else can take on some of your duties." Blair knew, by now, that Louis was a busybody, something that he hadn't picked out himself, but others had decided for him when they boxed him into his role, one in which he seemed to blossom relentlessy. "Slighty. If you were like me, the wound would be gone by now, or at least show signs of healing. But it hasn't, not yet." Which was partially why Blair was a bit more hands-on and careful right now. If Louis was anyone else from the other side, he'd not have given a fuck, necessarily. "Don't need to. Shit sucks for you as is, I bet." That much had to be true, with everyone treating him like a prized mule. "Because you cut up Roy? No. If anything, I'm thankful, really - you showed him his place, he deserved that, truly.", Blair admitted and gave the man in the bed a quick glance over. "If it's about the shit he's spouting, whatever. Over there, stabbing one another is pretty much normal - they're all rowdy for no reason because they're bored and they know they can't die.", he fessed up, knowing Louis might be interested. "Mhm." And given by the half-spoken question alone, Blair already knew what Louis couldn't speak about. "Like, ten? Twelve? Something years ago. I was still different when we played as kids, but I think I'm a few years older than you? Anyway, I don't think anyone really noticed, I sort of, got sick and that was that. Not really exciting, I know ... I had my reasons. It sucks, though." Should've taken death's hand, then.

"But you earned them, by being you and by making me laugh and if I happen to like your height, I'm inclined to let you know." If he was taller he'd barely fit into his bed, how did James do that anyway? Maybe he had his bed in the trailer sideways? Or he curled up everytime he went to sleep. "Well they had to make it work with the macarons somehow, right?", Lucy asked with a smile. There surely were recipes available. Where those expensive? She didn't even know. Compared to Josiah she had so little interest of her own. When Josiah yelled out Lucy felt bad. "I'm sorry.", she mumbled, but when she tried to back off again, Josiah held her in place. "Now you're flattering me too much...", she mumbled. Usually she'd just say she knew she was beautiful, but this wasn't a joke this time, Josiah sounded like he meant it. Lucy scooted even closer, her fingers now trailing over Josiahs exposed skin and the shirt she borrowed again that was too big for her, also exposed hers a bit. There was silence for a bit, not awkward, it was actually nice. Lucy concentrated on Josiah, on what she could feel, since they couldn't see each other in that darkness. She felt almost feverish somehow, so nervous for some reason as if the air around them was charged. Eventually she didn't want to wait anymore and pressed a soft kiss to Josiahs neck.

"I... ugh..." Louis sighed deeply. There were many things he did around here and he liked keeping busy to occupy his mind and maybe also to not be punished for any laziness even if that was never a concern to begin with. Right now however he had to admit that he couldn't keep up, not when he could barely sleep or eat. If that wound didn't heal up over night, he'd also have a lot of questions to ask. For some reason people around here still cared for him after all, especially Jo, James and Mara. The shows he could do, that much was clear, but they'd take other duties from him by force probably. With Leila and Conny missing for their daily chores though and Josiah being hurt too, was there really room for Louis to slack as well? "Do you care because you're still holding on to whatever it is that the others lost?" Their soul maybe, or humanity, or maybe something less dramatic. "That doesn't stop certain people...", Louis mumbled, still unsure if he could even trust Blair. Right now he almost seemed like a kid himself still, someone that also needed someone to talk to and the others weren't treating him equally either. "I... don't think he did. And I didn't mean to, it... just happened. I lost control. I can't promise I won't again." Blair didn't care about that, Louis could tell even now, before he even said anything. "No, I think I remember. It was a cold winter and the business wasn't going... I'm... sorry I didn't notice and I guess until now I haven't thought about the possibility of you not having been what you are now all this time..." Louis genuinely felt bad. Blair was left alone with all of this, just like Louis was, but things somehow were still different. "You... didn't struggle as much, did you...?" As much at Louis that was. He couldn't be sure, but it felt different. "What did the ringmaster do when you... died...?" Louis carefully asked.

"Those are all things I'm naturally good at, though!" No hard effort required, especially not on the height. Lucy wasn't just cute or beautiful, she was somewhat weird tonight, something that he kept to himself, as it would undoubtedly sour the mood between them right now, unsure what it was in the first place. What were they? Jo didn't know, he really couldn't figure it out. "They did, but I guess they likely used some dried color pigments, which would take forever to get my hands on if I don't have an oven." He'd have to cure the food in the sun and hope that they actually dried and didn't go bad, or snatched up by anyone else instead. "It's fine, just unexpected.", he chuckled, rubbing her back to comfort her over the blunder and the commotion he had caused. "You're beautiful like the sun, though. In your presence, I feel comforted and like nothing can go wrong, you know? If there's an issue, Lucy knows how to fix it, and I think that's a good skill to have." Something was odd tonight - he felt intoxicated, almost, despite not laying a single finger on alcohol. Should he have done it? Jo didn't know, he knew that he'd like the bottoms up for courage when Lucy started touching him and he felt warmer than he already had. The kiss, though, startled him more than just a bit. "Hey now ...", he mumbled, feeling at a disadvantage. "If we're doing that, shouldn't we kiss each other first?"

Blair looked at him and shook his head - he was banged up, like some of their most trusty equipment and that didn't help - Louis was valuable to the entire circus, not just because of the incessant need that the ringmaster had for him of all people. "Hm? Ah." Sometimes, he felt understood by those that didn't want to actually communicate with him, by those he was supposed to see as his friends, but regularly, Blair had realized that if he simply tried, he'd find them in different avenues. Louis was one of those unlucky souls, too, and he hadn't yet stooped as low, aside from spending some odd days and nights here and there. "You're not my charity case, I'll say that. There's no fixing what's already broken, not in an extend that it will look like new, at the very least. I care because I think I want you to spare a similar fate and have you see for yourself that, no matter how much sweettalking Alice, Roy, Ruth and the others do, this genuinely sucks." Nothing else, Blair wore his heart on his sleeve, as best he could. "They try, but they can't help you." None of Louis' friends anyway. "I don't want to turn you against them, that's not what I'm saying.", he explained himself not too long after the first sentence. "That's fine. If it gets too much, just come to me - I can't fix it, but I can try to stave it off." Blair had his own moments of weakness, but right now, he was sound, as sound as a creature like him could be, anyway - the craving for violence would, likely, grow eventually and the need to pluck out Roy's eyes would rise in him, too. "It's alright. You had your own stuff to deal with not long after, and besides, we weren't that close. Well, the one person I was ever so slightly closer with back then is dead now, but that's also just how things go here." None of this was fun and games to begin with, they were like mice trapped in mazes, all being hunted by the same predator but being kept separate so they couldn't rise to arms; some of them even thought that this would be their eventual ticket to freedom, at times. "No, there wasn't anything to struggle against. I was weak, it's hardly better now, but ... as timid as I am, as timid is what I'm now." Therefore, Louis had something wrong with him, a screw loose perhaps, and that wasn't necessarily good, not in the slightest. "It's fuzzy, but I remember that I woke up in his trailer and that he offered me a deal, of sorts. It would mean I'd promise him my eternal s-" And there it stopped, much to his chagrin. "Anyway. It should be the same for all of us, with a few tweaks, probably."

"You don't have to achieve things to earn compliments. If you're starting like that, I'm telling you that you achieved being you by growing up and other people grew up into people I like less.", she answered. There was definitely a too humble. "You always think you're not good enough, but you're good enough for me, better than good enough. Doesn't that count for anything?" Sometimes it felt like the only person Josiah cared about was Louis and it hurt, especially today. He'd take compliments from him and grin about it for days, but when Lucy told him how great she thought he was, she was dismissed. Louis wasn't there for Josiah, Lucy was, but sometimes she felt invisible. "We have a fire, but I guess that's not enough.", she mumbled. Lucy felt Josiahs hand rubbing her back and she wondered if she wished that this was more than a friendly gesture. His words, were they true? "Do you mean that...?", she asked unsure and the kiss was clearly an overstep on her part. "Sorry...", she mumbled. That one kiss she got from Josiah, she couldn't forget it ever since. She wanted it to mean something, but she wasn't sure if it did. For now she backed off, disappointed.

"I don't need convincing to know that whatever is happening to me is wrong...", Louis told Blair. More than that? He wasn't sure if he could trust him, even though it felt good to have someone he could talk to. Louis was just tired of fighting it and sometimes there were show nights where he embraced the change in him with open arms, because all his worries dissipated and he generally didn't care about most of the things that troubled him usually. The only thing he cared about was himself, aware of his other self as well, he acted in accordance of protecting that him, albeit doing that without any empathy or remorse. "Nobody can..." All he wanted was to know his friends save, but this proved more difficult than he thought it would be. For years he tried to get them away from here, but he didn't achieve anything. If they were to leave, all of them, maybe he'd just give in, if there even was such a thing. "I doubt that. It's easier to let it happen when the show is about to begin..." Him fighting it and being put in the corner at the same time seemed dangerous, but anything else was hopefully going to be fine. Louis looked up with a pained expression. "Leila...? I'm sorry..." It was his fault. Leila was always the best of them, she even regularly defended Louis and spent time with him when he tried to push her away and now... "Not for me...", Louis was quick to answer after hearing what Blair said about his own transformation. Albeit things being a bit hazy, because he was barely alive when he got into the ringmasters trailer, he still remembered the gruesome details. The ringmaster didn't talk to him and there was no smile, actually no expression at all. As he changed right in front of Louis eyes, the trailer was dipped into darkness spreading further than it's confines, as if the place had been thrown into hell itself. The many teeth ready to devour Louis as he struggled to scream because his lungs were burnt and full of smoke. Something teared on him, it hurt more than the burns that spread over half his body. When he woke up in the ringmasters trailer once more, looking like before, he was in immense pain. He couldn't move or talk. He cried when he spotted the ringmaster in his human form again, looking him over. He couldn't shy away from his touch. He nursed him back to health, it had been weeks, months maybe in which Louis had been all alone and terrified. The ringmaster didn't explain anything, but Louis didn't need a verbal confirmation to know that he was not to talk about what he saw. When he finally left his trailer again and his friends welcomed him back, he could see the shadows lurking around Roy, Ruth and the others, including Blair. It didn't take long for Louis to try and warn Josiah, noticing that he couldn't. Louis brushed over the big scar on his arm he shouldn't have if he was like Roy, none of this made sense, but Roy said it too, something went wrong with him, something the ringmaster didn't plan for. Why though? "I don't know what to do...", he mumbled, his head hung low. He was exhausted, this struggle went on for too long and he saw no way out of it. Maybe, if Blair was genuine, Louis could get some answers, but he doubted it and he was too tired and hurt to think of anything.

"No need to be like that.", he snorted, knowing that Lucy meant it in earnest. This was, well, something was it not? There were very many things they could argue about in that regard, but Josiah knew that he would always be the one that pulled the short end of the stick in things that required him to use his brain, at least at times. "That ... should count for something, if not for anything out there, at least to you, and me.", Josiah admitted eventually, relenting that he was not worthy of all the praise he received. There was no happiness to be found when digging through a treasure trove of self-doubt and no things given to anyone when it was empty. To slight Lucy like this ought to be wrong, Josiah was aware of such misgivings. "It's cold for no reason at all, really." The season was a good one, but even then, he never felt like freezing in Lucy's arms before, yet, that was what was happening at that moment was nothing short of blasphemy, at least in a way. "Why would I lie? There's no need for me to do that, not with you around." He promised her he'd be honest, and while he wasn't all that necessarily, he had shown his goodwill by trying - and right now, he was definitely being more honest than before. "It ... it's fine. I didn't mean to shoo you away, you misunderstand.", he elaborated himself and then leaned in again, seeking her warmth and approval, like a dog that knew it had done wrong. "I don't want you to kiss my neck is all, not when we ... I want to kiss you, on the lips. May I?", Josiah begged her, leaning closer until their foreheads touched gently and he looked into the dark abyss of Lucy's eyes, swallowed by the darkness around them.

"We both know it is.", he repeated out loud. Blair knew that they were doing wrong, that there was nothing they could do in hindsight to help alleviate Louis overall pain in regards to his situation. Louis seemed to have given up, all things considered and who was he to fault him for that? There had been a turning point in his life, when - somehow, some way - he had likely realized that there was no way out of this and the more he tried, the less likely the fleeting chance for a piece of freedom was. "Don't say that, there's still a way, you're not like me or the others just yet." Which meant that, somehow, they would be able to fix him, even if it meant that they'd waste resources on toiling about for a while. "Maybe, but the longer you let him be you, the easier it feels to let go the next time, doesn't it?" And that was a problem, one that he couldn't necessarily speak on, but Blair knew that it was fairly easy to get lost in things that simply made life ever so slightly easier for the majority of them. What if Louis liked to take off the baggage he was carrying and let someone else, someone he shared his body with, the the brunt of it all? That was sweet and all, he could rest a bit, but it didn't mean that anything would go even remotely well for him. "It's alright. Mourning her for so many days won't bring her back, not now - and besides, she wouldn't want me to be so gloomy about it for this long." Blair should check in on Conny, the one thing that remained of her, and yet, he hadn't been able to bring himself to do it for the longest time, fearing dire consequences if he interacted with her as well and sought out her presence in his life. She'd accuse him of worse then just trying to replace Leila, surely. "It's different for all of us, I heard as much from the others that imparted ever so little about their first run-in with him, but people like the ones you've been talking to, well, Roy and Alice mostly, they're like pandora's box. Tightly sealed and unable to open up to just about anyone, not because they don't want to or can't - they love their secrets and are unwilling to share." It was a sad sight to behold, but deep down, Blair knew that they had likely accepted their fate as chess pieces in this game of madness against no discernable opponent. This sucked, didn't it? For all of them, not just one of them. Lamenting his inability to do anything wouldn't get him anywhere - Blair knew that much, and yet, the pests that persisted in Louis' own mind kept haunting him, it seemed. "Figuring any of this out isn't easy." Without being asked to, he put a reassuring hand on Louis' back, rubbing it in a gentle gesture, hoping to make Louis feel some warmth - Blair himself was cold, like a dead body would be, anyway. "Take it from the top - what's something I can help you with? Maybe if we start with lessening your workload and giving you more time to think, you'll reach a conclusion sooner? You're waltzing through the dark all on your own, and I don't have an oil lamp I can give you to light the way, but, I'd be happy to walk with you?"

Lucy felt odd and Josiah confused her. She wasn't sure what he thought about her, if she was still a little girl to him and if not what was she? All of this was confusing, but for the longest time she wanted more, she wanted him, not just for herself, but close. They spent so much time with each other and she enjoyed every single moment, whether they laughed together or cried together. Sometimes though Josiah wasn't truly here with her, or he brushed over her compliments as if she didn't try to open up. She was scared that if she did too much, she'd lose him, that he'd be scared or that he told her off and wouldn't allow her as close anymore. Were his compliments genuine or was he just trying to make Lucy happy, like he tried to do with everyone he interacted with. "I... Yes you may...", she mumbled with red cheeks and when she felt Josiahs lips on her own, a shiver ran down her spine. Again she didn't know what this was, but she didn't want him to stop.

"I'm not human either...", he mumbled, trying to keep himself together. "I don't care about me or my fate... I just want my friends to be save, but I can't tell them to run as far away as possible... I can't stop Josiah bringing more children here that die, or worse, in the ringmasters clutches and if he brought less, my friends would vanish instead... I saw what happens if I actively try to help... I learnt my lesson, there is nothing I can do... " Leila was dead because Louis thought he had the power to change someones fate in here. She was dead because he thought he could save everyone. He had to realize that he needed to choose, but even then, what was he supposed to do? Josiah didn't listen and eventually he'd also meet a fate worse than death. "I never struggled against him until a few days ago... Something changed... But I am left alone during days like today..." He wasn't sure if struggling wouldn't make things worse. Mostly he behaved as long as nobody provoked him. "You don't understand... I'm the reason she..." Alice knew, Roy probably too, Louis had thought all of them knew exactly what happened, but Blair seemed to think what happened to Leila was an accident. Louid clutched his blanket and bit his lip. He couldn't get her out of his head, how she lay there all twisted, but also alive and somewhat aware. What was he thinking bringing her to him, even if he had done to her what he did to him? "I think the ringmaster didn't intend for me to live that day at all...", he imparted to Blair. Somehow he survived what he did to all those kids Louis collected for him. It seemed no one knew why and Louis also didn't understand why the ringmaster was putting all of this on Louis and not anyone else. When Blair put his hand on him Louis flinched. He rather dealt with this alone, Blair was too nice and for all Louis knew, he was just playing with him like the rest. "I can't trust you.", he told him in full honesty. "And I opposed him before... I was punished but others took the brunt of it... There is nothing I can do..." Louis felt empty, his chest hurt even more than his head did. "You should leave..." All the books Louis had studied to figure out what he wss even up against lined his trailer, but now they felt like more and more reasons for someone else to get hurt. He should burn them.

"I know.", Blair told him with a pained smile, one that was genuine enough - he felt bad for Louis, for this man that only wanted to do the right thing and as thanks was hurt by the world itself, it seemed. "You should start caring about yourself, too. It seems harsh, and I don't mean for you to prioritize yourself if you don't want to, but there's no need to hurt yourself. I know that ... that's a problem, overall, the children I mean, but don't give up yet. I'm aware that things happened the past few days, too many of them, and all of them are harrowing - but that's just what he wants, I bet. To make you feel bad, and like you should ---" That sounded about right. A deep sigh spilled from his lips as he looked back at Louis - he didn't have it easy, actually, he likely had it worse than all of them combined, even the innocent lambs that he lured to the slaughterhouse under the pretense that they'd be needed by the ringmaster, only to fabricate lies of letting them frolic in a different field forevermore, out of sight, out of mind, while the ringmaster himself shirked accountability and feasted upon what remained of those empty husks. "Interesting guy, maybe he needs to rest from time to time, too?", he suggested to Louis, throwing mud at the wall to see what stuck - to claim Blair was still himself was wrong, but it seemed that, opposed to a lot of them, he was a pleasant mix of himself and somebody - something - else, now. Was he complaining? No, they got along just fine. As Louis was shaping up to make himself hurt, Blair only shook his head. "Oh, don't think I don't know. It doesn't mean I forgive you, I'm not Josiah, but you can't raise the dead - and knowing Leila, and how much she cared about you, it would feel wrong to pin the entire blame on you. If this circus was normal we'd not have to deal with any of this to begin with.", he confessed to Louis, straight up. "I'm not someone that seeks revenge either." Not that he could hope to strike down Louis to begin with, and even if, he'd be the one to suffer the consequences for attacking the ringmasters favorite pooch. As Louis raised the next problem point, Blair started thinking about it; this would mean Louis was a meal gone wrong, and therefore he wandered this plane of existence, still, until the ringmaster got what he wanted, which would be ... ah, right. "What if he's whittling you down? To get what he-", wants; he raised the question. As he was going through many more options in his head, Louis threw something else at his head that, in all honesty, made Blair snort - it was ridiculous to even spell that out loud. "Never thought you would to begin with." So him confessing all of this to him, well, it was already more than enough. "Don't be so gloomy, now. There has to be a loophole, I'll find it for you, and we'll use it. If the others had some fight in them, maybe the ringmaster would be long dead." But they didn't, they simply surrendered in his presence. Blair reached over and gently ruffled through the parts of Louis hair that weren't close to the wound. "And you should sleep ... also, two more things." There was a short interval of silence. "If there's any way I can get you to trust me more, let me know." Then, the next thing. "Also, lock your trailer when you leave it. Roy's up to some shit to pay you back and keeping an eye out for you." That was that - Blair didn't need to mention his involvement. "If he asks me, my mouth's sealed. I'll see you tomorrow morning and bring you breakfast." The stew was cold now, which was a shame, but worth a try. "Good night, Louis." Sweet dreams., Blair thought to himself as he approached the trailers door.

Louis didn't know how to continue, he didn't know how to seem normal, as normal as he was since the fire anyway. Why did people even still worry about him? Blair supposedly too, of all people. Louis was aware that all of this happened for a reason, that the ringmaster gave him all of these tasks and not anyone else. Maybe he was intrueged, or he wanted Louis to accept his fate already, or maybe he just wanted to play like Roy and Alice. Knowing that didn't mean he could deal with it any better however. He got too comfortable around the ringmaster, asking him to change his mind, because he never opposed him before and did everything he asked without complaint. Maybe he showed him some form of weakness now and he was ready to use this crack to his advantage. If Louis started to care about himself, he'd just give up control, it made things so much easier. "it's to do with the show... or the guests...", he mumbled, not that that would help him or Blair anymore making sense of it. Louis knew that Blair was right, that he wasn't wholly at fault for this place being cursed and yet he felt responsible and if he was a big part of all the things going wrong. Blair didn't fight back and Louis didn't either, they were complicit just like the others. "Then he's succeeding...", Louis sighed. What did the ringmaster want though? What he took from all those children? "Don't.", Louis was quick to tell Blair, "I don't want anyone else to get hurt." If the ringmaster knew Blair talked about his death, more people would get hurt. Probably not Blair, but those he cared about if there was anyone left. And why would the others oppose the ringmaster? Roy seemed very comfortable with his fate, more or less at least, but it wasn't bad enough to oppose a monster that had all of them in its grasp. Louis looked up at Blair who eventually left the trailer. Roy was up to something, huh? He got up and locked the trailer even now, better not to be surprised in his sleep, even if he couldn't sleep in the first place. He sat back down on his bed, sighing. He should at least eat, to not have other people carry him back to the trailer when his body gave in. It was still bound to human restrictions it seemed. Louis forced some of the cold stew down, then lay back down and tried to sleep. His growing headache at least helped with keeping his mind unfocused.

Louis slept a little bit and he woke up when he heard knocking on his trailer door. Right, he locked it yesterday and Blair said something about breakfast. The headache from yesterday got worse, his neck was stiff also. He touched the bandage Blair put on him, but it wasn't wet on the outside, so that at least was good. He didn't even know how bad the wound was, but blair said something about a puddle of blood and also, now that it wasn't as dark, there were some remnants in here as well. Louis slowly got up, a bit dizzy too, and opened the door to his trailer, only to be blinded by some rare rays of sunshine and then he saw Blair, with some food, but not just him, apparently somehow the whole circus already knew something had happened and at least some people wanted to check on Louis as well. Blair probably didn't talk and probably tried to get them to not swarm Louis, or maybe he wanted to show Louis that there were plenty people caring for him? No, that was more of a Josiah move... He didn't even know what to say now.

All of it spiraled out of control, somehow. Blair hadn’t said a peep to anyone, not even Roy, and somehow yet, someone had likely found the rust-colored blood in the supply trailer at some point between yesterday night and today - there were plenty of people who could’ve been it, and yet, there were less of them than Blair could think of, but one thing was for sure: They all eyed each other with suspicion for a moment and then acted like Louis’ injury was a widely known malady that they all, simultaneously, had to treat. When Blair had come over to ask for a plate of breakfast for Louis, they’d asked him if he’d hit his head, too, and he’d looked at them in confusion - the only people that seemingly didn’t make a move, even after they’d compared him to Josiah this morning already, were Josiah himself, Lucy who wasn’t at her own trailer and Conny, who was all holed up. The rest of them seemed raring and ready to go, but when Blair tried to ascertain who heard what from where first, not only was he met with stony silence, but also a tad bit of confusion and finger pointing in directions he’d not even managed to pinpoint before. To him, these people were troublesome, even when he asked one of them for new bandages, for painkillers, for gauze - they all wanted to take it upon themselves, like a gaggle of headless chickens and even then, Blair was at the (unwilling) forefront; he knocked and waited for Louis to let him in, only to be unable to spare him the moment of the reveal. It was loud outside of the trailer, like on a market in the city, and his pained expression was extended to Louis, only. “I don’t know how that happened.”, he explained himself immediately, whispering among the gaggle of words thrown in their direction. “Louis! Do you need anything?” “Louis, I’m sorry!” “If you’re hungry, I have some breakfast for you!”, some voices rang from the crowd and Blair looked at him, apologetic and distraught as could be. “I didn’t talk to anyone all night-“ “We should’ve done something sooner!” “Louis you should rest!” There was so much yelling, it couldn’t be good for any of them - especially not Louis, and Blair saw that for himself. A deep sigh later, he turned around to the crowd. “Will you pipe down? The last thing he needs now is all of that quabble!” That didn’t exactly quiet down the crowd a lot, though. “Want to go inside?”