Fulgor

Brian acknowledged Jared’s greeting with another subdued nod, but remained otherwise silent. His question had inadvertently sparked a damned soul-baring session, like they were some group of mentally ill seeing a psychiatrist. He would have no part in it. Thin needles poised themselves at his mind – he would soon experience the stinging headache he always got when his façade of amiable socialite had reached its limit. Brian did not want to hear all this – it did not bother him in the slightest, but he was just not interested.

He would listen, though. He would force himself to. While this world was proving to be less deserted than he’d initially thought, ditching this group was not yet an option. In unknown territory, friendly relationships determined your survival. Brian did not know how the others thought about their second chance at life, but he had no interest in dying again. He had not even truly wanted to die the first time – it had merely been the right thing to do. Only hypocrites exempt themselves from their own principles, and Brian wasn’t one.

Elin Fisher, the albinogirl (as he would probably continue to refer to her), turned out to be waltzed over by a train. Brian’s opinion of her dropped, just a little. The ditzy thing had probably not given it much thought, but suicide ought to be a private affair. Why traumatize a train driver, or inconvenience the hundreds of people relying on the train to be on time? Had she secretly wanted the attention? The same thing could be asked of Jared, though Brian reserved his judgement for this man. He could have used a deserted building, or harbored a strong desire to attempt self-propelled flight, after all.

And then there was this drowned rat. Damp, dirty dreads (Brian viewed all dreads to be dirty) framed a shifty-eyed, cautious face. Judging from the singed smell emanating from her clothes, she had not truly drowned. Electrocution? Did she realize how much inconvenience that caused for whoever shared her electricity network? No, before that, would she even have cared? Brian was reminded of a similar suicide back when he still lived in student apartments. It had killed the electricity on his computer, making him lose considerable process on his thesis. He was no longer bitter about it, though – Brian had evened things out by stealing several small valuables from the guy’s room, and defaced his grave a week later. Justice.

Brian wasn’t sure he could hide his budding contempt for miss dreadlocks, so he said nothing. Still, did they have time to leisurely stand around and get to know each other? Neil and Jared seemed to be in no hurry. Would the obviously well-nourished pair help the newcomers with food and a place to sleep? Brian had killed himself after a good breakfast, so he could go without sleep and food for a little longer, but all this useless chatter was only increasing his migraine.
“Did you guys hear that?” Brian said, quickly spinning around as if he’d heard something behind him. He hadn’t, of course – he was just looking for an excuse to isolate and recompose himself. If only he had brought his music player with him…
“I’ll check it out,” he proposed, eyeing Neil to inquire to the safety of doing so.

"Jumped off a building? Oh, that sounds painful..." Elin muttered, frowning and moving her fidgeting onto tugging at the loose threads on her old sweater.
Not that many mthods of suicide could be considered not painful. She'd given the roof-jumping thing some consideration, but had come tot he conclusion that it might go wrong and she might just end up horribly breaking something and not actually dying properly, and that was not something you wanted to mess up.

She glanced round, noting something of a look of disapproval from Brian, something that made her quickly lower her head and hunch her shoulders.

In truth Elin's choice of method had been for something like that, though not so much for the attention afforded by doing so, but more becuase of whar had struck her before hand. She'd considered hanging as an option, and the attic small appartment as the location, having an overhanging beam that would work, but she'd lost her nerve at the last minute . She realized that no-one was likely to find out about it, likely for weeks at least. the police might have only started looking when she didn't show up for court, and might then start looking, but even then...a long while would have passed before anyone made the grisly discovery. The idea bothered her so profoundly that she'd had to find some way to get it over quickly, and in the open, having it dealt with fast....if more violently.

She took a moment to regard the dreadlocked woman that was the new arrival, finding her a little threatening looking, despite her somewhat defensive body language. She guessed it was the dreads..of the peircings..or the clothing. Well,s he was naturally rather cowardly, and the girl looked like the sort of person who punched first and asked questions later... She quickly forced the whole thing out of her head, internally scolding herself.
'Who are you to be making judgements? You're the one who killed a seven year old...' she thought to herself, realizing how ridiculous it was to be making snap judgements about these people considering her own nasty secret.

[[ooc: Sorry for not posting, guys! I have the flu, so I've been stuck in bed. I know my post is short, but I didn't want to mess anything up. I just wanted to make sure my character was still noticably there, and then... yeah :P]]

Justice watched the situation blankly. New people were increasingly annoying now-adays. When she'd arrived, she'd had at least some idea of what happened to her. These people; God... Of course jumping off a building sounded painful! It's called suicide, correct? There has to be some pain implied there... But who was she to talk. She was standing there relying on the strength of another. She was no better than these newbies; sure, she had more knowledge, but she was pathetic when it came to surviving alone. Her eyes flickered around as Brian commented on hearing something. "There wasn't anything," she murmured more to herself than to the others.

(( Same apology right here. I don't really have much of an excuse; I've been putting off writing a massive research paper for a long time so I had to work on it. xD ))

Neil didn't protest. A look of worry crossed his face-- if there had really been a sound then that could mean that danger was nearby-- but bad things rarely occurred in this area. There were still too many witnesses about, and he knew enough of the Black Swan to be certain that the malevolent entity liked to be discreet.

"Don't get too far away. It should be safe, but you never know," was all he said.

---

"Oh, it wasn't that bad until I hit the ground."

You could tell by the slight quaver at his voice that Jared's cheerful mask was starting to crumble a little bit. He couldn't help it; remembering that hopelessness was enough to make anyone feel like shit. Coupled with the almost-dive from that building earlier, he was on the verge of a miniature flashback-induced breakdown, and that probably wouldn't be a fun experience for anyone involved.

He distracted himself by addressing what Justice had just quietly pointed out in an equally low voice: "It's alright, he probably just needs some alone time or something."

His gaze flickered skywards, reading something that wasn't there, and he immediately bit his lower lip in a decidedly anxious manner. He and Neil exchanged a look and then Neil spoke in a voice that was loud enough for everyone in the immediate area to hear pretty clearly but quiet enough that his words would not attract any unwanted attention:

"We'd best get moving soon. Just putting it out there."