[Seasonal Event] What Must Be Done

Emmett There's always more to do, Good thing I want to do it Emmett was at a limping level of recovery. He wasn't fit, not quite, couldn't trust himself to lift anything too heavy or travel too far...but he was a mighty bit better than he had been. He had managed to get himself to the farm in one piece, which was a start. With Phoebe by his side to help in case he fell or needed support, he felt more confident and able to put one foot in front of the other. "...Well, there it is." He said as they looked towards the farm building, the door still open and the fields clearly ripped up, crops and dirt forming informal mountains behind the fence. He had left the kids with some people he trusted from the market, not wanting them to see this; honestly he didn't want to see it either. It would be easier to gather up the fallen crops in his animal form, he thought, pulling a cart with Pheobe picking them up. He was about to shift when he realised that a) she didn't know he could do that and b) he couldn't speak to her as a donkey. Emmett turned to Phoebe and with a slightly sheepish grin (at odds with the plunge of his heart at the sight of his home) said: "Hey uh...did I ever mention I was attuned?"

Things had been...strained, from Phoebe's perspective, since Long Night. Emmett might not think so but everything that happened and the events that followed...it was hard for her to cope with. It had started out so quickly but blissfully, her blooming romance with Emmett, but in his recovery and grief she felt very much neglected. Which only made her feel guilty because she understood exactly why Emmett had been the way he was. His whole family was gone. Everything he knew was destroyed. He had been on death's door with injuries, pulled back from Mort's threshold by sheer luck alone. She was hardly a concern in comparison to all of that. Yet she felt guilty for wishing he could muster even the smallest bit of concern for her. Instead, Phoebe quietly and diligently worked to help get him back on his feet. She let him and his siblings stay at her clinic, since the Palmer house was basically uninhabitable. She cooked them meals, she treated Chris and Milly like her own family, cleaned up after them, washed their clothes - and all for a few quiet thank yous and small smiles here and there. No kisses. No cuddles. No...anything. Their first time had been everything she had thought it should be, and yet the passion she had been seeking, the passion she was supposed to find per Frey's quest, had been completely washed away by the destruction of Long Night. It hurt, but she hid it, caught between wanting more and not wanting to be a burden. Phoebe glanced at him and shook her head. "No you didn't. What's your shift?" she asked, surprised but not put off by this realization. Her mother and brother had been shifters after all. That he was as well didn't bother her in the least. Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world

Emmett There's always more to do, Good thing I want to do it "Oh, well. Hang on a sec." Emmett held up a hand then shifted before her. Before a second had passed he was a large donkey, with soft ears that wiggled as he shook his body, getting used to the shape he hadn't been in for a while. He walked up to her and gently nuzzled her side with his nose, then pulled away to look about for a cart. Finding one by the door (trying his best not to look inside, the smell of blood sharp and instant) he closed his teeth around the handle and pulled it towards Phoebe, then turned and made a noise as he looked back towards the straps. With the cart he could gather things quickly, transport the rubbish from the outside into a neat pile. Truly, he knew this was just stalling. That he was putting off the inevitable, that he would have to go into the empty house and face the reality of it eventually. But for now he was just being a donkey, gathering trash with Bee.

Phoebe quietly watched as Emmett shifted into a floppy eared donkey. Well...they weren't really floppy, but they did flop around as he shook himself. She smiled a little. He was an awfully cute donkey she thought, resisting the urge to reach out and pat his head. Instead she held her hands in front of her and smiled warmly. "You're a very cute donkey." she said. But work needed to be done and he was quick to get going, going over to a cart and clearly indicating he be hooked up to it. She frowned a little, unsure this was a good idea considering he was still recovering. "If it hurts or you get tired you need to promised me you'll stop. I don't want you to hurt yourself worse." she said worriedly. Only if she got some indication of agreement would she put the harness around him. Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world

Emmett There's always more to do, Good thing I want to do it If donkeys could shrug, Emmett did, sure he could take the weight of the cart which he had many times. He was a little surprised by how heavy it felt after only a week or so away from it, but he could still manage it, the motion carrying through once he set off and making it easier to move. Working around the field, he stopped whenever they came across something and pointed it out to Phoebe. This way, they had the whole place cleared up in only about half an hour, the cart left by the door with a stack of ruined crops and random debris in it. Emmett wiggled out of the harness with a practice that would be unnatural in a real animal, then transformed back to his human self. "Good job, Bee!" He grinned, going to give her a hug. This was partially stalling for more time but also genuine gratitude. He was amazed Phoebe was going to all the trouble of helping him after she'd only been with him for a week; Emmett had thought he was the only one with a unhealthy sense of loyalty. Still holding her, he sighed and looked over at the house. Trepidation clear in his voice, he closed his eyes. "I guess...we'd better go in there, huh?"

Phoebe watched him the whole time, just in case it looked like the work was getting to be too much. But true to his donkey nature the stubborn ass he was he seemed determined to hold out. When they were done, she did her best to help him out of the harness, though he didn't seem to need it. A small laugh escaped her lips at his praise, wrapping her arms around him in return. "I just picked things up, you did the hard work." she said. She wasn't totally helpless, she did know how to pick things up. But the praise for something so menial was still appreciated. She was quiet at first when he spoke, but at length she nodded against his shoulder. "Most of it might not be salvageable, remember." she said gently. There had been so much bloodshed the wood that made the whole first floor was likely beyond repair, only good for very disgusting smelling firewood at best. Frankly, it might be better to simply call it a loss, burn the place, and rebuild. But as far as she knew, the second floor might have some things to be salvaged. "I'll be with you the whole time. Let's just get it done." Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world

Emmett There's always more to do, Good thing I want to do it "...Yeah." He said, though the words didn't really reach his conscious. Emmett still wanted to pick the place back up to normality, to just scrub the floor and walls and bring his family back in and-- --He walked into the door. There was dried blood pooled on the floor, some pools of shiny and tacky remainder in the grain of the wood. Cupboards were open and breakfast items were tossed all over, the copper kettle he'd had drinks from for years bashed in and upturned on the floor. Handprints of blood decorated the wall rather than the simple paintings and wall hangings that had before. "...Right." Emmett said, finding himself both emotionless and in a lot of pain and not knowing how to channel it. Almost automatically he went to the cupboard under the window and pulled out a mop and a bucket. The bucket he gave to Phoebe with a weak smile. "Could ya go fill this up from the water pump outside, Bee?" Resting the mop against the counter, he sat down on a chair that had once been around the kitchen table but was now stranded in the middle of the room and tried not to notice the smell of blood all around him. If he closed his eyes and felt the edge of the chair, just the bumps in the wood he knew well, he could pretend it was just dinnertime at home. A few tears rolled down his face as he fought with the lie in his head, wishing it were true.

Phoebe could tell her words weren’t reaching them. She knew this stage of grief well, having seen it time and time again with the families of clients who died, or mothers whose babies didn’t make it. Denial. It was, she thought, the most powerful of all human emotions. Denial created order in chaos, joy in despair, life in death – and if left unchecked twisted the sane to insanity. So she did the only thing she could do, exactly as she would with any of her clients experiencing such loss. She would wait for reality to hit him in the face, and would slowly coax him towards acceptance. There would be a lot in between there, but it was rarely a cut and dry process. Her nose wrinkled as they entered the house, the metallic smell hitting her nose unpleasantly. But she quickly schooled her features, reaching out to squeeze his hand briefly as he took in the scene in broad daylight now. He grabbed a bucket and handed it to her, clearly wanting to try and clean the mess. Phoebe knew that was a hopeless cause. The wood floors and paneled walls were beyond being cleaned, beyond being repaired, thoroughly soaked in the tacky red mess. But he needed to see it. He needed to try. So she nodded and took it, taking the bucket outside and filling it with cold water. She toddled back in, the bucket quite heavy now that it was filled. ”Where do you want to start?” she asked. Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world

Emmett There's always more to do, Good thing I want to do it Where did he want to start? It was a good question. Emmett stared hopelessly about the floor, trying to identify if one point was any better than another. The obvious answer was no, each board was as bloodsoaked and disgusting as the next, and he simply had to begin somewhere. He reached for the mop and after soaking it with water from the bucket, smacked it down into the middle of the floor and began to scrub. It managed to bring up a surface amount of the blood, the mop turning a faint pink as the smell of death was brought up into the air. Pleased to see anything happening at all Emmett continued to mop, the floor turning a slightly less offensive shade of red but not at all becoming clean. After he'd 'cleaned' the area under the table he turned to Phoebe with a ghost of his former smile on his face. "Hey, Bee. While I'm doing this, couldya go check the other rooms? See how bad they are? Jus' yell me if anythings wrong and I'll be there real quick." He knew Longnight monsters didn't stay past Longnight...or so he thought. He'd thought he knew they didn't come into houses if you used the right protections until now.

It was painful watching him do this. Not just because the situation itself was painfully tragic, but because there was nothing she could do about it to make it better. Everything about the situation was wrong, and she was powerless to change it. But when he turned and asked her to look at the other rooms, she quietly nodded and went up the stairs to do so. The hall was scattered with debris and leaves, footprints left by the monster and claw marks on the walls and doors showing why. Rooms that had closed doors seemed to have remained untouched, but those with open doors had been trashed. She waited until the end to approach one particular room, the one that was supposed to have been hers for Long Night. The door was closed, and surprisingly devoid of signs of monsters, yet she still worried about going in. For a long moment she simply stared at it, before gaining the courage to open the door and step inside. Everything was just as they left it. Her little bag of things remained in the corner, untouched. The personal items of whichever Palmer children used to call it theirs still were tucked away. The bed was still unmade. Silently she walked over to it, seeing the proof of the blissful moments spend there before everything fell apart upon the sheets. The suddenness of the emotions that took hold of her caught her off guard, a choked sob escaping her lips as she stared at the bed. Tears she had forced herself to not shed welled up and flowed over down her cheeks. This room had been so important. The emotions, the actions – it should have been the beginning of something greater. But it had all been ruined. Long Night had taken away Emmett’s family, and it had taken away her chance at happily ever after. She hated herself for feeling like this. She was so selfish, wishing for more from him. He was grieving. He was struggling. He had lost everything. And selfishly resentment had begun to grow in her for the distance it put between them. Chaste hugs, a hand squeeze, forehead kisses…those were fine and well but she wanted more! They had had more! She wanted him to grieve, he needed to grieve, but she didn’t want his affection for her to be lost in the darkness like it was. She wanted – no, craved – to be his light in the darkness, his solace to his pain and instead he kept her at arm’s length with half smiles and menial requests. Slowly Phoebe sank to the ground, hiding her face in her hands as she cried, overcome and breaking as she was finally confronted with the reality of her despicable greediness. Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world

Emmett There's always more to do, Good thing I want to do it For a while Emmett kept on at his job, letting the flare of hope in his chest tell him that he was helping, that the floor was looking better. And well, it was, just...not actually good. The blood was still very visible, the smell nearly overpowering, the footprints and marks where his family had been dragged still obvious no matter how many times he ran the mop over them. He was lost in his task and did not know how long Phoebe had been gone, but eventually he became aware that it had been too long. Setting the mop to one side he walked up through the house, looking about for her. Seeing it so oddly normal in the rest of the place was hard for him too. It felt as if his mother would turn up any moment and scold him for it being so messy. Emmett was finally taken from his stupor of grief when he heard a sharp intake of breath, the clear sound of someone crying. Quickly he marched up to his room, feeling a fear he wasn't sure of the reason for. Thankfully, he found Phoebe unhurt, but his heart still sunk to see her so upset. Of course, all of this had affected her too. It was hard to consider anything other than the next five seconds right now when his whole world had come down, but it occurred to him for the first time he could have been neglecting his new girlfriend. Gently he wrapped his arms around her from behind and placed his chin on her shoulder, held her tight. "I know. It's all real awful. But...we're...gonna sort it out, right?"

She heard his footsteps as he quickly approached. But she was too far gone now. Phoebe had held back her emotions for too long, that now she couldn't force them back where they belonged.  She shouldn't be crying like this in front of him, but it was beyond helping now. The feeling of his arms around her, his chin on her shoulder, it caused another set of sobs to wrack her ribs. It was wrong, him comforting her like this despite how much she wanted it. But his words...that was what hurt the worst. "Are we? Are we gonna sort it out?" she asked between gasps for air. Phoebe looked over at him, her hurt and worry expressed clearly as she wiped the tears from her cheeks only to be immediately replaced. The airyness and collected manner she usually carried was obliterated for the moment. She was just a girl - a bonafide common girl by the way her well-trained accent slipped - trying to make order of a messy situation. "Is that even what you want? Or am I just convenient as a housekeeper and nurse?" The question wasn't exactly softly put, but that was how she felt. She had been caring for him and his siblings since they'd arrived at the Rathskellar...but from the outside looking in she would have easily been mistaken for just a good friend at best, not a girlfriend. She shook her head, a few sharp intakes of breath halting her for a moment. "I'm sorry I shouldn't...I'm being selfish. I should be the one comforting you..." she whispered, trying desperately to shove her angst back into place. But he had already gotten a taste of it hadn't he? While he was living in five second sprints, she was dying for even the smallest sign of his affection but doing everything in her power to not let him see her suffering. Not since the day that he had hurt her feelings about the dieties had she shed a tear in front of him. Not a single time had she aired her frustrations, or wants, or hurts. Not once had she said just how horrifying it had been for her to come down those stairs and see the carnage left, or the terror she had felt as she literally dragged him through the snow in the dark while his siblings cried. For lack of a better anecdote, Phoebe was running on fumes, and now all her work to appear strong was backfiring. Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world

Emmett There's always more to do, Good thing I want to do it Phoebe's words came as a surprise to Emmett and confused him, his brow furrowing. What did she mean? He did just as much work as she did towards the fixing of things, he thought, and he'd been as affectionate as his mood had allowed. Coupled with teenage awkwardness, grief helped to really dampen his desire for romantic acts. "Uh..." He responded, clearly a bit lost. This was something he was completely unable to comprehend right now, in the midst of it all. "I..um. I really appreciate your help, Bee. I don'...want you to think that I don'." Gently he rubbed a hand up and down her side, unsure of how else to comfort her. After a moment of holding her close he pressed a kiss to her temple and frowned, wanting badly to help but not knowing how. "Y'can talk all you want. It happened t'you too."

Phoebe sighed and pressed her eyes into the palms of her hands again. Another short lived fit of hyperventilation over took hold, her shoulders shaking with the force of them. It was visible how she already was pulling back emotionally, from the situation and from him. Her head shook a little. "I know you appreciate the work I've done and do." she mumbled. Clearly that wasn't what she had meant. She simply sat there as he held her, shoulders shaking, gasping for air as she tried to force her emotions back in place. It didn't matter what she felt. It didn't matter that she felt more like a maid or weird, uncomfortably close relative with how he treated her recently and not a girlfriend. Not something or someone he wanted. His lips pressed to her temple and her fingers curled into her skirt. Once that would have given her the feeling of butterflies in her stomach - now it just made her angry. Phoebe glanced over at him, a frown on her lips. She looked thoroughly exasperated. Whatever he was saying it wasn't helping. "No, I can't. You don't want to understand why I'm upset." she said a little dryly with a small sniffle. Then she stood suddenly, roughly wiping at her face to dry it. "Is there anything in here you want to keep?" she said, voice tight. Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world