bladework (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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sojournerdeep2016-11-09 11:11 pm
bladework) wrote in sojournerdeep2016-11-09 11:11 pm
Entry tags:
[Location: Arrival Plaza][closed to Long, Goodie]
The last thing Billy sees -- the last thing he looks at -- is Goodie's flask. It's been thrown clear out of Billy's waistcoat, punctured through and through with a bullet hole, and that's how Billy knows he's dying. No metal flask is sturdy enough to stop a bullet fired from a Gatling gun -- which means the bullet's in his chest now, in his heart, assuming it's stayed in his body at all.
Billy's not sure he'd be able to feel whether or not there was an exit wound, even if it mattered. It doesn't matter. Goodie's dead, and Billy . . . Billy goes where Goodie goes. This is the last concern on Billy Rocks's mind as the world turns cold.
Death doesn't turn out like he expects. That coldness isn't cold like he expects. It's more like a spring breeze, cool and light -- and the numbness is fading as quickly as it came. The pain, too. That's definitely the biggest signifier he's dead; a profound lack of bullet holes doesn't just happen on its own.
Billy blinks.
It's not just that. Without realizing it, Billy's been transported to a different place entirely. This clean, almost disturbingly fake-looking room is definitely not the burnt-out steeple of a church in a three horse town.
Then a being -- a spirit of some kind -- speaks to him. Death is very strange.
* * * *
It's a very wary-looking Billy Rocks that steps out into the arrival plaza some minutes later. He still doesn't understand what this place wants with him now that he's dead, or why, but for the moment, he's free, so that's something. He'll be careful and keep a low profile until he finds out what's going on -- and finds Goodie.
In the meantime, Billy hangs back and scans the crowd. It's mostly white people (is he still somewhere in America?), but eventually his gaze settles on someone he can approach. He looks Chinese, with long fingers. No gun.
Billy comes closer, then nods in acknowledgement and offers a greeting in Mandarin. "What is this place?" he asks.
It's death, he knows that -- but though he might not know much about most of the faiths in the world, he knows this isn't what Goodie described the Christian Hell like, or any other afterlife he's heard of. The whole situation has him on edge.
Billy's not sure he'd be able to feel whether or not there was an exit wound, even if it mattered. It doesn't matter. Goodie's dead, and Billy . . . Billy goes where Goodie goes. This is the last concern on Billy Rocks's mind as the world turns cold.
Death doesn't turn out like he expects. That coldness isn't cold like he expects. It's more like a spring breeze, cool and light -- and the numbness is fading as quickly as it came. The pain, too. That's definitely the biggest signifier he's dead; a profound lack of bullet holes doesn't just happen on its own.
Billy blinks.
It's not just that. Without realizing it, Billy's been transported to a different place entirely. This clean, almost disturbingly fake-looking room is definitely not the burnt-out steeple of a church in a three horse town.
Then a being -- a spirit of some kind -- speaks to him. Death is very strange.
* * * *
It's a very wary-looking Billy Rocks that steps out into the arrival plaza some minutes later. He still doesn't understand what this place wants with him now that he's dead, or why, but for the moment, he's free, so that's something. He'll be careful and keep a low profile until he finds out what's going on -- and finds Goodie.
In the meantime, Billy hangs back and scans the crowd. It's mostly white people (is he still somewhere in America?), but eventually his gaze settles on someone he can approach. He looks Chinese, with long fingers. No gun.
Billy comes closer, then nods in acknowledgement and offers a greeting in Mandarin. "What is this place?" he asks.
It's death, he knows that -- but though he might not know much about most of the faiths in the world, he knows this isn't what Goodie described the Christian Hell like, or any other afterlife he's heard of. The whole situation has him on edge.