Lemm flinches, hands lifting off the counter instinctively as he leans back.
"-Eh?" he says helpfully.
They're unresponsive. Lemm glances over their bowed mask at the corridor beyond, as if half-expecting to see something there that has launched a spear or thrust a sword. There's nothing, and he stares back down at the Hollow Knight with his heart in his throat.
Maybe, he thinks, maybe they are infected, and this period of silence and the dead staying dead has been a trick, and now there's a long-dead shambler in his shop, maybe they're getting cleverer, and...
...But he already knows that's not it. He knows what the infected looked like. They've been his nigh-only company for a long time, give or take a few stragglers. The Hollow Knight doesn't, hasn't, fit the bill.
So what does a well-adjusted social bug do in this situation?
What Lemm does is slowly push his chair back and rise from the desk, gingerly plucking the broken quill pen from their hand while being very careful not to touch them directly. Just because they're not infected doesn't mean they won't react violently, and Lemm knows he'd lose that fight.
He's about to speak. Doesn't.
Relic Seeker Lemm's palm rests itself unprompted on the Hollow Knight's good shoulder. He's got no idea what he expects to happen.
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syntheid
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Date: 2020-08-31 07:26 pm (UTC)"-Eh?" he says helpfully.
They're unresponsive. Lemm glances over their bowed mask at the corridor beyond, as if half-expecting to see something there that has launched a spear or thrust a sword. There's nothing, and he stares back down at the Hollow Knight with his heart in his throat.
Maybe, he thinks, maybe they are infected, and this period of silence and the dead staying dead has been a trick, and now there's a long-dead shambler in his shop, maybe they're getting cleverer, and...
...But he already knows that's not it. He knows what the infected looked like. They've been his nigh-only company for a long time, give or take a few stragglers. The Hollow Knight doesn't, hasn't, fit the bill.
So what does a well-adjusted social bug do in this situation?
What Lemm does is slowly push his chair back and rise from the desk, gingerly plucking the broken quill pen from their hand while being very careful not to touch them directly. Just because they're not infected doesn't mean they won't react violently, and Lemm knows he'd lose that fight.
He's about to speak. Doesn't.
Relic Seeker Lemm's palm rests itself unprompted on the Hollow Knight's good shoulder. He's got no idea what he expects to happen.