#or is it a twisted form of punishment bc honestly??? lance's syMPATHY???

[advernia]

regardless of which ending, that one month in kyle’s route where alice temporarily goes back to london wasn’t only distressing for the doctor - her absence also made majority of the red army close to bursting into either a) manly tears (for various reasons) or b) a fit of manic rage, because -

for the love of that is all good and holy, doc’s  d r u n k  a g a i n  but  w o r s e

he’s sane - beautifully, thankfully sane - when sober, but when drunk he was now acting like an abandoned lover or a rejected man drowning in self-inflicted sorrow??? why??? everyone and their pet was pretty sure that alice would definitely come back just for him so why??? so??? p a t h e t i c???

not a day goes by that lancelot / jonah / edgar receive reports (see: distress calls) about kyle (see: corpse) and an unwilling zero picks up the pieces: frequent creepy singing in the hallways at night??? zero hauls a drunk!serenading(?) kyle off the floor. a body discovery on the red bridge?! zero hauls a drunk!unconscious kyle into the barracks. pitiful wailing from the infirmary??? zero hauls himself away bc he feels like wailing a bit, himself: how many days left before the full moon, h o w  m a n y???

meanwhile drinking buddies blanc + oliver are also taken aback by kyle’s sudden drunk!poetic litanies about life, life being short, life being short but love being shorter and while blanc is somewhat amused, oliver simply cannot:

“you complete and utter moron. if you already knew that you’d be this devastated if she left, why’d you even bother letting her go in the first place?” “don’t be an idiot - you think i can live with myself knowing that what i wanted held her back from doing whatever it is she needed to do?”

kyle explains his whys of letting alice go even if he couldn’t ascertain her return and it even has oliver listening bc wow, kyle’s actually very... understanding about alice’s circumstances? amazing. deciding to ignore kyle’s quick regression to his ‘jilted lover’ phase, oliver starts to consider having just a bit of respect for the guy (there’s minus points for a pitiful appearance contrasting a decent speech) and lets the poor sap drink his fill until midnight, but -

“kyle. that’s enough. we’re heading back to headquarters.” lancelot appears in the pub, looking clearly dissatisfied, and the first thing kyle - bless the drunken dastard’s soul - says when he sees his boss is:

“... a l i c e? is that you?”

blanc, ever the true gentleman raised with manners, does not ruin the moment by laughing. or choking on his drink. lancelot’s eyes are narrowed and judging, even moreso when kyle staggers up from his chair, reaches a hand out and -

“hm? hey, you cut your hair? awww! but i liked it long! it was pretty, y’know! man, now ruffling your hair feels so different!”

lancelot was speechless as kyle ruffled his hair like one would do to a dog.  with earlier considerations of respect now out the window, the mad hatter turned his head away from the sight in front of him, a pure withering look on his face -

“you poor, poor wretched soul,” oliver hisses as he takes a swig of his drink.