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singillppl2023-12-06 12:21 am
singmod) wrote in singillppl2023-12-06 12:21 am
Entry tags:
December 2023 Test Drive Meme
DECEMBER 2023 TDM
PROMPT ONE — ARRIVAL: METHUSELAH'S FEAST: A new group of arrivals find themselves lost in the frozen wilds and vulnerable to the dangers of nature. With luck, they make it to the town of Milton, and to a friendly face offering food, warmth and shelter — not to mention the fact they are not the first to come here.
PROMPT TWO — MISTY FALLS CAVE: The Interlopers go out in search of a hidden cave in the mountains found by Methuselah, which may still contain the hidden stash of a doomsday prepper. However, they get a little more than they bargained for when they venture inside.
PROMPT THREE — SERPENT'S BREATH: Interlopers investigate the mysterious cause of whatever is killing and poisoning the wildlife and vegetation of the area — and discover a supernatural creature is behind it.
ARRIVAL: METHUSELAH'S FEAST
WHEN: Mid-Decmber.
WHERE: Milton, Milton Outskirts.
CONTENT WARNINGS: potential animal attacks, potential injuries, potential cold injuries/hyperthermia risk.
'You are the Interloper. You are not part of nature’s design.'
It’s the last thing you hear. A dark, deep voice. Impossibly ancient. You feel afraid. Maybe you’re dreaming, maybe you’re wide awake. You saw the lights, and then your world went dark. But you hear it in the blackness, you won’t forget those words.
You awaken. You are not where you were before. It’s different for everyone, there doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern in where you find yourself. You may open your eyes to find yourself in a cold, dim and dank cabin. The air is stale, dust hangs in the rays of weak sunlight that shine through the tiny windows. Someone lived here once, but they aren’t to be found. You look around, it seems like no one has been here in a long time. The fire is cold, the dishes in the sink are pretty mouldy. It is quiet. The wood creaks around you. Or perhaps you may awaken to find yourself shivering in the yawning maw of a cave, the freezing stone below you. Or maybe you’re unfortunate enough to sit up to find yourself lying in the snow, in the middle of the wilderness. Snow lies thick around you. It’s freezing out. You haven’t felt a cold like this before in your entire life. Cruel and biting. You have no idea where you are, and what’s worse — you are completely alone.
You may feel different, too. Any powers or magics you may have feel... absent. Disconnected. Things that may not have affected you previously now do. Something in you has changed.
You know you can’t stay where you are. You’ll need to move, try to work out where you are and how you came to be here. So you walk, head out into the unknown, in hope of finding a trail or a road. You’ll find one soon enough. It’s here you may find someone else in the same boat as yourself, equally freezing and confused. You’ll both need to keep going. It won’t be easy. You hear howls of wolves around you, and the terrain is difficult: slips and falls are likely. You’re completely vulnerable out here in the open.
It’s possible you may come across someone here. Another fellow Interloper, out hunting or gathering. They’ll likely offer help and get you into town. However, for the unlucky ones who don’t come across anyone, you’ll carry on until you see it: the lazy trail of smoke rising in the air. Fire. Not just one, but several. Civilisation…?
Follow it, and soon enough the way you’ve taken will certainly become a path or road. Unfolding before you in the mountainous forests, you’ll see the most welcome of sights: a small mining town tucked up in the valley. Battered, rusted road signs will direct to “MILTON, POP. 947”. You’re almost there, you keep going, and it looks like other people have had the same idea as you. In fact, you’ll hear the muffled sounds of life. People. In The town!
As you head into the outskirts and further into town, you’ll find it’s a little easier to walk but the cold has gripped you hard. You’ll find the buildings, both shops and homes, some are dark and lifeless, some of them are boarded up, some of them are occupied. People are going about their business, or stood watching from their tiny porches of their small, timber homes. For a town this big, there doesn’t seem to be many people.
Towards the center of town, you’ll find the building from which the biggest of the smoke trail rises: a school-house of sorts, or some kind of community hall. Perhaps both. You’ll find more and more people all drawn to this place, each and every one of them in the same position as yourself (and your companion, if you’ve found one). Some are in worse states than others: some are bloodied, nursing bite wounds or cuts; others might have some other kind of injury sustained in the journey here from falls. Others may look as if they could faint from the cold at any second.
The door opens, and you’re greeted by the gnarled, wizened face of an elderly man, dressed in thick furs. He has a kind face. He smiles warmly, and with pity, ushering you in with haste.
“Ah, even more, still. Just as I thought.” he muses. “I wonder if this is perhaps the new status quo. I am Methuselah. I welcome you Newcomer, although I’m sorry for how you’ve come to find yourself here. You are not the only one, the lights are changing things. They bring more of you every so often. Come. Mother Nature has not been kind to you, but there are plenty here to help.”
The room is dim, lit only by natural daylight through the windows. A roaring fire sits at one end of the huge hall. It crackles, bright and cheerful…. and warm. Even as big as this place is, the room is pleasantly warm. You’ll also find basic cots set up down one side of the hall, places to rest for a moment and get your bearings, or just trying to recover from the cold. Down the other side are tables and chairs, and long tables with food, drinks and bottled water similar to one might find at a soup kitchen. Once again, Methuselah offers a feast, aided by some of the other Interlopers.
There are canisters with hot herbal teas and coffee, along with soup and stew and trays of charred deer and rabbit meats, plus grilled fish. There's also things like instant mashed potatoes, and tinned vegetables. It’s very basic, but it’s hot and filling. A feast, although newcomers will note from others who have been here some time that this particular feast is less bountiful this time.
Methuselah will continue to busy himself, still; there is plenty to do. He will fetch blankets, tend to wounds, serve food and drinks. He does not have much time to talk. More and more people seem to be coming in from the cold. He will not stop to sit and rest until everyone is seen to, taking up a place by the fire to gaze silently into its flames. He is troubled, thoughtful.
He will encourage newcomers to get warm and eat, and when they are ready to — they can explore the time and find one of the many empty homes to call their own. He will not speak much, but perhaps you might be able to get some answers from those fellow arrivals who’ve been in this place for some time now.
However, he will speak of something important, and will gladly share with others: “I have been looking for something for you all. There was once a townsfolk I knew of: Matthew. A suspicious, paranoid old miner who was interested in Prepping. He often spoke of the world coming to an end and strived to survive it. He often spoke of a cache hidden in the mountains, where he collected things of value. I have found the place, a hidden cave, but I am unable to get through, myself.”
… Well, he is an old man, after all.
“There are signs outside, so it is promising it is still intact. Perhaps the cache is still there. It might provide something useful for your growing numbers.”
MISTY FALLS CAVE
WHEN: Mid-month, onwards.
WHERE: Milton Outskirts.
CONTENT WARNINGS: booby traps; claustrophobic situations; potential injury/maiming; potential hyperthermic situations; exploration horror;
Methuselah gives directions to those willing to check out the lead for the old prepper cache. Following the river up from Milton Basin will lead to rugged, difficult pathways up towards Misty Falls — a waterfall, the river source itself. Most of the river is completely frozen with the freezing temperatures, but it is not completely so the closer to the source you go. Misty Falls is certainly idyllic, or it would be perhaps on a fine summer’s day — good for a nice hike. But the place looks desolate in the eternal winter cursing the Northern Territories.
The half-frozen waterfall is a din of sound, but the water itself is incredibly fresh and cooling for those hot and tired from the hike up. Those paying attention might notice a small space between the water and rock, big enough to squeeze through to get behind the waterfall itself. In the small space, the entrance to a small cave can be found. There are faded handmade signs, all in the same hand, reading ‘DANGER KEEP OUT’ and it isn’t too far of a stretch to wonder if perhaps this might be the secret stash of the old miner that Methuselah spoke of.
Venturing into the cave will not be an easy task. It seems the old miner was keen to keep any trespassers out, and most of this comes down to the cave itself. The walls of the cave quickly narrow, with only enough space to walk in single file. Jutting stone will easily make those stumble and trip. Occasionally the cave’s passage becomes narrower, meaning one might have to stoop or even crawl to carry on through. Here and there, the uneven floor dips, and your feet will find themselves in shin-deep frigid water. It’s slow-going, even if the actual passage itself isn’t incredibly long.
But perhaps the worst of all is the pressing darkness. A darkness so black even with lanterns switched off, one’s eyes cannot adjust to it. It is smothering, pressing. The air is stale and damp, you feel small — and the cave itself still presses in on you. The miner also kept a few tricks up his sleeve in order to keep out intruders. There are dead-ends, making it easy to get lost. Trip wires are hidden in the darkness, causing small man-made cave-ins to fall upon unsuspecting heads.
It might be safer, saner to give up and turn back. But persevering will see the cave opening up once more, this time widening into a room. The place is fashioned into some crude shelter. There is furniture, lanterns to be lit.
With more light, the miner’s stash is revealed: the painstaking, time-costing work of a paranoid old recluse. Crates of non-perishable foods, MREs, and bottled water. Medicines and basic medical supplies, flares and tools.
A perfect supply of survival goods, ripe for the taking.
SERPENT'S BREATH
WHEN: Throughout the month.
WHERE: The entirety of the Milton area.
CONTENT WARNINGS: mentions of dead animals; malevolent creature; snakes/serpents; poison/airborne toxins; potential poisonings; potential burn injuries; potential (temporary) blinding.
It’s noticed in different ways: perhaps a trail of dead animals stands before you, each one with no particular injury other than what appears to be burned hides and flesh — it is as if the wildlife simply dropped dead, for the most part. Perhaps you notice huge, tunnel-like grooves in the deepest parts of the snow, a few feet in width — as if something long and thick had made its way through to clear a path. More worryingly for some, they might notice trails of rot: destroyed trees, decaying plant life, as if the very earth itself has been scorched in the wake of something passing through, leaving nothing but destruction and devastation.
Something is destroying the flora and fauna of the world. There seems to be no pattern, simply the random trails all over the place. There appears to be no other tracks, other than the long, smooth tunnel-like pathways. Whatever it is, it must be stopped. Resources are so precious in this world, if the beast is allowed to continue then all who live here will soon starve due to lack of animals to hunt and plants to gather.
Following the tunnels is a sure-way to hunt the beast down, although these paths will lead far from town. It is best to go prepared. But soon enough, you may come across the slumbering beast, curled up on the snow or coiled underneath some jutting space of stone along the mountains. You’ll hear and smell it before you see it: the long grumbling snores as it sleeps, and the putrid stench of rot. Everything in you tells you to flee, much like when an animal senses something toxic, or poisoning.
You press on, finally stumbling across the beast: a long, serpent-like dragon, with tremendous horns and fangs, coloured with muted grey scales and huge, glowing, flamed eyes.
The element of surprise will work in your favour to try and kill the beast, but it will give up a good fight. It will take several rounds of fights with it before it will finally be taken down permanently. It moves quickly, with scales like steel. Its eyes and mouth are its weakest spots, as is the soft underbelly of its body — fire will work well on harming this beast, especially with a well aimed shot into its mouth.
Its open mouth is where it holds its most powerful weapon. Not the fangs, no. The very reason why the air smells of rot, why the wildlife lay dead, why the earth decays at your feet: its breath. The beast’s breath is highly toxic, it will burn the skin of those it comes into contact with. Breathing in the fumes will poison those who breathe it in, and will cause a weakening, sickly illness. The breath may even temporarily blind.
These injuries are not fatal, and will heal with time and the basic medical attention available in the world. Victims will require rest for at least a week, depending on how severe the blast of the serpent’s breath. But killing the best will ensure its havoc is brought to an end.
FAQs
1. Arrival threads can be treated as game canon.
2. Items characters have brought from home can be found either strewn around them when they awaken, or in the community hall — as if someone left them out for them to collect. Methuselah will not know how they got there, and will be quite bemused by the happenings.
3. Reminder that all characters are now depowered upon arrival. They can choose not to notice it at first, or can immediately sense something is different about them.
4. If asked any personal questions, Methuselah will smile and say "Oh, you don't want to know about an old man like me. But I have lived all over in these parts for all my life." He will be more concerned with trying to help Newcomers, and is genuinely concerned for them and their well-being. Other Interlopers will say much of the same — there's little to know about him.
5. More information about Milton can be found here.
1. Tools found would be basic survival/camping tools one might expect: knives, hand axes, rope, handsaws, torches, batteries, etc.
1. The Stoor Worm, or Mester Stoor Worm, was a gigantic evil sea serpent of Orcadian folklore, capable of contaminating plants and destroying animals and humans with its putrid breath. Assipattle, the youngest son of a local farmer, defeated the creature by flinging still-burning peat into its mouth. As it died its teeth fell out to become the islands of Orkney, Shetland and the Faroes, and its body became Iceland.
2. It is possible the harvest the beast once it is killed, particularly for its fangs and skin. The skin/scales will provide ample protection to try to use it for armouring themselves. The fangs would provide useful for crafting knives or weapons.
3. It is... technically possible to eat the meat of the beast. Care should be taken in butchering, however. And it is not advised to eat the head.
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Course it's friendly, [ Hickey says with an easy casualness, like this is two friends shooting the shit and not an aggressively tense reunion. ] I've always been friendly to you, Billy. I've always cared.
[ As if to prove that, Hickey takes some of his meat and places it on Billy's plate. See? Look at him. He's nice. He's always been nice. ]
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On the other hand, Billy isn't petty enough to think the complete opposite is true either. It's not like Hickey has never been kind to him. Maybe that's what makes this entire situation, as tense as it is, so complicated. Maybe that's why he isn't bothering to get up and just leave, even though his limbs would actually allow him to do so this time around. Keeps him rooted to the spot, actually wanting to know what the other has to say for himself.
It's the addition of the meat on his plate - and the glimpse of the other man's hand - that makes Billy actually look back up and over at him again. ]
Is that what constitutes friendliness nowadays? [ A slight rise of his eyebrows. ] Hm, Cornelius? Putting a knife into someone's back?
[ He doesn't raise the volume of his voice though. Doesn't make a scene. Clearly just two good pals over here having a very normal discussion.
Definitely not actually someone asking their lover-then-ex-lover-then-grave-robbed-ring-wedding-partner why he murdered him. ]
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That answers what he knows, though. Hickey keeps his voice calm, he keeps his voice just as level and just as quiet. Because truth be told? He doesn't want to talk about this with anyone. Just Billy. So he shrugs a little, making a small noise of acknowledgement before continuing the conversation. ]
Would you have rather continued walking? Wasting away until you were skin and bones? I wasn't going to let you go like those men, like those at Crozier's camp they were perfectly willing to let suffer.
[ He gave his men fresh meat. He kept them strong. What was Crozier doing, still feeding his men from those tins? Still keeping them alive with something that was slowly killing them? It wouldn't happen with Hickey. ]
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[ Even as he's speaking, Billy doesn't look away this time. He continues to look at Hickey - while he's speaking, after he's said the sentence. If anything, his eyes don't seem to stray from the other's face even for a moment, like Billy is looking for something in the other man's expression. Even more so a moment ago when Hickey himself was talking, really.
(Because he knows that - if any answer - the one Hickey is giving is the one he wanted to hear. That it was because Hickey was thinking of him too, even if in his own odd twisted Hickey way. That it wasn't out of a sense of revenge, or worse-- being seen as useless or disposable to the other.
But Billy also knows that the other is so good at saying what people want to hear, and he doesn't want this to be only that, especially when no one knows quite what Billy wants to hear the way Hickey does.)
Maybe it's why the petty bitching seems to lessen a little bit. Sure, it's still there in the first thing he says, fairly obviously so, but then something seems to soften in Billy's tone and in his eyes, growing more earnest. ]
.. You could've asked me. We could've talked about it.
[ Because sure-- he wanted to live, more than anything. But if it got even worse, if he couldn't even move anymore, then.. maybe it'd at least be better than turning into a spectacle like Morfin. ]
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But as far as Hickey's concerned? What Goodsir said was a death sentence. Billy was a goner. Might as well spare him the pain, put his body to good use. It's practical. And at his core, that's what Hickey thinks he is. Practical. ]
How d'you think that conversation would go? 'Hello Billy, you heard Goodsir's diagnosis, want me to put a knife in your back?' [ He shakes his head, before pointing out, ] Men only accept death when they see no other option. I don't know if you'd have accepted that or not.
[ Idly, his mind also flashes back to Morfin. How distraught, how much in pain he must have been to be outright seeking death, unlike the rest of them. ]
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Exactly. You don't know. You didn't know.
[ And Hickey didn't bother to question that, just making his own decision on it. Though that, by itself, isn't very surprising to Billy at all. He knows what the other is like. Even if it feels like it's been stretched lately to lengths Billy never could have imagined - what happened to him personally, the entire deal surrounding Irving's murder - Hickey has always been like this. Ambitious, prefering to stick to his own judgement over someone else's. It's never been something he minded in the past, aware of the other's particularities but filing them away as exactly just that-- even if it lead to this in the end. ]
What was the worst I could've done if we talked about it? Run? [ There's a bit of sarcasm to that last word, given that the fact he couldn't really move was the problem in the first place.
It does keep his tongue moving right now though, more emotion slowly flowing in, even if it doesn't make him raise the volume of his voice as much as Billy just starts talking faster, not bothering to hold back the way he does with other people. ] Maybe I just wanted to spend a few more moments--
[ Then he stops, abruptly. The emotion got ahead of his brain, and it's only in the middle of the sentence that he realises he isn't entirely sure if this is something he wants to say. It feels stupid, after all, especially now. Especially after what happened. Especially with what they're discussing here in the first place.
Makes him feel like a right fool.
He looks away from Hickey, down at his plate, finishing the sentence anyway. ]
.. with you.
[ Stupid. ]
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Which can't be true, that can't be right. Hickey is certain of everything in his life. Every choice he's made, every thing he's done, it was the right choice at the time. Yeah, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Sure, maybe kidnapping Lady Silence and bringing her on the ship was a bad idea. But it opened his eyes to who Crozier truly was and what he was willing to do. Yeah, he should have asked Billy if he wanted to be killed. But Billy couldn't haul. The men needed to eat. And Goodsir needed to learn his place.
Every decision he's made, even if it had immediate consequences, was the right decision.
But he's not stupid enough to tell Billy that. He can keep that to himself. Besides, that little admission, that admission of Billy wanting to spend more time with him, that brightens up something a little cold and shriveled in Hickey's chest that might be his heart. Of course Billy would want to spend time with him. But it's nice to hear it. ]
Well, as far as I can see it? You can spend those few more moments and more here. I've found us a house. I've been working on learning how to trap, so that we'll have fresh meat. I've got us, Billy. I'll keep us safe.
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Because as he stares into the other's eyes, stares at the lines that always gather near the other's mouth when he smiles or laughs, it doesn't feel like a lie that Hickey wants to share this with him. And it comes so close to the things Billy has fantasized about privately, even though he knew they were impossible. Far before Billy's illness made it only more impossible, far before the mutiny and the lashing and Irving. A life with Cornelius, in some idealized, truly impossible world.
He could give that up. In the name of pride, or dignity. In the name of safety. As small as this town seems, he could avoid Hickey here if he tried. But would that be living when Hickey and all his eccentricities are the one thing that ever truly made him feel like he was living?
He's like a fire, and Billy is a moth who fully well knows what he's doing, and yet opts to keep throwing himself into the fire anyway, because it's the only place he feels warm. ]
You have a house?
[ The words are soft, but a little less guarded. The familiar tone of Billy considering something, rather than shutting it down. ]
Here?
[ Maybe he just needs to not think so deeply. Maybe then he can ignore the feeling of a thousand judging eyes aimed at his back-- his own among them, most of all. ]
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[ Taken from a family that died long before he was born. Only half of the house is actually used due to the fact that it's fucking cold. A ramshackle mish-mash of furniture and blankets, stolen from whatever Hickey could get his hands on. It's nothing pretty. It's nothing grand or opulent. It's still the sort of existence Hickey is used to, grabbing and scrapping and taking whatever he can get his hands on.
But dammit, it's more than he's ever had. So he's holding onto it for dear life. ]
There's a proper bed and everything. As far as I'm concerned? No more quick jaunts in the orlop for us.
[ Because of course Billy would still be interested. Of course Billy would still want to go back to how they were. Why wouldn't he? ]
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By now, Billy realises it's even worse than that. What's doing it are the things attached to it. A robbed ring made out of crappy material given to him by Hickey. A shared house. A shared bed. Cornelius Hickey's ego absolutely does not need the knowledge that there is someone out there insane enough to be unable to resist the thought of it even after getting stabbed.
So he doesn't say it. Not directly. But the little signs about him might be saying enough all by itself. The way he ducks his head a little, almost something shy about it. The faint twitch near his lips.
.. a quick look around, suddenly hyper-aware once more of all the other people in the community center.
Then his gaze moves back to the other. ]
Can we go there?
[ Suddenly he realises this isn't a conversation he wants to have in hushed tones in a hall full of people. If he's going to embrace this, he doesn't want to be hidden away in some corner, but somewhere with just the two of them. ]
We can take the food. [ Because please, there's no way Hickey wasn't planning on squirrelling away some of the less perishable things. He knows. See, Billy is clearly thinking very logically about all of this, and none of this is the world's worst trauma response whatsoever. ]
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There's some bottles of water set out. Let me grab a few of them as well, then I'll lead you back to mine.
[ After all, those little bottles are useful! He can refill them himself later.
Hickey gets to his feet, stretching slightly before offering Billy his hand. Just a help up, nothing more, nothing bad (this time). ]
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But then he does take it, allowing Hickey to help him to his feet. It might be a necessary gesture anyway, since Billy doesn't exactly rise in the smoothest of ways. It doesn't look like he's in pain the way he was back home, but instead it's that his limbs twist in slightly odd ways, like he got so used to trying to avoid the pain in his joints when moving that he now has to adapt to moving normally again.
He holds Hickey's hand for just a moment longer than absolutely necessary once he's standing again before letting go of it - and then, as if he doesn't want to draw attention to that moment of lingering, he quickly busies himself with moving his plate onto his arm before looking over at the other man. ]
Give me yours too. [ Clearly this is the true upside of having a steward in your polycule - the niche talent of easily carrying multiple plates on one arm happens to come in handy for once.
Even if it comes with a bit of a Look that's telling Hickey to not dare to make a dumb joke about it. Just in case. Instead he adds, out loud: ] More room for the bottles that way.
no subject
I've got some of the water at the house, but could always use more. I'll grab at least two, possibly three or four.
[ There's a moment where he looks over at Billy, as if taking all this in. Look at them. Here he is, being bloody domestic. It's something he never thought would happen. Granted, the circumstances are horrible, but in Hickey's mind? It still counts. He's still making a life. ]
Follow me, [ said with a little nod, as he walks over towards the food station, where he knows the water bottles are currently kept. ]
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It's a slight bit of a surprise when it doesn't come out, though. But Billy will take it. At least he doesn't have to listen to it. Instead he takes the plate, busying himself for a brief moment with arranging it on his arm along with his own plate, and it's when he looks up from that that he spots the other staring at him.
Even if it isn't long, Billy stares right back at him, some faint surprise in his eyes - mostly because he's trying to figure out what Hickey would be thinking of in this moment. It's making him a touch self-conscious, and he feels even more glad in this moment for the sweater Kieren gave him to wear over his shirt. Partially so he's no longer parading around a shirt soaked in his own blood, but also because it covers up the ring better. Billy doesn't know if Hickey found out about it - if he felt it while one arm was holding him and the other burying a knife in his back, or if he spotted it on his body afterwards - but he's not sure whether he wants the other to know. That he was wearing the gift - the bribe, their ring - even after Billy had broken off the relationship himself, even through the mutiny, even up to the moment of his death. That it's there, even now, when he could've taken it off and chucked it into the woods. But it's instead still resting against his chest.
He's snapped out of the thought when Hickey speaks again, and he does follow, cautiously glancing at the community center and the other people in it as he does. It's a quiet moment, but then he speaks up again when they're at the table, probably while Hickey's trying to grab some of the water. ]
What would you say I have to know about this place?
[ Sure, other people have told him stuff. But if there's an upside to being here with Hickey right now - all the Complicated stuff aside - it's the fact that Billy knows the other to be practical, and with all the information and opinions they've shared over the years, no one would be able to cater the specific information others might have missed better to him than this man right here. ]
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But Hickey doesn't know if anyone's mentioned the important things. ]
There are things here, [ he explains. ] Things like that bear back home. Tuunbaq. They hate the fact that we're here. One of them entered into men's minds, telling them that they aren't worth it, that it would be best if we died. But there are also things that see us for how important we are. There was this odd deer we found in the woods. It gave me a pair of boots.
[ There's a moment where Hickey lets out a quiet little chuckle. ] Other people might say it's a coincidence. But not us. We're smarter than that, Billy. We saw what that bear was capable of, back on Terror. Who's to say that's the only thing like that out in the world?
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And then his arrival in this place made it even harder to deny the existence of unbelievable things like that. After all-- ]
If there wasn't anything like that, I would not be alive. [ There is a touch of something dry to the way he says it, considering.. you know, who he's saying it to.. Can't blame a man for being petty about being stabbed in the back, even if he does not know how to deal with it in any other way!! ]
But why us?
[ Sure. He did just hear Hickey say how important we are, but.. please. Please, Cornelius, they are literally just two random guys from an expedition. Being delulu is, in fact, not the solulu here. ]
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Can't hear you over these delusions, Billy! ]
Why not us? We'd know how to survive here. We've dealt with gods, with demons before. Yeah, I'd prefer some place less cold, but out of all the places in the world? This is something tailored for us. This is where we flourish.
[ His eyes are sparkling with excitement, the hope and knowledge of being recognized and seen for what he's worth blocking out all the other things like 'common sense.' ]
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Of course this would happen. It's not like Billy imagined it before, but-- it makes sense, doesn't it? Everything about the other guy, from his words to the look on his face is practically the same as when Hickey had been sitting on his bed, talking about Crozier. This is just like that, another delusion, except now it's on another level entirely. It's one thing to think your captain thinks more of you than he really does, but it's another thing entirely when it's about.. what, spirits? Who even knows what sort of force is at work here, but it's not one Billy cares much to mess with.
And here Cornelius comes in, acting like this is some sort of gift. Which, sure, it revived Billy and all, but--
Nope, he refuses to go along to delululand. ]
If it was tailored to us, it could at least have had a nice warm beach. [ Maybe later he will talk Hickey out of these delusions, he tells himself. Right now Billy still feels a little too tired and shaken up by his arrival here to even attempt it.
So there's just deadpan. Which is the same sentiment of please, Cornelius, really, but less explicit. ]
I'm so tired of this cold.
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He's right, though. Hickey also is tired of the cold. So he can't help but let out a little laugh at Billy's statement before pointing out, ]
D'you know, I planned to desert once we got out of the Arctic. I knew we would be stopping by those tropical islands on the way back. Oahu. Maui. Seemed like a good place for a man to start a life. [ Plus, it wasn't England. England that held nothing for him, England where he couldn't go back, he would never go back, he killed a man and had been stuck with the name Cornelius fucking Hickey for years now, that's how much he wouldn't go back.
Billy wouldn't know that, of course. It's not like Hickey talked about his plans. Or about himself, really. ]
On the matter of a nice beach, we're both in agreement. Just because we can survive somewhere doesn't meant I'd want to. Give me a nice warm tropical island, fruit falling off the trees, any day.
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But feigning that to hitch a ride to the tropics? Even more of a Cornelius thing.
(Of course he has no idea that this plan might have also involved, you know, murder and identity theft.)
Maybe that's why he doesn't look too surprised in the face of this reveal. ]
You are truly incorrigible.
[ There probably shouldn't be some fondness in that statement. Yet there is. Or-- you know, Billy levels of it, which means it's barely there compared to a normal person, but still. It's just that this dumb thing reminds him of what he liked about the other in the first place. The other's ambition, energy, life-- Shaking Billy out of his monotony.
Just sucks when it's instead turned to, you know, killing him and having weird delusions about the powers here instead. ]
.. though I suppose you are right that, weather aside, this doesn't seem.. bad. [ He may also be steering away from talk about the weird things Hickey is delusional about right now, yes. Thanks. ] At least we aren't stuck without food. Or on a ship with little space and far too many men everywhere. And you are lucky it's lieutenant Little we are stuck here with.
[ Because god knows that that man isn't going to try and do anything about Hickey. ]
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Could be worse, [ he muses. ] Could be Irving. Or hell, imagine Sir John Franklin himself showing up! He'd have no idea who I am.
[ Those at the top never recognize those below. Hickey knows that to be true, no matter where he is in work, society, and the rest. ]
Nah, the people we're stuck here with are manageable. I can handle them.
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So there's not too much of a protest against Hickey's statement, even though Billy is still convinced the other is too confident for his own good. He will gladly agree though that anything is better than Irving, for a variety of reasons. ]
He said he was going to protect me from you. [ There's a little bit of dryness to his tone as he says it, given..
.. you know. Everything. So many things. Alanis Morissette writes songs about it. ]
Lieutenant Little, I mean.
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Then starts to giggle. He is trying very hard not to bust out into laughter. But the idea of Little protecting Billy from Hickey, hell the idea of Little protecting anybody in the first place, is absolutely hilarious.
Hickey's still trying (and failing!) to repress those giggles as he teases, ]
I'd love to see what he does. After all, I'm a devious seducer, yeah? How does he plan on keeping you out of my clutches?
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Well, let's not give him any reason to think he has to do something.
[ Regardless of how likely - or unlikely, in Little's case - it is that the man would do something in the first place. Cornelius, babe, it's only funny until they've got another case of homophobic boss on their hands, okay!! ]
Even if he may have absolutely no authority here, I still don't want any unnecessary trouble for-- [ He pauses, like he's hesitating on which word exactly to use here, before ending up with ] --us.
[ He shakes his head. ]
He does not have to know where I am.
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Little knows where I live. But he doesn't visit. He came by once to accost me for the mutiny and never again. Stay with me, and I'll make sure none of our crewmates come by.
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cw: references to cannibalism, it's the terror, baby!!
cw: continued murder and cannibalism talk, i guess!!!!!
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