A. Rama Raju (
load_aim_shoot) wrote in
singillatim2024-01-11 09:36 pm
🎵whistle while you work🎶(closed)
Who: A. Rama Raju, Lanfear, William Gibson, Renny Oldoak
What: wilderness chore bonding time!
When: I'm thinking some time after the ghostly housefire, but it's loose
Where: the forest around Milton
Content Warnings: talk about food/eating/not eating, possible talk of fire stuff. will add as stuff comes up
What: wilderness chore bonding time!
When: I'm thinking some time after the ghostly housefire, but it's loose
Where: the forest around Milton
Content Warnings: talk about food/eating/not eating, possible talk of fire stuff. will add as stuff comes up

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Maybe this is yet another example of it. It's not too strange to find anyone sitting near the fireplaces here when warmth is such a precious resource in this place, though it is definitely strange to see the man wearing a blanket, before the other takes it off and starts to work on it.
It leaves him to blink for a moment or two, not even fully realising how much he's just standing there and staring.. It's a good thing the other man seems caught up in his work, really. Keeps Billy from looking like a creeper.
The combination of the familiar activity with the unfamiliar object use for a garment makes Billy slowly approach after a few moments though. It's pretty unobtrusive, like there's something about Billy that just seems very unoffensive, like he blends in with the scenery.
".. may I ask a question, sir?"
Look, he has manners! He knows how to be polite!
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But very few here seem to act the way they should. Especially the Englishmen. And Raju’s hardly going to call it strange out loud when the man’s doing so much to try to be polite. Maybe he’s only been made so hesitant by this inescapable, inexplicable place. Anyone would be.
The bafflement does its part to drive the frustration left in Raju back, as does the expression that takes its place, a wider smile, a friendly set to the skin around his eyes. It’s instinctive to try and meet that kind of hesitance with something reassuring, and Raju pulls his knees up just far enough to set his forearms on, leaning forward as he smiles.
“Why not?” he asks, one hand holding the blanket while the other rolls the needle back and forth between its thumb and fingers, dark thread stretching out between them. “How can I help?”
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They're just a bunch of people trying to make things somehow work out here together. They are all stuck on the same level. If anything baffles Billy much more than the other's surprise, it's that easy smile on Raju's face. As if being greeted with friendliness on the other's part is the biggest mystery here to Billy. That is what makes him blink and stare in turn, even if it's just for a slight moment before he regains his voice, his expression more neutral again.
"Why were you wearing that?"
It's a bit more of a blunt question, compared to the softer edge his politeness had a moment ago, but Billy is still careful to not put any real judgement into the question.
Even if wearing a blanket around is, you know.. a little strange..
"It doesn't exactly seem practical."
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"Or fashionable," he agrees as he looks back up again, a little dry. "I know. But it keeps the cold out, more or less. I suppose I could have tracked down a proper coat someone else came here with and taken it for myself. But what good would that do when they came to take it back? I can wrap this well enough, and I've cut some off the bottom for these straps, see here? It works. We have to do what we can in this place, don't we?"
Raju's answer is matter of fact, responding to the question's non-judgemental tone, but he takes a moment to look the other man's clothes over anyway, comparing. "Have you not had so much trouble dealing with this cold? Maybe you're more used to it than I am."
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He doesn't mention anything about it. Not because he wants to lie to Raju, really. It's more just that he doesn't want to think of it. So, instead..
"I think this cold is tough on anyone."
A very factual statement. Easier to stick to.
Besides, Billy is also thinking about the rest of what the other is saying. He's been modifying stuff? That could be helpful, especially if Raju ends up having more experience with that sort of thing, just like how Billy himself does.
".. I think we can do better than this though." This, obviously, being the blanket. Not that Billy cares about being fashionable, but he does care about being practical. "Have you often sewn before, Mr.."
His voice trails off at the end there, like he's giving Raju a chance to introduce himself. It may be only now that Billy is realising they didn't exactly start out with that-- perhaps he's trying to correct that course mid-conversation.
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He hasn’t thought much about the officer who ordered that in years. Maybe it was that unexpected ’we’, or the question after it which fits so well into Raju’s other years of experience with Englishmen and passive aggression. The idea that the best he could do to keep the cold out in this place should have been done better grates.
“I learned from an English tailor how to repair my own clothes when I was younger. I’m rather hard on them.” The needle spins between Raju’s fingers. His smile is friendly, but pointed, pointing to the sharper real answer of yes, and I’ve been doing it for years sitting underneath the words. It’s hard to say yet whether Raju needs to defend himself here or not, but it’s better to have a defence ready, isn’t it?
“Material seems so scarce here. And thread— once I run out of mine I’m going to have to learn how to hunt just to make it out of sinew.” That’s how Francis said he sewed, anyway. Raju doesn’t know a thing about making it, but he’s confident that he can learn. He’ll have to.
“But I could always use more advice,” he adds, purely to sound polite and to set up his pointed question: “How would you be doing better, Mr…?”
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Maybe it's why he knows better than to point out the shift in tone. That is exactly the sort of thing that only makes it escalate more. So rather than addressing that, he moves to sit down as well, if not just so he doesn't seem like he's trying to actively talk down at the other. (The way Billy is practically a flagpole in height sure didn't help with that either, he figures.)
"Gibson," he answers, focusing on the very last part of it all first. "William Gibson. Pleased to meet you despite the circumstances, Mr. Raju."
You know, said circumstances being this place being a freezing hellhole and all, but he figures the other is smart enough he doesn't have to point that out. Especially when there's more important matters to discuss.
"The better I was refering to is the fact that there is quite some material around in town, but no one is using it. I assume it is because we are all used to sewing cloth. I am the same." He's pretty good with it at this point. It's what happens when you spend so much time mending the same officers' clothes and coats over and over.. "But even though people are using the animals here for their meat, it seems like not many are using their fur or skin, even though we could use that material for coats and gloves, once everything else inevitably runs out."
He exhales. Sorry, give him a moment, Raju, this is more than he usually says to people..
"I am entirely unfamiliar with working with that material though. But you seem skilled at sewing, and I have experience as well, so.. I thought we might be able to figure it out together by practicing." Even if it might be unfamiliar to both of them.
And since he is still thinking about the other's tone, Billy pauses very briefly to then add: "I think there is much I could learn from you, if you would be kind enough to spare me some of your time."
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"I don't know anything about working with leather, I'm afraid, if that's what you were hoping. There's at least one man somewhere here who does, but I don't know how to find him. But the more of us who learn, the better off we'll all be. You said you're used to sewing with cloth; what is it you're wanting to learn from me? How much sewing are you used to?"
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Especially when the one person he knows in this place would know quite a bit about this topic too is absolutely not someone he'd want to talk to. It's much better to speak with Raju.
"I know a lot about mending, and adjusting, and.. practically anything one could imagine doing with an already existing piece of clothing." He pauses, and then adds, like a sort of explanation: "I was a steward back home."
Hence the very specific knowledge, and yet not the full on knowledge to have been a tailor instead.
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"What was your work like back home?" Raju goes on, curious. "Who did you steward for?"
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This is what happens when you're living together with your boyfriend who loves hunting, but is definitely not great at getting the meat out of there cleanly.. At least it works in the favour of this plan. No need to worry about ruining something that's already pretty much unusable for any other purpose.
But as much as Billy is willing to offer that up, he goes a little more quiet after that, when he realises he can't just.. pretend he didn't hear that question.. So even though he doesn't really like talking about the specifics of his recent situation back home before arriving here, he'll have to offer up at least something. Especially since he'd rather not waste this opportunity for cooperation with a rather practical-seeming guy. Billy can appreciate those types.
"And I was--" Still a touch of hesitation, but then he just says it. "I was with the Royal Navy. Subordinate officer's steward."
He lets out a faint breath.
"I have mended the lieutenants' coats many times."
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"Ah, there're a few of those about, aren't there?" It should be odd, shouldn't it, how reassuring that is. That meeting an officer of the crown should ever feel that way. But in the midst of all the other... the other strange people Raju's kept some measure of distance from, of the strange things that he can't begin to explain, the empire and its officers at least make sense. They've been trained, they know how to organize, and he knows what they are. And they've been oddly decent to him so far. If they'd acted as he'd have expected them to, maybe reassuring wouldn't be the word. "Is the Navy as demanding about the state of their uniforms as the Army officers? That's who we trained under, at home."
He looks down at the blanket in his hands, tapping the needle against his knee. His stitches here might be neat but they were made more to conserve thread than to hide it, nevermind the fact it's a blanket he's stitching together in the first place. "I would have been on laundry duty for weeks for these."
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It's definitely not the sort of thing he ever expected to find across different cultures, but this place sure is teaching him a thing or two about that real quick.
"They certainly are. Those would not have passed, Mr. Raju."
Despite something more withdrawn and shy still seeming to cling to him, there's something a tiny bit more open about what Billy says there. There's even something tugging a little at the corners of his lips, like the start of amusement, of a sentiment not many men would be able to share with each other - but they both get it.
"I certainly would've gotten an earful about those. Or likely worse, like you mention." Not that he could end up on laundry duty when permanent laundry duty is practically Billy's job..
He shakes his head a little, this time properly looking over at the other - a little less shy - as he adds: "If I may ask.. What were you training for? The Army itself?"
It would be most likely, given who he trained under, but-- you know, different cultures, different worlds. You never know, and Billy doesn't want to assume out loud.
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That part of himself without the duties, anyway. In practice he's living more like he lived during those months with Akhtar than like he did in the barracks, even if the way that he feels here couldn't be more different.
At least here he doesn't have to take any damned orders. Until he goes back.
"Imperial Police, stationed in Delhi before I... came here." Came is doing a bit of work there, but until they've uncovered the mysteries of this place it will have to. "Much more sun there than here."
His smile is wan — he hadn't ever thought about it when he'd been there, hadn't expected he could ever miss the sun this much — but there's nothing to do but move past it. "I expect you travelled, though? Being in the navy?"
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(Or maybe it's habit sticking to him at this point. Stewards were there to listen, not to speak, after all.)
".. yes," he finally says once Raju arrives at that question. "The last voyage I was on was to the Arctic, so.. more closely resembling this place than Delhi."
Though he had been to voyages that headed more in the latter direction than the Arctic, it feels harder to recall those nowadays. It's all a little more foggy.
"It must be difficult for you to adjust to." Going from Delhi to this. "I'm not fond of it either. This sort of cold-- It seeps into your bones. It makes it feel like it will be part of you forever."
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Which is what Rorschach had told him, he remembers. Raju had written the idea down in the same journal the man had given him. Important to be thorough, even when what you hear is ridiculous. But Rorschach had told him so later, inside, near a fire, after Raju knew that he was somewhere. As desperate as he'd been by then to figure out the how, the what by that time had been settled already.
"But no," he says with an amused breath, half-laughing. "It's only Canada. Even the warmest days here... I don't know how anyone lives in this country on purpose. How did you deal with it, on your voyage? It was a British ship, so they must have packed plenty of layers."
The way Raju smiles makes that last a little joke. It had taken some doing, adjusting to the uniform. And you can always tell, looking at the English, whether they're new; they insist on their fine English clothes that they shipped from home, and sweat, and faint sometimes, and then wake up tightening their tie and go on insisting on it. At least it isn't choice, the way Raju's own clothes from home don't really suit this place at all.
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So he nods, thinking for a moment, and then adding: "This might sound ridiculous."
It's a slow start. Billy isn't really used to.. this. Just having casual chats with people. Even though he's been here for a little while now, there's no way old habits change so quickly, especially with how many reasons he has to be guarded around others.
But he's already trying more than he would with most people. Having points in common helps, even across cultures.
"But after a while.. you almost get used to it. You forget what it's like to be warm." It's not exactly the most fun thing to say, but still.. it's true. Years of being out in the Arctic change you. Change the kind of decisions you'd make.
".. though hopefully that won't be the case for you here, Mr. Raju. The clothes left behind by the people who were here before us are a lot warmer than anything I was wearing back home. It is also much easier to start a fire here. Warmth is closer by us."
Granted, still not nowhere as close as it must have been back home for the other, in Delhi.. But things could be worse. If there's anything Billy has learned from his voyage back home, it's that fact.
"If we are to survive here, we have to remember things like that." Look on the positive side, Billy would say if he was any more of a sappy person. Or any more of a person who can easily look on the positive side to begin with.
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William's hopeful addendum cuts in before Raju's mind can go too far in that direction. Raju huffs a quiet, amused noise at himself, at the way his own reaction to the words had been so different from William's, looking down with a smile that's still a little heavy with the previous path of his thoughts.
"You're right," he says, looking over at the fireplace nearby. "There are places more unforgiving than this, or so I've been told. And a good coat should help, if we can figure out how to make them. I don't know if any of the needles I've got are strong enough to work with leather, but we'll have to figure something out. You said there was plenty of material to work with in town, though; I suppose it hasn't been, ah, tanned yet. Learning that will be something else again. Maybe there's a book somewhere..."
Raju sighs, frowning, gaze distant. There's so much that he needs to know, and so much he doesn't. One step at a time, always, and then he'll get where it is he's going, but still. He isn't used to it, being so unprepared.
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He can easily agree on that. It's not like it's a small task ahead of them. But while there's something about the other's words that sounds-- perhaps not exactly worried, Billy thinks, but at least dreading said task ahead, Billy keeps his own tone calm. Practical.
After all-- "But we also have time to do so. And while I'm not entirely sure what it is like for you, I certainly feel more productive using my time on that now than on ensuring my nails are clean enough to pass the arbitrary inspection of superiors." Sure, it's not like survival is exactly a fun business, but there is something about it that is at least more alluring to Billy at this point than tending to the whims of men whose rank he will never reach anyway. Especially when they often make terrible decisions in his experience. Sometimes you just need little thoughts like that to get you through the day, especially when you keep ending up in icy hellscapes. "At least every decision we make here is our own."
The man pauses, glancing at the blanket for a moment, and then adds:
".. as for our more practical matter, I imagine that perhaps that strange man running the library here may have a book on the topic, if we are lucky."
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"The library?" Raju's expression lights up then, eager, then goes distant as he runs through the layout of the town in his mind. There isn't a library, not formally, so— "He must have set it up himself. There's no telling what sorts of books you'd find in this place. We'll have to take a look."
His smile is bright. Odd, how easy the word library makes it to feel almost excited instead about everything Raju wasn't prepared enough to know. "We'll need to learn about tanning, and... hunting? I can shoot but we've no bow or arrows, and I've never tracked an animal before."
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"At least there seems to be a little more knowledge to be gained around these parts about hunting." He isn't so sure about tanning, especially since he hasn't seen or heard of anyone doing that here-- but hunting? Plenty of people here hunt. Even Hickey does, if not always incredibly succesfully - but it's what puts food on his and Billy's table.
The man pauses for a moment, casting a meaningful glance down at his own arms.
"I'm not so certain I would be much good at it though."
You know. Witness Billy's thin stick arms. In fact, the man's entire build looks like a stickbug - lanky and thin, even more so after the illness back home. An illness that still has left its traces on Billy's body now, with his sickly white skin and the dark circles around his eyes.
"Not that I'm not willing to try, but I know where my strengths lie." And it certainly isn't running after animals in the forest.. Raju, he'd probably just collapse pathetically. No one should have to suffer witnessing a display that embarrassing. "It would most likely be easier with traps."
Less running involved and all.
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Raju sounds a little frustrated with himself at that last part, as if he should have known that he'd be stranded in awful, frozen Canada with no other reliable way to keep warm and studied leatherworking too, and practised it until he could do it easily. Maybe he should have. It certainly would have helped.
"But there's nothing for it now. Do you know where that library is? The sooner we find a book that will help, the sooner we can start figuring out the details."
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Even though he's relatively new, Billy isn't a steward for nothing. He knows where to keep an eye out, where to keep an ear out - how to gain the most information in any given situation, without necessarily having to ask for it in the first place.
"If you want, we could go there right now?" People don't seem too prone to stealing things here, so it probably can't hurt for Raju to leave his blanket for a bit, he figures. It's obvious enough that it's some sewing project in the works, anyway. That someone was clearly working on it. "You see, I.."
His voice trails off for a moment, thinking about how much to admit to here to a man he's only meeting for the first time, but he does decide to give away at least a little bit here. It'll probably become obvious real quick if they run into Rorschach, anyway.
".. the person who gathers material for the library is rather eccentric, and I have a feeling he isn't too fond of me." Quickly followed up with: "Or people in general, perhaps."
Mostly because Billy figures that is Rorschach's problem, rather than anything personal with Billy, and he sure doesn't want to make it sound like the uneasiness he feels around Rorschach is his own fault!
"So I'd feel slightly more at ease going there alongside someone else." Rather than alone. Billy would panic if left alone in a room with Rorschach of all people, Raju..
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"Tell me about him," Raju says, hands still moving. He's done this enough times, he doesn't have to pay much attention to make sure the blanket is secure around him. "What is it you're worried about? Bad temper?"
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He's simply unused to anyone offering to do something for him so readily, even with a smile and all.
By the time Raju speaks again, Billy manages to put himself over it, but something about the way he mumbles, "Thank you," sounds very genuine all the same. Maybe still a little caught off guard, making something about him seem a touch shy.
"And the problem is-- something like that, yes." He seems perfectly content to wait for Raju to finish his business with the blanket, standing there as he explains. "He threatened me when I first woke up in this place. If I hadn't done my best to diffuse the situation, I'm fairly sure he would have beaten me and left me for dead out there in the wilds, if not worse. He seems perfectly fine with behaving impolitely towards other people, but if those people then do the same to him, his temper plays up."
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cw: descriptions of death
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