bad luck, old sport

[goingtobeunwell]

Who: Francis Crozier and OTA
What: Uh oh, more bad luck for Milton's other resident old man!
When: Throughout February
Where: Crozier's igloo, the town and the outskirts, the basin

Content Warnings: The Terror AMC™'s specific flavor of horror -- possible mentions of cannibalism, starvation, illness, murder, gore, addiction, Victorians

Comments

[goingtobeunwell]

"Not much, no," he answers, folding up his project neatly. "Just what remains."

cw: canibalism implied

[solitarysoul]

His brow furrows, what would people want from a cemetery? If anyone wanted to find things buried with people they would have long ago. And it wasn't like La'an was likely to have anything good buried with her. Then why wou--oh.

Levi remembers what Lt. Little told him about the food issues on his ship. He's not sure but he thinks Croizer might be from that whole expiation thing. There were horror stories from his own world about what happened when a squad went without food for too long.

"...we still have game, though."

[goingtobeunwell]

He hates that Levi understands.

"For now."

Crozier looks out at the graveyard, quiet and peaceful with the dead.

[solitarysoul]

"There's meat stored still, I think at least one person knows how to preserve it. W-we don't need to do this yet...do we?" Was Crozier paranoid or did he have a reason to think someone would turn to this so quickly.

[goingtobeunwell]

"No, there's no reason to do this. The game is plentiful still, and I doubt our population will ever rise to the point where the resources are too scarce to support us."

But Hickey is Hickey, and though he sees him waiting until desperation sets in, he can't help but be wary.

"Frozen flesh won't spoil easily. If someone wanted to harvest it they'd find the soil still turned."

[solitarysoul]

There's no reason to do this, yet Crozier is still here standing guard. Is that how it went on the expedition? Is he just afraid it will happen again, or was there someone from it that he expects might turn to it again? Maybe one of them liked the taste, or something.

He decides he'd rather starve.

"If you want, I can stand guard when you need to rest."

[goingtobeunwell]

It's that offer that momentarily brings him out of his dour line of thought. Levi is a young man, too young for this kind of worry, too young for the sort of burden he's now placed upon his shoulders.

Crozier shakes his head. He won't let him take on that burden.

"I'll rest during the day," he tells him quietly. "But thank you."

He pauses. "I'd like the company though, if you'd like to provide it."

[solitarysoul]

Levi has been too young for his life through most of it. At 18 he feels very, very old. He offers a...well, an attempt at a smile. Levi doesn't really know how to do that, but he tries. "Sure. I can stick around for a bit, its not like anything's happening."

He makes a mental note to make sure to check the graveyard on his patrols from now on, though. Just in case.

[goingtobeunwell]

He figures that Levi wouldn't enjoy sitting on the cold snow, so climbs to his feet and nods towards a little stone bench. It's covered in snow still, but there's nothing that can't be brushed away.

"How are you faring, lad?" he asks quietly.

[solitarysoul]

Levi heads over to the bench and wipes some of the snow off. Enough for both of them to sit. He then sits down and shrugs.

"Fine, I guess. Surviving. I think that's the best we can ask for."

It's been the most he could get most of his life after all.

[goingtobeunwell]

Crozier joins him, pulling his gloves on with surprising amount of dexterity for a man with only one hand.

"Mn." Normally he'd agree, but he quite honestly hates that just surviving is the 'best' one can ask for. He's so young, it's quite honestly painful. "It shouldn't be that way."

[solitarysoul]

He just shrugs. "Its calm here most of the time, though. That's nice."

[goingtobeunwell]

"Calm, but harsh," he says. Not the sort of harsh that would drive them half-mad with desperation in the matter of a week, but harsh enough that every day remains fight to survive. "Where are you living? With the others?"

[solitarysoul]

"I guess." Its a new way to fight for his life, but he's been doing so one way or another most of his existence.

"Yeah, I sleep at the Community Hall. I'm used to sleeping with other people." And he still thinks it'd be wrong of him to claim more than a small cot. "You're still in the, uh...ice house?" He doesn't know what an igloo was.

[goingtobeunwell]

He's the same, in a way. He's used to crowded quarters but always finally a way to be alone.

"Yes," he answers. "It's quiet. I like the peace."

[solitarysoul]

"...me too. I haven't been anywhere peaceful for a long time." His time at the orphanage wasn't always chaotic, but the war and Termina were as far from peaceful as one could get.

[goingtobeunwell]

A long time for a child means a lifetime, as far as Crozier's concerned. "Is it peaceful enough in the Community Center? Despite all the other people living there, of course."

[solitarysoul]

"Usually. I can keep to myself if I want to. But I do patrols a lot so I'm not there much of the time."

[goingtobeunwell]

He frowns and reaches into a leather bag at his waist, taking out some caribou jerky and offering a piece to Levi. "Keeping yourself busy?"

[solitarysoul]

He shrugs. "I guess. I don't do much more than patrol and hunt." He reads, sometimes, but doesn't think that's really worth mentioning.

"Are you? Does the ice house need a lot of maintenance?"

[goingtobeunwell]

"Not as long as it keeps cold," he says with the barest of laughs. "Ice is easy to keep up, it's the construction that's the devil."

[solitarysoul]

"I guess that makes sense. Its not going to melt here." He raises an eyebrow. "That bad, huh?"

[goingtobeunwell]

"Maybe not if you have two hands. It was a couple days of construction instead of just one."

He offers a smile to the young man.

"If you'd ever like to learn, I could teach you."

[solitarysoul]

"Oh." Right, this guy was missing a hand. It was pretty obvious, Levi just hadn't thought about it. At least it was just the hand, though he's not so sure an arm without a hand is that useful.

"I could help you make one if you ever want a new one for some reason."

[goingtobeunwell]

"I might want a second room one day." He waits a beat before smiling.