you can run but you can't escape

[singmod]

THE DARKWALKER COMES

The Darkwalker strikes again. This time, it does not come for one Interloper — but four.

WHEN: March 2nd.
WHERE: Milton.
CONTENT WARNINGS: death of playable character; supernatural death; mention of dead body; themes of death; supernatural beings; themes of terror; themes of peril.

YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T ESCAPE

The sun sets on another day in the Northern Territories. The night is calm but cold, scant clouds drifting low in the skies promising snowfall soon. A waning moon sits in the skies amongst its sea of stars, and those looking up may notice it — slowly, one by one, the stars begin to go out.

Then the moon's light is swallowed whole, and a blanket of green gloom descends upon the town of Milton. One more, the sky is dark and green and terrible. Many of those will recognise it, what this means and what will come. Others will not understand it, not know what it is that awaits them all.

They will soon find out: the Darkwalker comes.

Fear washes over you like a cold wave, a vice-tight grip that squeezes the breath from you. Interlopers will find themselves over-come, and everything in their bodies and minds tells them to run. To flee. And so you run, heading for cover indoors. Curtains will be drawn, some may hide under beds, within closets or wardrobes. Some desperate attempt to conceal themselves, make themselves small, unseen. Some Interlopers, in that fear, may rush to friends or loved ones to hide with them, others may simply cowered alone — crawling and whimpering away from the night. The fear is irrational, unable to be overcome — even by the bravest or most stoic of Interlopers.

The Darkwalker howls: indescribable, unnatural, demonic. Low moans and groans. It comes from the east, the faint booms of footsteps in the distance growing ever nearer. It is coming, once more. It's coming for one of you. And still, you are powerless, unable to do anything. And it is an agony, awaiting its arrival. You cry, you whimper, you cower. Curling up for some shred of comfort, and finding none.

The footsteps draw closer and closer, and you feel like the ground itself may be threatening splitting open beneath you. It isn't you that it hunts, but you notice its path — a straight line from the east towards Milton Church. It seems to go on forever, building into a crescendo. Your heart beats so hard you fear it may burst from your chest, as if you might die of fright.

There is an almighty sound; the Darkwalker devours and suddenly the sky is alight: streaks of pale colour shoot across the gloomy green — almost blinding for one long moment. A woman's scream fills the air and then snaps into silence.

The skies return to normal, the green is gone, the fear melts away from you. It is done.

There is no body in the street. Interlopers venturing out will need to go looking for whoever it is that's fallen victim to the Devourer. The answer will be found within Milton Church.

Towards the altar, peppered amongst faint glimmers of intangible green that will fade by morning, lie the twisted and mangled bodies of Nicholas Wolfwood, Millions Knives and both iterations of Vash the Stampede. There's no blood, no physical wounds — simply the contorted bodies that lie dropped like ragdolls. Each of their faces stare with wide eyes, frozen in horror — just as La'an Noonien-Singh was.

The Darkwalker has devoured more. There is a story, told by Methuselah: It is said that the Darkwalker will awake from its slumber and swallow the world whole. One head will swallow the stars and moon and sun. Another will swallow the seas and lakes and rivers. The third will swallow the land, and every living thing upon it — and only then will the Darkwalker be satisfied and return to sleep once more.

It feels as if the Darkwalker is making good on its story: one by one, it will devour you all whole. And now the Interlopers of Milton must grapple with more death.

FAQs

1. Essentially, a 'party post' for reactions to the Darkwalker's attack, the immediate aftermath, and any funerary preparations. Have... fun???

2. Information on the Darkwalker's attack can be found here.

3. An OOC Rundown for the original Darkwalker's attack, which includes some FAQs can be found here.

4. Notes about the characters:

Wolfwood: He doesn't leave any messages behind. Folks are welcome to go through his house, which is the cabin by the pond -- there's nothing in there of his, and the only changes he made to the house was pulling a twin bed over in front of the fireplace. The wall of the cabin is also scorched from inside, from where his Lightbringer power erupted at one point.

Vash The Stampede (Trigun Stampede): He really didn't have much belongings or anything in particular of note, so it is a free for all situation in terms of possessions.

Vash The Stampede (Trigun Maximum): He'll be leaving behind his meager belongings. all of it can be found on either his person or in the church's living quarters which is also decently stocked with foraged foods. alas he's prepared no messages because he is absolutely atrocious at saying goodbyes.

Millions Knives: He'll leave behind sharpened hunting and skinning knives (hah), some fishing equipment, and scattered feathers around the church.

Comments

— ota!

[sputnik]

[ The first time the sky turned green and that wave of all-consuming fear washed over the residents of Milton, Konstantin was still freshly sick and healing from a gunshot wound to the stomach (this place stopped him from dying, somehow, from the injury that assuredly should have killed him — was meant to). Everything felt like a fever dream. He wasn't able to make any sense of it, never quite processed it. He heard rumours of a woman's death, of something that had killed her, but no real associations were made in his mind.

Certainly not of the supernatural.

This time, no matter the years of intense psychological training required of those in the Cosmonaut Corps, he finds himself reduced to something almost childlike, trembling and wet-eyed when it happens. There was a dream once, that all of the residents of this place shared. Something looming and terrible, and a putrid green sky.

It's assuredly foolish to go to the source of the accident, but Commander Veshnyakov never became what he is by playing it safe. Besides, he's been sitting back long enough (out of necessity most days; he's still recovering, and the alien creature inside of him continues to be strangely affected by this place in ways that keep them both weakened). But he'll never make it out of this place if he doesn't investigate, learn as much as he can. He heads to the church, following the little groups of people gathered nearby, others drawn there too.

— Earlier on, when the bodies have freshly been discovered, Konstantin can be found near the altar where the bodies of the four men are strewn, staring down at them with a solemn intensity. He's no stranger to horrible things, to bloodshed and inhuman suffering, but this is... different. There is no blood. There isn't much of anything. Just clear evidence of sheer terror on each of the men's faces. The cosmonaut crouches down close to one of them, eyes slowly roaming the corpse, speaking up to anyone who might be close enough to hear— ] How many times has this happened? A woman was found like this once before, right? Was she the first?

— A bit later on, after the crowds have died off and the bodies have been removed, Konstantin returns to the church to do some more looking around in solitude. He's already poked through the main area enough to notice little out of the ordinary (except for feathers scattered around, which is... strange, and he's slipped a couple carefully into his coat pocket.)

Now he's in the small wing that holds the church office and the modest living quarters. He's learned by now that at least some of the dead men were living here, and he swallows past the odd sensation that it's wrong to be here, brows knit as he slowly looks around for some clue, any evidence that might help with this mystery. Konstantin is not a small man, tall and athletically-built, but he knows how to move quietly when he needs to, how to maneuver his body. Still, no matter how quiet he tries to be, he's unable to help the creak of old wooden floorboards beneath his shoes. He assumes he's alone — but maybe someone else has had the same idea. ]

[solitarysoul]

Just once.

[Levi is hovering around, looking very much a boy in his oversized coat despite the rifle on his back.]

Nothing like this happened before that, before the dream. But...maybe that's what happened to the people who used to live here.

[sputnik]

So it only began after that dream....

[ Konstantin mulls over that fact, mouth tightening, unsure how to take this information. Surely what was seen in a dream is not responsible for.... this. Someone killed these people.

He looks back over his shoulder at Levi, frowning. He's very young to be seeing this, even if the boy clearly has ample experience with disturbing sights, given what he'd shared with Konstantin before. ]

Were you here in the beginning? When the bodies of the original residents were found? Were they.... like this?

[solitarysoul]

[It doesn't seem to disturb him at all of that helps. It probably doesn't.]

I was. The bodies were...some had obvious causes of death. Others were more like this, with no wounds. I didn't really look any of them over, though.

[He'd only begun to pick up medical knowledge recently. The only looking over of any he tried back then was for anything useful or helpful.]

I didn't pay that much attention, sorry.

[sputnik]

[ So different causes of death, it sounds like... It's all so strange. What is the pattern, here? Konstantin can't figure it out. ]

No, it's all right. The less you have to learn about it, the better. It's all so macabre.

[ The cosmonaut stands, brushing his hands over the front of his coat, turning to Levi. He hopes the answer to his next question will be "no", but he's willing to bet differently, unfortunately. ]

Did you also see the woman who died like this?

[solitarysoul]

[He just shrugs. Death has been a part of his life since he was young, and a huge part of it for the last five or so years.]

La'an, yeah. She was right outside the community hall; I was one of the first to find her.

It was...weird. So quiet...same as this time.

[moralabsolutism]

[Rorschach hung back from the four bodies. He wasn't unused to death. He'd lived with it night after night for too many years now to be completely shocked by it. The other emotions that went with seeing a bunch of bodies, however, those he could do without. Feeling a certain helplessness that this had happened again, frustration that the godlike creature who did this could not be stopped, and that sense of (undeserved) guilt that once again he'd been unable to keep the people here safe.

He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts he couldn't even muster up his usual hostility towards the Russian. He merely nodded, silent as he stood back with his hands in his pockets. However, the thoughts that raced through his head were filtering in and out like a radio signal that was too far away to fully pick up.]

....not again......and who will be next....should been able to....why does it come....can't protect anyone from anything here....

[sputnik]

[ It would be impossible not to notice the very distinctive countenance of the man who'd once interrogated him with such hostility — if "countenance" is even the right word for it; the stranger still wears that odd mask, leaving him looking uncomfortably featureless.

Konstantin tenses for a moment, but the odd words he hears give him pause, and it's enough to have him looking away from the bodies his attention was fixed to, glancing around the church at the thin crowd of lingering spectators. He startles a little when he realises it's that man's voice, but... fainter, like little blips of a thing, a station he can't quite tune in to, only getting parts of it.

'can't protect anyone from anything here'

The cosmonaut stands from his crouch, eyeing Rorschach as he approaches him, carefully. He could almost swear that.... this was coming from somewhere else. But that doesn't make any sense. ]

Did you... say something? Just now.

[ Probably a bad idea to instigate conversation with this man, but Konstantin has never been one to play things particularly safely. Not for long. ]

[moralabsolutism]

[Fortunately for Konstantin, Rorschach was in no mood to intimidate or bully anyone that was in the room. At moments like this, full of death and destruction, he tended to withdraw and go very quiet. It was better than feeling everything to the extent that he actually could.

He knew what the general population both back home and here saw him as. Some paranoid nut, a lunatic in a mask, someone three seconds away from killing someone if they pushed him too far. None of them, not a single one realized the extent to which he felt things on an emotional level. It's why his mind was structured so rigidly in its black-and-white thinking. Without it, he'd have to face the world as the cruel, heartless place it often was and that was just too much for him to deal with. So this was as best he could function right now.

As for Konstantin's question, after dealing with his strange curse for over a month now, he had a fairly good idea of why the Communist was asking him this. Clearly, some of his thoughts had been filtering through despite his desire to keep a tight lid on them. Rather than explain, he just shook his head slowly and silently.

Technically, it was the truth. He hadn't said anything, not out loud at least. But another thought, a tendril that just gently brushed across the minds of anyone around him who could hear it, came forth.]

Why is death always so senseless and cruel?

[sputnik]

[ The strange man shakes his head, and Konstantin stares at him, brows quirked upwards, unsure what to make of any of this. Is the man toying with him? About to revert back to the hostility he'd so quickly become acquainted with?

Instead, there's another one of those odd fragments of sound — not truly sound, more like something coming from inside. Like it's in his mind, not his ears. The cosmonaut doesn't startle easily, but this place has tested him in ways he never quite expected. Impossible ways. He looks around again, before his eyes lock onto Rorschach. He stares for a moment longer, and then slowly his gaze returns to the bodies. This time, his words come out quiet, somber, but thoughtful. ]

I don't know. I think sometimes death can be a mercy.

[ ....A pause, the frown at the edges of his mouth deepening a little. ]

Perhaps it's better to die than to live a life of suffering. Are we sure that whatever is doing this isn't trying to put us out of our misery?

[moralabsolutism]

[Rorschach gave an audible sigh. There really was no guarding his thoughts at the moment, not when his emotional state was kicked into overdrive. He might as well have been saying what he thought out loud for all that he was able to hide them from the Communist at the moment.

Since he wasn't getting around broadcasting his thoughts anytime soon, he might as well just project what he was thinking with more purpose as it stood.

Rorschach knew all about how death could be a mercy for some people and a punishment for others. From what he was witnessing here, he sure as hell didn't think that whatever was doing this was interested in being merciful in any sense of the word. He aimed his words at Konstantin, the thoughts much more coherent and sentences less choppy than the ones he usually spoke out loud.]

If that's what you want, I can offer it to you quicker than whatever this thing is willing to do. And with less pain.

cw: mention of self-harm and an autopsy

[flambeaux]

Louis felt the grip of fear during the first attack, compulsively biting into his own arm. He saw La'an's body, both as it was left and the examination afterward. He listened to Goodsir talk about cardiac arrest and Damian propose chemical testing as the body was cut up.

Tonight, while cowering in that uncontrollable fear, his fang slipped and broke the skin on his lip. The angry red welt, iced down as well as possible, glares on his face now. Louis shivers even in his wool overcoat, but otherwise keeps his face as impassive as he can make it. A crease appears between his brows.

Louis did not have the thought the first time, but he has it now: What if the howls of the monster and the screams of the woman were from the same creature? His own daughter is a devourer with the sweet face of a girl. Perhaps that influences his thinking.

"Two different points in town have been hit, to our knowledge. It comes from the east. Has anyone started markin' the path? If you draw this one and the previous one on a map, the lines may cross... eventually."

There are two things that Louis is not: good at math and willing to trek long distances while surveying. But he remembers, vaguely, doing numbers and plotting curves in school.

[sputnik]

Later, Konstantin will hate the fact that his eyes immediately drop to that welt of inflamed skin on the other man's bottom lip, evidence of a wound (of blood). It's the natural way for his eyes to go, maybe; when he talks to people, he looks them all over, welcoming conversation to him with bright eyes that roam a person's face, not shying away from it. He tends to watch people's mouths when they speak, and it often makes women blush (he doesn't dislike that fact).

But here, it's like some beacon, a thing that his eyes were drawn to instead of going there of their own free will. He stares for maybe a beat or two too long (and it's not with hunger, no, he's not hungry, but over time he's come to associate blood with 'feeding' all the same. Where do the lines begin and end? If the monster is inside of him and he keeps it fed, doesn't that make him a monster, too?)

He forces his eyes up to meet Louis de Pointe du Lac's, a name he certainly hasn't forgotten. There's a flare of genuine curiosity to what the other man's saying, and the cosmonaut's brows lift, brain churning thought against thought.

"That's something worth looking into," he agrees, somber but enthused by the prospect, and he glances back to the bodies for a moment.

"Has anyone found any reason to believe that this thing... targets specific people? Could it be possible it has a destination in mind, and whoever happens to be there at the time, just ends up..." The words trail off, obvious enough without him voicing them. Like this, features contorted in fear.

[flambeaux]

Sometimes Louis stares a little too much at necks. If he's peckish or agitated, humans in close proximity are cloying. Occupational hazard of being a vampire. Louis hates himself for it anyway and strives to be master of his instincts. It's difficult to do whenever he accidentally licks the wound or smells the iron.

"No idea if the deaths were planned or if some of them just happened to get in the way. Both public places... Maybe it was meant as a warnin'. I have no idea if this creature is capable or possessed of such motivation."

Gone is his easy casual speech, though it still rises and falls with an easy Southern lope. He's troubled and thoughtful now, and he speaks like the books he reads. Because others have mentioned monsters in their worlds, he asks,

"Ever encounter somethin' like this back home?"

[sputnik]

'Creature' is the word the other man uses, and the one that maybe a great deal of other people would, too. It's certainly not an unfamiliar word to the cosmonaut; it's the one he uses to describe the thing from another world that has made him its home.

He's quiet, thoughtful as he listens, gazing at the bodies and then the face of the corpse closest to him, eyes glassy and lifeless. Like something stuffed. Like the imitation of a person, now.

The question earns a noticeable pause. He's been... careful with what he reveals, and how, and hasn't given too much out about his own circumstances. But he's been listening to what others have to say, and oh, he's heard things. Talks of worlds with monsters, mutations, gods. Konstantin doesn't know how to feel about anything he can't prove, but he has something of his own that can be. He'll stay vague about it, but there's no harm in what he says next.

"Nothing like this there. Not on Earth. The worst monster to be found there is only the people." A small, wry smile.

"But.... above it, out in the universe — I believe there are many things that humans haven't discovered yet. Things we aren't prepared for."

He gives a soft laugh, brushing his palms over the front of his coat. "The insight of an old spaceman. What about you, my friend? Do things like this happen where you're from? Monsters roaming?"

[flambeaux]

A corpse transforms into a thing very unlike the person who inhabited it minutes before. Louis has visited this transformation on strangers and friends alike. Eternal life, and it is steeped in nothing but death.

“You know, I just spoke with a man who actually lives in outer space. Or, not on Earth. No one like that where I come from… or when. He encountered life previously unknown to us. Not little green spacemen exactly, but… things that were just fiction to me before. The unexplained, or rather the undiscovered."

He suspects, but can’t know, that Konstantin is giving only a little truth. Louis himself cannot start a vampire scare in town. He fixes him with an unblinking stare.

“Monsters do roam. Humans are very capable of the most abhorrent mischief. Hunt not the monster but the one who causes him. In my country, many an innocent man has been killed by those claimin’ to do justice. They become the monsters they hate.”

God he could go for a cigarette. Or a drink of the sanguine kind. Poor manners to do that here though.

[bigbaddy]

[ Bigby is in the church too.

Not to investigate, though. Even if it's exactly the sort of thing he does back home, prowling all over crime scenes, he doesn't feel like doing it this time around. He knows other people must have picked the place clean already anyway, especially with how much attention so much sudden death got. No, he instead came back for a different reason entirely. He hoped it might get rid of that heavy feeling he's been having in his gut all day after learning who had died, returning here. Thinking about him.

.. but, to be fair, he expected to be alone. He purposefully waited for most of the day just to make sure that he'd be alone, not wanting the moment to be ruined by some other presence, or by seeing the bodies still lying there.

That creak, though, definitely tells him he's not alone. Bigby is of half a mind to just turn around and leave, to give up on the entire plan, but then he spots who's making that sound in the first place.

The guy in the woods, huh. The weird medical condition one. ]

.. if you're looking for the bodies, they've already been taken away.

[ It doesn't sound like an accusation. Bigby's voice isn't even harsh, really.

Instead it sounds.. weirdly heavy. Heavier than it had been, back in the woods. Like there's something weighing it down. ]

[sputnik]

[ Konstantin turns, suddenly, at the sound of another's voice. He'd been looking down the hallway leading to the small living quarters, back turned to the rest of the place, hadn't noticed anyone else come in.

The kneejerk tension doesn't disappear, exactly — not when he takes in who it is. The man he's bumped into a couple of times now. The man who has something wrong with him, too. It's so... strange to have seen him in both ways: sitting across from him at a table, carrying on a civil conversation and then... devouring an animal's heart right in front of his eyes.

Konstantin stares over at him, letting some of that tension ease out of his shoulders, even if he stays guarded. But the other man's tone is.... weighted, thick, like it's being held down by a stone. The cosmonaut does notice that, and pauses a moment or two longer before replying. ]

I was here earlier — saw them already. Thought I'd come back now that everyone's gone. Look around, see if I can find... anything that could help. [ Clues, evidence, anything that might prove useful to explaining what the fuck is happening here.

He hesitates, before moving a little closer to where the other man stands. ]

Did you know them?

[bigbaddy]

[ It instantly explains why Konstantin is here. Even if Bigby wasn't necessarily assuming he was here to do something bad.. it's more that he wasn't really assuming about the other at all in this moment. Bigby's own thoughts are still so taken up by what happened here, spiraling over the people who have been claimed by the Darkwalker this time around and the implications for the village, that he didn't even really have time to think much about Konstantin here. All he could do was just speak up to him.

When the man gets closer to him, Bigby looks away from him. Instead he stares at the spot where the bodies had been lying earlier, even if there's hardly anything left there now. ]

One of them pretty well. [ He slowly answers. ] The others a little bit.

[ Which is.. already more than Bigby would know most people, given his antisocial habits.. But considering the role he's picked up here of attempting to protect the people in town, it means having to get in touch with people a little bit more. Trying to save them from themselves.

.. doesn't mean he can save them from the Darkwalker, huh.

He inhales, and then releases the breath very slowly. ]

None of them deserved that.

cw: mention of person in vegetative state

[sputnik]

[ Ah. The cosmonaut's eyes soften a little, and he gives his head a small tip forwards, a nod of some quiet acknowledgement. ]

I'm sorry.

[ He truly is. There are some wounds still so fresh within him regarding a lost companion of his own — things he's barely been able to process, with so much happening, a whirlwind of horror from there to here. But his co-pilot... occupies some particular space within him, always. The man didn't deserve what happened to him. And Konstantin, who was responsible for that man, failed to save him at all. Will he stay there in that facility until his life eventually runs out? Hooked to machines, body forced to stay alive, used for observation and possibly even experimentation? The public don't even know. His family don't know.

He'll always wish he had found a way to grant Averchenko mercy before he escaped that place. He'll always feel that he left him behind.

He looks back over to the bodies, left so strange. They almost look haunted, with those expressions of terror locked into their features. Just what had they seen....? ]

What was his name? Your companion.

[bigbaddy]

Vash.

[ A continued tradition of honesty on Bigby's end in front of Konstantin.. But really, he has so little reason to keep any of this close to his chest, right. Even though he struggled to call Vash a friend while the other still lived - a fact he'd like to kick his own ass over right now - Bigby knows the truth. He knows that he really appreciated the way the other tried so damn hard to reach out to him, all the faith that Vash extended in him. The faith Bigby felt like he didn't deserve.

His name doesn't matter, and yet it does, all at the same time.

He deserves to be remembered. Even if Konstantin didn't know him, Vash deserves to be known, deserves to be remembered.

Bigby doesn't directly look at Konstantin, but he speaks on all the same. ]

He was a good man. Even when things got really rough here, he tried looking out for others wherever he could. He spread kindness to all those around him, yet denied himself the same thing.

[chuju]

[ Daisy wasn't here the last time the darkness arrived, but she's heard the story of what happened. How fear descended upon the town like a living thing, and how one woman died horrifyingly. But even the look in people's eyes as they spoke of it couldn't prepare her for experiencing it herself.

She hides alone, cowering in a closet of the closest house she can find, and she hates every second of it. She should be out there, she should be fighting whatever this is — but she can't move. And what could she do against something that sounds like that without her powers?

When it's finished, she leaves the little house and follows the strange path to the church, studying it and wishing desperately yet again that her team was here. Others are already in the church when she arrives, and by the time the bodies are removed, she knows she has to do something. So she extracts the small notebook from the battered purple backpack she carries and begins to write. The sounds, the way the bodies were found, the green light — she tries to describe it all in detail. She's nearly finished when she hears sounds from further within the church.

Notebook in hand, she follows those sounds to find a stranger whose face she's only glimpsed around town. It's clear this area has been used recently, so she makes a guess, trying to push down how shaken she is and appear like the professional agent she is. ]

Hey. You live here?

[sputnik]

[ There's little to be found, back here. Perhaps others have already pilfered through the dead men's belongings, or perhaps they didn't have much stored in their living space, but on the surface there doesn't seem to be much. Konstantin sees a few cans of food stacked on a shelf, a couple of tools. There's another white feather or two, which he makes note of as his eyes scan the room. No, not much on the surface at all.

But he means to look beyond the surface.

It's then that he hears a voice and his head quickly turns that way, dark eyes finding a woman he's not familiar with. Ever-observant, he takes in a few things quickly, namely the notebook and writing utensil in her hands, before he's looking back up to meet her gaze. As usual, the cosmonaut greets others with a warm, easy openness, a smile sent the stranger's way — even if there's something somber that weighs in the air, keeps his eyes a little soft. When he speaks, a strong Russian accent layers his words. ]

Hello there. No, I was just looking around.

[ A glance cast to the side, sweeping the seemingly innocuous living quarters of the church. ]

I thought there might be... something here. Something that might help explain what happened.

[ A beat, eyes returning to her. He's willing to bet he already knows the answer, but it's possible someone might've come in after what was left of those men were taken away. ]

Did you see it earlier? The bodies?

[chuju]

[ She nods, stepping further into the room to look around herself. In the weeks since her arrival, most of her wounds have healed, leaving only a light mark across her cheek from the perennial cut she can't seem to leave a fight without. She holds herself and moves with confidence, comfortable in her own body and sure of the space she occupies in the world, but there's something else there too, the weight of exhaustion pressing down on her.

Noting the familiar accent, she's grateful there's no language barrier to overcome. There was SHIELD software that could help with translations, but even if she had her tech here, it would be useless. ]

Yeah, I saw them. And heard they weren't the first. [ Letting out a sigh, she shakes her head, frustration clear in her expression. ] You ever see The Ring?

[sputnik]

[ Konstantin takes half a step to the side as though to make room for her. He hadn't expected to encounter anyone else, but he's certainly not averse to it, looking over at his new companion as she speaks. Like him, it seems she's dealing with all of this more belatedly than some of the townspeople here, learning about the death of the woman from others — she must be new, maybe even newer than he is.

(There's a hitch of guilt that lives in him along with many others; he was here when the first woman was killed, but he didn't know a thing about it until later on, when it turned into whispers of dark town gossip drifting to his ears. He hadn't been able to get too involved even after news spread, his body weak, recovering. But maybe if he had... he could have figured something out. Helped prevent more deaths.) ]

The Ring? [ He allows a thoughtful tug of the mouth; it's not familiar to him, but he can piece together a context clue or two from her words. A title. ] A movie? I haven't heard of that one before.