A beautiful fiction I invented to keep out the cold

[desperate_times_right]

Who: Chloe Frazer & others
What: Catch-all; open prompts
When: March and April
Where: Around Milton

Content Warnings: Self-injury content related to the echo effects. Descriptions of canon typical violence and murder. Talk about hunting/eating animals.


Chloe doesn't trust Methuselah as far as she could throw him, and a trip through a mine where she's forced to rely on the goodwill of a bunch of cop types does not sound like her idea of a good time. Also, sticking around Milton when most of the people who 'patrol' (imagine her air quotes) are away is a great opportunity to snoop in people’s houses.

Anyone who remains in or returns to Milton may find her either doing her usual wild running in the woods, checking her snares for snacks, or sneaking around newly empty locations to see what's been left behind.

Aurora nights are a different thing, however. Chloe likes to think that she's done her best to do right by the people that she cares about, but the truth is she's cut a few throats in her day, stepped over others to make sure that she would wind up on top. Something about the aurora this month brings every one of those memories roaring back. It has her running faster, drinking until she can't see, and doing risky climbs onto (and jumps between) rooftops, trying to escape the feeling.

Comments

[desperate_times_right]

Something about the way he describes his situation makes Chloe think it's nothing like hers at all. At least it doesn't sound like the EMT is anything more than she’d initially suspected. Being dependent on someone who hurts you is no fun at all.

“A weapon…” No offense to Kostya but he hasn't exactly come across as powerful during their time here. “Biological? You said you were sick…” And he had got some blood on her just before she had the stag dream.

[sputnik]

He knows how it sounds, which is stupid at best and dangerous at worst, and gives his head a quick shake.

"Nothing that can be spread to someone else. I'm just sick because... my body reacts poorly to it now."

Some days he wonders how much longer he can continue to live with some unnatural terror wedged inside of him, wreaking havoc on his organs.

"Before here, it made me stronger. I healed faster, had better endurance... it sounds almost like what you're talking about. That's why... I almost have to wonder if we've been experimented on by the same people."

[desperate_times_right]

“Oh.” If it is an implant, that kind of makes sense. Technology doesn't work right here most of the time, and can go haywire during the aurora. “That sucks, to lose access to it here. I don't know whether I could give this up now, even with the downsides.”

It does raise another question though. “Do you really think the people who did this to you are still active? You said you're from the 80s, right?”

[sputnik]

Of course, what he's failing to mention is that the thing wasn't put into him by people, that the experimenting came afterwards, but... he can't discount anything, here. What if the scientists found a way to infect more humans? He'd barely scratched the surface of his own situation and the extraterrestrial entity that had tethered itself to him.

It's a good question, though. He pauses, thoughtful and still a little tense by default.

"I don't know. With so many of us here from different times... maybe they found a way to jump through, too." A beat, as he can't help giving a dark chuckle, running a hand up over his face for a moment.

"I know the pieces don't quite add up. It just seems that there's too much in common around here. I mean, I've... seen other people out here, eating like this. Like they're so hungry they have to, like they can't stop themselves."

And then he's lowering his hand, watching Chloe again.

"....I think they might even eat from people, if they get desperate enough."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe thinks about Kieren too, his disgust and horror at himself. She considers her own hunger.

“I don't think we need to worry about that, at least not yet. What worries me is that if things get tight, those of us who need more might get cut off first. That's why I eat out here.”

If no one can see that she's supplementing with rabbits, what she eats in town seems normal.

[sputnik]

Konstantin folds his arms over his chest thoughtfully, still keeping it conversational, but something digs in and takes hold and he's hesitating.

He should tell her. The way he should tell more people here. That he has to feed from animals too, but it's because he has to ensure he doesn't have to eat people instead. That there's an extremely high chance one of these days it could happen anyway.

He should tell her because people deserve to know how dangerous he could potentially be — but there's another reason too, maybe a little more selfish. No matter the small differences, something's going on with her, and it'd be... nice, maybe, to have someone there who's something like him.

"I can understand that," he nods; it's a valid concern. "Are you keeping it from people? You don't want them to know?" He gives his head a quick shake — "I won't tell anyone."

[desperate_times_right]

“People know I can move faster, but only a few people know about the cost. Mostly other… people like me. People who had the same dream.”

It's hard to hide her improved capabilities, but she's made efforts to conceal her hunger.

“I know they're all about team meetings and stuff right now, but when push comes to shove I don't expect any of them to stick their necks out for this.” She gestures widely, indicating her entire situation.

[sputnik]

Konstantin gives a laugh — not one of his usual bright things, but something more hollow. With it, a nod; he agrees. Understands.

"No, I don't expect it, either. And there's already a monster we can't beat. What happens if they think there are monsters among us who can be taken care of?"

A beat, a shift of his hand to his hip.

"My condition... it means I have to feed on a hormone found in blood. Works best if it's from brains. I'm sure people wouldn't take well to that."

[desperate_times_right]

“Brains…” Chloe pauses, remembers Kieren’s confession. Zombies are real, here. “Are you a zombie, then?”

[sputnik]

He laughs, but it's not with as much bemusement as it once might have been. Since arriving in this place, he's met a varietypack of people — including a man claiming to be a werewolf (and maybe these days Konstantin is beginning to wonder if Bigby might actually be telling the truth) — and such words aren't quite as far-fetched as they once were.

"Nothing like that. .....At least, I don't think. I am pretty sure I'm dead back home, but."

He's definitely not the kind of zombie that she means, in any case.

"The kind of sickness I have isn't... human. It's alien. I contracted it when I was up in space, and it... changed my body. Is still changing my body, maybe. I don't know what this place might do to me."

[desperate_times_right]

The combination of 'held in a research facility' and 'pretty sure I'm dead' paints a picture that Chloe isn't a big fan of. Now right at this moment they don't, as they say, have time to unpack all that, but she’ll be thinking about it.

“Oh.” What a thing to have to worry about when this place is already changing people on its own. “So this thing you think someone might have put in me, it's… alien?”

[sputnik]

He's aware he's sharing quite a bit here, but it's still not crossing a particular line — keeping certain truths carefully padded beneath other truths. Besides, if he can maybe... help some of the people here, he... has to. He has to try.

"I know how it sounds, and maybe it's not the case, but... if the people who kept me were researching that kind of thing, maybe they experimented around with other people, too."

He doesn't want to freak Chloe out needlessly, but... it's a possibility, isn't it? Still, he tries to keep it as light as he possibly fucking can, offering a little smile.

"I don't suppose you had any experience with.... aliens in your time, did you?"

[desperate_times_right]

This is a question that is somehow difficult to answer. She's seen zombies (of a sort) and evil bugs and tree sap that makes you immortal and hallucinogenic water. Any of those could be an alien thing.

“I don't know. I've seen weird stuff, but… how would I know? Did you see writing or anything?”

[sputnik]

Again, he considers how to answer this. There's no harm in revealing this part of it, is there?

"Right before I was kept in the facility, I was on a mission into space. That's where I... made contact with it. It definitely wasn't anything of Earth."

The story unveils; he was infected with something, then experimented on. It's still such a strange thing to try and process.

"Weird stuff like.... supernatural?"

[desperate_times_right]

“Oh.” She hadn't really thought about that. What do you do in a closed system like that if your air gets contaminated? “Do you think they knew when they sent you out? Or they're just taking advantage of an opportunity.”

Which is worse, at this point? Though if they'd deliberately infected him it might point toward similar fingers stirring a pot here, even if it is 2014. Marlowe’s stupid secret society had dated back to Queen Elizabeth and John Dee, hadn't it?

“I guess, yeah. I always tried to come up with explanations for what I saw, but if all this is real then why not, right?”

Is a yeti really that crazy in the face of this?

“I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed.” She says this like she's quoting someone.

[sputnik]

"I don't think they knew, no. The shuttle crashed, and I was hurt — ended up in medical recovery, which led to the whole lab rat thing." A little smile. "It was all very convenient for them."

A nod at that; he understands — "I still don't even know how to gauge what's real here, or not. Monsters, ghosts, mutated wildlife...." A soft scoff.

"Those are wise words... That's how I managed to stay alive as long as I did in the facility, probably. Letting them think I was oblivious." He smiles. "A friend of yours?"

[desperate_times_right]

“Ah. Fell into their lap, then.” Still bad for him, obviously, but maybe better for everyone else here. “Unfortunate.”

Chloe shakes her head with a fond smile. “I really didn't think the djinn were real - the water in the city had hallucinogenic properties, he knew that! - but after seeing that ghost fire, I don't know.”

Maybe there could be nearly invincible guards with burning skulls in a world like this.

“Marco Polo, actually. Had to read a bunch of his journals for work a few years ago.” He’d have been a better friend if he’d been better at identifying gemstones, that's for sure.

[sputnik]

Another grim smile at that — fell into their lap couldn't be a more apt way to describe. Looking back, he can see what a rare and ideal opportunity he was for them; no wonder they wouldn't let him go.

"Hallucinogenic properties in the water... I was wondering if something like that might be happening here. Limited resources, someone could easily control a group of people." His mouth tightens a little. "They could have drugged us at the 'welcome feast' all newcomers get."

It would make sense, but then again... some things do still defy that logic here. He sincerely doesn't know what to believe, but Chloe's next words have him lifting a brow curiously. Knowing the context puts the quote in a new light. "Ah, the explorer.... Makes you wonder what kinds of things he saw that he knew people wouldn't believe."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe shakes her head. At least this is a question with an easy answer. “I didn't eat that. I don't trust those people.”

She had taken the much safer and more sensible route of stealing food from Lalo and convincing random men to give her stuff. And this, of course, eating raw meat in the woods.

“If they can make us have dreams and stuff, though, who knows? The old man’s not talking.”

Speaking of people Chloe doesn't trust.

Maybe it's easier to talk about her own unbelievable stuff. “I saw it, some of it. You wouldn't believe it either. His own people killed each other.”

[sputnik]

"Smart," he remarks with a faint smile, meaning it. He hadn't eaten much of it either — mostly because he couldn't stomach much for a long time, couldn't hold anything down. Even now he struggles with it; no matter how much the creature bonded itself to his body, the fact remains that a human isn't meant to house something so big in the gut. "I don't trust him further than I can throw him."

Sorry, Methuselah.. but you're goddamn suspicious.

"They went crazy? Or... killed each other to get rid of one another?" Maybe some kind of competition, turned on one another. Maybe to protect some secret. Either way, Chloe clearly has her own amount of experience with "learning about the unknown", and it's interesting to chat. (Again, never mind she has blood drying on her face and he's probably going to have to head back soon so he can feed his alien parasite blood, too. Just a pair of monsters having conversations, as they do.)

[desperate_times_right]

“Right?” Chloe feels the same and she's not sure either of them could even lift him. “Way too many convenient coincidences with that guy.”

“It was something they ate too, actually.” Kind of a weird coincidence. “This blue amber. In Shambhala there were men called Guardians who ate it as part of a ritual. It made them strong and long-lived, but aggressive. When Marco Polo’s crew were shipwrecked they were starving, so they ate it without ritual or guidance… over five hundred people, killed in a matter of hours.”

[sputnik]

He couldn't agree more, giving a purposeful nod. It's unsettling how many people do trust the man, though it's understandable that they'd want to put their trust in someone. He seems to have answers, he brings more food every month.... but all of that is only suspicious to Konstantin; how could it not be? He won't cause problems about it, though. Won't say anything outside of remarks to someone like Chloe. Better to lie low and not seem like trouble.

That next bit, though.... That does sound familiar. He's giving a soft scoff— "Sounds like things like that could happen more than once."

He can joke about it on the surface, but it's actually.... pretty worrisome. "Maybe the next step is we get like that too. Aggressive."

[desperate_times_right]

Chloe rolls her eyes. “Oh, it did. El Dorado was the exact same thing, super aggressive immortal creature-guys.”

The one upside to everything that had happened in India was at least there hadn't been any immortal guys throwing things at her.

“You’d know, I think. If it was like that. The physical changes were pretty severe.”

[sputnik]

"El Dorado." He blinks, startled. "The place that isn't supposed to actually exist?"

Who are you, Chloe Frazer? What exactly did you do, before here? Konstantin couldn't be more curious as he watches her. Clearly, she's someone with her own experience in the bizarre. Maybe between the two of them they can stay prepared for whatever the fuck's happening here, whether it's parasitic aliens or food and water that might be changing people here into monsters.

"They changed physically, too? What should we watch out for?"

[desperate_times_right]

"It was a gold statue. A coffin, I guess. 'The golden man'." It must have been exciting to see it but Chloe's still glad she and Nate had been on a break when all that had happened. "The people there had inhaled the dust from it or something - the mummy, I mean - and they were all like, bald and elongated. The cognitive effect was pretty immediate, too, apparently. Foaming at the mouth and stuff, black eyes. They were immortal too, maybe. My friend said some of them were Conquistadors."

Some of them had been Nazis too but that's not as old.

"Biggest thing you notice on the guys who ate the amber was black teeth. They were also huge and muscular and loved roaring but I don't know how much of that was from the ritual training they did."