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]

Well. That's a name and a half, isn't it?

“Nah,” Chloe says with a smile. “That was your girlfriend. Pretty spectacular, though.”

[questioningmermaids]

"Not my girlfriend," it's automatic. Lacking any animosity, but rapid-fire and quick nonetheless.

"Gotta be a little bit satisfying to watch, though, right? It's not fun if you go through one, but being a witness? Absolute gold."

[desperate_times_right]

“Yeah. It was a dumbass, frat boy plan, trying to break into a party full of teenage girls.” Chloe chuckles to herself. “Kind of a guilt-free beatdown. That was one of the first things I did here, go to that party.”

[questioningmermaids]

There should be a guy night, March decides, though when he mulls over the list of potential guests he realizes that it's more than half the village.

Maybe not.

"Kinda nice having a problem that's just 'pervert kid.'"

[desperate_times_right]

“Right? There were a few adults there so nothing bad even happened. Guilt-free excitement.” You don't get much of that around here these days.

[questioningmermaids]

"I'm gonna draw a hard line on an HOA if we ever get them. Goddamn nightmare, dealing with that shit." For extra affectation, March leans over.

"'Ohhh, you have to clean pool and not use it as a giant ashtray, it really brings the cost of the neighbourhood down.'"

[desperate_times_right]

“I don't even know what that is.” Chloe has definitely never lived in that kind of neighbourhood. “Couldn't do much with a pool here anyway.”

[questioningmermaids]

March raises a singular finger, deadly serious.

"If we make it out of here alive, and you go back to wherever you came from, you gotta promise me: never move into a place with an HOA. Ever. "

[desperate_times_right]

“Yeah, I think I can promise that.” Chloe doesn't have a legal identity and hates contracts so this is probably an easy promise to keep.