singillatim | Я вернулся в деревню

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Я вернулся в деревню

Who: Svetlana and Open + a prompt for Fraser
What: Venturing forth and also dealing with April shenanigans!
When: April catch-all!
Where: Milton, then the path up to and including Lakeside. See prompts in post!

Content Warnings: Nothing as of yet; will update!

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She hands him the torch. "Well, this is the easier way to light our way now."

Hickey flicks the torch on then off then on then off again. He lets out a small chuckle before, "I'll be damned. Useful little thing, isn't it."

"It is. But it doesn't work when the aurora isn't in the sky," she tells him. "So - it's only sort of useful. Now. I'd still like to collect any that you might be able to find, just in case."

"Easy enough to keep an eye out for them," he nods. "I'll do that for you. Who knows, maybe we'll find one or two in whatever new part of this world we stumble into next."

"Perhaps. I can't imagine that the mine would be without them." She smiles. "They have the ones that attach to your forehead." She mimes wearing a headlamp.

"I doubt they work, but - perhaps they would be useful during the - the - " She gestures to the sky. "Auroras."

"Most things seem to be useful only during the Auroras," Hickey muses. "My time doesn't have all this electrical nonsense—but it seems like people here couldn't go without it."

There's a moment before he muses,

"Dunno if it was worth it in the end. After all, 's not like any of this stuff works."

"No, but - there's something comfortable and familiar in it," she smiles. "And there's no harm in it."

Hickey lets out a little chuckle before pointing out, "We'll take whatever shred of familiarity we can get in this place, yeah? It's true for all of us."

"What do you have that's familiar?" she wonders, pausing with her hands on her backpack.

Billy Gibson. Others from the crew. The crushing horror and fear that you'll wake up one morning and there won't be any food left.

"I arrived here from a situation much like this one back home—though at least here, we've got a roof over our heads and a more steady supply of food."

"Oh." She doesn't like the way that sounds and she pauses. "I'm sorry. I - that sounds terrible."

"It is what it is," Hickey shrugs. "Yeah, it was terrible. But I'm not there anymore. And really, that matters most."

Not being trapped in the fucking Arctic on that fucking ship. At least Milton has some game. At least there's actual food here.

"No, you're here. And there is some adventure here."

She grins, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I thought I'd make coffee before I leave. Would you like some?"

"As long as you're offering, I'll happily accept," he says, with a nod and a smile. "Lead the way, Nazarova."

She places a pot of water on the fire and winds her way into the kitchen, taking down two cups and clearing them of dust.

"Tell me something about yourself," she comments light.

I'm a sodomite. I killed and ate the man who might as well be my husband. I kidnapped a woman. I started a mutiny.

"I'm a sailor," Hickey shrugs. "Part of an expedition to go to the Arctic. Things went...poorly."

"You mentioned something of the sort," she frowns. "What about home? What is your home like?"

"Doesn't matter," he says, with a shrug. "I left it for a reason, after all. Nobody goes on an expedition to the Arctic if things are fine."

It's an unspoken yet emphatic 'stop asking questions.'

Sveta doesn't read into that tone as well, but she frowns. "You didn't want to go?" she wonders, turning away from him to pick up the pot and pour the water into two cups to mix with the coffee.

"I did want to go," he points out. One year in the Arctic and then he'd go to Maui. Sort of. He hoped.

"I wanted to get the hell out of London for a bit. The expedition served that purpose."

"Somewhere new," she says with a nod. "I thought about the same thing once. Getting out of Moscow and going - somewhere else. Anywhere."

She places the cup of coffee in front of him.

He takes the cup of coffee in his hands, warming them up as he asks,

"Did you? Did you get out?"

Hickey's kind of hoping the answer is 'yes.'

She would have, but the Night Watch found her first.

And now she can't actually leave.

"No," she mutters. "Well, I suppose I am here. Would this count?"

"Dunno," Hickey answers, with a little shrug. There's a moment before he points out, "I'd count it for me. But you're the only one who can decide if you view this place as an opportunity or a shackle."

She tilts her head, handing him the cup. "I suppose that also depends on what you're coming from. If you don't miss it."

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