Part One: The Cabin

[lestercraft]

Who: Arthur Lester and others
What: Adjusting to life and vision
When: Late August/Early Sept
Where: Largely Milton generally

Content Warnings: Catch-all warning for Malevolent content (Lovecraftian horror et al) and spoilers through S5


Getting by on getting by (Early on)

It took Arthur a few days for it to really sink in.

It was one thing to know that John wasn't there, that he had his vision back, his arm and leg and was expected to just. Learn how to survive all over again, in a new town in a new world in an environment he had only ever associated with death and hardship, not least of all his own.

It was another entirely to make peace with the fact: to finish smashing the mirrors in his claimed cabin and screaming for Kayne until his voice went hoarse. Either the god wasn't listening or couldn't hear him, and Arthur wasn't sure which was worse.

This too shall pass. And if it didn't, then he'd fucking well learn to live with it. Just like everything else.

The house next to his had been half demolished by something in the past, which left him with plenty of lumber to wade through the ruins and collect, ripping it loose with his gloved hands if he has to, and board over the bottom storey windows of his own cabin. And an empty house across the street provided blankets aplenty to throw over his shoulders, and haul awkwardly back to cut to shreds and insulate the windows inside.

(It also gave him a quite stellar view of the community centre, so. Something to stare at and make notes on, memorise the silhouettes when he needed a break.

Anything but thinking.)

Make Yourself Seen (September)

After that, he hasn't got much excuse to avoid people.

He'd met a few people already, but this time he's rugged up securely in scavenged clothes, hiding his malnourished frame. Not much to be done about the rough sand scars across his right temple, but at least he could hide his ruined ear beneath a knit hat and pray no-one asked much further.

So he starts actively hanging around. Exploring Milton properly. There's plenty of people to meet, it seems like, even if all he does is loiter around the message board. He does eventually pin something there, nondescript and no-nonsense about it, before he walks away.

Comments

[lestercraft]

He was more thinking divine intervention, whether he liked it or not but if Hickey wants to dismiss that, he'll let him have the easy out.

"For John? No. As you said, he might not be here, or he might have been here and be dead already." And as much as he dreads the thought, he can't afford not to be realistic about it. "And with what calling someone John Doe implies, there's no point simply asking for that name, I'd sound like an idiot."

[friendsfordinner]

"Mate, you really are new if you think you'd sound like an idiot asking about a name that half of our number wouldn't recognize the significance behind."

Hickey does, of course. John Doe, that's what you call a corpse. But someone like Ruby, Randvi, the various Russians...they'd probably think that it's just a name, nothing more.

"Word of advice from someone who's been here close to a year? Leave all your preconceived notions behind you. Even as something as basic as morality, as a law that you think everyone should know? Forget it. If you're not meeting this place with a sense of openness, it'll snap you in half."