#LoveWins

[friendsfordinner]

Who: Cornelius Hickey & OPEN
What: hey. hey guess who's married. guess. take a guess. bet you can't guess, OKAY it's Hickey
When: early October, post Forest Talker attack
Where: Milton

Content Warnings: as always, the possibility of canon-typical Terror warnings (mentions of gore, cannibalism, period-typical homophobia, murder, all of Hickey's crimes. etc.). Will mention in the thread if they occur.

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Hickey's basically married now!

Yeah, sure he's considered himself basically married ever since Billy arrived here. They're living together, after all, and as long as Hickey's got Billy, he hasn't really felt any lust or desires towards any other people (except Crozier) (that's different). And he does love Billy. At least, he's pretty sure he does. Love's a weird feeling and it's something that Hickey has never really been able to put a name to or identify in himself, so yeah, it might as well be love! And Billy's been wearing the ring that Hickey gave him. And they've both been upfront about it with each other, to the point where Billy said that he and Hickey were together during that awful town meeting.

So yeah, they've been basically married already. But Billy gave him a ring (looted off some corpse, not entirely romantic but something the ever-practical Hickey approves of), so now they're officially married! What do you mean most marriages involve a priest or signing a contract in front of the law, they don't have either of those here! This is as official as it's going to get!

So naturally, Hickey's going to gloat.

He goes about his day to day life in Milton. He'll check out the notice board, he'll rummage through what abandoned buildings he hasn't yet rummaged through, he'll go on a little walk. But every time he spots someone, he adjusts his hair, brushing it behind his ear. And then brushing it behind his ear again. And then he'll lightly scratch his neck. Or he'll wave them over. And hey, just ignore the fact that all of Hickey's obvious stupid little tells are with his left hand and just ignore the fact that all of his obvious stupid little tells are blatantly him just showing off that ring finger. With a ring on it.

Hey did he mention he's married???

Comments

[friendsfordinner]

Eventually Hickey will realize that having Hickey the person follow the same lines, routes, pathways as Hickey the wolf will end up with an enterprising person putting two and two together. Hell, the more he hangs around as a wolf, the easier that will be. But Hickey's always been good at overlooking the really obvious things and instead focusing on the specifics.

All that's a problem for later as right now, making his way to where he laid some traps, Hickey spots Crozier. That smug, self-satisfied look is still on his face as he gives Crozier a nod. As the conversation continues, Hickey adjusts his position so that he can easily take off his gloves.

"It's been a while," Hickey says, with a nod. "You probably feel it should have been even longer, but I can't do anything about that, yeah?

[goingtobeunwell]

He doesn’t like that Hickey’s able to cross through his usual paths - and even less that it seems Hickey also considers this territory his own. For all the space available here, it’s a hard fact to swallow that they’d have to run into each other now and again. Maddening, really, that he can’t do a damn thing about it either.

“‘Never again’ would still be too soon,” he grouses. He wonders if he’s seen the wolf - not that he’s about to ask.

Poor thing is so friendly, drawing Hickey’s attention to it would ultimately be a death sentence for the creature. There’s a persistent little voice at the back of his mind that says perhaps Hickey has something to do with the wolf’s disappearance. There’s no proof, just conjecture and past actions to go on. He quiets that piece of his mind before it starts running rampant.

[friendsfordinner]

Hickey takes off his gloves, shoving them into his coat pocket. And hey, don't mind him as he talks while adjusting his hair, tilting his hand in a way where if Crozier looks at him, he's got to be able to see Hickey's ring.

"I'm playing nice," he points out, "or at least, as nice as this place can let me. Some of your own have already forgiven me for my actions." Not exactly, but Hickey knows that Edward Little looks at him in a different way. He knows that Little sees him as Cornelius Hickey, the man, not Cornelius Hickey, the specter and monster that Crozier probably blames all their misfortune on.

"Wonder when you'll feel the same."

[goingtobeunwell]

Oh, look, Hickey stole somebody’s ring. He doesn’t even think twice about the glint of gold on his finger; it’s just another habit he’s adopted along with the futuristic clothing and mannerisms.

Forgiven him - now that little remark draws his attention, as Hickey probably meant it to. “Repentance would be a start,” he tells him dryly. “A change in action in the future. Until then what else do I have to measure your character?”

Nothing, as far as he’s concerned. Hickey has nothing to show him.

[friendsfordinner]

"I mean, there's one, big, obvious thing," Hickey points out as he once again, adjusts his hair in a way where the ring on his finger is obvious as hell.

He's married. That's something else. He's married. Pay attention to the fact that he's married!

[goingtobeunwell]

He's not subtle. He's never been capable of subtly. Crozier's attention lands on the ring again and he can feel Hickey trying to pull the question forcibly from him.

"Mr. Gibson make an honest woman out of you?"

[friendsfordinner]

"I made an honest woman of him first. I gave him a ring back on Terror." Which Crozier may or may not have known then, but he does now.

"It's only been this long that he reciprocated."

[goingtobeunwell]

He didn’t know about their previous “engagement”. Frankly, he didn’t care at the time and doesn’t care now. It seems to him that if William Gibson willingly chose Hickey again, then Gibson truly deserves Hickey and vice versa.

“May you both be as happy as you make the rest of the world by being in it,” he tells him dryly.

[friendsfordinner]

"The rest of the world can fuck themselves," Hickey dryly points out, with a little shrug. "Even if I was the most well-behaved boy on the entire expedition, the rest of the world would still judge us."

People are going to judge Hickey no matter what. They judge him on his accent, on his preferences, on his lot in life. Might as well give them something to judge, huh? Do enough actions and people will judge you on that, not on your being.

[goingtobeunwell]

“Yes, yes, we all know how you feel about the world.” As though it had ever been a grand mystery.

Being persecuted for simply being is a difficult way to live. Unfortunately Hickey’s always gone three steps ahead and made his existence an active problem for the people around him.

“You haven’t seen a wolf around here, have you?”

[friendsfordinner]

Oh.

Fuck.

"I've been seeing plenty of wolves lately," Hickey shrugs. "People have that new gift, yeah? Some of ours can turn into them. Looking for a specific one?"

[goingtobeunwell]

“A smaller wolf,” he tells him, somewhat warily. The wolf was such a tame thing, and Hickey is such a beast when it comes to survival. What if telling Hickey about the creature drives him to seek them out?

“I assume it was one of the children.”

[friendsfordinner]

Fuck.

"Y'know we don't have any children here," Hickey points out. "The youngest are what, Kate? Levi? They're both old enough to work. Hell, Kate Marsh already might have been married if she lived in our time."

She's certainly pious enough that Hickey could see that. Kate Marsh, marrying the first man she sees, perfectly happy to do her Christian duty.

[goingtobeunwell]

Deflecting. He isn't certain if he's doing so to avoid suspicion, or because he genuinely doesn't know how to hold a real conversation.

"A smaller person then," he amends, scowling slightly. It isn't worth fighting over something so stupid.

[friendsfordinner]

A part of Hickey wants to point out that whoever that wolf is, they're probably perfectly normal sized, they just have a smaller wolf form. The vast majority of Hickey knows that's suspicious as hell, so he keeps quiet.

Instead, he shrugs before, "Haven't seen anything like that around. What, worried for that beast?"

[goingtobeunwell]

He is worried for the beast, but showing even that much weakness in front of Hickey isn't advisable. "It's been spotted in this area," he says, pausing briefly. "It's likely moved on."

Don't go looking for it now, Hickey. If he has to find out one more pet of his has been killed and eaten by this man, he's going to snap.

[friendsfordinner]

There's something odd about this conversation. Crozier's frowns, Crozier's hesitation, the way he phrases and pauses and talks about things. How he asked the question but then seems to want to talk about anything except that.

"You think I've hurt the beast," Hickey muses. "You don't want to tell me more because I'm me. Because of course I'd hurt the captain's dog."

There's a moment where Hickey frowns, not entirely sure what to say next, before he settles on, "I'm not a monster, y'know. If situations were different back home, never would have dealt with Neptune in the first place."

[goingtobeunwell]

It’s a surprising level of self-awareness Crozier’s never seen from Hickey before. He stares back at him, mouth parted in slight shock at the insight, then narrows his eyes.

“I think you’re an opportunist. If the wolf seemed weak you’d prey on the beast, just as you did to the dog.” Just as he had with humans and anything else that happened to fall into his orbit.

[friendsfordinner]

The dog? What...ah.

Hickey rolls his eyes slightly before pointing out, "D'you know why I ate Neptune? Because we had no other options. You were more than happy to lie to the men about our useless provisions, but I wasn't going to let myself sicken and die because of trivialities like the chain of command."

[goingtobeunwell]

“You’ve made your motivations perfectly clear, whether I’ve asked to hear them or not.”

And because he’s feeling rather poorly about the whole interaction, he pauses and then adds, “if you’ve eaten this animal you’d best pray to god I don’t find out.”

[friendsfordinner]

"I haven't eaten that animal," Hickey groans, rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation. "It's probably bad for me anyway. Last wolf I ate made me sick."

In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have mentioned that he's eaten a wolf before now.

[goingtobeunwell]

He doesn't react to Hickey having eaten a wolf, or Hickey's vexed admittance to having not eaten what had become a pet. He shakes his head slightly.

"Not the worst thing you've put in your mouth," he grumbles, turning away from him.

[friendsfordinner]

"Considering that the worst thing I've put in my mouth, you've also put in your mouth, no need to throw stones."

It's Goodsir. It's Harry Goodsir. They both ate part of Goodsir.

[goingtobeunwell]

He was thinking the cooked flesh of his own loved one, but perhaps Billy Gibson isn’t as important to him as he’d like everyone to believe. But Crozier already suspected that - the most important person to ‘Hickey’ is himself, of course.

“Nn,” says Crozier, continuing to head in the opposite direction. The less time he spends around this man the better. His disposition is naturally more cheerful when he hadn’t encountered him directly for a few weeks.