5. We found only one set of prints.

[bestsir]

Who: Harry Goodsir and divers hands
What: January catch-all
Where: Primarily Milton with the option of a week in Lakeside
When: Throughout January
Warnings: Standard Terror stuff most likely. Also per discussion with Gels, Harry will be finding Trixie's body in the river.

[ Starters in the comments. Plotting post here. Feel free to comment there to request a starter, or just go ahead and roll your own here. ]

Comments

Milton | OTA (CW: character death)

[bestsir]

Ever since Crozier's meeting for the Terrors, Goodsir has been quiet. He's been there for people who need medical assistance and has continued to go about his business, but has largely kept to himself, somewhat unusually so. The news about what happened to Silna has, in fact, hit him deeply. He broods on what's happened to her, his role in her fate and that of the expedition as a whole.

And just when he thinks he's starting to recover from it, he discovers Trixie's body floating in the river. Heedless of the danger to himself, he retrieves her, and when he can get the help to do so, he ensures that she's buried respectfully in the churchyard.

When the dream of Enola comes, it drives him further into himself. Useless, he thinks. He's unable to help anyone—any woman—whose life intersects with his.

Bear! (Later in January, closed to Hickey)

[bestsir]

Oddly, Goodsir is almost—comforted isn't the right word, but it's close—put at ease by the fact that the interlopers are being stalked by a supernatural bear. It's a problem that at least has some kind of familiarity to it, terrible memories and all—even as he's genuinely frightened and uneasy.

Some part of him almost welcomes the idea that it might destroy him.

Perhaps that's why, when he finally sees the thing in the woods, huge and menacing and staring straight at him, he doesn't run. He stands there and meets its gaze.

"Come on then," he says out loud. "Let's finish this, shall we?"

cw: glibness about suicide

[friendsfordinner]

Hickey's been keeping an eye on that bear. It's not tuunbaq. He knows that much. The prints are wrong and the size is off and it's just not right. But he's still curious. He's still interested.

So yeah, he might have been lingering around the woods, trying to see the bear itself. And yeah, he might have done a little stalking of Harry Goodsir when he saw him go to the woods. So Hickey's hidden behind the trees, watching Goodsir and that bear from afar.

And hmm. Idly, Hickey wonders if this is Goodsir's default response to horrible circumstances. You're haunted by ghosts, you're haunted by your choices, best to off yourself instead. Coward.

"Idiot," Hickey murmurs, more to himself than to Goodsir. He takes a step to try and get a better view of things, moving around so he can get closer...and stepping loudly on a branch in the process. The crack reverberates through the woods, getting both Goodsir and the bear's attention. They're not alone.

Whoops.

[bestsir]

The bear makes a soft whuffing noise and raises its nose to scent the air, and there's a low growl in its throat.

Goodsir doesn't turn, doesn't look away from the bear. "What are you after?" he wonders out loud. Can the bear understand human language? Or at the very least, human motivation, as much as the tuunbaq could? Nothing would surprise him less, these days. "You're stalking us. You could kill any of us anytime you liked, couldn't you?"

The bear growls, and for a moment it seems like it's about to turn its attention from Goodsir to whatever made the noise in the woods.

[friendsfordinner]

Shit. The bear's spotted him.

Hickey remains calm and still, hoping that the bear turns his attention back to Goodsir. There we go. Nothing here. Nothing to see. Go focus on the surgeon, he looks more edible anyway. You don't mess with Hickey, he won't mess with you. Perfectly equitable.

If that bear makes a move in Hickey's direction, however? He's booking it. Booking it in the direction of Goodsir to try and grab his arm and yank him away from said bear, but booking it and running like hell away from this nonetheless.

[bestsir]

Not knowing who's there, Goodsir's instinct is to stop the creature from charging whoever it is.

He starts to back away, pausing only to bend down and grab a stick from the ground, which he hurls in the bear's direction. It's a bad throw and it falls short, but it does the job of catching its attention; it turns and growls at Goodsir and—

Charges.

Goodsir immediately questions his own judgement and he knows he ought to run, but his legs suddenly seem numb and won't move. He closes his eyes, bracing for whatever it is that's coming next. Mamianaq, he thinks, but he can't even say it.

A moment passes and he realises everything has gone quiet.

He blinks his eyes open. Nothing there.

He exhales.

"Well then." And suddenly he's just laughing.

[friendsfordinner]

From his place in the woods, Hickey watches all this. He watches Goodsir throw the stick, he watches the bear charge him then vanish into thin air...then he watches Goodsir just stand there. Laughing.

Christ. Man's lost it.

But Goodsir knows that someone's in the woods. And Hickey knows that Goodsir knows. So he starts to walk out from the trees towards Goodsir, taking care to step on a pinecone or two, just to cut through the laughter and get Goodsir's attention. We're not surprising the obviously delusional man here, nope.

"If you're so desperate to kill yourself, do it in a way that benefits the community. Don't let a bear waste you."

Ties That Bind (OTA)

[bestsir]

When the strings of connection start to appear, he's only a little surprised by it, and works out quickly what's going on. Only then does he realise how much he's been isolating himself—many of his connections seem spidery, which makes him chide himself. This is no way to behave.

So he starts making an effort to talk to others, to strengthen those threads.

There is one that puzzles him considerably—a strong thread of rose-gold that doesn't seem to go anywhere. Eventually, after trying to follow it into nowhere for a while, he understands. Silna. Wherever she is. The heartache will be tangible to anyone connected to him for a while.

[questioningmermaids]

March is genuinely surprised he has so many strings--some are obvious, some less so, and he works his way down the ladder: the one with the tiny bit of red first, bright golds come after. There's no real push against it, for all of his complaining. This is a mystery, and he's a detective, and in a weird sort of way trying to figure this out is a bit of a reprieve. Especially from that bear.

His own thread he's been told is quintessential LA, of cigarettes, in-n-out burgers and the strange feeling of touching shag carpet--thanks Wynonna--and it's such a difference between the slightly clean smell of licorice he's feeling on one of the fainter ones. March follows it without hesitation, rounds the corner, and can't help his little smug, incredibly cocky smile.

"I thought it was you, monkey man."

He'll wiggle the finger with the string on it for emphasis.