singillatim | open | you were a wanderer...

Who: Casper Darling and YOU
What: Open Post for February/March
When: All of February going into March, can be back-dated to January if need be
Where: Mostly around Milton!

Content Warnings: None yet, will update as needed.

i. settling in
A few months back, one Casper Darling decided it was best to strike out on his own. And so, here he is now down the street from his previous residence, settling in to 22 Thompson's Drive. It's a very cozy little wood cabin! Lots of room to sit and look out at the snow, or have a nice cup of (very watered down) instant coffee. Plenty of room by the fire, if someone needed to come in and warm themselves (especially after that nasty storm in January). Or hide from a bear. Doors are open to all, please come by and say hello.

ii. community hall
Casper is working on being more social. Really, he is. He's spent too much time locked away with his research and his thoughts, he needs to get out and meet people more. The last time he'd really been social was that party, oh when was it. November? October?? Far too long.

That's why one might find him sitting around the Community Hall. Usually with one of his notebooks, scribbling something down. Or reading some battered and waterlogged paperback he found somewhere. If approached, however, he will more than happily set his things aside in order to converse with whoever wants to chat.

iii. around milton
Sometimes, science requires being in the out-of-doors! Find Dr. Darling staring up at the night sky and making notes, or poking at the odd piece of crumbled road that was affected by one of the quakes. Maybe he's making (or trying to make) a hole in the ice at the lake to see how thick it is. (It is very thick, and he is rarely successful in his ventures.) Regardless of where one might come across him, feel free to bother him or lend a hand in... whatever it is he's doing.

iv. wildcard
[ooc: nothing catching your fancy? throw something at me! or hit me up on plurk to suggest something ♥ ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Randvi no longer lives at the hall but she does visit often, especially now that she's hunting again. She's pleased to see Casper out and about. She has a bit of a soft spot for him due to his association with Heartman.

She feels a bit bad about interrupting his reading, but she greets him anyway.

“Casper, hello. I trust that you withstood the storm well?”

It's not really an interruption when it's a friend, is it? "Randvi!" he proclaims, clearly delighted to see the young woman.

"Wonderful to see you. I held out okay, yes. My new cabin is very cozy, and I managed to grab some jerky and a few other things before the worst of it hit. You look good, everything going well with you?"

Randvi has to think about that for a moment. “I suppose so, yes. It's all been very strange, but that is hardly unusual at this point. Have you heard about the bear?”

"True enough," he concedes, giving a small grimace. "I guess I mean going well in terms of, you know. Apart from all the strangeness."

He marks his place in his book and sets it aside, patting the sofa next to him, if Randvi wants to join him. "I have heard about the bear. I thought I heard the bear once or twice, actually. But that could just be my mind playing tricks. Power of suggestion, and so on. Or the wind, maybe."

Randvi sits next to him. “I think you would know if you had truly heard it. It pursued me to Bigby’s home and then slammed itself against the door for several minutes.”

It had also followed her to the home Constable Fraser shares with Sveta, a place she would not have gone otherwise.

“They say that there is some magical weapon that can defeat it. I plan to travel to Lakeside to see its construction.”

"Oh my god -- " Instinctively, he reaches out to grab her hand, expression concerned. "But you're all right? Obviously, I mean. I don't see any obvious wounds.

The weapon, yes. Honestly, better you than me. I don't -- " He takes his hand back, folding them in his lap with a sigh. "I'm not a fighter. It's not what I was trained for. I collect data, I try to put it together in the most cohesive way so that others can go out to use it.

I'm useless, in the field."

Randvi nods. “At that time it was either unwilling or unable to physically interact with us. I was shaken for obvious reasons but otherwise unharmed.”

It's comforting in a way that she's recovered enough from the injury to think of herself as a warrior again.

“A scholar is far from useless, especially here where we have so little knowledge of the world. But against a bear I suppose that holds little weight.”

"I intend to keep doing my research, so that I can give you warriors more to work with. And I can help out a little, at least, after the fight? I'm able to heal a little." More aptly, he can take the wounds onto himself. But he doesn't want to bother people with that part of it. He considers it penance, for past mistakes.

“Oh yes, I've heard about that.” How different might things be for Randvi now if Enola had offered that ability in her first round of gifts? It still gives her a bit of an ache to think about it.

“Research is always important. Heartman’s experiments saved many lives here.”

Darling's smile is a little sad at the mention of Heartman, and he nods his agreement. "His work was so, so incredible. I'm still going through his notes, trying to build off of what he started. I could never have come up with the talismans, that isn't my area of expertise.

I enjoyed working with him, in the short time we were partners."

“He really was incredible,” Randvi agrees. “He taught me so much.”

She gives Casper a little thumbs-up in his memory.

“I'm pleased that there are people here who can understand what we’ve learned.”

"Ah!" He returns the thumbs up, pleased at the little gesture. "Maybe we can teach each other, a little? I'm not familiar with any of the -- the science or the magic that goes into the talismans. I know about Objects of Power, but only those created naturally. I've never seen anything like that be created.

And in return, I'm happy to teach you more about multiverse theory and parallel dimensions. Which -- which is my area. That and paranatural abilities, but those don't really exist here. I've only spoken to one person who had them previously, but here something dampens them."

“Heartman and I experimented for some time with different methods of making the talismans, and I am confident that we have discovered the most effective manner.”

It's unfortunate that they'd had to discover some of it under terrible conditions at midsummer, but they've taken that information and moved forward.

“I would be pleased to trade this knowledge with you.”

"Fantastic! It's a deal, then. And please -- if you ever need help making the talismans again, I'm more than happy to lend a hand. Once I learn all the proper steps, of course. I wouldn't want to do anything incorrectly."

He pauses, watching the fire thoughtfully for a moment. "I don't think I know much about your home, Randvi. I need to be more curious, especially with friends. Tell me about where you were before you came here?"

“If groups of new people begin arriving again, we will need more.” Randvi wishes the surviving Forest Talkers would take them as well, but understands why they wouldn't.

“I'm Norse.” Her people seem well known even in the future, so he should understand a bit about her background. “I grew up in Graenafylke, and then lived in Rygjafylke for several years. It is a bit like it is here, with the long winters, though the growing season is milder. Recently, my clan has set out to settle in England, and we have formed a small colony on the banks of the Nene, inhabited by my own people, as well as Saxons and others from farther afield.”

She looks into the fire as well. “You said that you lived in a world such as this one, is that so?”

"I know where Scandinavia is! Or at least, where it was, in my world. And England, as well. I've visited England once or twice, but mostly for business.

I'm from America, which might not have been founded, in your world at your time. If uh, if they were still called Saxons and all that. Where I'm from, if this world is like mine, is a little to the south. Less than a thousand miles, if I'm thinking of the right place. Which I might not be, it could be completely different.

I was in a big city. Eight and a half million people, or thereabouts. Not like this at all."

It's always a bit exciting when she has something in common with another, even something so minor.

“I understand that Lunden yet endures, and Jorvik.” Randvi has read some books of maps in the library. “This land of Canada and your homeland are collectively known to my people as Vinland, but I have yet to see anyone who looks like the Vinlanders I have met.”

Of course, migrations happen. Perhaps they had all traded places and her Vinlanders live in Norway now.

“I can scarcely imagine a city so large. We are barely two hundred in Ravensthorpe.”

open | you were a wanderer...

ii

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