divinity says "destiny can't be earned"

[castitas]

Who: Kate Marsh + You!
What: Kate returns to Milton from her seaside getaway to Silverpoint. Beargate happens.
When: Early June.
Where: Milton Outskirts/Wilds; Milton, various.

Content Warnings: animal death; bear attacks; supernatural ailments; mental manipulation; altered physiological states.

Comments

if I implore you, could I be your lamb? — open, post-what lies beneath / try honesty

[castitas]

— one

[ The bear has to be left behind. Of course it does, there's no way she's going to be able to lug that thing back all by herself: it's a bear. No matter how close it is to town. Hopefully the animal will remain undisturbed by any roaming predators before she has a chance to get back to it.

She's unsteady on her feet by the time she reaches town. Shaken and pale and the now unloaded flare gun still in her hand. She hit Tim, too. But she can't focus on that right now, she can't let herself. That bear— it's food.

The colour aura around is a bright and fizzling pale colours of white and yellow. She smells like flare-shell discharge and damp air and sweat. She's dazed and overwhelmed and exhausted. Merry trots at her side, tail between his legs: wary and cowed. ]

Hey, I uh— I need... help.

— two

[ When the bear's finally brought back to Milton, she heads to the Community Hall. It's only then that she really allows herself to breathe: she legit killed a bear and hit Tim. Like hit him. In the face. She's never raised her hand to anyone before but she just— she just got the maddest she'd ever been in her life, saw red and just—

she doesn't know. It's really put a damper on the whole 'coming back home' thing.

Silverpoint had been good for her, at least. But now she's— she doesn't know what happened out there in the woods.

She makes a bee-line for the fire and collapses into a nearby chair to warm herself. Merry flops down at her feet, sullen. The colours around her still remain pale of her shock and stun, but there's darker colours fading in: mournful purples and dark blues. Bringing home the bear-bacon doesn't feel at all like it's chalked up to be. ]

— tim drake

[castitas]

cw: supernatural ailments; mental manipulation; altered physiological states; paranoia; bear attack; animal death; eye injury (animal); ... animal corpse abuse?

[ There are cracks in the earth. Dotted along the landscape and churned up asphalt and makeshift graves of former Milton residents of the Costal Highway. By chance, she comes across one of the fissures, pausing to examine them and finding the pale-green vapours. It's weird. Green isn't the colour of danger. It's supposed to be red.

The journey back to Milton is a long one, with plenty of stops along the way. Kate withdraws slowly with suspicion and a low-burning ire she keeps pressed down. The group is smaller than those who journeyed down to Silverpoint. Plenty of people didn't stay long and left long before May came to an end, and some have stayed behind by the coast. She'd been tempted to stay longer, but she misses people back in Milton.

She'd reach out to some of them. She doesn't know if they got her messages. She hopes they did, or— sorta. Some of them were a mess. But the coast had been good for her.

By the time they've gotten through most of Lakeside, she hangs back in the group — Merry close to her side. Merry who whines and grumbled, unsettled by the separation from the others. By the time they've reached the Mines, she hangs back in the Mining Camp, urging the others to go forwards.

She doesn't trust them, wary of them—

The walk from the mines down to Milton is too quiet. She pulls her gloves off and pulls out her flare gun. It's loaded. She doesn't like the quiet. Even alone, she's sure there's... something, someone out there. And not even Merry is immune to the growing, gnawing feeling. It's like a swarm of hornets, an incessant prickling at the back of her neck, her jaw tight as she grinds her teeth.

Stop looking at me. she snaps at Merry, and the wolf-dog keeps his head and tail low.

The moment she sees the bear, the swarm of hornets in her head blurs into a high-pitched screech. Everything is too sharp and bright. The colours that glow around her: warnings of mustard-yellow bleed into red and white-hot. She's not afraid. She's angry, strung too tight and her fingers are already burning from the cold. Merry's barking furiously, trying to ward the animal off.

She's not running, she's screaming furiously — stalking forwards as the bear rears up and charges. She raises her arms, her hands don't even shake.

Click.

The sound is deafening. A hot red-white dazzling flash of light. It sinks into the bear's skull, through the eye. The bear crumples with a grunt. Kate's throwing off her pack, blind to the animal's death and charging forwards as she grabs a strewn branch from the snow — still screaming into the open air as she starts to beat the downed beast.

The flare fizzles and roars from the eye socket, smoke trailing. The flare is red and white and Kate's red and white and on the ground is red and white and red and white and— ]

— wynonna earp

[castitas]

[ Once the shock wears off a little and she's warmed up by the fire in the Community Hall, Kate heads out again. There's people she needs to see. Some are going to be more difficult than others, all things considered.

The first person isn't difficult, and it's someone she's actually looking forward to seeing. The Post Office isn't far from the Community Hall, either. So it makes sense for it to be her first stop. She opens the door and peeks inside, half-hovering in the doorway.

The colour of the aura around her warm and brighten at the sight of the woman behind the bar: soft golden yellows and baby pinks of joy and affection and relief. Not like she had any suspicion anything would happen. Wynnona is... well, she's Wynonna. ]

So, like— I don't have any ID. [ The smile at her lips is tired and pale. ] Am I actually allowed in here?