singillatim | to the victor's besties go the spoils

It's a bright, sunny day in Milton. It's June, it's lovely outside, it's warm for the Arctic (which means that it's still fucking cold, but details). And Cornelius Hickey has a pep in his step. He's moving with a purpose, wry little smile on his face, something that might be excitement bouncing through him. He's got a bag slung over a shoulder, a tote bag that has an assortment of small items in it. And he's walking over to you with a little wave.

(Unless you're Chloe Frazer or any of Hickey's other vampire friends. In that case, he's coming to you directly, bothering you at your house. Hickey might not have put together the reason why some people are avoiding the sun, but he's certainly realized that they are avoiding it in the first place).

"Close your eyes," Hickey says, without any hesitation, fully unaware that is a buckwild statement to start the conversation with. "I was over at Silverpoint, yeah? Got you something. Might as well make it a surprise."

Chloe rolls her eyes at the drama of it all, but she's smiling.

“Okay, but you have to tell me everything about this trip after. I am so jealous right now.”

Grin on his face, Hickey places something in Chloe's hands. When she opens it up, she'll see that it's three travel-sized bottles of shampoo. Considering that they're all open and slightly used, these are obviously shampoo that was looted from someone's luggage, but it's still shampoo! It's still good! She can still use it!

"The walk there was aggravating. We could probably do it easy enough," says the person who knows Chloe's also got Free Runner, "but along the way, there were the bodies of those who didn't make it. Silverpoint's coastal. They've got a pub, got an inn, and occasionally things wash up on the shore. Honestly, if I wasn't already invested in Milton, I'd suggest Billy and I move over there."

Nice. Chloe grins at the sight of the shampoo bottles. She's vain about her hair and right now it's kind of a disaster.

“Are there places to shelter along the route?” She still does poorly in the sun. “Any survivors in Silverpoint?”

"There's a gas station partway through the journey, but that's about it. You'd probably want to wait until later in the year."

Hickey doesn't know exactly why Chloe doesn't like the sun. Probably has something to do with that gift of hers, the one that knocked Hickey for a loop a few months back. But he knows she doesn't like it, so he'll keep that in mind as they talk.

"But yeah, there are survivors. I'd say...more than Milton, definitely. I'd guess a hundred or so? Maybe more."

“A hundred? Holy shit. All locals?” Or is there another town of interlopers out there?

"All locals," Hickey nods. "If there was anybody like us, they didn't talk openly about it."

“Friendlier than the last batch we encountered, I assume?” Either that or Hickey killed them all and they all happened to drop travel shampoo like video game bosses.

"They didn't immediately start trying to kill us if that's what you ask," Hickey laughs, with a little shrug. It's not that hard to be friendlier than the Forest Talkers. But thankfully, these people were.

"A couple of them could prove useful. There was a priest," which ew, gross, "but the woman who owned the pub was good for gossip. Her boy and I went beach-combing."

A priest. Chloe rolls her eyes. That mandatory Christmas mass had been more than enough Christianity for her, thank you very much.

“Hard to believe there are families down there. There were kids in the Forest Talkers, but it wasn't really the same. How’s the gossip?”

"Not as messy as ours," Hickey admits. There's a pause before he muses, "There's a cannery down there. Something happened there—I was warned off of investigating it."

Chloe should absolutely not be surprised when Hickey admits, "I kind of want to get a bigger group and go back there to see what happened."

“Oh, I heard about that,” Chloe says thoughtfully. “When I was sorting the newspapers at the library, I saw an article about job cuts at the cannery. Sounded like a lot of people in Milton worked there. Maybe there was a strike, or even a riot.”

Who knows what might have happened once the people in Milton were driven to kill each other?

“I’d love to check it out, if you can stand to wait until we get a bit of real night first.”

"Course I can wait," Hickey says, with a nod. "Doubt I'll be going back there any time soon anyway. Trip's nice and easy, but it is long. I'll want to stay at home for the next few weeks."

Hickey doesn't realize he says that until he's out of his mouth: he wants to stay home. He hasn't really ever thought of anything as home—to say something like that without realizing it has taken him by surprise a bit. But after a brief flash of surprise on his face, his expression settles into acceptance.

Yeah. This is home. Weird enough to think it, but it is.

Chloe snickers. “And to think, Billy was annoyed with me for suggesting you guys would get boring once you got married.”

"Fuck you, I'm never boring," said with a grin. This is absolutely Hickey just giving Chloe shit for the sake of giving her shit, there's no trace of malice in his words.

"You should be nice to the man who gave you shampoo."

Chloe laughs. “Too late, you already handed it over.”

"Yeah, cause unlike you, I'm nice," grins the man who isn't nice and they both know it.

Hickey shrugs a little before continuing, "Dunno how much of anything there will be left en route to Silverpoint a few months from now. You know some people were talking about burying the bodies? Waste of effort if you ask me."

Chloe shrugs. She wouldn't have done it herself but she understands the impulse.

“Everyone does what they have to do to get through this.”

"True," he muses, "but it's bloody cold out there. Not much shelter either. I just can't understand why someone's morals would be so strong that they'd actively put themselves in danger."

It's not like they can bury everybody, after all. Ground's too cold. And bodies are too numerous.

“Not my thing, but I've got mates who’d do it.” She’d probably have to throw Elena over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes to get her out of the cold. “Sometimes it's not even morals, it's like… trying to keep something that makes you feel human.”

"What makes me feel the most human is staying alive," Hickey points out. "Not freezing to death trying to help someone who's beyond saving."

It's obvious as he talks that he's not trying to get in an argument. He's not trying to pick a fight. He just fundamentally does not understand why people would care about things like 'the dignity of the corpse.' What matters is the person, who they are, what they're doing, not the body itself.

But then again, most people don't jump right to 'cannibalize the boyfriend' after he dies.

“Yeah, I hear you, but it's not like that for everyone.”

She’d taken so much shit for wanting to leave Elena’s cameraman behind after he’d taken a bullet in Nepal, and she’d been right in the end: he’d slowed them down enough that they'd been caught and Lazarevic had killed him in front of them anyway.

Hickey remains quiet for a moment, thinking over what Chloe's saying. After what feels like an eternity but is really close to ten seconds, he simply shrugs.

"I guess that's why people like them die and people like us survive. We know what to do."

"Does every single gift ever have to be a surprise, Cornelius?"

Despite the content of that question, it doesn't sound like Billy is fully annoyed by the other's shenanigans going on here. It's more just the way they function. Responding to anything the other says with eagerness - even just once! - would feel weird. Bad. So even though Billy is definitely curious what the other managed to drag back with him from that place, this is apparently what he's got to say about it as he looks over at the other man.

"Oi, I like surprises!" Hickey points out, with an innocent little grin on his face that Billy knows is very much not innocent. "Don't see why others don't."

He can easily see why other people don't like surprises. Surprises are nice when they're fun, aggravating when they're not. And more often than not, they'll end up in the 'not' section of things. But it's him! And Billy's Billy! So obviously Billy should know that this is a fun surprise (like a ring) and should ignore all the times that there weren't fun surprises (like taking a shit on his bed).

See, he's even fully convinced this is a - relatively speaking - fun surprise, rather than Hickey trying to play some sort of dumb prank on him. But it's the dramatics of it all! The entirely unnecessary dramatics!

"I will make note of that," he says a little dryly, like he's actually remembering this in fact he needs to get Hickey back for something in the future...

.. but he's not really thinking of that now. Instead he's being good, actually going along with this. Not enthusiastically so, but you know, you can only ask so much from Billy! Just the fact he's extending his hand towards the other and closing his eyes means he's going along well enough with it in his book.

Hickey reaches into his bag and places something in Billy's hands. When he opens his eyes, Billy will see that it's a simple bar of soap. Slightly used, but mostly in one piece. It's very floral, giving off a light lavender scent. Hickey looks very proud and smug about his bar of soap, but he will add,

"I found a pair of boots and some socks for you as well, but I left them back at the house. You'll have to try them on to see how well they fit."

They look like they'd fit Billy, so Hickey grabbed them! Please ignore the fact that he grabbed them off of a corpse, it's the thought that counts.

When he opens his eyes, he blinks for a moment as he looks at the soap.

Sure, there's also a hum to acknowledge what the other is telling him about the clothes - very casual too, despite the fact that Billy is 90% sure that Hickey looted them off a corpse rather than traded something for it - but he seems much more fascinated with this soap.

Billy even pulls it a little closer to his face to be able to really get a whiff of the scent, and he looks.. sort of pleased, actually. It's nice.

It's only after his slight examination of the soap that he turns his attention back over to the other man to ask: "They had this there?"

As Billy examines the soap, Hickey can't help but look a little smug. Yeah. He's got this. He picked right. He's such a good husband, isn't he wonderful? He has a smug little smirk on his face which vanishes when Billy looks at him. He's not gloating, nope, not at all.

"Of a sort," Hickey says, with a little shrug. "We weren't the first people to try and make it to Silverpoint. We were the only ones who made it. There were suitcases and luggage left behind along the way. Found one of them, decided to pop it open and see what was inside."

Billy's assumption of corpse looting is 100% correct.

Raylan lifts his chin as Hickey comes towards him, friendly and affable curl coming to his lips as his eyebrows raise at the opening. He trusted Hickey well enough, but not well enough to automatically assume he wouldn't put a ball of slime or something in his hands, like they were 8 and on a playground.

"I cannot tell you how much I dislike surprises. Is closing my eyes absolutely necessary?"

If Hickey insists, Raylan will sigh a big dramatic sigh and do as asked, but he'd rather not if he can help it. He never was much for slime.

"Course it's necessary," Hickey points out. He's got a smug little expression on his face that would be worrisome, except for the fact that Hickey's default expression is a smug little grin. "Wouldn't be a surprise if you kept your eyes open."

But Raylan does what he asks (of course he does! It's a good idea!). And thankfully, it's not slime. Hickey lightly sets a box of matches in Raylan's hand. "I've got socks as well, but I'm not so sure of your foot size. Swing by mine and Billy's and we'll see what fits you, yeah?"

Oh wait a moment,

"You can open your eyes now."

An eyeroll cam with that big dramatic sigh, but he cracks an eye warily when Hickey gives him the okay. He breaks into a grin with a nod as the matches are inspected. This surprise wasn't too bad at all!

"Socks, the currency I never imagined us having. Thanks, I'll take you up on that. They're harder to find than they should be." The ones he had found weren't in the best position and toes were important.

"So what's out there? What happened at Lakeside? I heard somethin' about a new way past it? What's that about?"

"You remember that earthquake we had? It broke up parts of the dam. You can get out of there and cross the building now. It leads to this large, open area—perfect for following and going to the coast. We weren't the only people who thought that—there were some corpses along the way."

That Hickey absolutely robbed from, but they can keep that part to themselves.

"It's a few days journey for me, probably longer for others. But keep going and you'll find your way to Silverpoint. It's a town on the coast, more populous than here."

to the victor's besties go the spoils

ota to literally anybody Hickey has had a nice conversation with (esp his besties + Team Wolf Pack)

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