singillatim | (no subject)

Who: Hickey & OPEN!
What: cave visits, exploring around town, making some booze!
When: through the month of December
Where: in town, Misty Falls Cave.

Content Warnings: Hickey's god complex, animal death & mutilation, usual warnings for the Terror boys (possible talk of body horror, gore, cannibalism, etc.)

in town
Hickey makes a point to be a good neighbor. Moving something? He'll help! Chopping wood? He can help with that as well. The more useful and helpful he is, the more he ingratiates himself with everybody, the more likely he'll have people on his side whenever one of the rest of the crew of the Terror decides to actually say something about what happened back home.

When he goes out to hunt, occasionally he'll return with a rabbit or a ptarmigan, something he'll happily cook up for whoever wants any. This time is different. He's brought back an animal, a rabbit that looks off, burns on the flesh but nothing more. He makes sure to drop it away from his house (we're not going to contaminate the food) before carefully, in the middle of what passes for his yard, Hickey starts to carefully vivisect the rabbit. It's certainly a sight, and he looks up at whoever might be passing or walking by.

"Have you noticed some odd tracks out there? Out in the woods, just outside of town."

Misty Falls Cave
You're exploring the cave. It's dark, cold, there's a moment where you think you might be the only person in here. It's trapped, kept away, a small, solitary place cut off from the rest of the world—

And then you hear a loud "What the hell?!"

It's Cornelius Hickey, further down one of the paths. And he's just run into a dead end. And is very annoyed about that.

closed prompt for March
There's a loud pounding on March's door, the sort of pounding of someone who obviously doesn't really care about things like 'social conventions' or 'the fact that people might be asleep. Hickey continues knocking, but as he does so, he calls out,

"Oi! This is March's place, yeah? I brought some sugar for the alcohol."

Turns out that horrible trip in that cave had some results!

wildcard
( Hit me up if there's something you want to thread that's not on this post! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"...yeah. We're probably going to have to do that in the end. No way we're lucky enough that it'll go away." 'We' means him and someone else, probably not Hickey. The guy doesn't seem like the combat type.

Absolutely not Hickey. He will give Levi a little nod of acknowledgement, though, before asking,

"You seen anything of note out there? Any new monsters or anything of that nature?"

"Not really. Just those big tracks you see around town. I haven't really tried to follow them, though." He'll have to at some point if the culprit doesn't show themself. Probably will want back up for that though.

Hickey looks over at Levi, taking in the stature (or lack thereof), build (not much), and frame (tiny). There's a moment as he mulls his words over in his mind before pointing out,

"Bring someone bigger when you follow them. Whatever that is, if it attacks, it'll probably aim for the bigger person first."

Levi just kind of stares at Hickey for a moment. "...right. I'll keep that in mind."

"Practical thinking." Just saying!

"Anyway, you said you've been out in the woods, yeah? How many corpses like this," said with a nod to the directed rabbit, "have you seen?"

"I haven't counted...but a good amount. All in the same areas, like something going through got them all at once or when it passed by. Whatever made those tracks, I'm sure."

A good amount of game lost. That...is not good. He's already suffered a lack of food before, he's not going to suffer again.

"If this keeps up, I might go after this thing myself." Which based on his tone of voice SUCKS and he DOESN'T WANT TO DO IT but Cornelius Hickey is nothing if not practical. Food matters. And game is food.

"D'you know how many people here have guns?"

"Um. Might be better if you wait, there are a good number of fighters here who already know how to deal with...well, normal enemies or animals.

"I'm not sure how many, but I'm pretty sure there are more guns around if you really want one."

Hickey raises an eyebrow at Levi, looking at him like he's an idiot, before pointing out, "Something like that, something that kills an animal in that way? It's not normal."

"Yeah but I don't know if anyone else has experience fighting monsters. Even the basics for hunting or fighting other men would help some."

"Yeah, look at these people? They're ridiculous. Someone absolutely knows how to fight monsters."

"...probably. Some might even be monsters."

Hickey lets out a bright laugh at that, shaking his head as he looks over at Levi with a smile. Some might even be monsters. That's what Crozier would say about him, wouldn't he? A monster.

"Y'know? In that regard, you're probably right. I wonder who'll show their colors first."

He kind of meant he isn't sure some people ~~(read: Rorschach)~~ were human, but that kind of monster works too. "If we start running low on supplies someone will. I'm not sure if its luck or good will that got us through the storm without everyone turning on each other."

"Luck," said with no hesitation. "We had enough supplies to go through that storm. There's no guarantee we'll have those supplies the next time it happens."

"If we were still just living off what we'd left behind I'd agree. But people have been hunting and bringing in food. I think people recognize its a limited resource...but not sure if they realize how limited. Still it was more than just luck, we had to work for it too."

He sighs, "If there's a storm that lasts much longer, or the game disappears..." Then he's not that optimistic.

"A storm, like we've already had," Hickey points out. "And let's be honest: game disappearing wouldn't be the strangest thing that's happened here."

"Which is why those of us who are smart should store things for the future. I know you can, like, dry meat or something but I have no idea how that works. I'm pretty sure someone here does. But I guess just the temperature keeps things longer here."

"Hell if I know either," Hickey muses. "I cook it. The things that aren't cooked, they're put in one of those clear re-usable bags and left outside in the cold."

Ziploc bags. That's what you're talking about, Hickey.

"Oh yeah, those can be pretty useful." He doesn't have those in his time either, but he's seen them used for this sort of thing. "A lot easier than filling a box with ice or something."

"Right?" he points out, with a little sigh. Hickey looks over at the surroundings, taking in the snow...but also the buildings. The beds. The coats and boots, so much better than anything he's ever had back home.

This place was horrible and terrible and he'd rather not spend every day waking up and wondering if he was going to die...but he'd kill for some of these amenities back home.

"Odd. This place is damn useful at the same time of it trying to kill us."

"Yeah...but this place is, like, the future for me. So it makes sense things are more advanced." People always wanted to make things easier. "But some of it I don't get why they'd bother. Or how they thought of it in the first place."