angelo and the hickster's post-belle arctic adventures

[spotsalone]

CORNELIUS HICKEY
caulker's mate (T)
alive

ANGELO SAUPER
lieutenant (NZ)
alive

SOLOMON TOZER
marine, sergeant (T)
alive

GEORGE HODGSON
lieutenant (T)
alive

MAGNUS MANSON
ab (T)
alive

EDWARD LITTLE
lieutenant (T)
alive, 1 hp

CHARLES DES VOEUX
mate (E)
alive

WILLIAM PILKINGTON
marine, private (E)
alive

JOHN LANE
boatswain (T)
alive

JOHN DIGGLE
cook (T)
alive, lung damage

JOHN SULLIVAN
capt. of the maintop (E)
alive

JAMES RIGDEN
coxswain (E)
alive

ROBERT FERRIER
ab (T)
alive

ROBERT THOMAS
mate (T)
dead, scurvy

THOMAS ARMITAGE
gunroom steward (T)
dead, tuunbaq

JAMES DALY
marine, private (T)
dead, tuunbaq

EDMUND HOAR
captain's steward (E)
dead, tuunbaq

THOMAS TERRY
boatswain (E)
dead, scurvy

THOMAS WORK
ab (T)
dead, scurvy

HARRY GOODSIR
surgeon (E)
alive, rescued

code by pagans



angelo cr chart
mutineers cr chart...

timeline:

• arrival; late july, mutineers' hill
  
• tent chats; early august, temporary camp
  
• spotting the ships; late august, terror camp
  
• tuunbaq attack; sept 1, ice floe camp
  
• boarding terror; fellas it's gay; early sept, hms terror
  
• dog to dog communication; early sept, forecastle
  
• bark bark bark; early sept, on deck
  
• coat! and post-tozer debrief; early sept, angelo's cabin
  
• 🌶️; early sept, hickey's cabin
  
• the dogs are unionizing(?); mid sept, cargo hold
  
• tozer/captain stuff, look at them having an adult conversation; mid sept, greatroom
  
• little rescue mission; early oct, terror bay
  
• post-little debrief; early oct, hickey's cabin

Comments

[royalmarine]

[ Tozer grunts. A trade route, yes. Over a hundred men have died in the name of tea and spices. What an empire...

With the linen tied up, Tozer hefts it over to their pile and stands again to extra another crate. Maybe this is the key to their getting along, then. They're more amicable when they're moving and working. ]

Careful, there. Some among us may take issue with such a statement.

[ Especially from an outsider. It even pricks at Tozer a bit, though he doesn't disagree. What does Angelo know about England? What right does he have to judge it? Flawed though it is, it's still the only place Tozer can call home. That must count for something. ]

Is that an opinion you formed yourself?

[ It sounds like something Hickey would say, if not in those exact words. ]

[cleansheets]

[ The next crate is a bust. They have absolutely no need for a pile of percussion instruments. Angelo clicks his tongue, though it's ambiguous whether that is at their lack of loot or at the question being asked. ]

Of course it is.

[ Angelo is not keen on self-reflection and checking his biases, so the idea that it is a premature and ill-informed one doesn't even cross his mind. ]

The British Empire is not history's only Empire. I grew up in the colonies, under the yoke of the Federation. It's all the same shit.

[ In truth, his family had been fairly wealthy merchants when they were still alive. Angelo hasn't truly been born into the oppression he describes, merely assimilated into it. But these are like-wise self-reflections he is not prone to. ]

[royalmarine]

[ Well, at least Tozer has learned to expect needlessly sassy responses from Angelo. ]

Britain exists in your history, then? You're... from the future?

[ Somehow, he hadn't considered that possibility. Angelo's presence in general is a lot to wrap his head around, but there's something more disconcerting about him being from here but not at the same time. Does he know what happens to them, then? To England? In Angelo's world, all of them must be long dead by now.

Except Hickey, apparently. That may be the most disconcerting piece of the entire puzzle. ]

[cleansheets]

Probably.

[ He'd kind of been hoping that Hickey had already covered this in his summary of the castle, but... actually, he should be glad that he didn't. It means Hickey is truly honoring his conditions, down to the letter. His past is his own to share, even the details that do not matter. ]

Your Empire hasn't existed for hundreds of years in my world. Don't ask me if that means I'm from a future or the future, I understand that as little as you do.

[ Fucking Ish and his weird complicated magic shit. Angelo has not tried particularly hard to make sense of it, but it does give him a headache anyway. ]

[royalmarine]

[ Well. He truly has no idea what to make of that. If Angelo does know anything about their fate, asking him about it is likely pointless. He won't ask about the fate of the Empire, either. That, he doesn't want to know. ]

That's... disorientating.

[ Tozer pries open another crate. His fingers are nearly too stiff to function anymore. They best be done with this soon, though he wouldn't be surprised if Angelo conjured up some reason to keep them working down here for longer, just to make good on his earlier threat.

Whether or not Tozer would go along with it remains to be seen. For all his defiance earlier, he's not one to refuse an order just to prove a point. ]

And what will you do, should we survive this? You may still think yourself an outsider on this ship, but we're a forgiving sort compared to London.

[ He says it with genuine concern, already falling into the habit of helping again, but he expects Angelo to take it as an insult regardless. ]

[cleansheets]

I have no intention of ever seeing London for myself.

[ And neither does Hickey - even if they weren't set to leave this world whenever Ish provides the next opportunity for it, if there is one place they won't return to its that. Angelo's questions about Hickey's past have always gone nowhere (quite unfairly, he thinks) but the fact that there's nothing left for him in Britain had been made abundantly clear. ]

And some things about the world never change. People are people. I have enough experience that I'll get by fine.

[ If anything, it'd be easier to vanish into the anonymity of some city, somewhere at the other side of the world, than it is to try and integrate himself here with this small group of people already all-too-familiar with each other.

Angelo glimpses into the crate that Tozer has painstakingly pulled open for them and huffs. It's soap. Something they hadn't been in danger of running out of anytime soon, but it's always good to have some more. The scent is rose.

Like the soap that almost got him killed, once.

He'll get by fine, yes... ]

[royalmarine]

[ Tozer stands back from the crate and watches Angelo curiously. Another clue, another detail that doesn't quite fit, yet the gears in his mind are rusted and sluggish. It's not as if their crew has ever explicitly discussed their destination. There are too many essential steps ahead of them before they can think of home, but it's a given, isn't it? Of course they're going back to England. Where else would they go?

Where else would Hickey go? Surely he's not going to let Angelo part ways—even if he may have promised to do so.

Tozer almost lets the comment slide by, but then, Angelo wouldn't have brought it up if it was a secret. ]

You're not going to stay with Cornelius?

[ It takes him an extra beat of hesitation to figure out the best angle for prodding. ]

I'd expect he would object to that plan. Is this going up?

[ He kicks at the crate of soap. They don't need it, but Angelo is rather obsessed with cleaning... ]

[cleansheets]

[ Well, that does get Angelo to quickly snap out of his soap-induced reverie. He clicks his tongue. ]

Of course I'm staying with him.

[ The defensive rebuttal is out before he fully takes in (with some appreciation) that Tozer has clocked that Hickey would not let him go either. They're a set now, inseparable. It's for the best that everyone sees that plainly. ]

You came all the way up here and you still think all roads lead to London?

[ Really, he does wonder where he and Hickey will end up at the end of it all. They'd promised to go to Angelo's world, but that prospect feels even more foul now that they've had their fights.

Angelo shuts the box and gives a belated nod. And then after a beat of consideration: ]

Yeah, we'll take it. We've gotten enough for now. Let's grab what we got and move up.

[ God knows they're both freezing. ]

[royalmarine]

[ There's a lot to parse in that response. Of course, Angelo says, and says so quickly. And his tone... Is he defensive or possessive? Tozer isn't quite sure what to make of it, so as per usual, he files it all away to sort through later. This may even be worth asking Hickey about directly. ]

I didn't have a choice to be here. None of us marines did.

[ It feels important to make sure Angelo knows this. He's not eager to dwell on it, though. Tozer nods in return, and then picks up the makeshift bag of hay to toss up to the orlop.

But he pauses again, jaw working as he considers something. ]

You've got it wrong, by the way. I don't dislike you.

[ Tozer isn't going to dwell on that, either. Instead, he hauls himself up the ladder so that Angelo can start passing him crates. There's work that needs doing. ]

[cleansheets]

[ Of all the things Tozer could have said... Angelo pauses in his movements for a moment, instead looking up to fix the man with a measuring stare. He does not come away looking too impressed. ]

Is that so.

[ It's not a question, not really, just a flat acknowledgement that he's heard what Tozer said. Angelo finds the content too hard to believe. He is easy to dislike. It's something he's been aware of for a long time, and consciously made his armor. At the castle, that armor turned against him. Here it seems to serve no purpose one way or another, it just lingers between himself and the crew. Angelo doesn't mind. He has no desire to form bonds.

So he just grabs the crate of traitorous soap, and gets to work. ]