spotsalone: (Default)
Cornelius Hickey ([personal profile] spotsalone) wrote2025-04-11 07:04 pm
cleansheets: (56 serious)

[personal profile] cleansheets 2025-10-05 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
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: (012)

[personal profile] royalmarine 2025-10-05 07:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[ 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: (67 serious)

[personal profile] cleansheets 2025-10-05 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[ 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: (014)

[personal profile] royalmarine 2025-10-05 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[ 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: (21 anger)

[personal profile] cleansheets 2025-10-05 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[ 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. ]