Cornelius Hickey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spotsalone) wrote2025-04-11 07:04 pm
spotsalone) wrote2025-04-11 07:04 pm
Entry tags:
angelo and the hickster's post-belle arctic adventures
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
no subject
[ Angelo tilts his head a little. This is a thought that is occurring to him for the very first time. He'd simply taken it to be 'in a year' and adjusted his expectations accordingly. After about two months in this world, they'd have ten to go... But now that Hickey is saying this, he's realizing that that's not what this calendar agrees with. If it were Halloween as according to each world... ]
You think there's a chance he'll already show next month?
[ The thought is strange. As much as Angelo is eager to be done with arctic exploration, it would feel incomplete to leave without completing their objectives. ]
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He could show at any time, but I can't imagine he's eager to meet us again so soon.
[ They're kind of a pain to deal with, aren't they? And Hickey is still angry over Ish selling him out at carnivale... Smug bastard. ]
If he does, though, we ought to have a plan in place.
[ He already has one, of course. If he and Angelo leave now, the rest of the crew stands little chance of survival. Tozer might be able to see them home, but he wouldn't want to lead and likely wouldn't have the resolve for it anyway, should they abandon him.
Magicking themselves away from peril is a cheap trick. After all they've gone through to make it this far, Hickey would find no satisfaction in cheating a victory.
But he's quiet for the moment, watching for Angelo's reaction. If he does want to leave... perhaps the plan can be adjusted. ]
no subject
It's strange that Hickey is quiet, waiting for Angelo to speak. They ought to have a plan, indeed, but Hickey is the one who usually makes those. Waiting for Angelo's suggestion feels like an oddity, and it brings him back to what he'd wondered just earlier today: why are they even here to begin with? What was Hickey seeking by returning? ]
Well. We haven't accomplished your goal yet, have we?
[ Whatever that goal was. ]
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Indeed. We can't say we've truly won against this place if we rely on Ish to see us out of it.
[ The fact that Angelo is unsure of his greater goal is lost on him. Hadn't he made it clear, at some point? His wanting to see this journey through to the end should be obvious.
And if that means Solomon and Magnus get to live as a result, well. Good for them. They are his last true connections to this world, now that he thinks about it. The rest of it can burn. ]
Can you tolerate remaining here for so long?
[ His voice lowers, his tone more serious. Agreeing on their plan is one thing, but it comes with both great risk and great discomfort. They may run out of food entirely. They may find the ship frozen in ice again, unable to sail come spring. Even if the next few months go well, Hickey would be surprised if they retain their numbers. Some among them are going to die, whether by starvation or scurvy or... necessity. ]
Winter will be far worse than anything we've weathered yet.
no subject
[ No point banking on an exit strategy that may not even manifest to begin with. All this would do is weaken his resolve to see winter through properly. Back at the castle, a part of Angelo had believed that he has lived through worse anyway, that this could be no different from living on the streets... and he knows now that he'd been wrong about that. A different kind of pain, a different kind of hunger, and a cold he's never had to endure without a spacesuit.
Angelo turns his head towards the windows - there is nothing to see outside but darkness, but he knows that darkness is treacherous and freezing. It's the death he escaped, waiting for him to come back to it... but he won't. Hickey doesn't bet on losing horses. ]
no subject
The threat of winter does have him nervous, though. Their provisions especially are not promising. They can try to fish and perhaps hunt once they make safe harbor, but without success there... Maybe they'll get lucky and some of their men will die naturally. Otherwise, he will cull their numbers again if he has to. ]
Mainly, we'll be very cold and very bored. Everyone will be in a foul mood.
[ There is no sense in pointing out the lack of food. Angelo knows. Everyone knows.
Though, as he thinks about it... ]
You may enjoy some aspects of winter, actually. There will be a lot of snow.
[ He remembers Angelo's reaction to seeing the pack. ]
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But Hickey is right, he does like the snow. It covers up all the filth of the world. ]
All will be blanketed in pure untainted white...
[ It is going to be too cold to spend much time on deck looking out, and it will be dark too, but Angelo will still be tempted. The lack of sunlight might at least protect him from the risk of snowblindness, that he is as yet totally unaware of. ]
And there'll be stars day and night, right? I'll feel right at home with that. The observation deck was always my favorite.
[ Would that they could sit on deck together for hours, dreaming the winter away under the twinkling of space above. Angelo would have liked that. ]
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Angelo will never shine like this in front of the others. This is just for them. A nice thought. ]
How do you stand the lack of sunlight? I find it miserable.
[ He has a feeling it may not be so bad this year, however. ]
no subject
[ Angelo doesn't like sunlight all that much, if he's honest. It's too bright, too relentless. Conceptually, that just bothers him. Maybe all the years spent working nights and sleeping away most of the day also helped desensitize him to the lack of light--
He's almost content to leave it at that, finding it a reasonable enough explanation, but then some common knowledge pops up at the back of his brain and gives him pause. ]
I suppose they also use UV lamps on spaceships to simulate daylight a bit more effectively...?
[ He doesn't sound perfectly sure of this, because he isn't. As long as things function, their inner workings feel like none of his concern. ]
no subject
You have lamps that can simulate daylight.
[ His head tips to the side. It's not a question, but also, it is. ]
But the sun is in space, is it not? Wouldn't you have more direct access to it?
[ Or perhaps Angelo is simply too far from the sun to benefit. He said he was from behind the moon... Wait, but that's a lie. Isn't it? Oh no. His face pinches together in thought as he tries to make it make sense. ]
no subject
No, the sun doesn't really light up space, it's-- Wait, no. They bundle sunlight with mirrors for the open type colonies, don't they...?
[ He cuts himself off, displeased with the way he's tripping himself up without delivering an explanation that Hickey will find in any way satisfactory. He's never in his life had the levity to care about how stuff works - to him it matters that it does, and making sure it does is someone else's problem. This means that Hickey's earnest and insatiable curiosity is quite the difficulty to overcome.
Finally letting go of Hickey's hands, Angelo turns towards the door to Hickey's cabin. ]
Ugh. It's too cold to have this talk standing in the middle of the room - let's at least get comfortable first.
[ Once they're settled on the mattress, bodies huddled close under the same blanket, Angelo manages to muster up a bit more patience for thinking about the laws of light and space. His explanations are halting and filled with guesswork to patch them out, but Hickey seems happy enough to keep pestering him with more questions so... maybe it's not all bad.
It's only Hickey who could relentlessly bug him about gaps in his education without making Angelo bite his head off sooner rather than later. An unknown dynamic, created only for them and between them. It makes Angelo feel a little strange when he finally disentangles and sneaks back through the greatroom to his own room.
He knows love, knows it as intense and overwhelming, but he does not know the sensation of falling. Does Hickey feel it when they sit together like this? ]