apocalypsehowcomm | (log) march catch-all

[Crowley is not, by nature, an especially gentle person. But he spent the last six years playing nanny to a child, and no matter how much he'd like to think of himself as cool and scary demon, some things become habit.

Like being able to tell when someone is distressed, and automatically thinking about how to fix it.]

We can say whatever you'd like to say. If you'd rather they not know, I won't tell 'em anything.

[He means it, too. They might have been sent out here with a purpose, but if this is one of Katrina's people, there might be customs that the ADI wouldn't respect.]

But if there's no sirens here, and we've not heard about anyone going missing, this might not be completely real. Those Entities they've told us about can trick you into seeing things differently from how they really are.

[He has to believe that's what the snow was. The whole situation was too weird, and over too suddenly, for it to be anything else.]

[ The Entities. That's right. The very things they're trying to stop. Of course the Entities would want to throw them off. Crowley may not be a warrior, but he's calm where she is upset. He's a good ally.

Katrina relaxes a little, lowering her spear as she thinks it over. ]

If body is real, I must bury.

[ Movement in the corner of her eye makes her look to the side, but it's just a squirrel. She can't help but be on edge, though. ]

If not real, we tell ADI. Entities are making trap.

[The advantage to being composed of about 90% anxiety is that he's very good at looking calmer than he feels.]

Alright, suppose we'd best find out if it's real.

[First things first, he digs his phone out of his pocket to start taking pictures. If they do end up reporting this to the ADI, it'll likely be of use to have some shots of the body and surrounding area.]

You keep an eye on things, since you're the one with the spear.

Yes.

[ She turns away from the body, her back facing Crowley's back. There's more tension in her stance than usual, on edge as she is, but she can count on Crowley to be smart about this.

She hopes. The physically weaker ones usually make up for it with strength of mind. ]

No sign of hunter.

[ Just to reassure him, and herself. She shouldn't get into any fights right now, not until she's calmer. ]

That's a relief.

[Always nice not to get stabbed in the back, especially considering the sort of things he's sure are lurking in the forest.

He's not feeling all that eager about this, but he figures Katrina seems more than capable of handling herself if it comes to it, so he mentally braces himself, tucks the phone away, and steps off the path towards the body.]

Still not sure how they got here, the ground's clear around the body.

[If he's going to stick his neck out here, he might as well keep Katrina updated on what he's looking at, as well as to reassure her that he hasn't been sucked into the ground or anything.]

Let's see if we can figure out what killed 'em.

[When he looks back at this moment, he'll realize how stupid it was to touch the damn corpse, but he's so desensitized to death that it barely occurs to him in the moment.

The corpse turning to ash under his fingertips earns a startled grunt, and comes next is even worse. A memory slammed into him, fear and desperation, hands tangled in a net, water all around, and then the sudden, sharp pain of a spear being driven down through his clavicle into his chest.

There's blood in his mouth, in the water, and in the memory he struggles to free himself from the net, a last ditch attempt to get away to safety. But there's no escape, and no safety, only the tightening ropes of the net as something awful begins to drag him to the surface.

The memory fades as quickly as it came, leaving Crowley kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath that he doesn't actually need.]

[ Things are fine until he startles. Katrina turns and approaches Crowley to see what's going on.

But there's nothing but ashes where the corpse was, and Crowley gasping for breath, kneeling. It happened so fast that she could almost say it never happened at all, except for the fact that the siren corpse is no more, and Crowley looks like he was hurt. ]

Crowley! What attack you?

[ She crouches by his side, still with one hand gripping her spear as she scans the woods between glances at him. ]

S'okay, m'okay.

[He waves a hand at her in the universal signal for I'm fine, I just need a second to catch my breath, because he doesn't want her to think there's something lurking nearby when he's fairly sure there isn't.

It's just another trick.

The next thing he does is touch his collarbone where he felt the spear pierce him, checking that there's not actually an injury there, relieved to find it doesn't hurt at all.

It's probably fortunate that he's used to having unpleasant things shoved right into his head. Makes for an easier recovery.]

I felt them die, must be some Entity bullshit. Felt like I was under the water, tangled up in a net until I got a stuck with a fishing spear.

[Not the most pleasant way to go, really.]

[ She takes his word for it, giving him a little more space as she stands again, scanning the shadows for threats.

When he describes what overcame him, what he witnessed, her heart beats faster, and her grip on the spear tightens. The corpse of a siren killed by fishermen.

She remembers the stories passed down from the survivors of the massacre in the waters off Bristol Cove, and for a moment, hatred floods her veins. Hatred for the humans who did this, hatred for all humans. She remembers Tia and her calm certainty as she told them her end goal: to kill the humans before they could kill everyone else.

Katrina hisses, and considers stabbing Crowley then and there. But that would just set ADI on her, and they could use her to find her home and wipe out her kind. ADI could easily kill Tia. They could catch Katie Dunn, after all. A siren is nothing.

Lowering her spear, she hisses again, and some of the tension leaves her frame. ]

If they in water, they have tail. This body not have tail.

[ So how... how?

She hisses again. ]

Human kill my people once. Many siren. Others born. We grow. But we stay in deep water, far from human. Then fishing boat catch one. A girl from tribe. Donna. Human army take her for test. For torture. Her sister go to save her. It take time. We save her, but she die by human shoot her. Accident. All fighting.

[ That was the night Ryn bested her in combat. The night Katrina lost her status as leader. It still stings, but it seems so irrelevant now. ]

This... This is trick of Entity. No siren in ocean here.

[ Katrina hisses. How dare they. ]

Edited 2022-04-08 00:51 (UTC)

[The thing is, he'd known as soon as he'd thought about opening his mouth that telling Katrina what happened might cause a fair bit of distress, likely anger, just based on her... everything.

But lying wouldn't really serve any purpose, and he's not so cruel that he'd deny her knowing what happened to one of her kin. Crowley has no love for other demons, but he knows how important community is, especially for the ones who aren't the status quo.

The best he can do is sit back on his heels and wait for her to work through whatever she needs to work through. If the situation weren't so unpleasant, he'd almost be amused by hearing someone hissing as much as he does (used to) when he's upset. Being amused would only make things worse, anyway, when she's recounting something fairly awful.]

It's likely a trick, yeah. Probably 'cause it's something you're scared of.

[They pluck fears from the source, it seems, and it makes perfect sense that Katrina is scared of more of her people dying.]

M'sorry about what happened to your friend. Humans aren't — well — they're kind of arseholes when it comes to things they're not used to.

[His word choice is deliberate, not including himself in the label of humans.]

[ It is, in fact, her greatest fear. Sirens are already in danger, what with pollution all but completely eliminating their ability to reproduce. Humans need only be patient, and they'll die out.

She will not allow that. Somehow, Katrina will find a way to stop that from happening, with or without Ryn, with or without ADI.

She only listens as Crowley talks, until he comes to the end. Humans. He does not count himself among them, or else he would have said "we".

Frowning, she watches him for a few seconds. ]

You not human. Only look human, like me.

[ It's a question and a statement. ]

[The question that's being asked likely isn't are you inhuman? It's what are you?

He told Donna he wasn't human, without going into the details, knowing that people can be rather unpleasant about the demon thing. Katrina likely has no reference for what it will mean, unless missionaries got into the ocean, too. But that seems unlikely.]

I'm a demon.

[That's not all he's planning to say, but now that he's less worried about her anger, he takes a second to get back to his feet, brushing off his clothes and hands.]

This body I've got is about the same to me as that shirt you're wearing is to you, and I've been around since before this planet even existed, never mind the humans walking about on it.

[In other circumstances, he might make a joke, but it doesn't feel appropriate with Katrina on edge and distressed about the dead siren.]

[ He's right. Katrina has never heard of demons, and has had no exposure to the major religions of humankind. To her, he's just another species, another inhabitant of the world who clearly understands how humans are to nonhumans.

If he really has been alive as long as he says, then he knows better than anyone about how humans are. That sets her a little more at ease. She glances as the ashes that used to be a corpse, then looks back at him. ]

You have many memory. You know humans violent, weak.

[ To have all that knowledge... if she were as strong as she is and knew as much as he does, maybe she could solve her kind's problems back home. ]

You see what humans do. Why I fight. Why I not trust all. Why I not know what say to ADI.

[ What to say about the corpse, and in general, most times. Why she can't just commit to trusting the individuals in ADI, even if she aligns with their stated goal and has come to trust several of her fellow offworlders. ]

[Having lived alongside humans means that Crowley does know they can be violent and weak, but it means he knows they can be strong and kind and brilliant, too.

That isn't a conversation for right now, not when Katrina has just been reminded of how horrible humans have been to her people. He loves humanity, that doesn't mean he has to defend them at every turn.]

Yeah, I get the hesitation. Can't say I haven't been run out of town once or twice.

[Or discorporated, but that's a weird concept to explain, and not really the point at the moment.]

We can tell 'em there was a body that turned to ash when we touched it, but I see no need to say anything about sirens if you'd rather keep that between us.

[It isn't as though there's any way to dispute the claim, and maybe not mentioning sirens will make Katrina feel better about the situation.]

[ He may be ancient, and know far more than she does, but at least he understands her in this one thing. Too many others can't even imagine it. It's strange, but comforting, to know someone who can relate to that fear. ]

Yes. Good.

[ Tell them the truth, but not the full truth. ]

You can walk?

[ The vision that he saw got him to his knees, after all. ]

[He's relieved that she's fine with the plan; it's the easiest option, and it means they can get the fuck out of here before something worse than a memory comes for them.]

Depends who you ask, honestly. [Haha, funny joke, 'cause of his poor grasp of how human hips are supposed to work.] I'll be right, it was a bit of a shock but m'not hurt.

[What he will do, first, is take the phone out again to snap the empty space where the body was, capturing some of the ash on the tree.]

Ready to head back?

[ One day, she'll be fluent enough in English to understand jokes. For now, she's just glad he can, in fact, move on land on his two legs. ]

Yes.

[ Now even more than before, she appreciates that he took pictures. Otherwise, another Entity could try to convince them they're making it up. ]

Come. If feel weak, lean on my shoulder. I can bear weight.

(log) march catch-all

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: violence/death

no subject

no subject

refs to torture, experimentstion, massacre, shooting, death

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject