[OTA] Midas is king and he holds me so tight;

[digging]

WHO: Karen Page
WHERE: Various
WHEN: 8 January 2018, throughout the day
OPEN TO: All, with 2 locked starters
WARNINGS: Standard blanket warning for Netflix MCU spoilers

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In the Forest

OTA - 3 max threads

It was probably only a matter of time, Karen thinks. This morning she woke up to find three big boxes sitting in the middle of her chilly bedroom floor like they'd been dropped off overnight by the FedEx Fairy. She's three days out from her one-month anniversary stuck in this place, and she has officially been anointed by the gods.

As much as her instinct is still to be wary, curiosity takes only a beat to win out. Sitting cross-legged in her absconded "I'm not Daredevil" shirt and chili pepper socks, she pulls each box open and lines the contents neatly beside her on the floor. Shampoo, journals, underwear, earmuffs. When she's done, she can't shake the feeling that this is less divine intervention and more care package.

And weird as that concept may be under the circumstances, she's not looking the gift horse in the mouth.

She feeds the furnace and indulges in a longer shower than normal, then starts the process of organizing her notes in her new journals while her hair dries. Then it's out into the snow, bundled like the true Vermonter she is, pack of supplies on her back as she looks toward the horizon. There's a voice tutting in the back of her head that sounds mostly like Frank, sometimes Matt, and funnily, occasionally like Claire, but she's never really been very good at listening to people who tell her to sit still. Boots crunching with each step, she pushes into the forest's edge.

[Feel free to find her in the forest, on the way there, at the canyon wall, or on her way back.]

Canyon's Edge

for Peggy

Here's the truth: It still freaks Karen out a little bit that Peggy (and others, but mostly Peggy) are from points in time so far-flung from her own. The people who say they're from alternate realities, other planets, that doesn't get her as much — She stood in the aftermath of the alien assault on Manhattan. But the time thing she's still getting her head around.

But in the moment, it's usually an easy enough detail to forget, and Peggy makes it easier by being the sort of woman who, when Karen asks if she'd like to come with her to try and scale the canyon wall, agrees without hesitation. It's possible Peggy is mostly looking out for Karen's well-being— Because yeah, OK, it really isn't smart to go mountain climbing solo — but the fact that Peggy seems interested at all, especially when she's been here so long, is encouraging. In Karen's opinion, it's way too easy to be complacent in this place.

Home Again

for Claire

The stomp of snow-clotted boots on the porch announces Karen's return home that evening before she pushes open the door with a sigh of relief. It's warm inside, which means Claire must have been home long enough to feed the furnace. As Karen unwinds herself from her scarves, she can hear the distant sounds of another person in the house, and she smiles, grateful, almost bursting to tell what she's discovered today.

"You won't believe what happened today," she calls out, shrugging from her coat and then plopping onto the sofa to begin working off her boots. Pulling at a heel, she winces; she had a misstep earlier while climbing, and her wrist is killing her.

Comments

[womanofvalue]

Any time that someone says they're going out into the canyon yields worry for Peggy, seeing as she'd once spent a terrifying two days on a tight ledge thinking she was going to break her leg. When Karen had spoken about wanting to come out here, Peggy had been encouraging, of course, but also quite firm in the fact that she wasn't going to do it alone. Besides helping her out, it's a good opportunity to spend more time with her.

Her version of the future makes her curious, seeing as it seems aligned with others she's heard. That said, costumed capers in New York are far more cheerful sounding than her own, so perhaps she can eke out a few more stories. "Careful," she advises, drawing herself from her own mind when the canyon walls begin to encroach them. "You know, I've mapped this out more times than I can count, yet every time I come here, it's changed," she says with the irritability of a woman who's not planning to give up, but wants to make her annoyance known.

canyon walls

[3ofswords]

Kira has no idea what he's doing.

It's obvious from the journal he'd reclaimed from Mark's pile that he'd been keeping track of certain things--days, weather, arrivals. Everything had culminated in some drama with the Margaery woman, then cut off. He'd scribbled notes about the Oregon Vortex, a thing he'd apparently decided to maybe believe in after his first arrival, instead of ignoring mentions of on the internet.

Yes, ghosts and shit are real: mountains are still just mountains.

Still: he'd been trying, and after everything with Mark, he wants to try again. "Nancy Drew would have definitely gone with the pea coat," he tells himself, his oddly wide selection of red sweaters layered under his tatty green parka, his attachment waned not a bit since finding it. "Nancy Drew would also totally be out in the woods alone though." She was a bad bitch like that, and also kind of fucking senseless.

But at least he's not the only one following in her footsteps. As he carries along the wall, looking for a crack he'd written about, he spots Karen up ahead. "Oh good," he says, pitching his voice to carry toward her as he walks up. "You're Nancy, that means I get to be George."

[theluckygirl]

Claire hadn't done much venturing on her own as of late. After her excursion out into the woods and having her tumble, life was back to being mundane and on a schedule. Or as much of one the winter season would allow. All the snow and cold weather saw less people in the more populated places around the village.

And yet she still needed wood which she collected from the wood pile around back of the inn. Unfortunately, upon returning she snagged her coat sleeve on an exposed nail in the framework of her and Karen's porch and tore a big hole into the fabric.

When her new roommate returned home, Claire was in the dining room finishing her mending. Moments later she emerged with an curious expression.

"Most of everything that happens in this place I can't believe. But go ahead and tell me." she said, moving over to the other side of where Karen was sitting.