[MINGLE] Wendi-go-go to the inn

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: 6I Village and Inn
WHEN: 27-31 July
OPEN TO: ALL - Mingle
NOTES: The Wendigo threatening the village will be killed mid 28 July, with a Blue Lily, per these threads. Plot details here. Note: The final fight is close enough to be seen from the upstairs inn windows.
WARNINGS: Wendigo attack mingle, please warn in comment headers if discussing violence, gore, or related trauma. Possible mentions of character death.

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The urgent warnings come from villagers returning south from the lake: a creature twice the size of a man, antlered and voracious. Larger than any they've seen on the plains, stalking its way to the main village. Some might have their own names for this hunger in a skin of shadow; others might remember that it was the first to claim a life, in their village's short history.

Whatever context one has for it, best to secure all pets and loved ones before it arrives. With weapons and food stores at the inn, the call goes out to gather — And to bring back any tools, because there's no telling what doors and windows can do to stop such a creature.

Comments

[3ofswords]

"Give it a fucking minute," he protests; though if Frank must dump her somewhere, please, let it be inside the pen with the cow. Kira's stupid sense of the world can rest if she's there, for all he can't if she's walking around or tied on her tether outside his house.

He'd lost Aurora for about half an hour, the night before. She's back in the cellar now, and the thing is dead--but he doesn't need Bethany butting supplies off the shelves and eating them out of jars, freaking the dog out while they're both down there. Maybe it just makes him feel better, to have his arms too full of a goat to start any of the work of rebuilding, just yet.

From what he's heard, he dug the last grave they needed. He hasn't wanted to be that person again from day one. Much better to lean on a fence with a man twice his size, gently kicking the side of his foot into his. "How do you feel, Frank?"

[oorah]

He obeys, if only because it takes a moment to get his hair out of Bethany's mouth anyway. Frank sighs, then opens the paddock and indeed lets her in to hang with Whitney. Frank always wants to be building or re - it's all he knows anymore. The constant destruction and reconstruction so ingrained in him he doesn't even know how to find another way. He leans against the fence and enjoys the silence while it lasts, knowing it won't be long in present company. Kira's foot nudges against his and he frowns, turning to face the young man yet again.

"What, are you my shrink now?" he snaps, but again it's cool, there's no actual anger there. Just fear, fear that shines brightly in his eyes even as he acknowledges it. "I'm scared. Aren't you?"

[3ofswords]

"Yeah, and I'm sober for once." Who the fuck else is going to take Frank by the face and make him look at his problems?

Karen was tired of doing it before she arrived, he thinks. He could get there, but not today. His goat is in a pen and Frank's at least taking the first step. If it requires Kira to dredge some emotional honesty up to answer with, well--that's unfortunate for the both of them. He needs to be about twice as tired or twice as stressed to force that.

Or not sober, which might be a different way to help. "I mean I was previously unwilling to let my goat's feet touch the ground, so yeah, probably." When he'd thought Aurora was outside, his heart had gone into his guts. He doesn't let her out of the villages because of shit like this--wild animals and plants they don't know anything about, vampiric deer in caves, and nobody to fix it if she's hurt. And nobody to really hold him accountable for it, either, fucked off before a time he even remembers being here. Aurora remembering more of him than he does of her scares him about as much as the thought of something happening to her.

Or Frank, or Karen, or half the people here. He got lucky this time, that it was someone he barely knew. Deep breath: he's being the shrink right now. They could fucking use one around here. "What do you want to do with that feeling?"

[oorah]

"Sorry," he manages softly. For Kira's sobriety. For being such a hard case study. For everything, really. Frank takes a shuddering breath then releases it. He could always channel his anger and fear into somewhere productive before. In this village, he feels stagnant. Frank shrugs, helpless, before ducking his head. "I just want to help."

When he tried, it always blew up on him. So today he'd been paralyzed with his fear instead, holed up in his house like an idiot. He can't exactly call Kira out for trying to comfort himself carrying Beth around when he'd more or less done the same.

[3ofswords]

"You don't have to be sorry for being scared, Frank." Other things, definitely. The handling of the feeling, maybe. But Kira would never want to make someone feel like shit over the fear itself.

Looking over his shoulder, he can leave the anxiety with Bethany, in the pen. It's standing enough that he doesn't think she'll make it out, unless that other weird cow--the one that breaks out to eat pumpkins on the daily--decides to jailbreak its brethren.

If it's even alive, but that's nothing the pair of them are going to get into. "So let's go help," he says, pushing up off the rail. "Plenty of boards to take down at the inn, maybe we can patch some holes from the earthquake with them."

[oorah]

That isn't what he's sorry for, but he thinks Kira knows it so he doesn't bother with the correction. This is familiar - pitching in to help the Community when disaster strikes. He stands a little taller as a result like he was made for this. Hell, maybe he was, but he has this theory that all New Yorkers are. And that's why they show up in places like this at such high volume.

"You doing manual labor? This I gotta see." That's a yes, Kira. Lead the way.

[3ofswords]

"Supervising the manual labor," he clarifies, let's not get it twisted. "I only put in that much effort when there's a demonic little animal to kick." Bethany, despite appearances, does not count. Bethany is an angel who can do no wrong, even when she chews up his shirt.

"We can start at the jailhouse, I hear there's a door that needs fixing."

[oorah]

He laughs, stopping himself short, but the sound happened. Kira didn't imagine it.

"I live to fix jailhouse doors."

If only he knew that once upon a time, yeah. But for real though. It feels like a lifetime ago: Jessica's prison. What a joke a jail is in places like this anyway when the whole place effectively enslaved them.