sixthiterationlogs | (no subject)

WHO: Cougar Alvarez & The Hunting Party
WHERE: The Inn
WHEN: December 12th
OPEN TO: All - jump in wherever it suits!
WARNINGS: Discussion of violence
STATUS: Open

In a way, the village is strangely like coming home even though it's not one that Cougar would ever have claimed. Maybe it's not that he's relieved to see the village, but just that he's relieved that the long hike back with a heavy, eight foot beast on his shoulders that reeks and makes him smell awful has been wearing on his last nerve, making his patience dwindle to the point that when the inn comes into sight, it's a good thing, otherwise Cougar might have killed the first thing they came across.

The beast is large and looming and he's inclined to believe Helen's theory that this is what killed the animals and Karen. The rest of what they've found is equally as confusing, but given the amount of people they seem to be attracting given their cargo and the smell, Cougar doubts they'll have any trouble rallying the troops to discuss it.

He hefts up the animal over his shoulder for the last few feet into the inn when the door is held open for him, heaving it off his shoulders so it collapses on the floor. Cougar digs out his hat from his back pocket, sliding it on his head, and glancing over his shoulder at the people who have come in. He tips his hat to them as he glances back at the creature, bending down to haul the arrow out of the thing's eye, because he'd carved this one himself. "It's dead," he offers in a rough deadpan, the sarcasm dryer than some of the winter days.

Sniffing himself, he grimaces and heads off to the corner with one last jut of his thumb towards the group. "They know more." And with that, he heads upstairs to try and get some of the awful smell off and to wrap up the bruise on his chest, just in case.

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While he knows Jake will be angry at him for going without him, he also doesn't think he could have left Veronica and Raven here alone without knowing that they would be protected. He's grateful to hear that nothing happened while they were gone, considering what they found. He still doesn't think this is over, by any means, and that worries him about what might be coming next. The weather had definitely been a hard struggle against, but one that they've faced and conquered to reach home.

When she asks about the thing, he shrugs a little and nods, accepting that it got a good blow. "Shoved. Kicked. Something," he clarifies, not having noticed which specific limb had connected with him when he'd been knocked back after letting the arrow loose. "It will only bruise," he assures her, giving her hair one last brotherly stroke before he settles back. "We're not safe here," he says darkly.

This really isn't any kind of revelation, not after the dead animals and definitely not after Karen, but having it stated so explicitly is chilling. She's been worried in the general sense, but Veronica has been lucky enough that she's never felt personally unsafe during her time here -- Cougar and Jake and Frank make sure of that whether she likes it or not. Something is very wrong if Cougar is warning her like this.

"You think there are more of those things?" she asks, watching him with wide eyes.

"Maybe," is all he says, glancing around to make sure that no one is close enough to hear their discussion. It's not that he wants to keep it private, but there are certain things he wants to discuss before he leaps to conclusions and he doesn't want anyone hearing his suspicions and turning them into fact. He tells her about the climb and the pod, but where he spends the most time is the sequence of events.

"...and the minute the papers go outside of it, they just melted, like nothing. Suddenly, the storm is worse and at the bottom, the monster is there, waiting." He's still frustrated he couldn't take pictures or bring something back of the pod for Jake to analyze, but he's just happy they made it back alive.

"And only the harpoon hurt the thing," he adds, thinking of the arrow he'd put through the eye and the brain, with what should have been a killing blow.

Veronica doesn't know why she should expect anything less than the completely unbelievable from this place at this point, and yet everything about this story is completely beyond her. Had Cougar been telling her just about the monster or just about the pod, it might have been easier. This genre-smashing is overwhelming.

"You think it was guarding the room with the papers?"

He nods seriously. Cougar isn't sure the rest of them see it that way, but everything happened so precisely and with purpose that he doesn't see why not. "The papers, something must have made them fall apart," he gets out, voice low and rough as he tries not to let his bitterness and hatred of his lack of control shine through.

"So then, why not send a guard to finish the job? Maybe there was something there we weren't supposed to see and come back to talk about. Maybe someone else saw it and the animals were just a warning." The only problem is that the animals don't make sense. Why kill animals and then Karen if you don't want to draw attention to something?

"Or maybe, there are no more guards and the demons are the only things left," he reasons. "Maybe there are more."

"Wait, what?" Veronica stops him, holding up a hand. "Demons?"

Sometimes things get lost in translation between the two of them, and that's a very particular word. Did he really mean demons? And if he did, does he mean metaphorically?

"Like devils?"

"Not real demons, but they must have been sent by the devil," is Cougar's persistent belief, given that he's still under the assumption and belief that one day, he'll have to pay for his sins. He gives her a long look, worried that he's brought this onto her shoulders, but he's so glad to see her safe and sound that he knows he will never drag her towards that.

"It looks like a demon," he says, staring at the creature. "Doesn't it?" The fur, the claws, the animal look on its face. Cougar can't think of a better word for it.

"I guess that depends on what you think demons look like," Veronica replies as she casts the thing a wary glance as it's carried away. Personally, she only believes in the metaphorical sort of demons, so to her it mostly looks like a really pissed off yeti.

"I don't think it was the devil that sent that, though," she adds with a glance back to Cougar. "Although they might be evil."

He raises a brow and gives her a look that says if it wasn't a demon sent by the devil, then it's still a demon that mankind has made. Either way, Cougar doesn't think that this thing just exists in the wild and definitely isn't something natural to most ecosystems, except for this one, apparently. "They," he echoes, giving her an encouraging nod to go on with that thought.

"Who do you think it is?" he asks, because he has his own theories, but things in the puzzle don't fit and it's always bugged him. It keeps him from sleep some nights because things just don't fit the way they should.

"I don't know." It's the obvious answer, the one they all have, but not the one he means. Veronica presses her lips thin a moment, and then shrugs.

"I've been keeping track of some things in a journal. You know, the paper I got? Like when people show up, when things happen, who they happen to. Nothing scientifically rigorous or anything, but just to make a note, you know? And I can't see any pattern except that... Well, I don't know who it is, but doesn't this place feel kind of like an ant farm to you? Like we're left to our own devices for weeks, and then suddenly someone takes an interest again. And maybe it's benevolent, maybe we're getting free food or boxes of puppies or whatever. But sometimes it's the kid who pours a glass of water in there just to see what will happen."

He raises a brow, thinking it best not to say out loud that he'd mostly thought that she would use the paper to keep a journal for herself and only that. It's not that he thinks that she isn't doing the work, but maybe more that she shouldn't have to. "Or take memories," he says darkly, because three weeks thinking he'd been a carefree, happy nineteen year old had been wonderful at the time and now Cougar looks back on it with annoyance and irritation.

"It feels like a purgatory," he says. "Like we are serving time, maybe. Or maybe we are in someone's ant farm, like a megalomaniac asshole who wants to rule the world and keeps coming up against people he doesn't like," he notes, thinking of Max.