wasteland, baby

Still Faulkner | 27 | Ridge Harbor

[seer-cressida]

"Her energy is growing," Brigid murmured, knelt on the sands of the shore, bent forward so her hands sank beneath the wet, pale grains. Her fingers splayed and sank deeper, and she wished for the the Veiled One to swallow her whole. "Hungry. Restless." Her own body felt it: the ache, the hollow emptiness, desperate to be sated.

Brigid closed her eyes, bending forward, down, whispering to the earth. "If I knew what to give you -- what you wanted -- I would..."

[still-faulkner]

"Her energy is..." Still parroted in a mutter, working to digest the sentiment before she cut herself off. "Yeah... yes, it is. Growing for sure," she agreed sharply. Still doubted herself, how convincing she could be of something she didn't understand. Still didn't know about this feeling of endless hunger, but she imagined it wasn't dissimilar to the heat she'd once felt at her back. She was familiar with the pressing maw of flames, so maybe she could pretend to understand when it was made of gnashing teeth instead. "That's why, isn't it?" She asked. "The body. It's a sign... from Her? Of what She wants from us?"

[zelda-byrne]

"Well I, for one, hope that the next to be snatched is one of the Brady children. There are too many of them and they're all a bit sticky, don't you think?" Zelda was standing on the edge of the square where the body had been found. The Twelve were still cloistered away, discussing endlessly as they always did, and Zelda didn't have high hopes that anything would come of their private conversations. She was in fact quite sure that whatever was happening around here was just the work of someone trying to rile everyone up, and it was certainly working.

[still-faulkner]

Still snorted in soft agreement. "They all cough with their mouths open," she added. "I heard someone bitching that they gave half the schoolhouse croup this time last year." Which was to say that Still didn't think people would disagree with Zelda, even if they'd pretend to outwardly. Children were arrows in the hands of warriors, after all, or so was said of them. Sticky was closer to the truth, Still thought. "Did you know the guy that died?" She asked, tugging at a loose bit of skin at the edge of her thumb nail.

[edenfishers]

@still-faulkner

The morning sun was bright on the horizon, and Eden blinked it out of her face. Mornings by the river were a tradition for some. washing clothes, filling up bottles to be boiled back home. "How'd you sleep?" she asked the woman working next to her, after a few minutes of doing their business in silence.

[still-faulkner]

Still rubbed sleep from her eyes, the heavy feeling pressing from behind them. She'd forgone a trade for tea leaves this week, bartering her services for more immediate necessities, but now, the caffeine withdraw had a way of making her question her own decision. "Slept okay," she answered, surrendering her hands to their work in the frigid water. "It's warmer in town," she explained, comparing it to the home she'd grown up in but not vocalizing her frame of reference. "Easier to sleep when you're not freezing your ass off all the time, y'know?" Still shrugged softly. "You?"

[eveirvine]

"No, no hey, I'm not accusing you," Eve said, throwing her hands up to her sides in some vain act of defense. Evidence gathering was arduous with this society – with how these people were avoidant with giving her a direct answer, with how they simply refused to give something that wasn't hidden behind the veneer of their religion.

Eve shifted foot to foot and gave a sigh, allowing her arms to fully drop to the side, "Look, it's just about making sure I have all the facts, make sure we can rule people out, I'm not pointing fingers at you, I just want to know where you were last night, okay?"

[still-faulkner]

"I didn't think you were, but good to know," Still answered dryly. Though, really, it wouldn't surprise her if there was some suspicion. Still was new in town, she didn't have much in the way of friends, and no one seemed exactly trusting of outsiders. She didn't have ties to the veiled, but she wasn't not trying either. "I went to the McCoys' place," Still acquiesced, echoing Eve's sigh. "I swung by for their pig. They gave me half a cord of firewood at the start of the winter, so I owe them, like, two years worth of butchering," she explained. "You can ask them," Still added, and after a beat, "Where were you?" More to be a nuisance than to get information she didn't need or care about.

[vera-crowe]

"Think we should be scared?" Vera's voice held anything but fear, only excited interest at the recent turn of events in her new home. People died. That happened. But people dying in such interesting ways, a town reacting so strangely? She ate it up. Her eyes sparkled in the low light of the town's tavern, leaning in over the bartop to the companion who had just joined her.

[still-faulkner]

"Probably," Still answered flatly, glancing sidelong at the other girl. It was true, they probably should've been scared. Is this how people in town died? By accident? By foul play? By ritual? Is this what happened to Merit? It was a death with only answerless questions. Did that put them in danger too? Still pulled in her cup, wrapping it between her palms like she half-expected the glass to warm them. But no, the glass was chilled from the honey wine inside it. It was merely a thing to busy her hands for a moment as her mind fleetingly recited a mantra about the dangers of leaving them idle. Is that what had caused this— idle hands? "I dunno. Maybe don't hang out alone after dark," she suggested halfheartedly. "Think we'll ever know what happened?"

[harleystuff]

📷 Zendaya by Chantal Anderson