[open] a homecoming

[matkalainen]

WHO: Emery, Pippa, Tuo, Kit + OPEN
WHAT: Some fellows return to Northcliff Pass after being elsewhere for a time, just to discover that everything is now ghosts, apparently.
WHEN: Early October, but before the fellowship thread in the event log.
WHERE: Various places around the village; Tuo's wagon; Kit's house.
NOTES: This is a placeholder post! Starters will be in the comments.

Comments

[engravitas]

Pressing his face into Kit's neck, Ben is reluctant to step back, though he shakes his head in answer. "I hate them," he says plainly, "but. At least I'm not the only one who does."

Lowering his hands to grasp Kit's, he gives them a little tug to bring him over by the fire. "How was your trip?"

[ragweed]

Well at least Ben has something in common with the neighbours now.

He allows himself to be led closer to their modest hearth, bag forgotten by the door for the moment. There's nothing in there that won't keep until morning anyway, and certainly nothing that he would prioritize over the man in front of him. "Not bad," he answers, "it was good work, decent pay. Still not sure why some guy in Cliffside wanted a carpenter from up the mountain, but it's enough coin to get us through the winter months."

He peels his gloves off and, flexing his fingers, holds them out towards the fire, thawing some of the chill that has worked its way deep into his bones. He gives Ben an askance look. "How long has all this--" and Ben should definitely know what that means, "--been going on?"

[engravitas]

Kit will no doubt be delighted that Ben has made one (1) friend, or at least something like one, in the form of a similarly surly and taciturn individual who has nonetheless helped him out once or twice at his own behest.

Ben draws him to sit on the floor by the fire, a few comfortable pillows strewn about, his usual cold weather nesting spot. "About a week," he murmurs, "it only really happens at night, but... it happens all night." He gives a full-body shudder and leans against Kit with a little sigh.
"It's horrible."

[ragweed]

They’ve had years of this, settling down comfortably before the fire with tea and coffee, the curtains drawn for privacy while they enjoy each other’s company. The circumstances are usually far less disturbing, even when the past comes to call on them. At least their normal unwelcome visitors are flesh and blood, and can die as easily as the next man. How is he supposed to kill a ghost?

Kit shifts on the pillows and slips his fingers absently through Ben’s loose hair, massaging the nape of his neck in silence; it’s the only comfort he can offer. “They just show up?” he muses aloud quietly, watching the fire. “They haven’t hurt anyone?” Physically, at any rate.

[engravitas]

"No," Ben confirms, only to, a few moments later, concede, "...not me, anyway." That basically means everyone, right?

With Kit seated, he adjusts himself to lie on his side, his head on his partner's knee where his hair can be stroked more easily. "They walk right through the walls. You hear people shouting all night, caught off-guard."

tmw I thought it was ur tag but it was actually mine, oops

[ragweed]

It’s everyone that matters.

(That’s not strictly speaking true, although adding Lance to that category comes with its own set of complications.)

He adjusts the pillows around Ben as he settles in like a house cat who rightfully expects his every whim to be catered to—and given the world turned itself upside down when Kit left Ben alone in the village, doting upon him like this is really the least he can do. With the pillows sorted Kit returns his fingers to Ben’s dark hair and smooths a few errant locks back behind his ear.

“That’s fucked up.” He watches the embers burning around the base of a log now mostly rendered to ash, and grimaces. “Someone’s got to deal with it soon, before people start looking for someone to blame.”

Translation: before their neighbours start a literal witch hunt.