![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Go north and find out [SSSS, Various OCs]
Title: Go north and find out
Fandom: Stand Still Stay Silent
Characters/Pairing: Various Denesuline/Cree/Metis OCs
Rating: 0+
Length: 1.1k
Summary: I wasn't there, back then, when they went looking for other survivors. But this is what they say....
Other: Prompt was "Any SSSS - first contact with other parts of the Silent World". This is an "early years of the Rash" setting. At some other point I'll probably come back to the speaker and listener characters since I've had some stories about them kicking around... Anyway, this one takes place in northern Canada; specifically northern Alberta/southern Northwest Territories, in the area of Fort Chipewyan (K'aitel koe) and Fort Smith (Thebacha).
*The word used for trolls here is a Cree term, wihtikow; these monsters are also known as Wendigo.
Go north and find out
Well, I wasn't there, you know, when the electric lamps went dark. But I heard about it.
And I heard about that long winter, that hungry winter, cold and thin and darker than the inside of a selfish man's heart.
But they made it through that one, and the ones after, our relations did. And you know that, seeing as you're here to listen to all this.
A few survivors headed north that winter, following the river until they found some living souls up over here, at K'aitel koe. And our relations welcomed them in, after a time. After they checked that everything was all right with them, you know. That they didn't have the illness. But when they knew it was all right, they shared everything they had, and listened to their stories of what those ones from down south had seen down there.
Those survivors, they called those monsters wihtikow, on account of how one of those things would eat everything in its path until, if it had its way, there wouldn't be a single being left alive as far as the eye could see. And the name stuck, you know that as well as I do.
So. It was like that for a while. Long, cold, hungry, terrifying winters, and equally terrifying summers. Years of them. But people stuck together. Made it through, on account of supporting each other, and on account of how power came back into the world and made living a little easier once everybody figured out what was going on there. But let's talk about that another time.
You asked about how we met those ones up north. Or when our relations did, rather.
Well, nobody wanted to risk heading south, because of what they'd seen coming up from down there. Bad enough when the animals turn rotten, but a wihtikow, now, that's trouble, and even worse when there's a whole bunch of them. Up north, though...
Folks figured there might be someone up there. That the rot hadn't reached everything there. Never could be sure, but they had a feeling.
Before the lamps went dark, they would've had ways to call up there. Electric things. Telephones, they called 'em. And now? These days, there are ways, too. Someone with the right power can manage, if they know what they're doing. But back then, after the sickness spread out over everything, they had a whole lot of nothing. No way of knowing what was up there.
It was a woman named Mary Redbird who decided to go. I never met her, but I wish I had. Bet she'd have some things to say. Well, she took a boat, and a few other folks, and she went up the river once it was all clear of ice.
Well, she went upriver, all right. Had a hard time. Wasn't that much chance of encountering a wihtikow, but it was animals that she had to worry about, the ones that turned wrong, the ones that have to be sent back to the Creator to be set right. And the river isn't an easy ride, not in those days, and not now either, and the portages were hard going.
People had different relations to power back then, you know. Didn't know power so well, most of them. But maybe she did. Maybe some spirit came along and gave her power for navigating that river. Seeing as that's what you need these days, I wouldn't be surprised. But nobody knows for sure.
She made it, anyhow. Made it up the river to Thebacha. Found some folks there who'd been wondering the same thing, guessing at whether there were people down our way, whether there were survivors. They hadn't made up their minds to come downriver and take a look, though. Not them.
Couldn't go in right away, of course. Mary Redbird and the folks who were with her set up camp downriver so those folks in Thebacha could keep an eye on her, make sure everything was all right. And so she could keep an eye on them, make sure they were all right, make sure things weren't wrong with them. Nobody understood anything back then, but they did know the way the wind was blowing. Knew what the illness could do to you, what it could turn you into.
But then they let her in after a while. And they welcomed her, and shared what they had, and told her what they knew. There were a few folks who'd come down from Yellowknife; came all the way down along the big lake there, and to Deninu Kue, and then downriver to Thebacha. Had relatives there. And they told her what had happened up north.
It was the same story. The story that everyone knew, the one that everyone had been hearing and watching before the electricity went dark. The sickness came. It spread out all around. And those who left, the ones who'd skiddaddled from Yellowknife early, they didn't plan on going back to check on how things were up there. And they told her not to think of going near there, either. That it was no good. They already knew how it'd turned out.
A whole city full of people who'd turned rotten, devouring each other until there was nothing left. Some folks said that they figured it must have become one big wihtikow, that there was one that just kept getting bigger and bigger until its head touched the sky.
I think you know what I mean. We've heard something like that, on some nights. The sound of something roaring up from the south, something that sounds like one of these days it might come closer, might get into its mind to follow the river up to K'aitel koe and devour us all.
It might be like that. I figure, Mary Redbird must have guessed there was something like that too.
She stayed there a while. A few months. When she and her company headed back downriver, everyone at home figured she was dead; that either the rapids got her, or something else, something they didn't want to think about. So they were downright surprised when she showed up.
They welcomed her, and they listened to her stories of who she'd met, and what she'd heard about what happened in Yellowknife. So that's how we came into contact with those folks up north.
Mind you, I wasn't there back then, when the lamps had gone dark, when she came back. But this is what they say, so you'll have to take my word for it.
Fandom: Stand Still Stay Silent
Characters/Pairing: Various Denesuline/Cree/Metis OCs
Rating: 0+
Length: 1.1k
Summary: I wasn't there, back then, when they went looking for other survivors. But this is what they say....
Other: Prompt was "Any SSSS - first contact with other parts of the Silent World". This is an "early years of the Rash" setting. At some other point I'll probably come back to the speaker and listener characters since I've had some stories about them kicking around... Anyway, this one takes place in northern Canada; specifically northern Alberta/southern Northwest Territories, in the area of Fort Chipewyan (K'aitel koe) and Fort Smith (Thebacha).
*The word used for trolls here is a Cree term, wihtikow; these monsters are also known as Wendigo.
Go north and find out
Well, I wasn't there, you know, when the electric lamps went dark. But I heard about it.
And I heard about that long winter, that hungry winter, cold and thin and darker than the inside of a selfish man's heart.
But they made it through that one, and the ones after, our relations did. And you know that, seeing as you're here to listen to all this.
A few survivors headed north that winter, following the river until they found some living souls up over here, at K'aitel koe. And our relations welcomed them in, after a time. After they checked that everything was all right with them, you know. That they didn't have the illness. But when they knew it was all right, they shared everything they had, and listened to their stories of what those ones from down south had seen down there.
Those survivors, they called those monsters wihtikow, on account of how one of those things would eat everything in its path until, if it had its way, there wouldn't be a single being left alive as far as the eye could see. And the name stuck, you know that as well as I do.
So. It was like that for a while. Long, cold, hungry, terrifying winters, and equally terrifying summers. Years of them. But people stuck together. Made it through, on account of supporting each other, and on account of how power came back into the world and made living a little easier once everybody figured out what was going on there. But let's talk about that another time.
You asked about how we met those ones up north. Or when our relations did, rather.
Well, nobody wanted to risk heading south, because of what they'd seen coming up from down there. Bad enough when the animals turn rotten, but a wihtikow, now, that's trouble, and even worse when there's a whole bunch of them. Up north, though...
Folks figured there might be someone up there. That the rot hadn't reached everything there. Never could be sure, but they had a feeling.
Before the lamps went dark, they would've had ways to call up there. Electric things. Telephones, they called 'em. And now? These days, there are ways, too. Someone with the right power can manage, if they know what they're doing. But back then, after the sickness spread out over everything, they had a whole lot of nothing. No way of knowing what was up there.
It was a woman named Mary Redbird who decided to go. I never met her, but I wish I had. Bet she'd have some things to say. Well, she took a boat, and a few other folks, and she went up the river once it was all clear of ice.
Well, she went upriver, all right. Had a hard time. Wasn't that much chance of encountering a wihtikow, but it was animals that she had to worry about, the ones that turned wrong, the ones that have to be sent back to the Creator to be set right. And the river isn't an easy ride, not in those days, and not now either, and the portages were hard going.
People had different relations to power back then, you know. Didn't know power so well, most of them. But maybe she did. Maybe some spirit came along and gave her power for navigating that river. Seeing as that's what you need these days, I wouldn't be surprised. But nobody knows for sure.
She made it, anyhow. Made it up the river to Thebacha. Found some folks there who'd been wondering the same thing, guessing at whether there were people down our way, whether there were survivors. They hadn't made up their minds to come downriver and take a look, though. Not them.
Couldn't go in right away, of course. Mary Redbird and the folks who were with her set up camp downriver so those folks in Thebacha could keep an eye on her, make sure everything was all right. And so she could keep an eye on them, make sure they were all right, make sure things weren't wrong with them. Nobody understood anything back then, but they did know the way the wind was blowing. Knew what the illness could do to you, what it could turn you into.
But then they let her in after a while. And they welcomed her, and shared what they had, and told her what they knew. There were a few folks who'd come down from Yellowknife; came all the way down along the big lake there, and to Deninu Kue, and then downriver to Thebacha. Had relatives there. And they told her what had happened up north.
It was the same story. The story that everyone knew, the one that everyone had been hearing and watching before the electricity went dark. The sickness came. It spread out all around. And those who left, the ones who'd skiddaddled from Yellowknife early, they didn't plan on going back to check on how things were up there. And they told her not to think of going near there, either. That it was no good. They already knew how it'd turned out.
A whole city full of people who'd turned rotten, devouring each other until there was nothing left. Some folks said that they figured it must have become one big wihtikow, that there was one that just kept getting bigger and bigger until its head touched the sky.
I think you know what I mean. We've heard something like that, on some nights. The sound of something roaring up from the south, something that sounds like one of these days it might come closer, might get into its mind to follow the river up to K'aitel koe and devour us all.
It might be like that. I figure, Mary Redbird must have guessed there was something like that too.
She stayed there a while. A few months. When she and her company headed back downriver, everyone at home figured she was dead; that either the rapids got her, or something else, something they didn't want to think about. So they were downright surprised when she showed up.
They welcomed her, and they listened to her stories of who she'd met, and what she'd heard about what happened in Yellowknife. So that's how we came into contact with those folks up north.
Mind you, I wasn't there back then, when the lamps had gone dark, when she came back. But this is what they say, so you'll have to take my word for it.