#netsilik inuit

[fredoesque]

the way franklin has silna's father's body disposed of in ep 3 is a really fascinating indication of how the english see the inuit to me.

because yeah, obviously it's incredibly disrespectful in ignoring the man's own burial traditions and even from an entirely english pov as a way to "bury" someone. but on top of that i find it very telling that they felt it was their place to bury him at all--if they truly didn't think he was worth the trouble, why not just give his body to silna?

they must have felt on some level they had a claim to his body and, perhaps in their seeing themselves as a last outpost of civilization, a duty to make sure it was taken care of. even though they clearly didn't care one bit about the man they were actually burying.

this moment is one of a few in the show where the english seem to assume, entirely without question, that they have authority over the arctic and the people in it. that just by virtue of being english they are naturally and immediately the highest (worldly) power present. which obviously betrays a deeply imperialistic worldview.

and in showing that insidious assumption of authority in interaction with more baldly racist disrespect and disregard towards a netsilik person, i feel this moments highlights the twofold superiority the english feel over the inuit: both as having a exclusive claim to power and as having a exclusive claim to personhood

#is this coherent. hopefully #the terror #obligatory disclaimer i've done some reading on relations between the inuit and victorians but it hasn't necessarily been extensive #so lmk if this is way off base #but i do feel there is sort of a paternalistic bend to the way the english position themselves wrt the netsilik throughout the show #that from what i can tell reflects actual victorian attitudes #like whenever a character (say goodsir or crozier) approaches the netsilik with more decency (especially nearer to the start of the show) #it reads to me not as ''the basic dignity you afford fellow human beings bc they're your fellows'' #but as ''the burden of care you have towards those weaker than yourself'' #for example in the same ep when goodsir tells the men to bury the talismans with silna's father #obviously he means well and is acting from a place of compassion and even attempted respect #but i do find it telling that he never questions whether it's HIS place to make that decision. #he assumes implicitly that he has both the authority and the knowledge to decide how the body should be treated. when really he has neither

[favouritefi]

You said the Netsilik have dogboys but they’re not treated like they are in England, so how are they treated? Indistinguishable from humans?

to clarify, i said there are Netsilik dogboys, not that the Netsilik have dogboys. i dont claim to be an authority on the subject but from what i know about Indigenous legal traditions on Turtle Island there is a very different conceptualization of ownership and property when compared to british legal traditions, one that leans more towards reciprocity and ppls relationships to each other and to the world. (the fact that british imperialism was justified using the rhetoric of terra nova and the Innu First Nations led the charge for granting Mutuhekau Shipu legal personhood says a lot about these different worldviews - mainly, who/what is considered worthy of respect.) granted, Indigenous nations are not like a homogenous blob and im sure there are Netsilik and Inuit legal traditions which are specific to them, but i can't imagine they wouldve "owned" dogboys in the same way that the british do in this au. at the same time, i don't think it would be "indistinguishable from humans" bc the framing of that sentence (even if you don't intend it to) assumes that being treated like humans would be the best outcome for them, as if you would naturally treat humans better than you would other animals - this in of itself is a very western and white assumption.

this is all preamble to say that outlining Netsilik interspecies dynamics and histories in this au is way way wayyyyy outside my field of expertise and knowledge and i would probably say smth incredibly offensive as a result (bc i was also raised with the legal traditions of settlers and colonizers and still have much to learn). i think Netsilik dogboys would probably be treated with respect, but i dont have the background required to outline it further than that. and also lets be real here theres no way crozier & co would care enough to ask about it or try to understand it so it doesnt come up much in the main plot of this au besides making the expedition even more wary of the Netsilik and making them less trigger happy (bc if "savage" humans seeking revenge was already scary to them then just imagine how much scarier "savage" dogboys would be).

#purror and erebark #apologies to any followers who might be Netsilik or Inuit #if i got anything wrong #i know about the histories of the Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands best #so im just extrapolating here #might be severely off course for all i know #so sorry if i am

[willowbilly]

A note on Silna’s ethnicity!

By Word of Kajganich, she is confirmed to be interpretable as an Ugřulik Inuk! Not necessarily a Natchiliŋmiutaq or Qikiqtarmiutaq.

Silna is an Ugřuliŋmiutaq!

"Netsilik [people]" is derived from the ethnonym Natchiliŋmiut, or Inhabitants of the One With Ringed Seal. The "One With Seal" i.e. Natchilik is a placename, referring to Netsilik Lake and its environs on Boothia Peninsula. The several distinct Inuit groups in the area would use the +miut postbase designating "inhabitants of" a place. "Netsilik Inuit" when extended beyond application to those of or from Natchilik is not actually accurate to Silna’s group identity within the time period, as this was an ethnonym applied to Inuit other than Natchiliŋmiut by outsiders.

"Inuit," capitalized, is the general ethnonym. It means "The People." The Inuit characters in the show are specifically Ugřuliŋmiut and/or Qikiqtarmiut, depending on one’s headcanon.

Natsilingmiutut is now the umbrella term for the three main varieties of Inuktut extant in the area. According to Jean L. Briggs and Carrie J. Dyck, these are: Nattilik; Arviligjuaq; and Utkuhiksalik.

The Natchiliŋmiut and Kuuŋmiut traditionally inhabited Boothia to the east of King William Island i.e. Qikiqtaq. The Iluilirmiut lived on Adelaide Peninsula south of Qikiqtaq. Down toward the Chantrey Inlet area are the Utkuhikšaliŋmiut. The dwellers of Qikiqtaq were Qikiqtarmiut, largely descended from Natchiliŋmiut emigrants; and Ugřuliŋmiut, an ethnic group said to be driven from Qikiqtaq by famine and friction with aforementioned Natchiliŋmiut (thus why they are not on Knud Rasmussen’s 1923 map pictured below). Surviving Ugřuliŋmiut fled south, with many joining the Utkuhikšaliŋmiut.

Silna may have been among the last generation of Ugřuliŋmiut to remain beside the Ugřulik Sea.

#the terror amc #silna #lady silence #inuit characters #they are *most probably Ugřuliŋmiut or Qikiqtarmiut #but one may headcanon them as from elsewhere specifically also! #meta

[madqueenalanna]

so i'm almost done with my "terror" (show) rewatch and just finished reading "terror" (book) yesterday so let me ramble lowkey about the differences

i do love of course the little character details of the book that couldn't possibly make it into the show. sir john's devotion to his "gentleman" status to the point that he stays dead silent during sex, for one, crozier getting jacked off in a pond for another. the book's meandering pace gave us lots of ship descriptions (agonizing) but also lots of time with even minor characters (peglar for one)

and so because of their respective mediums, i like each ending/portrayal of tuunbaq in its own way. in the book, it's a spirit created by a goddess, forced to wander the frozen north and feast. silna and people like her are psychic, marry other psychics to create their own tribe, their own people. this is not to control tuunbaq but simply to communicate; they leave it offerings, it doesn't kill them. the white men have no way to understand this, and so they trespass and are murdered. crozier leaves his identity behind to join these people, loses his tongue, has children by silna, and feels the honor in this choice. tuunbaq's appearance is ephemeral, difficult to explain, almost incorporeal. it isn't a monster, it's a part of the land in the same way winter is. very spiritual

in the show of course it's much more straightforward. it's a beast that can be injured, can eventually be killed, needs to be bound to a shaman that can control it. silna cuts out her own tongue to follow in her father's footsteps, instead of having lost her tongue as a child in this psychic group. it dies, agonizingly, like so many of the polar bears it resembles, yet another victim of british colonialism. silna is ostracized by her people for its death under her watch. crozier joins the netsilik without her, assimilating culturally if not on this secondary spiritual plane. obviously this makes much more sense to see on screen

the other big change is of course the health of the men. sure they SAY in the show the men are failing, and we see some of them, but the book, agonizingly (good), details every mile they haul sledges, every symptom of scurvy, a few violent deaths from botulism, blanky losing first part of his foot, then half his leg, then several wooden legs break and he calls its quits when the stump is gangrenous. the book is so clear that this takes MONTHS, it feels like months, hickey's mutiny is almost a minor footnote because they were all already almost dead by the time it occurs. the cannibalism is such a last resort that they're all half-dead by that point. it's slow, it's painful, so it all makes more... sense, almost. you FEEL their pain, this slow horrific death, the STARVATION

that said i love the death of fitzjames in the show. he's got scurvy and dies of botulism in the book, but i think it's just scurvy in the show. we see his battle scars, obtained in a colonial venture to asia, re-open and suppurate. in a very real, literal way, his past has come to haunt him, to poison him. he dies on another colonial mission, weakened by his former expeditions eating him alive, destroyed by this land that wants them dead

and from researching this show/book i got linked by some very helpful redditors to some very long articles detailing inuit descriptions of finding hms terror before it sank, so i'm excited to dip into those

#The Terror

[thatwobblychair]

CoD The Other Good Guys Bear! Edition

What if the rest of the good guys in call of duty were bears? Part 2 - see Part 1 for 141 as bears

More bear facts! Cause bears are truly the best! 🐻💯

Alejandro: Mexican Grizzly Bear*

Ursus arctos nelsoni - now Ursus arctos horribilis

*depiction of what a mexican grizzly bear may have looked like alive

A now extinct subspecies of the grizzly bear that once inhabited northern Mexico. Due to its predation on cattle farms, they were considered pests and hunted by farmers. By the 1960s there were less than 30 individuals remaining. In 1974 the last known individual was shot in Sonora.

It was smaller than grizzly bears from the United states and Canada, and its colouration was said to range from a pale yellow to greyish-white with a darker undertone, though some individuals were described to be darker and reddish brown.

Due to its silvery fur, it was called 'el olso plateado' (the silvery bear) in Spanish, though it's name in the Ópatas language (an indigenous Mexican people's) was 'pissini'.

Rudy: Spectacled Bear "Andean Bear"

Tremarctos ornatus

The last remaining short-faced bear, native to the Andes Mountains in northern and western South America. Though all bears are omnivores, the spectacled bear has a mostly herbivorous diet with only 5-7% of their diet being meat.

The bear is named after it's distinctive eye markings, though not all spectacled bears may have such markings. Individuals can have highly variable fur patterns making it relatively easy to distinguish from one another.

It's short face and broad snout is thought to be an adaptation to a carnivorous diet despite it's herbivorous preferences.

Paddington Bear is said to be a Spectacled Bear from Peru.

Farah: Asian Black Bear "Moon Bear"

Ursus thibetanus

A medium sized bear native to Asia and highly adapted to arboreal life. It can be found in parts of Korea, China, Japan, eastern Russia, the Himalayas, southeastern Iran and northern India. It is listed as vulnerable due to deforestation and poaching for its body parts (used in traditional medicines).

The name 'moon bear' is given due to its distinctive creamy white cresent fur patch, though in some individuals it is "V" shaped. It has a powerful upper body stronger than it's lower limbs and are known to be the most bipedal of bears.

It has a reputation for extreme aggression despite their reclusive nature and there have been documented reports of unprovoked attacks. They are said to be more aggressive than the Eurasian Brown Bears that may cohabit the same areas and the American Black Bear.

Alex: American Black Bear

Ursus americanus

Alongside the Brown Bear, it is one of the only Bear species not threatened with extinction.

Despite living in North America, it is more closely related to the Asian Black Bear and Sun Bear than Grizzly Bears (North American Brown Bears) and Polar Bears. It's ancestors are thought to have split off from the Sun Bear.

Black Bears are distinguished from Grizzly Bears who may cohabit the same area, with their longer tall ears, straight face profile, shorter claws and lack of distinctive hump.

Teddy bears, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Smokey Bear are all inspired by the American Black Bear.

Nikolai: Polar Bear

Ursus maritimus

A large bear native to the Arctic. It is closely related to the Brown Bear and can hybridise with them though this is rare and not often seen. (See Grolar Bears)

They are the most carnivorous of all bear species (hypercarnivores), specialising in hunting seals through ambush attacks. Polar Bears are usually solitary but can be found in groups on land. They can form stable 'alliances' based on dominance hierarchies outside of breeding seasons with the largest males at the top.

It's common name was given in 1771, and was previously referred to as 'white bear', 'ice bear', 'sea bear', 'Greenland bear' in 13th - 18th century Europe. The Netsilik cultures (Inuit) named it 'nanook' and have several additional different names for them depending on sex and age of the polar bear.

Laswell: Kodiak Bear "Kodiak/Alaskan Brown Bear"

Ursus arctos middendorffi

Named after it's habitation of the Kodiak Archipelago in southwest Alaska, the Kodiak bear is the largest subspecies of Brown Bear, with some individuals comparable to the Polar Bear in size.

An island bear, it is 1.5-2x larger than it's mainland cousins the grizzly bear, though physically and physiologically, the two bears are very similar.

Due to its tendancy to feed in dense groups, it has thought to have developed more complex social behaviours (in comparison to mainland grizzly bears) to minimise infighting/fatalities via both verbal/ body posturing and social structures.

+

All info taken from wiki. Please let me know if ther any mistakes.

#cod mwii #cod mw2 #call of duty modern warfare #cod mwiii #alejandro vargas #rudy parra #rudy cod #farah karim #farah cod #alex cod #nikolai cod #kate laswell #laswell cod #bears #bear facts

[saints-who-never-existed]

Dave K on David Young and the Netsilik Shaman

"And it was really important that that scene was not about the shaman being terrifying. Young’s reaction was terrified but we wanted to make sure we didn’t shoot the shaman as a terrifying figure...

...exactly like what we were trying to avoid, which is, 'oh shit, that is a scary figure'...

...this is not about the shaman being a terrifying horror trope, this is about a young man having learned that Inuit people are savages, and it’s so important to have a different energy on the reverse angles, and we only get that if the shaman himself is a curious, neutral presence."

#The Terror #The Terror AMC #Terror Q&As #Terror Script #Netsilik Shaman #David Young #Really intrigued by all of this at the minute #Two strangers meeting and death being the thing that links them #Both in that David Young is actively dying #(Perhaps that makes it easier somehow for the Shaman to reach out and forge a connection with him - who know?) #And that the Shaman himself is destined to die on the very same table #I also note in the script that the Shaman is specifically described as standing in 'a posture of waiting' #With eyes that 'twinkle with concern and curiosity' #What then is he waiting for I wonder?

[irvingcoded]

I hate book irving and silna but I feel robbed we never see show silna and irving interact

man right?? especially given how the show still maintains irving's narrative connection and relative sympathies toward the surrounding netsilik people it's honestly such a waste! I would have loved to see them interact even just one scene, since it'd be decidedly Not Like The Book! like, even if irving wasn't deep repressed gay denial he's still just Big Repressed in general he isn't going to suddenly start acting inappropriate and horny just because there's a woman in proximity...... anyway, while I do mostly very much like how (and why) they adapted that arc for goodsir in the show instead of irving, it would have still been nice to hold onto a couple more things with irving I think. not the horny fuckboy shit obviously but the more meaningful moments of connection I guess.

irving in the show kind of suffers in general from a lack of introspection I think, in that we do get deeper and more internal insights to a lot of the main / supporting cast, quiet and intentionally revealing moments for us the viewers, but with him we're kind of denied a similar glimpse behind the curtain, aside from how the character is portrayed and interpreted by ronan raftery and the literal context of his scenes. which isnt to say there's not TONS of subtext because there definitely is, it's almost entirely nothing that was actually written into the scripts so I imagine it came later, maybe mainly via ronan's portrayal and how the actor chemistry unfolded which led to dave k's validation of that subtext that (unlike with most other characters!) was again very absent / lacking any significant detail in the transcripts.

and honestly I do think this actually mostly works for his character in particular, because even he is denying himself further insight into who he really is, BUT it definitely also backfires in the sense that so many ppl get blindsided by his actions in ep7, despite there definitely being scenes before that which do inform them, because we never get much access to his logic and process, whereas others you can almost see beat by beat as their opinions/feelings are evolving or changing. ALL THIS TO SAY even just one actual interaction with silna could have maybe helped somewhat bridge the narrative gap for all the people who are not obsessed with microanalysing every tiny crumb of irving content and details, perhaps... 🤪

and honestly irving aside, there is a lot a LOT of book silna content that imo would have been nice to keep or adapt at least. the book undoubtedly has its flaws and weaknesses and given the era of perspectives its being told through its hard to avoid that huge lens of bigotry but, the show could have still incorporated more of her scenes and character insight and even the deeper background of inuit lore but just ofc handled it more appropriately and accurately.

(that's also another thing for me how goodsir and irving never interact [onscreen] EITHER except ofc after irvings dead yet the character /narrative parallels are all over the place between both book AND show & not even limited to just the storyline transference!!!! arrrrrggghh... not that they interact much in the book either, I mean, but SINCE the show goes through so much trouble to have adapted and paralled the characters this way we could have gotten more from the show there too... all I'm sayin...)

#🍓 #john irving #the terror #jirv posting #the terror textposts #replies #goodsir #silna #i will say... the goodsir/irving parallels btwn the book the show and the unexplored symmetry that exists btwn both has made me deeplyunwel #im only adding this tag because apparently i already had it?? ok

[kimwarris]

Did some research the other day and came across something super interesting:

"Historically, Inuit in areas of the Canadian Arctic, such as Igloolik and Nunavik, had a third gender concept called sipiniq (Inuktitut: ᓯᐱᓂᖅ).[113] A sipiniq infant was believed to have changed their physical sex from male to female at the moment of birth.[114] Sipiniq children were regarded as socially male, and would be named after a male relative, perform a male's tasks, and would wear traditional clothing tailored for men's tasks. This generally lasted until puberty, but in some cases continued into adulthood and even after the sipiniq person married a man.[115] The Netsilik Inuit used the word kipijuituq for a similar concept.[116]"

And now I'm thinking about Sipiniq-Sokka. I mean, it would make sense in some aspects. Does anyone else see it? Or am I going crazy?

I could totally see an AU based on this happening.

#atla sokka #sokka #gender nonconforming #don't know how to tag this #but wanted to share #atla au

[charlesdesvoeux]

💜💙💖 for the unpopular opinions asks

💜: Which character is way hotter than everyone else seems to think?

I'll have to agree with @leadandblood and say John Morfin. truly a fine-looking cold boy and i never see any thirst for him here!!!

💙: Which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

this is hard for me, i find them all so pretty. my first reaction to the question was jfj sorry :-/ but well this is specifically an unpopular opinions ask game so. also gore. he's good-looking obviously but i'd struggle to call him *hot* because honestly he's just too nice and that's not hot *to me* (see: my url).

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

i wish we had seen hickeygibson hit it raw on-screen. stanvoeux too. honestly so many others as well. wait who said that.

so, i understand this happened due to the story being told mainly through the point of view of the british, but i do wish we had gotten the names of more of the inuit characters- if i am not mistaken, the only ones who were named were Silna and Koveyook? I wish we had gotten names for the Netsilik Hunter and Silna's father. Even if only in the scripts, I think it would have been good. not sure it's an unpopular opinion though, sorry.

#alienmythologist #answered

[alevoil]

Resident Terror fan here, hi!!

-The Terror is a 2018 show that ran on AMC that follows the true story of the Franklin Expedition, an Arctic expedition made by ship in the 1840s to find the Northwest Passage that ultimately had no survivors. The show is pretty historically accurate but it has a mythological/supernatural twist (which I know sounds kind of silly at first but imo it’s actually worked into the story really well).

-There are gay characters (one canon gay couple that includes a main character, one couple heavily implied), and imo overall the show has a lot of queer moments in general (I mean the cast is about 99% male and they’re all stuck in the Arctic so you can imagine.)

-There is a main character who is Indigenous (Inuit - Netsilik) and very important to the plot!! The show also shows at least a little bit of life among the Netsilik and features a fair amount of Inuktitut (the language the Netsilik people in this region speak). (Also side note: someone in the replies to your original post said she was “probably Ada Blackjack” (a real Inuit woman who was the sole survivor of a different doomed expedition). She isn’t, she’s a fictional character made up for the show. Blackjack was a different branch of Inuit, spoke a different language, and wasn’t born until half a century after the Franklin Expedition was lost.)

-If the show sounds interesting to you I highly recommend you watch it!! It’s really well done, great acting, costumes, dialogue, etc. and lots and lots and lots of shots of ice. I will say it does get really violent and gory at times so if that’s something you’re wary of I’d definitely suggest looking up content guides online for the show so you know what to look out for. And yes lol, the Terror fandom is alive and well (and very very passionate about the show as you can see here hah), and we’d love to have you join us!!! :-)

dude this show sounds kickass! I’ll try and watch it sometime! Thanks for your answer :)

#the terror

[brimstone-cowboy]

Um anyway. I saw that one of the main issues with that really bad fic was that the indigenous people mentioned we’re actually totally displaced from their place of origin to suit the authors needs (???) but if you would like to actually be aware of the tribes living in that region of Nunavut along side the Netsilik Inuit on Kugaaruk (also referred to as King William Island) here’s this map.

#not to be used for annoying reasons #just don’t be a silly fucker

[batmanego]

im not even sure how i feel about the terror as a show. i think it’s trying really hard to make me sympathetic towards cornelius hickey’s tragic gay life but it’s genuinely difficult for me to do so with the way he talks about and treats silna. and im not inuit so obviously i can’t speak to the shows treatment of the netsilik but i do always feel a bit Eh whenever a tv show or book written by people who aren’t native introduce, like, new Fictional native myths and ideas (ie the tuunbaq in this case). in my opinion the terror does a middlingly okay job with it in the sense that from what ive gathered the tuunbaq is clearly a response/resistance to colonization (Yay Tuunbaq!) but also at times with how its framed and how the emphasis of the show IS still on these white British explorers, it feels more like “aaaah scary native mythology/folklore!”. so ehhhhh. ehhhhh

[aisakalegacy]

Été 1905, Glacier de Fharhond, Canada (3/6)

Mon colocataire est un Inuit Netsilik taciturne nommé Tagak, employé comme moi par la Garde côtière, pour me servir de guide. Tagak est… particulier. Le cheveu et la barbe fins, noirs comme un corbeau, la stature robuste, le teint foncé, le visage taillé à la serpe, impitoyablement fermé, avec ses pommettes hautes, traversé par une effroyable balafre dont seuls ses yeux inclinés et son regard dur vous détournent, il semble avoir été forg�� par le froid.

[Transcription] Jules Le Bris : Je suis Le Bris, c’est moi qui ai été affecté ici. On m’a déposé avec du ravitaillement, mais je n’avais rien pour le transporter, il faudra retourner au port avec un charriot… Ou, un traineau, je présume. Quel est votre nom ? Tagak Angottitauruq : Hum.

#ts3 #simblr #legacy challenge #history challenge #decades challenge #lebris #lebrisgen3ter #Jules Le Bris #Tagak Angottitauruq

[owlbelly]

okay here's my thoughts on The Terror, having just finished it last night & not having recovered yet!

overall i thought this slapped extremely - i have issues with it ranging from the horror bog-standard "showed (way) too much monster" to the more pressing "side-eyeing how things shook out with the Netsilik & their role in the show / the use of the faux-Inuit creature" (apparently the author based it on real folklore but like. idk dude it seems very not your lane to just make some stuff up in the context of an Indigenous culture)

but damn like everything else was SO good. some of the best acting i've seen for a TV show, completely across the board, every single cast member was on it & it was a huge cast! the music & editing was incredible. i saw a review from back when it aired that seemed disappointed that this wasn't a bigger, showier affair with more broad shots of the ships & VFX for the environment & it's like...that is so not the point. they did so much with so little & this was very much an "up close" psychological horror story, the real meat of it (haha) was in their interactions with each other & not in big the action stuff

Hickey had such big Ives from Ravenous (1999) energy at the end there...i was really sad about Mr. Goodsir (the best sir!!!!) & the stuff with Hidgens & Henry just GUTTED ME oh my god their quiet background romance came for my throat at the end. can't believe i thought Hickey & Billy were gonna be our Sad Boat Gays lmfaoooo nope. no no no. i'm so fucking curious what AO3 looks like for this show now that i know people do write porn for it (!!!! i can't). Francis/James "are we brothers"? Francis/Jopson hurt comfort????? Jopson's death hurt too oh my god he didn't know he wasn't abandoned!!!

anyway talk to me about The Terror if you've watched it! & if you haven't & you like historical horror (& are good with an intense amount of body horror, gore, etc.) please check it out it's super worth it

#the terror #the terror spoilers #the terror amc #in the night in the dark

[musclesandspells]

Open Starter : Modern 'Terror' AU

┅ ┅ ┅ ┅ ┅

The wind was howling in what felt like permanent darkness, tugging at the flaps of tents as if making an effort to get inside. The people huddled together inside those makeshift shelters had no trouble understanding how it was, exactly, that Sir Franklin's expedition got lost in search of the Northwest Passage.

Technology had advanced since 1845. They could, at any moment, identify exactly where they were via the wonders of satellite mapping. They could track the path they had taken from Gjoa Haven to their base camp, and from there...

From there, they could find where it was, exactly, that they had been forced to take shelter. Even their equipment was, theoretically, better than what the Franklin expedition had carried. Everything that they had in their packs was intended to help them survive.

The Arctic had not changed, and it did not care about the advancements of man. The group had been forced to take shelter by a storm that had swept up seemingly out of nowhere, pelting them with balls of ice the size of baseballs and larger. All of them wore bruises from the assault, and from their efforts to get their shelters erected in the midst of the storm. The fabric of those tents was strong, reinforced, but it still bowed beneath the pelting ice and howling wind. One of the tents, at least, gained a hole that allowed cold to seep in.

Was this what those ill fated men had experienced? Had they known something like the wrath of an unfeeling God?

After the storm had passed, they had all made an effort to make the shelters more secure. There was an unspoken knowledge amongst all of them that they'd need to move as soon as possible. The tents were not meant to be anything more than temporary, and they wouldn't stand in the way of a hungry polar bear.

They had yet to see a single one of the great white beasts that was not overly lean. A bear had tracked them for miles between Gjoa Haven and their base camp, an ever present threat that kept them moving forward and thankful for the help of the people indigenous to the area who knew how to cross the land even when it was too cold for a snowmobile. That bear had given up, but none of them had forgotten that sensation of being hunted. Thousands of years of evolutionary warnings could not be tossed aside by the advancement of technology. They all became familiar with the feeling of their hair standing on end, an ingrained warning that something was there. Something was watching. Something... was hungry.

A woman by the name of Ivalu had warned them about going beyond their base camp, before they had left Gjoa Haven. She was adamant that they not go past the base camp, that they not follow the paths that the bears walked out into the barren landscape. Her warning wasn't the kind that they'd heard before. It wasn't the standard warning about the wildlife, or the lack thereof in areas. No, it was a warning about... something else. Tuurngaq was the word Ivalu spoke, but it wasn't what they repeated back to her.

They said Tuunbaq. Even their translator said Tuunbaq.

Their translator didn't have a meaning for that word. It wasn't something that she had ever heard in the Netsilik dialect of Inuktitut -- or any other dialect, for that matter. It took some time and conversation for her to arrive at the conclusion that Ivalu was trying to warn them of something close to a tupilaq, something she had heard of from the Caribou Inuit. Close. Not exact. It was not a tupilaq that she was speaking of. She meant exactly what she had said: tuurngaq. The translator's unfamiliarity with the Kalaallisut word caused frustration to flare on both sides.

Eventually, Ivalu would not tell them more, only repeating that they needed to stay away from the Tuurngaq's land. She had marked the proverbial point of no return on one of their paper maps, and that was the end of the conversation.

They had not brought the map with them. If they had, they would have been able to compare the satellite imagery that pin pointed their exact location to it. They would have known that they were currently less than a mile over the sharply drawn line on the paper map that indicated the land that they should not set foot on. It was the same land that held the memory of the horrors Franklin's ill-fated expedition had seen just as dearly as it held their bones.

A decision was made to try and sleep since they'd already put in the effort to erect shelters and exhaustion was setting in. Decisions were made about a watch schedule and a time to disembark was agreed upon.

The first watch passed uneventfully, with nothing to report but the howling of the wind. It wasn't until half way through the second watch that something felt... strange. Something out in the darkness that surrounded the camp was watching, its gaze making even the deepest sleeper among them restless from the sensation of hair raising on the back of the neck.

Something moved beyond the darkness at the edge of the camp.

#Oh no I had an idea #The Terror RP #Horror RP #Historical RP #modern terror AU #Tuunbaq RP #non-Terror muses are welcome to join the vibe check #I am what happens when the forever DM RPs

[saints-who-never-existed]

Rereading The Terror

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Irving

Here we go, lads. Let's do this thing. :((( Big big spoiler warning, just in case.

Irving introduces himself to the Netsilik in the most endearingly awkward way, just as in the show: "Greetings," he said. He touched his chest with his mittened thumb. "Third Lieutenant John Irving of Her Majesty's Ship Terror". I've helpfully written 'YOU AWKWARD FUCK' next to this snippet.

The Netsilik use several words in reply to this which are interesting. I wouldn't presume to parse the full meaning of it all when it's not my place so do take all this with a gargantuan grain of salt but I have looked into it a little further out of curiosity... We have 'kabloona' of course, 'qavac' which appears to have a similar meaning and may be used in a derogatory way, and 'miagortok' which seems to translate to 'howling dog'.

Most interesting of all, one of the Netsilik men - possibly a wise man or shaman - also points at Irving and says "Piifixaaq!". I'd imagine this is just referring to his pale skin but one of the closest translations I've been able to find so far for this word is 'ghost or haunting spirit of a departed one'. We also hear reference to polar bears and Torngarsuk, an Inuit god of the sea, death, and the underworld.

They eventually start to make some headway in communication - mainly by pointing to objects and stating their own language's word for them. The apparent leader of this group introduces himself with the words "Inuk" and then "Tikerqat" and again, Irving's reply to this couldn't be more awkward or endearing: "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr Inuk," said Irving. "Or Mr Tikerqat. Very pleased to make your acquaintance."

The scene continues very similarly to the way it does in the show. Irving is introduced to the rest of the group (including a quick flash of tit from one of the women present - thanks for that Simmons 👀). They feed him and he presents them with his precious telescope.

Finally, he retreats to find the others. This, of course, is where things go wrong and get infinitely more absurd and wild. Here's just a snippet of the madness: "Twenty feet down the northeast side of the ridge, Irving saw something that made him stop in his tracks. A tiny man was dancing naked except for his boots around a tall heap of discarded clothing on a boulder... [] He stepped closed and saw that it was no leprechaun dancing but rather the caulker's mate. The man was humming some sailor's ditty as he danced and pirouetted. Irving could not help noticing the grubwhite paleness of the little man's skin, how his ribs pushed out so visibly, the goosebumps everywhere rising on his flesh, the fact that he was circumcised, and how absurd the pale white buttocks were when he pirouetted."

Irving's first though genuinely is he can't let Hickey embarrass him in front of his cool new Netsilik pals but no sooner can he chastise Hickey than his throat is slashed wide open, just like that. "Hickey took a step closer, still naked, all sharp knees and thin thighs and tendons, crouching now like some pale bony gnome. But Irving had fallen to his side on the cold gravel, vomited an impossible amount of blood, and was dead before Cornelius Hickey ripped away the lieutenant's clothing and began wielding the knife in earnest." I have, quite simply, inscribed the word 'FUUUUUCCCKKK!!!' below this paragraph.

#The Terror #The Terror AMC #Observations #Random Observations #Meta #Rereading The Terror #Terror Spoilers #John Irving #Cornelius Hickey