( open ) liberate your sons and daughters the bush is high but in the hole there's water

[synergismus]

Who: Everyone!
What: Events around the city, any time.
Where: Everywhere in Baedal.
When: Whenever you’d like.
Notes:

• Behold, your all-purpose open game log. There are a couple pre-written starters to help you generate new and open CR, and you may also use this post to start your own group activities or planned threads. GO WILD!
  
• No one is late to this post. You may use it forever.
  
• The companion thread for this post is right here!
  
• DON'T THINK TOO HARD ABOUT IT JUST RP.
  
• Helpful links: Neighbourhoods, City Map.
  
• Lucky Pastry Advice for the Month of Velldaren: A truly rich life contains love and art in abundance.
  

Warnings: Zombie horrors in the appropriately titled ZOMBIES! thread, otherwise TBA. Please put warnings in subject lines of your comments if content warrants one.

Comments

[eventheskylooksdifferent]

"Thank you." Lena's nothing if not well-mannered, even at her most distant--a good Southern upbringing will do that to you. The right corner of her mouth shifts, starting a curve, almost a smile. Her gaze drops to the task of setting the can back in the basket so that it won't fall out again, but she looks up, half in surprise, at his question.

"I--" Wait, wait, yes, it's all right, she thinks she might have seen him in passing, going to and from meals. "Yeah. I only got here like... three weeks ago? I think?" She stops fussing with the can, hands dropping, awkward.

"Do you still live there too?"

[likeaflower]

"Yeah!" Oh good, yes, he's interacting socially and isn't receiving any weird looks (sometimes people are hard, okay). Although he tones down the enthusiasm with, "Yeah, I got here a couple of months ago but my friend was here before me and he's been sick, so."

He shrugs, feeling a bit bad about lying. But it's a life-long habit and even if vampires were out in the open here, he's fairly certain telling someone you don't know 'my friend had a problem shaking off his blood addiction' is probably not the best way to go.

"That's why I'm here. They were nice to me when we were struggling so it pays to be nice back."

[eventheskylooksdifferent]

Lena would be surprisingly understanding about vampires and the like, but so my family has quite a few members who aren't fully human, there's my uncle the former incubus and my cousin the succubus and my aunt the shapeshifter and did I mention I can mess up the weather and cast spells because I can is not something you just announce.

She smiles and nods, absently tucking her hair behind her ear. "They seem nice here. I was looking for something to do since I don't have a job yet. I thought I'd try to hlp since I was here."

And then, after a pause, because while she's well-mannered she doesn't always properly remember how to interact with people: "I'm Lena."

[likeaflower]

Well, at least they have that in common.

"Tom." There will presumably be no hand shaking since they're both of the age group where...no, names and possibly a hand in the air as way of 'hello' is fine.

"Yeah, same. I've mostly been doing odd bits and ends. Still can't really believe it's real, to be honest, let alone getting a job and settling." Mostly because he's been too occupied with staying afloat until Hal was better, so the period of being dazed and confused has lasted a little longer than for most.

[eventheskylooksdifferent]

Lena nods, quiet, grave. "I know. I keep thinking it's just all some dream. Or some mistake. And tomorrow morning I'll be back home and everything will be..." Well. Not okay, that's not really possible back home.

"...like it's supposed to be." She shrugs, almost sheepish. "I guess it's silly to keep thinking that. Maybe it'll get easier when I find a job? Something steady to do."

She takes the next basket, dragging it nearer and inspecting its contents. "Is your friend doing better?"

[likeaflower]

"Yeah." He nods in understanding, hands reflexively going in his pockets at the same time, as he's wont to do when he feels down. "And yeah --he's...not really good with change. I mean, more than the rest of us, so that didn't help things. But he's getting a bit more used to things now. Back on track."

"I'm hoping we'll be able to do all that soon. Job, get a place of our own. The Inn's dead nice but it's not..." Honolulu Heights. Home, or the closest thing that Tom had ever had to one. He makes a face instead, sure that Lena will know what he means. "Even then, it's going to be strange an' all. Our friend just, uh. Passed on. I mean, she were already dead, so we're happy for her. But she kept everything together so it's really not going to be the same."

Mentioning ghosts is fine, he thinks, because Annie isn't here, will probably never be here. And ghosts don't really harm anyone, like werewolves or vampires, unless it's a scary movie of little girls coming out of telly's. Besides, supernatural stuff is common enough here, right? Right. ...why did he even bring it up.

[eventheskylooksdifferent]

"I'm glad to hear that, about your friends. That's good. And I know what you mean. The Inn is nice, everyone's nice there... but I want to get out. It's... I don't know. Creepy in its own way."

She can't put her finger on why, it just is. Maybe it's the constant stream of new arrivals. Maybe it's because everyone is so nice--like they're trying to hide something. She knows how that is.

This basket is settled; she shifts it over to join the others that are ready to go and she looks up at Tom again. "Already dead? Is your friend a vampire, or a ghost? Or something else?"

...And then it dawns on her that she said it out loud, and--okay, surely Tom is okay with discussion of this kind of thing, he brought it up, and she already sort of gathers that this city isn't like Gatlin. But not everyone grew up in a Caster family and not everyone is all right with the otherworldly, and she darts a furtive glance around in case one of those not-everyones is standing here working along this group of volunteers.