Week 2

[bathymetric]

Good morning, New Rapture. A new day is dawning.

It's now been a week since you were all captured. Perhaps you've already settled in. Perhaps you're already confident that you'll make it out of New Rapture alive. How serious about this could Mayor Fontaine possibly be, really?

While there still may not be much to do in your little hotel bubble, you've at least been granted a little more now - some kind of mysterious room and a sizeable library of all things. And in all the places you've looked so far, you've found valuable information, and even learned some of the story of New Rapture along the way.

Make sure to keep talking to the others! You want to keep those regain coins flowing, don't you?




SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to the second week of Unknown Seas Round 3! Please make sure to mark any investigation toplevels accordingly, and you can reach either Mayor Fontaine or Eleanor for conversations! ]

Comments

[inaclearing]

Creative non-fiction, mostly. I've had some stuff printed in magazines and local papers, but nothing major.

[withagun]

Oh, so you'd be looking for the same kinda stuff I am.

[inaclearing]

You like that kind of thing?

[withagun]

Sorta. I was kind of an...intern, I guess? At an editorial company... We mostly wrote about...urban legends. Mr. Suga described it as entertainment.

[inaclearing]

Oh, that's fun! That kind of stuff's interesting. It's like modern folklore.

[withagun]

Yeah... Kids are into that stuff these days. [ He sounds a little thoughtful. And— ] Have you ever...covered anything like that? Something that shouldn't be real?

[inaclearing]

...not really. Not deliberately. But you run into strange things, when you're out there long enough.

[THOSE STRAAAAAAANGE STRAAAAAAAAAANGE WOOOOOOOOOOODS]

[withagun]

What do you think of them? The strange things.

[inaclearing]

...I think there's a lot of stuff out there that we don't entirely understand. People think we know everything, these days, but we don't. It's probably not possible.

[withagun]

That so...? [ Hodaka relaxes a very miniscule amount. ] I think...that's a smart way of looking at it, Mr. Riebach. Especially in, uh...your line of work.

[inaclearing]

It isn't really investigating if you've already made up your mind. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything that was really...inexplicable. But you know - there's something about some places. Maybe even some people.

[Howl's dream comes to mind - his sisters, warning him how cold it'd become. But that's a third-hand story at best.]

[withagun]

...Yeah. Sometimes...strange things just...happen. They're how the world works...even if we don't want them to be.

[inaclearing]

[He nods, and says in a cadence not quite his own:]

"You expect everything should work out in your best interest. But nature doesn't care about your expectations."

[withagun]

[ And that stuns him. Openly, completely. ]

Yeah. [ He nods, once. And then again. ] Yeah, yeah...! That's exactly it. The weather- the world is...unpredictable. And harsh. And there's consequences, for messing with it.

[ That's not...what he said, Hodaka. ]

[inaclearing]

...that was Howl. A man I...sort of knew, once.

[Reporter's instinct makes him cite the quote. That, and...well. Brett knows what it is, a little, to have the man speak to you. To have his words speak to you. That he should do so even when he isn't present...]

He was a survivalist. We met because he was teaching some kids how to survive out in the wild, everything he knew...because a boy had died out there.

[withagun]

[ A man named Howl... Suddenly, Hodaka is enraptured. He quietly pulls out a chair and sits at the table Brett is at. ]

I'm sorry... [ Because of the past tense. Because of the heavy air of death. ] Did... He had experience? With nature?

[inaclearing]

...yeah. He lived out in a cabin in the woods - the same one I was staying in, before this.

[Which only confirms that yes, Howl isn't there anymore.]

It's ten miles out from town, and it didn't have electricity back then. He lived off the land, for the most part. Hunted his own food, took care of the house and the land on his own. He made this dandelion brandy...I never asked him how. I wasn't one of his students, not like Peregrine and her friends.

[withagun]

[ He blinks in surprise, mostly at that name. Peregrine? Americans are weird. The rest of it is... Okay, a little surprising, too. ]

Completely out of town? With no electricity? How'd he...do anything?

[inaclearing]

He'd walk into town every so often, to pick up whatever he couldn't make for himself. That's how Peregrine got to know him - she worked at the general store. Felt bad for him, walking all that way at his age, so she started doing deliveries.

[He doesn't mention the other reason, the real one. Sure, he was making a podcast about it, but...well, it still feels strange to just bring that up out of nowhere.]

[withagun]

Who is she? Pe-re-grine-san? [ It's choppy, and it's definitely a name he hasn't said before, translation confirms that. ] Why'd she... Why'd he wanna teach her? If he's that disconnected...

[inaclearing]

He finally connected again. In spite of himself, I think.

[and then he ran the fuck away.........]

Peregrine's brother was the one who passed away in the woods. Howl found his body. That was why she wanted to get to know him - he found Jacob when no one else could. And I know he'd lost people too, he had a hard life. Not a lot of people really understand loss like that. Especially at Peregrine's age. One minute you're a normal kid, living in a world where nothing that bad ever really happens, and then the next...

[Brett remembers how it was, back then. He think he might done the same thing, if he were in Peregrine's place as a kid. Even as a grown man, he can't deny that Howl's philosophies appealed to something old and still-wounded in him.

(If he'd been in Peregrine's place, and read that note, he doesn't think he could have turned away from it.)]

[withagun]

I...see.

[ Hodaka wonders how old that is. Peregrine's age. He wonders, is it older than him? Younger? ]

And he taught her how to...deal with it? The woods?

[ Deal with sounds so weird. But it's what he thinks of nature now, a phenomenon all its own. ]

[inaclearing]

...he did his best. But like he said, it's unpredictable. The best you can do is be prepared, and even then, you can't do everything on your own.

[That last part wasn't Howl, of course. His version of preparing for the worst never seemed to involve other people. It's the sort of thing you can only really see in hindsight, now that he's gone.]

[withagun]

It...does what it wants.

[ That's...not what he said- okay, hodaka. ]

How...did you know them? Were you friends before...?

[inaclearing]

...no. I came to town following a story, and I...heard about how the kids were training with Howl. I thought it sounded interesting, so I talked to some people about it, went out to watch them once or twice...and it all took off from there.

[It's all true. It's not the entire truth. Even now, Brett keeps some things back - the personal things, the ones a little too close to his own heart. But it doesn't really matter, right?]