fh_trips | The Village of Arkham, Friday

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island summer jaunt 2011

The Village of Arkham, Friday

Life had gone on in Arkham while the blasted heath made its reappearance elsewhere. These villagers had chosen to stay over the years, despite the inhospitable land that surrounded them. While the farmhouses up on the hills were abandoned, here, business was still done. Work happened. Life did.

It was a town of sagging gambrel roofs and Georgian balustrades; it was a town that was crumbling, mouldering. Old, very old, and wrong somehow, at least according to those men and women who passed by from time to time.

Not too far away - a few miles, at best - rested Miskatonic University, on lands the previous taint had never quite reached. It was safer, unlike the reservoir that laid so close to the town, and that seemed so very unreal.

This was Arkham. This was where answers might be found - if you found someone willing to part with them.

[[ for the detectives, please, and ~~wait for the~~ ocd up! ]]

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Meet up, pair up, discuss plans before heading further into town.

Here, at the edge of the causeway on the mainland side, the air seems somehow less pressing than in Fandom, and the wrongness less apparent.

Some villagers mill around here, either rushing to their next destination or pausing to look at the newcomers with suspicion. None of them look particularly eager to talk, but that can always change...

The butcher looks awfully uninterested in anything that's going on around him, and the meat he's selling doesn't look all that appetizing. Still, the odd grunt he produces insinuates that he is actually capable of speaking.

It's fairly dark here, and it smells like a public toilet. A few shifty-eyed youths are hanging around here, looking like they'd rather be anywhere else.

Whether this small collection of sorry-looking stands could technically be considered a market is up to the beholder. The women manning them look in no way motivated to do anything, though one or two are more mobile than others.

Or manors that have once been stately, anyway. Right now they're all looking a bit crumbly and foreboding, but most of them also look occupied. You might find one or two people willing to speak to you here.

A few miles away from Arkham and the reservoir lies Miskatonic University, a grand old institution that occupies itself with the occult. Miskatonic as of yet only accepts male students. It possesses a medical wing and a vast library.

It may be that the researchers within are more interesting to visitors right now.

This far away from the blasted heath, the world almost seems normal again. The wrongness does not linger here - it never reached it.

Dearest sleuths! Feel free to go with any piece of OCD that draws your interest. Let us know here if you need anything else.

In which Jack talks to some villagers (http://exactlyaverage.livejournal.com/4845.html).

And gets creeped out.

Hank kicked his heels up, pulled his lid down over his peepers, and waited for the rest of the gumshoes to ankle it across the causeway. Somewhere out there, in the dirty streets of this dismal town, there were birds with the skinny on this case, and it was his job to make them sing.

Jake wasn't entirely sure how he ended up with a teenager as a partner for this little venture, but she wasn't Des, so that already made her about 30% less annoying by default. "Why don't we try in here?" he suggested, giving a nod towards the butcher's shop.

"Looks kind of... gross," Annie said, making a face even at just the look of the shop. She couldn't imagine what the inside might be like. "But I guess we can try it. It'll be an experience."

Someone was trying desperately to see the bright side today.

It wasn't that Pinkie was oblivious to the creepy. It was that she'd learned long ago that things that seemed creepy weren't necessarily dangerous. Sometimes, they just needed a hand or a friend.

"Hi!" she said brightly to the shifty-eyed youths. "I'm Pinkie Pie. What are your names?"

"Gross is part of the job, luh," Jake said with a shrug. "So long as you come out with the same number of fingers you went in with, you're good." Terribly reassuring, really.

If you were wondering what Annie's alarmed face looked like, wonder no more.

"That... doesn't help even a little," she said, but cautiously went to open the door of the shop anyway.

The man behind the counter brought down his butcher's knife on a chunk of ill-looking meat.

He didn't even look up for a second.

Jake cleared his throat, unfazed by the lack of reaction. "How ye doin'?" he greeted cheerfully.

As much as Jason had discussed threatening the townsfolk with Deadpool yesterday - although it really hadn't been a discussion as much as Jason trying to tone down the vice principal's bloodlust - he was hoping that people would just be upfront about what they knew. Especially since he wasn't sure what certain people from Fandom were capable of.

"Do you think we'll find anyone around here willing to chat?" he asked, looking around subtly.

"Every stooge sings, if you know the right tune," Hank answered. "Or the right audience. My pal Andrew Jackson says they'll talk."

First things first: Annie had no idea what she was doing. She assumed Jake was playing good cop, which meant that she was the bad cop. Right?

So she folded her arms and tried to look badass. "Hey, you."

The butcher's eyes flicked up. Once. You could just about see the whites of his eyes for a minute there.

Twock, went the knife.

"Right, well, now that we've got pleasantries out of the way," Jake drawled. "Keep your fingers out of reach," he advised as an aside to Annie. "Mind answering a few questions?"

Annie didn't have a ton to add there. Which is why she went with, "What he said," as she clasped her hands safely behind her back. She liked her fingers. They were useful. She would like to keep them.

That sort-of-annoyed little grunting noise the butcher made was... probably not very encouraging, but at least it was a reaction, right?

And the noise that followed could, if one were creative, be construed as being a spirited attempt at saying "What do you want?" while spitting out nails.

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Page 1 of 4

The Village of Arkham, Friday

Shores of the Reservoir

Arkham

Arkham - Main Square

Arkham - Butcher's

Arkham - Creepy Alleyway

Arkham - Market

Arkham - Street of Stately Manors

Miskatonic University

OOC

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Re: Shores of the Reservoir

Re: Arkham - Butcher's

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Re: Arkham - Creepy Alleyway

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