un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ Five is walking out of the lighthouse as he addresses the network, since it's generally quieter where ghosts aren't constantly interrupting his thoughts. The beauty of this form of communication is it's not entirely unlike talking to himself, which is really his preference. ]

Okay, listen up. Since we're all sharing, let's see if we can't come up with an actual plan, before we experience the next shift and you all inconveniently forget who you are again.

[ To say nothing of a haunting that has already sent him into a panic attack or how he nearly drowned just to see for himself what he'd already heard second-hand. Nothing but success for Five Hargreeves. ]

Two orders of business. One, Miang-Si is obviously a catalyst, if not the cause of what's happening here. I searched her room one of the nights she was out galavanting with her lake friends. There was correspondence that suggested she was enamored with someone, who I now assume was the Huntress. I also found evidence that the woman in white, and another in red, visited her there. The witches she's involved with also may have dragged in women doing laundry nearby into their lake at some point, judging by what was found with the skeletons at the bottom.

Secondly, these hauntings aren't just some curse. If they are spirits, we need to figure out a way to trap them. There's a woman in white, a man in black, a lumberjack, and another woman in red. Who else has been seen and how often? If we can capture one of them, maybe we can get some answers before whatever triggered this starts again.

[ He has no doubt it'll happen at the worst possible moment.

Just as he's about to continue with his all-important conspiracy theories, he's approached by a young girl with a silver coin in hand. Distantly she can be heard saying she's worried about her family, and asks him to take a donation for Kathoo'lul's blessing. Dumbfounded, he takes it and promptly loses his train of thought as she scurries away. ]

...Amazing how easy it is to start a cult around here.

Comments

un: lockwood

[recklessenough]

I have also been plagued by a child. So far it has been confined to the location where I was set up to sleep.

The lumberjack I see at irregular intervals, all over the village in different locations but almost always attempting to interact with someone living.

un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

You've seen both. Does the child appear every night?

[ Not that he's suggesting it, but of all of them, a child would be the easiest to catch. In theory. ]

un: lockwood

[recklessenough]

Not every night. [ The first few times, Lockwood had done his best to secure his room in the ways he knew worked back home. There was maybe a night or two where his efforts appeared to work, only for the following night proving that they hadn't done anything. ] I'm afraid I have yet to discern any pattern to when, where or why it appears.

[somebadnews]

[ Not particularly helpful yet, but he's getting somewhere. ]

Possibly when it's not haunting someone else. Might be time to start keeping a log and note how long it stays until we find someone who can trap it.

It never appears as someone else?

[recklessenough]

No. [ The word comes out sharply and there is a long hesitation as Lockwood wrestles with sharing the rest of it. Because logically he knows he needs to share this information, it could be important. But his natural reticence to share anything that has to do with his family rears it's ugly head. He's only just gotten around on the idea of sharing his secrets with Lucy and George. Now he has a whole new band of strangers to get used too.

Carefully editing out some of the more emotional parts of the encounters, he breathes out a deep breath and adds on. ]

It touches me, but the touch doesn't kill. Yet, I haven't been able to break away when it guides me into various rooms. In the rooms are ... items that sometimes belonged to my father, or my mother ... or my sister. Sometimes I'll hear their voices, see blood on my hands.

There hasn't been any regularity to what I see, where or in what order. Just the toddler.

[somebadnews]

[ In fairness, Five hasn't shared what he sees, but he still manages to be surprised at the gruesome detail. That goes to show that he shouldn't have thought the child was the tamer spirit.

He doesn't jump to any assumptions about the blood on his hands; he isn't the one to judge. ]

That's... elaborate. [ He considers that for a moment. ] When does it stop?

[recklessenough]

After the laughter. [ Sorry Five, no further elaboration on that, and Lockwood's flat voice is meant to dissuade any additional questions along that line. ]

[somebadnews]

[ Luckily that's not the kind of prying he's interested in. At least he doesn't think he'll object if they manage to set a trap for it.

He gives him a respectable beat or two before asking: ]

Has anyone ever seen it while that was going on, or were you always alone?

[recklessenough]

I was always alone. [ Whether that was by design, or a result of Lockwood wrecking his immediate environment with swipes of a very dangerous sword, was anyone's best guess. ]

I haven't had a chance to speak for very long with anyone else who is also in the house with me, so I can't tell you if they are experiencing anything similar.

[somebadnews]

[ If he's wandering around rooms, it's probably a matter of time before someone catches him. Unless it's all in his mind. ]

There's a pretty big discrepancy, from what I can tell. [ He hasn't sorted out why. ] Which house is it?

[recklessenough]

It's a cottage, set up on a raft. You may have seen us rowing it back in to one of the docks in the morning. [ Lockwood sounds a little aggrieved with this last bit. ] It keeps floating off, no matter how tightly we knot the lines.

[somebadnews]

[ He's visited everywhere at least once. Spreading the good word of Kathoo'lul and all. ]

Could be worse. [ The lighthouse is obnoxiously haunted. ] In theory, a child would be easier to catch.