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Tweak says, "You're all obsessed"

Henrietta "Hetty" Woodstone (newlymodern) wrote in dunwichgame,
@ 2024-06-07 20:18:00

Entry tags:

!log/thread/narrative, ∙ plot: 017 dunwich used power swap, ◌ inactive: hetty woodstone, ◌ inactive: liv moore

WHO: Hetty Woodstone & Liv Moore
WHEN: Following this.
WHAT: An introductory tour.
WHERE: Around Dunwich.
RATING/WARNINGS: TBD

While she would not like to admit it, Hetty was feeling rather apprehensive. There was much about this place that was unfamiliar. The outside world she remembered from when she was living was not nearly so modern. And she hadn’t had occasion to be surrounded by this many livings since becoming a ghost, out on the streets. It was...quite the experience.

She'd been drawn into the sweet shop, first by the smell of the fudge, then by all the other confections lining its display cases. It wasn’t an especially large space, and some careful maneuvering had been required once or twice to avoid being passed through. Still others, she was certain could see her, moving around her of their own accord.

And for those who were able to see her, or in fact, were looking for her, she was a little hard to miss. (Though she had noticed an assortment of individuals in her wanderings since arriving here.) The teal dress and large bustle, well-done hair. Very Victorian. More appropriately Gilded Age, but it rather depended on one's frame of historical reference. To Hetty, she simply was as she was.

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zombiemode
2024-06-09 01:53 am UTC (link)

Places like the ice cream and sweet shop always left Liv a little sad. With her senses deadened, the young kid in her who used to love the smell of a sweet shop could never feel that nostalgia. The bell above the door chimed as she opened it and slipped inside. The shop was quaint and vintage, like a pink time capsule. During the day meant there wasn't as many people there as there could have been which was a blessing.

From there, it was easy enough to spot the anachronism in the shop. The woman in the Victorian-style dress with her hair and make-up done. Liv made her way over to the other woman, careful not to overwhelm or draw attention to them — not that the locals would notice even if they didn — and finally sidled up next to her.

"Hetty? We talked on the network."

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newlymodern
2024-06-09 03:54 am UTC (link)

Looking up as she was addressed, Hetty found herself momentarily struck still and speechless by the sight of the woman before her. Not because of her unusually pale skin or white hair, but because she looked so like Samantha. Sure, she had thought there might be some resemblance, but the tiny image did not do it justice.

"Of course. Where are my manners?" But she couldn't seem to tear her gaze away.

It also struck her that, like Samantha, this young woman could see her, but perhaps, most likely, that was a product of her own status as one of the undead. A zombie, she'd said. Something Hetty had thought a fiction.

Finally, after much too long a silence, she smiled, gesturing toward the door and the world beyond it. "Shall we?"

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zombiemode
2024-06-09 06:58 am UTC (link)

Liv, on the other hand, immediately thought that Hetty was staring at her because of her pale skin and hair. The other woman had been so certain that zombies didn't exist, it must have been a shock to see one in the flesh. Liv had the urge to pull up her hoodie to hide something — her hair, in this case — to comfort Hetty somewhat.

"This way," she gestured toward the door and began to move toward it.

The other woman was a ghost. Liv was suddenly struck with the idea of how ridiculous it was for a ghost to stare at a zombie as if Liv had three heads. They were both supernatural beings that most people didn't believe it. Not completely anyway.

"Are there a lot of ghosts? Where you're from?"

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newlymodern
2024-06-09 10:17 pm UTC (link)

It was a shock indeed, but a woman in her day understood the importance of a careful indifference. Hetty had always excelled at burying such unacceptable emotions in life, and she'd only gotten better at it after her death. It was just...she did look so familiar, and as much as it pained her to admit it, she missed her fellow ghosts, she missed Samantha. Woodstone, for better or worse, was home.

Henrietta Woodstone, pull yourself together.

"Well, I suppose that depends on your definition of a lot," she answered with a faint little chuckle, as if she were making a private joke, following Liv out into the warmth of the day. While she stepped around display cases and other furnishings by habit, and was particularly careful to avoid people, Hetty paid little regard to the door or walls.

"Most move straight on to," she gave a minute shrug, "wherever it is they're going. "Those of us who are not so lucky are bound to the place in which we died. I imagine it could get quite crowded."

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zombiemode
2024-06-11 05:50 am UTC (link)

Out on the sidewalk, Liv paused for Hetty to catch up to her. She wasn't a tour guide, and she wasn't leading her to Mt. Doom. They were just two women taking a stroll around town. Liv, for her part, knew quite a few of the locals. When you worked in the hospital — even as the mortician — people tended to learn who you were one way or another.

And Liv was a friendly sort.

"Oh. So not everyone hangs around after? Do you know where they go?"

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cw: cheating, very unhappy marriage

newlymodern
2024-06-11 06:26 am UTC (link)

Accustomed as she was to being both unheard and unseen, Hetty had yet to make sense of the pattern of why some in this place appeared to take notice of her while most still seemed unaware of her presence. She also did not especially care, nor did she give much consideration to what it might look like for those who could not see her, as the two women walked the town, conversing.

"Heaven, one presumes." She had attended church, on occasion, but it was hard to say if she'd had an actual grasp of the faith. As with much in her time, one often accepted what they were told. Especially if she happened to be a woman. "Though we did recently learn that it was possible to be sent to Hades as well. Where my philandering husband is now." The hint of delight at the last was not imagined, a small smile gracing her features. "The floor opened up, he was engulfed in a bright red glow, and straight down he went."

And she was glad to know it.

"At Woodstone, where I reside, there are eight of us in the main house, now that Nigel will have moved back into the shed. Where I assume Carol is also now staying. I have been rather distracted lately. And of course, the basement." Her composure remained unruffled, but her distaste for the basement ghosts was not well-masked. Mainly because she'd never cared to hide that either. She had almost started to warm to Nancy, but she would be very unlikely to admit as much aloud.

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Re: cw: cheating, very unhappy marriage

zombiemode
2024-06-14 04:43 am UTC (link)

Liv's eyes widened. It shouldn't surprise her that Heaven and Hell existed — at least in other dimensions — since there were angels and demons and Lucifer here, but it did. It always did. She was a damn zombie, and she was still surprised by vampires and demons.

"That definitely sounds like a Hell situation to me. Or a Bad Place, if nothing else." The mention of the Bad Place brought a sharp pain as Liv remembered her former roommate. Eleanor had been a breath of fresh air, and Liv had needed it. Maybe she could be that breath of fresh air for someone else. Like Astarion. He was drowning — anyone could see that — and she felt like she could be a better friend to him.

As they walked, Liv turned to look at her. "Moved into the shed? Why'd he do that?"

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newlymodern
2024-06-14 09:21 pm UTC (link)

Hetty frowned in obvious confusion. Bad Place? She did not voice her question.

"It was most satisfying." There again was the slight smile, and a pleased note it didn't seem she could help. If anyone did deserve such a fate, it was Elias. Unlike poor Peter, who he'd tried to drag down with him. Foolish as he'd been falling for Elias's schemes in the first place.

As to Nigel, "Well, he had only moved into the house as he and Isaac were planning to marry."

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zombiemode
2024-06-18 06:30 pm UTC (link)

"So he lived in the shed before, moved into the house to marry, then back to the shed." Liv blinked. "Did they break up?"

They were in the center of town now, where Town Hall was and across the street was a quaint little park with the white gazebo that a lot of people arrived near. She hadn't. She'd arrived in the middle of a parade, but that gazebo had seen better and worse days.

"This is town hall, as you can see," she gestured toward the building. "This area across is where a lot of us show up. Not always, but a lot."

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newlymodern
2024-06-18 10:51 pm UTC (link)

The apparent inequality wasn't exactly lost on Hetty. She'd grown! Some. But the shed had served Nigel and the others perfectly well since before her own death. Why should they be invited into the mansion? Isaac was a much dearer friend to her, and they'd never all get along. And anyway, she'd really only tolerated Nigel for Isaac's sake.

"Isaac was already beginning to have second thoughts." Also for Isaac's sake, she would not mention the cause, not for strangers to gossip about. "And when Peter came rushing in with his grand speech...Isaac called off the wedding."

Whether the note of sadness was for her friend or spoke of something deeper, it was hard to say.

"I had a gazebo." She smiled faintly, then wrinkled her nose. "Until Thorfinn burned it down."

She tilted her head. "How long have you been here, S-," Hetty caught herself a half-second too late, and then carried on like she hadn't, "Liv?"

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zombiemode
2024-06-19 06:43 am UTC (link)

Liv caught the stumble, but she figured that perhaps Hetty had just started to call her something else. Like when you were with a group of friends, and you ended up cycling through everyone's name until you finally got to the right one.

"I got here in February 2023, and it's now June 2024, so one year and four months."

But that didn't include the months she'd been with the Infinite Agency. That felt like such a very long time ago. She missed the time when she could simply insert herself right back into the time stream whenever she wanted.

"You have a big group of friends, it seems. I think you'll fit in here. They're from all over time and space."

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newlymodern
2024-06-19 07:29 am UTC (link)

That gave her pause. "Yes. I suppose I do."

If she sounded a little surprised by her own admission, well, she'd rarely thought of her fellow ghosts in that way. Maybe when Flower had returned to them, the warmth she'd felt knowing their unlikely little family was whole once more.

More often than not, they wanted nothing so much as to be rid of one another. But at the end of the day, they were all stuck together. As reluctant as she may be to admit it, she loved them. And, she thought, they loved her.

"And we too came from a range of time periods and backgrounds."

Maybe it wasn't quite the same, but she was trying to be equally optimistic. What Liv had said was slowly sinking in, and the prospect of being here a year, of not seeing Isaac or Alberta or Trevor or the others for a year was more daunting than she'd like anyone to know. She already missed them.

"A year seems an awfully long time."

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	zombiemode 2024-06-21 08:08 pm UTC (link)
	"Yeah, a lot can and does happen around here too. One minute, you're hanging out in your house, the next, a nasty fog has rolled in with monsters hunting people." She hadn't meant it to sound daunting, but daunting was different after you'd been in Dunwich for a while. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

newlymodern
2024-06-22 06:06 pm UTC (link)

Well, it certainly wasn't encouraging. Her grimace likely said as much. While she might like to deny it, her time as a ghost had made her somewhat less of a lady, more prone to reaction and less impassive.

"I'm not sure how much help I'll be with that." Did the short laugh that followed sound slightly hysterical? No. She didn't like that term, hysterical. It had been a perfectly ordinary laugh. And the answer to the unasked question in her statement was as obvious as her opinion of unexpected monster attacks. She would be of no help at all.

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