solstice rpg

Who: Gretchen Schleinser, Manuel Tavarez (NPCs), Tayne and Jesse
When: late morning
Where: the church

It was a glorious sunny day on Eldritch Island, and the crossing on the ferry had been reasonable given the fact that the waters around this part of Oregon were notoriously choppy. It was a Monday morning, and instead of being stuck in an office, Gretchen and her co-worker Manuel were making a visit to a former colleague. That should have made her happy, but then Gretchen wasn't in the habit of being happy about much of anything. As Manuel pulled the car up in front of the church where Tayne Peregrine was now the priest, her long nails were tapping out an irritated staccato on the surface of her iPhone. With an exasperated huff, she finally tossed it into her stylish and streamlined purse, selected especially to go with her no-nonsense business suits. "I do not know how these people live out here. There's no fucking cell reception."

Gretchen looked like she should have been a soft, cuddly housewife or maybe a nursery school teacher. She was plump and blonde, long-legged and bosomy and almost uncannily pretty. That first impression was entirely inaccurate. Beneath the lapels of her suit jackets beat the heart of a ruthless barracuda.

Who: Tayne and Jesse and a door
Where: The lighthouse
When: Around noon

The sermon came easily, the day before, and hadn't taken much in the way of polish. It was, unsurprisingly to Tayne at least, about mistakes and atonement and perseverance. It was what he needed to hear, anyway, so it was apparently what the congregation got to hear, too. That left him with most of the evening and all morning to research a spell for Jesse's door-- not necessarily a good thing, but at least productive-- and even then he wound up with an hour to kill. The spell in question required it to be noon, so he only left for the lighthouse half an hour before.

His truck rattled up to the lighthouse and stopped in a short shower of gravel at its foot. Tayne climbed out, a duffle bag over his shoulder, clanking a little with the materials inside it. This was more complicated than the last spell, but possibly more informative, and certainly less likely to engage the door's magic, itself. Or so he hoped.

( He wished he could have known and understood more true things about life while he'd been living it, but then maybe that was part of the lesson he was supposed to be learning here. )

Who: Tayne and Jesse (duh <3 )
Where: The church
When: Late evening

After dropping his things off at the house, and stopping long enough to grab a bite to eat to hopefully quell his uneasy stomach from the boat ride back, Tayne made his weary way to the church to make sure nothing had been disturbed in his absence. He'd had one of the local parishioners locking and unlocking the sanctuary during the day, and checking to make sure everything was as it should be, but he wanted to make sure for himself.

Besides, maybe he could find some measure of peace in there, at least enough to let him sleep tonight. His sleep the night before, though exhausted, had been restless, and what he remembered of his dreams had been unpleasant. Jesse had been there, too, and that only made him feel worse.

So he headed through the familiar double doors, pushing one open, and flicked on the lights, so the room was illuminated by more than candles and reflected streetlights through the windows.

( The sanctuary and the company. )

Who: Tayne and Jesse
Where: In dreams
When: At night

The room was small and dark, but it felt crowded, like the shadows had mass, had eyes and were staring at him. The single light hanging overhead was harsh, and he hunched under it, sure that in its light, they could see everything. Every transgression. Every guilty feeling. Every little sin.

They could certainly see the big sin.

"Tell us again."

"What happened tonight."

Shoulders bent, head hanging low, Tayne looked even more guilty than he felt. The police had seemed to believe him, when this interview had really happened. Then, he had been shaken but confident, saddened and afraid but not guilty. He'd been the priest, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, with some strange circumstances that he couldn't explain, that was for sure. But here... here, he knew. He knew it was wrong, he knew he was wrong. "I j-j-just c-came upon them. In th-th-the alley. Bleeding. I j-j-just threw my rosary--"

( You got rotten taste in friends. )

Who: Jesse and Tayne
Where: St. Florian's
When: late afternoon

Jesse had spent the majority of the day sitting out on the catwalk with his shirt off, soaking up the light he'd been denied the day before and thinking about the problem of Natalie Price and her death wish. He was still convinced that the only other thing he could do was consult Tayne and see if there was any way he could help, and he only hoped that he could manage it without fumbling around and having his friend think he'd gone around the bend. He should just talk to Tayne about the dreamworld, straight up, but he was concerned that the priest would be self-conscious around him if he knew and believed that he and Jesse had interacted in dreams. There had to be another way.

( And good advice. )

Who: Christian and Jesse
Where: Jesse's lighthouse
When: Late afternoon

The ferry ride home had been depressing. Christian had gone from panicked and frantic to defeated and uncertain. Obviously he had failed, and now maybe she would kill herself sooner, and it would be all his fault. He'd shooed Ava off when they got to his house-- she was reluctant, but he didn't want to face Jesse with her there-- and disappeared inside to huddle in his blankets upstairs with his kittens.

When he finally dragged himself out of the house again, the kittens came with him. He slumped down the street, out of town, and up to the covered doorway to the lighthouse with one kitten in one pocket and the other continuously trying to climb out of the other. He was the picture of misery as he knocked heavily on the door, and hunched his shoulders, fully expecting-- against all odds-- to be yelled at and punished for his failure.

( It did not go well. )

Who: Christian and Jesse
When: morning
Where: Christian's house

Jesse had been trying so hard to find the girl who desperately wanted to die that he thought maybe that's why he hadn't been able to. Maybe it wasn't possible to force oneself to go into one dream or another. There was still so much he didn't understand about how the dreamworld worked, as well as the fact that the girl he'd seen made him feel an urgent sort of desperation as he wondered if it was already too late. But as soon as the sun rose Thursday morning, he came out of his fugue state and sat straight up on the catwalk, gasping, her name on his lips. He'd seen her again, talked to her. That had to mean she was still alive.

He made himself wait until a decent hour, although it was still early by most people's standards, before dressing in fresh clothes and literally running over to Christian's home, where he knocked on the door, then shifted nervously from foot to foot as he waited.

( I found her. )

Who: Jesse and Tayne
Where: the dreamworld
When: the wee hours

Jesse seemed to feel safest on the catwalk of the lighthouse, suspended between sea and sky, and it was there that he was lying, not minding the hardness of the iron walkway beneath him. His body was still, his posture relaxed, his face with its opaquely fogged over eyes turned up toward the heavens. He'd been wandering in dreams ever since the dark had fallen like a curtain over the horizon.

He'd been searching for the girl who wanted to kill herself, but he'd found no trace of her. Thus far, he hadn't encountered anyone he knew. The dreams had been either mundane or non-disturbing, and gradually he realized that he was walking in that amorphous space between one dream and the next. He was surrounded by fog, but he patiently picked his way along, feeling the sand beneath his feet give way to what felt like pavement or concrete. The air became cooler, the wind stronger, and he wondered where he would emerge. Squinting through the darkness, Jesse soon found that he could see vague shapes up ahead. It was some sort of building, surrounded by cacti. Huge ones. It was still dark out here, but he couldn't tell if it was dusk or just before dawn.

( Blood for blood. )

Who: Jesse and Tayne
When: late evening
Where: St. Florian's

Jesse had spent the day in a state of low terror once he'd gotten back to the lighthouse, and he wasn't entirely sure why. He'd rushed inside, for once savoring the sound of the lock clicking shut behind him and knowing that nobody could get in unless he let them in, and gone upstairs to strip off his wet and bloody clothes and take a shower. He had stood beneath the stream of water for quite a long time, occasionally looking at the scar in the middle of his chest. It seemed to be healing in some slow, time-lapse fashion; when he'd first gotten into the shower, it had looked as bad as the scars on his arms-- which he'd decided had to be some sort of reminder of what he'd done, or maybe a punishment, to still look the way they did after all this time-- but when he'd finally gotten out, it was less prominent, although still there.

The thought that had consumed him all day was, What am I? I don't eat, don't sleep, walk in dreams, and evidently I can't die. It wasn't that he didn't know he was something extraordinary, but each nuance that was revealed made him feel even stranger about it. Even worse than that was knowing there was another being like him, like a dark mirror image. A shadow, malevolent and unpredictable.

( You look like hell, pardon the saying.... )

Who: Jesse and Neta
Where: the Victorian in the woods
When: mid-morning

After Jesse had finished his dreamwalking in the wee hours of the morning, he remained disturbed by what had happened in the dream that had started so innocuously with treetop-walking and ended with the dark woman, violence on a bridge and the complete disappearance of the dreamer. He'd sat on the seventh level, not far from the doorway, for hours as the night faded into a rainy dawn, worrying over this other dreamwalker. He hadn't imagined meeting another dreamwalker in somebody's dream, but he had, and he didn't like it at all. Mainly because she'd been horrible, mean and aggressive. He was also concerned about the woman he'd discussed with Tayne, the one like him who was living out in the woods. He'd determined to check the situation out as soon as he could, and he decided that now was as good a time as any.

He left the lighthouse in the rain, freshly dressed in a black long-sleeved t-shirt and one of his many pairs of jeans with a battered rain slicker he'd found in one of the lockers in his quarters over the top of it. At least he wouldn't get completely drenched. As he walked along, he realized that he felt tired and slightly draggy already; he was getting the idea that he would feel like this on days when there was no sun or even reasonably bright light in the sky. It couldn't be helped, he guessed. The light overhead only became dimmer as he reached the woods and began picking his way through the overgrown paths, stepping over fallen limbs and other detritus. He kept a wary eye on his surroundings, not wanting any sudden surprises as he approached the decrepit, falling-down Victorian house.

( I think I'm gonna call that my lucky knife, from now on. )

Who: Jesse and Neta
When: the wee hours
Where: the dreamworld

There was a network of trees so far off the ground that Jesse wasn't sure how far down they would have had to climb to reach the base of it. Not that it mattered, because he and a young man who was dressed only in a pair of pants that looked as if they were made from some kind of animal skin were making their way across the interconnected tops of them, reaching from branch to branch as they went. He fancied that there were clouds ringing their heads, but that couldn't be right. Or could it, here in the dreamworld? The wind whipped around them, and he clung to the nearest branch as the entire structure shuddered under the impact of that cold breeze.

"Be careful!" he called out to the dreamer. He didn't know if someone could die in a dream-- he was inclined to think not-- but it didn't hurt to give a little bit of positive encouragement.

"We're almost there," the young man called back to him. "Keep going!"

Almost where? Jesse thought but didn't ask.

( Watch the sparks fly. )

Who: Jesse and Tayne
When: evening
Where: the cemetery, then the rectory

Jesse was feeling unsettled tonight, and he couldn't face an entire evening of sitting at the lighthouse listening for sounds behind that door. It was still way too warm outside, even long after the sun had gone down, and heat lightning flickered on a fairly constant basis in the sky. Earlier in the day, he'd used a boxcutter he'd found in one of the drawers in the keeper's quarters to cut the legs off of one of his many pairs of faded jeans to create a pair of long shorts, and he wore them along with one of his usual long-sleeved t-shirts. His feet were bare; somehow he didn't worry about getting his feet cut or injured. He just felt cooler with no shoes on.

He'd left the lighthouse with the notion of going to see Tayne, and he'd gotten as far as the cemetery just outside the church before encountering a ghost. It was a young man who reminded him quite a bit of one of the kids in his youth group a while back, and he'd seated himself next to a tombstone to talk to him. It was a nice distraction from the numerous things he had on his mind, and he quickly lost track of time. It was a blustery night, with those flashes of lightning illuminating the sky, and his voice was soft as he murmured to the ghost, who was leaning against him and clutching his arm, although he couldn't feel the phantom touch.

( It wasn't that he'd ceased believing in God or turning to Him for guidance; it was more that, after death, God seemed so, so far away. )

Who: Christian, Jesse, and Gwen
When: Midday-ish
Where: A cafe with outdoor seating by the ferry dock

After a lengthy conversation with himself before he left to go get Jesse, Christian had finally given in to himself and brought the kittens along. Schatten was comfortable in a coat pocket-- yes, he had a coat on, albeit a light one, despite the heat of the day; Christian nearly always wore a coat, if he could get away with it-- and Kummer kept climbing out of his pocket to ride on his shoulder or pounce something nearby or claw up and down his pants leg or otherwise, well... get into trouble. His name was well-chosen, Christian thought more than once along the way, given what it meant.

He collected Jesse with much nervousness, and several more rescues of Kummer later, the cafe where Gwen waited was in sight. "She is on her lunch break," Christian said, for the third time. "You do not have to eat, though she might."

( And suicidal young women. )

Who: Jesse and Solana
Where: the beach
When: evening

Jesse had thought about it extensively and had come up with a possible solution for the problem of needing to launder his clothes but having no access to money. He'd collect cans and bottles and take them to the small recycling center that was located near the Shoppes, and he'd use the small amount of money he'd glean from that to feed the washer and dryer at the laundromat. With that goal in mind, he'd been wandering around for a couple of hours with a plastic bag he'd found in the bottom of one of the long, narrow lockers in his room, and he had the bag about half full. He could perform a public service and meet a need he had at the same time. He was humming under his breath as he made his way down the beach about a quarter of a mile from the lighthouse, seeing what he could find.

If only Solana had the foresight to be so industrious. Alas, her focus was always on much more immediate needs, and it was very rare for her clothes to be laundered. Not that she stunk them up as much as humans did, but still. Laying around in the sand and water got your stuff dirty. Which was what she was doing, half-in and half-out of the surf, spread-eagle and looking up at the endless sky. She liked the sky, and sometimes was irrationally envious of things that could fly. For all intents and purposes, she looked dead -- really dead -- as if someone had just dumped her there with her skirt hiked up around her thighs and her unblinking eyes open. She was utterly oblivious to anyone else that might be around, lost in her own disconnected thoughts.

( ...or maybe not. )

Who: Tayne and Jesse
Where: The lighthouse
When: Afternoon

Between Mass and evening services, Tayne had a few hours free to do with as he pleased. He usually holed himself up at the rectory to recharge, but it'd been a few days since he'd seen Jesse, and he felt like he ought to rectify that situation. He had the vague sense that he'd dreamed about him-- again; he was equally sure, in a vague way, it hadn't been the first time-- and it left him wanting to make sure the guy was still around, and all right.

He had one of the tins of Art's cookies under one arm as he climbed out of his truck to land on the gravel of the lot beside the lighthouse, even though he knew Jesse didn't really eat. He just felt like he ought to, anyway. Maybe there'd been cookies in the dream, or something, heh.

It was something of a surprise, as he approached, to see the swarm of gulls and... were those doves?... that seemed to have covered the whole damn outcropping the lighthouse was on. And the lighthouse itself. "What in th'world...?" he muttered, frowning at the carpet of white and gray between him and Jesse.

( And lots of birds. )

Who: Jesse and Tayne
Where: in dreams
When: just before midnight

Jesse had just wandered out of a dream in which he'd helped a teenage boy rescue armadillos from a pit filled with jagged metal, and it was probably fortunate that he didn't seem to sustain harm in the dreamworld. The animals had been feisty, prone to scratching and biting. He'd left the teenager in a field with a stream of vividly green water running through the middle of it, waving farewell and walking until he hit a patch of fog. He'd found that it was a common experience for him to blunder around between one dream and the next, unable to see where he was going until he emerged somewhere else. It had ceased to make him uneasy by now, and he calmly put one foot in front of the other.

Suddenly there was a tree directly in front of him, appearing out of the world of white, and he put a hand on it as he maneuvered around it. A path became visible underfoot, a path that led upward into mountainous terrain. Jesse didn't mind climbing. The fog cleared as he made his way upward, and although he'd only been walking for about five minutes, it seemed as if he was up very high. The altitude made his ears pop, and he swallowed as he glanced around. There was nothing but trees and air-- chilly air-- and a stone house that looked almost medieval. From the chimney wafted smoke that smelled of wood and something almost spicy. Pine cones? He walked up to the door and stood gazing at it; there was a three-dimensional carving in the tall wooden doorframe. An eagle, proud wings outstretched, haughty profile tilted upward.

( a dilemma )

Who: Jesse, Christian and Sorcha
Where: the lighthouse
When: shortly after 2

Jesse had been sitting on the catwalk at the top of the lighthouse for hours now, soaking in the intermittent bursts of sun. He'd realized at about noon, when the sun was brilliant in the sky overhead, that there seemed to be something in it that he needed. Driven by some impulse he didn't quite understand, he'd removed his long-sleeved shirt, and he sat cross-legged, looking like someone deep in meditation, the rays soaking into his skin. He'd felt low and lethargic when the previous day had been gloomy and overcast, as if he were somehow missing a vital energy, and today? Well, today he felt energized. The longer he sat out in the sun, the stronger and more serene he felt. It's like it's food, he thought, a faint smile on his lips as he kept his face turned up to the brightness. The sun. The light.

( why must I see this? )

Who: Jesse and Tayne
Where: inside the sanctuary
When: evening

Jesse had wandered into St. Florian's as soon as the outside air became dusky and dim, not exactly sure why he'd felt compelled to come here. He'd thought the church was lovely the first time he'd visited it on the previous Sunday night, true, but that didn't explain why he'd crept inside as silently as a shadow, lingering in the back to gaze at the darkened room with its stained glass windows, pews, confessionals and altar complete with flickering candles at the very front. There didn't seem to be anybody in the building that he could tell, and he stood for long moments breathing in the scent of furniture polish, of aged paper, of wax. It was calming in some way he could not have explained if he'd had to.

He moved forward, pausing at the altar to watch the candles flicker and glow, hesitated, glanced around again. Finally he settled on the floor at the far end of the confessionals, curling up in the small space between the booths and the altar, and there he sat for endless minutes. There was nothing but silence, nothing but his own heartbeat, nothing but a near-darkness that was not threatening but, on the contrary, warm and safe. Gradually his head dropped back, resting against the burnished wood of the nearest confessional booth, and his eyes became clouded opaque white. He wasn't asleep, but neither was he aware. Someone somewhere in the vicinity was sleeping, and he'd gone to join them in the dreamworld.

( I tried to help, but my light couldn't touch it. )

Who: Olivia and Jesse
When: Midday
Where: Near the lighthouse

When Olivia ventured down to the ocean after lunch, Tayne's revelation about the lighthouse, and guy who lived inside of it, was the last thing on her mind. It was possible that she'd walked along the beach toward the lighthouse because of subconscious thoughts about what Tayne had told her, but Olivia was a creature of habit, and she was used to taking some time to enjoy the weather, and the water. She'd spent several afternoons or evenings sitting on the rocks by the lighthouse when the tide was low. Nevermind it was still probably dangerous, but her mind wasn't really thinking about safety, and Olivia had never admitted to making the best decisions anyway.

Olivia climbed onto the larger rocks and sat, pulling off her sandals and letting her feet dangle in the water below her before lighting up a cigarette and relaxing. Her mind was full of different, jumbled topics. What work would be like later, if she would make rent at the end of the month, how long it had been since she'd had sex and where Hannah was and if she was enjoying herself more now that she was away from all the water. Not to mention how ironic it was that her closest friend in town was a priest when Olivia was pretty sure she didn't believe in a God of any kind. It was a bit amusing, the way her mind could jump from thought to thought, none of which had really anything to do with the other.

( I guess I pictured you as this big, bulking man with a dark trenchcoat and sunglasses. Really tough looking and intimidating. )

Who: Jesse and Tayne
When: the wee hours
Where: in dreams

Jesse had no idea how he'd gotten here, but that seemed to be par for the course tonight. He'd been walking through what looked like heavy fog, unable to see more than six inches in front of him, when he'd suddenly emerged on a road he'd never seen before. All around him was utter silence, and he stood on the center line and looked around. There were trees at either side of the roadway, there was what looked like hard-packed dirt at the shoulder, and from where he was, he couldn't see any sign of habitation anywhere. Should he continue walking, he wondered, or should he push through some of those trees and see if there was anything beyond them?

He didn't have but a few seconds to deliberate. There was the squeal of tires, the revving of car engines, and then a Jeep was racing around the curve. Headed straight for him. Somehow, Jesse couldn't seem to move. He opened his mouth to scream, and both arms flew up to cover his face.

( Maybe we get along so well because we both want to help people. )