maybe i don't want you either.

[nightmarist]

WHO: Residents of the Meadows & OPEN to visitors
WHERE: The Meadows outside De Chima
WHEN: Throughout April
WHAT: Day-to-day encounters at the magical farm commune.
WARNINGS: Look to the subject headers.
NOTES: This is a mingle/catch-all log. Start your own threads! Tag around!

[The Meadows, being a place largely created from magic, has a subtle strangeness to it. From the outside, it could be taken for any old Appalachian farm: scattered barns and stables, a lakeside castle, a roomy wooden farmhouse, a 19th century stone chapel that some hoodlum graffitied. There's evidence that the farm is occupied by unsupervised teenagers, too, in the donut tracks that mar the grass and the remains of regular bonfires. As long as the monsters are out of sight, everything seems ordinary.

Once inside the farmhouse, however, the odd discrepancies become more apparent. The layout of the rooms doesn't quite match how the house appeared from the outside. There are windows where windows shouldn't be, stairways like vertical mazes to secluded rooms, and views from rooms that look into other worlds entirely. Half of the appliances work without any source of electricity, fresh coffee's always waiting in the pot without anyone having to brew it, and the refrigerator never seems to run out of leftover pizza. Things are simply wrong about the place, for all the cozy warmth of its design.]

Comments

[photophobic]

[ When your woefully inadequate reference points for visiting someone's home are the politik and intrigue of a Galactic senator and the murdering rampage of what is for all intents and purposes little more than a living weapon, adherence to social ritual is a welcome relief.

And so, Kylo Ren appears as promised, with some gifts for his host. Whether or not they're the right gifts he doesn't know, but he's made an effort and he's not here with a squadron of First Order troops to destroy everything that's got to count for something. Right?

He approaches the door and knocks on it firmly, drawing back to wait. ]

[nightmarist]

[When Ronan answers the door, he appears amused to find Kylo standing there, as if he hadn't entirely expected him to show up. Instead of inviting him inside, Ronan gestures out toward the fields, in the direction of the chapel.]

I don't keep her in the house. She'd make a fucking mess.

[He steps out to lead the way, shutting the door behind him.]

good lord how did i miss this :(

[photophobic]

[ Kylo looks around him, obviously curious- Ronan's residence is certainly very different to his own, and he's beginning to wonder now just how large this monster of his is. ]

She's a kind of... pet, then.

it ok

[nightmarist]

I don't know if that's the right word for her.

[Though Ronan doesn't offer a better one, likely because he can't think of any. As they reach the chapel, he calls out affectionately:]

Get over here, you oversized chicken! Hey, fatty! You have a visitor!

[For a second, it seems like Ronan's shouting at the sky, but then the stones at the corner of the church roof start moving, and it becomes apparently that they weren't stones at all, but a creature taller than either of the boys, hideous and covered in leather scale-feathers. She makes a sound like bones clacking as she circles overhead before landing somehow near-silently at Ronan's side. He reaches out to pat her beak, despite that beak looking like it could tear his arm clean off in a single snap, and she merely nuzzles his hand.]

[photophobic]

[ Well, Kylo's seen worse. He thinks. Not that he can come up with any specific examples immediately- but it isn't quite the creature's appearance that sets his senses alight. He'd caught the edges of something Wrong in his perceptions of this place earlier, but looking at Ronan's monster... ]

It's- She's you. [ Not the politest way to process his realisation, admittedly, but Kylo has never been very good at polite. His expression is very hard to pin down- something between a frown of concentration and something far more open and almost awed. ]

[aberrant_type]

[Once might be coincidence, but twice is more likely the emergence of a pattern: Hange really likes horses, okay? And this time she has a reason to be in the barns, because she's offered riding lessons to Tina.

Before Hange puts a young, inexperienced rider to it, she'll find where all the tack and supplies are and inspect them herself. Finding those pieces in good condition, she turns to the horses, speaking to them in a low voice, offering sliced apples from her pockets, seeing which seem friendly and which are standoffish. She'd like to saddle Tina up on an even-tempered beast engaged with people.]

[nightmarist]

[The sound of an unlikely feminine voice drifting from the stables catches Ronan's attention as he passes, so he takes a detour to investigate.]

Oh. It's you.

[He might have guessed.]

[aberrant_type]

[Hange is in the middle of feeding a horse an apple slice, and lets the big beast finish snorfing the apple off her palm before she replies.]

Yes. I'm here for the tomatoes.

[nightmarist]

[Ronan watches her for a moment, sharing his horse's appreciation for the apple.]

I didn't plant them in the stables.

[aberrant_type]

I'm here in the stables because I'm looking for animals suitable to the young woman I offered riding lessons to. It sounds like her first experience wasn't such a good start, so choosing a proper mount for her to work with will be a good step towards setting her up for success.

[She switches to stroking the horse's nose. She wants to see Henrietta and deal with her plants, of course, but she also frankly misses the barns, and her horse, and is not in any hurry to get rousted out of here.]

[dreamkid]

[ Matthew is getting very used to bumping into complete strangers in his house and the surrounding areas. Because he's yet to have a bad experience, and because he's already naturally as friendly and trusting as a beloved golden retriever, he doesn't even startle upon tromping into the barn and finding it occupied by someone he's never met before. ]

Hi! [ he greets her, setting a bucket on the floor of the barn near the wall and dusting his hands against each other after the completion of some farm chore. ]

You're going to ride?

[ Though he doesn't explicitly ask if she needs anything, the offer is there in his cheerful tone and wide smile. ]

[aberrant_type]

Oh!

[Hange is always open to meeting new people, and she turns around and looks this one over with her usual genial smile. Blonde, tall, young, and she has no idea who this kid is.]

Well, probably not today. I offered riding lessons to a young woman, and Ronan said it would be all right to borrow his horses, so I'm here sniffing out the lay of the land before I start her off on lesson one! Haha! Who are you?

[dreamkid]

[ Her smile, laughter, and explanation cause Matthew to brighten even further himself, his eyes going round with excitement. ]

Oh, neat! [ A new person who might be bringing another new person! Great! He comes closer to Hange, greeting one of the horses near her with a gentle stroke of its long nose. ]

I'm Matthew, Ronan's little brother.

[ He is a few inches shorter than Ronan, but otherwise there's nothing "little" about him; he's like a giant blond teddy bear. ]

He knows so many people here.

[heisenbitch]

[ ( cont'd ) So... After Jesse spends a couple of minutes standing in his kitchen in silent confusion with his phone in his hand, he moves through the house to tug on a t-shirt and a pair of Chucks before grabbing his jacket, a couple of things from his drug drawer, and his car keys.

A little over half an hour later, he's at the Meadows, standing on the front stoop of the barn house and knocking on the door. His brain is still trying to work out why a guy who hates him, who knows he's a filthy murderer and a useless piece of shit, would invite him over for breakfast, of all things. Then again, being confused about such a thing seems pointless in the broader scope of wondering whether he was actually Ported home or not during the entirety of March. Jesse is leaning towards "not"; he's leaning further and further towards Darlene's conspiracy theory more than ever because of that now, in fact. ]

[nightmarist]

[Jesse obviously overestimates his importance to Ronan, who has found too many waffles in his kitchen and no one else to consume them with him at this particular time of day. He opens the door and gestures for Jesse to follow him back in the direction of that overwhelming maple syrup and coffee aroma.]

They were cold when I found them, but I heated them up a little. Help yourself to coffee.

[heisenbitch]

[ Jesse hesitates, and slowly steps over the threshold, quietly closing the door behind him. He trails after Ronan through the strange house towards the welcoming breakfast smells wafting from the kitchen. ]

Uh. Okay.

[ And upon reaching the kitchen, Jesse isn't sure where to place himself. So, after sneaking a questioning sidelong glance at Ronan, he moves further into the kitchen while shrugging off his jacket, which he hangs over the back of the nearest chair. He remembered the nullifier, at least - it's clipped to his right wrist, over his scorpion tattoo. He heads towards the coffee pot, looking over at the big pile of waffles. That's way too many waffles. Looking for something to say, he remarks: ]

Man, you sure the waffles didn't fall outta your brain? Like, sleepwalking through the kitchen or something? 'Cause you ain't wrong about the whole overzealous waffle situation.

[nightmarist]

Very sure.

[Because walking and dreaming at the same time would be impossible. At the very least, he would have gone paralyzed and split his head open on the kitchen floor as soon as the dream manifested.

Ronan has already gotten started, so he re-takes his seat and returns to his half-eaten waffle.]

If it wasn't Betty doing her stress-cooking thing, it was probably Noah doing something for the show. I'm not complaining. I usually just eat cold pizza for breakfast.

[tenofswords]

[The Gray Man feels that enough time has passed since that whole Groundhog Day thing. He's glad it all worked out. The Gray Man packed his workout clothes and items into his car, just in case, before driving out to the Meadows.

Approaching the farmhouse as usual, The Gray Man knocks on the door. It's time he and Ronan had another talk. Assuming he's even home.]

[nightmarist]

[Ronan is so rarely not home. If not in the house, he's usually lurking somewhere on the grounds. Today, however, he's been lounging around Gansey's room making paper airplanes out of discarded notebook pages. When he hears the knock on the door, he goes investigating, and he seems surprised to find the Gray Man at the door. They didn't have an appointment today. Ever wary, Ronan nevertheless steps back to give him entry.]

Something going on?

[tenofswords]

No. I just wanted to see how you were doing after that whole business last month, with the day resetting.

[The Gray Man steps inside, not sitting down just yet.]

You were right, of course. Someone did think of something.

[nightmarist]

[Ronan shrugs preemptively. If Gray's here to pat him on the back, he wants to make it clear that he's not interested in the congratulations.]

My head's been fucking killing me.

[romancekiller]

[clarke isn't a frequent visitor at the meadows since she's only been here once or twice before either because of murphy or because she knows raven sometimes spends her time here but for the most part she's probably a new face for a lot of people who reside here when she does show up and make her way inside.

she had just finished up a shift at the clinic and she didn't really have much else planned for the so she figured she would pay her friends a visit if they were around]

[nightmarist]

[No friends here. Just the guy who kind of looks like one of them, currently seated in an armchair, with his hand on fire. Wait, no, it's not on fire. He's just holding fire which, once the eyes adjust, becomes apparently a lily on fire. Or made of fire, to be more precise. This doesn't seem to distress him at all, though he's staring at it with intense concentration, so that he fails to notice Clarke's entrance entirely.]

[romancekiller]

[being unaware that murphy even had someone who looked like him here makes it less easy for her to make the connection or register that it wasn't murphy who was sitting there when she walked in.

from the angle she notices him, it really does look like his hand is on fire before it seems to transform in shape. she can't help but stare for a moment before she finally speak up] Murphy? What are you doing?

[nightmarist]

[Ronan glances up only briefly to see who it was that just addressed him.]

I'm not Murphy.

[Though the mistake is more understandable when he's seated. It makes his towering height less obvious. If she looks closer, though, the other differences become clearer: the razor claws of a tattoo climbing past the collar of his shirt up the back of his neck, the buzzed sides of his mohawk, the collection of old scars on his face and arms - which are also more bulky than Murphy ever managed.

With the fire lily pinched between two fingers, he turns it this way and that to examine the thing's behavior. The flames act like fire, but they're still not burning him.]

Do you wanna hold it?