so deliver me from evil 'cause the little things relieve us.

[nightmarist]

WHO: Residents of the Meadows & OPEN to visitors
WHERE: The Meadows outside De Chima
WHEN: Throughout September
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 home to 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]

"Really. Something else we have in common, then."

Not being a champion swimmer, that is, not that Kylo's about to puncture the joke just yet. He's smiling. Smirking, really, a mischievous light in his eyes as he enjoys the shifting tumble of Murphy's moods and expressions.

"We'll race. I've been waiting for someone willing and capable of taking me on to arrive."

[mofi]

"That we're champion swimmers," he says, grin smearing broader across his face. Murphy knows what Kylo means.

Genuine chuckles bubble into his chest. "Sure, I'll race you. Don't cry when I whoop you."

[photophobic]

"But who could see our tears, if we were in the water?" Kylo asks loftily. "Assuming either of us so invested in victory."

[mofi]

"You'll really take me to a beach," Murphy asks instead.

Speaking of being invested, Kylo sure seems to have taken a liking to Murphy. Murphy knows it's because of Ronan. They share a face. Ronan has liked the Murphy that came before him.

[photophobic]

Having Ronan's face certainly doesn't harm Murphy's case, but for a Force-sensitive individual like Kylo who experiences reality with far more than his immediate senses the two of them don't really resemble each other much at all. He'd never mistake one for the other. He doesn't hold any confusion when it comes to this Murphy in comparison to the other who came before him, either, having never actually met him in person.
And he may have accepted Murphy's presence here and decided to draw him under his protection because it was important to Ronan, yes, but Kylo's developing fondness for Murphy is entirely his own. No-one's required it of him.

Anyone else might laugh at that question, shrug, say something like yeah, of course. But Kylo's still very new to the idea of friendship, and not too far removed from his former existence as little more than someone else's weapon. His brow furrows as if he can't quite work out why he's being asked.

"Yes," he says. "I really will. It isn't difficult."

[mofi]

Murphy is asking because, well, he likes hearing that people genuinely want to be around him. And that Kylo Ren wants to use his valuable time taking Murphy to a beach, helping him with his newfound abilities. That's something he's never had in his past.

Now he has Ronan and Kylo. It's not much but it feels like the whole damn world to Murphy.

"How come you haven't gone to the beach before? If it's so easy. What do you and Ronan do?"

[photophobic]

There's... a lot that he and Ronan do that he doubts Murphy wants to know about, really, and beyond a barely prevented apocalypse or two there's not a lot else of note to talk about. Kylo's smile takes on an amused twist.

"Have you tried getting Ronan to leave the farm," he asks, mildly conspiratorial. "He's even less enamoured with the other inhabitants of this planet than you are. He doesn't have to go anywhere to get anything he needs. And until recently, he was attempting to keep his abilities secret. He doesn't like to go out."

Especially not if he'll need to smother himself in sunscreen, Kylo doesn't add.

[mofi]

"We drove around in my car once," Murphy says very matter o' factly. Driving was definitely a new experience and a new thrill. Although, Murphy has yet to go back to the garage to drive his car alone.

"Could have fooled me with all the people living here." And more people still coming. Always coming and going. "He's going to miss me beating you into the ocean, what a shame."

[photophobic]

The truth is, despite the evidence of all the locked doors to abandoned rooms to the contrary, having so many other people living here is a relatively new thing in Kylo's experience. For a good while, he'd basically been Ronan's only companion, two recluses sheltering in each other. Sharing space with newcomers is taking a little getting used to— even the ones he actively wants around.

"He might develop an interest in leaving the farm if he realises what he'll miss if he stays behind," Kylo suggests with a light, offhanded wickedness. He knows Ronan likes to watch— and why wouldn't he? "We can ask him later, if you like."

[mofi]

"And you haven't been able to convince him yet?" Because, if that's the case, Murphy won't be able to sway Ronan.

"We can." Lazily, he lifts his shoulders and drops them, shrugging. "And then he can say who hit the water first." That pulls at the corners of his mouth, an amused smirk.