apocalypsehowcomm | Event - Appalachia: Into the Pines

Appalachia: Into the Pines

Footage plays on the television as a new story comes on, showing a series of sweeping vistas, intercut with clips of wolves that have clearly been filmed at some local wildlife sanctuary. "As far as anyone knows it, the last wolf to ever freely roam the Allegheny Mountains was slain in West Virginia in 1897. Daniel Stoffer Hamrick saw to the beast's passing, and the woods in our part of the world have gone quieter ever since. Appalachia does not forget its history, though. It buries it beneath coal and flyash, debts and white powder and pills. And the blood of people taken before their time, by the mines, by the mountain, by things we don't have names for, just hurt. But Appalachia does not forget.

"This is Cindy Parsons with Channel 5, Wolf News." Footage cuts to a newscaster standing outside a gated apartment complex with FYRE's logo emblazoned on it. "As we know, our beloved Wolf Pen is home to one of the biggest FYRE worker housing complexes in Wyoming County. It is a monument to the history of our town, and this week, we'll be on the lookout for visitors from all over the country, coming to see the grand re-opening of the historic Bluestone Mine as a museum."

Footage cuts to a nondescript businessman, identified by the news footage as Carl Watts, CEO of FYRE. He's smiling blandly as he stands at a podium and gestures to the entrance of the mining tunnel behind him. "The Wolf Pen community has been a partner to us for decades now, and we knew it was finally time to give something back to all y’all. We'll have our soft opening on Monday with a full Rumble Down Under party in the old mines scheduled for June 15th. We'll have a live bluegrass concert and anticipate a huge influx of tourists to the area to help out our neighbors itching for a few more pocketbooks to tend to." A wink.

The footage returns to Cindy. "FYRE has stated that this new museum will provide an educational tool and tourist attraction for those wanting to learn about West Virginia, Wolf Pen, and the hard-working men and women who have made this beautiful part of our nation their home. Time will tell. Time is always telling when it comes to the promises of people who have used our land and our bodies to line their pocketbooks. They fill our blood and our lungs with black tar and-"

Cindy cuts out and is replaced by in-studio anchors. "Thank you, Cindy!" a blonde woman says, smile just a little strained. "I think we're all looking forward to seeing the big opening by FYRE on Sunday and that rocking good party next month. It should be a gneiss one! Now to Tim with the weather. Tim?"

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Fortunately for Jeff and perhaps unfortunately for anyone looking for backup in the endeavor of making him stop doing any of this, his roommate for the duration seems entirely enraptured by this process. Orpheus has his own guitar with him - too precious to leave behind - and even if he doesn't have the heart to play it right now, that's not stopping him from appreciating what Jeff is up to. The phone proves especially fascinating to him, and once there's a long enough lull for him to speak up, he asks;

"How do you make it do that? Play music, I mean. Is it like a radio?"

This may well be the first thing Orpheus has said since they arrived. He's been pretty out of it. He's still kind of out of it, but this takes precedence over whatever's going on with him, apparently.

Lost, out of it, and clinging to his guitar. There's something so familiar about his roommate-- kindred, in a way. It wasn't too long ago that Jeff was the one marveling over all the music apps on the phone.

Maybe things would've gone differently if he'd had somebody to be lost with, when he first arrived.

Ah well. Jeff looks at Orpheus for a beat too long, eyes bright as he studies him, before he seems to relax into his West Coast hippie skin.

"Oh yeah, dude, it's like--" He picks up his phone and flops down next to Orpheus, so he can show him. "This app-- Spotify? You put it on your phone, and you can find pretty much any artist-- I mean, as long as they exist in this world, you know? It's fucking awesome."

Orpheus just stares back, not really quite parsing that he's being studied so intently or any of the rest of what's going on under the surface. He does wonder briefly if he's said something to offend, but that's when Jeff speaks up again.

"An app," Orpheus repeats, slowly, leaning over to watch the screen, trying to be mindful of personal space but clearly not too bothered by the proximity himself. "So it's - more like having a whole record store in there?"

One of the really, really big impressive ones, like they have in the big cities. Or maybe even greater than that, depending on what he means by 'pretty much any artist'. He glances at his own phone, sitting on the nightstand, then back at Jeff.

"That does sound awesome. And anyone can get a Spotify if they have one of these?"

"Yeah--" Jeff nods, smiling as he starts typing in the name of a band, just to show off the app a little. Hey, he may be a monster, but music's still his first love. Of course he's going to help a fellow musician out. "Yeah, exactly. And it's like, you can be the DJ, too, you know? Make a mix-- a playlist-- that kind of stuff."

His eyes follow Orpheus's, over to the phone, and he nods again.

"Mm. It's like the only good thing about having a fucking computer in your phone." He holds up his phone and wiggles it. "This tech's, like, a couple decades away when I'm from."

The term DJ is unfamiliar to him, but he does sort of follow what Jeff is telling him, expression one of an almost childlike sort of wonderment.

"We don't even have computers where I come from," he says, watching what Jeff is doing carefully so he can try to repeat it later. "We have phones? But they're nothing like these, and I'd never used one."

There had been a line that ran to the post office in the town where he'd lived most of his life, but he'd never had occasion to call anyone. Letters and telegrams had been much more common and more practical ways of getting in touch with people far away.

He goes a little distant at that thought, considering all the people he's not likely to see ever again. What would they think had happened to him? Would Hermes know? If anyone could figure it out, it would be him, but... Of course, that thought in turn leads to him remembering Hermes gently scolding him to remember his manners, and he realizes abruptly that in the haze of everything he'd forgotten to introduce himself.

"Oh, um. I'm Orpheus, by the way. It's nice to meet you."

Event - Appalachia: Into the Pines

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