Event - Appalachia: Into the Pines

[apocalypsehowmods]

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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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Comments

[myfavoritemurder]

"Besides the ghosts and the game?" she clarifies, then shrugs. "I haven't been into the mines, and I hear that's where the real party is."

It's not a phobia, or even really fear - but all the same, if given the choice, she'd prefer to stay above ground and out of caves.

[abrightboy]

“People do talk about them a lot here. What have you heard?”

He also prefers to stay out of confined spaces.

[myfavoritemurder]

"I've heard about more ghosts," she says, studying him carefully. "Tricky ones, too. You aren't interested in seeing them for yourself?"

[abrightboy]

"Oh..." He waves dismissively, like he's really not concerned. It's an obvious overcompensation for the opposite. "I think there are enough ADI people crawling around down there. They're going to get suspicious."

[myfavoritemurder]

"You?" Callisto says with a knowing grin, sloshing the spoon around in the soup. "Make people suspicious, with all your questions and your interest in ghoulish things? I can't imagine it."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm grins back.

"I know, right? But, occasionally, it happens."

He considers her for a moment.

"Have they asked you to kill anyone yet?"

[myfavoritemurder]

Oh-ho, that gets her interest.

"Not directly. Not personally. But, well, we were all asked to be involved with taking down that woman who escaped from their prison, weren't we? Why, have they asked you?"

[abrightboy]

"Not directly," he concedes wryly. "Not personally. But I spoke to Nia Lehrer once, shortly after I got here. I asked what would be involved in bringing back someone who'd become an avatar. She said their policy was to kill the avatars; they're too dangerous. There are quite a few stone killers in our group; I was just wondering if they approached you... differently."

[myfavoritemurder]

"Oh, I'm a little offended they haven't, in that case," she says lightly. "I can handle 'too dangerous'."

[abrightboy]

"I'm a little surprised they haven't. Of all the stone cold killers they've brought us, I'd suggest you're the most qualified for the job," he tells her sincerely.

[myfavoritemurder]

Callisto takes it as a compliment, though her smile is not without a tinge of bitterness. She knows what she is - and she also knows exactly why she is what she is.

"You're probably right. Maybe someday, they'll decide I'm too dangerous to let live, too."

[abrightboy]

He meant it as a compliment.

“I know it probably makes me ‘weak’, but if they ask me to kill you, I won’t.”

Probably too sentimental for her, but there it is.

[myfavoritemurder]

"You couldn't," she says, completely unbothered by the suggestion. Her brow does furrow slightly, though.

"It makes you a little strange, though. Why wouldn't you?"

[abrightboy]

"Because you deserve better than more violence on the pile of violence in your life." He smiles a little. "And I like you."

[myfavoritemurder]

"What if I attacked you first?" she asks with complete seriousness. "You'd change your mind then."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm leans forward a little bit.

"Would you do it just to make me change my mind?" he asks.

[myfavoritemurder]

"Are you challenging me to, Malcolm?"

Her fingers leave the soup bowl and walk playfully across the table, towards the table knife.

[abrightboy]

He tilts his head with an almost bashful grin.

“I wouldn’t kill you but I might do something that makes you even more mad at me.”

[myfavoritemurder]

Well, that's interesting. She taps the blade with a fingernail, trying to puzzle out what that might mean.

"Wound me without killing me," she finally guesses, with a slow smile. "Cripple me, so that I can't fight?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughs. "I wasn't giving myself that much credit. I was thinking I'd try to do one of those things and end up, like, nicking your elbow or something and just pissing you off more."