Welcome to Hemlock Falls

[The Dullahan]

When no one answered him, Sam nodded once, "Name's Rourke for those that missed it earlier." He paused a moment, "Meet back here in 40 minutes? I'm going to go get that coffee." He nodded once, waiting to see if anyone would respond, before turning to head towards the diner, hoping to get a feel for the place from there.

He was a bit suprised no one had emerged as the leader of this little group. Normally somone always took up the mantel, whether it was power hunger, or control issues. But, this time no one seemed to be taking the lead. Sam hadn't decided if that was a good or bad thing yet. Well, bad for him, if that meant he had to take on the role of leadership. He wasn't fit to a be a leader anymore, didnt want that burden. When he stepped into that role, all that was left was death. Death to those that depended on him to keep them alive.

He shook his head, resisting being pulled into a memory he did not want to be in. Then he noticed the girl walking towards them, he gave her a friendly nod, and when someone started talking to her, Sam let them take the lead, and headed over to the diner to get that coffee.

 

[Atrus]

(( The adventure of Rourke, and whoever decides to follow him, continues in Rosie's Diner ))

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah returns Rourke's friendly nod, and continues her walk towards Molly (and whoever's staying).

She doesn't make any attempt to intercept or distract or otherwise hinder/occupy/whatever anyone going anywhere else. (IE: if you want to go talk to the teens under the tree, or go to the diner, or go to the store, or whatever, the most Sarah will do is say 'hi/bye'.)

 

[Molly Dufrene]

Molly wonders exactly how she ended up as the welcoming committee in a sense, but she's stuck with it now, so she waits for the girl to arrive, and panics internally on what to say while attempting to appear calm and cheerful.

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah smiles warmly at Molly, and offers her a hand. "Sarah Whittaker. Welcome to Hemlock Falls."

Should Molly accept the handshake, she would find that Sarah's grip is firm, but not overly so. Sarah's hands are those of a manual worker - the small scars, the callouses, the barked knuckles, the evidence of potential strength in the grip. She's holding back - she's trying to give a friendly handshake, not get a rusted-on nut free of its bolt!

 

[Molly Dufrene]

"Molly. Thanks, it's, umm, pretty great being up here." Molly says as she shakes her hand, a bit awkwardly. Actually, it would be pretty noticable that nearly everything Molly does is a bit awkward, almost as if she were not comfortable in her own skin.

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah grins. "I love this area." She gestures with one hand. "All of it, from the hemlock that gives the town its name, to the falls, to the watch tower, to ... " She laughs. "I dunno. It's just home, I guess." Her eyes are shining - no, not literally, just metaphorically - and she's just a touch self-conscious. "You guys should love it here, great place to be. You can BREATHE here."
She wrinkles her nose. "Can't breathe in the big cities. Everything stinks."

 

[Molly Dufrene]

"It is, different in the city." Molly admits "Well, umm, I'm sure it'll be great. Although, what's this about a watch tower?"

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah laughs, and pulls at her jacket until she exposes a faded, embroidered emblem. Virginia Fire Watch. "The firewatch tower." She turns and looks around, then points. "You can just see part of it from here, it's up there. You probably need to know what you're looking for, but you can see the metal struts just to the right of that cluster of firs...." Her voice fades off a bit. "Probably not, really. It's a good day's hike away."

She turns back to Molly. "I just spent the last few months up there. It's important. Keeps people safe."

 

[Molly Dufrene]

"Safety is good." Molly seems to space for a second but quickly recovers before asking "So, Hemlock Grove, I'm guessing you grew up here, or am I off base here?"

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

No, Hemlock Falls.

That thought crosses Sarah's mind, but she doesn't bother to say it. She nods. "Technically, I grew up in Kenrick's Crossing. Next town along, thataway." A brief jerk of the thumb expresses which way 'thataway' is.*

"Anyway, Billie seemed to think you lot could use a guide. I've been living, playing and working in this area my whole life, and ..." She shrugs. "... just came off firewatch duty. Which puts me out of work for the next little while."

Then she laughs, and says "My cuts, short or long, don't go wrong."



* Out of Character note: please don't ask for a compass direction or anything. 'thataway' is going to be decided by Atrus when or if it ever becomes important!

 

[Molly Dufrene]

"Oh yah, Deputy, uhh, Taliaferro I think? Anyway, he mentioned that someone could probably help us out." Molly hoped she got the deputy's name right.



(OOC: I didn't mean to get the town's name wrong, but now Molly will have to live with being as scatterbrained as me. ))

 

[Atrus]

((Molly just watches too many TV series!))

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Huh? Oh yeah, that's Billie's real name.

"Yes." She glances at the rest of the group, then back to Molly. "He told me and Rosie about y'all. And seeing as I'm just down from the tower ..." Another shrug. "It gets real lonely up there. Guess he figured I could use some company."

She then grins. "Besides, I can tell you some of the local campfire tales. I'm kinda one of them tales myself - or at least, grams is."

 

[Molly Dufrene]

"That actually sounds pretty great. I think our group would love to hear that stuff."

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah grins and nods. "Excellent." She nods towards the overgrown tree. "If you're searching for local lore, you can start there. But you all look like you could use a coffee or something first." She pauses, then clarifies. "I meant the tree, not the kids. It's something of a local protector - or so Grams tells me."

 

[Antistita]

“Cool by me.” Lu absently drifted with the group toward the town. It looked like she was looking at Pokemon Go, but in reality she was trying to sort how to feed this crew and making a shopping list, she figured there would be at least a few with no US money and so no useable cash and eating at the diner would tear through the useable cash fast..

coffee
oats
tripod
Pot
Strainer
kettle?
Pasta
Bottled sauce
bread
butter
Brown sugar
peanut butter
jacket
Couple of cheap ceramic mugs

That would do it for a day. Emergency Dinner, Lunch and Breakfast plus coffee. Initially expensive but in the end cooking for yourself was much less expensive than diner food even with the need to buy pots.

((Yammers player is somewhat clueless Pokemon-wise but I’ll do my best and consult the experts also it makes me giggle to think of a Pokeman appearing in the virtual world near butterfly central. How would the Dragons even know unless they were playing too? Does anyone think Daimon Kiyota doesn’t?))

She waved absently at the young woman who came from the diner. She contemplated the youths staring. They didn’t look too vicious, although teens certainly could be. “Yo, y’all, hey any of you play Pokemon Go?” she said loudly, by way of breaking the ice,

 

[Craft]

After Sam had started off to the diner, Craft finally clued in to the whole coffee question.

"Coffee does sound pretty good... You guys will be alright? We can meet up after seeing what's up in the diner?"

He turns to follow Sam, coffee is definitely needed, and he'd have nothing to contribute to discussion with the teenagers. They'd probably talk about video games or something else he knew little of, and could contribute nothing to such a conversation. Locals in a diner, however, he could probably delve some information from.

As he heads down the road in the direction Sam had headed, towards what was the coffee shop he gives the staring kids a quick nod and smile.

Coffee was needed.

 

[Sarah Whittaker]

Sarah watches the one woman with the mobile phone, and the guy who's also headed to the diner. Then she leans towards Molly, and confides to her:

"Actually, we don't play Pokemon Go around here. We play 'watch the city folk walk around desperately trying to get a bar or two of signal.'"

 

[Molly Dufrene]

"Yeeah, I kinda figured that was the cell reception situation." Molly shrugged "Believe it or not, I get the whole small town thing, at least a little bit."