— the dove, she promised land, as she laid the branch right into my hand | OPEN.

[extramuralise]

Who: John Irving (extramuralise) + OPEN!
What: Catch-all for various threads (event-adjacent or otherwise), and everything else in between!
When: Throughout March
Where: Milton & surrounding areas.
Content Warnings: Repression, religion, repentance etc... you know, the usual. Will update as needed!




( closed & open starters! feel free to PM / plurk me @ reggiemantle for plotting. )

Comments

[extramuralise]

[ It's true that Irving isn't typically (or rather, historically) much of a night owl in particular — shift rotas permitting, of course — but as of late he's been finding it increasingly difficult to remain in bed the whole night through, for reasons which have felt as uncertain as they've also been... somehow complicated.

Despite these recent sleeping troubles, though, Irving is, at the moment, feeling rather more manic than tired; that particular breed of high-strung, unfocused energy which can, ironically enough, result from being far more overtired than one might truly be capable of realizing while they're still too busy fussing with things that could have easily waited until morning.

But then, such is the nature of insomnia. Irving has spent some of sleepless nights on his knees scrubbing floors or washing already clean dishes until dawn, while others he might instead opt to reread entire books of the Bible until his eyes finally begin to itch from strain.

Why, compared to any of that, or even more, it's practically a privilege being able to welcome in a guest even at such an ungodly hour, and particularly a capital-G Guest like Fitzjames, who, as far as Irving is concerned, is always welcome here at their humble home.

All the better that his fatigue is helping to drown out the worst of his usual stress and anxiety to more of a dull, barely perceptible hum that merely simmers quietly beneath his skin. Rarely is he ever able to truly feel comfortable or at at ease around his superiors, especially those whom he admires, but tonight his nerves have quieted almost to the point of white noise. ]

I've... well, n-no, not exactly, [ he begins carefully, after a considerable pause. ] That is to say, not entirely— naturally I have also been hearing of many similar tales, myself, although I've personally yet to witness anything thusly untoward with my own two eyes.

[ But then, hadn't that also been more or less the case with him and the Tuunbaq, as well? So clearly, Irving's own two eyes need not really factor into the equation at all. ]

How... would you describe it, sir?

[gildedlife]

[He should be glad to hear that Irving apparently hasn't been visited by the being, and he is, though that of course means that Irving is awake at this hour for other reasons. Insomnia is certainly nothing new to James, but he realizes he isn't completely sure whether or not it might be for Irving, or if there might be something specific that has prompted this bout of it.

He files the thought away for the moment, intending to circle back to it, but allows the question first.]

I've not seen it clearly myself.

[The darkness and haze of sleep have made it impossible to get a good look at the creature before it's gone. Still, he has certainly seen enough of it to have a basic description.]

But it appears human, save for that it appears to have been... Elongated. As though its limbs have continued to grow.

[It looks off, and wrong, and terribly unsettling to find in one's room, not that James will say such a thing. And as unpleasant as it is, it's still hardly the worst thing he's ever seen.]

You said that you have yet to see it; have the others?

[Have Edward or Kate had an issue, or has everyone in this cabin been safe from it so far?]

[extramuralise]

[ Fitzjames's description sends a chill through Irving's bones, his mind somehow managing to conjure up unbidden impressions of a frightful, hungry silhouette lurking in the darkness just beyond one's vision— images which should normally be well beyond what Irving's imagination is capable of visualizing, creatures only human-like that skulk about like oversized spiders upon long, spindly limbs.

Irving suppresses a shudder, wondering dimly how his mind could even paint such a picture based on such a brief, vague description. ]

No—

[ Irving says with what he very quickly realizes is a flimsy, misplaced certainty. ]

O-or... well, at least not that either of them has bothered mentioning to me as of yet, and I can't imagine why they would keep it secret if they had.

[ Then there's a beat as he briefly pauses to consider this. ]

I'm sure that if Lieutenant Little had seen it, I would be among the first to know— [ Since they do, after all, a share a bedroom, and in many ways also a bed, ] Although I suppose Miss Marsh may not so readily wish to confide in me these night terrors, as she and I haven't such the familiarity to allow it.

[gildedlife]

[It isn't an entirely reassuring answer, but it's good to know that Edward isn't dealing with this particular problem either. One less thing for any one of them to be contending with, the better.

But James is still slightly concerned with the lack of confidence about whether or not Kate's been seeing the creature, though he finds Irving's explanation for not knowing to be... Not odd, exactly, but perhaps unexpected. James had presumed Kate and Irving would be close, as Kate and Edward are, since they're all living together. But perhaps it's more of a situation where Kate and Edward are close, Edward and Irving are close, but Irving and Kate are still figuring out where they stand with each other.

It's a familiar situation--albeit one that's different in the nature of the relationships--to one that James has found himself in recently.]

I would hope she might've told Edward at least, and as the situation is serious he would have likely informed you in turn.

[Of course it's impossible to say for sure, but it does seem like Irving's probably right to assume that neither of the others have seen the being. And if no one in the cabin is being haunted by the creature, that only leads back to a previous question.]

If the being is not a current concern, what has you awake at this hour?

[extramuralise]

[ Actually, the question does make Irving wonder if he should head upstairs shortly just to check and make sure Little is still safe — because after all, if he's down here, then how can he know for certain one way or another? — but then he quickly tries tamping down on that concern again, at least for now, because . ]

I'm sure that she would have told Edward, yes, [ he confirms, after a slightly awkward momentary silence. ] though he'd be under no obligation to further share her confidences with me, such as it is... I'm happy enough to honour a young lady's privacy, so long as she has someone to share her troubles with.

[ Even if that 'someone' simply happened to, of course, be God, but Irving does know Kate just a bit better than that, at least, to also know she could still do a lot worse than having both God and Edward Little in her corner.

Kate and Irving, on the other hand, are significantly less close— not that he's particularly close with anyone, really.

And as for Fitzjames's question... ]

W-well, I— [ He clears his throat, face flushing slightly pinker. ] I-I suppose I've just... still been recovering from our ordeal with the— you know, I'm not even sure of quite what to call them; the invisible string lights, on our fingers? In any case, I found it very disorienting.

[gildedlife]

[James is expecting perhaps a little hesitation in answering--as many things that might be keeping someone up might be a bit personal--but Irving's response indicates that there might be something even deeper there, and his mention of the strings hints at several ways that could be.

Of course he can't help but be curious, even if it suddenly feels like a slightly dangerous subject to dig into considering his own recent experiences.]

Disorienting in what manner?

[James had found using and understanding the strings to be very intuitive, but perhaps Irving had found it less so, or was simply not very enthusiastic about dealing with magic in general. Or, of course, the issue could have been in what the strings revealed, something that James has far more experience with than he wants to think about.]

[extramuralise]

[ Ah, and there it is: the million dollar question, so to speak, which also happens to be one that is potentially dangerous enough to almost make Irving regret bringing it up at all.

Then again, what else have they to talk about at this late, late hour of an otherwise fitfully sleepless night... or very early morning, really? Fitzjames may be charming and a natural conversationalist, but Irving could not so easily — or frankly, even truthfully — be described as either one of those things, and can likely at best only hope not to thoroughly humiliate himself in the process of trying.

He clears his throat again, struggling to quite find the right words to answer with; ones which may still seem relatively innocuous rather than possibly, for all he knows, far more...

—Well, and that's just it: how can he possibly know what any of it might truly mean? ]

Er, well—

[ He looks down at his fingers, which fidget and pull at themselves uneasily. ]

Did you happen to hear of anyone who had been experiencing certain... well, I-I suppose you might call them blended colorations, while, at least to my own knowledge, the majority of our number had instead commonly shown only a singular color at a time per each of their fingers?

[ Is that perhaps both the stupidest and nerdiest possible way to pose that question...? Yes, well, probably, but Irving hopes it just doesn't sound like anything more than purely curiosity for curiosity's sake, a simple and straightforwardly academic interest because, if for no other particular reason, how many of them actually have compared their notes on the experience by now?

(And never mind, of course, that Irving is not traditionally any example of such an academic, being more numerically-inclined toward logical, answerable problems — good ol' mathematics, in other words — rather than the realms of those who much prefer seeking theoretically scientific explanations via theories and hypothesis.) ]

[gildedlife]

[As roundabout a way as Irving puts his question, it's still more than clear enough for James to understand what he's asking, although perhaps that's because he has his own experience with such a thing. Perhaps it's also the same reason that causes him to immediately assume Irving has his own experience with such, rather than this being a simple question of curiosity, though then again a question of curiosity likely wouldn't be weighing seemingly so heavily on one's mind.]

It seems to be uncommon, but yes. I have heard of such.

[And considering James has more than one of his own, he also knows they comes in multiple combinations. The big question he has, now, is which colors Irving's possible threads might be.

But he doesn't ask, as least not immediately, instead allowing them to continue dancing around the topic.]

But perhaps it should not be a surprise that some relationships are too complex to be neatly categorized.