[i'm not crazy, i'm just a little unwell]

[majorlyugh]

WHO: Major Lilywhite
WHERE: The fountain, around the village
WHEN: July 23, then July 24th - the end of the month
OPEN TO: OTA; specific thread for Ravi.
WARNINGS: N/A

---

[Arrival - July 23, Early Evening]

The first thing Major notices when he breaks through the surface of the water is the sudden rush of air in his lungs, making his brain vibrate and buzz in his skull. It's a feeling he hasn't experienced since .. well, since he was last human. Does that mean that he's no longer a ... ? Huh. Will have to come back to that one later.

The instinct to survive, gather his bearings, figure out his sudden location change override any inkling he has to focus on the very human sensations he's experiencing. He crawls his way out of the fountain, tumbling up and over the edge of it, rolling onto the ground. On his back, he catches his breath and stares up at the sky overhead for a few seconds before the feeling of the fabric clinging to his body finally sizzles a few nerves in his fingers, and he realizes he isn't wearing the henley he remembers wearing, nor is he wearing the jeans he'd had on. Instead, he's wearing a .. very vibrant pair of magenta .. well, for lack of a better word, scrubs, and there's something digging its way into his back.

He sits up, loosening the straps of the strange pack he has on to take a look at it before deciding to get out of the open and somewhere sheltered. No weapons, no bullet-proof vests .. no hungering for brains. There's that weird buzzing in the back of his skull again.

He gets himself up, slips the pack back onto his shoulder, and begins to wander around the town.

[From July 24th to the End of the Month]

Major's memorized the layout of the town; it isn't all that large, and from his preliminary investigations, it also seems like there isn't a clear way out of the place. He's mostly stuck to the outskirts, having found some shelter in what appears to be an abandoned cabin somewhat near the river's edge (he thinks it's a river, anyway). He takes the subsequent days after his arrival to do more exploring of the village, this time venturing closer to the heart of it, as well as exploring the river to what he thinks is the southeast of his new "home."

He eventually finds himself wandering into the Inn at the center of town, intent on interacting with and asking the others any of the question he hasn't already gotten answers to.

Comments

[majorlyugh]

"Ha. Ha ha ha .. yeah .. yeah, I'm not that great at that, if my track record is anything to go by," he says, trying not to dwell too much on everything that had happened prior to his arrival here. At least no one was pointing fingers and gawking at him, calling him the Chaos Killer here. "You say there aren't a lot, but that implies .. there are some? Is that something I should worry about .. ?"

[thegreatexperiment]

It wasn't too shocking, Sam supposed, to find out that a zombie sometimes got shot at. About as shocking as someone trying to kill a Kindred. Especially when that Kindred really, really deserved it.

"People disappear sometimes," she said, offering Major the most non-committal of shrugs. "For all we know, they're murdered. I mean, it's kinda to be expected. We have a whole lot of people from different worlds and times and planets. Some friction is kinda inevitable."

In other words, people sucked.

[majorlyugh]

"Disappear .. like .. are we talking Gone Girl kind of disappearances or like .. I don't know, some kinda X-Files abduction? Do we know what happens to them when they disappear? Do they die? Or do they just .. return to their old lives?" Major isn't sure how he feels about the whole concept. On the one hand, he wouldn't mind being back in Seattle with Liv and Peyton and Ravi (.. would Ravi be there if he was also here?). On the other hand, he's started trying to adjust to the idea of being in this strange village, and the idea that he could be .. suddenly ripped from it without warning is also a little jarring. Major can deal with ambiguity to an extent, but this is getting a little out of hand.

"Have people found bodies and stuff? I mean, what happens if someone murders someone?"

[thegreatexperiment]

"Dude, those are all fucking awesome questions," Sam said. "And believe me, I would love to answer them for you. I get off on being the smartest person in a room but, the truth of the matter is that I don't know. And I'm not exactly sure that anyone here knows. Or if they do, they're keeping it pretty zipped."

In a way, she'd been fortunate. Just like there was nobody in town who really cared about Sam, she benefited from not experiencing much of anything in the way of loss. Yes, it was unsustainable and yes, it was probably putting off the inevitable. But so far, she hadn't really lost anybody.

She shrugged. "I know if I was the mad scientist conducting this experiment, I'd remove test subjects who proved problematic or biased or tainted. But I'm a friendly mad scientist. More Doc Brown, less Bond villain."

[majorlyugh]

Major listens to the non-explanation explanation, and he isn't sure if he feels any better. It would make sense, that the "watchers" or "overseers" or whatever term was most appropriate would want to get rid of people who were troublemakers -
or people who asked too many questions, got too caught up in the details of the place instead of just playing along and pretending like this was a totally Normal situation. Which makes Major realize ... perhaps he should stop asking so many questions. He'd just spit out like, ten of them rapid-fire.

So instead of probing further, wondering whether the place is bugged by the overseers and instead focuses on something a little more .. benign.

"But the real question is - do you go around inexplicably befriending high school students? And then wrangling them up into your crazy schemes to travel backwards in time where they can get uncomfortably hit on by their teenaged mother?"

[thegreatexperiment]

At first, Sam was surprised when he didn't ask a dozen more questions. But then again, maybe that made sense. Either he was overwhelmed, going into deep denial, or playing it smart. Or some combination of the three.

She gave him a pass, anyway.

"What can I say?" she said with a shrug. "I'm a fucking people person."

[majorlyugh]

"I ... don't know if that's the right term here," he responds with a laugh. "I mean, I don't know, almost bedding your own mother crosses all sorts of boundaries, even if she has no idea who you are, and you're a time traveler and stuff. That's like some Oedipus-level crap right there. Just thinking about it .." He visibly shivers from head to toe, opening his mouth like he's gagging at the thought. "As long as you don't go around taking credit for songs like Johnny B. Goode, befriending high schoolers isn't too bad. Oh, speaking of - what's the average age of people here? Are there kids or anything?"

[thegreatexperiment]

Sam sucked in some air between her teeth. "You know, I just haven't gotten around to taking a census lately." Which was...only partly true. She'd been logging plenty of observational data. She just wasn't much for qualitative. Give her some numbers she could average. It was easier than eyeballing it.

Alas, the world didn't function according to her IRB plan.

She shrugged. "Most people seem to be in their twenties. There might be a few teenagers running around. Also a couple thirty-somethings. There's this one woman--she makes us soap--I think she's pushing fifty. But that seems to be the upper limit, as far as I can tell."

[majorlyugh]

"I figured there'd be like, a manifest with all of the people who've come in - I'm picturing that list they had at the end of Titanic, you know? After the ship's sunk and the guy's walking around taking people's names? Oooh, I'd totally change my name to something else, the way she changes her to "Dawson" instead of .. the .. the other name that she had, the long one." He's mostly joking. Sort of. He's gotten used to his name, given that he hasn't really had much of a choice, though the idea of changing it to something less silly is kind of appealing.

"Anyway. Huh. Okay, so no kid kids. That's good. I feel like this place would be a terrible place for them. It's bad enough for us, you know? It'd be worse for a kid, I think. And who's this soap lady? I feel like she's someone I should befriend pretty quickly, otherwise things are gonna get stanky real quick."

[thegreatexperiment]

Major did like to talk. It made Sam's eyebrows crinkle a little bit with amusement. Daniel Jericho would probably have eaten him already by now.

Daniel Jericho was a dick.

"Uh, her name is Helen," Sam said. "She operates out of the butcher shop. We're talking old school soap-making here. I mean like, animal fat and lye. It doesn't smell like your basic Bath and Body Works, but it'll get the job done. For which all of your fellow inmates will be grateful. Just because we're in a clown rodeo doesn't mean we have to mold like one, you know?"

[majorlyugh]

"Helen. Cool, okay, I'll just walk around the village tomorrow, shouting her name and hope she hears me," Major says, trying to deadpan as much as possible. He's betrayed by the mischievous glint in his eyes, though, and he knows it. He's always needed to work more on his poker face. "Also, fun fact: I hate clowns. So anything I can do to distance myself from them, including not smelling like a rodeo made of them, I will do. Gladly. For my benefit, and for everyone else's."

[thegreatexperiment]

She laughed. "Believe me, anyone who likes clowns is really a sicko in my book." Admittedly, that book had a fairly long list of things that people weren't supposed to like, including country music, Thomas Edison, and The Phantom Menace.

Not that she was judgey. Nope. Not at all.

"I think you'll find her, anyway. About my height. Brunette. Super English, which means she's cool, btw."

[majorlyugh]

"Same! I knew a guy who dropped out of U-Dub to go to clown college. The weirdest friggin' guy I ever met, even before he left to do that. I mean, I guess it's good he went and followed his dream, but .. what a twisted kinda dream, right?" He contorts his features, making a face of obvious disapproval.

"Super English. What does that mean? I mean, Ravi's pretty English - with his cricket-like sweater vests and all, though I don't imagine he's got a lot of them here. Does she walk around drinking tea and wearing a monocle?"

[thegreatexperiment]

"I said English, not Mr. Monopoly." Who, as far as Sam could tell, wasn't English. Or if he was, he'd lost his sense of direction. What kind of Englishman would be buying up property in Atlantic City. During the Great Depression.

Weren't they busy killing Nazis?

Sam shrugged.

"Just listen around for a lot of 'bloody hells' and you'll know you're in the right place."

[majorlyugh]

"I was actually thinking of Mr. Peanut," Major admits with a laugh. "Though I don't know if he's British. He definitely walked around with a cane, a top hat, and a monocle, which makes me think - in complete stereotypes - that he was British." He pauses, furrowing his brows as he remembers something. "Wait, didn't Mr. Peanut like, encourage the consumption of peanuts? Isn't that kind of messed up? That's like me going around, telling people to eat other people. While waving around a cane and peering at people through my monocle." He nods, though, seemingly heeding her suggestion. "Follow the 'bloody hells,' got it."

[thegreatexperiment]

"I wouldn't know," Sam replied. "Peanuts weren't allowed in my school."

It was the kind of thing she would often say teasingly to Uncle Tom and Aunt Tina. To make them feel old. Major wasn't much older than she was, but the point still stood. And why the hell were they even talking about peanuts?

They were hostages in a multiverse clown rodeo.

"Anyway," she said, forcing herself to try to focus, "Like I said, you can find Helen in the butcher shop. Just a few blocks from here."

[majorlyugh]

".. Oh. Yeah. I remember seeing all those like, 'school safe!' treats in the grocery stores. Kinda makes you wonder why so many people were getting such severe peanut allergies. When I was growing up, you just ate whatever the hell you wanted without any repercussion," Major says, completely unaffected by the insinuation that he's "old." He knows he's no spring chicken by most standards, but he also doesn't really care about the whole age thing. Except in terms of legality stuff. .. Cause .. ew. "You never said she was in the butcher shop, you just said to follow the faint cries of 'bloody hell.' There's a butcher shop here?" He might sound a little .. less enthused about this development, and the color might drain from his face a little as he thinks about it, remembering being trapped and tortured in the freezer of Meat Cute. Too much like a butcher shop for his taste. Isn't a charcuterie just a fancy way of saying 'butcher shop' anyway?

[thegreatexperiment]

Sam shrugged. "There's a butcher shop. I mean, it was pretty much empty, but it's there. Definitely not kosher. I didn't see any of the prayers. But that probably doesn't matter so much for the purposes of soap."

Or did it? She didn't really know. She'd pretty much dropped out of Hebrew school after her Bat Mitzvah. It wasn't for her.

"No refrigeration, of course. Because that would make our lives too easy. But lots of equipment. That's why it got taken over by Team Science."

[majorlyugh]

"I went to catechism classes like, three times when I was six? So I have absolutely no idea what's considered kosher or not kosher, except whenever Passover rolls around and there's the Kosher section of the supermarket," Major admits with a bit of a shrug. He shifts a little to hide his feeling uncomfortable, going over a mental mantra that this place isn't the same as Meat Cute. There's no Blaine here, no Candyman, none of it. And, no freezers to be locked in, so that's a bonus. "Yeah, that, uh. That makes sense. So, the Butcher Shop is the key to not stinking up the whole village. It'd be hard to forget that." He pauses for a second. ".. Thanks. For .. telling me everything. Being so open about everything that goes on here. My bones are starting to ache, so I think - I think I'm going to try to walk around, see if I can find Ravi. If and when I pull the shaving cream prank, you're in?"

[thegreatexperiment]

At the same time, Sam felt both jealous and sorry for Major. Sorry because it sucked winding up here. But jealous because it seemed like he had a friend.

Well. Those were emotions that she'd have to parse out for herself someday.

Or, more likely, shove into the back of her mind and do her best to ignore.

That was kinda her way.

But she smiled and gave him a little nod. "Definitely."

[majorlyugh]

"Awesome," Major says with a bright smile. "I'm glad to've met you, Sam. Thanks .. for making my arrival here significantly less crappy than it would've been otherwise. I won't forget it."