Zoonotic Hookworm | OpenLog001

[clussy]

Featuring: Eddie Kaspbrak + Open to anyone
What's Happening? Eddie's dancing to some sick tunes at Town Hall, fixing up some interesting light mechanics, and...handing out lemonade because how generic can we be (also giving out other food goods from the greenhouse).
When: Various days throughout March. New players may tag into this even though I'm posting it now.
Content Warnings: All the music linked is uncensored so there's some swearing/questionable content, Eddie's usual content warnings may be applicable at any time.Underage kid technically offering up booze- potential mentions of underage drinking. I will try to tag headers if particularly harsh things come up.



𝟷. 𝙴𝚍𝚍𝚒𝚎 𝙺𝚊𝚜𝚙𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚔 𝙶𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚊 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝙸𝚍𝚎𝚊
Location: Town Hall

(Attending classes helped well enough, but Eddie still hardly knew what he was doing. He was sitting on the floor with a pile of wires in front of him, and a variety of other odds and ends. There were a couple of light bulbs sitting in front of him as well. He was fussing mostly with wires, twisting them together at the ends and looking this way and that next to a notepad he had laying open next to him. There was a bunch of notes inside it with little drawings that clearly showed the blue prints for something.

Any one of these days, someone might see Eddie getting the wires properly attached to one of the light bulbs. He has an assortment of what looks like buttons and maybe on a lucky day, one might see him pushing one of these buttons and seeing the light bulb flicker to life. Every now and then, he messes up something with the wires and gets a tiny shock. It never fails to make him jump and yelp before sticking said injured finger into his mouth with a glare sent to the wires. But it seems those incidents are few and far in between.

What on earth was this kid making anyway?)

𝟸. 𝙴𝚍𝚍𝚒𝚎 𝙺𝚊𝚜𝚙𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚔 𝙱𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚜 𝚊 𝙼𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚛 𝚃𝚠𝚘
Location: Town Hall
CW: Vulgarity in linked songs though not all of them.

(Figuring out how an ipod worked with its speaker had been a bit of a trip for Eddie, but he had figured it out in the safety of his soundproof room. He had also indulged himself greatly in his soundproof room by playing his music quite loudly. Not really 'blasting' it, but it was more noise than he had heard in a long time and it felt great. Even though he didn't recognize an overwhelming majority of the music, it turned out that the future had some awesome tunes. It felt unfair to hog all this greatness to himself, so he decided to start setting up shop over at the Town Hall.

The locals might not be too fond of him doing this, but after finding one of the soundproof rooms used for classes, he left the door open and set the music up on a desk. Again, he wasn't blasting it, but for such a quiet area, anyone would be able to hear the music playing idly and when they follow it to its source?

Well, Eddie was dancing quite generously around an open space he'd cleared out in the room. There was no real rhyme or reason to his dancing. Some people might realize he's using a few moves that had cultivated during the fifties, but mostly he's just moving around to the beat, bobbing his head, and sometimes even singing along. He listens to mostly faster songs, but there are a few lulling slow songs that gets him swaying in lazy circles. It felt good to be noisy and move around, so all in all, Eddie was flushed smiles. Whenever a song is from the fifties, it's clear that Eddie knows the song much better.

Whenever someone enters though, there's quite a few different ways Eddie will react.

1. If it's another child, particularly one he recognizes, he might grin and instantly go over to grab at their hands and pull them in to dance with him- or at the very most, gesture for them to come over.

2. If it's an older teenage boy or adult man, he'll stop moving and smiling completely, looking instead a little embarrassed and quite possibly ashamed.

3. If it's an older teenage girl or woman, he'll slow down his moves entirely, looking uncertain, a bit awkward, but after a moment he'll smile shyly and gesture vaguely for them to come and join him.

Any number of popular songs from the fifties to 2017 can be heard playing from his stereo of all different genres.

Here's just a snippet of what might be heard- and certainly feel free to assume songs and put your own in for them to sing along to or have fun with:

1. Shake It Off by Taylor Swift
2. Rockin' Robin by Bobby Day
3. Don't Stop Me Now by Queen
4. Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners
5. Mambo No.5 by Lou Bega
6. Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars
7. The Time Warp by The Rocky Horror Picture Show
8. Oops!... I Did It Again by Britney Spears
9. Timber by Kesha
10. So What by P!nk

+Open Arms by Journey
+Imagine by John Lennon
+Can't Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley

For House Eleven: As he is doing this often in his room, feel free to have any one of the people living in House 11 join him there.)

𝟹. 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝙻𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝙶𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝙻𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚜, 𝙼𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝙻𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚍𝚎?
Location: Throughout town.
CW: Kid serving alcohol??

(You know those stereotypical stands kids set up with the painted sign of 'LEMONADE'? Yeah. Eddie's got that set up at various parts around town except there's no table. It's just a sign sitting upright and he's sitting cross legged wherever he's decided to set up. Although in some places he's found tables to use for the time being. He's get two big things of lemonade- one marked as 'soft lemonade' and the other as 'hard lemonade'. What could this possibly mean? Pretty easy. The soft is your regular old fashioned refreshing lemonade.

The hard lemonade is really fucking sour. Like this kid barely used any sugar sour and it has a kick to it. Is this lemonade spiked?

It might be.

Either way, Eddie's going around serving up some fresh lemonade. On top of that, he has small crates with fruits and the like that he seems willing to part with for some traded goods- as there's a little sign in front of them saying 'TRADE 4 THINGS'. What things? Ask him, obviously. Really, Eddie's not a big stickler, and half of his food stuff will probably just be given away for the hell of it, but he might as well try and get things while he's at it.

If he's serving his lemonade and selling his things anywhere soundproof, he's absolutely got his stereo set up and playing music very softly. Just for a change of pace. If he's around workers, such as people laying out sand or other physical tasks, he very well might come up to your character if they look like they're working particularly hard and offer a cup of the (soft, non-alcoholic) lemonade. You're welcome, buddy.)

𝟺. 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚜
(Eddie goes all over town all the time for various things or just to explore. Feel free to ask about setting up a scene or just start up something on your own! He works at the Greenhouse and lives in House 11 so those are both options as well for interactions. Please feel free to ask me questions.)

Comments

[clussy]

Oh yeah. I go to his classes sometimes. He's a jerk.

(Except Eddie doesn't sound entirely harsh or upset about it, but instead rather matter-of-fact. His regular opinion of adults wasn't great, but Tony had a sort of comfortable expectancy in terms of his impatience at least. It wasn't that deceptive anger or anything.

Eddie's mouth curves into a grin and he bobs his head at once.)

Yeah, me too actually? (No music from the fifties ever did anything like that for him.) I'm not even a fighter and I feel like I could lay someone flat on their ass right now. (Now if that wasn't magic then Eddie wasn't sure what was.)

[list_maker]

He's a teacher? [Shows what Arya knows. But Tony teaching anyone sounds like a recipe for disaster. Although she now wants to see it this in action. Perhaps one day she'll crash one of his lessons.

She grins at his reaction to the music and the idea that he'd be able to lay anyone out on their ass.] Do you even know how to throw a punch?

[clussy]

Yeah. Teaches tech stuff. (Not a great teacher, but not the worst teacher either. Truthfully, Eddie always felt a little lost but he at least knew that was mostly because being from the fifties meant a lot of stuff went over his head.

It's....honestly a fair question and one that makes Eddie snort. He blushes a tiny bit from embarrassment, but mostly, he grins.)

What do you think? (He gestures to all of him. He is perfectly aware of himself, yes. Most days it bothers him, but today? Not so much, surprisingly.) I'm not much of a fighter, honestly. But...(He leans towards her, lowers his voice.)

I'm not too bad with knives. (He straightens back out and looks a little proud of himself.) Not amazing, of course, but better than people probably think.

[list_maker]

[Arya smiles at his mention of knives and how proud he seems about it. She reaches for her belt and removes her dagger with a flourish, spinning in her hand with a practiced ease and held it handle out to him to take, her hand gently holding the sharp end.] I like sharp things too.

[clussy]

(Eddie has not yet gotten any of his knives from the station back, but he was steadily hoping. If he could get random coke bottles and an entire stereo set then he could certainly get knives?

His eyes widen when she takes out her knife and oh, yeah, she's a lot smoother with it than he was. But he was no longer useless with it either, and instead of feeling bad, he just feels intrigued. He gently takes the knife from her, smiling after a moment.)

I'm not good with guns- um. (He was starting to work out how beyond technology this girl might be, that or it might just be his...sometimes strangely accurate insight to things he shouldn't technically know.)

I don't know if anyone explained what a gun is to you before. But they're like canons- but for your hands. Little bombs explode out the end of holes and shoot basically rocks through people. It's a really effective way to kill people but it's...

(Terribly violent. Not that stabbing was better, but there was a certain finality with guns that there wasn't with knives. It was a lot easier, he's learned, to try and get a knife out of someone's hand than a gun. He gives the knife a small spin. He's no where near as graceful with it as Arya was, but it was also evident that he had a knack for it too, even not fine tuned.)

This is a lot nicer looking than the blades I was using before. I had shivs.

[list_maker]

I've never heard of guns, no. But there's very little here that I have heard of. [It seems the daily state of her existence here, so she's learned to make due with the knowledge that she doesn't understand anything.] But that sounds... messy. And loud. [So there would be no guns here, most likely. And if there were their owners would come to regret using them.

She smiles watching him play around with the dagger. He does have skill, it needs refinement certainly but he's not clunky in his movements like someone who didn't know how to handle a blade.] This dagger is special. Valyrian Steel. It never needs sharpened. Cuts cleaner than any other blades in Westeros or Essos. I don't know about here, though.

It used to belong to a man who betrayed my family.

[clussy]

Hmm. (It's not the worst thing, no, but Eddie also understood how frustrating it could be to have everything go over your head too.) It's very messy and very loud. The noise scares me a lot.

(And beyond that, it's clear without it needing to be said how useless a gun would be in a place like this.

When she says the blade is special, it's clear the moment Eddie hears because his actions become a little more careful, a little more smooth. He doubted it'd shatter like glass, but he has enough respect for that kind of thing to try harder. He holds the blade by its handle and gingerly touches the edge of the blade. Not enough to cut his finger, but he can instantly feel the difference between this and the rigged shivs he'd had made for him back on the ship.)

...I think you're right. This feels nothing like the knives I worked with before. (He gives the blade a few testing swings, hand curved around it the accurate way for knife use, jutting it out and around, before balancing it back into his palm.

Eddie blinks hard and stares up at Arya, eyes a little large.)

Wait, seriously? Holy...How did you get a hand on it? (He holds it back out to her. Not because of the story, but it didn't feel right to play with it for too long.)

[list_maker]

[She takes the blade back, sliding it back into his sheathe. Arya looks up at the question. Thick expressive eyebrow quirked.] He tried to manipulate my brother, Bran, by giving it to him as a gift. But he didn't know that Bran couldn't be manipulated.

He's a seer. Bran can see everything that's ever happened. Everything that's happening. He knew what Littlefinger was and what he'd done that led to my father's death.

So Bran gave it to me. And I slit Littlefinger's throat with it. [She says that with such nonchalance, that it's hard to track that she's just admitted to murdering a man in cold blood.]

[clussy]

Bran...(Eddie murmurs the name less so to see if he knows it, and more so to commit it to memory should this Bran ever show up. He doesn't looked shocked when she says her brother has powers. It seems a lot of people do.)

Do you have powers too? (Wait.) You don't have to tell me if you don't want. I've met a lot of people with powers and know it's dangerous for some of them.

(He pauses, and maybe she was nonchalant, but he's been nonchalant about serious things too. Eddie knows what she's saying though, but he came from a dark place himself, and for him, there was a major difference here. This was a death deserved, it seemed.)

I'd slit someone's throat too if they tried manipulating the people I cared about too. If they hurt them. I'd do a lot of things for the people I love. (Eddie mumbles this, but there's no doubt in his voice, just a quiet, simple admission. Eddie wasn't the violent type at all, but he could be. His potential for bravery was alarmingly staggering, and there was very little he wouldn't do if it were necessary.)

[list_maker]

Bran's not here. You'd notice him though if he were. He can't walk. [Unless it were a Bran from before he'd fallen.] My sister, Sansa was there too. Littlefinger tried to get us to turn on one another like he had my mother and aunt did.

[It had very nearly worked. But they'd had the advantage of Arya's training, Bran's powers, and Sansa's knowledge of Littlefinger's games.]

I do.. but I don't want to scare you. What I can do isn't a pleasant thing. [She'll at least warn him of that. Give him the chance to say no.

She nods firmly at Eddie's sentiment. Everything she's done. Every life she's taken it had been for someone she cared about. For love.] He had it coming. [Under her breath she mutters.] Valar morghulis...

[clussy]

Oh...Wow. I've never met a kid who can't walk before. Does he not have legs or is he just crippled? (He knew some kids with disabilities at school, but definitely nothing like that.) Sansa.

(He's trying to remember these names. They're important names because they're important people to Arya. He thinks he should tell her the names of his friends too.

But he's distracted by the story, and he narrows his eyes.)

I never trust anyone who tries to get me to turn on the people I care about. Never.

(If his faith wavered, then whatever was the point?

He shakes his head instantly.)

You won't. It's okay. I'm scared of...a lot of things...But I'm not scared of people who are kind. Even if they can do scary things. And kill men who do bad things. (He wants to clarify that. Maybe he would be afraid, but he wouldn't be afraid of her.

His eyes flutter and he opens his mouth.)

Vala....r..What did you say? What language is that?

[list_maker]

He's crippled. He fell from a tall window in Winterfell. Or he was pushed. He nearly died. [She still remembers how scared she'd been that Bran might die and how sick with worry her mother had been.]

Littlefinger sent someone to try and kill Bran as he was recovering, gave them this blade, made it look like it was someone else, that they wanted him dead for some reason. All to try and start a war... and he did. [Arya's expression loses it's usual evenness then. How different their lives might have been without him. If she'd known before how much Petyr Baelish had done, he may have been at the top of her list above Joffrey.

Arya nods when he says its okay to say. She does hope he means what he says. That he won't be afraid of her. But she'll start with his last question because it's an important starting place.] 'Valar morghulis', it's High Valyrian. It means 'All men must die'...

The Faceless Men are named that because they strive to be no one, only a servant of the Many-Faced God. Of Death. They carry out his will, they take lives and end suffering. There is no morality, there is simply death.

Once they become 'no-one' they can become anyone.

I thought that's what I wanted. So I trained. Thought a girl had rid herself of Arya Stark, that a girl was no one... I learned many things, how to dress the dead that came to our halls, how to become someone else, how to kill, poison... to use the Hall of Faces. [She's watching Eddie very closely as she speaks gauging how he's taking each word. Regardless of how he is, Arya will continue.] So now, I can become anyone. So long as they're dead and I have their face. If I cut it off... and prepare it the way I was taught.

[clussy]

(Jesus. And his mom was worried about him falling out of trees. He doesn't know who this Littlefinger was, but with how young Arya was, he didn't need to be told that Bran must have been decently young when all this happened. Not for the first time, Eddie wondered why kids always had to get caught up in the problems of adults.)

I hope for your sake he never shows up here. Though I guess if he does, you could punish him again. (Not that Eddie really understood that mentality, but Arya had made a point before about enjoying that sort of thing.)

Valar...morghulis. (Eddie says it very slowly, but accurately enough. It feels funny in his mouth. He's never spoken another language before and it thrills him a little to know a little saying. Especially one like that.

It's a lot to take in, but Eddie's religious enough that he follows along with what he's being told fine enough. He gives tiny heads, and it felt like it was much bigger than he could possibly imagine at that exact moment. Oh...

The power she has is dark, but fear doesn't flicker over his face. In fact, Eddie looks intrigued. Maybe if Arya were a more threatening person, someone who seemed bad and ill-intended, the power would be a lot scarier, but Arya...She seemed okay. Safe in a way not everyone else was.)

Seriously? That's...Insane. Do you use magic to do that? (He's never met anyone before like that. It certainly didn't sound like any of the powers any of the X-Men had. No, this seemed...very different. It didn't even seem like Jake's abilities.)

[list_maker]

[If Baelish shows up here, she would make him suffer, there's really no question about that. Arya founds herself instinctually answering Eddie's words back with the customary Braavosi response.] Valar dohaeris... [Then she clarifies.] It's a customary saying in Essos. And that is the traditional answer. It means 'all men must serve'.

[It perhaps means that Arya is doing something right that Eddie isn't afraid. If people were afraid of her, then she wouldn't be a very effective assassin because they'd know to be wary. But she doesn't mean Eddie any harm. If anything she's finding herself more apt to protect him.] It is a form of magic, yes. I change shape to match the face.

[clussy]

(Eddie mouths the new words, and he wonders if Arya would ever be willing to teach him the language more actively sometime.)

I like the sayings in your world. (Eddie couldn't exactly explain why, but there was a certain brand of dark herosim to them that struck him in a good kind of way.)

That's-. (Eddie reaches his hands up to touch his own face. Then a thought occurs to him.)

People die in this world and come back. Could you still use your faces even then?

[list_maker]

[He can ask, but High Valyrian isn't her forte. But she might be able to pull some more phrases learned in her teachings from the Septa growing up, when she'd actually been listening.] Valyrian is a very pretty language... but not many people speak it in Westeros.

[Considering her questions, she mulls it over before answering.] I don't think it would work. The Many-Faced God requires a sacrifice. If that life is stolen back, I don't think I'd be able to become them, no.