Logfile from Brass&Steel.

Lincoln Cemetery

	Rows upon rows of grey stone slabs, a sea of granite in
commemoration of the dead. Not all of the stones are in the best of
shape, most being cracked and chipped and weathered, and the weeds which
spring up around many a tombstone are likewise testament of someone's
feelings or lack thereof for the departed. Surrounding trees make
chiaroscuro patterns of light and shadow across the stones and tombs,
which, to be fair, are not all neglected. There's one right there, the
final resting place of Charlie 'Bird' Parker, which is cared for
meticulously.

The overcast sky leant the rows of stone slabs and grey tombs making up
the cemetery a faintl mornful air, the way that the sky hinted at it
raining sometime soon giving the immpresion that she sky itself wanted to
weep. This situation fitted Goldie's mood perfectly and, in the midst of
this expance of memory of the dead, she sat behind a stone with her back
resting against it and her knees held close to her body.

Zach comes wandering slowly in through the gates, looking around at the
rows of big and small monuments to lives remembered and lives forgotten.
He's known more cheerful moods, and an imperceptible cloud of melancholy
is hanging over him. Peering thougtfully at this gravestone and the
other, he menaders his way toward the newest part of the cemetary.

Goldie shivers slightly, closing her eyes for a moment and completely
missing the signs that anyone else is nearby. She may not be entirely
obvious in her current position, but the navy of her jacket may stand out
well to anyone who catches a glimpse of it in comparision to the greys
and greens of the rest of the cemetary.

Zach keeps on moving between the stones, kicking up snow more or less
unconsciously. Catching a glimpse of something that surely isn't stone,
he stops briefly and changes his course somewhat. Figuring that it might
be a homeless person of some sort, he tries to get a better look before
coming too close. Well, well, well... Now there's a person he hasn't seen
for a good, long time. And she looks just the same. Thank you, God! He
carefully makes his way over and sits down on a monument a few yards
away, smiling a little.

Goldie misses the quiet scuffing of Zach movng through the light snow,
lost in her own thoughts for the moment. Whatver she is pondering must
definately be something serious as her face shows a mixture of
melancholy, determination, and a faint touch of fear. Another shiver run
thought her, but she seems to ignore it for now and merely hugs herself
into a slightly smaller ball.

Zach studies her intently for a little while before he says something.
It's like he's searching her soul for something.

<OOC> Zach which in fact he is.. :)

AutoJudge:  Zach rolls: 6 + 1 = 7 . Check die: 1

You paged Goldie with 'Made it... Most OR least noble act last 7 days.
:)'.

Goldie pages: Least noble: Lost her temper and totally ruined someone's
holiday cheer with harsh words. You paged Brynn with 'Harriet had to try
do defuse the whole trauma for that kid, to avoid being charged with
kidnapping. Time will tell if she succeeded.. :)'.

Zach sighs softly and bends to rest his forearms on hid knees. "Hey there
Goldie," he says in a low, warm voice that carries easily on the air.
"Long time no see.."

Goldie starts slightly, half twisting herself to a crouch even a her
right hand slip up the left sleeve of her fleece. For a brief moment a
look crosses her face, almost that of a recently freed animal not willing
to be ever be caught again. The moment passes though as recognition
lights her eyes, Goldie slowly relaxing and lowering her hand to her side
as she straightened.

Goldie gives the begins of a grin, her usual mask of amusement and
sarcasm starting to slip back into place, "Hey there, Zach... Come here
for the company?"

Zach quirks a lop-sided grin at her and nods in wry humour. "Yeah of
course I did. Didn't you?"

Goldie gestures to the rest of the area, "Well, it might be a bit hard to
get a laugh out of them but they really don't seem ta mind listening to
anything you try and talk about."

Zach nods and glances around. "You have a point there. But that's about
all they can do - listen. I haven't seen you around town for /ages/, G.
You been out of town?" He scratches the tip of his nose idly.

Goldie shakes her head slowly, her eyes flicking away from Zach long
enought to look for any others who might have come into the graveyard
during the current unpleasent weather, "Nah, I just needed to try and
keep myself out of the way for a bit. I had a couple of disagreements
with people, you know how it goes."

Zach nods slowly and looks at her closely again. "Yeah, I know. Sometimes
its best to just lay low for a while. I was kinda worried, though. I have
to admit. I guess I missed seeing your mug around and having you employ
sarcasm on me.." He grins.

<OOC> Zach and resonates.

AutoJudge:  Zach rolls: 4 + 4 = 8 . Check die: 5

<OOC> Zach sigh. No more news from Goldie-land for the next 5 hours. :)

<OOC> Goldie awws that it weren't a successful CD 5...

Goldie laughs a little at that, miming drawing a sword and waving it
about as she smirks and says, "I grab it by the neck, smack you about
with it, and you love it, you lil' masocist..."

Zach chuckles and raises his hands in mock defence. "Hey now, don't go
jumpin' to conclutions willya! I said I missed you, I didn't say I was
/enjoying/ it. It's incredible what you can get used to you know!" He's
not very convincing.

Goldie pantomimes sheathing her weapon then gives a vague grin, "If you
say so... Anyway, you are right that it' been a while." She tilts her
head slightly then asks, "Seriously, is there something you want?"

Zach shakes his head smilingly. "No not really. I didn't expect to see
you here, but I'm glad I did. And you haven't ripped my ears off yet,
which is good too since last time we met I think I musta scared the
living daylights outta you. I was expecting a bit of a tounge-lashing in
fact." His eyes twinkle and his smile goes all lopsided as he hears
himself walk right into it.

AutoJudge:  Goldie rolls: 3 + 6 = 9 . Check die: 6

<OOC> Zach . o O ( This is either very good or very bad... )

Goldie listens to Zach's reply, the curve of her lips tightening a little
as her expression becomes less real and more of a fixed look that she
holds in place like a mask. A tension has spread through her body and she
replies, her voice a little harsher now as it become cold and controlled,
"I asked, 'Is there something you want?' Care to answer that?"

<OOC> Goldie will say nothing either way for now.

Zach meets her look with a steady gaze of his own. He is completely calm
and seems quite relaxed. But his eyes are serious. "Do you want the
plain, honest answer or the safe no-so-honest answer to that Goldie?"

Goldie looks back, forcing herself to meet Zach's gaze with her own eyes
no matter how much she seems to want to not do so. Leaving out the accent
that she usually affects, Goldie answers levelly, "I gave up on 'safe' a
long time ago now." Her right hand can't be seen, but the knuckles of her
left are bone white as her hand clenches into a tight fist.

Zach tilts his head and gives her an 'okay, but remember you /asked/ for
this-look'. In his light baritone he quietly and simply states, "What I
want is to destroy your ghost."

Goldie lets out a quiet sound, a look of pain crossing her face as she
flinches before forcing herself to straighten and take back the half step
she unconsciously retreated.

Zach allows a hint of approval to show in his green eyes, along with
determination and conviction. "I'm not saying it's easy. Far from it -
it's very, very dangerous and hard. But I /can/ do it. You're not likely
to meet many other people who can, or even know about such things. So I
guess you just have to figure out if you belive me. And if you dare to
trust me," he continues still straight-forward and plain. He knows he's
asking for the moon and the stars.

Goldie 's inward struggle is plain on her face as she turns her eyes away
from Zach, not willing to meet his gaze. What she fights is her own fear
which has had time and opportunity to mature into a deep seated terror...
but she still stays were she is. A look of intense shame mixed with that
terror devlops on her face and she wraps her arms about herself, looking
everywhere and anywhere except at Zach himself.

Zach doesn't move from the stone he's sitting on, even though all his
instincts are screaming to him to walk over and give the poor girl
someone to hold on to. But that would just have her bolt like a
frightened rabbit. He folds his gloved hands instead and waits. "I am not
going to turn my back on you, Goldie. I'm sitting right here." His voice
is stady, calm and confident.

Goldie finally looks up at Zach, her dark eyes seeming older than they
should in a young looking face. A faint undercurrent of hysteria is in
her voice as she begins to speak, this trace becoming stronger as she
continues in an slowly accelerating stream of words, "Then I'll have to
walk away. I can't let you be near me, you -said- it'd be dangerous, and
I have to keep away in case it comes back. Your a nice person, it'd like
to have you, and I'm just lazy and nasty and then thing'll be like dad
and I had to get it away from mom and I can still feel what it was like
and..."

Goldie clamps her mouth shut, trembling where she stands as she forces
herself to stop before her fear rises any further.

Zach sighs and shakes his head. "No. I.." he points at himself solemnly,
"..am the one that you /can/ have near you. Without fear for my safety.
It /cannot/ take me. It /cannot/ get into my mind. It can never have /me/
like that."

Goldie swallows, a touch of hope in her eyes as she asks uncertainly,
"How do you know? You haven't met it, it just went in and I didn't know
for sure when it was there what I was thinking or what it was
thinking..."

Zach shifts a bit to postpone the stony taste his bum is taking on from
sitting on a gravestone. "I know because I've been up against such
critters before and I know what they can and cannot do. I've destroyed a
couple of them before. They can harm me, but not in the same way it harms
you. It cannot get into my mind and ride me."

Goldie turns, starting to pace nervously as she thinks over this offer.
After a moment she winces then raises her left hand, opening it to look
at the palm for a moment as thugh it showed some great secret as she
spoke, "I only -saw-... it once. The rest of the time it was in my head
instead. I remember seeing it though and I couldn't stop screaming, it
looked... it looked like..." She broke off.

You say, "...like a roiling black and insanely filthy mass of everything
evil and corrupt in the universe. Forever twisting and turning, bubbling
and pulsating with malice and hatred. Tentacles grow and disappear,
mouths and eyes and other organs form and dissolve all the time. It is
not something anyone should ever have to lay eyes upon."

Goldie lets out a quiet whimper, closing her eyes tightly as though to
try and block out the sight of what Zach is describing.

Zach breathes in and continues in a softer voice, byt no less determined.
"I fight these critters from time to time - whenever I encounter them and
their work. I have a duty to do so because I can."

Goldie says equally softly, "I just don't want to ever see it again, to
not feel myself wanting to do all those things, to not have to guess
whether I really want something or if its something that is flat out
wrong..."

Zach nods quietly, looking at her and feeling quite relieved that she
hasn't sped off yet. "I can help you achieve that." He pauses. "Can I ask
you something?"

Goldie replies simply, "What?"

You say, "How long is it since you last felt an urge to do something that
you later knew was wrong and not such a good idea at all?"

Goldie whispers, "I don't know..." but then takes a breath and
reconciders, "I know that I do a lot of things now that I wouldn't have
otherwise, just because I can't see much problem with them any more. I
don't think that it's done anything large since it floated out of me."

Goldie looked up at Zach and said quietly, "But I can't be sure, because
I see it at night and I'm not sure how much is a dream and what is it
actually being there."

Zach hmms and digests this as he nods to himself. "Right... How long ago
was it that it floated out of you? That was the one time you saw it, I
presume?"

Goldie nodded, giving another shiver from either cold or fear, "I've seen
a few other like it thoug hat night, when I can't stand my dreams any
more and get out of them. It floated out of them about... two years ago?"
She seems slightly startled that it had been that long.

Zach chews a bit on his lip and frowns. "Clever bastard that. So it
torments you and your family until you run away, and then at some point
it leaves your dreams confident that you're now trapped in your own
nightmare..." he speaks as much to himself as to her. "Its a bit strange
though, because they usually like to stay on until they have driven their
victims all the way to complete corruption. Unless..."

Goldie gives a strangely twisted grin, something which is equal parts
amusement and sadism, "I don't think it wanted to go just then, but I
wokred out how to hurt it... It wanted me to do things more, always
things that were worse, but I wouldn't let it make me do -anything-. I
wouldn't eat, even when I was hungry, unless it was time for a proper
meal and all that kind of thing..."

Zach whistles softly and can't help but break out into a rather impressed
smile. "Well I'll be tarred and feathered! That is indeed a way to hurt
it and badly. For each day you manage to deny it, it actually damages the
monster. That's basically what I did the second time I was up against one
of them; I kidnapped its host and tied him up somewhere far away from
people. After three days it finally gave up and came out, and then I
fought it toe to...er...tentacle."

<OOC> Zach regretfully has to head for bed soonish. <:)

<OOC> Goldie nods, "Sorry for skewing things by an hour this evening."

<OOC> Goldie says, "Is there anything you want to do here to end things?"

<OOC> Zach grins. "No sweat! I think we've done rather well tonight!"

<OOC> Goldie nods in satisfaction, "It seems that way to me."

Goldie swallows slightly, a touch of uncharacteristic nervousness
returning, "I like that it actually was hurt, but can we talk about this
some other time instead? I... I just have to go rest for a bit." She
shivers slightly, the strain of making herself discuss something she
fears so much starting to show on her face.

Zach nods and searches in his pockets to produce a card. "Sure. Here's my
card - it's got my number on it and I've scribbled my adress at the back.
If you need somewhere warm to sleep, you're welcome to pick my lock and
use my sofa-bed. I have to go to work now anyway. Don't hesitate to call
me of you feel like it, k?" He gets up and streches his legs a bit,
grimacing from the uncomfortable feeling of his hind parts unstoning
themselves.

Goldie takes the card wordlessly then gives a slow nod in return, staying
where she is and watching as Zach gets up and leaves...

Zach smiles confidently to her and waves and he walks calmly toward the
exit.

Scene End.