Following His Son Into The Shop, He Took A Look Around, Letting Tali Free Roam For A Bit. Crossing His

When the other came to stand and looked at him, Lainn directed his gaze away while listening. He watched Tali mumbling about some of the plant life he was seeing before looking back at Lucas, “Really? You encourage that?” Lainn questioned, curious. Then knocked his head toward the other, “Lainn. So, you're Sheriff of this place?” He questioned, wondering how that was established, and why. However, he was not one to go against 'order' over chaos. He very much did enjoy some chaos, too. Lainn twirled the leaf between his fingers on his right hand, “How bad's the crime rate around here?”

Lucas actually looks up to who he's talking to. He vaguely recognizes the face as someone semi-new. Seeing a child helps. Larry? Lauren?

Lucas stands. "Sorry. We just encourage people not to get too close to the woods. Sheriff Lucas Miranda."

He steps forward, offering his hand.

He glances over and smiles toward the kid playing.

Reminder: you can't kill them in any way that matters.

Looking up, he scrunched on side of his face a bit, shying away from the sunlight a bit before giving a nod at the question, “Yeah.” Lainn replied. He expected to be asked that a lot over the next few days. He hated being new to a place. But, it was also going to happen if he had arrived at his new destination, with new neighbors trying to figure out if he was some kind of psycho or something. Lainn put a box to one side, “I don't? Huh.” He paused to look around them, “Look's a lot like all the other small towns I grew up around-” Lainn stopped, taking in the sites a bit more, “With a bit more swamp. I'd say.” At their next comment, he looked back, giving a look that somewhat could be read as a mute 'you don't say?'. Letting out a breath, however, he looked toward his hands before dropping them away from himself a bit, “Yeah. Could say that.” Though, all things considered, he supposed it wasn't the worst way things could go. Being trapped in a town, by whatever means. With possible cultists. That was a concern, but, as long they didn't look delicious, he supposed he could find a way out before dinner.

Lainn lifted his head a bit, “Yeah?” At least the ones he had met so far all seemed to be really nice for the time being. Playing dumb, he turned his hands out again, “Well, wouldn't want that. Infection isn't good, I hear.” Lainn watched the stranger glance at the moving truck again. He was thinking he should try to move it closer to the house he and Tali were at, just to be safe. Lainn waited quietly for the woman to continue. Then nodded, listening when she had, “Course. Ain't nothing I haven't dealt with before. High school was a real bad time for me.” Lainn added. Of course, because he was weird and had no parents. Most of the 'normal' kid's hated that. Lifting his right hand up, he scratched it through his hair before looking at Tali and then toward the stranger.

“Yeah. Sure. Okay? Advice wouldn't be too bad. Not much of a coffee drink, though.” She probably had a lot more to elaborate than what he had already heard. Lainn decided it wasn't a bad idea to listen to anything anyone had to say around here. Quickly, he moved to pick up the box he moved and shoved it back into its perfectly sized space, before closing and locking the back of the truck again. Gesturing for the woman to lead the way.

mira stood across the street, her hands shoved into the pockets of her jacket, eyes scanning the quiet morning. the town felt like it was still half asleep, and honestly, she wasn't sure how much longer she could stand the strange, unsettled feeling that clung to the air. she'd been in this place a few weeks now, but the unease was constant. it felt like something was always just out of reach — off, in a way she couldn’t quite place. she noticed the pair then, a man and a young boy walking toward a truck. she hadn’t seen them before. new faces, probably. there was something about them that caught her attention — maybe it was the way the man carried himself, stiff and like he was looking for something. or maybe it was the kid’s quiet steps, as though he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to be, either. mira pushed herself off the diner wall and started walking in their direction, eyes narrowed, not sure what she was expecting but feeling a pull to move closer. she slowed as she neared them, her gaze flicking from the man to the kid, then back to the truck. “you new around here?” she asked, her voice direct but not unkind. “you don’t look like you’re from this part of nowhere." she wondered what kind of trouble they were running from — or if they were like her, just stuck in this strange town, hoping for an escape that wasn’t coming. “looks like you’re having a rough start," she added, her eyes landing on his hand. "need help with that? first aid is in my skill set, i can keep that from getting worse." she glanced at the truck, then back to the man, studying him for a moment. there was something almost familiar about him, like she’d seen that guarded look somewhere before. but she didn’t know him. not yet, anyway. the boy, tall for his age but still looking young, was quiet, but there was a protective edge to his gaze as he looked up at the man. it made mira pause, wondering what their story was. “this place isn't exactly easy on newcomers," she said, shrugging slightly. "but if you want a hot coffee or some advice that doesn’t come with a price tag, i’m your girl. can’t promise much else." her tone was lighter now, like she was offering something small but real.

Plant native plants, y’all!

Reaching out toward a plant, Lainn delicately brushed the tips of his fingers on his outstretched left hand against the stem, before moving it to glide along the leaves. Frowning a bit, he remembered what his classes told him about the type of tree in front of him. Before he plucks a leaf right off and moves to stand in on the quick succession of moves.

Glancing over, he could see his son, playing and brought the leaf up to his nose, sniffing it before absently twisting it between his fingers and turning to move away a bit, spotting someone a moment or so later. He quirked an eyebrow at the other's assumption that he was looking to hunt, taking note of it, he gave a nod of his head.

Lainn turned his head, keeping Tali in his view, who remained close to him still before saying, “Well, I don't really hunt.” Holding his hands out, he gives a lazy shrug at this, before continuing to toy with the leaf in his hands and going on, “Do you?” Lainn inquired before turning his head back away from the stranger, listening to Tali come closer as he explained the type of plant he was now holding. Lainn gave a nod of his head, commenting gently toward his son, “That's correct. It's a pretty cool find, Tali.”

As Tali grinned at Lainn's words, before he moved a little ways away once more, to look at more of the plants in the immediate area. Lainn looked toward the stranger again, then around the wooded area before them, “It's pretty, this place. This type of biome is great for all kinds of discovery. There's probably loads of strange bugs here.” Lainn commented offhandedly. He had always found swampland and the like to be almost mystical.

where: edge of the woods | when: day time | whom: open to all

Lucas crouches at the edge of the woods, examining what could be tracks. Or could be nothing. He hates how smart the creatures are. They could've left this behind just to toy with him.

He hears rustling from footsteps behind him, and he doesn't bother looking up.

"The hunting woods are six miles that way," he says, pointing his left hand. "Signs and caution tape everywhere. You can't miss them."

dark academia isn’t just for the humanities: i bring you STEM academia.

observatories. stargazing. biographies of scientists. filling the board end to end with equations. hand-drawn anatomical diagrams. the hazy euphoria after finally finishing an assignment. oppenheimer & frankenstein. the uniformity of a circuit board; the chaos of a programming window. ibm’s a boy and his atom. event horizon telescope’s black hole photo. the wonder of studying anatomy and knowing that’s happening within you. sketching organic compounds that may as well be sigils. studying latin for medical terminology. doing problem sets to classical music.

Lainn listened to Tali's explaining where he put it. Then about a few other things he helped to pack into the truck. Lainn nodded and moved to look over at the back of the truck. It wasn't everything from their house back in Birdseye, as there had been one other truck one of his friends had offered to take the night before he and Tali left in their own. Lainn reached over toward one of the boxes, and started to tug on it before Tali had reached over to grab his shirt, giving it a tug at the same time Lainn had heard the stranger's voice.

Turning away from the back of the truck, Lainn looked at them and knocked his head in greeting, responding with a “Hey.” He looks her over before saying, “Yeah, we did. About, say, three PM yesterday.” He wasn't really sure, actually. Lainn wasn't sure so far how to approach the situation, at the moment. But he figured, whatever kept these people docile was going to work in his favor, “I'm Lainn. And we're good-just needing to get something out of the back.” He felt, as he said this, that he shouldn't just leave it there, he should ask her about herself, people like that, “What about you?” He faced the open truck again and pulled the box out, reading what was written on the side of it before placing it to one side.

charlie was on her way to her shift at the store when she spots a moving truck and two people she hadn't seen before. she has started to get used to not being the new face around town in the two months that she's been here, there has been a handful since she arrived. but it still didn't make it easier to know that more people were getting stuck here like she was- like they all were. since there wasn't really much of a rush to get to a store that was pretty much there for normalcy, she decides to take a detour and see if they newcomers were okay.

"hey there," she says as she rounds the truck, glancing inside for a second before looking at the man. coming in with a truck full of your things was probably about the best anyone could ask for when being stuck in this place. they were luck, all things considered. "you guys doing alright? did you just get here?"

Lainn reached up to pull a box out, setting it off to one side as Tali was talking and trying to help, but the boxes were a little harder for him. So he defaulted to talking about some of his friends from school and the events they got up to, “Uuh huuuh. Really!? -You didn't!? That's gross Tali.” He commented, amused, however. Tali giggled, then tried to defend his part in the 'prank'. Lainn was sure that whatever friend had managed to eat a worm was going to be alright, though. Lainn looked over hearing a voice and nodded as he moved to grab another box, “Grrreaat.” He muttered distractedly as he dropped the heavy box to the ground and looked it over, finding what it was labeled on. Tali spoke up about it 'not being in that box'. He patted a hand to it and looked at the woman, “You heard right.” Eyeing her, he thought about, if anything he was told, was true. How important such a kit would be. Lainn stood then, “Why do you ask?”

She was done with work and on her way back to Colony House when she stopped by the rusty old gas stop to see if she could somehow oil up the chains of an overused bicycle. Nosy as she was though, she couldn't help but notice the man and the kid and wondered if maybe they could use some assistance. Montana hated offering, especially when exhausted from a days work which for her started much too early. "Hey, everything alright? I didn't mean to eavesdrop but, heard something about the first aid kit?"