Over the Mountain, a journaling RPG
The following is an entry from a journaling RPG called Over the Mountain. This is part of a larger experiment of mine to attempt to write fiction. These will be noted in the "fiction writing" tag on my blog, and the different stories will be labeled with tags to identify them.
This story stars a man in his thirties named Raul Valdez. He’s a very average man, 5’8”, 230lbs, very bushy beard and balding. He’s moved temporarily (?) to a small town to finish his writing and learn about himself.
March 22, 2021
I've recently moved to Aniklafo, a very small town a few hours away from the university I teach at. I would come here sometimes with my grandparents, and when they died last year and left me their cabin, I thought it a good opportunity to take my sabbatical and finish my dissertation in relative silence.
I can also feel a bit more free, here. I am not ever quite open and honest with people back in the city. I hide the fact… god it sounds so stupid even to think of it and write it… I hide the fact that I am some kind of medium. I know, stupid, ridiculous. "Raul, you're an educated man, what the hell are you talking about?" I have no clue. But I've had this sense of things, ghosts maybe, for as long as I can remember.
I worry that if someone heard me ever admit this, well that they'd admit me. But maybe a small town is where I need to go, where people are a little more superstitious. Maybe if I said this sort of thing, they wouldn't think I'm a weirdo.
Perhaps this sabbatical was just an excuse. A subconscious effort to "find myself." Is gentrifying better than moving to India to that sort of thing?
In the morning, I decided the best thing to do was to go to the grocery store Glenn's to grab a few things that I didn't get on my trip here. I mentally prepared myself to expect my fancy vegan items like cashew cheese would probably be something I have to go back into the city for, however I was surprised to see that there wasn't even soy milk in the fridge.
"No lactose intolerance in these parts, it seems," I murmured to myself. However, this murmuring was obviously heard by a very severe-looking woman.
"Well if you don't like it, you can take your pansy ass back to the city," she growled at me, stopping her very important shelf installation.
I saw her name tag, "Glennda" it read, and she looked to have been as old as the store, so I can only guess that she is Glenn's daughter (???).
I wasn't prepared mentally for homophobia, so I apologized and took my pansy ass back to my car, taking a mental note to order powdered soy milk. It's a thing, I know it is, I saw it on a site once… I think.
I settled myself into my cabin and made sure that the utilities and internet were at least up.
With those all squared away, I walked in the direction of the archeological dig site. I had been there a handful of times as a child when my grandparents would take me up here. I was so excited to see the scientists from the university digging, I knew I wanted to be just like them. Well, turns out I am not, I teach Queer Theory and my childlike wonder of dinosaurs has gone.
When I arrived, I saw a young man in the site brushing away dust on a fossil.
I say hello, and he introduces himself as Erwin. He's maybe around sixteen and definitely should have been in school, but he explains that the bus left without him today, so he's here, doing what he loves the most. Erwin told me that most of the bigger fossils have been excavated, but it was still possible to find ammonites like the one that he was brushing.
When I went to get a closer look I stumbled upon a locket. It was beaten up, rusty and impossible to open. I ask if it was his, but Erwin said it wasn't. I pocketed it, maybe I'll find out whose it is once I open it.
At sunset, after doing some writing for my dissertation, I begin to relax and I hear a rhythmic drumming. It's very close to my cabin, so I do something which is probably very dumb, but I follow it.
I have no idea how I end up finding this path, as it's beginning to get dark and I'm not really and outdoorsy guy, but I somehow found myself at a small shrine in the woods. There, a very old woman is tapping her drum. She saw me and smiled.
I apologized, knowing I somehow was intruding on a sacred moment. She assured me it was fine, and she introduced herself, Rosaline. She was wearing a long, almost robe-like dress made of some very light material, maybe silk. It was all kinds of blues and purples with tassels. It was quite lovely to see sway as she talked to me.
She explained she was just making an offering to her grandfather, she explained. She said that ancestor worship is not something uncommon in the town.
The sun was beginning to set below the tree line and I offered to escort her back to the main path. Rosaline assured me that she would be fine, but she handed me a brass lighter. It's carved with pinecone and deer motifs.
"Use it to light your way back to the path," she said.
It was a tad ominous, but I felt calm.
I somehow walked back to Main Street, about quarter mile away from my cabin, but I decided the best place to maybe make new friends was at the local watering hole, which was conveniently enough called The Watering Hole.
The only souls in the bar were the bartender, another patron and myself. I say "souls" because this other patron was off, and I immediately clocked it.
After I ordered my drink, a gin and tonic, the other patron scoffed.
I felt a little more neighborly and willing to defend myself if there is homophobia present, I introduced myself.
He took my hand and offered a very pointed handshake. He says his name is Byron. His grip was strong and I can't figure out if it's because the man was at least half a foot taller than me and at least fifty pounds heavier than me, or if it's because upon initial glance he hated my fucking guts. Either way, I have to admit that I was a bit turned on by his demeanor, his stubbly face and his strong hands.
I asked him how long he had been dead. His scowl quickly turned to a smirk.
"I ain't dead, but it's weird that you knew something was different."
I explain why I'm in town, who my grandparents were and I even tell him about my "talent" for spotting otherworldly things. He explained that he's not a ghost, but a werewolf. But it's all the same because anything not quite alive but not quite dead is called a "Spirit" around here.
I don't know if it was the G&T or if it was just the vibe, but I knew he was telling the truth. It's such a ridiculous thing to say, spirits, werewolves, all of this is fucking nuts. But maybe Aniklafo is beyond some veil where this is normal. This is clearly a regular interaction and the bartender didn't seem to flinch when Byron admitted he was a werewolf.
Maybe this dissertation really is getting to me.
We get to talking more. He seemed interested in queer theory and begins to get a bit physically closer to me as we talk. He even brushed his knee against mine and I swear he winked at me.
Just as I finished my drink, thunder boomed and rattled the bar. I could hear the patter of heavy rain.
Byron offered me a ride home after I told him I walked here.
His truck is nice and roomy, it smelled of old cologne, leather-scented air freshener and sweat. It had clearly been used by him many years to do manual labor and he planned on doing it even longer.
When we arrived at my place, I thanked him and he patted my shoulder.
"Take care, Prof."
i'm happy to see things developed more positively. I can't deny that he is hot. He seemed like he would be more aggressive, but he held back. Maybe I'm just turned on by the fact that "werewolf=danger." Does it though? Is any of this shit even real?
Whatever, I can't deny the fact that while he was talking I was staring at his chest. He left the top four buttons of his flannel undone and his muscular, hairy chest was on display. A budding romance with a yokel? It's so very pulp novel of me.
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The Ghosts of Windy Ridge
Turn 5 is the morning of day two. I rolled a three component turn, but got stuck on the item that's exactly what I need.
Location #2, the diner, I named Timmy's Diner. With a reaction roll of only a 2, I was not impressed.
Neighbor #12, human who is very spiritual/religious, was Suzy Dermer, a waitress, but she's also a deacon at the church.
2 April 2022, Saturday Morning
Having had such an unpleasant night at the church, I thought I'd go someplace where strangers are usually welcomed, the local diner. It was a bit further from the main highway than would make for a successful diner and it showed. Timmy's Diner looked to be about half full when I got there, so I didn't have to wait at all.
I took a booth by a window and started giving the menu the once-over. Pretty standard diner fare. I had visions of some French toast and bacon and some hot coffee. Before I'd even started to set the menu down, a young woman approached the table. She was probably in her late 20s with mouse-brown thin hair tied back in a sad ponytail. Her smile was big and bright, though, and she held a pot of coffee in one hand and an empty mug in the other.
"Coffee?" she asked cheerfully.
"Oh, yes, please and thank you," I replied.
"I LOVE your hair. Sorry if that's too forward or anything, but wow, we don't usually see something like that around here," she blurted out as she was pouring the coffee. Her enthusiasm was making up for the fact that the coffee smelled terrible.
"It's fine, really! I get a kick out of it when people enjoy the color. That's one of the reasons I do it. I mean, I enjoy it on myself first and foremost, but when others also like it, it's cool."
"D'ya need any cream? Are ya ready to order? Oh! I almost forgot! 'Hello, I'm Suzy and I will be your waitress today.'" She said the last bit with the tired tone of someone who has said that same thing a few dozen times a day, every day for the last several years. Then she cracked a big grin.
"Hi, Suzy, I'm Serren and I'm staying in Windy Ridge for the month, looking up the history of an old friend of mine, but first, no thanks on the cream, and I'll have some French toast and a side of bacon."
"Okie dokie! Let me put that in to get started and check on my other customers, but then I have to come back and hear more!" Susy jotted down my order and bustled off behind the counter. I gazed out the window for a bit, sipping the awful coffee. I'd added sugar, but it hardly helped to cut the bitterness.
A few minutes later, Suzy was back holding the coffee pot. "Refill for ya? Can you tell me about your friend?"
"No thanks on the coffee, though maybe more when the food is up. My friend passed away a few years ago, so I'm not sure you'd know him. His name was Mo Forrester."
Suzy's eyes lit up. "I've lived here my whole life and I for sure remember Mr. Forrester. He was a substitute teacher at the high school some times. He was great. I sure miss him."
Just then a loud, gruff voice barked from the kitchen. "SUZY! ORDER UP!"
"Don't let me get you in trouble. I'll be in town a while, hopefully we can talk another time!"
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Day 2: Afternoon.
I spent the rest of the day cleaning out the Pantry, and checking out all the little jars and cans and boxes of herbs and dirt my grandmother had stored in there. I made list of what i had, and started researching - which led to me ending up on Witchtok.
My grandmother, the nice old lady with the colourful dresses and the white hair, a witch? Or was this just some local custom that has been passed for generations? I looked around the cabin, trying to find more signs. But my brother had done a good job of clearing out all the small tidbits i remembered being cluttered everywhere.
I texted him about it, but knowing my brother, was not expecting an answer too soon.
Finding an old small plate, i tried burning some of the dried rosemary after having opened all the windows in the house. Feeling a little silly walking through the house with a heavily smoking sprig in my hand, i somehow felt that i was doing the right thing... The strange shadow i had seen last night felt like a fain memory by the time i had finished. Feeling somewhat accomplished, i returned to my research on Witchtok - new content idea???
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