Remember, Remember

Cast: date: '5 November 2012'
place: 'Tower Hamlets Cemetery'
participants: 'Imogen, Jack, Mattie, Naz'
synopsis: 'Mattie gets a history lesson, Jack gets to blow things up, and Naz gets a very brief introduction to the Watch.'
log: "\nThere's a clearing in the grounds of the Watch building, into which Jack's brought a load of palletes and other throw away wood to create a bonfire. There's a bunch of kids loitering, mid teens maybe. They look a little on the rough side, but also hungry. Which is convenient, since the mechanic has also set up a barbeque in the cold night to cook up some burgers and sausages; one of the youths has taken over the cooking duties. It makes it a small but cosy crowd, although the kids mostly stay to themselves. They're probably here for free food more than anything.\n\nHaving waited for it to get proper dark, the bonfire is now all ready to go, checked for hedgehogs and stacked up a good 8' tall. It's been doused in petrol, and on the top sits an effigy of the man himself, Guy Fawkes in discarded clothing with a tesco bag full of paper for the head. The fire starts at the bottom, but catches quickly, roaring up into a large blaze. There's beer available, even sneakily for the youngsters on their side of the bonfire while the grownups hangout elsewhere. A bucket of sand sits, awaiting its chance to give birth to a fireworks display, much like is occuring all across the city with muted bangs and flashes across the night sky.\n\n\"So who are we burning again metaphorically?\" Mattie says, suddenly at Jack's elbow and nodding at the effigy ready to burn. \"The guy in V for Vendetta, right?\" The American is sadly lacking in her British history and lore. She's apparently just gotten here from work, as she carries a to-go cup with the cafe's logo on it, and her red hair is still pulled back in a messy ponytail beneath her black knit cap. \n\nShe squints against the blaze, then turns to look at the delinquents manning the grill and otherwise. \"Hopefully nothing weird happens,\" she adds. Remember, Remember, the 5th of November — she hopes this day doesn't get marked down as a personal day of infamy. But then, it'd be one of the few days that hasn't.\n\nNaz wanders in from the street, her hands stuffed into her pockets, expression distant and thoughtful. The blaze catches her eye, as does the scent of the food, and she drifts that way, staying on the periphery.\n\nWith a beer in hand and a flask of something a little stronger poking out of a pocket, Imogen comes over to prop her elbow up on Mattie's shoulder. \"They always say American schools are the worst, but I didn't believe it until now,\" she says, which doesn't help explain at all. \"Did you bring me a coffee?\" She asks with a hopeful, if crooked, smile.\n\nEyes narrow at Mattie, discerning the seriousness of that question. It's not super surprising, but still grating. \"No.\" Jack replies, rolling his eyes in an exaggerated manner. His beer is on the ground so that he can pry open some packages of explosive things. A package of multi coloured sparklers is given to Imogen. It's not coffee, but it's the best he can do right now. There's a lighter too. \"There was this bloke, see. Guy Fawkes, and him and his mates decided to blow up Parliament to make a statement. They rented out a house next door and tunneled under to fill the basement with gunpowder. 'Course they got found out, and Mr. Fawkes was hung, drawn, and quartered. But since we like to hold grudes around here, we continue to burn that fucker on a yearly basis, incase anyone else gets any ideas.\"\n\nThe arrival of Naz prompts a little welcome wave, although Jack doesn't seem to be familiar with her. He waves toward the food, and the case of liquor. There might even be a thermos with coffee there somewhere and some polystyrine cups. \"Kids make Guys, then sit on street corners and say 'Penny for the guy'. So basically, they're begging money for explosives. This is why we're the classiest of nations.\"\n\nThe cup is handed over to Imogen. \"That's for you. If I drink another drop I'll be up til February,\" says the girl who doesn't sleep enough as it is. She shrugs one shoulder about the school barb. \"I was in world history when everything went to shit, so hell if I know. It wasn't on the GRE,\" Mattie says as she moves to the cooler to grab a beer. \n\nNaz gets a head tilt and a nod. \"Hey,\" she says to the other woman, a curious glance at Jack as if to ask if she's one of his friends. \"So people don't like him, or he's a hero?\" she asks Jack. \"I was always a little unsure on that part. You know, being American.\"\n\nNaz, for her part, looks over her shoulder when first Jack waves, and then Mattie nods. Who, me? She doesn't seem to place them either. But it's cold, and there's people, and she's here. She drifts a little closer, since it would be rude to hang backthough she doesn't take food or drink, at least not yet. \"Evenin',\" she replies, with a slight grin, and a bit of curiousity as she notes Mattie's accent. She nods towards the youths clustered around the grill. \"You put that on? Nice of you.\"\n\nImogen takes the sparklers, smirking at the explanation of the celebration. \"Oh, indubitably,\" she notes in an exaggerated, much more posh accent, to them being classy. The coffee is taken, too, after she sets her beer down at her feet. She adds a splash of what smells like a spiced rum to the warmer drink, but lifts an eyebrow at Mattie. \"We celebrate that the King managed to survive a basement full of gunpower and that the plot on his life failed utterly, of course.\"\n\nWhen Naz comes closer, Imogen waves her sparklers, not having a hand free. \"I don't think we've run into each other before,\" she notes, although without much surprise, as Imogen tends to stick near her inn on most occasions, \"Imogen, this is Mattie, that's Jack.\" Sparklers make for good pointers, too.\n\n\"I don't think people much care, really, anymore. Just something to do with the kids. Good old burning effigies, family fun. Takes me back to when I was a lad, and Jack Ketch would make a good old show of chopping off people's heads while I'd sit on me old man's shoulders and cheer.\" This obviously never happened. Jack is not that old. There's a smirk for Imogen, \"As she says. Don't blow up the King. People take that shit serious.\"\n\n\"Wotcha.\" A verbal greeting for Naz and a nod, \"Scamps could use some food, keeps them from blowing each other up with fucking stolen fireworks too.\" There's a toothy smile of welcome and a rocket is waved in the general direction of the drinks, \"Help yourself darlin'.\"\n\nTo the bucket! Some tubes stick up eagerly from the sand, and into each is put a rather large explosive device. The lighting cord is lit with a zippo, then once sure everyone's back a safe distance they're all 5 of them lit. Hurried steps back to the group to wait.\n\n\"Hey,\" Mattie says again with a smile to the newcomer. \"You new here?\" she asks, a nod to the building in the distance — the Watch headquarters, not that Naz is aware. To her, it's just the cemetery's offices for whatever business needs to be conducted in a cemetery no longer in the business of burying people. \n\nThe rest of it gets a shrug. \"I don't know. You guys had some pretty crazy monarchs, you know? You could be happy the guy tried to kill the king for all I know. But I guess that'd be treasonous, too. Even if some of them were murderous adulterous scumbags. Long live the king, yeah?\" The American grins to make sure everyone knows she's kidding and it's not her they throw on the fire now that the bucket of explosives is lit. She takes a couple of steps backward as well.\n\n\"Ain't that part of the fun, the stealin'?\" Naz replies, with a wink to Jack. \"But yeah. Thanks. I'm Nasreen. Nice to meet you.\" He grin warms a bit as Imogen makes the introductions. Her accent probably isn't much different from the street kids nearby. Her glance lingers on the beer, but after a few moments thought she settles for the coffee, her expression turning serious for a moment as she pours. It's politely smoothed away by the time she turns back towards the group, just in time to watch the first bucket light up.\n\n\"I think we're all just happy we get to light fires and blow things up at this point,\" Imogen says, chuckling in Mattie's direction. She watches Jack run off to light them, and all five at once, too. \"You Americans have a holiday for blowing things up, too, don't you? Something or other in the summer?\"\n\nThat is, of course, sarcasm.\n\nThe fireworks scream with delight as they depart the bucket, one leads with two more following on the heels then a brief pause before the latter. The last also happens to be the biggest, with a huge flare of twisting sparks spreading out into a sphere way above the little field amidst the afterglow of the earlier rockets. The booms hit just a second later, echoing off the city and merging with the sounds of other nearby celebrations. Boom. Boom boboom. Boom. Pop. Crackle. Boom.\n\nThe kids are entertained, or just like it when shit blows up. One of the two. Roman candles and catherine wheels nailed to plinths come next, keeping it going with a dazzling array of colours while the noises remain quite similar. Except for that one, which has an ear splitting whine as it heads upwards, sending balls of green fire at the sky like a lazy crazy machine gun.\n\nTime for more beer, although Jack grabs a burger on the way, checking in with the kids who seem to show him a little respect in their joking mannerisms. Munching away by the time he gets back, his gaze lingers on the burning man atop the pallet throne as the clothes blacken and the makeshift face shrivels and turns to glowing cinders. Laughing at Imogen's commentary he shakes his head, \"Losing America Day, I think we call it.\"\n\nNaz steps a little closer so that she can at least have a chance of being heard despite fireworks, tilting her head slightly at Mattie in puzzlement. \"New here?\" she shrugs. \"Not really. Ain't my usual neighborhood, but\" she trails off in a shrug. And follows Mattie's nod to the distant building. \"That where you work?\" she inquires politely. \"A historical somethin' then?\" She takes a sip of her coffee, and glancing around to the others.\n\nThere's something a little childish as Mattie covers her ears for a moment at the squeal and scream of the fireworks, eyes narrowing and flinching just a bit before she realizes Naz is answering her, and she takes her hands back down. There might be just the smallest blush regarding the reaction. \n\n\"Oh, right. I thought maybe you were new. Um, yeah, we work here, sometimes. I thought maybe you did, too.\" \n\nHer eyes move to the teenagers, none of whom are Touched, and she shakes her head. \"They don't, though. Jack just knows them from his shop I think.\" The building is nodded to. \"We do some administrative work and stuff, keep up the grounds, various things. Make sure the ghouls don't eat any children.\" The words are light enough, but Mattie's brows raise to see if Naz follows, seeing the other woman is also Touched. \n\n\"And for the record, every day is blow shit up day in America. Don't you watch the news?\" Mattie tosses to Imogen and Jack, jokingly.\n\n\"Ah yes. Missing you since Seventeen Seventy Six,\" Imogen says as she lights up her sparklers. She glances over at Naz, too, watching her curiously. \"Oh, not me, though. I just like to eat around dead bodies,\" she says, as far as working here, and that one she manages to deliver with a completely straight face. And she turns back to Mattie as if it were the most normal thing she's ever said. \"Ah, yes. BBC America, full of explosions.\"\n\nWhile he may not look like the administrative sort, Jack nods in agreement as he hunches up shoulders against the chill wind and steps a little closer to the blaze. He's listening to the conversation, but also whistles through his teeth to one of the older boys. The kid gets a stern look and a nod toward the little bundle of fireworks, a silent instruction for him to take over with the blowing of stuff in the upwards direction. This will allow the man to continue to drink and chat without interruption. There's plenty of stuff, and it's easy enough. He seems to trust the boy well enough to not explode his own face.\n\nA snort of amusement at the jokes. Imogen is having so much fun two fisting the sparkle sticks that he seems compelled to join in, lighting up three and handing one off to each of Naz and Mattie while attempting to write his own name in the air with the other.\n\"Me, in an office? I'd go mad. Probably drive everyone else mad as well.\" Naz actually giggles a bit, and pulls her free hand out of her pocket, showing Mattie her grease-stained fingers. When the other woman mentions *ghouls* though, Naz freezes. Only for a heartbeat, and a normal person might even miss itthat and the slight paling of her dusky skin. Naz seems very interested in her coffee cup all of a sudden, though she seems to have lost her taste for the liquid inside. \"Sorry,\" she says. \"Don't mean nothin' by thatnothin' wrong with working in an office.\"\n\nImogen's comment, however, has her looking up again, her skin taking on just a little more of an ashen hue, as if she suddenly feels ill. She takes a half step back from the group, subconsciously. Jack's offer of the sparkler goes unclaimed, as she suddenly fumbles at her pocket. \"I—I should be gettin' back now. Didn't tell my mum I'd be out very late,\" she says hurriedly. \"Good to meet you though, perhaps I'll see you 'round.\"\n\nOops. Mattie takes the sparkler, but holds up a hand to the other girl. \"Sorry, bad choice of words. I'm not the best with them,\" the redhead says with a grimace, glancing over to where the teens are out of earshot by now. \"We're like you, I think. Well, except her. She's just weird.\" Imogen is nodded to and given a wink, before Mattie looks back to Naz. \"The ghouls and things, I mean, we know about them. Don't be scared. We're… we sort of deal with them sometimes. And help people like us.\" \n\n One day she won't be so bad at this. She glances over at Jack for backup.\n\nImogen lifts her eyebrows as Naz starts to back away, and she looks back to Mattie to blink. But she doesn't say any smartass comment toward Naz this time, which is a feat. But she does smirk at Mattie's explanation, \"If I am, it's your fault.\" Which is not exactly true, but she's sticking to it for now.\n\nLeft with two sparklers, and a can of larger, the former fizzles away above the latter, like some super fancy flag, claiming the alcohol for later consumption. Since it's hard to drink right now without burning an eye out. He nods sagely when Mattie looks to him for support, \"S'true, she's not the best with words.\" One hundred percent behind her on that sentiment. \"I work shop too, but office jobs ain't all that scary. So long as no one wants to read my paperwork.\"\n\nHe avoids being soothing, or pleading, or seeming to try and stop Naz from leaving. Just same old, jovial Jack, unlikely to eat anyone. Leave the dead to the ladies.\n\nImogen has a glance around, looking back to Naz for just a moment. But given that she hasn't been there and back again, and can't tell a touched from a trout, she turns her attention back to her sparklers, writing her name in triplicate. In honor of the paperwork.\n\nLips turn down along with a nod, 'welcome'. There's a reason why Jack never does the meet and greet with newcomers. It's because he's awful at it. Imogen is offered one of the two sparklers he has to replace one of hers, so he can drink while regarding the new gal with an easy smile, \"The Watch sticks it to the other things on a daily basis.\" he confirms, \"Loose organization of people what aren't going to take it lying down. Plus free room, an' a small paycheck for them that sign up.\" Won't find a better deal in town. \"Ain't even mandatory, neither.\" Just in case she might have got the impression that there would be press gangs.\n\nNaz still clutches the poor styrofoam cup in front of her like a shield. She blinks, owl-like at the explanations, and then her brow furrows slightly. At least she doesn't look like she's two steps from hurling now. \"Oi now,\" she says. \"You go out *lookin'* for dead people. That don't act dead like this lot over here?\" she points to the gravestones over yonder, her tone of voice suspicious. \"You got a bloke who makes gadgets to do that with, like in the movies?\" She shakes her head slightly. \"I got to take care of my mum. And sign up for what, exactly?\"\n\nMattie peers over at the gravestones, expecting maybe to see zombies or the lot, and then she shakes her head. \"Not only dead things. Other things. We call them Others.\" She shrugs a shoulder, then digs out a card from her back pocket to offer to the younger woman, stretching her arm so she doesn't seem like she's chasing Naz down. \"We do a variety of things. Investigate. Fight them. Help people who've just come back from wherever it is we go. Imogen there, she has a place they can stay 'til they're ready to get back to their regular lives.\" \n\n\"If you wanna talk about it sometime, that's my number. No one's going to make you go looking for anything you don't want to, though, promise,\" Mattie says.\n\nNo zombies, just the whistle of more rockets and the pitter patter crackle as a fountain of showers rains down around the bonefire as wood hisses and pops while succumbing to the flames. \"Not quite ghostbusters, darlin'. More like monster hunters.\" Getting rid of the sparklers now for good, Jack drains his can too and flings that into the fire to boot. This allows his hands to seek warmth in pockets against the cold.\n\nThere's some more nodding, putting in an effort to sound supporting and not put any more feet in it. Friendly Jack is friendly, and all that. He puts on barbeques for kids, how bad can he be, right? Best not answer that question.\n\nNaz steps a half-step closer, enough to take Mattie's card. Her face is filled with confusion, wariness, and an undercurrent of something else not quite so easily named. \"Ashley said there was people who liked to poke at weird things,\" she murmurs thoughtfully. \"Found one too, few days ago.\" She runs a hand through her hair, and now sweaty forehead. \"Wasn't me that went nowhere, though,\" she says quietly, looking down at her feet. \"That's my brother you're talking about. D'you bring people back, who've disappeared?\" She looks back up her her eyes full of tears, some part of her surely knows that answer.\n\nThe redhead shakes her head, looking away. \"No,\" is a flat answer. \"Sometimes they find their way back out like we do, but … usually the best we can do is keep others from getting taken. Sorry. You want help finding your way out of here? All this talk of spooky stuff…\" Not that they themselves aren't spooky in some ways.\n\nWith no real answer for that question — at least, not one that he's comfortable with — Jack returns his gaze to the fire yet again. A sore subject, maybe. Quiet for a time, using the excuse to then check on what the boys and their toys are up to, his face hidden. Not always the smiles from the mechanic but at least the sour looks are kept to himself. Stupid that he's still bothered by such innocent inquiries. Best to leave Mattie to finish this.\n\nNaz shakes her head slightly. \"It's all right. I can find my way back out,\" she says softly. \"Sorry, but I really should…I should get going now.\" She tucks the card into her pocket, and turns on her heel, not quite but almost running back the way she came, one hand clamped over her mouth.\n\nMattie watches the woman flee, waiting a few moments before wryly adding, \"Well. That could have gone better.\" There's a dark expression on her face as she no doubt berates herself for a perceived failure. \n\nA glance is tossed to Jack. \"Maybe send your little shadow to make sure she gets to the street at least,\" she suggests, voice quiet still to keep it out of the teens' earshot.\n\n"
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