Happy DST from Candlemass

Candlemass just swept into my room and started detaching everything electronic from the walls, possibly in hopes that if he did, I wouldn't stay awake for too much longer. He told me that tonight (daylight savings time) is a night best meant for sleep, and I should be getting it. I don't think he realizes that my computer can run on a battery for a while, but that's okay. He made sure I was in bed before he left again, saying he had some follow up to do for his last mission.

He left me some "dream oil" in a very attractive blue glass decanter, and told me it would give me sweet dreams.

So, sweet dreams, everyone, and happy DST.

And more skraelings

Sorry, skraelings will have to come at a later time. I woke up this morning and shuffled into the kitchen for coffee and brains, and in my half-awake state, I must not have noticed Candlemass was already there until I felt someone run the tip of their finger across the back of my neck. Of course, this scared me half to death, and Candlemass got a good laugh out of the whole thing.

He had already helped himself to some coffee, which he says he enjoys. He was more than a bit of a mess, cloak covered in spatters of mud and blood, and he looked like he'd been doing some strenuous stuff earlier. When I asked him what he'd been doing, he said he'd gone on a "hunt" with other members from the Order for the last bit of the skraeling band, and he'd finally gotten to immolate the nest.

It sounded pretty grim to me, but he reminded me (while pouring himself yet another up of coffee) that they killed people and animals, and there was no room amongst all the dead for them to be pitied.

We chatted a bit, and I shared my breakfast with him before he headed off, saying he still had to go make his report for that morning's patrol.

So far, that's it for today. I'll have to tell you guys about the skraeling attack, and the skraeling hunt after that. They're kind of grim, but I think they'd be interesting.

A strangely relaxing day

Today I went on a hunting expedition for some old books in the unused second floor bedrooms of my house. They've been closed up for a long time, so you can imagine the unpleasant detritus that's built up in there, something that they lacked no shortage of.

I also found lots of stuff from when I was a young kid, when I was really into herbalry and botany and whatnot.

Candlemass popped in randomly while I was digging through old boxes of my stuff, and smiled at a huge book of herbs I'd pulled out and started leafing through it. He asked if I remembered anything he used to teach me, and I surprised him by telling him more than he thought I would remember.

On Shielding

So, with the weather and whatnot, my life has been a little weird lately. Candlemass is cranky with me for trying to expose him to a larger public, which I suppose I can only blame myself for. The Punishers are a public order,  but, as he explains to me frequently, it's not a public order in this realm, and he'd rather keep unwanted attention from himself for as long as possible.

He tells me that it's mostly for my sake, as my attention towards him has a habit of attracting attention to me. 

Remember the thing that I saw in the kitchen a (few?) week(s?) ago? 

It wasn't the only thing I had to worry about, apparently.

and more Grindels

It was already nearly dark by the time Candlemass finally made it back into town and went to collect the mission objectives, as he told me. The night was nearly springlike, but still too early for treefrogs and crickets (peepers and creakers, as he calls them, which I still think is cute), and altogether rather enjoyable. But it was still rather dampened by the realization of what he would probably be dealing with.

A rash of cattle thefts had broken out shortly after the Red Skull scare. Something not entirely uncommon, Candlemass assured me, as occasionally farmers would panic and steal their neighbors animals in reaction to their numbers dropping. However, not even a day therafter, the cattle began to reappear, their bodies stripped entirely of meat until they were nothing but skeletons. Everything except the head. It was almost immediately after the first occurrence (one is enough, but two is too many for coincidence) that the village council convened, and the council head decided it was a matter best dealt with by the Punishers. And, so, Candlemass was swiftly recalled.

Grindels

So Candlemass came back a few days ago. He looked exhausted when he finally dropped into my chair- he had two black eyes and a swelling bruise on his jaw. He kind of walked and sat gingerly, and he seemed to have regretted sitting down so quickly, because he winced.

Of course, I asked him what happened and if he was okay. Candlemass shook his head, pressing a hand against his ribs, before responding to me.

"Grindels, Chickadee, are never pleasant things to begin with." I asked him what had happened, and to tell me the story. He gave me a wry look, and wanted to know if this would all go into that "infernal contraption", but he already seemed to know the answer. I'm just pretty glad he's well enough to have a sense of humor about everything. 

So, that was a quick update, and the story will be shortly to follow!

Just saying "hi"

Candlemass dropped in this morning. He said he's still dealing with reports from his last case, but he wanted to drop in and make sure I was okay. He looked so haggard and beaten up I had to ask him if he was okay. He said he was dealing with Grindels, which he would explain to me when he got a moment. When he got a good look at my expression, he told me to have heart, and gave me a hug, before telling me to stay safe and heading out.

I really do hope he's okay. I wish I could help him.

(minor update apropos of nothing- I made it so everyone can make a comment, even anons.)

Judgement, Final

Here is the rest of the "Judgement" story Candlemass told me.

The weather was already beginning to lose the last tinge of warmth from autumn, and the first year's snows were being carried on the breeze when Candlemass finally felt well enough to be restless.

Hospital food was beginning to sicken him, despite the fact he still couldn't eat solid foods, but he could now take walks around the hospital, and sit outside when the weather was warm.

Questions, questions

Once again, Candlemass dropped in early to see how I've been doing. Apparently, he's right on the trail of something, but now he has to wait and see what he is suspicious of is really true.

I asked him a few questions that had been bugging me for a while. Namely: How does time work, and why is it so different?

The Skraelings (retold)

I was asked for more details on the skraelings story from Candlemass, so here it is.

Candlemass had said it was nearly midsummer's night eve, and the guard had already changed twice by the time he went on patrol. The moon was sitting, swung so it sat nearly on the horizon, so it almost seemed like a part of the houses whose lights shone steadily in town. The wall was, as always, ablaze with torches set in brackets on the wall's walkway itself at a regular ten foot interval, and the entire place smelled of tar and pitch.

The evening had been particularly hot and close- it felt like the night was a blanket, pressing in on you, closing in wetly on the perimeter the torches cast. It was a close darkness, and watchful. Even past the firelight, Candlemass could see eyes, glinting at him from the darkness.

Some, he knew, were probably wild animals. But only some.

Questions...

Someone just mentioned this to me- I never did think to question why Candlemass decided to hang around me in the first place. This will definitely be something I ask him, as well as the apparent age-time differences a lot of you have pointed out to me, and I never thought of asking him about, either.

While you were gone...

So apparently what was going on was a great deal more than I had expected. Candlemass had mentioned the Red Skull scare wasn't the worst of his problems in the village, but I had no idea how far that extended. But I'll tell you what Candlemass told me.

wtf wasps?

I just found a huge old wasp's nest in the kitchen, chilling on the sideboard.

My mom doesn't know how it got there, and neither does my dad, and I'll be fucked if I put it there.

I threw that motherfucker right in the garbage. Screw that shit.

A Better Morning

My day just got infinitely better. Candlemass showed up right after the dude did, maybe with about an hour leeway. He loomed out of the shadows right next to where I was working, looking ominous. Startled me pretty badly, seeing something yellow and billowing out of the corner of my eye where nothing had been before.

Furthermore, his nose and forehead were bloody, and he was wiping his face with the back of his wrist even as he was speaking to me. "Chickadee, are you alright?" Apparently, he'd gotten wind of what had happened earlier this morning due to the fact that the person was actually a village council member who was incredibly sore that his hero Candlemass wasn't around for him to fanboy on. He also assured me he'd given Crow a drubbing for what he'd done to me, the rest of the council be damned. He was the one who recalled Candlemass for the Red Skull scare, which hadn't been nearly as serious as Candlemass had thought.

As straight from Candlemass's lips: "Nathaniel Crow needs to get a life. He has to understand that what I'm doing here has importance, too." I'd never seen him look so serious before- his eyes have a habit of getting much bigger, and his mouth thinner, so he looks a bit older than he really is when he does that.

After making doubly sure I was okay ("I'm okay, Candlemass, I'm okay!") he told  me he had to go again. He was handling a particularly troublesome case back in the village at the moment, which he promised to tell me about when he gets back.

Weird morning

Worst morning in a while. I guess I have been being a problem for Candlemass's village, only he didn't really want to admit it to me. Early this morning, before the sun had even fully risen, I woke up again to the same man standing over my bed- as soon as my eyes opened, he leaned down to pin me down in my bed.

I've taken self-defense classes, so you better believe I beat his sorry ass off of me. Two palm-punches to the head, two the solar plexus had him off of me, and backing up to the door, guarding himself. The weirdest thing was, even though I was scared, the altercation had this weird, dreamy quality to it, as if my body was moving of it's own volition, and I was just sort of standing, watching myself. Maybe it was because I was high off of the adrenaline, maybe it really was just a dream.

Whatever it was, the guy didn't come at me a second time, and when I saw him duck out the door, I saw he was wearing a cloak, but it was dark blue.

I'm guessing it was someone from Candlemass's village, and I'm beginning to wonder if I did the right thing fighting him off. What if he wasn't trying to hurt me? He didn't really seem that intent on murdering me, and if he had been, I'm pretty sure he would have tried it a second time.

I guess we'll see. He hasn't come back to explain himself

Recall

02-27-12 Last night, Candlemass woke me up, looking strangely grim and urgent. "I'm being recalled, Chickadee." Apparently, his "vacation" of sort has been cut short, and the village council is making him come back for regular duties. He said not to cry, and not to worry, because he'll drop in sometimes to make sure I'm okay. I'm not sure if this means I won't see him at all anymore, and I really hope not. He gave me a kiss on the forehead, rearranged my blankets, and said "Sweet dreams, Chickadee." And was gone. He wasn't here when I woke up, but there was a note on the table that reminded me to keep practicing my exercises, and to call him if I needed him. (With this, what's left in terms of updating has been finished. I'll start posting new stuff now. Is anybody actually reading this?)

A Yellow Cloak?

02-26-12 When I came in, neither the rope, nor the yellow thing underneath it were there. I was busy, so I didn't have time to check it out right away, but when I went back, it was already gone.

Work book

02-26-12 1:51 pm Have been going through more of Candlemass's workbook. There are fewer ink entries than I thought there would be. Lost of it is scribbled in charcoal. Apparently Candlemass has been recalled briefly to attend to some business "at home". He says there's been a new outbreak of Red Skulls, and he has to go incinerate the corpses. He looked pretty grim when he said it, and I understand why. According to his workbook, Red Skulls look superficially like bovines, but they also devour humans. So while a farmer is at first pleased with his strange new addition, he will soon regret it. I think despite his appearances, Candlemass is an animal lover. He told me to keep reviewing his workbook while he was gone. Here is a pic of the entry with the Red Skull. Entry reads: Tooth of Red Skull, agt. 4 yrs Red Skulls often insinuate into large herds. Will stay apprx. 4 months before devouring master. Back molars ideal for crushing bones.

Also, taking pics while I read the workbook and try to puzzle through it, which is why I am taking a bit long. Aside for, you know, work and stuff. Rhyme reads: From the edge of Darkness to the edge of Night, searching ever onwards for the fading Light. Page opposite is diagram of apparently a concentration exercise. Caption reads: CONCENTRATION is KEY.

The Workbook

02-25-12 6:17 pm

Candlemass has left me what looks like his workbook on my desk, complete with diagrams and rhymes, and a little note. (Note: Pictures to follow after cut)

Shenanigans

02-25-12: 12:05 am

Another thing I've discovered is he's a little uneasy about me taking pictures of him, but he's mostly chill about me journaling about him. Since it's not catching him in one place(which he's protested about with pictures), I think it's okay. I don't exactly know what he means, but that's what he said.

He's fallen asleep on my bed. I'm going to have to kick him off before going to bed myself.

02-25-12 7:49 am

Woke up this morning to a man standing in my doorway- since it was still before the sun actually rose, I couldn't make out anything except a black outline. When I noticed him, he took a step to my bed and leaned over me.