When he's finished, he'll send Jamie a text. Hey, I have the day off today and was wondering if you'd be interested in showing me the city. I haven't really had a chance to explore the area yet and would like it if you could show me around, maybe hit a few of your favorite places. Not haunted, of course. Day off and all.
Jamie text back: Meet you at the Firehouse around 10. Anything in particular you want to see?
Lionel & Jamie: The Grand Tour
The Firehouse
Aug. 25, 2018, 10 am
Warm & Storming!
Jamie pulls in right on time. She drives a new Blue Ford Flex. She beeps a couple of times out front at the curb. Lionel has noted that the steady rain of this morning has increased in a big way and is now full on storming. Plenty of wind, thunder, and lightening. Towson Ave. looks almost like a manmade river as the water runs down its length towards downtown. It might remind you of that first afternoon on the job a few weeks ago when you hoofed it on foot to the coffee shop at the end of the road.
Actions?
Brownie Point Pool:
Lionel 'Freight Train' Williams: 136/136 @
Effects in place:
@ - Action Point - ReRoll without a Ghost Die - Merry Xmas 2019!
Lionel hurries through the rain and into the vehicle, trying to keep as much of the rain outside of the car as he can. Thank you. I really don't have anything in particular I want to do, other than grabbing lunch at some point and spending some time with you. We've been pretty busy so far, so I haven't really had much chance to see the town when we weren't working. Not really the best way to appreciate everything the area has to offer.
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
Jamie nods and puts the car in gear, pulling out into the somewhat light traffic and zooms off. For a new car, there is a lot of clutter inside. A couple office outfits either hanging up or slung over the back seat along with what looks like workout clothes. There are a few items rolling around in the back hatch area, more than a few discarded fast food bags in the floor behind you. A box or two of tissues, a couple phone chargers dangle from the console outlets. Seems she works out of her rolling office a lot. I've only been here about a year myself. There is a lot of neat places in town. I can show you some favorites. I definitely know a good place if you like Chinese food. We can hit that later. I thought I would start you off by showing you the haunted house. What do you think? she grins mischievously.
Lionel rolls his eyes and returns the grin. If that's where you want to start, I'm game. And, yeah, I like Chinese food. You don't get this big being a picky eater, although when I was playing, it really didn't matter what was put in front of us- it was gonna disappear in a hurry! I'd eat in a day what you'd probably eat in a week, so we ate pretty much anything and everything. Now, I'm a little more selective about what I eat, and I definitely don't eat as much as I did. All-you-can-eat places still fear me, though. I'm banned from all of them in a 50 mile radius of Norman; most of us were.
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
Jamie laughs and nods as she navigates the road and the storm. I figured you'd get a kick out of this haunted house. It glows in the dark at night. An old three story farmhouse just over here. Been around for ever and been maintained by the family that keeps handing it down. Somewhere that the teenagers like to drive by an pretend to be scared or brave. she takes a turn to the right after some minutes at a corner where the Movie Theatre is located. You can see you are suddenly leaving the city altogether and it is abrupt! You head down a hill after a railroad crossing and she turns right again. this is Stateline Road. Bet you can't figure out why. she steers to the left lane then back to the right. Oklahoma... Arkansas... Creative huh? she laughs. right up here... she pulls over and despite the rain, you do indeed see a three story white farmhouse. As stereotypes go, this fits the bill.
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It glows in the dark? Now I'm really curious. So what's it's story? Why is it supposedly haunted? He sighs as he pulls out his phone. Jason'll kill me if I don't get a reading... he mutters, trying to get the PKE app to function. When it doesn't work, he smacks the phone into the palm of his hand several times, which does nothing to actually make it do what he wants it to. I gotta get one of the guys to show me how to use this stupid thing. All I can do with it is send texts and watch cat videos, but I know there's a bunch of ghost stuff on here that I just...Maybe I need a password... Ehh! Forget it, he says with disgust, tossing the phone into the backseat. I'll get it later. It's in time-out right now.
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
Jamie smirks. So I did an investigation of my own last October. Just a rookie journalist hit piece for the holiday, you know? Well, I got the guy that lives here to sit down and give an interview. When you look around here, you see nothing but his place and trees in all directions, other than the hill where this tall house is. But behind us are all the lights, right? His grandpa needed to pain the house so many decades back, and a buddy hooked him up with some leftover paint from when they put the road in through here. White highway paint... which is made to be reflective. she grinned. So looking at it from here, with the city lights reflecting off of it and the dark Oklahoma sky behind it at night, it looks like it glows. She chuckles. Thought I would save you a trip out here and the headache of talking to the property owner if the teenagers start dropping comments and trying to get you out here.
Lionel, despite some troubles with his phone, does see the PKE notification is on ambient scan, and indicating 0 readings. And I will let you know as GM that there really aren't any readings. I just wanted to share a neat local story about a real location/story.
That's...that's pretty cool, actually. See, neat little local things like this are exactly the type of thing I probably would never know about...until someone told us about the "haunted" house and we showed up with our gear! Not actually being haunted explains why I couldn't get any readings. He looks into the back seat where his phone has disappeared amongst the debris. I...I'll just grab that later. So, what's next?
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
The spunky reporter grins and puts the car back in gear and moves the car forward. Anything you have dug up that is interesting? Care to tell me a little about yourself? she asked questions as they drive and she finds a turn around to head back where they were and heads back towards the town proper, ironically driving on the Oklahoma side of the road to get back to Arkansas.
Well, Roy and I found a decent taco place by the old courthouse- that place is haunted as all get-out! I heard about a haunted bridge... We've been pretty busy, so I really haven't had much chance to see the area when we haven't been working, unfortunately...
Tell you about myself...ok. I grew up in Fayetteville, not far from here. Left town to be a jockey, raced in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 11th. He glances at Jamie to see her reaction before continuing. I saw a ghost at my mom's funeral which led me to becoming a Ghostbuster. This is my first job after graduation. I work with some good people. I enjoy what I do, and hope I'm able to help people.
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
JamieYeah, a lot of people have talked about seeing and hearing stuff out there, especially at night. What is it about spooks and nighttime anyway? You know some people have claimed to see Judge Parker holding court in there. Wouldn't that be something? His old house stood where they later built the Carnegie Library is. It's channel 3 news station now.
Her face make a quirky expression. A jockey? Your bio said you were a football player...
Hehe. Yeah, I'm the size of, like, all the jockeys in the Derby. I was just seeing what you knew about me. Obviously, you know I played for Oklahoma.
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
Jamie laughs. Well, I'm a reporter.
I do my research. So what was the real story?
In answer to his statement about the bridge. Yeah, the bridge in Pocola right? The old highway? A black truck that runs people off the bridge, right? I've heard that one too.
As she drives she takes Lionel to a part of town he hasn't seen yet, there is a large park to the right. Here's a place I like. Ben Geren park.
It is actually pretty huge. There are soccer and baseball fields, playgrounds, walking, biking, and hiking trails for miles, you name it. There are batting cages over there and gokarts.
Most of that was the real story- other than the jockey part. I went to school to play football, and gave it up when I realized ghosts exist. I saw the ghosts of my parents at my mom's funeral, and then did a bunch of research afterward. I didn't really know what was going on; I was the only one that saw them. I learned later on that some ghosts are only seen by some people, others in the same area can't see them for whatever reason. Maybe...maybe I could see them because they wanted me to? Anyway, after doing a bunch of research on ghosts, I learned most of the time, when people encounter ghosts, you get more like what we've had to deal with here in town- spirits that are angry and looking to cause harm- to property or the living. That was when I found out about Ghostbuster University. They don't have a football team, but I left OU and enrolled there. I'll admit, classes were more difficult than I thought they were going to be. It took me a little longer to graduate than it took the other guys- Hell, some of them might have finished in a year! With no athletic department tutors to help me, I struggled, but eventually got through it. I could have gone anywhere I wanted for my posting. I think they would have made room for me even if there were no official job openings 'cause those packs get heavy! Most of the 'busters have me when it comes to book stuff, but there's definitely a place for someone who can carry a bunch of equipment. He chuckles softly before turning more serious. But, yeah, I saw this station was opening up soon, and jumped at the chance to come back home, help out the people in the communities near where I grew up.
Looking outside for a few moments, he brightens up again. I may have to come down here on my morning run. You think I can fit into the go karts? That might be fun sometime when it's not raining.
So, what brought you here? Where were you before you decided Arkansas was the place to be?
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
Jamie as she drives him by the big park and eventually turns left as she talks, taking you by an Elks lodge and up to a road you will remember from your trip to visit to Papa Popascu. You remember it as a busy main street cutting from downtown to here and out to the next town. Sunday on a stormy day somehow seems just as busy as before.
Nah, I'm actually from Ohio. Just got out of school and sent resumes out to every station I could find. Got hired here about a year and a half ago. Ever since my interview with you the other day, I'm finally getting to do some serious journalism and not going to cover chili suppers and preschool openings. I get that those are important, too... but it starts to feel like you're getting passed over, know what I mean?
She turns right again at an intersection by the hospital.
It happens that at that moment, just as Jamie is pulling into a small park with a lake in the middle with a wide walking trail around it: This is Carol Ann Cross Park. There used to be a real deal Sanatorium up there on that hill. Parts are still there but the main part was closed down and eventually, parts were taken apart or burned down in a fire...
At that moment, Lionel hears his phone go off and there is a barrage of information coming in. All the information about the 3 ghosts at the hospital comes rolling into his phone from the rest of the team.
Scrolling through the messages on his phone, his demeanor darkens. Don't they know how a day off works? Sighing, he turns to Jamie. Looks like the rest of the team managed to find a few ghosts in a sewer. Can you take me there? he asks, giving her the address.
Looks like you may be able to get another exclusive. I'm glad that we've been able to help you, although I'm sure your career would have taken off eventually. Talent finds a way to be noticed. It's why guys that play at tiny schools can still end up in the NFL. When you're good enough, people will notice you.
Sometimes this summer I will most likely be participating in another 24 hour game of Dungeons & Dragons as part of Extra Life. This organization uses gaming to help raise money to donate to children's hospitals. I'm raising money for Marshfield Children's Hospital in Marshfield, WI, and all money I raise will go to that hospital. All donations are tax-deductible. Please take a moment to check out my donation page below. Thank you.
Jamie gets an excited gleam in her eye and makes a u-turn in the empty parking lot and soon she is making great time by avoiding traffic lights and signs, seeming to know all the best routes and side streets to get there fast!
Roy feeling a little dirty after the recent adventure heads off to take a shower and change clothing before joining in for lunch.
“All men did have darkness. Some wore it in the form of horns. Some bore it invisibly as rot in their souls.”
― Paul S. Kemp, Shadowbred "If good people won’t do the hard things, evil people will always win, because evil people will do anything."
― Paul S. Kemp, Twilight Falling
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