Matt's Second Visit to The Woods - 10/26

[someguyinKC]

First of all, so sorry for the delay. I went through last Saturday and have been swamped ever since then. I've not had a chance to read everyone else's accounts yet, so I apologize for any repetitive notes. Also, I don't have it in me tonight to get a full write up like several others have done. You get a summarized version highlighting key happenings.

Arrived early, got checked in, waited in line, got a new nickname of "Chucklehead". Trail first, it was packed, lots of waiting on the trail itself until we got to the last scene. An usher told us where to sit, one by one, and the witch took people to chat. After every few people, she would release a small group to go to the carnival. The last 3 to chat were Blondie, Cammie, and myself. The witch took my temperature on some stuff that happened on my first visit and I think was pleased. She told me something similar to what I think heard someone else say about it being time to ask all the questions, get all the answers, take off masks, etc. It felt like a longer chat than everyone else was having, which was echoed by Kevin after the fact. Kevin and I waited for Blondie before heading through the carnival. Morgan caught up with us and told us that it was all coming apart and that would be the night to "pry things open with a crow bar". When he saw Cammie coming, he said we needed to go and stopped talking pretty abruptly.

Wandered, made small talk with Mack, had a few cheeky interactions with Izzy, Buck's Special, waited for the tent. Got to be elites before we went in and bust the balls of a few of the other attendees. Shortly after we got in (I didn't even get a drink) Dorothea came and gave me and Kevin the opportunity to leave with him or stay. I left, Kevin stayed. As we were walking out, he dropped me off with Hesta for a caramel apple (I swapped it out for cotton candy because I couldn't bite the damn thing) and when he came back, Hesta asked if she could come with us. We all went to Dorothea's spot in the woods and he told me the story that he's told a few times now. He kept saying that he was going to go into deeper detail than he usually does but I don't recall hearing anything different than what has already been relayed through others. He did say that the blood run that Hesta has gone on a couple times now is when she bleeds, and she's out looking for a man worthy of her sharing her power with. Dorothea said that she met one last time and she's going to be bringing him around to meet the family.

After Dorothea, Hesta and I returned, it was carnival time. More small talk, LOTS of interactions with the handlers. Stevie and I had a chat. Izzy took me to the bar for a drink and we had a chat about trust. She put something in my drink and asked if I trusted her. I drank it. Found out later from Rowan that it was just ground up teeth, so no real issue (I think). She told me to take a couple laps. Stevie found me and took me to the station near the stage and proceeded to really mark my face up with ash/charcoal, all while picking my brain about vessels. She just asked what I knew so I told her what I know: there were a couple that turned out not to be strong enough and now they're looking for a new one. They go... somewhere when the entity takes over. And they have to be willing. And, after some awkward silence, I offered my services in case that was what she was getting at. She sat back on her heels and gave me a very satisfied smile. Unsure if that was about her work on my face or my offer. She told me take a couple more laps.

Chatted briefly with Dymuntz. Asked her if her Special Girls club was exclusive to girls, she asked why it mattered to me since I chose to leave the elites. Walked over to chat with Hesta and Uncle Charlie. Uncle Charlie said he didn't like Dymuntz because she has her boobs out on display. A real woman wouldn't do that. Hesta zipped up her jacket.

Uncle Charlie and I got to talking a bit more. Don't remember exactly how we got there but he said Dorothea has a plan. He doesn't know what the plan is but that Dorothea is going to give a signal and it'll be go time. He doesn't know what the signal is either. Dorothea told him that when it's time, Charlie would know what the signal was and what he needed to do. I asked if it was going to be during Dorothea's birthday party and he asked me "What would be the best gift for someone like him?" I said "His land back, without conditions." He said "You said it, not me."

Stevie found me again and held my hand as we walked to the church, Izzy following behind. She walks me over to the witch and stands me beside her. Kevin is in the pews, Lazarus and Julian were standing on the other side of the altar staring at me relentlessly through the whole thing. Dorothea walks Lily in, she does her thing. The whole time she's up there, I'm talking to the witch. She's saying things like "They only came once you did. This is what you wanted. This is happening because of all those questions you keep asking. She's not going to survive this." I told her that Dorothea has a plan and that we wouldn't let Lily do anything that would kill her, to which the witch responded "Do you actually believe that?" Well shit...

So I started talking to Dorothea. "You don't have to do this. You're going to kill her. The land isn't worth it. She's going to die." Nothing. Lily continues. At one point, she jumps down and is like falling on me, so I try to support her and she punched my hand away. She then proceeded to wrap intestines around my neck, twist them once, and continue with her ritual. Then she shoved my face in the dirt and told me to stay. After a while, the witch told me to look up and see what I've caused. Dorothea helped Lily down and they walked away.

Lily was sitting near the end as I walked through. She was very clearly not well so I stopped to see how I might be able to help. She said "Don't ever interrupt my ritual again" but not much else. Dorothea joins us and the first thing he said was "Don't you ever fucking interrupt our ritual again." I said "Yeah, I heard. Sorry." We stayed and chatted for a while. A couple of other people joined us. They weren't familiar with the story so I let her ask all her questions of Dorothea. It was actually kind of cool to hear someone from the outside of this whole thing get to learn all of it for the first time. The only new piece of information that I got was that, this time, Lily heard a new voice. It was speaking in a different language and she was going to need to spend some time translating it. She was going to enlist the other witches help. Dorothea wouldn't tell me when or what his plan was, but did confirm there was one and he would stop all of it before Lily killed herself.

Oh and somewhere in there I went to the freakshow.

[someguyinKC]

Edit 1:

I also asked Maddy at one point how things were going, if she was being taken care of. She said yeah everyone's been super nice. Seemed sincere.

I asked the witch about Maddy and she told me that she was not being taken care of and was not there on her own free will.

This was the second time the witch challenged what I thought I knew pretty definitively, the first being about Dorothea's care for his daughter. Unsure who to trust is telling the truth....

[KAYLYN]

I asked Maddy as well, said her father Dorothea is taking really good care of her and she's learning a lot. Heard her telling other people she was adopted.

[blondie]

Been a bit wary about sharing this but my beloved Uncle Charlie told me that the sign for whatever shenanigans are planned is a phrase. A word or two words, I’m not sure. Someone interrupted us before I could ask if he would tell me the phrase (I think he might cos we have a connection).

Tonight is gonna be special. I feel it in my bones.