[FIN] follow the leader (chester & jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah did not, on a whole, truly need to be in other ashdown as much. Things came much easier to him now, more than he would admit to anyone, but there was freedom in this place that did not exist in Ashdown.

The rain falling here was warmer, even if it was just as never ending, and there was relief in that though Jeremiah could not place just why.

He follows a familiar path, one that takes him near the empty field that is the college - the one with a barrier they cannot cross - and stands there, for a time, simply looking. Sometimes he wants to push through once more but he doesn't.

No rain falls on him as he stands, though it is all around him, and his expression is inscrutable. At least it was until he realized he saw someone else coming down the road. Bright blue-green eyes narrowed briefly, a hand waving in front of his face to disperse the rain further away from him.

"Chester?"

5merdle

hope this is okay!

 

[Smerdle]

Chester was walking with great determination, having only arrived on the other side several minutes prior to this moment. He was focused on getting out of the rain, but for now he had the shield Algernon had taught him to produce hovering a foot or so above his head. Rather than sticking to clear, he had made it blue with cheery yellow polka dots today, and much like an actual umbrella, it left his lower legs and feet vulnerable to splashes and drips as he strode forward. The figure in front of him prompted an abrupt pause, and his fingers tightened around the strap of his bag for a second before he registered who it was. Not a giant space worm or someone missing most of their clothing. Good. He raised his hand in greeting.

"Detective Mercer! Hello!"

He approached with a sort of apologetic relief, looking down at Jeremiah's feet until he spoke. "I promise I didn't know about this place when you questioned me back in April. It would have made the conversation a lot easier."

azuredreams

yes, it's lovely!

 

[azuredreams]

"It certainly would have," Jeremiah agreed with a chuckle. An eyebrow was raised at the shield over Chester's head. "I see you've gotten a few points from Algie, though you've obviously put your own spin on it."

He simply let the rain go around him himself and it blurred his form sometimes, making one have to squint to look at him.

"I would assume that you probably found yourself here not long after?"

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He did squint, blaming his own shoddy vision at first, but soon coming to realize that the blur was coming from Jeremiah. The other Mr. Mercer had said that Jeremiah was strong, but Chester had taken that to mean that he could summon lightning storms or fly, not that he just... exuded power so effortlessly.

"Yes. I was trying to go back to the locker room at the gym and I ended up here. Despite the ball and everything that's happened, it's still exciting to open a door and see the rain. Though I suppose it's raining just as much at home these days." Chester smiled faintly and looked up at his shield, quickly fading it to clear. "It's childish, but fun. And good practice." He swallowed. "Were you going somewhere? I don't want to get in your way."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I never actually had the misfortune of that happening to me but ..." Jeremiah raised a hand and tapped a finger against his temple. It was a gesture to the glow of his eyes, eerily like a cat's reflecting light back. "My eyes don't quite see the world the same way. I do understand the excitement however."

There was a slight eyebrow raise at the adjustment to the barrier but then he was shaking his head. "No, I was actually inspecting the college once more." His hand flicked towards the empty field that was where Rider-Waite campus was meant to be. There was nothing there and if one got too close a force field would push one back.

"... and practice is what you need if you want to get stronger, so I would keep on doing just what you're doing."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

It was true, completely understandable, and yet the need for practice irked him. Chester wanted to be good at everything instinctually, as unrealistic as that was. School, magic, friends. He was a quick study most of the time, but he could never be fast enough.

He looked over at the field and nodded. The one time he had come here through a door from school, he had ended up somewhere else entirely. He had been stopped by the barrier on another trip when his curiosity had led him to find out why that had happened in the first place.

"Does it look any different to you?" Maybe there was some indication of a door for those who could see them.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah's head turned and looked to the empty field. He closed his eyes fora moment and then opened them, looking towards it.

"There's a haze to it," he replied, walking forward and reaching out to push a hand against it. Cold fire was deliberately summoned and lashed outwards along it making it visible briefly. "I can see that it's there but I don't see much more than that."

His head tilted back to look towards Chester. "I do know that there's something on the other side."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He watched as the fire illuminated the barrier, intrigued by the look of it. It was like a proper wall, built of some impervious magical brick.

"Yes." He had been quite sure that it wasn't just an empty space, but Chester now realized that was his stubborn practicality talking. Here, there could have been anything on the other side, or nothing at all. A literal void, never to be breached. "I mean, I don't know what it is, but I assumed there was something there. Do you know what it might be?" He was surprised to find that for all of his curiosity he would be content to leave it alone if it would cause them harm.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"A building of some sort, I assume. Every now and then there's something out of the corner of my eye that I just can't quite see ..." His head tilted a moment, turning away and cutting his eyes to do just as he said.

To see out of the corner of his eye.

Jeremiah shrugged then.

"Other than that? I've no idea." Then he was looking over to Chester a moment, over to the ground that was warped and broken not that far away. Jeremiah remembered what caused that. "The only other thing that has happened is that I saw myself on the other side of it once."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"How?" This was entirely different magic than manipulating office supplies or creating umbrellas. "Were you looking through it, or was it in a vision, or...?" Did people have visions here? "Is that why you want to get inside? I mean, I just assumed." Again. Had Jeremiah not wanted to get past, he would have probably just gone and done something else.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It wasn't a vision, it was real." Jeremiah's glowing eyes cut to the road that was warped. "The road here wasn't always like this. When I saw myself on the other side of this barrier, it did that to the road."

There was a shake of his head. "I want to see what's there- what is being hidden. Though like many things, I'm sure we'll be there in due time."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Chester followed Jeremiah's gaze to the broken road. That was even stranger than a vision, seeing yourself somewhere you weren't. He felt as though he should have understood what was going on, but he couldn't quite wrap his head around it. The whole thing irked him about as much as the need for practice.

"When the cage is broken, you mean?" He had been a little lost at the ball, but had managed to piece some things together since. The end of Ashdown as he knew it. Another thing just outside of his mental grasp.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Not necessarily," Jeremiah replied, turning to look at Chester once more. His eyes still glowed that eerie color and he shook his head with a small smile.

It was an odd look on his face.

"Just because the cage opens doesn't mean that we'll see what's on the other side of this place. That simply means that magic might be ... more common on the other side of the veil."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Oh. It doesn't mean things at home will end entirely? Just change?" He didn't like the look on Jeremiah's face, the way he glowed with power, the interest he had in infiltrating a place that clearly didn't want them there. It was hypocritical of him, he knew, since so many of his day to day choices hinged on curiosity, but he liked to think that even he knew when to stop.

"I guess if there's no way in now, we wait." Or rather the detective would wait. Chester would stay away.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No, not an end ..." Jeremiah smiled still, as if he understood more than he was letting on at the moment. There was knowledge in the glow of his eyes but it faded into something more subdued; the mask slid back into place.

"It's a beginning, Chester, a beginning. Once which might see us knowing what is on the other side of this barrier or what it was that destroyed the high school."

Smerdle