|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 1:35 pm
 |
|
|
 |
He had nothing to say to that, even though he agreed with their sentiment, so he followed without comment instead, smoking silently and taking in his surroundings and Alexis's guilt. It was all weird. This place seemed eerily familiar, though it never registered as the area around Heliodora's grove to him, not even when they were led right to the spot where it used to be.
And then there was Sunny. Rabbit was familiar enough with her, even if they hadn't spoken, and she had never looked like that before.
"Why are they all just chattering away?" he asked, voice low. "We should be... yeah, that." Rabbit gestured at Chel, still out of range of those with less than supernatural hearing. "Stopping this."
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 2:02 pm
|
|
|
|
Halloween had been interesting enough, which was to say Shiloh had no desire to venture out and participate in trick-or-treating and instead stayed inside hoarding all the candy that Jamie's parents had bought. After eating himself sick, he promptly passed out.
Fast forward a few hours, and he was awake with such a violent start that he knew it wasn't just another nightmare ripping him from his sleep, but something deeper, something magic. He was exhausted, but his mouth had been dry, and there was absolutely no way he could resist the overwhelming urge to venture out. Jeans on, autumn jacket prepared, he found himself staring Jamie in the hallway when he tried to leave. One look and he knew. Two matching raincoats and they were off.
"I don't like this." it was hard to formulate words, but the deeper they traveled into the woods the easier it felt to breathe. "We shouldn't do this. We shouldn't be here." the air was oppressive and wrong despite how right it rested in his mind. The thick mix of unease and purpose was enough to make him nauseous. Overhead, the moon glimmered. Blessedly, it wasn't full; from that his eyes came to rest on his equally anxious friend.
The Ball had only been a month ago. He wasn't ready for another trial.
"Holy <********> he stopped, awestruck at the scene in front of him, eyes massive at the sight of the rift. Even more than that; the presence of all the others, both familiar faces and new ones alike. It wasn't hard to guess what the similarities between all of them would be. "Well this is just ******** fantastic." he spoke lowly, hand gripping Jamie's wrist defensively. Still, he couldn't tear his eyes from the scene, he couldn't even think about turning around. It was like someone had their hands on his head, pointing him in the direction of the ravine. So long as he kept himself forward, he could breathe.
He sighed, fighting down the flowers and vines that threatened to burst out of his skin.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 2:15 pm
|
|
|
|
There was a hesitation and then an embarrassed, crestfallen expression as Zac realized He’d forgotten for a moment that Jerimiah couldn’t hear him, or see him. It was harder to remember sometimes because the reverse was not true at all.
“Good to see you Alg.” He said softly. “Tell, Dad I said Hi alright?”
He waved at Alexis as well, they still leave him anxious, he’s not sure if it’s because of their fetch, because they are ‘Noble’ or something more. He’s trying not to think too hard on it.
He offered Juniper a shrug. “Maybe Ghosts can’t tell time the same way, or maybe it’s because time passes differently in Other Ashdown.” He offered.
He tipped his head at yet another newer face that seemed to have felt the call, and offered a small wave to Veronica in greeting.
When they stop in Heliodora’s grove though, it’s like his stomach ties into a tight knot, and at first at least it has very little to do with Sunny, that’s not where his eyes want to turn to search or any hint of reaction, though he doubts he’ll find anything more human there than on Sunny’s face, not after what she said.
While her voice too carries that sent of Sage, it’s not the same as that curiously familiar one that called them. Perhaps only familiar from the first time they were called here, hard to say. He doesn’t even try and suppress a shiver.
He does cast a glance towards Jeremiah, who is so stoic, how could he have broken a promise to this? He pushes the thought down and away and turns back to her, thinking of the Wild Hunt, Hern, and wonders if that is why Pax looks something like a deer.
“It called us” He calls back to Sunny.
A glance back to Darcie who’s name he dosen’t know yet, and he sees she’s discovered what he tried to say, far too discreetly. The poncho was one way to take that, and he should have been clearer. He gives an apologetic smile.
Other conversations though prompt him to ask one more thing though he’s not sure Sunny is in any state to answer.
“Sunny! Did you open this? Or was it all the blood letting of late?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:42 pm
|
|
|
|
Going out hadn't exactly been in the plan, but Jamie found the wherewithal to pass out candy, at least. Well, the candy Shiloh didn't squirrel away first. Once the trick-or-treaters packed it in, he'd somehow managed to get an otherwise comatose Shiloh to bed before retreating himself, exhausted and ready to greet the sandman. It had been a pretty decent night, though, and Jamie was happy.
When they saw each other next, it wasn't after sunrise or just in time for breakfast, it was some odd time only hours later. The hallway felt like a stream and Jamie like a fish being led somewhere else. Their place wasn't here and the look on Shiloh's face told him their thoughts were the same. Pulling his raincoat hood up over his head, he followed.
How long it took them to make it to the rift, Jamie didn't know, he hadn't paid attention. What mattered now was the stark understanding of their situation, not in a way that meant he truly knew what was going on, but in a way that meant the collective magical they of Ashdown were destined for yet another unfortunate circumstance. "I don't either," he responded to Shiloh, voice low and lacking the brightness it usually possessed. "Something is really, really wrong." Realistically, though, as much as he wanted to ignore the fact, they'd had warning it was coming. Things in Ashdown and Other Ashdown in turn had been slowly going topsy turvy.
He looked up and his eyes caught sight of Sunny and she scared him in that way a prey animal fears a predator. Only Shiloh's grip on his wrist made Jamie feel any semblance of safety.
"Who-?" Before he could even inquire, he heard Zac call out and he could only assume it was to her. Who else? "That's... that's Sunny?" he croaked, to Zac and to himself, obviously concerned. Nothing about what he'd been told screamed anything like this, it wasn't at all who he expected her to be, not someone who felt this unnerving. And yet... he also recalled that she'd wanted all the kids to come home, as Zac had put it. Having learned of Heliodora's passing from Gloom, he wondered if their deaths meant that much more than simply breaking the cage.
Swallowing hard, Jamie shifted his arm away from Shiloh's grip, but only so he could grab his hand instead.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 4:07 pm
|
|
|
|
"Oh? Ah, um, Acacia." She offered Darcie a quick smile, as close to her usual warmth as she could manage in the pouring rain as she walked into whatever waited in the forest. Severed feet, maybe. God she hoped it wasn't severed feet. "I'm Acacia. I used to run the Piece of Cake," and whoops, that still made her wince every time, "it's nice to meet you, Darcie." She'd been about to ask after Darcie's pet's name, something nice and normal to focus on, when the dog made up its mind that he'd gone as far as he was going.
She hesitated, halfway between Darcie and the rest of the group as they kept moving, and gave the girl a sympathetic look once Bruce was tied up. "If it makes you feel better, he probably has the better end of the deal." Which, wow, not actually her best attempt at reassuring. At least they caught up to the group together, though. Just in time for the sentiment to be doubled. The dog definitely had the better idea staying behind.
"What is even happening here?" And how were so many of the others taking this so calmly? She hadn't meant to, but abruptly Acacia realized she'd grabbed Darcie's arm in her shock, looking for something to cling to. She made herself release her grip and murmured an apology, keeping wide eyes on Sunny.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 4:12 pm
|
|
|
|
COME AND SEE
Sunny's gaze lights on Shun. "It was you," she says, "You set me free! I can see it all now, it's all so clear! I wanted them to come home so I could be free but you knew, didn't you, what it was that had to happen! They had to die! You had to break the binding and now I'm free, free, free--"
The tension mounts.
She calms, no longer quite so hysterical, hands hanging loosely at her sides. "Preacher, I'm free," she says, "No more cage. No more traps. Everything is as it should be. I'm free, free..." Her feverish purple eyes light on America, but she doesn't answer. She doesn't need to. Her mania shudders through the air, the psychic pressure difficult to ignore.
She is not okay.
DO YOU SEE NOW
She is so clearly not okay.
"I should've asked for this all along," she says. "I should've done it myself. I should've killed them all. I should've torn their magic out and their spines and their insides, could have played them like a piano, ribs like ivory keys, plink-plink-plink--"
Her hands move together, nails picking at nails, pick-pickpick-pick. She's wide-eyed and frenzied and broken. They can sense it now, all of them, how their magic draws from one single source: Sunny. All of their gifts: the warging, the rain, shark's-teeth and eyes that burn and rain. The glowing, the wings, the fetches. The court is Sunny. The town is Sunny. Overhead the rain falls and that's Sunny, too.
The shocks of their world, that torrential downpour, the gelatin coating the streets. The changing waters. It wasn't the world being destroyed: it was Sunny, freed and frightening.
YOU MUST REPAIR IT
Sage and burnt offerings and the sight of the stars and Sunny's contralto cutting through it all: "I was so bored, bored, bored of this whole existence. Of helping you! Of trying! And every time! Every single time, so alone, you all left me, I tried to save you and I DIDN'T HAVE TO." Her voice echoes cavernously even as the trees lean in to listen to her. "So bored of this clockwork and tick-tick-tick-tick-tick--" she twitches with every tick, her human skin beginning to fracture. "--tick tick tick tick--this whining, crying about justice when there is none, if there was justice wouldn't I be free, no justice but this, just this," and she laughs as if her pun is the most hilarious thing in the world.
"There is no justice but me," she says. "Look at all your fine little faces." She is lit up from within. The only light there's ever been in this world: Sunny. "Ready to behold everything there is to see."
She smiles. In that smile there is a glimpse of what Rylan has seen, of what Aleksy sees every day, the eyes watching the alien geometry the burning pain of her stare.
"I'll show you everything."
YOU CAN STOP THIS
The pressure grows. The earthquake weeks ago: it is coming again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 4:21 pm
|
iStoleYurVamps
iStoleYurVamps
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 4:22 pm
|
|
|
|
It's terrible and-
He sees it there, in her, as she laughs and she speaks. Had he not seen it? Had they not done it? The bindings had been broke and he remembers, beyond a blinding pain in his head, that Sunny is-
His fingers close tight around Algie's and he looks to his husband. "We have to-" he starts, "I have to-" His head aches and they have to stop this.
The voice echoes and he can taste it. They can stop this but everything is Sunny and Jeremiah realizes he should have known all along. He remembers that feeling of being lifted up on her shoulders, of the sky through her eyes and the magic that flowed-
It had all come from her, every last bit of it, and now it was-
Except that he cannot find his voice, though he looks to Algie and then Shun and Nathaniel and others that are around.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
