[META 4 START] A hole in the world

[azuredreams]

Jamie is given a brief nod because he knows that that was not the case with Zac, only that he was answering his question. "I broke the promise, I made the choice-" That's all he says for now because he blinks and-

Algie is his grounding force but then there is America and she's reaching for him and he-

He wraps an arm around her, though he keeps a hold of Algie's hand with his other. She can feel it there in his touch, the turmoil of his emotions and his mind, but there underneath it all is the wonder of magic.

"She showed us once," he says quietly because it's America and she knows. Perhaps not that sky but she knows the feeling of being lifted by Sunny of being more than just yourself. So Jeremiah holds onto her and helps and pushes at his own magic (no longer small magic, no longer that seed Sunny nurtured) to tether her so that she does not sink but flies.

lizbot

jer is backing her up, for what it is worth <3

saedusk

iloveyouDIE

shibroswol

 

[kuropeco]

Nathaniel, dressed in a Halloween ensemble that was privately one of the characters in Algernon's Red Herring Mysteries, and outwardly probably didn't look like much of a costume, glanced down at the figure beside him as they spoke. Distracted by the current goings on, it took him a moment to realize who it was, but after he did, a small smile tugged at his lips, rueful and quiet.

One shoulder rose and fell in a slight shrug. "It's not your fault. I think I would have gotten mixed up in things anyway. I mean, if that's what you're apologizing for. If you're saying sorry because you ate my last cookie or stepped on my garden or something, well.."

Nathaniel gave Lily a little nudge. "It's okay."

amitotic

 

[endejester]

“I don’t know…” he admitted, and to be honest he was scared. A side long glance an he added quietly, between them.

“But I think blood made this go as badly as it is, people’s choices have consequences. I think Sunny is the Magic of Ashdown and what we put into it is what we get out.”

The Semblance of Unity

idk ppl round there

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"So how can we get the... the blood out of her?" There was always death around them. Deaths that could have, should have been prevented. They were weak and perhaps that is why Temperance could easily cling to Zac because they were alike, because they so wanted to do good, to save everyone. Because they failed.

"If this is the cage failing, then Sunny was 'the enemy'? Do we... re-institute a cage?"

endejester

 

[endejester]

"I don't know..." He shook his head. " I don't even know if I'm right, it would be... a** to assume I was totally right, I just -feel- like I am." He said quietly. " I'm sure some people are... far more assured of their actions. But I know we have to try."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun tilted his head, still trying to figure out what to do. As with Zac, he ignored Juniper's comment.

Eventually, he saw America and Jeremiah doing... something. Was there much that they could do here magic wise? Especially with Sunny right there?

Furrowing his brow, he hesitantly placed a hand onto America's shoulder to attempt to assist. Somehow. If there was something that could be done in that regard, she was probably going to need all the help she could get. And for the hell of it, he took a hold of the pendant with the mark of the seal. He had no idea if this would do anything but... it was a start. Maybe.

He felt a little silly doing this.

Azuredreams

IDK

lizbot

Shibrogane

 

[Micillia]

Darcie O'Hare
Meta 4
Darcie was feeling pretty out of place. It looked like a lot of people already knew each other, not to mention it seems like a few of the people were reacting in a rather collected way to the bombardment of new information. Darcie herself was a little stunned, her brain preferring to block out a majority of the new information. The girl occupied herself instead with looking at the nearby trees. She listed their class, genus, and other random facts she knew about them from her time studding biology.

Darcie was snapped out of her scientific daze as a woman nearby seemed rather freaked out by the entire thing. Darcie looked around at the other people, and, seeing no one go to the woman's aid, Darcie stepped up to her. "Hey." Darcie said softly, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Im Darcie O'Hare." Darcie focused on the other woman, trying not to get overwhelmed by whatever was happening around her. Darcie pulled out another of her disposable dog rain coats, giving it a half smile half shrug as she offered it up. "Sorry, its not much, but, it will help with the..." Darcie trailed off, she had gotten a look at the chaos from the corner of her eye, and felt herself start to sweat. Biting the inside of her cheek, she focused back on the other woman. "Help with the rain."

quite uneventful

Hi

 

[shibrogane]

FIX I-I-II---IIII--I-----ITTT-TT----TTTT----

Sunny laughs, and laughs, and laughs, and it's shrieking laughter, clawing against the inside of her throat. Hysteria, mania, whatever you want to call it. It's unhealthy. It's unreal. "I feel it," she says, "tearing. The cage. The veil. Tearing!" Maybe less unreal than hyperreal: they're in the uncanny valley now or else it's come to meet them, sparking chains of violet light through tangled, greasy locks.

Preacher speaks to her and Sunny pauses. A full-body pause, a split-second glitch in her matrix. For a heartbeat, for half a second, Sunny looks bewildered. Like a girl, not a god. But the glitch ends, the world rights itself on its axis, and she laughs again, ack-ack-ack like a Thompson sub-machine gun. Shiloh, too, causes that strange record-skip. Two heartbeats. She's there and gone. Good-bye, safe Sunny, happy Sunny, sunny skies and moonshine. Welcome back, Ascencion, the sun-rise.

"It's not fair if I don't let you play," she says. Her hands are bloody, her own blood, too dark even in the silvering light of the new moon. "It's not. So here. You can try to fix it."

Sunny points into the Rift.

"Limited time offer," she mocks, "Last chance. Going out of sale, everything must go, thank you for your many many many many years of patronage--"

When it's only America's magic, pure light and warmth and the rich taste of honey on the tongue, Sunny glitches again: she glitches and stays that way, a confused and pointy-chinned girl. Jeremiah's power, fire and ice, floods in and the glitch breaks again, the tension mounts, and Sunny screams, something primal and cold and terrifying. She screams:

G̷̡̣͔͔͇͇̖̙͕͈̮͎͈͒ͣ͂̎̕Ḛ̟͕̮͕͖͆ͧ̅̒̓̃̐̄̈ͦͭ̐̓͌͊͘͞T̈ͪ̓ͭ҉̸̛̜͚͓͖̹͉̙̤̬̩͟ͅ ̡̧̯̭͔͓͔͔̪̙͇͎̪̼̘͔́͛͐̅̄ͨ́̒ͨͥ̂́̇̂͂̄ͥ̊͘͡ͅO̧̫͖̳̝̦̤̰̟̱̣̾̍ͬ̅ͣ̌̑̔ͮ͆̎ͧ̚̕͢͜͡U͌̉ͮ͋ͩ̍̍͂̄͂ͫ̽͏̷̡͔̘͎T̷͈͔̱̆͑̐ͯ́̈́ͦ͑ͯ̈ͨ͘

And Shun's power, his focus, she only cackles and grabs it and pulls, tearing.

Did they forget the magic was her?

FFF-------F--FFFFFFFf-FFI---II-IX IIIIIIII-I-III-T-T

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Blade Kuroda

iStoleYurVamps

Smerdle

Cibarium

Elkbones

Kolina

PeanutButterPies

Prolixity

Saedusk

Melancholies

Daekie

Lizbot

KitsuneAura

The Semblance of Unity

ephebe

Endejester

Amitotic

Hetzerei

quite uneventful

Chickadee

Micillia

medigel

MoonRazor

StarSpaceCase

Seussi

Grey Dragon

 

[lizbot]

Inhaling deeply, America's voice breaks a little as she jokes, to everybody and no one in particular, "You jump I jump, right?"

It wasn't funny, there was nothing funny about this at all even as that broken laughter filled the forest.

azuredreams

blade kuroda

 

[Daekie]

"Sorry," Alexis says, and puts their hand on Rabbit's chest and pushes him back hard as they can (they don't sound sorry, they really don't, but they don't sound like anything at all), and -- runs to the rift. Again: a stupid choice. The stupidest choice. But what else is there to do?

Alexis takes a breath. Dips a foot in. They're not sure they could physically make a jump, right now. But. There's no other option, and this will fix it, and maybe they can stop having ******** nightmares all the time and waking up biting through their own skin over and over and over and they can go home - whatever, whenever, wherever that is - and maybe somebody can trust them again, and they can feel safe -

(if the rift will take them, of course, alexis then drops right in without a second thought. they have never been good about thinking twice about things. wherever this takes them can't be worse than righthere rightnow.)

Smerdle

shibrogane

goin' through, captaino

--
Sunny screams and Ashton whimpers, animalistic, her hands over her ears like it will do anything to block the noise out -- Pack, Pack, where's her God Damn Pack -- she moves for Eve (and Leila, too, by proxy), because Lily doesn't want her and it's no time to make things worse. Eve is older. Eve is -- generally a welcoming type, in times of need, and this is a time of need right now, isn't it? Yes. Yes it is.

cibarium

congratulations eve has obtained one (1) orbital ashton, please redeem coupon within 24 hours to save

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun wasn't expecting a whole lot from that. But he did see the hitches in her image. His head tilted. Something about what Preacher and Shiloh had said caused something within her. Perhaps it resonated to Sunny and not Ascension. There wasn't much he could offer in that regard. He had never trusted her.

Letting his hand drop from America's shoulder, he stared at the rift.

Jumping in would be incredibly stupid. There was really no telling what the hell would happen to him (probably death) if he were to go.

And yet...

He glanced over at America, to Jeremiah, and then to the others. Then, taking in a deep breath, he dove on in.

Something had to be done.

Azuredreams

Lizbot

Shibrogane

 

[azuredreams]

It sparkles for a moment, that feeling, America's magic touched by his own and then Shun's as well- it is something beautiful.

Sunny is too but then it is gone and she glitches and Jeremiah flinches, bright eyes snapping open when she screams. Was it in his head? He cannot say. Instead he looks to America, to Shun, back to Algie and-

Zac is there somewhere too.

"We go in, we fix this," he whispers, voice hoarse and head spinning. "Or you do," he shakes his head and looks to Sunny and G̸̒ͮ͏̫̜͔Ę̢̧͔̞̖̪͉̥̦̞̊̑͌̀̐̚T̵̷̼̲ͭ͑͂͒͊͋͛̑ͦ ̡̛̪̺̳̘̳͖̈́͛̍O̮̣̫̠ͤ̾ͧ́̎̓͑̓ͅÙ̸̼̣̼̟̖͇͔̳̩ͦ͗͒͂͜͜T̡̖̺ͣ́ͯͥ͛ͧ͂̚ is on repeat in his mind in tune with the crackle of too much. He doesn't go in, he knows he doesn't go in. How does he know he doesn't go in? It feels as if he's not meant to but maybe he does-

"Jump, America," he tells her, "jump and save her because-" America saw how Sunny reacted. He looks to Algie and then back. Jeremiah thinks if he jumps then it may- "I believe in you," he smiles at her, and then looks to Shun as he jumps. "You too." They're both kids, though one more than the other. "Zac as well, wherever he is around here ..."

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1izbot

B1ade Kuroda

i1oveyouDIE

endejester

 

[lizbot]

I believe in you.

It's something she has so often sought out and so rarely heard, that America has to swallow, hard before managing a broad and determined smile. "Yeah. We'll do it."

She fumbles a little with Jer's coat before moving away from him, following Shun to jump into the rift. From the detective's pocket, there's a quiet, unhappy peeping noise.

azuredreams

 

[chiickadee]

"Shun--" she yelled as he jumped in. Then America followed and some others-

What the hell were they all thinking?!

"Jack," she looked at him for instructions. At the end of the day, Chel was a follower. This was crazy and it fell in Jack's hands to decide their fate.  

[medigel]

And that's just it, wasn't it? It needs to be done. There has to be a sacrifice. Always something beyond reach. People have to jump into a rift in reality because That's Just What You Do.

Chel calls his name and he sighs something world-weary, at a cat shitting outside of the litterbox instead of the unraveling of the world. Because people are throwing themselves into the unknown, and he should be joining them because this is what he's always wanted to be involved in, to capture, to explore. But his feet are rooted and Chel's gaze feels as tangible as the power radiating off Sunny, and he knows, he knows what's going to happen. She's giving him a choice, but he knows better. There's only ever been a semblance of choice when magic gets involved.

Just like the one here: do or die.

And he knows the kind that she would make. What he would have wanted to do if there wasn't some unseen force keeping them there. If there's no way back, however, then there's only--

"You wanted to charge Satan or whatever, right?" He turns to her, somber eyed, jaw tensed. Light words from a heavy chest. It's an anxiety he's not used to--and really, what could rival all of this? What could compare to reality's end? He was a cornered animal that realized the pack was already throwing people to whatever wolves awaited beyond the veil, and he hates it, he hates that they can't do something else beyond leap in without thought and hope for the best, that this wasn't just a cosmic joke to the being before them, swallowing them up into nothingness.

He remembers his fingers and squeezes for one second, two seconds, three seconds, but it would be her decision to detangle ultimately. (He wants to think it's a consolation to her, that she can decide instead of being ordered.)

"Seems she's giving us a free ticket to try that."