[COMPLETE] Home Base

[cibarium]

Eve swore under her breath at the wandering, flickering image, breaking her concentration for the moment. She shouldn't have gotten all confident. Now she was paying for it with frustration, which would remain creeping at the edges of her focus for a while. She hated getting things wrong as much as she loved getting them right, especially in recent months, and especially when it came to magic.

She downed her cup of tea and poured another one. Burned her tongue in the process. She missed being burnproof.

Then she overheard Eli, and the possibility of getting any more scrying done in the next few minutes grew increasingly distant as she processed the bits she'd picked up. Ezra, horrified, something about Ollie and probably Leila given the context, doing something to himself?? He could write that note, so on the other hand... knowing he could take some control of his own damned body was the most convincing spark of hope she'd yet gotten about the entire situation, horrifying as it was.

She left her tea at the table and approached, with a kind of urgency she could normally keep under wraps. "He hurt himself?" she asked the young blonde. "And not to draw blood for spellwork?" He and Horace probably needed some space, but the thought hadn't crossed her mind yet.

At this proximity Eli might notice something familiar in the darkness and waviness of her hair. It was Ezra's exact ******** hair, albeit longer and greyer and tamed differently.

the semblance of unityxx

saeduskxx

 

[saedusk]

Eli put a hand to his head like recalling it was difficult. After all, he was settled in some ways, yet still rattled in others. In the end, though, he was able to say with some certainty, "Now that you mention it... I remember Ollie saying something about an old friend," it was not the current Oliver, but the one who'd disappeared some time ago, "I never imagined it would be the same person..."

It was then that Eve's questions interrupted his thoughts. "It certainly didn't seem like spellwork," he said immediately, his response almost startled. His brows furrowed as his mind caught up and he looked at Eve instead of past her. The similarities were there most definitely, but they registered only subconsciously for the moment. It might be obvious to someone like Horace, who'd seen multiple sides to Elliot Labelle already, that he was attempting to put a wall between how distraught he'd been and how steady he pretended to be now. It was easier to wear a mask than deal with a stranger's curiosity, not that Eve seemed at all interested in him when compared to her interest in what he'd seen.

Despite Horace's suggestion to put it out of his mind, he recounted the entire vision aloud again in detail.

The Semblance of Unity

cibarium

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"I'm gonna need about three more feet of personal space," he said sharply, nearly jumping out of his skin at her approach. Horace ignored the woman, watching Eli closely. There it was, the partition, the disconnect. He slid his hand from Eli's shoulder and moved to stand next to him, facing Eve. His fingers bumped into Eli's, an invitation.

After Eli finished recounting, Horace spoke up. "Sadly, it doesn't seem as relevant for our current, pressing situation."

cibarium

saedusk

 

[cibarium]

The reaction from Horace surprised Eve for a second, her lips thinning until her oh moment finally kicked in. Her drive to understand what had been going on was higher than she thought. She'd nodded to Horace and swung herself away slowly, but not without remaining attentive to Eli and taking in every word. If she'd made a bad first impression, she would just have to power through it.

"He's really fighting for that body," she said, mostly to herself. I've always admired your perseverance. "Thank you," she looked up at Eli, "for... that information, and..." she looked again to Horace, "looking out for him. I should've at least done introductions first."

As it were, Eve got out of their hair instead of trying to make any. She certainly would've been hard-pressed to if someone else had badgered Leila in that way.

There were a dozen personally-motivated questions she could build off of knowing the actually-24-year-old Ezra had been fighting for control since before the Conference -- if she'd heard the story correctly. As Horace had inadvertently pointed out, few of them seemed relevant to the current situation.

the semblance of unity

saedusk

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Wil scratched his head and leaned away from his mirror. He leaned back over his piece of paper again and sketched the girls he'd seen. They looked remarkably similar besides hair colors.They called him father, but he did know enough to know that Ezra's fetches called him that.

The blonde then unfolded from his corner and moved towards the group as they talked.

"I saw his skin peeling off.. Fire coming through. And there were two girls he said he was going take back the world for. That it was stolen.." Wil was reaching behind into his hood then to check on Trouble and Bud. "I'm not sure if that helps us at all.."

Maybe they could find those girls? He wasn't sure if it would help and he wasn't exactly knowledgeable about anything besides the bare and relevant details to this moment.  

[shibrogane]

cibarium

Leila sees something fragmented, but what is within those fragments seems... normal. A view of a peaceful intersection--the jangling of the bell over the tea-shop door--a cup of tea with Jeremiah, whose eyes do not flash bright in the light. Her own reflection in the mirror, her own eyes staring back at her. A backyard without chickens.

 

[shibrogane]

The Semblance of Unity

Horace saw fragments of the sheet music in his second attempt, but hardly enough to add to his understanding.

 

[shibrogane]

Melancholies

Mila sees the group that departed on EzraHunt 2k17 coming back their way, an entirely-unharmed Ezra in their midst. He doesn't seem to be carrying anything at all.

 

[shibrogane]

round over
total score 25
Ezrahunt participants may rejoin after this post, or move over to triplet visitation
new scrying round may begin now  

[Melancholies]

Mila perked up with a wonderous look to her eyes. Holy s**t! Magic! "Guys, I can see the group coming back. There's a guy with him I don't recognize..." Was this the Ezra fellow they were all talking about?

"No one seems hurt." She noted as she watched the mirror.

Quote:

everyone

 

[cibarium]

They were coming back.

With Ezra.

Unharmed.

There should have been relief, but for Leila there was a cold dread creeping in. How did it happen so easily? What was going to happen next? Where would they take him once they were in the ritual space? And who was in control... the young man, or the Burning Man?

"I asked what he was doing... saw something with molten metal and blood, using it on the thumbprint sheet..." Her hands were bunched together in a tight knot on top of the mirror in her lap, and she was staring blankly ahead. "Then I asked what he was working towards, and, it was..." Peaceful? Idyllic? There'd been no destruction or rage or grief, just...

"It was like a slice-of-life sequence," Leila said. "From before we were led to the otherworld. My eyes looked like my old ones."  

[saedusk]

Whatever her connection to Ezra, and it seemed a significantly close one, Eve sounded relieved to hear he was fighting, even if that fighting meant self-mutilation. It was pretty damn unfortunate, Eli thought, but offered her a short, "You're welcome." Providing the information from his scrying was all he could do really.

Looking back to Horace, he said, "Hey, it's alright," and offered the best Eli-like smile he could muster. A little bit affectionate, a little bit snarky.

"Do you think we should try and sc-" Wait, what was Mila saying? They were coming back? No one was hurt meant Oliver was alright and holy hell Eli breathed a sigh of relief more intense than he'd ever breathed before.

"Someone's with them? Was it Ezra?" Eli assumed they'd been able to convince him to come, but... "I do wonder if it's safe to have him here. We've already been warned about how delicate this whole... charter thing is."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[iloveyouDIE]

[ENTERING FROM EZRASEARCH]

It wasn't so difficult to backtrack, not since their search had been deceptively simple. Alg was the first to appear with a pensive look on his face, because much like the others, it seemed too easy to bring Ezra with them.

"He's with us and everyone is safe," He breathed, scanning the area and not seeing the triplet search group yet. Alg did approach Silk, "He was cooperative but refused to bring anything with him."

If he remembered correctly Ezra had produced his 'charter' from thin air when he'd come for his fingerprint. Perhaps that would at least be helpful in this scenario.

"Any news on the others?"

shxibrogane

scry room

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Eli's smile was somehow reassuring and Horace returned it. But Mila drew his curious attention - they were coming back! Horace's head snapped up as the group returned. He scanned the crowd, looking for Oliver and drifting closer. Hey Olliebee, was- Then he heard what Alg said.

"Wait - we need... we need the music, the guitar, the stone he had. His components. He doesn't have them?" He frowned.

iloveyoudie

melancholies

saedusk

 

[Daekie]

[ENTERING FROM EZRASEARCH]

"If you want t'go back with him and tell the man who can set us all on fire t'grab his stuff," Alexis sighed at Horace, limping their way over to a chair and sitting down with an audible huff, "be my guest, but I don't want him to finish taking my hand off. Hurt enough the first time."

The Semblance of Unity