[META 4 START] A hole in the world

[shibrogane]

It starts on a rainy day.

There's a feeling of weight as Halloween begins. The visitors feel it: the air is so thick, the rain seems to fall in slow motion. They swim through their days. That weight bears down their hair, their clothes, makes every motion a chore. As dusk falls, they feel it. A slip-catch, like the release of a geographic fault, like an earthquake in the psyche. In that pressure-release, they see it, the shattered ground in the forest, stars deep in that darkness.

It fades. They're where they were. There's a pounding need in their heads now, iterated on each heartbeat. The forest. The forest. I have to go to the forest. We have to go to the forest.

And then a familiar voice, soundless and tasting of sage and burnt offerings:

COME AND SEE

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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

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah had not been able to sleep, not with the unease of the text from Shun or from the conversation he had with Renard.

Then he had felt it and from the look his husband gave him, Algie had felt it too.

So they followed the call and, once more, found themselves heading towards the forest.

The rain is a counterpoint to it and Jeremiah's fingers squeeze Algie's as they reach the forest.

"At least," he said with a quiet voice, "this time I didn't have as much issue with the ..." Algie knew. The voice that came with both smell and taste that he could do with out.

Still ... They had little idea of what would happen (only that something would) and this, it seemed, was not a call that could be ignored. It was a compulsion, one heavier than ever before and Jeremiah wondered if it was because they were now even more tied to other ashdown.

This was a siren's call that could not be ignored.

iloveyouDIE

errbody else

 

[Daekie]

Alexis wakes up and knows. It's not something they can specify -- but they sleep late, now, with nothing to wake them, just a pleasant sort of numbness in their head when they rest where there's nothing to think about -- and they know something is wrong, something is off, the otherworld wants them. Again. (Just like the first time. The forest is hungry. They can't find it in themself to be worried this time, because -- they don't know what it can do to them they can be afraid of, anymore.

They should thank Alois for that if they see him. But they don't think they will. He's a very busy man.)

They slip out the door without alerting Nasir, still pale, still limping but doing better than they were (wearing Zac's jacket, because he gave it to them, damned if they're going to waste it because they're still wearing Nasir's shirts), and make their way to the forest --

God ******** Damn It, there's Jeremiah Mercer. Alexis twirls coalesced raindrops around one finger like a toy and pretends not to notice him.

azuredreams

important things to note, jacket is not stolen

errybody else come on in hang with the gremlin

 

[Blade Kuroda]

Upon his return to Ashdown, Shun just had a really bad feeling about all of this. It wasn't even just a normal gut feeling that he typically had about certain things, but he was actually really unsettled. It was incredibly distracting. He felt sluggish, struggling to make it back to his apartment.

He really didn't get to spend all that much time there before he felt that call to the forest. He couldn't ignore it.

The last time he felt this sort of pull, it had been for Heliodora. This couldn't be good at all, as if the warnings given prior were not enough.

So there he was now, at the edge of the forest.

Unlike the last time, he wasn't alone in this calling apparently. The Mercers were here, among others.

He gritted his teeth as he nodded curtly to them.

"Seems like things may be happening sooner than what my message implied, Chief," he quietly hissed.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah simply gives Alexis a sharp look but otherwise lets them have their space. Now Is Not The Time but he'll talk with them later because-

Well, their hair is far longer than it should be considering how long it's not been and-

Not The Time.

Instead his fingers squeeze his husband's hand, unease and worry flowing between the two of them but they are both ready.

Jeremiah catches sight of Shun and inclines his head as he approaches.

"Clearly, Sergeant," he replies. "I have to wonder if we're going to finally find out who that ... voice belongs to. We've not heard it since we were all called to the forest the first time in March."

Blade Kuroda

Daekie

HE IS WATCHING U

iloveyouDIE

 

[lizbot]

America Jones loved Halloween, loved the special atmosphere: and little dark and hella fun, an embrace of a certain sort of wildness. She liked dressing up in slutty costumes, too. And the candy. And the parties. And the ******** greedy greedy greedy everywhere you turn.

Somehow this felt like the worst Halloween ever, everything dragging and muted and it was her. Something was wrong an she told Taym maybe she was coming down with something, maybe she shoulda got a flu shot or something. She's with him when it hits and the relief after the pressure releases almost overcomes the shock of it, but it's only moments before urgency takes over the rest. She leaves Boop with him and Ivy, along with rushed reassurances. I'll be fine. Stay away from the forest. Call someone on That List if I'm not back by tomorrow. Love you.

She doesn't even notice the last, doesn't trip over the weight of those words dropped so easily, without a second thought or hesitation.

The pounding drive of the forest, go to the forest leaves her still in heels, impractical and inconvenient and a perfect match for the sexy sailor costume she'd dressed up in, Mr. Bitterberry tucked comfortably in the pocket of her navy peacoat and muttering over the bats flying over head.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun lifted his head at that. The incident in March had been before he had moved to Ashdown. He knew bits and pieces, but that was not a detail he had been aware of prior.

"This happened before? When you found the foot?"

That was... curious. The voice wasn't anything he recognized in particular. If Heliodora were not dead, he might have thought this was her doing. But... he did have a thought. Her domain had been in these woods. She was the one who could not leave her position, and she contained the magic, for the most part.

Could the rift here be where her demesne would have been on the Other Side?

Azuredreams

 

[AMItotic]

Lily was not unaccustomed to feeling strange impulses in the middle of the night. In fact, it was growing to become a common thread in her existence, bobbing around helplessly from one impulse to the next as if carried by the tides.

But this impulse was different. It was louder, and it woke her from a sleep-like stupor she'd slumped into at a neighbor's Halloween party.

She didn't even bother to change out of her costume, making the drive to Rider-Waite in full Bride-of-Frankenstein attire. The sheer amount of hairspray holding her look together was no match for the spatter of rain, however, and by the time she reached the throng of people, the tower of black-and-white hair was half melted, along with the various stitch-lines she'd drawn on her face in eyeliner.

"Guess you were right about this whole blurring of worlds thing," Lily called out to Shun, threading her fingers through her hair in clumps to try and get it to fall flat. "You feel the thing too?" She glanced cautiously over to the Mercers, then bit her lip, suddenly incredibly aware of how silly her Goodwill costume must have looked.

Blade Kuroda

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It did," Jeremiah replied to Shun, glancing to his husband and then back to the young detective. His eyes were, in this darkness, a steady glow. "It's what actually lead us all here. What made sure we all headed to the forest that time. Heliodora did not know who it was."

The chief of police looked towards Lily as she approached and spoke to Shun, lips twitching just slightly because her costume was actually cute. Algie and himself had been dressed up earlier for a work function party but had changed back out of it before finally coming out.

That compulsion could stuff itself.

"We all feel it," he said to Lily. "It's quite hard to ignore at this point. If I didn't know what I do now I might have thought this rift was at Heliodora's demesne." At least it wasn't on this side so far as he knew.

... and, of course, he catches sight of America in her sailor costume, though she looks heavily compelled by the pull of whatever this was.

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5lade Kuroda

AM1totic

lizbot

i1oveyouDIE

 

[Micillia]

Darcie O'Hare
Meta 4
Of course Darcie was awake, it was night, the time ripe with secrets and adventures. Sadly tonight was not that night. Darcie looked out the window of her second story apartment and sighed as the rain pushed any thought of wandering around town at night away. Darcie looked down at the dog she had agreed to watch for a few nights. Its owners were going on vacation or something, and Darcie suggested she could be its keeper while they were gone. She appreciated the extra income, and besides, Bruce was a big dog, but also a sweetie. As Darcie curled up next to Bruce to read the book she was working on, a thought came to her. It was small, a whisper, a forest. Darcie looked back outside at the rain. She stood on the fence, some part of her was urging her to go out to the forest, but look at that rain! There was no way she was going out in that.

The thought increased, it became a drive, and Darcie folded. She got out a large rain coat, some waterproof boots, and put Bruce's lead on. All set, she made her way to the forest. It was strange, there were already a few people in the forest with her. She held Bruce's lead a little closer. Everyone she saw was obscured by the rain and gloom of the forest. It gave everything an odd, spooky kind of look. Darcie continued on, finally coming to a clearing where others stood. She looked around uncertainly at the other people in the clearing and decided to stick to the back. Bruce, as easygoing as ever, simply spent his time sniffing the ground, enjoying the outdoors.

Quote:

Darcie is open to interactions! <3

 

[endejester]

“The voice though…” Zac said quietly as he walked up, at least passing Jeremiah though he might have tightened his jaw at some others present.
“That reminds me of someone else.”

The smell of burnt offerings, sage; and being told something he’d expected he’d never be told.

“Vivian did say we’d have a chance today” he said thoughtful, and the rift, the hole into nothing was in the forest where they were being called after all. It was a chance to do something, or else it was the end of the world right?

New faces caught his attention and he gave them a shy nod.
If they were going to Other Ashdown, he knew that Dogs couldn’t travel there. He wondered what would happen to her dog.

“You… might want to find him shelter, just as a hunch.” He nodded to the dog. “It’s hard to explain.”

Micillia

azuredreams

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg was flexing his jaw a moment, a broad hand rubbing his cheek, because he wasn't liking the way the call thrummed through him or the way it lingered. It was good that Jeremiah didn't get sick from it but he was getting a bit tired of tasting spooky voices.

"Zac," Alg lifted a hand in greeting when the young man arrived, squeezing Jeremiah's hand because he knew his husband wouldn't realize until he said something. Shun as well got a nod of greeting, and of course America got a waggle of fingers and a smile.

He didn't recognize the girl with the dog (and Zac's warning was wise so he gave a nod of agreement) and Alexis, not someone he was well acquainted with past these few impromptu gatherings, looked a bit different than the last time he saw them. No knife in view, always a good sign. Lily he also barely knew but they all got nods in greeting just the same.

"Did Vivien say anything else helpful?" He was beyond asking how and why they were getting messages from beyond the grave, instead simply embracing them.

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already a lot of quotes D:

azuredreams

endejester

daekie

blade kuroda

amitotic

lizbot

micillia

 

[Smerdle]

He might not have ended up donning a vampire costume as he had suggested he might, but plain old Chester had been checking out the planned Halloween parties that spilled out of frat houses and the unplanned ones on the streets outside of Ashdown's bars when it happened. He paused, bringing a hand to his lips and fully expecting to find a hunk of fragrant ham hanging out. This was weird.

He had felt sluggish all day, but that didn't prevent him from shuffling off toward the forest, toward that strange, starry chasm and the insistent call. The people who had arrived before him were somehow unexpected, and he kept his head down as if that would help him shrink, sliding his hands into the pockets of his raincoat and gluing his eyes to the ground.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Even Heliodora hadn't known who the voice was. He didn't have much of an idea of who it could be, himself.

He nodded once to America, pausing at the sight of bats practically swarming over her head, then turned towards Lily and let out a sigh, "This may be more of one world falling apart rather than a blurring of the two, though."

Shun eyed Zac briefly, then shook his head at Alg.

"Not a whole lot. She wanted to warn Liam of the rifts and basically stated there was something we could do about them 'tomorrow'. This was only a couple hours ago."

Upon spotting the dogwalker, he slowly tilted his head. She wasn't one he really recognized. Honestly, he wasn't sure if she sort of happened to wander here or if she had felt the call as well.

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iloveyoudie

amiotic

Lizbot

 

[Daekie]

Alexis offers Zac a wave, going back to picking at threads absentmindedly when that action with their hands passes. He's been surprisingly understanding despite it all. (Despite the fact their new powers are things they can't quite understand. Despite the fact their fetch would have sent him to a hospital, if not for Autumn. He's still willing to hear them out.

Maybe -- no. They'll ask him about it later. They need to know who he's known who was the same and pray it's not anyone they hate / that their fetch hurt.)

endejester

---
Ashton is slow. Ashton is careful. Ashton has had three shots of expresso and is ready to jam a toothpick through a bear's mouth.

She makes herself unnoticeable, in barely-there makeup and dark greens, and keeps an active lookout.

holy s**t its ashton, everyone run