[PRP] where my feet lead me (cass & nasir)

[azuredreams]

It probably should not have been surprising for Nasir to be found at the small park downtown. He did have what most considered a pet squirrel. Except that was so not what he was doing at the moment. He was, in fact, trying to find a way over to other ashdown.

While he had figured a way back from there, he still had not ascertained a good way to get back over. Blowing a lock of hair from his face, he clipped it in place with a cupcake hairpin and continued along the path.

(The path in this case meaning him winding between trees.)

demon_pachabel

I SAID I WOULD; IT WAS JUST LATER THAN I MEANT TO START IT UP.

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cassandra had woken up or crossed over in this park at least three times. Which was why she found herself back at it now, squinting at the same trees she'd seen in the past...in varying state of being. "Okay, so the first time I was...." she stepped into the grass, and looked up into one of the trees.

"About here," she turned to look out towards the closest street. It definitely didn't look like something she should wander out into with no shoes now that she was awake and there weren't Spirit-dads to meet in it. She turned her head to look farther into the park. "So next I went..." she was tracking her pace to the next place she'd found herself when she spotted the familiar face.

"Nasir!" she called out after debating against it. She was doing BUSY WORK here, but he also looked like he was, so it'd just be a small hello-goodbye, right?

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Nasir looked up sharply, hearing his name called out before he squinted. Adjusting his glasses, he smiled and raised his hand in greeting.

"Hey Cass!" he called back, looking back over his shoulder as he heard a nothing nothing from behind as Trouble glided to land on his shoulder.

"It's alright," Nasir murmured quietly to his familiar, though if she was close enough Cass would hear it, "we'll find something." Trouble just grumble-chirped at him in response.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cass did overhear it, tilting her head slightly.

"What are you looking for?" she asked, "I mean, I'm gonna be wandering around a bit mindlessly myself for a bit, so I can help if needed." Because hey, figuring out if her theories (her whole 2 of them) had any validity was going to take a little while.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Oh, um, I'm trying to go over?" A breath. "Trying being the operative word there. I haven't found a way over yet and ... you'd think I'd get better at this. Supposedly we're supposed to."

Or that was what he had been told. Maybe other ashdown was being bratty?

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Oh...." Cass trailed off, realizing she wasn't exactly much help with that. Not like she could just...hop over whenever she wanted in either direction. "I've actually been wondering if there are particular places that make that happen consistently. I mean, I've ended up on the other side in this park more than once at least..."

She 'hmmm'ed, stroking her chin for a moment.

"I just wish I could figure out a pattern, y'know?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I haven't really ... noticed anything like that? Not that I've been marking it down ..." Now Nasir wondered if he should have been doing so. Would that have been wiser? Maybe there was a pattern to it.

Maybe em just liked the park and thus that's why it cropped up often.

"It'd make life easier if there's some discernible pattern. We'd be able to just go to point whatever and get over." Trouble jumped then, gliding from Nasir to Cass to a nearby tree that he scurried up. "Probably better off asking someone who's been at this longer than me, though ... I spent most of the first bit with migraines." Not that he wasn't, at the moment, trying to get to the place that caused all all this.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cass tilted her head, thinking about it. "But I feel like people who have been at it longer also have their own ways back and forth now, so it doesn't matter if there's a pattern, yeah?" She briefly thought to ask Jeremiah, but he had his ways without needing to wander idly like the poor Dreaming Children™ that had to roam the park to figure it out.

"Even if the pattern was that certain places were more inclined to it than others. Like if this is the case, I feel like the park will be one of them," because even without Em's help, Cass ended up in it. "So you haven't noticed anything yourself, though? Heck, even knowing any places you've unintentionally swapped over from for comparison is helpful."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Asking Jeremiah was not necessarily a bad idea, if only because he could see the breaks in the veil.

"I know someone who has glasses that let them see ways out but not ways in." Nasir scrunched up his nose. "... but you're probably right. I mean, I have ... kind of wondered why some of us end up with magic and getting tugged over and others don't." Not that that was exactly what Cass was wondering but he was sharing okay.

Going quiet, he was thoughtful. "Um, the park is common. Sometimes alleyways, more often than not ..." His eyes glanced towards Trouble who was chirping as he went through the branches, though saying nothing important. "Actually, it feels a lot like it's places where there's heavy foot traffic."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"That's a whole can of worms in and of itself. I mean, how do you even test for the type of person who gets the honor of getting to hop between sides and enjoy the social stigma of people going 'why magic'?" Her tone was entirely joking, however.

"I agree with the park, I've popped out in a few alleys, so that's definitely got something going for it..." as Nasir looked up towards Trouble, Cass also glanced up into the tree with a slight smile. Why hello there, fuzzy friend. "Mmmm, maybe it has something to do with places Visitors hit the most? Like heavy foot traffic has a higher likeliness for us to pass it on a regular basis." As though someone purposely rigged it that way.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"No clue. I just want to know if, um, there's method to the madness?" Nasir chuckled a little. The question was not all that out of place considering the topic.

"There may be something to that ... I mean, supposedly it's kind of like getting attuned? So the more we're over there, the more we're into all of this, the more likely we just find ways over. It's less us getting pulled in and more our feet just ... lead us to where we need to be." Which had him wrinkling his nose again because that sounded out of his control and not necessarily fun. Something he had say over would be a little bit better.

Especially if it could be understood.

Trouble, meanwhile, was chirping up in the tree. Apparently while Nasir and Cass were chitchatting, he was working. If work counted as the flying squirrel trying to find strange places for his people.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Yeah. Maybe it has to do with the same landmarks that we can use to 'cross', persay? Like, someone without magic probably isn't drawn into them like we would be, but more like..." she wiggled her fingers as she spoke, opening and closing her hands in a mindless manner, "let's say a spot is marked as 'Hey, you can step through here'. We step there and because we ''''are'''' magic," there were bunny ears there to dictate an emphasis on the '''are''' being more of a passive state of being, than them throwing it everywhere at a whim, "we've been marked with a key of some sort and can go through."

Okay, that was simple in idea, words made it weird,

"Maybe there are like landmark key 'pieces' that if you hit like....a variety of those spots, you accumulate them and can pass through these 'doors' as well."

It was like getting to Megasatan in The Binding of Isaac only less angels got bombed.

Azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"That seems plausible ..." Nasir fiddled with a barrette. "I mean, you could in theory get a map of Ashdown and start marking down all the places that people cross over on? See if they are clustered or if there's any other correlations between them."

It would be interesting to do, at least, even if it did not end up explaining anything.

... also no, not The Binding of Issac. em is still traumatized from that.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"That's at least where I'm going to start. I just gotta mark my own spots first, really. I'm trying to be as precise as possible and well," well, only Cass was a reliable narrator in such a venture as far as she knew, so she was tracking her own information first. As a baseline.

"It'd be nice if that kind of information would make it easier to go about the day without suddenly having a 15 minute jaunt home with groceries take two hours and melt all your ice cream, right?"

She had noticed it was almost entirely based on foot traffic so far, though. She'd yet to have driven her car into the other side.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Or, you know, you get home and the time is like ... a minute or so before you even left the store." Nasir sighed. "It's weird. I don't usually have so much trouble with time but it's happened once or twice."

He turned his attention to Trouble, eyes narrowing as he tried to catch sight of the flying squirrel. "There was, um, one point where I got into my car only to ... be in other ashdown. It was one of the weirdest ones I've experienced."

demon_pachabel