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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 10:19 pm
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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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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 10:28 pm
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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.
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 10:33 pm
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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
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 10:35 pm
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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.
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 10:55 pm
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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.
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 11:29 pm
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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.
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 12:10 am
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"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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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:25 am
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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
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 6:12 am
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 6:41 am
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 7:08 am
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