lonely hearts club

Sybill shrugged, her mind whirring away through memories of visions, the ways the war could go. "Some people just want to watch the house burn down, they don't care who gets trapped inside."

"I thought most of them were ghosts now." Ajax muttered. Though that was unkind, wasn't it? It was unkind and untrue. Ajax had seen Nicholas Mulciber after all, and that man had friends. Sophisticated friends.

"no." winnie said outright. the first death was not one that she spoke candidly about with any sort of frequency. the people who knew about the fall heard from snarky passing comments or rumors that spread about the unhinged dragon girl. otherwise the only way to know about it was if you had a ticket to the show. "I did not die the first fucking time." she seethed. "and bravery is what peons who gather together in droves desperate to celebrate mediocrity praise as if temporarily overcoming a fear you still have is some sort of feat. without fear, there is no bravery by definition. so do not lump me in with the likes of silly little knights or I'll kill you. then you can see first hand how little bravery it takes to die."

Ajax watched her with fascination. Her passion and surety seemed to run deep. “You’re not a knight. I don’t think you need armor like they do.” Behind them, a younger version of her fell and fell and fell. “You’re a very interesting person. Do people tell you that often? I think maybe they should.”

the triplets always felt a certain affinity for one another in the sense that if archie broke his leg, tig felt it. when tig's thoughts wandered too sad, ajax knew to bring her happier ponderings. if ajax was silently spiraling, archie snapped him back to reality. none of them needed language to communicate fully, not really. so with locked hands, tig walked with what some might consider errant confidence through the dancing throngs, timing her steps just right between the dancers. she ignored her brother's fear bubbling in her stomach. antigone was not afraid. in fact, as ajax would likely very soon realize, she was angry, livid, and had been for quite some time. she did not stop until the charming couple could look back at them as well. there was a mixture of both excitement and trepidation in their eyes. "don't." she did not want to sit through greeting or platitudes of welcome. this was not a sweet reunion. "they need to explain first."

Ajax glanced at her, alarmed but maybe not as surprised as he should be. Underneath all his fear was her anger. She had every right, feeling like that. Looking at them all dressed all he could feel was sad and a little lost, all the way to his bones. But he got why she was angry. Sometimes he got angry about it, too.

"both red." tig remembered. she was grateful for what little glimpses she could make out thanks to her brother's eyes. their mother had always dressed to the nines. elaine was more understated, like ajax, and preferred to express herself through a means that did not require words. their father simply wore whatever his wife suggested. it didn't really matter since people paid more attention to john's smile anyway. he was quite like archie in that way. "I want to talk to them."

“Both red.” Ajax confirmed around the lump in his throat. He gave his sister’s hand a squeeze and wished desperately that they had Archie here to level them all. “Then we will go talk to them.” It didn’t matter if he felt scared. Right now he was Tig’s eyes, and she wanted to see their parents. So he would go. “Careful steps, this place is crowded.”

Sybill glanced at him, her brows furrowed, "can't you?" She questioned, a bit surprised. True, she couldn't point her finger at one lone culprit, but she could certainly put together a list. Hell, she had one tucked into her sofa cushions just incase.

"All of us though? Even the mean ones?" He'd certainly seen very of the scariest people from school completely off-kilter. Ajax was relatively certain he'd seen a few of them crying. No one was having fun with their ghosts, which did seem a shame. It was hardly the ghosts fault after all.

where; ballroom with; open

Ajax reached out and held his sister's hand tightly. "They look the same. They're dressed up for a party. Like New Years, or Christmas. Mom's wearing her hair all nice. Dad's got that tie Archie always liked." He hadn't stopped looking at them. He longed to go over there just as badly as he couldn't move.

Sybill shakes her head, "I don't see why anyone would want us displaced that far out of our environment." London was at the heart of the whole fight. They had to still be there. "Aha, not reassuring, but certainly good to know."

He shrugged. "Who knows. It seems to target everyone equal opportunity, I can't imagine who would want everyone all off kilter." Except for maybe the Muggles, but this had magic written all over it. Maybe they teamed up with someone. This wasn't really the brand of mystery he liked solving though.

"what do the dead have to fear?" what did winnie have to fear? nothing. everything was hers for the taking, even life, as long as she wasn't scared of going through any lengths to possess it. that was how this whole thing worked. "the first time? ha. you really think that killed me the first fucking time? imbecile. I fell for a lifetime before that. bravery had nothing to do with it." winnie sneered at the word like it was a toxin.

Ajax tilted his head to the side, thinking it over. "I suppose it depends on the dead in question. I'm not great with the afterlife though, that's Bea. I just do Past." He didn't really mind as she spat insults at him and jeered. She reminded him of an angry wet cat. They could hurt, but Ajax wasn't sure she would. "Did you not die in a fall the first time?" He shrugged. "Sorry, I'm normally better at details. But that doesn't make it any less brave to get up and do it all again, even if you don't like to think about it that way."

She'd been about to interject with her own yet, when Ajax played the pessimist for her. He put out a lot of good theories, but she found it so hard to See past all the fog here, she could feel it furrowing her brow. "If it were just the house, it seems funny that we wouldn't have heard of the place. And even then someone would have to orchestrate us being here..." Sybill frowned, "tell me about Loch Ness. I don't focus well here."

“Maybe we’re outside the country. Though it looks really British outside.” Gloomy and grey. Though lots of places had gloomy and grey. “Tig is having trouble focusing too, so is Bea. So at least you’re not alone.”

where; the floor beneath the grand staircase banister with; open

Ajax watched the Past play out above them. The one who spoke clearly felt something about this all. It must be Past them, up on that railing. “It depends, I guess, on what you mean by that. It’s all Past here, I reckon. And the Past holds the emotions of whoever lived it. Is that you? That’s very brave, what you did. Even if it kills you the first time.”

"time magic is complicated, but inherently occurring despite our misunderstanding of it. it is not necessarily serious." tig mused. her grandmother had worked tirelessly hard to impart a certain philosophy and ethics in regard to time magic. "not if they see like we do." it felt ironic to talk about sight given her current state. "I think it would be nice to see them. I would like to tell them things. do you not feel that way?"

“If they don’t see like we do, then they don’t know it the way we do. Hopefully they took precautions.” Even Ajax made sure to be careful when he went far into the Past. Time was beautiful and fickle and one could easily get lost without knowing.

Right. Ajax lived with one foot in the past all the time anyway, this must feel like finally taking a whole breath. Sybill was all future, so she just felt... Well, a little worse than she normally did in the present. "It's... Certainly a spectacle." She hummed, "I wonder who concocted the whole thing. That's what's unnerving."

"At least this time nothing's caught fire." He said optimistically before adding, "Yet." Things seemed to catch fire a lot more often these days, it was disconcerting. The Ministry really ought to invest in a fire-fighting department or something. "Whoever it was probably either had a Legilimens, or an army of boggarts. Though it seems to be all people, so many the first one. That, or maybe it's just the house. Some places are much more attuned to our minds than others. It's one of the reasons I'm not allowed at Loch Ness any more."

"I still don't know what any of that means." Mina felt it was important to point it out, as it didn't seem that the cheese and crackers man had any inclination to actually explain it to her. "And my mother isn't a manifestation, she's just a haughty woman in an evening gown. Old money, you know?"

“Sorry, I’m normally better at explaining myself.” Or at least normally not this bad. “Did you take Divination in school? I’m psychic, the real kind. And I see into the past. Usually when the Past is this active, it’s because something happened that left one hell of an imprint on the place. Like the Salem Witch Trials, or anywhere in London Boudicca razed. Big things. Bigs things for the place or the people who lived there. But if your mom’s not dead, but some of the other ghosts are, then maybe it’s something different. Some other kind of psychic energy at play. Maybe Beatrice will know more. She’s my friend. She’s good with this kinda stuff. Archie probably would too, but I’m not sure where he is…” he trailed off. She had asked for more explanation but now he felt as though he’d said too many words. “I know just what you mean. My mom had friends just like that.”

"I'll be alright." It was pathetic to show weakness, a sign of lacking control, and Bea wasn't going to lose control in what very well should have been called her own domain. This was death, something she had been comfortable wrapped up in for so long. But unnatural death, a thing stark and disquieting. It wasn't quite her domain, nor was it quite his, from what she could gather, but a bastardized mix of the two. "I doubt I can be of much help in a place where everyone can do what I do every day. I'm not used to other people seeing them."

"Alright. It would okay if you weren't though." He said but he didn't push it any farther. Beatrice was even more stubborn than Archie. It wasn't Ajax's job to be the one to convince her of anything. "They're probably just as unused to seeing them. We can let people know that they're not crazy, that what they're seeing is real. Sometimes that's all people need."