#lunarmadison

[Under another guise of giving Olivia ‘some well-deserved space’, Marley found herself wandering back down to the fourth floor. The events of CCB’s July-A-Thon Party On still had her mind reeling, the cogs turning and churning as an idea started to piece itself together. A fragmented one, at best, but an idea. A burgeoning solution to the mighty beast commanding reign over her kingdom.

(Okay, fine, too dramatic - the almost-sentient tree wreaking havoc on her room. Better?)

She could feel the thrum of energy almost as soon as she hit the landing for the fourth floor, coursing its way down the hall and calling to her. She approached #401 cautiously, the beat of her own heart ticking a little bit faster the closer she came. She tried to instead focus on channeling some modicum of calm, something that would put the tree at ease as well as herself. It was a fine line to tread between that and the very real fear that hummed like a live wire underneath her skin.

That focus started to waver when she saw something taped to the door.

Her brow furrowed as she ventured a little bit closer, heart leaping in her throat as something collided on the other side of the door with a loud THUD. She involuntarily stepped back; a beat passed and she moved forward once more.

THUD.

It knew she was near. It had to. It was only when she drew close that it seemed to wake up and react at all. Still, she wanted to know what had been pinned to her door. A back-to-school token? Something from the AMS or the LNWA? From one of her friends? There was no telling unless she retrieved the item in question.

She pursed her lips, feeling the thrum of energy from the room gradually match the thrum of her own heartbeat. A deep breath in. A slow breath out.

Thud... thud... thud...

She bolted, the pounding against her door growing louder, more insistent. Her hand wrapped around the item hanging off the door just as a large thorny branch busted through the door, and she ducked down to the floor with it, narrowly missed. Moving to the other side of the doorframe, she held a hand over her mouth to stifle her breathing and watched as the branch twisted and churned, almost as though looking for her. Several second passed before it slowly snaked its way back into the room. 

Marley waited several more seconds before she pressed a palm to the nearest stretch of door to her, watching tendrils of fibrous wood close up the splintered hole left behind, then slumped into a seated position on the floor, back to the wall. Her heart was still squeezing in her chest but she had retrieved the item. And without losing an eye. She considered that a success in the least.

She opened her clenched fist then to inspect the item in her palm - a woven bracelet along with a crumpled up paper tag attached to it. She smoothed it out to read nothing more than a name. It still turned up the corners of her lips into a relieved smile. She slipped the bracelet over her wrist and tightened the strings with her free hand and her teeth, before bracing herself with another breath.

She’d have to text Madison to thank her for the thoughtful gift. For now though? She had a theory to test.

“Okay, you beast,” she whispered, hoisting herself up off the floor and securing a shaky hand around her doorknob, “let’s try this again...”]

Once Mason finished his movie night with Marley and saw her safely back outside, he knew he had one more important stop to make. His mind was calmer and he felt a little less like he was going to vibrate out of his skin, which meant that he could probably talk to the girls about what had happened the day before. He didn't bother texting in advance of his coming - he'd get both of them or one of them or none of them, and he was fine with any of the above. He only stopped by his room to retrieve Sabia from his Book, and then he was knocking on Madison's and Quinn's door.

The knock didn’t quite break through the music filtering through Quinn’s earbuds, but Jenna’s barking did. Quinn shushed her quickly, glancing from the door to Madison and back again. It had been a relatively quiet evening. But even through the relaxed atmosphere, Quinn could feel a subtle tension in the air. It tightened in her shoulders, the kind of feeling that would only ease once she knew for sure that everything and everyone was alright. She pushed herself off the bed, pushing Jenna back and ordering her to sit before opening their dorm room door. Quinn had never been happier to see Mason McCarthy standing on her doorstep. He looked the same, alive and whole and so him. The tension released in a puff of air, and she couldn’t have stopped herself from wrapping her arms around him if she’d tried. She didn’t, pulling him into a tight hug with a quiet “Mase, thank Aether you’re okay” that wasn’t really directed at anyone, but had to be said. She didn’t let the moment stretch on, ending it after only a short moment before stepping aside to let him get to Madison.

Madison looked up from her sketching as soon as there was a knock on the door, and slid the book off of her lap when she knew it was Mason. Her movement stalled with a stuttered step and widened eyes when Quinn hugged him, and for a second Madison wasn't sure which of them her brother was actually here to see. She hadn't gotten a text from him. She'd barely heard anything about what happened beyond the scattered whispers around campus that something horrible had transpired on the trip to Neversink. Madison's eyes searched for Mason's, as though she could read from him exactly what he was here to say. "So ... you're back? How was everything?"

Mason grinned as Quinn opened the door, and it shifted into honest surprise as Quinn hugged him. Hugged him! He wrapped his arms around her tightly in return, smile buried against her shoulder. "'Course I am," Mason said. "I told you I would be, didn't I?" Mason smiled again, just for Quinn, then stepped in and closed the door behind him. Sabia had already bounded over to Jenna and they were barking excitedly with each other. "I'm back," he answered Madison, his smile becoming a little sheepish. He moved to her to tug her to her feet, giving her a tight hug too - she would know, better than anyone else, how he was actually feeling, which was someplace between nervous and relieved and confused and very, very tired. He kissed her forehead, then looked back at Quinn. "Don't go," he said preemptively, "'cause I actually want to talk to both of you." With that, he plopped at Quinn's desk, equidistant between the two of them, his girls. "Everything was....I mean, it was like, 80% exactly as advertised."

Quinn was already hovering between gathering her things and leaving, and taking a seat at her desk and refusing to leave when Mason told her to stay. There was something untouchable about the twins, this unbreakable connection that was both touching and nauseating to watch. If they needed time together, Quinn wouldn’t hesitate to grant it. It was enough for her to know that Mason was home safely. She’d wondered, after his initial Tumblr update, if this is what it would always feel like, when he left on a mission. The feeling wasn’t unfamiliar, not anymore, and not always because of Mason. His words made her decision for her, and she sat primly on the edge of her bed, watching Sabia and Jenna until Mason was situated at her desk. Her lips quirked in a half-smile, “And 20% this world has some insane vendetta against us NYADA kids?”

Madison let herself be hugged, and in the moment of contact, as Mason's arms circled her, she sank into the touch; any ire that she might have felt towards him melted away easily, replaced by a worry tugging at her gut that she hadn't allowed herself to feel while he was gone. She sat back on her bed, with her sketchbook shoved aside and attention focused razor sharp on her brother. There was an unease in the way he sat and spoke, a weariness in his eyes that was easier to read than normal. "What ... exactly happened?" she asked quietly. "I heard there was something ... weird. Some people said a prank got out of hand and some people said that some of the CCB guys went missing, but all the stories I've heard around here haven't really matched up."

Mason chuckled some. "Sure seems like that," he agreed, shaking his head fondly. "Honestly, I don't totally understand all of what happened. It..." this would be the hardest part, so he decided to start there. "It reminded me a little bit of Samhain. Something bad trying to summon or call or wake up something worse." Sabia moved from where she'd given up on defending against Jenna's playing to him, moving to sit between Mason's legs. He scratched behind her ears, and her tail thumped gently. Reassuringly. "There were Fae, who wanted to...summon someone. Something. A 'Father', I guess to go against the 'Earth Mother'? Marley...she didn't know anything about Fae like that." Mason sighed. "These guys, these Fae, they were snatching Copper Copper Boron brothers, but nobody knew, or took it seriously, I guess, until...I found these gnarly roots and I showed Marley and she--they were angry, like way angrier than roots and trees and naturey things are supposed to be, y'know? It literally--like, it hurt her. That's how angry these roots were. So, Marley being Marley, went to investigate, by herself..." Mason rolled his eyes, but fondly, "and then she...didn't come back. So we went to find her, hence my super ominous post, and we found these creepy fae-people who...basically wanted human sacrifices." Mason shook his head, leaning down to accept Sabia's comforting nose nudge. "So we got them out. And came home. And I'm really, really fine, and no, I didn't--" he looked at Madison, "I didn't slay anybody. They actually sort of slayed themselves." Mason looked back at Quinn. "I'm really sorry for scaring you."

Quinn sat quietly through the explanation, fingers tightening in the material of her comforter. It wasn’t surprising that something otherworldly had happened while they were away. It wasn’t even all that surprising that it could have been some kind of rogue Fae behind the disaster; although, human sacrifice seemed more than a little extreme. Quinn tried to think of Marley, destructive and deranged, and couldn’t quite conjure the image. She could only remember the look on her face when Quinn had tried to heal her a year earlier in Rome. “That’s…okay.” She managed, still turning the information over slowly. The McCarthy’s likely knew more of Fae than Quinn did, but she hadn’t known them to be particularly violent. Insane environmentalists? Yes, but nothing like what Mason had described. “It’s not your fault, Mason. I’m only happy that you managed to get yourself out of yet another potentially deadly situation. I…don’t think that I’ve heard of Fae’s performing human sacrifices.” She looked to Madison for confirmation.

Madison caught Quinn's eye, and shook her head. "Not really, no," she agreed, before pursing her lips in thought. Mason's explanation both made and didn't make sense. With Litha being near, the natural need for masculine energy seemed logical, as did the potential for things to go wrong the way they had back in October. Madison tried to ignore the way her stomach lurched when Mason so much as mentioned that incident, and she powered through the feeling to keep speaking, keeping her voice as steady as she could. "The monster that -- back on Samhain, like you said -- that thing wanted a human sacrifice, too. For blood magic. Do you -- they couldn't be related, could they?"

Mason shrugged helplessly. "Maybe. There's...a lot we don't know about Samhain still. She--this fae, she turned into a hugenormous thing, like megafae, and just...smushed one of the other fae." Mason clapped his hands together. "Just like that. If it was as simple as blood, that should've been enough, y'know? They shouldn't have needed the guys." Mason shook his head. "She said that the 'aether was ripe for summoning', because the guy, the Father, they were summoning...that he was dead." Mason dropped his gaze to Sabia, who let out a low whine in response and gnawed affectionately at Mason's fingers. It wasn't his fault. "We didn't beat them. The head honcho herself took out the one fighting us, and then she just...she just lost her freaking her mind and started flailing and screaming. And like, I was on distraction duty, but there's no way me going full-tilt scream at her was enough to--" Mason shook his head again. "I didn't get myself out of much of anything. She just--something killed her, and let us get away."

Quinn suppressed a shudder. The Aether was ripe for summoning. What did that mean? She thought of the mystical world they’d stepped into during the familiars workshop, and how easily Ripley had followed them out. She thought of amber eyes hovering in a forest bathed in red, and how things seemed to be getting worse instead of better. There were too many things that they didn’t know. All they ever seemed to get was more questions, and never any answers. Jenna finally gave up on staring at Sabia with her tail going a mile a minute, and padded over to Quinn, suddenly sober. “If they are related, there’s something much bigger than us going on here.” She scratched idly at Jenna’s ears, lost in thought. “I wouldn’t even know where to start researching.”

Madison looked between the two of them gravely. If even Quinn didn't know where to start, the lore had to be even more obscure than they'd thought -- or more dangerous, and Madison had been told in no uncertain terms that she was still just a child, who should trust the adults to take care of the serious threats. This wasn't supposed to be their fight. They weren't supposed to do anything -- and yet, people kept getting hurt. Marley had been hurt. Mason could have gotten hurt. Who knew who else had been hurt, before Mason had taken matters into his own hands? "Did you tell anyone else?" she asked. "Does anyone on campus staff know about this? Security? The Dean?"

Mason shook his head. "I didn't, yet. I...I thought about telling Mother." Mason admitted, flicking his eyes to Madison. "That if something else like it goes down, other Slayer teams won't be caught unprepared. I don't know what the CCB guys told or who they told it to, or even what they remember - that new guy, Finn, was like, when we were away and trying to get our bearings, he was like 'we're going home, bye', like not even a 'hey thanks for keeping me and my brothers from getting sacrificed'--" Mason cut himself off. Bitterness wouldn't get them anywhere, and they weren't in this for the gratitude. "Anyway, I don't know what they remember, they seemed pretty out of it. This wasn't a school-sponsored thing, yknow? I don't know if security will care what trouble we got into at Neversink, because that's pretty far out of their jurisdiction." Mason sighed and ran a hand through his hair, watching as Sabia moved away from him and onto Quinn's bed, nosing first at Jenna and then at Quinn's cheek. He smiled a little, in spite of himself. "I think...I think even if they're not related, something big is going on here. We wouldn't have had our memories wiped if Samhain wasn't big, and this is either a variant on a theme of Real Bad News, or...a wholly independent bad news thing. Either way..." Mason leaned back in his seat and ran a hand over his face. "You two are the smartest witches I know, and I trust you guys, and..." Mason idly toyed with his bracelet. "I wished you guys had been there almost as much as I was glad you were both safe and sound away from it." Mason let out a breath. "I don't know. I don't know if we'll ever get answers or if we should even ask those questions, but...Ben told me to let people help. You two, specifically, actually. So whatever--whatever help you gals think I need, we need, whatever that means...I'm open to."

Quinn smiled as Sabia nosed at her cheek, burying her fingers in soft fur and scratching lightly. Jenna gave a jealous huff before plopping at her feet, and Quinn almost laughed. She sobered quickly at Mason’s words, finding any levity difficult to hold onto. “I don’t know about you, but I want to ask the questions.” She started firmly. “Whether it’s one situation or many, I don’t…I don’t just sit back and let things happen without at least trying to figure it out. If we’re going to keep diving unknowingly into these awful situations, we need to be as prepared as we can be.” She looked to Mason, expression softening. “I don’t know what’s happening, but…we have a world full of information at our fingertips. We’ll start with what we know, and go from there. The library has shelves full of books on Fae, and…whatever happened in the forest, we’ll figure it out.”

"We will," Madison agreed. At least Mason still had confidence in her, and maybe Quinn did, too. That was something. That was two of her people who were, as far as she could tell, still her people. "Between Quinn's research and anything we can find out from talking to people who were either there, or who might know things about what we're dealing with -- and we have the bestiaries back at the compound, maybe? -- we have a lot of resources to work with. But most importantly..." She paused, hesitating, as she let go of the tension that she'd been carrying, and instead of asking more investigative questions, allowed the reality of Mason's experiences to sink in. He'd gone through all of that again, and he'd done it without her. He shouldn't have had to. "I'm just glad you're back and safe."

Mason smiled as Quinn spoke, and it only widened as Madison continued. The relief he felt almost took him by surprise - Madison was already knee deep in trouble of her own, and Quinn had been raised against making waves, but here they both were, for him. Mason took Madison's hand and threaded his fingers through it, accessing the amulet for a brief moment so she could understand how much it meant to him. "Thank you," Mason said softly, mostly looking at Quinn. She did not have the benefit of psychic link with him, but he hoped she understood his gratitude anyway. "This is cheesy," Mason warned, "but I think that--that whatever's happening doesn't stand a chance against us working together to figure it out. Which we will." Mason nodded, firmly. They would, because Quinn and Madison said so, and anything that they could agree on had to be the right thing to do. After a deep breath out and a brief moment of silence, Mason looked between them with a smile. "I missed you. Both of you. Please never let me go on a trip without you again. Or maybe just no more trips in general?"

Quinn smiled, arching an eyebrow before looking away. “You are cheesy.” But it felt nice to be on a lighter subject, despite all of the unanswered questions that they still had. Despite the fact that she still had no idea where she was going to start with her research, and she still had so much to do outside of…whatever was happening with all of the monsters. “I missed you, too.” She said instead, quiet, hyperaware of the fact that it wasn’t just them. Madison was in the room, as well, and Quinn was far too comfortable with a quiet, secretive friendship. “The next trip we take will be one that we plan entirely ourselves, with extensive research, and cleansing before hand.”

"Before, during, and after," Madison added with a soft, small laugh and a shake of her head. She was so glad for the way she and Mason could communicate with one another, for the sense of his safety and gratitude, and she squeezed his hand back with reassurance, a promise that she would do better by him in the future. "I don't know about either of you but between the twisted horrors of the forest and the endangered magical species overcrowding the campus after sneaking back with me, staying put sounds like a pretty good idea right now. And that way none of us have to miss each other too badly, either." She managed a smile, because she had to, to keep from getting too scared or worried in the wake of what had happened.

Mason smiled back, nodding - he liked the idea of the three of them spending time together, even if he was fairly confident it was a bit of a pipe dream. Quinn could barely handle him, let alone both of them, but that just made this tiny moment a little more special. "If you two planned something, there's no way even my bad luck could mess it up." Mason chuckled and leaned back in his seat, a little smile on his face. "Can we...I don't know. If any of us find anything out, can we clue each other in? And agree that if our investigation goes anywhere dangerous and/or stupid none of us go alone?"

Quinn nodded, offering a small smile. “Obviously. It’s…we’re doing this together, it’s implied that I’ll tell you.” She cast a glance at Madison, the only indication that her ‘you’ was general. For all that was happening, it felt good to know that there was something they work on together. Her research had been conducted primarily in the back corners of the library, pouring over subjects that only her family would truly understand. This was different. This was all of them, and…for once, Quinn didn’t mind the thought of a group subject. “If this goes anywhere remotely dangerous, we should all know, not just a couple of us. I don’t…I won’t lose either of you over any of this. If it’s too much, we’ll decide what to do together.” None of it was a question, not to Quinn.

"That sounds like a plan," Madison said, nodding confidently. "I think too many of us have tried to take dangerous matters into our own hands lately, and it's gotten a lot of us into pretty bad shape." She was speaking mostly for herself, of course, and how she'd roped Mason into way too many of her own bad ideas. Having a team sounded like a really good thing, though. A group was usually greater than the sum of its parts. She looked back to Mason again, trying not to frown too much at him. He was safe, after all. "You're staying, right?"

Mason was a good brother, and so he kept from mentioning that the 'many' of them rising dangerous things on their own had been, mostly, just her. "Staying like staying put? Absolutely," Mason assured her, squeezing her hand gently. "Staying in this room?" Mason glanced at Quinn and shrugged one shoulder. "I don't have anywhere else to be. Research can wait until morning." He didn't have anywhere else to be except his bed, asleep, and he was fairly certain that even with his sister as cover, Quinn would object to the idea of a sleepover. "I'll stay until you want me to go." Mason was addressing both of the girls, but he was still looking at Quinn; the words held extra meaning for her, for them, past the physicality of where he was located. She'd been worried - she'd hugged him, for the first time unprompted, and in front of Madison no less; he'd stay until she wanted him to leave.

At Madison’s question, Quinn turned her attention back to Sabia, scratching behind her ears gently. She listened, but it seemed like a question for the two of them. It wasn’t until there was a lull in the conversation that Quinn fully tuned back in, turning to find Mason looking only at her. Her hand stilled, still buried in fur, and she searched Mason’s expression carefully. It wouldn’t be the first time that she’d spent a late night with Mason McCarthy. It would, however, be the first time she’d spent a late night with the both of them. Even during her visit to The Compound, there had always been just Mason, or a buffer between the three of them. “You can stay as long as you’d like, Mason.” She finally offered, eyes not leaving Mason.