“--I mean I can manage fair on my own, ain’t like I’d starve.” Ephram emphasized the statement with a wave of his rolled-up copy of the community centre’s list of Fall 2019 programmes. “You’re probly the same, huh? Most military fellers I known can manage to cook for themselves. Except my uncle Foofer, he was in Vietnam and when he came back only thing he could fix for himself was peaches and poundcake. Man couldn’t even heat up a dang cream of mushroom.”
Ephram shook his head sadly. “But yeah I figure, learnin’ how to make bread sounds like somethang I wouldn’t mind havin’ under my belt! Freddie does most of the other cooking, he’s great at it.” The witch finally took a breath, getting around to inquiring, “So what brings you here, anyhow?” as the two men hung a corner in the hallway. “Lookin’ to sign up for a class? Wanna make country loaves with me maybe?”
He elbowed Joey chummily, then slowed down, looking around. “This place sure has a lot of water fountains,” Ephram said with a perplexed chuckle. “Must have plenty of seafolk comin’ here.” He gestured ahead of them with his programme guide, tucking it into the in-case-of-Blight golf bag full of weapons that he carried everywhere as they continued, but when they caught sight of the same water fountain for a third time, Ephram came to a full halt. “Okay,” he said. “That’s gettin’ sorter weird, now.” He slapped at his shoulder, finding that his golf bag was no longer hanging there, and hissed, “Gawd dammit.”
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No better folks to accidentally blip into a cataclysmic Pompeii-style pocket world with than these two lava atronachs! I lucked out big time. Plus they invited me back to their beach bbq after and let me gorge on grilled Spam and halloumi.
Between the two of them, fairy and witch magic, they’d been able to find one of the pocket worlds that had a certain pull on them, a faintly uneasy feeling like string being tugged out from the solar plexus. For once, Ephram eschewed his trusty golf bag; he strapped on his handguns and a shotgun, unworried about needing to carry ammo now that he’d figured out how to create bullets of his own silver-green magic while inside the weirdsworlds.
He’d outfitted Freddie with a couple of pistols as well, knowing that his husband had refined his fairy dust enough to be well able to provide his own ammo as well, but had also said, “...bring the cricket bat too, honey. Always helps to have at least one melee weapon, right?”
As Ephram hefted his own baseball bat, squinting into the broad flat sun that saturated itself out across the baked, sandy landscape like the whole thing was a cake of bronzer, he grunted, “Of course it’d be some damn desert we’d land in. Edith always did have a fascination with the Sahara.” Their clothes had shifted to suit their surroundings, Ephram noted with interest, and a little ways in the distance, they could make out a low-riding vehicle with some sort of rig on the front. “Reckon we could comandeer whatever that is instead of havin’ to play camel for ourselves?”
...chatzy log with @aedanthewitch, @alessafalling, @collettemackenzie, @ianncardero, @ephrampettaline, @mayaparker, and @thisbrutalbelle
Adirondack chairs are the worst. Drinks are gotten by hook or by crook. The dance floor gets broken in. What’s the gossip? An impromptu fairground ride.
Iann should have been exhausted after going through that ordeal of the rifts, swallowing him up, terrorizing him and then spitting him back out. But he was oddly energized. Well, maybe not so odd for Iann; the man was an extrovert, and when he heard that there was some happening going on in Town Square, he curiously headed over to check it out. People were indeed gathered under a charmed invisible 'tent' to keep out the rain, playing guitar, hanging around in adirondack chairs and drinking beers, tailgating. It was almost normal. Which Iann supposed was what people were trying to rebuild now that the rifts were all gone.
Aedan tried to enjoy himself with a beer and a smile. After the madness and horror with Ruby, he wanted a long drink and to ignore the craziness. He was tempted to play the guitar with the rest of them but with his broken fingers, he didn’t think that would be very smart.
Culloden followed Iann into the tent, a big grin on her face. She was ready to party all night and enjoy herself after the horrible nightmare of the pocket world. This time she was wearing shoes, too!
It technically would be a good opportunity to set up a little promotional thing for Stonefruit, but the truth was Iann was too tired to do it himself, and he didn't want to ask anything impromptu from his similarly exhausted staff. Better for them to just try and get back into normal routine. He looked around, spotted Aedan in the distance, and also realized that Collette was tagging along behind him. "See anything you like, Cullie?"
Culloden ‘Hm? I think I fancy a drink and a dance. You wanna dance with me?’ She wrapped her arm around him with a beaming smile. ‘Let your moustache down.’
Iann put his arm around her shoulders. "Drink and a dance sounds great." Someone had thought to make a makeshift alcohol 'exchange' and Iann exchanged some money for what seemed to be magical hard cider. Good enough, he thought, opening one up for Collette. He bought three, handing one over to Aedan as they got closer. "Hey Aedan. I should shorten that. Heydan."
Culloden took her drink with a big smile and a thanks, taking a huge swig as Iann talked to his friend.
Aedan. huffed a laugh and took the offered one. ‘Heydan? Soon you’ll be calling me Danny Boy.’ He gave Iann a thankful nod and sipped the cider. ‘How’re you doing?’
"Pshaw, I'll leave Danny Boy to the unoriginal people. I'm just being efficient," Iann scoffed, clinking his bottle with Collette's first, then Aedans before he took a swig. It was crisp and tasted like apples and pears. "Better, now that it's all over. Me and Cullie here had quite the doozy, huh." Iann looked at Aedan. "Weren't you out of town? Hopefully missed all the shenanigans around here?"
Aedan. ‘Agh, not quite. Came home just in time to be dragged through to a weird nightmare realm with Rubes. Kraken and all.’
Bella wandered over to the rest of the people she recognised, taking a seat in one of the aforementioned chairs, she crossed her legs and sat right at the front of it, she couldn't sit at the back of it, her legs far too short. "Anything other than beer to drink?"
Ephram had opted to wear a knitted sweater and jeans to check out Town Square, rather than his uniform; he was already half in vacation-mind, after Freddie's announcement that they were headed out of town for the weekend, and it was very welcome following an inordinate number of pocket-world dives in his more official capacity as Sheriff. He, unlike Bellamy, had no problem with the adirondack chair, long legs eating up the space as he flopped down. "They had some sorter cider with basil in it, here, try one," he yawned, handing her a bottle and waving his own around at the others. "Hey there, Wee Deer, Essie, Collette, Carde--ah who cares."
Aedan raised his cider bottle with his non-broken hand to everyone who sat themselves down. 'Hey, Ephram.'
Bella took it but didn't imagine she'd like it, Cider and Beer tended to be far to bitter for her, the finishing taste was strong for humans so was tenfold for her. She took a tiny sip, the first taste pleasant, but as she expected what followed was not and shook her head as she handed it off back to him. "Nope," she wiped her mouth.
Ephram collected the cider back and set it down next to him, saying, "They had a sparkling rose version you might like! But I reckon if you asked, somebody could knock you up a martini or somethang. Hey, Aedan -- you know how to mix a drink, right? Or can you do that trick where you pull a bottle outta your own liquor cabinet remotely?" He caught sight of Aedan's bandaged hand, though, and gestured at it with his cider. "Got smashed up in a weirdsmobile world, buddy?" Ephram pronouced the wine literally as 'rose' without the accent on the e.
Essie was finally off the clock. Wandering up to the group she perches gently on the arm of a chair beside Bellas elbow. Smiling gently and taking a drink of her soda.
Aedan 'The only drinks I can throw is a wee rusty nail. And I'm not tossing any today.' He raised his hand in indication and huffed a laugh, shrugging. 'Mhm, ship bulkhead. Was lucky I have magic or I'd have lost it.'
Ephram clucked at Aedan's explanation. "Me or Essie here might be able to fix it some, iffen you want." He maybe shouldn't have offered Essie's fairy dust without her say-so, but unfortunately Ephram tended to volunteer his people's assistance without thinking about it first.
Iann had gotten distracted by his phone, and when he returned he saw that the group had grown. He nodded a chin at Ephram, winked at Bellamy; but his eyes rested on Essie Caird for a quiet, heavy moment, before Iann looked over at Collette. "C'mon, you owe me a dance," he said, finishing his cider first and recycling the bottle before he held his hand out to the nymph.
Aedan made a small, noncommittal noise and shrugged. 'Nah, don't worry about it. It'll heal well enough. But thanks, though. I just prefer to do it naturally.'
Bella "Rose sounds delicious, can you do that Ess?" she asked, knowing Ephram had a fairly high chance of being able to but curious if Essie could. "Ooooh, or Sangria, fruits are fairie stuff, right?"
Collette. grinned when Iann appeared and took his hand as aid to pull her out of the deep chair. 'Come on, Happy Feet.' She handed Ephram the rest of her drink.
Ephram hummed in cheerful acceptance when Collette gave him her drink, never unhappy to be stocked with more cider.
Essie opens her mouth to speak up about her healing but is happy enough as the man she didn't know withdrew. Probably for the best. Catching Ianns eye she closes her eyes and looks away from him as he pulls Collette away. "I can find you some sangria if you want Bella." she hums with a small laugh.
Bella felt badly as she realised what Ephram had actually meant, leaning forward in her chair. "I'm not going to make you walk off, Ess, I'd only make Ephram," she giggled before standing from the chair. "I'll find something, bring you back some."
Essie almost topples off the chair as it tips sideways when Bella stands up suddenly. Standing up herself she links her arm with Bella "We can go find something more fruity together?" she offers to cover the almost disaster.
Iann The music was some impromptu folksy stuff - in that someone had a harmonica, another had a tambourine, and someone even had a hurdy gurdy, all earnestly playing with the guitar and what seemed to be a jazz flute. They were oddly up-beat and perky, and Iann got to the dance floor, hopping up and down on alternating feet like he was warming up to run a marathon. All that he needed at this point to complete the look of 'cis dude dance moves' was pointing his fingers in varying directions. "Okay I'll be honest, I just know fancy-dances, or rave dancing. You show me how you'd dance to this music, and I'll copy you."
Ephram crossed his legs, alternating among all his different drinks. "Bring me one of whatever you're gettin'!" he called to Bella and Essie, before reidrecting his attention to Aedan. "You was on a boat, you said? That must of been shitty. Bad enough trippin' into these whackadoo worlds on land much less on water."
'If I show you how to dance, we'll both be arrested for assault!' Collette's eyes creased in the corners as she grinned, watching Iann's dad-dancing. 'C'mere and take my hands.' And as the music amped up, she started to guide Iann into a two-person cèilidh dance.
Bella kept her arm closely linked with Essie's as they walked. "Okaaaaaaaaaaay," she drew out in response to Ephram as she looked around for a group of older women. They'd have Sangria or Rose or maybe some daiquiris. "How's your dust doing?"
Aedan 'I landed in a horror movie. Me and Rubes were on a wee boat diving. We thought we upset some war grave with ghosts or some shite. Instead, we get thwopped by this horror-warped kraken and forced onto a wee ship. Not a wee ship. It was a bloody massive ship, actually.'
Essie shrugs a little "It's back to normal. It's like...I ran out of the infection or something. I've been trying to do an awful lot better. Harder to actually do than say to yourself, you know the deal." she hums. "You been okay, now that these blight pockets are gone?"
Ephram shuddered. "I ain't never been on a big ship and I don't intend to," he announced, as if anybody actually cared to try and make him. "There's somethang bout the idea of them huge-ass ships out on endless deep water far as the eye can see that -- ugh. Ain't real comforting to a boy from the mountains."
Iann linked his hands with Collette, watching her feet with an intent curiousity. "Oh this isn't too bad. It's like square dancing," he grinned, swinging away from her, then trotting forward again and turning her. He didn't really stick to anything too traditional (not knowing what was considered 'proper) but just improvised a romp to the beat of the tambourine. "We'll get arrested for this? Was it illegal in the 1600s or something?"
Collette. burst into laughter as Iann swung her about. 'I meant... proper dancing! We'd kick people.' She swung back and came back in with the music. Others who seemed to know the dance started to mimic them. 'I'm from the 1700s, mister.'
Aedan moved his head from side to side and polished off his drink. 'It was god awful. And I'll tell you now, I'm never, ever going to do anything with an automatic door. Ever again.' He set his bottle down and glanced over at the dancing. 'So, what did you deal with in your nightmare world?'
Bella merely shrugged, she had rather liked them, she got to be tough, protect people, her abilities actually useful rather than their usual hinderance. To say she was a little disappointed when she had seen this event declaring them done would only look poorly though so she focused on the fact she could drink. "Perfect!" she insisted instead, pointing to a group of middle aged women with an abundance of sangria. "Hello ladies, mind if I buy some of your Sangria off you?" she asked pleasantly.
"Oh my bad. I always mix it up - 17th century, 1700s..." Iann said with a cheery shrug. "This is proper dancing!! I don't know what you're talking about, this is great. Look, we're starting a trend," Iann said, stomping a little harder. But when someone moved to switch partners and swing Collette, Iann dragged the nymph closer. "No way, pal - if I lose her I might not get her back," Iann said to the guy (who didn't mind, he just found another pair to trade with). But Iann was still reeling after his and Collette's experience on that haunted old ship in that other freak-ass world.
Ephram chortled, finishing Collette's drink. "Pal, you're talkin' to the town Sheriff -- I got a grand total of thirty-eight rando realities to choose from." He patted his knee with the bottom of the bottle, elaborating, "Maybe you felt it too, how the rifts opening pinged your magic? Anyhow I spent my time followin' them pings and jumpin' into the rifts on purpose. So it was ... a lot." He selected a new bottle, lifting it in Aedan's direction. "Hence the drinkin'. I'm well due for some R&R." Ephram socked down half of the drink, then followed Aedan's glance. "Feel like takin' a two-step? I don't mind if you don't."
Essie smiles politely at the women they approached, recognising one from the station a few times during all this mess. Essie digs in her pocket and produces some cash. "As much as you can spare please." she adds to Bellas proposal.
Collette. turned pink when Iann rebuffed another dancer, her smile only brightening. 'Now look who's being protective!' It reminded her of herself after Rockaway. They still needed to talk about the boat, but for tonight it was a mindless party.
Bella the women already quite intoxicated pat the girls on the shoulder and hand them one of the filled pitchers and some plastic cups. "We're all safe now, girls, best celebrate," one reasoned as Bella thanked them and headed off back in the direction of the group. "I'm glad it faded away and you're doing better."
"Psh, as if I need to protect you. I'm just being greedy," Iann grinned, because greed seemed to suit him better, in his opinion.
Aedan 'Pinged our magic?' he shook his head and rubbed his still sore ribs. 'Then again, I think it was all so crazy I wouldn't have noticed it even if I did feel it.' He glanced at the bottle Ephram started to drink and raised his brows. If anyone deserved it, it was the town sheriff. 'Sure. But try not to elbow me in the belly.' He gave Ephram a cheeky grin and pulled himself out of his chair.
Collette. 'You're the least greedy person I know, Iann. And I've known a lot of people.' She gave him a playful prod as they got close with the dance. 'It's okay to be greedy sometimes, though.'
Essie dropped Bellas arm to walk back with the cups in hand, letting Bella have both hands to carry the pitcher back. Recognising the dance as the 'gay gordons' she makes a noise of interest, it wasn't a well executed version but she supposed a lot of them didn't know the dance themselves and were just copying. "I am too, I'm working on getting back to normal normal, still a bit messy up in my head and all." she shrugs before asking "Wanna dance?"
Ephram scoffed as he lumbered to his feet, finishing his drink and gathering all his bottles to arrange carefully on the arms of his chair as some sort of marker that it was occupied. "In the face, maybe," he said, grandly sweeping Aedan in the crook of one elbow onto the dance floor. "In the throat, most likely. But never in the belly, Wee Deer." He grinned, swaying a little to the music to get a feel for it. "I'm /way/ too tall for that."
Aedan huffed a laugh as Ephram herded him out onto the dance floor. 'True. I doubt you could elbow anyone in the belly unless you were both lying down.' He followed the music, glancing over at the folk dancing Iann and his nymph had started.
Bella shook her head, she had a drink now and was under the impression most people would still be seated, when they weren't she just shrugged. "Go join everyone, I'll be the old maid drinking and waiting for everyone to get back." With that Bella sat the sangria down where they had once all been sitting and held out her hand for the cups.
Ephram nodded at Iann and Collette. "You know that one? I don't rightly, but I can git by with some clogging if that's what you're hankerin' for." Whistling lightly along with the music, Ephram started a lanky, hop-stomping sort of jig, tucking his thumbs into his belt-loops and looking for all the world as if he'd just come down off the mountain the day before.
"You're just heavily biased!" Iann retorted, laughing because he knew Collette meant it, and in the sweetest possible way. "But that's okay, I'll take it for now - but don't push me. Or I might just have to be terrible just for the sake of argument."
'God, I don't think I've danced like that since I was a wee lad at the harvest festival.' Aedan raised his brows as Ephram did the oddest dance he'd ever seen. 'But it's worth a wee go, if you're up for it, Billy the Kid.'
Essie "If you're sure." she says leaving the cups with Bella to go and weed out a partner to dance with, teach the proper steps before being spun onto the next man to show him the correct steps, it felt wrong to let them butcher it after all.
Collette. 'Pssht, I don't think you could be horrible. To me, at least. My little moustachioed angel.' She gave him a playful cheek pat before swinging Iann about the dance floor in some next level folk dancing action.
Iann couldn't keep up with any footwork that was too complicated, plus he didn't really care anyway since this was all about fun, not a lesson. He resorted to his hopping and swinging Collette around, letting her do the light-stepping around him. He was happy to show Culloden off anyway, have her twirling and swishing around being pretty. He noticed Essie sternly giving a young fellow instructions on how to move to the dance and he grinned. "Your fellow Scotswoman's having a time of it," Iann pointed out to Collette. "You met Essie Caird, right?"
Collette. loved Iann's dancing, accurate or not to the actual dance. Seeing him have a good time made it all the better. She never realised that he was showing her off, though. If she had, she'd have started copying his dancing. 'That's the risk of showing Americans a traditional Scottish dance! The Scots will be upset when they get it wrong. It's our job to show them better.' She gave him a playful wink. 'But I watched Shinty with her at the highland festival a few months ago.'
Ephram snorted, holding out his hands for Aedan to take as he turned them in a circle before letting go again. "Hey, now -- this sorter thing is directly descended from my Highland and Ulster ancestors, mixed in with Cherokee and African-American. A more homegrown dance you never did see and don't you forget it, bucko." He laughed and prodded Aedan in the collarbone with one finger, saying, "You learned folk dancin' as a boy? That's where I learned this, was from family who did it proper."
Aedan made a noise of surprise when Ephram spun them about and couldn't stop smiling when they stopped. 'I learned my folk dancing from crazy druids and Irishmen.' Aedan huffed a laugh, amusement in his eyes. 'Even did the real stuff in the middle of Stonehenge. And not just anyone is allowed between the stones.' He rubbed his collarbone.
Ephram made a hoity-toity impressed noise, repeating, "Not just anyone! Only mad Druids and Irishmen." He snickered at Aedan's rubbing the spot where he'd been poked, saying, "Come onnnnn, Wee Deer, don't be dramatic, I hardly even jabbed you that hard. Iffen this music gits any faster, I'll be swingin' you round enough to git you whirly in the head and /then/ you'll see!"
Aedan 'You'll find I'm quite the drama queen.' He poked his tongue out. 'But seriously, just make sure you swing me properly. Or you'll be sweeping up this drama queen's pieces.'
"Well now -- if that don't sound like a challenge then fuck me." Ephram lifted his chin, motioning to the musicians; when he caught their eye, he twirled his fingers up quickly, motioning for them to hasten the tempo. Taking Aedan's hands firmly, he fixed the other witch with a challenging grin. "Keep up now, boyo. Lemme show you how we do up where /I'm/ from." He was wearing his steel-toed workboots, but Ephram's pace quickened with the more driving drumbeat, his heavy heels striking with loud knocks against the ground as he turned Aedan about -- mindful of that bandaged hand, of course.
Aedan felt a little like his feet weren't even meeting the floor with every step. His heart started to match the tempo and he laughed hard enough that his ribs started aching again. 'Holy shite.'
"Oh right, I think I remember..." Iann vaguely recalled being disappointed that these Games hadn't been magical or supernatural. What was the point? Feats of strength or physical ability in Soapberry were much different from outside, considering the super-abilities of werewolves and vampires. Fairies flying, witches with magic...it still didn't make sense to Iann to just have plain human games, but whatever. Sometimes it was like supernaturals wanted to pretend to be humans, while scoffing at humans at the same time. In a spontaneous attempt to break the ice between him and Essie, Iann called out to her. "Hey Caird, leave buddy alone, come join us. You can Collette can show us Americans how it's done," he teased Collette.
Collette. 's smile faltered a little when she found Iann inviting someone else to their little dance. She didn't want to be a teacher. She was enjoying hogging Iann for herself for the moment. But she said nothing, stopping her dance. 'I'll go get a drink.'
Ephram eased up a little, grinning widely as he turned Aedan free again and toned his own stepping down to a more keeping-the-beat pace. "Cain't say I din't warn you, Wee Deer," he drawled. "But at least for this you git to keep your clothes on. Since I'm assuming all the Druid-dancin' was skyclad."
Bella picked up the Sangria and began to pour everyone plastic cups for when they were done, watching the lot of them moving about quite freely. It was a sight to watch, especially those who were not very good.
Aedan 'Who says I don't like baring all for nature?' He beamed at Ephram and caught his breath as they finally danced in time. 'But usually it's in robes.' There was a hint of sadness in his voice, as if he lamented the idea of wearing clothes. 'But as sheriff, you'd probably arrest me for going naked in the middle of the dance floor.'
Essie looks over alarmed at the summons by Iann. Looking back to the man she was coaching she bites her lip and lets him go. making her way over to Iann just as Colette takes her leave for drinks. Watching the woman go with a blinks and an awkward look at the man. "My bad? Didn't mean to chase away your partner."
Ephram raised his eyebrows, gesturing around. "You know what town you live in, right? With wolves and merms constantly goin' in and out of bein' nekkid when they change? If I tried to arrest everbody who was starkers at some point I'd never sleep."
Aedan 'Hm, well, that's something to consider next time my Nudie Rudie addiction overcomes me.'
Iann watched Collette go, then looked down at Essie. "Didn't think she'd be chased, I thought she liked Scottish...everything. You fight with her as well?" Iann asked, referring to the argument he'd witnessed between Essie and Avi, in the prison-world. He gave a shrug though. "She's a nymph, what can you do," he said, as if Collette's species explained her behavior.
Ephram sporfled at Aedan's term for running naked, reaching over to gently shove the heel of his hand against the other man's forehead. "Nudie Rudie, good Gawd. Sounds like a lipstick name. HEY BELLAMY!" Ephram suddenly hollered in her direction, "don't you got a lip stain called Nudie Rudie? I could swear you do!"
Collette. went to the bar and ordered herself a drink, saying 'surprise me'.
Aedan 'You yell nudie rudie when you run through student digs naked! It stops your housemates coming out mid-flash.' Aedan gave a dramatic noise as Ephram pushed his head back. 'It's a good phrase.'
Essie makes a face at Iann. "No. I didn't." she says haltingly pursing her lips after and shaking her head.
Bella looked more directly when she heard her name, already observing Collette walking off in the opposite direction to where she had drinks ready for everyone to get more cider or beer. Ephram seemed pretty drunk, perhaps just n the mood. "I don't know at all, I have too many, probably, though what a weak name," she shook her head gently at him.
Iann It was the most Iann wanted to refer to Essie about what had happened in prison-world; really, the casually tossed question was sort of a tester, to gauge Essie's willingness to elaborate - but the curt reply and pursed lips was more than enough to Iann to indicate they should move on. The spontaneous band seemed to be taking a break anyway - good timing, and so Iann motioned for Essie to head over to where Bellamy was waiting with drinks. He didn't really want to get inebriated, maybe just a little buzzed. "Hey Belle. Look at all these choices. Which one do you prefer?"
Essie is glad Iann doesn't try to get more information from here, she had been speaking about it enough to her familiar, and to her sister back home. Trying to process through everything was a slow process, but she wanted to focus on the good right now. Lifting a plastic cup of sangria Essie smiles at Bella. "What we talking about?"
Collette. sat herself down and watched the dancers and the groups of people talking as she sipped her drink.
Bella "Choices?" she asked with confused and large eyes.
Ephram hrrm'ed, faintly disappointed that he hadn't correctly identified an existing lip colour. But he was easily distracted back to what Aedan was saying, laughing, "That explains it, then -- I ain't a college boy, never had the need to know the code for streaking or the socks on the doorknobs or nothin'. Say, Aedan--" he casually spun Aedan around a couple of times, hanging on to his good hand and letting the other one alone, "I been reconsidering it, just now while we was dancin', and maybe I /would/ go on one'a them big ships for like, a cruise, maybe. You ever been on a cruise?"
Iann pointed between the cider and the beer. "Cider, or beer?"
Essie looked at Iann "Those are empties, we only have sangria?"
"I just brought Sangria over for everyone, I assumed those were for her," Bella shrugged of whatever Collette had gone to the bar to grab.
Ephram hollered over at Iann. "STAY AWAY FROM MY CIDER, CARDERO!"
Aedan couldn't help but laugh as Ephram spun him about. 'A cruise? Once or twice. You've gotta find the right boat for you. Nothing with a shuffleboard court. Why? Are you inviting me to plan your holiday to old-man land?'
Iann bares his teeth, sucking in a breath before he asks hopefully, "Is it white sangria, or red?" Something familiar about 'cider' and 'Pettaline' pinged in Iann's mind; but by now details of the Forty Isles were fading, and so he just waved a hand of acknowledgement towards Pettaline.
Collette. sipped her unidentified drink and listened in as they argued over their own.
"I didn't realise it could be anything other than red?" Bellamy noted, picking up the large jug the woman had given her and giving it a sniff. "Pretty sure it's red, cheap red but red."
Ephram chuckled. "Not on your life -- my husband plans all our trips out of Soapberry, I wouldn't dream of depriving him of the pleasure. But is that what they're about, shuffleboard and old folks? I'll be honest, I was scarred by watchin' The Poseidon Adventure as a tadpole. And then watchin' every single documentary about the Titanic that's ever been put to film."
'Thank God. You'd both end up cliff jumping and cave diving.' Aedan laughed and shook his head. 'So, that's your fault, then. But I spent most of my teenage-hood travelling so I have to like water a little.'
"Hmmmmmmmmm okay lemme have a try," Iann decided as if he was trying to buy a car or a fancy piece of jewelry, not just a have a cup of alcoholic beverage. Collette was listening, and Iann asked, "What'd you get? And who the hell set up a bar already? This town...."
Collette. 'I think it's called the Naked Nymph?'
Essie tapped her plastic cup into Bellas in a mock toast taking a sip
Bella handed Iann one of the prepoured cups of Sangria. "Nice of the ladies to give us some cups too, wouldn't have taken some if I'd known the town was doing some kind of actual bar," she said but shrugged, too late now, clicking her plastic cup with Essie's. "How was your dancing? Did you show them what's what?"
Ephram looked exaggeratedly offended. "Excuse you, it ain't no fault nothin'! I call it bein' /prepared/ for the very high possibility that I could be on a big cruiser ship what turns upside-down or hits an iceberg. I think it's real responsible of me thankyew very much." He snagged a couple of fingers into the folds of Aedan's shirt and towed him closer to one of the makeshift booze tables, collecting two bottles of some sort of raspberry radler and handing one to Aedan, continuing to dance at a much more lazy pace. "Is it a because Ireland's an island thing? Youn's git used to bein' surrounded by water real early on, same way I all but grew up runnin' wild in the woods?"
Aedan followed Ephram to pilfer the drinks and took his. He took a sip and his expression flickered between confusion and enjoyment as they danced. He didn't know if he liked the drink yet. 'Mhm, if you're not careful in Ireland, you can just fall right into the sea! If you can't swim, you're done for.' He gave Ephram a cheeky grin.
Iann chuckled. "Looks like the bartender was trying to give you a hint, Cullie," Iann said with a wink. He eyed the sangria and then took a drink. It was delicious, as he expected - but that was exactly why he was so wary of it. It was delicious, easy to drink down. One did not nurse a sangria. "I need food," he proclaimed, figuring if he was going to drink, he might as well do himself a favour and eat as well.
Collette. rolled her eyes and continued to sip her drink. 'You're always saying that.'
Essie "They needed a lot of coaching, they didn't get lessons every Christmas time in school so it makes sense none of them had it anywhere near good enough." she jokes with a small shrug.
Ephram wasn't quite sure, cheeky grin or not, if Aedan was actually joking. "Okay now, you cain't tease me that way," he objected, elbowing the other witch a little. "I'm serious! How long a drive is it to the water if you're say smack-dab in the middle of Ireland? I had to learn to swim a lot better once I moved out here and had to contend with the gawd damn ocean."
‘Oh God, Ephram! I’m not a geography man. Four hours maybe? Six?’ Aedan still couldn’t stop himself laughing.
"Some of us did, some of us were just bad," Bellamy insisted. She had gone to church, they taught dancing there. Perhaps Ephram had learnt to but he was with Aedan and she couldn't ask, besides he was...very exciteable at this point. "I learnt to dance but I stepped on toes and couldn't keep a beat. Bit better now, not nearly good enough to show anyone up. I'd just sway awkwardly like Lana Del Rey does."
Ephram considered this and nodded, content. "What's the water like there though?" he persisted. "I saw this movie and these kids was takin' a fuckin' speedboat from Ireland to England and it looked goddamn choppy as /shit/ when they was out on the water, like, folks don't do that on the regular, do they? Are there nice beaches? Calm ones?"
Bella "As for food, if they have bar then there might be food trucks? Though I'd loved to have known so I too could have done something," she sighed a little disappointed.
Aedan 'Shite. Some of that strait is so dangerous it's not legal to cross in winter. We're an island on the edge of an ocean. There are nice, chilly beaches. Sometimes a heatwave makes it nice.'
For some reason this answer that confirmed the perils of crossing in a speedboat made Ephram more placid about the whole affair, and he relaxed into a more loose bobbling sort of standing-in-place dance, shoulders and hips swaying. "I tried doin' that thing where you lie down on the beach and somebody covers you with sand so's only your head sticks out," he remarked conversationally. "These two selkie kids volunteered but then they got tired and said I was too tall and it took too long. Abandoned me to the elements."
Aedan 'Did you... did you drown? Or did you want someone to try it again? Properly next time?'
"Next time, Belle," Iann said, knowing Erzebet's food truck would likely be popular, considering how good their food was. But he was pleased at the idea of heading over to the food trucks to grab some chow. "Who wants what?" Iann canvassed the women, in case they wanted munchies as well.
Collette. 'Can you get me something sticky? Like wings or ribs? Pleasseee, Iann.'
Ephram gave a gusty, mournful sigh, now that Aedan had offered sympathy and opened the door for him to play up to it. "Almost," he said direly. "I fell asleep -- like you do when somebody's pilin' you up with warm sand -- and next thing I knew I had cold-ass water creepin' up my shorts." He shook his head. "And yeah, I /do/ want it done properly! I need to have the experience. You good at makin' human sandcastles, Wee Deer?"
Iann "Heck yes," Iann nodded at Collette, sure he could smell bbq by now. It was making his mouth water.
Aedan 'Of course I can. We should do it! We have to do it.'
Collette. cheered with joy when Iann agreed.
Bella would love a gothic vampire style food truck to drive around town, next time for sure... "I would like chips and gravy, please," she requested with a big grin. "Oh and a burger, and like whatever cake they have."
Ephram threw back the rest of his radler, appropriating Aedan's from him and finishing that one as well. "Whoo!" he cheered at the plan for a proper sand christening. "Let's git more drinks."
Aedan. was going to protest when Ephram pilfered the last of his drink. ‘God above. Yes please.’ He burst into laughter and led the way to get more drinks.
Essie wasn't hungry so she had just been quietly working through the sangria while everyone chatted.
"Chips and gravy, got it," Iann said, then nodded as Bellamy added to her request. "Okay burger. And cake...hold on I'm writing this down. Someone better come with me to help carry all this."
Culloden ‘I’ll help.’ Collette hurries over to him with her drink left on her seat. ‘C’mon.’
Ephram shouldered his way over to an enterprising naga who had an array of her homebrewed beverages out for sale or trade, picking up bottles and mason jars and drinking pouches in quick succession to squint at the labels. "Nothin' with blood in it, right?" he confirmed with Aedan, fingering a pouch of Touch o' Plasma Brandy.
Bella snorted, unable to help herself. "Whelp, it's you and me until they get back, which means we can shit talk them," Bellamy said, loudly proclaiming. "Iann is so ooooold!" so he could hear as he left.
Iann made a face at Bellamy as he and Collette trotted off together towards the parking lot, where the food trucks showed up. Some of them were still setting up, so they got in line for one of them. "You okay? You don't like Essie, or something?" he asked, as they waited.
Essie had been drinking steadily while she had nothing to add to the conversation. She lets her lips pull carelessly into a smile for Bella shrugging. "Shit talk away." she snorts
Aedan. ‘I have nothing against blood I just don’t... think it’d be a good tasting drink?’
Culloden ‘I like Essie, but we were dancing. You don’t invite others into a dance if you’re going to reject the group dance.’
"Rules," Iann scoffed, missing the point entirely as he waved a hand at the idea of whatever dance-etiquette he believed Collette was describing. "Too formal."
Essie had clearly been drinking and Bella was up for gossip, even if it wasn't actually shit talking. "So Miles left town," Bella noted, a heavy inhale. "Didn't really say much but his ex moved further away and so did his daughters. He followed them, obviously. Less of a big deal with everything ended, but I don't know, sucks to think he's not around." Bella hadn't wanted to not have him in her life completely, and sure, they could text, but she loved him, still did. "
Culloden bristled as Iann brushed off something she cared about. It wasn’t about etiquette. ‘Yeah, whatever right? Rules pfft.’ She pretended to shrug off whatever Iann believed was the reason.
Essie makes a noise of surprise and lets her knees connect with the ground gently in front of the seat Bella was sitting in. "Oh my god really? When did that happen? I'm so sorry Bella damn."
Ephram leaned back slightly as the naga bent over her table to stare at Aedan. "It says TOUCH o'plasma," she pointed out loudly, and Ephram set the pouch down, holding up his hands. "Awright, awright," he said placatingly, and pulled a selection of two bottles and two mason jars forward. "He was only answerin' my question, ain't no need to git rattled." The naga eased off, but she did lift her tail and rattle it with a short laugh.
Bella "During the rifts, probably hard to get out," she half laughed, it wasn't really funny. "It's not like I imagined we'd get back together, but Miles accepted a lot about me, I really hoped I'd still be able to lean on him." Without really intending for it her eyes started to get wet, the vampire blinking a few times so that they would go away. She didn't want to get sad in front of people, Essie was one thing but if anyone returned she intended to change the topic and keep the upbeat mood. "I can text him, I'll be fine. Besides, I have people," she assured Essie. It wasn't quite the same but it did help.
Maya had dressed in a simple tank top and jeans combo. It was a beautiful day outside and she might as well enjoy it. After all the Washington Coast winter would start any day now and bring with it nine months of drizzle. At the edge of the Town Square to see who and what was about. She gave an acknowledging smile to her friends before heading off to find something to drink. She could go for something fried too, but might hold off on that.
"You're the one who's abiding by them!" Iann pointed out, his nature leading him to debate, even casually. "What, you wanted to go dance with that guy, you should've just told me. I was just teasing."
Essie takes one of Bellas hands. Bellamy had been there for her when she'd been having issues, and she hadn't even realized the vampire was going through something as well. "I'm so sorry. Let me be one of the people! Anything you need, anytime."
Bella chuckled, Essie's declaration lightening her mood and she patted the hand that had taken her own with the one that was free. "I know, you are, don't need to worry," she giggled. "Definitely not anything, but friend things, I promise."
Essie let her cheeks heat up as she realizes she might have read 'I have people' wrong. "Definitely friend things Bella yeah." she laughs to cover her mistake.
Bella "I have other people for /those/ things," she chuckled. Unsure if Essie thought she meant blood or sex or what, either Bella did not expect from the fae. Though blood would have been nice. "Come on, give me some gossip you know, about someone else."
‘Right, we’ll just stick with the vanilla stuff.’ Aedan chuckled and bumped Ephram.
Culloden ‘No, I wanted to dance with you.’
"You were dancing with me!" Iann said, confused and laughing. "We were dancing, we weren't going to stop dancing together. Well - until the music stopped anyway." They were next in line though, and fortunately this truck seemed to have everything they wanted, except the cake, but that was the bakery truck next to it. So Iann got the fries and gravy, the hamburger, ribs and wings, and some onion rings for himself. "And a milkshake, chocolate malt. You want a milkshake too, Cullie?"
Culloden: Iann didn’t get it. He rarely got it. But she smiled through his confusion. ‘Nah, I’m planning on drinking all night and dairy is the worst thing to mix with it.’
Ephram picked up the two jars to put them in Aedan's hands, saying, "We got us some plum wine here, that sounds nice, and we'll take these two redcurrant stouts. Sound good?" He paid with money, having not yet figured out what he owned that would be useful to carry around for barter, and the naga sent them off with two little packets of cheese crackers as well. "Let's sit down," Ephram suggested, gesturing at his chair and then frowning. "Gawddammit! There's somebody's backpack in my chair!"
Essie "I'm glad." she huffs awkwardly with a shy smile at Bella. "lord knows I'm not in a position to do anything." she adds as an afterthought, her tongue loose with sangria. "Oh gossip huh? Well I'm pretty sure there's a janitor stealing half the sheriffs lunches. Not enough for him to notice, I doubt his husband makes a full inventory of those bags but I've seen this one woman -" she cut off as Ephram came back.
"Someone needs to teach you the positions then," Bella winked. "Half is a lot, guess Freddie replaces most when he brings him lunch," she reasoned, assuming Freddie stopped by enough. "That's one of our bags, weirdo, we were saving spots."
"See, and I heard that if you have a yogurt before drinking, it'll keep you from getting sick. Not that - not that you'd get sick on regular human alcohol anyway. And I have no idea how nymph-booze works," Iann said, paying for the food and then heading to the bakery truck to pick up the cake in the meantime. He finished the sangria for now anyway, recycling the cup so he could keep his hands free for the upcoming food. He ordered the cake - some sort of vanilla cinnamon, he hoped Bellamy wouldn't hate it - and handed it to Collette to hold. Somehow he believed that the delicate dessert would be handed better by her than by him. Instead he shoved his hands in his pockets and waited, side-eying Collette. "God, this sort of awkwardness sucks."
Aedan thanked him and carried his jar as they went. 'Let's.' He stopped at the chairs and laughed at Ephram's possessive reaction.
Ephram was mollified by Bella's explanation, setting his drinks down. "Okay, good, thanks sweetpea," he said, dropping a little kiss to Bellamy's head. He dragged up another chair for Aedan, grinning, "--unless you wanna perch on the arm of mine?"
Maya ended up in line at one of the food trucks near a bakery truck where Iann and Collette were waiting. She gave them a wave and would've said hello, but it seemed like they were in the middle of some kind of awkward conversation.
Collette. 'Let's say, the milky cocktail I had once has put me off of mixing alcohol and dairy.' She took all of the handed over food. 'What awkwardness? I'm not being awkward.'
Essie crossed her arms and rested them on Bellas knees, head coming down to rest on top of them as well. "Maybe I'm waiting to learn the positions." she shoots back forgetting her company for a moment before turning her head into her arms with a blush. "Nevermind."
Aedan 'You want me to sit on the arm of your chair?' He looked at the wide arms and the drink that was resting on the seat Ephram had dragged over. 'Leave that one. I can sit on the arm. The deepness of the seat is hell on my ribs.'
"You're being awkward," Iann stated grouchily, then nodded his chin in hello towards Maya Parker when she waved. "Can we invite Maya Parker to talk with us or are you gonna run away again?"
'Jesus Christ, Iann.' Collette rolled her eyes. 'And here I was enjoying this evening.'
Bella looked at Aedan, thinking of his friend Jack's implication of Aedan and giggling to herself. "Don't tell your boss you're waiting to learn the positions, Ephram might pass that along. He's clearly in a gossiping mood himself. Tell us whose the worst at their job, Sheriff? It's Essie, yeah?" she joked.
Maya tilted her head at Collette's response, "So is that a no or...?"
"Yeah so was I," Iann said with a frown. "Don't put this on me." In a fit of rebellion, he brazenly addressed Maya. "Yo man, was that warning you got a doozy, huh? At least it was for me. The worlds I went to....hooboy. But we're all still standing in the end, hey?"
Essie moans unhappily into her arms. "Don't bella please." she whines already regretting speaking up, but the alcohol in her blood had demanded she say whatever came to mind. "I embarrass myself in my own time so well already."
Ephram grunted as he dropped into his seat, knocking out one of his empty bottles with little to no care. "You busted your ribs, too?" he said. "Dang, Aedan. That kraken ship did a number on you." He leaned back with his little collection of drinks arranged on the other arm of his chair not occupied by an Irish witch, and gave Bella and Essie a wide, loopy grin. "Essie," he said with a bit more solemnity, "is without a doubt my most valuable employee and no lie. Although Finn can be distracting when he's dressed up all jaunty. I keep wonderin' if his clothes come in a human 42 long so I can get a version for my own self."
Collette. kept her mouth shut, feeling trapped. 'I'm gonna take these over to Bellamy.' She knew she was running again but she had a real excuse this time. The desserts needed to be given to their owners.
Maya let out a huff of a laugh, "You can say that again. Wasn't particularly helpful either. I mean, /they/ being some super fucked up apocalypse situations? I needed a little more to get that that." She watched as Collette left, feeling a little guilty. She'd meant it as a joke, but it didn't seem to have landed that way. Probably because of whatever was going on between Iann and Collette before, but Maya hardly wanted to make Collette more uncomfortable.
Aedan hummed in agreement as he settled on the arm of the chair, holding his ribs with one hand and the jar with the other. 'It could've ended worse.' He sipped his drink as he listened to Ephram complimenting his coworkers.
"Oooooh, look at that, best employee even if you don't know the positions," Bella nudged her, picking up another cup of Sangria, her lips dyed a beautiful deep pink from her sips. "That's still not gossip though, who has called the department about something ridiculous."
Collette. returned to the group, offering Bellamy her cake. 'I think Iann's still waiting for the food.' She sat in her unoccupied (but somehow moved) seat, taking up her drink.
Bella was actually surprised to see Collette bringing her the food, mostly because Collette seemed to cling to Iann whenever Bella saw the two of them in the same environment and she wondered if Ciara had maybe arrived. "Thanks," she said. "Perhaps you have some gossip?" Bella tried.
Collette. 'Gossip?' She glanced around the group. 'I don't know... gossip.'
"Welll from what you described those cryptids you fell into weren't exactly feeling their best. They tried to do what they could," Iann said. He'd been unable to stop thinking about those cryptids, trapped in a pit, with no other recourse other than their imminent death and an attempt to warn the one person who'd get out of the pit alive. "Poor fuckers." Iann shook his head in some sympathy for their demise. "I looked up the town report, fortunately no one ended up dying. Injured sure..." he patted his own stomach, where he'd been injured in one of the worlds. He watched Collette flee, and for once Iann chose not to run after her. He was waiting for the food, anyway. "What're you gonna get? You can just share with me if you want."
Essie buried her head even further in her arms at Bellas words. "Bella please." she whines, Ephram is her BOSS this is so inappropriate. Her drink addled brain however responding to Ephram "Finn only wears scarves and jumpers, ain't no 42 long in it unless you're going commando." she thinks aloud before making a face at her own words. Good grief she was off again, embarrassing herself always.
"Not omnious at all," Bella said of the way Collette rolled off, taking a heavy sip that she almost spat up when how what Essie said came across very differently to her. Nose sangria over her jeans.
Maya nodded. "True and I'll give them it was absolutely better than nothing." She nodded again when Iann said that no one had died. It took some willpower for her not to touch her ribs as he patted his stomach. They still ached, but far less than they had in the immediate aftermath of the Victorian asylum. "I need a drink," she replied, gesturing towards the truck, "But I will totally steal some of your food."
Ephram gave a happy bark of a laugh, saying, "Lordy loo, we all got nekkidness on the mind today! First Aedan here informin' me bout them college boys screamin' Nudie Rudie afore runnin' down the halls starkers, and now you shootin' down my dreams of me and Finn wearin' matching outfits in public. Sigh, sigh." Ephram shook his head. "I'll have to save them outfits for when I'm at home with the mister." He lobbed his packet of cheese crackers gently into Collette's lap, saying, "You want these, birdie?"
Bella taking a bite of her cake she continued to giggle despite her mess. "Well I have some gossip, Essie and I were married in one of the places," Bellamy announced, also not thinking about phrasing.
Aedan 'You told me nudity was allowed in town? Or are you just tricking me into making a total tit of myself?'
Iann turned, pointing vaguely back to where the others were. "I think there's a makeshift bar there, and Bellamy's doling out sangria. It's delicious. But you have to wait for me to help me carry back all the food first, now that my co-pilot jumped ship." Iann paused. "Wait, that didn't make sense. Catch my drift."
Essie "I take it back?" she tries with a cringe sparing a small glance at the sheriff and then at the man she'd never been introduced to. "Lets pass nudity by /please/" her mind already swirling with 'positions' from earlier. Her innuendo counter going up by the second.
Collette. turned the pack over in her lap and wondered if Iann was bringing her her bbq or if she'd blown it. 'Thanks, Ephram.' She cracked a smile for him and wiggled the pack at him. 'I'll save them for my drunk feast.' She stood and went to get a refill of her glass.
Ephram scrunched his face at Aedan. "Maaaaaaybe. Oh, hey -- Aedan, this is Essie, she's the Civilian Admin down at the station. Essie, this is Aedan, he's very Irish." Ephram toasted them both with his stout and applied himself enthusiastically to drinking it. "Bella! What in the world sorter place was you in that you got hellscape married??"
Aedan waved at Essie and cast her a smile. 'Nice to meet you. I'm a - little - Irish.'
Ephram mumbled into his bottle obstinately, ".../very/ Irish."
Aedan poked his tongue out at Ephram.
"If you just give me a second, I'm just going to grab a beer from this truck. Then I can help you carry," Maya replied. While she enjoyed sangria, she wanted something a little less alcoholic today. She still wasn't sleeping very well and knew that being drunk wouldn't help. Of course, the day was still young after all. Someone in line behind her coughed and she realized it was her turn. "One sec," she said to Iann before ordering. Beer in hand, she returned to him and held out her arms for him to load up. It had been a long time since she'd been a waitress, but she was pretty sure she could still balance on her arms.
Essie lifts a hand in return turning around to rest her back on Bellas knees reaching for another cup of sangria. "You irish or not?" she asks more directly. "No very or little about it." She hums quietly.
"I'm a lil bit Irish," Ephram said, half to himself. "I'm a lil bit Scottish, a lil bit English ... a lil bit country, a lil bit rock 'n roll...."
Aedan 'Belfast. Druid. Catholic school and all. You judge my Irishness.' He gave her a broad grin.
Bella "One where we were being hunted by our in-laws for a ritual sacrifice, obviously," she grinned, sarcasm heavy with her final word. "We were very beautiful in wedding dresses though, everyone should be envious they didn't get to see us walking down the aisle. Essie especially because I wear wedding dresses for fun, for her it was much more unique."
Bella "Speaking of! You two must have learnt to dance in church, right? Ephram, Aedan? Essie said it was just her but I did in Church too, you guys had to also, yeah?"
Aedan 'Dancing was frowned upon in my church. Especially when we were all boys.'
Fortunately Iann's order comes at the same time, so he gathered the items and handed Maya the onion rings, then placed the burger gently on the crook of her arm. "Got it? I can carry the rest," Iann said, strolling them back to the group. He handed the milkshake over to Collette. "Hold that," he requested, before giving Bellamy her fries, and her burger. "There you go, Belle. And the onion rings we're sharing, Parker," he said to Maya. Iann then looked at Collette, lifting the ribs and the wings, one in each hand. "Choose but choose wisely, Cullie. The other one'll be for me."
Collette. obeyed more out of surprise than compliance. 'Wings, please. They have more meat on them.' She reached up to take the wings from him, handing his milkshake over. 'Thanks.'
Essie "hate to agree with the sheriff, but sounds very 'very' to me." She smiles a little taking another gulp of sangria "If I get married, I'm not wearing that big a dress, too hard to hard to run in, had to tear the skirt off. Don't think I could do that on a real wedding." She shakes her head piping in. "No no I said i didn't figure you lot would get the same 'traditional' dancing lessons in school, like every winter all the kids in school had to do scottish dancing."
Ephram shook his head. "Folks in the Fall learn dancin' from since we's knee-high to a mushroom," he said, the words rolling out of his mouth more soft-cornered with his thickening accent. "At plum near every family gatherin' we go to. We dance at church functions, but that ain't where we learn it." He reached over to pluck at Bellamy's wrist. "What sorter teachin' they gave you in church for dancin'? Both of you?" Ephram directed his question at Essie as well, when the fairy answered of her own accord. "Ahhhhh. We got square dancin' in school. But yeah, nothin' in church."
Aedan huffed a laugh behind his drink and rolled his eyes. They won. He was very Irish.
Maya waited a half second before replying. She had to be sure she had it before she answered. Then, with a semi-proud grin, she replied, "I still got it." At everything else she'd been a shit waitress, except this one small part. She then followed Iann to the table. She waited until Iann had removed the burger before even attempting to sit down. Only once it was safe did she take an open chair. "Thanks," she said to Iann before taking one of the onion rings. She listened to conversation, trying to pick up what they were talking about. Dancing, it seemed.
Aedan 'You get thrashed for talking about magic in my school. So no Harry Potter! And no dancing.'
Ephram belatedly worked through Essie's comment. "Hey!" he protested mildly, laughing. "Why /hate/ to agree with me? I'm a man you want to be allied with, Essie, believe you me. How could you disregard the bond of the golf bag so quickly."
Iann traded the basket of wings for his milkshake with Collette. "They're ahhh, sweet whiskey barbecue wings," he said to Collette, then motioned to Maya and said to her, "Hope you like barbecue ribs. You ever try a malted beer float? If that's an IPA then you'd be in for a treat."
Bella "You need to keep a ruler between you and anyone, don't need you dancing close," she teased Aedan before nodding at Ephram and frowning when he teased her, thankfully Iann and Maya had returned with her food and Bella happily took what she had requested. "We learnt dancing for when the church had socials. Besides, I went to private school, dancing was an elective, we didn't have Homecoming and stuff, just Prom, once and I didn't go so," Bellamy shrugged. She went to Proms at the public school but they did not dance formally.
Collette. fell silent again and sat back in her chair with her ribs and took up her 'Nude Nymph' drink.
"I'm never one to turn down good barbaque," Maya replied. She considered his second question and ended up shrugged, "Maybe, but not that I remember, so I guess I know what my next drink is."
Bella looked over at Collette who kept growing quite, "thanks for getting my food, guys." The statement to the three of them. "What about you, Collette, what happened in one of the strange places for you?"
Collette. 'I saw a nightmare version of Iann's ex.'
Essie never went to church, so she wouldn't be able to really comment on dancing lessons within them. Jumping a little when Ephram called her out blinking at him and awkwardly smiling back at him. "Sorry of course, the sacred golf bag."
Bella Of course, Iann. "He's got many, what a hoe," she joked, since Iann was far from it. "Probably all of them there, chasing you down, zombie-fied or something, yeah?" Bella tried to keep it light.
Ephram raised his eyebrows at Collette's comment, and broadly stated instead of engaging with it, "--although I still cain't waltz or nothin'. Most I can manage is a polka. Now why couldn't one'a them weirdscapes been about dancin'? That woulda been a sight to see."
Carefully, Iann traded some of the ribs with some of the onion rings, so that he and Maya and an even amount of both in their little containers. He removed the lid of his milkshake, taking a gulp before hearing Collette's statement and exclaiming, "Pah - ahaha, Tuah! She means Tuah. Only it wasn't...well obviously it was as Cullie said - the nightmare version of him. Real creepy stuff."
Ephram Iann's explanation that it was only Tuah cut through the potential for tension and Ephram relaxed back into his chair, tapping the lip of his bottle against his bottom teeth.
Collette. 'You say that. But it was a Tuah I knew. One who ruined my life for real. So no, not really a nightmare. Just a memory.'
Iann "Right, yeah. Of course. So not really a nightmare version, but more like the real actual version."
Ephram made a pinched expression. Hey there, tension.
Collette. slapped her legs and stood. 'I'm going to... get another drink.'
Maya 's brow furrowed. She only knew one version of Tuah and he wouldn't ruin anyone's life. But she knew that wasn't the only version of him. She didn't ask though. After all there was plenty about those pocket worlds she'd rather not talk about.
Essie busied herself drinking more of her sangria looking anywhere but at Iann and Collette.
"Wow," Bella shook her head, deciding Collette was not worth the effort she was putting in. "Whelp, Iann and I did fight zombies, and I was heroic and brave and he should basically consider me his knight in shimmering diamond encrusted armour, yeah?"
Iann "You literally --" But once again, Collette left. He turned to look at the others, confounded. "Didn't she call him a nightmare version of him? Or was I just imagining things? I was literally quoting her own words. Jeeeesus christ."
Iann nodded though, at Bellamy's boast because it was entirely accurate. "Bellamy kicked evil soldier zombie butt and it was great. She ploughed through them."
Collette. Maybe she was the idiot for going to a big old event when she clearly wasn't over the ship and the memories it had bought back. So she stayed by the makeshift bar so she didn't bum anyone else out.
Essie was dazed and is happy to accept the change of direction. "Bella is my hero."
Aedan sunk back in the arm of the chair, his arse turning numb from the weird shape of the wood.
Ephram leaned forward, seeing an opportunity for him to unload a thwack of unwanted advice open up like magic. "Cardero, man," he said, scrunching one eye shut, "the girl's clearly hung up on you for some godforsaken reason. Hell, she's pitched like eight fits in the last hour alone every time you so much as blink at someone other'n her."
"I thought you said she was different now?" Bellamy asked Iann, since this seemed the same Collette that had existed in that strange arthurian place. "She's obsessed with you, I mean she walked off for Essie?" Bella went to lean back in her seat and quickly realised she couldn't and sat back up. "I am very brave," she agreed of Iann's explaination of her and Essie's note too. "Continued adoration will go over well. Iann did his share, it just wasn't as cool as my share."
Iann blinked at Ephram, clearly offended at the fact that Pettaline was talking to him kindly. "We - okay but we talked about...never mind. Here. Take my food, and take my milkshake - it's good, it's malty." He donated his vittles to Pettaline, took a breath, and headed over to the bar where Collette had hidden herself. "Can I join you?"
Maya 's gaze followed Collette as she left. She thought about following her. But they didn't know each other well. She didn't know if Collette would rather be alone. She turned back to the table and took a sip of her beer. Maybe she would check in after a bit, give Collette some space. Once she returned her attention to the conversation, she took an even bigger gulp of her beer.
Ephram sat back again, pleased to have been gifted with free food for his efforts, and held the container around for if Aedan or Bellamy -- both of them adjacent to him -- wanted any.
Collette. turned to see Iann, her face scrunched up as if there was too much light. Or a bad smell. 'If you like.'
Aedan took a handful without looking, finding sticky ribs instead of something nice and dry. 'Gross.' He pulled a face and tried to eat the rib with one hand, drink between his legs.
"Well...yeah that's why I asked." Iann rubbed his face, leaning against a post as he looked at Collette. "What's going on. I know this isn't about me, so just talk to me instead of leaving me."
"She is obsessed," Bella agreed, taking the food from Ephram. "Whatever. I tried to be nice, now I'm done," which was Bella's usual thinking. She'd still try again, she always did, even with Ruby who trying again had happened like fifty times. "How about you, Sheriff, you practically lived in them, see anyone we'd know?"
Collette. 'There's-' She faltered, a rare thing with her. 'I made friends with the man I swore to kill if I saw him again. You loved him. He's nice now. But William is still un-avenged.'
Essie gets to her feet and dusts her ass off from sitting on the ground and nudges Bella "I'll sit and you can sit on my knee? My ass hurts." she asks knowing chairs were few and far between as the town started filtering into the place.
Ephram dug into the remaining ribs with gusto, propping the malted shake next to him on the seat. "Whuhuh?" he responded dumbly to Bella, before figuring out what she was asking and shaking his head. "Nope, I mostly only saw monsters. Oh! Except for this one world where it was jes like Soapberry, only everbody -- all the versions of you guys --" he gestured around at them with a rib bone, "--all had these weird lil talismans? Tokens? Lil items that was embedded in your foreheads."
"I love a lot of terrible people," Iann said, and leaned in. "Because I can indeed be a terrible person myself, remember?" he smiled softly, reminding her of their teasing conversation while they were dancing. As for the issue of this William, Iann asked. "Okay so...what's the best way you could think of to get your William avenged? Ideally, if you could do something to avenge him with no repercussions."
Maya held her tongue. She didn't know Collette well and she got the impression that no one save for Iann did. It was entirely possible that something else was going on with the nymph. It seemed like the table had already decided what they thought about it and she didn't feel it was her place to say anything. Instead, she picked up another onion ring and listened as Ephram talked about some pocket dimension he'd fallen in to.
Collette. 'I would've killed him the moment I knew. But I like Tuah. He's sweet. Nothing like the violent, cruel creature that sent William to his death.' Her fingers turned white around the glass she clung to. 'But there's nothing I can do. I won't kill Tuah. I like him. And-' She ran a hand through her hair. 'And I wouldn't hurt someone you loved.'
"So the only way to satisfactorily avenge William, is to kill Tuah, huh?" Iann said, tonguing the inside of his cheek as he gave this some thought.
Collette. 'Or I suppose... I could try find his remains. I never got to say goodbye.' Violence was always the first option. It was what she was born for. But if it was to protect Iann's heart, she would consider other options. Even if those couldn't ever work.
This had nothing to do with Iann's heart, honestly. But then Collette had a far more emotionally in-tune view of how these things worked than Iann did, who was trying to sort this out pragmatically. "Yeah, but that's not really avenging. What if you stuck him with your sword?"
Collette. 'If I stuck him with my sword, I would probably have an apoplectic seizure.' She turned quiet, her voice barely escaping her. 'I'm deathly afraid of vampires.' She never told anyone that.
"Oh my god, what was in my forehead?" Bellamy asked as she stood from where she sat, trying to hold all her food as she did and taking a seat on the ground because she would not get uncomfortable down there. "I hope it was pretty but I bet your going to say like a tooth or something creepy as hell."
Iann "Okay, so we'll work you past your fear of vampires first. But I don't understand. You made friends with him and you're also deathly afraid of him? How does that work?"
Ephram was pleased that somebody wanted to know what their talisman was. If there was one thing he'd complain about when it came to Soapberry denizens, it was what he considered to be a bewildering lack of curiosity. "Aaaap!" he beeped, sitting up a little more. "Well, sweetpea, you had this, like, flattened strawberry in your forehead. Only instead of a stem it had blond hair. That was where your hair grew up from, that foreheadberry."
Essie refills Bellas plastic cup with drink, saying a happy thanks before sitting down wiggling in the chair to get comfortable. She opens her mouth and makes a noise of confusion. "Her hair started at her forehead? How far down?" she wonders.
"Ew, it is weird and creepy, in my head it's like a strawberry sticker with gross hair stuck to it," Bella answered, touching her forehead with greasy fingers before bringing it down to her burger again. "What about Ess, what was hers?"
Culloden ‘I didn’t recognise him. After over two hundred years faces don’t stick so well.’
Iann "Ohhh I gotcha. Well, now that you know what he is, I guess you could meet him again. Get used to him first so you're not afraid of the idea of potentially killing him. And then once you believe you could stand to be near him and maybe even kill him, then we can figure out how to make your avenging work, hm?"
Ephram intoned spookily, "The berry thing was embedded right between her eyes, it was ... well, not a /bad/ look exactly, but not no magazine cover neither." He smiled at Bellamy, reaching over to thumb the greasy spot from her skin. "Essie had three tiny lil books all stacked on each other, like, comin' straight out of her head. They was clasped shut. I opened one and it was jes pictures of a monkey wearin' a safari hat, all the way through."
Bella chuckled, unsure what her talisman could mean and doubly unsure of what Essie's could. "Fortunately the only bad guy I saw was Valentin," she mused, giving a shrug. "None of you were baddies. I liked being tough though, so if you had been I would have taken you out." Bella did some fake karate moved as she held some of her burger.
Culloden ‘I really don’t know, Iann. But I’ll try it if I’m guided. I don’t have my sword anymore, though.’
Aedan. listened to Ephram and grimaced.
Maya turned to Aedan, "How was your trip to New York?" She'd heard some from Ruby, but was curious how his trip had been. Plus she had little desire to revel in any of the pocket universes she'd been in.
"Well does it have to be that particular sword, or - we got blacksmiths in town! We could make you a sword." Iann looked cheerful, despite the fact that this was ultimately leading up to some theoretical plan to destroy Tuah Arjuna. "To your exact specifications. Unless it needs to be like a Scottish blacksmith with Scottish steel made only in Scotland, or something."
Essie "What I grasp from that, you think Bella is fruity sweet, and you think my head is full of nothing good." she jokes. "Good to know." she says jutting her bottom lip out at her boss. Alcohol definitely getting to her usual reserved state around the sheriff. "What about your husband, He had to have been there right?"
"Who says monkeys aren't good?" Bella asked, raising a brow. "Freddie probably got something lovely and not at all giving him extra hair."
Aedan. ‘Oh! Yeah it was great. We did all the touristy shite. And stayed at the best hotel ever.’
Maya laughed, "Yeah I got to see some pictures of the hotel. And tell me you did some non-touristy shit too, just for my poor fake Native New Yorker heart."
Culloden ‘This is making me feel weird, Iann. We need to slow down on the ex-stabbing idea for tonight. Just, let me get drunk and we’ll talk about it in the morning.’
Essie "Reminds me of that classic tv thing of a monkey banging cymbals together like I have nothing better going on in my head." she explains with a laugh.
Aedan. ‘Is there anything non-touristy to do there? We did museums, shows and pub crawls.’
"Oh - ah - sure. Drinking," Iann said, unsure what to do or where to go at this point, so he just sort of hovered and looked around.
Culloden ‘You could do shots with me?’
Ephram tapped his chin with the lip of his bottle before realizing it was empty and swapping it for a full one. "Freddie was there, yeah. He had one'a them ... you know in the circus, the spinning plates? Where they got em on sticks? A full set of those except tiny, reachin' up to about a foot over his head and makin' the most God-awful sound." He grimaced at the memory, half-listening to Aedan's account of New York.
Maya almost spat out her drink as she laughed again. "In the entire city of New York? Yeah, there's lots of non-touristy shit to do. This is why I told Ruby she should talk to Carson. Although..." she tilted her head from side to side, "Apparently that was half a shit show so."
Aedan. couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction. ‘I had been working non stop. Touristy stuff was probably all I could think of at the time.’ Who was Carson? He couldn’t remember anyone mentioning someone by that name but he could’ve just forgotten, given his weird memory.
Iann "Ahhhhhhh, sure. I just - lemme just go - can we go get some more food? From the trucks? I should eat a bit more before shots, heh. Not as young as I used to be."
Culloden ‘I’ll buy the shots if you go get the food.’ Now she had her bank card, she had no worries about bumming money from anyone.
Iann "Gotcha. You want anything else to eat?"
Culloden ‘Nope, thank you. I’m good.’
Maya nodded, "Fair enough. And admittedly, we do have the best tourist shit in the world." She didn't explain who Carson was. It wasn't important in her mind, at least not to anyone but her. "But I'm glad you had a good time. It was the first home I remember," she added.
Bella "What did Freddie think of that?"
"Of the plates? Gosh, I dunno. Clean slipped my mind to tell anyone about that crazyplace once I got out. This is the first time I'm even thinkin' on it again, heh." Ephram thwapped Bellamy's arm lightly, turning in his chair a little so his shoulder was set against Aedan's hip and butt comfortably. "So, wedding dresses, huh? Did they meet your exacting fashionable standards?"
Bella "It was alright, not what I would have picked, nightmare would have been if it was like rayon or something," she shuddered. "Ess hated hers though."
Iann headed off to get more food - fortunately this time things were ready, so Iann just got whatever seemed to be easiest to buy and receive, with little preparation. Pre-packed sandwiches, of which Iann got something like a fancy ham and swiss. He returned to Collette's side.
Aedan. ‘Well If you ever want to go there, I can get you a great deal on the hotel I stayed in.’ He glanced down at Ephram and back to Maya. ‘What was it like living there?’
Culloden bought four unidentifiable shots for each of them and smiled when Iann came back. Her good mood seemed to be returning.
"If I ever go back, I'll probably just say with friends. I doubt I could afford that hotel. Thanks though," Maya replied, "I loved it. You know, there was always something going on and I could always find a corner of the city where no one knew who I was."
Iann consumed the sandwich first, then took each of the shots and sniffed at them. "Here, take one of mine. You can hold your liquor better than me."
Culloden ‘I doubt it. This one’s called ‘nymph blaster’.’ She raised one to her lips. ‘Ready?’
Aedan. ‘Fair enough. I’d never have afforded it if I actually had to pay.’ He beamed at her. ‘It sounds great. But I found most cities are like that.’
Iann laughed, pleased that at least the booze catered to all the species. "Ready. All four in a row. Go!" Iann tossed back two of them, and tossed the other two over his shoulder, while Collette finished hers. If she caught him then he'd confess, but he was just being playful anyway.
"Well, you totally have to take advantage of that," Maya agreed, "That's probably true, but I'll always think New York is the best one. Moving there saved my life."
Culloden chugged down each shot until she was swaying a little. They were super strong for nymphs. ‘I win!’
"You win," Iann grinned, leaning against the makeshift counter. "But what's the prize?"
Aedan. ‘Its great to feel like that about a place.’
Culloden ‘What we always do! Winner dares the loser.’ She had a cheeky grin on her face, cheeks red from the alcohol. ‘You’ve got to kiss everyone in that group!’ She pointed to their friends.
Maya meant it literally. Moving to New York had saved her life. She couldn't imagine she would've lasted staying in Salem. She smiled, "Yeah, it was nice." After a sip, she added, "Course I love it here too. It's way different, but I think I needed something different."
Aedan. ‘New York is a phase, Soapberry is a home?’
Iann laughed even louder, and clapped his hands once, then pointed at Collette. "You sneaky little minx! You're on." He offered Collette his arm, and headed back to the group. "I have an announcement, people. I lost a bet and Cullie here has given me a dare - kisses for the lot of you." He held out his hand to Maya for her hand, and says to the young witch. "So before she tries to pull any 11th hour specificity, hand it over, Parker. Pun intended."
Ephram eyed Iann making good on the bet he lost, and moved on to the next drink in his line of them.
Essie waves her hands at them "What kid of bet is that!?"
Maya shook her head. "New York was home. I didn't I'd ever leave," she explained, "I wouldn't have left if not for the asshole who came after me. But I'm not the same person I was in New York..." She was about to say more when Iann interrupted. Laughing, she gave him her hand and added, "Almost like we're back in that fucking medieval fantasy world."
"Ha, something like that," Iann said, delivering a brief peck on Maya's knuckles before he released her hand. He leaned close to Essie - she was so small, all he needed to do was bump his face gently and quickly against her hair, and he made a loud 'MWAH" noise as he did it. Bellamy, he peppered with many kisses on her round little face. Ephram, Iann covered his hand over Pettaline's mouth, and did the same 'MWAH' smacking noise. "Tell Confetti about that one, he's gonna die he missed it," Iann said with a grin. When he got to Aedan, Iann mocked a wistful, needful sigh, then made a silly show of pretending to gobble at Aedan's face, like a vaudeville act of making out without actually touching.
Ephram snorted, pawing at his tickly face after Iann had removed his hand and moved on. "You tell 'im," he said with genial obstinateness. "He'll find it even cuter comin' from you." Ephram rearranged himself, raising one arm to make sure he didn't topple Aedan off the arm of his chair. "You doin' awright there, Wee Deer?" he asked. "Ribs and all feelin' okay?"
Bella pulled back, not wanting to be involved in anything that woman was involved in. "Or you could just rejoin us," she commented, unamused by the antics, of the impression Collette should apologise to every person who had tried to spend time with Iann and if she still wouldn't let him return now then she should be abandoned. Evident from her frown of an expression as she returned to her food.
Aedan. ‘My ribs are okay, but I’m not sure what Iann just did to my face!’ Aedan laughed at his ridiculousness.
Essie covered her drink flushed face when Iann caught her head. What an awkward thing to wish upon an entire group of people, but it wasn't so bad she supposed for the people he knew an awful lot better. She fiddles with Bellamys hair as the vampire is sat in front of her once it's all over.
Culloden watched with amusement, knowing he’d never go full on kisses. That hadn’t been why she asked anyway. But he always managed to make the weirdest dares fun to watch.
Bella chewed happily as Essie played with her hair. "I wish this had rides, can any of you magic us some like teacups or something?" Bella asked the three witches and the fae around her. Aedan was good at building things, so maybe.
Maya watched, amused as Iann took turns kissing, kind of, everyone at the table. She stretched a little, feeling the ache in her own ribs as Ephram asked about Aedan's. Shaking her head at Bella's question, she replied, "Not my area of expertise."
Ephram snorted, leaving his arm slung behind Aedan's hips with his hand dangling off the side of the chair. "Well, iffen you feel like shifting jes let me know. Cain't help you when it comes to coping with Cardero, though -- that there's a town-wide dilemma." He rolled his head to contemplate Bellamy's question, patting Aedan's thigh. "You figure your magic's up to it, Wee Deer? I don't mind lendin' some magic if you wanna make a design."
Bella began to pout as Maya said no before her face perked up tat Ephram and Aedan might be able to. "Yes, yes, yes!" she requested with excitement, gravy on her lips.
Aedan. ‘I can steal someone else’s teacups with my magic. Transport them here. Or make some out of... nature shite.’
Ephram laughed, sitting up and then shoving himself to his feet with a creaky groan. "No, no stealing. Let's go the nature shite route, huh? I'm good with that sorter thing."
Essie felt bad all she could add was "I can only make em look pretty."
Aedan. ‘Help me up, then. I’ll do the... thing.’ He wiggled his good fingers.
"Nature," Bella agreed firmly, quite happy for a flower looking teacup if at all possible. "Go help keep it pretty then!" she rushed Essie on, Maya too if the woman felt that was within her wheel house. It was nice to see them all working together, that was what had helped with the rifts after all.
Ephram stretched out his lower back and winked at Essie. "Makin' em pretty is the most important finishing touch," he said, then hoisted Aedan upright from the chair. "Awright, Irish. Design us a ride for the delectation of our friends."
‘Oh god the pressure is on.’ Aedan was finally up with Ephrams help and he stepped out of the tent into a clearing. Wounded as he was,
Maya finished off the last of her drink. It wasn't that she had no desire to help with creating some sort of ride, she simply had no skills to help. Her magic tended more towards emotional and mental effects. She nodded and agreed, "Making it pretty is the most important part." She stood then and added, "I'll be right back I'm going to investigate those IPA milkshakes Iann mentioned."
Aedan. and given the season, his magic appeared as orange and gold leaves. He used one hand, his injured one holding his ribs as the ground around the clearing shifted and woody plant looking vines started to burst from the wet soil.
Essie pushes herself out of the chair and bites her lip following the man out from under the rain cover the town were converged under. Watching the witch do his thing curiously.
Ephram murmured something unintelligible and stepped up next to Aedan's injured side, using his own body to bolster the other man as if they were horses standing in a field. Once he was sure Aedan was doing okay, he lifted his own hand, fingers curled in, tilting his thumb up and down as tendrils of silvery green shimmered their way into the vines to lend their own energy to the magic work.
Aedan. Their combined spellpower made the spell work faster and more efficiently, the vines curling up into shapes beyond aedan’s own comprehension. And soon enough something that looked like a naturally occuring funfair ride was waiting for them.
Ephram kept his magic funnelling steadily into the ride until Aedan signed off on it, letting his hand drop and surveying their work with satisfaction. "Well now!" he declared. "That looks like a right nice lil ride, for havin' sprung into existence all but five seconds ago. Essie, you wanna tie a bow on it all nice and pretty-like?"
Essie pauses for a moment before walking forward, hand on one of the bowls for sitting in she rubs her hands together and lets her plum coloured dust float into it. It's texture changing to cushy fabric on the inside. Running her hand on the outside it seemed to start to shine dully, like little lights were embedded within the vines.
Maya returned shortly later with an IPA milkshake. She gave the new ride a once over before saying, "Impressive."
Bella stood as everything came together, her finished food abandoned but not her sangria that she grabbed quickly as she moved closer to the display. "Aww, you guys," she gushed, giving each of them a quick squeeze as a thank you for fulfilling her rather ridiculous request. "It looks so amazing!"
Ephram applauded as the whole ride lit up, then stuck two fingers in his mouth and gave an obnoxiously loud whistle of approval. The sound drew attention from many of the other attendees, who started to filter over to exclaim over the ride, some of them already climbing into the bowls.
Ephram looked startled that he'd managed to call people over, squeezing Bellamy back as he watched them surround the ride. "Best hustle on in there afore you have to wait your turn, sweetpea," he said, giving her backside a friendly swat.
Aedan. beamed with pride at the team effort, before he sat himself down in a nearby chair.
Ephram caught sight of Maya with her milkshake and suddenly recalled the one that Iann had given him, loping back to his chair to collect it with a sigh of relief, as if it would have been stolen in his brief absence. "You want some?" he offered Aedan, rejoining the other witch. "Mmmm, malty. D'you have malted milkshakes in Ireland?" Ephram was thunderstruck by the possibility of the answer being no. "D'you have /milkshakes/ in Ireland?"
Essie stands back with a pleased smile as it lit up just how she'd imagined, nothing over the top, just some good old fashioned shine. Maybe she /was/getting better at this glamour thing. She stooped to help a small child into one of the open spaces as people filtered over to get into the new ride.
Maya stepped out of the way to let a few kids run up to the ride. She took a sip of her milkshake, rolling it on her tongue. "This is good, Iann," she said, "Good suggestion."
Bella "None of you are going to join? Really?" she frowned at them before she stepped up onto the ride. She was fine to go on without them but was admittedly disappointed.
Ephram shook his head at Bellamy's question, glancing down at himself. "Naw," he demurred. "Big as I am I'd probly crush the poor lil thing. Take Essie on with you!"
Aedan. ‘We have milkshakes. But I have no idea what a malted milkshake even is.’
Bella rolled her eyes, why even make it if they weren't going to have fun /with/ her? "Fine," she stated simply, holding her hand out in the hopes at least Essie would join.
Essie was smiling at the people piling into the cups of the ride when a hand appeared in front of her and the blinks back to reality. With a smile she takes it "Pick a cup~"
Ephram flushed a little bit at Bellamy's clear annoyance, but it wasn't enough to make him attempt to climb into one of those teacups and have it crumple under the size of him. "Anyhow," he said to the air in general, and then sucked on his milkshake.
Aedan. ‘So, are you going to give me a taste of your magical malt milkshake?’
Ephram startled a little out of his brown mood, giving Aedan a relieved sort of grin and holding out the cup. "Taste it first and if you like it I'll give you the rest," he said, lapsing into older brother/cousin mode.
Essie couldn't ride for very long before she got dizzy, spreading her wings to be lifted out without having to stop the ride, landing and sitting heavily on the grass watching the thing go still.
Aedan. ‘I don’t want all of it,’ he said as he stifled a chuckle. He gave a small slurp and frowned a little. Then tried it again. ‘Mhm, okay. I like it. That’s really nice.’
Maya sat down next to Essie. "Hey," she said, "How've you been?"
Essie smiles at Maya "Bit dizzy right this second but I'm trying my best. You?"
Maya shrugged, "I'm alright. Can't complain too much."
Ephram handed over the milkshake properly and nudged against Aedan's leg as he lowered himself to the grass, letting the back of his head rest against the arm of the chair. "New York's where I asked Freddie to git married," he said after a moment or two, flashing a smile up at Aedan.
Essie laughs a little "I mean I feel at this point we're all allowed a little bit of complaining right? Now it's all done and we gotta deal with it all."
Iann returned from the washrooms (as humans were known to frequent) and whistled at the sight of the pretty ride that seemed to spontaneously appear. "Holy shit," he marveled. Ah, Soapberry. Despite the horrors, it still had its charm, at least to him. He belatedly registered Maya's feedback on the milkshake and he grinned. "Oh really? I know I suggested it but I never actually tried it myself. Can I...uh...?" he motioned to her cup. "I don't got kooties."
Maya overhead Ephram telling Aedan that he'd asked Freddie to marry him in New York. She didn't quite understand why he wouldn't have mentioned that earlier when she had been talking to Aedan about New York. She didn't dwell on it for more than a few seconds though. Instead, she shrugged to Essie, "Probably. But I figure I shouldn't complain to people who all went through the same thing." Especially someone like Essie who'd seen her in that grocery store. Glancing up at Iann, she gave him a smile, "For sure." She held out the milkshake for him to taste.
Aedan 'Thanks.' He sipped his new drink and listened to Ephram. 'That's cute. Shame you didn't marry after I came to town. I could've got you a discount at some nice places.'
Collette. hung about the bar, talking to the bartender and accepting the free drinks.
Ephram snickered. "Ahhhhh it's fine. Freddie's a fairy and he's got fingers in jes about every high-society pie that exists in ... well, everywhere, so far as I can tell." He lifted one knee, folding his hands around his kneecap. "Or at least that's how it seems to me. But I never been nowhere before I moved to Soapberry so it's all new." He hadn't brought it up earlier since he didn't want to interrupt Aedan's and Maya's conversation and Bellamy had been talking to him, was all.
'He does seem the type to know everyone. I don't think he likes me much, though.' Aedan huffed a laugh. 'But you can find contacts everywhere if you look for them hard enough.'
Essie shrugs at Maya. Whatever the other proffered. Some liked to speak about things, and some liked to process alone. She was more on the processing alone side, but she'd lend an ear where she could. Curling her legs to her chest and rests her chin on them just listening.
Iann opened the lid up and sampled it the milkshake. "Wow, this is incredible. Thanks for that," he said handing it back to Maya first, then headed over to Collette. "You say booze and dairy don't mix? I want you to try something with me."
"Of course," Maya replied as she took the milkshake back. Turning back to Essie, she said, "I'm alright though. Really." Of course, she then took a moment to stretch out her back and a flash of ache went across her face.
Collette. 'Hm?' She glanced at Iann and raised her brows at him. 'Fine. But if we are all unwell later, I know who to blame.' She gave him a grin.
Back to the food trucks, where Iann found the one offering the IPA ice cream floats. He got one vanilla and one coffee just for shits and giggles. "Give the vanilla one whipped cream and sprinkles? And the cherry!" Iann requested from the food truck person, who complied, handing it to Collette.
Ephram nodded, a look of pride crossing his face as he thought about his travels with Freddie and how deft his fairy was at navigating a world that Ephram found baffling and overwhelming, for all that he was eager to see it. "Oh, Freddie and I have surprisingly few friends in common," Ephram murmured, figuring there was no point trying to claim that no, honestly, Freddie /did/ like the Irish witch and they just 'needed to hang out more' or any such thing. If the two of them ever came around, then great; if they didn't, then oh well.
'I don't mind. As long as we get to stay friends.' Aedan petted Ephram's hair with his bandaged hand.
Collette. followed Iann out and watched him order her drink. When she took the drink, she looked down at it with wonder. She knew it was going to make her sick later. But god did it look tasty.
Iann took the coffee one, and sampled it. "Oh god really? Brainfreeze already?" he said, because he's gulped down the ice cream a little too fast.
Collette. giggled at the sight of Iann's face twisting with brain freeze. 'Okay. Let me try mimic you.' She took a mouthful of her's and winced. 'Gah.'
Essie bites her lip and points at Mayas face "That's not the face of alright you know that?"
Maya gave a half laugh. "Not my first bruised ribs, I'm fine," she explained. She took another sip of her drink. "Did you want to try this too or nah?" she asked.
Ephram leaned a little bit into Aedan's petting, always pleased when people he was being friendly with returned the physical shows of affection that he himself was prone to displaying. "Irish," he said contemplatively, "d'you think that livin' here, in Soapberry, we git too accustomed to strange shit happenin'? Or is it just that the nature of the shit is particularly strange here, and if we lived in the regular world we'd have the same coping patterns anyhow?"
Essie gave the girl a look. "I can try my hand at healin?" she offers shaking her head at the offer of the milkshake, holding up her never ending refills of sangria, already starting to sway a little even seated from how much she'd been having.
Maya weighed that in her head for a moment. "Not to be a complete asshole, but when you say try your hand, how likely is it to make it worse?"
Aedan 'I've not been here long enough to be changed. I've been meeting ghosts for years and magic would always exist.'
Iann "Show off, you don't get brainfreeze huh," he said, grumbling but with humour. He took another drink, pleased this time. "That's delicious."
Collette. 'I do! Just not as bad as you do, it seems.' She beamed at him as she continued to consume her float.
Iann "C'mon, lets go back and join the others, unless you don't want to, then I guess we can just chill here?"
Collette. 'We can hang out with the others. I don't want you missing out for my sake.'
Essie looked a tiny bit offended. "Worst that can happen is nothing happens." she argues lightly. "Never made anything worse before, never."
Any concern in Maya's expression immediately disappeared. "Oh then totally go for it, I'll try whatever," she added.
Essie shuffles closer, letting her knees move as she reaches out, placing her hands on mayas sides she closes her eyes. "If you can guide my hands to where it hurts most I can try my best to ease it." she suggests
Ephram gave a quiet humph. "Now that you mention it," he said wryly, "reckon growin' up with a demon as a roommate sorter rules out any notion that I had a normal life before Soapberry anyhow."
'We were messed up before we came here.' Aedan huffed a laugh and continued to pet Ephram.
Ephram wriggled his shoulder against Aedan's leg to find the most comfortable spot, careful not to jar the other witch's hand. He watched Essie and Maya, saying, "I guess she got her ribs stove in too."
Aedan 'Mmhm, mine was from the boat whipping about in the water.'
"It's really just my ribs," Maya replied. At the very least that was all that Essie could help with. Her difficulty sleeping hadn't even been helped by her own magic. "Just, uh, got for it, I guess," she said, trying not to let her slight discomfort show in her face. Essie wanted to help. And Maya was trying to be better about letting people help her.
Essie found it took a lot more concentration than it usually did but soon enough she felt her hands shifting easing the bruising slowly. Eyes still closed until she felt she had done. Withdrawing her hands she opens her eyes looking at Maya curiously "Did I get it all?" it was always a little harder on other people, as it was hard to tell points of pain when you couldn't feel them yourself.
Maya never really liked the feeling of being magically healed. Her insides always felt like someone was tugging the tender edges together. Or yanking them together at the worst. All things considered though, probably thanks to the healing that had already taken place, this wasn't bad. She let out a breath and stretched again. The pain and ache was gone, save for the last faded echoes. By tomorrow morning, those would likely be gone too. "Yeah, thanks," she said with a smile.
"D'you really not wanna be healed with magic?" Ephram tilted his head a little into Aedan's softly petting hand. "I got whanged up all to shit in them loony rift holes but Freddie healed me up every night. Fairy dust's great that way -- gosh Essie's is a pretty colour, ain't it?"
Aedan 'I'm fine. If it gets too bad, then I'll ask. Deal?'
Ephram settled in place. "Deal."
Essie smiles at Maya, much happier to know she'd done something alright, lifting the final dregs of sangria Essie hums and looks around for another drink. Now particularly wanting to have something strong, something to shoot. "Want some shots of something?" she asks as a whole to the group.
Maya nodded, "Yeah, I'll take a shot."
Ephram perked up, or at least he stopped drowsing for a moment. "Sure do!" he said to Essie. "Whatever you're gettin', I ain't picky, thank you, Essie."
Aedan 'I'll have shots, if you're offering.'
Essie smiles and flutters to her feet. Not trusting her balance all that well to struggle to her feet normally. Off to the bar she passes by Colette and Iann, giving them a beaming smile as she leans over to order shots. Her mood picking up further when the person on the other side of the table starts offering fancy things. she goes a little mad ordering laughing to herself at each choice.
Ephram watched Essie with a faintly amused smile. "Maybe somebody ought to've gone with her."
Maya had to smile too as Essie started gathering fancy shots. She shrugged though, "Eh, she's having fun."
Ephram "She's very talented, isn't she? With her dust and all. I'm glad she came to work at the station -- we need somebody with her sorter gumption and git-go."
Maya nodded, taking a sip of her milkshake. "Yeah, she is," she agreed. She had been a little nervous when she'd realized who Iann was sitting with earlier. But so far no one had asked her about the grocery store incident. It help her relax. She was tempted to say that Ruby had plenty of gumption and get-go too, but decided against it. Even in her own head, it sounded too much like suggesting competition between the two women. She wasn't, of course, but because of Danny she thought better to avoid it altogether. "And I'm sure I'll be thanking her tomorrow when my ribs aren't stiff as shit."
Essie unfolded a napkin at the makeshift bar and sprinkles dome dust on it to make it rigid enough to be a tray of sorts. Collecting her shots she heads back to them unable to stifle her laugh as she settles the red napkin in the middle of them. "So the guy was really damn nice-" she says not realizing at all she'd been being flirted with back there. "-and I have an 'Irish car bomb' because I couldn't resist, a 'honey dew me', a 'Passed out naked on the bathroom floor', and a 'hot damn'." she presents looking back at Iann and Collette wondering belatedly if she'd have picked them something too.
Ephram sat up more, reaching out for the last of Essie's shots. "Well hot damn!" he declared with a grin, and threw the drink back, only to instantly wheeze and start panting, his eyes watering. "hot ... hot fuckin' damn. oh shit."
"I'll take the Naked one," Maya replied. She tipped it back easily. The alcohol burned its way down her throat. "Yep, that's going to be all my drinking for today," she said after a hard blink," Except for finishing this milkshake obviously."
Essie lets her knees hit the grass by the sheriffs side and clap him on the back a few times trying to help him out. "Too much?" she says worriedly looking over at Maya too.
Maya shook her head with an amused smile, "Nah, I'm just pacing myself today."
Ephram continued to wheeze, thankful for the claps on the back and indicating that Essie should continue. He twisted up clumps of grass from the ground and started chewing on the blades like a bothered sheep, swishing the green mush around his mouth for a while before sighing in relief and then leaning heavily into Essie with a laugh. "Lil monkey," he chided her, more chuckling at his own predicament for rushing for that shot than anything. "Ahhh, it's my own dang fault, I shoulda asked you what was in em before grabbin'!"
Essie hums in acknowledgement of Maya taking it slow still thumping her small hand onto Ephrams back. Making a face when he rips up some grass to eat. "Not a fan of hot sauce huh?" huffing a small breath at being called something like a monkey for the second time that day. She reaches for the irish car bomb and downs it as she's leaned into.
Ephram shook his head. "Never did git used to the stuff," he said. "What, don't tell me you's one'a them folks what orders up the ghost pepper death-hot wings at restaurants for fun?" Ephram swallowed the chewed grass and stole back what was left of the milkshake he'd given Aedan, sucking it down till the straw rattled.
Maya 's phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out to read the text. "I gotta go see a man about a horse, but you guys have fun yeah?" she said as she stood, "And Essie shoot me a text about when you're free for wine club."
Aedan remained a little disturbed by the car bomb shot but it was alcohol so dammit. He reached out for the second Irish one and downed it with a hiss.
Aedan made a strained noise and waved goodbye at Maya.
Ephram waved at Maya as she left, patting Aedan's foot at his strangled sound. "Wine club, huh?" he raised impressed eyebrows at Essie. "Sounds awful fancy, Ms. Caird."
Essie "Of course I do. Why would you do it not for fun?" she shoots back, a lot more comfortable than she would be usually if left with her boss and basically a stranger, she blamed the alcohol. She raises a happy hand to Maya as she heads out. "Oh uh...it's not that fancy I swear. And it's also not really a real club either." taking note that perhaps her shot choices had been a little too strong for the others, duly noted.
Ephram chortled. "You're way braver than me. I cain't even hardly eat buffalo wings without a couple gallons of milk on hand." He ran a hand through his hair, rumpling it even though he'd been intending to straighten it. "No way. It ain't possible to have a wine club and not have it be fancy. I mean ... /wine/." Ephram leaned heavily on the word, giving it great import, then added a little tipsily, "...I usually drink mine with the husband in the bathtub, though. So I reckon that don't count as fancy."
Essie "Don't think it's necessarily braver, maybe just uh...more adventurous? I still cry when it gets too hot like everyone else." she admits easily. "But that doesn't mean stop eating." shooting Aedan a small shrug when she caught his eye, maybe he could weight in. At the personal reference Essie bites her lip and speaks slowly. "That's very sweet. It's a lovely thought." this was where Essie usually put her foot in her mouth but she managed to stop the clarifying words leaving her mouth, it'd make things awkward best just try it out as is.
Ephram smiled at the memory, closing his eyes for a moment, and then got up to his feet. "I best git me some food afore I doze off from the liquor," he announced. "Be back in a tick, awright?"
[ chatzy with @alessafalling, @ephrampettaline, @mayaparker, @rydenbolt, @scarlettxruby, and @thatwhichbindsus ]
A sunken grocery store. Somebody’s first time, another person’s trip back to the town. Six bloods spilled and six bloods combined.
The air had been strange lately, cool and damp like standing by the coal had been. The earth, unforgiving and unwelcoming. Roots weren’t growing, new leaves weren’t budding. There was a corruption slowly settling in like an oil slick over the lake, and Ciara had no idea whether it was that a ley nearby had been drained, or if something more deadly was setting in, or if someone had just cursed her with a sense of malaise. The two gitturns that she’d adopted were settled in the little pouch she’d bought them, so she could keep an eye on them and they could be exposed to the world a little. The vet had said to be careful with them, but that they could cope with this now. Their fur was thickening out and three days ago the white one had opened its eyes. So she took them to the grocery store with her, filled up her trolley with fresh meats for them and fresh veg for her.
Ciara had almost forgotten her ill ease as she idly pet the dark one, when the fluorescent lights of the store went out. Ciara looked up, and saw only dark blue, and looked around as the shelves dissipated into wrought iron stalls, and the bright plastic wrappers of foods vanished, leaving only old, emptied cans. The light was weak and flickering, and the floor creaked and swayed.
Swayed?
There was a layer of water on the floor, slimy and thick, and the floor wasn’t on the ground at all. In fact, there was no ground at all, none for miles. Ciara stepped out of the abandoned, torn up grocery store, and looked up. Up. Up. Glass for a ceiling, with cracks. Above it, at first she thought was the night sky, until a shadow passed overhead, large, long, with a strong tail. A whale. Ciara looked to the side and there were windows there too, and beyond them kelp growing in all directions, illuminated by the light of a dozen underwater skyscrapers. In the windows, she could see shadows moving.
Maya wasn't having a great time. Sleep had pretty well escaped her for the last few nights. Between the mysterious warning that she hadn't quite managed to scrub out of her skin and the couple of things she was already trying to stay on top of, she felt the stress weighting heavily on her shoulders. But she still had to go about her day. Today found her in the grocery store, buying her things for the week. A few more comfort foods than usual were in her cart. She stopped in the middle of the aisle as something strange started to happen. "What the fuck?" Maya asked herself as a layer of water soaked the floor and her shoes. She looked around to see that was not the only thing that had changed. "Is this what you meant by they're coming?" she shouted to no one in particular, "Because I think you could've been a bit more specific."
“Maya?” Ciara called as she spun, reaching into some new, empty ley she could just about feel. Just in case it wasn’t Maya. “Who’s coming?” The little gitturns tittered and trembled against her hand, and Ciara pulled their pouch closer, just in case. Just in case. She was already breathing a little faster, this canned air that didn’t move or didn’t cycle, just creaked. She spotted the other witch with some small relief. Someone to survive this new hell with. Which was good. Someone was coming from a distant tunnel, their feet splashing in water puddles, and their giggles echoing off iron walls. “Can you fight? If we have to?”
Maya turned as she heard someone call her name. "They," she called back, "Because apparently being fucking specific isn't cool anymore." She saw Ciara just after the other witch saw her. Despite not knowing Ciara well, Maya breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't completely alone. She nodded, "Yeah, I can fight." After a pause she added, "Course I was sort of hoping I wouldn't have to on my trip to the grocery store."
Ephram had been ranging around the town nonstop since the rat king at the decrepit bakery, and then the octo-beast at the dilapidated bowling alley. He found that after having encountered Essie's dust and so much of the mold in the course of duty, and then those two ugly versions of Soapberry places, he could feel his magic itching through him to lead him towards new pocket-worlds that were opening. So the grocery had been his new destination -- but even expecting something bizarre to happen didn't prepare him for being suddenly in an underwater abanadoned supermarket. The familiar voices, at least, were something that held constant. "I'm here too," Ephram called, hefting the golf bag he'd replenished after the bowling alley incident. "Is it only you two so far?" he asked Ciara and Maya, trotting up to stop next to them.
“Did you get a message about th- oh, the mould?” Ciara guessed, although she truly had no idea. “Likewise, but I guess we can’t trust this town at all. Hopefully we just have to find a way out... of here.” It was creaking again. Had Ciara mentioned she hated the creaking? “Ephram? There’s a ley here, you should connect to it,” she said, slipping into a teacher role where she hadn’t for Maya. “Just us. But someone’s coming.”
Ruby had been at the other end of the shopping center - having just finished up taking the statements of a naga couple that had just come from some mad max death race pocket, but seemed to be mostly alright now - and was headed into the store to grab something for lunch when things started to change. At first she thought she was imagining it. The doors slid shut behind her with their usual hissing sound, and she moved to grab a small basket when it cracked beneath her grip, dryrotted. Which was unusual considering the layer of water beneath her boots. She huffed a sharp breath through her nose, spinning around to face the glass doors of the store as the air suddenly became... less. It was tighter, more metallic. And the saltwater ooze of everything else made her cover her nose. "What the fuck..."
The Splicer giggled. “I can heaaaar you. Little rats digging through scraps, but they’re all gone, all gone now!” His sing song voice echoed in the large chambers, although he hardly had enough sentience left to consider himself a he. “You’ll make a fine roast and I can smell the good stuff on you. It’s mine, you hear me? MINE! Ohohoh Im going to be sooo happy when I find you!”
Ephram shook his head when Ciara mentioned a ley line. "From what I seen of these black mold creepy places, I don't reckon I'd wanna try connecting to anythang here," he said, looking around and stepping a little closer to a shelf at the thought of all the water pressure outside of the market. "Do youn's have your magic? Mine works okay. Works fair good against them beasties that seem to be lurking--" He stopped talking when The Splicer's voice started up, echoing even more unsettlingly because of the water surrounding them, and set the golf bag down between them. "By the way? I got weapons."
Maya nodded, "Yeah, I did. Sorry, I got a bit...distracted by some other stuff." She turned again as someone else approached. Her shoulders tensed, ready for a fight if it came to that. She relaxed a little when she realized it was only Ephram. She nodded in agreement with Ciara. "Yeah, just the three of us..." she was about to add so far when two voices interrupted. The first was one she recognized. Ruby. she thought. The second was decidedly foreign. "Yeah, um my dude I am super not delicious. Meat's way too tough on this one," she shouted, fully knowing that it would help whoever that was find them.
What was it with these fucking underwater scenarios?? If Ruby was afraid of one real-world thing, it was being trapped underwater and drowning. The voice that came next raised the hair on the back of Ruby's neck. A low growl rolled in her chest. She didn't know the others were there yet, so she didn't know the message was meant for all of them. It temporarily pushed fear of the water from her head. "You might rethink that once you do." She said of being found.
Though the slight tremor in her voice said otherwise.
”Ooh, a player!” The splicer replied, spinning to the sound of Ruby’s voice, sprinting in her direction with a loose limbed ferocity. The hunt was on, and the splicer was so, so hungry. Everyone walking around here was an empty husk, but not her, not her! “Lay down your bets because you’re going to be mineeee!” He spotted her, pale and dark haired and pretty as a picture, and oh, he was going to fix that.
Essie knew the feeling as soon as she landed in one of these other pocket worlds. Her third one she hunkers down for a moment. Voices down a tunnel to her right, and one echoing over everything. Not wanting to be alone she hopes with all her might the people down to her right were people she knew, or at the very least friendly. She runs down the tunnel and finds a crowd of people, almost running right into the back of Maya. Her hands reaching out to steady herself. Eyes shifting over the crowd she spotted Ephram and his golf bag. What a life she lead that a golf bag was what comforted her the most.
Ephram spotted Essie and jerked his golf bag in her direction. "You still got your rifle?" he asked hopefully. "I mean I brought a couple this time but you should really start jes ... wearin' your rifle around town. God knows I'm strapped all the time now my own self." Hip holsters, shoulder holster, and the baseball bat he favoured.
"Wait," Maya said to Ephram, "You got another gun. I got my safety training when I was fifteen." She could hear the creature sprinting after someone else trapped in the grocery store. And she was pretty sure it was Ruby. Even now though she wasn't stupid enough to go after it emptyhanded.
The voice came again, and there was movement to accompany it. Ruby turned to see ... something... sprinting all long limbs and manic speed towards her. She knew better than to run. She /wouldn't/ run. Even if she had no idea what would happen if it caught her. But Ruby had her pistol, and the katana Dani had given her (that she'd also started carrying since all this shit started going down). There was no way she was risking a stray bullet with all this glass. Heart beating out of her chest, she pulled the sword from it's charmed sheath across her back - made to look smaller than it was - and when the creature was close enough, she let the blade arch towards it, spinning to the side as she aimed for something vital.
Ephram hauled one of the rifles out of his bag and handed it to Maya, passing her a fanny pack of ammo along with it. "Sorry bout the thing," he said, gesturing at the Glee fanny pack. "Was all I had handy when I was kitting out this here golf bag."
“Suit yourself,” Ciara replied to Ephram with a shrug, although in the back of her mind, she thought that she could have used a battery. “Why do you have weapons? Did you come to the grocery store for a fight?” The white gitturn then decided to jump out of its pouch, and scrabbled up Ciara’s sleeve to her neck with a strength she didn’t know these babies had, and snarled at the hall before burying itself in her hair. And then there were four of them. “Wait, no guns. Do you want to drown?”
Essie nodded digging in the pocket of the golf bag she remembered the ammunition being in. "Had to start carrying it after my second trip into these places." she admits. "Not that I had any ammo, just hoped the sight would distract something. Relying much more on dust." Her head bouncing up to look at the unfamiliar woman in the group then at Ephram, much more likely to listen to her boss than anyone else.
Maya took the gun from Ephram and the fanny pack too. It took her a second to even realize what he was even apologizing for. "Honestly, like, whatever. Ammo's ammo." With that, she ignored the subtle loyalty dynamics and headed towards the sound of the creature and possible a sword. She skidded to a halt at the end of the aisle and raised the weapon, ready to fire.
Ephram gave Ciara a considering look when she objected to the guns. "Reckon the survival situation at the moment calls for whatever weapons we got handy," he said coolly, all traces of his more obedient student persona gone. "Don't worry. I'm sure them other two are good shots." The implication, of course, being that there was no chance at /all/ that Ephram himself might cause a stray bullet to shatter the glass. He looked in the direction that Maya had headed off. "Was she tryin' to call that talkin' beast down on somebody just now?"
The Splicer: She wasn’t scared. How charming, it would leave her all tender inside nice and gooey and juices and precoated in salt and sass already. What a treat! The splicer charged without abandon, swing a wrench he had found in his best friend’s head (or maybe he had left it there, he was oh so forgetful, wasn’t it charming?). And then she sliced right through his arm, and it flopped on the floor for a second, up and down, like a fish gasping for air. “That wasn’t very nice, play fair and die already!” He sang, and leapt again.
As the creature popped back up, Maya fired. It was an easy shot, all things considered. Only after she fired though did Ciara's words fully sink in. /Did they want to drown?" They were underwater. She made a mental note of that so that she would be careful with any shots she made next.
Essie considers their surroundings and the fact she can't swim. She didn't trust her shot as much as the other two did, watching Maya charge recklessly away from the pack she reconsiders. She doesn't discard the rifle, simply swings it behind her onto her back. Dust had been here only hope the last time, so she figured why mess with it. She'd figured out exactly how useful her limited Glamour could be. The shot from down the tunnel had Essie turn and brace herself.
Oh, Ruby was scared all right. Terrified. But she wasn't about to get eaten by some fucking monster movie reject. So when the sword met heavy, wet flesh, followed by the spray of dark, thick blood and an equally wet, fleshy flopping sound, Ruby knew she'd made a hit. When the gunshot rang out as the creature righted itself, Ruby flinched, not expecting it. She spun, momentarily distracted, to see Maya standing there with a gun. "No fucking bullets!! We'll drown!" she yelled. But that was all she could say before the creature was screeching at her again and launching itself in the air. It was fast. And close. Ruby swung again, but she misjudged the distance and was sent sprawling through water, blood-soaked mess on the floor. She shoved a hand against the creatures' throat while the other scrabbled for the sword that had slid somewhere into the dark. "Fuck... off!" she grunted, giving up on the sword and swinging at the creature's jaw.
Ciara didn’t even raise an eyebrow as Maya and Essie deferred to Ephram, because he was he sherif and authority and all that and whatever, but she did at Ephram, sinking back into a cool, cruel persona that had served her all too well on a different battlefield. The gitturn by her ear tittered, staring at Ephram too. But then Maya was off, chasing a shadow, a half being at this point, barely a man at all. His skin was so pale it was nearly translucent, starved of sunlight here and ashy, so much his skin almost had a blue tinge to it. It bled, but it had no heartbeat, not one that one could survive on. Maybe she’d just leave it to the sherif, but a gun fired and Ciara didn’t doubt that Maya was a better shot than Ciara herself, except it echoed like a bullwhip, all the way up and down the tunnels and this hallowed hall. And when everything finished ringing, there were more voices. Giggles and yells and cries and screams. A figure appeared at the bottom of the hall. Ciara tore its throat out.
Magic, good or bad sort, worked within a certain spectrum of rules. Crazy, mostly unfair, seemingly unpredictable and somewhat bendable but still rules you could single out, analyze and utilize the way you see fit or the way whatever personal limits allow you to. There are very few exceptions to that. But once in a lifetime, there comes an agonizingly stubborn knucklehead whose persistence to butt into things he had no business, knowledge or brains enough to deal with that rules just take one good, scrutinizing glance at him and say fuck it, we give up. Give him a complimentary bag of peanuts and a one-way ticket to doomed as fuck then send him on his way, cause that's where he's headin' and there's no stopping him.
Ryden's one way ticket had been for a month-long surf-around through places a less magically equipped supernatural should not step into. Well, the time-space parallel dimensions spin-dry he's been through told him it's been a couple of hours, not a month. He'll figure it out by piles of dust piled on top of old piles of dust he never cleaned on his floor in Rein's house. Right now, it felt like a couple of hours of beating through a beehive of abominations too ugly to love even if you were their momma. He was dragging one behind him by one of it's seven legs, two of which he'd pulled out himself, when the terrifying, toasty hell-like mood of the pocket universe he last rolled through turned into something Aquaman might call his secret, creepy hideout where he sometimes jacks off. "Fuck me runnin'..." He muttered, letting go of the creature he'd savagely murdered for threatening to do even worse things to him, and rounder a corner, not even trying to get the gooey, slimy liquid those things had instead of blood off himself. He was already drenched with it beyond spitting on your thumb and rubbing it off. By the commotion he was hearing ahead, he was pretty sure more nasty things awaited him.
Not even registering what it was assaulting nor what it was exactly, Ryden approached the creature ahead of him, while it was unaware in its attempts to feed on very possibly someone who'd been thrust in here by chance just like he was. A large hand grabbed at its bald scull, digging into brittle bone and ash-grey skin. He picked it up easily and tossed it aside like a rag, off Ruby and a good few feet away from the group..
The Splicer laughed and laughed and laughed and he scrabbled for her, scratching her, gouging her, trying to bite her. He - It - writhed against her hand, struggling, squirming, too keen and too hungry to care as the life was squeezing out of him. But then something tore through him, hot and cold as liquid nitrogen. He fell, turned, faced the girl that had shot at him. “Ooooh eeh heee her. I likes you! You’re a cheater! Dirty filthy little cheater! You’re going to pay for it, that’s right, but-“ and then he died, because Maya was indeed a good shot.
Maya heard the giggling down the hallway. "Okay, no guns," she finally agreed. She picked up the nearest thing off the shelf, a can of beans and got ready to throw it. Luckily, it seemed to slump over less than a second before Ryden appeared and tossed it aside like a rag doll. She had to grin at him "Ryden," she said in little more than an exhale. She turned to the others, "I think we've got more company. Sorry about that."
Ephram returned Ciara's look for a moment, his own eyes narrowing slightly before he gave a terse nod and drew his revolvers. She pulled the throat out from one of the new throng of creatures between one breath and the other, and Ephram banged together the bases of his revolver grips, silver-green magic spiking through them into the barrels. He stayed with Ciara and her gitturn -- the little creature still watching him suspiciously from behind her hair -- and shot at the emerging creatures with their sick giggles, bullets of spinning green magic that unerringly found their targets. "You dropped into any of these weirdsmobile realities yet or is this your first?" he shouted to Ciara over the increasing din. "That's why I been carryin' round them weapons. They keep poppin' up all over town."
Ruby could feel the deep rends in her flesh where the creature gouged her open. Her blood mixed with the rest of the mess on the floor, steaming hot as it ran from her wounds. She dug her fingers into the soft flesh of the creatures neck, squeezing until she heard cartilage pop and break and grind, and then it just... stopped. It was gone, and Ruby could breath. She lay there for a brief second, grimacing at the deep rends in her shoulder and stomach, before seeing Ryden standing over her. "God save the fucking Queen am I glad to see you," she told him as she pushed to her feet.
"Maya? The fuck ya doin' 'ere?" She was someone he'd least expected here. Or anywhere. Looking beyond her, he saw more faces he could recognize. "What's going on?" Looking down, he saw that the person creature was trying to nibble on was actually Ruby. "Shit, you a'ight?" He reached down to pull her up, knowing that her werewolf healing would take care of the rest. Ahead, he glanced at the rush of staggering, giggling monstrosities advancing forth at them. "Can't it just, like, for once, be a land of sparkles, polite leprechauns and unicorns? Naw?"
Retrieving her sword and wiping the gore off on her jeans - not that it did much good - after Ryden helped her up, Ruby rolled her shoulder as it slowly started to heal. "Yeah. You know me. I can take a punch," she said to her friend. "You good?" She looked at Maya and asked the same thing. But then the sounds came, and Ruby's attention turned with the rest. "Always another fucking shit show..." Ruby moved with the others next to Ephram and Ciara, unsure if she should fire her gun or not. She was a good shot, but her bullets weren't spelled like Ephram's. She could miss and then... well, they'd drown.
"I needed groceries?," Maya replied. She looked back towards the others as far as an answer for what was going on. She had an ominous warning. One that was getting clearer by the minute, but didn't yet explain all this. She turned back when she heard Ryden asking Ruby if she was okay. It was a question she wanted to hear the answer to. "Not to be a complete asshole by the way," she added mostly to Ruby, "But I am like 85% sure I actually killed it, so that God save the Queen should be directed at me." She was about to answer Ruby's other question when the rest of their company's arrival drew her attention.
“Six of us, three entries. Let’s stay close.” Ciara ignored Maya’s apology, focused on nothing but the creaking floor and the creatures headed their way. “First,” was all she said to Ephram, as the gitturn chirped and drew her attention to her left, shattering a heart there. The nausea was coming back - Ephram was right about these Leys. The world was shrinking down to a fight, a need to win, and damn the consequences to her soul as she stained the water they were standing in red, dropping four bodies in quick concession. It didn’t matter. Again. There were dozens.
"Yeah but the point is to NOT let 'um punch ya. Yer just a bag for it then." Ryden snorted, stepping up with Ruby. "Where'd ya get the fuckin' kitchen knife ya got there? In an anime?" Raising an eyebrow at Maya, he couldn't skip on a challenge to be the better one even when it was pointless. "Ya squirted a metal ball at it. I bashed its brains in. Let's do the autopsy later. I'll give ya a cookie if it's your kill." Looking back at Ephram's gun out and aimed he cringed. "Should we have guns out here? Anyone smart enough to consider that's maybe a no, cause..." He waved his hand in a general direction of... everywhere.
Essie balled her fists from her spot beside Ephram. She wasn't as good a shot as the others but she could do her best to be useful. She threw a handful of dust towards an open tunnel entrance the dust caught fire at her glamour and she looks back at the others. "Can we maybe fight about kills LATER."
Ephram glanced down at the reddening pool at their feet, leaning hard into Ciara so he could mutter closely in her ear, "--I'm in good shape right now and me and Essie got healing abilities that work in these places. If you need blood that ain't fucked up like I'm guessin' is in these critters, you don't need to ask." But Ciara knew her own magic, so Ephram felt he only needed to make the offer once. He took note of Ruby and Ryden returning with Maya, not bothering to address the question of his guns and instead saying, "these fuckers seem a sight smarter'n the monsters Essie and me faced off in them other pocket worlds. Seems to me it might be best for us to split and stopper up wherever they might be streamin' in here from, unless we wanna end up as the cheese in the worst fuckin' game of Farmer in the Dell ever."
"True," Ruby said to Ryden. "And I'll tell ya later," she said of the sword. She managed a tiny smirk - which was more a grimace - towards Maya, but the crowd of creatures in the hallway was growing, and while Ephram and Ciara were making a dent, it was refilling over and over. One made it past, screeching and lurching towards them. Ruby took it's head off with her sword. Another broke through, fell in the water, and she crushed it's skull beneath her boot. "We're runnin' out of opttions," she said to everyone else. "Is there a way outta here?"
"How 'bout I stay back here and out of ya'lls way and fight o'er YER kills t'pass time cause it looks to me like yer all handlin' it well." Ryden said, as the advancing mob of zombies wobbled their way at them. He leaned against a glass wall, right over one of the cracks spreading like spiderweb over them. He was tired and he had somewhat figured out how this pocket world travel works here. Which means that they might get spit out somewhere else anytime now. If they didn't, he was ready, tired from his own previous quest as he was.
"I hope you mean the kind of cookie I think you mean," Maya shot back at Ryden with a shit eating grin. She turned though to look at all the new arrivals. There were too many. The water around their feet was already red with blood. She dropped the rifle in her hands. A second later, it landed with a dull splash. "Fuck," she muttered. She shook her head. "I'm out guys. I can make sure you all get out, but I'm fucking done," she confessed. It was like a switch turning off, something she couldn't explain.
Essie stared at them incredulously. "You're just done? Shit is trying to fucking eat us." she couldn't believe it. Throwing another handful of dust, this time onto an oncoming figure to then burst into flame.
Ruby glanced at Maya as she dropped the rifle. She didn't know if one could actually die in these places, but Ruby wasn't about to take that chance. "Get her," Ruby said to Ryden before turning back to the oncoming hoarde. "Split up where?" she asked Ephram. "If I shift, I might be able to lure most of them down another way...."
Ephram was embroiled in shooting at creatures who were crawling and scrabbling and leaping towards them, but Essie's comment made him guffaw out loud anyhow.
Ephram said to Ruby's idea, "Take Ryden with you. I dunno how much help Maya's gonna be, maybe leave her here for Essie to sort out." He wasn't sure what was up with Maya once she dropped the gun and started talking about making sure they'd all get out, but it didn't sound like she was coping well, whatever it was.
Not batting an eyelash when Ruby pointed out Maya's distress, he grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back. "Stay behind me, cupcake, and hold that cookie I promised." There was no way Ryden would willingly move himself up front where he'd be most effective for anyone, because he'd easily be in line of Ephram and Ciara's fire and the wicked fairy dust fireballs Esse was throwing. But for Maya and her safety, he was willing to risk friendly fire. "Fuck that, we ain't splittin' up. You even watch horror?" With sickening crack of bones and muscle, Ryden was doing that neat little werewolf party trick unique to him - muscles in his arms bulged and sharp claws sprouted out of his fingertips. He now had a jaw full of too many teeth for a human. He stepped out of the front line of shooters with a leap, claws aiming and shredding at random but efficiently.
“If it comes down to it, I won’t ask,” Ciara replied quietly. If it came to it, it would just be like the first time they had met. She’d sacrifice him at her altar with only barely a second thought. “Stopper them, then drown them. Some of the doors hermetically seal. Like a sub.” Her gaze flicked to Maya, and saw the deadness Ciara felt already.
Ephram lifted his guns as Ryden leapt in front of them, growling in aggravation, "I'm watchin' a fuckin' horror right now! Get the fuck out my way, Bolt!" But it was pretty damn obvious that wasn't going to happen, so Ephram swore a blue streak and told Ciara, "Fine, but watch my back and make sure these un's don't git shredded." The way that Ryden was dealing with the creeping pale people ahead of them. So Ephram used it to his advantage: with Ryden flinging ribbons of meat and blood, Ephram dodged and darted behind him as if the wolf was an ambulance, the two of them steadily making their way to one of the door seams where -- hopefully -- there'd be some sort of mechanism to seal the place.
Maya stumbled as Ryden pulled her backwards. "No" she started to argue. It didn't matter. Didn't they all understand it didn't matter? She swallowed a shout as Ryden jumped in front of everyone. Her heart thudded in her chest. There was a moment as she looked around at everyone else where something like life flickered in her eyes. It was gone almost as soon as it had appeared. They were still fighting. They were going to get hurt and all for nothing. With dead eyes, Maya picked up the rifle again. It was almost robotic the way she fired. Each shot hit with almost perfect precision as Ryden and Ephram advanced. But it wasn't Maya anymore, not really. It was a version of her that knew only how to survive. The moment the threat was no longer imminent, it would crumble like dust.
Essie had stopper and drown repeating in her head. She could potentially blow a bigger hole than a bullet hole with her dust she'd just need to be at the front when they found doors that could close. Not that the idea enticed her any. But she voiced this to anyone who could hear her as she followed down the tube, walking backwards to keep an eye behind them. "I can firecracker my dust, blow a hole when you get the doors closing."
Ryden was practically tossing the creatures out of the way, his breaking through forceful, messy and stomach-churning, elbows-deep into dead bodies and their insides, ripping limbs, organs and skin with bare, clawed hands. What he missed, others would easily take down as they drew closer to what might be their salvation.
Ruby wasn't keen on leaving Maya behind for her to 'maybe' be sorted out. So when Ryden pulled their shell shocked friend behind him, Ruby let out a breath. She knew Ryden would keep Maya safe above everything else. But that meant she couldn't be a decoy. So as Ryden did his shifting trick, Ruby heard Ciara over the din. "How do we get the doors to work?" Ruby asked. "If we kill enough of them, they'll block themselves in. At least for a bit."
But then Ephram was already moving in behind Ryden, headed that way. That left Ruby and Ciara and Essie. Ruby's shoulder was starting to ache fiercely, her swings growing weaker. She needed to shift so she could heal, if nothing else. Or she was a liability. Trusting that she would retain enough of her human mind with a voluntary shift, Ruby shoved her sword into the duffel bag that lay nearby, striipping her boots and clothes in quick succession before she let the wolf have her. Bones cracked and limbs lengthened, dark hair turned white and blue eyes bled crimson until a huge white wolf had taken her place. It shook itself, still covered in the same blood as Ruby, and lifted it's nose into the air. She could smell The Other ahead of her, and more that were familiar. It didn't take long for her jaws to find flesh. One great shake and a spine snapped before being tossed aside.
Ephram heard the familiar flap of fairy wings behind him and Ryden, and when Essie voiced her plan he was intensely glad that she /had/ followed them. "Git ready, then," he barked back at her, to be heard through the schripping of Ryden's claws and the screams of the creatures. "Build up enough dust so's you can blow a hole big enough for a goddamn hearse to drive through, and I'll take care of findin' the sealing mechanism." Because she was right; his bullets were good against the creatures, but the kind of hole they'd need to blow required dust and plenty of it.
Maya twisted as something caught her shoulder. She didn't go down though. Instead, she used its own momentum against it. In complete survival mode, she found its head and yanked. A sickening snap echoed in her ears. She scrambled again to her feet, blood dripping from her shoulder. She glanced up at Essie and nodded. Whatever the fairy needed her to do to help, she was ready.
Essie spares a hand, reaching out and touching Mayas shoulder with just a hint of healing, she couldn't spare much but a little was worth something at least. But she lets her wings lift her up off the ground, concentrating on generating a mass of dust rather than focusing on not tripping over the carnage on the ground. She might not be taking anything dangerous out while they moved, but she was trying her best to provide as much use as she could.
They were reaching the door that was Ryden’s goal. Kind of like one of those round, hermetically sealed submarine passages. Ryden had tossed one of the zombified creatures right at it, where it was full-body slammed and had its spine broken. Ryden reached those doors right after it but there would be no good in breaking the hatch, which he could definitely do - they needed it closed after. "Little help 'ere??" He asked, speech impaired by the Cheshire grin of sharp teeth and protruding canines.
The wolf-Ruby pushed forwards when needed, pulling back when necessary only to surge towards the monsters again when there was an opening. The corridor was quicklly filling up, and anything not dead from Ryden's hands or otherwise, she crushed it's skull with her teeth, making sure it didnt' move again. Her muzzle and chest and legs were stained red with gore, but Ruby kept going with the others. Biting and crushing and smashing her way through.
A fighter, a healer, a maker, a leader, and... Wasn’t Ruby human?? Not anymore, it seemed, but it would still work, an idea in Ciara’s mind. They needed the door closed. They needed to reach the door. The floor was slick and slippy and covered in corpses - each time they killed they made their own progression harder. They were under the sea. Sea with currents and waves and movement, and blood had that all too. She had the consent of two. That would have to do.
In six people at once, the back of their wrists split open, spilling blood into midair that flowed into Ciara’s hands like a current, flowing and twisting and pumping, a six fold circulatory system. Magic like this had a cost, and they would just have to find out what that was. Once they’d survived. The blood curled into crystals And then into one. Ciara twisted the threads of ley magic into a whole new shape, instinct and confidence pouring into one, something new and something old, and something that would have to do. Ciara carved it and sculpted it like wood on her bench, like clay, like ice, and found a word that suited. She dropped the crystal to the ground, and spoke.
“Clot.”
All that bloody water surged around her, up, up, up, like a wave, and left those that she wanted untouched - the blood she had taken from them made each immune to her spell. The water pulsed and pumped, and picked up each body in turn, splicer and dead alike. Except it wasn’t picking them up - they were becoming part of the wave, like blood pouring out of a split artery and picking part of the pulsing, pumping mass. It was imperfect - all new spells were - too many had been left unscathed as well, confused if not for long. But others were gluing up behind the door, struggling. They were platelets to a wound, and now they were sealing, like a scab. The ley was quickly draining, and so was her connection to it. This would not last.
Maya stood for half a second in awe. The thought of pain in her wrist didn't occur to her. But she knew magic. It shook her out of awe quickly. "The door!" she shouted, "Someone hit the door." But she was holding a gun. Even as she said it, Maya raised the rifle and aimed. She fired into the door's control panel in a very Han Solo move. It crackled and fizzled before sliding closed. Maya dropped the rifle again, breathing heavily.
Ciara didn’t see the door close. One dozen, two dozen of them left, at least one was making its way over to her. Ciara raised a hand to do something, and instead... dropped to the floor, as two gitturns squeaked.
Ephram had been half-expecting Ciara to dip into her blood magic, but he hadn't for a moment thought it would look like this. Bodies and not-quite-corpses being picked up and dancing like puppets in a pusing wave to clot and seal up the entranceway that he, Ryden, and Essie had been making their ways towards, and Ruby too, from the sound of it. But before they could reach and put their plan into action, there was a rifle shot from behind them. The panel exploded and the door shut, and that was that. Problem solved.
Ciara, though, collapsed into the bleeding water below her feet, so Ephram turned his attention from where it was no longer required and ran back to the witch, dropping down to pull her from the filthy puddle. The gitterns chittered, angry or scared or both.
"C'mon, git the gross blood lady up and git in. Go go go GO!" Ryden hurried them along, having pulled the door open after Maya shot at the panel.
Essie yelped in pain at the cut on the back of her wrist forming, tears in her eyes involuntarily at the pain. Maya raised her gun to shoot and Essie -who'd almost dropped her growing ball of dust- lurched forward in a moment of panic but the door was closed too quickly. So much for drowning them. She turns her attention to something else she could potentially do with it. "A healing touch?" she offers unsure whether it would do any good running to the unknown womans side.
Maya nodded towards Ryden. They should get out of here while they still could. She half turned to Essie at her offer, "Ciara." She nodded towards Ciara for Essie's benefit before she looked for Ruby. She needed to make sure that the wolf got out with them safely. She wiped her face, finding it wet with saltwater.
Ruby barely felt the slice in her own leg/wrist as Ciara worked her spell. All she knew was that the air hummed with blood and magic and gore. The wolf knew what magic felt like, when it was dangerous and malintended, but other than that, she knew only that whatever the blood witch had done, it seemed to have worked. The other were further up the tunnel than her, so Ruby turned back when the door shut under the rifle blast. She saw the witch collapse, saw Ephram run over, and saw the lurch of another creature nearby by.
Growling and snapping, Ruby leapt at the creature, who screamed and railed at her, clawing and biting before Ruby could close her jaws around its slick flesh. There was a sickening crunch, and the creature went limp. Ruby shook her head, tearing thecreatures throat out for good measure. She turned to the others as Ryden called out, lingering in the back but following close as the others moved ahead. She didn't want to be left behind.
Ruby wuffled at the nearly unconscious witch as Ephram dragged her up, giving the chattering furries a passive glance but not caring enough about them to linger. ~GO.~ she thought to the others. ~GO NOW. They are coming.~
Ephram made sure to scoop the little gitturns up, not at the moment caring if they bit him or whatever; into his rescued golf bag they went, as he toted it and Ciara down the passageway. "If this is anythang like them other fucked-up mold places," he huffed as they hustled, "now that we squashed a bunch of them monsters it's like that we's gonna--" And that was as far as he got, this time. Suddenly, Ephram ran himself, Ciara, the gitturns, and his golf bag full of weapons into a stacked display of yum-yum pickles, knocking everything over in a resounding and vinegary crash over the floor of the regular world version of the supermarket.
Essie watched the sheriff vanish as he had done before and gave a firm nod. She'd seen this before. "Some of us are gonna vanish outta nowhe-" and there she went. That tugging in her gut and she overbalanced and landed on her ass in a pile of pickles. Blinking in the new electronic lighting of the market she looks shakes her head, getting up quick. She needed to get home ...covered head to tow in guts /again/.
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One of the pocket worlds opens. A bakery plays home to a medieval repulsion. The question of the ghosts recurs.
Ephram had to admit, he hadn't strictly been paying attention to the change in weather as he and Freddie made their way to the very specific corner store that sold the very specific spumoni cannoli that Freddie swore he wouldn't be able to make it through the night without; his fairy was wearing a new cologne and Ephram was mightily distracted by the way the scent wafted up to the tips of his pointed ears.
But when they rounded the mural of frolicking fluffy werewolves on Nussbinder Avenue, Ephram could have sworn that one of them bared its teeth. And by the time they reached the door of the bakery, the thickness of the mist around them was impossible to not notice.
"Honey," he said, grip on Freddie's arm cinching instinctively tighter, "is it just me or is this nighttime dew a lil more aggressive than usual?"
Freddie lifted his free hand to cover Ephram's where it rested on his bicep, and stepped a little closer to his husband as he looked round at the ever-worsening fog-like mist, frowning when he met his eyes again. "Aggressive feels like a very good word for it, sweetheart, yeah," he said - and then he paused, listening, his brow furrowing, certain he'd heard something growl. "Ephram..." he said softly, "-darling, did you hear that, or am I going mad?"
"Maybe we best get inside." Ephram pushed open the door to the corner bakery and likewise pushed Freddie through, shutting it behind them as an alarming amount of faintly musty mist swirled in around their knees. "Jeez. I dunno what all's happenin' out there but--" Ephram stopped, turning as he felt Freddie's hand grasp him more intently.
'Out there' was perhaps an optimistic view of what was happening, if the piles of rotting confection studding the counters were any indication. "It's like," Ephram said, snapping his fingers as he tried to place it and failed, "--like that book with the wedding cake. The moldy one. You know the one. Freddie, what the /fuck/." Ephram hopped back slightly as one of the big croquembouche displays started to move, jerking and dropping slimy dark globs that made a stinking miasma rise into the air.
"Oh, fucking hell," Freddie swore, his words belied by the worry in his eyes as he took in the rather dramatic shift in their surroundings. "I don't know if I can stand any more of this," he muttered, wishing he'd been satisfied with the myriad of desserts and snacks they had at home, rather than pouting and insisting their way into this current mess.
He pulled a face as the scent of the spoilt cream thickened around them, then turned to look out the bakery's front window, the street nearly obscured now by the mist. "Should we try to get home, do you think?" he asked, the oppressiveness of the odd almost-phosphorescent fog making him feel slightly anxious. "I trust your judgment here, love. What should we do?"
It was then that he realised that the spoilt cream stench wasn't spoilt cream at all, and they weren't alone in the shop. Something had disturbed the display. "Ephram," Freddie said, tugging his husband back away from the toppled pastry, "Sweetheart, we need to get back out onto the street. At least on the street there's somewhere to run to."
Ephram made a rumbling noise as what used to be choux pastry flumped entirely down into ooze, a bigger and more alarming shape rising out of the leftover muck. "I reckon we're a mite past that point, honey. We best better find something to use as weapons," he said, wishing he was still in his uniform with his rarely-used but trusty sidearm.
Looking around, Ephram grabbed two stanchion poles from when the bakery (somewhat grandly, considering its location) put up velvet ropes out front to corral the lineup, handing one to Freddie as he hefted his own. A harsh scuttling, chittering sound came from the creature on the counter as it leapt to the ground, looking as though it moved in separate pieces -- and when it hit the ground and moved towards them, the reason for that became clear.
It wasn't one animal but a group -- an uneven, malformed circle of rats, huge ones, all bound together by their tangled tails -- but mostly what Freddie and Ephram could see was unnaturally huge maws lined with double, triple rows of razor-sharp teeth.
"Christ!" Ephram barked, for a few seconds scared out of his wits. But then instinct kicked in and he swung his metal pole, shearing off the head of one of the rats and braining another. Not that it made much difference; the dead rats disappeared under the churning mass of still-living ones as their tinny shrieks increased in volume and they scuttled, obscenely fast, towards the couple's feet.
Freddie, incredibly grateful that Ollie had opted to stay in that evening (whatever was going on, the fairy felt confident that his familiar would be alright so long as he had the home-court advantage), and he lifted the pole that Ephram had handed him, ready to follow suit and swing it - before remembering that he was a sodding fairy, and he could do better than that. As quick as he could, he tossed a handful of dust at a platter that had toppled to the floor, glamouring it into a thigh high tangle of razor-wire, stretching four foot across, and then turned the pole in his hand into a cricket bat, before glancing back at Ephram.
"Fancy something a bit bigger or sharper, love?" he asked, his eyes still on the rat monstrosity, "Or are you happy as you are?"
Ephram, after the initial repulsion and shock at this horror-movie-grade rat king, had felt a familiar bristling heat fill his chest and throat with a weapon in his hands and something god-awful to direct it at. He grinned broad and feral at Freddie's display of fairy magic as a clump of the rats tore off from the whole and struggled, shredding themselves open, in the razor wire.
"I'm good, baby," Ephram said, watching Freddie heft the cricket bat in a way that made his prodigious muscles strain against his very expensive shirt. "I dunno bout /happy/, exactly, but I got a feeling we're set when it comes to dealing with whatever this fresh fuckin' mess is." The rats -- which seemed to be increasing in size and volume -- began scrambling over each other to try and vault over the building heap of writhing corpses and get across the razor wire barrier, and Ephram growled as he swung his pole again, sending a few of the rats flying across the shop to smash against the wall.
Freddie watched as the rats that hit the wall sprayed reddish black blood upon impact, leaving thick sticky smears behind as they slid down to the floor. "I'm going to need a 6 hour bath after this," the fairy said, grimacing as he brought his bat down hard on the advancing hoard, crushing a few skulls and knocking a few more into the wire, creating a thrashing tangle of gore. "Where the bloody hell are they all coming from?" He swung the bat again and sent a large one skittering sideways, doing nothing to slow down the rest of them.
"God, I wish I could glamour a gun," he said, sparing a glance to watch his husband on the attack, "-unfortunately I haven't the first bloody idea how the mechanism works."
Ephram grunted as he lifted the heavy pole over his head and brought the broad circular base down onto a couple of the monstrous creatures, covering his sneakers and jeans in disgusting spatters. "When we git home," he said, taking a sidelong step to bring his body against Freddie's as the separate rodents that comprised the rat king slowly, grotesquely pulled free from the tangled knot of tails and started to make a circle around the two of them, "I'm gonna kit us out both with guns and bullets and you ain't goin' nowhere without bein' armed to the teeth, okay?"
"I'd normally argue a bit with that," Freddie said, "You know I'm not much for violence..." He wound up and swung his cricket bat viciously, connecting with three of the now-independent rats, the noise that followed a hideous blend of wet crunching and squealing, "...but if this is the way things are going to be for the moment, I think I may need to suspend my usual reticence. Armed to the teeth sounds perfectly lovely to me, sweetheart; thank-you."
Despite the seemingly endless seethe of rats, Ephram wasn't feeling too bad about their chances; it would be a charnel house by the time they were able to get out, and they still might get bit, but at least there were plenty of rat casualties as a show of their own killing prowess. He was about to say as much to Freddie when another sound cut through the scratching and deformed squeaking. It was a weak voice, an older man, calling from the back of the bakery.
"Are you real?" he was asking, plaintive and reedy. "Are you real? Can you help me leave this place? Don't make me stay here, please!" He appeared in the doorway behind the counter, a faint blue ectoplasmic glow around him, and Ephram slammed himself harder against Freddie in a rush of concern. "Shit," he said, "shit, /shit/, Freddie -- he's a ghost, he's somebody's goddamn /ghost/!"
The fairy sagged a bit as his husband pressed closer, wishing they could just stop for a moment and get their breath, maybe attempt to work out just what in the world was going on - but there was no time for that now. And even less time for it when the ghost appeared. Freddie was taken aback by the sight of him for a second - just long enough for a rat to scramble over the toe of his shoe, and to be unceremoniously kicked off - and then he called, "We're real, love. Who are you? And what the sodding hell is going on?!"
The ghost’s mournful blue face swung to look at Freddie. “It’s Great Expectations,” he said.
And then the two of them were back out on the sidewalk, so fast and sudden that they stumbled and had to catch themselves against the wall with the mural -- no strange threatening wolf faces now, just fluffy smiles and fur in paint. But the disgusting evidence of the fight they’d had was still smeared and speckled over their shoes and clothes, and Ephram stared down at it with a fox grimace, lips pulled back over his teeth, before he reached out for Freddie’s arm.
“The ghosts,” he said, and didn’t need to elaborate ... on that, at least.
The old man had been somebody’s ghost, somebody’s visitation in Soapberry. Which meant that somewhere in the slipstream they’d landed in, Edith was trapped. And they would be going after her.
[ chatzy log with @alessafalling, @isadelavega, and @ephrampettaline ]
Black dust returns to normal. A merm, a fairy, and a witch walk into a bowling alley. First impressions aren’t great. The team picks up a 7-10 split.
Essie leads the way to the bowling alley, much happier in mood since Isa had said she'd hang out, they'd had a great late lunch on the beach, and now they were headed for more amusement. "Been to this place before or is this your first time?"
Isa shook her head. "Never been here before." She didn't really have anyone to go with, and bowling alone was just depressing, so she didn't even consider coming to this place, but now she was excited to have some fun with Essie. She pushed the door open and a rush of fog came streaming outside and as she stepped inside, she looked over her shoulder at Essie. "Is this some extra feature of the place? Will we be bowling in this fog?"
Essie grabs Isa by the arm gently pulling her back a little as they step inside the door closing behind her. "Not usually." she says looking around. It didn't feel right, it felt oddly familiar and it set heart heart at a quicker pace. "Doesn't feel quite right in here." Looking around into the gloom, usually the lights on the lanes were cute and flashing, but now they looked dulled in the mist, hauntingly so.
The moment the words left her mouth, Isa was already feeling something was off. It couldn't be some extra feature of the bowling alley, it made no sense, and when Essie grabbed her hand and pulled her back, it was confirmed. Something wasn't right. It was hard to see through the fog at first, but Isa squinted her eyes - she didn't know how the place usually looked, but all the black everywhere and the destroyed look of it all must have not been the design the place was going for. "What the hell happaned here?" she whispered and despite knowing that it was probably not a good idea, she took another step inside. There was some kind of weird noise coming from the back of the room, maybe from the other side of the lanes, Isa couldn't exactly tell, but that didn't sound promising. "Did you hear that too?" she whispered, not daring to speak more louder.
Essie had already whipped out her phone, she had the department on speed dial at this point, she'd had to call them so many times. But the call didn't connect, her phone didn't even try to connect. It was daunting and Essie sucks in a breath of air as if to steady herself. "I heard it." she whispers, not willing to attract any attention. Her wings tuck back into her shoulders and she clutches the bag that holds Finn a little tighter. "I don't know if we should go look or not, this place looks wrecked."
Ephram didn't recognize the other woman, but Essie, he hoped, would be able to recognize his presence as he carefully approached the two. "Hey," he called in a low voice, holding his hands up, "Essie, it's me, Ephram. I'm here too." He still came towards them cautiously; who knew what all was going on in this strange flipped Soapberry? "Are youn's ... are you yourselves?"
Isa jumped a little when she heard the unfamiliar voice coming from behind them. The name sounded familiar, but Isa didn't have time to focus on actually remembering where she heard the name from, he seemed to know Essie and that was good for now. "What do you mean are we ourselves? Who else we would be?" she asked, frowning at the question.
Essie -still holding onto Isa by the hand- whipped around and gave Ephram the most stricken expression she'd ever worn. "We're us, we just came for a game. What's going on? Is this? A crime scene?" she asks quickly her grip on Isa increasing slightly. "It feels like the mold, but it doesn't look black?"
Ephram nodded at Isa, although he didn't stay looking at her for long; the noise they'd heard from behind the pin setter was getting louder now, more ... /aware/. "That's the question, ain't it. How much of what exists here that's real and not fucked-up." He unslung a golf bag that he'd been carrying over his shoulder, setting the bottom down with a thump against the waxed floor. "Freddie and me -- that's my husband, ma'am, pleased to meet you I'm Sheriff Pettaline -- found ourselves in this messed-up version of a bakery we was headed to and I reckon same thing's happening all over town." Ephram looked at Essie, then at Isa, and rattled his golf bag. "I got clubs, one baseball bat, a rifle, and two revolvers. Pick your weapons, ladies."
Essie was holding onto Isa tighter and she reached up and squeezed the woman's arm in some kind of reassuring gesture. Essie's point about the mold was right, and now she realized what felt off - she felt that uneasiness now that she felt whenever she was near her dressing room. Isa wasn't sure if hearing that this wasn't the only place where something screwed up and weird was happening was reassuring in a way or made her even more anxious, but as if it wasn't enough, the man introduced himself as the sheriff and Isa instinctively took a step back. Just her luck - the one person who walked in on them was somebody she desperately been avoiding since she found out he was a witch. As if this day couldn't get any better.
Isa took a few more careful steps backward not even trying to be subtle as she stepped in a way that Essie was in between the sheriff and her now. "How did you find us here exactly?" she asked suspiciously, completely ignoring his question and the fact that they had bigger problems at the moment.
Essie noticed the steps Isa took to be away from Ephram and shot her a look. She was incredibly glad the Sheriff was here, and most would be, but Isa was putting her between them. Not willing to waste time trying to figure it out Essie crouches down to the bag. "It's this bad?" she asks Ephram with apprehension at the noise getting more ominous from the next room. She points to the rifle "How quick could you talk me through this model? I've been shooting before but never at anything."
Ephram did look properly at Isa now, his height giving him an unobstructed view over Essie's short frame; he fixed a gunmetal-blue stare on the merm that took rapidly into account her general reaction, what use she might be in a fight, and how much he'd need to factor her into his current list of Shit To Deal With. "I found you same way whatever yon monster is gonna find you," Ephram said flatly. "You're here and I'm here existing in the same space. If you ain't got the means to defend yourself, ma'am, I suggest you stay behind Essie and me here."
He hefted the rifle out of the golf bag and handed it to Essie, saying, "Same as what we got at the station -- real basic model so you're set. It's got an enchanted scope, but I don't know yet how good our magic works in this place. Freddie's dust worked fine. I ain't tried my own magic so we may yet find out." Ephram slid a hand against one of the revolvers he wore at his hips. "You might wanna reconsider a weapon, ma'am," he told Isa, "even if you ain't planning on gettin' in the thick of things."
Something -- whatever it was behind the lanes -- was moving with more intent now, slipping through the heavy mist enough that they could see a long, thick, crusted tentacle reaching along the dull shine of the floor. And another, and another, and then so many, many more.
Isa felt like she was in between a rock and a hard place, really. Whatever was behind the lanes wasn't too inviting, but being anywhere near the sheriff and his magic and his weapons didn't give Isa any comfort either. If she could have just teleported out of there, she would have, but that really wasn't an option, and then the sheriff had to go and insult her as if her question was dumb (he was the sheriff and this was happening in his town and then /suddenly/ he happened to be there, it was suspicious, of course she had questions) and insinuated that she wasn't willing to fight whatever those things were, and Isa's ego was sufficiently wounded, to say the least.
"Eres arrogante..." she started muttering in Spanish under her breath, but she didn't have any chance of finishing it, because suddenly tentacles started appearing out of the mist, more and more, coming towards them with intent and Isa reached her hands out in a demanding motion towards over Essie's shoulder the man, "Give me those clubs, damn it." She could at least protect herself more from him with a weapon in her hands too, if she needed to.
Essie ran her fingers over the components of the rifle, just making sure she knew what she was doing. The last time she'd shot a gun had been two years previous at a range back in Scotland. She hoped it wouldn't come to this, but with Ephram saying he'd seen this before with Freddie she trusted that he knew what was required. She'd rather be long range than short range anyway, no bat was going to do her any good she was hardly strong enough. "Dust worked fine." she looks worriedly down at her bad at her side, Finn inside looking up at her chittering in worry. She steels herself for the sight of black dust returning but it comes out it's usual plum purple. Doing the only type of glamour she can she shifts the bags canvas for metal, hard thick metal. Finn will be protected. "Please don't make this a person on person fight." she says standing back up handing a club over to Isa. "We've got bigger things to deal with."
Essie draws the rifle up at the sight of the monster, not making any sudden movements, as if taunting them into action first.
Ephram grunted at Essie's plea for him and Isa not to get into a scrap, reaching the baseball bat out of the bag for himself in addition to his sidearms. "Whatever this beastie is," he said, gripping the handle of the aluminum bat, "it's gonna be a fuckin' nightmare."
As they watched, it seemed the beast had every intention of going above and beyond Ephram's dire prediction; as the long chunky tentacles sprawled across nearly all of the lanes, a huge bulbous main body squashed out to follow. It looked almost like a scabby brick-red octopus ... if an octopus's head was covered in leaking, misshapen eyes, some of which (grotesquely) had long multiple fringes of eyelashes. Rising up on a thick wedge of its tentacles, the octo-beast displayed the hideous yellowed beak that lurked under its body, as big as a hatchback car with jagged razor edges.
"MotherFUCK," Ephram yowled, and then to Essie: "Shoot, SHOOT!" as he brought his baseball bat down on one of the reaching tentacles, splitting through the crusted clots to half-sever the limb.
Isa took the club from Essie. "Sure," she muttered, her focus split between the sheriff and those tentacles coming closer and closer. She gripped the club hard, watching as the monster got bigger and bigger and when Isa thought it couldn't get any bigger and she kind of wished Essie and her would have just remained on the beach. They could have been able to avoid this huge octopus at least. If this was happening all over town, however, who knew what other beast they would have encountered there. She wasn't willing to admit, but the sheriff's assesment of the situation was on point, and when a tentacle came around to wrap itself around her, she hit the thing with the club as hard as she could. She didn't have too much upper body strength, but the spikes at the end of the club helped, it was wounded and it was enough for the tenticle to retreat.
Essie took only a split second to decide her priority before taking aim at the main body of the beast. The tentacles coming at them were horrifying but take out the brain and hopefully the threat wouldn't persist. The recoil from the rifle has her take a step back, a string of absolutely filthy curses falling from her mouth. Her first shot hit, but only seemed to sink a foot into the giant. Taking aim again she lets off another, trying to aim for the same spot but the monster was on the move, somehow hefting it's body closer still, while it's limbs came at them.
Ephram smashed his bat into whatever part of octo-beast was near him, tentacles gaping open at the wounded areas and waving high in the air to spray ichor and blood over them all, some of them falling dead and inert. "Keep on shootin' it, jes like that!" he hollered, whacking at tentacles that were in his way as he tried to get over to Isa. She was closer to the main body of the beast, club in a death-grip; Essie at least had some distance to use the rifle from. Ephram had almost reached Isa when he felt one of the tentacles wrap around his leg, over his knee and up to mid-thigh, yanking so hard that he dropped flat on his face with a muffled curse.
Twisting, he snatched one of his revolvers from his holster and shot into the meat of the tentacle as he was dragged up into the air; the monster gave a hideously high-pitched shriek, recoiling from both Ephram's shots and Essie's, and let Ephram go. He hit the ground hard but scrabbled up again and lunged, shoulder-first, at a tentacle that was moving towards Isa at top speed. "What are you?" Ephram yelled at her, then decided to throw politeness to the wind and grabbed at Isa's face, feeling the tingle of his witch magic revealing her species. "A merm, fuck, that ain't no help, fuck."
Isa kept smashing her club at any of the tenticles that were coming towards her. She knew she wasn't too big of a help, but she was determined not to be useless and at least be able to protect herself from the beast. The spikes on the club was doing some kind of damage at least, and as the same tentacles kept coming towards her, she tried hitting it at the same spot to deepen the cuts she made. She could feel something was happening near her from the corner of her eyes, but she only shot her head over to the action when she heard several shots fired and she saw the sheriff drop to the floor, next second already moving towards her and Isa let out a scream and jumped back, with no luck, because he was faster and grabbed at her face and damn the promise she made to Essie about not going man against man, she shoved the top of her club hard against Ephram to push him away from her. "Don't touch me," she screamed and didn't realize the monster used this moment of no defense to wrap its tentacles around Isa's body and with a loud shriek from Isa, it slammed her against the nearest wall.
Essie was taking ever shot she could, same spot, different spot, it didn't matter the more this fight unfolded. At some point she ran out of bullets however and she had been slowly moving around to get the best aim, too far from the bag left on the ground to scramble for something else. Becoming useless all at once Essie watches Isa shove at Ephram and screams angrily. "WE HAVE A REAL PROBLEM HE-" but her words die as Isa is thrown. There was no time to be yelling at each other. As angry as she was about this damn infighting she needed to get back to the bag. The bag had been kicked and shoved all the way around to the other side of the giant. A distraction. She needed to be a distraction.
She lets her wings unfold and she takes to the air. She'd always been fast, but now she needed to be faster. Essie steels herself once again, but this time she takes a drastic flight path right towards the body of the beast. In front of it's eyes she flies, it's attention drawn to her she throws a handful of dust in it's face, shifting the handful to be bright, as bright a light as she could make it trying to daze the thing as she hits the floor on the other side of it, on top of the bag she scrambles to find something to reload.
The golf bag was well stocked with ammo as well; although Ephram hadn't had a chance to tell Essie about it, he was gratified (and considerably proud, the fairy being one of his squad) to see that she was going after it as well as causing a distraction to the octo-beast. What was a little less fortunate was that Ephram looked directly at the flash-bang of her dust, which made spots go off in his vision too. But at least it /really/ fucked up the octo-beast, whose many seeping eyes started to blink and ooze as it thrashed around in pain and confusion.
Rubbing hard at his eyes, Ephram blinked around until he located Isa again, and ran towards her. The tentacle was still holding her fast, drubbing her against the wall in angry lashes as the octo-beast tried to simultaneously rid itself of Essie's more immediate attack, so Ephram drew both his guns this time and filled Isa's captor tentacle with bullets. A veritable wash of briny blood flooded the floor between them, and he almost skidded onto his ass more than once as he made his way over to the merm.
"You awright?" Ephram asked, refraining this time from touching Isa and instead holstering his weapons so he could grab hold of his bat again. "Did it crush anythang? Break anything? Tell me if you're awright!" She'd been good with the club, what he'd managed to see of her wielding it with dogged intent, but right now he was more concerned with her ability to function than her skill at doing it.
The first hit against the wall knocked the air out of Isa and her body aching from the hit, but the octopus didn't give her a chance to recover, it kept hitting her against the wall, and after the second hit, the club slipped out of her hands and rolled a few feet away on the ground. She needed to do something, though, she knew, so she found herself digging her nails - her not to big or sharp nails -, into the tentacle that was holding her, trying to break the skin of it, hoping to cause at least some kind of pain that would losen the monster's grip on her. Thankfully she didn't have a chance to see if her weak plan would work, because several loud gunshot noises came and the next thing she knew, she was dropping down onto the ground, a painful grunt leaving her mouth.
She was trying to catch her breath as she pushed herself up onto her arms, her eyes seeing stars from the pain but still looking for the club as Ephram came rushing towards her. She still felt uneasy just with his closeness, but he just got her down from the tenticles' grip, sos he had one good point to him now. "Not sure, probably not," she groaned as she pushed herself into a sitting position, looking around to find the club. The moment she noticed it, she could see a tenticle coming towards them and she yelled, "DUCK," dropping back down onto the floor to avoid the tentacle attack and then started crawling towards the club. "Keep shooting at the thing!" she yelled back over her shoulder towards him.
Essie had been being ignored up until that point. Smallest of the group, though only just a tad shorter than Isa she apparently posed the least threat. That was until she'd blinded the giant. Now she was a heavy target, a thing that could fly a thing that could disorientate the monster and it started to take note. Scrambling in the bag she kept an ear out for the other two, glad to still hear two other voices. Finding the ammo it felt almost surreal as she reloaded.
But as soon as she raised the gun she was met with multiple eyes directly on her. Still swimming wildly at the other two it had two tentacles specifically for her. She shot at them but a rifle was much slower than a pistol and she lost all her ground. Kicking her metal bag away from the firing line she took the hit. She shot. She took another. And then she was in the air not by her own means. "How do we kill it?!" she yells in anguish as she's squeezed hard, her ribs cracking slightly under the pressure. There had to be a way.
Ephram sprawled flat on the floor at Isa's warning, feeling all that salt-stinking blood soak instantly into his clothes. It itched and stung, but as the tentacle that had been aimed towards them whooshed through the air where they'd been, Ephram let go of his bat and took to aiming his guns again. "Gawd dammit," he swore as one ran out of bullets, then the other, Essie's frustrated and pained cries raising from across the alley. He had more bullets on him, but in a wash of desperate anger, Ephram wrapped his fingers more tightly around the grips of his revolvers and shoved magic through his palms as he banged the bases of them together. Silver-green magic, fairy and witch, streaked up into the barrels, and Ephram fired them off again -- one aimed at the closer tentacle and one towards the octo-beast's body.
The apple-green projectiles sped faster than his normal bullets, and the octo-beast leaked gushes and spurts of its brackish blood where they embedded. It rose up, smashing Essie against the ceiling and knocking a number of ceiling tiles to the ground -- but it was shrieking loud and cacophanous in pain, its horrendous beak gnashing up boards from the lanes. "Essie! Shove your dust in the bullets, shoot it with your dust!" Ephram bawled, managing to get up to one knee in the slick pool he was flailing in. "You, merm, whatever your name is, jes keep on beatin' up on whatever you can reach, make sure it don't grab you again, and keep away from that godforsaken--"
Ephram had to cut off there and heed his own advice, flinging himself to the side to narrowly avoid being crunched down on by the octo-beast's beak. It grazed through the leg of his jeans and he snarled, scrabbling away further on hands and knees until he could haul himself upright on a ball return. One that, actually, had a few bowling balls in it. "Well, shit," Ephram said to himself, and picked up one of the balls, letting it fill with silver-green magic before hucking it down his lane towards the underside of the beast.
There was another tenticle swipe before Isa reached the club and she grabbed onto it quick, her grip stronger than before. She tried pushing herself up, but the tentacles were coming so she didn't want to risk getting hoisted up again, so she turned onto her back and hit the tentacle above her several times before it gave her a moment of peace and she pushed herself up onto her legs finally. She didn't pay attention to her surrounding until now, so when she was standing, lookin around, she saw Essie up in the air, getting knocked against the ceiling several times so hard the tiles were breaking, and she started beating the nearest tentacle as hard as she could.
"Let - Essie - go - you - big - ugly - piece - of - shit!" she yelled, every word emphasized with a hit onto the tentacle - by the end it broke off and she moved onto another, hitting whatever kept coming her way, trying to keep upright while she ignored the pain in her body.
Essie had thrown her arms up over her head, trying to lessen the blows she was getting as she was jabbed upwards into the ceiling tiles. Gun still in her hands she doesn't think using her dust will do anything good within the gun. She's not got good enough control of glamour to be able to do anything of that sort but maybe, just maybe she can rain some more explosive dust down. One of her hands clenching to build up a handful to throw, her teeth grit against the pain, tears in her eyes. Letting the dust go she closes her eyes firmly, letting both hands once again brace against the ceiling as the dust goes off like firecrackers in her giants eyes once again.
The octo-beast dragged Essie along the ceiling before dropping her near where Isa was, using the bulk of its remaining undamaged tentacles to wrap around its now terribly-damaged eyes. Entire eyelids ripped off and sloughed onto the wet alley floor, the lashes clumping grossly, and the beast listed to the side as it vainly, blindly, tried to slap at its assailants without knowing where they were. Isa's club-jabbing made it recoil, exposing more of its beak and drippy underside, and as Ephram's magic-charged bowling ball rolled up into its guts and shattered as if it was glass filled with electricity, the octo-beast screamed and slammed its tentacles down with no aim or thought.
Lunging for the golf bag, Ephram slung it up onto his shoulder and picked up his baseball bat as he ran back towards Essie and Isa. "We gotta git out," he barked, panting as he grabbed at them to make sure they were okay, round them up. A couple of blue-tinged faces peeked out from the end of one lane, the ghosts they belonged to crawling out and starting to come towards them -- but they never reached the little trio. They floated up as they walked until they shimmered right out of existence. "This is where all them ghosts're trapped," Ephram said. It was only a hypothesis at the moment but hell, it was a good enough working hypothesis, and he reached out to help Essie up--
--only to find himself back outside of the bowling alley, in normal Soapberry. Covered in stinking blood and with a long gash from the octo-beast's beak down his left leg. "Dammit, no!" Ephram yelled, glaring up at the building in frustration. Wherever he'd been, he couldn't get back there now.
