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 Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 2:27 pm
It had been a good thing that Jeremiah had been someplace empty, even if it was raining and felt more like September than March. He had found cover as quickly as possible, still cursing under his breath as he went. other ashdown was dreary, dark, and he absolutely did not trust the shadows. Worse, whatever power he was suppose to have? Jeremiah did not know. So far he had found nothing, just a great sense of unease, as he traversed the rainy town. The first thing he was doing was looking for Zac. When it was clear he was not on the beach, he moved on to the other Bibliophile - which was downright creepy and empty. Briefly he had thought to stop by his house, to see if there was anything within it that would help him, but he pushed it aside. Instead back to his search. With Zac not at the bookshop. Jeremiah was left with only one option. Zac, the young man who asked so many questions, would likely seek answers. The only other source of answers besides Algie's bookstore would have been the library. Which he was currently opening the door to after having made his way there. He was drenched once more, shivering faintly, and were it not for his vest that tattoo of his might have been visible through the white fabric of his shirt and undershirt. He had not really even given thought to how long he had been here since Sunny had ditched him. (The worst thing he could do was think about how this was going to affect Algie. It would distract him from the task at hand.) Jeremiah was taking a moment to dry a little before he continued in. Give the man a towel.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 2:42 pm
The library was… not like the other buildings. They had all seemed eerily close to normal save for the shadows that seemed to linger just out of the corners of his eyes, the almost predatory feel that they had raised the hairs on the back of his neck as he’d traveled a town he knew very well… and yet didn’t know at all. It was so utterly devoid of life that the empty feel of it was almost as heavy as the mist and rain, but the Library… He’d wanted answers, but all he’d found were more questions. Once inside, it stopped -being- the Library he knew and often visited. Once inside it was… He almost thought at first it reminded him of an old castle, with books and strange places of rough hewed wall like it had been carved out of a mountain. Stone work, shelves, littered with books but their contents half toppled onto the floor, arches, and well… missing walls that revealed that, no matter what door way he went through, where it seemed to lead it came out to different, islands, islands of books and strangeness. The sky at least was clear, a calm and clear blue that was rather at odds with the whispers that seemed omni present. And of course, there were the other sounds that rose, distant and eerie like the mood of a horror movie. There was a…chanting, some Gregorian toned rumble of mixed voices that he couldn’t quite understand. Between the whispers and the chanting though? Well… the screams. Distant but at the same time there was no mistaking what they were. Not ‘canned screams’ from movies that always had that artificial edge to them that belies any actual fear and contributes primarily volume. There was terror in those sounds, there was -pain, there was a complete casting aside of any last claim to dignity to articulate suffering - and it was somewhere in the… “Library.” He moved carefully picking up books and checking them, flipping pages to see if any seemed to be the right one, or one that might give him answers, because while the chants, and the screams were distant, he had no desire to find the cause of them… not really. Or at least that’s what he told himself. Part of him -did- want to know, because what if it was the -kids?- The group he didn’t consider himself part of, he was in college after all. He wanted answers, but he wasn’t sure how much he’d risk to get them if the situation got any stranger.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:14 pm
Jeremiah blinked, took a look around, and did that familiar motion. A heavy breath pulled in through his nose and then exhaled out of his mouth. Bloody ******** hell. This place was worse than the world outside of it. Nothing inside the building looked like it even belonged here but it seemed like nothing in other ashdown was right either. The chanting, the whispers, on the edge of his hearing as he stepped further in were enough to make a shiver go up his spine. It was the first true continuous noise he had heard since he had dropped into the place. Some part of him apparently still respected libraries (even if they were creepy, messed up, and clearly there was a sky visible past that wall) and he was loosening his holster to get to his shirt. The holster was set down a moment, his vest unbuttoned and then his shirt unbuttoned and finally his undershirt. All of them were taken off a moment, wrung out, and then slipped back on. The vest was left unbuttoned as he put his holster back on and finally moved in further. Jeremiah had not really spoken aloud much, not since his string of cursing after Sunny left, and had only called a few times for Zac hoping that he was in the places he looked. When he finally heard the distant screams, his mood darkened considerably. The sudden idea that the things he had not seen yet, the things at the edge of his vision and in the shadows, were lurking and hurting ... "Zac!" he bellowed, not even caring. Try him, TRY HIM. Jeremiah was done with this bullshit. If Zac was here, if Zac was in trouble, he would find him and he would save him.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:41 pm
He was flipping through some papers he’d gathered up - they had been scattered across the floor like leaves in the fall, terrible way to treat books, terrible way to treat anything that recorded things honestly, so he very nearly missed the call. He lifted his head though, blinking and unsure that he’d heard correctly, that he’d heard, if distantly it seemed, though thankfully not so distant as the screams, someone familiar. That sounded like… He nearly fell back into Last names, because it was Zac, that was what he -did, enforced civility even when it drove people a little crazy. But they had enough history that Zac actually stopped himself. “JEREMIAH?” He called, standing with the papers still clutched in his hand, he looked around, seeking out pockets of sky and chunks of wall with their door ways He’d come through… that door right? Or was it that one? Which one sounded more like it might bring him closer to the call of his own name? “JEREMIAH? Is that you?!” He called, lifting his chin to make the call to give clarity, though a thrill of fear ran up and down his spine with the horror movie knowledge that this might -not- be the Detective he knew so well.
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Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2016 9:03 pm
Jeremiah called another another time, traversing through the first door. When it lead him to another disjointed, seemingly unconnected area, and another set of doors he huffed. This was an entirely new level of bullshit.
He was about to turn right back around when he thought he heard something. The detective paused and closed his eyes to really listen and he heard it again. That voice! That was Zac! His chest twisted, heart picking up speed, and he called out, "Yes!"
Please let this actually be Zac and not something else. Realistically with what little he knew about other ashdown this could be one of the things that he swore were in the shadows.
"Where are you?!" Jeremiah slipped into that loud tone of voice, the one that always got attention good or bad, to make sure he was clearly heard. There were two paths in the room he was in, part of the room's floor disappearing into an endless abyss. The detective had to jump over a small part of it to reach the ledge with the door. He rocked on his heels a moment and pulled the door open to go through as it was the direction Zac's voice was coming from.
Or so he assumed.
For now he was not even paying attention to any of the books, the oddness of the other ashdown library, and simply focused on finding Zac. endejester cue next room making zac sound further away to him but jeremiah closer to zac
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 5:31 pm
“JEREMIAH?” He called again, having stepped into a new room, now the man sounded closer, and yet he didn’t see him. He also found he wasn’t sure he could tell if He’d been in this particular room before or not. He decided to try to make a small pile of neatly stacked papers… that way perhaps he could tell if he’d been in a room before or not. “JEREMIAH! If that’s you… Don’t move!! I’ll try and get to you!” He called. “YOU SOUND CLOSER” He added after he paused to listen for his name again. The question was though… how had Jeremiah ended up here, had he asked questions too? Or… he pushed the thought aside, if he started questioning time he’d start thinking of this place like a fairy mound. He did at least have a thought while he was moving, two heads were better than one right? “Did you see any graffiti!?” He called.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 5:48 pm
Jeremiah had moved to another room, Zac's voice sounding further away than before. Hearing him call out if that's you made him smirk. Zac was, in some cases, just as cynical as he was.
"I'll stay put!" he called back. "You sound further away to me!" Honestly he chalked it up to the weird nature of the library (and other ashdown and questions to wonder later once they found each other) that to Zac he sounded closer. After all it was bright and sunny in here, an endless blue sky visible and no rain. It was, of all things, helping dry out his clothing.
He was glancing around the room, half of the room fallen into disrepair and illuminated by flickering candles. There were books everywhere, filled shelf upon filled shelf. "I don't see anyth -" he started, then stopped. There, in the corner of the room and barely illuminated, was a strange bit of graffiti. "Yes!"
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 5:55 pm
“What’s it look like?” He called. He frowned at the fact he sounded further to Jeremiah - he personally thought that his old friend sounded closer. He stood for a long moment studying the room, turning back towards where he had come from to shift his perspective till he thought he might have a good guess as to the way back from where he’d come in, he wasn’t sure if it was.. he also wasn’t sure his ears weren’t playing tricks but he made for the next door. “I Kept seeing one design over and over.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 6:16 pm
"Ah, one moment!" Jeremiah was moving in the room, fingers grabbing at one of the candles and then hissing when wax hit his finger but moved on anyway. Why was this corner so dark? "A sword with a crown above it and stars around the hilt."
Was this ... It was the same design he had seen out on the streets. Jeremiah knew he had seen it in other places already. "I saw this outside as well!" Then as he thought about it. "I only moved through two doors when after hearing you, Zac! East, then north!"
Not that that may have meant anything or that those directions would help. Jeremiah did not have a compass on him that would confirm that north was a thing this place abided by.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 6:34 pm
“I, not a-hundred percent sure that the rooms work that logically!” He called back. Still it was worth a shot. “Ah… Keep talking, Any ideas what it might mean? I haven’t found enough clues yet to build a case!” he called, he grinned a little when he said it, heralding back to older times, sitting and waiting for clues that never came till he asked, and asked the right questions. He hesitated, stacked papers, made for another door, calculated, almost changed his mind then went through.
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 7:17 pm
"This place doesn't work logically!" Jeremiah shouted and then let out a snort. It was true. This library was further proof of that. It was clear skies here when he knew for a fact it was always raining outside.
Always.
His lips twitched upwards at the next question. Just like old times. Though he would have preferred better circumstances. "Not at the moment! There did not seem to be any pattern that I noticed the few times I saw it outside!" It had just been another idle thing to note down, to write down when he got a chance.
Thinking about it, Jeremiah went and opened both of the doors in the room he was in. So far it did sound like Zac was getting closer and it was making him want to go charging off to find him. Yet he had said he would stay, so he did. There were few people that Jeremiah would give that regard to, Algie was one and Zac was the other and both only because of the years they had been known.
"Look for open doors! I've got the ones to where I am open!"
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 8:48 am
“Did… Sunny get you here too?” He called. “Did she uh…did she mention how to get back at all?” It would at least be nice to not … not be alone with the unknown chants and the eerie screams, if it WAS Jeremiah. To be fair though he wasn’t sure the outside with its constant rain was any better of a trade off though. More an impulse than anything else he grabbed a book and tucked it, blindly into his shoulder bag before continuing. “Good idea with the doors!!” He added. “Did you -see- anyone else though? I haven’t seen anyone, especially not outside!”
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 9:19 am
"Something like that! I'll explain when we meet up!" Jeremiah really did not want to have to yell everything out. The library really got his hackles up but it was in a different way than the other ashdown that was outside. The detective was standing between the doors, eyes glancing back and forth to see if he saw any movement - an eye kept out for Zac. That was when he saw it, that familiar streak of purple and blue braided together. The young man was in the room next to him but did not seem to see him. "Zac!" Jeremiah moved quick for the door, stepping into the next room and blinking when the lighting seemed to change. The door had been in a dark corner and when he looked behind himself he could barely see where he had come from. The silver-haired man looked relieved, lips twitching upwards into a small smile, and an arm reaching out for Zac to catch him before he moved on to another room. "No," he said - finally not having to yell - "I've not seen anyone else here. Just you and me. You're who I was looking for right now anyway." Now he had found him.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 11:21 am
Zac started when Jeremiah seemed to suddenly appear, almost tumbling back over his own feet but relaxing slightly as he glanced the man over. Stern face, smattering of white cat hairs that he had a good idea where they had come from. “This place is… really strange.’ He said shaking his head and gazing around with wide blue eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck in a classic apology gesture he’d had since they first met. “Not just the library…I mean, it’s… weird in it’s own way but the shadows, the…Graffiti, the rain.” He hesitated then, having said what he wanted to, to process what Jeremiah had said. “Sorry.” He said, more official than the motion of his hand. “Didn’t mean to worry you. I just wanted answers about the kids. I thought I was getting somewhere.”
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 1:22 pm
Jeremiah snorted but nodded at the fact that it was strange. "This place is ... other ashdown," he had dreamed of it and was now stuck in it, "and weird is an understatement." There had been an entire speech in his head, one that would have likely involved a raised voice and very sternly talking to Zac. Instead he caught the moving hand, his fingers briefly gripping as if in a shake and two pressed to Zac's pulse. Strong, a little fast, but steady. Real. Then he was pulling the young man into a brief hug. "I'll spare you the lectures for now," he said, "but answers come with costs and ..." Jeremiah paused, hands resting on Zac's shoulders and looking at him seriously a moment. "Did you make any deals with Sunny?" He needed to know because it was bad enough he had something on the line, that Algie possibly did as well. Please do not be like them, Zac, be the smart one.
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