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Chris took her hand, and whoops, Autumn had been so wrapped up in the metaphor of this crazy a** world she'd forgotten handsome here. She smiled blearily at him, and lord, wasn't it funny how you could be tired in a dream? Whatever. She wasn't going to question having a loyal man for once in her life manifest so nicely in a dream. Even if the dream was ******** terrible. As a show of camaraderie, she bumped her shoulder with his arm (damn he was tall), but paused at the question.

"The hell do you mean am I happy here? Hell no I'm not, I wann- wait. Oh. You're talking to Heliodora, my bad. Not all about you, Autumn." She muttered the last to herself, ducking her head in embarrassment.

"My bad, guys."

The shoulder bump was nice, comforting. Solid. Chris gave back a rather tired smile and jeeze, he wasn't the only one worn down was he? Autumn's makeup still looked good though so he had to give props to her for that, since he knew he looked like something akin to a drowned rat. And god, his shoes had to be absolutely ruined. What a lovely day, for sure.

He blinked in surprise at Autumn's sudden reply and then barked out a laugh, a larger smile splitting his face. "Autumn, don't change. I owe you a drink somewhere, for sure," He managed to get out between bits of laughter.

Moonstone Dazzle

Autumn a+ mood reader

Why was everyone fighting, someone - Asiya - asked. Erin glanced between all of them, Pax, Jeremiah, apparently Heliodora who was clearly missing her foot, the smol... thing, then there was rain and then distinctly nothing and Erin squeezed her eyes shut until the yelling stopped.

People fought because personalities clashed and it all went down hill from there. She shivered and leaned closer to Asiya for warmth.

".. Heliodora... are you... dead? Are... we dead?" she asked the footless woman. It's the only thing that made a lick of sense. Everyone had to be dead, and this was some sort of limbo state and they'd pass on into the next after this.

Contemplating the idea that magic was real, that this was real, was too much for her.

Jeremiah's free hand moved to rub at his face a moment. While he wanted to argue, to point out that she's been gone a little over a month ... The place where here foot was cut from her body was completely healed.

That a great deal of time had passed. For Heliodora.

The detective merely nodded at her answer, free hand going back to his side. (Do not touch your back, Jeremiah. His leg twinged a bit in pain and he glanced down to notice part of the back of his pant leg was gone, the hair burned away and that was going to be so damn annoying when it grew back.) His mouth opened to ask another question but Sunny waylaid him, his other hand still on her even as she leaned.

"At this point?" he sighed. "I think I owe you one." The words were quiet and he tilted his head slightly towards her. Not entirely sure that he was happy with that but it was the truth. If Sunny had not intervened he likely would have been burned alive.

-IT- there it was again that word, like an ominous title - and then… drenched. Absolutely horribly -soaked. Mogget squirming inside his shirt with a startled yowl, claws catching like sand paper and needles into his skin and he clutches at the little feline that now struggles to crawl into the damp confines of his hoodie, for safety where nothing dry can be found and strange creatures howl to the heavens.

THe..colors he sees there in the ice on Heliodora’s shoulder. The declaration that this was…her domain. Did that mean something close enough to home?

Rabbit’s outburst, the water, his head spun and he wanted to yell at them, because it seemed like so many were ignoring what he’d said not a few minutes before. That a life was on the line. Likely more than one but a life, that was selfishly important to him. Though god he was mad as ….well, a wet hen right now, not just at the situation but SO much at Jeremiah, and Sunny, and given his age perhaps at the whole world, or this other imitation of it.

He shook what was left of his Umbrella and glanced at the young woman in the headscarf.
“Some Bickering at least, because Sunny apparently wants to kill the Detective if he doesn’t get -all- the kids home, which isn’t going to work because Heliodora is I guess protecting them from an -It- we don’t have answers on.” He shook his head and then offered a thin smile at Autumn with a nod.

“And frankly, I’m hoping Sunny will take a hint, and not kill him because I’m hoping this qualifies as -enough- of a home Because it would be sort of -s**t- to stick someone on a task she might have known couldn’t be completed just so she could have some…tasty heart meats or whatever the goal is there.” he grumbled.

He hesitated a moment and then offered what remained of his Umbrella to Autumn - scolding the tremendous and terrifying thing called Pax the way she was, the way she’d been this whole affair he rather thought she deserved it more than most of them.

“Wish I’d offered this before, but…yeah, I doubt we’ve seen the last of the rain.”

he turned then to Erin.

“No I don’t think we’re dead…some people here just… made deals to -get- dead apparently.” He cast a dirty look at Jeremiah, as much frustration as anything else.

He bit back what he wanted to say on a few things, what after all was the point. People were -people-, and little could change that that he was aware of.

“Hey Sunny… “ He said glancing her way.

“You asked before what I had to offer. Before he does anything… ELSE.” He said cutting off what was probably a much ruder word.
“Pax here mentioned ‘It’, but that’s not the first time that word came up here. I… we saw something in the Library, I think you might have a clue what cause it seemed, related to you.”

He chose his words carefully, there was no reason to escalate anything if he could avoid it after all.

“…So I think, whatever -It- is, that has Pax scared, that maybe has more than Pax scared, or worried.” He fumbled with the words, troublesome phrases that tripped over each other in his head as he tried his best to be as ‘clever’ as the characters in books and fables.

“… I think if Heliodora can help Pax, maybe I can help you… maybe she’s just that much cooler, kind of like Autumn here, who seems to be the best of us. But short of being…well, let’s just say I’d call it pretty stupid to kill your probable ALIES, so short of just adding more bodies to the pile I’ll help. I’ll do what I can, I’ll help you get as many kids out of here as we can, if there’s somewhere you can’t go but I can, we’ll plan around that….and I’ll do my best.”

He ran a hand through his hair and gave a frustrated sigh.

“I’m s**t at this ok?” He said in a sudden outburst at the end.

His questions had, after all gone unanswered in the last outburst, there was -whispering- between Sunny and Jeremiah again, Jeremiah had nearly been burned alive, and it was just…

he fumbled for a word but all his teenage mind was willing to produce at that time was.

“Stupid”.

Score one for hormones and petulance, just what they needed more of right now, he thought sarcastically to himself.
“Look just… I’m offering that if you will PLEASE not threaten to kill him, now, in the future… and we can talk about additional favors if you agree to the same for the others. I’m not saying…save us from our own stupidity, I think if we’re going to get killed let Darwin handle it, but if I can make a deal with you to remove ONE shark from the tank I’m willing to head to the table.”

One last glance to Heliodora.
"And...I still want to know, if you'd consider this home."

Things were happening so fast it was making Tory's head spin. A strange new clearing when he opened his eyes, and the girl Heliodora (who looked fine, at peace actually) and another dark haired girl he was absolutely sure he'd seen before, and a fuzzy little thing, and another girl with a cat (so many cats! He wanted to pet them all)… then Pax got mad, there was fire around the detective Jeremiah, and Rabbit was yelling and the dark girl was yelling and there was so much yelling and then a lot of water…

And then things seemed to settle down, thankfully, particularly with Pax. Tory wasn't sure what was going on -- the detective had said something about taking Heliodora home, freeing her from her cage, but this sure seemed to be her home now, and that must have been what set Pax off.

Shifting closer to his two companions, he put an arm around Rabbit's shoulders. "Easy does it, man," he said, keeping his voice low. "I'm sure things will work themselves out. Look, see, Pax is already calmer. That little fuzzy thing too."

He then turned to Brie. "I don't know. It sure feels like a dream, doesn't it?" Like one of those strange vivid dreams he'd been having lately. Now he wasn't so sure they were dreams… "It doesn't feel bad or dangerous, though, you know?"

Jeremiah had missed what Zac said during the parts where he was trying to not be barbecue, his mind more focused on water than anything else (that magic, that had been him, hadn't it? Sunny had helped, he knew it, but the beginning of it was him and wasn't that a thought).

"This isn't a dream," he said aloud, still next to Sunny because at the moment he was not moving. Heliodora had calmed the situation down but he did not trust the slenderdeer. "If anyone thinks it is. This is real." The detective had wanted to say that for a while.

Leila's question was a good one, one he wanted the know the answer too. There was no need for him to ask more questions. Not when others asked things he wanted to know. Zac, though ...

"Zac. I don't think Sunny wants to kill me." A side-eye glance to the not-really-a-young-woman next to him. "She helped me." Not really able to explain the entire water and magic and wow everyone was soaked. "You've got the right questions, though ..." About it, and was Heliodora protecting this place? This demesne? There was something bigger than this, something that this was all about and part of him was goddamn tired of all the questions without answers.

"But." Stern blue-green eyes focused on Zac. "I don't need deals made for my life. It's my deal, my heart, my life. If I need to make another to get out of it then I will but nothing is ever simple with Sunny." He sighed, rubbed at the side of his neck and then shrugged his shoulders (which had him hissing because that hurt; back definitely burnt).

"Not for me, Zac. Not for anyone. Not for everyone. You can't take all of that on your own shoulders." He snorted. "We look out for each other, equally."

Jeremiah glanced to Sunny and then to Heliodora and back. "... but you should answer some of those questions, if you could. So that Zac doesn't think I'm going to be short an internal organ."

Then later. There would be some hugs. Some serious hugs because for all that Zac was clearly NOT happy with him, Zac was his son and he was a little not thrilled with the idea of him making a deal for his life (but also because he cared enough to do this).

Also. Algie was still going to ******** kill him. He was just lucky because Algie would likely wait until they were alone to let him have it.

Soaked to the bone, Algie still clutched the book to his chest like a lifeline and only hoped that the brief rush of water had been quick enough that it only recieved a dousing. His umbrella, partially bent in from the torrent, he'd spent a moment popping back out and folding up.

"Zac-" The young man got Algie behind him, fingers curling around his shoulder. "She's right-" at least about not being some fairy tale godmother or genie, "It's better you don't."

His own deals still hung over his head, the agreement to take responsibility for what they learned and discovered. He wondered how that may translate, and if his end of the bargain had even been held up.

He glanced around to those present, to those that weren't Jeremiah or Zac- people who were dragged here unawares. "She told us the kids were taken. Told us they were being held here. They were stolen by some thing and that this place was nothing more than a cage. That they had to be found and brought home. Can you understand our skepticism? How can you all so blindly trust-" He waved a hand to both Sunny and Pax and Smol, "Creatures... and things who only offer information for shifty deals in return?"

Yes he'd believed Sunny, but seeing her now and listening to her, this all seemed to be a Catch-22. The kids needed to return home- but Heliodora refused and said she needed to stay. Were they to kidnap her back? Was this where they were being led?

"Isn't this all very very convenient?" To be led by mysterious voice right to where Heliodora was, where she was sitting like the Maiden and the Unicorn, with creatures that clearly were and could be a threat to them all??