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 Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:09 pm
He made the briefest glance at the curious hand shake, he honestly looked relieved that it happened, such a strange quirk it seemed unlikely that this could be some artificial 'Detective-dad' - because in truth the idea that that familiar brush and press might happen had utterly slipped his mind. It was more reassuring than the hug perhaps. "I gave her smokes, she answered questions, I went back to her a few times because she had answers." He shook his head. "Then I ....she sorta, I mean I bothered her too many times, You must have met her to get here...so you must know that trying to get her to answer questions is like trying to... nail an un-packaged cube of jello to a tree." The fact that Zac was specific about -un- packaged jello, may or may not have related to a personal project of his to establish that it could be done, much to the irritation of a few people he may, or may not have made a bet with. "... you ah... did you?" He said suddenly, frowning with a serious expression that matched Jeremiah's own rather well, maybe too well.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:40 pm
Jeremiah snorted at hearing that particular phrase. Zac had been trying that - trying to prove that - for a good while. He honestly assumed the young man would be able to pull it off. It was just another reassurance that this was definitely Zac and not some thing that lived here.
"The kids," Zac - despite being young - was not considered a kid, not to Jeremiah, "asked too many question, got themselves in too deep with this and that's why they disappeared. They're here somewhere. Sunny thought she was helping by trying to hide you here."
The detective sighed, fingers raking through hair that was now dry thankfully. "I did make a deal but nothing I hadn't planned on doing. I promised I would rescue the kids that were missing. When she hid you here from whatever it is," Zac probably did not know about that, the mysterious it, not so much, not the way it scared Sunny, "and she couldn't find you ..." Zac hadn't been where she had left him and then his chip was called. At least things made sense now. Kind of. "She cashed in her deal with me."
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 6:55 pm
Zac gave him the same stare down look that he'd given the man...some eight years ago. "What happens if WE can't save the kids then? Cause... it seems like we're in this together weather you wanted to let me in on it or not." He shook his head as though he could rattle pieces into place, rubbing a finger against the side of his nose the way he did when they played chess over steaming cups of tea. "... She sent me to... a rainy 'other' Ashdown beach, to...hide me? Did she hide the kids too? Is the... is the problem the questions? Because honestly she -makes- questions." He tipped his head back towards the ceiling where it existed, towards the sky where it peeked through. "So does she owe you one now? I'm not one of the Kid's." He offered a quirk of a smile. "Unless questions is the qualification in which case, we're all S.O.L."
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 7:45 pm
Jeremiah matched him stare for stare, much the same way he had then. Except this time he did not really crouch down to be on the same level with him anymore. "We both know that active unsolved cases are a no-go for any of the stuff I give you to look at." There was a long standing tradition of old solved cases for Zac to work over, to figure out, with as little details or as many as he wanted and asked for. "However," he sighed, "as we are both here and you're involved ..."
Zac was fixed with a stare. "You are working it with me. So was Alg, to be honest, but he's not here." Which was a problem because now he thought about. Algie would find his phone, his car with the keys still in the ignition. His lips pressed into a thin line a frown appearing. It was pushed away for the moment, Jeremiah focusing on what was at hand. At least there was no need to go over with Zac about listening to him. Zac had always been good at following instructions (and breaking them when appropriate but that was beside the point; Jeremiah was the same way).
Jeremiah snorted. "Oh, no, she definitely owes me one. You're not some kid that got taken, you're someone she lost. The kids she showed things, like she showed me, and they started looking into things, found out who knows what, and that," he took a breath, because in all honesty he had put himself on the same path as the kids, that his being here was inevitable but Sunny had moved up the time tables, "that is what got them taken. By something."
Then, because it was necessary to say, Jeremiah added, "She's not human, Zac. She looks it but she's not. This place? other ashdown? Whatever it is? It's a cage - that's what she told Alg - and there's something here that scares Sunny. That, I think, is what has the kids."
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 6:54 am
“We both know it’s not a normal case.” he said firmly. “Maybe for once an extra set of eyes will help.” He said, though the second part of his thought was softer. Algie… cripes, he hoped Mogget was with him, he hoped the Book Seller was alright. Sentiment wasn’t something that he liked to admit to openly, but even with so much less time having known the man, he DID understand how much he meant to Jeremiah, even if Jeremiah did little more than exchange long glances. “I’m also… not -really- lost she just dropped me on a rainy as hell beach and there is only so long anyone in their right mind is going to stand there.” “… You know she’s never going to pay up either. I don’t think she thinks that way… I don’t know.. she feels, younger than me sometimes, and older too…” He ran a hand through his hair, missing the would be tangle of the braid with years of experience and let out a low breath. “… too many questions.” he sighed. “What is going ON with this town?… or…THESE Towns?”
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 11:32 am
"Probably need all the eyes we can get," Jeremiah admitted, fingers scratching through his hair and then moving to roll up his sleeves. The warm air and clear sky that was part of this odd library had done a solid job of drying him out. "I'll likely play hell trying to get her to pay up but ..." The detective was stubborn enough to do so. He also knew enough, read enough of Algie's books, that when it came to things like this? You needed to make the point that you were owed. "It's more questions than answers," the man was in agreement, "and it looks like you found a place that might have some answers about both towns." Jeremiah glanced around to the room they were in. "Even if it apparently can't be navigated easily." Then because he thought about it. "Sunny implied she's older than me and while I believe, she's got the maturity of a fourteen year old." His hand rested on Zac's shoulder a moment, squeezing briefly, before he thought about something. "This will sound odd - or not, things considered - but ... apparently by being here? By being part of this train wreck? We may have, ah, powers." This sounded stupid but he wasn't sure that Zac knew that.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 12:25 pm
Zac Bit at his thumb, a small frown creasing his brows as he took in the words. “Powers.” He repeated and then added carefully. “… Another question for her then…” He said and let his hand drop. He opened his satchel and brought out his book from one of the other rooms, flipping pages just to see if it looked like it might say anything interesting. “…. There are, there are a lot of these, some are torn apart, its kind of in ruins. It makes me wonder if its the…heart of the cage or something. But at the same time it’s so different from the outside.” He frowned around. It might have answers but I think we might be looking for a long time, maybe longer than it will take to find those kids. I really… I hope they aren’t the screams, but I kinda hope they aren’t the chants either, both are pretty creepy.”
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 12:49 pm
As the pages flipped, something began to form in the air around them. It wasn't so much an image as some kind of... memory... that, in that moment, Jeremiah and Zac were both sharing. In the strange, fuzzy-edged space, Sunny is sitting on the shore where she'd left each of them, alone. In the distance, an unbroken line of trees stretches; there is no breakwater, no Lehigh Street, no houses. It's wilderness as far as the eye can see, with only flickering light in the distance, and the glow of Sunny's unmistakably modern cigarette. There is a baying of hounds somewhere nearby. Sunny jumps to her feet and runs, a panicked look back the only indicator of her mood. The memory ends.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 1:36 pm
"I don't know that asking her about powers would do us any good. I spoke to someone, Aleksy, and he said that they come as being part of this. Like a natural progression. No telling what they are until you figure it out. He, ah ..." Jeremiah made a face because despite everything this was still ridiculous, incredulous to say even if he believed it. "He can pour coffee from an empty pot and tell who's seen and been to here. We look different to him apparently." Whatever other response he meant to say, whatever it had been was lost to the flipping pages and the sudden scene that played itself out. Jeremiah wasn't quite sure what it was but the image of Sunny panicked in his mind left him unsettled. He blinked once, then again, blue-green eyes glancing down at Zac, noticing a similar look on his face. "You saw that too?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 1:49 pm
Zac shuddered, head to toe shudder “That was… that was very…” He said staring at the book. “Yeah… I saw that.” He said almost a whisper before he raised pale eyes back to Jeremiah. “I… wonder if they all do that.” He shuddered again thinking and then frowned down at the book. “…You don’t think they could actually be, I mean this place is strange enough that…” The thoughts tumbled out half finished one after the other before he gave them a moment to find endings and meaning. “… I mean, she can send people -here-, maybe her idea of a diary is…uh.. this.” He hefted the book carefully and glanced back. “Un…less that was one of us doing that…power thing, in which case I sort of hope not, that’s a lot creepier than coffee from an empty pot.” He bit at his thumb again and glanced around the room, eyes coming to rest on a shelf with more books on it. “Should we?” He asked cautiously, though to be fair he was more than half inclined to try.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 4:06 pm
"I don't think it's me, I mean ..." Jeremiah rolled his eyes with a snort and glanced at Zac. "While intelligent, books are you and Alg, not myself." Not that he wasn't well read but Jeremiah did not surround himself with books or rely on them when it came to finding things out. He sought out answers in the world itself, books only after the world did not offer what it could. So if anyone had a power with books it would have been Algie or Zac. Moral of the story there. His lips pressed together, body turning towards one of the not so ruined shelves of books. "It's very possible," he admitted, following Zac's line of thought. "For an immortal teenager to have made a place like this that is her own jumbled diary after everything else? It wouldn't be surprising." Jeremiah's face, as usual, was mostly neutral. It was his eyes that usually gave him away, just a slight narrowing or relaxing depending on the situation. He was running over the odds in his mind. Whether or not it was a good thing to try this again. It was something and better than the nothing they had. "Might as well," he finally said with a short nod of his head. In quick, short strides he plucked a book from the shelf and brought it over to look through with Zac. It was mostly ruined, the backing falling apart, but there were a few pages it looked like that were legible as he flipped through it. shibrogane heeeeey, these two curious guys wanna know if it'll happen again.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 5:02 pm
It was the same thing, a full-sensory experience. Their lungs burned: they were running, running, running with an overwhelming desperation. Whatever was following them, it was something terrifying. The worst thing that could ever happen, if the fear was any indication. Then it was over.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 5:44 pm
Zac placed his hand over the book, swallowing hard against the feeling of fear that still lingered like a white noise. He wondered if it related to what was locked away…or whatever it was had been enough to scare ‘Sunny’ whenever that had been…since ‘where ever’ had not really been a question. “RIGHT….” He said looking troubled. “If I ever suggest that again, please tell me to put the book DOWN.” he said firmly and carefully took it and put it on the ground as though it might jump up and start snapping at their ankles like one of Hagrid’s books in the Harry Potter series. “Those could be really dangerous, imagine if she got hurt in one.” he said quietly. He blinked and shook his head slightly. “Uh…so… do we go….back to the beach and check in with Sunny or do we… see what else we can find that might ACTUALLY give us hints towards the location of missing kids?”
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 6:22 pm
Jeremiah was still, his eyes closed and his breathing ragged as he caught it. His lungs were burning and the sense of fear was a different taste in his mouth than the nightmares he had of losing Algie to the sea.
"Sounds like a plan," he said, voice a little hoarse. The older man crouched a moment, arms balanced on his thighs as he eased his facing heart. "If we're out of breath and ..." A hand flicked upwards and through the air to reference the fear. "An actual injury would likely hurt us both."
A moment later, breathing evened out and the fear put back into place, Jeremiah glanced up at Zac. "There's no point. If I found the kids, maybe, but I think we're until we either find a way out or we find the kids." He remained crouched, eyes glancing towards one of the strange graffiti markings and then back to Zac. "I wanted to go check out Rider-Waite here, actually. See if there's something there." The kids that went missing had ties there.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:00 pm
“Want me to go with you? Or should i try some of the papers? they might be safer than the books?” He glanced around the library. “Don’t think I’ll be wandering much, it’s too hard to get back. “I wish this place felt like… like I don’t know… like it made sense.” He sighed. You’d think it would be easier to… to find PEOPLE in here.” “I feel like the markings are -something- but… if the answers aren’t in here, I mean they might be but, its not like this place is… indexed that I can tell.”
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