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"The cliffs by the sea," said Liam to Juniper, almost reflexively. His shock had washed away his pretenses, it would seem. "In Waite State Forest," he clarified. "She would... she would go climbing there. When we were young together."

And more recently... He'd seen her there. She'd climbed...

He'd left.

And the firefighter had found her ring. A ring that hadn't ever existed inside the cage.

"It's late," he said, not looking at the clock. (It was barely after 10 PM.)

Something seemed to be bothering Liam. What was it? He had quite easily just told them something and didn't bother with his little 'game' of mixing up names. Perhaps he was seriously being affected by this and not just playing around with them? Eyes shifted to the clock. 10pm was still incredibly early for Halloween night.

Juniper turned back to Temperance and the Spirit. "OK. So..."She paused trying to figure out what she wanted to ask. Who knew how long this was going to keep happening. "Is there something happening at these cliffs that we need to be aware of? Something....bad, perhaps?"

Shun furrowed his brow and folded his arms over his chest. If it was just a hole in the world then... that could very well mean that Ashdown was crumbling. It could be something else as well, but that was his first thought.

Honestly, he wasn't sure how he felt about what that entailed, especially if the town really was a piece of the Enemy.

Looking between the newly possessed, and Liam, he asked, "Do you mean it is too late for Ashdown?"

Temperance gasped as Vivien left her. It was.. kind of a strange feeling, something uncomfortable but not unbearable.

"Where does-" she breathed deeply again. "Where does the hole go, Vivien? What do we need to do?" If there was a hole in this world, it meant here... of all places, this normal-esque world was the 'cage'. Was other Ashdown the real world - was something like the concept of a 'real world' even applicable here?

"Professor Noor, do not pretend that you had nothing to do with the death of Adoelle," she said, her voice hard.

Zac frowned for a moment. Was it possible that this was an example of ‘be careful what you wish for on Liam’s part, though the likelihood that anything more than vagaries and denial would come of such a question left him sitting on his hands as it were.


“Goodness, it’s almost like people assumed killing someone rather than trying to get them home because a suicidal girl trapped in a strange place said it was for the best. I mean clearly she was in the prefect place to make that kind of call.

Besides, it won’t be the first time people assumed that what they could just do things without consequences, would it.”

That last line delivered with a pointed stare at Liam.

“Or the first time people tried to pretend they didn’t have anything to do with it. Like maybe, maybe being part of the reason there was a cage in the first place."

He wasn’t remotely in the habit of snapping, but this whole ridiculous line of conversation.

“Vivian, the collapse may be inevitable, but is there anything we can do?”

This was a bit of a painful reminder of just who he was surrounded by. As much as he didn't like the means of getting it done, he really did think that the cage needed to be destroyed. He even played his own role in bringing it down. There may have been another way of going about all of it, but finding those means before they had to go down this path was a failure on everyone's part.

Shun drew in a deep breath.

"How about we focus on what we can do from here? Zac poses a good question. What can we do to prepare at this point?"

Shun caught that glance from Juniper/Vivien. He didn't like that look.

When the spirit jumped over to Zac this time, he furrowed his brow.

"Tomorrow? What the hell is happening tomorrow?"

Liam's breath caught somewhere in his chest. He turned towards Zac, his lips drawn tight.

There was no point in repeating what the others had just said, so he didn't - but he didn't look happy. Not at all.