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 Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 9:21 am
"We're buying so many waffles," Thorne agreed. He let Alexis hold on for as long as they needed because the touch rendered him grounded as well. And if he didn't ground himself or he was going to vomit again. If he closed his eyes he still saw his hands gashed and bleeding, on the verge of being rendered useless. "All the ******** waffles in Ashdown." He was about to answer Alexis when someone else spoke and his head shot up, violently. Turning, his voice crackled out, a sharp bolt like lightning. " Aleksy?" He paused when the guy from before showed up, his eyes flickering to him even though he was still reeling from the fact that Aleksy was here ( what the ********, what the ********>) and managed to choke out, "******** tell me about it," at Algie.
But then he saw Leila. And then his mind went blank, and then back to her death, and then he nearly vomited again before managing to stumble over and look down at her because holy s**t, wasn't she supposed to be dead?
His mouth worked and finally he said, "You're alive." It was half a question, half a tremor of relief. And then he said, "********, you're alive. Thank god? Thank god. I'm - " He paused. "There will be - the longest ******** apology from me in the world - when this is over. I swear to god."
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 10:20 am
"No horrible eye-monster," Aleksy informed Alexis. "Horrible Jeremiah snake, but a comprehensible one, so: much less terrifying." He held up his key, retrieved from shards of snakey skull, and crossed the space to reach out gingerly to touch Thorne on his moving tattoos. "Are you alright?" He said it brusquely but with kind intent. "You look ********. In a negative way."
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 10:46 am
Thorne shuddered and leaned into the touch. Aleksy was a welcome sight in all the wrong ways. After what he'd seen in the basement, done in the basement, he felt sick to see him here. What if this damn house had it out for Aleksy too? "That's a gentle way of putting it," he rumbled, "I've seen enough to know that whatever the <********> this is, it doesn't like me. It really - doesn't like me." He shook his head and closed his eyes, exhaling sharply at the other question. "And that doesn't matter. Are you alright?" He opened them again and looked at Aleksy, searching him for signs of damage. "At least you're still in one piece."
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 10:47 am
Algie touched his forehead a moment, not wanting to really know what a 'horrible Jeremiah snake' was. It seemed like all the monsters were taking the forms of people, the ink creature in the maze looking like Zac and some snake apparently looking like Jeremiah. Algie finally pushed himself up and rose to his feet with a grunt of effort as he adjusted his bag. "Something is screwing us around." He remained, as ever, a bit angry about the whole thing. "A ghost that looks like Autumn is sending us on fools errands to our deaths.. we're collecting keys on the word of---?" Same ghost? Who looked like Autumn but not much else. Even the house didn't have the woman's sense of flair. Besides the monsters looking like people she knew there was nothing like Autumn that he'd seen in this whole place. Which meant it all belonged to whatever was keeping her. Her face plastered everywhere just seemed another form of maneuvering them. "Besides there's mind bending mushrooms growing in the green house-" Or something close. He'd seen their details in the books, on the ways they messed with emotions. On top of the ******** that is Other Ashdown he didn't like the idea of being manipulated more so than he was already aware. speaking aloud to the room
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 11:03 am
Leila looked forlornly at Thorne, relaxing a bit at the acknowledgement she was, indeed, truly alive, but still incredibly shaken. "No, I'm sorry, I-- I ******** everything up for you guys, and Zac..." She remained silent for another moment, then briefly looked to Algernon. "So... should we be doing something else now? Look around more, maybe?" There was likely more to solving the puzzles of this place than simply getting all the keys, if he was thinking on the right track. talkin 2 every1 in second paragraph
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 11:36 am
"How many keys do we still need?" Thorne forced himself to ask the group at large, flipping his own up into view. "I'd rather finish this sooner rather than later. I've had enough of this <********> to last a lifetime." He thought of his hands, the spider, the voices, and his mouth felt metallic when he bit sharply into the inside of his cheek. His eyes fell to Leila. He shook his head, swallowing bile at the remembrance of the basement. Her death. His. "It's not your fault. We'll - we'll get out of this. And then we'll talk." He glanced back at the rest of them. "The only way out is - on? Up?" God, he was so <******** class="quote"> literally everyone hello
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 12:24 pm
"Jeremiah's got a key-" In the maze. There was a disgusting pit in his stomach at the memory, and the reminder that his spouse was stuck there in that sick situation. Turning to Leila, Algie adjusted his glasses, "I think perhaps we should look around more. Where haven't we been? And where have we been told not to go? You can't tell me that Autumn's sad face staring down at us like grocery checkout sad-eye dogs isn't a bit emotionally manipulative?" Besides he was fairly sure if Autumn had a portrait it would totally be on fleek. Not that he could ever say the words ON FLEEK. The universe would collapse in on itself.
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 1:12 pm
"As you see me," said Aleksy. His shoes were soda-soaked, but that was surmountable. It didn't matter in the long run. "It matters to me," he said, his tone turning ever so slightly possessive. Thorne was his friend. Harm to him was harm done to Aleksy's own self. But the description of the horrors the garden group had faced... Aleksy covered his mouth to hide a smirk that was threatening to grow into a fullblown smile. "So you see things here as I see things out there," he said, a hysterical note entering his voice. "How ******** delightful!"
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 1:45 pm
Thorne huffed, and it was an animal sound. "I suppose I'll take what I can get. You're alive that matters." He pressed his hand to the side of his neck, eyes flicking to Aleksy. "That matters." As though the words were enough to reaffirm inside of him the truth that his tiny redhead florist was - was alive. And that was something. That had to mean something. "Well," he added, his voice hissing and low, "I just had to handle an oversized spider that ate two people while talking to me in my fathers voice - " His tone was flat with disgust and anger, but he shook his head and bit his tongue. "So I'm alive, I guess. But alright? That comes later." And then Aleksy - was laughing. Hysterical. He spoke to one of the others but Thorne didn't pay much attention to them. All he did was reach out, fingers brushing against the others arm. "Aleksy," he said, and there was a question there that he didn't say out loud. What the hell has this place done to you?
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 2:20 pm
"Spektor -" and again, louder - " Spektor. Breathe." Alexis looked just a tad panicked: they didn't quite know how to deal with other people's fits, other people's panic attacks. They could barely deal with their own! "As you see things out there -- what the hell do we look like to you?" Breathe. Contemplate. Breathe. "Seems like y'can't die," they mumbled, looking at Leila. "You -- I saw you get eaten. We both did. So what happened?"
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 2:24 pm
And then he was surrounded. Rabbit started slightly when people began to appear around him, several of them holding keys and at least one smelling distinctly of puke.
"I don't know anything," he said, revealing more of a perpetual truth than anything special about his current state. "Where did you guys go? Do you need any help?"
- - - - -
Theo was of no help at all, having noticed the agitated and crotchety author of one of his favorite series of all time mixed in with this motley crowd.Quote: soon I will be able to make meaningful posts again woe
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 2:27 pm
"I got better?" Leila haggardly suggested to Alexis. She was a wreck, with a smeared streaky face and the flavor of vomit still fresh in her mouth. Hell if she knew what happened, and hell if she thought it really mattered right now. She pulled herself back into a standing position. "There's some rooms some of you folks skipped, right? Let's go track them down."
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 5:44 pm
"All I had was a snake," said Aleksy between bubbles of hysterical laughter. "******** he was doing, it wasn't breathing. He reached to clutch at Thorne's fingers, clinging. Somehow, it didn't feel as good to know they saw what he did as he had always assumed it would. It was a ball of ice dropped into his chest. He'd never wanted Thorne to know--Eve, maybe, because she'd wanted to know what was so bad about it--but never Thorne, never anyone else-- He pressed a hand tight enough over his mouth to bruise, and closed his eyes, and tried to be calm.
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 6:28 pm
"What do we look like to you," Alexis repeated, stepping closer but trying to be nonthreatening."'Cause if it's got anythin' to do with the fact everyone's got some sort of power now, it'd be nice to know what mine is. Breathe, Spektor. Focus. You're here, and we're here, and this is unfortunately real." Their hands wouldn't stop shaking. It was like the glass was still there, even though maybe it had never been in the first place -- they kept feeling their palms for jagged cuts that didn't exist and never had. shibrogane alexis is experiencing a concern, treasure this moment wisely
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Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 6:30 pm
Thorne watched Aleksy, his heart like a knife in his chest, slitting through everything, everything. Lucas, Rylan... now this guy? Now - now Aleksy, who was ******** strong as hell, who'd threatened him the first time they'd met? "Sounds worse, I'm sorry - if I'd known you were here, I would have..." Thorne forced out, but he couldn't finish the words. He hadn't been able to protect Zac or Leila. What right did he have to say that he would have gone after Aleksy, knowing full well there was probably nothing he could have done? His arm reached up, and Thorne wrapped it around the redheads shoulders, dragging Aleksy to his chest and pressing his other hand to the nape of his neck. He could feel it, the tremors, and everything in him caved. "Aleksy - " he said again softly, but then he stopped. Because what was there to say? It wasn't alright - it had never been alright. It had gotten close, in passes, in fleeting glimpses of light - Rylan's smile, Lucas's laugh, - but here he was. Here they ******** were. He pressed his chin to Aleksy's head and closed his eyes.
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