Welcome to Gaia! ::

Bursting out of the store and onto the side walk, Jason took a quick glance around before starting to jog southward, further from the residential area and into the unfamiliar city streets. This is...a very bad idea, Luke. Sometimes he really wished the psychic twin signal stuff was real, but even if it was, make it wouldn't matter. It's not like spoken words got through his beloved baby brother's thick skull, now did they?

Frustrated and worried, he was tempted to start yelling for his brother like a lost cat, but the thought of bringing attention to either of them in an unfamiliar area felt dangerous. Might as well wave a flag saying, "Vulnerable and Alone Boys Here!" for all the shady drug dealers and perverts to see. So he settled instead for stopping to look down each alley along the way, and into the windows of whatever store might have something that could distract Luke out of his upset.

It was getting darker. Was it supposed to be getting dark this early? What time had they left? Seven?

"Mammoth porker."

Heart thumping in his chest, Jason had to take a long moment to just, not be scared and worried for his brother. Who was just crouching in the street, picking up trash, or maybe some old lady dropped her knitting on the ground? He looked around but found no such old lady, leaving Luke without a single excuse for his...for his everything! Gah! The little snot!

Leaning down to pick up the wooden hoop, Jason cleared his throat with a scowl, not wanting his voice to sound stupid with gross emotions "You can't just run off like that, Luke. I've read about it, this place gets really bad after..."

His voice trailed off as he looked at his brother.

"What the fridge?"

IT was...it was definitely his brother. And something about that conviction, the certainty that no one else in the world turn into a pink fancyboy while asking Jason what he was wearing, it shifted his vision. Like one of those magic eye puzzles, where once the hidden picture pops out, it doesn't take any effort at all to notice it again.

"I'm you're sick freak of a brother," Jason grumped and pointedly did not look down. Did not acknowledge the feeling of sleeves, of a hat, of...tights. A part of him was already resigned to the concept that he was somehow in a copy of his brother's new...fashion. The rest of him was firmly setting its foot down and saying No. To all of it. From the tip of Luke's little feather hat, right down to Hilllworth being some kind of boy's penitentiary.

"I know what you did to grandpa's favorite fishing fly, so save the theatrics. Do you hear something out there? Like, I don't know..." Jason squinted into the darkness. "I heard people in this city go missing, like a lot. Especially at night."

Considering it, he nodded slowly. "It was hard to recognize you until you opened your mouth and started...being you." The more upset Luke got the more calm Jason was in turn. "They might just all get costumes and nobody can recognize them anymore."

With a sigh, he almost reached over to hold his brother's hand, but paused and redirected to a much more manly (he hoped) hooking of the elbows. He didn't even notice that neither of them had let go of their craft supplies until he glanced at a nearby store window and saw what a...dandy, image they made. But at least he wasn't nearly as pink as Luke. Heh.

"Okay, okay. First let's get somewhere we won't be so noticeable. We probably won't be dissected anytime soon, but I'd rather not have people taking pictures either," Jason's voice turned grim at the thought.

The darkened alley nearby seemed pretty private, but also gross and probably lurking full of drug dealers and thieves. Scanning the area for any other option, he noticed a bunch of tree tops in the near distance and decided that crouching in the suburban wilderness was preferable to standing in the middle of the street.

"Come on, this way."