[COMPLETE] It has been, and always will be

[shibrogane]

Jeremiah pops the triplet group to Noeh, who is evidently not at the beach that is her current haunt, nor in the Court. It’s a strain on him, but such a large group would have to be, and the magic of the otherworld is helping in any case. Noeh is in a house, reading a book. In her left hand is a phone. Shiloh would recognize it as Melany Dubhslaine’s phone, which had been chucked out a window, and has apparently now ended up in the hands of Minerva Mercer, whose first initial is also M, it should be noted.

There is no magic here. Well, not strictly no magic. The phone is a massive nexus of some sort of magic. Before anyone can get a good look at the spellcraft, she shuts it off and tucks it away inside her khaki jacket. She signs to the group: to most it is unintelligible. Even speakers of American sign language would be hard-pressed to understand. Noeh uses two-handed British Sign Language.

The only one who ‘speaks’ it is Jeremiah. To him, she signs, What are you doing here? Her green eyes are wide and frightened.  

[shibrogane]

how to play.

This segment functions slightly differently to earlier sections. GM posts will not come on a schedule; the GM will respond at least once per day, but most likely will respond much more often than that to keep the thread moving. If there are no player posts in 24 hours, the GM will end the round that you are in and move your characters on to the next. Please do not quote the GM in your posts. Please do bold and highlight the names of GM characters involved in your posts. There will be no current prompts or NPC lists post for this thread.

Your stated goal is to check on the deer triplets. You will be teleported to each triplet. Once your character is satisfied with what they’ve learned, please quote shibrogane in your post. Inside the quote brackets, write I’m ready to move on. Once all players are ready to move on, you will be jumped to the next deer triplet. This thread will end once all three deer triplets have been checked on or all players are ready to move on. Once this thread is over, players may join the Ezra hunt thread or return to the home base to assist with scrying.

You may exit this thread and join another at any time by posting an exit post. At the bottom of your exit post, please post that your character is leaving and to which thread they’re going.

 

[shibrogane]

quote list  

[azuredreams]

The magic was definitely helping because this was not the beach it was- a house? Not a place he was familiar with but Jeremiah was familiar with Minerva and that phone that had raised suspicions before (because while Melany had knowledge, that poster on the listserv had knowledge that seemed particularly tied to things Minerva herself would know). Whatever it was, magical or otherwise, was pushed aside.

He could feel the beginnings of a headache but pushed it away for now (because this was a test of his power, if there ever was). His eyes, more blue than green, watched as Minerva's hands moved. One of these days he was really going to have to get her her ability to speak back.

"We're sorry to just appear like this but there's been a complication with the destruction of the Charter," responded Jeremiah to Minerva. His own hands moved in BSL now out of habit, though she could just as easily hear him. "The Burning Man has gathered the revoked consent and disappeared with it but we needed to make sure you, Pride and Pax were alright while others are looking for him. Have you seen him?" She did look scared but then-

Well. Sometimes Jeremiah garnered those looks.

Quote:

tagging in all the lovely trips field trip people.

show spoilerhide spoiler

The Semblance of Unity

Smerdle

demon_pachabel

saedusk

Grey Dragon

Melancholies

lizbot

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Temperance wished she'd paid more attention in her ASL classes, but she hadn't. She didn't really recognize anything Minerva was saying and looked to Jeremiah. His hands flew smoothly, so she supposed he... had it in hand.

Minerva looked largely unharmed, although her expression spoke of some kind of shock. "Can we see your hands, please?" she said to Minerva. Then, "This place feels...weird."  

[demon_pachabel]

Cass lingered awkwardly behind Jeremiah, watching his hands, then the other young woman's hands, then felt very much lost in the entire situation. She didn't speak any sort of sign language and further, she didn't even know why they were checking on the deer (!!) triplets to begin with.

So she'd just follow everybody else's leads for now and wait and see if anything struck her as useful.

Though 'useful' wasn't exactly how she felt about herself right then.  

[saedusk]

The very moment they landed, something snapped in Jamie's mind. It was his link with Shiloh, shutting down without warning, shoving him back into his own head. It jolted pain through every nerve, collecting at his temples and pounding into a headache. The feeling dulled, but lingered. Where were Oliver and his painkillers when you needed them? With a short sigh, he gathered himself.

"What d'you think's up with her?" Jamie whispered to Shiloh as he looked on. The phone didn't read as suspicious to him, but her reaction did. Then again, was it fair to blame someone for looking afraid of a bunch of potential strangers popping into your house uninvited? He wasn't quite sure what to think.

In fact, he wasn't quite sure the extent of Shiloh's feelings towards her, either. Where did she stand between the Noeh that Shiloh had known and the person stirring doubt and uncertainty with the things Jamie had heard about her?

"Where are we, anyway?" he asked Minerva. Temperance was right, this place did feel weird.  

[Melancholies]

Shiloh felt it too—like a rubber band snapping, the entire sensation reverberated in his head—Jamie was so clearly gone but so clearly not at the same time, because he was... right next to him. "The ******** is this place?" He looked around, but his eyes did inevitably come to rest on Noeh as she tucked the phone away—"Wait—?"

That was Melany's. The one she had supposedly destroyed. His eyes narrowed suspiciously as he was caught between 'happy you're alive' and 'so are you the saboteur?'

"I dunno." He told Jamie before taking matters into his own hands. Noeh's sign language was hard to read, but Shiloh had gotten good at it from his time in the Court. "Hey, don't bombard her with questions! She's ******** terrified."

He huffed as he pushed between Temperance and Jeremiah up to the front. Couldn't they all tell?

"We're not going to hurt you." He spoke to Noeh with a softer tone, "But people's lives are at stake and everyone's really worked up, so can you work with us?"

He'd give her a chance, god ******** knew he wanted to believe in her, even despite all his doubts. Go ahead; squash what little hope he had left, or teach him that people really were all ******** selfish morons.

 

[saedusk]

"Oh..." Yeah, Jamie felt bad in that instant. Regardless of what had been done, he of all people should've known how difficult fear could be. The question had been a curiosity more than anything, and he hadn't meant any harm, but he hadn't been very considerate, either. "Sorry, Shiloh..." he mumbled, standing back.  

[shibrogane]

Minerva looked scared. She looked like she was about to freak out. Jeremiah asked her for information, and then Temperance wanted her to show the group her hands. Her green eyes--so very like Jeremiah's--flicked from Temperance to Jeremiah to Jamie.

She didn't answer. She couldn't. Not with her hands held palm-up so they could see them: two normal hands, palms paler than the rest of her. On her right hand was the piece de resistance, or rather, the lack of one. She lacked her right-hand thumbprint.

azuredreams

demon_pachabel

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

Melancholies

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cass frowned at the missing thumbprint.

"So Ezra visited you too," she said quietly, almost gingerly to the poor frightened looking Minerva. Cass looked up to Jeremiah then down to his hand, quietly implying that he should show her his as well. "Which leaves us with..." she looked back to Not-Ollie for an answer. He'd been the one who suggested the visit after all.

xxxxxazuredreams

xxxxxxxMelancholies

 

[lizbot]

Looking off to the side, America's vision shifted to that of the bird on her shoulder. Quietly, Mr. Bitterberry scanned both Minerva and the room.  

[azuredreams]

"Shiloh," Jeremiah said quietly, looking to the young man and then looking back to Minerva. Shiloh, not Beaumont, because this was one of those moments. It was an unspoken request: go to her. At least, he knew, that from Shiloh she would potentially calm down.

Not that he did not come closer himself, close enough he could reach her, and with Cass's glance to his own hand, he offered his left out to Minerva to inspect. The thumb just as bare as her own. After she looked, he would move back away and give her the space necessary. Jeremiah was focused, though his expression softened because of the situation and her fear. "He's already been here. Which means she's in danger too just as we are because of him."

He looked briefly, glancing around to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. Something left behind, perhaps, that might be tied to Ezra or otherwise. Not that the house itself, the fact that he felt stifled (his eyes were, in fact, so very much a mirror of Minerva's at the moment).

Quote:

emotiopath @ minerva?

demon_pachabella

Melanjollies

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb was not far behind Shiloh and Jamie, feeling a little out of sorts from the magical travel, followed by what seemed like a void within the magical perception he had acclimated to. If he thought about it hard, and prodded about the area with his attention like when he was first learning about magical senses, he could feel the magic radiating brightly from one centralized location.

"It's alright, other than the thumbprint, are you okay?" Kaleb asked gently, giving Minerva a timid smile. For once he was thankful for his small and soft-spoken image, he was less likely to add to her fright.  

[Melancholies]

He stopped himself, shook his head, and continued to speak to Minerva, "Ezra was gathering everyone's fingerprints for god knows what. I dunno what he told you and I'm guessing he geased you like he did everyone else..." Shiloh sighed. "He's gotten most of the fingerprints as it is."

His eyes were narrow at Jeremiah, if only because he knew his presence made Noeh uncomfortable and he knew that Jeremiah knew that. Noeh was already spooked from everyone suddenly appearing in her house, or wherever the ******** they were. "I promise we're not going to do anything though, we're trying to fix this ******** mess." He was trying to console her, but it was hard with so many people. "You don't have to look so scared." He gave everyone else a look that was along the lines of can we all try backing up please?

"If you want us to leave then we can. We have to check on the others anyway..." He offered slowly. "We just wanted to make sure you were alright." His hands were held up submissively, all don't shoot me! as he cautiously approached her. "Please trust me."

A tiny, tiny thought floated around the back of his head; unless you have a reason to fear us?