The Void is Calling [OPEN]

[littlemhigan]

Who: Castor and YOU! Maybe.
What: Castor's been missing a few days. Turns out, Canonbumps are a hell of a thing.
When: End of September
Where: Enso and also maybe on the network a bit?
Warnings: None yet. I'll update this if that changes.



[1]


The beach smells wrong.


For a long minute, it's the only thought she can hold onto as she drifts in the twilight between sleep and waking. Her hands gently flex at the ground, and her face twitches into a frown at how soft the sand is to fingers that were expecting a coarse beach littered with seashells and refuse.


And the sky… her eyes crack open, blinking against the endless blue above them. Blue. Blessed, wonderful blue. She cranes her head back, expecting to see the white cliffs of Kholusia and stares dumbly for a few seconds when only the sight of a green jungle meets her.


Oh. Oh!


Castor comes the rest of the way awake all at once, scrambling to her knees in a flurry of damp sand and seaweed, looking about wildly - if she'd come here then maybe…No. No, she’d stepped through the Exarch’s portal alone, hadn’t she?


She sighs heavily to try and quiet the rapid beat of her heart, and begins to take stock of herself, examining her hands and arms, feeling about her face and neck and checking her clothing - so very different from the last time she lay upon this beach - for tears or other damage. Certainly, she feels fine save for a bone-deep fatigue and the general aches and pains of long days, but Gods, she’d come so close to…well, no use dwelling on it. She’s here for now, and if they’d been right, the danger is long passed.


She’s a mess, sat out on the beach like this, with her hair long and dishevelled and sand and seaweed caked and strewn all over her but the relief on her face is as bright as the sun above her.



[2]


It’s long past sundown when a text comes across the stones


Does ane one here keep the date????? 

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

[Luckily, Michael only sleeps like, one out of every two nights.]

It's September 30, best as I've figured. Why?

[littlemhigan]

o. shit.

i think i am mising some time.

[eudaimonikos]

Like how much?

[littlemhigan]

3 or 4 days i think.

i dont quite remember
the date when i fell asleep here

and woke up at home.

[eudaimonikos]

You went home?
How long were you there? Did you experience any side effects? Memory loss, power drainage, that sort of thing?

1

[postictal]

Tim hasn't really been...looking for people. It's been a rough few months, between the kids, the in-fighting, the dragon. It's been a lot. He's mostly been focusing on just making it through each day, and that in and of itself has been challenge enough.

Still, when he catches a glimpse of a semi-familiar silhouette sat on the beach, he slows, and stops.

He kinda owes her an apology, doesn't he?

"...hey." Either way, he should probably make sure she's all right. She doesn't seem altogether with it. "You, uh...you okay?"

[littlemhigan]

"Eh?"

It takes Castor a solid few seconds to put her wandering thoughts back together at the appearance of Tim. "Oh...Oh aye. Aye, I'm well enough. Bit tired, really. I...think I went home for a spell? An' now I'm back.

"You're lookin' a mite better from the last time I saw ye."

[postictal]

"Well, neither of us are trying to kill each other anymore." It's not really a funny joke. Not really a joke at all. He's not good at humor, unless it's of the gallows variety. "You went home?"

That's not unusual, per se, but it's rare enough to be noticeable.

[littlemhigan]

"An' I'd rather it stay that way, thank ye. I've had my fill of killin' for the time being."

She hunkers back down into the sand, staring back out to the ocean and it's a long second before she answers again. "I did, for a spell. About a moon, if I had te guess but Twelve only know. I...thought I was dreamin' it when I woke up here, but these ain't the clothes I fell asleep in."

[postictal]

"I don't think it was that long here." He doesn't think, because he doesn't really know her that well, so who's to say how long it's been? He's not the best judge of time, either. For all he knows, it could have been a month.

"But if it wasn't just a dream, then I'd say you were gone for a bit." As opposed to just...disappearing and reappearing with no memory of what happened in between. Which has been known to happen.

1

[thermalwind]

A low whine sounds to her left then a blue furred wolf head dips into view. The wolf leans closer and whines again. Just in time for a voice to call out from the sea edge. "Castor?" Keith stands in just his shorts, his long dark hair braided and falling over his back.

The sea life and coral spear in his hand is pointed down at the ground. He steps closer, the rope and seaweed made fish net is held tightly over his shoulder. "Hey. Are you..." He stops then he closes his eyes and says. "Sorry, do you know where you are or is this new to you?"

[littlemhigan]

"Hey laddie," she coos at Kosmo as she runs her hand behind his ears for a good pettin', "Ye miss me or sommat?"

It's only when Keith asks his second question does she look up, almost surprised to see him. "Eh? Unless someone's renamed the island of late, I know where I am, aye. I uh...Well, I thought I was havin' a dream of home but..."

She pauses and looks down at herself, dressed in something Keith hasn't seen her wear before, and with longer hair to boot.

"Dreams ain't like te leave evidence like this now, are they?"

[thermalwind]

Relief enters Keith's eyes as he takes in the differences in her appearance and adjusts his grip on his small net of fish. "They don't. You went home for a bit. That happens here sometimes. Feels a bit surreal, right?" He plants his spear into the sand and offers her a hand up.

"You weren't gone too long. That dragon corpse is still there. It's actually been pretty peaceful...so far." Kosmo leans into her a bit and closes his eyes. "But we probably better hurry and gather what we can from it." He flicks his braid back behind his back and turns his gaze to the sea. "That can wait a day or so."

[littlemhigan]

"I suppose we were due for some good news," Castor muses as she takes Keith's hand, hauling herself up, "Could use a project or two, an' pickin' a dragon clean sounds fun - ain't had the chance te do that before."

Once on her feet, she goes back to stroking Kosmo, letting her fingers tangle in his fur and seems to take a measure of comfort in doing so.

"Surreal's a way te put it, but I can't tell if it's cause've comin' back here or just....what all happened while I was there."

[thermalwind]

"I couldn't tell you either. It felt like that for me but, I went through two something years of my life then returned. It could be related to how much time passes." He says as he lets go of her hand. She can stand on her own even if he stays close enough to grab her if she stumbles. "I can catch you up on what little happened over some fish, if you want."

Keith holds up the net with the fish within it, his violet eyes a little brighter than they had been. It's something he can do to help. She could keep petting Kosmo while he prepares the fish to cook. And inbetween he can get the rest of his clothes back on. He adds in a tentative tone of one unused to offering something, "Not the best at comfort, but if you need to talk I'm here to listen."

1

[suspecteverything]

"You are the only person I have ever seen that looks happy to be here."

Jules stays sprawled out on the sand while he speaks, though his gleaming red eyes do shift Castor's way. He doesn't see a reason to get up at the moment - blame it on the memories of home that are currently eating at him - but that might change pretty soon. Anyone that views this place with that kind of joy sets off serious alarm bells for Jules. Either they're completely insane or they have no idea what they're getting into. Either one just means an annoyance for him at the moment.

[littlemhigan]

His voice seems to surprise her, and it takes her a moment to find it's source.

"Ye misunderstand me, ser!" She calls back when she finally spots Jules, leaning back on her hands. "I'm happy te be alive and sound've mind and body on top've it. I'd rather be home, aye, but I'm countin' what blessin's are mine today."

[suspecteverything]

For a brief moment Jules' expression doesn't change despite the fact that his mind is whirling in response to that. Personally he thinks she's rather crazy. At the very least she's a random ray of sunshine over everything and just doesn't know this place well enough yet.

A second later he bursts out laughing.

"Might argue the point of whether being alive is worth being someone's plaything."

He's spent a lot of his life in the roll of plaything and hasn't enjoyed it. There had definitely been times when the only reason he'd been alive was because he'd been too ornery to die and let someone else win.

[littlemhigan]

"Ah, but fightin' fate's the best part! Any rate, I'm not one te roll over an' die while someone's dependin' on me, an' I seem to've avoided just the thing."

She seems to be uncaring of the fact that she's gesticulating wildly while covered in seaweed. Sorry Jules, you're dealing with An Optimist.

"'Cept now I'm back here for the time bein'. But, considerin' the moon I've had, it ain't the worst thing, and it ain't forever."

[suspecteverything]

Oh joy, optimists. Just the thought would be enough to make Jules puke. Life has beaten him to a bloody pulp more than enough times for him to realize that all optimism gets you is dead. An optimist can't be prepared for beings trying to kill them. This optimist at least has a point about fighting fate though.

"That's a sentiment I can get behind. Problem is, there's no way to fight the one controlling us in this Tophet. Can't fight what isn't there other than doing everything possible not to play their game and being a general ass."

All of which Jules is very good at. It just doesn't get him anywhere, which pisses him off more.

1!

[lesbeau]

Beau's a nosy motherfucker, and that means she keeps tabs on everything she can. While it's not reasonable to stalk everyone she knows, there are a certain amount of tabs being kept on who's here and who isn't, especially in the wake of Yasha's disappearance last month. All of that is to say that Beau knows Castor is gone, and has known for a day or two, but has no way of knowing if she'll be back or how long she'll be gone. So it's pure coincidence that she happens to be near that beach, hear the commotion, and poke her head around the trees.

Once she sees who it is, though, she'll swing around and cross her arms to lean against one. Y'know. all cool-like. How ya do.

"Hey. Take a good beach nap? Don't tell me you literally ended up on shore like a hunk of driftwood."

[littlemhigan]

Castor laughs a little as she maneuvers herself around to follow the new voice, her smile growing somewhat when she actually spots Beau.

"I could do without the smell all over my clothes, but ain't a bad place to nap, really. I'd be lyin' if I said this was the beach I was expectin' te wash up on though. Were ye waitin' for me or sommat?"

[lesbeau]

"Kinda feel like that'd be creepy." She says, as if somehow, standing with her arms crossed over someone lying in the sand who was a little unconscious was not already the creepy thing here. But she still extends her hand to help Castor up, if she'd like to take it. "But nah, I was just around. Got lucky. Or unlucky, if I didn't wanna find you. But it was nice, so, it wasn't that."

Great. Smooth. Very smooth.

[littlemhigan]

Castor takes the hand and hauls herself to her feet, not letting go until she's well and steady, and laughs a little at Beau's quips.

"Mayhaps I'm the unlucky one, bein' found in this state," she says, pulling a piece of seaweed out of her hair as if to illustrate her point. "A comely lass well on 'er way te becomin' a sea hag, I am."

[lesbeau]

"Oh yeah, because you need to look all put together for me." Beau's grin is evident, just a little cheeky, but doesn't carry on with it in the interest of figuring out more details.

"So. Guessing you went home for a bit. You good?" She knows the last time she was tossed off this plane, it was pretty disorienting to get back. "Didn't die or anything, right?"