longestnight_old | Once Upon a Time...

Entry tags:

Once Upon a Time...

They likely felt the world shift, a fragmentation of all they thought they knew. It was the way a fictional character might feel if they could feel every page turn in the book they lived in. It was the beginning of a new story and that meant an end to an old one and they would each feel that.

To some it would feel like they had just died. To others, it would feel like they had just been born. To many, it would feel like both at the same time. It all really depended on who they were and what they were leaving behind.

In any case, this world had something New appear in it. After lightning crackled in the evening sky without any storm fueling it, they would find themselves waking up in the streets of a small town called Burgess. It was a perfectly ordinary Pennsylvania town, a place where the modern mixed with the old, American suburbia at its finest, making it all the stranger that something extraordinary would happen somewhere so ordinary.

[ooc: Make a subthread for each character and those of you that would like to toss your character at someone else before Bunny and Jack show up, tag a subthread already there.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mami remembers being on the verge of death. True, it was a car accident and nothing so...dire as what this boy seems to have gone through, but it makes her wonder if he's more correct than he realizes.

"Perhaps we're the ghosts." The thought terrifies her, but she keeps her face carefully neutral.

"I feel dead," Howard says quietly. "Or, no, that's wrong. I don't know what being dead feels like. But I don't feel alive."

Being alive means hunger, it means itches and aches and pains and all the infections that malnourishment can bestow upon you. And Howard feels a distinct nothingness where that once would be.

"What's your name, Curly?"

"Mami Tomoe," she said matter-of-factly, her hands folding behind her back. "And...I don't know. Something's definitely strange. It feels like there's something new in the fabric of the world."

She straightens her skirt again. "Anyway, I should ask: who are you?"

"Yeah, okay." He doesn't know what she means by 'fabric of the world', but that sounds like either she's a hippie or she's crazy, to Howard.

Her name is Mommy? Howard's definitely stuck in some kind of Freudian nightmare. No doubt.

"I'm Howard. Howard Bassem." Said not like an action hero but like someone who hasn't had to use his last name in a while, and is only remembering now that it's polite.

"Hello, Howard," Mami replies, bowing. She keeps her fist clenched tight, though, searching for any sign of danger.

"Maybe we should investigate together? I don't see very many others who seem to be in our predicament."

"You just haven't found them yet," said a voice from above, and if they looked up, they'd see a teenage boy crouching on the neon sign of a store as if he was Spider-Man.

He carried a long wooden staff in his hands.

"But that's what I'm here for, to be your helpful tour guide to the current weirdess that's going on."

Edited 2013-04-28 20:00 (UTC)

"Think maybe you could do that without the big stick?" Howard's hand tightens around the folding knife, and he seems to shrink away, as if he hopes the bagginess of his clothing can shield him. His eyes turn from Mami to Jack and back, sizing up that they could both take him in a fight, and he suddenly feels outnumbered.

It doesn't matter that neither of them are threatening, or that Mami has just bowed to him.

Mami steps out in front, shielding Howard on instinct. Jack doesn't look the part of a witch or a familiar, but she's feeling a little jumpy today. Her expression is serious again.

"How generous of you. Please, feel free to explain?"

There's a faint yellow glow from her hand, where she's prepared to launch a ribbon from her gem if necessary.

"Sorry, not in this neighborhood." The fearlings were quite fond of Burgess. "But if it makes you feel better, I can stay up here instead of coming down there. Does that sound like a good compromise?"

Jack sat down on the sign, getting himself comfortable.

"Well. That depends on how you got there." Howard's seen teleporters and people who can fly or move at the speed of sound. The promise to stay away is a little empty unless he knows those aren't options.

"First things first - are we dreaming?"

"Not here. We're flat outta dreams just now."

The voice came from behind them, and from a giant rabbit.

A giant rabbit with a harness holding a couple of brightly painted eggs across his chest.

He kept his distance, standing in the mouth of an alleyway, without flipping one of his boomerangs into his paw. Both the new spirits were on edge, and he could have seen that even if he hadn't overheard Howard's comment about Jack's staff.

Mami was not feeling much safer. Unlike Jack, this one looked just unusual enough to possibly be witch-like. A subtle check of her Soul Gem didn't reveal any warning glow, but she kept it at the ready.

"What do you mean by 'out of dreams'?"

"This world is in danger," said Jack. "That's why you're here."

"You're not dreaming, the giant talking rabbit with the boomerangs said." Howard looks incredulous for about half a second, before switching back to serious-mode (although the fear on him is evident in the way his shoulders quake slightly). "Okay. Sure."

Color him shocked that the world is in danger. Or not.

"And what are we supposed to do about it? I'm not exactly bred out of fighting stock." A sarcastic 'genius' is left unspoken at the end of Howard's words.

Mami looks surprised to hear that---at least partially. She'd assumed that they were all lost and in trouble, but knowing that this world is in danger changes a lot. She holds her arms straight at her sides, trying to look far more mature than her fifteen years. That's what burdens will do to a person.

"I already have a city under my protection. I'm afraid I can't stay."

"Yeah, well, we're afraid we can't send you back. We don't know how."

It could have been a taunt, but it was not. There was real regret - and resignation - in Bunny's tone.

"Soon as we figure out a way to, though, we will. You won't have to do any fighting."

He nodded at Howard. He, clearly, was not Guardian material - maybe the spirit was there, maybe he was protective of kids as much as he was one, but he was clearly no warrior.

The girl, though, by the way she stood between the boy and them, was. But that was moot, too. She was a child. She carried herself like she was trying not to show just how much of one she was, and maybe it would have fooled someone not several centuries old and inherently perceptive, by virtue of the animal shape that shaped him, to body language.

They protected children. They didn't fight alongside them.

"Neither of you."

Edited 2013-04-29 02:36 (UTC)

Jack was absolutely on the same page as Bunny on this one. Mami looked...young. Young in that way that a young person looks when they're trying to look older than they are. And Howard looked... severely unwell.

Of all forms to be locked in as a spirit...

"In a moment of absolute stupidity, an enemy of ours opened a gateway that led outside the universe, and now an evil...thing is trying to get all the way in. We've been trying to stop it, but it's captured all the myths and spirits of our world that have stood a chance at fighting it and its army," Jack explained, knowing they'd both need more information to maybe loosen up that distrust a little.

"It's broken our world in more ways than one and made it so the belief - and the fear - of people in this world, especially from the kids, is making our world more changeable. That's how you were brought here. The kids are unconsciously reaching out for heroes and you got pulled in through the cracks from your homes to our world and changed into spirits - myths - like we are."

He gestured to himself and Bunny.

"The spirit that chose us as Guardians chose you, too, now that you're here, to help us fight against it all, but Bunny and I don't agree with it. That said, it's still dangerous for you to be wondering around alone. We wanted to find you and keep you safe until we found a way to change you back and get you home."

If there was a home for them to get to. If they weren't new.

"Wait wait wait wait wait. We can't go...we can't go back?"

Howard waves his hands a little, still stuck on the 'you can't go home' bit, because he has never wanted anything harder than to leave the FAYZ, and yet he knows right now that he has to return. Orc needs him. He may have physically escaped, but it's incomplete. He feels like something is bursting in his chest, a little nuclear explosion that's vaporizing the air in his lungs, and he takes a quick breath, then another, then another, as if he's hyperventilating. He hunches over a little, sucking in air too forcefully, covering his mouth and nose with his hands.

He should be happy he's safe.

He should hate himself that he's alone here.

"Not now. Hopefully soon," Mami repeats, whispering in a voice she hopes is reassuring. She simply stands guard, her eyes sharp. How...patronizing. The silver-haired one hardly looks older than her.

"I'm not new to the battlefield. I've been risking my life on my own for over a year, and if you need that help to set this world right and even give us a chance of returning, it would be a waste to sit idly by."

"Hey, hang on a tic."

Howard's breakdown sent Bunny from gruffness straight to softness with rabbit speed.

"You can't go back yet," he repeated, walking closer to the pair, slow so as not to alarm them. Bounding over would be more efficient, but it definitely was not the time for that. "But we'll get you there, mate. Nobody's gonna ask you to leave your world behind."

Nobody except Manny. But that strangeness could wait for another moment, when a child wasn't in crisis.

"Look, until we can get you home, we'll keep you safe." Though the way that kid was emaciated, it would have made Bunny wonder why he wanted to go back at all, if he wasn't so versed in losing people himself. "You just gotta wait it out for a bit, right? This isn't hopeless."

As for the girl - her claim of battlefield experience gave Bunny pause. He thought schoolyard defender, at the most, and for a moment he looked at her with unmasked surprise.

"Little Sheila, anyone who'd ask you to fight is no friend of ours, and no friend of yours. We liberate child soldiers. We don't recruit 'em."

The few times they HAD recruited childrens' help, it was either the final hour, or they knew the kid in question meant there wouldn't even be a fight. Jamie against Pitch wasn't so much a battle as it was a defusing.

"Waste or not, you didn't get asked to get pulled into this. So we're going to do our best to help you stay safe and get you where you want to be," Jack said.

He paused.

"Do you...do you need me to try to find a paper bag or something?" he asked Howard gently. "For you to breathe in?"

Edited 2013-04-29 03:51 (UTC)

Howard shakes his head quickly, still gasping for breath. No, he doesn't need help. He's gotten through worse than a little shortness of breath on his own. He just needs a moment to process everything Jack just said, which sounds insane, and sadly, way too coherent to be some kind of dream objective.

"Don't - no - stay away!" he backs up from Bunny. "I'm fine! Just give me space."

He can talk, he tells himself, which means he can breathe, no matter what his instincts are telling him. He takes a few more deep breaths, now a little more controlled. He listens as Bunny talks to Mami, as Bunny tries to paint this as a nasty situation for everyone when Howard's feeling as if somehow, Jack and Bunny are at fault. He wants them to be at fault. It's easier to rail at things in front of you than intangible spirits.

"You can't keep me here. There's someone..."

"Someone you need to protect?" Mami wonders aloud from a safe distance away. She's gentle, understanding....it's been so long since she's had anyone close to her, but she knows what it's like to want to protect.

"We both need to go back, then. But we should learn all we can about the situation and plan, right?"

She bites her lip and looks over at Jack and Bunnymund, hoping she can trust them. But if not, she can defend herself regardless of their opinions.

Bunny stopped in his tracks, holding up his open paws in a gesture of harmlessness. He even took a step or two back. They were nervous, suspicious, untrusting. Good. They should have been.

"Neither of us are gonna keep you anywhere, mate. But your best bet isn't running off just yet."

"We want to help," Jack said earnestly. "We'll do all we can."

no subject

no subject

aaah so sorry I could've sworn I tagged this last night /headdesk

no worries <3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject