Once Upon a Time...

[morethanmyth]

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.]

Comments

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"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.

[lifelinked]

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."

[mywarrenmyrules]

"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."

[letskicksomeice]

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.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"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.

[lifelinked]

"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."

[mywarrenmyrules]

"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.

[letskicksomeice]

"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?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

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..."

[lifelinked]

"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.

[mywarrenmyrules]

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."

[letskicksomeice]

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

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Just someone, okay?!" His hands are shaking. He wraps his arms around himself and hunches over in the back, but he doesn't make a run for it. "What...what's happening back home without us?"

[lifelinked]

Mami nods quietly. She can definitely understand this, and she agrees with the concern. "Yes, can you tell us?"

Not that she'll trust them just because, but...

[mywarrenmyrules]

That one gave Bunny pause.

"That, we didn't hear anything on."

He fell silent another moment before adding, "I'm sorry."

There just wasn't any consolation to not knowing if your loved ones were safe without you. None at all.

[letskicksomeice]

"All we can do is promise to try to get you back as we soon as we can," Jack added ruefully.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"No." It's a quiet little sound, a moment between Howard and himself. Even a few days in the FAYZ can be a death sentence, because things change so quickly, because new threats arrive without warning. Boom, plague. Boom, fire. A seasonal flu could kill a quarter of the population in a weekend.

And all he has to go on is Jack's promise that maybe Bishie Boy and the Bunny can get them back soon, if they sign on to fighting the forces of evil like some Saturday morning cartoon.

Howard wants to cry. He wants to laugh. He wants to run through the streets and count every adult and non-starving child he sees. He wants to just die so there isn't the illusion of free will.

"But getting us back home isn't your top priority. Saving this place is."

[lifelinked]

Ah, Mami understands this fear too. She knows the two are in a desperate situation and need their help, but didn't they just tell her in no uncertain terms that they don't want her fighting? She's not their puppet, she'll do what she wants. And in this case, this means...

"It will be mine," Mami promises him quietly. "I have people to return to as well. I've done research to find answers to difficult things before. If we can have access to information like theirs, then maybe we can? If we just go to their base..."

She's not thrilled about the idea, but she'll do it. For his sake as much as her own.

[letskicksomeice]

Jack stepped forward but the movement was more definitive than aggressive, like he was putting his foot down on something. It was a gesture that effused sincerity.

"Saving this world isn't our biggest priority. Saving kids is. You shouldn't be here when it's this dangerous."

He shook his head. "It isn't like the people here magically matter more than people anywhere else. You're just as important to us as every other kid here."

Whether Howard believed it or not, it was the truth. They were children - teenage ones, but still children. They were in their world right now, near them, and that meant they were under their protection. Simple as that.

"No one fights unless they want to - and unless they're old enough -" he added to Mami. He turned back to Howard, "And no one stays unless they want to, either. We're getting you home."

[mywarrenmyrules]

"We've got resources to call on."

There were North American spirits that knew a thing or two about passing through worlds. Bunny didn't want to give the two a specific name and potentially false hope, but he was lining up a few in the back of his mind.

"I'll put the word out around the world. Someone has to know something."

If only Anansi hadn't been taken yet. Bunny still didn't know where the Spider's lair even was, or if there was a way for anyone other than him to see the stories that came to him in webs, but it was worth looking for.

Mami's comment about a "base" made him think a little more. He glanced at Jack. "Tooth's palace is the only place of ours that stores information. Maybe one of the mini-fairies could find something relevant from a memory. It's a long-shot, but we should follow it."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"I don't need you to be all calm and condescending to me," he snaps at Mami.

There's a shudder that runs through Howard's body like a crack in a sheet of ice when Jack says 'we're getting you home', but he hopes no one else notices it.

"What about bringing more people here, does your magic spirit Ouija board summoner do that too?"

[lifelinked]

"I only want to help, but I know it's hard to trust right now. I feel it too," Mami whispers, retreating to a safe distance from all three of them. She means them no harm and she intends to help them fight their way out, but these people are so stubborn!

She flips one of her curls and frowns, lapsing into silence as she listens and learns what she can.

[letskicksomeice]

Jack looked stricken, as if trying to figure out how to keep the one upset kid from upsetting the other upset kid.

"We don't know because, like we said, we're not the ones doing this. The bad guy is the one changing the world so that people are falling through the cracks."

[mywarrenmyrules]

"Maybe we can even wring an answer out of him, next time I get my paws on his scrawny neck."

Bunny was holding so dearly onto the hope that one day soon he might get to throttle Pitch himself.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"Great, that's just, that's just fucking great." Howard's shoulders slump. He looks entirely defeated. "So what now?"