third shot ☢ VIDEO (open to seelie & unseelie)

[mixcds]

[Kieren hasn't slept in two days. There are already dark circles under his eyes, the skin blue and purple. He's looked tired since he arrived, but this time it's apparent. His hair has gone wild, as though he's gripped it with both hands at various spots. His eyes are blood shot - he's been too preoccupied with what's happened to really notice.

His throat is scratchy when he speaks. It's a desperate sort of noise, one layered in denial. ]

I can't find Jem. She didn't come round to give me my shot yesterday or today, I thought maybe she'd gone off with one of you lot. But I can't find her anywhere.

[He doesn't want to accept that's here alone. It's too daunting. He lifts his hands to run them over his face, but when he looks at them, one is shaking. Frustrated, he viciously shakes the tremors out. His attention soon snaps back to his locket. ]

I've seen that people go home. How do you know if they have?

Comments

[vrykolakas]

What happens if you attempt to connect to her locket?

[Er, he doesn't actually know the answer to Kieren's question, but his tone of voice—calm, steady—implies he does.]

[mixcds]

Static, mostly. It's not like she's ignoring it, it's like her lockets not there at all.

[vrykolakas]

[Interesting.

...but also, oh dear. After a moment of thought:]

I'm sorry.

She was your—...?

[mixcds]

Sister. My little sister.

[Not was, he wants to say. Is. Is his sister. ]

[vrykolakas]

[A sigh. Quietly:] This bullshit.

If you have anything of hers I can help you to look for her. [He's going soft in his old age; his voice hardens and quickens and sounds more practical in compensation. He wouldn't offer, but Kieren's something bizarre and new, and the fact is that he has time on his hands.] But I won't lie and tell you I think she's just wandered off.

video;

[truesight]

When my friend left, her room was empty. Not that she brought a lot of stuff with her, but her stuff wasn't there anymore. And her locket wasn't connected.

[mulletrock]

If it turns out that she's still here but off the radar, I can start a patrol. Not like we need any more civvies going missing on ground zero.

[mixcds]

Thanks. I don't have anything - whatever she had when she arrived, it's not in her room.

[There's a soft, frustrated fuck that he tries to whisper. ]

video;

[mixcds]

[There's a long pause. Kieren tries to accept this; tries to come to terms with the reality of it. ]

She's gone then. Her rooms like she's never been there. The bed was made. She never makes her bed.

[mixcds]

I think she's gone. Seems like this is what happens if you go.

[oh but


he's hot. ]

Thanks though. I didn't think people would offer to look for her?

[KINDNESS??]

video.

[powerful]

Have you checked her room? I hear people's rooms get cleaned out when they leave...

( she frowns deeply. )

Do you need help?

video.

[mixcds]

Everything's gone.

[his fingers tap restlessly off screen. ]

- Yeah I think I do. [he laughs, disbelieving. ] I don't know what with? Maybe finding something of hers.

[mulletrock]

[Good thing Dean's not aware. It's pretty sad that the first person to objectify him is this dude. Not that he's very into objectification right now on the whole. Trying to escape Candyland leaves less room for casual hook ups. Sucks.]

Sorry to hear that. I know it's not easy.

[mixcds]

[The struggle is real 4 u Dean. ]

Did you have someone here, too?

[mulletrock]

Not really, but I've got someone at home. As far as I know... nobody from real time's showed their face here yet and good for them. They're probably better off.

video;

[truesight]

[ her voice is a little quieter now ]

I'm sorry to hear it. Even with the whole- war thing, it kind of sucks when people we get attached to go home. [ newp she doesn't know who Jem is, or his relation to her, so! ] Were you guys close?

[mixcds]

[He laughs blithely, under his breath. Everyone here has got a different world, he knows. He supposes Jem might be better off at home. ]

We live in this valley, back home. The most exciting thing to happen was a zombie apocalypse and the winter fete. I reckon she probably appreciated the change of scenery.

video;

[mixcds]

She's my little sister. [Never mind that she's nearly twenty.]

[mulletrock]

Zombie apocalypse, huh? Sounds terrifying.

[Good job selling that. He doesn't sound impressed let alone scared. Mostly he's just irritated. Everywhere he looks someone's got some sort of link to the supernatural. That has to mean something as far as the fairies are concerned.]

video;

[truesight]

Oh. Oh.

Well.

I know it's tough, being apart from someone you care a lot about, but at least with this place you know she's not going through anything without you. Time stops, right? So she'll be right when you left her. Safe and sound?

-- Hopefully. Assuming you left at a time when everything was safe and sound.

audio;

[ziggyzoggy]

I think I heard somewhere that if ya leave without fallin' to another's hand, [--dying, in other words,] ya leave your shard behind.

Can't speak to how true that is, though.

video.

[allures]

Jem's gone?

[they had only spoken once, but jem was one of the few people to really catch effy's attention. there's a pang of both jealousy and near-disappointment. she thought the two of them had gotten along well, but she didn't know a thing about jem.]

Lucky her. She didn't want to be here, anyway.

[vrykolakas]

[Quietly, in a tone more stern than comforting, but well-meant:]

Easy.

You know exactly where she is.

[Reminding him. And he genuinely believes, too, that those who go missing go home; he's seen proof of the connection between shards and homeworlds.]

She's well out of it.

video.

[powerful]

Do you have anything? I could - try... Something. ( A SPELL SHE COULD TRY A SPELL ) See if I can locate something that ties her to this world still. Or that you can hold onto...

[mixcds]

Yeah. I suppose it must have been.

[There's a beat; this isn't the time to contemplate the war. Was he terrified of the guns? Kieren only remembers hunger. Anger.

Somewhere, faintly, he can still feel the hunger. He frowns, snaps out of it, and sounds vaguely affronted. ]

Sorry - who are you?