awakened by the sounds of long before [eventually open]

[hauntedsavior]

WHO: Anna Lehmann and, eventually, you!!
WHERE: All throughout the city
WHEN: Through October
WHAT: October catch-all!
WARNINGS: Nothing yet, updates to come when they become necessary

a. hidden from this, an end, middle, beginning [closed]

Is showing up to the amusement park with a katana in poor taste? The better question is whether Anna cares. She hadn't made plans with Jasmine to go anywhere in a while, much less to check out the possible point of origin for whatever this infectant is. She still can't come up with a single damn thread to follow herself, since all the branding she was expecting to be here is gone now, but... but. Jasmine is smarter than she is. Maybe they can figure something out working together.

Maybe if Anna would put a little more effort into looking like she's here to investigate. She's got the katana strapped to her back, the tang (or whatever) tied down in a jury-rigged holster (or whatever) and she's mostly just waiting around wondering if Jasmine will actually show. From Anna's perspective, she's been isolating herself lately, and it's hard not to get a little worried.

b. maybe it's my night to turn it upside down [wildcard]

((more prompts to be added!! if you have anything you want to thread, hit me up in DMs or at roseward))

Comments

for Kara

[hauntedsavior]

c. the world's not quite what you believed

Okay, well. Cold iron horseshoes can't be too hard to find. Supposed to protect against faeries, as far as Anna's heard, but she guesses it works for demons, too. The whole thing is Calvinball anyway, right? This could be a harder little fetch quest, especially because Anna's already had to relocate her standard Brooding Spot once to get out of the path of these hayrides.

"They've got horses running through the woods now for Halloween. Think we should check them out?" she asks, staring at their note more than at Kara herself. There's a few problems she can already think of with that, but none that wouldn't also come up from taking the shoes off any other horse in the city.

[argone]

Kara, sporting short horns that grow up out of her hair, along with a thin, ropy tail, looks every inch the troublemaker. Fortunately for both of them, she's more or less in control during the day, or Anna might get her wish for another round granted and then some. Probably more than she bargained for.

"Absolutely," she replies. "Cold Iron Horseshoes shouldn't be too hard to find. We can get there pretty easy."

Plucking her flight ring out of her belt pouch, she holds it out.

"That way there's no chance I'll get handsy. The point of this is to cure, not spread."

[hauntedsavior]

It's not hard to stay focused on the mission, but Kara's got the right idea anyway. If this thing spreads through touch and Anna already knows how attractive Kara is, it's best to eliminate any factors that could end with them in worse shape than when they started.

"Oh, jesus," she says, not really thinking about her words as she carefully takes the ring and... hesitates to put it on. This sort of thing was life-changing last time and she can't guarantee she won't get disgustingly emotional again. But of course she remembers how it works, because that moment is seared into her head, and she just... she hopes it was something that Kara still got to experience with her.

"Still works the same way, right?" she asks as a way to, like. Litmus test it.

[argone]

Kara remembers, just slightly differently. Things weren't all that different for her, not really, merely changes in the logic behind why she'd done some of what she'd done. She recalls how hard that letting go of the ring had been for Anna, too, but it wasn't the One Ring...she'd be fine. It was necessary.

"Yeah, it does. Just like last time."

Litmus? Tested.

[hauntedsavior]

All it takes is for Anna to hear that there had been a last time for her to be completely okay with taking the ring. It's one thing... it's one of many things that she doesn't want to be forgotten. It shaped her, and it shaped friendships, and—it's not important. The ring adjusts itself and after a couple seconds, she's hovering off the ground like she never stopped using it.

Pushing back the lightness in her chest so it doesn't overwhelm her again, she looks back at her friend and jerks her head towards the woods. "Come on. They ran a path right through where I used to chill out and clear my head, so they should've set up shop this way." Because obviously she'd never get into a haunted hayride herself. She's a grown-ass woman who doesn't have time for things like fun.

[argone]

"Sounds good. You lead the way," Kara replies, floating off the ground to follow.

Something about this feels way, way more significant the second time. Kara can feel how Anna's reacting, her heartbeat quickening with evident delight. This is unmistakably far more important than even the scientist Kara would have understood, but the depth of understanding is increased by her powers, a key difference that makes her feel all the more close to the woman working with her.

for Lillian

[hauntedsavior]

d. our nerves broke down

This is... a little more complicated. Anna's not stupid; even if she's never taken an electrical engineering class, she can kind of figure out what would happen to both of them if they set off what is effectively an EMP. But there's a bigger problem at hand.

"Where the hell are we going to find a circuitbyte?" she asks, the word foreign to her lips. It's even less of a thing than everything else she's heard about, and even those were barely things to begin with. Still, her eyes meet Lillian's; if it's meant to stop robots, then they should probably... they should find it. They should be careful as hell with it, but they should find it.

Just in case.

[aintjustaweapon]

Lillian reached out to take the slip of paper after Anna was done with it, reading it over herself, crumpling it a bit with her metal fingers accidentally. When she was done, she just shook her head.

"Don't look at me, I can't even make half the stuff on my own work," which, considering her robot arms, was sort of ironic, wasn't it. Hm.

She offered the note back. "But I mean, they wouldn't have asked us to do it if we can't, right? Hopefully they ain't just gonna waste our time like that, not with everything else goin' on."

There had to be better uses for two robo-ladies, right? Unless this actually was important.

[hauntedsavior]

"Yeah. I think we can figure this out," she said, thinking back to that little study sesh they'd had at the base of that tree in the woods. For as much as Anna put herself down, called herself a dumb burnout who didn't know anything, she wasn't really any of those things. And she knew Lillian was sharp, too, and she knew that this puzzle had an answer.

Anna took a couple steps forward and leaned against the mailboxes, ignoring the feeling of tiny bits of metal poking against her. "So it's... it fucks with electrical signals?" she asked, mostly trying to sort stuff out. "So maybe we'd find one somewhere where there's a lot of electrical stuff going on. Power plants or something?" Seemed like as good an idea as any. She glanced up at Lillian again, offering to toss the brainstorming ball to her.

[aintjustaweapon]

Lillian stayed where she was, her weight shifting from foot to foot as she looked around them, like she expected a clue to suddenly spring up out of the ground. "Mm..." Anna was right, she couldn't argue with that.

"Oh!" A thought popped into her head, and she turned back to the taller woman. "If it's messing with electricity, then a spot where stuff ain't workin' right could be it too?" She grinned. "Like, where they're havin' blackouts or reception problems."

[hauntedsavior]

"So we're looking for... huh." Anna thought about it and immediately her mind went over to Tisse. That place must have burned through an entire country's electricity bill by this time in the year.

"Okay. I don't hang out around enough places, but, like, if we're looking for a place that's drawing a ton of power and also breaking constantly, there's... the casino, right?" Hard to miss that place. "The amusement park, the Atrium, obviously... am I missing anything?"

She was counting them off on her fingers and couldn't help but feel like she was missing something, but these were just places she knew about or had been to recently. She was an old woman and didn't have time to hang out at cool, hip places for kids anymore.

for Rose

[hauntedsavior]

e. history repeats her story

Anna makes it three words into the note and drops it to her side, then stares forward at the mailboxes like she's in some kind of mockumentary.

"Fuck this." She's halfway between irritated and amused, and it depends on Rose's reaction which way she actually falls. "A flower? Fuck off."

[blacksong]

[She takes the note to skim it over herself, and the grin that spreads on her face is part-amused, part-tired, and maybe just a bit manic. Of course it's a magic, pretty flower, because what else could they need to get, right? It would be funny if not for how fucked it is. If she knew who wrote this, she'd probably punch them in the face.]

I bet these people think they're so fucking clever with shit like this. [She has half a mind to tear the note up, but she realizes that they should probably keep the information on hand. Take a deep breath, Rose.] Whatever. As long as it doesn't sprout in my other eye, it should be fine.

[hauntedsavior]

You know they do. [it's too appropriate. Anna would get in line right behind Rose for face-punching, but for now that's not even on the table. she's not even sure where to go next.]

So where the hell do we go, other than "the wilderness"? [a place with a lot of natural sunlight, probably... that rules out Bosuma, right? too much canopy. Respatrum is underground and on fire, and Pesgare is a straight-up town. there's only one place that fits... right? she's back to holding the note up between them and glances at Rose.]

They mean Magatus, right? Up north?

[blacksong]

Has to be. I can't think of anywhere else at least. And we have to go looking for a fucking flower in that whole place...

You ready for a camping trip? [Said with about as little enthusiasm as possible. It's not like she hates the outdoors, but this sounds like looking for a needle in a haystack.]

[hauntedsavior]

Nope. [and for a second, it sounds like that's all she's going to say.]

But I guess we gotta be. It's far as hell, though. I can drive us up until the roads get too bad to drive on if you have a car. [they don't have to go immediately, and Anna should definitely bring some kind of... camping rations or something, but first things first. there's no way the state still lets Rose drive with a flower sticking out of her eye.]

Otherwise, I guess we're walking.

[selfloving]

Of course she's been isolating herself.

It's a "family trait," after all, to try and do things on their own, and as much as she - as much as One - might promote working together, Jasmine's always been the worst offender, trying to protect others by shouldering it all, like that might keep them from being disappointed.

She still knows so little about the chakram she received from Retrospec that it feels stupid to bring it, cloth-wrapped and heavy on her back, but it's difficult to imagine any sort of "manual debugging" that doesn't hinge, at least a little, on violence.

"This place is really dismal," she sighs when she approaches. "It's strange to say that about an amusement park, and yet... Hello, anyway."

[hauntedsavior]

"Crappiest place on earth," she offers by way of greeting. Yes, she's absolutely certain nobody else has ever made that joke before. "Good to see you again. What's with the, uh..."

She jerks her head a little past Jasmine as though it's going to help indicate that she means the thing strapped to her back. "That."

They have a lot to catch up on, probably. Anna's going to try to not waste all their time here with conversation, but she has to admit she's curious. She'd like to be able to call Jasmine something other than "the one that hates me" at some point, no matter how right or wrong her drunken self was.

[selfloving]

"It's a weapon, as far as I know. I received it through Retrospec's rather unorthodox delivery service. I wish they'd have sent something a little more intuitive, but it just wasn't that kind of world."

She doesn't like admitting that she has little recollection of how to actually use it, but the tone of her voice should make that much obvious, anyway.

If the debugging process really is as manual as the message they received seems to indicate, Jasmine can imagine few ways the story ends but with violence. She would prefer not to fight, but the choice may have been made for her. This month has been nothing but uneasiness from the very first day, as if waiting for the shoe to drop - and it will, in a big way, in just a few days.

"It feels so quiet here. It makes my ears ring."

[hauntedsavior]

It's not that bad out here, is it? Well, it's definitely on the outskirts of the city, and it feels... it does feel quieter than it should. Hm. At least it adds to the ambiance of a creepy, disused amusement park. Anna takes a moment while the flash of fireworks plays in her mind, and out rising over the treeline she feels like she can almost see a giant castle with a heart-shaped hole in the center.

"Well," she starts, "We could always actually hold a conversation with each other. Like friends." Or acquaintances. Whatever word Jasmine's comfortable with. But, as she's made clear before, talking to another human being is literally fucking impossible.

"Seems like they've been giving you more than just weird circles lately." Might as well be up front with that, even though she's not going to say outright a lot of the stuff that she feels is true. "Anything you wanted to talk about while we're trying to figure out what to do next?"

for Freya

[hauntedsavior]

f. stay away from us, stay where you are

Anna takes a look at the note delivered to her and Freya both, reads what exactly they'll be hunting down, and hums a tune that should probably be familiar to both of them. Just as a way to try to joke about it. This isn't her first rodeo at this point, but she can't say they actually get any easier to do.

"So they want us to find a camera that captures ghosts. Sounds like some sci-fi bullshit, huh?" Of course, Anna's half-robot (though she's got jeans covering the metallic parts), so who is she to talk? "Guess we should what, go antiquing or something?"

[belligerentwarrior]

Anna's joke earns a quiet huff from Freya as she glances about cautiously, a sound that could either be amusement or annoyance.

She's been keeping an eye on their surroundings, even the sky, ever since the moon got brighter with 'nightfall.' Freya looks a little on the haggard side, really.

"Little unoriginal, if you ask me, considering all of the other sci-fi bs we've seen. You've got to have your share of it by now, yeah? You're what, comin' up on a year on this side of the app?"

Freya's gaze takes a break from their surrounds to sweep over the note, and she frowns a bit. Ghosts, again? Was this her own personally recurring Retrospec-assigned theme?

[hauntedsavior]

"Eight months now. Popped up on my phone in February."

Well, late January. And since then she'd seen a dome form and fall around the city, watched a giant wall form itself on the outskirts, woken up in the middle of a white city, fallen into a dream about murdering her friends, been mailed two (two!) swords, grown wings, and been swept out of the sky by a giant-ass whatever the fuck Freya had summoned.

She shakes her head, snapping herself out of her own reverie. "Jesus. Fell down a memory hole there for a bit. Anyway, you done stuff for ghosts yet? I've got a bunch of stuff for other monsters under my belt with, like, way more interesting shit to find, but no ghosts yet."

[belligerentwarrior]

Freya's mouth twists thoughtfully as she continues regarding the note.

"No," she admits after a moment. "Not during this go-around with our regularly scheduled shit storm."

She pauses to take a calm, sweeping glance over the buildings on the other side of the street. "Seen a lotta ghosts during my time on the app, though. I've just... I've got this feeling."

Freya closes her eyes against her better judgement and lets out a breath, tapping her shouldered lance against its resting place twice in what could almost be a nervous gesture. With her eyes closed, the unease was sharper. Almost tugging or calling her, even. It was all too much to be pure coincidence.

"You been by that rotten house that grew itself up on the outskirts yet? The one that screams 'ooh, look at me! I dropped out of a horror movie'?"

[hauntedsavior]

"Once," she says, and her tone is maybe a little shorter than she'd like. "There wasn't a lot there, but who knows. Maybe there's another room I missed or something. Some real House of Leaves shit, yeah?"

Oh well. Even if she's not going to talk much about it, she can give a warning. "It ain't just spooky scary skeletons. It gets real in there. Still don't know how, but... there's probably more there than it looks." And she sighs as the realization hits. She's definitely gonna have to kick some ass today, isn't she.

"Which means it's exactly where we need to go to find this thing." God, she hates knowing how this place works. "All right, fine. We hoofing it or are you gonna summon that bird thing again?"