recolle | awakened by the sounds of long before [eventually open]

Entry tags:

awakened by the sounds of long before [eventually open]

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))

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Freya looks back ahead, not laughing, but grinning a little. "The city, huh? Listen to you; we'll make a hero out of you yet."

Vanderweele. Freya was getting awfully sick of that name, too.

"Sounds like a reason to raise hell. Wish I could say the same; right now, I'm pretty pissed off about what this infection or whatever's doing to my girlfriend and my roommate."

"Sounds like just as good a reason," she says, refusing to comment on the part about being a hero. She doesn't want that; she just knows what's right and what's wrong, and she's got the skills to fight back against it now. It doesn't mean anything past that.

"What's up with Pen?" The infection is hitting a bunch of people she knows, but not Anna herself yet, so she's... well, no, she's not fine with it. It's why she's out here gathering so much weird crap in the first place. "This'll be my fourth trip out to pick up something that's supposed to be good against monsters. Maybe I can help her out?"

Evil robots, vampires, demons, and now ghosts... that seems like an okay spread, right?

Freya frowns. "Well, I've been mostly separated from her since the eighth or so, but last I checked? She's been eating twice what she normally does, sprouted fangs and snapped at me, parts of her glow like a nightlight, and she's got these little spines on her ears. Oh, forgot one little thing; she's been obsessively tracking me across the city at night, hellbent on infecting me before anyone else does."

She glances around and up again, as if to prove a point. "Do have any idea how difficult that is when the minx can turn invisible?"

Her expression briefly shifts into a scowl, then falls into something more tired. "Then during the day, I get these apologetic messages. She's tryin' real hard to fight this. I can tell she's lonely, too."

The only thing she can think of that could help is her dumb magic flower that she'd gotten with Rose, but even then all she's basing that on is the fang part. The rest sounds more like a ravenous beast, and then there's... invisibility? Werewolves can't do that. What the fuck.

"Jesus." There's the brief flash of a thought, something like how being infected might not be so bad if it gets Freya out of this, but it's easy enough for Anna to ignore. "I don't think I have anything for a glowing invisible beast. Maybe we can use this camera? Like, she could be... part ghost, right?" Part ghost. Listen to her.

She looks forward, getting an idea of just how much longer it'll take for them to get back to this creepy-ass house, and sighs. "I don't know how the hell someone can be part ghost. But this sounds like total hell for both of you. At least it's probably only going to last the month if we can't fix it?" Maybe. She hopes to god she can predict things that well by now.

Freya smiles wryly. "Oh, the invisibility's all on Pen. She's been able to do that for months."

If we can't fix it.

That was what she dreaded most about this month's clusterfuck.

"If it doesn't take care of itself, or we can't fix it," she answers quietly, "then I'm gonna do something about this myself."

It would break her heart, but she would rather that than watch this twist Pen and Lucy endlessly.

Anna was pretty sure she had a handle on the direction Freya was going to go if they couldn't find a, uh, peaceful solution to this. And part of her agreed with it, but only a very, very small part. The rest of her spoke with that same conviction as when she was talking about Vanderweele.

"Nobody else dies if we can avoid it. Even if they'd understand why you're doing it." Even if Anna understands why Freya would do it. "I'll bust my ass to find a cure. And my ass is made of metal now, so it can go a lot longer before it busts."

No time like the present to make a robot joke.

It was a joke. Probably. Mostly likely. Hell, more than most likely, but Freya's had a very, very long two weeks; the instant that last sentence sink in, Freya steps away and her lance spins from its resting place against her shoulder, the folded blades flicking out and stopping pointed at Anna's sternum.

"This little mission better not be some elaborate evil robot scheme--I am not in the mood."

She'll apologize later if she's wrong. Freya's hoping she'll apologize. Please, please prove her wrong.

Anna stops and stands practically frozen in place. That weapon is nothing to fuck with, and if Freya is just willing to pull it out like that then she's nothing to fuck with, either. Which Anna knew, but—she's very careful even with how deep she's breathing, is the point, and her eyes are wide behind her bangs.

"I've had these legs for months," she says carefully. Is she about to screw up another friendship? Ha. Well, sure, might as well be the only one around in her own life, too, if this went poorly. "I'm not trying to plan anything."

And she might as well back it up. "The person I'm turning into was named A2. She was a combat android. This is all a coincidence."

A2. That tickles at a distant memory, one of the ones that bled together under the panic of Ragnarok breathing down her neck. A2; that was the name Anna had said at the bar, months ago. She was an anti-robot robot, or something.

The tension suddenly drains out of Freya's arm and shoulders. The blades fold shut as the weapon sags, and with a grimace Freya lowers it and looks away.

"Right," she says lamely after a moment. "Sorry." You know, as much as that helps violently threatening a friend like that. Way to overreact, genius. "Guess I owe you another drink, huh?"

She starts moving along the street again; they couldn't afford to stay in the open long. Not much farther, now.

No, she gets it. Might as well keep her heart pumping. Anna's got too much existential shit going on to be too concerned with holding a grudge anyway, even if she were going to.

"Only if you want," she says, trying to get across that it's fine even though there's completely understandable fear still in her eyes. Freya's clearly going through some shit. And the last time Anna tried to probe one of her friends about the shit she was going through, she ended up destroying that friendship from the ground up in a handful of sentences, so maybe she'll just. Keep quiet and quicken her pace so they don't lose daylight and end up even more screwed.

"Hey, we're almost there, right? Maybe I'll get to show you this thing in action, too." Though god, does she hope she won't need to. The only thing she wants to cut down with this blade is Clarence. "Whatever spooky crap is in there, I'm pretty sure we can handle it together."

She shrugs back. One drink wasn't any skin off her back.

"Yeah. One son-of-hell-house, comin' right up." She nods, a pointing gesture rather than a confirmation. "That silhouette's it, up the street."

A beat. "A2's a pretty awful name."

Freya maybe have lost her jovial tone after her little flip-out, but that won't stop her from teasing.

Cool. They actually made it there, and it looks... the same as it did last time. Maybe the inside changed, then? Whatever. Anna's just glad she's not coming back here alone. It wouldn't be the same if she had to do this without someone who wasn't totally willing to crack jokes at her expense.

"You think that sucks, you should've heard Annalise." Never mind that that was her actual, full name or anything. "But yeah, none of these androids are super good at naming themselves. I think they're just designations." No skin off her nose whether it's a name or a number or whatever. She knows who she is.

"I forget, you know the name of the chick you're getting memories of?"

Anna's words get an amused snort from Freya; full names being awful and terrible was something she wholeheartedly understood.

Freya glances around as they approach, this time looking at the yard and plants for unpleasant surprises. With a twist of her wrist, the blades on one end of the lance flick out again. This time, though, she just holds it out for Anna to see.

"Not a clue, yet. See that scrawl etched in the blade? I know that's her name, even if I can't read it. Remembered that lovely little bit of info when they sent me this thing. Retrospec's bein' coy, and it's not very cute."

Doesn't look like there's anything here that's... weird, yet. This is kind of how it happened last time, though. The house just has its dumb, store-bought spooky Halloween decorations, and then everything changes once they go inside. Or once they try to leave. Not totally sure which one yet.

"Oh, so they're giving you her name in a language you can't read. Cool," she says, rolling her eyes. "Let's hope it's not something embarrassing. Maybe you'll actually get something more than a letter and a number." Or maybe she'll just get a single letter and this is a super long-winded language.

Either way, it's not the point. She doesn't seem too distracted by the various seasonal accoutrements; she's just interested in opening the door and checking out the inside of this house again. Pushing the door open with her shoulder like the obvious delinquent she once was, she presses onward and gestures for Freya to follow with a jerk of her head.

"Hard-pressed to find something worse than what my mom gave me," she mutters as she follows Anna inside; this is familiar territory to the other woman, so she's content to let her lead.

The interior doesn't surprise her. It looks standard haunted house fare, but Freya can't help the shiver that tries to make its way up her spine, and eyes the decorations. Nothing's moving on its own... yet.

"What happened last time you paid this house a visit?"

"Not much until I tried to leave," she says in a calm (or at least calm enough) voice as she starts poking around the dusty, well-furnished house. The creaking under her feet is as loud as it was last time, but the boards are still supportive and show precisely zero sign of snapping.

"Then the entrance went dark and this... thing showed up." Does she want to get into it? What exactly she saw? She might have to; she's not great at lying on the spot. "It was me, but me if I'd never gotten the app. I don't know what it meant," though that's a practiced lie, "But I definitely feel like it was personalized. She went down pretty easy, at least."

She's trying to rely on her memory; she doesn't remember having seen a camera anywhere, but she hadn't been looking, either. Now that she thinks about it, though, there's... definitely an extra door, wooden and antique and unmarked, in this hallway down on the first floor. She comes to a stop in front of it. "Hey. Pretty sure this wasn't here last time." Spooky.

Freya listens quietly, wandering through the nearby parlor room. Anna's description of the previous events was... honestly, kind of unhelpful. She didn't think that was the older woman's fault, though; these things did tend to be personalized in a trippy, psychological, and sometimes metaphysical way.

Anna's last observation interrupts her prodding of a tacky stuffed crow (or raven?). Freya turns, hands settling on her hips, and ambles over.

"Yeah? If you're sure of it, why don't we see what's behind door number one?"

And, very respectfully, kicks the door open.

No, that's the right level of respect to show this place. It's creepy, it's weird, it's probably going to try to trap them inside as soon as they start thinking about leaving... which is why Anna's glad to see that there's something inside this new room. It seems fairly large with flickering lamps lining the wall almost like torches, and though the overall aesthetic of the room is the same to begin with, Anna feels (as she walks over the threshold and into the room) like she's stepping into a funhouse.

She's surrounded on both sides by mirrors, some that distort her reflections in "funny" ways and some that are probably just meant to disorient. In the entrance, they're more spaced out, but as the room goes on she can see that they're getting larger, filling up more of the walls, spreading to the ceiling and leaving a wooden floor as the only thing to walk on. It's the reflection at the end of the hall that draws her attention first. It's a normal mirror, but it immediately tells her what kind of bullshit they'll have to deal with when she sees herself staring back at her, framed by the doorway. The mirrored hallway curves off to the right sharply, no doubt fixing to turn 180 degrees so it can snake back and make the room seem a lot larger. She knows how these work.

"Welp. Might as well see what's at the end of this thing." She'll wait for Freya to join her before she... well, maybe she doesn't want to take the lead. The hallway seems wide enough for two.

Freya snorts quietly when the door swings open to reveal the unnatural quantity of mirrors. There's only one way this was going to go.

"Oh, this's gonna be a riot," she grumbles, stalking forward passed Anna.

Strangely, seeing the room of mirrors made Freya feel better. There wasn't anything like this is the hell mansion; the less resemblance, the better. Besides, how badly could it go? ...Not that Freya was exactly sure why they thought they'd find a camera in a mirror funhouse, other than 'where the fuck did this door come from.'

Whatever, they were committed now.

Yeah, it makes about as much sense as anything else has. Anna's content walking behind her for now, which might be better in case something decides to follow them in. But no, all they've got is... reflections of themselves. And as they press on and the pattern of reflections gets a little more intricate, Anna's feeling just a little jumpy as she catches movement that probably shouldn't be happening out of the corner of her eye.

"Hey," she says like it's going to stop anything. The walls and ceiling are totally lined with mirrors by now and she's almost convinced that this place is leading them in circles instead of a curved path towards a clear exit. Before she can speak up again, her voice calls out from slightly to the left.

"You left her behind."

Anna's hand goes to her katana; the reflection doesn't follow.

"You ran," comes from the mirror opposite, in a soft wounded voice; it wasn't either of the girls, this time, but Penelope.

Freya half-expected this kind of haunted mirrors bullshit, but even knowing it was coming, it still stung. She hadn't wanted to leave.

And wallowing, letting these things get to them wouldn't solve their problems. Jaw tight, Freya reaches out and sets a hand on Anna's shoulder.

"Get a move on. You know it's a trick." Freya glances back to keep an eye on the door, but somehow it's already gotten lost in the endless reflections.

Right. Obviously. Of course it's a trick, but it's an effective one. More effective than being confronted with Annalise the last time she was in here, that's for damn sure. Ghosts can do what they want to her, but to bring up her sister...

Still. It's a trick. Anna shakes her head, relaxes her grip on the tang, and starts focusing on the way forward. Because she's definitely already lost the way back. "Don't turn back," her voice taunts from the mirror, following her through reflections in a way that it absolutely should not be able to. "Wouldn't want to face her again after all these years."

Anna's teeth grit. "I'm gonna take a wild guess where the fucking camera is," she says, though she hasn't totally figured all of it out yet. Her fist clenches at her side when she hears herself laugh.

Freya ventures forward cautiously, trying not to get disoriented. With the mirrors getting so dense, and some of the reflections moving supernaturally, watching for her own getting closer wasn't a reliable way to navigate; she chokes up on the lance and starts casually waving it in front of her, like some kind of like a blind man's cane.

"It's not bad, it really isn't. And it doesn't hurt. These things always go away after a month. Why are you making this so hard?"

"What, at the heart of our little funhouse? Doesn't make sense to put it at the start of the room, does it?" Freya drones sarcastically.

"Yeah." Her hand reaches out to her side to try to orient herself a little better while Freya leads them; if she can keep track of a wall then they can find their way out. Probably.

"What scares you more?" her voice taunts from the mirrors. "That you left her to the same people who ruined you?" And it's starting to change as Anna focuses too much on what it's saying. Losing the grit. Starting to sound younger. "Or that they all love each other?"

None of this is... anything she would ever bring up to Freya or to anyone. And she expects the same thing from Freya when they make it out of here. This will just be something that happened to them, something they don't talk about ever again, because they don't need to get anything off their chests. They don't need to talk about this.

"If these things don't shut the fuck up fast, I'm gonna end up with about 700 years of bad luck."

Freya snorts. "Let's be real. 700 more bad luck, you mean."

"You promised me, Freya."

She tilts her head slightly to the side in thought, though she doesn't glance back in order to keep her eyes on the haunted reflections.

"These things botherin' you that much?"

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