[Video]

[exploring_game]

[A sharp crackle of a static and grainy video- a harsh, offensive buzz. A view from the forest floor, looking upwards at a looming canopy of trees.

But then there's.a yellow rain boot, coming down dangerously close to the screen, the sound of crunching leaves, snapping twigs.

A hand bends down, and there's a brief flash of a familiar blue bob.]

He-

Comments

[video]

[echo_of_utopia]

Coraline, where are you? The forest?

[video]

[exploring_game]

Doctor Lamb?

I'm...I'm out in the forest, yeah, I've been...

I must have been out here all night.

[video]

[echo_of_utopia]

Are you all right? Would you like me to come and find you?

[video]

[exploring_game]

I...I...don't know....

NO! NO! [Her voice shifts suddenly into something pitchy and panicked, followed by another burst of static]

Don't come out here! No grown-ups! I'll...I'll find my way back.

[video]

[echo_of_utopia]

[ Lamb is going to take that as a no to the former and a yes to the latter question. She prepares a few things before taking off. ]

No grown-ups? Why is that?

Re: [video]

[exploring_game]

Because! ...because.

[video]

[echo_of_utopia]

I can help, Coraline. Are you hurt?

[ And she's on her way. ]

[video]

[exploring_game]

I'll be okay, Doctor Lamb, you don't-

You shouldn't come out here! Stay there and I'll come back, okay?

I'll come back...I just lost my way a little. But I see where the trees are not so deep.

I'll be back soon.

[video / action]

[echo_of_utopia]

[ She gives this some thought while walking down the stairs. She didn't feel inclined to listen the first time somebody told her to stay out of the forest and she's not about to start now. Then again... ]

All right.

[ A while later she will be standing somewhere at the edge of the forest, occasionally calling out Coraline's name. ]

[video / action]

[exploring_game]

[Coraline hears her name, between digging around in the leaves for her missing seeing stone, and finally decides to abandon search. Looking up toward the voice, she flings herself forward through the tress, taking one really hard nosedive after tripping over a root.

...she imagines long arms and a featureless face, snatching at her ankles. A bad dream? Did dashing and dangerous Mr. Fakir behind the mirrors, back before Fakir disappeared, write another bad-end story for her?

Coraline's not sure. Really can't remember much of anything. It's been a confusing, blurry stretch of time out here in Wonderland's woods.

So while she shreds her PJ-pants open on the root and skins up her knee, her dressing gown robe is loose and covered in leaves, she runs. And when she comes tearing out of the forest at a desperate run, blurry-eyed with confused tears, she all but throws herself around Dr. Lamb's middle in a fierce hug, making a muffled whimper of relief.]

[THREADCRASHING!]

[sweetlittleguy]

[He was nearby, but obscured by a few trees. Hearing Coraline's name, Aang jumps up into the air, tiredly gliding over and seeing her burst out of the forest. Worriedly he drops down besides Lamb, snapping his glider back shut.]

Coraline! Are you're okay?

[THREADCRASHING!]

[exploring_game]

[The girl nods, although she stays somewhat latched to Doctor Lamb's skirt, so that no one can quite see her distress. She does look as though she's taken quite the dive in a leaf pile, however.]

[video / action] THREADJACK

[guyshaveitgood]

[And here comes Takatsuki after telling Coraline he'd come wait for her at the edge of the forest. He didn't expect anyone else to be there, so he seems a bit cautious, but not nervous. He figures that Dr. Lamb's there to help too, if she calling out Coraline's name.]

Hello...?

[action] SO MUCH THREADJACKING OMG

[echo_of_utopia]

[ For a second Lamb thinks the motion in the corner of her eye is Coraline, but that moment passes quickly. She doesn't know the boy, but he seems unharmed, so her best guess is ]

Are you waiting for Coraline as well?

[ The waiting as well as the time to answer is cut short when Coraline appears.

Lamb puts her arms around Coraline in a rather mechanical gesture. She stays that way for a moment, ensuring the girl that everything will be all right now, but she is nowhere near as convinced as she sounds, given that she has been told what is waiting in the forest.

After a while she crouches down and pulls something out of the bag she readied before leaving. ]

I have a coat for you, if you like.

[action] OMG

[exploring_game]

[Coraline looks up at her briefly, with a small trusting nod, then smiles small but unrelievedly to see that Aang and...someone else she's never met before, but with a kind face, have also come out to make sure she's safe.

She pulls the coat on over her dressing gown, not really cold so much as comforted by the bulk of extra layers-

...she doesn't dare look behind her, back into the trees. Not yet. She's just a little bit afraid that the masked face is still waiting for her, watching there.

Okay, maybe very afraid, because her knees are shivering.]

[action] aaaah i didn't mean to mess up the thread order

[guyshaveitgood]

[Takatsuki seems a little awkward as the sort-of third wheel among two people that know each other well. But it's not as if he could have left Coraline without knowing that she was being helped or else doing something himself.

He tries to be respectful of what Coraline's been through and not pester her too much, but he has to ask...]

You said you were hungry, right?

[He holds out a bag of snacks - things that he grabbed from the kitchen as quick as he could. It looks like there's small cakes, some crackers and things of that sort in there.]