(Untitled)

[rowan_gods]

Above the ground, in the center of the city of Jhelbor, in a room that John has long since vacated, a twisted piece of shimmering metal and glass seems to shrink down down down until it's nothing more than a pinprick, and then the air around it explodes, and the ripples of that much magic being unmade travel out in all directions.

It's too much. Too

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[minthemagician]

Min had been standing close to Bret in the small crowd in the city center. Her shoulder had been brushed against his upper arm. Then suddenly the world had reeled and she'd grabbed onto him and held her head with the other hand, fearing the worst. No, no, NO. The magic was supposed to be normal by now, but this was worse than any sort of feedback she'd gotten before...

Then everything resolved, and her head was still throbbing, but she was alive. She cursed and opened her eyes, looking over at Bret whom she was still clinging to.

She looked around.

"...What?" she gasped. It was almost painful to speak. "What was that? What happened?"

[maybeunorthadox]

Grace had, for shit and giggles, made her way to Gob's speech with the intention of throwing a stick or two throughout his performance. Instead the world tipped along with what little she had in her stomach, everything tight and throbbing and incredibly unpleasant, and when everything wasn't in a constant state of disequilibrium she took a quick, sharp breath and shoved her hand onto the closest material object.

"Brittany? Where the fuck did you come from?" Or, perhaps a more pertinent question, where the fuck where they? Grace wiped the back of her hand over her mouth and turned to Min. "And who are you?"

And there was vomit on her shoes. Outstanding. With an exasperated sigh, Grace shakily wiped her feet over the ground and crossed her arms over her chest.

[weedyshyguy]

Bret had gotten to a point where the world wasn't spinning quite as violently and he was able to sit up without falling back down again. It hurt to open his eyes, but he recognized Min's voice and Grace's voice and registered that something was attached to his shoulder. Alright, so at least he knew some people.

Shit, Jemaine.

Ignoring the pain the bright light caused and the dizziness he felt as he looked around, he frantically searched the area. Oh no oh no oh no. "Je--" Bret winced, his own voice too loud, "Jemaine. Where's-- Grace, where's Jemaine?" He grabbed at the thing that was holding onto him, only vaguely realizing it was Grace's hand. And there was something on his chest too, another hand, which he also removed as he then, unsuccessfully, attempted to stand.

"Why does stuff like this keep happening?" He whined, holding his arm out insistently and still searching the area until Grace (probably begrudgingly) obliged and helped him up.

[minthemagician]

"What happened?" Min let Bret go and adjusted herself into a sitting position. She wasn't in the standing-up sort of mood just yet.

She also wasn't in the introducing-herself mood, especially if it was to someone who had asked like it was an interrogation. Luckily, or not, Min had the pain excuse. "Oof," she said, putting a hand to her forehead again and squinting at the surroundings.

[maybeunorthadox]

Once Bret had stabled himself, Grace turned her wobbly attention to the blonde. "Well as we were all obviously plucked and tossed here against our will, I'm sure we don't have a fucking clue," she griped before recalling Bret's whinging. Kid had it down to an art.

"Jermaine? Who the hell is--," she whittled off and rolled her eyes. As if he'd be wetting himself over anyone else. Grace scanned the area quickly and, after thirty or so seconds, waved her hand toward a stream that Jemaine was jogging back from. "She's fine, Bethany, calm yourself." It was like he'd never been thrown from the city and into a random woodland slash meadow before.

With a grunt and a rub of her thumb into the bridge of her nose, Grace crouched and turned her attention sternly to Lack Of An Introduction. "Are you alright?"

[weedyshyguy]

Bret breathed a sigh of relief, unconsciously pressing a hand to his heart. He turned back to Min and Grace, mumbling a thank you and looking rather sheepish. "This is like last time," Bret murmured, glancing around at the other scattered people, "Like the oasis." He paused, realizing they'd need more explanation than that. "Before you guys got here all the worldwalkers and some of the natives got teleported into an oasis in the desert. We were stuck there until the humans showed up."

He let his eyes settle on the tree, swallowing anxiously. "But that's definitely the tree, right?" It looked different, but he was almost positive. Jhelbor was gone, but they'd barely moved. "Did the city disappear?"

[minthemagician]

"Just a bit head-spinny," she said to Interrogation. Who was at least being a little nicer now. "Call me Min."

There was cheering, somewhere. Min forced herself to open her eyes wide, take in the surroundings, took a deep breath of the clear, clean air -- which actually did a lot toward make her feel right again. She looked around, astonished, as Bret spoke.

"I have a feeling we're the ones who disappeared."

[maybeunorthadox]

"Grace," came her flippant response before, with a quick once over, she stood and brushed off her knees. Then, with absolute deliberation, Grace brought her hands together in a condescending golf-clap. "Not just a pretty face there, Minge. Honestly Clara, what's the more plausible scenario here? That a bunch of people disappeared, or that a whole fucking city disappeared? I mean really, where did you learn your deduction skills, Hogwarts?" She threw her hands out dramatically, fingers splayed. "Oh my God, now, you gotta hear me out here, but maybe if we pace around a bit a door will magically appear and give us exactly what we want. Ingrid, you're a motherfucking genius."

Grace dropped her arms and fixed Bret with a tight, wide-eyed smile.

"But before we go getting ahead of ourselves and trust me, I know just how tempting it is, how long exactly were you stuck on this 'oasis'? What happened when the humans showed up? Bring us up to date with your reedy tones."

[weedyshyguy]

Bret sighed, only vaguely annoyed by Grace's patronizing. Rowan had magic. Either hypothesis was possible. They didn't know.

Although, given the problems with time it was probably more likely that they'd moved to a time far enough back/forward that the city wasn't around yet/still. But even so. Grace was being a little mean.

He should answer her question, though. "A while. Over a month, I think. The humans came out of the desert and made us wear silk so we could go with their caravan." He frowned. "But...I think that was Mikney." Again, this warranted explanation. "He was the sorceror elf who opened the tree. But he died." Bret rubbed his temple, sighing. "Nothing's simple here."

Bret looked around at the people who looked too upright and conscious to have been through what they'd all been through. "I wonder who they are."

[minthemagician]

Min ignored Grace's goading, for the most part. It was relatively easy given that she couldn't understand half of it. Anyway, if she couldn't call Min by her name, she wouldn't respond anyway. She stood, finally, and focused on the crowd when Bret pointed them out.

"Could ask." In a minute. When being upright agreed with her a little bit more.