(Untitled)

[bringmethatnpc]

Deep in a bayou near the mouth of the Pantano River, a wooden shack sits among twisted vines, high roots, and still, stagnant water. Moonlight illuminates the scene, and the shack is lit from within by what seems like hundreds of candles. A single lantern at the entrance beckons all those who dare to step over the threshold

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[try_corsets]

Sitting in the very same spot Will had occupied months before, staring at the still-fresh grooves in the wooden table, Elizabeth wishes she had his knife. The solid thunk that had so annoyed her then might be welcome now. She clenches her jaw and wipes the back of a hand across her damp forehead, muttering under her breath.

They've already been here for half an hour . Still no Will.

She hasn't answered any questions yet. When she does, she's tempted to let ‘sea turtles’ be her only explanation.

[bad_in_latin]

Mal doesn't ask any questions. Rather:

"Quite a show, disappearin' like that."

He's smiling, even as he moves closer to both Elizabeth and Tonks.

[try_corsets]

Perhaps that's one reason Elizabeth likes Mal so well; he doesn't ask a lot of questions. At least not the sort she would rather not answer.

"Captain Reynolds!" she exclaims, voice shrill with her surprise. Very nearly overturning her chair and knocking her forehead against a bottle containing what looks to be lizards, Elizabeth jumps up and forward, craning her neck to get a look at the room beyond Mal.

It looks just the same as it did before.

[bad_in_latin]

"'S Mal, here, anyways -- "

Mal turns his head to follow Elizabeth's gaze. "He opened the door to lead me here, and followed me through. I don't know what happened."

Looking both Elizabeth and Tonks up and down, "You alright? You both? Seein' you two disappear -- I found Will, 'n came with."

[clumsy_auror]

"Peachy," deadpans the witch, hiding her disappointment at the lack of viable door that might return her to Milliways. "So what, you just decided to hare off into an unknown world at the spur of the moment? Inara's gonna love that."

[try_corsets]

Later, Elizabeth might feel a twinge of guilt over what Bernard's own reaction might be. At the moment, however, she can think of only one thing.

"Will! Will was with you?" Another long, searching look over his shoulder, as if she can make her fiancé appear through sheer determination. "But he's not here."

Her forehead wrinkles in a frown.

[bad_in_latin]

"Inara knows. She's going to kill me later, but she knows. So does Bernard, just so's you're aware," Mal counters. "And I came because of my overdeveloped chivalry and general niceness, say xiexie."

To Elizabeth: "Will was the first person I set to find -- I don't know what happened. But he can't not show up."

Mal doesn't think the bar'd let him disappear like that completely.

[clumsy_auror]

'Dora reaches out to catch one of Mal's hands in hers, squeezing it for a moment. "Thanks," she murmurs. "And Will's got to be here somewhere. Only that was a bit weird, wasn't it? I've never seen the door do that before. So I s'pose anything's possible."

[bad_in_latin]

Deadpan, "Didn't think the lake'd go ocean-style on us all either, but o' course, this is Milliways we were just leavin' from, so that's enough of a reasoning I can really hope for."

Looking around to the room at large, "Anyone care to tell me where I'm at at the moment?"

[try_corsets]

"Tia Dalma's shack," Elizabeth answers automatically, missing most of what was said before. It doesn't occur to her that this is largely unhelpful.

Finally, she pulls her gaze back to Mal and Tonks, blinking a bit.

"The lake turned into a sea?"

[bad_in_latin]

"Shi a -- I didn't see the Pearl leave. Was a little distracted by the..."

Mal waves his hand in the general direction of Tonks.

"Magic. -Yness. Thing."

[clumsy_auror]

"Spell of doom?" she suggests. "But I do not think I had anything to do with the bloody lake turning into a bloody ocean. If I did, I oughta get a raise at the Ministry."

[try_corsets]

A sort of wild hope fills Elizabeth's eyes.

"The Pearl left." Not a question, no, because somehow it fits. Her smile, now that she remembers how to do so, is slow and satisfied. "To better answer your earlier question, this is where most of us were before Milliways. Just before, actually. Only a few days have passed."

[bad_in_latin]

"Nice to know we're somewhere..."

Mal finally starts to take in his surroundings beyond the people in front of him. Including the various objects and former-living things in jars.

Ew.

"...palatable."

[clumsy_auror]

"Kinda homey, actually," Tonks says thoughtfully, eyeing the jars with something like nostalgia.

Well. Witch.

[bad_in_latin]

Mal would be picturing Sunny playing with the jars filled with things Mal doesn't actually want to think about, if he didn't have better things to investigate.

"So. What's the plan?

"Is there a plan?"