The Roof -- Early Wednesday Morning Before Classes
Emma had been pushing herself since late last night after radio, knowing that somewhere, out there, her friends were probably doing Very Stupid Things(tm). They were idealists and that's what they did, and Emma was getting too many strange readings to feel comfortable leaving them to their own devices.
Push out. Farther. Farther. Hold more, see more, even if the damned fog was uncomfortable and Emma was tired and cold. So tired, she was starting to see things, flickering, out of the corner of her eye. People she knew weren't there, things that were gone when she turned around, and so she had decided to ignore them and keep working. Could not stop, would not stop. Not until she was satisfied that her range was as complete as possible.
Right up until the moment she pushed too far, and her eyes went pure white as her body seized up and she started screaming telepathically; a distress call reaching out for two people in particular.
Karla
In a turn of events Emma would probably see as 'unsurprising' at best, Karla was one of those people out in the fog, doing Very Idealistic Stupid Things. The fog made her nauseous, as her body struggled to neutralize whatever the fog was made of, but she wasn't about to let something like that stop her. Her shields were lowered to almost nothing as she glided through the mist, straining to catch a hint of what was happening. All she knew was that there was something going on tonight that made her Black Widow senses screamed shrilly.
Wait, no, that particular scream belonged to someone wholly outside herself. The force of the shriek drove her to her knees, gasping in pain as she quickly flung up her strongest mental shields. The scream cut off abruptly, but her head still rang with the concussive force behind it. Wetness trickled onto her upper lip; the power of the scream had given her a bloody nose. Not that Karla really noticed--or cared. She was already running towards the source.
*Emma!*
Sookie
While Sookie had been a Very Smart Girl and had stayed inside, she had been deliberately leaving her shields open to hearing what was going on in the dorms and trying to see where she'd be useful.
It had been creating more of a headache than anything conducive, even when she had sat quietly in her room and tried to extend her range outside the dorms, so she'd wandered out to the common room to try to cook. (Those big, stupid hero types had to eat, didn't they? Even if she wasn't dumb enough to go outside and try to find something in a fog.) So when Emma's scream came crashing through her head, Sookie actually dropped the bowl she'd been mixing and doubled over onto herself. She hugged her knees, feeling nauseated by the power of the mental scream still reverberating in her mind, until she got her bearings and was able to place the source.
<< Emma? >> But she was already running for the stairs. There was another voice, someone who she thought she recognized but wasn't sure. << Karla, that you? Hello? >>
Karla
*Hello?* It took Karla a second to recognize the voice on the other side of the psychic thread. *Sookie? Are you with Emma? I'm on my way!* Someone lunged out of an alleyway, fingers crooked into claws. She garbled something unintelligible at Karla and took a swipe. Karla dodged around the stranger, using a small pulse of Craft to push her away. *Where are you? Are you okay?*
Sookie
<< I'm not with her yet, >> Sookie said, pausing in the stairwell to both catch her breath and try to make sense of her own head. << I'm tryin' to figure out where she is -- she did a number on my head. I'm fine -- are you okay? >> She closed her eyes, letting the voices in her mind blur together into one for a single roar before focusing on trying to find the brain signature that she knew was Emma's.
Karla
Karla sent a small wave of affirmation over the link. *Once I know Emma's okay, we're going to have a nice chat about other ways to communicate a cry for assistance besides screaming in our brains,* she sent, wryness flavoring every word, *but that's kind of the least of my worries right now.* There was another shape lumbering out of the fog. Karla leapt aside, unwilling to get close. *Are you inside? There's all kinds of crazy going on right now.* The walls around the school property reared up in front of her. Karla began running up the air like a stair case to climb over them. *Almost at the dorms. Is that where you are?*
Sookie
<< Fourth floor stairwell, yeah. I stayed inside. That fog's creepy, >> Sookie answered, steady enough to find Emma's brain now, though she couldn't get the exact location. She had a rough idea, though. << I think Emma's on the roof. I'm still trying to get back to where I was a bit ago, but I think she's up there. I've never heard anything like that before, >> she added, sounding less sure of herself as she headed up the stairs, two at a time. << She's still giving out a brain signature, though, so she's...you know, alive. >> She hated that she had to add that.
Karla
*I'm over the walls now. Heading to the roof,* Karla sent, grateful that Sookie had added that. From this distance, she couldn't be sure and had been doing her best not to think about the alternative. *Had she been talking to you before she screamed? Do you know what she doing up there?* Karla had an idea, but it would be nice to know for sure.
Sookie
<< No idea. I wasn't talking to her -- maybe she's doing what I was, from inside. Keeping track of people out there? Or maybe she just needed some fresh air, >> she added, knowing it sounded ridiculous. She tore up the stairs, gripping the rail and not pausing even as she noticed that she was sending tiny purple lines of lightning dancing along the metal. That was a fun side effect she hadn't considered. << I'm almost up there. I can tell where she is, now. She's definitely here. And definitely okay enough that her brain's still working. Can't tell the rest, but she's not moving anywhere. >> With that scary little pronouncement, she pushed the door to the roof open, lightning sparking across the surface when her hands touched it. She had to get that under control, and fast, but she had other things on her mind. "Emma?" she yelled out loud.
Karla
Karla almost flew up the side of the school. Her calves burned with the strain of all the running, but she wasn't about to stop until she reached Emma and Sookie. I could run faster if I wasn't so sore, Lucivar, Karla thought grimly. She vaulted over the edge of the roof, looking for Sookie, Emma, anyone. "Sookie!" she yelled, and then caught sight of a female body crumpled on the roof.
Emma
Emma, for her part, was shaking violently, hands clutching her head and blood trickling out her nose and ears, completely unaware of anyone or anything else around her.
"No, no no no no no no..."
Sookie
Sookie spotted Emma at the same time, running over as fast as she could and kneeling at her side. She pointedly kept her hands to herself -- partly because she wasn't sure what was wrong, partly because she didn't want to make it worse. "Emma? Emma, honey, can you hear me? It's Sookie." She sent a quick burst of << Emma? >> telepathically, as well, not wanting to discount any options.
She didn't have to be a telepath to tell this wasn't the best, though. Emma's mind wasn't clear and cool as usual; it was difficult to navigate, and Sookie backed out.
Emma
Emma flinched, telepathically and verbally, looking around wildly as if trying to find where Sookie's voice was coming from. <> she wailed, squeezing her eyes shut. <>
Sookie
And that was Sookie's cue to shove her mental barriers back up, immediately. She had a pretty good idea what Emma meant, though she wasn't sure how it had happened to her, exactly. She shook her hands out, taking a second to try to calm so she wouldn't zap anything accidentally, then very softly said, "Emma, Karla and I are here. We're, um, we're going to help, okay?"
She just wasn't sure how, yet, and shot Karla a helpless look.
Karla
"She's over-extended herself," Karla murmured, kneeling down next to Emma's head. She placed delicate fingers on Emma's temples and probed gently with Craft, only to hiss as pain flared up the link. "She pushed herself too far and too deep and now she's hurting because of it. She's over-sensitized; picture rubbing your mind raw and then adding salt."
Sookie
"Oh, honey," Sookie murmured, looking down at Emma. She closed her eyes, piecing together calming memories -- the beach in the Bahamas, the warmth of the sun, rooms that were simply quiet -- and projected them down at Emma. She scrunched her face up at the flare that came back at her. "I can't get through very well," she admitted, looking worriedly to Karla. "I -- should we move her?"
Emma
Emma's eerily glowing eyes snapped open suddenly. <> she hissed, recoiling like a wounded animal. <>
The chair was far too big for her, and Kennedy kept staring down at her trailing shoelaces, aware of her mother sitting beside her. Mom wasn't happy about being called into the principal's office because her six-year-old daughter had gotten into a fight, and Kennedy knew it, but she was stubbornly convinced she'd done the right thing. Fidgety and wishing this meeting would be over already, she glanced over her shoulder and noticed the woman standing out in the hallway, looking closely at her. That was weird.
"It's not the first incident," Principal Arakawa was saying, "and I'm a little concerned that it may become a chronic problem."
Her mental voice was almost plaintive, echoing from many directions. <>
Karla
"I think moving her would be a bad idea right now," Karla said, rather unnecessarily. "It's like she's lost and the more changes she encounters, the more difficult it will be for her. Jostling her body while her mind is elsewhere might not be...healthy?" Karla's tone suggested that 'healthy' might not be the best way to describe it. "But we've got to get her back under control. Too much input and she'll be wandering the Twisted Kingdom, unable to remember exactly who or what she is."
Karla looked at Sookie. "We might have to go in after her." This wasn't going to be fun, no.
Sookie
"Okay," Sookie agreed immediately. Nevermind that she had never done that before. "Without hurting her. Or us," she added as an afterthought. "But we have to get her back. I'll do whatever we need to, but I'm not sure where to start. This is new."
She looked down at Emma, and glanced at the fog. "But we need to move fast. I don't want to be out in this any longer than we need to."
Karla
"Definitely not," Karla said, also giving the fog an uneasy glance. "There's something going on and it's been bugging me all day. Remember class?" Not that they wanted to be in Emma's head for very long, either, in the fog or out.
Karla took a deep breath and lowered her inner barriers. Emma lit up like a Winsol tree and Sookie was also glowing, though not as painfully as Emma. Oddly enough, the fog remained inert to her senses--no magic there at all. Still, she reminded herself, now was not the time to be concerned about the fog. Instead she turned towards Sookie and knocked gently on Sookie's shields. *Let me in?* she sent, extending a metaphorical hand. *We should link first.* Sort of like tying a tow-rope to each other before diving into deep and potentially treacherous waters.
Sookie
Sookie had thought this would be difficult, but once she dropped her shielding, it seemed like the simplest thing in the world. Funny how that worked -- like telepathic instinct, though she wasn't sure that was really a thing. << Hi,>> she said mentally, trying to keep her shields down for Karla without overwhelming herself with everyone else on the island. Linking felt very similar to most of the times she'd simply spoken in Emma's or Jono's heads, but it took a little more concentration. She concentrated on catching Karla's brain signature, and that helped. << Is she going to let us? >> she asked dubiously, hesitantly giving Emma a mental poke.
Emma
Emma reacted the way she usually did when someone poked at her, or implied she needed help:
Poorly.
She didn't understand; why it was so loud in her head, what was going on. Where she was. There were...people. And sometimes she knew them and sometimes she didn't, so she did the one thing she knew would keep her safe. The one thing that always worked for her.
She ran. She had to hide. She would be safe if she could find somewhere to hide. There.
"Are you trying to insinuate there's a problem with Kennedy's home life?" Mom asked, sounding mad about it. "I assure you, she's had a very stable upbringing. She's just excitable."
Karla
*I don't know,* Karla fretted. *Usually, I'd say no; that's her current problem--she can't keep anyone out. But her powers--and yours--work differently from mine, so I can't give any kind of guarantees. Plus, there's always the chance her mind will react differently to a pair of intruders than it is to the passive minds of others. I don't know if Emma's set up any other kind of mental defenses, either deliberately or instinctively. And the instinctive booby-traps scare me--she wouldn't know how to key them to people she trusts.*
Assuming there were people Emma trusted that much.
But did they really have a choice? *We'll do what we can and may the Darkness grant that's enough,* she sent, trying to project more confidence than she felt. *You ready?*
Sookie
She took a deep breath, sent up a quick little prayer to the tune of << Please, God, let it work >> -- and it was odd having someone else in her head for a prayer, but it couldn't be helped. It was keeping her calm, anyway, and the last thing she wanted to do was electrocute either Karla or Emma. << Ready. We'll just be careful. >> With that, she gave up her careful poking at Emma's mental state and pushed forward, keeping her barriers down but her guard carefully in place.
And there was a girl who looked...familiar. Almost like a young-looking Kennedy, which was strange, to say the least. She was being lectured --
"Excitable is one thing. Punching her classmates is a little beyond excitable," the principal insisted. "I'm simply concerned--"
"Ryan deserved it," Kennedy burst out, kicking the rungs of her chair in her impatience.
Emma
Emma delicately skirtted around the outside of the memory. The others had followed her, she could feel them, but Emma was very good at hiding. There was a child, angry, impatient, the focus of this -- meeting or something -- so Emma decided to use that to her advantage, slipping down a school hallway while the girl exploded at two people; maybe the people chasing her? Emma didn't know, and she didn't plan to stick around and find out.
"He picks on her all the time, and I got sick of nobody doing anything about it. Maybe you should call him in here and talk to him about it, 'stead of me."
Do something about it, yes. Emma had to make it safe.
Karla
Karla turned to give Sookie a startled glance. As adorable as wee!Kennedy was, this wasn't what she'd been expecting at all. *She's hiding in the minds and memories of other people,* Karla sent, as the principal offered several stunned apologies to both Kennedy and her mother. Even through the memory, Karla could feel the anger within the little girl, but she couldn't catch sight or scent of Emma. There was too much going on here; the memory was almost heavy with importance. *She can't keep them out, so she's using them instead, to cover her tracks.*
In the memory, Kennedy's mother had finally put her hand on her daughter's shoulder and told her it was time to go. Outside, in the hall, another woman waited, but it wasn't Emma. She let them get a few steps away before calling out, "Ma'am? Constance Aluko. School counselor. I wonder if I might have a brief word with you and your daughter..." *I don't think she's in this one anymore.*
Sookie
Sookie stared at their surroundings, and reached out to find Emma again. << She isn't. She's in someone else. Can you latch onto her? I can...kind of see her but it's fuzzy. >>
She caught a flash of a blond boy, and a needle, and sharp burst of terror before she lost Emma again. << I can track her brain but she's moving fast, and it's her...mental brain, rather than her physical one. But she's moved on to a guy, now. >>
Karla
*You can track by physical brains?!* Karla asked incredulously, giving Sookie a look that was somewhere between surprised and impressed. *How--Never mind.* Karla reluctantly cut herself off. *Neither time nor place for shop talk. Right.* She paused to glance around, leaving the school behind for some kind of medical facility. There was something about the place--the psychic stink of fear, perhaps--that made Karla think of Briarwood. *I hope Em's not in here,* Karla sent, trying to repress a shudder. *This isn't a good place.*
She wasn't sure if Emma was in control of where she ran or not, but if she were, then this choice of memory was cruel and deliberately chosen to slow them down. Karla let out a mental gasp when she saw the body restrained to some kind of tall bed, figures clustered around it, ignoring the pleas for them to stop, to talk about this. She caught the glimpse of golden hair and paled. But it wasn't Emma. Or Janelle. It was a familiar male, though she didn't recognize him until he broke through his restraints and flared a pair of magnificent white wings. *Mother Night--Warren?!*
Emma
A corruption of healthy cellular activity.
Emma had initially stopped when the boy started protesting. She... knew him. Maybe. This was familiar, so familiar, in the way it felt.
A cure for mutancy? That wasn't what he wanted. He wasn't a disease.
She knew that word, 'mutancy.' Mutant. Pretty blond boy with curls... Jack? Christian? Who were Jack and Christian? It didn't matter, Emma wasn't safe here either, so she looked around for somewhere that felt right, somewhere she could be anonymous.
There were too many folk at the Kennel. A gixie jiggling a crying babe on her arm, a merchant shouting at the Dog with the silver badger. Tis crowded and they look right over her. They don't see her no more than they'd see the mumpers at the street corner, not unless they'd need aught from them. When they want their birdies to sing, then they'll notice. Not her, even if the song she's got for them to hear will be sweeter than aught they'd heard afore. She'd told them, but they'd laughed and told her to leave.
"Dun' yeh stand her' telling those fine jokes of yours." A hand grabbed her shoulder and she struggled, trying to shake it off. "A Kennel's no place for lil' one like yah. Go on. Out with yah!"
So many people, so loud, so crowded. Perfect to disappear.
Sookie
Sookie's attention had been focused on Warren and those wings. Now she recognized him, yes. So it took a moment before -- << Damn it, we lost her again! >> She didn't even think to apologize for swearing -- she just reached out with her mind and tried to latch onto Emma's, the scenery shifting even as Sookie started to feel a little overextended. << She's fast >>
"Get yer ticklers off of me!" she growled and glared up at the Dog. Tis as they always do and his grip loosened just for her to wiggle free. There was an open door and she ran for it, dodging legs and arms and the man's barrelling after her.
There's no stopping, not until she barreled right into the desk and the man behind it glowered at her. "Guardsman, what's the meaning of this?"
She didn't recognize any of these people, or their accents, or their world. She was disoriented, trying to find Emma with every sense she had available.
Karla
"I apologize. She's be-"
"I know where them Bold Brass gang's been hiding. I can take yah to them. You and yer Dogs," she spoke loudly, her heart beating in her ears and 't was hard to breathe. "I'll take yeh to them."
For a moment, Karla almost knew where they were. The cant was so familiar--but then it was all washed away in the cacophony of scents and sounds and the great mass of people. Karla was dizzy and confused, casting around for a hint of Emma, somewhere, anywhere in the crush of people. *When we find her, I'm making her take a nap for a week,* Karla growled, trying to push her way through the crowd and search for their friend. *Is that--damn! She's gone again.* A commotion behind them drew her attention back to the memory at hand.
"Those eyes," the man gasped, shifting back in his chair with fear. "Get her out of here! Afore she puts a curse on us all."
There's no escaping the arms that wrapped around her. She tried with all she'd got, but the Dog told her to be quiet and the ground's no softer than the laughter as the Dog turned his back. "And don't come here again."
Emma
Emma had spied on them from the crowd, only running again when they kept getting too close. Sometimes she thought she almost knew them. Sometimes she knew she did. They didn't want to hurt her, she knew that now, but people around Emma got hurt, and being around people... something. She couldn't remember.
But it was getting loud in this room, with the people and the baby, and her head was throbbing. Too loud, time to look for another place.
Sookie
Sookie was getting frustrated. She raced through the crowd, trying to keep Emma in her sights, at least mentally. Eventually, she had to give up. Her head was pounding almost violently at this point, and she couldn't see Emma anyway.
<< Lost her, >> she sent, trying to focus her thoughts and find Emma's brain in the masses again. << She's fast, and -- yeah. Damn it. >>
Karla
Karla huffed. *Trying to keep track of her psychic scent in this crowd is damn near impossible,* she groused, going for grumpy to try to cover up how worried she was about Emma. *I keep broadcasting out to her, but it gets lost in all the noise. Can't she run through the head of someone with quiet memories?*
She glanced around again. *She might still be hiding here. Wanna split up? We each take one side of the crowd? See if we can find her?*
Sookie
<< 'Kay >> Sookie managed, massaging her temples before scanning the crowd. << Meet back here in five? >> She didn't note that it'd help a bit to rest her mental faculties for a minute or two, but it was true. She'd look with her eyes for at least the moment.
Karla
Karla didn't say it either, but she was thinking something very similar as she circled towards the other side. She wasn't quite at headache levels yet, but it was getting close. She peered closely through the crowd, looking for the glint of gold she associated with Emma's hair. *Five it is. And then we head out?*
Sookie
<< Yeah. We can try, anyway. >>Sookie's gaze flicked from person to person as she moved through the crowd. No one was dressed like Emma, and no one was quite as brilliantly blonde as Emma. That being said, Sookie also didn't recognize Emma's mind in the flurry of thoughts flashing through her own head, but she was trying to filter those at this point, so she wouldn't be completely useless when they moved on. She was going to end up with a migraine at this rate, and she hadn't had one of those since she was too little to understand blocking people out. "Emma?" she called, fairly uselessly, as she strode through the throng of people.
Karla
One would think that it would be easier to find someone like Emma in a crowd like this; her mental image of herself was too different from the people that moved and bustled around them. Karla ducked and bobbed through the hordes of people, looking for anything that that reminded her of Emma. *Emma!* she sent out on a psychic thread.
Emma
The sound of Sookie's voice broke through the confusion in her mind, providing a non-shifting signpost. "Sookie?" she called, turning around, suddenly confused. "Where am I?"
But she couldn't see anyone, so Emma pushed onward, trying to find her way out.
Sookie
Sookie almost thought she heard her own name being yelled back at her. "Emma?" she yelled again, trying to chase the sound and pulling her barriers back down, searching out for Emma's mind. But she'd already passed, and Sookie was back to being confused. << Emma? >> she tried, sending it out as strong as she could.
Karla
Karla's head kicked up. *Emma?!* she sent, trying to follow the elusive psychic thread that had flared for a brief second. *Sookie? Did you hear her? Find her?*
Sookie
<< Yeah. I lost her again, though, >> Sookie replied, frustration evident in her tone. << She heard me yelling, but I think she's moved on somewhere else. But she was close and she answered me, so some part of her has to still be able to answer. >>
Karla
*That's something,* Karla said, shifting her way through the crowd. *I don't think she's here anymore. Wanna move on?*
Sookie
<< Yeah. >> She sighed, making her way back over to Karla and trying to locate the hum of Emma. << We'll get her this time. She's slowing down, I think.
He hadn't really thought about it, he'd just reacted. Rocky and his thugs had grabbed Judy, it wasn't hard to guess what they'd planned to do to her, and so he'd just- let loose. Next thing he knew, Rocky was encased in a block of ice and Judy and Rocky's friends were staring at him in horror.
"Freak! You murdered him!" one of the thugs spat, before turning heel and running.
As things morphed around them again, Sookie was almost relieved. She knew who this was, at least, if the ice was any indication. << She's in Bobby's head. >>
"No, no, he's not, he's not-" Bobby wasn't sure if he was trying to assure the rapidly retreating forms of the two older boys or himself.
Thank God. Semi-familiar territory, even if this memory wasn't one she'd seen before. But now was not the time to get caught up in feeling sorry for one friend when she was busy chasing another, and her head was throbbing.
Karla
"Bobby?" Judy's voice was small and frightened. "What are you? What did you do?" And Bobby knew that this was it. His secret was out. His life was over.
"He's not dead," Bobby repeated. "There's air trapped inside with him. Once the ice melts-"
"Oh, god," Judy's horrified voice cut him off. "You're one of them, aren't you?" She can't even say the word, it sickens her so much, Bobby found himself thinking.
Karla found herself pausing to watch the memory unfold. She knew that there were things that this world that she didn't understand, reasons that Bobby flinched away from admitting his powers and Emma ran rather than trust anyone. She had a feeling that she was seeing one of the reasons this was true. She saw the fear in the eyes of the female as she looked at Bobby, saw the fear Bobby had for himself.
"Judy, please," he was begging now, but he didn't care.
"Don't touch me, you freak!" she shrieked at him, flinching away.
Karla turned away, unwilling to watch something so personal. *Emma!* she called. *Emma, please!*
Emma
Taking refuge in memories had buffered Emma from the insane pressure of the island pressing in her psyche somewhat, and she could feel little bits falling into place in her mind. But telepathic contact still hurt, like lemon juice on a raw wound, and she flinched at Karla's mental call. "Karla? Sookie? What the fuck is going on?"
They'll tell people about this. They'll tell people, and they'll come for you...
"AND WHY AM I IN A DRAMA STARRING BOBBY DRAKE?"
Oh yes, someone was feeling better.
Sookie
"Jesus Christ, shepherd of Judea, you're back," Sookie breathed aloud, and then louder as she approached the sound of Emma's voice. "You're in Bobby's head. We've been chasing you, hon. How do you feel?"
Karla
"Hell's fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness be merciful," Karla said, heading for Emma's voice. "I should make you stay and watch the rest of it for all the trouble you've put us through."
Nothing said, 'I'm happy to see you' like threats and cussing. "When we get back in your head, you're going to have a splitting headache, you know."
Emma
"I feel like someone took a cheese grater to my entire body, and then cut out my brain and ground it up with glass and oil and set it on fire, thank you for asking. SOOKIE." Shut up, Karla. It's rude to be mean when poor Emma is still lost.
She looked around, pointedly trying to give the apparition of her friend privacy. Punching memories of people in Bobby's mind would probably be therapeutic for her own issues with her manifestation, but ultimately unhelpful. Instead, she started walking towards where she thought she heard their voices coming from. "I'm not really seeing anything I recognize..."
Lissa's dad was driving, her mom in the front seat, and Rose was gossiping about the kids at school, smirking at Lissa as she made some goofy point. Lissa laughed, and Rose even caught Andre snickering a little. He was Lissa's brother, but he was so damn good-looking - and older and popular - that Rose couldn't help flirting sometimes.
"Except Rose, hitting on a hot boy. That I know."
Sookie
"He is kind of cute," Sookie contributed unhelpfully, keeping track of Emma and desperately grateful for the little break her brain was taking. Though this would undoubtedly be unpleasant once they returned to their bodies.
Lissa had started to respond when the car jerked sideways then spun, wheels squealing. Rose grabbed for Lissa instinctively, making sure she didn't fly out of her seat as the car spun off the road. There was a shriek of twisting metal and then darkness.
"...oh no. Oh, oh, poor Rose." She closed her eyes, turning away, little good that it did.
Karla
Oh, don't worry, Emma. You'd be getting all the fussing you could ever want, just as soon as they got back to their bodies.
Darkness, such darkness beyond anything she'd seen before and then a sensation of almost unbearable heat following by searing cold.
And instead of the darkness, Rose was staring at her unconscious self from above. Her hands were nearly glowing as they shook the Rose-body. "Wake up," she screamed. "Rose, wake up." She looked around at the blood-covered scene. "Mom. Andre. Daddy. Wake up. WAKE UP. Rose." Something stirred in the body under her hands and the dark eyes opened in response to the call.
The rather-nasty words that had sprung to Karla's lips at the phrase 'Rose, hitting on a hot guy' were immediately swallowed back when Karla saw what was happening. So much pain, so much darkness, so much death. "Hell's fire, Rose."
Emma
The weight and pain of the memory was almost enough to snap Emma's tenuous grip on herself and her knees buckled, sending her to the ground as her telepathy split into three viewpoints; herself as outsider, Rose, and Rose.
For a jarring almost painful second, Rose felt her vision blur as she watched the scene from two directions. From above as she reached to shake Rose's shoulder very gently and ask "Rose?" And from her own body as she looked up at Lissa's terrified face, blinking as some of her blonde hair fell into her face. "I'm here."
"I don't want to be here," she managed, clutching at her head. "I don't want to see this. Make it stop make it stop make it STOP!"
Sookie
Sookie fought the wave of nausea that the memory had induced, trying to keep her knees from buckling. "We have to get out. Emma, come on. Come on, Emma," she said, reaching out to the other girl without touching, just this side of frantic now. "Stay with us. We're going to get out, and we're going to go and read stupid mysteries and watch bad TV and paint our nails and I'll bake a cake." She was babbling now, just trying to be as comforting and as anchoring as possible. Because if Sookie wasn't sure she could take much more, then Emma had to be close to snapping again, she was sure. She turned to Karla. "How do we get out? Just...retreat? Do we need to bond her to us, too?"
Karla
Karla reached out to try to catch Sookie before her knees collapsed. "I promise not to bake!" she added quickly to Emma. "Stay with us and I promise not to bake." She grabbed for Emma's hands. "We've got to get her shielded. That's step one. Once we get her shielding we can help her get home. This is why I got you those damn earrings," she muttered. "We are going to talk about preparations, Miss Frost"
Karla closed her eyes and concentrated. "Can you shield someone else?" she asked Sookie. "If you can't, then I'll have to shield us both. That means we're going to need you to lead us back."
Emma
"Earrings and bracelet are next to my bed," Emma mumbled, wrapping her fingers tightly around Karla's. "I don't keep 'em in my pockets; I don't want to lose them." Too precious to risk that sort of thing.
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus on their voices. "I can do this. Just don't let go, or I'll get lost again."
Sookie
"I'll lead," Sookie said, reaching to place a hand on Emma's arm, and one on Karla's. Connection was instinctive at this point. "I can do that. I'm not -- I don't think I'm okay enough to shield anyone at this point." She closed her eyes, picturing where they'd been, and she began to feel a little light-headed, like they were starting to move back towards there. She kept the image firm in her mind, her eyes and mind closed off to everything else. She needed to get them out.
Karla
"...Didn't come...this far...to let you...go again," Karla gritted out. Words were hard right now--she was erecting mental shield by careful mental shield over Emma, but deep inside the minds of others. It was painstakingly hard work, making sure that her shields were enclosing everything that was Emma, but excluding everything that was not. Each shield was paper-thin--too much power and she'd overload Emma's mind or start accidentally gathering in bits of Rose's or Bobby's or Kennedy's. Which meant that as soon as she finished creating one shield around Emma, it was time to begin building another, piece by delicate piece. Too little shielding meant that they'd be overpowered by the first direct thought or intense emotion and Karla was not about to start this evening's ordeal over again.
Emma
Emma lent what structure she could to Karla's work, faint pink light gathering around her head and hands, strengthening her ties to both girls. "Take us home, captain," she tried to joke, picking up the image from Sookie's mind and holding firm to it. "I would say we all get drinks after this, but I think I'm going to throw-up soon."
Moving out and away. Emma was going to focus on out and away and the dorms, things becoming solid and real, and she could be sick later.
Sookie
"You aren't alone there," Sookie murmured, mentally pulling them both with her as she visualized where they were going, and -- the sensation was unique, this moving back through to their bodies after having left them. She'd never done this before, and it took a long moment of reconnecting with her body and no small amount of work before she felt herself surge back into her now-very-cold physical form, coughing and almost wheezing with the exerted effort. "Done," she croaked, looking over at the other two girls.
Karla
"Thank the Darkness," Karla said, attempting to sit up. That proved to be a Very Bad Idea. "I know I'm back in my body," she whimpered. "It wouldn't hurt so much if I wasn't." Her body, left prone out in the damp cold, had stiffened a bit. She could feel the knots in her calves and hips after her mad dash to the dorms. It looked like she'd be breaking out the peppermint salve again tonight. Her head was throbbing, a gift from both Emma's earlier scream and their following mental excursions. "Owie. I can call in some headache power if you want. It'll be hell on your stomach, but it'll help your head," she warned.
Emma
Emma tried opening her eyes, and immediately groaned as the world spun, and strange things flickered at the corners of her eyes. "I'm still seeing strange things," she announced with forced cheer. "Things I know must be imaginary, because I know we're the only ones up here."
"Can we go inside now, so that I can take some sleeping pills and become dead to the world?" And wear both her bracelet and earrings to bed. "I promise to never again give a shit about my fellow man, since it leads to insanity and migraines."
Sookie
"Yes please," Sookie said, standing wobbily. She meant to help them up as well, but she wasn't steady enough to not fall over with just her own weight. She closed her eyes against something that blinked at her peripheral vision. "I'm starting to see things, too. Let's go inside." So that she could fall into bed, or drink some tea, or become violently sick. Probably all three. She just wanted to sleep for a week. Dreamlessly.
She opened her eyes to look straight at Emma, though. "I'm glad we got you back," she said sincerely. "Don't do that again." She wasn't exactly stern, but she was serious. Most of her energy towards sternness was being used up trying to stay on her feet.
Karla
"Sookie is a very wise female and you should listen to her," Karla groaned. She very carefully glanced around, but didn't see any of the weird images that Sookie and Emma were talking about. But her nausea was back. Slowly pushing herself off the ground--her limbs felt like eggshells and her head like a rotting melon--she hobbled over to Emma to give some kind of aid to help Emma stand. Mostly by acting as a stool, since actually helping was well beyond her means. "I was worried about you," she murmured in an undertone. "I'm glad you're okay. Though this is a really crappy version of okay to be glad about."
Emma
Emma accepted the help, getting to her feet and stumbling for the door leading back down into the dorms. "Haven't you heard, darling? I'm difficult, I don't listen to people," she quipped, wincing at the effort humor took. "Bloody hell. Bed, for all of us. I think I'm calling into the rest of the week dead."
She paused, her hand on the handle. "And ladies?"
"Thank you."
[OOC: Preplayed with the AMAZING justwantsquiet and glacial-witch, with Guest Appearances by brat_intraining, not_a_parakeet, provostsdog, and guardianborn. Psyhic call for help was directed at Sookie and Karla, but if you think you'd have sensed it anyway, feel free to react here or in your own journals. Otherwise NFI, and all astral-plane shenanigans are NFB.]
Push out. Farther. Farther. Hold more, see more, even if the damned fog was uncomfortable and Emma was tired and cold. So tired, she was starting to see things, flickering, out of the corner of her eye. People she knew weren't there, things that were gone when she turned around, and so she had decided to ignore them and keep working. Could not stop, would not stop. Not until she was satisfied that her range was as complete as possible.
Right up until the moment she pushed too far, and her eyes went pure white as her body seized up and she started screaming telepathically; a distress call reaching out for two people in particular.
Karla
In a turn of events Emma would probably see as 'unsurprising' at best, Karla was one of those people out in the fog, doing Very Idealistic Stupid Things. The fog made her nauseous, as her body struggled to neutralize whatever the fog was made of, but she wasn't about to let something like that stop her. Her shields were lowered to almost nothing as she glided through the mist, straining to catch a hint of what was happening. All she knew was that there was something going on tonight that made her Black Widow senses screamed shrilly.
Wait, no, that particular scream belonged to someone wholly outside herself. The force of the shriek drove her to her knees, gasping in pain as she quickly flung up her strongest mental shields. The scream cut off abruptly, but her head still rang with the concussive force behind it. Wetness trickled onto her upper lip; the power of the scream had given her a bloody nose. Not that Karla really noticed--or cared. She was already running towards the source.
*Emma!*
Sookie
While Sookie had been a Very Smart Girl and had stayed inside, she had been deliberately leaving her shields open to hearing what was going on in the dorms and trying to see where she'd be useful.
It had been creating more of a headache than anything conducive, even when she had sat quietly in her room and tried to extend her range outside the dorms, so she'd wandered out to the common room to try to cook. (Those big, stupid hero types had to eat, didn't they? Even if she wasn't dumb enough to go outside and try to find something in a fog.) So when Emma's scream came crashing through her head, Sookie actually dropped the bowl she'd been mixing and doubled over onto herself. She hugged her knees, feeling nauseated by the power of the mental scream still reverberating in her mind, until she got her bearings and was able to place the source.
<< Emma? >> But she was already running for the stairs. There was another voice, someone who she thought she recognized but wasn't sure. << Karla, that you? Hello? >>
Karla
*Hello?* It took Karla a second to recognize the voice on the other side of the psychic thread. *Sookie? Are you with Emma? I'm on my way!* Someone lunged out of an alleyway, fingers crooked into claws. She garbled something unintelligible at Karla and took a swipe. Karla dodged around the stranger, using a small pulse of Craft to push her away. *Where are you? Are you okay?*
Sookie
<< I'm not with her yet, >> Sookie said, pausing in the stairwell to both catch her breath and try to make sense of her own head. << I'm tryin' to figure out where she is -- she did a number on my head. I'm fine -- are you okay? >> She closed her eyes, letting the voices in her mind blur together into one for a single roar before focusing on trying to find the brain signature that she knew was Emma's.
Karla
Karla sent a small wave of affirmation over the link. *Once I know Emma's okay, we're going to have a nice chat about other ways to communicate a cry for assistance besides screaming in our brains,* she sent, wryness flavoring every word, *but that's kind of the least of my worries right now.* There was another shape lumbering out of the fog. Karla leapt aside, unwilling to get close. *Are you inside? There's all kinds of crazy going on right now.* The walls around the school property reared up in front of her. Karla began running up the air like a stair case to climb over them. *Almost at the dorms. Is that where you are?*
Sookie
<< Fourth floor stairwell, yeah. I stayed inside. That fog's creepy, >> Sookie answered, steady enough to find Emma's brain now, though she couldn't get the exact location. She had a rough idea, though. << I think Emma's on the roof. I'm still trying to get back to where I was a bit ago, but I think she's up there. I've never heard anything like that before, >> she added, sounding less sure of herself as she headed up the stairs, two at a time. << She's still giving out a brain signature, though, so she's...you know, alive. >> She hated that she had to add that.
Karla
*I'm over the walls now. Heading to the roof,* Karla sent, grateful that Sookie had added that. From this distance, she couldn't be sure and had been doing her best not to think about the alternative. *Had she been talking to you before she screamed? Do you know what she doing up there?* Karla had an idea, but it would be nice to know for sure.
Sookie
<< No idea. I wasn't talking to her -- maybe she's doing what I was, from inside. Keeping track of people out there? Or maybe she just needed some fresh air, >> she added, knowing it sounded ridiculous. She tore up the stairs, gripping the rail and not pausing even as she noticed that she was sending tiny purple lines of lightning dancing along the metal. That was a fun side effect she hadn't considered. << I'm almost up there. I can tell where she is, now. She's definitely here. And definitely okay enough that her brain's still working. Can't tell the rest, but she's not moving anywhere. >> With that scary little pronouncement, she pushed the door to the roof open, lightning sparking across the surface when her hands touched it. She had to get that under control, and fast, but she had other things on her mind. "Emma?" she yelled out loud.
Karla
Karla almost flew up the side of the school. Her calves burned with the strain of all the running, but she wasn't about to stop until she reached Emma and Sookie. I could run faster if I wasn't so sore, Lucivar, Karla thought grimly. She vaulted over the edge of the roof, looking for Sookie, Emma, anyone. "Sookie!" she yelled, and then caught sight of a female body crumpled on the roof.
Emma
Emma, for her part, was shaking violently, hands clutching her head and blood trickling out her nose and ears, completely unaware of anyone or anything else around her.
"No, no no no no no no..."
Sookie
Sookie spotted Emma at the same time, running over as fast as she could and kneeling at her side. She pointedly kept her hands to herself -- partly because she wasn't sure what was wrong, partly because she didn't want to make it worse. "Emma? Emma, honey, can you hear me? It's Sookie." She sent a quick burst of << Emma? >> telepathically, as well, not wanting to discount any options.
She didn't have to be a telepath to tell this wasn't the best, though. Emma's mind wasn't clear and cool as usual; it was difficult to navigate, and Sookie backed out.
Emma
Emma flinched, telepathically and verbally, looking around wildly as if trying to find where Sookie's voice was coming from. <
Sookie
And that was Sookie's cue to shove her mental barriers back up, immediately. She had a pretty good idea what Emma meant, though she wasn't sure how it had happened to her, exactly. She shook her hands out, taking a second to try to calm so she wouldn't zap anything accidentally, then very softly said, "Emma, Karla and I are here. We're, um, we're going to help, okay?"
She just wasn't sure how, yet, and shot Karla a helpless look.
Karla
"She's over-extended herself," Karla murmured, kneeling down next to Emma's head. She placed delicate fingers on Emma's temples and probed gently with Craft, only to hiss as pain flared up the link. "She pushed herself too far and too deep and now she's hurting because of it. She's over-sensitized; picture rubbing your mind raw and then adding salt."
Sookie
"Oh, honey," Sookie murmured, looking down at Emma. She closed her eyes, piecing together calming memories -- the beach in the Bahamas, the warmth of the sun, rooms that were simply quiet -- and projected them down at Emma. She scrunched her face up at the flare that came back at her. "I can't get through very well," she admitted, looking worriedly to Karla. "I -- should we move her?"
Emma
Emma's eerily glowing eyes snapped open suddenly. <
The chair was far too big for her, and Kennedy kept staring down at her trailing shoelaces, aware of her mother sitting beside her. Mom wasn't happy about being called into the principal's office because her six-year-old daughter had gotten into a fight, and Kennedy knew it, but she was stubbornly convinced she'd done the right thing. Fidgety and wishing this meeting would be over already, she glanced over her shoulder and noticed the woman standing out in the hallway, looking closely at her. That was weird.
"It's not the first incident," Principal Arakawa was saying, "and I'm a little concerned that it may become a chronic problem."
Her mental voice was almost plaintive, echoing from many directions. <
Karla
"I think moving her would be a bad idea right now," Karla said, rather unnecessarily. "It's like she's lost and the more changes she encounters, the more difficult it will be for her. Jostling her body while her mind is elsewhere might not be...healthy?" Karla's tone suggested that 'healthy' might not be the best way to describe it. "But we've got to get her back under control. Too much input and she'll be wandering the Twisted Kingdom, unable to remember exactly who or what she is."
Karla looked at Sookie. "We might have to go in after her." This wasn't going to be fun, no.
Sookie
"Okay," Sookie agreed immediately. Nevermind that she had never done that before. "Without hurting her. Or us," she added as an afterthought. "But we have to get her back. I'll do whatever we need to, but I'm not sure where to start. This is new."
She looked down at Emma, and glanced at the fog. "But we need to move fast. I don't want to be out in this any longer than we need to."
Karla
"Definitely not," Karla said, also giving the fog an uneasy glance. "There's something going on and it's been bugging me all day. Remember class?" Not that they wanted to be in Emma's head for very long, either, in the fog or out.
Karla took a deep breath and lowered her inner barriers. Emma lit up like a Winsol tree and Sookie was also glowing, though not as painfully as Emma. Oddly enough, the fog remained inert to her senses--no magic there at all. Still, she reminded herself, now was not the time to be concerned about the fog. Instead she turned towards Sookie and knocked gently on Sookie's shields. *Let me in?* she sent, extending a metaphorical hand. *We should link first.* Sort of like tying a tow-rope to each other before diving into deep and potentially treacherous waters.
Sookie
Sookie had thought this would be difficult, but once she dropped her shielding, it seemed like the simplest thing in the world. Funny how that worked -- like telepathic instinct, though she wasn't sure that was really a thing. << Hi,>> she said mentally, trying to keep her shields down for Karla without overwhelming herself with everyone else on the island. Linking felt very similar to most of the times she'd simply spoken in Emma's or Jono's heads, but it took a little more concentration. She concentrated on catching Karla's brain signature, and that helped. << Is she going to let us? >> she asked dubiously, hesitantly giving Emma a mental poke.
Emma
Emma reacted the way she usually did when someone poked at her, or implied she needed help:
Poorly.
She didn't understand; why it was so loud in her head, what was going on. Where she was. There were...people. And sometimes she knew them and sometimes she didn't, so she did the one thing she knew would keep her safe. The one thing that always worked for her.
She ran. She had to hide. She would be safe if she could find somewhere to hide. There.
"Are you trying to insinuate there's a problem with Kennedy's home life?" Mom asked, sounding mad about it. "I assure you, she's had a very stable upbringing. She's just excitable."
Karla
*I don't know,* Karla fretted. *Usually, I'd say no; that's her current problem--she can't keep anyone out. But her powers--and yours--work differently from mine, so I can't give any kind of guarantees. Plus, there's always the chance her mind will react differently to a pair of intruders than it is to the passive minds of others. I don't know if Emma's set up any other kind of mental defenses, either deliberately or instinctively. And the instinctive booby-traps scare me--she wouldn't know how to key them to people she trusts.*
Assuming there were people Emma trusted that much.
But did they really have a choice? *We'll do what we can and may the Darkness grant that's enough,* she sent, trying to project more confidence than she felt. *You ready?*
Sookie
She took a deep breath, sent up a quick little prayer to the tune of << Please, God, let it work >> -- and it was odd having someone else in her head for a prayer, but it couldn't be helped. It was keeping her calm, anyway, and the last thing she wanted to do was electrocute either Karla or Emma. << Ready. We'll just be careful. >> With that, she gave up her careful poking at Emma's mental state and pushed forward, keeping her barriers down but her guard carefully in place.
And there was a girl who looked...familiar. Almost like a young-looking Kennedy, which was strange, to say the least. She was being lectured --
"Excitable is one thing. Punching her classmates is a little beyond excitable," the principal insisted. "I'm simply concerned--"
"Ryan deserved it," Kennedy burst out, kicking the rungs of her chair in her impatience.
Emma
Emma delicately skirtted around the outside of the memory. The others had followed her, she could feel them, but Emma was very good at hiding. There was a child, angry, impatient, the focus of this -- meeting or something -- so Emma decided to use that to her advantage, slipping down a school hallway while the girl exploded at two people; maybe the people chasing her? Emma didn't know, and she didn't plan to stick around and find out.
"He picks on her all the time, and I got sick of nobody doing anything about it. Maybe you should call him in here and talk to him about it, 'stead of me."
Do something about it, yes. Emma had to make it safe.
Karla
Karla turned to give Sookie a startled glance. As adorable as wee!Kennedy was, this wasn't what she'd been expecting at all. *She's hiding in the minds and memories of other people,* Karla sent, as the principal offered several stunned apologies to both Kennedy and her mother. Even through the memory, Karla could feel the anger within the little girl, but she couldn't catch sight or scent of Emma. There was too much going on here; the memory was almost heavy with importance. *She can't keep them out, so she's using them instead, to cover her tracks.*
In the memory, Kennedy's mother had finally put her hand on her daughter's shoulder and told her it was time to go. Outside, in the hall, another woman waited, but it wasn't Emma. She let them get a few steps away before calling out, "Ma'am? Constance Aluko. School counselor. I wonder if I might have a brief word with you and your daughter..." *I don't think she's in this one anymore.*
Sookie
Sookie stared at their surroundings, and reached out to find Emma again. << She isn't. She's in someone else. Can you latch onto her? I can...kind of see her but it's fuzzy. >>
She caught a flash of a blond boy, and a needle, and sharp burst of terror before she lost Emma again. << I can track her brain but she's moving fast, and it's her...mental brain, rather than her physical one. But she's moved on to a guy, now. >>
Karla
*You can track by physical brains?!* Karla asked incredulously, giving Sookie a look that was somewhere between surprised and impressed. *How--Never mind.* Karla reluctantly cut herself off. *Neither time nor place for shop talk. Right.* She paused to glance around, leaving the school behind for some kind of medical facility. There was something about the place--the psychic stink of fear, perhaps--that made Karla think of Briarwood. *I hope Em's not in here,* Karla sent, trying to repress a shudder. *This isn't a good place.*
She wasn't sure if Emma was in control of where she ran or not, but if she were, then this choice of memory was cruel and deliberately chosen to slow them down. Karla let out a mental gasp when she saw the body restrained to some kind of tall bed, figures clustered around it, ignoring the pleas for them to stop, to talk about this. She caught the glimpse of golden hair and paled. But it wasn't Emma. Or Janelle. It was a familiar male, though she didn't recognize him until he broke through his restraints and flared a pair of magnificent white wings. *Mother Night--Warren?!*
Emma
A corruption of healthy cellular activity.
Emma had initially stopped when the boy started protesting. She... knew him. Maybe. This was familiar, so familiar, in the way it felt.
A cure for mutancy? That wasn't what he wanted. He wasn't a disease.
She knew that word, 'mutancy.' Mutant. Pretty blond boy with curls... Jack? Christian? Who were Jack and Christian? It didn't matter, Emma wasn't safe here either, so she looked around for somewhere that felt right, somewhere she could be anonymous.
There were too many folk at the Kennel. A gixie jiggling a crying babe on her arm, a merchant shouting at the Dog with the silver badger. Tis crowded and they look right over her. They don't see her no more than they'd see the mumpers at the street corner, not unless they'd need aught from them. When they want their birdies to sing, then they'll notice. Not her, even if the song she's got for them to hear will be sweeter than aught they'd heard afore. She'd told them, but they'd laughed and told her to leave.
"Dun' yeh stand her' telling those fine jokes of yours." A hand grabbed her shoulder and she struggled, trying to shake it off. "A Kennel's no place for lil' one like yah. Go on. Out with yah!"
So many people, so loud, so crowded. Perfect to disappear.
Sookie
Sookie's attention had been focused on Warren and those wings. Now she recognized him, yes. So it took a moment before -- << Damn it, we lost her again! >> She didn't even think to apologize for swearing -- she just reached out with her mind and tried to latch onto Emma's, the scenery shifting even as Sookie started to feel a little overextended. << She's fast >>
"Get yer ticklers off of me!" she growled and glared up at the Dog. Tis as they always do and his grip loosened just for her to wiggle free. There was an open door and she ran for it, dodging legs and arms and the man's barrelling after her.
There's no stopping, not until she barreled right into the desk and the man behind it glowered at her. "Guardsman, what's the meaning of this?"
She didn't recognize any of these people, or their accents, or their world. She was disoriented, trying to find Emma with every sense she had available.
Karla
"I apologize. She's be-"
"I know where them Bold Brass gang's been hiding. I can take yah to them. You and yer Dogs," she spoke loudly, her heart beating in her ears and 't was hard to breathe. "I'll take yeh to them."
For a moment, Karla almost knew where they were. The cant was so familiar--but then it was all washed away in the cacophony of scents and sounds and the great mass of people. Karla was dizzy and confused, casting around for a hint of Emma, somewhere, anywhere in the crush of people. *When we find her, I'm making her take a nap for a week,* Karla growled, trying to push her way through the crowd and search for their friend. *Is that--damn! She's gone again.* A commotion behind them drew her attention back to the memory at hand.
"Those eyes," the man gasped, shifting back in his chair with fear. "Get her out of here! Afore she puts a curse on us all."
There's no escaping the arms that wrapped around her. She tried with all she'd got, but the Dog told her to be quiet and the ground's no softer than the laughter as the Dog turned his back. "And don't come here again."
Emma
Emma had spied on them from the crowd, only running again when they kept getting too close. Sometimes she thought she almost knew them. Sometimes she knew she did. They didn't want to hurt her, she knew that now, but people around Emma got hurt, and being around people... something. She couldn't remember.
But it was getting loud in this room, with the people and the baby, and her head was throbbing. Too loud, time to look for another place.
Sookie
Sookie was getting frustrated. She raced through the crowd, trying to keep Emma in her sights, at least mentally. Eventually, she had to give up. Her head was pounding almost violently at this point, and she couldn't see Emma anyway.
<< Lost her, >> she sent, trying to focus her thoughts and find Emma's brain in the masses again. << She's fast, and -- yeah. Damn it. >>
Karla
Karla huffed. *Trying to keep track of her psychic scent in this crowd is damn near impossible,* she groused, going for grumpy to try to cover up how worried she was about Emma. *I keep broadcasting out to her, but it gets lost in all the noise. Can't she run through the head of someone with quiet memories?*
She glanced around again. *She might still be hiding here. Wanna split up? We each take one side of the crowd? See if we can find her?*
Sookie
<< 'Kay >> Sookie managed, massaging her temples before scanning the crowd. << Meet back here in five? >> She didn't note that it'd help a bit to rest her mental faculties for a minute or two, but it was true. She'd look with her eyes for at least the moment.
Karla
Karla didn't say it either, but she was thinking something very similar as she circled towards the other side. She wasn't quite at headache levels yet, but it was getting close. She peered closely through the crowd, looking for the glint of gold she associated with Emma's hair. *Five it is. And then we head out?*
Sookie
<< Yeah. We can try, anyway. >>Sookie's gaze flicked from person to person as she moved through the crowd. No one was dressed like Emma, and no one was quite as brilliantly blonde as Emma. That being said, Sookie also didn't recognize Emma's mind in the flurry of thoughts flashing through her own head, but she was trying to filter those at this point, so she wouldn't be completely useless when they moved on. She was going to end up with a migraine at this rate, and she hadn't had one of those since she was too little to understand blocking people out. "Emma?" she called, fairly uselessly, as she strode through the throng of people.
Karla
One would think that it would be easier to find someone like Emma in a crowd like this; her mental image of herself was too different from the people that moved and bustled around them. Karla ducked and bobbed through the hordes of people, looking for anything that that reminded her of Emma. *Emma!* she sent out on a psychic thread.
Emma
The sound of Sookie's voice broke through the confusion in her mind, providing a non-shifting signpost. "Sookie?" she called, turning around, suddenly confused. "Where am I?"
But she couldn't see anyone, so Emma pushed onward, trying to find her way out.
Sookie
Sookie almost thought she heard her own name being yelled back at her. "Emma?" she yelled again, trying to chase the sound and pulling her barriers back down, searching out for Emma's mind. But she'd already passed, and Sookie was back to being confused. << Emma? >> she tried, sending it out as strong as she could.
Karla
Karla's head kicked up. *Emma?!* she sent, trying to follow the elusive psychic thread that had flared for a brief second. *Sookie? Did you hear her? Find her?*
Sookie
<< Yeah. I lost her again, though, >> Sookie replied, frustration evident in her tone. << She heard me yelling, but I think she's moved on somewhere else. But she was close and she answered me, so some part of her has to still be able to answer. >>
Karla
*That's something,* Karla said, shifting her way through the crowd. *I don't think she's here anymore. Wanna move on?*
Sookie
<< Yeah. >> She sighed, making her way back over to Karla and trying to locate the hum of Emma. << We'll get her this time. She's slowing down, I think.
He hadn't really thought about it, he'd just reacted. Rocky and his thugs had grabbed Judy, it wasn't hard to guess what they'd planned to do to her, and so he'd just- let loose. Next thing he knew, Rocky was encased in a block of ice and Judy and Rocky's friends were staring at him in horror.
"Freak! You murdered him!" one of the thugs spat, before turning heel and running.
As things morphed around them again, Sookie was almost relieved. She knew who this was, at least, if the ice was any indication. << She's in Bobby's head. >>
"No, no, he's not, he's not-" Bobby wasn't sure if he was trying to assure the rapidly retreating forms of the two older boys or himself.
Thank God. Semi-familiar territory, even if this memory wasn't one she'd seen before. But now was not the time to get caught up in feeling sorry for one friend when she was busy chasing another, and her head was throbbing.
Karla
"Bobby?" Judy's voice was small and frightened. "What are you? What did you do?" And Bobby knew that this was it. His secret was out. His life was over.
"He's not dead," Bobby repeated. "There's air trapped inside with him. Once the ice melts-"
"Oh, god," Judy's horrified voice cut him off. "You're one of them, aren't you?" She can't even say the word, it sickens her so much, Bobby found himself thinking.
Karla found herself pausing to watch the memory unfold. She knew that there were things that this world that she didn't understand, reasons that Bobby flinched away from admitting his powers and Emma ran rather than trust anyone. She had a feeling that she was seeing one of the reasons this was true. She saw the fear in the eyes of the female as she looked at Bobby, saw the fear Bobby had for himself.
"Judy, please," he was begging now, but he didn't care.
"Don't touch me, you freak!" she shrieked at him, flinching away.
Karla turned away, unwilling to watch something so personal. *Emma!* she called. *Emma, please!*
Emma
Taking refuge in memories had buffered Emma from the insane pressure of the island pressing in her psyche somewhat, and she could feel little bits falling into place in her mind. But telepathic contact still hurt, like lemon juice on a raw wound, and she flinched at Karla's mental call. "Karla? Sookie? What the fuck is going on?"
They'll tell people about this. They'll tell people, and they'll come for you...
"AND WHY AM I IN A DRAMA STARRING BOBBY DRAKE?"
Oh yes, someone was feeling better.
Sookie
"Jesus Christ, shepherd of Judea, you're back," Sookie breathed aloud, and then louder as she approached the sound of Emma's voice. "You're in Bobby's head. We've been chasing you, hon. How do you feel?"
Karla
"Hell's fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness be merciful," Karla said, heading for Emma's voice. "I should make you stay and watch the rest of it for all the trouble you've put us through."
Nothing said, 'I'm happy to see you' like threats and cussing. "When we get back in your head, you're going to have a splitting headache, you know."
Emma
"I feel like someone took a cheese grater to my entire body, and then cut out my brain and ground it up with glass and oil and set it on fire, thank you for asking. SOOKIE." Shut up, Karla. It's rude to be mean when poor Emma is still lost.
She looked around, pointedly trying to give the apparition of her friend privacy. Punching memories of people in Bobby's mind would probably be therapeutic for her own issues with her manifestation, but ultimately unhelpful. Instead, she started walking towards where she thought she heard their voices coming from. "I'm not really seeing anything I recognize..."
Lissa's dad was driving, her mom in the front seat, and Rose was gossiping about the kids at school, smirking at Lissa as she made some goofy point. Lissa laughed, and Rose even caught Andre snickering a little. He was Lissa's brother, but he was so damn good-looking - and older and popular - that Rose couldn't help flirting sometimes.
"Except Rose, hitting on a hot boy. That I know."
Sookie
"He is kind of cute," Sookie contributed unhelpfully, keeping track of Emma and desperately grateful for the little break her brain was taking. Though this would undoubtedly be unpleasant once they returned to their bodies.
Lissa had started to respond when the car jerked sideways then spun, wheels squealing. Rose grabbed for Lissa instinctively, making sure she didn't fly out of her seat as the car spun off the road. There was a shriek of twisting metal and then darkness.
"...oh no. Oh, oh, poor Rose." She closed her eyes, turning away, little good that it did.
Karla
Oh, don't worry, Emma. You'd be getting all the fussing you could ever want, just as soon as they got back to their bodies.
Darkness, such darkness beyond anything she'd seen before and then a sensation of almost unbearable heat following by searing cold.
And instead of the darkness, Rose was staring at her unconscious self from above. Her hands were nearly glowing as they shook the Rose-body. "Wake up," she screamed. "Rose, wake up." She looked around at the blood-covered scene. "Mom. Andre. Daddy. Wake up. WAKE UP. Rose." Something stirred in the body under her hands and the dark eyes opened in response to the call.
The rather-nasty words that had sprung to Karla's lips at the phrase 'Rose, hitting on a hot guy' were immediately swallowed back when Karla saw what was happening. So much pain, so much darkness, so much death. "Hell's fire, Rose."
Emma
The weight and pain of the memory was almost enough to snap Emma's tenuous grip on herself and her knees buckled, sending her to the ground as her telepathy split into three viewpoints; herself as outsider, Rose, and Rose.
For a jarring almost painful second, Rose felt her vision blur as she watched the scene from two directions. From above as she reached to shake Rose's shoulder very gently and ask "Rose?" And from her own body as she looked up at Lissa's terrified face, blinking as some of her blonde hair fell into her face. "I'm here."
"I don't want to be here," she managed, clutching at her head. "I don't want to see this. Make it stop make it stop make it STOP!"
Sookie
Sookie fought the wave of nausea that the memory had induced, trying to keep her knees from buckling. "We have to get out. Emma, come on. Come on, Emma," she said, reaching out to the other girl without touching, just this side of frantic now. "Stay with us. We're going to get out, and we're going to go and read stupid mysteries and watch bad TV and paint our nails and I'll bake a cake." She was babbling now, just trying to be as comforting and as anchoring as possible. Because if Sookie wasn't sure she could take much more, then Emma had to be close to snapping again, she was sure. She turned to Karla. "How do we get out? Just...retreat? Do we need to bond her to us, too?"
Karla
Karla reached out to try to catch Sookie before her knees collapsed. "I promise not to bake!" she added quickly to Emma. "Stay with us and I promise not to bake." She grabbed for Emma's hands. "We've got to get her shielded. That's step one. Once we get her shielding we can help her get home. This is why I got you those damn earrings," she muttered. "We are going to talk about preparations, Miss Frost"
Karla closed her eyes and concentrated. "Can you shield someone else?" she asked Sookie. "If you can't, then I'll have to shield us both. That means we're going to need you to lead us back."
Emma
"Earrings and bracelet are next to my bed," Emma mumbled, wrapping her fingers tightly around Karla's. "I don't keep 'em in my pockets; I don't want to lose them." Too precious to risk that sort of thing.
She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus on their voices. "I can do this. Just don't let go, or I'll get lost again."
Sookie
"I'll lead," Sookie said, reaching to place a hand on Emma's arm, and one on Karla's. Connection was instinctive at this point. "I can do that. I'm not -- I don't think I'm okay enough to shield anyone at this point." She closed her eyes, picturing where they'd been, and she began to feel a little light-headed, like they were starting to move back towards there. She kept the image firm in her mind, her eyes and mind closed off to everything else. She needed to get them out.
Karla
"...Didn't come...this far...to let you...go again," Karla gritted out. Words were hard right now--she was erecting mental shield by careful mental shield over Emma, but deep inside the minds of others. It was painstakingly hard work, making sure that her shields were enclosing everything that was Emma, but excluding everything that was not. Each shield was paper-thin--too much power and she'd overload Emma's mind or start accidentally gathering in bits of Rose's or Bobby's or Kennedy's. Which meant that as soon as she finished creating one shield around Emma, it was time to begin building another, piece by delicate piece. Too little shielding meant that they'd be overpowered by the first direct thought or intense emotion and Karla was not about to start this evening's ordeal over again.
Emma
Emma lent what structure she could to Karla's work, faint pink light gathering around her head and hands, strengthening her ties to both girls. "Take us home, captain," she tried to joke, picking up the image from Sookie's mind and holding firm to it. "I would say we all get drinks after this, but I think I'm going to throw-up soon."
Moving out and away. Emma was going to focus on out and away and the dorms, things becoming solid and real, and she could be sick later.
Sookie
"You aren't alone there," Sookie murmured, mentally pulling them both with her as she visualized where they were going, and -- the sensation was unique, this moving back through to their bodies after having left them. She'd never done this before, and it took a long moment of reconnecting with her body and no small amount of work before she felt herself surge back into her now-very-cold physical form, coughing and almost wheezing with the exerted effort. "Done," she croaked, looking over at the other two girls.
Karla
"Thank the Darkness," Karla said, attempting to sit up. That proved to be a Very Bad Idea. "I know I'm back in my body," she whimpered. "It wouldn't hurt so much if I wasn't." Her body, left prone out in the damp cold, had stiffened a bit. She could feel the knots in her calves and hips after her mad dash to the dorms. It looked like she'd be breaking out the peppermint salve again tonight. Her head was throbbing, a gift from both Emma's earlier scream and their following mental excursions. "Owie. I can call in some headache power if you want. It'll be hell on your stomach, but it'll help your head," she warned.
Emma
Emma tried opening her eyes, and immediately groaned as the world spun, and strange things flickered at the corners of her eyes. "I'm still seeing strange things," she announced with forced cheer. "Things I know must be imaginary, because I know we're the only ones up here."
"Can we go inside now, so that I can take some sleeping pills and become dead to the world?" And wear both her bracelet and earrings to bed. "I promise to never again give a shit about my fellow man, since it leads to insanity and migraines."
Sookie
"Yes please," Sookie said, standing wobbily. She meant to help them up as well, but she wasn't steady enough to not fall over with just her own weight. She closed her eyes against something that blinked at her peripheral vision. "I'm starting to see things, too. Let's go inside." So that she could fall into bed, or drink some tea, or become violently sick. Probably all three. She just wanted to sleep for a week. Dreamlessly.
She opened her eyes to look straight at Emma, though. "I'm glad we got you back," she said sincerely. "Don't do that again." She wasn't exactly stern, but she was serious. Most of her energy towards sternness was being used up trying to stay on her feet.
Karla
"Sookie is a very wise female and you should listen to her," Karla groaned. She very carefully glanced around, but didn't see any of the weird images that Sookie and Emma were talking about. But her nausea was back. Slowly pushing herself off the ground--her limbs felt like eggshells and her head like a rotting melon--she hobbled over to Emma to give some kind of aid to help Emma stand. Mostly by acting as a stool, since actually helping was well beyond her means. "I was worried about you," she murmured in an undertone. "I'm glad you're okay. Though this is a really crappy version of okay to be glad about."
Emma
Emma accepted the help, getting to her feet and stumbling for the door leading back down into the dorms. "Haven't you heard, darling? I'm difficult, I don't listen to people," she quipped, wincing at the effort humor took. "Bloody hell. Bed, for all of us. I think I'm calling into the rest of the week dead."
She paused, her hand on the handle. "And ladies?"
"Thank you."
[OOC: Preplayed with the AMAZING justwantsquiet and glacial-witch, with Guest Appearances by brat_intraining, not_a_parakeet, provostsdog, and guardianborn. Psyhic call for help was directed at Sookie and Karla, but if you think you'd have sensed it anyway, feel free to react here or in your own journals. Otherwise NFI, and all astral-plane shenanigans are NFB.]