(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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[cassie_of_troy]

Cassandra had been cutting some fabric. She didn't know if she wanted to make herself a dress or a pair of trousers. Lately, she had become rather fond of her new clothing, so much so that she was constantly wearing her corset even when she wasn't out, practicing with her bow. Just as she was slipping the knife into a fold of red cloth, she felt it

[rowantree_npcs]

Oh, and armed. Fantastic. Nestra had full confidence in their ability to stop the woman with the wild look in her eyes from hurting anyone. Still, having her go charging at the crowd had absolutely no up-side.

She looked over the other Gate Guardians ranged around the brand new tree and their looks of surprise and alarm. Not just alarm, something else. Fear, perhaps? Yes... fear. Not for the huddle of people that had appeared, but for what their presence implied.

A mistake.

She locked eyes with the man closest to Cassandra, and a moment of silent communication passed between them before he began moving forward, slowly and carefully, giving plenty of time for his approach to be noticed.

[cassie_of_troy]

Cassandra turned her head as she heard the man approaching. Though she had scarcely said a word, she could tell that she had already made a bad impression. Typical. Apollo's damn curse continued to haunt her, not in visions, but in the person that she had become because of it. At least now she understood that much. There was damn near nothing she could do about it, but understanding was something

[rowantree_npcs]

Alastair didn't feel wonderful about approaching a woman with a white knuckle grip on a blade, but it was better than having her tearing off and doing serious damage. "I'm not going to hurt you," he said. "We don't want to have any trouble, do we?" He wasn't sure if he was trying to calm her or himself. "My name is Alastair. How should I address you?"

[blytheandbonnie]

Bonnie leaned against the doorway that separated her place from Damon's. They'd been discussing the weird, uncontrollable illusions that had been appearing out of nowhere--though, of course, she hadn't exactly told him the specifics of her own and she was certain he'd been lying about his--and that had somehow shifted into a conversation in which Bonnie tried to explain the entire plot of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" to Damon.

She'd been on book twelve, The Penultimate Peril, when it had happened. "And then," she'd been saying, gesticulating animatedly, "the Baudelaires began pressing every button on the elevator because it was a trick that their parents had taught them, so Justice Strauss had time to warn everyone about the fire but Uncle Olaf, of course, told everyone that the fire wasn't real and they still had all their blindfolds on, so they

[weedyshyguy]

Min had gone up to talk to the strangers, so Bret took a look around their own group, looking for anyone who might need help. Spotting the disoriented redhead-- he was pretty sure that was Bonnie --Bret gestured at her and said to Grace, "I'm gonna go check on her." Clearly, it was up to Grace whether she followed.

Although, really, he'd prefer having someone around who he knew. Even if most of what he knew about her ranged between deeply personal things and her tendency to be awful to him and not much in between.

In any case, Bonnie didn't look threatening. Just out of her element, like everyone else. He went over and put a hand on her arm. "You okay?"

[maybeunorthadox]

Clearly out of having nowhere else to be (and concern over Bret somehow managing to get himself maimed by his profoundly irritating naivety), Grace turned on her heel and curtly followed.

Fucking Bret and his compulsion to be a martyr. He was like the anti-hero of Rowan.

With a frustrated grunt, Grace stopped to the right of Bret and crossed her arms over her chest, pointedly rolling her eyes when he did that touchy-feely thing he did. Fuck that was annoying. Fuck she was cursing a lot. Fuck.

[blytheandbonnie]

Bonnie looked up at Bret with a startled expression. She really should have seen the Australian boy coming. She sort of knew who he was, of course--it seemed that Bret was one of those boys that everyone in Jhelbor knew--but they certainly weren't friends, so it was nice of him to come over and ask.

"I guess so?" she responded, though it sounded more like a question than a statement. Furrowing her brow, she looked around slowly. She was suddenly very, very hungry and Bret was smelling delicious--like lamb chops and freshly mowed grass.

"Where are we?" she asked, and that one was definitely a question.

[rowantree_npcs]

As though a pile of people at the foot of the Gate wasn't bad enough, one of them had the ears and tail of a cat. Had they ever even traveled to a world with such creatures? Behind her, Nestra could hear the riotous cheer of the people, the swells of music as the celebration began, an outpouring of joy that the sealing was complete and the world was safe. If only that were true. "What are we to do with them?" And more importantly, what would happen if others like them continued to arrive? Perhaps they had only been partially successful? What if the Gate had only sealed in one direction?

[notawolfman]

Oki picked himself up with a soft "wuffing" noise and shook himself. He'd initially decided to lay where he'd landed and try to get his bearings, rather than leap before thinking. This wasn't the first time that this sort of thing had happened, but that made very little difference in how unsettling it was. He eyed Nestra a little suspiciously before turning to face her. "Are you the one who brought us here?" he asked her in an even tone. He was aware of how his gruff voice in his beast form made others uneasy, and so tried to keep his voice as gentle as possible.

[rowantree_npcs]

Talking wolf. Talking. Wolf. Nestra whimpered and shook her head. Cat person and talking wolf and some poor guy bleeding all over himself. She felt lightheaded. This wasn't happening. Beren had to have more of an answer than this. It was his job to have the answers. "Perhaps something went wrong on the other end?"

She turned her attention back to Oki. She couldn't look away. It was like a battle scene. She just held Beren's arm tighter. "We have done nothing to you."

[notawolfman]

"I see." Oki turned his head in the direction of Cedric and the others. To say he wasn't concerned would be false, but he understood very little about medicine and dexided that the others could deal woth it. So he turned his attention back to the two strangers. "If that's the case, can you at least tell us what names you go by and where we've found ourselves?" he asked.

It wasn't his place to cast doubt on them without reason, so he made no opinion of these two people yet. He could tell that, most likely due to their arrival, the woman was uneasy though. "I am called Oki," he said after a moment of consideration.

[rowantree_npcs]

Nestra nodded her head slowly, but did not respond to the introduction, too numb to be polite. This couldn't be happening. She felt faint. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Too fast.

[fixdpointintime]

The time disturbances were pulling away from the edge of the city. That was a good thing. In theory, it meant that they didn't have to spend all their time together any more. Jack's urges hadn't quite caught up to his new 'freedom' it seemed, because he still wanted to spend all his time around Ianto. Being away from him for any length of time made him uneasy now. In the not too distant past he would have laughed at the notion that he'd be willingly putting himself in unstable time fluctuations just to have the excuse of being close to Ianto. Not now, though. Now they were sitting in the embassy going over plans for city improvements that theoretically could have been done somewhere else because it meant that Ianto had to stay close enough for Jack to be able to hear the shiver of a smile in his voice. He liked his life this way.

And then everything was so very very wrong. Not that he hadn't felt worse. Didn't so anything to take away the terror because this time there actually was something to lose. "Ianto," Jack called, pressing

[guns_and_coffee]

"Jack," Ianto tried to say, but only managed a choking sound. He couldn't see him, couldn't focus properly on anything, but that was Jack's voice, which meant Jack was there, which meant that despite his intense nausea and disorientation things were not nearly as bad as they could be. Thank God. Gods. Whatever.

'Jack,' he tried again, mentally this time, and when he reached out for that familiar connection it was there. 'Jack.' He didn't have the control necessary to prevent flooding Jack with the relief he felt, but somehow he didn't imagine the other man would mind.

[fixdpointintime]

Jack latched on to the familiar feel of Ianto on the edge of his thoughts. He didn't even bother forming words for a response. It had been quite a while since he'd worried about hiding anything in his mind from Ianto. The relief he was getting from the other man was met in kind, along with a flood of caring and gratitude and a sense of wellness, a vanishing of worry. The situation wasn't good, that was very obvious, but he could handle it. He and Ianto would handle it. Together. Everything would be fine. 'Are you hurt?'

[guns_and_coffee]

Ianto felt like such complete shit that this took a moment to assess, but the news was good. 'No permanent damage, it seems. You?' He didn't feel any pain coming off Jack, at least nothing of a magnitude worth worrying about. Good. It'd be rather inconvenient if Ianto had to kill him in order to repair a fractured femur.

His vision was clearing, enough that he could confirm that the grey blur in his peripheral vision was the greatcoat. Ianto reached out and grasped Jack's arm, tightening his fingers around the familiar wool. There. He was there and he was all right and together they'd figure this thing out.