11672/The Last Archivist: Burned Out

The Last Archivist: Burned Out
Date of Scene:	10 July 2022
Location:	105 Hill Top Road, Oxford, England
Synopsis:	The Justice League Dark travel to investigate a house in Oxford where Jonathan Sims used to live, and where his daughter was born. They discover a terrifying crack in reality, and nearly lose themselves to it. Fortunately, they have an angel on hand to fix the problem--at least temporarily. (Big chunks of Jonathan Sims' poses in this scene are taken directly from The Magnus Archives)
Cast of Characters:	Jonathan Sims, Chas Chandler, Robbie Reyes, Cael Becker, Lydia Dietrich, Rien D'Arqueness, Gabby Kinney

---

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Hill Top Road, Oxford, is about as quintessential 'English residential road' as one gets. A narrow road, barely the width of two cars, lined with houses of brick and wood, all with dormers and gable windows, several driveways sporting compact sedans. There's some heavy greenery along one side of the road, as this part of Oxford is full of parks and golf courses, and the houses that don't have cars have gardens run riot with summer greenery. It's a quiet street, and as the sun sets over the ancient town, mostly deserted. Those who aren't out of the house on a Sunday evening are settling down to an evening at home.

    There's one particular house, at the very end of the road right near the golf course, that's been all but abandoned for years. Ever since a fire burned the place down on the night of August 7, 2008, a dispute over the ownership of the property has left the place in limbo. The residents of the neighborhood might have complained more about the burned-out husk of a building being left unoccupied for over a decade, but it's tucked away around a bend in the road, and its location right next to a rectory makes people tend to assume it's on church land. In the last year, with the ownership dispute finally settled, construction has begun on a new house to replace the old. So there's a shell there now, the framework of a building without windows or doors, tarps fluttering in the occassional breeze.

    Jon and Cael are already in England with Jon's daughter, Agnes. They've stopped by a fish and chips shop, settled into a hotel in Oxford, and then spent the day wandering the city, with Jon pointing out all his favorite old spots. But as the sun heads toward going down, they travel to the site of Agnes' birth, to meet other members of the Justice League Dark. Jon's gotten permission to investigate the property from the construction foreman, who seems to be having some trouble keeping workers on the site. There are complaints of strange apparitions, odd noises, weird feelings. And while the foreman himself /insists/ up down and sideways that /he/ doesn't believe in ghosts, he's worried maybe there's a prankster. Maybe a group of local kids. And he's just as glad to have the Justice League Dark--and the Archivist, particularly--investigate the place. Particularly since they're offering to do the job for free.

    Now, they stand in front of the house, as the sun dips below the horizon. It's still warm, in the low 80s, so Jon's wearing jeans and a t-shirt and Converse. Agnes--dark-skinned, red-haired, taller for being nearly 14--is in a knee-length skirt and ruffled blouse, glow-in-the-dark sneakers starting to light up as the sky darkens. The Archivist pulls out a cigarette and lights it without really thinking about it as he glowers at the place.

    Agnes sighs. "Really, Dad? Do you /have/ to do that right here?"

    "Sorry," Jon mutters. "It's just... bad memories." He steps away a little, so the cigarette smoke doesn't drift toward the other two.

    Agnes looks back toward the house. "...So I was really born here. Do you... do you really think it's haunted?"

    Jon shrugs. "I suppose we'll find out when the others get here."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Nothing precedes his arrival, no blare of trumpets, no chorus or organ music but suddenly an angel waltzes up behind them. The blue glow is slowly fading from Chas' form as he surveys the house with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. His hair is slightly windswept but still looks immaculate despite it and his shirt, a loose navy button number has the sleeves rolled up to the elbow.

    "Doens't look like much to be honest" he says. "Pretty typical of the area when you think about it." Of course Chas has to make a jab at Oxford. He lightens it for the sake of the young girl there. "Doesn't make it any less important though. Hello Jon, Cael, and you" he says his blue eyes fixing on the 14 year old, "must be Agnes. I'm Chas," he says, offering a hand, "a pleasure to finally meet you."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
When Robbie suggested taking his car to England.. well. It turns out he was dead serious. Someone, possibly Rien, must have either called his bluff or taken the idea in stride; and after packing a few bags into the trunk and making certain Gabe was settled at his buddy's house, they were off.

It's hard to say just how fast the hellcharger is. On city streets, Robbie tries to keep to the posted speed limits; but once they hit the Jersey Shore, he really opens up on the gas. They leave land somewhere around Lavellette, and skim over the water for a short distance before passing the speed of sound. From there? It's only a short hop, skip and portal away to their destination.

Climbing out of the car once they're parked on the street, Robbie spots the brick house on the corner and indicates it with a hitch of his chin. "There they are."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Well. If it is - we know where your mother's spirit is," Cael reminds Agnes quietly as she studies she house - dressed in her jeans, shirt, and leather jacket as ever. She regards the house thoughtfully, then looks towards Jon as he moves off with his cigarette. She follows him - just long enough to give him a gentle squeeze and a kiss on the cheek, before she returns to Agnes. Maybe she was reminding him he's not alone. ...maybe she's just staking her claim. It is awfully close to the full moon.
    "Chas," she greets the man simply, giving him a nod, then turns her head towards the approaching car. "...did Rien teleport that thing over?" she asks with some surprise. "I didn't bring //my// car!" she protests.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Just because Lydia had excised the love and empathy in her heart it doesn't mean that she also excised her sense of humor. When it's time to go to Oxford to help out Jon, she decided to dress the part. She's wearing a black yoke waisted skirt, and a white button down blouse that has a red ribbon tied at the neck. Black stockings and black high heeled boots are on her feet. Over all of this she's got a charcoal grey double breasted pea coat that would probably roast a normal person alive in this summer heat, but since she's a vampire, she won't even notice. She's got her hair tied up into a tight bun under a bowler that has a sprinkling of feathers in its band. And lastly, to complete the outfit... an umbrella.

    Yes. She's dressed as a modern day Mary Poppins.

    She wasn't quite sure about taking the hellcharger to England when asked but seeing as she didn't really have easy access to teleportation anymore she couldn't really turn down Robbie's offer. She was nice and relaxed in the back seat when they were on the roads but as soon as they hit the shore and Robbie opened up the throttle, Lydia had a death grip on the seat in front of her the entire time.

    Once they arrive she gets out of the car on shaky legs, stumbling once on the way out. She quickly recovers her composure, though, straightening up and primly adjusting her hat and brushing away imaginary lint from her skirt. "Quite."

    Spying Jon, Cael, and Agnes, she strides over to them giving them a wicked smile. "John! Darling! How lovely it is to see you!" she says in a posh British accent. "Quite the weather for an outing, wouldn't you say?"

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien isn't really up to arguing over transportation, her only insistence that they portal to England with the Hellcharger once the novelty of cross-ocean driving has worn off. She's been with Robbie in the Hellcharger when he opens it up and lets the car really rip, so her seatbelt was buckled long before they left land, and she braces a foot in the footwell to maintain her position when he starts to speed up. Otherwise, she simply tries to enjoy the trip as much as she can, under the circumstances.

When they arrive, she'll unbcukle and step out, stretching a little and nodding to Robbie's callout for where the others are. Taking his hand as they make their way up to John, Cael, and Agnes... and Chas and Lydia.

She's dressed down in much more subdued clothing, a dark blue summer weater over a cream colored camisole, dark skinny jeans, and a pair of dark clogs. She lifts a hand as they approach, offering a faint smile, "Hi. How's the vacation so far?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Hellcharger? Over the ocean? HELL YEAH. The only downside is that Gabby's stuffed in the back seat. It wasn't so bad given her size but shotgun would have been much better. That was reserved for Rien though, understandably so. It doesn't stop Gabby from giving a woop of excitement once the hellcharger really opens up.

The rest? Was just watching waves go by, and Lydia try not to turn into a ghost while clutching to the seat in front of her.

Finally the portal brings them the rest of the way so the drive is much shorter thus sparing Gabby the horrors of boredom on a long trip. She's dressed normally. Jeans, a shirt, high-top sneakers. The usual outfit though with an updated twist from her recent shopping spree with Inez. Everything was crisp and new and a bit less from the children's side of the store.

She's glad to tumble out the back to her feet giving a quick bounce on her toes to work out some stiffness. A single sniff is given to the air. "Doesn't smell *too* bad I guess, compared to New York," she judges. Satisfied with that she strides over to join the others with a quick wave given. "Hi Agnes! Jon, Chas."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon rolls his eyes at Chas, finishing off the cigarette as the angel comes up to him. "Like Liverpool's the pinnacle of architectural excellence. Thanks for coming. Bastard."

    Before he can really say much more, the others are arriving and he blinks rapidly at Lydia's outfit. Sighs. "Oh good lord. You look like... not even like my grandmother. Like the maths teacher that told me off for passing notes in class with--" He stops. Blinks rapidly. "With..." He opens his mouth, closes it, reaches out a hand. "I... don't actually remember. That's... odd."

    Agnes blinks at Chas and smiles, a bit shyly. "Yes. Umm. Chas Chandler? It's a pleasure to meet you." Her own accent isn't entirely 'posh,' sounding more like London than Jon's, but still English. Then there are a /bunch/ of other people and she stares at them all. The car that comes through a portal, and all the people piling out of it, and for a moment she looks a little overwhelmed. It's really a /lot/ of people.

    But then she giggles at Lydia. "I saw that movie! Dad complained about the chimney sweep's accent the /entire/ time."

    Jon sniffs. "You'd think Disney could do with a dialogue coach," he says, glad of the excuse to stop trying to remember things he can't, just now. He smiles at the others as they come up. "Hey Robbie, Rien, Gabby. Thank you all for coming."

    They turn to gesture at the half-built house. "This is the house... well. I used to live here, with my husband and our friends. We were trying to hide from my old mentor and his cult. Hiding Agnes, while her mother was pregnant with her. The night she was born, the cult came for us, and in the ensuing fight the house burned down. Agnes' mother died, and so did her boyfriend."

    Jon sighs, rubs at the back of their neck. "Martin died, too, and my mentor was coming after me, so I... called on help. I've always thought I called to the goddess Neith, the Egyptian version of Gaea, and her avatar came and healed Martin and took the baby. But... I have reason to believe that my memory's been altered. That the woman who took Agnes wasn't connected to Neith at all. I've discovered... there's a /lot/ else missing from my memories. Like whoever I was passing notes to in maths class in secondary." They frown, and shake their head.

    "Anyway... the foreman's been having trouble keeping people on the site. It could be haunted, but as Cael noted... we know where Agnes' mother's spirit is. She's a psychopomp now, she guides souls to Duat, the Egyptian afterlife. So unless it's the ghost of my friend Tim Stoker--and I suppose he would be the type to hang about messing with people--there's something else going on."

    A pause, and then they gesture. "Feel free to... well. Feel free." They're still working up to stepping back on the property, it seems.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas listens to the tale, he's heard most of it before. The bit about the woman who took Agnes not being connected to Neith is... new and it garners an arched brow from the man. As Jon gives them leave to investigate he nods and moves forward. THe moment his foot crosses the property line he wrinkles his nose.

    "It stinks..." he says. His tone is clearly more serious than it would be for a jab at the location. "There's... an odor. I don't..." He shakes his head and swallows a bit uncertainly but continues on up to the frame of the building.

    His hackles are up now and it's all he can do not go night light on them and release the holds on his angelic power. After all, they're wanting to keep a low profile here. Or at least as low as possible given their number and the residential locale. Though he does look behind him to see who he's working with on the interior in the immediate.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Pausing a moment to take the place in, Robbie slams his door and accepts Rien's smaller hand. Fingers weaving with hers, he allows the blonde to lead them up to where the others are gathered.

"Evening," he greets with one of his awkward little smiles, gaze skittering over Agnes a moment before shifting to the house beyond. The young man is dressed pretty typically for his punk-metal taste in attire: Megaton tee shirt, leather jacket, black skinny jeans with the knees shredded to oblivion. She's probably seen people wearing gauge piercings by now, so maybe those aren't so shocking.

While the others chat however, he's headed for the house proper, close on Chas's heels. "Hey, Sims." His nose wrinkles, like maybe he's picked up on the same foulness as the angel. "You got a basement in this place?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael's gaze goes to Jon as he struggles with his memory a faint frown on her features, but it's Agnes she side-steps closer to - silently offering the girl her hand as she seems to get uncomfortable in their current company. She's been to school - so it's not like she's unfamiliar with being around people. It must be all the strange adults at once.
    Then she abruptly lets out a quiet exhilation of disgust, along with a roll of her eyes. "//Tim// Stoker," she mutters to herself. "//Right.//"
    "Do you want to go in?" She asks the girl quietly, seemingly willing to wait with her for the moment.
    A brief nod is added to each member of the group - though her attention remains largely focused on the child.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "It really was quite atrocious, wasn't it?" Lydia tells Agnes with a grin, and a ruffle of the hair. Turning to Jon she sniffs disdainfully. "I'll have you know that I look like an /English/ teacher, thank you very much. Or an English nanny. Both, really."

    Dropping the mock accent she gives all those assembled a nod. "Right. Let's do this." She turns and strides purposefully to the skeleton of the house, sniffing the air. "You can still smell the char," she says. "Odd, considering how long ago the fire was." She raises a hand and reaches out searching, "I don't sense any ghosts here, though, so something else must be spooking the construction workers."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien offers a quick nod to Agnes, but doesn't try to introduce herself to speak to the young woman, trying not to inflict too much contact onto her. Instead, she watches as Chas goes to the house, then Robbie right after, leaving her to wrap her arms around herself as she stares up at the house itself.

"There's something... off... here. Not just the smell, though that's part of it. It's... its like..." She trails off, still peering at the house, extending her other senses outward. Both mystical and mundane senses bringing her a lot of input that she starts to sort through. She blinks a few times, then calls out, "Hey, guys? Can you... come back for a minute? I don't think it would be a good idea to just start wandering through the house without some... without a lifeline."

Then she's looking back to Jon and motioning to the house, "This house, this place, is a Thin Place. The fabric of reality weakens here, warps and twists. There's a -lot- of timelines converging here." Her eyes dart back to the house as she murmurs, "...including mine." Blinking, she shakes her head and looks back to Jon and Cael and Agnes, "If we start traipsing through there without tethering to this timeline, there's a chance people could get lost in another time. Like.. like being at a shuttle stop. One spot, but each shuttle goes to a different place. So if you happen to step onto the wrong shuttle, you could wind up somewhen else."

Her eyes are drawn back to the house, "There's also that sense of.. Nullspace.. touching this place. Which again, not somewhere you want to end up, so tethering is a good idea." She shudders lightly, "And we'll want to be careful. Very careful. We could draw all sorts of the wrong attention here."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney had met Agnes once before at the baseball game Cael had invited her to. It was nice. So she hovers arond the older women who were concerned about Agnes as well while watching the others head in.

It's Rien's remark that causes her to look over toward her sister with a little frown of thought. "I think I'll stay out here, then," she reasons. "Our family has enough issues with time hopping shennanigans." Which Rien herself would know. Besides that... She was still a bit worn looking at the thought of another potential fight. Protecting someone though, she could do that.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "...Yes, there's a basement," Jon calls after Robbie, frowning briefly. "It, uhh... that's where Agnes was born." He glances over at his daughter. "The rest of the house was burning down, and I didn't have anywhere else to take Alya."

    Agnes squeezes Cael's hand and blinks as she's ruffled. "I mean... yes? I'm curious. I'm terribly curious. I suppose that's genetic, hmm?"

    A glance at Rien and then Jon abruptly turns to Agnes. "You stay here, understand? Do not come inside. If something happens..." He glances to Gabby. "You get to the Velvet Room and call Red Robin. Got that?"

    Agnes swallows, and looks to the house, and then nods slowly. "Alright. I... I can do that." She smiles at Gabby. "We'll be fine out here, Dad."

    The house is empty, or at least it seems so at first. But then Chas and Robbie--who do not come back on Rien's insistence--will notice a man crouched down in what will eventually be the living room, working on something. Wiring, maybe. As they enter he straightens and stands, turning to look at them. He looks like he's maybe in his late 30's, stocky and solid, with blue eyes and dark hair. "C'n I help you?" he asks, peering at them.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas would like to leave the house. He really would. But something in his makeup doesn't allow for it. He knows the moment he tries to go he'll move on autopilot. Better to stay in control and disregard the advice then. He'll apologize to the woman later... if there is a later. As he spots the man he stops and frowns.

    He tries to get a peek at what the man was writing but the angle is wrong. "Don't think you're supposed to be here" he says, thickening his accent a bit, though he doesn't have to much. After all, it's only been a year or two that's he's been in the colonies.

    "Workers have cleared out. And I'm pretty sure the neighborhood wouldn't be entirely happy with a squatter, well to do residential as it is." He takes another step forward. "How about you tell me what it is you're doing in this house?"

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie might explain later that he didn't hear his girlfriend calling for him. Which is half true.

Really, it's more like he hears her.. but the Rider overrules him during his moment of hesitation, and drives him forward. They know it's been gaining in power this last little while, eroding at his control. Was it a mistake to bring him along? Quite possibly.

But in he goes, steps slowing as he comes upon the crouched man. His gaze flicks from the stranger, to Chas, and back again, lean frame tense. He'll let the big guy do the talking for now, and hang back to scope out the place while they converse; it's probably for the best.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Welp." Her father has spoken. "Once we know things are okay..." she tells the girl, giving her hand a squeeze, then letting go, leaving her with Gabby to watch over her. There's a part of her that doesn't like splitting up Agnes and Jon - she wants to protect and watch over them //both// - but if she had to choose just one... Her arm wraps possessively around Jon's middle, as she tucks herself in against them. "I'll bring your father back in a bit," she promises, before looking to Rien.
    "How do we tether?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia looks like she's about to step further into the building but Rien's warning comes which makes her hesitate. "I think I'd like to stay in this timeline," she says, looking back over her shoulder, giving the group a grin. "All my favorite people are in it."

    She looks nervously as Chas and Robbie keeps marching on in, though, to talk to the man. "Give me the word and I'll yank them out."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien would normally be teleporting people out immediately and giving them an earful for ignoring Sound Advice. But as it stands, she can barely find the wherewithal to roll her eyes at the menfolk being, well, men. And ignoring said Sound Advice. "Mm, whatever. Let them get stuck in pre-Victorian England then." She shakes her head and looks back to the others.

"Hold still. We don't have time to do the full ritual, so this will be fast and dirty. Think of it like a temporal shield. A small pocket of this time that you're taking with you. It won't last for more than a few hours, but it will keep you in -this- time so when you go through a door you don't suddenly end up 20 years ago." Rien draws on that wellspring of power, taking care to focus on Cael, Jon, and Lydia, sketching temporal symbols into the air around them to help anchor them to this time and place. That light blue glow of her magic surrounds them briefly as she mutters under her breath. A brief flash, then the glow disappears. If they concentrate, each of them can see a shimmer, like a soap bubble, around them. That temporal shield that's carrying a pocket of now with them.

Rien staggers a step or two, then straightens with a grunt, sheer force of will keeping her upright. "Okay. I've added a little timer for you. When it gets down to ten minutes, you'll get a small 'ping', and that's letting you know to get out of the house. If you can, grab Chas or Robbie when you do. The shield -might- extend to them if you maintain contact. Maybe. But you'll also just have a better chance of them staying in your time since you have time with you."

Shaking herself off and shoving away the everpresent exhaustion, Rien lets out a breath, "Okay. Lets go find out what the Hell's going on." She glances back to Gabby and Agnes, "If either of you sense something.. it will be oily and dark and cold and it will stink like nothing you've ever smelled before. You run to the Charger and use the key. Do not try to use the house door." THen she's turning and trodding for the house.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I'm Ivo Lensik," the man replies to Chas, brow furrowing. "I'm the electrical contractor. I didn't get anything about visitors. Who sent you?" His accent marks him as a local, at least to Chas.

    The house itself has that odd feel that buildings in various stages of construction tend to have, skeletal and half-empty. A house without carpeting and paint, with only half the drywall up, tends to feel more like a cave or a cabin than a proper house. There's an industrial-sized fan nearby, probably to keep the heat of the day off the workers, but with the sun gone down the house is rapidly losing the heat the sun had provided.

    Outside, Jon glances down at Cael with an oddly tender expression, then wraps his arm around her and pulls her in close. He watches Rien's magic with fascination and then reaches out to offer a steadying hand as she staggers. "You okay?" A pause. Silly question, really, given everything.

    Then they turn to look at the house, grimly. "Alright... let's go in."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas, feeling the man might be legit, nods. "We were sent by the contractor" he says. "Apprently there have been... strange happenings around the site. Think of us as... paranormal investigators. Justice League - Dark, if you've heard of us. Though, to be fair, we do tend to operate more in America than here." He glances again at the ground where the man was writing, trying to get a look see at what it was.

    "That doesn't explain why you're here though" he says, his tone goes dark again. He can be very convincing when he has a mind to be. "We were told the place would be empty. It might do you well to not make a liar of him. It's possible the place is dangerous."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
An electrician? Maybe, maybe not. Robbie narrows his eyes as he looks over the room they're standing in. Then he eases forward a few paces, slow, running gloved fingers over the unpainted drywall as his boots hit the floorboards in that careful predator's cadence.

An edition of the Oxford Mail left lying next to the table fan is collected, turned over, and thumbed through briefly to check the date. Then he tosses it back where he found it, and circles around to the pair conversing nearby.

"You make sure you answer my friend's questions," Robbie informs the stranger with that slow, feline smile of his. "Or I'll do the asking instead."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael watches the magic curiously - her form stiffening subtly against Jon. She still trusts //their// magic best, and grudgingly accepts other forms of magic. But Jon trusts this. Right?
    "We going in, love?" she asks Jon, taking a step forwards, gently tugging him along with her, if he's ready to go.
    After all - this is what they came here for.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Rien's magic has a strange effect on Lydia's ectoplasmic field. The shifting and twinkling stars around her stop in place, and little blue lines of light connect them, holding them in place, enmeshing her in a net of constellations. "Woah," Lydia says in wonder, bringing up a hand, and poking one of her little stars. It wobbles a bit but stays in place. "Okay. That's... something."

    She turns her attention back to the house and steps up to it, but pauses when she sees Robbie and Chas are talking to... nobody. She had heard them talking when Rien was casting her spell, but really wasn't paying it much mind, assuming that they were talking to each other, but when she turned her attention to them that obviously wasn't the case.

    "Hey!" she calls out to them, trying to draw their attention. "Who are you talking to?" Then, something occurs to her, drawing from what she remembers Rien said about the place. "Whoever it is it might not be from this time. Or timeline. Don't touch them or you might be stuck there."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien turns a wry twist of a smile twoards Jon, "I'll survive. I have a pretty good idea that no matter how much it takes out of me to do something... it won't put me down. I can feel the exhaustion, the... it's almost like backlash. But then the regen kicks in and its enough to keep me going. Sort of like... like it's working as fast as it can to replace what I'm losing, to keep me going physically and mentally, but like whatever it eating at me is keeping it right at that edge of being able to keep me going but not to really get me ahead of the exhaustion. Like running as fast as I can just to stay in place." She shakes her head as she moves towards the house, "Very odd."

Then they're catching up to Lydia and she's pausing at the threshold for a moment. Just a moment, but long enough to be noticed, then she's taking a breath and stepping into the house itself. She half expects the door to slam shut behind her, her hackles up and on edge. Eyes darting here and there, looking for magical traces or resonance that might show where the temporal weak points are, or where points of high magic use might have been. And yes, she looks down, too.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Ivo Lensik snorts. "Justice League Dark? That a comic thing?" He eyes robbie, scowling. "Is this some kind of prank, because--"

    As Lydia speaks, pulling Chas and Robbie's attention away, the man simply... disappears. Between one breath and the next, he's gone, as if he had never been. There's no lingering scent, no hint of magic, just... gone. As if he were a shared hallucination between the angel and the Ghost Rider.

    Jon brings out his microcassette recorder as they approach the house, flicking it to 'record' before they step inside. He shivers as he steps through the doorway--but there's no door to slam. Nothing obvious when looking down. The place feels... odd, though. Even Cael can sense it, something strange, like there's something just at the edge of vision or hearing.

    Wait, no, there /is/ something just at the edge of hearing. Jon's voice, as if playing from an old tape recorder.

    "--Lensik, regarding his experiences during construction of a house on Hill Top Road, Oxford. Original statement given March 13th, 2007. Audio recording by--"

    It cuts out, then continues.

    "--working on the ground floor wiring when I heard a knock at the front door. At first I thought it must have been one of the other builders who had forgotten something, but then I realised that there was no lock on the door; any of the others would have known that and just come right in. I began to feel slightly uneasy, when the knock came--"

    "--that he owned the house. As he spoke, I felt my grip on the hammer tightening although I have no idea--"

    "--should probably explain my fear a bit, as it wasn't because of ghosts, or phantom smells or anything like that. You see, there is quite a significant history of schizophrenia among the men in my--"

    "--was sure exactly when Agnes moved in--"

    "--Agnes lived on in that old house. Hardly ever seemed to leave it, just watched from the windows--"

    The voice seems to come from a different place each time it cuts back in, leading people, potentially, to different parts of the house. Jon himself blinks slowly, looking around at the various overlapping versions of his voice.

    "I last saw Annabelle in the basement," he says firmly. "That... that's where I think..." He swallows.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas turns to look at Lydia and then the man is gone. All pretense of control slips away and the blue plasma-like glow surrounds the angel. Then Jon's voice lingers on the wind coming from different places in the house all at once. "THat's... not good..." he says. "Find the locations," he says moving back to the others.

    "If we find them maybe we can learn something more. Maybe a way to fix it. Pair up. Lydia," he says looking to the vampiress, "with me. We'll check the..." he pauses agin to get his bearings and nods. "Dining hall. Come on." And with that, he's off, expecting the author to follow him.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie turns for a moment to glance at Lydia through the open door.. and when he turns back, the electrician is gone. Frowning, he looks to Chas for a moment. Then Jon, as the they enter with their cassette recorder.

He's about to speak when he catches something else. Like a voice heard from a distance; not just space, but time? If he's attentive, he can just barely make out what it's saying, in fits and spurts. Something about-- "Lensik." That's to Jon, who happens to be nearest to him at that moment. "The guy we were talkin' to." The guy who just up and vanished on them like some kind of shared hallucination.

As Chas suggests they pair up, he looks around for where Rien's gotten to-- and spotting her, shoulders his way over. He looks a little sheepish. "Basement?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael frowns at the strange feeling in the house, and her hand tightens around Jon. Though it's unlikely to be of any use with the supernatural, she also reaches under her jacket to undo the strap holding her pistol in place - the pistol she probably should not be carrying on British soil. "Do you remember this recording, Jon?" Cal asks. "And- how it is- It said 2007. Agnes wasn't born yet. Another Agnes?" But in the same house?
    She frowns, looking around, then back to Jon. "If Lydia and Chas are checking out the communal spaces - should we check out the bedrooms?" she asks him - doing her best to ignore the glow coming off from Chas.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia hurries into the half built house, the tip of her umbrella tapping in time with her feet as she walks. Her enhanced hearing picks up all the Jons from different parts of the house and she scowls. "Jon? Why is alternate you narrating like he's in some kind of podcast?"

    Chas gets a sideways glance at his suggestion. "I'm not sure it's a wise idea to split up the party. Even though we're anchored we might..." She trails off when Chas is off to the dining room. "Oh, hell." She hurries off after him because he should have at least /someone/ who's anchored with him.

    "Mmm," she says thoughtfully when she sets foot into the room proper, her nose flaring as she takes in the scents. "Dusty. Like the old kind of dusty that you get from a room that's been abandoned for decades, not the saw-dusty kind of smell you'd expect from new construction."

    She tilts her head as she hears something murmur underneath a blue canvas tarp off in the corner. "Shh," she says, to her companion as she makes her way there. She lifts the edge of the tarp with the end of her umbrella to reveal a blocky battery powered cassette recorder. <<...ment of Anya Villette, regarding a cleaning job on Hill Top Road. Original statement given April 22nd, 2009. Audio recording by Jonathan Sims, Head Archavi-->> she clicks to stop button. "Odd."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien blinks as the other voices start to cut in, her head turning this way and that, frowning heavily. Her gaze shifts towards Jon, "Be careful. This is an actual alternate timeline that's rubbing up on this one. I can't tell what will happen if you interact with it." She looks to Chas, Lydia, Jon, Cael, then to Robbie. There's a small voice inside her that says to snub him. Insidious little oily, smoky voice speaking from that cold, dark place.

She stares at him for a long moment, then gives a nod and reaches out to take his hand, "To the basement." She glances back at the others, "There's a weak point up in the loft as well. If anyone finishes at their spot early... that's another one to check out."

Squeezing Robbie's hand, she draws in a breath, lets it out, then starts towards the stairs down to the basement. "Try to stay in contact with me, Robbie. Gabe will -kill- me if I lose you to the 80's." Pausing, she adds, "Though you'd like the scene in London then."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Even though Lydia clicks the 'stop' button on the tape recorder, the voice keeps playing:

    "I don't know this place. They said I should come and talk to you. A few people did. People I thought I knew, but they were different. I should know this place, I think. I used to go to the Tate a lot when I lived in London, and I, I passed the building, but... I don't know you people. Nothing makes sense anymore."

    "I've been thinking back, trying to remember if I got any kind of... sense about that house. Whether the windows were darker than they should have been, or if the frame of the place was... heavier. I don't know."

    "--I sort of zoned out. The window in the kitchen looked out over the garden, and... I froze as I noticed that in the centre, there was a tree. It was still bare from the winter, and from the top of it, there were these eight thick branches, just stretching out at all angles, some... reaching up to the sky, and some... it felt like they were reaching towards me. It was almost black against the dark grey sky, and the rain made it /shine/. My mouth was dry, and I suddenly had this... /vision/ in my head, of walking out the back door, and standing at the base of that tree, as those branches bent, and snapped, and came down to grab me. But I was in the kitchen, and I was still dry."

    "--don't believe in ghosts, you know, and even if I did, it was a /new/ house. It's not like anyone's building over ancient burial grounds in East Oxford. But even then I was finding it hard to ignore the movements. Slight rustles in the dust sheets that covered the furniture. Shadows they made that didn't... quite work with the shape they should be."

    "--when I remembered the cupboard under the stairs. It hadn't been included in the job list, but in most houses I cleaned I liked to give the storage spaces a bit of a tidy--"

    "--opened to reveal stairs going down into a basement. Nobody had mentioned a basement. Not when they gave me the job, not on the floor plan they'd given me; I'd had absolutely no idea it was there."

    "--I found myself brushing cobwebs from my face as I got further down, until at last there I was--stood in the cellar of Hill Top Road."

    "And then I noticed the crack."

    "--split the floor right down the middle; it was jagged, vicious, like something had torn out the ground with a hook. It was maybe a foot across at its widest, and so dark inside it made my teeth ache. I'm not sure how I saw it. Thinking now I know that there wasn't any light down there, but... that horrid gap was clear as day, darker than just the simple lack of light that surrounded it. And then I was at the edge looking down, and those eight spindly arms reaching up to pull me in. I couldn't have screamed even if I wanted to."

    "--everything's wrong. I went to clean that house on April the 23rd, 2009 which, according to all of you, is tomorrow. But it *can't* be. That was two weeks ago. I've tried to talk to my friends about it. Those of my friends I can find, but they seem distant, like they don't really know me. Everything is just... wrong. I can't find my favourite coffee shop. And I don't know who you people are."

    The description of the crack in the basement is very much what Rien and Robbie find down there. It's dark, but the crack in the floor is darker, so dark it's almost like going blind. Like nothing is there at all. The basement itself is damp and full of unfinished brickwork. At the very edge of the crack there's an old bathtub, still faintly stained with dark brown blood. There's another bloodstain on the wall near the door, so much blood that someone had to have died there.

    The bedrooms are mostly empty, dusty, and Jon waves cobwebs out of his face as he goes through. The place is /full/ of cobwebs. "Bloody spiders," he mutters.

    "I--I mean, they /hide/." It's a woman's voice. "You know, it's a thing they do, spiders; they hide."

    Jon blinks, and stops in the middle of one of the bedrooms, turning around in a slow circle. "That," he says slowly, "was /weird/."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Another woman's voice, lower in tone: "Jon, focus. Are you getting any sense of anything? Can you... See anything?"

    Jon swallows, hard. "Fuck," he breathes. "I... I don't think... maybe we shouldn't have come."

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas watches as Lydia stops the recording but it just keeps going. His eyes harden and the blue plasma glow fills his eyes. "Step. Back. Please." Once the woman complies--whether it's from his words or from the fear that angel Chas is able to create actual sunshine--he raises a hand. "You will want to turn away now..." he says just as he does just that: a literal sun forming around the palm of his hand. The yellow-orange sphere spins and shifts as a sun is supposed.

    "I hope I am right..." he says, his concentration intent on the recorder spouting words from another world. "Because if I'm not, we might be right fucked." He releases the sun, sening it flying at the recorder which explodes in a small cascade of light, and sparks followed by smoke.

    The voice stops and Chas lowers his hand, even as the blue light still fills his eyes and surrounds his body. "Right then. Another?" he asks. She has super senses after all, maybe she can pinpoint them better.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie, sweet summer child that he is, is only 22. The eighties are practically a myth to him. Nevertheless, he gets the gist of what Rien's trying to say.. and he'd have to be blind not to notice that hesitation in her. The way she very nearly turns him down.

Her hand's accepted, and his jaw's tight as he accompanies her down the stairs. Yep, he just might be in the doghouse. "You really think I can't handle myself?" he mumbles to her as they walk, his steps slowing as they come to the crack in the floor. The old bathtub stained in blood. The wall, stained in more of it. He crouches briefly by the latter, running his gloved fingers over the flaking blood, and crumbling it between them before rising and moving on.

Dark, no, the place isn't dark. It isn't ANYTHING at all. Like reality slowly being eaten by whatever's taken residence there. He glances to Rien, and then begins climbing down carefully; there's the low rumble of the Rider asserting itself, whether he likes it or not. His eyes ignite, as does his right hand, to make himself a light source in the black.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael doesn't comment on the webs- but she winces. Let's be honest, //no one// likes walking into spider webs. The webs are forgotten, however, as the voices speak.
    "Jon? Do you know their voices?" Cael asks. She squeezes them tighter for a moment - then steps away, freeing both of her hands, and leaving Jon free to move more quickly as well. As good as it felt to hold him close - it left them both vulnerable. She reaches under her jacket, drawing her gun but pointing it safely up, and away from any potential targets for the moment. "Show yourself! And explain all this!" she commands cooly, turning in a full circle.
    

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia takes a step back when Chas asks her to, and when he pulls out his sun, there's the click and the hiss of the umbrella opening to shield her from the harmful light's rays. The cassette recorder shatters and explodes, and after a few seconds to make sure it's safe, she shuts the umbrella with a snap. "Right."

    When asked about another she stands still and closes her eyes, concentrating on pinpointing what she can hear. Off in the bedrooms there's Cael and Jon. She can hear the uptick of Jon's heartbeat as panic is rising in him at the voices that their hearing. She can hear Robbie and Rien down in the basement. And there... off up in the loft, is the sound of another, familiar voice: Martin.

    Her eyes pop open to nod to Chas. "I can hear Martin up in the loft. Probably another recording. Come on," she says and leads the way with purposeful strides.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien looks sidelong at Robbie as they move down the stairs into the basement, "Do you really want me to answer that?" The question is asked in a dry tone, her expression a myriad of emotions she's too tired to try and hold back.

Then they hit the bottom of the stairs and it's like something out of a horror movie. The bathtub with the ring of dried blood. The wall with the larger splat of dried blood. And the fissure that leads to... nowhere. She lets go of Robbie's hand as he moves to inspect the wall, drawn towards the crevice in the floor. Eyes glued to it, unblinking, staring.

"...show me..." the whisper is hers, from her lips, even if she's not truly aware of saying it.

Another few steps towards the crack in the floor and she's staring down into that dark expanse of nothing. "Show me."

She drops to her knees, unaware that's she's done so, starting to bend forward over one of the wider parts of the crack, "Show me!"

Rien's reaching into the darkness, down into the opening, as if she can see something. "SHOW ME!"

She could slip right through, if she wanted. It might be tight here or there, but the right angle, a little twist this way or that, and she could slip right down through that fissure in the cement, into the nothing. It's so tempting. No more worries. No more responsibilities. No more cares or concerns. No more tired. Oh Gods, just to not be tired anymore... "I know you're in there, now SHOW ME, dammit!" She's screaming into the Abyss; insisting, no -demanding- of it. "I'm here, you wanted me here now SHOW ME!"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    As if Cael's command were a cue, a tape recorder starts up in the loft, but everyone can hear what comes out. Martin Blackwood's voice, reading something much the same way Jon's was earlier.

    "Once there was a house, a building that, for all it might have looked like those around it, was not the same."

    "Stop, no."

    "It didn't start with the house. It was here long before any might have thought of it as a home."

    "Once, there was a patch of land, not quite as firm in this reality as that which surrounded it."

    "Stop, no."

    "It's not about the land. Mud and soil has no part in what is there."

    "Once, there was a point in space that did not quite obey all those petty rules that decide what can be allowed to happen in a world."

    "Stop, no."

    "It's not a point in space. The Earth spins and hurtles through the darkness, but it still carries it along."

    "Let us simply say that once there was a place. A place where the universe had... cracked."

    "None of us remember what had caused the crack, not even those things beyond time who might measure a generation in the echoes of their screams. It has been there as long as they have, if not longer. It's not a large crack, and to walk by it, even through it, you'd never pause to notice. Perhaps the air around it is slightly thinner, lights slightly dimmer... In the summer there may be the slightest chill. In the winter a warmth that is almost unsettling. The fungus that grows in the damp there is somehow more vibrant in its whiteness, while flowers remain duller than those that neighbour them. But these changes are slight, and none have dwelt on them long enough to call the place cursed. Indeed, few have ever thought much of it at all. Perhaps there are many such places across the Earth. Perhaps it is unique. Certainly, no-one has known either way."

    Chas and Lydia find more dust and cobwebs, and the tape recorder playing Martin's voice. Beneath it there is a note written in a flowing hand, addressed to "The Justice League Dark." Out the window of the loft, they can see Ivo Lensik, wrapping a chain around the trunk of a dead tree with a crowbar stuck in its bark. He goes out to his car at the road, and uses the chain attached to the car to pull down the tree. Gabby and Agnes are nowhere to be seen. The houses are different.

    Downstairs, voices come out of the crack in reality, voices Rien knows all too well. First, her own: "They can't die--they'll fight each other until the end of time."

    Then Logan Howlett's voice: "Hey, it bought us some time, right? Better than nothing."

    Then Marie d'Arqueness, Rien's grandmother: "...But the cage will need a lock. You two. Together. The bond you made this very night, in your own timeline. It will be enough."

    Logan: "For... how long?"

    Marie: "You know, Logan. Of course you do."

    The crack yawns at Rien and Robbie both, beckons to them. Something... scuttles, slithers, slides, along the edges of reality. Whispers in the mind.

    -All the doors are open now.-

    Jon shudders, shakes his head. "I... I don't... I can see... none of this makes sense. I can see myself, and three women, talking. I recognize one of them. Daisy. I can see... a great yawning chasm, covered by a spider's web made of casette tape. Martin's there, and a woman, and Annabelle Cane, except she's... not human. Half-spider. I can see... I can See..."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon's voice starts to be overlaid with an odd static backed by an almost angelic resonance that hums and warbles and climbs in intensity as he speaks. "Tunnels. A tower. A great Eye where the sun should be. People screaming in endless terror. A cottage on a hillside, the windows shattering. You who watch and know and understand none--"

    Jon crouches to the floor suddenly, presses his hands to his eyes. "No," he says, shaking violently. "No, no, no. None of that's real. None of that's /me/. I didn't do /any/ of that! I came here to find Annabelle, not--whatever this is! Stop--I didn't--I AM NOT OPENING YOUR BLOODY DOOR!"

    The world wavers, warps, cracks. Reality presses against the edges of Rien's spell, like it's trying to pull them all... somewhere else.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas slips the note from under the casette player and offers it to Lydia. "Go. Get Jon, Cael, Rien, Robbie... get them out if you can..." He summons another sun and destroys this player as well in the same shower of sparks and fire. The recording of Martin slows to a crawl and stops.

    Chas voice is different, overlayed with the sound of bells and dual layers as the blue plasma intensifies around them. "Get them out. I will take care of this... problem," he says as a pair of silver wings appear at his back and the air starts to ripple and warp from the heat and power coming from the angel's true form.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie hears the recording start up, and frowns slightly. He doesn't recognise the voice. Tense and on guard, he starts a circuit around the dank, almost fetid space. Avoiding the gash in the ground, the Nothing that pulls at him in an almost visceral way.

And then Rien starts drifting toward it, and the voice on the tape recorder is Logan's, and it's a woman's he doesn't recognise.. but knows, in that way one does in the absence of any other logical alternatives.

"No," he murmurs, starting toward her, stopping. A broad motion of his arm, like he's shaking something off, and there's that CRACK of hellfire and brimstone as he summons a portal. Flickering, twisting, it takes a great deal of his focus to maintain while he strides over and attempts to bodily pick Rien up, and get her out.

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Whoa- hey. Jon. Jon, I'm here," Cael says firmly, crouching in front of him. The gun is holstered so she can put her hands on both of their shoulders, pressing down to ground them in the here, the now. "I'm here. Agnes is waiting outside - and I'm bringing you back to her. This is real. You're Jonathan Sims. You're //my// Mariposa. You're the Archivist, and the Avatar of Ma'at, and whatever evil is in this house - we're going to seal it off, and then go to your daughter, and- fuck, eat jellied eels or something, because Martin would want us to. Okay?"
    Her voice is intent, almost commanding, as she continues to speak. "Look at me, Jon. Look into my eyes - because I'm here. I'm here with you, and I'm real, and whatever I need to do to help you seal off this shit- Close their bloody door, and let's leave this place."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    The downside of having enhanced hearing is that if you're unprepared, you can hear /everything/. The cacophony that surrounds Lydia is deafening in it's way. Rien screaming into the void and the echoing conversation fight with the murmurings that are driving Jon mad, layered on top of the droning of Martin's voice, while all weaved into warping reality that tugs on the barrier that keeps her anchored. It's just too much, and Lydia squeezes her eyes shut, her hands going to her ears. She can feel herself trying to drift apart with the noise, but is held together by the constellations of her power mixed with Rien's spell.

    "One voice," she breathes. "Just one voice. One voice. One reality." And so she starts to sing.

    "Haiven, adonai elohen, lealm, veha'amiden mren lechaim
     fro alen suat elmecha, vetanen e'etzah tvah mifanecha, vehi'en lema'an emecha.
    Vehagen a'aden, vehaser me'alein yev, ever, vecherev,
    vera'av, veyagn, veharechek mie an vafea.
    Vtzel enafeicha asiren, i el mren mailen aah, i el chan verachm aah.
    Mor tzeten ven lechaim lalom me'aah ve'ad lam. Arch aah adonai, mer a yira'el la'ad."

    It's an old prayer, but one that has power in it. It prays for God's protection and shelter. It prays for guidance and peace. It's been a while since she's used her faith like this, that deep spiritual connection she has with God. It had been shaken during the events with the archangel Michael, and she had thought that she had turned her back on Them, but in her time of need she finds that faith isn't easy to lose.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"..no... father... mother... no. It's not right! It's not FAIR! This is YOUR fault! YOU be the lock! Let them go!" Rien is crying freely, tears streaming down her face as she starts to reach into the void beneath the crack, like she's trying to reach FOR someone. Something. "You let us go!!"

She's caught around the waist before she can disappear more than shoulder-deep into the abyss, but she fights like a wildcat to be released. "NO! I have to SEE! I have to see what's on the other side! Let me GO!" Screaming, kicking, clawing (fingernails, not the snikt!), trying with all her strength to wriggle free.

It's futile, without utilizing magic or claws, there's no way that Robbie doesn't outclass her in brute strength. She's borne through the portal of Hellfire, still screaming and crying, still reaching for the fissure, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I have to SEE!!" She will owe Robbie a very large apology (and thank you) later. She might not be stronger than hit, but a fist or foot that catches him is still going to sting!

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon looks up at Cael, eyes very wide, and they're not brown, nor even brown overlaid with teal. They're green, oddly bright and piercing, bloodshot, horrified. Not his normal eyes at all. And they're filled with more terror than Cael's ever seen in her boyfriend's face.

    "Cael," they whisper. "Cael." They reach out and grab her arms. "You're here. You're here, and you're /only/ here." They swallow. "And that means I choose /this/ reality. This one. Only this one." They grip at her arms so hard is might hurt. "We have to get out of here. We have to--they should raze the building. Salt the land. This place... it's..." He shudders. Closes those too-bright green eyes for a moment.

    Lydia's prayer has an unintended effect: reality stabilizes, but not in any way anyone around is going to like much. Suddenly the building around them is on fire, and there are flickering shadows of people moving around. Jon, and Martin, and Agnes' mother Alya. Jonah Magnus. A man who must be Tim Stoker. Other people, half-faceless, people that didn't matter so much to what happened here. People fighting, people dying. A newborn baby crying. But it's all phantasm, illusion. Memory pulled forward and put in front of them, a trap set and sprung too late.

    The brimstone portal has the unintended effect of widening the crack, just a bit, but Robbie can get himself and Rien through it. Agnes turns away from watching the building, next to Gabby, eyes widening. "Where's my father? Where's Cael? Lydia, and Chas, are they--?"

    Something in the house resonates with the girl's voice. Heat begins to build around those who remain inside, as if the flames are becoming real.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas stares at Lydia for a moment in prayer and his teeth clench, his jaw popping with the strain. He want's nothing more than to level the building with the Heavenly Equivalent of a nuclean strike but he can't do that with her there. It'll have to be done later; they have to get out of the building now. Flames tear at the stairs they used to get up so there's no escape that way.

    He tamps down on the plasma surrounding him, tucks the letter in his own pocket, and then moves forward to wrap the woman in strong arms before jumping for the wall. The brick and exposed drywall erupts out from his impact site and silver wings spread out as he guides the pair of them to the ground and away from the burning building back to Agnes and Gabby. He lets go of Lydia immediately and offers prayers of his own that the others escape the inferno as well.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Rien can fight. Rien can struggle, and it'll only make him hold onto her more tightly. Rien can hit him, and break his jaw, but it's just sticks and stones and bones; and Rien can claw him and bite him hard enough to draw blood, but they both know he's durable enough to take it.

It's that scream, though.. that SCREAM that breaks his heart.

Hefting the writhing, kicking, furious woman into his arms, he wavers for a moment, a terrifying moment that almost takes them both into the widening breach. And then steels himself and plunges instead through the portal-- and collapses with her onto the ground outside, not too far from where Chas lands.

"Get in the car," he growls at Agnes and Gabby. "NOW." This, with his eyes and half his face flamed out, making him look every inch the demonic entity. He, however, remains where he is for the moment, half atop Rien and trying to shield her with his body. Like if he can just protect her, take whatever's coming for her--

Cael Becker has posed:
    "This is our reality," Cael confirms. "I am yours, and you are mine-" This is when the whole place seems to catch on fire, and Cael puts her arm into Jon's and stands, hauling him up with her. "We're going, Jon. We're getting out of this fucking house. MOVE," she commands, him, hauling him for all he's worth to a point in the drywall where a hole has already been cut for a window. Thankfully, there's no window in place, yet, so they won't have to worry about broken glass.
    "You first, Mariposa. GO." She's made Agnes a promise and she was keeping it. After she makes sure he gets clear of the window, she hastily crawls out herself - then she takes his hand and runs out in the backyard.
    "IS EVERYONE CLEAR?" she calls loudly, as they start skirting around the burning building.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia is so focused on her singing and trying to ground herself, she doesn't notice the flames until she's wrapped up in Chas's arms. "Wha?" She says, blinking up at his rugged face suddenly being /there/ and then they're suddenly pulling a Kool-Aid man and *bursting* through the wall. She squeaks with an "Eeep!" and covers her head as they go through. Unintended, the umbrella pops open like it's going to help slow their descent.

    When she's set on her feet she gives Chas an apologetic look. "Sorry. I was... it was just kind of overwhelming everything happening all at once." She takes a few steps back towards the car, then bellows back out at Cael. "WE'RE CLEAR! STAY BACK I THINK CHAS IS GONNA NUKE IT FROM ORBIT." Quieter, she says to the others, "It's the only way to be sure."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Rien lands heavily, then Robbie lands even more heavily on top of her. A lesser woman might break. Rien does too, but any fractures or bruises or cuts heal as fast as they can appear. She struggles out from under Robbie, not to get back inside, but because she has an idea. "I'm okay, I'm okay, let me up, I have to help aim it!" She squirms her way out from under and rolls up to her feet, running towards Chas, "Wait! One moment!"

Throwing a hand out, she sends out a bright, flashing beacon, on top of the house, right over where the fissure is. "Aim there! The fissure, there's something living in it, there's a rift. Hit the fissure!"

There's still tears streaking down her cheeks, she's filthy and looks pale and haunted beneath the filth, but her voice is strong and she's standing without aid, holding the beacon to give Chas a target to aim for.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Once he's certain everyone is out, Chas surrounds himself with that same overwhelming plasma aura. Again his voice takes on that dual, bell-like quality. "We will discuss this soon enough." His wings spread out and he rises into the air. A hand goes to his pocket and he withdraws the letter. "I believe this is your, Jonathan." He flings the letter to Jon, with enough accuracy that it would be difficult for Jon to miss it. "Now go. I will handle this."

    He shoots into the sky high above the house and that aura intensifies. Against the night sky he almost outshines the moon for intensity, before his eyes flash and the energy rushes out of him in a massive beam of Heavenly Fire with it's center directly over the beacon Rien pointed out. It consumes the entire worksite and the image of the shell of a house is superimposed like a negative image before it's just... gone.

    Chas looks a bit weary. That was more energy than he's ever moved before but he's not spent. Can he be spent? Is that possible? More questions about what he is. He'll ask them later for now, he has to get back to the Velvet Room. He doesn't want to fly back across the Atlantic, but his old stomping grounds aren't nearly as far from here. A quick stop to say hello to his little girl and then a door to a place where he can rest for a bit.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Agnes stares at Robbie. Hesitates, even as Gabby presumably gets in the car. She hesitates just long enough, looking back at the house, that Jon and Cael come over the garden fence. "Dad!" she calls, and runs to him, throws herself into his arms, ignoring the weirdness of his eyes.

    Jon blinks down at her, and looks up in time to catch the letter. "Thank you," he says, and then looks around at the others. "Is everyone...?"

    Then Chas blows up the house and Jon turns to stare, green eyes wide.

    What is left after Chas destroys the site is--not nothing. The crack isn't even visible anymore. Instead, there is a tree, a dogwood, dripping blood red sap from a knot in its trunk. Fully grown, as if it had been growing there for years. 14 years, to be exact.

    But Jon swallows. "I... I think we protected the physical world," they say softly. "But I think..." They shudder and turn away.

    "We can check on it properly later. For now... is everyone okay?"

Robbie Reyes has posed:
He can be angry with the kid for ignoring his orders later. Or, he can reason that he might have done the same thing, were it his father come out of a burning building. Alive. Whole. The gordian knot in his heart pulls tighter, and he swipes at his eyes savagely. At the image burned into his memory.

Robbie remains where he is for a while as Rien scampers off to help Chas. Hands and knees on the asphalt road, leather jacket all scuffed up, knees scraped bloody and his jaw looks probably broken. The fire in his eyes has gone out by now, but the flesh hasn't quite healed over completely, and he looks a right mess.

Grunting, he shifts around to sit heavily with his back against the Charger, eyes closed.

Cael Becker has posed:
    As Agnes throws herself at Jon, Cael wraps her arms around both of them. "I told you I'd bring them back - yeah?" she murmurs - then she pulls back, getting her phone out and turning on its selfie-mode. "Jon, love..." she murmurs, before offering him the phone so he can inspect his own eyes.
    She watches his features for his reaction, then takes back her phone, pocketing it. "I'm fine," she promises, then she takes Jon by the hand - leading him silently back towards the others.
    As Chas opts for the nuclear option, Cael stiffens, her breath catching in her throat as she grips Jon's hand for all she's worth. You're fine, Cael. You're fine. Chas isn't like- It's fine.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    It's a good thing Lydia's umbrella is still open, because she can use that to shield her from Chas' blinding light. When all is done she peeks out from under it to see that all that is left is a bleeding dogwood. "Well, that's not ominous or anything," she mutters, snapping her umbrella closed.

    "I'm fine," she tells Jon when they all finally get back together as a group. "It was... a very unpleasant experience." She looks down at Robbie, and over at Rien, "For all of us I suspect. Love the new look though."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
When the bright beam of destruction slams down into the house, rien drops her hand and staggers back a few steps, very nearly hitting her knees, catching herself with one hand at the last moment. Stumbling her way back towards the Charger, she sinks down next to Robbie, wrapping her arms around him and whispering to him. As she whispers, that gentle blue glows surrounds them both, healing Robbie of his wounds.

Once the glow fades, she presses a kiss to his temple and rocks him gently. Looking up and around towards the others, Rien rasps out, "Jon. I saw... past the creature. Past the.. thing. It wasn't.. clear. But I could see. The other world. The other side. You should.. take the statement. Soon."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon unwraps his arms from around Agnes, and peers at the phone for a moment. "Figures," he mutters. "Just... figures." But that's all, at least for now. Then he opens the letter to peer down at it, reading aloud.

    "Dear members of the Justice League Dark:

    "Congraulations! If you're reading this, then you've sprung my trap and passed the test with flying colors. I felt it was only fitting to include such a thing, you heroic types /do/ expect a challenge. I couldn't just leave a recorder and a statement in the house. Wouldn't be /spooky/ enough for you, jaded as you all are.

    "If you're still curious as to precisely who I am and what's going on, meet me at the following address on 16th July. I do believe Jonny and Cael were planning to head to Bournemouth for the second week of their vacation, yes? It's lovely in July, even if the beaches are /packed/ with tourists. But that's what you are now, isn't it? A tourist.

    "I know the feeling.

    "I promise excitement and adventure and proper villanous staging. Wouldn't want to disappoint the audience, after all. I look forward to seeing how you react to my next presentation.

    "Yours,

    "Annabelle Cane"

    Jon frowns and then crumples up the note. Then he pulls his lighter out of his pocket, lights the thing, and watches it burn with grim satisfaction. "I know the address," he says shortly. "I'll call you all next week. Hopefully we can end this bloody... whatever she's got going on."

    As the paper burns, they look to Rien. "I think I know what you saw," Jon says softly. "But yes. Let's... let's do that now. And then I think I want to get back to the hotel, and order room service, and figure out if they have lemon drizzle to put on the pancakes tomorrow. And the rest of you... go home. Rest. I'll call you."