All Who Wander...

Up until recently maintained as a museum, the childhood home of the Braddock family has been pressed into service as classroom space for the University. Additionally, the increased demands have led to the main ballroom being converted into a cafeteria for University students on a meal plan. The old library has been bolstered with college textbooks.

All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Thu Jul 13, 2017 4:35 pm

The young woman finds herself wandering a hallway clad in wood-paneling, the texture under her fingertips as she runs her hand over the wall feeling familiar somehow. It reminds her of a pale imitation, something trying to be this but not quite managing. Fake texture pressed into thin panels to be tacked to the walls, thick carpet under her feet. For a moment the memory seems to overtake her and she can feel it around her, smooth wood panels on the walls, lieing on carpet she almost sinks into a little bit. She remembers thinking that it felt weird how it made the blood pool around her, the stray thought of a panicked mind narrowing on a tiny detail that distracts from the sickening crack she'd just felt as sharp metal sinks into her chest and cracks ribs apart as it spreads a sharp cold through her...

Her eyes snap back open and she forces herself to focus on the here and now, as much as that's possible. The important things. She'd found the boy. Young man, really. For a moment he'd been there, flickering like a badly aligned video-tape in the big empty ball-room. She hadn't dared take her eyes off of him lest he slip away entirely, but of course he had. Outside the wind howls and makes her shudder. She hasn't actually found the outside of this place yet, but she's heard things make noises and they haven't exactly made her find out what they are. She reaches for the headphones around her neck and pulls them over her ears. Her hand finds the comforting box of plastic on her belt and with a soft chunk she pushes the play button. Music fills her ears and shuts out the gusting wind, creating her own little world that she can handle. She sets out to keep walking down the hallway that stretches into the distance before her seemingly forever, occasionally kicking at some refuse that has accumulated in the corner of wall and floor. She takes turns at random because it doesn't really matter and it makes her nervous when she just walks down a straight-hallway for too long. However it is that she actually gets anywhere, it has nothing to do with any actual direction, that much she's realized and she just hopes that she'll manage to bump into the young man with the beard again.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:55 pm

Sean walked the halls of Braddock Manor looking somewhat distracted. He'd been thinking about the woman he'd seen in the XUB and the look of of concern on Natalie's face. Maybe it was a sign of madness? The nightmares he had most nights that felt so familiar perhaps another? Might be he should talk to somebody about it? He rubbed the bridge of his nose before looking at the paper dragon he'd made and how it flew alongside him. Trying, for the moment successfully, to ignore the press of questions as he continued down the hallway.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Narrator » Fri Jul 14, 2017 4:30 pm

Nothing out of the ordinary happens, although the halls of the mansion can certainly feel a little unsettling on their own sometimes. A flutter of movement catches his eyes and even though he almost instantly realizes it's just the reflection of his little paper dragon in a mirror hanging on the wall, his head turns towards it regardless. Yep, sure was his little construct fluttering in the reflection that otherwise shows nothing but an empty hallway. It takes a second or two to really register that it's only showing the folded dragon and not actually his own reflection.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 14, 2017 9:13 pm

Sean stared at the mirror and the reflection of the dragon that was flying beside him. Well, at least it would have been beside him if his reflection had actually been there. He rubbed his eyes hoping that he was just exhausted after a long night at the point and not losing his mind or worse getting shoved into a parallel world like had happened in Maldon a few months ago.

"Just exhausted is all," Sean said before looking back at the mirror.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Narrator » Fri Jul 14, 2017 9:27 pm

Unfortunately his reflection shows no signs of having returned. And at a closer look the hallway also looks a little different. It's still the same one, just... older and full of dust.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:21 pm

Sean turns around to look at the hallway around him to see if the world has changed or if it's just the mirror showing a reflection. The runes on his rings glow as he prepared to use one or perhaps all of them to defend himself. Paranoia likely caused by the fact that last time the residents of the other dimension had been a bit... hostile.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Narrator » Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:43 pm

It's just in the mirror and it seems to be empty. At least at first. As he's standing there, protective magic at the ready, the hallway on the other side of the mirror seems to begin to fill with a hick fog. For just a moment it seems like there's a humanoid figure in it but then it seems to blend into his own reflection that's appearing again as the mirror fades back into just being that. For a moment that's all there is when suddenly a red spot appears on the mirror's surface - his side of it - and is slowly dragged down by the clear imprint of a finger. It doesn't take long and letters begin to take shape as the non-existent finger writes a message.

WHO ARE YOU?
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Mon Jul 17, 2017 4:59 pm

Sean stares at the message for several moments considering what he should do. In the end he begins writing on the mirror curiosity winning out against several other possibilities. He opens his eyes to the flow of magic around the mirror hoping to get a clue beyond the response and hoping it's not some mutant who can turn invisible yanking his chain.

Sean. Who are you?
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Narrator » Thu Jul 20, 2017 3:51 pm

I DON'T KNOW


The words appear the same way as before. Then, after a brief pause they continue.

HANNAH


The mirror itself is as mundane as they come. There's certainly something mystical going on, but as before with that strange other dimension Sean has a hard time really sensing it. Something about this feels familiar though.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:24 pm

Where are you, Hannah?


Sean wrote it as he struggled to remember how things had felt before. He hadn't looked into the other dimension since the Dwarf had found him with the page of the Darkhold. Sean began tracing a spell around the mirror wondering if he could use it to focus the strange mystical energy further to get better resolution as it were.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Narrator » Thu Jul 20, 2017 5:00 pm

Instead of new letters a streak of blood just underlines the previous words.

I DON'T KNOW


Try as he might, he can't quite seem to get the spell to align, the arrangement just falling apart before it can really connect with anything. But something does seem to click. He still hasn't deciphered the contents of the Darkhold's page entirely, but something about it suddenly makes sense as he tries to bring forth whatever connection is present in the mirror and the more he thinks about it the more certain he is that he could use that page to make a more tangible link.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:29 pm

Trying to help


Sean wrote before reaching into his backpack for his notes moving as quickly as he could upon seeing the blood on the mirror. He'd kept the page and had been gradually translating it and analyzing each spell it contained over the last few months, but the methodical approach also meant it wasn't fully translated. Now he grabbed it and his notes, searching both for the tangible link he could feel. He just hoped that Hannah could wait while he figured this out.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Narrator » Thu Jul 20, 2017 10:33 pm

Taking a look at the page alongside his notes it's like something suddenly clicks and the ancient letters begin to make sense, revealing the patterns inscribed on it. The Key of Nebuchadnezzar.

And thus was created the great Key that shall unlock the firmament itself at your behest for worlds between worlds transcend the spheres of creation. And thou shalt hold dominion over the comings and goings between the stars themselves as long as you hold within your heart the spell inscribed here. But beware of doors left open in thine wake as others may follow a trail left unsealed by careless steps.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Thu Jul 20, 2017 11:51 pm

Sean shuffled his notes and the page back into his bag. After a moment he began casting the spell. The spell circle coming together on his palm as he prepared to open the door between their and Hannah's world.

He figured he could slam the door shut if things started really going awry.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 21, 2017 5:29 am

As the spell takes shape he can feel how it's pattern seems to align itself with something unseen, a rule that is as woven into the world as gravity. And just like gravity it yields to the right spell. Like a key entering a lock he can feel the tumblers click and as it turns the motions seems to spread out from it into things that grip into each other like gears and suddenly he's very aware of the Lighthouse in the distance as it seems to resonate with the spell along with the barrier he placed on it to contain the breach. Turning the key sends shifts through the fabric of reality and the infinitely folded patterns around the Lighthouse move in response like ripples in a pond.

But more importantly reality around him collapses and reforms itself infinitely as two competing realities overlap and slide through each other for a moment. If he wanted to he could adjust the spell to force them to intermingle more severely but even now it's causing a deep rumble. But for now it quickly passes as the spell unfolds according to his wishes and reach through realities and grab a hold of 'Hannah' and with one symbolic pulling back of his hand a shape is torn forward out of the chaos of the kaleidoscopic hallway and everything snaps back into their proper place as the spell undoes it's twisting of realities. Everything except the young woman in front of him who stares at him wide-eyed. She'd look out of place even if it wasn't for the way she just appeared, wearing a red Walkman on the belt of her corduroy pants and a t-shirt that should look much more faded than it actually is.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 21, 2017 2:24 pm

Awe was the primary feeling that Sean had as the spell performed the task he'd laid out for it, but his curiosity made him take note of everything. How the spell interacted with the lighthouse, how reality seemed to collapse and reform, how reality seemed suddenly so much more malleable as he reached through to pull Hannah across the boundary between their two realities. The whole working resonated deeply with Sean, he felt at home with this working as if it had been made for him.

This is your inheritance

He thought as he pulled Hannah across. Once she was there Sean began the process of dismantling the gate. He didn't want the two realities overlapping for too long and he most definitely didn't want whatever had attacked him before being set loose here.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby The Book of Sins » Fri Jul 21, 2017 5:45 pm

Across campus, at the top of the Lighthouse a small figure stands, balanced precariously but somehow perfectly still on the railing of the walkway. The grin on his face broadens just a little and he performs a bow, one hand in front of his stomach as if taking off an invisible hat. So many pieces, so many players, but all that matters to him and his master right now is this moment. Everything according to plan. "There is a peak in distant Tran, beyond the wonted haunts of man." he snickers to himself as he comes back up from his bow into a gesture of his own - a parlor trick compared to Sean's doing just now - and he blinks away.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 21, 2017 5:48 pm

Completely unaware of any of this and hopelessly confused, Hannah still stares at Sean as he effortlessly seems to fold the world back into it's proper place. Except everything is different now. The wooden walls warm and cozy instead of dead and crumbling, color where there had previously been only washed out grays.

"Where... how... What just happened!?"
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 21, 2017 6:43 pm

"I thought you were in danger, so I pulled you between dimensions," Sean said sitting down feeling a bit tired after pulling Hannah through the gate.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 21, 2017 6:49 pm

"I... don't think I was." she says, though she doesn't sound exactly certain of this. "I was just looking for you. I think. I'm not sure why..."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 21, 2017 6:55 pm

"Odd," Sean said, "Your last message seemed to be written in blood on my side of the mirror.... you were looking for me?"
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:01 pm

"Yeah, I... I felt somebody in the distance, a while ago, I'm not sure how long. It's the first thing I remember that makes any sense and I just knew it was important somehow. I thought I'd figure it out when I saw you, but I don't actually know who you are. Only that you feel familiar." she says, looking at Sean as if she was trying to remember something. He's certain he's never seen her before today, but he can kind of see what she means because she does feel familiar, like an old childhood friend that never was.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:04 pm

"Yeah," Sean said pausing for a moment. "I feel like we've met somewhere. Maybe a long time ago... Like when we were younger, but the first time I jumped, well more like stumbled, across dimensions was a few months ago."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:19 pm

"What do you mean stumbled across dimensions? Where am I?"
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:37 pm

"Xaviers University in Maldon, Essex," Sean said, "A school for mutants and well, people who aren't mutants but can pull people across the veil."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 21, 2017 7:49 pm

"No I mean... Wait, you're saying this is... How's that possible!?" She looks around once more as a realization seems to think in. She hesitatingly reaches out to touch the wall but instead her hand sinks right through it.

"How'd you do this?" she asks, her voice almost a whisper. "This is the real world."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 21, 2017 8:18 pm

"Magic. I'm a mage," Sean said watching her hand sink into the wall. "I used a spell to open a doorway between worlds."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 21, 2017 8:45 pm

"What worlds? None of this makes sense... I was in that other place and the only thing I remember from before that is... It..." she glances down at herself as if she's looking for something. "I think I died."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 21, 2017 8:51 pm

"In theory spirits of dead people exist on ano- wait what?" Sean asked.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 21, 2017 10:20 pm

"I remember someone pinning me down. There was a knife and blood and... I remember thinking that there was this stain on the ceiling that kinda looked like a dog. I almost felt like laughing cause it was so messed up, you know? Like I should've been fighting or screaming or something but instead I was just thinking about this stupid stain of... I dunno, water damage I guess. But I kept wondering if all the blood was gonna leave a stain in the carpet as well like I could just think about anything else but the fact that I could feel this piece of metal scrape it's way past my ribs..."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Fri Jul 21, 2017 10:36 pm

"I'm so sorry," Sean said trying to sound comforting. "Was that when you found yourself in the other world then?"
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Sat Jul 22, 2017 5:14 am

"It's alright." she lies. It clearly bothers her, but being pitied seems to bother her more somehow. "It happens a lot. The dieing, I mean. I've... you know how there's always stories? Stuff that people tell around the campfire? Like the one about the guy with the rusty hook who guts this girl and her boyfriend on prom night. Or the headlights one? The girl driving on a dark road with a guy with a knife hiding in the backseat? The dad who goes crazy listening to some weird radio station and kills his daughter. Or the babysitter who doesn't know that there's a killer in the house? They're all me. I've lived through every one of those stories. Or, well, maybe not, cause that's kinda crazy, isn't it? I just... I can remember how each of them felt. But then I ended up in that place and I thought maybe that's it, maybe it finally... I dunno, stuck? That that's just where people end up, in some dead, empty place. But it wasn't entirely, there were those paper things that would flutter around and I followed them till I found you..."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Sat Jul 22, 2017 5:30 pm

"The paper golems?" Sean asked directing the paper dragon to fly towards Hannah. "Do you remember anything from before your... deaths?"
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Sat Jul 22, 2017 6:20 pm

"Yeah." she says a bit ambiguously as she watches the paper construct for a moment, holding out a finger for it to land on. "Just... being me. I went to school, hung out with friends. Then something horrible happened, people talk, it became a story and I just... remained, like the story is keeping me around. Until it changed and the things I remember are different and the places and how I died, but I still know it was me somehow. I don't... really know which one is real. Maybe they all are somehow..."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Sat Jul 22, 2017 6:37 pm

The construct landed gently. It had a gentle electric feeling to it from the magic running through it.

He stared at the construct and Hannah for a moment thinking over what she'd just said when something came back to him. The murders Hannah mentioned were all eerily similar to things he remembered reading about when he was investigating the incident from the radio. An incident he'd learned about when he'd been attacked by that.... whatever it had been.

"When I first stumbled into another world I was attacked by a creature," Sean said still thinking of how to explain her story jogging his memory. "There was a news story playing on the radio after I killed the creature. A story about a man who killed his daughter with an axe. I found more stories later when I was trying to look into things, but none of them really seemed connected... until now talking to you."
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Fri Jul 28, 2017 11:50 pm

"Yeah! That's one of them. He'd been tinkering with a CB radio, you know, talking to people from all over and hearing back from them. But then he got weird, obsessive, he'd lock himself in the garage and just listen to it all day. I put my ear on the door once and it was just... numbers. This woman slowly listing numbers over and over. I was so confused, I didn't hear when he must have gotten up, but suddenly he yelled some gibberish, right on the other side of the door and started hacking at the door with his axe and I just stumbled back and I fell and I couldn't get back up fast enough and the next time the axe came down it went right through my leg. And I remember thinking that should have been... harder somehow. Like, one moment you got a foot and then the next it's just... gone. A little over there. Just like that. It didn't even really hurt for the first couple seconds..." she starts and then just goes on and on, recounting what happened(?) in excrutiating detail if Sean doesn't interrupt her.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Mon Jul 31, 2017 5:35 pm

Hannah wrote:"Yeah! That's one of them. He'd been tinkering with a CB radio, you know, talking to people from all over and hearing back from them. But then he got weird, obsessive, he'd lock himself in the garage and just listen to it all day. I put my ear on the door once and it was just... numbers. This woman slowly listing numbers over and over. I was so confused, I didn't hear when he must have gotten up, but suddenly he yelled some gibberish, right on the other side of the door and started hacking at the door with his axe and I just stumbled back and I fell and I couldn't get back up fast enough and the next time the axe came down it went right through my leg. And I remember thinking that should have been... harder somehow. Like, one moment you got a foot and then the next it's just... gone. A little over there. Just like that. It didn't even really hurt for the first couple seconds..." she starts and then just goes on and on, recounting what happened(?) in excrutiating detail if Sean doesn't interrupt her.



Sean tried to be polite for as long as possible as Hannah went through the excruciating detail of being murdered with an ax.

"And the other times were just as... detailed? Did you ever find yourself in between like you were before?" Sean asked.
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Sat Aug 05, 2017 3:18 am

Hannah nods slightly before answering Sean's other question. "No, I don't think so. At least I don't remember... What is that place?"
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Sean Hall » Sun Aug 06, 2017 9:52 pm

"I'm not really certain," Sean said, "Another plane, but I'd only ever visited it once and doesn't remind me of any plane I've read about. I found only one other living thing there and it wasn't very interested in talking at the time."

"Are there other people like you there?"
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Re: All Who Wander...

Postby Hannah » Mon Aug 07, 2017 2:49 pm

"I never saw anybody else. Except you. It felt like I knew you but I guess not. Maybe it was just seeing another person after so many abandoned places."
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