Know The World Is Waiting There For Me

[Ryn]

Darkness. Somewhere within it Ryn's hands find Katarina as they tumble. She's only holding her by a handful of her clothes but she can't shake the feeling of being enveloped, shielded from a crescendo of crushing water and the sound of water bubbles screeching across an infinite plane. Directions lose all meaning as they tumble until finally they can feel the powerful sweep of a wave again. Stale air burning in their lungs they are tossed by the waters until finally they hit the gentle slope of land and the gentle wrap of shadows around them scatters. Softer waves push and pull them onto the shore as Ryn helps Katarina to find her feet to put under herself and wade onto the shore.

At a glance, the shore is as they left it but even a moment of catching their breath shows the myriad of little differences. The scattering of shallow islands in the marshland is wrong. Drifted. The fishing boats in the harbor to their west are mostly gone, replaced by sleek-looking replacements. The scattering of clouds in the sky is too different for the time they spend in the water. Up on the cliffside the lighthouse still stands but it too looks cleaner, dulled windows replaced and next to it a squat stone plateau. No a building of some kind. The very air tastes different past the salty taste of sea-water that seems to still permeate them for the moment.

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina coughed and hacked as the two reached shore, spitting up some mud. She did not seem to immediately notice the differences as she cleared her throat of the gunk. "Ack. What on Earth was that, Ryn? I think we may have found our problem. Unless we did not find our problem, in which case, we've found two problems."

[Ryn]

Ryn seems less worse for wear than Katarina at first glance, but somewhere along the way she seems to have lost her suit jacket and is once again wearing the dull black wrap-top she's seen her wear before. Except now it's frayed and torn in places and she still seems to be wearing her button-down shirt underneath. "I think we have." she nods. She contemplates if she should tell Katarina about the dead fish she'd noticed half-sunk into the mud around the whirlpool. They'd only found inanimate things and Ryn had pulled her along to shield her from what she suspected this passage might do to living things. Even if it's more survivable by things larger than fish she did not want to risk Katarina diving after her unprotected. This way the strands of her wings took the worst of it.

"Look." she says and points at the lighthouse. "We are elsewhere but this is no hidden realm of Fae or Djinni." she adds though there's some doubt in her voice. It's possible for glamour to mimic a similar place to the one they'd elft behind. For they are certainly not where they had been before, of that much she is certain.

[Katarina Kane]

"What th..." Katarina said, squinting. "No, that wasn't there before at all."

She paused. "But...I don't think we're elsewhere. The water..." she says, looking back over it, biting her lower lip.

"It's the same....flow?" she said, struggling for words for maybe the first time Ryn has seen her. "It's...I don't know. It's not Elsewhere."

[Ryn]

Ryn nods, understanding her even without the right words. "It's the same water because it flows between here and there. But the air is wrong, the birds and the land is different. Just a little."

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina shook her head. "No, that's not it, it's...." she said, clearly frustrated.

"It's. It just is. I can't explain it."

She looked back in towards the town proper. "Do you think it's safe to go more inland?"

[Ryn]

"As you say." Ryn has to admit she does not really know what is going on and she sees no reason to disbelief Katarina.

"Anywhere is safe if I am there." she says so matter-of-factly it's almost easy to believe no matter how cocky a statement it is. "Should the flow stop we cannot change that even if we remain here."

[Katarina Kane]

"Oh, I hadn't even considered THAT," Katarina said, with a shudder. "One more thing to worry about. I was thinking about...hostile natives."

"But you're right. We're not going to find anything else out just standing here," she said, starting to walk towards the main town. "At the very least, we need some place to dry off."

[Ryn]

"And shoes for you." she says, following Katarina. "Perhaps I can take some from a hostile native." she jokes. Probably. It's certainly something Ryn might actually do.

[Leo Eskandari]

Leo was out for a run. His relatively newfound fit body has pushed him to adopt an exercise routine, because he never wanted to be overweight again. Well, overweight for a giant cat man. Besides, he was an X-Man now and, even if he wasn't, he never knew when danger might come.

His path took him to the beach just outside of town proper. He wasn't going to go to far, if only because he didn't want to have to wash mud off of his shoeless feet. But as he jogged by the rocks, he noticed he wasn't alone. And some animal sense told him there was someone or something dangerous around.

[Ryn]

"Someone is coming." Ryn informs Katarina, pointing at the distant shape and tensing up. She'd joked about hostiles, but something in the way the distant shape moves is not right. Too broad, too inhuman a gait. It reminds her of the asura-ridden boy at the House. She doesn't stop walking but there's suddenly a tension in her steps, weight on the balls of her feet. Ryn is intense at the best of times but the steel cable snapping taut shows how much slack she allows herself in the Siren's presence, even with the strain of what they both refuse to talk about.

[Samantha McManus]

Meanwhile, Sam finds herself drawn to the shore by something she can't quite put her finger on. That's surely never been trouble.

[Leo Eskandari]

The way his body tensed automatically, as if he were being watched by a larger predator, was at complete odds with the appearance of two normal looking women. Of course, he was all too aware that appearances could be deceiving. He couldn't assume the feeling was from the women, and if he was going to be a hero then he had to at least consider them innocent bystanders until proven otherwise.

He slowed to a cautious walk, his eyes peeled for the source of the sensation. He didn't want to alarm them if they were just civilians. Hearing a soft growl, he froze. It was a moment before he realized the sound was coming from him. He reigned it in, hoping the distance kept them from hearing it.

[Ryn]

Ryn stops and takes a step back that subtly puts her partially in front of Katarina. It looks like a defensive move but places her feet in a position that will let her go on the offensive in the blink of an eye. If Sam can see it she might instinctually recognize the hidden warrior's stance in the motion.

"What are you?" Ryn demands, not bothering with any social camouflage in favor of cutting to the quick of the matter. Manticore! her mind screams at her.

[Leo Eskandari]

Leo was taken aback by the stranger's reaction. Surely they knew what a mutant was, right? What else could they think he was.

"Easy, easy, I'm just from the school," the hybrid said placatingly, trying to hide how illogically on edge he felt. It didn't work.

[Samantha McManus]

As Sam comes into view, she spots part of what's bringing that nagging feeling. The three of them get a brief feeling of their own, a flash of hundreds of eyes on them.

Sam picks up her pace. She's not running, but her own gaze is locked on Ryn now.

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina, too, eyed Leo warily -- and noticed the upcoming redhead, too. The advantage of being, you know, not the crazy murderous deva is that you can sort of hide in plain sight, as the attention is drawn to the short girl with the gaze of doom.

She subtly reached down to her side, checking to see how much, if any, of her gear had survived the...whatever it was. Waterproofing. She'd have to talk to the Wyldclay about waterproofing...

[Ryn]

Ryn's gaze shifts from Leo to the bend of the road where Sam approaches before the red-head comes into view and when she does Katarina witnesses something that she has never seen before. Ryn flinches. Hundreds of watching eyes drive her back until she's no longer in front of Katarina and in her tension is shifting and twitching. Sam can almost feel Ryn trying to slip her attention, like she's always just a moment away from slipping into the blindspot of her eyes. Each blink comes with a moment of her eyes losing their focus on her and having to find her again, but something keeps her from somehow fully stepping out of her view.

"What school?" Ryn demands, no less determined and Sam realizes what is keeping Ryn fixed in her attention. Her mind is wide open. Her thoughts are strangely unguarded and it only slipped notice in the first place because they're so in tune with her words and body-language. Even looking deeper there's no separate perception of Ryn's mind or thought-avatar. Her mental image of herself is perfectly in tune with the physical person at Katarina's side except for her glasses. When Ryn's eyes dart around she's somehow fixing the exact spots of Sam's ephemeral crows in the trees and the air around them and Sam can feel the scouring gaze of inhuman flames on them. For a moment the ridiculous fear of this young woman somehow reaching out and crushing one of the birds - and with it parts of Sam's mind and soul - shoots through her like ice-water but passes. And despite that somehow Ryn is the one unsettled by Sam's presence.

[Leo Eskandari]

Between Ryn's gaze and Sam's crows, Leo's instincts were screaming at him to flee. He stubbornly asserted his rational mind but it was becoming difficult. He only hoped this was something he could handle if the threat was real.

The twitching of his tail gave away his nervous state more than his voice as he answered, "The one for mutants in the estate by the lighthouse." He pointed back towards the building that, to them, hadn't before rested atop the cliffs.

[Samantha McManus]

"What's going on here?" Sam asks as she closes the distance. Her gaze is mostly still on Ryn, but to be frank things like Ryn tend to be things she has to deal with, whether she likes it or not.

[Katarina Kane]

"Good morning sir, ma'am," Katarina said, putting on her best 'official business' smile. "I don't suppose you could point us in the direction of the nearest clothing store. We seem to be a bit waterlogged."

[Ryn]

"Tuatha de Maerigan..." Ryn mutters in some ancient precursor of Irish and takes a step back. Katarina might not be well-versed in hand to hand combat but even she can tell Ryn is breaking her stance and ceding ground as she takes a step backwards. Something she's never seen Ryn do, not even when faced with several tons of toothed sewer-monster.

[Leo Eskandari]

"Do I look like I can wear off-the-rack?" he joked nervously, surprising himself by making light of his appearance.

Why am I so on edge?

[Samantha McManus]

"...what did you say?" She asks, her eyes narrowing at Ryn as she circles around, not paying Katarina much mind at the moment.

[Katarina Kane]

Before she could even consciously reason why, Katarina took a half-step back and to the side to try to protect Ryn from...what, exactly? Ryn wasn't quite quaking in her boots, but something had her dander up.

"I said I'm afraid the two of us slipped and fell into the estuary," she said, trying to flash a smile, and continuing Leo's awkward on-edge nervous joking. "You're from the...school, you said? For...mutants. Of course."

You didn't need to be a telepath to notice that Katarina had never applied that word to anyone before -- but it sure helps!

[Ryn]

"You're Morrigna of the Tuath de Danann." Ryn says before she can think better of it, despite Katarina's (to Ryn) subtlety about who they are and where they're from. But then again, why try to deny the existence of the supernatural to a god. One that Katarina just foolishly put herself against for her sake, but she can't help and admire her for it. It's certainly a first for Ryn that someone tries to defend her like this, knowingly or not.

[Samantha McManus]

"...always someone who can tell, isn't there?" She sighs.

"No matter what shape I wear."

[Leo Eskandari]

Willfully ignoring the magical nonsense, Leo looked at Katarina more appraisingly. Her clothes seemed oddly retro, but that didn't mean anything by itself. "You don't sound so sure about that. Maybe you hit your heads too?" He sounded more than a little dubious.

[Katarina Kane]

"Falling into the water was quite a shock," Katarina confirmed. Well, that was mostly true. Being drawn into the sea as a Siren was definitely not something she was used to. "But other than having a case of dampness I don't believe will every dry out, and a bad case of bruised pride, I believe we'll be alright."

"And, though we don't look it, we're Agent Katarina Kane and Ryn Smith of Interpol, Miss DeDanann," Katarina said, clearly not up on her Irish myth or lore. "You're another student too, I take it?"

[Ryn]

Ryn lets out a laugh that is only just about stifled into a snort at Katarina addressing Sam. She's as surprised as anybody at the sound she's produced. Though it does also make her question whether this is truly the Morrigu she knows, because Katarina is exhibiting a distinct lack of being torn to shreds by crows at the insolence of calling her what amounts to 'Miss Deity'.

[Samantha McManus]

"It's not a name," she mutters. "It's a title."

[Ryn]

Something about this is very strange. She supposes Katarina must feel like this in regards to the washed up artifacts.

"You..." She does not recognize me. "...resemble someone I once knew." she says and then she's reminded of something else. Katarina is drenched. Humans get sick and cold, even if the weather is relatively warm, the air blowing in from the sea brings with it a chill. "Clothes. Or a place for her to dry off. Please?" The first two are barely questions, more statements of intent. The please sounds more like something someone has picked up on as a word that helps one get what they ask.

[Leo Eskandari]

"I think we can manage that." Leo wasn't sure they were trustworthy but he had made himself sort of an ambassador for the school so he felt he had to give people the benefit of the doubt. And if there was a threat he wouldn't have to face it alone. "Can't we Sam?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Just her that needs to dry off, then?" She quirks a brow at Ryn.

"We could take them to the medical center."

[Ryn]

"I'm used to worse." she grins back.

[Katarina Kane]

The words 'med center' gave Katarina a shiver up her backbone and an associated mental shudder. She had, apparently, not had great experiences with doctors in the past.

"That...that won't be necessary," she said, doing her best to keep an even keel and her best foot forward. "As you can see, we're both physically fine. Just a little soggy."

[Leo Eskandari]

The large lad could more than understand reluctance around doctors. His nightmare doctor wasn't the medical kind, but it was close enough. "Well," he said, scratching his neck, "We could try the dorms instead. Someone's sure to have clothes you can borrow. Does that work for you?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Little weird to take two Interpol officers to the dorms, Leo."

[Leo Eskandari]

"Right. Scratch that. Don't know what the hell I was thinkin'. That could've backfired bad." He winced. A lot of mutants distrusted or outright hated law enforcement and, considering why, he couldn't blame them one bit.

"Well, that leaves one of the little hotels in town. Don't worry they're pretty cheap."

[Ryn]

"We have money." Ryn points out helpfully and not at all strangely.

As they set out towards the town, Ryn reaches into her pocket and pulls out a mud-encrusted cellphone. But instead of cleaning it or being dismayed about the state of it from their alleged fall into the north sea, she holds it out to then. "Tell me what this is?"