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Who: Elias Bouchard & Mercy Graves
When: circa Oct. 29th
Where: Dogtown
Summary: hey, that fence is totally the same fence Elias saw when he tried to Know Dogtown
Warnings: n/a, will edit if needed!

After looking at (and thankfully mostly ignoring) a round of dangerous looking garbage cans, the two continue to trudge through Dogtown. It has been a very monotonous journey, though Elias is still keeping an eye out for anything that might attack. After all, who knows what sort of nonsense this place would throw at them.

What the nonsense turns out to be is...a fence. A large, rusty fence, about ten feet high, surrounded by weeds and webs and ivy. A fence that Elias has seen before, in his mind if not in person. He lights up, almost instantly more interested, like a scientist on the verge of discovery.

"Tell me," he asks Mercy, as he attempts to peer through the fence, "what do you know about what lurks in Dogtown?"

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"Only what I've been told and seen, sir... and what I've read." She glances over at him. At that... unnerving stare of his fixed so intensely on what seems to be an ordinary fence. "There's powers aplenty in here, Entities mucking things around. That- those bins. You think they were- What was that?"

She's been trying to figure it out on the walk. It had been uncomfortable, if not outright terrifying.

"The bins don't matter," Elias says, as he continues to stare intently at the fence, as if by doing so, he'll piece out the mysteries of the world. He scans the woods inside, trying to see if he can spot...well, anything.

"There is a house in these woods. A house, just beyond this fence, through those trees. The spider spins it's web and lays it's paths and in the center of it all, amidst the threads and silk and webs she weaves lies the house." He can feel himself slipping into that narrative cadence that all dramatic bitches of the Eye share.

"Once we find that house? I doubt all our questions will be answered. But at least one major one will."

He reaches out to lightly touch the fence, fingers resting on the metal.

Edited 2023-11-04 03:54 (UTC)

Elias' intensity is just a bit unnerving. Mercy looks to the fence, trying to see if she can spot what's caught his eye so intensely. But the mention of the house- "The Wolfe House." She's heard that come up more than once now.

"I thought the Wolfes were from older times like mine, though. Why would they have a fence like this?" She looks to the chainlinks. "It looks- well, it looks like the fence ADI and them put up around Dogtown, just without the barbed wire. You think we should climb over it?"

"I suspect the fence is around this house for the same reason that the fence is around Dogtown—they want us to keep out."

But not Elias. There are answers in there. There's something he wants to find out. There's a question that they can solve.

"So yes. I do think we should climb over it."

"Right." Mercy eyes the fence before mentally preparing herself and stepping up. It feels... surprisingly normal. But she's hopped the fence into Dogtown more than once here. She clings to the links and starts up, but as she reaches higher, the fence seems to... stretch. She goes up, and so does the fence. Higher and higher. She's a good seven feet up when she stops.

"Um... Mr. Elias? I don't think we can climb over."

As Mercy starts to climb, Elias unbuttons his shirt at the wrists, rolling back the sleeves, mostly so he won't tear his shirt...and then looks up, just in time to see Mercy a good seven feet in the air.

Well. The fence wasn't doing that before. Elias frowns, looks at the fence, looks up at Mercy, then muses,

"So it seems. Perhaps whatever this is wants us to use the front gate instead?"

Carefully, Mercy begins to make her way back down. "Aye. That'd be..." She looks around and then up once she's back on the ground. "Maybe we can follow it around a little bit, but I don't fancy us spending the night here, and it's gonna be a slog getting back out, 'specially if we wanna avoid that field of wildflowers that burn out memories."

As Mercy makes her way down, Elias watches, positioning himself so he can catch her or help her as needed. When she's got both feet firmly on the ground, he takes a few steps back to give her space.

"I'm certainly not prepared to spend the night." He did not prepare for that and again, it's Dogtown. If they spend the night, who knows how much sleep they'll get, what with worrying about all the various things that can kill them. "Still, we've made good progress. And now we know where to go and where to start next time."

This fence. The start of the end, as far as he's concerned.

She offers a smart nod, but her attention lingers on the older man. "Mr. Elias, you seem... you been looking for this for a while, ain't you? Seems like it might have some kinda hold on you, too." Which is worrying, considering the spiderweb patterns that itch along her neck.

"You all right? Need to take a moment 'fore we head back?"

"I have," he admits. And because he knows this will inevitably spawn more questions, he takes a moment to think things over before explaining.

"I had a vision of what Dogtown is. What lies at the heart of it all. And what I saw was that house, beyond the fence, in the center of it all."

"A vision?" Her eyes widen and thoughts of leaving suddenly flee from her head. "From one of the ghosts, or..." No. He'd said it was dangerous to talk to them. Or to summon them, really. And how would they have provided a vision? They'd seemed closer to the End than the Eye.

"The Eye." The words slip out as she recalls the tablet that told futures, one of the first artifacts she'd seen at the castle museum. "Did you get some sorta vision from the Eye?"

Elias nods. And hey, he can sense that they're coming upon something big. He doesn't know what it is, just that it is. So he'll be a bit more upfront than normal.

"The Eye and I are...connected. I am a servant of the Ceaseless Watcher and a conduit for what it wants to show." His voice is level as he continues to talk. "Though in more prosaic terms, I am an Avatar of the Eye."

Mercy's quiet for a long moment. "Oh..." She blinks for a moment. "Not just- so you're a full avatar?"

Like Aelwyn.

Like so many worse people she's encountered.

"There a reason it can't just show you what's inside the fence? What if..." She glances off to the side, frowning for a moment before marshalling her resolve. "What if you had more power? Maybe from-from scaring me?"

Elias nods. Indeed. Full avatar. Like Aelwyn.

Mercy's comment, however, spikes his interest. "I have seen beyond that fence before. I saw the house that I know lies in the center of all this. But though it showed me the house, it did not show me the path. And that was a while ago, under different circumstances and with greater physical distance. I wouldn't mind giving it another try if you want."

That being said...Elias looks over at Mercy, giving her a once-over, not even bothering to hide the glint of something predatory in his eyes.

"That being said. It will hurt."

Possibly him as well, considering how...odd that last attempt felt. But if Mercy's going to offer herself up like this, he won't say no.

She sees that hunger, something she's seen in Aelwyn's gaze before the other woman had made an effort to pull back, to contain herself for Mercy. Danger. This man is dangerous. He could hurt her, well and truly.

But if it's in service of finding out what they need to know?

The young woman sets her jaw. "I'm scared. But do it anyway."

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