Percy, in the meantime, watches the strange interaction without too much of a reaction — at least none so outward. You meet a number of even weirder, more """eclectic""" gods, nymphs, monsters, and regular ol' mortals, and you kind of learn to take things in stride.
Mostly.
Mostly it's instinct to be a little bit on guard when someone moves right into the personal space of his loved ones, but River is clearly Wilhelm's friend, and Percy likes Wille, so. It's okay, it's good, it's chill. ]
Yeah, the more the merrier. Maybe we'll be able to round them all up as a team. Besides, if there's a weird guy with a hat walking around being creepy, I'd rather we buddy-system it. In this case, three buddies is better than one.
[ annabeth gets a surface level read on river's intention to come in close the second she moves, but she still startles slightly when the other girl sweeps right into her space. it doesn't bother her, per se, so much as it surprises her, though she doesn't do anything to discourage it or the curiosity. ]
You can look closer, if you want. [ she has no qualms about offering the doll out to river to take either, if she wants to take a better look and touch, but she's also malleable if river simply chooses to examine it without touching it. it's a little creepy, annabeth wouldn't blame her. ]
We didn't talk to any of the kids or see any creepy men with hats. Did they say anything about where the room might be? Or give a clue? [ she doesn't need to address working together; percy covered it for them both. ]
Mostly we've been thinking about smaller spaces a doll could theoretically crawl in by itself, if there's magic afoot.
[ she appreciates the easy way everyone seems to just roll with it, smiling pleasantly as annabeth offers the doll for closer inspection. river takes it into both hands and examines it from every angle, even rifling through its clothes and then finally searching the opening at the back where there's meant to be a "blessing" tucked inside.
instead of candy, there's another piece of paper with that faintly familiar scribble of the word return, virtually identical to the one they'd seen at the school earlier today. river takes the paper and doesn't look away from it as she offers the doll back to annabeth. ]
They've got magic feet but I don't know about crawling. We could find an area to case, be on the lookout for anything that moves while we search the nooks and crannies.
[ finally, she lowers the note and beams a little at percy in particular. ]
Like hide and seek with some buddies.
[ except they aren't the ones doing the hiding and they're virtual strangers to each other. river has seen the two of them around the castle and this is the first time they've spoken, but she easily accepts the idea of 'huh i guess we're friends now.' ]
[As River extracts the ambiguously threatening note from the doll, Wilhelm fidgets with the bike's handlebars.]
I'm not sure if the hat man is a real person or, like, something in their heads. The red room too. If they're under some kind of spell, maybe they're having shared visions.
[That seems to be a pretty common side effect of magic going nutty around here. He himself had once been haunted by recurring visions of a crumbling ivy-covered tower in the shape of a person's head. You know, just Abraxas things...]
Okay... [Assessing which direction Annabeth and Percy had come from, he nods toward a side street that cuts between rows of wooden houses.] Let's try this way. It will take us toward where all the shops are.
I wouldn't call creepy magic-feet dolls our buddies just yet. But I like the way you think.
[ It had essentially been his and Annabeth's plan, to look around, zero in on a likely area that a doll might think to hide in, and dig said lost doll out to return them to where they're supposed to be.
And now he looks towards the direction Wille's gesturing to. ]
You think they didn't go too far from where they were made in the first place?
[ Well, it kinda makes sense. Best place to hide until the coast is clear is one you wouldn't generally expect if you're on the lam. Classic prison escape rules. ]
[ she watches as river digs around, literally, and when the other girl pulls out a piece of paper, annabeth's mouth pops open with the quietest inhale of surprise. she absently takes the doll back, but she's far more interested in the little note, shifting to try and take a peek at it. ]
What does it say?
[ in the meantime, she will also simply grab the doll from percy's pocket and dig around to look for more messages. it hadn't occurred to her to search the dolls like she's the tsa, too busy wondering after what might be moving them in the first place. finding nothing in this one, she wrinkles her nose and shoves it back in his pocket. ]
[ and then, somewhat delayed: ] Cool, a red room doesn't sound ominous at all either in the face of literally everything else.
[ she doesn't have any disagreements about the chosen direction to search, so annabeth will just... start walking towards the street, trusting they'll all follow and keep pace. ]
[ the moment annabeth asks about the note, river is plenty content to leave figuring out where to go and what they're doing to the boys, abandoning their conversation and sticking to her side as they walk. she hands the note over but is still sort of leaning into annabeth's personal space to keep staring at it. ]
It's the same as the other one. Maybe down to the brushstroke.
[ she reaches into her tiny purse to retrieve the other note for comparison, although this one is crumpled as though hastily grabbed and shoved into her bag; it really seemed like oisin might've gotten violent if they kept his doll away for any longer. it's a different type of paper with the same word in the same handwriting: RETURN. ]
It doesn't make sense. They're coming from all over and going different places. Not returning to the maker so I don't think they have a death wish, but maybe we can ask.
[ the doll makers, of course, even if river says it like a reference to god. they are the dolls' creators, are they not? it counts! ]
[Wilhelm leads the way, still wheeling the bike along. In the narrow lane, a handful of children are chasing each other. One gleefully shrieks an incantation that sends a spurt of wind through the other's hair. A few houses down, a man swings out of a door and shouts at the children to come inside for supper.]
Well, yeah, if the dolls are actually possessed by something and moving on their own, then we might find some near the shops. And if someone is behind this, then...maybe we can catch them in the act now that it's getting dark.
[He casts a look back at River. He's getting a little better at deciphering her strange way of speaking.]
We can try talking to some of the shop owners too. They're probably closing up right now.
Like, the Hat Guy? He's definitely behind all of this, right?
[ He sounds pretty suspicious if he's got some kind of correlation to the dolls and the warnings against the dolls and the kids; yeah, it's all adding up. Percy's connecting the dots.
Mostly he just wants to round up these dolls and keep them in one place. Thinking about being surprised by a random doll hanging out in some unexpected nook or cranny already gives him the heebie-jeebies.
The shops do look like they're starting to wrap up for the day. Percy notes a couple of vendors pulling their wares from outside back in, and he takes the initiative to herd their group forward. ]
[ annabeth seems just as content to let percy and wille slip into the lead while she walks with river and looks over the differing papers. the letters don't quite match up for her and she can't quite follow the lines of the brush strokes given some of them move as she tries to read it, but annabeth will take river's word for it. she hums. ]
So, even if we don't know where they're returning to, it's clearly all part of the same happenings... [ she squints again at the paper, turning it over like maybe the quality of it will give another clue. ]
... unless it's return to their owners? But why would they be leaving if they just want to go back? Maybe they think it's a fun little game? [ a beat. ] Maybe it is playing spooky hide and seek with dolls? Or even the kids?
[ at this point she is just rambling aloud, but she doesn't get the sense river will mind, and she's pretty sure wille might be used to it. percy certainly is. ]
[ without responding to him, she does gravitate after him anyway, moving easily towards the shop he intends even as she continues to linger with river, handing one of the notes back over. ]
Hat Guy could be a magician. [ oh yeah still lost in thought, but she is also trying to filter in what the boys are saying too! ]
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abraxaslogs2024-09-01 09:06 pm
no subject
Percy, in the meantime, watches the strange interaction without too much of a reaction — at least none so outward. You meet a number of even weirder, more """eclectic""" gods, nymphs, monsters, and regular ol' mortals, and you kind of learn to take things in stride.
Mostly.
Mostly it's instinct to be a little bit on guard when someone moves right into the personal space of his loved ones, but River is clearly Wilhelm's friend, and Percy likes Wille, so. It's okay, it's good, it's chill. ]
Yeah, the more the merrier. Maybe we'll be able to round them all up as a team. Besides, if there's a weird guy with a hat walking around being creepy, I'd rather we buddy-system it. In this case, three buddies is better than one.
no subject
You can look closer, if you want. [ she has no qualms about offering the doll out to river to take either, if she wants to take a better look and touch, but she's also malleable if river simply chooses to examine it without touching it. it's a little creepy, annabeth wouldn't blame her. ]
We didn't talk to any of the kids or see any creepy men with hats. Did they say anything about where the room might be? Or give a clue? [ she doesn't need to address working together; percy covered it for them both. ]
Mostly we've been thinking about smaller spaces a doll could theoretically crawl in by itself, if there's magic afoot.
no subject
instead of candy, there's another piece of paper with that faintly familiar scribble of the word return, virtually identical to the one they'd seen at the school earlier today. river takes the paper and doesn't look away from it as she offers the doll back to annabeth. ]
They've got magic feet but I don't know about crawling. We could find an area to case, be on the lookout for anything that moves while we search the nooks and crannies.
[ finally, she lowers the note and beams a little at percy in particular. ]
Like hide and seek with some buddies.
[ except they aren't the ones doing the hiding and they're virtual strangers to each other. river has seen the two of them around the castle and this is the first time they've spoken, but she easily accepts the idea of 'huh i guess we're friends now.' ]
no subject
I'm not sure if the hat man is a real person or, like, something in their heads. The red room too. If they're under some kind of spell, maybe they're having shared visions.
[That seems to be a pretty common side effect of magic going nutty around here. He himself had once been haunted by recurring visions of a crumbling ivy-covered tower in the shape of a person's head. You know, just Abraxas things...]
Okay... [Assessing which direction Annabeth and Percy had come from, he nods toward a side street that cuts between rows of wooden houses.] Let's try this way. It will take us toward where all the shops are.
no subject
[ It had essentially been his and Annabeth's plan, to look around, zero in on a likely area that a doll might think to hide in, and dig said lost doll out to return them to where they're supposed to be.
And now he looks towards the direction Wille's gesturing to. ]
You think they didn't go too far from where they were made in the first place?
[ Well, it kinda makes sense. Best place to hide until the coast is clear is one you wouldn't generally expect if you're on the lam. Classic prison escape rules. ]
no subject
What does it say?
[ in the meantime, she will also simply grab the doll from percy's pocket and dig around to look for more messages. it hadn't occurred to her to search the dolls like she's the tsa, too busy wondering after what might be moving them in the first place. finding nothing in this one, she wrinkles her nose and shoves it back in his pocket. ]
[ and then, somewhat delayed: ] Cool, a red room doesn't sound ominous at all either in the face of literally everything else.
[ she doesn't have any disagreements about the chosen direction to search, so annabeth will just... start walking towards the street, trusting they'll all follow and keep pace. ]
no subject
It's the same as the other one. Maybe down to the brushstroke.
[ she reaches into her tiny purse to retrieve the other note for comparison, although this one is crumpled as though hastily grabbed and shoved into her bag; it really seemed like oisin might've gotten violent if they kept his doll away for any longer. it's a different type of paper with the same word in the same handwriting: RETURN. ]
It doesn't make sense. They're coming from all over and going different places. Not returning to the maker so I don't think they have a death wish, but maybe we can ask.
[ the doll makers, of course, even if river says it like a reference to god. they are the dolls' creators, are they not? it counts! ]
no subject
Well, yeah, if the dolls are actually possessed by something and moving on their own, then we might find some near the shops. And if someone is behind this, then...maybe we can catch them in the act now that it's getting dark.
[He casts a look back at River. He's getting a little better at deciphering her strange way of speaking.]
We can try talking to some of the shop owners too. They're probably closing up right now.
no subject
[ He sounds pretty suspicious if he's got some kind of correlation to the dolls and the warnings against the dolls and the kids; yeah, it's all adding up. Percy's connecting the dots.
Mostly he just wants to round up these dolls and keep them in one place. Thinking about being surprised by a random doll hanging out in some unexpected nook or cranny already gives him the heebie-jeebies.
The shops do look like they're starting to wrap up for the day. Percy notes a couple of vendors pulling their wares from outside back in, and he takes the initiative to herd their group forward. ]
Sure. Let's try this first one.
no subject
So, even if we don't know where they're returning to, it's clearly all part of the same happenings... [ she squints again at the paper, turning it over like maybe the quality of it will give another clue. ]
... unless it's return to their owners? But why would they be leaving if they just want to go back? Maybe they think it's a fun little game? [ a beat. ] Maybe it is playing spooky hide and seek with dolls? Or even the kids?
[ at this point she is just rambling aloud, but she doesn't get the sense river will mind, and she's pretty sure wille might be used to it. percy certainly is. ]
[ without responding to him, she does gravitate after him anyway, moving easily towards the shop he intends even as she continues to linger with river, handing one of the notes back over. ]
Hat Guy could be a magician. [ oh yeah still lost in thought, but she is also trying to filter in what the boys are saying too! ]