InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I am the context."

00.06 Ben Hargreeves (undeadhorror) wrote in somerealityrpg,
@ 2019-08-11 13:40:00

Who: Ben Hargreeves and OPEN
What: Ben has arrive, honestly arrived, in Goodlands
Where: An Alley
When: Sunday Afternoon

Things felt wrong, even before Ben opened his eyes.

Maybe wrong was not the right word, but different. For one-- Ben could feel and not just the numb, phantom feelings that Ben thought he could feel sometimes. He could feel a breeze ruffle across his arm hairs. He could feel the heat of the sun on his skin. He could feel the humidity that hung in the air. Then he realized he could smell-- he couldn’t place anything in particular gas and fried food and hot asphalt. It was almost overwhelming, and his stomach turned. God, he was starving, but there was still a bubble in his stomach where he knew his portal to be.

Ben rubbed his face. It didn’t make sense. Where were his siblings? Maybe there was something about being a ghost that made the jump different for him. “Klaus?” He called out, “Klaus?!” He knew it was pointless to call out to the others, they wouldn’t be able to hear him anyway. Ben turned, but even his movements, his whole body felt heavier than it used to. He took in a deep breath, just like he would have told his brother. Take a deep breath and think.

Ben blinked at his surroundings, the buildings were tall and there were people all over the street. Whatever timeline Five had jumped them too, it had apparently avoided the apocalypse. He couldn’t remember the last time he had moved this freely in the physical realm without his brother. It was strange, and Ben could feel his anxiety rising. It had been a long time since Ben had felt like that, after all, what did a ghost have to fear? Something was different. Weird. Wrong.

His hands trembled as he merged with the crowd, accidentally bumping into someone.

He bumped into another person. It was solid, honest contact. He put his arms out to grab the person’s shoulders, slight panic on his face. “I-- can you see me?” He asked, trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was literally touching another person. Had he moved on? Was this what the other side felt like? Klaus had told him, and Five and Luther about Dad and his barber shop… maybe this was what it was like? Should he look for dad and his shop? Did he even want to face dad?

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weapon_hex
2019-08-11 07:55 pm UTC (link)

Laura's first instinct on being suddenly grabbed by a stranger on the street was to slam them onto the ground - an instinct she barely managed to restrain. People didn't seem to do that sort of thing here, and when she looked at his expression she saw more fear and confusion than malice. Even if the question had not, that would have marked him as almost certainly a new arrival, rather than one of the locals who had been here already when they arrived, but the apparent expectation that people shouldn't be able to see him definitely clinched it.

"Yes?" She stood still, relaxed despite his clinging grip on her shoulders that might have been strong for a normal human. She was not a normal human, after all, and she could no doubt simply brush him away any time she wanted to. A few people gave them curious glances, but for the most part they were a still spot in the flow of passers-by.

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undeadhorror
2019-08-11 08:34 pm UTC (link)

Ben could only stare for a moment, honestly stare at the woman. She was looking at him. She was responding to him. His hands gripped a little harder, and he shook her just a little, out of excitement.

“You can see me!” He nearly shouted, a laugh that echoed out of him that was both anxious and relieved all at once. “Fuck.” He let his arms drop from hers, and for the first time in a long time he heard his own voice echoing off the walls of the buildings around them.

“You can see me…” It was a quieter something this time, He moved away from her and quickly held three fingers up. “If you can see me, what am I doing right now?”

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weapon_hex
2019-08-11 09:04 pm UTC (link)

Her face took on a bit of a displeased mien at the shaking - even if it didn't hurt her, it was just plain rude - but she didn't act against him still. People here came from some strange places, strange circumstances, and it wasn't so long ago that she'd left Wundagore Castle that she couldn't remember how confusing everything else had been. She hadn't been as actively expressive about it as this man, but her mind had been a mess of trying to hold everything together and figure out what they needed to do.

That didn't mean that she was going to be perfectly patient and cooperative, though. "Being weird," she told him bluntly, apparently immune to the irony of her telling someone they were weird. Even the tattoos visible down her upper arms marked her as different, strange occultist symbols that were more about function than form. "Why were you stuck?"

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undeadhorror
2019-08-11 09:11 pm UTC (link)

"That's a fair point." Ben conceded, but he was grinning large. He took in a big deep breath of air. He could be seen, he could feel. His stomach turned again, and he finally took stock of the woman in front of him-- it was almost as if with his other senses back in full force, he had forgotten to see.

He didn't recognize the symbols on her arm, other than that they were vaguely occult looking, and he had known this from some of the books father had given him to look over as a child. He nodded down to her tattoos, bouncing, suddenly a little overwhelmed by it all.

"And you can't see dead people with those?"

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weapon_hex
2019-08-11 09:20 pm UTC (link)

Ah. Dead people. That probably explained all the excitement, then. She took another look at him, assessing - she wasn't sure if anyone else here was dead, but he didn't look much like the wraiths she'd conjured to deal with her father, which had been twisted and possessed the eerie red glow of her magic mixed with the dark realm they had most likely been confined to. He looked normal.

"No. They focus my magic. The only time I saw ghosts they looked different and other people could see them too." See them, and be harmed by them, though she wasn't sure whether that was because her father had created some kind of link by killing them in the first place.

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undeadhorror
2019-08-11 10:02 pm UTC (link)

“Magic?” Ben blinked. She had powers. Ben wasn’t sure if they’d ever truly come across someone like them before, especially not out in the open like they were. He took a step back, almost falling into a routine of threat assessment. He didn’t understand what was going on, but when did he really ever.

He took another breath. If Reginald had taught him one thing, is that he couldn’t panic in front of a threat, even if his anxiety was sitting like a thick ball in his throat. Where his siblings here? “And this isn’t the after life?”

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weapon_hex
2019-08-11 10:15 pm UTC (link)

Dead people from a place that didn't even have magic. Or one that did, and (possibly quite rightly) was afraid of it. At least if it was the latter she wouldn't have to explain about how magic was real, but she didn't particularly like people being scared of her. Not anymore. "Lots of people have powers here," she explained, aiming for casual as she tested that statement out and waited to see how he'd react to it. "The scientists think it's a pocket reality. Normally you get a letter when you turn up from this entity that might be in charge that says what apartment you're going to live in. There's a building with a lot of ostriches."

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undeadhorror
2019-08-11 11:13 pm UTC (link)

"I don't really pay attention to things like letters. Couldn't pick them up before." Ben shrugged out of his jacket and clutched it in his arms. He was hot and suddenly his clothing was uncomfortable. And the breeze was annoying. And his mouth was dry. His thumb kept rubbing on the leather though, it was soft and almost grounding.

"It's really... loud. And smelly." He blinked a bit, and took another breath trying to keep them even. Damn. It was harder than he thought, trying to keep focus. "What sort of powers? Is there an Academy here?"

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weapon_hex
2019-08-11 11:25 pm UTC (link)

If he'd been dead for a while that probably made sense, but could make finding which apartment he was supposed to be in difficult. Did the entity send them again if someone didn't get the first one? Or did you just have to wander around the building looking for a door that opened? She wasn't entirely sure - so far, she was pretty certain, everyone had picked up the strange floating piece of paper that flew at them from out of nowhere.

He was acting twitchy like he had some kind of sensory overload, and she wondered whether it felt to him like being her would to other people. She knew she had better senses than everyone else, she noticed things others didn't, but she'd gotten used to constantly being aware of noises and smells and sensations that no one else seemed to notice. "It's quieter inside. And no cars and garbage, but some of the smell still comes in. Don't try to cover it up with air freshener though, it just makes it worse. Oils are okay. I like cranberry."

Academy? A lot of people had mentioned different kinds of schools, and she felt as though that particular word was familiar, but in a way that she couldn't quite place. "More magic. Energy manipulation, lots of super strength, some people can fly. There are werewolves." She shrugged; she probably wouldn't be able to remember them all even if she sat down with a piece of paper and tried writing them out. "I don't think school's started yet."

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undeadhorror
2019-08-12 02:05 am UTC (link)

Ben just nodded at her words at first. It would be quieter inside. Ben had always like quiet spaces-- under his bed, in Five’s room, in the attic. He needed to find one. This was a city, surely somewhere there would be a library. If he could find it, he could find some place quiet. Who even know that the leaves made a noise? Had they always?

“No. Not the Academy. The Academy never stops.” Ben said almost automatically. There were never summers off for them, or vacations. They were always fighting crime. Always running drills. Practicing. The Academy was always in session. “Luther is super strong.” Ben said automatically. “They must be here somewhere, Five jumped us all together.”

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weapon_hex
2019-08-12 04:22 am UTC (link)

The Academy sounded much like her own training - something that became clearer with his next words. Not Luther, really, but Five fit far too well to refer to anyone else. "Oh. Are you Klaus' brother?" How many were there? She remembered he'd said there were seven of them, but she was pretty sure that at least two were girls, and Klaus, Diego and Five were already here. Which left one more that was alive, and the one that wasn't. "Ben?"

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undeadhorror
2019-08-15 12:45 am UTC (link)

“You know Klaus?” Ben couldn’t help the tone of surprise that was clearly visible on his face. He had been around Klaus for the last thirteen years, and before that they were rarely allowed out of the house. He knew everyone that Klaus knew. And when she said his name, he was even more taken aback.

“Who are you?” He stepped another step backwards. Was this some sort of magic thing? Could she read his mind. What the fuck was even happening right now?

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weapon_hex
2019-08-15 02:37 am UTC (link)

"Everyone knows Klaus." It might not have been literally true, but it definitely felt like it a lot of the time. He was a lot better at talking to people than she was - but then he was older, and had a lot more practice, whereas she'd spent most of her life isolated and confined.

She wasn't certain why the comments seemed to upset him so much, though, and chewed for a moment at her lower lip as it tugged down in a frown. "Laura. We talk about our parents sometimes."

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