Ambush!
One moment, Ariana is enjoying a nice lunch at the food court, and the next, she has been professionally coshed upside the head, her belongings gathered up by 'solicitous friends' and finds her unconscious self being equally professionally frog-marched toward the door to a janitor's closet.
It is a nice public place with a lot of moving bodies, lots of people disappearing this way and that.
Whoever could possibly have noticed this coshing/kidnapping?
Whoever could possibly have seen the glimpse of slightly less than natural-seeming landscape beyond the door to the janitor's closet before it was closed behind them?
Crap.
"Merle," Sophia says to her sister softly. "I've got to go take care of something. Can you go on home without me?" She stands, popping the last bite of her food court pizza into her mouth, and looks down at her sister. "I don't have time to explain. Just trust me." And with that, she slips into the crowd, leaving Merle to clean up after her.
Sisters.
Oh sure. Yeah. Youbetcha. Merle'll just hang out at the table, finishing her french fries that get drug through the mustard squirted into a messed up pile in the corner of the paper on the tray. she'll clean up. Yeah. Uh huh. Let Sophia run off after whatever.
Seriously, has Sophia never /met/ her sister? The second Sophia's on her feet, Merle is as well, abandoning her food. Good thing she never took her bike jacket off or she'd be abandoning it on the chair behind. "SOAP," is bellowed out, though the food court sounds pretty much swallow up the call as Merle weaves between people to try and follow her sister's trajectory. She's not above pushing a teenager out of her way as she does it.
Sophia walks swiftly to the janitor's closet, and, while she does? She sends out an SOS text to Harvestmen and Summers: -Someone was kidnapped. Headed to Thorns from the mall near foodcourt. Need assistance.- She can't hear her sister or see her behind the Wizened as she walks and tries the door, leaving Merle in her presumed wake. She probably knows her sister's behind her.
Of course the door is locked. Why would life be easy?
Sophia frowns as the door won't open, and tries to open a hedge gate. It fails, so impatiently, she spends a glamour to do it.
The gate opens! Briefly, for a matter of seconds after Sophia has passed through it, the janitor's door appears to let out into a ramshackle structure surrounded by slightly off-kilter forest.
Thankfully, there are a lot of potted plants around the food court to 'bring in the natural world', positioned to conceal such unsightly things as janitors' closets. No one SEEMS to notice.
As Merle catches up to the doorway where her sister disappeared, there's the slightest hint of hesitation in her expression when she realizes just what is on the other side of the threshold. Still, she's mostly unphased by it simply due to the fact that she's following her sister into it. A hand flies to the small of her back as she moves, but her fingertips come up empty as there is no holster and pistol there as is typical. Of all times to leave her gun off her since she'd been in a federal building earlier and couldn't take it in and never put it back before stopping for food. "SOPHIA!" No nickname passes her lips as she slips through that barrier formed in the doorway and finds herself in a surreal sort of place. Dammit, even her boot knife is not tucked away. She's going at this armed with nothing but her wits and glares. Even if she has no idea what 'this' is.
The Hedge on the other side is still relatively normal-looking, if by normal-looking one means it has plant life which looks, by and large, like mortal trees and such arranged in a maze where it's impossible to get a clear view of the land ahead.
Sophia stops and turns, eyes wild. "Merle! What the fuck! Get outta here!" But it's too late, so Sophia just grabs Merle's hand and drags her along. "Stay with me. Do not leave my eyesight." She sounds so serious. Scared, even, to have Merle in the Hedge. But she holds Merle's hand crushing tight.
Sophia spots the bare edges of what may be dark icicles, shadows a bit deeper than they should be, proof that at least one of the kidnappers (hopefully one of the kidnappers!) is stronger in the Forc--ahem, Wyrd, than she is.
Merle spots some scuffs on the ground, places where the unconscious Ariana's feet were dragged/where heels got caught in dirt.
AJ also spots signs of someone having been dragged about, and can locate Sophia and Merle.
Sophia frowns, and starts following the signs of someone who is stronger than she is in magical ability. She doesn't stop to think about how Merle might see her now, and just drags her sister along.
Merle is not getting outta here, despite Sophia's demand she do it. Especially since once she's through that doorway, her attention is on some tracks that she can't help but spot as she's dragged along by her sister. It's the Hunter in her coming back to the forefront. You don't spend years and years going after supernatural shit in your free time and after bad guys in your jobby job without that sort of paying attention becoming second nature. She starts to look away from the marks and scuffs to respond to Sophia, but instead no words come forth. She just stares for a moment. There's no /shock/ there like one might expect, which may mean she's been privy to that sight before. "What the fuck just happened?" she asks in a quiet voice, tugging away from Sophia's grip a little, though it's halfhearted at best and she doesn't break free. It's more a show of WhatTheFuck than an actual attempt to release herself.
AJ is, indeed, out and about! She got the texted and made quick for the hedge side of things. She's running along - wow, she's so fast! - when she hears that yell. Foxy ears pivot, then she's heading that way. And, well, what approaches Sophia and Merle is a short woman with red-brown hair and big foxy ears atop her head and a foxy tail. But, really, is that more noticeable than her outfit, all early-80s gym uniform throw back? Blue short-shorts and a rainbow tee, she doesn't look at all like she belongs here. Yet, here she is! "Hey!" she calls, she's making her way over. "Sophia?" she asks. Probably the 'ling, not the, uh, colofully tattooed human.
Conveniently, AJ does not erase the tracks, though Sophia remains too distracted to make use of them. Raymond, too, can locate the group. Running fox, hard to miss.
Raymond was out picking fruit and walking the trods. The harvestmen finds AJ and the others, sword in hand and carried on his shoulder. He forgoes armor for a metallic covering all over his clothing and body, initially about as emotive as the statue he appears as. "Was that one of you, or something else?"
Sophia smiles. "AJ, Raymond" she says, before looking to her sister. "It's Changeling stuff. You're getting Ensorcelled when we get back. Anyway, someone was taken. A Lost was grabbed--stolen from the food court at the mall, dragged through a hedge gate." She points in the general direction they last went. "This is my bitch of a stupid sister Merle, who can't follow fucking directions." This time there's real venom in Sophia's voice, decidedly directed at her sister. "Next time fucking listen to me, you fucking cunt."
The scents and sounds of little wild things moving about through the undergrowth surround the group, though it is quiet nearest their position. Farther away, the scolding of jays can be heard, protesting someone in their territory.
"Ens-uhwhat?" Merle asks with a furrowed expression before she gives a slight roll of her eyes. "I follow directions just fine when I feel like it," she snaps back. "You don't get to tear off after shit and not expect me to come save your ass. I'm not letting that happen again." She stands there, making sure to pull herself away from her sister with a sharp tug. "Where the fuck are we? And don't say in some closet in the fucking mall." For the briefest of moments, her attention seems mildly distracted, eyes glassed over just a touch while she does a mental inventory of what weapons she has. Or doesn't have in this case. "Fuck. Sophia, find something we can use as weapons. You two get back. I'm on point." Someone's playing at being general, it seems, even though it's pretty obvious that as the most mortaly of mortals here, she's out of her depth. But trying to adapt, at least. She's used to being the tip of the spear and leading the way into danger and it shows. Too bad she has no idea what the hell she's up against and has no business actually trying to be in charge of anything.
Well that gets AJ's attention. Unensorcelled mortals dragged into the Hedge?! AJ's eyes narrow, and it's a look that's decidedly predatory. Maybe she'll need to eat Merle. Probably would be a more effective glare if her ears didn't look so very soft and scritch-able. Of course, her agitation will need to be put on hold. She gives a laugh. "Dropping a hard 'C'..." she says, aloud. Then Merle is talking, and AJ's eyes just go wide. Then she laughs again. "Wow, she is a cunt!" she declares. To Merle, she fires back her own battle plan, "Counter proposal: Try not to die. And if you suddenly get the impression it's a good idea to step away from the group, resist that desire... But, seriously, try not to die." Then AJ is turning, and starting after the degrading trail. While her own influence is likely overwhelmed by Raymond's mantle and Wyrd, stepping in front will show a little more AJ. Everything is a little warmer, and nicer, and far more pleasant. A beautiful day to roll around in the grass and maybe poucne some field mice. Which... might explain the twitches in the bushes, now and then? "Did you see who it was? Know their name?" she asks, quietly, over her shoulder.
Sophia shakes her head at AJ. "I didn't. I just saw someone being dragged away." She follows AJ, fist wrapped around Merle's wrist like cold iron.
It was a pretty regular day for Ariana, she'd left the Wayhouse to get away from the Wyrd-os who seem to use it as a sort of recruiting ground. Hopping on to the young and impressional just-out-of-the-hedge Changelings to brainwash them into glorying in all these.. changes.. and probably using them for their own wicked purposes. Well, maybe not all of them are wicked, but growing up with her parents and her father's associates, Ariana has a strong destaste for being pushed a way. So, she's dug her heels in, deciding to try and live as much of a normal life as you can when you've been kidnapped by something Other, and then changed in whatever that sort of land was.
They found Ariana in the mall, munching on a spicy chicken sandwhich, and enjoying herself before suddenly there are stares and everything goes black. She shakes her head while she groggily begins to start coming too, a mark on her temple that is almost sure to blossom into an incredibly awesome bruise. The doll's black hair has come undone from it's pony tail amidst the chaos, and her hair drapes over her head. She slowly pcks her head up to look around. She freezes when she spots the thorns and bushes, that since she left, have only ever appeared in her nightmares. He entire body tensing while she's being carried by one of the goons. Her eyes are the only part of her that are moving as panic begins to set in, her mouth opening slightly while her breathing begins to come at a much more quickened pace. Then suddenly, everything seems to happen at once. She has to leave, she has to get away from here. Her entire mind is screaming one imperative:
RUN!
She jerks in the grip of one of that thug, moving quick with the speed of someone whose entire being has been flooded with adrenaline. Her clockwork heart ticking faster, as she slips out of the thug's grip, landing on the ground with a flex of her knees, before she's suddenly sprinting at full speed back the way they came, barely noticing any time she brushes against the hedge, and not really seeing where she is going, just that she needs to go. Somewhere.
"Do I know you off head?" Raymond asks with a brief cant of his horned head to Sophia. Then he's looking over to Merle, anger and ire present when her sister outs her. "You brought a fucking mortal here!? Of all places!?" The grip of his sword tightens, and he pops it off his shoulder to fall to the ground with a heavy thud. His visage returns to the earlier stoic, serene visage as he turns back to listen to AJ. The heat of his rage spreads around him, forcing the plantlife all around to wilt and suffer under the calidity of his presence in the hedge.
Nearest Ariana: The dark man with shadow-ice spines and vaguely draconic features hisses a word which ought to get his mouth washed out, when Ariana manages to luck her way out of their grasp, his metallic, far less distinctive colleague, features oddly blank and inhuman, similarly displeased by the sprinting escapee.
The two give chase, picking up speed as they race after Ariana. There is no attempt at stealth, speed the priority.
Sophia stares at Raymond. "I did not BRING her." She sounds angry and frustrated. "My fucking cunt of a sister followed me here." She jerks Merle forward. "I don't WANT her here, but by the time I'd realized she'd followed me, the gate had closed. Also? Fuck you and your assumptions."
"Counter-counter proposal. Shut the fuck up, I'm trying to listen here." This is, of course, directed toward AJ. Why yes. Merle /is/ a cunt! She turns her gaze to her sister, or more specifically to the hand that Sophia wraps around her wrist before she's pulled along. This -- this is not acceptable. This is not how things go! Merle's in charge. Merle's the baddest badass out of the crew. Merle calls the shots. Okay, so maybe that was Once Upon A Time and with an entirely different crew and, most importantly, in a situation she understood and could plan on the fly for. Here she is out of her element entirely, point driven by the way she gapes a little at the changes that waver in the scenery. "We're there, aren't we?" she asks quietly, the words intended to be for her sister's ears. She glances over, the swirl of tattoos that cover her sister before she turns her gaze, and glare, onto Raymond. "This /mortal/ has probably killed more shit in a year than you could ever hope to live through so why don't you hold your fucking tongue you goddamn little horny freak of nature?" At least she's with it enough to not be /entirely/ overwhelmed by the way everyone looks. She's not cowering from it, at least. She's got handle enough on herself to keep it together on that level. Maybe because of the Hunt. Even if it's not a Hunt she's prepared for or experienced in. She's yanked forward by her sister and starts to snarl something to her, but her head turns. Because she was /listening/ even when she was running her damn mouth.
Sophia's head turns when Merle's does. The two are in sync, even when pissed off at each other. Red-gold eyes seek Merle's, and she nods--apology offered. "Which direction?" she asks softly.
"Shut up you dumb bitch," AJ hisses back at Merle. "We'll deal with her later. We've got incoming. They're chasing her this way," she says. "Sophia and dumb bitch, get to the side of the road. Get low and get quiet. Horny, you stay front and center. We'll ambush," she says, pointing and gesturing and moving herself to the side of the road.
Raymond turns to the cacophny of Ariana's escape, still paying mind to those near him. "You are no btter than a child in a world far beyond your understanding, surrounded by tigers that'd kill you as easily as drag you to a life. If you need help calming it down, I will do it for you." For all his bluster he sounds more like a father talking to children than some commanding general. "If you need the fires of your anger quenched it can happen for you," this coming with a burning hand lifted up.
Sophia moves, following AJ. She tugs Merle along. The Hedge nearest her competes with AJ's Wyrd; it shifts, takes shape, turns into mild dagger shapes and silvery wyrdness. She gets low and stays quiet. Using the Sister Official Unofficial Sign Language they've created, she gestures: going to let you go. stay in sight. And she does, letting Merle's wrist go.
Hiding? HA. Merle is not the hiding type. And Sophia probably knows it full well as she drags Merle along with her. Her eyes lock onto Sophia, giving a bit of a /look/ in response to the message. 'Fight. Don't hide.' It's messaged back in the same sort of shorthand motion of her hand as if chastising her for it. But, overly-lipsticked lips held together tightly in a thin line, she glances over toward the sound of who, or what, is approaching, and she clearly struggles a moment before deciding fine. If Sophia says hide, maybe this one time her sister might possibly have some input that Merle lacks which makes getting low as well a good idea. She is many things, but she's also not a complete idiot. She's clearly experienced enough to understand enough to know she doesn't understand shit, so she takes her cues from her sister for the moment. It doesn't improve her mood in the slightest, though, but she doesn't allow it to overwhelm her brain at least.
Ariana comes skidding around a corner, the doll's elbows and knees flashing porcelain from where they can be seen. Not seeing the others, and more importantly, seeing the horned thing that is Raymond, Ariana lets out a loud scream, "I'm not going back there," she yells, before she suddenly shifts her weight to the left, changing directions suddenly, an opening in the hedge suddenly appearing when she decides to change her direction and run from what she is absolutely positive is a Fae, and she isn't going back to Arcadia. Nope! Her clockwork heart ticks faster, as suddenly it's not just too fae she's running from, but quite possibly two fae and a Fae that can do who knows what in the hedge!
Shortly after Ariana's abrupt appearance and disappearance down a side-trod, the shadow-icicles return, strengthening, to contest Raymond's heated grasp over the Hedge. Steam rises in the shadows with an ominous serpentine hiss.
Spotting Raymond instead of their escaped captive, the two skid to a halt, quickly searching the area. Dressed as they are for blending in with the mortal world, they, too, are not carrying any obvious weapons -- but who needs to carry weaponry?
The metallic man snaps, "Watch the bushes," while the shadow-ice dragon faces Raymond, taller than Mr. Firefoot there, but hornless.
Shadow-ice reaches into his coat, behind his hips, suspiciously where one would expect a gun to be located. "Out of the way." His voice is a glacial scrape, gravelly and rough, implying past damage.
Ariana's egress draws Raymond's attention initially, but there's little time for him to question her. That'll likely have to wait. Instead he's greeted by his two new friends that ignore him initially. "Bushes? What do bushes even matter to you?" he all but hisses as the draconian man. His sword remains pointed down, although he keeps both hands on the hilt. "Are you two dumb and lost!?" he shouts. "If you need help finding your I can easily point you to where you boys need to go."
AJ, meanwhile, stays in the bushes. Beyond slowly lifting a hand - fingers held like a pretend gun - she's entirely motionless. She'll wait for something to pop off.
Sophia waits, less still than AJ, trying to be patient. She watches AJ, waiting for her cue.
The world might end, but Merle keeps her mouth shut. Her eyes do all the talking for her, narrowed into a glare that shows how much she dislikes just sitting there and waiting instead of going off half-cocked and hitting things. Her hands curl into tight fists and uncurl slightly, just to curl back up again, like she is having trouble remaining perfectly still even though she doesn't move much. Every muscle in her body is tensed and poised, ready for attack mode to be engaged.
Metal Man searches the treeline, looking for tracks, while Ice Dude stares at Raymond, temper spiking. He snaps a gravelly, "Shut it!" and pulls out a heavy pistol from, presumably, a holster under his jacket, holding it like he knows how to use it.
Metal Man starts to move toward the side trod, following Ariana's trail with a curt, "She's not there. Tracks're this way!" toward Ice Dude.
"Who told you to leave?" Raymond calls out. Now he's, mad again, and the massive sword is lifted. He crosses the space between he and the metallic man, voice and heat rising all around him. He doesn't try to hide his growing rage at the would-be captors, and is all but screaming now. As the plantlife begins to die off once more, a ring of thorns forces it way up around the pair. "You do need help finding your way, and I will gladly lead you to the path you rightfully deserve."
AJ's eyes are on the gun. Time to move?... The little fox surely isn't quite sure. But then a ring of thorns start to rise. That's her move. From the bushes, she holds that finger gun out, and whispers, finally, "Pew pew." And then a giant laser beam of sunlight and fire blasts out of her finger and tears across the trod to slam into the ice dragaon. "That's the signal!" she calls, for Sophia's sake.
Screw all this. Merle's twitchiness can no longer be held back and she unleashes, springing forward toward the Ice Dude. She doesn't hesitate to go after the pistol, moving like a flash to him and reaching out to do a disarming move straight out of krav maga that involves one hand going up to the inner wrist of the guy and the other to the outside, preparing to knock the gun out of his hand. Only when she does it, they're both distracted by AJ's attack and she doesn't hit in the right places or hard enough to dislodge his grip, leaving her to grab onto it even as he still holds it. At least she twists herself away to keep from being in front of the barrel of the gun as they struggle for control of it.
Sophia stands up from the side of the road, and runs to touch her sister, and whispers "Trust me." in her ear, before taking a fighting stance beside her.
Metal Man skids to a stop when the ring of thorns rises up around him, cursing under his breath and looking off down the trod in the direction Ariana took, view obscured by the sudden rise of crackling red flames. The sound of the conflagration is loud in the ears of those outside the ring, but worse within it, hungrily devouring its faerie fuel. With a last look, the other changeling takes a brawler's stance, crouching, balance stable. He has no visible armour or weapons.
Outside of the circle, the tall, draconic man with shadow-icy spines, distracted briefly by Raymond's sudden dash toward his partner, bellows a startled shout of pain when AJ's flipping LASER sears him out of -nowhere-, an opponent he hadn't even seen. His grip loosens for just one critical instant, and Merle -almost- manages to get control of that heavy pistol, but he reacts too quickly for her -- both of them have a grip, but neither has control.
Sophia frowns mightly and punches Ice Dude, her fist smashing into his chest hard.
Ariana slowly calms down from her running, slowly realizing that she isn't being chased any more. Coming to a halt in the hedge, and breathing fast she slowly turns around, trying to remember the haziness of her quick run, and she slowly starts to creep back up the path, intending to see why she isn't getting chased.
Merle's grasp shifts and she twists. Usually that would be enough to break the guy's hold on the gun, but between his quick recovery and her being off balance, it's not quite enough even after Sophia's touch to her adds a little something she hadn't expected and isn't quite what to make of it. The wrestling continues, but his grasp remains firm as her slips loosely off. "FUCK" comes a grunted hiss from her as she shifts gears to remain in control of not falling over with the motion. She is, after all, a slight and lightweight opponent even if she has a strength that most don't expect from her. Plus her main goal is now remaining out of the way of the barrel.
Metal Man, facing Raymond, eyes that weapon and abruptly sheathes himself in a gleaming, sharp-edged array of sliding blades, impressive, certainly, and aesthetically appealing, but how good will it be in combat?
Icy Dragon Dude, on the other hand, continues his tussle with Merle, grunting under Sophia's onslaught, and after wrenching control of the weapon away from the ex-Hunter, he lifts it up to shoot Sophia, catching her solidly on the left arm.
For a moment, AJ looks keen to let Merle and Sophia finish it. But after the gun goes off, she lets out a feral growl, and then charges. Out of the bushes she comes, to jump right into the fray and lash out at the man. Her nails seem to extend, just in time to make contact. No, this isn't a punch. This is a viscious clawing. The fox wonders what color ice dragons bleed!
As it so happens, this particular ice dragon bleeds chilly liquid shadows, black blood pooling in the wake of AJ's attack.
One man of metal faces off against the other. Raymond offers little in the way of anger despite it roiling off of his form around him. The light of the surrounding fire gleams on both men, and the squire's dull blade as he lifts it from the ground. "I tried," he grumbles, his rage starting to crack open the veneer of calm he tries to put on display. Two steps. One to set his feet, and the other to bring his blade down in a crescent motion that cleaves the other man from one end to the next.
The flames surrounding the two metallic men die down the instant the decidedly deceased foe falls, duel complete.
The crackpop of the gun going off does more than just blast Merle's hearing to shit, it also causes her to glance over her shoulder when Sophia is it. Her attention focuses back on the Ice Dragon Dude and she lets him go long enough to steady her stance, haul her arm back and punch him as hard as she can. "YOU MOTHER FUCKER" is sneered out as she does it, crushing her hand into him as hard as she can. Sure, her hand is going to hurt like hell, but she doesn't think about that. She's too fueled by anger and rage and passion right now to even notice it. "SOAP!" It's clear she means 'status report, sister' in that single word.
Ariana watches as one of her kidnappers is suddenly cleaved in twine, by what could possibly in her mind be a Fae. And given that the thing literally just cleaved that metal guy in half, she's leaning towards probably a Fae. That ticking speeds up as her heartrate spikes again, and she just freezes close to the entrance of the path that the others are in, trying to will herself into blending in with the hedgery as she stands completely still.
Sophia holds a finger up to her sister as she looks around, finding some Dream-a-drupe. She picks some, and downs those three purple nectarine-looking things one after the other. The bullet works its way out, and she stops bleeding. She breathes a sigh of relief, healed entirely. "I'm fine now, Merle. How are you?" She stares sternly at her sister.
Soon as Ice Dragon goes down, AJ turns to look at Ray and Metal Man. Oh, yeah, he's dead. AJ just gives a giggle. "You don't fuck around, huh?" she asks, then she lifts a hand, to eye the blood on her fingers and claws, and starts tapping them together. She looks rather fascinated by that blood. Then, she leans in. She sniffs. Finally to her lips, and she tastes the blood. Only after that little ritual does she blink, and look around. "Oh! Shit... you're-..." And she's munching on fruit. AJ nods. All's well. She looks back down at the man on the ground. "Hmmm..."
The thorns are down, and the fire gone. This leaves Raymond somber, unaware completely of what the men were aside from kidnappers. He leans down to close the man's eyes, putting much of his weight on the blade during the act and he stands again. "This isn't a place for games, and they were deadset on capturing that girl. You don't run like that when you're-" he swears under his breath and shoves the sword back into the ground. "Lady!" he shouts. "Are you still out there!? We're not gonna hurt you! We're with the Freehold!" Beat. "Fate's Harvest!"
"We're here to help you!" Sophia adds, her hand clamping around Merle's wrist again as she looks around for the pretty doll. "I saw them kidnap you and followed you!"
The Hedge, hungry during the confrontation, echoing back the anger of those within it in a delightful psychoactive feedback loop, is quite content to echo back Ariana's fear as well. Yes. She is correct to fear. There IS something after her. Pity it's inside of her own head...
Merle does not lick or taste the blood that now covers her knuckles, a mixture of her own and of the Ice Dragon's. She makes a bit of a face as she absently wipes her knuckles and the back of her hand across her jacket and jeans to try and wipe off as much as she can while she turns to find her sister. "The fuck is a Fate's Harvest?" she mutters as she scans to lock her eyes on Sophia, made easier when Sophia grabs onto her wrist. "Soap," she says after a second, the word a quiet breath, uneven with emotion. "You got shot. Fuck. You got shot."
Ariana continues to blend in with the hedge and watches, the hedge reinforcing her fear while she stares at the bunch of people there. It is a strange group, but, it could be trickses!
"You want me to find her?" AJ asks Raymond, eyeing the man for a moment. She does put a foot on Ice Dragon's chest, just in case the man suddenly wants to jump back up. "We also have to deal with this..." And then she looks over, at Sophia and Merle. "And that..."
Sophia pulls her sister in for a hug. "But it's healed," she murmurs. "More magic. I'll explain when we get home." She pets Merle's hair softly. "It's okay." She giggles a little. "I'm just stupidly high right now." She clings to her sister, snickering at absolutely nothing. "But check my arm for yourself. I'm not going to bleed out because I'm heeaaaalllleddddd." She flings her arms wide, jerking Merle around as she does. "Whoooooooops. Sorry."
Raymond sighs when there's no response. He imediately drops every bit of power on him save that which he can't control. The greenery still wilts around him, but there stands a man of pale grey skin and a pair of horns in a plain old t-shirt, jeans, and work boots. "This place is dangerous, and whatever you fear of us is worse here. This is not the place to play hide-and-seek, and this is not the time. If you want to stay here I can't speak for the others, but I /will/ leave you here." Then he looks to AJ, ire diying down with a look of sympathy. "Please," he mouths before moving to check on the icey bastard.
When Sophia pulls Merle in for a hug, the hug is returned for a few heartbeats before Merle finally shoves Sophia off so she can smack her arm. "You got /shot/," she snarls as if Sophia is somehow at fault for it even though the look of guilt that flickers across her face shows that Merle is pretty sure she's at fault and will bear the brunt of the guilt of it. She twists away and aims a kick at the downed figure she had been fighting with, giving him one last good slam to the side in anger. That's for shooting my sister! It's a halfhearted kick, though, since she's got her attention really on Sophia and the fact that Sophia pulls her away. That splits her attention, half on her sister who is acting insane and the other half focusing on each other person in turn. She seems to finally realize Ariana is somewhere over there, but AJ gets the focus of her gaze. "What?" she snaps in a defensive sort of way when AJ looks over. Raymond is also glanced at as he approaches the area where she's located next to ice dude.
AJ gives a nod to Raymond, and as he steps over to the very wounded Loyalist/Privateer, she steps away. "Sophia... you know how fucking serious this is, yes? I don't need to spell it out...?" she asks, distractedly and all but ignoring Merle's existence. Then she sniffs the air. There's a slightly annoyed growl, before her glamour finally manages to manifest itself properly. "There we go..." And she starts to walk in Ariana's direction. "Look, chick! I am totes not going to harm you. Come and I'll let you pet my ears!" Such nice foxy ears.
Even in her haze of Dream-a-drupe, she should like, totally get Merle the fuck outta here. And so she tries to. "Merle, we should go home. I wanna drink beer and giggle at you." She nods at AJ, letting that cut through her high. "We're going," she mumbles, before laughing. "But I'm going to totally get Merle to get me some coke later." And she loops her arm around Angry!Merle, trying to urge her back toward the nearest known Hedge-Gate. Which may be at the mall.
Petting should only ever be done in the bedroom, but as AJ heads towards it Ariana realizes she's been fount, and she tries to shrink a little tighter into the hedge, ignoring the slight prick of more then a few thorns while she sits there. "Look.. just... go ahead, and I'll follow you out of here," she finally says after a few moments, "I don't... don't want to get too close." Skittish... very skittish.
"Ohmygod coke party? Can I come?!" AJ calls back, her smile going big and full of pointy teeth. "Serious, though, Soph... if you need help, holler," she says. But, for better or worse, AJ has bigger problems. Or smaller. Whatever. "Oh! There you are..." And then AJ squats down on her haunches. She's smiling. Mouth closed. "Hey. I'm AJ-... are you hurt?" she asks Ariana, ignoring the woman's request.
Ow! Stupic prickly hedge thorns, Ariana thinks as she tries to press even further into them while AJ squats down super close, or at least, closer than she'd like. "I"m fine.. and I'll be okay, just... give me my space, and I'll follow behind," she repeats, green eyes staring at the fox woman while she keeps an eye on Raymond as well, her head constantly shifting between the two.
Sophia moves to grab a thorn, purposefully bleeding on it for a moment as she plucks it. She then grabs Merle and starts to pull her out of the Hedge, away from the group. "AJ, Ray, I'll contact you through the Harvestmen later." And she's off.
"Wait, what?" Merle asks, tilting her head back a bit to take in Sophia a bit more. "You... you alright?" she asks her sister, concern fleeting across her face for a moment. Because she does love it when Sophia is in a party mood, but this...? Seems a bit odd to her. At least it distracts her from the glowering she was doing at AJ and Raymond. For a moment, anyway. She's tugged away, giving a glance back at Raymond as if she has some questions she'd really like to direct in his direction, but she doesn't. Instead, she's just yanked on away. The things swirling in her brain can be put to words later, it seems.
"Bye!" AJ calls back to Sophia. But she's not moving. Her gaze is back on Ariana. "You sure?" she asks. "I mean, sure you won't come with? It's a lonely walk back, and big horny dude is exactly as good of company as you'd expect him to be." She's still smiling, softly, adorably. "I really don't want something to happen to you between here and the other side. It'll look bad for Sheriff Foxy if I rescue someone and she dies, like, ten minutes later..."
Ariana shakes her head while she continues to press back in to pres back into the thorns before she says, "I'm sure. I won't be far behind, just... don't want anyone near me." She nods her head to herself, mostly, letting herself know that she's right in thinking this, and it'll be better to skip out on conversation, so that there is no one around her who could hit her on the head again.
"Well. Okay," AJ says, with a nod. She then rises up to her feet. "Good luck," she adds, before she turns and walks back over to fallen metal man. "She says she'll come back out when we're all away. Dunno that I believe her, but... her choice. I'll light a candle for her or some shit back home."
Raymond works on the knocked out man, despite his attempted capture of Ariana. Once he's got him as patched up as he can he grabs the man up, and hefts him onto his shoulders. "No," he responds rather bluntly. "You think we're scary? I imagine you know about wolves, yeah? There are these things called briar wolves. They live off fear. They feed of it, really. They hunt you, always out the corners of your vision. Howling and barking. Trying to separate whoever they can, and right now it sounds like you're the best prey. Do you want to live? Then stay close, and please don't do anything stupid. I really don't want to explain to The Waylady that I may've been the reason some lady got killed."
Ariana shakes her head at Raymond. "I'll stay back. Close enough to see and hear you, but, no closer than that," she says, and that's as far as the baby Changeling is willing to go. She doesn't trust them and she refuses to let herself get that close, least they kidnap her, or try and push her into things she doesn't want to be pushed into.
GAME: Weaver has partially disconnected.
"You wanna... knock her on the head and drag her out?" AJ says, ever so sweetly. "See if we can't prove to her we're exactly fuckin' like-..." And she just nods toward the man on Raymond's shoulder. "C'mon. She'll be fine," AJ insists, as she starts to go.
Raymond grunts, an unsurprising resposnse from a Summer. "And far enough away to be snatched up and eaten by things we may not even know exist yet." He shrugs as best he can with the man on his shoulders, then. "I'm not gonna knock her out. Wasted energy, and I don't even do my kids like that. Whatever happens happens. She made her decisions, and she'll live or die by them." Raymond smiles briefly. "Raymond by the way."
Ariana's shoulders rise and fall briefly while she slowly starts to stand up realizing that AJ has gone away and isn't crowding her into the hedge anymore. "Ariana," she says simpley, really, bad at the whole introducing thing, especially when she's still trying to decide if she should trust people or not. Licking her lips, she waits for them to start heading out so that she can follow.
"Seeee? That's the spirit!" AJ says, cheerily. "Live and let die," she decides, with a pointy-teeth-filled grin. "AJ," she offers, to Raymond. "Harvestperson and been here and there forever. Just... more there than here, lately," she explains. "Nice to meet you, Ariana!" she calls over her shoulder.
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