we are not truly immortal

[dark_light]

After Glass's party is over with, Amariah and Kas go home.

Amariah fetches down their alethiometers.

"It's about time I took care of Alethia's afterlife, whatever it may be," she says quietly. "What can the alethiometer tell you about what I'll find?"

Comments

[alicornucopia]

Kas is the first to find a harpy.

She lands. She looks at him.

She takes off and flies away.

All of the nearby shades cluster close and cold around him, murmuring about how he sent her away.

[truthwright]

He shivers, thinks about going after the harpy, and then reports this event through the link instead.

[dark_light]

It turns out that the others can't teleport to where he is.

[lifes_sake]

Cam asks the alethiometer he has with him: "Can we not teleport to destinations in the afterlife, or from starting points in the afterlife, or both?"

[truthwright]

The alethiometer tells him, "You can leave at will, but not so easily return."

[lifes_sake]

Cam bounces this result to everyone else, along with a proposal that they all try to converge on Kas's position manually.

[truthwright]

Kas points out that the harpy is long gone by now.

[lifes_sake]

If none of them runs into her on the way, they can continue their search in a group so as to better corner the next one to appear. If they can't teleport to each other, splitting up isn't as valuable as expected.

[truthwright]

True enough.

[endragoned]

Aianon circles back toward where he last saw Kas.

[pythbox]

Ghosty flickers parts of her attention between all of them; she is not any more restricted in her movements than usual.

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell is the next to meet a harpy! She reports this information.

That is the last thing the link hears from her.

[pythbox]

...Sue is alarmed! Bells aren't chatty on link, but this is important, he'd expect her to be talking about it.

[arenaria]

Sherlock probably notices the smew tensing and shaking in her arms before he says anything.

[sicaria]

She gathers him up and kisses the top of his head.

[arenaria]

"We're sorry," he whimpers. "We're sorry, we're sorry, we're sorry -"

[sicaria]

"It's all right," she says. "Whatever it is, it's all right. I love you."

[pythbox]

Sue reports this situation to the link.

[arenaria]

"No, no, it's not all right, we're sorry, we're sorry," he says desperately, like he expects the words to be a charm against some evil that just - isn't - working. "Sorry sorry sorry -"

[dark_light]

Amariah flies high, to see if she can spot Shell Bell - they weren't flying for that long - and -

The spatial layout of this place is like one of those impossible objects that you can draw but not actually have, she says, bouncing an image to the link.

[sicaria]

Sherlock pushes her love for Shell Bell to Sue, trusting that he will know what to do with it.

[pythbox]

He bounces Sherlock's message to the intended recipient.

[truthwright]

So what the fuck do we do? says Kas, heading back the way he came.

[arenaria]

The smew presses himself against Sherlock harder, still apologizing desperately.

There's no response from Shell Bell herself.

[lifes_sake]

Tell Shell Bell to bail out, tell her to teleport to Amariah's house, or the dock, anywhere that's not here, we can start over from scratch if we have to. Scream it at her, get her attention.