please lock

[alienbirb]

Riona Kurosawa | 19 | they/them | the Brain
Location: edge of the forest | tags: Autumn, Ezra

"Ah, right on time. Hello, Autumn." Riona exclaimed, waving enthusiastically. "And hm. I don't know - I'm honestly not expecting much, but all forests end somewhere. And I intend on making a map of sorts to help keep track of our progress."

They motioned to a knife strapped to their waist - on top of scoring marks in select trees, they also brought along a fair number of colorful fabrics and ties to attach to notable landmarks - if they were to encounter any, that is. They intended to measure roughly every three or five miles or so - it seemed like a reasonable enough increment - and leave some kind of mark and record that on paper. Distance, direction, elevation, terrain type. Okay, maybe they couldn't quite measure elevation but they could give a rough estimate to any significant shifts. Though, judging from their view of the forest when climbing to the tops of one of the taller trees, though, the region seemed relatively flat.

"How are you feeling, by the way?" Riona furrowed their brows. They hadn't spoken much on the matter of all the disappearances - they were an only child and were used to working parents who were out in the field most of the time and didn't feel the impact of the disappearances quite as acutely as some. They knew Azul could care less given his relation with his parent, but Autumn was a different matter. Extending a hand to pat Autumn on the shoulder, Riona gave a reassuring smile.

"There's no telling what we will encounter, but I'm sure we'll figure something out about the missing, too." They said. "Well, it looks like we're still waiting for-."

A sudden voice from a moderate distance away startled Riona and they turned to see Ezra of all people approaching. They were surprised at his decision to attend, but the more people helping out, the better.

"Ah, Ezra. I see that you have grown weary of the festivities in town?" Riona gave a lighthearted chuckle. "Well, this outing is unlikely to be much fun so I hope you're ready to do some work."

[monism]

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[Kendall Roy]

Dallas Winchester | The Rich kid | 19 | Homosexual | Feeling;Irritated but pretty
content| Location;Outside the church | Tagged;Jeremy
Dallas yawned loudly as he wiped each eye with his free hand. His aimless thoughts
were cut short by the sound of someone speaking his name, he turned slightly to
see Jeremy nearby, looking tired. "Yeah, hey." He replied, his voice far softer than usual,
trying not to use his usual blunt and angry tone, especially to Jeremy. "Tired?" He
questioned, knowing the obvious answer to this. "You wanna sit down?" Dallas added,
looking around where he sat, not seeing anyone else currently near the church. "Move
buddy." He yawned scooting over to the right more, getting the dog to move also so there
was more room on the bench, if Jeremy intended to sit on the bench also.

Dallas, of course didn't want anyone to see him talking to Jeremy, or really anyone else
for that reason. He had a reputation to keep, after all, but no one was nearby, and he
did want to make sure that Jeremy was okay, he wasn't completely heartless. He went
back to idly smoking until he had finished the cigarette, which he then threw to his feet
and stamped it out, his arm around the large dog, which was being lifted when the large
dogs back rose and fell. He scratched Mick softly, allowing his faithful dog to be content and
relaxed.

[jacewy]

ᴇᴢʀᴀ ᴏᴡᴇɴ
the trouble maker | 19 | he/him |tags: riona, autumn

EZRA MADE AN 'OK' WITH HIS FINGERS and held it up to signified he heard, and put it down back to his side.
"They've stopped doing anything particularly fun, and I wanted to change my schedule up a little." Ezra flashed a grin, slowing his run once he reached the two. His sneakers dragged across the concrete as Ezra scooted a little closer to them before coming to a complete stop. He tapped his finger on his cheek, "I didn't get much about this outing. Should've I brung more stuff?" He questioned, eyeing the backpack that Autumn had strapped on, though he didn't sound particularly weary. Ezra had mostly forgotten what the expedition was about, and it had seemed to him that it was a light travel more than anything, so he didn't have much prepared. Looking back, he now felt a sense of regret that now seemed to be slowly starting to creep up behind him, for zoning out during the meeting. Ezra squinted to chase away the feeling of regret, before turning his mind and focus to present moment. Ezra looked at both Autumn and Riona, and decided that he'd take the chance to let him catch up. After this quick train of thought, he hastily followed up his first question with: "By the way, how far are we going? Also, are we searching for anything in particular?" All questions directed to the two in rapid fire and quick speaking, as Ezra shifted his weight between his two feet.

[doc .]

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ＫＲＩＳＴＩＡＮ
19 yrs / Exchange / Male / Tags: Jeremy/Dallas
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Kristian stood there for a moment, just gazing about. He lost himself in his own little world for a moment. Things faded away and images in the corner of his vision faded away to nothing and he saw fuzzy shapes until he blinked.
And turned his head, looking around at the reality around him. Pretty crazy to realize he was in such a place. Such a world.. full of everything and yet nothing at all. He sighed and tilted his head a little bit, feeling some of his vertebrae pop. He hummed and shook out his hands before listening to the wind. Then the birds. His mind wandered a moment before he heard voices and he whipped his head around. Expecting something, he knew it wasn't whom his mind immediately thought it was. Jeremy and Dallas were sitting nearby on a bench and talking. Had they not noticed him? Was he really that good with blending in with the scenery? He made a face and looked around at the environment. Impossible. These two must be blind. Perhaps if he had a chance he'd check their vision.
He stuck his hands in his pockets and slowly meandered over to them. The step of his sneakers against the ground, almost echoed. It was so quiet. The normal buzz was no longer there. His own ears rung softly as if to replace the sound.
He approached and wondered if he should say anything. Should he? Maybe they'd see him approach.
Or maybe not.. You could never trust someone's vision. He watched as Dallas smoked, then put out his cig. He scoffed softly and made a face of disgust. He hated .. smoking. Not exactly the man doing such an awful deed.. but the deed itself. Horrible on the lungs.
He cleared his throat gently and eyed the two sitting on the bench
"Guten Morgen," he called aloud. He wasn't too far away so he wasn't too loud. He didn't want to yell at them anyways.
"Vonderful vheazzer ve're haffing... You two seem to be doing vhell.."
His accent got in the way sometimes. His words also did get in the way of what he wanted to talk about but at the moment it was all he could do. There was nothing coming to his mind to talk to them about. One of them looked absolutely wasted and the other looked like trash. But enough about Dallas..
Kristian knew the guy was ok. He liked to make fun of him sometimes
"Herr Jeremy are you.. doing alright?" he asked while looking a bit concerned and taking a step forward
"You do not look too vell.. are you okay?"
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[monism]

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[valkyrie,]

( ✩ ) ──── ｚａｉｒａ ｌｕｌｕ ｓａｄｅ
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❝ whoever said money can't solve your problems; must not have had enough money to solve 'em ❞
[ the prom queen ] ⋆ [ eighteen ] ⋆ [ main street ] ⋆ [ taggs: open ]

two weeks ago must've been her worst day. the seniors were returning from a cancelled trip. she was unsure why they were returning so quickly, but it really had to be serious. once the bus rider had stopped at the school, there was nobody there. no even her parents, she waited for someone to pick her up. so, she had no choice but to walk home. her house wasn't that far away from the main street or her school. it was good walking distance since her mother worked around the main street. when she entered her home, it was empty. why did her mother leave her? maybe they went out on a date night because she was gone. zaira waited for hours to see if they would be home that night. she called her mom over fifty times. she never was left alone like that, but she was use to be alone for a while.

after the long nights of waiting, zaira received a notice that the townspeople were gone, only the group of seniors were left behind. where did they go? how long were they going to have food? what is someone went around harming people? the prom queen managed to keep her food supply up. her parents were the people to keep a pantry full of food just in case of bad weather. they also were supplied with generators for the house. zaira was safe in her own home. it was pretty scary to be in a big house by yourself.

today, miss sade ventured out to main street, closer near the church. she heard about the group gathering around the area. the prom queen held a sad expression on her face. the town was dead silent, nobody to greet each day. from afar, you could see the forest covering up the streets to the world. they were trapped. unaware of what lurked in the wilderness. but, she knew they wouldn't be able to live long secluded. the food could run out and they would have to fight for survival. maybe zaira was thinking too quickly. was she overreacting? this could just be a cute little trick from the townspeople. let's see how long they'll survive on their own. zaira knew her mother loved her, they were nearly inseparable. almost like any parents who tried. strolling, zaira took a seat at the abandoned coffee shop. the seat was ice cold for overnight. it was different not seeing people. so, zaira had to get use to the lack of people. hopefully, faith left them in good hands. she knew the group, even though she rarely talked to a few.

[galaxy,]

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xxxＡＵＴＵＭＮ ＪＯＲＤＡＮ!
team captain ✦ eighteen ✦ female ✦ loc. edge of forest ✦ tagged riona, ezra
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autumnautumn adjusted the straps of her backpack mindlessly as she nodded at riona's words, watching the tall trees that loomed over both of them. she thought about how some of her family members went camping almost every year for her older brother blake's birthday. it was a weekend of fishing and laughing and making s'mores in front of a fire, all huddled together under the summery breeze that grazed against their cheeks. autumn had never been too big of a fan of camping, if she was quite honest with herself, but she used to take her guitar on those trips and sing with her siblings and everything seemed funny and childish. in those camping trips the forest did not seem as scary as it did right now, huge and towering and dark. they looked angry, she was brought back to reality by riona's question. i think i'm okay. i also know that my family is probably alright, or at least i hope so. i just... autumn frowned, searching for the word that was at the tip of her tongue. i'm not a big fan of silence.

autumnautumn flashed ezra a quick smile as she watched the lad approach and the light packing he had brought with him. that's alright. if we run out of food for all of us we can just eat you or something. she joked and set her own backpack down on the ground between her feet. it wasn't excessively heavy or anything, not at all, but no one liked having something hanging on their back for a while if there was no real use of it.we're waiting for quin anyways so if you want to go and grab something else... her voice trailed off as her fingertips searched for heat inside her hoodie's pockets. autumn was known for being constantly cold except in mid summer. even if it was pretty close to mid-summery weather and the heat would soon start to require lighter clothing, the girl still enjoyed wearing her black sport leggins, the volleyball team hoodie and simple sneakers she wouldn't mind getting dirty in the mud that perhaps would await for them in the forest.

autumnhonestly i'm not sure how far we'll go. probably not very, just probably enough to have a little more knowledge about what is happening here. her gaze focused once again on the trees. we're searching for... anything. anything that could be thought as out of the normal. or that could explain the disappearance of, well, everyone. at least that was what she was searching for. perhaps riona had another thought in mind for what she wanted to look for, but anything that didn't seem common would be enough for autumn.

[ℛσуαℓ ♕]

➶ 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍 𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐃𝐘
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form // feeling » resolute, earnest // where » forest edge // tagged » riona, autumn, ezra
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Two weeks ago Quin Kennedy hugged his father goodbye in the rain, boarded a bus, and sat down with his kindle tablet to read during the long, stormy drive to the YCG. Every year, WHH took all of its graduating seniors on a five-day camping trip to make those final memories and say goodbye. Quin would’ve been perfectly happy thinking he might not ever see some of these folks again, but if everyone was being honest, roots in West Haven went deep. It was perfectly likely the great majority of these kids would end up working for their parents in companies or law firms in or around town, opening companies and law firms of their own day, and then settling down to raise children that graduate from WHH just like they did.

But Quin and the rest of the seniors never made it to the camping grounds to make those ‘final memories.’ In fact, they never made it anywhere at all. All Quin could recall of the drive was reading and then being barked at to wake up, trip was cancelled. The bus driver’s face had been lost in the darkness and Quin felt underwater with the sheer weight of his grogginess bearing down on him. Confusion was like a drug, deadening his usually keen senses of observation. Dumbly, he’d shuffled off the bus with everyone else and only thought to begin asking questions when the buses were already driving away. It was the looks on everyone’s faces that finally brought him to the surface. Quin was still slow so it took about three second to notice why something was wrong.

The parking lot was empty. It should’ve been full of beeping cars with windshield wipers on full blast. There should’ve been faculty with those huge black umbrellas to usher unattended kids out of the rain. There should’ve been lights on and families shouting to come on and get out of the rain already. But there was not a soul in sight and everything was dark.

Quin was independent enough not to be bothered by the idea that his father wasn’t there to pick him up. He’d expected his son to be gone five days and could’ve made arrangements for his free time. But the distress on other kids’ faces sent small trickles of unease down his back. It had been pouring. People didn’t have long to question why no one was there to receive them. Everyone hurried home to get out of the rain, Quin included. But when he got there, the place was empty. Everything was as he’d left it, except his father wasn’t home. Again, Quin reminded himself the man had his own life when he wasn’t on parent duty. So the boy had gone to bed but left the porch light on. It was a rule at the house that it stayed on until everyone was back home for the night. When Quin woke up in the morning, it was still on.

It had only taken a few days to be sure the seniors were really alone. Quin had gathered with everyone else at the unlocked school gym for answers. But no one had any because no one understood why they had to ask questions in the first place. A whole town of people couldn’t just disappear without a trace. It was as if everyone in West Haven had vanished in the blink of an eye with every little piece of their lives perfectly preserved.

Rather than accept that, Quin had volunteered with others to search for answers. He’d hopped in his Jeep with a few things and planned to seek help in the next town over but when he reached the West Haven township limit, the two-lane road that was bordered by forest on both sides suddenly became overgrown. Dirt, leaf-litter, and bracken formed a topsoil over the asphalt from which grew trees. Full-grown trees. The increasingly icy trickles of fear he'd been ignoring began to pool in Quin’s stomach. It was the same with all the other roads out of town as well.

When everyone who had tried to leave returned, the rest of the seniors didn’t take it well. Now everyone knew that they were alone and that something was happening or had happened. Something unnatural. Something that couldn’t be possible. By the end of the first week, the intense feelings of denial and shock gave way to full fledged panic and chaos. Quin had stayed at home and minded his business as the seniors of WHH had their world turned upside down. He went for runs early in the morning and later in the evening and simply hurdled over the trash and damaged property, keeping to himself when he saw people breaking store windows just to steal junk food.

However, he couldn’t ignore the reality of people’s actions anymore. It was now two weeks since the seniors were supposed to have departed for a camping trip. Most of town now looked like the aftermath of a frat party and people were crying for their moms in the streets. Kids ran rampant doing whatever they truly wanted for the first time with no one around to tell them no. Quin heard someone had broken an arm jumping from their roof into their pool and another person had given a small dinner party food poisoning with improperly cooked chicken. It was this side of people, this potential for chaos within everyone that Quin avoided like the plague throughout high school. And that was when it was controlled with threat of detention or grounding or expulsion. But Quin couldn’t isolate himself forever. Some people were trying to do something, anything about what was going on and Quin decided he’d needed to help. Just waiting every single day for someone to come and rescue everyone was insanity at this point. As much as Quin silently worried what would happen, what could happen, he knew all he could do was try and survive now. After fourteen days of being trapped in a ghost town with no end in sight, survival was going to become a big issue.

The whistle of Quin’s text reminder tone brought him back to the present. Funny how everyone’s phones still worked. Or, mostly worked. You could call or text anyone or any phone within West Haven but if you tried to call outside of it, nothing. Not even a dial tone. Quin stopped rummaging around in his duffel bag to swipe the alert away. He was late. Quin had agreed to meet Riona outside of the woods in order to survey more of the forest. He’d tried poking around himself but was shaken to realize the woods he’d grown up exploring and adventuring in were not the same woods surrounding West Haven now. The forest was foreign, almost alien in its unfamiliarity, and Quin, normally not superstitious, was spooked. But Riona was a very practical and empirical person. If anyone could make sense of what might be going on, they would probably be it.

With swift, deft movements, Quin zipped and buckled his pack and slung it onto his shoulders while shoving his feet into his favorite pair of waterproof hiking boots. He’d chosen cargo shorts and a burgundy crew-neck tee with a beat-up navy cotton flannel to go over in case temperatures managed to drop. Quin left his Jeep keys where they were on the end table and burst from his house and settled into a measured jog with his pack moving lightly on his back. He had barely broken a light sweat mostly due to the heat when he spotted a small knot of people standing against a tall unbroken mass of different greens.

Riona was there as they said they'd be, and it looked liked Autumn had shown up. But Quin was a little surprised to see Ezra Owens. The tall blond slowed and stopped, taking a swallow of water and a deep breath before walking into the small circle forming. "I'm late. Sorry Riona. I brought walkies though," he met their eyes and gave a small apologetic smile. "Hey, Jordan. Owens." Quin nodded to each in turn. He had a habit of calling people he wasn't too acquainted with by their last names, being someone who was referred to by his jersey most of the time. Autumn was an athlete like himself and he honestly just liked calling her by her last name. Owens he didn't know well or feel comfortable calling by his first name.

"Were you guys just waiting on me? Sorry again. I'm ready if you are."


WORD COUNT: 1431

[doc .]

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ＫＲＩＳＴＩＡＮ
19 yrs / Exchange / Male / Tags: Jeremy/Dallas
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Kristian raised an eyebrow at Jeremy's response. Absolutely fantastic? After the boy had greeted him it looked like he was about to drift off into a whole nother dimension. It was a little odd to see him like this. Ready to help, the doc finally sprang into action the moment Jeremy stood up. He was in no condition to even be out of bed. He was to send him home right away and make sure he rested for as long as the hangover lasted.
He came up to Jeremy and took one of his arms, hooking it over his head and allowing some of the weight from his body to be relieved. He aided him in standing and had a gentle hand hovering by his back. He was ready for anything.
"Komm.. I'm sure I can help you get home." the German nodded stiffly. He would not allow anyone else to do it, despite what Jeremy said. He was the doctor here. Almost.
He knew what the guy needed, and he knew how to respond.
Glancing back to Dallas with a firm scowl, he turned away and slowly began to walk toward Jeremy's place with the kid over his shoulder. It was silent, the doctor was silent. There was really nothing to be said just yet. Kristian was also desperately trying to figure out what to say. He wasn't good at conversations like this, especially with people he didn't know too well. Jeremy was the type of guy Kris avoided, because he was too 'wild' for him to handle.
After a few, he eventually spoke up.
"I understand.. zaht ve no longer haff laws unt rules to follow.." he began with a clearing of his throat. He was concerned for his friends and he hoped they'd listen to his.. suggestions.
"But I do advise you do not do zhis frequently. Zhere is a reason you cannot drink until you are tventy von, in America."
He put his hand on Jeremy's back and pat it softly. He tried to make it seem like he wasn't scolding him, but just being a concerned friend looking out for the other.
"It is not good for your system. Its like Dallas unt his schmoking. Its highly addictive, unt its terrible for your body."
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