[EVENT] The Simulation Ends

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: 6I Fountain Park & Elsewhere
WHEN: April 1
OPEN TO: ALL - Mingle
WARNINGS: N/A

---

In the snug circle of an old park, a fountain sits burbling beneath a broad, midday sky.

Once-neat paving stones have buckled and cracked from the slow nudge of wayward roots. Benches stand covered in lichen and rust. Three paths push into the underbrush like the spokes on a wheel, the encroaching forest creating lush tunnels through the dark.

But the fountain stands singular and pristine, brightly splashing in open rebellion of the deep, muffled sounds of a place long ago gone to seed. A vibration hums through the ground, there and quickly gone, and the water in the fountain trembles, lapping against the high walls of its cool, pale reservoir.

Far, far away, in a place that isn't really there, people begin to blink out of existance.

It is the first of April.

It is precisely ten o'clock in the morning.



[Please see event details and guidelines here.]

Comments

[iron_beneath_beauty]

It's strange to have him comfort her like this again, as though she were a little child in need of tender words from her nurse. Still, she can't find it in her to release Ned, to let go of this connection and reminder that he was with her. He grounded her in the present, drawing her away from the chaos around them. Here, she was safe, not dead and not disappearing.

"I was among the first group. Second, I think?" There were a few people stumbling about when she pulled herself out of the water, but it was hard to remember how many. Everything was such a blur. The cries of surprise, the wild looks they all had, it left her stupefied and standing to the side, struggling to absorb it all.

"Your children? Where are they?"

[learned_to_die]

"You've had to wait ages then, by the looks of it," Ned states, taking in the others who are around. It doesn't seem like the entire village, but the bulk of them, at least. How terrible it must've been for her, scouring the fountain every time another group came gasping from its depths.

But now, it seems, it's his turn to worry.

"You .. you mean they've not already arrived?" He separates them just enough to lean back and look into her eyes. There is a clear and vibrant fear etched in the ice blue of his own. "They've not come through yet?"

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"I don't know." She was quick to tighten her hold on his arm, attempting to calm him. "It's been chaos, Ned. So many people have been appearing in the fountain and running about. Our village isn't that small and with the shock of everything, I might have missed sight of them."

But even with those words, she knows Ned will worry until he sees them. He was a parent. This wasn't something that words could reassure but actual proof that they had come through.

"I'm sure they're here, likely looking for you as well."

[learned_to_die]

Ned can't bring himself to say anything in the affirmative or in the negative; all he can do, and all that he does, is offer a slight nod. His eyes scan the worried, harried faces surrounding them, searching for any hint of recognition or familiarity, but he finds nothing. He can feel a bubbling of bile in his stomach, but he tries to quiet it as best he can.

"Perhaps." His voice comes out more as a croak than a word, throat tight and tense like his grip on his sister's anchoring force. "The house. We should check the house." He doesn't quite ask for it, but it's implied: Please, come with me. I can't do it alone.

[iron_beneath_beauty]

She nodded, a silent acknowledgement of his request. She wouldn't ask him to go searching without her, not when there was a chance his children were lost. He needed faith, which she would offer him, a belief he would find his family again. With so many familiar faces around them, it seemed unlikely that the Robb, Sansa and Jon had disappeared. They were here, they had to be.

She linked their hands together, giving him a confident smile. "All right. Let's go to the house." If the house was there. Everything looked the same now, but would that be the case in the village?

[learned_to_die]

Old Gods, did he thank them for his sister and her unwavering strength. The solidity of her grip on his hand, the assuredness in her face, the determination in her eyes .. he takes what he can from her for himself, allowing her hope to peak into his mind like sunlight.

Yes, the house. They might be there. And if they weren't, it didn't mean they'd disappeared or gotten sent back or whatever it was that happened when they disappeared. It could simply mean they were elsewhere, perhaps at the Inn.

He begins to walk towards the structure, trying to find conviction in each step. It gets easier as he goes, and he knows it's because of having Lyanna at his side. What would he have done, had he been alone?