sixthiterationlogs | How come they never call free space?

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How come they never call free space?

WHO: Ashley Magnus
WHERE: Around the village
WHEN: Last half of October
OPEN TO: Anyone
WARNINGS: None applicable except the Observer is mean

What's the worse that could happen?

Unarmed. No back up in the form of the Sanctuary. Little tech. Ashley is not in the best of moods about this place, and a few weeks there isn't making it much better for her. Trying to avoid outright stealing from others, such as taking knives and such from the storerooms and not returning them, Ashley has been on a hunt to try and make things easier for her in ways she's familiar with. Sadly there is little in the place that really feels normal, except for the plethora of abnormals that can be found in the forests and waters.

It's while studying those, seeking to find ones that might have natural weapons she can utilize, that Ashley watches some birds picking open the purple seeds she's found throughout the woods. Waiting and watching to see that they don't keel over from it, she picks a moment when one is just opening a seed before darting forward and scaring the bird away. It hasn't killed them, so she's willing to take a chance. Maybe it's a chance she shouldn't take, but listening to that kind of inner logic is never priority with Ashley.

Which is why, moments later, she is rushing through the woods towards town, amazed at her speed, dashing around trees and delighting in the ability that she knew could do her well. Careful not to run into people, though when it looks as if she might, panic grips her, causing her to phase right through people and objects in her path the same as she phased out of the fountain when she arrived.

The aftermath

Sometimes that mental question of, What's the worst that can happen? is answered in a swift and harsh manner. Such as finding herself bent double, puking up what seems to be everything she's eaten for the last few years, and then curling up against the foundation of the Inn, not making it much further than that before her eyes close.

Even the next day she still feels disjointed and not completely okay, following advice she's heard from others and heading down for the springs to try and see if a soak will help with the dizziness and the lethargic state of her body.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm just kidding. I don't think you would come after me without good cause.

Lol now you have me worried. If you want to talk, you know I'm always willing to listen. But don't feel like you have to tell me everything right away? I don't think there's much you could tell me that would make me kick you out.

Good. Then you know me pretty well.

I wish I could screencap this. :D

Okay, but it's kind of serious and it's going to sound maybe insane. We should do this in person. That cool?

Don't worry, I'll keep my word, no matter how unsettled the emoji is making me.

Sure. Come over when you have a second, I'll be here doing some last minute cleaning.

His place isn't that far from the Inn, and putting away the book she has been writing in, she heads up to her room and gathers her few items in a sack. Might as well make things official too. Of course, in case, she grabs the sheets and blanket off the bed, as well as the pillow and heads out for his place.

So she really does look like a runaway when she taps on his door.

Though he'd been in this house for a few weeks now, most of Ty's efforts had gone more into fixing it up then making it aesthetically pleasing or super neat. The two extra rooms he had were clean, but he hadn't done much with them other than air everything out thoroughly. He was in the middle of making the bed for the second room when he heard a knock on the door, finishing up quickly before shouting out, "Coming!"

When he opened the door, he had to laugh slightly at the picture Ashley painted, gesturing for her to come in.

"You should have had a big stick with a cloth bundle at the end to really sell it." He joked, closing the door behind her. "So what did you want to do first? Tell me what you couldn't text or see the rest of the house before you make your decision?"

She can't help but to laugh at that, tossing things in a pile on the floor next to the door. "I wasn't leaving behind pillows and blankets, thank you. Needed things, they're lucky I didn't steal more."

Hey, they took from her, and she could handle this.

Pausing though at that question, taking a breath. "I'm sold on this," she points out. "I trust you, and you're cool and I figure you can handle most of the weirdness of my life. There's just this one part that, well, since he's here, you should know. But... Let's sit down and I'll give you the long but short version of it? It won't entirely make sense just spitting it out."

"If they have more blankets, tell me right now and we're going back to take them." Ty said seriously, because the linens in the house were fine, but if he could get more blankets to help fend off the cold during the coming winter, he would definitely take them. Especially since this place lacked any real heating and while the thought of building a fire pit in his bedroom was a tempting one, it was also an ill advised one.

He arched an eyebrow as Ashley spoke, glad that she already trusted him and held him in such high regard since it was mutual, nodding as he sat down at a nearby table, gesturing for Ashley to take a seat.

"So this sounds serious. This worse than your hobby of going and poking at crime lords?"

"Hey, if you want to go on a raid, we should hit the north village. Hardly anyone lives up there and less likely to be noticed,' she points out, obviously having already put thought into this before now. Mostly in the thoughts she had to scrounge for metal for weaponry.

"Well... it is kind of serious, and it's probably going to sound totally weird? And, well... Depends,' she says, smiling at that. "In fairness, that is part job as well as fun hobby."

Chuckling though, the tension easing a bit as she moves to sit down, curling her legs up beneath her as she settled in facing him.

"Okay, so... My mom is a brilliant woman. Except about men, but that's for later. Her and several of her friends were pioneers in their time, kind of the epitome of doing things for science. Including, well... they took pure vampire blood from a long gone species, and like crazy people will do, they injected themselves with it." She still rolls her eyes over that, not that she wouldn't have as well if she's honest. "That was in the late-ish eighteen hundreds. My mom was born in eighteen fifty."

"Sure, why not? After we get you all squared away, if you're up to it, we should go. Might as well try to make this place homier." And he wasn't going to say no to having more things around. In a place like this, it never hurt to have too many.

He listened curiously as Ashley started speaking about her mom, a bit confused as to why she was starting with her when her father was the one here. But from what he understood, Ashley got along just fine with her mother and held her in high regard. And while it was definitely strange to think about anyone injecting themselves with vampire blood, considering that people were telling him strange tales about their homeworlds, it wasn't that difficult to believe. And having a father who had been constantly chasing the newest medicines, which often came from the strangest places, Ty couldn't say that he could even judge any of the decisions so far.

"If you had told me this when I was back home, I would have thought you were crazy. Well, concerning the vampire blood. But nowadays..." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "So she and her friends gained immortality? And somehow that didn't pass onto you?" She had called people with abilities 'abnormal' and hadn't seemed to reference that to herself.

It's not easy talking about it, if only because she has spent her entire life knowing she had to keep secrets, hide the truth. Here though, it might get others hurt, though she's not sure if she should reveal everything to everyone.

So she waits, letting him deal with that. She smiles though at that.

"Far as we know? I don't share any traits, though I... Okay, the rest then. Mom isn't only immortal. She can't be killed, and she's brilliant which she was before but I think it's enhanced now. Like it was for John Watson," she says, bracing a bit. "Who you've heard of I'm sure, and who is actually who you know as Sherlock. That intelligence came from that. Then there was a man granted invisibility, and he prompted stories you hear as well. Both were real, but stories were told of them. The other two... are infamous."

She took a breath then, shifting as she went on. "One of the five, it turns out, was a descendant of the vampires the blood came from. The result was, not only was he granted control of the one thing he loves more than anything and then... He became a vampire. Literally they resurrected a dead species with this test," she says, rolling her eyes, making a face. "So, for the record? His name is Nikola Tesla. Heard of him?"

"Being unable to be killed sounds pretty handy for what you two do." Ty said, a bit envious. He wasn't interested in immortality, not really, but being able to stick around and put himself in situations to help others without having to really worry about death would be nice. And if he could somehow bring that information back home... He wondered if it would be a boon or a curse for his own mother, if she wasn't able to die but still had all the symptoms of the illness she had.

He whistled slightly as Ashley started to name drop. The practice had been so common when he was growing up that he had thought he'd become immune to it, but Sherlock Holmes and Nikola Tesla were no names to sneeze at.

"I might know a thing or two about him, yeah. You're telling me he's a vampire?"

"Yeah, would be nice," she admits, puffing out her cheeks and making a face. "Shame it didn't pass on, but I do the best I can." And she had a lot of people and technology backing her up to ensure she stays alive as long as she can.

"He is in my world," she says, nodding. "The only pure one, working on resurrecting his species. Or was. He faked his death after the tests to hide the truth."

She falls silent a moment, shifting where she sits as she gets to the hard part. "The last of them is my father. His name is John Druitt, though everyone calls him just Druitt. He was as close to them as anyone. More even because him and mom? Best I can tell, they were in love. It was serious, and then she and the others find out he's been lying to them for years."

She got some of this from her mom, and some from files, piecing it together to try and understand.

"One of the things they'd been doing was trying to find out who was behind a series of killings, and turns out the whole teleportation thing he can do made him sick. Which led to a string of murders in Whitechapel where a handful of prostitutes were killed," she says, speaking softly and slowly, watching his face to see if it linked together for Ty.

It felt like a lot to take this all in, and Ty was sure he was going to have a ton of questions later on after this all sank in, but for now, he was going to focus on what was most important. The name 'John' was common enough he didn't think about the guy he had met at the peach orchard right away, and he hadn't met everyone in the village yet despite his best efforts, but he was one of the few. If he was immortal, it didn't matter what age he looked, so maybe...

"Is he still sick here?" Ty asked curiously, because if it was just his power that made him ill, maybe he was better now. Kira didn't have his powers here, so he wouldn't be surprised if no one else brought their powers from home.

But the way she was drawing out the rest about serial killings and lies and Whitechapel made him abandon that though process for the moment, his brows furrowing.

"Whitechapel like England?" He asked, since it didn't seem like a leap of logic when it involved prostitutes being killed. And Ashley mentioning her father had been sick and lying to them... "What, you're saying your dad was behind it?" He asked lightly, but Ashley seemed dead serious. It was a bit unsettling to think about, that a serial killer would be lurking here, but why not? He had thought it strange that the lists in the bunker didn't seem to have any famous people on it, but he supposed 'Jack the Ripper' wouldn't exactly go around calling himself that in public, would he?

Ashley knows it's a lot, and she should have broken it all up but suddenly she has someone to talk to about it, to let the words out, to speak about things she hasn't had anyone to say it all too. Her mother knew, and had made choices, and yeah that means she's alive and well and in the world... but then there's her dad. And no matter what, that's part of her life.

"I don't think so. We don't think he was before I came here," she admits. "He, uhmmmm, Nikola electrocuted him, I guess, and it seemed to fix things." Which sounds just as insane as the rest.

"And yeah. That Whitechapel, and yeah. Behind it. Was him. Did all those killings and led his friends and the police on until... well, the friends now. The authorities don't. How would you even explain that to them?"

It really was a lot to take in all at once, but maybe this place made him feel like none of this was real or that strange things happening was common place. Either way, Ty just rubbed at the bottom of his face, trying to make sense of it. For now, it felt like an information overload, but after a while when he was done processing it all, most likely he'd come back to this and start asking a ton more questions. Right now he'd focus on the more important aspects.

"Yeah, I don't see half of this going well with any authority figure. You'd probably get locked up for being crazy." Ty agreed, shaking his head. "No wonder you have a complicated relationship with him. Do you think that he's a danger to anyone here?" Ty asked solemnly, because it was unsettling to think of Jack the Ripper having access to super powers.

"My father's true self is the least of the reasons I would be locked up for insanity in my world," she says, laughing though there's that hint of high emotions there. Not hysterical but just coping with being honest about this, talking about things she hasn't ever said outloud.

People in her world knew who she was. They knew what the Sanctuary was. She didn't talk about it, or what they did.

"I only just found all this out. My mom..." And then there's that. "I was conceived back then. My mom kinda put me on ice, I'm betting with Watson and Nikola's help, until she thought it was safe and he was gone. Surprise. I only just met him, and honestly, I was kind of a pawn for him at first."

Which hurts more than he wants to admit! She's good at playing it cold and distant, hurt by mom's lies of omission, but the first time she meets her dad? He uses her as blackmail against her mom. It still hurts, and not as if Ashley is good with coping with her feelings, or good with anything involving feelings, so there's that.

"I think he could be a danger, yes. Is he now? Maybe not." Which is probably not reassuring at all. "I don't think he's a threat right now. I would tell you if I thought he was. That's why I figured you should know this before the whole move in thing. I mean, in case that's a problem. Which it's totally cool if it is."

"That's really disturbing to think about, and I'm sorry to hear that." Ty said, pulling a face at trying to figure out what could be worse than finding out your dad is Jack the Ripper. She had mentioned abnormals were a thing in her world, and the rest of her story sounded pretty outlandish. It was probably things that Ty couldn't even imagine, let alone deal with.

Comfortingly, he knocked their knees together as he listened, leaning back in his chair as he tried to process all this.

"We'll get back to the pawn and ice baby thing in a minute, but as long as you don't think he's a threat, I'm not worried about it for now." In the future definitely, but for now, he was going to save his concerns for when it was more pressing. And he trusted Ashley's judgement, especially concerning her father. Even if he definitely sounded dangerous, the fact that even after everything she didn't view him as an immediate threat was enough for Ty. And, all weirdness aside, everyone had baggage. Just usually not so colorful or murderous. He'd be a terrible friend if he let such small things scare him off.

"For now, I think it's best that you get your space from him and I need a roommate that I like and can trust. It just makes sense. So I'm fine with this if you are." Ty said, gesturing to the pretty poor furnishing around them.

"Yeah well, when you work for shadowy organizations actually out to help the world, it's amazing the things you can imagine you might get picked up for," she admits, trying to sound cheery about it, though they're talking about such dark things.

Though that gentle touch makes her smile, glad for having met Ty when she first arrived in this place.

Her eyes light up, smiling widely then. "You're sure? You're okay with this? I... I have never mentioned this. Not ever before. I mean, I just found out right before I came to this place, and never got a chance to ever tell anyone about this. God, thank you for even listening, because it's just..." She sighs, tipping her head back and combing her fingers through her hair.

"I lived my entire life with my mom's friends being people you know, and reading her exploits with famous people, and her being a century and some but... Learning about my dad?"

She winces at calling him that, not sure how to handle it. "And now we're here, without mom and, I don't know what to do. So, thank you for listening."

She nudges him then, rolling her eyes. "This is perfect, and amazing, and I am totally fine with it. Yes."

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How come they never call free space?

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