entrancelogs | It's like I spent my whole life picking up baggage

Entry tags:

It's like I spent my whole life picking up baggage

Who: Seth and Anyone
Where: In the woods
When: Before and during the Reaper event
Rating: Updates if anything beyond PG
Summary: After the last event, Seth is working on recovering himself and getting over the shit he's heaped on himself, and he's taken a page from Richie's book. Probably not the smartest move, but good for him now.
The Story:

Since the time when Richie and Kate left Wonderland, Seth has been slowly sinking into a pit of despair. Instead of working on holding himself together, he's been wallowing in self pity and loathing. The last event that led him to singing out his emotions seems to have broken the dam though. He just needs to work things out in his head.

Which led him to getting a few things from the closet, none of them the alcohol which he is trying to break himself from, and he packs a backpack. Sending Chloe and Maggie texts to let them know he's safe and around, he left his device and all the alcohol in his room and headed out into the woods.

Should anyone see him heading out, they might know who it was. Mostly in that he is wearing a pair of jeans and a black tee shirt with sneakers. He won't keep them, but even Seth Gecko wouldn't go out into the woods in a suit. Okay, he thought about it but he is taking Kate's, and Chloe's, advice. At least in the woods.

Having explored in the woods before, he has an idea how far out he can get without risking dying. Setting up camp on the edge of that imaginary, and deadly, line, it isn't long before he has a tent and camp fire set up with a cooler from the closet with food in it as well as a roaring fire going.

It is this soul searching that will lead Seth to be out of the mansion and away from the insanity of the reapers, but feel free to stumble upon him and his set up. He may even being willing to help out and share.

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Adjustment isn't coming easily for Alec. He supposes that he should give himself a break since he hasn't been here long but he refuses to do that. He wants to know everything about this place and why it's brought him here. All he's getting is vague responses and declarations about Queens that shouldn't exist outside the pages of a book.

Now, there's this. There are giant black things in the sky and Alec doesn't know what to do with that. He doesn't have anyone to formulate a plan with but he refuses to sit back so he sets out to explore, to scout. It feels weird to do without a bow on his back and a blade at his hip. He'll have to rely on the hand to hand skills he'd learned years ago.

The sun sinks into the sky and Alec finds himself in the woods, trying to memorize the layout for future use. He's not expecting to literally walk upon someone's camp. If he'd been in New York, he would have been glamoured, invisible to the human eye, but everything's different here and whoever this is can see him as plain as day.

"Roughing it?" he asks gruffly, looking one way and then the other to make sure he has his bearings and can mark this place in his mind.

Part of what has led Seth to this moment is pushing himself about Wonderland. Trying to create a life he would never have, and then falling and failing after realizing that has all been a dream. Maybe hiding out in the woods wouldn't help, but he things have gotten to the point of trying whatever it took.

Glancing up as he hears footsteps, but not letting it draw him from the fire where he's setting up a stand to hang a tin coffeepot he brought with him. Watching though as another approaches, not recognizing them but that isn't all that unusual around Wonderland.

"Needed a break from the mansion and all it represents," he admits with a nod of his head, taking in the way he looks around. "Are you lost? I can direct you towards the main grounds. I've spent a lot of time out here, and I know which way is back and where the imaginary lines lays where you'll die." He pauses, considering that. "Someone told you about that, right?"

Sadly he knows he almost got taken down by the caves for the same reason, and he almost sort of cares if someone wanders into death here, just because of lack of warning.

"Not lost. Exploring, I guess is what I'm doing," Alec admitted, glancing around again. He really hated looking around and feeling that awful sense of everything being unfamiliar. Manhattan was a huge place but Alec had lived there long enough to know where demon nests tended to be, where bleeder dens were tucked away, and where the worst of the Downworlders stayed, looking for their next mundane victim.

Alec had managed to find clothes that weren't the damn wedding tuxedo but he still felt off. Like he didn't belong. Like he was just impersonating someone else that should be in his places, in his boots.

"You seem to think I'm new," Alec remarked, eyeing the man curiously. "I am but you I'm wondering if there's a look about me."

That would make blending in difficult.

"And no, no one's told me about ley lines," Alec said, brow furrowing. "I know what those are but they don't usually kill immediately. Not where I'm from."

"Yeah, understandable. I've spent a lot of time here and the caves, testing the boundaries," he admits, a hint of a wry tone to his words. So when he mentions why Seth thought he is new, he can't help but chuckle.

"Because I'm a paranoid bastard who has worked hard on learning the faces around here. We can't trust the Queen and I'm always curious about who's new because I don't trust her not to send spies in posing as one of her victims."

Which is, in truth, a kind of damning comment. Not that he looks concerned about this being such a case.

"And you don't look any different than most, but you are wandering close to the edge of the woods." Which wasn't true in the way things looked. The trees went on for quit some time, enough that you couldn't see a break or where they ended.

"Yeah well, Wonderland isn't where you're from, sadly enough, and not sure this is ley line shit, or magical crap the Queen installed, but you get much past that tree there," he says, pointing. Someone, likely yes Seth, has carved a mark in the tree deep enough to show a pale line. "And you'll start to get tired. Keep pushing on and you'll find yourself waking up in the mansion, one less death to your name and no clue what happened beyond that point."

"I am not a spy," Alec says though it doesn't seem to need to be reiterated. He seems to have made a decision on that already but Alec can't help himself. If there's one thing he's not, a double agent. His parents had done quite enough of that back before he'd been born and he was still trying to pick the pieces up today, trying his best to atone for their mistakes.

But, Alec's not interested in talking about his past and he doubts this guy's going to be open to that either. They don't know each other so Alec, instead, focuses on what he's said last, what he seems to implying.

"Are you saying that if I go past a certain point, I will die but then I will wake up anyway? As in a resurrection? That's dark magic."

The rules of his world don't matter here, he's been told, but it's very hard to accept that, to take that as rule and law. Everything that was impossible seems possible up to and including surviving death.

"I wouldn't know if you were or not," he points out, smirking a bit as he says it. "But I'm always curious how people react if I say that."

Seth chuckles, nodding. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Dark magic. But it happens. No matter how you die, you come back in one piece and looking like you do now. Someone should have warned you about that. Even though most don't think about the woods and wandering too far. I haven't gone that far, but got far enough one night that I got dizzy and thought I was going to pass out."

"I've heard about the ability to be resurrected after death and the five limit rule but I wasn't aware of it applying to the boundaries of the area," Alec admitted. He was going to have to be careful, then, since he liked to know the layout of wherever he was as thoroughly as possible. Manhattan was huge, full of alleys, tunnels and the like and Alec prided himself on being able to navigate even the toughest of areas. You had to know your way around if you didn't want to be caught unawares.

"I've heard about the closets too. And the mirrors," Alec said, unable to keep all the wryness out of his voice. "I tried the closet a little while ago and ended up getting several pink frilly bows when I asked for a bow as in a bow and arrow."

"They can't just have us wandering off anywhere, can they?" Bitterness tinges his tones even as Seth says it. "I can't be the only one that has toyed with the limits, so someone might have a map. You could ask around."

Seth had explored but not mapped it. Only left himself markers. "I've heard those that can fly have found limits to that as well, and some say the sea has them too but I've never tried it myself. Not much of a swimmer."

Seth chuckles at that though. "Least you're getting all the pertinent info, right?" He laughs against at that. "I had so many waterguns shoved under my bed for weeks. Least pink's your color?" He can't help himself. He really can't.

Alec gave him a look for that one. Pink was not his color. Pink would never be his color. He had no use for all those bows but it seemed wrong to throw them away. He just had a feeling that it would somehow come back to be used against him. Or maybe the closet would stop listening to him if he just threw away everything it gave him.

"I managed to find the right combination after awhile," Alec said, shrugging. "It's not what I'm used to it but it'll do until I can figure something else out."

Getting back home seemed to be out of the question right now so it was finding a combination of things that could make him comfortable and less likely to be bitter and angry about his situation.

"Seems like every time I've gotten one piece of information and processed it, a new bit comes along and knocks me back. This place has an annoying habit of making me feel like I'm on my back foot."

The look only makes Seth smile wider, amused with himself. A few days in the woods and a chance to be a sarcastic dick seemed to make him happy. "Rumor is you can pitch them back into the closet and they'll vanish. I personally just ditched mine into an empty room. Enough of them around, and someone's bothered by it, they can clean it up themselves."

He nods, knowing how that is. "I worked hard to build up an arsenal. This place doesn't make it easy, but it works with you after a while. Most of the time."

And some of the time it's herds of kittens. That he's heard. Thankfully it has never happened to him.

"Give it about, eh, four months? A few events, and seeing how the dynamics work, and you'll get the hang of it. I say, knowing that soon as you get it, there will be an event that will entirely kick your ass. It's the game of this place. Don't let them know it's hitting you though. I think they use that against us."

Alec didn't want to think about being here long enough that he'd adapt and adjust and settle down. To him, that seemed like he was giving up on getting back to Manhattan. But, constant resistance and fighting against the fact that he was here wasn't going to do him any good. He'd fail to pay attention to things going on around him and that was the easiest way to getting himself killed.

"You've been here awhile, then?" He talked like he was a veteran of this place, someone who'd seen a lot and done a lot and was still standing.

"I've been hearing about these events but don't know what I should really be expecting from them," he admitted. "Invasions? Attacks? I can handle those."

"Just over a year, which feels like nothing," he admits. "But then I'm one of the crazies who would settle for making a life here and staying. Not enough for me back home if this place ever brought my brother back. A year though, it's a lot longer than many seem to last. Evelyn, she's gone now, but she'd been here five years when I got here."

And he still isn't sure he'll make it that long.

"Belting out your emotions like Barbara Streisand? Reliving that childhood moment that fucked over your life? And reliving over and over and over and over? Oh and becoming that kid you hated being? Fights are easy. Some of this shit tears you up."

There was a lot of information in just a few sentences but Alec seemed to signal in and focus on one thing and one thing only.

"Singing?"

Oh, that was going to be a big no. He was not singing. He was not even going to talk sing like some musicians Isabelle and Jace liked to listen to. And singing about his emotions?

It wasn't going to happen. He'd tape his mouth shut. "That happened?"

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It's like I spent my whole life picking up baggage

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