entrancelogs | [OPEN] If you count falling stars to be a bad sign

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[OPEN] If you count falling stars to be a bad sign

Who: Chloe Price plus [OPEN] to everyone else!
Where: In the woods, just outside the mansion
When: Evening of March 2
Rating: PG-13??
Summary: Chloe finds herself in Wonderland but thinks she's somewhere else. *dundundun*
The Story:

Chloe is backing away from the edge of the cliff, her sight obscured by the heavy rainfall. All she sees are blurred outlines of the trees, the lighthouse, of her... she who had given her new hope and new happiness over the past week. I'm leaving her, Chloe thinks desperately. The realization came to her, quick and piercing like a blade to the heart that the blue-haired girl is reduced to tears. She puts her hands to her face and closes her eyes. "I'm so.... sorry," she cries out.

And then--

Silence, as if the someone had muted the world. The only thing Chloe hears now is her own crying.

She opens her eyes while the tears continue to fall and looks. There are trees all over the place, their dark silhouettes looming over Chloe. But they are standing still, undisturbed. The rain had indeed stopped, but the lighthouse had disappeared too. So did the cliff and--

Chloe calls out to the woods. She calls out a name again and again until she is hoarse. Has it happened? Has fate finally successfully separated them, after so many failed attempts over the week? Chloe makes her way through the forest, fighting off broken branches and thorny bushes. She keeps calling, half-shouting, half-sobbing. She is lost...

And then Chloe hears something other than her own weeping. A few feet away from her she hears a low rumbling sound, not unlike a thunderstorm. As Chloe moves faster, the rumbling grows louder and louder. At last, she is out of the woods. In the distance is a beautiful mansion, illuminated only by the sudden bursts of light that are falling from the sky but the sky is becoming darker and darker, as if being robbed of all heavenly light.

Are those... stars? Chloe wonders as she continues to watch the shower of light. Maybe it has happened and she 's actually in, you know, heaven (or hell, if you count falling stars to be a bad sign). Chloe stops walking and stares at the mansion. She did it. It's done, she thinks.

"I'm finally dead... And alone again," Chloe mutters bitterly but feeling calmer than she had ever been that night. She gradually stops crying as the reality of death hit her; there is no longer anything she can do. Death has finally caught up to her. If she is indeed dead, then Chloe no longer sees any reason to continue her search. In fact, she doesn't want to find her in this place.

After what seemed like hours, Chloe starts walking towards mansion basked in light and darkness. "Might as well check out my new crib, then," Chloe sighs. "Since it looks like I'll be staying here for like... forever."

[Chloe can be found wandering near the the entrance of the mansion then eventually exploring the first floor.]

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Chloe is standing in the first floor hallway, trying to figure out where to head next. She feels hungry now but misses her medication even more.

"Damn. I should've brought some to the lighthouse," Chloe mutters. "Would have some now if I did." She reaches into her pockets, hoping that she'd find at least one small bag of dope wedged between the creases of her jeans. Nothing. Chloe sighs.

Then suddenly, someone knocks into her and hugs her from behind, so strongly that she momentarily loses her balance. What the f--- But before the thought is even completed in her head, Chloe hears a quivering, high-pitched but very familiar voice in her ear.

No fucking way. Waves of shock course through her, as if suddenly electrocuted. Chloe turns around huriedly.

"MAX?" she shouts. Her best friend is right there, clinging on to her just like when they were in her room. This is not good. Chloe grabs Max's arms and squeezes them, as if to check if she was real. Unfortunately, she feels very real. Chloe is panicking now. "Max, what are you doing here?! Did something go wrong? Please don't tell me you're dead too," she pleads.

Max can't quite hear Chloe properly as she starts to become incoherent, determined not to let go however sore her arms become. She digs her face against the other girl's shoulder and struggles to make herself sensible. It's a small success, but her voice is still hoarse and tight. "Chloe, oh you're here- you're here! Oh, you're safe!"

She angles head back and to the side to look up into her best friend's face. "We're safe, Chloe. Not dead." She can't fight down the stupid, dopey grin on her face- not that she wants to. To drive the point home she practically shakes the other girl, pulling them both side to side because she has no other idea what to do with herself. "You're not dead!"

With the last words the implications of their one week together in Arcadia Bay spring back into her mind, and there's so much to say, so many apologies to make and so many words of affection, but her mouth can't seem to keep up. So instead she continues to smile her silly smile, continues to pull Chloe into a bear hug (or what passes for one as Max), and not even try to calm down.

Edited 2016-03-04 15:51 (UTC)

Max is hugging her-- practically breaking her ribs actually-- and Chloe has her arms around her too, only not as tightly. She is still in a daze, confused with what her best friend had just said."What do you mean I'm not dead?" Chloe asks in disbelief.

And then suddenly, as if realizing something just now, she pulls away from the embrace to face Max once again. "Holy shit, Max!" she shakes Max's shoulders. "You can bring back dead people too, can't you? That is awesome, Super Max!" Chloe even pumps the air for emphasis.

Wow that is. Completely wrong.

Max stares up at Chloe with an incredibly silly but blank grin because that might be the worse possible guess Chloe could have made. Then she bursts out laughing, digs her face again into Chloe's shoulder, shakes her head.

"No, no." She shakes with more laughter. It's not even that funny but laughing comes easily right now. And she realizes she hasn't really laughed like this in a long time.

"We're not in Arcadia Bay anymore. This is just some... other dimension. Wonderland." It's a pretty crazy explanation, but Max trusts Chloe to believe her, as she did before. As she always will, now that they're together- and being in the same place seems way more important than what the place is, anyway.

Chloe looks at Max then raises an eyebrow. Really, Max is just so full of bad jokes sometimes. Trust Max to laugh at her own joke. "Oh Max," Chloe tells her best friend as she rolls her eyes this time. "Even in the after life, you still have your sense of humor... which is to say no sense of humor. I mean, really?" Chloe gestures to the hallway they're standing in. "Wonderland? As in Alice in Wonderland? Come on Max, what are you, 6?"

After another moment of laughter, Max finally lets go and holds the other girl at arm's length. It seems a little pointless to struggle explaining this all to Chloe, at least at the moment. The importance of the situation seems to lessen compared to the fact that they're in a situation at all... together.

"In a day you're seriously gonna regret saying that," she says, squeezing Chloe's arms. But after a moment her smile starts to fade- it lingers only slightly. Her voice takes on a softer tone, too. "I... knew you'd come. But we have loads of catching up to do."

Chloe scratches her head because Max is reaalllyy making no sense at all right now. Maybe Max and I smoked some joint that night in the lighthouse and I don't remember and now we're still pretty fucking high.

But... Chloe's been high so many times that she knows when she's out of it and when she's right in the head. Granted, none of this is making any sense right now but Chloe feels pretty sober as of the moment and if there's one thing she's certain of right now, is that she is not fucking high.

Which means... for once, it's Max who's acting all crazy. "Max," Chloe says it slowly, to make sure that Max understands every word she's saying. "What do you mean we need to catch up? We we're just together a few hours ago."

"The lighthouse? The tornado? The... you know," Chloe clears her throat. "The kiss?"

Uhhhh, what.

What.

Max definitely doesn't 'wake-and-bake' like Chloe does, so if anyone's high it's just Chloe. And based on what she just said, she's from the exact moment that she- that Max loses her. Max is from one week later, so she should know everything that Chloe knows, but there wasn't any kiss.

The surprise wipes the smile off Max's face entirely. Her grip on Chloe's arms becomes tighter as she shakes her head in a small side-to-side motion. "Y- you're joking right?" That's a terrible joke. Literally enough to get Max really pissed if Chloe's just pulling her leg. "We're talking about when I had to... use the butterfly photo?"

"You mean, when you were about to use the photograph," Chloe corrects Max. Because that's what Chloe knows. The last thing she remembers was watching Max prepare to turn back time using the photo of the butterfly she took in the bathroom. The next thing she knew-- she was here.

"Max, what the fuck happened? One minute, I was freaking out on top of the cliff and you were getting ready to use your super powers and the next minute, I'm here with all the falling stars and shit," Chloe tells her best friend. "I mean really, when I saw those stars, I was sure I was in heaven-- or hell, wherever you think I deserve to be." Chloe laughs a little at her joke (Oh man, she's becoming as humorless as Max now) but then she becomes serious again.

She gazes into Max's eyes and squeezes Max's hands gently. "When I figured I wasn't in Arcadia Bay... or even on earth anymore, I thought... you finally... did it."

Edited 2016-03-05 15:18 (UTC)

Her breath catches and she has to gulp down a lot of emotion when Chloe mentions being in heaven or hell. Even though she wants to put aside all the explanations for now, she realizes how confused Chloe must feel. She breathes a very heavy sigh, and squeezes back the other girl's hands, forcing herself to look right into her eyes as well.

"...Chloe. Listen carefully." She bites her lip, closes her eyes for a moment, and then opens them again. Her voice wavers slightly. "We're not from the same time. People just show up here from wherever and whenever, and it's totally bizzaro but we don't have a choice. You're from... that night at the lighthouse. I'm from one week later." She leans in closer to give a more pointed stare.

"You... did die, Chloe. I... I couldn't save you. And I'm so, so sorry- for everything." Her hands instinctively grip even tighter, knuckles white. Somehow she finds enough resolve to strengthen her voice. "But you're not in heaven or hell right now. You're with me, okay? And you're safe."

Max keeps reassuring her but Chloe still doesn't get it. If anything, she's even more confused now. "Are you telling me," she says to Max in hushed tones because she wants to be absolutely sure that she understands what Max is trying to explain to her, "that we're from two different realities?"

Chloe persists. "You're saying that you remember me dying but in my memory, we're still on that cliff?" This is so messed up... even more than usual. Chloe shakes her head. "Is it like that thing you had with my dad, when you went back and saved him? But then... I shouldn't even remember..." Chloe's voice trails off as she tries to keep up.

Okay, now I'm getting really confused with all this time travel business. She takes a deep breath before speaking again. "Okay Max, start from the beginning..."

Edited 2016-03-05 16:19 (UTC)

She wants to say, Oh, Chloe, can't we just talk about anything other than that, because you've been gone for months and I just miss talking?

Or even, Can we not talk about how I screwed up and let my best friend die?

But she sees the confusion in Chloe's face, hears the quiet insistence in her voice, and caves in. But this time she has to look down, avoiding Chloe's eyes, for fear of what she'll find there when she talks about her failure. "...We were on the cliff, Chloe. The storm was coming, and you... you asked me to..." She glances up quickly, to fill in the blank with a pained look, her eyes already starting to tear up. Strange how just a few moments ago her world was so on fire with new found joy- but now she realizes that it has to be earned with a very painful admission, before anything else. "And I did." She shakes her head, staring at the ground, shoulders tense. "I didn't want to. But... but you asked me to, so I... I went back using the butterfly photo, and Nathan... shot you in the bathroom."

She takes a moment to breathe. Takes a moment to steel herself to say this next thing very clearly, to hush down the sobs so that Chloe can know this exact truth.

"You saved everyone."

Afterward her voice becomes more gentle, but more resigned too, as though brushing over a portion of her life that is less important. "Nathan and Jefferson went to jail. There was a funeral, and it was..." Sad. But beautiful somehow. She shakes her head. "Nobody knew what you did for them," she says, forcing the words out around her tight throat. "I know you don't remember any of this, but I swear, it all happened."

Okay, this was not the explanation she expected but Chloe bites the retort she had in mind. Maybe it'll make sense... eventually, she thinks. But despite her confusion, Chloe cannot ignore the hurt expression on Max's face. Her voice shakes a bit as she says, "Okay Max, I believe you. And I'm so sorry you had to go through that... I never meant to hurt you." She pulls Max into another hug, this time it's she who's holding on so tightly.

It pains Chloe to continue, to keep hurting Max but she needs to understand. "And I'm so sorry for putting you through this but Max," she says to Max's ear, "what about me? How come I remember differently?"

Chloe hugs Max even tighter. Her voice is strained. "Please help me understand, Max."

The hard part is done- mostly. There's still a lot to be said, but it can wait for some other time. For now it's enough to hug Chloe back, to stifle her crying against that leather jacket, to breathe in deeply and let it out in a shaky sigh. She keeps silent for a moment after Chloe's questions, just to savor it all.

Then it's on to the easier part. The part where she convinces Chloe that everything's okay.

"It's because of this place, Wonderland. It... captures people." She can't think of a better way to phrase it, so she forges on, pulling out of the hug to wipe her eyes. "From all over. Anywhere, and any time. So it got me from after you..." Another small shake of her head. "After the funeral. And it got you from when we were standing on the cliff."

She twists her bag's strap, trying to find a way to explain it better. "Just... imagine I'm from the future. You know, like... Marty McFly." That should be easy enough to understand. Max actually manages a small smile at her own lame reference.

While the reference to an old movie is dorky, it has the desired effect of helping Chloe understand better. It sounds crazy, just like the first time Max told Chloe of her super powers. But hey, that turned out to be super real... and even super fun. If Chloe had believed Max then that she was this time-travel warrior, then she can definitely believe her now when she says that they're in this multi-dimensional freak show called "Wonderland."

Chloe smiles at her best friend. "Okay, okay. I believe you, Maxfly. So, first you get super powers, then this enormous storms hits Arcadia Bay, and now we're in this creepy mansion that kidnaps people across time and space... Everything seems to happen to us, huh Max Caulfield?"

Despite the swirl of emotions inside her, she can't help the quick exhalation of breath, a very small laugh, at Maxfly. That's a new one. Marty Maxfly. Gross.

"Yeah," she answers, but her voice almost trails off. She's still trying to deal with how to explain not just what happened, but what she felt. And at some point she'll need to think of a way to apologize so that the other girl fully understands how much Max screwed up.

But that's not for today. Today is a happy day. So she keeps talking. "That's okay. As long as it's us." She doesn't add that she'd been alone for months now. Anyway that seems like a small price to pay for getting to see Chloe again, when she once thought she never would.

Her eyes brighten. "I have an idea." She grabs Chloe's hand and starts pulling her along toward the stairs.

Edited 2016-03-06 01:30 (UTC)

Chloe is indeed thrilled to be with Max again, even with the whole you're-from-this-time-I'm-from-this-time thing going on. It's freaky and downright strange, but hey, things can't always be perfect, right? And right now, solving Rachel's case plus not dying plus having Max with her again is the closest Chloe can get to perfection.

In fact, it's actually kinda cool to be in Wonderland with Max. Think of all the things we can do here, Chloe thinks excitedly. They don't call it Wonderland for nothing!

She lets her best friend drag her across the hallway. Max seems pretty psyched about something and Chloe is interested to see what it is but at the same time, she's a bit wary. They normally don't find the same things interesting or fun. Max usually gets all excited over some boring hipster film or something. "Where are you taking me, Maxfly?" Chloe calls out to her best friend as Max continues to pull her towards the staircase. "It better not be some lame art gallery or something."

Edited 2016-03-06 09:30 (UTC)

"Don't worry, it's not any 'twee hipster' crap," she says, as though she can read Chloe's mind- they've been together long enough that she practically can. "Come on." She picks up the pace, pulling Chloe along faster up the stairs.

She tries to explain some things at the same time, and it comes out a little breathless. "We each get a room all to ourselves. I live on floor three, room seven." She finishes just as they reach the third floor, and walk toward Max's room. "Here," Max says, pointing out the door.

...But she takes Chloe to the door across from it, room eight. "And this... uh." Probably she should have introduced this idea a bit more slowly, but she got overexcited. Oh well. "This can be yours. I mean, if you want." She glances up at the taller girl. "Cool?"

Edited 2016-03-06 10:46 (UTC)

Chloe laughs at Max. She's practically out of breath but she still has that huge grin on her face.

"A room all to ourselves huh?" Chloe repeats. She glances at Max's bedroom door before opening the door to room 8 and taking a peek. Inside was a single bed in the corner, a study desk by the window and wooden cabinet across the bed. It's all very plain and definitely not Chloe's style.

"Lovely," Chloe tells Max. "But it'll need a little Chloe-fying before it becomes liveable," she continues as she closes the door.

"But I don't even see the point in getting a room for myself," Chloe says. She walks to Max's room, opens the door and steps inside. "I'll obviously be crashing in your place all the time anyway."

Max's room is pretty messy, but that's what someone would expect from an eigtheen year old. Books and papers are strewn over a desk and table, the bed isn't made, a guitar lies across the couch, partially covered by a blanket. And of course, abover her bed is her photo wall- covered by dozens of photos, with big paper lanterns hanging on a wire across them.

Max laughs and strides across the hallway and into her room. She grabs Chloe's wrist and tries to pull her out into the hall. "Hold your horses! I'm sure I'll never get rid of you," she complains, though her tone makes it sound like it's the best thing in the world. "But I might want to crash your place now and then."

She gives another few playful tugs. "Open your door again. I promise, it'll be great."

For the second time today, Chloe lets Max pull her away. "Maaax," Chloe whines. "We just saw that room. It's really not my style."

They're standing again in front of Room 8. Chloe looks at Max then rolls her eyes. "Fine. If you wanna make me jealous by showing me how cool your room is and how boring--- HOLY SHIT!"

For Chloe had just reopened Room 8 and instead of seeing the plain walls and tidy bed, she sees a replica of her own bedroom from Arcadia Bay. Posters of her favorite movies and pages torn from magazines are posted all over the walls, along with some graffiti art. The study desk is no longer empty as it had been earlier; instead, there's a laptop, a few cigarette butts and stacks of books lying on top of the table. Even the shoe box filled with Chloe's CDs and pictures could be seen peeking under the unkept bed.

"Holy shit, Max!" Chloe exclaims as she enters the room. "What the fuck just happened?!"

Edited 2016-03-06 14:39 (UTC)

There's some instances where Max really gets the jump on Chloe, when she gets to penetrate the blue-haired punk's self-confident bubble of attitude, and that's always a real treat. She grins at Chloe, almost smug, savoring the other girl's reaction. And it's nice to just watch her emote, anyway.

Max makes a circular motion with her hands, as though revealing something. "Magic," she says, overemphasizing the word. "It's... like that a lot, here." She steps into the room as well, looking around, amazed at how similar it all is to Arcadia Bay, though it's missing Rachel's missing-person-posters and other personal touches. Max could tell they were missing almost at a single glance.

After the funeral, Joyce had refused to change anything about her only child's room. Max had sat there on the bed, pouring over all of Chloe's stuff, remembering things. Stuff that made her smile. Memories of two kids running through town, waving toy swords. Pictures of them trying to skateboard, or chasing birds through the woods, or just pictures of Chloe doing anything and everything- Max would look at those for a long time. She still has a few in her bag.

She bites her lip.

Then turns back to Chloe, smiling very slightly. "Do you like it?" It feels silly, how much she wants to impress her best friend, and somehow this room feels like a part of that. And at least she won't have to rely on just pictures anymore. "There's way more hocus pocus in store."

"Like it?" Chloe grabs Max's shoulders and gives them a shake. "I hella love it!" She jumps on her bed and lies down. "This is amazing!" Chloe exclaims as she gazes at the ceiling. Even the bed feels the same, she thinks happily.

She props herself up and looks at Max. Chloe flashes her evil grin. "So let's just say-- hypothetically, of course-- that I wanted some of my sweet medication right now, I could just wish for it and then-- abracadabra-- it magically appears?"

She giggles at being shaken, and the grin stays when Chloe jumps onto the bed. When Max first arrived in Wonderland, she had been freaking out at everything; she's glad that Chloe has a friend to show her how things work, to break her into the whole 'magic' business.

Then there's Chloe's classic grin, and Max raises her eyebrows because she's sure it's going to be a typical Chloe statement. She sits on the bed next to the punk, uhhh, stoner.

"Really? You just got here." Almost dying is probably a good excuse though, so Max just sighs. Some things really don't change- and in all honesty, Max is glad for that, today. "You just have to imagine it, then it'll appear in the closet." She jerks her head in that direction.

"No way I'm getting it for you, though," she says with a smile, flopping down onto her back, on top of Chloe's legs.

"Well I can't get it if you're lying on top of me like some dried up otter now, can I?" Chloe tells Max while they're lying down. Although eager to try out this magic closet, Chloe doesn't try to get up. It's been a while since she and Max properly hung out in her room (meaning no piecing together of clues or hiding from David or Jefferson involved) and Chloe isn't keen on ending it just yet. She finds Max's weight on her legs quite comforting, as if the pressure on her legs is a sure sign that her best friend is right there with her.

For a while, Chloe doesn't talk. She tries to absorb everything that's happened to her over the past hours in Wonderland. And then she remembers something that still doesn't make sense to her. "Max?" Chloe says but still doesn't move. "What's up with the falling stars? Is it a normal thing in Wonderland?"

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