[OPEN] Do you see the story?

[nascensibility]

Who: Evelyn O'Connell & YOU
Where: The Oasis
When: Duration of the event, Jan. 13-16
Rating: PG-13
Summary: We live as we dream - alone. While the dream disappears, the life continues painfully.
The Story:

The Camp

[She knew it by the smell before she even opened her eyes.

Sand and arid weather, the familiar creak of tent ropes lashed to wooden stakes, the grease in the equipment and raw leather. For several stunning moments Evelyn actually hoped that she was home, in such a way that everything - everything, from Wonderland to Imhotep's return to Alex's kidnapping to dying - had been a terrible, long dream. Even that is a hope too far, so unlikely as to be untenable. Once the tent flap is open, once she sees the inelegant sprawl of a dig site and the confused faces of the other residents, the outskirts of a jungle that claimed her life, she knows. Once the initial delirious nature of the reintroduction settles, she too picks up a pack and ventures into the heart of darkness.]

The Jungle

[The first couple of days are an unpredictable mess and she expected as much, people venturing in and out of minor alliances and the safety of small groups, preferring their friends and close associates to a community-wide coalition. It isn't their fault, and what could she tell them? What could she say that would be believed, that wouldn't be discarded as being overly concerned with the welfare of others who would rather take care of themselves?

It is with a heavy stone in the pit of her stomach that Evelyn does her best to move between the groups, her quiet mistaken for apathy, her familiarity with the terrain largely unnoticed. When they pass through the small valley pitted with bodies and tall grass she thinks of the inevitable thunderstorm, when the devilish little pygmies come she picks up a blunt instrument and runs with the best of them.

Fighting never felt so freeing, wild-eyed with bared teeth and an eagerness for the hunt, little challenge compared to the seasonal sacrifice
of a bull hippo in the water, red staining the river. Strikes crack like the flail and she laughs. She laughs.

They creep closer into the centre of the oasis with an agonising slowness, for it was written that she should be loyal to the nightmare of her choice.]

The Pyramid

[While her dreams have continued in full force she notices the sleeplessness of other residents, makes to ask them of their nightmares and what they see, if there is any similarity to her own. Pointless suffering born of her own past and unusual personality traits manifesting themselves in the people around her like so many foreign languages all spoken at once, perplexing and intriguing in turn, mitigating the effects of lives unseen.

Oil lamps burning hot in alabaster halls so similar to those in the charnel house of the Scorpion King, not so different from Philae
but for the association to the Lord of Embalming, whose dues must be paid. Sandals brushing stone floors, music and laughter in the distance -
Father's evening revelries, the mistresses of the God-King entertaining him with juggling and dance. She swallows bile.

She swallows blood.

It takes Evelyn a full hour to cross the courtyard into the pyramid, flanked by adamantine statues of jackals, guardians of the dead. She loiters too long on the edge in a dithering manner so unlike her, more plagued by the memory of what once stained this unholy ground than what they might find inside the walls of the tomb. Eventually she urges others in, knows that dwelling will do no good when the sky grows dark and lightning crackles overhead.]

Comments

the camp

[shivving]

[ He wakes to air that's hot and dry, reminding him of nothing so much as Texas in the last days of July, when the summer heat had reached its peak. But the gritty sand in the air is unfamiliar, and when he looks down at himself, at the white collared shirt and old-fashioned khakis tucked into long socks, all he can do is stare.

Joel stumbles out of his tent, looking around - for Ellie, primarily, or Tess, but neither of them are in sight. The only person nearby that he recognizes is Evelyn, and though they've never exactly been friendly, he can at least trust her to tell him the truth. And with what he's seen of her, he knows she's competent.

He heads over to her, stumbling through the sand and already wrenching at the buttons of the old-fashioned shirt, trying to keep it from choking him. ]

Miss Evelyn.

[ He waves a hand at the dusty old tents, at the - is that a pyramid in the distance? ]

S'pose this is another one of them events?

[ He's not really sure what he's expecting from her - mostly, he's just glad to see a familiar face. And that nothing's trying to kill him. Yet. ]

[nascensibility]

[Practical dress is imperative and she is grateful to see that the event graced her with her usual jodhpurs, although the uncanny resemblance to what she had been wearing upon her death is something she could do without. People are beginning to wake up, slowly, and she has no doubt that by noon they'll all be eager to venture into the thick heat of the jungle when the scorching sand begins to burn a little too much for comfort.

It would feel good to be back, if the association wasn't so horrifying.]

Yes.

[She replies without thinking, without turning, something dreamlike in her tone as she looks past the tents and into the lush green goliath before them. Lazily, Evelyn tilts her head to view him - Joel Miller, she should have known him by the drawl - and watches him fuss with the collar of his shirt. It almost makes her smile.]

This is from my world. The oasis of Ahm Shere.

[shivving]

Your world?

[ She does look awfully calm, for having just been transported into what he's beginning to suspect might be the actual Egyptian desert. Still, he looks at the small, prim Englishwoman with disbelief. It's hard to imagine her visiting a place like this by choice. ]

Thought you were a librarian.

[nascensibility]

Only by necessity.

[The gaping he's doing would be uncommonly funny were she in the mood for laughter. Were she not so accustomed to the sight of such impossible greenery in the middle of the waste land Evelyn might also share in Joel's concerns, but she knows the dangers here. Or knew them, once. ]

I'm an archaeologist, I specialise in Egyptian antiquities and the old kingdom languages. [For an instant she pauses, huffing through her nose with mild amusement.] ...it's been so long since I've said that.

[Perhaps it is not truly the events that bring forgetting, but time. Time takes everything, even habits.

Even memories.]

I'm afraid our introduction must have given you the impression that I prefer to spend my time inside. This is where I usually work, or something like it.

[shivving]

[ Joel shakes his head, looking at her in a new light as he mutters to himself. ]

Archaeologist.

Then I guess you know all about this place. [ He glances around, remembering past events. ] Tell me the worst thing I gotta worry about here is a sunburn.

[nascensibility]

[She turns, giving him a look so unfathomably sceptical that a lesser man might have retreated immediately without further questions. He doesn't know her. He hasn't heard. Most of them haven't and there is good reason for it, secrets wound around secrets and locked away in chests that even Evelyn is wary of opening.

There is good reason for that caution.]

Ahm Shere is cursed, and I don't mean that in the metaphorical sense. [An air of recitation is affected in her voice, not unlike a professor lecturing to a pupil:] An ancient king once offered his soul to the god of the dead in return for succor in the desert, and so the water and trees grew beneath his feet.

[Arms folded over her chest, Evelyn looks to Joel.]

This is where I died.

pyramid

[ofletters]

[ Sam is not himself today. Insomnia is nothing new, and neither is the rapid shift of their environment from the mansion to... somewhere else, but the effects on this occasion are running their course. He's exhausted, fairly delirious, and - oh, yes, there are memories that are not his own forcing themselves upon him.

Having been killed by his brother once before, Abel's identity is entirely unwelcome. ]

... Dammit. [ He breathes, bracing himself against the wall. How he'd got separated from... everyone is beyond him, but it's easy enough to blame it on the day-and-nightmares that have risen steadily to the surface over the past few... days? How much time has passed since they woke up in the desert, anyway?

It isn't good. The lack of sleep and less than an ideal amount of water have him completely fatigued, making it all the easier for him to confuse his own past with the scenes he sees in his mind's eye.

The fact that both Sam and Abel have had run-ins with Lucifer does not make it any easier. ]

[nascensibility]

[Mitigating the effects of her hallucinations isn't as difficult now, when she has concentrated so hard for so long on keeping them in check back in Wonderland. She still sleepwalks, but not to the extent she once did - Evelyn wonders if it is a by-product of somehow becoming less human, less...something.

But she sees the others, knows the disorienting sway of another voice that seems to be yours, conscious of how dangerous they might be. It won't keep her from approaching those she cares about, however.]

Sam!

[She notices him around a corner, braced against cool sandstone and looking worse for wear. Hurrying to his side it becomes more evident that the temperature is another cause for ailing - Evelyn forgets that few enjoy the heat as much as she.]

Sam, are you all right?

[ofletters]

[ No. He isn't all right. He isn't himself, above all, and it's clear by the stumbling way he moves, the disoriented look in his eyes.

The desert, that makes sense. He still hears Lucifer's voice, gentle and encouraging. He hears Cain (Dean?) in the distance, pleading. Yelling.

That voice is - a woman's, though. He wavers. ]

What? [ He can't make sense of the setting, braces himself again against a wall. The exhaustion, the dehydration, doesn't help. The hallucinations are strong enough as it is. Sam looks at Evie, but he doesn't see her, not really. ]

I don't - I don't... know.

[ Sam. That's his name. Sam, not Abel. He breathes. ]

... I need to - to get out of here.

[nascensibility]

You look awful,

[Evelyn blurts without meaning to, watching the senseless way his eyes shift over subjects, how paranoid he appears to be in spite of the present lack of threats. Out here, she thought the same thing once.

It might have been better to stay in the desert, to brave the habūb.]

We cannot leave the oasis, [she says firmly,] But I can stay with you, Sam.

[ofletters]

[ Her words are like a faint and distant breeze, not pressing, not urgent. Instead, he's essentially a slave to the false members, to the alternate identity that in no way belongs to Sam. ]

You shouldn't, you might be in danger.

[ We're all in danger. Not just here, but... always. ]

Where's - [ He begins, but neither 'Cain' nor 'Dean' sound quite right. ] ... my brother?

Camp

[uncaging]

[Elizabeth is absolutely relishing this event; it's the sort of thing she'd read about so often in books and dreamed of experiencing herself, casting her as the intrepid explorer in the desert or jungle or even the Arctic in the games she used to play as a child. Her outfit is similar to her everyday clothes, which for once fit in with the event instead of making her look like a relic even around the mansion, and as she kneels in the dirt she babbles excitedly to whomever is close enough to listen about history and archaeology and the hieroglyphs she read about once.

She waves at Evie as she sees her, not having met her personally before, but recognising her from the sheer amount of time she spends in the library.]

Hello there! Isn't this wonderful?

sob elizabeth you're so kawaii

[nascensibility]

[It's a curious thing to experience two very different emotions in the place like this: on the one hand, there is the familiarity of what feels like home with the oiled equipment and the smell of canvas and hastily-made Sudanese coffee, but on the other hand this welcoming tableau is set before an oasis so vast and so sinister that it turns her stomach to look at the thing.

Still, some small pleasures can be derived from the pure and unadulterated delight that is this young woman's fervor for archaeological work. There are so few here who would appreciate it.]

In some ways, [she admits, smiling softly and moving to look at the kit of brushes in front of the young woman. She can't be that much older than Evelyn was on her first dig.] Have you not seen a site like this before?

[uncaging]

Only in books. [She'd studied them intensely, enchanted with the depictions of ancient societies being uncovered, wanting desperately to explore and learn about them for herself.] I never thought I'd get to see anything like it for myself.

[nascensibility]

[Evelyn crouches next to her, looking over the pottery sherds she's extracted and has carefully been cleaning. God, it makes her miss home.]

This is similar to the sites in which I grew up, [she informs her, reaching over for a small brush.] My father was an explorer...an adventurer, an archaeologist, a Classicist - fancied himself a Renaissance man, but spent a great deal of time out of doors.

[uncaging]

That sounds like a wonderful childhood. [She can't help but feel a little jealous, though that's quickly supplanted by the desire to hear all of the stories Evelyn's able to tell her of her experiences.]

I never got out much. [That's something of an understatement.] Though I read all about the ancient civilisations.

the jungle

[manipulative]

[ the event's forced her into attire she wouldn't otherwise wear, outdated pants and a blouse, but she keeps those characteristic heels of hers on her feet. katherine pierce knows how to run better than the most talented of athletes, but she has always done so with a good heel. ]

[ said good heel tends to help with the ugly pygmies that seem to shoot out of the trees like rockets toward her, even though she doesn't quite like the dusty, dry newspaper feel of them beneath her bare fingers. it seems as though this evening is one where she has to dance a little too closely with them, constantly running from them before she inevitably grows frustrated and chooses to tangle with them. ]

[ she's running now, growing tired of the little things making a gleeful like sound as they seem to swing from tree to tree. with her speed as an advantage, she's outmanoeuvred a small group of them, and appears as a blur behind evelyn, just in time to smack a pygmy launching itself toward evelyn's back with her incredible strength right into a tree. ]

[ she lets out a breath, annoyed. ] What the hell are those things?

LMAO 1/2

[nascensibility]

[The running is something she did not miss, and she lacks the power of the Book of the Dead - of course the event wouldn't let her bring it along, after giving it to her for the holidays - which unfortunately means that every resident is left to their own devices for dealing with the oasis' locals.]

Pygmies,

[Evelyn says breathlessly, as if the word alone should explain the intricacies of this place and its monstrous little inhabitants. At the current juncture they seem largely intimidated by the strength of her new associate, scurrying away into the underbrush and Evelyn turns to stare at-]

[nascensibility]

Elena?!

[manipulative]

[ katherine clenches her teeth. what's worse? pygmies or her doppelgänger? there'd be days where she'd opt for the tiny, ugly little dead things, and then others where she'd choose the dull as dishwater not-quite-dead thing. ]

[ she brushes her curled hair from her face, rolling her eyes as she looks at her. but it doesn't last for too long as her attention's snatched away by a snap of a twig and the crunch of leaves against feet. there's sounds of movements she doesn't quite trust, and so katherine instead focuses on that. ]

We need to move.

[ but not before katherine grabs a thick stone from the ground, weighing it in her hand as she pulls herself to her full height. ]

pyramid~

[thecourier]

[Lack of sleep and strange, disturbing dreams are nothing new to Dan in many respects, but this is a step up from his usual night time disturbances. It hadn't taken him long to realise exactly what he was seeing - or rather, when he was seeing - in the brief flashes of colour and life that intruded on him with increasing frequency.

And, in his usual manner, he has not been bereft of altercations with the locals.

When he finds Evelyn, the sleeves of his shirt have been torn by something a little more vicious than errant branches, and his revolver has become a permanent resident in his hand. He spots her from a ways off and jogs across the courtyard to her, noting the way she idles - unlike her, a person who always moves with such purpose.

His hand comes up to her elbow when he's close, a light touch that's both a reassurance and a question. Pyramids. He's read about those.]

This one of yours, sweetheart?

sob

[nascensibility]

[Startled from her reverie Evelyn clutches for Dan's arm, the only conceivably firm hold in all of this, a land of bloody shades and bloody sand. On occasion she has drifted from their shared bed with the disorientation that only the darkest dreams can conjure and Dan has gently steered her back to the sheets, the pillows, his arms. When she looks at him she looks through, for a moment, for long enough to warrant a concern before focusing on the glint of his gun and the furrow of his brow.]

...Dan.

[It's soft and weary, but unmistakable recognition.]

Yes, this... [Is where it happened. But he doesn't know, does he? She's never said.] ...this is mine. I'm sorry for wandering.

;;

[thecourier]

[The smile as she grips his arm and speaks is small but warm, caring as the words draw up memories of her occasional nighttime wanderings and the need to carefully steer her back to bed before she can get out of the room and go meandering down to the bar again. She might find someone she likes better, he'd tease, and he can't have that.

Dan puts his arms around her and kisses her forehead where her hairline dips into its widows peak. He glances at the pyramid and narrows his eyes against the glare.]

No need t' be sorry, Evie. [He tells her, as he always does, but there is no warm bed and no comfortable sheets to lead her back to in this place.

His voice quiets, and he looks at her.]

Whatcha doin' out here?

[nascensibility]

I can't-

[Tell him? No, she can, she's just mildly terrified of what it means to tell him, to confess that she's anticipated coming to the pyramid for the last couple of days with truly abominable anxiety. It is one thing to remember it as it happened in her nightmares, to think back on it with a sigh while working in the library: it is another thing entirely to be confronted by everything exactly as it was.

Caught in the jungle, fleeing the damned pygmies, feeling the oppressive dread increase as she takes zigzagging steps to the ziggurat in the centre of the oasis.]

This... [She extends a hand out from the cracks in his embrace, stony-faced and in tight control when her voice evens when she says:] I came to see it. This spot. I was- This is where I was standing when-

[Evelyn pulls away from Dan, moving several feet away.]

Here. Jonathan, my brother, he was here. And Rick- Rick and Alex were between the pillars over there, Alex had- he was wearing something that could only be removed within the confines of the temple or it would kill him and I was there.

[She points to Dan's boots.]

When I died.

[thecourier]

[He lets her move away with a subtle reluctance, shown only in the way his hand lingers on her arm before she's out of reach. Then, he watches, glancing to each point she indicates, and...

... the bottom drops out of his stomach, at the same time as it does an uncomfortable, nauseating flip and washes ice-cold through his entire body. He takes a smart step back. He doesn't say anything, not even 'oh', he just frowns as he processes this new and unsettling piece of information for several moments, looking at the ground like he expects to see blood on the sand.]

You died. [He says, as if confirming it to himself that he had heard those words.

It doesn't cross his mind to think that she should have told him this before. She's alive in front of him now, but if she died here... Dan is intelligent enough to know what that means.

He closes some distance between them and takes her hand, squeezing it gently.]

Y' really wanna hang around here?