hold your breath and just wait (part I)

(Roleplay entry. Separate from the main chain. Part one of...?)

The Duchess was elsewhere when the pull came. Dressed in a black plastic skirt, a corset top in red and black, and neon blue earrings, she had a notepad out at the rave and she was talking to the kid who said he'd seen the walker in the woods.

"And that's when you dove under the bush?" she asked, and the world dissolved around her. When it resolved, she swayed a bit, placing her hand on a stained wooden wall. She frowned, looking around the room.

She recognized no one but the Duke, but...he didn't look...quite...right? He walked past her to a folding gated door, opened it, and left the room. She followed.

"Hiro?" she asked faintly, and heard a loud "HA!"

She walked away from the rest of the strangers standing around the room, and walked through the still-open door. She found herself on a narrow balcony with an ornate--steel? Iron? railing. She kept her distance, but there wasn't a lot of room to stay back from it. Bending forward, though, she saw two people on the ground. One she'd never seen before, a small woman, lithe in build, dark-haired, and the other one was--Justine? Was that Justine?

Why was Justine here?

The dark-haired woman took a knife from under her skirt, and threw it. She followed the trajectory and saw it hit the dark red nose of a clown. She blinked. Why was there a clown on whatever side street this was?

Hiro leaned over the railing, shouting. "Justine! Give it back!"

She blinked. Give what back?

Justine yelled and threw something shiny and round up towards the balcony. Hiro snatched it out of the air, sighing. "Justine..."

From the room behind her she heard muted voices. "...is going to have a bloody fit."

Another voice. "Clowns need psychiatric help more than killing. Though it is a tough call."

"I'm sorry!" Justine wailed. "It was pretty!"

Hiro just shook his head, flipping open the case with a clawed digit. She walked closer. It seemed to be some sort of timepiece, the size of his palm. It looked...familiar? He turned a dial on the watch...

...and she found herself on another stool next to a bar that looked cobbled together from abandoned doors and shelving pieces. She turned to her right, and there was another young man. She looked down. Her pen was glowing under the blacklight.

This was not the same rave.

She heard a click, and the balcony came into sharp, painfully bright focus. She fell to her knees, gasping.

"I can't be around too many types of magic!" the dark-haired woman called up from the street below. The Duchess reached out, trying to breathe, her hand closing around a bit of the balcony railing, and hissed at the sudden burn. Iron, then. She staggered upright, wide eyes turning to the Duke.

Hiro sighed. "Oh," he said softly. She narrowed her eyes. Justine screamed from the room behind her.
She turned, looking at the now-closed door into the room from the balcony. Wasn't Justine--she looked down at the street. What on earth--

Justine screamed again, and she threw the door open, running inside.

"Help," Hiro said softly, behind her. She blinked.

"Help with WHAT?" she cried.

"Uh...Justine opened the door..."

She peered at him, then into the room. There was a door, near dead center of the wall across from where she stood. It stood open. Darkness was all that was beyond the door. There was a disaffected pale-haired woman with heavy black glasses, dressed in vintage pink, tapping her foot. Justine was cowering under a table covered in--leaves? Herbs? There was a small possum's skull, several stones, and vials full of dark liquid. A woman with victory rolls in her platinum hair grimaced, hissing.

Hiro stepped forward, walking closer to the open door. "I guess I didn't lock up the watch from the circus..."

She blinked. Wait. That rang a bell. She thought for a moment.

"You always lock up the--"

"Just hocus-pocus," the woman in pink said. "No worries."

Justine screamed again. "I didn't know!"

Memories were slowly starting to coalesce. All right. The watch manipulated time. She remembered that. Did it pull the threads in straight lines? Because this didn't feel like the reality stream she was accustomed to.

The platinum-haired woman turned on her. "Your house guest made an unwelcome appearance. Give Hiro the same bath as last time--"

Last time? she thought, a tad hysterically.

"--though double the salt I gave you."

She blinked at the woman. The woman threw her hands up and stalked across the room.

She watched as a slim young man, dark hair bound up in a topknot, approached Justine, cowering under the desk. He leaned over, putting a hand on her arm. Wait. She knew him to. His name was...

"Justine," he said softly. "You...and I..." His words fell into inaudibility, then resumd. "Downstairs...outside..."

She nodded. "Probably wise..."

"It's all good but you--" Hiro started. Emilly blinked when the penny dropped.

"Wait. Who opened the door?!"

Justine remained crouched under the desk, seemingly too scared to move. This was a catastrophe.

"I think," Hiro began, then fell silent again. She narrowed her eyes at him.

The dark-haired woman looked confused, and worried, as she came through the archway on the far side of the room. "Will I have to worry much about you all unrooting me or being a direct hazard to my health?"

The Duchess blinked. "Unrooting you? You may have to define that?"

The woman just looked at her. She looked down at the woman's feet.

"Do you have roots?" she finally asked.

"I am still a little dis...disoriented..." Hiro murmured.

The woman shifted uncomfortably. "Perhaps another time...I think there is enough chaos...and I do not wish to be in a bad position while explaining."

"I don't think we shiould go to the funhouse," Hiro murmured. Her eyes flew wide. The FUNHOUSE?! But they'd taken that down, they'd sent the Circus far away, almost a year ago--

The platinum blonde looked at her. "Emilly, B̵͔̃́͛̆͛̚ȅ̶̛̤͍̅l̷̘̩̭̖̠̦͔̂̈́̏̂́̈́͝ḻ̸̹͓̍͂͒͂́̑͘ạ̵̢̣̗̠͍̇́͊͝ is not a mundane, and she can explain more later."

Emilly shook her head. That was almost like a burst of static in her head. What--"

"I do thei..." Hiro began, and she slowly turned her head to look at him. "Kwe needdd..."

Oh, gods, what now?

He stared fixedly at the door, whispering. "...to go to the funhouse..."

Oh no. NO no no no NO--

(Continued in part II.)