fh_adventures | Outside the Labyrinth

Outside the Labyrinth

It seemed the time for research and planning was through. In Jareth's address to the island, he gave them twenty-four hours to traverse a Labyrinth that seemed to change on a whim in order to take back the friends that he had stolen.

Team Distraction was entering first. Anyone with as much power as this Jareth seemed to would probably have some nasty surprises in store. They'd go in ahead of the second group to spring as many traps as they could while the other team ghosted in and headed directly to the castle.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. Let's see how long things went as smoothly as our would-be heroes would like.

[For the members of Team Distraction, please! If you want to RP out how the teams were formed and decided, there is a place to do so here! ~~Wait for OCD or the biting fairies will get you~~ OCD ready to go!]

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The Junk Lady was used to having to coax her ~~victims~~ visitors inside a little more, and was pleasantly surprised to have Kennedy just walk right in. "Come in, come in! It's not cool at all -- it's toasty warm, and I have just what you're looking for!" And she did, too. The room was closely packed with all sorts of things that were much less junk-like than the stuff outside, and some of them were awfully familiar-looking.

Yay for you, getting the entitled little rich kid?

"Do you?" Kennedy asked, still skeptical of a place like this in the middle of all that junk. "'cause I'm pretty sure I've never talked to you before, so how would you know?"

"Oh, I have a little bit of everything, don't you know! It's amazing the kinds of things you find just lying around. Lost. Forgotten. Why, just last week... but you look like you're a girl who likes pretty things, aren't you?" She scuttled over to an old chest of drawers and rummaged through it. "Some of the finer things, yes? Jewelry, maybe?"

She pulled out five or six very beautiful necklaces, and draped them over one arm in order to better show them off. One of them looked awfully familiar to Kennedy. "You see anything you like?"

"I'm not so much into--" Kennedy started to say, but light glinting off the gold of one particular crucifix pendant (http://applesofgold.com/DP113-5.html) caught her eye and she trailed off.

She almost knew before she reached out to touch it and turn it over that she'd find her initials engraved neatly into the back of it.

"My mom gave me this," she said in a slightly stunned voice, raising her eyes to look at the Junk Lady. "When I was a kid. Right before she left me and Dad."

She hadn't understood it at the time, but years later it'd sunk in; crosses repelled vampires, and it'd been Mom's unspoken way of saying that just maybe, she was okay with the whole Potential Slayer thing after all.

Kennedy's voice was subdued as she ran a finger lightly over the pendant. "I lost it a couple of years ago when I was at school in Vermont... how did you...?"

"Oh, you know. Things turn up here and there, and they make their way here. Lost things. You like that, do you? It's very pretty. Maybe you should try it on, shouldn't you?" She put the other necklaces down, unhooked the clasp on the crucifix, and reached out to put it around Kennedy's neck with a creepy sort of smile.

"Duh, I like it; it's mine," Kennedy answered.

She hadn't regretted the loss of the necklace as much at the time, but there were things... Sookie losing her grandmother, Dru losing her dad, Tara's clear affection for her mother... Kennedy hadn't seen her mother in eight years, and suddenly that little bit of connection seemed that much more important.

Except.

Bobby was in there somewhere, and Sookie'd looked like hell ever since, and the only way Kennedy knew to try and make things any better was to come on this mission.

She was leaning forward to let the woman put the necklace around her neck, but there was an unpleasant chill starting along her spine.

"That's it, Dearie. That's it. We'll put this pretty necklace on you, and then you can look at it in the mirror for as long as you want. Won't you like that?"

She would, wouldn't she? Like to just sit and look at the necklace forever? The lady had the pendant around Kennedy's neck, now, and was fumbling with the clasp.

Look at it in the mirror? Hello, suspicion-y vibes. Not that Kennedy had a low opinion of her own looks, but come on, there was a line. Also, see above re: creepy.

She jerked back abruptly, biting back a flash of worry about breaking the chain. "Thanks, but I'd rather just take it with me."

The Lady angrily thrust her hands forward, trying to get the necklace back onto Kennedy. "No, no, NO! You'll put it on! You like the necklace, you said so! I've got other things you like, too!"

And creepy had just done a nosedive into outright disturbing, not to mention the Junk Lady's insistence had just bumped right up against the brick wall of Kennedy's instinct to balk at being told to do anything.

"Okay," Kennedy snapped, leaping back a step. "I happen to like things? But I have a lot of them, so you really obviously haven't met me. Hell, I can do all the shopping I want on my phone."

When she could get a signal, which was definitely not now, but details.

"And thing is? I love this necklace, but the reason Mom gave it to me isn't going to be a hell of a lot of use if I just stick around. In fact, that reason's why I need to jam. Like now."

"No, you can't go! You just got here!" The lady turned to rummage through a pile of things and started shoving them at Kennedy. "I've got everything a little girl could want! Things you like! Just stay a while and enjoy them!"

The prospect of leaving the necklace behind did not, as it happened, come without a sizeable package of suck, but Kennedy had a job to do.

A job she was pretty sure her mom would be okay with, actually.

"Not," she interjected, emphasis on the attitude, "a little girl, thanks. And I've got a job to do, lady, so I'm gonna pass."

She turned and headed back for the door, sparing a quick glance back over her shoulder for the necklace as she went.

The Junk Lady dangled the necklace hopefully and shook it at Kennedy. She wanted the necklace didn't she? She should come back!

Kennedy snorted, but didn't stop walking. "I liked it better when it came from someone else," she bit out just before heading back into the junk city.

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Outside the Labyrinth

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

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Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode

Re: Welcome to the Junk Lady's abode