#jeremiah w. sasha 001.

[ofwrxth]

+ SASHA / THE FREY

"Sash, this stall is cursed. I swear! There's a fucking raccoon every time I look over my shoulder." Jerry scratches his elbow and, with a wince, looks over his shoulder for a beat. Almost as quickly as he'd looked, he glances away, whispering loudly to her. "It's still there." He says, nodding in the direction of the trash panda. "Did I take something?" Jerry's hand hovers around his mouth. "I know I shouldn't have had that pie from old lady Forester. I bet she put shrooms in it. Do you think I'm tripping? Do you see it? I feel like I keep seeing it. Did I make that up?" His questions come in rapid succession as he shifts from side to side on his work station stool. Though he doesn't know why Sasha insists on bringing him with her to The Frey. It's not like he can contribute much.

Still, he doesn't mind keeping her company. At least he didn't usually. But the raccoon! If he understood the complexities of what he did and didn't see, Jerry would know that his sister's familiar was always keeping a keen eye on him. And sometimes he even remembered it was her familiar. Other times, like today, he'd swear left, right and center, that it was an omen. Or a sign he'd been cursed. Though, perhaps it's not even Bandit whose gaze he's keenly aware of, but rather Echo. Non corporeal and unseen by her witch whose eyes were blind to his own magic when Jerry is present. Echo shifts, nudging Bandit away so Jerry will relax, following suit as they both jump off the table they were perched on. "Or maybe," Jerry's been rambling about the old stall owner for a minute now, "she's hexed them. Otherwise why would I keep seeing the trash –" he looks over again, mouth opening and closing at the sight of...nothing. "Panda...." @gloriouswhispers

[dxrkenedheights]

★・・・・・・★

Dex isn't sure what the voices are saying, but it's not because his hearing has left him. He looks to Sloane with confusion as a nonsensical conversation fills the air, gun drawn and ready while they seamlessly and silently plan their confrontation. The two wolves work together in precise fluidity, the doors kicked open in unison but that's when Dex loses it. The aim of his gun is lowered instantly at the sight of pink, from the lampshade to the hat, he immediately knows there isn't a single threat in the room. He cracks into a laughter, only stopping himself when he remembers the moment, his chuckles stifled but remaining as his gun is hovering back into a lazy aim at the others. "Any weapons? Or do you just have..." he can't do it, as he flicks the gun in a gesture to the lampshade and hat, laughing again. Glancing to Sloane is all it takes for him to shrug. "Fuck it, I can't. I think we're fine, Slo." @ofwrxth

Sloane follows Dex to the house, gun drawn as keen hearing picks up on voices. "You didn't let me anything. I was just faster," she quips in return as she pauses by the door. Hearing hushed voices and a raspy cough. The wolf glances to Dex, mouthing two? For the amount of voices she's heard. And as the footsteps carry upstairs, she nods to him as they push open the front door, guns still at the ready. Spotting a can of discarded beans, Sloane wrinkles her nose as they search different rooms before hearing the creak of floorboards. She signals to Dex that she'll go upstairs and does her best to move with careful precision. I'm too lazy to describe everything but she ends up outside a room with two distinct heartbeats, a disgusting smell and steady chatter and hears Dex behind her. She nods at the other door because I'm saying the room has two doors and finally, they push them open at the same time, guns (which I almost just spelled juns lol) pointed at the...Sloane blinks, uncertain what she was seeing, right before the screaming started.

---

Jerry frowns at the mention of Boston, shaking his head with dismay. "You went to Boston without me?" He sighs, "well, since I've never heard them, I can't say. 'Cause you didn't bring me along." Jerry concludes with a huff as they begin exploring, a sheepish grin on his face as he continues to air out his fart, even though the scent kind of trails with him until they head upstairs. "Do you think they got some cool clothes? Old people can dress cool," he says, already picking through a weird bedroom with two doors, opening a closet as Sasha rifles through a chest. "Oh, sick, look at this," Jerry exclaims, putting a hat on his head. "What do you think, Sash?" He asks, cackling at her own appearance, lampshade and all. "Think I can bring it with? I bet it suits if I can just find a –" mirror. But the doors burst open before he can say it and there are guns trained on them and two mean looking G.I. Joes and he doesn't know why but his first reaction is to scream, a loud ugly sound as he grabs his newfound hat for dear life. @gloriouswhispers

[ofwrxth]

"Maybe it'll just go for my jugular when I'm not looking," Jerry suggests matter-of-factly. "Then once I'm dead it'll be able to eat me like a buffet. All you can eat corpse. It probably won't even mind rotting skin. It'll probably get it's friends to come and finish me off too!" He doesn't realize it now but rabbit holes are a specialty of Jerry's, whereas Jeremiah tends to operate a bit more logically. "Maybe we can get one of those tomato things you got me before." Jerry says absentmindedly as he inspects the trinkets. "With the cheese and the crust. Not pizza but kinda like pizza." He rambles, now taken by the different objects.

With more skilled hands than he realizes, Jerry lifts each trinket to the light, squinting a bit as he turns them over in his hands. "Do you think so?" he asks brightly, glancing to his sister with a grin. "I could try. I bet you have better ideas. Since you can do all the, you know," he does spirit fingers once more, indicating her magic. "But I'll try. Don't know how else to describe them besides Harry Potter, Sash. Like Dungeons and Dragons?" Jerry suggests with a cackle, figuring it's not much better before she's grabbing the ringing watch from him.

He frowns, "you don't wanna try to fix it?" He cants his head to the side, curious and confused by her abrupt reply, only to shrug it off a moment later reaching for a notebook. "Y'know, I think someone's been around here when we've been gone." Jerry points to his notebook, and some of the wrinkled pages "'Cause I found this shit in here," he holds it up for her to see. A new scrawl slanting in the opposite direction than he usually wrote, with small sketches and little notes in the margins. "Maybe we need better security. Like a video camera or something."

'how do you think it's gonna eat you, jerry?' sasha gestures to her brother's general being, waving her hand up and down a few times. 'it would take a raccoon a million nibbles to eat a whole one of you, it can't unhinge it's jaws and swallow you.' there's stranger conversations she's had, not even with her brother. this one doesn't even take the cake, in fact, sasha realizes that a lot of things become normal when jerry is out and about. the older ackerman cracks a wry grin to the awful pun, and she slaps the side of the boxes. 'i wish this was tomatoes. we'd have an easier time.' she croaks, watching as jerry inspects the trinkets as if she and jeremiah didn't hand select them and enchant them.

'you wouldn't want me with a bunch of arms, jerry. i'd be able to slap ya a lot easier.' she teases, getting to work unpacking another box as she hears her brother rummaging around. 'he was a collector, i think. but he died so.' sasha shrugs, and it's not from lack of sympathy more so because her and jeremiah have already been over this. her grin is back over her lips at her brother's statement, a long and knowing sigh following in complete agreement. 'yeah me neither.' it's a joke only she finds funny, muttering to herself as she sets up the stall for the day.

'those are some good ideas, you should write them down sometimes.' she knows she's said that before, because even jerry has his uses, and if there's a way for her to still grab some of his ideas, then she needs to take it with both hands. but the amazing thing to sasha is that jerry manages to give the exact ideas that jeremiah had for the items. and he states the same enchantments the two of them spent hours connecting to the trinkets. 'we try not to say too much harry potter shit. kinda a slur.' sasha grins, watching her brother for a moment as he holds the ringing trinket to his ear. she takes it from him, predicting it to be another thing he fixates on. 'that's weird. oh well, we can figure it out later.' she tosses it into another box over her shoulder.

[ofwrxth]

Jerry frowns, his expression a mix of skepticism and amusement. "You think it would nibble me? Nibbling is the first step before it eats you, Sash." He shakes his head, pulling his legs up higher on the stool and accepting the random assortment of items she sends his way. "Maybe if we gave it a peace offering..." Jerry searches his pockets and pulls out an old piece of gum, some lint, and a nickel. He frowns a bit and nods, "you're right. And those were some good pies. I'd hate to not go back." The not-witch laments at the prospect before sighing and looking at the box.

"Yeah? What sorta heirlooms. Not tomatoes?" He grins at his poor joke and pries open the lid, his curiosity piqued by the various trinkets. His brow furrows at the strange ringing emanating from each of them. "Maybe you there's a potion that'll give you more arms. I bet we can find one. Then you don't gotta keep pawning off your work to me," he says, ever the little brother as he dumps them out onto the table.

The ringing grows louder and he grimaces as the din reaches his ears. "What did the guy do?" He asks, curious now as he inspects the weird trinkets, sorting them into separate piles. Bits and bobs. "Guess I could shine them up. Make them look more expensive. I don't know how we keep this place running sometimes," Jerry chuckles, unaware that Jeremiah is the one who comes up with ideas that he and Sasha execute. And that their stall is actually quite profitable by Frey standards because of their work.

He doesn't see talismans. All Jerry sees is a pile of rubbish he can't do much with. But his face lights up with an idea. "Maybe you could do some of your," he wiggles his fingers at Sasha, "and make them do something cool." Because he's unaware that the ringing he hears is a direct result of the magic contained within each strange item. "Maybe make them magical scissors that cut on their own. Or that clock in Harry Potter," he nods, holding up the pocket watch, "that tells where people are. That'll sell well. Instead of this useless old thing. I bet it doesn't even work." Jerry declares, rattling the watch and holding it to his ears. "Yeah, see, it's ringing. Probably broken."

sasha's no psychiatrist. she's not well versed in many things in the medical field, in fact. her tried and tested method for helping jerry, when he's caught in the limbo of forgetting everything there is to know about his life as a witch, is distraction. which is why the older ackerman witch is slowly passing things to him as he speaks, pointing to where she needs them set out on the stall. 'really? ah, well. i heard they don't attack, only nibble if you get too close. just ignore it, pretty sure it will find something to eat soon.' she tries to wave away his concerns about her dear familiar, shooting a brief look over jerry's shoulder to bandit. who seems...emotionally wounded by the perceived rejection. 'no, come on, jerry. you're not tripping either. every time you take something, you end up eating everything you see, so it's not that.' sasha placates, waving her hands around and now trying to distract her brother with her cigarettes.

thankfully, echo ushers away with bandit and sasha gives them a small grateful nod. which she hopes jerry won't see, and once again opts for distraction, passing a large box to her brother. 'yeah see, raccoon gone. probably could smell some trash to eat. take this, there's a whole bunch of...' talismans in there... 'heirlooms. some guy died, donated 'em. we got 'em. gonna sell 'em.' because that's what they do when jerry is around. 'so just lay them around the table will ya? make it look pretty. i only got two arms, jerry. i'm not a squid.' she rambles on purpose as she also makes herself busy. 'plus, if you were tripping balls, the raccoon probably would've talked to you, right? so. problem solved.' she claps her hands together.

[dxrkenedheights]

★・・・・・・★

Dex can't quite believe his eyes, and he can hear from Sloane's voice that she can't either. The two strangers are the most entertainment he's had for weeks, months even. Years. A wry grin slowly grows over his features, gun still hovering lower as the crazy haired lady speaks and the hat-sporting weirdo keeps looking at her with intense eyes. "You'd...hurt us with a lampshade?" he quizzes in full amusement, but not even seconds after he speaks, the moment shifts. The hat-sporter launches himself toward Dex, who remains standing rigid as the other flies back once they collide. And the pink lampshade somehow flies through the air too, and all Dex can do is laugh as he hits it away from himself. His gun is stowed away then, Dex having to wipe a hand over his face to stop the laughter becoming tears and he clears his throat to compose himself. He glances to Sloane to see if they're on the same page, Dex giving a nod to the stairs. "We can split the rooms. We're gonna be moving tomorrow. Just don't try and suffocate us with a lampshade, huh?" it almost cracks him again, all his strength needed to stop himself laughing. And he looks once again to Sloane as he chuckles, teetering on the edge of getting fully lost in giggles. "I gotta ask, Slo. I really gotta." he tells her before glancing to the other two. "How the fuck have either of you survived if it's just you?" @ofwrxth

Sloane lowers her gun when Dex does, and the screaming finally stops. "This is..." above her pay grade. She casts a glance from the redhead to the weirdo with a hat and back to Dex. "We could hear you all the way outside." She says with warning, gesturing to them as she glances out the room, back down the hall. "Do you have any others with you?"

-

Jerry looks at Sasha and makes a face, as if to say aren't you going to do something? Nodding at the two strangers with guns. Even when the giant one laughs, it's not exactly reassuring considering they have weapons in hand. "Well, eavesdropping is rude," Jerry concludes at the woman's words, still giving Sasha a look with wide eyes before glancing at the robocops. "Are you guys..." there's something different about them but he doesn't know why he knows that and scratches the back of his head. "Are you gonna drag us off now?" Another look at Sasha, another nodding his head in what he thinks is a covert gesture in their direction. "Or can we get our shit and," okay, he thinks Sasha got the signal. So before he finishes, Jerry rushes at the big one, "Sasha, now!" knocking into him square in the chest and bouncing back onto the ground, hat going flying. @gloriouswhispers