#tunnel vision. very task-focused. unless he gets distracted in which case it is tunnel vision on the distraction

[cjs-got-a-selfship]

Jasper/Page- pt 7/9

pt- 6

The two Kindred woke up almost simultaneously as the sun vanished over the horizon and the night took its hold over Los Angeles once again. Though they couldn’t see the sky to verify this fact being dozens and dozens of feet under Griffith Park, the internal clocks of Kindred were rivaled by no other. Jasper lazily lifted his head up from the table, resting his chin on his arm as Page likewise stirred from her spot on the sofa. Blinking the sleep away, the Gangrel sat up, memories of the night before and the task they had set out to complete coming back in waves. As Jasper sighed, a slight wave of embarrassment washed over Page.

“I-I am so sorry, I swear I didn’t mean to crash here a second time!” she stuttered as she picked her jacket up off the floor.

Jasper held out a hand with a dismissive wave, “No, no, it’s fine, really. I… greatly appreciate your assistance. And as… interesting as your reading was… I do think the distraction helped reorient our progress.” He rubbed his eyes and began going back through the pages upon pages of notes in front of him, trying to organize the thoughts and recall pieces of information.

“Wait, really?” she shifted, unsure.

“Yes. Sometimes the best way to proceed is to stop entirely and come back with a refreshed perspective. That is why I asked for your help in the first place,” though he didn’t look up, his tone was matter-of-fact, which set her oddly at ease.

“O-oh… good! I’m happy to have been of assistance, then!” a moment of silence later, she began replacing her coat which she quickly realized had been housing three drowsy rats the entire time. “Uhm… I should maybe… go… unless there’s anything else you need help with?”

“Actually,” he finally looked back up at her, “I think… I would like your opinion on what prompted all of this… if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Y-yeah, sure! Where is… what do we…?” she couldn’t help it, but once again she found herself in a weird daze when talking to Jasper that she couldn’t explain.

“That’s the part you may not like… it’s… back inside the labyrinth.”

“Oh…”

“But, the good news is, I have mapped… some of it out and my notes have been consistently very reliable. I believe I found… something connected to ley lines in there… I’m just not sure how or what it’s used for.”

“And whatever you found is inside the bit you mapped, I’m assuming?”

“Yes. So, care to come take a look and tell me what you think?”

“Sure! Uh- yeah, lead the way!”

“Excellent.” Jasper rose from his seat on the floor and beckoned Page with a finger as he quickly perused the shelves. She adjusted her coat, making sure all her tag-alongs were comfortable and crossed the room toward him and the other exit. The Nosferatu plucked a withered and worn tome and flashlight from the shelf. It looked to be at least half a century old and as Jasper flipped through the pages, Page caught glimpses of entries written in scrawled, messy writing. Whether the handwriting was truly that terrible or it was in another language altogether, she couldn’t tell.

“I will warn you, there are some things in there that are… far less than pleasant that we may run into… so be prepared,” he added surprisingly nonchalantly. 

“Makes sense I guess…” 

“Onward, then.”

Jasper led the way down the hall to the door out into the labyrinth. As the two passed through, Page felt the atmosphere become heavier once again like the first time she had dropped down into the depths of the place. It was oppressive, not to mention horrific smelling. She felt bad for the rats trying to sleep in her pockets as she felt them tense up with the scene change, and hoped if they kept inside the semi insulation of her coat it would be enough to shield them from the worst. Continuing in further, they abandoned the last normal-looking hallway and entered into the twisting and perception warping corridors of the labyrinth. Jasper settled onto a page that had loose schematics of the closest passages as well as notes on the specific points of interest he had found, the flashlight in his hand the only light. Page made no effort to closely study the book--it was his business not hers--but from the small glances she took in that direction, she concluded that he must have a lot of time on his hands to have mapped as much as he did. 

For quite some time the two navigated the chaotic halls. Though Page had absolutely no idea where they were or where they were going, Jasper seemed to have the exact route down to a T with the help of his book. As they delved deeper and the air became more stale and the atmosphere more unseasy, Page couldn’t help but inch closer and closer to Jasper’s side. A full head taller than her and clearly much more confident in this space, he seemed like a beacon of safety in the unfamiliar and unfriendly place. If he noticed her keeping a shorter and shorter distance between them, he made no move to correct it as he continued leading them in. 

Suddenly, Jasper stopped dead in his tracks and held a hand out to stop Page. Already feeling jumpier than usual, she flinched and hissed, “Jesus! What’s wrong?”

He hissed a whisper back, “Ssh! Listen.”

She steadied herself and focused her senses, realizing what it was he was referencing. Somewhere further into the tunnels, they could hear the scraping of claws on stone and huffed breathing. The source was near impossible to pinpoint, but it was undeniably close. The Kindred stole quick glances at each other. Jasper quickly looked back down at his book, and rerouted their path. Moving as silently as possible, the sounds fell farther and farther away behind them, but they were not confident to speak again until minutes after the noise disappeared completely. Finally, Page dared break the silence, still speaking in a whisper.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you think it was?”

“I couldn’t begin to guess. I only have a little bit of this place mapped out, there’s a lot of things I don’t know about.”

“That didn’t sound like a… a Kindred or a person.”

“And it probably wasn’t, but I’d rather not find out personally.”

She nodded in agreement as they continued, keeping that much closer by Jasper’s side. The slightest noise kept her head on a swivel, scanning the tunnels for any signs of life with eyes wide. She didn’t want to admit she was afraid, but this wasn’t the most welcoming of places to be, escorted or not.

Eventually, the light of the flashlight illuminated a larger chamber at the mouth of the hall. Pressing in, they saw a smooth grey stone slab, on top of which lay a body as stiff and as cold as the stone itself. It looked to be the body of a Nosferatu in dirty old jeans and a sweater, covered in boils and other ailments. His eyes stared at the ceiling, unblinking and unseeing. Floating above him, suspended in air, lay what was likely the real attraction of the place. A complicated, intertwining network of faintly glowing red lines like cords. Page looked up at Jasper, brows knit in confusion. Sensing her gaze he looked back down at her.

“Wh- what… who is he?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I found him here when I came to this place.”

“And… what is that?” she pointed to the mass above.

“Now that… that is what we came here for… I believe these are the ley lines we’ve been looking into… I just don’t know how or why they’re here or what to do about it.”

They moved forward into the chamber to get a better look. The sight of the Nosferatu was unnerving, but based on Jasper’s unphased attitude Page tried to ignore it and focus on the network. She didn’t know much of anything about the occult or blood magic or any of the mystic arts. It wasn’t the specialty of her clan, and was never particularly on her radar in life. Everything she knew about ley lines was solely based on what the two of them had read and discussed together. She didn’t know what she had been expecting but it wasn’t this.

“After a few minutes of silence and curiously gazing, Jasper turned to Page again. “Well…? Your thoughts…?”

She glanced between him and the supposed ley lines. “Well… it’s certainly… a thing I suppose? I… I don’t know, Jasper. I’m really not an expert on this stuff. I’d never heard of anything like it before until you mentioned it. I only know as much as you do. Hell, probably less if I’m honest…”

“I know… I suppose I was just hoping for… a fresh perspective on things…”

“N-no… no I get that… it’s just… this is all really weird. And we’re kind of all about weird, y’know?” in inching closer to the mass, she laid her hand on the cold stone slab, brushing against the frozen Nosferatu on accident. She quickly retracted her hand and shuddered.

“Don’t… worry about him. I’m pretty sure he’s just in Torpor.”

She looked at him incredulously, “I don’t think that makes it better!”

He hissed a laugh, “No it doesn’t, does it?”

Page diverted her attention back to the tangled red cords, shaking her head. I likely stupid idea crossed her mind.

“Have you ever touched them? Or anything?”

“N-no… no… no I briefly considered it, but I decided it’d be better to know more about them before doing something like that. Just in case it turned out to be a dumb idea and something bad happened.”

She considered this for a second, “Uh huh… so if something bad happened I could trust you to get us both out of here, right?”

“Wait- what?”

Before he could finish his thought, Page reached out her hand and touched one of the nearest strands. Before her eyes closed, light erupted in the room, a sickly purple hue. Her vision swam, but after a moment, in her mind’s eye she could see… Griffith Observatory?

On her shoulder she felt a hand grasp tightly onto her coat and hear Jasper’s voice in her ear, “Page! Page wha-”

“-Sssh! Ssshh it’s okay!” she said through half a laugh, “It’s fine! Since you won’t do the stupid thing, let me do it.”

His grip loosened, but she could still feel his hand on her shoulder as he let out a short breathy laugh.

She moved her hand along the strands, as she did so her vision shifted. The Hollywood sign, Santa Monica Pier, the Natural History Museum, the walk of fame, and dozens of other locations from around the area. Some images were stronger than others, but all of them familiar. She had no idea what to do with this information.

Page drew her hand back, and the visions of distant locations fell away. Slowly blinking, the cords, the Nosferatu, the chamber, and Jasper all came back into view. Jasper was looking at her intently with fascination.

“Well? What was it?” he broke the silence, hand still resting on her shoulder.

“Uhm… well…” she tried her best to form coherent thoughts, “I saw… the observatory… and a bunch of other places around town… Some of them were more clear… others it was like I was looking through… a foggy window or something? I don’t know what it means or what any of them really have to do with each other but...”

“No that’s… that’s really interesting… and kind of supports my theory a bit…” he looked at her, and if she wasn’t mistaken there may have been an inkling of concern in his eyes, “Are you… are you alright?”

She was taken aback by the question, “Y-yeah. Yeah I’m fine. It didn’t hurt or anything like that, it was just… weird. Not everyday you see something like this, y’know?”

He breathed another laugh, a hesitant toothy grin crossing his face, “Right. I can imagine. To be fair I hadn’t seen anything like this either until I got here… but I’ve been here a while so I guess there are some things I’ve gotten used to at this point… even if I don’t understand them…” 

“So… what now?” 

“Hmmm…” Jasper looked back up at the tangle of red, “We can go back I suppose. You may be willing to do the stupid thing, but I really don’t think it’d be a good idea to try anything else at this point… even if we did know what else to do.”

Page glanced down at the Nosferatu again, another shudder moving down her spine, “No, that’s fine, let’s go.”

Jasper finally removed his hand from her shoulder to take out his book. He stalled for a moment in the door as they headed back out, and looked her in the eyes.

“I really do appreciate your help, Page. With the research and… physically checking everything out. Just… wanted to let you know that…”

For just a moment, the oppressive feeling of the labyrinth gave way to something warmer, even welcoming. The corners of Pages mouth crept up into a smile, “Yeah… no problem, Jasper.”

He cleared his throat and gave a curt nod, “Right,” before turning back out into the external corridors, and the two Kindred continued back out in the direction of Jasper’s haven.

pt- 8