Sanctuary or Suicide

Running.

She'd been doing it for days now, sticking to the in-between hours when no one but the mad or the powerful dared travel the wastelands. She wasn't certain that she was touched, damned yes but she didn't think she'd full blown lost her marbles yet. No, this was desperation. So said the lack of fire for warmth or for food. Had she caught any. Thus, if she was maddened at all, it was due to lack of food. Lack of pure water.

The drab uniform she'd worn at the internment camp was shredded, as was much of the flesh underneath, and yet she was still moving. Too many had given too much for her escape to not achieve what she was trying to. Though why she'd been the one chosen, God's only knew. Oh there was a certain level of blasphemy to a thought like that, especially with a name like hers. Add what the world had come to you and you had quite the mess.

Inquisition eat your heart out.

Finally stopping at the bottom of the decline to a sizeable hill, she pulled out the tiny blade that had been managed to be palmed to her on her way out. Crude. Shoddy edges but it might just do the trick. As long as the barcode was gone that inhabited use of any form of magic...

Setting the blade to the the dirt covered underside of her arm, she slowly, methodically started 'cutting' away the problem area of flesh. Oh pain. Oh dizzy, nauseating, mind fritzing pain. The blood was a warm presence as it began spilling over the rest of the offending limb. Don't scream. Can't scream. Just as importantly, don't pass out.

Eventually the bar code was gone, her legs having given out long ago. Tears she didn't know she had left to she'd were pouring down her face as she weaved slightly, on her knees or not. But she'd succeeded and would you look at that ? The blood she needed as a fuel source was there in spades.

Closing her eyes. Focusing as best as she was able, she reached a tentative metaphysical finger out. Nothing. Then a further reach. Still nothing. More. Another try. Shoving her senses out beyond what even she'd believed possible, she finally found something.

Finally.

It was a whisper of a something. Elusive yet just enough for her to touch on. Which at the end of the day was all that mattered. Something was better than nothing, one might say. Besides, to reach then from now, the signature had to be from someone, perhaps someones of note.

That was when she flung the rest of herself after that metaphysical finger. It wasnt a blind leap, per say... Then again that would be a lie. She had a target, a time before the change that they had suggested to aim for. She wrapped herself around that touch of something beautiful, of something more and held on until finally her body stopped feeling like a pair of gym shoes in a dryer.

Falling.

That was what she instantly realized was happening the moment her body found solidarity agsin. How did she know so quickly one might ask ? Perhaps it was the rush of air biting so sharply at her as she plummeted. Was that a flock of night dwelling Avian creatures that she just tore through ? Pin pricks of light below. Too many.

That was when she finally gave up the ghost and screamed.

His coffee was warm and black, like it always was, as he sipped from it, watching the ethereal iridescent ribbon stretch out at his feet, the images of time playing over one another. The pristine white chair he sat in, that sat upon nothing but more white, shifted as something further down had caught his attention. He leaned forward and focused on the pulse he discovered. A particular span of the ribbon didnt shine or glow the way the rest of it did "Interesting. And what are you?" He looked closer at the small blip that appeared. He placed his hand on the ribbon and its movement stopped completely "Odd. It would seem the Hunters figured it out. Odd indeed. And you young lady" He focused on the woman. A moment before she seemed mundane. Ordinary. But she sat kneeling, her life blood pouring from her arm, and yet she seemed determined. She seemed to be focusing, and not focused on the hole she was ripping. He looked and discovered a second hole further back on the ribbon, and shifted to look. It was a short way to go, but it was roughly were the glow of the ribbon began to diminish. That was when it began. Wrinkle sat back in his chair and lifted his hand from the ribbon and allowed the scene to continue forward. He watched her reach back and set an anchor, before allowing that magic to rip her backward through the Ribbon of Time. His hand came down once more, stopping the movement once more. He looked closer, and could feel the magic. Only one was allowed to move through time like that, the rest had to take their long ways. Wrinkle only liked the Wolfe enough to allow him that pleasure. Someone had to tend Wrinkles Garden. And yet, here he was staring at one who was not the Wolfe. It brought a smile to his face "I think you and I need to talk" he reached down and plucked her out of the tunnel she had created and placed her in the seat next to him. He studied her unconscious body and the magic it held. He chuckled as he mumbled to himself "I've never been able to get him anything. I think you'll do nicely." He reached down and tapped the anchor point, and stretched it further back, into the healthy part of the ribbon and reset it "There. Its a much better place to go to for what I'm sure it is you are looking for exactly" he tossed her form back into the ribbon at the anchor point. No sense in causing her that inexplicable amount of pain of being ripped through that hole. His smile was almost permanent at this point, the thoughts of how entertaining things were going to get.

Ok, there were certain little privileges to being the watchman of Chicago. Like, being able to stand over Chicago and look down at, what really is, a beautiful site. When its not interrupted by screaming. Wolfe looked in the direction it was coming from and saw something odd. A woman in ratty tattered clothes was falling. He was already about 7500 feet in the air, and this woman was above him. That was when the Shockwave hit him. Wrinkle had just spit someone else out into his damn bubble. He willed his body through the air instantaneously and wrapped his fingers around her ankle and snatched her out of the air gently "He really is a prick sometimes" he looked down at the frantic woman "Hey! How ya doin?"

Dirt. Blood. Pain. Terror. Determination.

Some were more prevalent than the others, the two of them being the blood and the determination. That ankle that he grabbed was painfully thin, enough so that if he weren’t careful in his grabbing of it it was very possible to break, or at least do some sort of damage that was not what was unintended.

Then there was the magic.

That was the smell that would hit him like a mack truck and coil around him to roil over his skin in a not so unpleasant fashion. Almost as if it were tasting him even as she managed something impressively flexible to swing her body up and into his so that she was holding onto him rather than vice-a-versa. Her breath was ragged, definitely explained by the scent of pain and of the terror of plummeting from the sky towards what should have been certain death.

When her arms had come up to wrap around him, he would have been able to manage a glance of where the scent of blood was coming from though. The sizeable swathe of flesh that was VERY noticeably missing from the softer, vulnerable flesh on the underside of the arm. The section that was layers deep, deep enough in fact that most people would have been unconscious from the shock and pain. This oddly though… That couldn’t be a clean, purposeful removal. Who in their right mind would be that insane especially without a way to properly tend to it ?

*Thank you for the unexpected catch. I’m usually not in need of such, though you could say I’m a little behind in practicing my unexpected free-falls. My apologies if I’ve gotten my blood all over you and your clothing. I’d offer to pay to have it replaced but sadly I’m a bit lacking in funds currently. I am a mean hand at washing them though if you’re interested.*

Raspy yet with an underlying hint of huskyness that hinted at the bedroom voice she must have had at one point. Possibly still could. The hair was so dirty and matted that its color was undefinable but oh the glimpse of those eyes. Those were potent. Vibrant. Egyptian blue with a shine that made them seem… Glowing might be a term one could use ? But with the way the hair was falling into her face, her head half against his shoulder, there wasn’t much else that was able to be seen of her.

He felt like an emoti staring at what was clearly a spider monkey in human form "Comfy? Before you ask any questions, I need to ask one of my own first." He wrapped a bubble of energy around the both of them and shifted them into his pocket realm where he set his feet in the soft lush grass "Where the hell did you come from?"

The moment they were in said vibrantly colored, silken grass, those unique eyes glistened for the briefest of moments. Shaking her head as if to clear it, the man before her may have been forgotten as she disengaged herself from his person and stepped back. Dropping to her knees, she trailed grime and blood covered fingers through the green. The purr that errupted from her then would have driven a Saint to an erection.

"Some of the Elders talked about colors like this... Such softness. How it used to be safe to go on bare foot."

Awe. Wonder. Pain and terror somehow forgotten, it seemed as if she had been alone, she might have rolled herself in it. Finally looking back up at you from beneath that curtain of hair,

"Why don't you try starting with when ?"

"No, ill start with where. Clearly you didn't have a conversation, so ill spare you the monotonous details and just say, Time is weird." His eyes finally landed on her right arm which, even with the caking of mud and grit, was bleeding. He raised his hand "You're bleeding on my carpet" the ribbon of light green energy reach up from the grass and softly wrapped her arm for a moment before receding back into the grass. Her arm was still filthy, but showers were invited for a reason.

"I'm bleeding on your grass, not your carpet, oh Savior of the Falling and the Screaming. Do you need your eyes checked ? Also, what are you talking about I didn't have a conversation ? Were you expecting me to have tea with those birds I'm fairly certain I traumatized for life when I came crashing through them ? You're talking crazy. Do you need your temperature checked ?"

When that verdant strip of energy coiled around the injured limb, that was a full-bodied, absolutely sensual shudder. Her breath caught, hitched in her throat and her head fell back as if she were having some sort of religious or orgasmic experience. When finally those eyes rolled back to you, they were in fact glowing. Almost as if they were beacons of true Egyptian blue.

"Magic. That's what it feels like. So pure. So very very real. Do it again... Please ?"

There was almost a hopelessness, an unquestionable desperation to her voice that said she wasn't certain what she would do if he didn't.

"I'll answer ANYTHING you want to know for it."

No, Master of Mages, she was not acting like a junkie desperate for a fix, but rather like someone who had just been touched by a food source that their body was craving that they hadn't realized until it touched them. That much THE Wolfe would be able to easily tell.

He quirked his brow stoicly "You should pay more attention to your surroundings. It is my carpet" her reaction to his magic was off putting slightly "Need me to plug a charger in your ass or something? Answer my first question and we will see what else I can do" he put his hands on his hips and almost gave off a dad vibe. Like a dad scolding a child for being drunk, not because they got drunk, but because they were impossible to deal with drunk.

"From here."

The two words were still offered up in that titillating voice, but there was a coldness now. An almost muteness of the emotion that had been so potent but seconds before.

"From this very city, only sixty-some plus years in the future. The Hunters are winning. There's maybe a handful of us left outside of the camps. The land is all but dead, the creatures that have called it home mostly expired as well."

Turning her back to him, he would see the rigidity that now held her like a statue.

"You also weren't who I was supposed to find. Much less the man I remember..."

The first portion of those words was spoken as loudly as the rest. The latter portion, however ? It was little more than a Sluagh's whisper, clearly more to herself than meant for him.

That got her another quirked brow "OK. So you a native of Chicago, sixty years from now when the Hunters have take over and found a way to squash all magic and what I can only assume is the supernatural world." He tapped his chin and sat down in a simple wooden chair that appeared from no where and picked up a cup of coffee out of the air and sipped on it "And this person your looking for, do they have a name?"

"I am and they do. Believe me or don't, it matters little. I always told him that stuff wasn't going to keep him awake and alive forever. I would be most greatful if you could point me in the direction out of here. I need to bathe and start my search elsewhere. I don't remember a time when I didn't feel gross and I'd like to try to rectify that. Unless of course you have bathing facilities here that I would be allowed to make use of."

He waved his hand, and the grass rose up to create a barrier between them, as water started to fall on her. A table with soap and hair products appeared next to her as well "OK, you must not have caught on. We are technically in my house. Which just happens to be a pocket dimension. And I could assist you, if you just give me a name. I know just about everyone in chicago, no im not exaggerating" his eyes never left her face, and never faltered.

He waved his hand, and the grass rose up to create a barrier between them, as water started to fall on her. A table with soap and hair products appeared next to her as well "OK, you must not have caught on. We are technically in my house. Which just happens to be a pocket dimension. And I could assist you, if you just give me a name. I know just about everyone in chicago, no im not exaggerating" his eyes never left her face, and never faltered.

When that water began to fall on her like a cleansing rain, her eyes did close for but a moment. Her head tipped up, embracing the liquid with simple, quiet joy. It was not long-lived, the moment brief before her eyes opened, her gaze returning to meet his. Unabashedly she began to divest herself of the ragged clothing, her hands setting to wash that with the soap first rather than herself. It didn't hurt that the fall of the water was beginning to cleanse her in the process.

"Thank you for your consideration. If I seem odd to you, my apologies. I could tell you the name, but I'm not certain you'd believe me, even if I did."

He tilted his head "Try me. There are a great many things I would believe" he sipped his coffee some more and waited for her response. He really needed to have a conversation with Wrinkle after this.

*His name was Wolfe. Or at least that was the name he was called when I saw him in passing as a childe. I couldn't tell you much other than even in his dieing he was powerful and that somehow I felt as if I... I don't know what he looks like now or really anything but I keep hoping I'll know. At least a younger me believed. She was foolish. Im not anymore.*

His outward appearance did nothing to show the mass of confusion and anxiety inside. He pondered for a moment before carefully choosing his words "Wolfe. A will user, of the Verbena Tradition, a powerful one at that. Real name Jonas Carver. He lives here in Chicago. Currently he seems to be showering a young maiden who doesn't know shes talking to him" he stood up and seemed uneasy "State your business with me Woman from the Future"

*Oh. Bloody. Fucking. Hell. This is vaguely awkward. Eden. My name that is. At least where I come from giving your name means something. My business though.. Find him...You. Prevent you from dieing by whatever means necessary. Then convince you to come with me and prevent my future from being poo on a shoe on a good day. Those last two ? Interchangeable really depending upon how far back I ended up.*

His eyes narrowed while he stared at her, as the water ceased its downpour "Im going to need certain details about what exactly it is that your hoping to achieve." He walked forward, the grass wall falling away as he entered her bubble, his gaze still locked with hers "Cause this is some heavy shit your talking about"

*As if it wasn't heavy my getting here ? I'm honestly not even sure how I did. When is here ?*

There was a brief look of sadness when the water ceased so abruptly though it swept away just as swiftly as you closed in on her 'bubble'. There was no arrogance in the gesture, but her chin did come up a bit, those odd Egyptian blue eyes holding yours boldly. There was a wariness to her gaze, the closer you drew, but to her credit, she never looked away.

*Ask what you will, I'll tell you no lie to the best of my ability. As long as you continue not to lie to me that is.*

His voice held authority when he spoke "You claim to know me in the future. What is our relationship?" He realized that he very well may be over reacting, but one could never be sure in this day and age. One hundred years ago, he may have given her some leniency, but today. It was to close. His time was coming soon, and he was going to be ready for it. And here this girl was telling him that the world was going to end within the next sixty years. He needed to know everything. "And thats where you can start. How exactly do the Hunters succeed? What happens to the rest of the world?"

That first question was the only thing that seemed to draw hesitation.

*I was a child. As I said I met...Saw you in passing. I was five. You were close to your passing. But I felt as if I... As if I knew you. You died three days later. I had already been captured and branded yet I still felt your passing.*

Rubbing at the arm you'd healed, she drew a slow breath and continued.

*From what I know ? There was a ritual enacted that in one fell swoop eradicated the 'power players' world wide. It even reached into places like Spirit's Home and The Slumber Lands. Lesser gifted were hunted and either killed or branded and put into camps. The humans that tried to help were either killed or put into camps along with us. There is still a 'Rebellion' of sorts but it's small. Struggling.*

She seemed so weak, and her words were sincere. Wolfe finally came to terms with the fact that even as intense of a moment as this was, he was standing mere inches from a wet naked woman, and his brain short circuited. His cheeks got hot and he averted his gaze upward "Apologies. This is just a lot to take in. Here" he held his hand out and her clothes appeared in his clutch, repaired and clean "You must feel rather awkward"

The laughter was quiet when he looked away, fingers reaching up to softly touch the edge of his jaw.

*I've been in an extermination camp since I was five. You've shown more kindness than most anything I've known in my life. You might be a bit rigid. Stuffy. Uptight even. But I've thrown quite a bit at you.*

Dropping her hand away, her gaze did drift off into the distance.

*There's color here. Magic. I'm clean. I'm not in pain. My reactions earlier... My apologies. I've been off putting to the very person who I came back to ask for help. You're the one it must be awkward for.*

It was very difficult to focus on anything but when she touched him he may have gone a bit more rigid. Almost like he wasnt used to being touched "Problem with what your asking is that the Hunter Corp is so vast, i wouldnt even begin to know where to start looking. I have to narrow the search down before i can begin"