2019-06-29 - Downtown Construction

Elias hasn't had too much trouble with the construction. There have been some things shaken around on shelves and a bit of disruption, but the noise doesn't bother him all that much. It does mean that customers don't tend to linger to read in the chairs in the shop like they might normally, but otherwise it is business as usual at the Likely Stories. That is, until the fire engines go screaming past and the pounding comes on the door. Elias closes up the shop after ushering everyone out and checking to make sure no one is in the rest rooms or the break room or the lounge upstairs before he locks up and makes his way out to the corner where everyone else has gathered. "Well, this is eventful."

Violet was watching the construction from the window of Memento Mori when she was instructed to evacuate. Now she stands behind the barricade, thin arms wrapped around her as she squints through thick glasses, studying one of the cops that's currently trying to cram two donuts in his maw. "Do you think we'll be out here for very long?" she says quietly to no one in particular.

Christopher has... something resembling an office, in the vicinity, from which he does something resembling work. Hey, those charity outreach programs only mostly run themselves! "Probably," he offers to Violet, glancing around and furrowing his brow. "More to the point, do we know why, yet?"

Rebecca Carr has only been in Gray Harbor for a few days. She's gotten mostly settled into her apartment in Bayside, and has spent most of her time at Patisserie Vydal, getting things organized there for Chef Vyv. Today, however, that work has been rudely interrupted by a gas leak. The blonde is in fashionable clothing, a pajama style white blouse with black piping, a black skirt, and tights, and suede ankle boots with stiletto heels. She is clutching a tablet in her arms, a Kate Spade bag over her shoulder, and frowning with sincere agitation at the cops lolling about. "I'm sorry Chef. This is a ridiculous inconvenience. On a Saturday, of all days!" The day when people are likely to need pastries for brunches and parties.

Harper follows the few people who had been in the library outside, locking the double front doors behind her as she does so. Her attention, like most others', turns to the direction of the fire truck and the largest mass of police officers. She steps over to the curb on the corner where people have been gathered and looks askance to the other shop and business owners from the immediate vicinity. "A gas leak, hm. No more fires," she murmurs half to herself. A smile to Elias. "Among other things." (https://www.pinterest.com/pin/493073859203880924/)

Lex is among the crowd of onlookers. Why she's decided to risk Public in Gray Harbor again is a bit of a mystery, but the woman does work somewhere in the vicinity. And, let's face it, she was bored. Nice weather or not, the silver-haired woman is holding a black trench coat around herself, via the defensive crossing of arms. "Out here, yeah... but /alive/..." is her drawled response to Violet's comment, though she's not actually saying it to anyone. She's not the only one who talks to herself, okay?

Being ousted from her office while seeing a patient is never, ever a good thing. Vivian's usually calm manner seems to be a little more worn down and she seems to be waiting with irritation. "Hopefully they get this entire thing sorted out quickly." Not that she's going to be able to get back to work, but whatever.

Harper lifts her voice to address the nearer-by Chetson. "Officer, do you know if there was an /actual/ leak or if they're just taking great care?"

"What do you mean, but /alive/?" Violet blink-blinks to the person speaking to her, blue eyes owlishly large behind those thick frames of hers. But she doesn't expect a response - she just frowns, and takes a solid step away from the barricades while she reaches into the pocket of her dress for her phone. Tap-tap-tap goes her fingers onto the screen, sending out a message.

Being a native of California there are things Vivian is just hyper aware of. A deal at the best store, where to get the best drinks and see the best celebrities acting like fools. Another thing are earthquakes, and she glances down at her feet suddenly, bracing herself, "Earthquake..." Is it actually an earthquake? Maybe! Maybe not. But she seems to be very certain that she at least feels something, "The ground, it's shaking!"

Rebecca shifts her weight suddenly, a hand going out to her side as if trying to maintain her balance. She looks to Vydal. "Did you feel that? Is that an earthquake?" she asks her boss with concern furrowing her brow. She's looking down at the ground as if expecting to be able to see it move or, at the very least, tremble to reflect the vibrations she thinks she is sensing.

Well, either the cops will answer that question, or they won't. Probably the latter. Christopher glances down, then over to Vivian and Rebecca. "Not sure. Are we supposed to? It /would/ fit, I guess." A quick glance around. "That way looks more open if we have to run for it."

"Lemme guess," Lex counters Violet's question, her tone a mixture of 'dry' and 'dryly amused'. "You new to town?" Her gaze flickers back to the crowd as a few of them say something about earthquake, and then she's turning a more pointed look toward Violet. "My bet's on the worm from Dune. You can pay me later."

Harper still waits for a response from the officer, though both Vivian's and Rebecca's exclamations have her looking to her feet as if they might have an answer, then to surrounding objects that might give a hint to an earthquake. Bumping objects, rocking stoplights, things swaying.

Vyv has emerged from the patisserie, as have the day's kitchen and counter staff, but notably they've all formed a loose knot near but not with the chef, who has his arms crossed, one foot tapping, and an unamused expression. Except Rebecca, who falls under neither of those categories quite, and is braver. "This," he says to the world at large but slightly more to her, "is utterly ridiculous. How many good marshmallow days do these people think we get in this town? And, as you note, Saturday." He glares at the cop with the dual donut. "Is it required to have no taste or manners in this town, or are we just in luck today?" Turns out pique qualifies as a tone of voice, too. Does in his accent, at least.

He turns his head to look at Rebecca, brow furrowing. "No, I didn't feel anything, except annoyed. If you did they've probably managed to break something."

Elias seems entirely oblivious that there is any sort of quaking or shaking going on, but then, heavy machinery has been going by outside his shop for a while now and the ground shaking isn't altogether a new sensation. He glances around at those talking about an earthquake and raises a brow as though not sure what exactly they're talking about. "That'd at least be more entertaining than watching cops eat donuts," Elias says to Lex. He smiles a bit over at Harper and asks, "How are things going?"

Violet lifts her eyes up from her phone over to Lex and narrows a look to the tattooed woman. "No," is all she says. Was there supposed to be any more to that comment? The world may never know. Because there's somebody talking about earthquakes and a few seconds later? Violet feels the tremor underneath her shoes. "Oh, oh gosh," she drops her phone back into her pocket, eyes alarmed. "We shouldn't be here."

Distracted, as usual, Harper looks from person to person who are gathered, offering a placid smile to those whose gazes she encounters before looking back to the incoherent officer. "You have a little something--" She points to the side of her mouth as if to help. Earthquake? What earthquake? "Great care is acceptable," she answers. "When keeping gas from leaking." She folds her hands together behind her back and swings once from left to right without taking a step either direction.

"You don't think..." Vivian doesn't clarify what it is what she might be worried about. Because she's instead glancing around, noting how many people are just standing around on this corner, and where might be the safest place to flee in. "Shouldn't be here at all." At least she agrees fully with Violet about this. Wholeheartedly.

Rebecca is entirely sure there's an earthquake happening, as a Southern California gal. Or...." Did they hit the gas line?" she squeaks out at the more obvious rumbling. An explosion would be decidedly bad. "If it's a quake we should get away from the buildings and such," she murmurs to her boss, eyes wide and looking around for a safe open space to ride it out.

Vyv's brow furrows and he glances down at the ground, with a sharply exasperated breath. The cops get another Look, and then he glances up to check their surroundings. "Either it's an extremely large earthquake far away or not quite to us, or it's something else," he says, and his lips briefly purse. "I hope they didn't--" he says, glancing to Rebecca, "...manage to make the gas situation worse somehow, yes."

Christopher is already moving in what he hopes is a productive direction, pausing only to reach out and try grabbing the /entire/ box of donuts along the way. Though if the cops get to it first, then cool, they've earned it.

"Okay, then you're just... lucky," Lex muses idly, only half-watching Violet as the other woman makes her curt response. She drops her newly freed glance toward the ground as it decides to shift a bit, and then turns a flat stare toward the cops. It's Vyv's turn to be overheard, and she's smirking a bit as she gives the stranger an unsubtle glance-over. "Worm from Dune," she reiterates, without raising her voice. And then.... well, damn.

Without thinking about it too much more, Elias begins to withdraw from the barricade and make his way a bit further down the street, away from the rumbling that he, too, can feel beneath them. He tells Harper, "I think we should probably also considering executing an abundance of cau...." and then there's a BOOM. Elias hits the ground with his arms over his head as the cloud of dust washes over them. "Oh, shit.."

Vivian doesn't hit the ground, but her arms do lift up to cover her head, and her body twists around in an effort to try and block as much of whatever it is heading for them as she can from her face. Dust and smoke. Neither thing are very good to inhale, so Vivian tucks her chin towards her chest, squeezing her eyes closed.

And then there comes the answer. The BOOM rattles Rebecca and she goes to her knees and covers her head. Then she lifts her eyes stares at the oncoming cloud which looks entirely and eerily apocalyptic. "Oh no, we need to get out of here, Chef! Chef?" She looks around but visibility is next to nil as she starts calling out the names of the staff members.

"Nobody's lucky in this place," Violet hisses back to Lex, and there might've been more to that .. but then there's the BOOM! Violet makes like a turtle and shrinks, hitting the ground with her arms over her head and a sudden squealing shriek escaping her. When the dust clouds her eyes and blots out her visibility, the shrieking evolves into a dry hacking cough. And in her panic, she makes a stupid mistake and tries to run. Anywhere. She can't see, so over there ---> will work.

Wide-eyed as the quick events seem to roll out slow-motion, Harper opens her mouth to speak and then holds a hand out, palm forward as if to stop the apparent explosion or crumbling caving of the other side of the street and torn up blacktop. She hardly thinks to close her eyes in time, therefore getting a gritty mouth- and eye-ful before she utters a murmured exclamation that's entirely incoherent. There's too much distraction, too much happening for Harper to think to move away either from the buildings behind her or the enormity of what is happening across and mid-intersection.

"PEOPLE!" Lex can yell when she wants to, and at the moment, it seems... prudent. "Up ahead! Between those buildings? Go! In! There!" It's coincidence, more than likely, that she's close enough to Harper to actually see the other woman, and some strange streak of mercy that has her reaching out to close a fist around the librarian's wrist. "Come on!" And then she's starting in the direction she just shouted about, eyes half-closed against the debris.

Christopher gets up to speed - so much for Plan A - then, spotting Violet in motion and Harper not, he slows down to reach a hand out to the latter. This may also be a stupid mistake. "C'mon!" he calls out. And then, hey, it worked so well the last time: with his other hand, he reaches down to pick up a stray donut and chuck it back toward the giant whatsit. Maybe it's just peckish!

"Well, then someone's not been walking without rhythm," Vyv says, sounding precisely as annoyed as he already did, as though this might genuinely be the trouble here. Deadpan mixes weirdly with radiating irritation. And then there's that explosion, and he yelps, arms over his face and ducking away from where things seem to be coming from, but not quite hitting the ground. He straightens after a second, coughing, and starts reaching out to find-- well, Rebecca, as she's close enough, and his other employees are not. It takes a moment before his voice comes, raised, at about the same time as Lex's, "This way, between the buildings."

Chef.

Rebecca gets back to her feet and stumbles after Vyv, holding a hand over her eyes to try and shield them, even though they feel like she faceplanted on a beach somewhere. She heads towards the alley and Lex's call, wishing she hadn't worn stilettos today.

Lex's believable command coupled with the unlikely woman's grip on Harper's wrist has Harper doing just as she demanded they all do, though she's blinking hard to clear her eyes, and looking back over her shoulder to try to figure out what is happening, to see something. She doesn't /feel/ fire, doesn't smell anything but detritus. "But what about..." she stumbles where she's tugged. Harper starts coughing that gagging sort of cough one has when one breathes in something not meant to enter the lungs.

It doesn't much matter where, Vivian's hands pull her shirt up over her face, covering her nose and mouth, and she moves in the direction of the alley and what might or might not be safety.

Violet's already on the move. She slams bodily into somebody, because she can't see anything, and ends up smacking into Vyv. "Oh, oh I can't see!" she grabs his arm anyway because he's a person, or so she hopes, and she drags him to the place that he said they should go to, following the sound of Lex's voice. Come along, Vyv.

When there seems to be a voice calling out with a safe place to go, Elias begins heading in that direction, toward the sound of voices. Self-preservation trumps whatever happened to the businesses for the time being, and he heads along with the others toward the alley.

"Just shut up and keep up," Lex is muttering toward Harper. "This way!" She shouts again, for those who aren't being bodily dragged.

At least Vyv's in his whites. They're meant to risk getting dirty. He's still muttering under his breath while trying not to actually breathe, and it does not help in the least to be grabbed and dragged. "What are you--" Another exasperated noise, and he continues walking to the spot he also noticed, thank you very much, as fast as his fairly long legs will take him without quite running. So who's dragging whom along may be a matter of opinion, though who's doing the holding on isn't.

Harper trips, literally, after Lex, still pulled and chided. With her free hand she lifts her scarf to try to use as a filter for the dust-filled air. Blink-blink-blinking doesn't seem to be helping her eyes at all either. "All those officers and firemen. "Oh no," she breathes under her breath, rather late, really. "Where are we going?" she asks of the vehement woman pulling her.

Christopher is neither dragging nor being dragged at this point, just as well as he's having increasing trouble seeing anything. "Follow the voices!" he suggests.

"Fuck if I know, but it's /away/," is Lex's response to Harper, her tone a little less hostile. For what it's worth, she seems more annoyed at the circumstance than her drag-a-long. After all, no one made her haul Harper. Overheard mumbles of confusion have her raising another, "Follow my voice! This! Way!"

Through the gap, and out into....that. Vivian stops dead in her tracks, staring around them, the front of her shirt falling back into place as she moves her head, eyes wider than usual. "What....in the world." She raises her hands up, the heels of her hands rubbing hard at her eyes before she looks again.

Rebecca stumbles into the alley and digs in her bag for a small bottled water to try and rinse the grit out. She dribbles it over her face and blinks repeatedly to clear her vision. And then blinks some more with what that vision reveals. "What?" she asks aimlessly at the view of the landscape ahead of her. That is NOT normal. Right!? She turns around to flee and finds nothing but a wall. "Chef?" she rasps out, throat sore from breathing in the debris cloud. "Where are we?"

Violet may be dragging. She may be getting dragged! But she is absolutely gripping Vyv's arm like she might tear it off if he tries to force her off. She doesn't have the best of composure on good days. This is not a good day. Either way, she stays close when they squeeze into the alley, and then her nails dig in when she sees where they come out on the other end. "Oh," she breathes out, exasperated. "I thought we'd get a break in the summer." At least she drops Vyv's arm, because she sees the graffiti and probably shouldn't head that way, but she does head that way, "There's writing over here!"

"No, no, no!" Harper says as she catches sight, second behind Lex who is leading them all to see what is at the other end of the now-blocked off alley they just skidded through. "Not again. No." Someone will likely run into her from behind and shove her forward so the rest of the crowd can come barreling through. /She/ reaches for /Lex's/ wrist and tugs at the other woman over to the side rather than moving forward toward the street. "Not a good place." Better the earthquakes and the apparent sinkholes than this place, at least in Harper's opinion. When she tries to peer back down the alley she only can /just/ tell there is no retreat. She murmurs a little moan of dismay in her throat before beginning to cough all over again into her scarf.

He makes his way through the dust and grit and when he comes out the other side, Elias comes to a stop and then takes a deep breath before letting it out in a ragged sigh. "Out of the frying pan and into.." then he glances over toward Violet, and the graffiti beyond, and he moves to follow her. "May as well take a look, since we're here." And there's a wall blocking the way that they came from.

Even when you increasingly suspect that things are headed that way again, it still feels different when they actually do. "Someone should write a book," Christopher muses out loud. "'So Shit Just Got Weird.' Sell millions."

"What the hell?" Lex is choking on her own words as Harper takes her turn at pulling. While the rest of them stumble into the safety of La La Land, the supposed ringleader is being waylaid just short of the entrance. "It's bad in there, but it's gonna get worse out here. Come /on/." Tug-a-war.

"It'd be considered a work of fiction." Vivian points out to Christopher, but then she smoothes her hands down over her shirt, trying to act like this is normal. And the buildings don't have mouths and eyes. So she starts to join the others in heading towards the graffiti, the only thing betraying her desire to scream and run away is the sudden tension in her jaw and shoulders.

This is a nightmare. It has to be. Or hell. Maybe the gas main exploded and they're all dead. Rebecca moves to Vyv's side, and she pulls her phone out of her bag to see if it works. Tap tap tap. Nothing. "Wherever we are, has no cell service," she notes to her boss, as if THAT is the weirdest thing here. She cautiously follows the others, swallowing down the bile of fear that is welling in her throat. "Isn't that the shop?" she asks Vyv, gesturing towards the boarded up place.

It's the library. HER library that stuns Harper out of her tug-o-war with Lex and is just -- pulled along again, wherever the silver-haired leader pulls her. She sidesteps, stumbles, stares silently at the embodiment of her treasured building. "The library," she rasps through a choking throat. "I think it wants us to ..." Does she really say it? "-- check something out." She has no eyes for the graffiti, only briefly noting the other buildings are 'boarded up' in technicolor.

Vyv emerges out the other side and stops short, blinking at the buildings, the sky, then glancing behind -- and seeing only a wall. A faint wince, either at that or Violet's nails. "That is-- not possible. This is not..." Brow furrowed, he sounds more puzzled and (still) annoyed than frightened as yet, though there's a certain set to his shoulders that would imply to someone who had nothing better to do than assess him among all this that it might be a matter of determination. That shows rather in the way he stalks down the street toward that writing as well, shooting sharp looks at the buildings as they pass. "Come along, Ms. Carr. The rest of you lot." That seems aimed more toward his employees than everyone, but anyone who wants some can have some orders. He catches sight of the eyes on the library, and the glare they get would be a little more convicing if his own didn't widen quite so much for a moment first. "...gas hallucinations?" he asks no one and nothing in particular.

Violet stops short in front of her shop, just before the building starts to settle into a sigh. "This is m..." she doesn't finish the word 'mine' before the building puffs dust at her and leaves her scrambling back and away, quick steps along the squishy-squashy ground. "We're in a Dream," she says to herself, to those around her, taking in a breath and back out again, trying to keep herself steady. "This is just a Dream, we just have to find the way out. There's so many of us here.." and that makes her wary. In fact, it makes her want to sort of seperate herself from the group. She'll take a few steps away from the others, come to think about it.

Christopher keeps a bit off to one side of the group, letting Lex take point while he stays somewhere ahead of the rear. "This is the second time I've run into one," he adds, glancing over toward Vyv. "So if it is, then it's leaking /way/ out into the water."

"Hallucinations from the fumes. Right. Has to be," Rebecca replies to Vyv, but her tone is anything but convinced. "A group hallucination." She remembers her parents having hushed discussions about this town when she was little, and the moment of horror on her father's face when she said she was moving there. He hid it right after, but she saw it. She just interpreted it as horror she'd move someplace so mundane. Now she knows different; they were afraid of this place. "What do you mean leaking? What's leaking?" she asks Christopher.

"Goddamnit," Lex snaps to herself as her apparent leadership skills seem to have dropped them all into... whatever this is. "Your library is... jell-o, sweetheart," she sighs back to Harper, finally releasing the poor woman's wrist. That might leave a bruise. And by might we mean 'will'.

Elias wanders around as though this were perfectly normal and happens all the time. Buildings having eyes? No problem. Buildings like jello wiggling and watching them? He gives a glance to the library, but it doesn't seem antagonistic, and so he doesn't linger on it long. Everyone else seeming to be in various stages of disbelief? That doesn't seem to surprise him either. Instead, he walks up to the front of his shop and stands there, hands in his pockets. When it sighs out a puff of dust at him, he coughs, once, and then says, "Nice to see you, too." He reaches out and gives the wall a light, affectionate pat, and then turns once more to look toward City Hall. "I'm going to go see what it says." He then continues onward toward City Hall.

"Who is Billy?" Vivian wonders, glancing around a moment, a hand raising to rub against the back of her neck before she starts to move towards the words that are written in what is probably blood. "Maybe we should find Billy?"

Harper stumbles to a halt as Lex releases her wrist, staring-staring back that the library looking at her, at them all. Finally, as if tethered to Lex for the time being, she follows along in the direction the woman moves. Maybe it's Vyv's command to his culinary troops that spurs her to motion. Whatever it is, Harper keeps trying to blink the grit and dust out of her eyes. "They want something. They always want something." Half to herself, half to anyone who might be listening. But not emphatic. "Who is Billy?" She tears her gaze from her jiggling building to look at the words, lifting fingertips to her lips. "Is anyone bleeding?" This a little louder.

"No idea," Elias says when Vivian asks who Billy is, the first indication that he's really paying attention to what the others are saying around him. He moves closer toward the box, to see if he can see what is in it without actually touching it. The feelings that he senses give him a bit of pause though, the first thing to really bring him up short, and his face contorts into an expression of confusion and curiosity. "That's.. odd.." Because let's face it, reverence is not something that Elias is used to feeling. He's about as irreverent as they come.

Christopher eyes the graffiti once he's close enough, glances around at the others and shrugs. "Doesn't ring any bells. Hopefully he's a friendly type." Then he narrows his eyes a bit at Harper. "/Don't give anyone any ideas./"

"I'm guessing Billy's in the box," Lex muses in response to Harper. "But I also thought it was gonna be a Dune worm, so take that with a grain'f salt..." She stops shy of actually approaching the box, allowing those with less gory minds to investigate.

Rebecca seems to stutter step in her forward motion as the words on the building become visible. She feels tears leap to her eyes, unbidden, as the sense of apology and reverence washes over her. "W-Who is Billy?" she asks the writing, moreso than her companions, as she moves to look at the box and its contents. Tears spill over silently, droplets slipping down her cheeks. She has no idea what is being apologized for, what injustice has occurred, but she FEELS it.

The sudden feels~ makes Violet recoil, as though someone's punched her right in the tit. She staggers back, the wind knocked out of her for half a moment, as she bends towards her knees and tries to recollect her lost breath. Her fists tighten and she rights herself again, stepping forward towards the letters, where all those emotions are coming off. "I think that's blood," she utters to those around her, pointing at the words.

"I think that we should find Billy." Vivian decides, a hand rubbing briefly at her temple, a frown appearing on her face before she glances in the direction of the box, "What...the box?" She doesn't sound like she's as certain that Billy is in the box, but she lacks a better plan, so heads towards the box with a lot less trepidation than Lex is showing.

Harper moves toward the box, drawn in most ways like everyone else seems to be. "Open it," she suggests in a hushed, awed voice, pushing her way forward as if intending to do so herself, though when she gets close her fingers hover near the edge of it, trembling.

Well, /some/ people feel like the box is apologetic. Or maybe the bloody words above it. Lex? Lex sees blood graffiti, weirdly sentient buildings, and a bunch of bemused strangers. Crying? And there goes Harper, along with the rest of them. Lex refolds her arms, and tips a rather hostile glare toward City Hall.

Rebecca presses a hand to her chest as the full force of sorrow hits her at the sight of the remains in the box. She crouches down and sets the other hand on the box's side. "I...somehow I think this is meant for me? He? Is this a He? He is hurting, and sad, and wants to be buried," she whispers.

"In that case they're a bit late on the repairs," Vyv replies to Christopher, and seems to take Violet's labelling of it as a dream to support this whole hallucination theory. "The gas," he clarifies to Rebecca, but it's not... entirely convincing, and he stops short again as that feeling hits. "This isn't right," he says, in an entirely different sort of tone than before -- not a matter of existential wrongness, but of the moral sort. He's not sure why, but he's definitely sure. Okay, it's still existentially wrong too, though. He does head closer to the building and writing and box, his stalking gaining a strange addition of something like someone approaching an altar. Combined, the movement gives the impression one might not just put candles on it, but those overwashing feelings are combined with curiosity now. And still underlying annoyance. That's not likely dissipating entirely any time soon. He looks about to open the box when the words drop into his mind, and then he manages to find a slighty paler shade than his usual one to go. "...it. Wants to be buried?"

Basically simultaneously with his assistant. Huh.

"The only way out is through, huh? Sounds about right." Christopher walks over, not actually reaching for the box, but getting a better look at it and around it. "Anyone spot any shovels nearby?"

"If it's alive, you sure you want to bury it?" Lex muses from where she's firmly /not moving closer/. A few yards off, arms crossed and eyes narrowing as she looks away from City Hall and back to the possible box-of-Billy.

"Well then we bury it." Vivian points out, stepping closer to the box to look at the remains, crouching down to get a closer look, but she keeps her hands to herself as she tries to look at any kind of...evidence of what the wrongdoing might be. Beyond being put in a box, obviously. That's pretty fucking wrong right there.

Violet isn't touching the box, she's too busy staring at the last two words in blood. "Bury me," she murmurs, then shakes her head. "No, no. This isn't right. We can't take this back with us," she insists, stepping over to Rebecca as she goes and touches the box. "We can't take it back. You can't take anything out of here."

Harper didn't hear the entreatied words. "No," she argues. "You can't just bury it. What if someone -- someone missing is inside?" She drops her knees beside the box in the crowd surrounding it. If Rebecca hasn't completely opened the box, Harper will finish the job and look inside, opening it so that others can see, too, unless something stops her from doing so.

"Well, then I suppose we bury it here," Vyv replies to Violet, "though I don't suppose anyone's hallucinated a shovel in his or her pocket?" It's slightly absent, mouth going on without that much of his focus. Because box. Talking in his head. Probably box, anyway.

"Out of where? What do you mean?" Rebecca asks Violet in confusion, but her eyes remain on the bones inside the box. "We can't leave him here. He needs to be buried. Would you want to be left behind here? With your only grave a cardboard box?" she asks the other woman sincerely, with her tear-streaked face overwhelmed with emotion.

Lex totally called Billy-In-A-Box. Just in case anyone's keeping score. Beyond that... well, she's content to let the others doing the feeling and the digging. She does, however, note, "Dead shit ain't always dead around here, you guys. Just... sayin'." As she stands and watches.

"We can bury this person." Vivian insists to Violet, her hands resting on her knees, then she points out, "It does say Billy Lives." Which sort of contradicts the idea of burial, right? "I think that we should take the time to respect the remains and bury them...and find out how they got here, as well. Who Billy is."

Then not here. "Then not here," Harper thinks and then speaks as her fingertips trace over the cardboard as if she could somehow soothe the body that was once a part of those bones. "Back. Back through the Sideways. Bury it /there/." She can't drag her gaze from the bones whose deepest entreaty seems to be to be given rest.

Violet claps her hands over her mouth when she sees the bones in the box, tears leaking down her own face. There's visible tremors running down her, but she keeps insistently shaking her head. "We can't take anything out of here," she sounds so sorry about that, so mournful. "We can't take him with us, even if we get out. You can't take anything from Dreams, you can't. I'm so sorry," that last whisper was to the thing in the box, as more tears trail down her cheeks. "You can't take anything OUT!" that was snapped at Harper.

Vyv eyes the remains, then the writing, then the box again. "That is... presumably not Billy," he says, "but he definitely wants to be buried, I cannot believe I am saying this." This is what happens when you hear yourself sounding like a TV psychic halfway through your comments. "Fine." He turns to look across those he knows are locals, and those who just kinda seem like they probably are. "Where do we bury a body around here? And where do we get a shovel or similar? Because I am not doing this with my hands."

"Presumably we can get out, so what if someone brought him in? Can't we take him out of where ever here is?" Vivian gets to her feet, her attention turning towards Violet, "What is the harm in at least trying? If there's no way to bury him here, why can't we at least try to carry him out? Maybe he's not....of here."

Harper visibly jumps at Violet's emphatic snapping, her sincere, brown gaze tipping up and away from the box to look at the bespectacled Violet. "You're sure." Clearly the woman is sure. "Someone got stuck here. Maybe burial is the only way to get unstuck." Harper considers all the unpleasant ways to be buried and has probably seen one too many Tarantino movies for her own good. "Do you think it would tell us where to bury it?" She defers to Vyv's final questions.

"I'm so sorry," Rebecca whispers to the remains in the box. "If you tell me your name, I can tell your family where you are after we bury you," as if the bones can talk.

"Yeah, I am getting the impression that Billy is someone else, who is alive, and this is someone else, who clearly is not. But if these bones aren't from here, then isn't it feasible that we could take them out of here?" Elias has never tried to take things into or out of Dreams before as he just hasn't really had any reason to try, and so he has no idea. He looks over toward Violet, "Or have you tried?" Because she seems to be the one most emphatic about that.

Vyv stares at the box a moment more, then strides the last few feet toward it, squats down, and picks it up, bones and all. Up to his feet, turning, and striding back the way they came, without a moment's hesitation. "Well. Let's find out, shall we?" He does not look particularly inclined to be stopped. Or to expect anyone to do so. Because he is Of Course Correct.

"I'm positive, I'm sure," Violet insists. "If this is from our place, and now it's here, it can't leave here. You can't bring things out of here. Just yourself, just the things They do to you," her eyes dart to all the people talking to her, and she shrinks back, folding her arms around her chest to try her best to make herself seem very strong. "It's impossible. I have tried, I have tried," she insists, and then she suddenly staggers back and falls on her ass.

"We can try." Vivian's words are a little more gentle as she moves towards Violet, offering to help her back to her feet, "Come on, there isn't going to be any harm in trying." Which Vyv already seems to be doing, anyways. "Let's get out of here."

Oh, great, now they're starting to lose people! Time is not on their side. "Somebody work out a direction," Christopher says, as he moves to grab one end of the box and help haul it. That, at least, he can do.

Rebecca jolts back from the box at the shout in her head, and blinks over at Violet. When Vyv gathers up the box, she skitters after him, a hand going to his shoulder to let him know she has his back. "We have to try."

Vyv picks up the box and Harper rises as though it were attached to her. She doesn't hear the emphatic, somehow philosophical statement, nor the second demand. But she's still of the sentiment it is asking. If she passes Lex, she'll try to grab at the woman's wrist, turnabout and all that, and pull her along with. Vyv is going somewhere. He has the bones. She's going wherever that somewhere is. At least for the time being.

Lex sighs as she listens to the others attempt to sort out the box, burying, and Billy business. Just as she got the impression that they should all run into this madhouse, the others seem to have some impression about... that.

Vyv has a direction. He's not asking questions now, he's decided. Back the way they came; come or don't.

Or Lex will be grabbed and dragged along. Because that's okay, too.

It takes a minute for Violet to recover from the screaming in her head, eyes flinched closed. But when she peels them back open, she sees Vivian there and reaches out to take her hand. "I'm sorry, I am!" she says to the whole group. "I've been here too many times," she whispers with a shake of her head. "Everything is impossible." There's a great amount of pause before she says: "Until it isn't. What does that even mean?" But she doesn't have time for such philosophical thoughts, because she's with the herd, and the herd is traveling to the alley-way, that dead-ends into the featureless wall. And she chokes back a sob. "There has to be a way out."

"Everything is impossible until it isn't? It just means that you have to keep trying." Vivian suggests, following along with the rest, although since there doesn't appear to be a way out that way, she starts looking around, "Maybe we go the other way?" Hopefully.

Vyv considers the wall for a moment, head tilting at it as though it might change its mind if looked at imperiously enough. It's a pretty fucking good imperious look, to be fair. Alas, it does not appear to work against Dream walls. "Fine," he says crisply, "then we'll go another way. Of course there's a way out. Everything has a way out." He turns to survey the rest of the area, asking the box, "All right, you want us to take you out? Where." Make like skeleton satnav, dead man. C'mon.

Rebecca frowns at the lack of passage opening for the bones and their bearers, but she moves back into the bizarre version of downtown. "We should look around, see if there's another way out other than," she swallows and tips her chin towards the mouth of the Jello Library. Because that doesn't seem like a good idea. "Maybe Billy can show us the way out? BILLY!? ARE YOU HERE!?"

"How do /you/ usually get out, Harper asks over her shoulder at the recovering Violet. "I always have to start to die." Toward the fruitless alley. "It's either the library or City Hall," Harper says, when that becomes obvious. "And I don't like how City Hall /feels/." This, by default, is said to Vyv as he's in front, carrying the box o' bones.

Christopher shakes his head. "There's the whole rest of the town, though, isn't there? Or there might be. Where would a hardware store be, now?" Because hey, shovels. "Or a cemetery."

"I... I used to find something of my sister's. But it's changed, They changed the rules," Violet replies to Harper with a frantic shake of her head. "But I never get out the way I came in. The last time I had to defeat Satan," she bites her bottom lip, then - lightbulb! "Alex's house! If we're in Gray Harbor, I can find Alex's house!"

"Shit." Lex allows herself to be pulled along for as long as Harper does the tugging, but her gaze has flickered between the library and city hall. "City Hall's was being a bitch a second ago, for what it's worth..." Probably not worth much.

Vivian gives Violet just a fraction of side-eye, but then she's turning her attention back to the rest, "I don't know what any of this is." Which is probably helpful and obvious. "But I really think we should try the building with the words on it? Maybe...."

Harper almost bumps into Vyv and nearly tangles feet with Lex as she watches Violet from over her shoulder. These bits of knowledge seem important.

"We are in Gray Harbor," Elias confirms, "Just with living buildings staring at us. We should probably head to the cemetery, since it's going to be in the same place, most likely. There may be shovels there, or not. One way or another, we can try and bury him, or bring him out, or both. But we're not getting out the way that we came in."

Rebecca mutters under her breath to Vyv, "We so need to sue the city for reckless endangerment with that gas main explosion." She's trying to cling to a point of sanity in this insane place.

"I... vote the library. It's less bitchy." Oh, look, Lex is expressing opinions again. Her wrist still in Harper's possession, she looks toward the librarian. "What do you think? You know the place better'n me. And it looked at you."

"If we're in Gray Harbor? Where else would we be?" Vyv asks, "And why would this Alex's house be useful?" He looks up at the library and its eyes, and over to the writing, and then back down to the box. "You are no help at all," he informs the skeleton, "Being dead is no excuse for not doing your bit." Don't be lazy, bones. Looking up, "Right. Where IS that cemetery? Perhaps we'll find a way out on the way, and if not, that's where bones belong. Unless there's some reason this Alex would be useful. Does he own shovels?"

Rebecca gets a small nod. Oh yes, someone definitely needs to suffer for this who isn't them.

"We're in a Dream," Violet says to Vyv. "But if the Dream is Gray Harbor, then Alex's house... that's how I got out last time." That latter part is mentioned to Harper. "Some place familiar. It was familiar. It was home," she frowns to herself. "Alex is my ... ah..." she stumbles and shakes her head, then stares over at Lex. "Did you check the wall? Maybe it's not real."

Vivian tucks her hands into the pockets of her suit jacket, waiting while everyone else debates the direction, reality vs Dream. She has no opinions to share on the matter beyond watching everyone else.

"I don't touch things in here," Lex informs Violet. "That includes walls." In other words? No. "But seriously... we got a librarian. And an old ass library. You said something about /familiar/?" Not so much a people person. At least... not on This side.

"Here or There?" Harper muses. "Do we try to bury it Here or There?" Because that makes a difference in where they try to go. She scans in the direction down the street that would lead to the cemetery if things were arranged here the same way. "There's no place to bury it -- him -- them in the library. But maybe if we..." She stops, releases Lex's wrist and drops to her knees on the spongy ground. She tries using her hands to tear at it, uncertain but willing to give it a try.

Rebecca sets a hand on the side of the box again. "We should go to the graveyard then, and bury him. Maybe that will give us a way out. Doing the right thing for this unfortunate soul."

"Do you have a shovel?" Vivian wonders, "Because if we are going to where ever this graveyard is, we need to aquire a shovel on the way. Or we can see if this library option is the way out, and bury him not here."

To Violet, Harper murmurs low, "To me, the Library is Home."

"It's a real wall," Vyv says, and glances at the ground, then the box. "'Everything is impossible until it isn't'," he repeats, never mind that only two other people heard it the first time -- he doesn't know that, and might not care -- and his lips purse briefly. "All right, you go somewhere familiar to leave. That library is familiar to you?" a look to Harper, "And the bones seem to think it's worth trying the impossible." The library gets a wary look, particularly at the eyes, but the rumbles down there also get a look. "Library, then. It's right here. If that doesn't work we move on." That's the way he starts, though hopefully the person it's actually familiar to at the least is going to come. 'cause he doesn't even have a card yet.

"M-maybe inside is a better idea?" Rebecca offers at the tremors. Getting caught out here in another explosion, or by something worse, seems to be a really bad idea. "I agree on the library." She heads that way.

Lex turns a bemused look toward Rebecca as she offers the sweet sentiment about the thing in the box. "Doing the right thing don't mean /shit/ here, lady. If it pulled real people here, I'd guess it wants to be buried in real people land. And if you go anywhere /near/ a cemetery, I'm not even gonna feel bad if you die." A glance toward Harper, "See? Home." Then Vyv is moving to the library, and Lex flips her hand around to resume pulling on /Harper/. "C'mon, librarian. Maybe there's a crypt in there. Wherever you keep dictionaries now."

Violet nods in understanding to Harper, and she reaches to give the woman a reassuring squeeze. "We'll get out. We have to get out. I always get out. Somehow," she whispers, before she starts to move with everyone else over to the library.

"Library." Vivian is thirding this idea as that rumbling and shaking starts up again, and she turns to head in that direction without waiting to see who else might decide to follow. Because it's better than staying out here in her opinion.

Harper rises from where she thought to experiment at ripping up the spongy ground, sidewalk or no. "If we can get /through/ a place that is like home, yes-yes-yes. Let's try the Library." This will either go exceedingly well, or not. Very not. Harper, now more sure-footed, in spite of the rumbling from beneath them, leads the way to the blubbery version of Her Library, across the intersection and down the street past a boarded up building.

And now we have a librarian! Lex keeps her hold on Harper as the amassed group starts toward the jell-o library, remaining thankfully silent.

The Library seems to be the most friendly of the options, and so Elias falls into step with Harper, heading toward the Library. Once he gets there, he goes to open the door, which is a mouth, which is disconcerting on so many levels, and yet he says to the Library, "Pardon me, but do you mind if we come inside?" Sure, why not? He talked to his shop, why not the Library too?

There are any number of situations where Christopher has a load of options to bring to the table. The Dream? Is not one of them. He's just helping to haul the box wherever the group decides to go, and Lord help them if they ever decide to split the party. "Who's got a library card? Just in case."

Never hurts to be polite, right? Though Vyv's going to let Elias handle that. The libary does get a small, tight smile, just in case it cares. Civil. Despite the fact that the door is a mouth. Which is... yes, disconcerting. But that does appear to be library inside, and not a stomach. So far so good? "Thank you," he says to the building, also just in case, and continues the plan, such as it is. Box in arms, arms remaining attached to body, body walking inside. And looking around. Libraries always have other exits. Maybe one works properly.

"Not me." Because that is as reasonable a request as anything else right now. Vivian is falling in to step with everyone else, though, to the library! And hopefully through the door.

"I have the fucking librarian," Lex reiterates for Christopher, jerking her chin toward Harper. "If it won't take her, it's not takin' no card." Then again. "Shit. Do you need cards here?" That's to Harper.

Violet mouths prayers under her breath as she looks up at the library from the outside, and this very large mouth that opens to allow them inside. Alex prays all the time, so Violet's hoping God might step in to help her just this once. Be a bro, Dude! She takes one big breath and closes her eyes as she steps into the mouthdoor, very much expecting the mouth to clamp down around her and chew her up. When that doesn't happen, she blinks her eyes back open. "Oh," is all she can say.

Rebecca follows the others inside, looking troubled and a bit dazed, like her brain is having trouble reconciling this situation due to the sheer unreality of it all. "I'll get a card as soon as we get home. I promise," she vows to the library. She's only been in town a week!

Christopher shakes his head. "I know that," he replies to Lex, "but for all we know, this is the library from eleventeen years ago and it doesn't recognize her. Just in case."

Harper pets the door of the building, then trails fingers along the non-fiction stacks closest to the door while she waits until everyone is inside her domain. She draws a raw-throated breath in and then exhales slowly. Her space. This place. Even wrong, it's right to Harper. Then the librarian is inquiring of Violet, "How do you get /through/ a home-place?" The main space of the library is on this ground floor. A sign suggests special collections and rare books upstairs and there is a staff-only door that conceivably leads down to a basement.

"It was looking at her," Lex offers back to Christopher, then shrugs her unoccupied shoulder. "You think the cemetery's a better idea?"

"I think.." Violet hesitates to answer Harper's question. "I think we are home." And when she hears the firetrucks outside, she knows that to be true. So when she turns and sees the box full of bones that is still with them, her eyes flare open wide. "How?!"

Rebecca blinks at the sight of the lights outside, and her breath catches in her throat. "I think you're right," she agrees with Violet, before looking back and seeing the box with them. "We still have the bones?" she asks, needing to confirm the box contents. "We need to hand them over to the authorities."

"I think we need to figure out who Billy is, and bury him." Vivian pulls her hand out of her pocket, checking the watch on her wrist, "I don't know the best way to do that beyond checking records of missing persons. Billy, William...those are likely starting points in the search. So who would like to help while we figure out how to properly bury the remains?"

Harper feels the Rightness almost as soon as she's asked the question, so she pulls out the History of the Assyrian Empire from the shelf beneath her fingertips -- of course she does! -- and with a little sound of delight, kisses it, dust and all. Then she carefully replaces it to its spot on the now-dusty shelf and looks around at the others. "Do you think /that/ particular box is essential, or would you like me to get something more innocuous from the basement?"

"I am reasonably certain that even eleventeen years ago, the library was not made of jello and sporting facial features," Vyv remarks, distracted as he looks for ways out, or possibly Skeleton Depository Boxes, "so we probably needn't worry." And he spots the firetruck lights outside. Speaking of not worrying, that exhale is probably stronger than he intended it to be. Not relieved at all. Things are normal! Except he still has a box of skeleton. "...either not a hallucination, or I'm still hallucinating. But this is rather heavy for one." Can you hallucinate weight? He looks to Rebecca thoughtfully, then back to the box. "Explaining where they came from seems inconvenient. And he did ask to be buried, specifically. How long do you reckon the police will hold the bones before that happens? Or do they cremate?" Would the skeleton even care? How much does he care, now that things look normal again?

"Jesus, you seriously don't listen..." Lex actually sighs at Violet's outburst, looking toward the woman and then wincing slightly as she looks away. It's a look toward the windows then, with the somehow comforting sound of chaos outside. Home sweet home. A glance toward Vivian then, and a furrowed 'brow. "Cops. Out there. Let them worry about Billy."

"Police and burial seem to be antipodal modes of action," Harper observes, perhaps unhelpfully. "We need to choose one or the other." She hasn't forgotten that reverent feeling, like it strummed a chord within her.

"I'm not sure. I'm not from here so I don't know if the authorities will bury him, but I do think they'd have the ability to at the very least identify him? Can anyone here do that?" Rebecca asks, looking around at the others.

Violet snaps a look at Lex. "I didn't do anything to you!" she huffs, and then backs away from the box of bones they brought out FROM A DREAM. "I don't trust this. This could be a trick, They are changing the rules again. It could be Them, playing tricks on us. Give it to the police," she holds up her hands in surrender.

Harper's eyes widen. "If you were a police officer and someone brought you a box of human remains, what would your response be?" She takes a step away from the beloved bookshelf and toward where Vyv is -- still -- holding the box.

"Police ask questions, and if you go telling someone you found a box of bones in a world made of jelly fleshy buildings, then everyone gets put on a psych hold. I'm not risking my career for that bullshit." Vivian shakes her head, hands up, "So someone else can do that, and convince them of where they found them, or to buy the lie."

"Uh, guys, the cops live here, too. You don't think a few of them have walked into a few buildings with mouths?" That's Lex again, though she's back to folding her arms and taking a step away from the main group. Still close enough to interrupt with various vulgarities, but making sure that she's far enough away not to be held responsible for whatever they... decide.

"Nope!" Violet throws up her hands. "Nope, I'm out. That thing should've stayed where it belongs!" and she's going to find the back door of this place, because she is not sticking around.

Christopher raises a hand, then turns as if to address a hypothetical officer. "Officer, we were hallucinating from the gas leak, we don't know where--" Then he leaves off, wincing. "Oh, great, maybe /that/ is the bad guys. Can we throw it /back/?"

Harper looks from one face to another, though Violet's snapping and then her statement about Them changing the Rules give her pause for a span of time while others debate the merits of the two options. Finally she speaks up, "If none of you will, I will carry it out to my car and /drive the box/ to --" She hiccups in a sudden breath of startlement and fear and then steps back a pace as that rush flows over them all. "-- to the cemetery ..." She says more slowly, more hushed and tentative. "... myself."

"Well. He didn't say he wanted to be identified. Just buried," Vyv says, considering, and then there's that feeling when Violet says that, and he nearly drops the box, taking a step back as though he could get away from it while still actually holding it. "Who are 'They' and 'Them'?" he asks Violet, looking toward all the cops out there.

That sudden rush of raw eagerness seems to take Elias by surprise, who seems to have been lost in his own thoughts for a bit while the debate went on over what to do with the bones. He jerks his head in the direction of the box and stares at it for a good long time before he says, "Okay, I do /not/ like that feeling at all."

"We can say they were shaken loose from somewhere in the basement from the explosion?" Rebecca offers. Then that hunger hits her and her eyes go wide. "W-what? Burn it! BURN IT!" she hollers, realizing they've been played!

"It likes the cop idea?" Which is what Vivian is taking from this. "Fine, just say you found the box somewhere in the library and it was knocked loose by the explosion." She dusts her hands off, as though ridding herself from the problem, "But not me." She's out to protect her career, which is why she starts to follow Violet.

Violet is still going to totally find the back exit to this place. But she wheels around to stare at Vyv. "Them. The shadows, the ones that eat at you, that rip you to shreds when you go into that place. And that thing, whatever it is? Whoever it is?" She points a shaky finger at what was once Billy. "It likes Them. It wants Them to eat us. It wants to help Them. And I'm not helping anything, that wants to help THEM."

"You know what... fuck the cop idea," Lex is recanting from her previous statement. "And don't leave the library." Yet... "This was too easy... And I don't care what the bones want, I'm not sure we should want them." Take that, you death sympathizers. "

Vyv's eyes narrow, and he looks down at the bones again. "You're a bit of a dick, aren't you." His jaw tightens. "Right. No one mentions whoever it is she's talking about. He likes it too much. The arguing, too." He stares at the box again. "All right. We get another box, one I've not touched, thank you. Dump him into it. Leave it by the door. Leave. Let the cops find the bones themselves. Or you," Harper, "report finding it there tomorrow."

The consensus seems more and more to fall on Harper's shoulders -- and her beloved Library's -- as everyone begins to wipe their hands of the mess. It be difficult for each to take their leave: the door is right there. Harper's typically bright gaze sharpens. "I'll figure something out, then," she announces in a chilly voice. She looks to Vyv as if expecting him to be next, setting the box down on the counter of her circulation desk any moment now. "Less collateral damage, at least." Harper squares her shoulders. Her gaze turns to Elias and Violet in turn.

Christopher eyes Violet for a long moment, then nods ot Vyv. "Yeah, I like that idea, considering. Maybe they'll stick it in an evidence locker and it'll sit there for a long, long time. And once we're outta here, we scatter, right?"

Rebecca lets out a cry and grabs at her head. "It is afraid of being burned! It doesn't want us to burn it!"

"Seriously, people. Something's not right." A glance is tipped toward the door at the sound of the cops, and then a look toward Harper. "Library lady, get away from it. Bad shit. /Bad/ shit. Who can burn shit without matches?" Lex may as well have asked about Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but hey... she might be just around the corner.

Vyvs gonna Vyv. But they're also going to say, "Burn it," very firmly. "Nearest other exit?" he asks Harper, and has not and does not put down the box. It's coming with him out to where the authorities aren't, if he has anything to say about it, and then... okay, a lighter probably isn't going to do it, but he has one? Figure out the next step next.

Ugh. No. Vivian is trying her very best to not be anywhere near the box, and instead look for a way out that doesn't include running into any cops or firemen.

"Alright, let's take the box and get out of here," Elias says, nodding to Harper. "We need to do something about it, but not here, and not while the fire department is about to break in." He then begins moving, toward whatever fire exit, back door, or other opening is furthest away from the cops about to come in.

"It has to be destroyed. Not put somewhere they're going to store it. Not with questions and inquiries!" Harper exclaims. "They're /right there/. Give --" She reaches toward Vyv to as if to grab it and set it down behind the circulation desk, but the Elias is stating what she intended to try to do herself. She tries to grab this time for real while the firemen enter, confused, and, if successful, will rush it toward the rear exit past the 'staff only' door. If Vyv starts to move to follow her, she'll lead the way, quickly and efficiently.

Rebecca coughs and puts on her best damsel in distress face as she limps towards the hot firemen. "I'm so sorry? I left my phone and ran back inside to get it, like an idiot, and then everything went boom and I think I may have blacked out for a few moments," she lies, like a lying liar who lies.

Violet's not going to stick around to have talk-time with the hot firemen. She mutters something under her breath and leaves, and everyone can talk about how crazy Violet Whitehouse was in the library when the pizza place exploded.

With a hushed 'Hurry-this-way!" Harper leads Vyv toward that Staff-Only door at nearly a run, pulling her keys from the pocket of her dress and holding the door for him to get through as quickly as possible.

Elias isn't sticking around to chat with the hot fireman, as tempting as that might be. He does glance over his shoulder for just a second as they are hurrying out, but what he's looking for is unclear. Then, it's out the door.

Vyv gives Harper a Look as she tries to grab the box, and automatically pulls it away, even if he doesn't particularly WANT the thing. He doesn't know which way he's supposed to go yet but is aiming for 'away' already, so the hushed words get a nod and he's aiming to be right behind her, or as right behind her as having a box of bones allows. WHY didn't he just let her take it, this is going to annoy him all night.

Lex's expression has grown outright irritated by now, and she's stopped bothering with the whole... talking bit. Instead, she's walking down an aisle adjacent the group until they all end up at the back of the library together. And then out. As for those bones? Someone else's problem now.

"My car is just down the block past the construction," Harper murmurs in a rush, breathlessly. "Would you like me to carry them for a bit?" She has no idea how heavy they are, physically or psychically. "Somewhere outside of town. A bonfire. Something fast and hot. I have some lighter fluid in my car." She's just a motor-mouth at this point, as difficult as it is to run-without-looking-like-one-is-running away. "You don't have to come."

Rebecca's ploy succeeds to distract the firefighters. And she gets to have a lovely sit on the back step of an ambulance to breathe some oxygen from a mask, and shoot mock grateful expressions to the paramedics.

Violet doesn't call an Uber - she calls herself an Alex! And she's out.