A World Enchanted

"Hi, it's Tara. Sorry, but I'm not here right now. Leave a message and I'll get back to you."

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In creating this journal, the author has assumed the identity of a fictional person for use in the role-playing game fandomhigh, for the sole purpose of entertainment, without intending to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud either the person who created the fictional person, or any reader of this content. The author does not purport to be the creator of the fictional person, or to be affiliated with the creator, or with any person or entity with an interest in the fictional person. The author does not claim to be the person who is being used as the graphical representation of that fictional person, nor intend to obtain a benefit or to injure or defraud that person by use of their image.

Tara was pretty sure she had a goose egg on her head -- getting walloped with a pool cue will do that to you -- but otherwise, she was in good shape when she cautiously came back to her room from the spot in town where she'd popped back into existence.

Mr. Moxy meowed indignantly from his spot on her bed and sidled up to twine around her legs.

Tara supposed she should go hunt somebody down and figure out what she had missed, but it was all too overwhelming. She needed a good rest and some time with Moxy before she started confronting exactly why the world hadn't ended.

[OOC: Open door, open post!]

Tara cast a circle with herbs and salt, set candles at each of the four corners, and then sat in the center cross-legged with her eyes closed. She drew in a breath, found it tasted like the sage embedded in the candle, and began to chant.

Janus, Lord of Doorways, God of Changes, show me the place that I seek. Janus, Lord of Doorways, God of Changes...

It had taken more research than she'd expected, but Tara thought she finally had a spell that would let her get in touch with Kennedy's Sunnydale. It wasn't a viewing spell, let alone one that would let her pass a message along: It would just sort of ... poke the dimension and see if the Hellmouth poked back. After she'd done that, maybe her next step would be modifying the spell to pass a message along.

She kept chanting, voice rising and falling in soft cadences as the power began to rise in her. It was getting closer; if she reached her power out like a hand she'd be able to touch --

Nothing. The thing she'd been getting so close to was gone, like someone had dropped a cloak of invisibility over the entire world. No, like the world had never been there to begin with. And she was getting a vaguely hostile feeling slamming into her like a headache, like something was telling her not to poke it again.

It was weird.

It took Tara a moment to catch her breath. When she had, she blew out the candles, swept up the circle, and flopped backwards on her bed.

She wasn't sure what her next step even was, but she knew she was much more worried.
,
[OOC: Establishy.]

Tara laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out how she felt about the weekend that was over. She knew what she thought about where she'd left things with Kennedy on Friday: Sad, but also hopeful. But everything that happened after that? It was like a series of bizarre vivid dreams. Dreams full of pregnancy tests and nurses and a charity concert and diamond mines full of evildoers.

She knew somewhere in there some girl calling herself Tara had slept with somebody named Jonothon Evan Starsmore, but -- given it really wasn't her, and Jono didn't seem much like himself either -- she was deciding it Did Not Count.

She sighed, reached for her phone, and tapped out a text to Jono, just to make sure he felt the same way. Once she'd checked in with him, maybe she could look Raven in the eyes.

[OOC: Door closed, post open.]

It was over.

Tara's mother's end, agonizing as it had been to wait for, had hit over the weekend as suddenly as a blow to the gut. She'd been fine, then she hadn't, and there was nothing anyone could do. And then there had been a funeral to try to make it through, and things to pack up before her father could get at them, and now all of that was done and the house was blissfully, terribly, quiet.

The worst part was that Tara's father was being almost nice to her, thanking her for the things she did, not commenting at all when she kept her mother's spellbooks. Even Donny was on his best behavior, treating Tara as a sister and not as some annoyance he happened to live in the same household with.

She could finish up her senior year in California, they said. No need to go all the way across the country. Tara was just -- sad. Confused. Empty. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea, staying. She could help. Things would be peaceful, not as crazy as on the island. This was, after all, her home.

She -- didn't know what to think. She put on her sandals and took herself for a long, long walk. <<Don't stay>>, she heard in the wind, in her mother's voice. <<Don't lose yourself. Go. Like I couldn't.>>

She wasn't sure if it was a psychic flash, or a voice from inside her head, or simply wishful thinking. By the time she made it back to her house, she knew she was following the advice either way.

She picked the first portal she could afford to a place where she knew she'd find someone from Fandom, made a phone call, and went to sleep at peace. She knew the next morning, she'd be gone.

[OOC: Establishy.]

It was the worst day in a series of very bad days. Tara's mother had been fading away; today she'd needed a long moment to recognize Tara, and a longer one to say her name. The painkillers made her peaceful, but they also cost much of the spark that made her herself. Tara was losing her ability to just be grateful she had the chance to say goodbye.

And Beth had been over, "helping" Tara's dad with some household project. Beth, her least favorite cousin, who always managed to imply she wasn't quite certain Tara wasn't a demon. She'd set a new record that afternoon; she'd done it twice in five minutes.

It was, perhaps, not Tara's best idea to call Kennedy when she was in a mood like this. But it seemed more likely to distract her than any of the alternatives.

( Kennedy was always glad to be that kind of distraction... )

[OOC: NFB, NFI, OOC welcome. Preplayed with brat_intraining, who held my hand through this whole thing.]

After her amazing time at the dance the night before, Tara wanted nothing more than to sleep in, possibly for a decade or so.

Her body disagreed though, so it was still fairly early when she woke up and silently snagged a book from the floor next to her bed. She could read and wait for Kennedy; staying in bed gave her an excuse to keep grinning doofily at her girlfriend.

If she was waiting for anything beyond Kennedy waking up so they could maybe go get breakfast, she didn't know it yet.

[OOC: For ... three, please.]

[Immediately follows this.]

After talking to Jono and Karla, Tara went up to her room to find some salt and a candle. They'd relocated to Anakin's office for a little privacy in discussing what they had to do.

She quickly cast a circle on the ground, feeling oddly spurred in her haste by Raven's gold rings glowing on her thumb. Somehow, she felt deeply that this was right.

"Guys?" she called, waving her arms a bit to attract everyone's attention. ( ''We ... I think we need to do a seance.'' )

[Preplayed with blondecanary, brat_intraining, furious_maximus, furnaceface, glacial_witch, icecoldfrost, justwantsquiet, longislandiceme, not_a_parakeet, sith_happened, and trigons_child. NFI and NFB as it's after radio, but OOC, as always, is welcome.]