gather up your missing

[thedreamthief]

The streets honestly don't look any less populated than usual, everyone still wandering and carrying about their business without a goddamn worry in the world. There's a faction, of course, one that includes Ronan and Gansey and a few scattering of others who can recognize that something's wrong.

Something is very, very wrong.

The list of people about whom Ronan actually gives a damn and are not from Henrietta is incredibly short, but there are a few. Luke's shop is the first stop and it doesn't take long to find that he and his boyfriend are missing. (And the fact that Luke is gay -- or at least partially gay -- comes as a little bit of a surprise.) He tries hunting down Dorian next to find that he's also missing, as confirmed by his boyfriend. (This, of course, is less surprising than Luke.)

Grantaire is next.

He lives in the same building as both Dorian and Noah and Ronan is very, very deliberately not thinking about how a fucking ghost can go missing when he bangs on Grantaire's door.

"Hey! Hey, it's Ronan," he says, leaning into the wood before pounding again. "Grantaire, you in there?"

Comments

[pylades_drunk]

Grantaire makes a noise of agreement, leaning on the counter and looking at Ronan as he debates with himself how to answer R's question.

R laughs over his whiskey, a harsh exhale. "A sentient forest?" He's seen some of the things from Ronan's mind, and some of the things this place brings all on its own. "I can't argue, I guess. It can tell you about things going on?"

[thedreamthief]

Ronan's lips twist into a deeper frown at that question and he shrugs again. "Not really. It's not like a magic 8 ball. It's more that it... it can recognize things, sense them."

Which really doesn't clarify much at all, but Ronan wasn't kidding when he said it's hard to explain.

"Parrish made a fucking sacrifice of himself awhile back," he finally manages. "A deal. Cabeswater can talk to me, through the trees, but it uses Adam. It can sort of possess him, I guess, make him act as its eyes and hands so when shit gets fucked, Adam knows how to fix it."

[pylades_drunk]

That answers for Grantaire if Adam and Parrish are the same person; he's used enough to calling his comrades by their surnames (and, often enough, twisting their surnames into nicknames) that it isn't odd to him.

"And now he's not here, if that would even help," he says in understanding, with a wince because he's the one, after all, that shoved Ronan at the idea of saying something to the boy before it was too late. He hadn't thought too late would be this early. But he doesn't think any of these people have disappeared, not in the ordinary way. In some ways, that's worse.

He shakes his head, rolling over ideas in his mind, each one worse than the last. "If we..." He trails off and finally slams his palm down on the counter with a curse. "Putain! I'm tired of standing by while this place decides our fates."