[action]

[nopolicelikeholmes]

There is a young lady in the square. It may not have been obvious when she appeared; she's just a normal woman - taller than average - in a brown trenchcoat. But she's there now, looking about her with a sense of curiosity that seems to want to take in everything and store it away forever. She's staring, possibly staring at you and reading you like a book. And apparently you're one of those really good books - the kind with more questions than answers, the kind that keeps you turning the pages long after you should have gone to bed - because her dark eyes glimmer with interest at each new aspect she notices and there's just the hint of a smile on her lips.

"Amazing," she murmurs to no one in particular, "no two of them are alike."

[ ooc: I now have a permissions post set up, with a thing to fill out if you do/don't want your characters to be deduced. ]

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[element_wizard]

"Oh. It's an dangerous area, of course. You're in fairy." He taps his fingers on the hilt of his blade absently (he's a lefty). "However the town is safe."

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"I'll remember to arm myself before I go exploring, then."

She could say that because Watson wasn't here to disapprove.

[element_wizard]

"There's an evil grove outside. Don't go into it." Alec jerks his thumb behind him in one direction.

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"Really." Holmes leans to one side, looking past Alec in the alleged direction of the forest. "Literally and objectively evil?"

[element_wizard]

"Yes? It eats the souls of those who go into it so that they can join the others in its eternal unrest and agony," Alec says utterly seriously.

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"Oh." She frowned.

"That's terrible. Someone should really do something."

[element_wizard]

Alec stares at her for a second and then smacks his palm into his face.

"What is with you people thinking that you can just walk into a forest that has ages of time to become a malevolent force that scares even the arch fey and think you can just fix it!"

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"Hey!" Holmes straightened up to her full height, all indignant. "Hey, don't lump me in with those people! I have absolutely no delusions about my ability to fix evil forests!"

[element_wizard]

"Good! People need to just leave the damn thing alone and wait for it to get bored and go away."

Yes, he is indicating that the fores can move and is intelligent.

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"It can do that?"

[element_wizard]

"Of course it can. Why shouldn't it? If it stayed in one place then people could just avoid it and it wouldn't be able to gather new souls."

[nopolicelikeholmes]

"Not necessarily," Holmes said. "I mean, there's no easier way to tempt someone into a forest than by telling them it's ancient and evil and they're not to go there under any circumstances."

[element_wizard]

"If you're that stupid, you probably deserve it. But it's like the ultimate boogeyman, really - for the fey I know. And it's also a place where they do sometimes send criminals to."

[nopolicelikeholmes]

Shirley was not particularly moved.

"So, it's one of those things that's been a fixture of the society it came from for a long time, yet it's been known to move around?"

[element_wizard]

He rubs his face briefly. "Okay. Let me try to explain. You're in fairy. The landscape is mutable. The Grove is from my part of fairy. Fairy is older than human society, the fey are older than human society.

"The Grove was created when the seven eldest children of the seven oldest fey were murdered with iron and then hung in there."

Alec paused here. "This is the first time anyone in fairy had been murdered and it was with iron. This place reflects and changes if you're strong enough. The first born are the most powerful fey alive. Can you imagine what sort of emotion - from the children dying to their parent's grief and rage - was funneled into that location?"