(no subject)

[1stwitness]

The door swings open, unaided, on a woodland scene, and Ichabod stumbles through and nearly collapses, black veins standing out on his arms.

And then he notices where he is, eyes widening. "No. No, no, not here - " and he turns to stagger back through, the door closing behind him just after he slumps against a tree on the other side.

****

Some time later, he returns, looking considerably healthier - if rather wet.

[ooc: reactions to the first part or tags to the second equally welcome!]

Comments

[runningred]

Jay spots Ichabod but he's gone again before Jay can reach him.

He's hanging around the bar when Ichabod reappears. "Mate? You okay?"

[1stwitness]

"Very much better now, thank you." Bar supplies a towel, and he starts rubbing at his hair. "The bar showed itself at a very inopportune time."

[runningred]

"Yeah, I tried to catch you but you were gone pretty fast. What happened?"

[1stwitness]

"An unidentified virus very nearly ran riot over Sleepy Hollow - and beyond, if it hadn't been contained again."

[runningred]

"Unidentified virus and ran riot are not good combinations of words." Jay mutters worriedly. "I take it you've managed to rein it in?"

[1stwitness]

"Yes", Ichabod assures him. "It was the Horseman of Pestilence's attempt to free himself, and it seems we have also discovered what happened to the lost colony of Roanoke. It was highly contagious - several of the personnel who simply worked on the first victim were infected - so you see why I could not stay here."

[runningred]

"Yeah, good call. This place isn't a good place for plagues. Is Abbie okay?"

[1stwitness]

"Absolutely fine, she escaped the infection completely", he says with relief. "And when young Thomas and I returned to Roanoke and entered the baptismal font, all the surviving patients were cured instantly."

[runningred]

"I'm glad to hear that. She seemed like a good sort. I hope I didn't freak her out too much."

"Ah, the holy-water cure. Very nice and a good thing to know."

[witchfinder_general]

Father Harman had been looking up with alarm when the man appeared for the first time; when he re-appears now, the priest looks up with mere astonishment.

"You look much improved to the last time," he says, "but let me get you a towel."

[1stwitness]

"That's much appreciated, thank you." His expression turns self-deprecating. "And I apologise for my unfortunate entry earlier."

[witchfinder_general]

Father Harman very quickly gets a towel for the man, and hands it to him.

"I suppose that the circumstances weren't in your control?" he says. "Few people can make their door appear on purpose."

[1stwitness]

He begins rubbing - and wringing - his long hair with it. "No, and I'm not one of them. Still, the consequences could have been dreadful."

[witchfinder_general]

"The blackened veins?" Father Harman asks. "That looked like septicaemia -- deadly, but not contagious."

[1stwitness]

"This was something quite different", Ichabod says bleakly. "Highly contagious, and deadly until we found how to stop it."

[witchfinder_general]

"What stopped it?" Father Harman asks.

[1stwitness]

"Returning the first carrier to his home, where it all began, and he and I taking a dip in the font."

[yinyangwizard]

A man in a blue-and-white bamboo-patterned kimono, sitting at a nearby table, breathes an audible sigh of relief. "Oh, good. You seemed to be in a rather unfortunate state when you last visited: I'm glad that situation seems to have resolved itself."

[1stwitness]

Ichabod glances at him and smiles.

"Yes, indeed. It wasn't the best moment for the bar to appear."

[yinyangwizard]

"That might have been a mistake on the part of the Landlord. Or possibly not - perhaps the unexpected detour changed your timing or movement in a way that was ultimately beneficial to you." Seimei stands up. "But here I am speculating, while you're soaked to the bone. I hope you will forgive my poor manners! I can dry you off in a moment, if you don't mind a bit of magic."

It's always better to ask. Some people get very alarmed about having spells anywhere close to them, even minor, harmless ones.

[1stwitness]

"If it's restricted to drying me out, I'll take it gladly", he says with a nod. "Thank you - the cure for my illness involved a dip in some very particular water."

[yinyangwizard]

Seimei nods. He does then does some very rapid, complex hand gestures. His shadow wavers a bit, and all the excess water on Ichabod rises off him in a cloud of fog. Seimei makes a beckoning motion, and the fog moves towards him, shrinking and condensing into a grapefruit-sized watery sphere that he catches in his hands as if it were made of glass.

He holds it up to the nearest light source, peering curiously at it, then shakes his head. "It's not very particular anymore, but that is often the nature of such things," he says. He lets his hands drop, and the sphere shatters into droplets too small for the naked eye to see. "Oh well."

[1stwitness]

Ichabod chuckles. "I suspect it lost its special quality on leaving its source. Thank you again - I'm Ichabod Crane."

[yinyangwizard]

Although he is well-traveled and long-lived, Seimei is not terribly knowledgeable about American cultural history, and therefore Ichabod's name seems only vaguely familiar to him. "Abe no Seimei," he says, offering a Western-style handshake in lieu of a Japanese-syle bow. "Pleased to meet you. If you don't mind my asking, what very particular water was that, specifically?" Seimei is always very interested in that kind of thing.

[1stwitness]

He shakes hands readily. "The water in the baptismal font of what turned out to be quite literally a ghost town."