[hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/pBVhYT8.png?1[/img][img]https://i.imgur.com/Aj0PAHt.png[/img][/center][right][b][code]Outside the Sunrise Resort[/code][/b][/right][hr]

Crouching out in the brush and waiting for Justin and Oscar to start the show, Ezra couldn’t help but feel like a jerkass teenager playing ding dong ditch again. Would the “witches” melt when the water hit them? The soft sound of sprinklers snapping to life immediately stifled by the shrieks of the Wiccans getting drenched made Ezra pretend a mean-spirited chuckle was a quiet cough into his fist. For a moment he almost forgot that earlier that day these people had destroyed his property and, perhaps more importantly, endangered the life of his family. The juvenile thoughts faded from Ezra’s head as he sternly fixed his gaze on the door and waited for Blu to do his thing.

Blu’s melody drew Ezra’s attention away. The song was unnatural but not unpleasant and for a moment Ezra was so enraptured by it he almost forgot to panic about how the Wiccans might hear before remembering what Blu had said, although quickly that thought was snuffed by another worrying about how Blu knew that some people were the “resistive type”. The young man seemed harmless enough. Surely it was all on the up-and-up? Ezra squinted as he saw the song take form in a mystical light as if he was experiencing synesthesia. It was beautiful. Yes, surely Blu was to be trusted.

[i]Unless the song is just making me think that,[/i] worried Ezra, who reasoned that if he thought that it meant he wasn’t being controlled by the music before immediately realizing that magic broke logic and as far as he knew Blu’s power was making him come up with arguments to convince himself that he wasn’t currently being enchanted. 

The healer emerging from the building pulled Ezra’s attention away from his own spiraling.  Even when disheveled by the impromptu shower she was prettier than he’d imagined a cultist to be and the light of Blu’s music swirling around her chest gave the healer a kind of etherealness. Ezra nodded at Arabelle to follow and quietly walked through the woods to join Blu in the brush.  He held his hands up as the healer was pulled into the woods by Blu’s song to show that he meant no harm, hoping that the presence of Arabelle would stop the healer from bolting once Blu’s Abstraction wore off.

[color=darkgray]“Your friends really should’ve picked a better place to squat. There’s a reason this resort is abandoned. One moment it’s the sprinklers going off, next thing you know the roof collapses. Here. You’ll catch a cold,”[/color] Ezra shrugged off the camo jacket, happy to be rid of the ridiculous thing, and extended it out towards Thea as a peace offering. In his other hand was a handheld mirror he’d removed from the coat moments prior. [color=darkgray]“I’m Ezra Vanburen. I’ve been told by a mutual friend of ours that we both might have the same opinion when it comes to your [i]group’s[/i] current leadership. If you would come with us I am sure we could manage to come to some sort of agreement that would leave us all  quite happy—at least those of us who still have some sense.”

“Arabelle, if you would,”[/color] said Ezra as he inverted his grip on the handheld mirror. The bracelet on his wrist glowed a faint orange as the broken wire puzzle twisted and condensed, pressing the leather strap into his wrist. Meanwhile, the mirror grew from several inches across to nearly a few feet—large enough for an adult to crawl through once Arabelle turned it into a portal to link them to the group at Tansy’s construction site.