MATTERS OF THE HEART

[sticksandbonesmods]

Who: Livio, Wolfwood, Elsword, Mizuki, Add, Heimr
What: heimrquest
When: several days after the bar is built, late in the evening
Where: ???????
Warnings: mentioned child death, mentions of plague, paranoia, supernatural-driven insanity, survivor's guilt, death, possession, impersonation, body horror. more will be added as needed.

The General Store isn't always the most bustling place, least of all in a small make-shift town of only a handful of people, each one more troubled than the last. But at some point, each and every one of you has needed something from Heimr today. Maybe it was just a bag of candy. Maybe it was something more pressing, or some groceries. Regardless, one by one he's tended to your needs, and you leave the store with little fanfare save for the fact that it's unusually foggy out this evening- not enough that you can't see other buildings...

Until you can't.

All around you is a heavy mist, and the scent of a wood fire and warm spices floats through the air. There's no turning back, so all you can do is move forward.

On an OOC note, the Choose Your Own Adventure threads will eventually merge into one group thread. Once this occurs, mod tags will occur after each involved character has tagged, or after 24 hours have passed. That said, if it looks like good banter or development is happening, the Mod will hold off a bit or until dramatic irony strikes.

LIVIO | WOLFWOOD | ELSWORD | MIZUKI | ADD
LAYER ONE
LAYER TWO
LAYER THREE
LAYER FOUR
LAYER FIVE

FIN?

Comments

LAYER TWO

[sticksandbonesmods]

Memories and settings fade, and the five of you are reunited once again in dark smoke and cinnamon.

[livlaughlove]

[livio still has something of a haunted look in his face when he finds himself back in the origin smoke. unless he senses the presence of the others first, he'll call out quietly after a while.]

Is anyone else here?

[lupusxylem]

...yeah. I'm here.

[It's Wolfwood's voice, of course. He never sounded enthused about being here to begin with, but now it's like...MUCH worse.

But. At least Livio is here. That's something.]

[simplicitas]

[insert my usual light synth joke here]

Hey. Glad to see you guys are still here. And that we're reunited and stuff.

[Very verbose thank you Elsword]

[mooninthewater]

[ Mizuki is holding onto Elsword's hand like some kind of lifeline — can't go getting separated with him, after all. Oh, and the blood's all gone! One Clean Mizuki here. ]

Are you guys okay?

[lupusxylem]

We're fine, yeah. More or less.

[Wolfwood glances over to Livio, unsure...even where to start, really.]

Liv and I...we. We saw a shrine. Or a tomb, or...I dunno. It was somethin'. It had a locked door, with effigies of the Guardians carved into it. Probably somethin' meant to stay shut that didn't.

[His expression sours, looking pensive.]

We felt a presence after that. It was like the voice of a God, speakin' through the memory. Tellin' us to forget.

[livlaughlove]

[liv is looking the rest of them over to make sure they're all in one piece, too. at the very least, there doesn't seem to have been any real danger yet...]

... From the carvings, I recognized a Fish and a Moose. But there was also a Bird, a Person, and a Dragon.

[he nods to corroborate wolfwood's retelling, as well.] The world went white when that voice spoke. Except for -- a set of eyes looking at us. [his brows furrow.] It didn't feel... cruel, to me, but... I never felt a presence that powerful before. [maybe he won't outright say it scared him, but that might get across regardless.]

[simplicitas]

Cool. [???? elsword can you be more helpful] You think we could find that in the present day? Maybe Moder knows where it is or something. We can go on an adventure.

[He sounds distantly excited about this.]

[mooninthewater]

…Did the voice sound like it was speaking in the memory to Mister Heimr, or to you? If it was a god, then it’s likely Heimr shouldn’t even remember it…

[lupusxylem]

Nah. It was definitely speakin' to him. Aldric, anyway. You could tell by the look on his face after, he heard it.

"Some things are best left forgotten, little lion", it said.

[livlaughlove]

[livio just stares at elsword for a second while wolfwood gives mizuki the details. elbuddy, you do not understand how much you do not want to go there.]

[simplicitas]

Dang.

[......]

So when are we going?

[ELSWORD]

cw body horror

[sticksandbonesmods]

Elsword may feel some fatherly judgement along the lines of "don't do that".

Otherwise, if he wants to see the temple so badly... well. Who am I to say no? The smoke seems to swirl around them, shapes forming beyond it before it suddenly dissipates.

They're standing amongst a small search party, lead by Aldric himself. He looks tired, restless, and several men and women among the group look stressed. Elsword may recognize his own sister- but certainly not Chung's father. Lancelot, a man with dark skin and long dark hair carrying a great sword, Astarion and Taliira are there as well. ... Notably, there's also a young man who looks a lot like Felicity- but instead of pink hair and blue eyes, his are black and a burning gold, respectively.



They're at the temple, looking almost ill at the rotting stench and the metallic smell wafting through the air.

The door's been broken open.

"Fools. All of them." Aldric almost growls.

"Are we going in?" Felicity's brother asks, wary. A shadowy magic starts to accumulate in his fist.

"... We gotta. There could be survivors yet."

He raises a lantern and glances at Helputt before nodding, and the two enter. Dark Cacao and Elesis follow, ready to strike as needed, and the rest follow.

Large vines cover the walls and floor, and only the lanterns in everyone's hands grant any sort of visibility.

Something is watching them, but they don't know what... not that the fear lasts long, with one of Callisto's men laid across what looks to be an altar, vines coming out of his mouth as his dead eyes stare at the ceiling. Something must have restrained him, and scratches from nails are on his arms, like someone was desperately trying to pull him away. Whatever happened, it wasn't pretty.

The rest are still missing.

Individual explorations of the main room are allowed, I will regroup when necessary.

[simplicitas]

[ELSWORD'S TEMPLE RUN ARC LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

He looks very excited* as they appear in front of it, recognizing Elesis immediately and pointing at her like willsmithpose.png.

*(The excitement is Elsword-typical which means he doesn't look all that excited.)]

That's my sister! [Now you know!! She looks just like him but redder.] I'm going in.

[please calm down about adventures, anyway RIP the Zahliya statue no longer here because he's probably committing murders somewhere.

Anyway, Elsword is going to run off into one of the hallways? another room? idk he's breaking off from the main party to stalk Elesis look for more people.]

[sticksandbonesmods]

Elesis is keeping to the group for right now, barely avoiding making a face at the awful stench. Slowly the group is fanning out of the main room, though. She stops to observe the walls, showing a dark sun and a lighter sun. Carvings of hands reach up to the dark sun, fingers curled in something like terror, or suffering, while those reaching to the light sun seem to be accepting something.

There's pillars all throughout the main hall, and the floor is wet. It's so muddy though that she's not sure if it's the fresh rain water or more bloodshed.

Something crunches beneath her feet, and the light of her lantern shows it's the glass of a different lantern, as if it'd been dropped. Nearby is a box of supplies, like what the merchants had been loading onto the wagon.

[simplicitas]

Uh-oh.

[He's gonna have to remember what those carvings look like later, huh... dark sun bad light sun good. Got it. These people are super dead, he thinks. Logically he knows this is a memory but he's following after her anyyyywayyyy like *_* miss you everyday queen.

He digs briefly in the box of supplies to see if there's anything notable/significant that wouldn't be in a box of supplies, otherwise he's going to keep following after her.]

[sticksandbonesmods]

He and his sister are of the same mind, because she's searching, too. Occasionally it seems like their hands might touch, but Elsword seems to phase right through her. Even then, there are bursts of love and pride emanating from her whenever they do 'touch'.

The box itself seems to be practical gear- more lanterns, matches, oil, tarp and rope. There's checklists and records of what's been used when, and by whom. It's all very precise. Most of it seems to be written in a very neat pen, but a few entries are messy and scrawled. From the record, it looks like they had planned on setting up camp outside of the temple, but something... happened.

"It wasn't like there were any storms that week..." Elesis muses. ... Still, this is actually pretty high quality stuff. Maybe they should take it with them.

[simplicitas]

[ ಥ_ಥ seestor...]

Hey, sis. [Sorry y'all he's lost it.] Maybe... they were forced to come in by something? That guy on the altar doesn't look like he laid there willingly...

[sticksandbonesmods]

Elesis can't hear him. Heimr wishes she could. Wishes he could give them a reunion of sorts even if it would muddle things in his mind more. But she stares ahead, focused and deep in thought, before she looks back to the altar and then to the doors.

"It looked like the doors were broken inward... so they were trying to get in, instead of something getting out. But what...? ... Alrdic! I'm going to investigate outside for a moment."

Aldric nods, because Elesis is a capable young woman, and she stands up to head back out. She'll come back for this stuff later.

[livlaughlove]

[yeah... about that...

this is the exact reason livio didn't really want to see the temple a second time, but as long as they're here... he'll approach that altar, cautiously, to inspect the corpse. he's looking at specific injuries, how fresh the body might be... but from a distance where, say, if it spontaneously reanimated, he wouldn't be in arm's reach.

yes, he's aware that he isn't physically present. he is still not taking that risk.]

cw body horror im sorry livio baby boy

[sticksandbonesmods]

He's so valid for the caution, honestly. It looks like there's bruising all around his arms, and even a little on his neck, and the shapes resemble rope. ... Or vines. There's a few tears along his body as well, but they look as if they started internally. The body itself is more than a few days old, and it isn't pretty.

cw body horror cont. it's ok. the most horrifying body is his own.

[livlaughlove]

[ugh. the bits where his skin opened from the inside is a little too reminiscent of the snakes-guy monster from his past life memory.

... any chance there might be footprints matching the body's either walking up or being dragged or forced up to the altar?]

you take that BACK

[sticksandbonesmods]

There are a bit of both- if he looks carefully, he can see the man had been dragged in, up the stairs, and to the altar while multiple people followed, positioned behind or beside him, like they were trying to keep up but couldn't.

naur

[livlaughlove]

[if his is the only body in this chamber, then... well. that just means there are more, deeper in.

great.

why couldn't they have just minded their own damn business.]

yar

[sticksandbonesmods]

Well you see Callisto wanted pretty temple crimes and her tits ensured few men could tell her no. Aldric was an outlier, to be honest.