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sticksandbones2023-04-06 08:03 pm
- !event,
- !tdm,
- elsword: add,
- elsword: elsword,
- final fantasy vii remake: aerith gainsbo,
- final fantasy xv: noctis lucis caelum,
- my hero academia: izuku midoriya,
- nier automata: 9s,
- original: felicity morais,
- original: hyacinth,
- original: rennuid tathviel,
- spy x family: yor forger,
- summertime rendering: shinpei ajiro
TDM 001
Whatever you remember last, something interrupts - be it a fight, a test, a walk, or death itself. All you can recall is a childlike voice (or was it voices?) asking, "Do you want to play with me?" before everything stopped. Your eyelids feel heavy, and the surrounding air is chilled. When you wake up, you and the others find yourselves standing in a makeshift plaza on a foggy morning. In the very center is a well. The water within is cold and clear as can be.
Surrounding the clearing is a ring of what looks to be the foundations of buildings never finished, save for two rather large ones and a smaller one. Only the small building has any light shining from the windows. One is labeled as an inn but has no name, and the other is an imposing, large manor with a red dog quietly scratching at the door. Given the indents on the wood, he's been at it for a very long time. Beyond the buildings is the start of a forest, though it quickly fills up with a fog so thick you can't see through it at all.
The smaller building is simply signed as a general store. A thick figure stands in the doorway, layered in brown and dark red cloaks that cover most of his body, save for brown worker's gloves and his pants. Two blue lights shine from the shadows where his face would be, and they shift as they watch you... before he turns around and takes his seat at the counter of the store. It's open, but he doesn't seem too thrilled.
There's a gap in the fog in the south east corner of it all, and you can hear the flow of water if approached. Trying to force your way through the fog lets you move forward four feet before you hit an invisible wall, while trying to go up- be it flight or climbing- sees you thwarted twenty feet above the canopy with a similar experience. Those above will see only the tree tops and a dense, heavy fog, and a cloudy, cold sun-lit sky. Through your explorations, you can find the start of a gate almost opposite across the clearing of the river, with a somehow familiar sign hanging from it:
Welcome to Aldric's Grove.
The inn is just as empty as the rest of the grove, save for the shopkeeper. Four rooms on the first floor are locked, and won't budge even under force, and their keys are missing from the clerk's counter. On the bright side, there are remaining keys, free to claim - keys to the store rooms, too. The kitchen is large, as one might expect from an inn, but the kitchenware seems a touch out of date, by anyone's standards. The pantry has enough to feed the lot of you for a time, fresh food and vegetables and dried or cured meats, alongside spices and herbs. One could bake if they were so inclined.
There's a lounge room as well, just before the stairs. All the furniture was pushed to the wall for what can be presumed to be cleaning, if the empty bucket and dry mop is anything to go by. In the center of the far wall is an empty fireplace, but there's no firewood to be found.
Upstairs are more rooms, accessible only with keys. It's not perfect, but it's at least a place to stay. There's a bed for two, a small table by the window, a dresser and closet, a very small stove and a private bathroom to each, but everything seems bare... at a glance.
The worst of it is that you know the layout. You've been here before- or... no, that can't be right. Surely you would remember a place like this. Right?
"What you take from the river, you must return." That's what the Shopkeeper says, if you stop by the store before going to the river.
The water rushing over rocks can be heard even from the distance of the grove itself, but upon approach it only seems louder. From what can be seen, the fog has only receded enough to grant access to 30 yards of the river and it's matching banks- after that, only fog and unusually thick bramble patches remain and block off passage on land or water. At it's deepest, the water is four feet deep and the current seems gentle. Fish can be seen swimming through the water, and objects glitter beneath the sand and mud.
Along the riverbanks, scales, small bones and teeth and strange coins marked with canines litter the ground. Keen eyes will note that some of the bones and teeth are that of animals, and some are that of humans. Some, however, are impossible to identify.
Stepping into the water feels relaxing. It's cold yet inviting. The fish swirl around your ankles before darting away, and just for a moment, everything seems like it will be okay.
On the other hand, when trying to cut through the brambles, there's a low rumble from the surrounding woods. Persist, and a vine coils around your ankle, dragging you into the water. That feels less relaxing, most likely.
At some point, there's an unusual sound- earth moving on it's own, old trees parting from their nesting place and rearranging themselves behind the fog. And as the din dies down, the fog parts, showing a thick tunnel of trees and leaves. It might look like something out of a fairy tale, if not for the sickening noises of the bark and wood creaking and writhing slowly. Whether you want to go or not, however, you will find yourself compelled to walk down the road eventually.
The road seems like a brief fifteen minute hike and a near three hour trek at the same time, but when you come to the end, you find yourself still in the woods, still circled by fog, but not the same as the grove. Once enough people are there, the path closes behind you. Keen eyes may spot hollowed out logs, trees with holes beneath the roots or high up above the branches, and large patches of very tall grass. Within the center is a cage with a pinecone shaped button on two opposing sides. Before you can finish taking it all in, however, a soft, cheerful whisper of a voice speaks:
"Let's play! If you win, I'll give you something special. Promise! Here, I'll explain the rules:"
1. Robbers must hide within the arena, and not get caught. Upon being found by the jailer, they have the opportunity to flee. But if they get caught, they get brought to jail.
2. Prisoners cannot free themselves, but free players can by pushing both of the buttons on the cage. This will give everyone a three minute immunity to run and hide again.
3. Players must move every five minutes, or they get caught immediately.
"The game will end if everyone gets caught or if at least one person stays free at the end of the hour."
The voice doesn't elaborate what happens if everyone gets caught- if you lose. Instead, it's jailer steps forward from the shadows, staring at everyone with a featureless face. It resembles a moose-faced centaur made of rusted metal and wood, yet what should be creaky, slow steps are light and agile. You have five minutes to hide. But when it bursts into a run, searching forcefully through grass, leaving cracks in the earth beneath its hooves as it starts to run, there's an unsettling feeling in your stomach: what happens if you get caught at all?
In order to win as a group, 10 threads featuring a successful escape- be it from the monster or from the cage- must be submitted by the end of the month. You may only submit one thread per character, but two characters can use the same thread. If you want to get caught and suffer consequences, or try to fight the monster, please use the "FIGHT OR FLIGHT" comment beneath the submission toplevel. Should the characters win the game, they will get a prize after all submissions have been accounted for!
CLICK TO EXPAND!
❖ A portion of the arena of the game- alongside the hiding spots in that area- are on fire, or destroyed by fire. Kjell forgot they were in the forest when fleeing the jailer.
❖ One of the cutting boards in the inn kitchen is cleaved in half, and the counter has deep gouges in it. Yor was cutting bread.
ruby hoshino / oshi no ko
★ waking up.
[ Ruby is seemingly unphased when she wakes up in a new location, her gaze completely hollowed out. Truthfully, as someone who has been building up her image in the industry as an idol, she figures that this was something that was bound to happen sooner or later.
What surprises her more than that, however...
Isn't the childlike voice who wants to play with her-
-not that she recognized it, but then again when you're trying to become famous, are you really going to know all the voices you meet? Of course not.
But the fact that she could move easily around and wasn't tied up or gagged or anything else? That was... odd.
Well, whatever. When she spots the first sign of life, Ruby beams, trying to keep a chipper act in spite of herself. ]
Excuuuuse me! Hi, I seem to be lost and I was wondering if maybe you might know where we are?
★ play time.
[ At some point in the game, Ruby isn't so lucky. She finds herself unable to escape...
...whatever that thing is. People might notice that when she's being carried away that Ruby is comically screaming. She knows the rules after all, so if she's loud and people can hear her, they can track her and free her.
Not that she has any hope for that. Why would people bother do something risky, after all?
So when she's in the cage, all her smiles drop and she's immediately frowning. ]
... This sucks.
[ She's just going to plop down and sit on the ground. If she's stuck here, she might as well not keep standing, after all. ]
★ wildcard.
[ Wanna do something else that isn't on here? Let me know! Hit me up via PM or![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
tsundereban if you want a custom starter. ]
play time!
...went right past it by accident...
..and then was very helpfully guided in the correct direction by the sound of someone screaming bloody murder.
He dithers by the edge of the area, loathe to be too hasty about going out into the open. But when the girl in the cage drops down like she's resigned to being stuck right where she's at... ]
No, no, no, I hate being the brave and noble one, I am the worst at it...! Ugghhgh.
[ but there's nobody else around to be, so... Rennuid holds up his hand, breathes out a quick puff of air at it like he's snuffing out a candle -- and as a result, the whole of him turns from that breath into a whorl of dark vapor.
It races into the open, taking a wide, looping path working along with the grain of the wind-- and settles into a cloud in the vague shape of a person, right outside the cage.
At least Ruby's... not... alone... now...? ]
no subject
Heeeeeey! Help me!!
no subject
he's trying to engineer a one-person solution to an unforeseen two button problem here, give him a sec!! ]
no subject
She covers her mouth. ]
no subject
on hand looks like.... sticks, mostly. some sturdy ones! actually, he can work with that. with that in mind-- he needs his hands back.
as he bends down to grab his chosen stick, the shade resolves abruptly back into a person as his hand wraps around it; someone Ruby had seen earlier today, in fact.
He speaks in a low hiss. ]
We tie this down over one of the buttons, I press the other, we run. Both of us, same direction. Yes?