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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.
no subject
[ —thought about it, like pretty much ever if he's being honest. They're used for decoration, right? So whatever looks good is fine, it's not like he can tell the difference. Other people have better eyes for that than him, but... ]
A blue one? Might be nice, I guess.
[ He decides mid-sentence as they walk, with him coming up from behind to catch up with her, that it's probably less of a hassle to just give an answer rather than avoid it and then have to explain. Not like it matters, anyway. Although it fleetingly comes to mind as he says it -- a vast field of blue from his childhood and a crown of flowers on someone's head; not from his homeland exactly, but the image of it is precious and burned with nostalgia in his memories all the same. And then the one that was pressed into a certain notebook... he runs a hand through his hair as it comes up, shelving the thought before it starts.
No way those would grow here. He's never seen them anywhere but Tenebrae. ]
Anyway, doesn't matter. You're putting these in that common room, right? [ Which means they're for everyone, not just him. ] So shouldn't it be something like... whatever lots of people are bound to like?
[ He says that over his shoulder as he opens the front door and steps out, like a guy who's used to going first and doesn't really think about holding things open for others, even girls. Because any women with him were usually from the Crownsguard and assigned to him for protection, so you know... smh. Royalty. ]
no subject
[She says it with a smile that has just a hint of mischief in it.
They're nice eyes, after all! Not SOLDIER blue... but still a pretty shade.]
It definitely matters, though. You're part of "lots of people" too, silly. You'll walk through there the same as me and everybody else. [Up til now, Aerith has had a lot of bounce in her step, wagging a finger here and there like she's reprimanding him but not really - but now... Now she slows down, and her voice gets a little quieter.] Back home... I'm a florist, you know? There's absolutely no way for me to know what everyone in a big city would like, and carry it with me at all times. That's why I watch, and ask, and I learn one by one so I can do my best to make people happy.
[That's about the time that the door closes in her face. Wow. Not even any hesitation. Aerith yanks it open so she can make a big show of hollering out of it.]
But I'm not going to be happy if you don't learn how to treat a lady!
no subject
Despite how awkward he feels with the rest of it though, he listens. As soon as she's sounding more serious, he quiets down so he can take it all in, trying to process what she's revealing... and then turns to look because that wasn't the ending he expected. His face scrunches up in immediate confusion. ]
Huh? Learn how to— What'd I—
[ Seems like all he can do around her is not know where to start.
He'd settled a hand belligerently on his hip at first, ready to fight back for whatever this was, but... hold on. It takes him a while of frowning in her direction, unsure what he's looking for, before it finally dawns on him as he finds her holding the doorknob and standing in the frame. And he remembers the distinctly wooden noise where her voice had cut off for a second. ]
...Sorry.
[ Yeah. He's got nothing else to say for himself on that one. ]
no subject
Well, it looks like you understand what you did wrong, at least. Apology accepted.
[For now!! But she's Watching Him. He'd better remember this for next time. Burn it into his brain!
Did he not spend much time around girls, maybe...? Even the roughest of the rough in the Slums know to hold open the door for a lady.]
We can start with some of the flowers around the houses here, maybe. Let's keep an eye out for some blue ones, okay?
[Aerith does seem in better spirits, though, smile seeming true.]
no subject
Most of the flowers seem to grow in patches around the structures scattered all about them, "houses" if she really wants to call a bunch of foundations that, much like the one he'd been napping at earlier. There are white ones, and yellow like the one that had shed into his hair, and Noctis thinks they look like wildflowers mostly, despite that he doesn't actually know. It's maybe because of that though, that a particular bush a little way ahead seems to catch his eye, a little different from the rest. ]
Huh. Are those... roses?
[ Like the ones he used to see in the citadel gardens when he was little and sneaking about, away from his room and his lessons. Tended with care and too orderly-looking to be mere occurrence. He's stepping ahead before he knows it, pointing it out to her with a tilt of his head and a curious glance back. It looks a little different from the rest to him, a splash of pink in the otherwise yellow that stretches around it, as it shelters against the corner of a would-be cottage. ]
Someone's got to have planted and grown these, right...? Or do they just happen like this?
[ She's the specialist here. ]
no subject
Good catch! These are roses, yep. They do grow wild, but ones that look uniform like this are definitely ones that someone planted by hand.
[She reaches out a hand, not touching, but simply listening.
Hello!
And her hand jerks slightly at the wave of sadness and fear that crashes into her when she does. In such a short time, she's understood too much and nothing at all.
Something very terrible is happening in this place. Already has happened, and will continue to do so.
But she still needs to keep her features controlled, because Noctis is with her. So Aerith doesn't let her smile fall, even if there's something unhappy that flickers in her eyes as she lowers her hand.]
There are safe to pick, if you'd like some. We just have to be careful, because the thorns will be sharp.
no subject
It's just... what's she doing? He tries to make sense of the action, but imagine having been awake enough to realize she was talking to flowers earlier. Couldn't be him. So as it stands, he's got no clue to work with and is just witnessing something akin to a cryptic hover, before a warning out of nowhere. ]
Safe in what way?
[ He has to ask, because is that normally even something people say about flowers? How does she even know that? Whatever it means. Maybe there are poisonous species of roses or something. At the very least here or back in her homeland if not on Eos...? Nope. That's the best he's got. ]