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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.
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Er - I just meant your - name?
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It's a benign question, though, so that's something, even if he's mentally steeling himself for worse things. ]
Akira. My name's Akira. Uh. Really, though, I'm nobody— I don't even know how I got here.
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Um, I'm Izuku. And same here - about not knowing, I mean?
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This is pretty bad, huh? [ Uneasy, but not overwhelmingly so. Like this isn't his first spiriting away, although he wishes it were. ]
Do you remember touching a rock before you got here?
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[ He's pretty sure there were no rocks involved on his end? But maybe he just didn't notice??? ]
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[ hm. this is getting nowhere fast. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts, trying to draw upon what he does know and what he can apply here.
... ]
I want to know the boundaries of this place. Either we're confined, or this is an open world g— [ not a game ] ...an open world. And if so, we're bound to come across help eventually, right...?
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[ Akki seems so nervous, maybe he could use some muscle. ]
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[ He looks relieved by the offer to help. The little background music of "Izuku has joined your party!" jingles in his mind, the rush of excitement of getting a new party member and anticipation to see what all they can do. ]
Are you a cartographer, Izuku-san?
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[ Like...search and rescue missions. Izuku also is just a Giant Fucking Nerd, so there's that part. ]
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[ Is that something you can train for? makes him nervous, seeing as all the "heroes" he's watched on the big screen growing up tend to find themselves in the midst of disasters, and not all the background characters like him make it out alive. ]
You're right, though... I've drawn maps in Etrian Odyssey, but the real world's not as clean cut.
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[ Izuku Midoriya found one interest at age 4 and then he went ALL IN on it. ]
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[ Nothing that will help him survive in a spooky forest besides giving him heart attacks at every rustle in the woods or shadows in the fog ]
And especially the ones with heroes born from an ordinary blank slate protagonist, the idea that a normal everyday person can step up and save the world, that's soooo cool!!
[ He has zero delusions of fantasy that the hero would ever be him irl, but still. Very cool. ]
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He takes the lead walking a bit, figuring they can sort of head towards that mysterious fog to start? ]
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[ He will talk on and on about this one topic only, but woody trees and the dense fog dampens even his excitement for games when they start to be enveloped in it. ]
...Wish we had a flashlight. Or a crowbar, or metal pipe, or— even a radio or a camera. [ The latter two can sense ghosts or something idk it was a game mechanic he played once ]
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[ Also, he has no service he's pretty sure. ]
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[ he'd taken a lot of pictures of river teeth... at the very least, he'd like to reserve enough power to send a text and receive one back, whenever/if ever that becomes possible. ]
Can yours do anything like that?
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[ It's just an ordinary phone... ]
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[ this literally isn't the time for it, but also, any time is a good time to talk about games ]
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Ahhh, well, I really like this one that lets you pull for cards of pro heroes...I go all in on every All Might banner.
[ Nerd. Hero nerd. NERD. ]
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I don't think I've played that one before, you'll have to show me sometime! If- if that's okay! There's other games I play that are like that... Once I get my phone charged, I'll show you my favorite URs and SSRs.
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[ WOULD IT REALLY, IZUKU? (By his standards, yes.) ]
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It's a little bit like a dream come true, actually, having somebody to talk about this stuff with, being able to hold an actual conversation that isn't small talk or him trying to make excuses to get away.
It's so nice, he almost forgets what they're doing here in the first place. ]
So... how's that map coming along?
[ If it's still blank, Akki wouldn't blame him. It's all fog to him. ]
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Also, Izuku holds up his notebook. The buildings are filled in, but this fog area... ]
I can't make anything much out here.
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[ Or, more likely, it's like the edge of a game map that you aren't supposed to leave yet until you beat the current level's boss. ]
I can hear running water, though. So there might be mountains somewhere nearby?
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[ Izuku starts leading them towards the sound of water. ]
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