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sticks and bones. ([personal profile] sticksandbonesmods) wrote in [community profile] sticksandbones2023-09-01 11:03 am

EVENT 004

ASHES TO ASHES
DUST TO DUST

It’s a calm, misty morning. The sun is peaking over the treetops, and the air is chilled, almost like the onset of fall. How long have you been here, now? Days? Weeks? Months? Everything blurs together. But so you persist… just. Not quite yet. The day’s only just waking up and so are you! Whether you like it or not. You see, as you slept, something has crept its way into your room, and as the sun peaks through windows and closed blinds, it’s finally grabbing you and pulling.

As you meet your rude awakening, the intruder is clear to see. Or rather, it’s incredibly unclear. Mist and fog and sickly-looking vines wrap around your legs and up your body as it drags you to the woods, and attacks of all sorts slide off like water on glass. There is no escape. It’s time to play, and the air is unusually, painfully hot.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN...

The fog of the forest grows dark and heavy as you’re pulled along against your will, and as you go something seems… different. Maybe your body seems lighter and off balanced. Maybe certain features are no longer tickling your skin. Maybe the connection to the world around you has been brutally severed — all that can be said is that as you’re eventually spat out to a metal platform, you feel incomplete somehow. Magic doesn’t come when you call. Gear doesn’t activate properly. Whatever happened, you’re a completely ordinary human, and it stings.

You and your fellow denizens of the Grove stand on a seeringly hot metal platform, and the air burns your lungs. Ash and soot float through the air, singeing wherever it lands for a split second. Towering up before you is a volcano that has no right being here — but it is. Platforms and smaller spires and rocks litter your surroundings, and scorch marks are everywhere.

The only consolation is that whatever is about to happen, you at least aren’t doing this in your pyjamas.

...INTO THE FIRE

Eventually, as sweat builds up and the wind only burns further, a too-familiar childish voice rings out: "It’s playtime! If you win, I’ll show you something REALLY cool. …Oh, but surely I don’t have to explain ‘The Floor is Lava’, right?"

It goes silent, and there’s a loud metal grind of something. The lava beneath the platform begins to rise, and so does the hateful heat.

At least there are multiple ways out. You can attempt to hop across crumbling platforms, mysteriously and magically floating overhead — though they might break after a few footsteps. You can try climbing the burning-hot, stony surface of the surrounding cliffsides, where flows of magma get a bit too close for comfort. You can take the safer-but-risky way of running through the game area’s many mazelike paths, cut into and through the cliffs, but be careful; should the magma rise too high, those pathways will be flooded. No matter what you choose, the goal is to get to the top, out of the volcanic arena and to a designated “safe zone" waiting on an overhang at the volcano's lip. Up there, an invisible barrier prevents victors from climbing back down into the game zone, and up there is where you will wait with your fellow victors if you succeed. It’s air-conditioned, as if you’re still not trapped within a volcano.

As the first of you reaches the top of the rise, a victory fanfare plays from somewhere, but the lava begins to rise faster. Faster and faster, for each person who succeeds — or dies a horrible, fiery death. You’d better hope your success doesn’t come at the cost of someone else’s life.

DYING EMBERS

As soon as there are no players remaining in the game, another chime plays from a still-mysterious location. After a cheerful voice congratulates you on your victory, the fog encircles you again, as it had done earlier in the day. When you next blink, you’re back in the Grove, standing exactly where you were when you were first taken.

Those of you who died, however, will wake up the following morning in your usual sleeping quarters, be it in your bed or outside in the forest. The good news is, you’re hale and healthy despite everything. A voice whispers to you as soon as you reawaken: "Better luck next time!"

SPARK NOTES
CLICK TO EXPAND!
Good morning. You are being stolen. You can shout for help, if you'd like.

Welcome to today's event: A big game in a volcanic arena! Use this time to talk to your fellow players. You might need to devise a strategy to get out of this one.

The game begins, and the lava starts to rise. For every player who successfully makes it to the top of the arena, the lava will begin to rise faster and faster, intending to kill your fellow competitors. If you make it to the top, you'll find yourself standing in an air-conditioned platform still within the volcano, walled in by an invisible wall and unable to leave until there are no more remaining players.

Once there are no more players remaining, and if you completed the game successfully, you'll find yourself back in the Grove in short order, standing where you were when you left. If you died, however, you'll wake up the following day, restored to full health and (probably) not damaged at all.

If you'd like to plot with someone, head to the OOC Plotting Post for this event! As a reminder, we will have a sub-event later on in the month that will be much lighter in nature. Stay tuned! And watch out for the New Moon...

❖ None yet!

shineprism: (004)

UNFRY THE ANGEL except we can't

[personal profile] shineprism 2023-09-03 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)
ELSWORD!

( he doesn't mean to yell, but- when he sees the other like that, how can he not? running over, chung skids to a stop in front of him, dismayed. even now his magic doesn't come to him- useless...

after a few moments of desperately trying to think of anything he could do, he chokes on his own words. )


What happened to you?

( it's like he tried to reach into the... he couldn't have, right? )
simplicitas: (029 @naneuntofu)

cw: 3rd degree burns-

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-03 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
...I don't know. I can't figure it out.

[His left arm is burnt to a crisp, like he might've stuck it into the lava. Some parts of his forearm even have small bits of bone showing through. Ordinarily, he'd have healed it by now, but he still can't access his magic.

Elsword looks certifiably miserable, and he's not the only one. He's also not fretting over his own condition right now.]


All it does is make us miserable. That's all it wants.
simplicitas: (028 @nuuu1227)

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-03 11:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, at least there's that much.

[He parkoured up the side of the cliff earlier like a madman. Elsword isn't the type to feel drained, but between the heat and the parkour and then the climbing... yeah, he's getting fatigued very quickly. It feels odd, being disconnected from the El entirely. Before, he at least had Sephira and the El Energy that composes his being... now he doesn't. It's uncomfortable. He can't say he's a fan.]

I want to go back to bed.

[This is the most pathetic he's sounded in months, please understand how exhausted he is—]
simplicitas: (026 @Ingye2)

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-03 11:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ah, "Elsword" in B-flat. You're mad at him, aren't you—

Elsword turns his gaze down to his shoes. They're scuffed up and burnt and sooty, and getting distracted by the soot is the perfect way to have this conversation.

He doesn't think he has to say much, because Chung knows him.]


...Felicity fell in.

[All he could grab was her choker, which is in his pocket with Sephira. Safe, unlike her.]

roll: 5

[personal profile] amethystic 2023-09-03 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Godddd, same. I might borrow Leon, he's great to nap with.

( felicity sighs dramatically, and moves to stand- but then there's another rumble- the harshest yet, with how the ground shakes, and felicity reaches out instinctively to steady herself on elsword- frowning, she inhales softly. )

I think that's a sign to keep moving.
simplicitas: (060)

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-03 11:25 pm (UTC)(link)
He likes to be a pillow, [Elsword says as he gets up, somehow steady on his feet the entire time — it's all that combat experience. He just has to think of it like Rosso's tower...] But he usually likes to lay on top of Add for some reason. He doesn't do it with anyone else.

[feelings.mp3

Elsword wants to stick together, so he has to ask—]


Are we climbing up, or walking across the pathway? There's one over there. [He thinks he sees Gnosis struggling to exist on it honestly]

roll: 18

[personal profile] amethystic 2023-09-03 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
The pathway might be best for Add, but- with the shaking, keep an eye on him, alright?

( "just fucking bridal carry him", is what she means.

there's not another tremor at least. with as high up as they are now, it seems more and more unstable. she's confident that elsword can make the jumps he needs to if it comes down to it, even- or rather, especially- while carrying add. and she's pretty damn great herself, hah. )
shineprism: (004)

[personal profile] shineprism 2023-09-03 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
... Elsword...

( felicity is... a roommate. a possible friend, even if they don't talk much. her first words was a friendly demand for his food preferences.

her first action was to scale the scaffolding of the inn to sit with vaikal.

how did she-

and elsword... elsword likely ran after her. tried to fish her out. how long did it take for him to be forced to give up?

chung is quiet, before he moves to wrap his arms around elsword's neck in a tight hug. )


... I'm so sorry.
cleavethetides: (Default)

II

[personal profile] cleavethetides 2023-09-03 11:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Irene isn't nearly as strong as the Abyssal Hunters. Skadi with her strength of a whale, Specter with her tendency to swing around her buzzsaw like it has the weight of Irene's own rapier, and Gladiia who could pull a horde of Seaborn towards her without breaking a sweat, but that doesn't mean she can't lift a scrawny bird man. Gnosis isn't small, but for someone from the ice and snow, man's got no meat on his bones. How do they survive out there, honestly? "Layers," sure, but-

Whatever the case, Irene hoists the bird up before he can make a misstep. Unlike Irene, who can feasibly make those missteps and catch herself. She's used to be light on her feet and traversing slippery, jagged rocks with the threat of death below. Really, the only difference here is the fact that the wet sheen on her skin is from sweat and not from the rain coming from a violent, howling storm.

Really, the fact that there's no raging winds makes this easier.

Gnosis goes over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes so she can use her rapier in her other hand as a balance and to catch herself if anything drastic happens. She says nothing as she does so.
]
Edited 2023-09-03 23:58 (UTC)
mooninthewater: (267)

[personal profile] mooninthewater 2023-09-04 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
I would understand if it was getting something out of it. [ Research. The valuable information of what people do under stress. Forcing people to work together. Testing someone's resolve and fortitude… Mizuki could relate to all that, but this just seemed malicious and nothing else. Taking someone's limbs and abilities and magic away from them? That doesn't prove anything… ]

…I know…I know everything hurts, but… [ He feels incredibly helpless, and he hates feeling like that. ] Could we hold hands?
succiduous: (007 users55725576)

[personal profile] succiduous 2023-09-04 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
Hey—

[HEY?!

Gnosis is not a short man. He's 6'2" of feathers and nerd, and probably weighs as much as a feather, but still. He dangles awkwardly over Irene's shoulder due to the height difference, though he at least has the good sense not to protest.

The last time he was picked up like this was probably when he hadn't slept for a week and the Doctor sent Matterhorn after him to scrangle him out of the lab.]


I'm more than capable of walking on my own.

[bro you nearly died, no ur not]
cleavethetides: (Welcome)

[personal profile] cleavethetides 2023-09-04 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
I could make the argument that anyone here can do the same, but that doesn't mean everyone should. Swallow that damn pride, Gnosis, we're going to get out of here alive.

[ To make a point, and also to make sure she has plenty of room for error, she hoists him up with her as she finds the nearest platform she can use to ascend easier and with a very graceful jump - and a less graceful skid - she lands, letting out a heavy exhale as she rights herself and pulls him along again. ]

You're the type to stay inside whenever you can, while I'm the type to face the storm head-on. I believe my qualifications will easily tower you in this aspect here. And do not mistake this for gloating. I simply just want us both safe in the easiest way I know how.
cursedwords: (Tuna Tuna)

[personal profile] cursedwords 2023-09-04 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ Ah, he's a bit startled and Chung can probably feel it, but Toge doesn't protest. He just offers a bit of a hidden smile. ]

Salmon. [ He gestures at the maze, that's going to be his best shot of getting out of there. He's strong, but he hasn't exactly trained since he left much of his blood in Shibuya. ]
mooninthewater: (83)

[personal profile] mooninthewater 2023-09-04 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
[ He doesn't struggle, for what it's worth. He just looks at Chung with a bit of a frown — not upset with him, but rather just this situation in general. ]

That's alright with me… I just… [ Beat. ] I think it took my other limbs away from me. If it hadn't, I'd be able to get all of us to the top without any issue, yet… I feel like all my usefulness got ripped away from me.
succiduous: (010 users55725576)

[personal profile] succiduous 2023-09-04 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
[Gnosis merely ragdolls on her shoulder when she skids to a stop. He'll just live his life like this, he supposes.]

I much prefer the comfort of the lab to strenuous physical activity, yes. [You are from! Kjerag!!!! All you people do is hike!!!!!!] I am aware that I am not the most physically capable operator under Rhodes Island's employ, so even if you were being a braggart, it would be justified.

[He's just... watching the path behind them crumble away slowly... fuck this place honestly.]
simplicitas: (084 @secondterra)

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-04 05:18 am (UTC)(link)
I will. I don't intend to lose him again.

[You hear that, Add, you're under His Watch now. He will bridal carry Add and then they can have another awkward discussion about how they're not dating... sigh.]

If I could fly here, I could have saved everybody by now. [ :( ]
simplicitas: (083 @secondterra)

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-04 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
[Elsword is so very drained right now. He simply lays his head against Chung's shoulder and closes his eyes like he might take a nap right here. He's very lucky to still have his fingers, all things considered.

It's fine. He knows he'll heal from this. At this point, being disfigured at all isn't a thought in his head. It never is, when it comes to saving people.]


I'm alright. It's just another mark on my list of failures... isn't it?
simplicitas: (087 @happy_NR2)

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-04 06:06 am (UTC)(link)
[Elsword holds out his good, not-burned hand. It's attached to the arm with the gross black veins and charred remnants of flowers, but...]

Yeah, we can. I think I need it, honestly.

[He doesn't feel emotions too strongly, but... what he can reach right now is overwhelming enough.]

roll: 1

[personal profile] amethystic 2023-09-04 11:22 am (UTC)(link)
( felicity almost laughs a little, shaking her head with a sigh. )

I think that's the point, Elsword. Or I could make paths, and Gnosis could freeze things over. The man's a walking blizard it feels like.

( maybe. but also you just don't like the cold, felicity.

but it really is best to get a move on. the lava churns below and the heat only burns more, radiating harshly and reflecting off of everything. it's just a little longer- a little bit longer. elsword has a passenger, so she stands to the side to let him go first, help from behind if needed.

this

is a mistake.

the volcano rumbles and quakes again, harsher than before, and pieces of the walls and platforms start crumbling- it's not the first time this has happened- it was scarier down below when it felt like a great tumbling rockslide was coming for them from above while hell was at their feet below.

and yet

and yet.

something in the earth cracks- (can she really be surprised with how brittle the baked rock felt?) -and cracks, and cracks with steam and more rubble and debris falling around them.

felicity tries to move closer to the wall, and maybe that's her real mistake, because the ground beneath her feet crumbles. and she drops through, eyes wide. (part of her wants to laugh- she doesn't even have her magic and her luck still comes for her?)

mostly, though? she's just in shock.

up until she hits the molten lava, that is. she's not sure why she ever thought this would be quick. felicity is silent, voice caught in her throat- and then she can only scream. )
mooninthewater: (226)

[personal profile] mooninthewater 2023-09-04 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Mizuki's hands aren't quite burnt, fortunately, and his gloves are still… somewhat intact. Sort of. For what skin Elsword can feel, it's less like holding someone's hand and more like holding sandpaper, but he still sandwiches Elsword's hand between his own.

Mizuki wishes he could say he could help Elsword somehow. Help him heal those burns. Help him feel better, or look for his friends, or reassure him, but… all he can do is hold his hand like this and close his eyes. ]


Maybe this is just another bad dream.
simplicitas: (079 @ILIgaInne00)

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-06 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
I hope so. I could deal with that.

[...]

I'm supposed to save people. It's wired into me to just do it. But I feel so... useless here. I feel like I can't do anything to save you or Add or anyone else that's important to me.

I don't know... how to help with this place. Everything I do gets us nowhere.
mooninthewater: (182)

[personal profile] mooninthewater 2023-09-06 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ …

He's tired, so getting excited about Elsword once again showing off his heroic tendencies is in the back of Mizuki's mind, but it's hard for him to muster that enthusiasm.

Besides, that's not what he wants to address immediately. ]


Maybe you are useless. [ Thanks! ] Maybe we only have… "nowhere" to go, and maybe you can't save… any of us from that. [ Wheeze. Talking hard. ] But… you're here now. And… [ He gives a small squeeze with what strength he has. ] You're helping me, like this. You care about all of us. Even if we lose our usefulness… we'll all still have each other for… comfort and companionship. That's what… matters.
simplicitas: (083 @secondterra)

cw: graphic injuries

[personal profile] simplicitas 2023-09-06 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[Elsword opens his mouth to say something — yeah he saw that Liberi freeze the Grove over during the fight with the plants, yeah that sure would be useful right about now considering he had to ditch all his armour at the beginning because it was cooking him alive — when the rumbling hits. He has to lean forward to balance his weight, to make sure he and Add don't fall off.

In so doing, maybe they don't fall, but she does, and Elsword can't react quick enough to reach out for her.]


Felicity!!

[His arms are full. He can't just leap to the bottom of the cliff with Add in them. Lava is viscous, and it'll take her time to fully be submerged — and it's time they don't have. Elsword is forced to prioritize if he doesn't want to kill them all. It's a disgusting feeling, having to choose.

He's the sort of person who can't answer the question, "If you could only save one person, who would it be?"]


Shit—!

[Without much of a choice, Elsword runs further up the pathway and sets Add on a wider platform not near the edge, says "I'll be right back" with the confidence of a man who has done stupider shit in the past, and then quite literally throws himself over the cliffside, where he just barely manages to grapple onto the wall before dunking himself into the depths.

By this point, it's definitely too late. Her shrieking had stopped before he even got this far, and he can't even see her — but he has to try to get her out anyway. Maybe she's still alive. Maybe she hasn't yet burned to death, maybe maybe maybe.

Elsword dunks his hand into the lava and screams, biting back the urge to yank his hand out immediately as what isn't submerged in magma catches fire. The flames lick up his shoulders and onto his cheek, searing, agonizing—

He feels something and pulls. His arm comes out horrendously burned, some white bits of bone showing through blackened flesh. If he was going to bleed at all, the heat surely fried the capillaries and veins shut as soon as those layers were burned away.

The only thing in his hand is her choker, something that, by all odds, shouldn't have survived. Couldn't have, yet here it is, and Elsword takes it as yet another thing the backwards forest and all its games want him to suffer over.

Slowly does he climb back up the cliff face until he can reach the platform again, having to hug the wall with his knees due to his left arm being completely disabled right about now. Only when he reaches that platform is he able to path his way back up to Add.

The shaking has stopped.]
harmacy: the days they fly like trains go by (I-0064)

[personal profile] harmacy 2023-09-06 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Add hasn't even gotten onto his feet yet, arms shaking as he tries to gather up his dynamos. With his leg as it is he can't even crawl properly, struggling to drag himself to the drones that got scattered on arrival, panting and sweating from the unbearable heat and stress, half-blind in more ways than one...

he really, really wants this to be a bad dream. if the forest can really do something like this whenever it pleases then it should just kill him now and get it out of the way.

He jumps when Felicity speaks—has she been here the whole time? He's scowling but his eye is too wide, panicked. He's only at Dynamo four of six, the other two rolled to opposite ends of the platform.]


What are you standing around for?! Give me a hand, we need to move now!

[that's

exactly what she was saying... it's fine.]

[personal profile] amethystic 2023-09-06 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
( ... she'll forgive it this time because he's clearly freaking the fuck out. whatever happened when he died- it's clearly shaken him.

though, goddamn she hates her cardigan for once. tying it around her waste, it's easier to see her defined muscles on her arms now- though, even the tanktop feels suffocating right now. hair, up; it's still too long to be practical in this event, but it's too much to put in a bun so. they're both out of luck. turning around, she gestures- )


Either this, or I'm carrying you like a princess. C'mon.

( it's piggy-back time. )

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