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Entry tags:
- !event,
- athena | borderlands,
- benedict dearborn | original,
- carver hawke | dragon age,
- daenerys targaryen | game of thrones,
- eliot waugh | the magicians,
- ellie | the last of us,
- ivar ragnarsson | vikings,
- lee sung-hoon | duel,
- logan | marvel,
- octavia blake | the 100,
- robbie reyes | marvel,
- ruth aldine | marvel,
- vin venture | mistborn,
- will graham | hannibal,
- william | westworld
BONFIRE LIGHTS IN THE MIRROR OF SKY.
WHO: Everyone in game.
WHAT: Our first event log!
WHERE: Anywhere in the world core.
WHEN: After the storms begin.
NOTES: Expect surreal horror and possible violence. Please use common sense when warning for other content.
WHAT: Our first event log!
WHERE: Anywhere in the world core.
WHEN: After the storms begin.
NOTES: Expect surreal horror and possible violence. Please use common sense when warning for other content.
Photo by drainrat
PREVIOUSLY, ON THE WASTEYARD.
The world remains divided into a land where either a hazy sun shines muted light above or a full moon casts silvery shadows below. They hang fixed, as if nailed in place, more like theatrical props than far-off heavenly bodies. And you can still see only one of them, depending on which side you arrived.
Meanwhile, the storm rages.
On both sides of the world, the rain starts and doesn't stop. The temperature drops, transforming torrential rain into icy snow. Gusts of wind become gales and spin detritus into shrapnel, man-made disasters turned natural. Shadows spin wildly—almost comically—in cyclones, before bursting into nothingness; if you aren't careful, the winds will snatch you, too. Out here, the only protection you might have is cooperating with each other.
Indoors, it's certainly warmer, but that just means water doesn't freeze. Buildings flood with chilly water that rises no matter how many stairs you climb. Architecture groans under the pressure of earthquakes, sending more water cascading through the ceiling before it disappears into cracks below. Is anywhere safe?
Well, yes. One place, splintered into many. The mirrors in ash-gray frames stand sentinel, scattered throughout the world. They emit warm light from the other side; sunlight spills moonside and moonlight reflects sunside. Water impossibly flows around and away from them, leaving behind untouched earth that stays still and silent. Standing in front of them gives you a respite, a tiny bubble of safety to wait out the worst.
Meanwhile, the storm rages.
On both sides of the world, the rain starts and doesn't stop. The temperature drops, transforming torrential rain into icy snow. Gusts of wind become gales and spin detritus into shrapnel, man-made disasters turned natural. Shadows spin wildly—almost comically—in cyclones, before bursting into nothingness; if you aren't careful, the winds will snatch you, too. Out here, the only protection you might have is cooperating with each other.
Indoors, it's certainly warmer, but that just means water doesn't freeze. Buildings flood with chilly water that rises no matter how many stairs you climb. Architecture groans under the pressure of earthquakes, sending more water cascading through the ceiling before it disappears into cracks below. Is anywhere safe?
Well, yes. One place, splintered into many. The mirrors in ash-gray frames stand sentinel, scattered throughout the world. They emit warm light from the other side; sunlight spills moonside and moonlight reflects sunside. Water impossibly flows around and away from them, leaving behind untouched earth that stays still and silent. Standing in front of them gives you a respite, a tiny bubble of safety to wait out the worst.
INTO THE LABYRINTH.
Once you plunge indoors—unless you're really that determined to take your chances in the storm—you'll find every building with electricity experiencing a brownout. The overhead lights flicker and radios crackle with static, warbling broken news reports and tunes. They eavesdrop on strings of Morse code and private confessions on ham radio. If it's ever been broadcast on the airwaves, public or personal, you might hear it if you tune to the right station; you might even hear yourself, replaying a conversation you've had or will have. And sometimes the audio seems pointed, preternaturally so, as if tuned to your own thoughts and words.
Meanwhile, the waters continue to rise. The halls stretch long, seemingly infinite and twisted into knots. In some of them, no matter how far you walk, it seems like you never get any closer to the end; in others, you hit one dead end and can't stop hitting dead ends, no matter how many times you retrace your steps. None of that's unusual.
But if you delve deep into dark enough recesses (whether accidentally or intentionally), the world calms. The water recedes. Mirrors materialize in the dead ends, scratching out an "X" in the frame before your eyes. If you touch one, the glass falls away in ribbons, flowing like quicksilver and fleeing farther into the darkness. It reveals a hole on the other side, so deep a black it looks flat. Wherever it goes, it's so dark you can't see the other side.
And that's when you hear a sound like someone inhaling and then exhaling, steadily breathing around you. No...you feel it. A presence that has no form no matter how hard you look, but follows you in creaks and groans. It feels like being stalked by a monster in a maze.
Running from it only intensifies the feeling. Attacking makes it even worse. Calm acceptance is the only way to lessen or even neutralize it, but that's something you'll have to discover for yourself. In the end, there's no way to defeat it. You have to trust your instincts and believe it's there, despite the fact that you can't see or touch it.
Meanwhile, the waters continue to rise. The halls stretch long, seemingly infinite and twisted into knots. In some of them, no matter how far you walk, it seems like you never get any closer to the end; in others, you hit one dead end and can't stop hitting dead ends, no matter how many times you retrace your steps. None of that's unusual.
But if you delve deep into dark enough recesses (whether accidentally or intentionally), the world calms. The water recedes. Mirrors materialize in the dead ends, scratching out an "X" in the frame before your eyes. If you touch one, the glass falls away in ribbons, flowing like quicksilver and fleeing farther into the darkness. It reveals a hole on the other side, so deep a black it looks flat. Wherever it goes, it's so dark you can't see the other side.
And that's when you hear a sound like someone inhaling and then exhaling, steadily breathing around you. No...you feel it. A presence that has no form no matter how hard you look, but follows you in creaks and groans. It feels like being stalked by a monster in a maze.
Running from it only intensifies the feeling. Attacking makes it even worse. Calm acceptance is the only way to lessen or even neutralize it, but that's something you'll have to discover for yourself. In the end, there's no way to defeat it. You have to trust your instincts and believe it's there, despite the fact that you can't see or touch it.
CHANGING SIDES.
Elsewhere, it starts as a smell.
As the ground shudders and cracks, the stench of rot comes from the fissures. Mirrors and windows melt off walls, and a strong sense of vertigo comes and goes, like cresting waves. Looking out a window shows buildings and bridges breaking off of the labyrinth and drifting—or plummeting—away. They dissolve into nothingness as they vanish into the abyss, like they were bathed in acid. The already fragile world is falling apart.
It comes with a pervasive sense of wrongness, perhaps ironic in a world where everything is already wrong. But that's when it happens: You look up and realize you're no longer where you started. The sun or the moon, whichever you expected, is no longer in the sky. Instead, on the horizon lies its opposite.
It's a phenomenon unique to areas with high concentrations of ash mirrors and hallways, particularly when there's someone else on the other side. Sometimes the instability flips your positions, so one of you is now in the dimension where the other previously stood, while other times it drags you both together into the light of the sun or moon. It's like you resonate, magnets attracting or repelling each other in little pockets of peace.
As the ground shudders and cracks, the stench of rot comes from the fissures. Mirrors and windows melt off walls, and a strong sense of vertigo comes and goes, like cresting waves. Looking out a window shows buildings and bridges breaking off of the labyrinth and drifting—or plummeting—away. They dissolve into nothingness as they vanish into the abyss, like they were bathed in acid. The already fragile world is falling apart.
It comes with a pervasive sense of wrongness, perhaps ironic in a world where everything is already wrong. But that's when it happens: You look up and realize you're no longer where you started. The sun or the moon, whichever you expected, is no longer in the sky. Instead, on the horizon lies its opposite.
It's a phenomenon unique to areas with high concentrations of ash mirrors and hallways, particularly when there's someone else on the other side. Sometimes the instability flips your positions, so one of you is now in the dimension where the other previously stood, while other times it drags you both together into the light of the sun or moon. It's like you resonate, magnets attracting or repelling each other in little pockets of peace.
THE LOCKED ROOM.
Amidst the chaos, as the world shifts and there's no telling where or when you are, you slip through a crack. Or maybe you're a weirdo who climbed through the hole left behind a mirror.
In either case, the fissure is both literal and metaphorical, influenced by the unstable world and your actions. Maybe you step through a door, crawl through a crevice, close your eyes, or do something else to take you between here and there. Whatever the case, you find yourself in a room unlike any others you've seen in this distorted world. Well...once you look closer, anyway. On the surface, it may just be another kitchen, ballroom, or cellar.
But in these rooms, it doesn't matter which side of the divide you were on. Not only because you can't see whatever lights the sky, but because they lie between dimensions. There are no windows and no doors; you'll only find walls the same mottled gray as everything else in this place. Attacking them gets you nowhere. Any damage is there and gone, like the erased moments between flashes of a strobe light. There is no easy way out.
But there is a mirror. Hairline cracks run through its surface, shattering a single reflection into multitudes. Set in an ash-gray frame like so many others, it's left somewhere in the room, whether hanging on a wall, haphazard on the floor, or leaning against some furniture. It emanates the skin-prickling sensation of being watched. Turning away doesn't help; you can feel it gazing at your back.
The haunted feeling only subsides when you stare back. And you should stare back, because these mirrors are your escape route. Staring into them will reveal someone on the other side with the same predicament. Surprisingly, you can hear each other when you speak. It even comes translated if you don't speak the same language, although your mouths still sync to your native tongues. It's like a poorly dubbed movie.
Touching the mirror gives you the impression it's somehow leeching off you, trying to fill those cracks. Try to pull your hand away and you'll find it's a little difficult, like unsticking your tongue from a cold pole. Moreover, you'll feel a compulsion to tell the truth, to do something real.
In either case, the fissure is both literal and metaphorical, influenced by the unstable world and your actions. Maybe you step through a door, crawl through a crevice, close your eyes, or do something else to take you between here and there. Whatever the case, you find yourself in a room unlike any others you've seen in this distorted world. Well...once you look closer, anyway. On the surface, it may just be another kitchen, ballroom, or cellar.
But in these rooms, it doesn't matter which side of the divide you were on. Not only because you can't see whatever lights the sky, but because they lie between dimensions. There are no windows and no doors; you'll only find walls the same mottled gray as everything else in this place. Attacking them gets you nowhere. Any damage is there and gone, like the erased moments between flashes of a strobe light. There is no easy way out.
But there is a mirror. Hairline cracks run through its surface, shattering a single reflection into multitudes. Set in an ash-gray frame like so many others, it's left somewhere in the room, whether hanging on a wall, haphazard on the floor, or leaning against some furniture. It emanates the skin-prickling sensation of being watched. Turning away doesn't help; you can feel it gazing at your back.
The haunted feeling only subsides when you stare back. And you should stare back, because these mirrors are your escape route. Staring into them will reveal someone on the other side with the same predicament. Surprisingly, you can hear each other when you speak. It even comes translated if you don't speak the same language, although your mouths still sync to your native tongues. It's like a poorly dubbed movie.
Touching the mirror gives you the impression it's somehow leeching off you, trying to fill those cracks. Try to pull your hand away and you'll find it's a little difficult, like unsticking your tongue from a cold pole. Moreover, you'll feel a compulsion to tell the truth, to do something real.
THE GREAT ESCAPE.
For those of you left behind where the sun and moon still shine, keep an eye on your own mirrors, especially broken ones that seem to be influenced by something invisible. They display a room that most decidedly isn't your own, acting more like a window than a mirror. And whoever's inside, trapped, might call on you for help. You won't be able to hear them, though, so how are you with body language?
Meanwhile, for escapees...
No matter how you escape the rooms, you might notice something a little strange once you get back to the labyrinth. Well, stranger. For a brief window of time (one that grows longer with each room you escape), you'll discover the sun and moon occupy the same sky. The area you've entered is a temporary nexus of sorts, one that fuses the dimensions into something that almost seems stable.
It feels right, but the world isn't strong enough to hold itself together for long.
Meanwhile, for escapees...
No matter how you escape the rooms, you might notice something a little strange once you get back to the labyrinth. Well, stranger. For a brief window of time (one that grows longer with each room you escape), you'll discover the sun and moon occupy the same sky. The area you've entered is a temporary nexus of sorts, one that fuses the dimensions into something that almost seems stable.
It feels right, but the world isn't strong enough to hold itself together for long.
for the record: nope, he's got it pushed back
Didn't exactly get to pick out my travellin' suit before I ended up here.
[ His gaze ticks down to the hole-puncher in Will's hand. ]
Plannin' on stickin' someone with that thing?
o7
Getting asked reasonable questions by a guy who looks a little ticked off is helping with that, honestly. Will blinks and looks down at the hole puncher again. He'd like to just toss it aside like it doesn't matter at all, but now that he's holding a weapon - no matter how potentially-flimsy - he'd rather hang onto it. His shoulders round, though, and he sighs heavily through his nose. ]
I had been. [ At least he's...honest. Another, slightly shaky sigh as he takes a look behind himself, and then behind the other man. ] Someone I used to know.
Looks like he isn't actually here right now, though.
no subject
At his mention of the man he was running from, Logan takes a look back over his own shoulder, then raises his eyebrows. ]
There are a lotta things here that don't make sense. [ He sighs out a cloudy breath and brushes some snow off his arm. ] Try not to think about it. Or him, I guess. Then they won't bother you so much.
no subject
[ Will was turned away from his last question, but that's not stopping a second one. He looks the other man up and down — muscular, but not posturing like he's ready to fight — and then nods to his left, indicating the world at large more than anything in particular. ] What about you?
Heard anything...familiar?
no subject
He scowls, though he's not beyond telling Will a part of the truth. Hell, maybe it'll help them figure out what's going on. ]
Heard a voice I knew, comin' out of a radio back there. Figured it was somethin' to do with reality tearin' itself apart.
no subject
It still looks like a boring line of office cubicles, drifted in snow that's halfway up Will's shins in the shallow portions. Radios still litter-- everywhere. ] Makes sense. If this place took us from our realities, why can't it sample sounds from there, too?
[ He scoffs. There's not a lot of real humor in his brief smile. ] Not that makes sense describes much, here. [ He thinks of something Robbie had asked him, right before explaining that weird things like the shadow monsters existed in his world, even though they didn't exist in Will's own.
Will looks back at Logan, abruptly attentive and earnest. ] Have you ever seen-- something like this?
sob sorry for the late tag I marked all as read
He shrugs a little, reaching out to pick up one of the nearby radios. He turns it over, brushes snow off the dials. Sniffs it. ]
Nothin' like this. [ He sets the radio back down. ] I've been in some pretty weird places, but none that were.. fallin' apart like this place is. How about you, Boy Scout?
no worries!
But it's the returned question that Will ends up responding to first. ] 'Boy Scout', [ he repeats on a dry laugh, shaking his head and looking away for a moment. He draws his arms across his chest, although it's more because of the cold than to seem closed off. ] No. No, where I'm from there's no-- altering reality, or kidnapping people from different worlds to put them in an-- in an antfarm to see what they do. [ Will's speech isn't so much stilted or stammering as it is impassioned; it sounds like he's figuring out which branch of thought he'll follow right as he's saying it, nothing terrible planned.
Oh, and also, in case anyone thought he wasn't gonna ask: ] And what's with sniffing the radio? [ Is added after, comparatively flat. ]
no subject
Not again. Never again.
He almost misses Will's question in the tangled briars of his memories. He growls, huffs out a breath of steam into the icy air. Really should start carrying a goddamn card. Maybe a pamphlet: "So, You've Met Your First Mutant". ]
I'm.. in my world, some people are born different. With powers, things they can do normal people can't. Flight, throwin' fireballs, fuzzy blue fur, that kinda thing. [ He looks at Will steadily, tracking his reaction. ] This, [ He points at his nose. ] is mine. I can sense things you can't. Like the fact that you [ His nostrils flare as he inhales. ] keep dogs, wherever you come from. Six, maybe? Huh. Got your own little pack, Boy Scout, I like that in a person.
no subject
Curious, yes, and maybe even suspicious - his brow furrows with consideration as this stranger keeps going, with the kind of guess that would make Hannibal and his weird sense of smell jealous, but not aggressively so. ] Yeah, uh— seven, actually. [ His expression pinches with something closer to appalled amusement, a silent 'that's your comment? that you like dogs?' ] That's gotta be...annoying, here. I can't imagine any of us smell great after a few weeks without laundromats.
[ But the explanation about people who are born different. Will's centering back on that. ] Powers like...hearing peoples' thoughts? [ Will's mouth opens a moment, unsure how much to share, but if this is the same situation then maybe they even know each other. ] I— think I've met someone like you. Over the radios, not in— not in person. And she didn't tell me her name.
no subject
He frowns as Will mentions having met someone over the radio. ]
What did she sound like? Was she a kid? [ He thinks he knows who it was, but needs to be sure. ] What did she tell you?
no subject
She said trying to use her powers here...hurt her. That she couldn't hear what people were thinking...
...Or see. [ The fact that she was blind will surely be a helpful identifier. Will risks brief eye contact, here, his voice softer: ] You know her?
no subject
Yeah, I know her. She's from the same place I am. I was her.. [ He pauses for a beat, considering and throwing aside words he's been struggling to fit him and Ruth into. Friend? Teammate? The guy who should have been there, should have saved -- ] teacher. For a while.
[ He's not surprised to hear that she's still in pain; like him, she can't exactly turn her powers off, not if she wants to live a normal life. As normal as they got, anyway. Still, it doesn't exactly cheer him up to hear it.
He turns from Will and walks a little way over to a snow-dusted desk; brushes the snow with his fingertips. Glances back at Will for a moment. ]
So what's your story, Boy Scout? Runnin' from someone?
no subject
Or his own very real, very literal students from over the years. ] --I hope you run into her, then. She seemed like she could use a hand right now. [ He's sincere, and somber about it.
Until the question, anyway, which leaves Will blinking and then laughing, brief and decidedly bitter. ] More like he was running from me. [ The humor, already dry, evaporates fast. ] I work with the FBI. As a professor at the Academy, and recently as a-- [ his expression twists with something unhappy that he scrubs clear as quickly as he can, ] --special agent.
Your student mentioned that you don't-- that mutants don't like. Law enforcement. [ Will doesn't sound bothered by it, and he isn't, but he's mentioning it himself in an attempt to get ahead of...whatever assumptions follow someone like Logan hearing about detectives. ]
no subject
When Will mentions being a federal agent and law enforcement, his expression darkens a little, becomes more closed off. He's been on both sides of that argument. Hell, he'd need two hands to count the number of governments he's worked for.
Still, he's been at the mercy of too many men in suits to be comfortable with a man who seems to be in it up to the waist, and by choice.
He grunts something which could be taken for confirmation. ]
Where we come from, the law ain't exactly a friend to people like us. People get scared by what they don't understand. What they can't.. figure out.
no subject
Well, I'm good at— understanding things. [ Too good, he thinks but doesn't say. The unspoken part effects his expression, though, gives it a shiver of something almost regretful. Almost shy.
He sighs. ] Maybe the only good thing about being here will end up being the fact that no one will have time for that. At least at first. [ His optimism is really more like delayed pessimism, sorry. But he's sincere, and he doesn't bristle like he's taken when Logan said personally. Will's not attached to his title the way he's attached to what he actually does. ]
no subject
I dunno, sometimes being trapped does things to people. Brings out sides of them they don't always know about. [ Logan picks up one of the smaller radios nearby as he talks, an old portable set that looks like it dropped out of the 80's, mostly to have something to do with his hands. He misses his cigars with an almost physical ache. ]