westwhere | closed } { i feel the temperature risin

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closed } { i feel the temperature risin

WHO: Allison Hargreeves, Emilia di Carlo, Wrath, Wrathion, Daenerys Targaryen, Lorna Dane.
WHEN: Sometime before April 6th
WHERE: The Volcano
WHAT: Volcano shenanigans.
WARNINGS: TBD

The tunnels reek. Allison gags on the scent of sulfur and sweat as they make their way further down into the labyrinth. Part of her doesn't think that she's the best person for the job - rumoring rocks isn't exactly in her repertoire.

Fortunately, she's not alone, and is surrounded by equally capable people. Some she knows well, some she doesn't, but hopefully if they work as a team, they'll be able to get through this together, to whatever the end goal may be. Keeping her eyes front and ignoring the suffocating heat, or the nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her that she is the least of those present.

It's just the curse. She's just fine. Her brother is absolutely not right.

That being said, she extends her hands outward for balance, not wanting to touch the walls as she steps down. Just in case they're too hot to handle.

"No turns up ahead, right?"

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Wrath had not anticipated arriving at the volcano with Allison only to find several other individuals there, including Emilia who has been avoiding him as of late for some reason he cannot discern. He had to ignore the envious rise within him to find she arrived with others, arrived without telling him a word because apparently his assistance is not one she values. It's his curse at play, he's certain, but the feeling is infuriating as is not knowing the reason for her distance. Nevertheless, it is her choice. It has generally always been her choice (someone else). Blood and bones, this damned curse.

The others he's at least passingly familiar with given their status as a group travelling together- one has an anxious reaction to the Beastmaster while not being entirely human himself, the other has a dragon as a companion, the other appears close to Marcos.

He imagines the depths of these tunnels are what most mortals assume Hell to be like with its sulfur and sweltering heat. They would be sorely mistaken. He walks in the front of the group, unaffected by the waves of heat- not sweating, shoving down his envious feelings (oh, but how he hates Envy the most, and now he suffers with his brother's sin nearly as much as his own namesake). He carries a torch at the front, lighting the way.

"None ahead. We can continue straight for the time being."

Lorna (the one who appears close to Marcos, though not at the moment since he's not going in with them) is towards the front of the group, hands out and feeling for whatever metallic materials might be within the rocks and walls in case she needs to push anything out of the way or tear it apart. They're in a volcano and given how well things tend to go when it comes to expeditions like this, both at home and since she and Marcos had arrived, she figures it's better to be safe than sorry.

Sweat sticks her clothes and whatever hair she couldn't gather back to her skin and, feeling a presence of metal close enough for her to manipulate it, she shoves a larger piece of rock out of their path and nods in confirmation; first ahead to Wrath, then back to the rest of the group.

"Everybody holding up okay?"

Edited 2022-03-27 19:32 (UTC)

The volcano is... strange.

Unusual.

There are a multitude of reasons to investigate it, and a natural location like this should be no problem for him. Blackrock, after all, has lava flows. The magma chamber inside that mountain swelteringly hot inside, and he's never had a problem going in and out of there. So this one, surely, should be the same.

The mist here, however, is the immediate problem for now -- low visibility in a strange place is never ideal. That, and as they walk the tunnels he finds himself starting to feel uncommonly itchy. He has a faint, looming sense of dread. The sensation that this volcano investigation may end poorly, that whatever links the initial eruption and everything else that happened in this village may be uncovered to their detriment.

If this ends in another curse, he will not be held responsible for whatever outburst of frustration he feels. Anxiety crawls under his skin.

"Perfect," Wrathion says, with all the dry humour of someone who is feeling tired of this labyrinth already. His eyes flick around the path, frowning in thought. "These tunnels are... unusual."

With Wrath at the front, Emilia lingers at the back to round up their group. She tells herself it is to ensure their safety, and it helps this is not untrue. But the longer they find themselves in this village, the more she recoils at her betrothed's presence, seeking distance where she once could not get close enough. It makes the tunnels seem more claustrophobic than they already do.

The humanoid shape of the cracks that led them further in didn't help.

Loosening a breath in her chest, she mentally shakes off the unsettling feeling and continues onward. One foot in front of the other, despite the fact Nonna's voice is at her ear, hissing turn away at the smell of sulphur.

"Confusing," Emilia pipes up in agreement from her vantage point. The hand that isn't holding on to a torch wipes a sheet of sweat off her forehead. She doesn't need to say it, they'll need to be paying close attention to the twists and turns.

Lorna's no volcanologist, but she's inclined to trust the people who are mentioning that the structure of this one is unusual. Her shoulders and hands tense as they keep moving forward, trying to feel for anything different than what she's sensed so far. She doesn't feel anything, but the cracks in the shape of a body outline are noted and she glances first back towards Emilia, then forward towards Wrath.

"Anything we should be worried about?" Not that they aren't all wary of their situation already, but if they end up encountering a situation they need to leave quickly, she's a little dubious about their ability to escape the further they go in. The sulphur invades her nostrils as they keep moving and her mouth tightens as she swallows the urge to gag at it.

"Unnatural."

That feels the best way to describe it. Something about the place doesn't quite feel right, isn't behaving the way he'd expect a regular volcano to behave. Not that Wrathion is a volcanologist himself, but he's an earth dragon. He knows how natural places like this should feel and behave.

"Not that it's surprising, given everything else we know about this place."

Why would it ever be a normal volcano? There's obviously something going on here, he just hopes it's something they'll find themselves prepared for.

As they step further in, Wrath can feel the influence the volcano attempts to have on his mind. He stares down the length of the tunnel, breathing in, taking a step further. The tunnels lead every which way. It reminds him of the Sin Corridor, of the Lighthouse, but less sheer compulsion-

"Unnatural is correct. Something within this volcano will attempt to influence our minds. If you're able to guard against it, do so."

The path finally goes into... several, and within those paths, there's a flash of a shadow among the rest- movement. He is tempted to track it down. His gaze drifts behind his shoulders to the rest of the group- lingers on Emilia helplessly so (his betrothed). She remains in one piece. The influence of this volcano is... strong, however. The further in they get, the more noises he can hear- These creatures are hungry whoever they are.

"And we are not alone."

No sooner Wrath makes this assertion, Emilia catches sight of a shadow at her left, something antler-like. Gone as soon as it comes. Her hold on the torch tightens in hand as she meets Wrath's gaze, before her own sweeps across the area. The heat of this inferno, this skin-crawling sensation: this is what she imagined Hell would be before she was met with a city of ice and bones.

A bead of sweat trickles from her temple down her cheek, and she fights the urge to rub at her skin there. Fights the urge to tug at the collar of her blouse, the urge to — to shove past all of them and make her own way.

Guard your mind, she reminds herself. Guard your mind.

Staying close to the back, Daenerys watched for anything that might be following them, moving at a more sideways motion. There were shadows there, as others had mentioned. Things that she thought at first might be a trick of the light or brought on by the heat. She had always preferred scalding baths and warm fires, but this was heavy in the air, almost suffocating.

"Be sure to keep drinking water." She warned, knowing they were already aware. "Slight dehydration can start leading to hallucinations. If there is something here, we need to be able to discern what is real or our imagination."

Which didn't really help at the moment, as she thought she saw something run across the distance.

Lorna nods in agreement, even though she can't actually see Daenerys from where she's standing. A quiet breath is drawn in when she notices the movement of a shadow, and she blinks hard a couple of times, wondering if she really saw what she saw. The glow that's been emanating around her hands fades from one of them and she pauses to rub hard at her eyes before continuing to move forward.

"Maybe we should start scheduling breaks as we get further in. How long have we been going now?"

"Hard to say without a sun in the sky."

Or a watch that actually tells time. She's still not even sure they have twenty-four hour days here. But she pauses to take a sip of her water, before scanning over the shadows of the doorways, trying not to jump out of her skin as the shadows danced around the room.

She takes a breath, reminds herself that this place is trying to mess with her. "Maybe a couple hours?"

Pausing use of her abilities for a moment has made Lorna realize how much energy she's been expending on it, and how tiring that's gotten in this environment. She pauses just after Allison does and pulls out her own water, drinking deeply and trying to be mindful to only swallow a little of it at a time.

Movement sweeps across the corner of her vision again and she frowns, securing the container closed. Remember what they said, this place will try to mess with you. You're fine. She sighs and rubs at her eyes again.

"Maybe there's another way to keep track of how long we've been going."

Interesting. Wrathion narrows his eyes as he scans the shadows, watching figures in it move around.

The aren't attacking yet, but they are curious. He glances back behind them, warily trying to gauge if they're being followed as well. It wouldn't do to get surrounded.

"None of you have a timekeeping device?" he prompts idly. The passage of time means little to him, but he can understand why they'd be curious. Wrathion takes a step further away from the group, watches the antlered figures as the slink around the edges. "It seems our watchers are inclined to stay watchers for now, but they may be waiting for us to walk into a trap."

Waiting for the right moment to strike, whatever that may be. Less work for them if they all injure themselves first, or walk themselves into a corner.

"I do. But it's hard to say if our days line up with days in the place where I came from."

She holds up her watch from the 1960s, analog so able to be reset and not relying on some digital measure that needs to be set by the son. It's hard to tell if this world is a small planet making quick rotations or if it's a larger beast, making slow circles. Hell, there might not even be sixty minutes in an hour.

"But I don't think you're wrong about the spectators. Let's just be careful where we step."

The further they get into the volcano, Allison's nerves start slipping through, leaking into the atmosphere the more the heat intensifies around them. She feels like she's in an oven, waiting to be baked, and given the fact that she's already felt the world come apart around her once, she doesn't really want to go through it again.

If I die in this volcano, Five is going to kill me...

What am I even doing here ...

Because yeah, I'll just rumor a fucking volcano. That'll totally work ...

Each of them spirals deeper and deeper into her crisis of confidence as she gets further and further in, until she realizes that she's catching glimpses of other people's too and the thoughts become a consistent line of Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck...

There goes the confident presence she thought she was exuding.

Between the energy she's been using to try and get whatever debris she can out of the way without touching it and trying steadfastly to ignore her own thoughts of doubt and negativity as they start to come to the forefront, Lorna's starting to realize that things may be becoming dire, or that they at least feel like they are. She swallows as she steels herself, using exercises she'd learned a long time ago to try and keep dangerously negative thoughts and anger at bay. The fact that she's willing to remember and try them at all shows that she must think that things are getting pretty fucking dire, but they're working, as much as they can when applied to their particular situation.

Because yeah, I'll just rumor a fucking volcano, that'll totally work...

Lorna stops in her tracks, realizing after a second that that thought wasn't her own. Her eyes go to Allison's back; she's a couple steps ahead of her by now, and she hears fuck fuck fuck fuck in the back of her head and squeezes her eyes shut, shaking her head.

She closes the distance between herself and Allison, keeping her voice low as she speaks up.

"Hey." Even as she starts off, she's not sure how she's going to continue or calm Allison down while keeping herself calm. Maybe by keeping her talking. "You all right?"

Allison takes a deep breath as she turns to face Lorna, because she'd like to say she's totally fine, but it's hard to claim that with any kind of believability when someone can hear the thoughts in your head. She nods, trying to find something in between.

"Just feeling a little outclassed, that's all."

Lorna nods, getting it, even though Allison being here at all shows that she's made of some serious stuff. Even what she can do feels pretty pointless in this place, especially as they keep going further down and her energy keeps getting further and further expended. She reaches for Allison's wrist, giving it a light squeeze.

"I know what you mean. But we're gonna be good. This place is just trying to get in our heads."

She nods, trying to suppress the runaway thought that it's succeeding. But she's certainly been through worse. She'll trudge through one way or another.

"I just don't want to give the head zombie another reason to lure me out into being one of his zombie minions." She already had that happen once in Taravast, and while she's sure it's not a ticket punch for every near death experience you have, she doesn't want to add to the collection.

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closed } { i feel the temperature risin

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THOUGHT SHARING

allison | ota

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i can't believe i forgot to close the italics

<3 it happens