groundrules: (Default)
let's set d o w n some ([personal profile] groundrules) wrote in [community profile] westwhere2023-03-08 06:47 pm

stage iii


THE ASHES







Rathakku’s forces deepen their siege, with sharp-clawed harpies, fire-bearing catapults and archers raining hell upon Alem. The last two watch towers collapse, along with half the roof of the Keep. Several structural pillars dissolve and most windows shatter.

The Lord Who Waits has tired of patience.

HIGH CASTLE



■ Attack is vicious and perpetual: Rathakku’s creatures descend from above, harpies make lairs in dark corners, and the fallen rise as undead enemies. Rathakku now necromances even the recently deceased, who retain a sense of personhood. Characters with mind control and necromantic abilities can take over these units. The recently resurrected have yet to decay substantially and hide they perished in order to infiltrate.

■ The dragon Irenia dips in to breathe frost onto Rathakku’s forces, but never lingers long. She disappears on March 20 but will return post-Arc.

■ Aware of his native Ellethia’s implicit role in raising Rathakku, Zenobius offers to teach you how to use the rare metals and saltpetre of Alem to create generous explosives — a set that triggers a very high blast, and a smaller shipment that can annihilate any magic — including death and summoning sorcery — in a 20-metre radius for two hours. Zenobius is a hard, curmudgeony taskmaster: expect to be worked and criticised to the bone.

■ Expect frequent quakes in the fortress, as catapults strike and the roof and pillars wobble. A hard winter is no longer contained by shattered doors and windows. Fire kindle and other supplies run scarce. Huddle together.

■ Paladins fall into zealotry, calling to sacrifice young princess Cle-Florens to ensure their success in battle. Deimar does not dissuade them, but lowers the number of guards protecting Cle-Florens’ quarters.

■ The voices that haunted Alem now multiply, increasingly likely to drag you into a dream-like state to descend into the glacier lakes underground. Spy thereabout at night, and you spot demonic fire sirens of golden scales, who gather in the fourth glacier lake’s cave to urgently complete their task before Alem falls. Their leader produces a purse of dark glass shards. A siren painfully transforms her tail into human legs by consuming such glass — she intends to infiltrate the fortress as a refugee. Sign up for a RNG thread to interrogate this mermaid.

■ With a few more shard crumbs, the sirens summon a ‘Jatharin’ — a fast dispersing silhouette that floats ethereally. They give it a white-silver string punish Prince Haiva for wronging a sister.

■ The Jatharin survives only two hours in the human realm. It lacks human consciousness and memory, remembering little of its target’s description and pursuing what ‘young men (with pale hair)’ it finds in the Wards. It is invisible to all who did not witness its birth — so keep your companions out of its way. It approaches a target and chains itself to them with a shadowy ‘umbilical chord,’ before sucking dry their life force. It can also deplete energy through... mouth-on-mouth action. Clean executions: Victims make no sound and barely shudder throughout their entrapment. Some say, these are painless deaths.

■ Sirens summon a Jatharin for three nights.

HARPIES
Fast, perpetually furious, prone to consuming human flesh. Deterred by loud noise and vibrations. Imbue their claws with poisons that prevent blood coagulation, extending bleed-outs.
CATAPULTS
Deliver projectiles of stone, fire and minor explosives. Rathakku’s most ferocious instrument, taking down Alem’s foundations. Manned by four undead apiece. Sturdy but slow, best targeted aerially.
FIRE SIRENS
Native to Hell. Deeply bound to ‘sisters’ and ‘family.’ Possess golden scales and shards of the previously encountered dark water mirrors. Their song is tinny but compelling. Their speaking voices are crackling and gravelly. Survive the glacier lakes’ cold by exuding flame. Skin burns to touch.
JATHARIN
Smokey, dispersing silhouette. Invisible to those who did not witness its birth. Kills by consuming life energy. Descended from the Motherless of Hell. Cannot be outright stopped, only avoided, enslaved or consumed. Can be distracted if you take an aspect similar to Haiva. Leaves a golden string on unintended victims.


THE DEPARTING



■ King Deimar orders caravans to urgently evacuate, carrying refugees and provisions through mountain routes into a new settlement. Able men, guards, healers and merchants make preparations around the clock and will gladly accept, command or guilt your assistance. Help them.

■ Courtesy of Jimmy and Nacho, merchants Batthour and Eles provide some last-minute wagons and resources. An Alison-coached Deimar strikes a tenuous agreement for supplies.

■ Having received ‘healing’ flowers, Prince Haiva seems entirely recovered — far more confident, he menaces guards to assist the caravans. Deimar watches uneasily. Haiva asks the party to lead the refugees through the icy mountain passageways, where Rathakku’s immense bat demons loom.

■ The caravans journey to a well-warded settlement near the base of the mountain — former paladin monastery Hassir. Those who wish to avoid conflict can remain here. Prepare to kill any wandering pursuers, before they may alert Rathakku of the settlement's location.

MOUNTAIN BATS
Monstrous, blood-thirsting. To the size of 1.5-3 metres. Bulky, quicker to use their brawns than their speed. Stalk together, but compete for food and want to drag their prey to some great distance before consuming it, for privacy. Use that time to escape.
HUNTSMEN
Undead forces, typically old resurrections of Rathakku. Once human natives of Alem. Excellent knowledge of hiding spots and the mountain. Hostile, take perverse pleasure in the game. Will prolong a chase for sport and give their hungering hounds the chance to catch you. Unusual kinship with local animals, who sometimes obey them. Some scent blood.


COME HELL, THEN DARK WATER



Hell is ruthless, but pragmatic — and must be sealed, before Rathakku controls Alem and weaponises it.

The growing cracks in Alem’s underground Room of Seals widen to reveal full-fledged stairs. More and more demons emerge as the rifts broaden. You have mere days to close Hell, ICly starting on 18 March.

■ Back/forward date your posts and logs as needed. Network access is spottier in Hell. Deimar’s paladins accompany the group.

■ To prevent the outpour of Hell, you must reach Level III and record disrupting at least three Motherless.

■ Each level of Hell shows shallow stains or streams of the familiar ‘dark water.’

LEVEL I

■ The Room of Seal leads into an underground stone passageway. Demons and skeletons are chained to stones or pillars, begging water. The dead are fickle: some offer directions, others answers to your questions. Most lie for their own gain.

■ The stairwell to Level II is behind locked gates, on a stone dais framed by a wall of flames. To reach it, cross a threadbare walkway of bones in a large hall room that has largely submerged into lava.

■ If the bridge ruptures, jump onto the nearby talking floating skeleton heads. Skeletal hands reach out to destabilise or drag you into the fire waters, as do demonic lava mermaids.

■ As you near the dais, the wall of flames might depict either the time when Thyvault’s people slaughtered the lava sirens, or your worst memory of betraying or failing someone. That same person is found shackled with long chains on the dais. If you never wronged anyone, this is someone to whom you are dearly indebted. At times plaintive, at others incensed, they appeal to your guilt or goodwill, bartering the gate key for their release. Their chains will only open if someone agrees to take their place in imprisonment.

■ You can steal their key, kill them — at which point, they return to their true form as a reptilian shapeshifter, or offer to take their place. Do so, and your character is stuck in Hell, suffering the intense heat and occasional clawing of mermaids, until Hell closes.

■ Up to you if anyone else can see your character’s memory in the flame wall. Please trigger warn adequately if you are describing sensitive memories.


LEVEL II

You descend deeper, into an underground urbanscape infested with flesh-like structures. Some stretches of land and stone are covered in membranous, dense, thick surfaces, letting you feel the faint, distant heartbeat of Hell. Other landmarks — lairs, adornments — are made of the remains of fallen demons.
■ Step lightly and rapidly. Flesh-eating demons roam these lands, as do hungering hell hounds and golems that chase you for parts to patch their limbs.

■ The next stairwell is guarded by a deathly groom or bride, their tentacles barring your path.

■ To proceed, you must gain the ring they are safe-keeping for a future ‘intended.’ You’ll need to persuade a local demon, assemble a passing corpse bride, sell a companion or offer yourself to betroth them — and negotiate a dowry.

■ The groom is crafty, cunning, eager to manipulate you into offering your soul as a dowry; the bride is cruel but irresistible, stirring you and your companion to violently compete for her hand.


LEVEL III

Behold true hell, an endless wasteland, its horizon fathomless and grey. Your mouth tastes of perpetual ash, bone dust scattered at your feet. You walk aimlessly for hours in fields of gravel, haunted by stone snakes and shapeless bone creations.

Demonic creatures rally as armies, fighting each other for crumbling territory or for overground dominion, as they prepare to invade Alem. Some drag rows of sullen, depressed or bellicose dead men behind them, whose souls you can liberate furtively when the demons make camp, or are assaulted by Deimar’s paladins. These captives did not all originate from Alem.

■ Some of the lesser demons may part with information, if you give them memories, important trinkets or a taste of your soul.

■ Most paladins are on this level and will shield you. You hear from them or from passing demons that Hell is now able to seep into Alem because of the Motherless — dark and flickering silhouettes, two-three times the size of a man, who float high above ground. They send down thick ropes like umbilical cords that consume the energy of whatever they attach to. They redeliver this energy as tectonic blows against Alem above.

■ Beyond a hatred of the Room of Seals, the Motherless lack conscience, speech or allegiance. They are drawn to the warmth of living things, or the purity of their spirit. Their ropes are broken easily — but the presence of a Motherless can quickly drain you.

■ The Motherless are briefly visible when they fling their ropes down, but otherwise roam invisibly and can only be recognised by the trails of barren land and aridity in their wake. You know a Motherless has stopped above you when you are suddenly paralysed by chilling fear — run, at all costs.

■ The Motherless swarm when endangered. They cannot be killed.

Deimar’s paladins share that, hundreds of years ago, their brethren committed ritual suicide, so their spirits could perpetually hunt the Motherless in Hell. You find ghostly paladins walking listlessly in lakes of dark water, seeming to remember nothing of their mission or their former selves. Try to remind them of their duties without entering the water and stranding yourself.


NOTES

■ Hell demons can recognise if your character is canonically connected to hell. Up to you if that’s a (dis)advantage!

■ Everyone should eventually make their way to the Hassir monastery.

Sign up for a RNG thread with an unexpected travel companion on the trek to Hassir.


NPC THREADS

QUESTIONS

cosplayqueen: (and reveal just where you are)

[personal profile] cosplayqueen 2023-03-18 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[It goes against everything she believes to hear those words. Kamala isn't even upset at the way he's clearly expecting reprisal for bursting her bubble. It had not been that long since Najima and her crew showed up to murder her whole family because she dared to do the same. Despite his flaws, Kamala knows who she is in this scenario: she's Kamran. She's the one who learns the hard truth about what's going on and decides to do the right thing regardless of the cost.

Unpopular or not, she can't listen to this man advocate for these people and not advocate for them in return. Her heart sinks as for the millionth time she wishes she could talk to Nakia. She's so good at speaking up for others. The same is true of her new sister Tyesha.

All they have is her. Kamala doesn't look angry about that. She looks devastated. Her entire life people have reminded her of her shortcomings: too scattered brain, never takes things seriously enough, needs to work harder, be more like the other girls, etc. It mostly came from a place of love and concern. Right now it just wounds her.

A few stray tears fall, but Kamala quickly wipes them away and looks sheepish about it.]
Sorry. I don't get to be part of the problem and then cry when someone tells me about it. I don't need to know how this is possible. This is your reality. I just have to accept it.

[Kamala says aloud partially to herself. She can talk to the Iman about it later. Now is the time for getting what she needs to make things right.

She takes a deep, cleansing breath and checks to make sure she's got this down correctly. Nakia always has the story straight. She should too.]
If I'm hearing you right, we've been screwing up the ecosystem of this place and a lot of other places. The undead and the living need to figure out how to coexist without a bunch of random people coming in to try to play the hero while we look for a way back home. Whether we like it or not, these are the lives the undead have been given.

[She stares at Matthias a moment. Kamala doesn't know if it's right to ask. She also knows Nakia would ask to help frame her argument. Tyesha too.] The life you've been given?
blackscales: Commission, Do Not Take! (8)

[personal profile] blackscales 2023-03-19 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
[ Wrathion frowns, shivering as he tries to think. Gold string. White string. Why string at all? A connection? A tether? Why different colours? ]

I'm not certain of the purpose. A tether? A connection? Knowing the usage might help explain the difference.

[ Easier said than done, of course. Still, one thing is certain: ]

This creature must be our killer, however. An instrument of vengeance. If they persist in summoning it I presume their intended victim still lives.

[ Wrathion suspects he knows who that is. ]
downswing: (十一)

[personal profile] downswing 2023-03-19 01:51 am (UTC)(link)


( Sweetheart, not to you. But then, they are not men of saccharine endearments, of vulgar intimations, of open, aggressive, demanding possessiveness. There are words that sunder them, that trickle lost between them, that would poison the well of waters that have cleansed them of coy, perfunctory formality — that have stripped them down into their tender truths.

This, wind lashing their cheeks and tangling their hair and loosening their balance on the sword — this, then, is who they are. Small, for how much power they hold in greedy hands, between Wei Ying's mastery of death-anointed armies and Lan Wangji's direction of the blade.

Beneath them, Wei Ying's legions rally, and it is resentment that coaxes and directs them, that routes their ferocity and their spindly, clawing hands to turn on Rathakku and his creatures, that keeps them attentive and ferocious, cruel. The stench of blood blooms, corrosive.

He did not think they had yet their waters to spill.

We can burn them, says Wei Ying, and he means to bite back, But they are not husked. Only, he reconfigures his efforts — turns, air shifting, to summon his namesake guqin and wield it one-handed, the groaning vibrations of qi joining in to detract from the hostilities waged against Wei Ying's rising contingent. He cannot spare time and energy towards the war effort, not with so much of himself set to the task of holding Wei Ying steady, one arm belting his waist. But still, before the guqin is dismissed: )


You shall not fall to require catch. ( Lan Wangji, embittered by sudden purpose, will not allow it. ) Make haste, Patriarch. Earn your name, its reputation.

binghua: (4)

[personal profile] binghua 2023-03-19 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
There is something.

[He doesn't elaborate, unable to do so in any detail, but Shuanghua continues to vibrate in his lap. Xingchen sits there and thinks what to do, what he can do that won't put anyone in any more danger, whether that be the refugees they're protecting or anyone who may simply feel undead.

...He's pretty sure he's going to have to put his fears behind him sooner rather than later.

Reaching into his sleeve, he pulls out a protection talisman and tries to subtly attach it to the wagon. Then, he speaks to the man walking beside him again and holds out a hand.]


Help me down?
rumorate: (Default)

[personal profile] rumorate 2023-03-19 03:23 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks. My father would be so pleased that I've found a productive use of my skills.

[Especially since he had things to say when she ran off to be an actress. But she's also mostly being sarcastic.]

How's it going up there?
rumorate: (Default)

[personal profile] rumorate 2023-03-19 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
[Allison ducks when told, letting the bat zoom over her head, but she sees one of the swarm darting off and she reaches for one of the rocks near by, flinging it knowing that she won't be able to clear the distance fast enough otherwise.

She catches the wing, sending it spinning, but she's not sure if it will be enough. She draws her blade and tries to run closer to do more actual damage.]
fushichou: (48)

[personal profile] fushichou 2023-03-19 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
[Search the ground. Right. Right, okay, now Kanesada sees and understands. The ground changes and while being in literal Hell could probably serve as a few explanations for that, they have to grasp anything that makes even a little bit of sense in their situation.

Still, the fact that these things can turn invisible is a pain in the ass. That makes it more complicated than it needs to be.]


Think if we fight back we won't end up like that the thing it sucked up?

[The question doesn't have a lot of logic behind it, but there must be some way to go up against the creature. He draws his sword in one hand and bends down to grab a pile of earth in the other.]
rumorate: (Default)

[personal profile] rumorate 2023-03-19 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
Wasn't planning on it.

[She can't rumor the undead, but she can fight, despite her dry humor. If anything tries to take the wagon, she'll be sure to stab it.]

Do you think they'll mostly be coming from the ground level or should we be looking out from above too?

[She saw the harpies getting involved.]
wantshappiness: (serious || ???)

[personal profile] wantshappiness 2023-03-19 03:40 am (UTC)(link)
[Yuuri watches the paladin go, waiting for him to disappear from view before she looks away.]

Fear and despair can make people go down a dark path.
wantshappiness: (smile || sorry about that)

[personal profile] wantshappiness 2023-03-19 03:53 am (UTC)(link)
[She's glad it was working and that the princess was going along with it. She really would have felt guilty for using her powers on the girl.

Her shoulders relax, thankful and relieved.]


Oh, um. I can create illusions.

[She mentioned this on the network already so it's sort of already public knowledge. If she lies about it now, even if this person didn't see it it will eventually get out that she is lying...and that might raise more questions.]

I really didn't meant to scare you earlier. This kind of ability isn't exactly common where I'm from but everyone's at least heard of it...

[So she...forgot. How alarming it could seem.]
balancedwire: (Default)

[personal profile] balancedwire 2023-03-19 03:56 am (UTC)(link)
[ Having skeletons try and grab a hold of him was interesting. Though, he's sure he'd rather them than the werewolves trying to get to him. Even if the skeletons posed an even worse threat. Though that was more due to placement than to anything else.

He looks toward Stephanivien before giving a nod. ]

Hold steady.

[ It's said for a reason. Though, that reason isn't really said or mentioned before he grabs a hold of Stephanivien and uses some of his qinggong to help pull the other in front of him. If they had to do this in a bit of a chain reaction type of way then he'd do so. Anything to get them across.

He does, however, keep a hold of the other to make sure that Stephanivien stays steady on his feet. ]
balancedwire: (Sign of Respect)

[personal profile] balancedwire 2023-03-19 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ The other wasn't wrong. There was something. He just wasn't sure what it was. All he did know was that they had to protect the wagon and the people that were in it.

He takes Xingchen's hand helping him down from the wagon before sticking close to the other. ]

We don't leave each other's side unless we have to.

[ That sound? He's pretty sure it's coming from somewhere to the southwest of them. ]

Do you feel it out there?
weifinder: (srs | of a hole he's made)

[personal profile] weifinder 2023-03-19 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
'M fine! Fine...

( that's his yes, he'll hold on, and he does, fingers clawed into xie lian's sleeve like the enfeebled do, when exhausted and lacking energy to blink aggressively. meaning he still relies on his god-express to not be tossed around too much, grunting with any impacts along the way.

slay him, how long is it to... where are they going? he tries to lift his head, look back to the wreck, the ruin, of alem, and finds he can't quite manage the angle.
)

Everyone's out?
weifinder: (desperate | here i'm coming)

[personal profile] weifinder 2023-03-19 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
( he lets himself be pulled along, and it's up, and oh isn't that a blessing? is that not kindness? is that not bliss?

higher, and the top, the plateau of this plague of flesh is the sudden end of it, and the sliding smoothness of the way down the other side. wei wuxian stumbles, pulling out of bucky's hold with a yelp as his feet slide forward and he falls, right onto his rump. the slide is dust strewn and ash slickened, a slide forward that has him gaining speed and leaning back to not go into a tumbling roll.

he waves his arms, scrambles to slow himself, and suffers from the smoothness of it all that doesn't allow him the justice of a stop. he also doesn't see the figure standing frozen at the base of this sliding hill, the one that dips deeper than the steps they'd climbed, only that this person, this paladin by the look of the armour, stares out into the distance and stands eerily still. right in the pathway of wei wuxian's sliding gaffe, and he calls out, but it doesn't deter the man. the woman? impossible for him to tell before he's bracing himself for the impact incoming.

he hits the frozen figure, passing through air remarkably chilled for the ambient temperature, and the both of them go tumbling in a heap of limbs.

the cold is absent in that moment. for that moment.

the unseen motherless child's meal interrupted, and the paladin gasping for air, eyes wide and white rimmed. a whisper from her lips:
)

...un...
weifinder: (cup | i wanna help you)

[personal profile] weifinder 2023-03-19 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
Wei Wuxian accidentally interrupts a Motherless feeding with Bucky, local man does not understand what just happened but there is markedly less Dogge on Level III, thank you
weifinder: (ask | where shadows hide)

[personal profile] weifinder 2023-03-19 08:20 am (UTC)(link)

( It sings, rancid and sweet in the manner of decay, whispers and screams and the vestiges of memories are enough to hold onto, the way resentment lingers. Anger, despair, indignation. It's not the beautiful emotions that hold longest, that refuse to cross the river in yellow and drink from Meng Po's bowl, her soup a balm for the next life, and the one after, the one after that.

Resentment cloys and clots and coalesces, and it kills, and he breathes out as he feels the shape of it shift, the ebb and flow. What he senses from Ratcatcher's army of death is a different quality, a change that doesn't recollect humanity, varied depth and permutation of emotion, even regret, obsession, rage. He calls, and it responds. Wei Wuxian plays, and the world of the dead, the remainder of those who lived, respond.

It is chaos. It is slaughter. It is without sprays of blood for the bodies have no hearts to beat, but the limbs tear, the bodies break, and it is just as terrible as if they'd had the ability to weep with eyes as well as words.

They are the spear point, and hell rages below them. Hell rages lower still, and the last count down, the last vestiges of resistance, break, fracture, are reinforced.

Wei Wuxian spends himself as a man three times his reserves, turning the energies that should, would overwhelm him if he let them, would use him as a tool as they'd use anything here in this carnage if it carved from it what they wished.

He chooses relentlessness. Not possession, aside from self-possession, and the burden of so many dead lingering in the tips of his fingers, each note he plays to sing more beautifully than before. And he sings them to focussed riot, to pointed rage, to the song of their own desire, the defense, the wish to never fall without desecrating the rubble with putrescence and entrails.

To a breaking point, the cleaving, the final calls, the retreat of those who survive. Fire, he thinks. They need fire. Fire, and someone to call for it, but he can't spare the air, not before the rest are out, but will he know, what can he say, leave nothing for them to take, to use, set them free of these confines. For Lan Zhan, in his breathing, in the quiet of him leaning back into his husband to draw his attention while his eyes, dark and red rimmed and fathomless, survey this domain he claims:
)

Time, Lan Zhan. To set them to rest. Before he claims them, consumes them. Remember Taravast.

( Remember what three war lords of the dead had wrought in a city so filled with the appearance of life, rotting through with the reality of death. Remember how he came near to lost. Remember why. Remember the witches, sent to final resting death, the grandfathers, stripped and gone. Only one had been his doing. )

aprescoup: (Default)

[personal profile] aprescoup 2023-03-19 01:14 pm (UTC)(link)


( He listens, again, and it seems a learned habit — to digest what is given to him, to absorb knowledge and only act on it thereafter, with measure, with discipline.

Kamala speaks, and something seems to break in her. A responsible man might reach out, might draw her close. Awkwardly, one hand still bound to the doll at his chest — he is a father, was a father, cannot deny the call to comfort — he fetters an arm over her shoulders. )


No. I don't share their burdens. I could pass for what you are. I could be untroubled with their hardships. It could be that simple.

( A squeeze, tender. ) But you know the truth of it. Once you see pain, you cannot ignore it. You're a kind girl. ( It is plain, even on first encounter. ) I can only hope your people share your sentiments.

( Then, gently, he releases her. ) I should leave. I only wanted... it felt wrong, to not at least try to urge you. To beg you to consider. It felt wrong.

cosplayqueen: (What's beyond that line?)

[personal profile] cosplayqueen 2023-03-19 03:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[She offers a small, grateful smile at the comfort he offers. Kamala thinks he must have been a good father like hers. He just made mistakes like the rest of them. She hopes the doll will at least remind him of the things he did right.

Kamala nods at the mention of going. She knows they've held each other up at this point. She's so glad they did. Even if not a single soul listens to her, at least it gives these people a chance to be heard. No one can say they didn't know better after today.]


You did the right thing. We can't do better if we don't know we're hurting people in the first place. [Someone smarter like Nakia would argue they should have known. She isn't here so it goes unsaid.]

I can't promise they'll listen to me, but I'll make sure everyone knows. [Determination colors her features. She is going to try no matter how lacking she is.] Thank you, Matthias. If you ever need anything else, find me. For whatever it's worth? Kamala Khan will have your back.

[She makes a peace sign with her fingers and tries to leave him with a smile. This was a lot of a lot, but she doesn't want to leave things on a totally depressing note. The future will work itself out one way or another.]
traumatology: (193)

[personal profile] traumatology 2023-03-19 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
I wish the answer to that question was no.

( but he knows that he can't just walk away from this and leave people that he might be able to help to go about it alone.

and while she answers his question, he still wants to know more. but, it can wait. not the right place. )


Are you?
traumatology: (049)

[personal profile] traumatology 2023-03-19 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Christ.

( it all happens so fast that he doesn't even have a chance to try and grab for the other man. he just moves out of the hold, stumbles and then he's gone, flailing and pinwheeling his arms until he goes right through the person at the bottom of his fall.

and then everything seems to stop, still while they land. he starts to scramble down to try and make sure wei wuxian's okay. )


Hey? You alive? What happened? Stay still!
traumatology: (088)

[personal profile] traumatology 2023-03-19 03:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, it's going.

( he can't really tell exactly how it's going but there's a lot of fighting and noise and that's all too familiar. )

No one's retreating yet so I guess no one's ready to give it up.
clavesregni: (106 05 02)

[personal profile] clavesregni 2023-03-19 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
What mirror gl-- [There's no time to finish the question before the woman is on her. Caitlyn cries out, managing to twist her head just in time to stop the woman gouging her eyes out. But she feels sharp claws slice across the ridge of her brow, and there's enough blood clouding her vision that she momentarily fears she has actually lost an eye.

She stumbles back, desperately fumbling for her gun. Claws slice across her shoulder, one catching on the collar of her shirt and digging into her throat.

No time for the gun.

She turns to run.]
aprescoup: (Default)

[personal profile] aprescoup 2023-03-19 05:05 pm (UTC)(link)


( One moment, one moment more. She hastens to honour his signal, but — )

Thank you. ( And there's the dark wisping energy that seeps from his hands, that winds and caresses her pendant, where it's hidden. That shifts and shapes. ) Call on me, if you must. You alone, I'll answer.

( But then — blink and miss him. Blink, and he is gone. Blink, and perhaps he never was, only the cries of great Irenia in distant flight above, there to betray his departure. )

aprescoup: (Default)

[personal profile] aprescoup 2023-03-19 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)


( All the better that the woman is lost, fleeing, that Hirasheri herself is abandoned. For a moment, the instinct to chase runs strong. She is flesh and blood and warm, and Hirasheri's fangs would pierce her beautifully.

But the guards have caught of someone's run, they fear the Reaper — is this their name, then, for brother Jatharin? — and Hirasheri must flee. She does, stumbling, taking the other way, rushing into the corridors.

Disappearing. )

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