Descent into Darkness

[bravenewmods]

As the characters arrive, they will find what appears to be a rather deep cavern. Upon entering, the caverns are quite narrow, with twists and turns everywhere and different tunnels that all seem to be interconnected. As characters travel deeper within the caverns, reality around them will start to warp, they will start to see and hear things that aren’t necessarily there - images of old enemies, past failures, voices of condemnation, visions that strike at the soul and core of the characters. Once this begins, it will only increase in power and volume, demanding it be confronted, lest they be trapped within these caves forever.

[OOC: This event will run for a week. All characters who enter the caves will be subject to some of their deepest fears, darkest demons, and most abject failures. To overcome them, characters must help each other out, finding their purpose through strength of character and resolve to move forward. In general, these visions should require characters to come to grips with themselves. Illusory images and voices can and will appear and can take any number of forms, depending on what is most appropriate to a character. Additionally, characters may thread with each other and are encouraged to help each other out to overcome these personal demons. For those who wish to take part, they are able and encouraged to narrate their own personal demons, which will be on display for everyone who enters their thread. IC threads may be made in this post.]

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[actsmagnificent]

[ Haruka is getting real sick of caves.

Specifically, she's getting real sick of caves with tenuous grips on reality. The further into this twisting maze she's gone, World Shaking just behind her and her Pidgeot flapping just ahead, the more the shadows have started to look like crumbled, broken buildings. The more she gets flashes of being somewhere else, somewhere other than here. The less her footsteps make any sound.

Eventually, as she continues straight ahead, all ambient sound vanishes - no water dripping from elsewhere in the cave, no wind wafting through the passages. Everything is still. Everything is silent.

And when she enters a larger cavern area, everything takes the form of a deserted, broken city. The passageways of the caves make way for streets, crumbled bridges, buildings that collapsed into each other. Nothing grows. Nothing lives. All is silent.

And a building she passes without even looking at it has its caved-in courtyard blocked by a worn-away sign that says U ON DIV THEAT.

Haruka's only reaction is to lift her head higher and keep on walking, teeth clenched. ]

[pathofheaven]

[ Tendou was not pleased. All of this was far too familiar. A settlement, broken, with nobody left to even pull out of the rubble. His childhood home was nothing like Union City, with all its steel and concrete stretching into the sky, but it still resonated with him.

That screeching meteor that had turned his tribe into a crater. Everything Tendou Souji did was driven by that memory, even if he would never admit it. But that was exactly why... ]

Grandma said this: "Once you know the real thing, you won't be fooled by an imitation." I don't know what's going on with this cave, but no matter what it is still an imitation.

[ It was a dead city, yes, but it was a quiet sort of death. In reality life would always take over, growing over corpses without a single care about what used to be. ]

[actsmagnificent]

[ Somebody else is walking here too. Haruka spares the guy half a glance and keeps going. Somewhere. Somewhere there has to be an exit, a way to make whoever's trying to spook her stop. Until she finds them, she's determined not to give them that satisfaction.

Even if it means she's rather awkward company right now. ] Keep your voice down.

[ "Silence" is a keyword of this illusion. So if she can hear something move, does that mean it's real...? ]

[pathofheaven]

[ "Nobody can tell me to stay quiet!" Was what Tendou would have said if there was anything important to say. Instead he's perfectly content to walk more or less together with Haruka: a few feet between them, but moving in the same direction. It wouldn't help either of them to be moving alone now. ]

Is this your nightmare, or mine? [ He had to move closer to speak quietly, but oh well. ]

[actsmagnificent]

[ There's a chance this could be generated by this person's head, too? This time he gets a whole glance from Haruka. She doesn't know this person. They're also concerned about the world ending? ] Does it matter?

[ Shoot, it's got her on edge just by existing. Just by the fact that guessing it's not real doesn't make it go away. Haruka stamps down on her temper, but that doesn't do much for her facial expression. ]

[rainsrespite]

[Yuuna was in a similar boat, completely and totally fed up with caves being more than caves. She frowns as she looks around the wasteland, her Tyranitar, Gouken, and the two baby Dragon Types hovering protectively around their trainer. The lack of sounds, the rubble, and the stillness of everything...it's disquieting, almost unnerving.

As she moves through the ruins, feet crunching on the ruined streets, her eyes focus on the familiar. Shattered stores, broken cafes, places she frequented. Places she spent afternoons at with friends, with Merrill, and with her dad.

Something tells her though, not to focus on that, and to head towards the theater. Maybe it's just a feeling, but it's one that's validated by the sight of a familiar Rhyperior...the only one she knows about.

Falling into step beside the tall woman, Yuuna gives her a look.]

Haruka...

[actsmagnificent]

They're cutting off sounds. [ Haruka stifles a laugh, glancing about without really taking any of this in - it's not real, she knows it's not real, she knows it's coming from her head (intrusive jerks) so the frustrating part is being unsure how to switch it off. ] Listen for a source. Don't look.

[ Don't confront that apparently this is what Haruka thinks is going to happen if she screws everything up. Even she knows this landscape, devoid even of Pokémon or greenery, is an exaggeration. But she's not Michiru. She can't be right all the time. ]

[rainsrespite]

Cutting off sounds?

[Yuuna's eyes flicker with worry, her focus shifting from her friend to something wary. Cautious, even. Kyo and Gouken fan out defensively, while Kuina and Kamui both hover around their trainer, the young dragons eyes furrowed.]

What is this place, Haruka? What the hell happened?

[actsmagnificent]

They can't keep this up forever. [ Presumably. Unless this is the future, not someone purposely messing with Haruka's specific head - the gradual fade-in had her wondering, since arriving in the past happened all at once.

She continues walking down the broken road, stepping over upturned cobblestones and damaged payment instead of walking around it. World Shaking just trudges right on through, tail lashing in agitation. His eyesight isn't great to begin with, so he's not sure what's going on, but there's a low uneasy vibration at the bottom of Trainer's mind and it has him anxious.

Her Pidgeot falls back to speak with the dragons, trilling. Is your Trainer upset, too? ]

[windyflower]

[At this point, all Fuuka wanted to do was to get out of this cave and fast. Between the laughter echoing in the air and the dead silence that followed, it was scaring her. As she hugged herself to stop the fear, it wasn't helping. Still, she had to be strong. Her Pokemon was already scared to death, she didn't want her to think her trainer was the same way.

Of course, as she was walking through the ruins, she didn't bother to say a word despite her Pokemon trying to get her to say something. To see the places she visited in such decay was strangely comforting and yet...

Something terrifying]

[actsmagnificent]

[ ...Someone Haruka doesn't recognize has come along, too. She doesn't head over until her Pidgeot does, flapping in dismay. Trainer, you might want to take a look...

Exhaling, Haruka slows so Fuuka can catch up with her. What's a kid doing investigating mysterious radio signals? Curse whatever caught her up in this. ] You're a long way from home, Skitty.

[windyflower]

[At first, Fuuka didn't even notice the young woman's voice. Instead, she was too focused on ignoring everything and keep moving along.

However, it wasn't until her Pokemon kept pulling on her hair toward Haruka that she finally said something] H-Huh? Well, I think everything one, miss. Or at least, it seems so far away though...

[actsmagnificent]

[ Is she lost? Haruka frowns and tries to maintain a level speaking voice. ] What are you doing here?

[lunchleader]

[This can't be happening.

That's the thought echoing in Right's head as he and his Pokemon wander through the ruins. This really can't be happening. There's no way that Union could ever end up like this. No way!

And yet...his heart wails upon seeing familiar landmarks in ruins...no living souls...not even any stubborn weeds or moss around them. Just...Silence. It makes him edge so close to Soft Steel that he actually starts to hold the Lucario's paw in his hand as a source of comfort.

Thus, it's an immense relief and a big surprise when he finally hears something - the sounds of footsteps. He rushes over to find a few familiar faces, and the instant relief is clear in his voice.] --Haruka!

[actsmagnificent]

[ ....Right. Great. That means the target of this trick - if it is a targeted trick, not a vision of the future or something like that - could be either one of them. They're both in the Divine Defense Force, after all.

Acknowledgment registers on Haruka's face but not much else. ] It's probably not real, y'know.

[lunchleader]

So...a warning? Or another test?

[Because what else could it be? This feels too strong to be done by any top-tier Psychic-type. Too real to be a simple illusion...]

[child_of_luv]

[She was running when she came into Haruka's hallucination. Maybe it was from her own, maybe it was from someone else's, but she froze on the spot at the change. The sound had stopped. The destruction looked familiar, but different from her own. She looked around, trying to figure out where she was.

Eros spotted World Shaking, recognizing the other Pokemon. He trilled at Minako, drawing her attention to the fact that they weren't actually alone.]

[actsmagnificent]

[ An actual sound! Haruka turns. ] Who's -

[ Oh, it's Minako. Some of the tension eases from her shoulders, and she sighs. ] Trespassing's rude, kitten.

[ World Shaking rumbles a much happier hello. Trainer is calmer. He doesn't like it when the feelings in his head from Trainer get all tense. It makes him feel like he should be running but isn't. ]

[child_of_luv]

Ah... sorry...? [She didn't seem very sure of that apology, but this place had gotten so weird.]

Is this... your dream or mine? Or is it a vision? I'm starting to lose track. This place got very weird very fast.

[miracle_miko]

[ Choosing to go on a mission with Haruka this time around, Sanae stays close, Moriya the Poliwrath trailing behind. While she didn't have as much experience with reality-warping caves as the older blond might have, the young priestess was not exactly pleased; Moriya seemed, for the most part, his usual self, thoroughly unimpressed by the whole thing.

When things started changing, Sanae pulled her gohei from one of her sleeves, suddenly on guard. Her eyes scan the area, and while she might be a bit freaked out--was that the theater--she wouldn't let her superior officer know. ]

What is this? Are they trying to scare us?

[ They being... well, she wasn't sure. Someone bad, probably! ]

[actsmagnificent]

Are you scared? [ There's no censure in Haruka's voice, just a guardedness as she looks around. This is her first time encountering something supernatural with Sanae in tow - something supernatural and potentially hostile, anyway - and while it sounds like the girl's gotten decent results in the past, Haruka doesn't like unknown factors in allies. (Which is why it's good to go together today, but. Leaving that aside.)

Still, being responsible for Sanae helps her be less on edge, and less upset that something might be sorting through their brains, than she might have been alone. The theater? Really? Whoever's doing this - whether these are visions of the future or not - should write said theater's scripts. They have a desperate enough sense of drama. ]

[miracle_miko]

I'm not scared.

[ She answered a bit too quickly. Maybe she was a little bit, but only just so. Holding her gohei in one hand, she took in her surroundings. There was no indication that she was on edge just yet. ]

What do you think it means? Is somebody trying to tell us something?

[celebrity_commentator]

[Rise, naturally, sought out the other DDF folks using her abilities when she was alone and, naturally, stumbled across Haruka in the middle of this illusion.]

[This will make a nice replacement for the tower walls/shadow audience nightmare.]

This is a warning, isn't it?

[actsmagnificent]

Or intimidation. [ Which is much the same thing. She and Rise appear to be seeing the same visions, though, so they've either really been taken here - this is the actual future - or something's strong enough to make them both picture the same things where there should be a cave. Haruka doesn't like either of those options. ]

Can you sense anything?

[ Every Psychic-type's abilities work differently, so really, anything beyond what they can see would be good. Even though there's just silence all around them. The only Pokémon around are the ones the two Divine Defense Force members have brought with them. ]

[celebrity_commentator]

[Rise concentrates for a second.]

Only who we brought here. My powers don't work on gods, though, or the things they do directly.