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.]

Comments

Open

[sparkofgenius]

Clink, Clang, Clink, Clang

Sounds reverberate in the cavern all around Lucca, the young scientist's eyes going wide as she freezes in the entrance to the chamber. Behind her, Gato and Gonzales both stop, looking to one another before bodily lifting their trainer up and moving a few steps forward so she's not blocking the entrance to what appears to be a workshop. Gears and cogs churn in the background, providing an industrial sounding rhythm to it all.

"No...put me down!" Lucca squirms and wriggles free, drawing her plasma pistol and ducking back behind the Pokemon.

"I...this...this cannot be real!"

[schmott_guy]

Gil poked his head in behind the trio. He looked ready for trouble, though it wasn't clear what the wand (For lack of a better word. It had a narrow glass bulb on the end and was about two feet long) would do if there WAS trouble here.

But despite Lucca's obvious desire to not be here, it looked like a perfectly ordinary workshop. He tried to calm her down, saying "Er, it probably isn't." in what he hoped was a soothing voice.

[sparkofgenius]

"No...no, it can't be," Lucca echoes, looking at Gil with obvious and apparent fear in her eyes. "How could we be here? I mean, this was ten years ago..."

That sound continues, loud and angry chunking, mechanical clunking and creaking. Gato shrugs and he and Gonzales wander on inside, with Lucca following rather numbly. Her voice has a distant quality, her Steel nature coming out more fully.

"There's nobody here? How'd...an illusion like this get down here anyway?"

Her hands reach out and start poking at a workstation, several obvious levers and buttons drawing the eye. They seem, perhaps, the most real of all of this.

"Why would anyone want to look at this old place?"

[schmott_guy]

"Relax. Don't lose control. Figure out what's going on and who is causing it."

He put a hand on her shoulder in an effort to calm her down. "THEN lose control. But with precision."

[sparkofgenius]

The hand on her shoulder draws a look, and she’s about to say something, to sigh and release some of that tension…when a scream echoes through the room. A woman’s, a yelp of surprise and pain.

“Oh no…no no no! This can’t be real, this…this already happened! I don’t want to see this again!”

The sound of metal cogs turning picks up speed, a steady chunk, chunk, chunk from deeper in the workshop. Gato starts to shove Lucca forward, but she resists now, actually struggling to try and get free…

[schmott_guy]

Gil let go in surprise. "What is this, your workshop? What happened in there?"

[sparkofgenius]

"Mom! This...this is where Mom got hurt! Dad's workshop..." Lucca practically sobs, already beginning to shake again, falling backwards onto the floor and scrambling into a corner.

"I couldn't...I couldn't stop it..."

[schmott_guy]

Psychology was not a field he had ever had a lot of interest in. It went against the whole Mad Scientist thing, after all. But now as he contemplated whether it would be better to help her escape or to force her to confront it, he lamented this oversight. Gil stood back, unsure of himself, then decided that if Lucca wasn't going to, he would at least have a look. He peered deeper into the illusion.

[sparkofgenius]

She wasn't moving yet, no. Gato and Gonzales both pokes at her, but all she did was sob and shake her head. This was bad...

Gil will be treated to the sight of a fairly advanced lab. Clearly focused on automatic assembly, function over form. And at the center of it is a tall, thin woman who shares more than a few features with Lucca. She's stuck, leg caught on something as assembly hammers pound away at some gadgets...steadily being dragged towards those hammers...

Re: Open

[footprints_on_your_face]

[Chie is all over the place in these caverns, bumping into friend after friend, and it seems Lucca is next. She wasn't too hard to find - just follow the metallic noises.]

Lucca...? What's wrong? It's just a workshop, isn't it?

[sparkofgenius]

It’s…It’s dad’s workshop though.

[There’s a tremor in her voice as she looks back at Chie.]

I really, really shouldn’t be here.

[As she says that, there’s a scream of surprise from inside and Lucca covers her head.]

No…no no, not again!

[footprints_on_your_face]

What's so bad about-

[Chie starts, but she's cut off by the scream. She straightens and looks in the direction of the sound before glancing back to Lucca.]

Hey, who is that? Someone's in trouble in there!

[sparkofgenius]

It's...It's mom.

[Lucca teeters, ducking her head and shaking as she collapses to the floor.]

She...this is how she got hurt. I wasn't...I don't know how to stop this...

[The scream repeats, like it's stuck on a loop, and the normally chipper and brave engineer just quivers there, unable to move.]

[footprints_on_your_face]

[Chie's face goes white as the screams continue. She had no idea.]

What... what happened to her?

[sparkofgenius]

[Lucca sobs into her hands]

One of dad's inventions malfunctioned. It...she can't walk anymore because of it. And I couldn't...I couldn't stop it...

[footprints_on_your_face]

O-oh...

[Chie really has no idea how to respond to that, so she drops down to Lucca's level and hugs her instead.]

Lucca...

[sparkofgenius]

[The scream continues, and Lucca just shakes into the hug. She can't really resist it. All around them, the scene begins to shift, the inside of the lab becoming more plain. A conveyor belt, some automated hammers, and a woman stuck.

And a little girl. A six year old girl, frantically trying to climb up onto a control console. But she's too short...and it's too slick.]

...I just...why did it have to be this?

[brandnewshoes]

"Lucca!"

Unlike some -- most, really -- of the memories that this place evokes, Estelle recognizes this place, but not the time. The girl jogs up slowly, looking ariund, and she stops behind Lucca. Adol the Flareon -- rather than the Eevee that he was, when they were children -- peers out around her. Estelle looks about, before her lips part for a moment.

"Are you...?" she asks, before she looks at the entrance to the workshop. "Is this your house?"

[sparkofgenius]

It should jog loose a few memories for Estelle, definitely. They'd spent some time here before Union. But there was always a door Lucca never opened. A door she never looked at. This is that door. Her dad's old workshop.

The sound of a voice draws Lucca up short, and she slowly turns, her hands clenching and unclenching with apprehension. She cannot bring herself to look Estelle in the eyes, and her breathing comes out quick, almost hyperventilating.

"Y-Yeah...It is..."

[brandnewshoes]

Estelle remembers that door. It wasn't like the ones that she was told to not open, sometimes. She simply never went into that particular door. She stares at it for a moment, before she looks back at Lucca. She hesitates when she sees the way she tenses, clencing and unclenching her fingers. Estelle hesitates, before she puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, Lucca, whatever it is, it'll be okay," she says, quietly. "This place isn't real, or--or at least, whatever it was happened in the past."

[sparkofgenius]

"But...mom..."

That's the only intelligible sound Lucca manages to make. She's nowhere near ready to face this, at all, but Gato and Gonzales both haul her up and shove her towards Estelle in a Show Her gesture. She stumbles, catching herself against her friend.

And then flinches again as a scream echoes from the sealed room.

[brandnewshoes]

Estelle glances at Gato and Gonzales. She grimaces. She isn't sure that she wants to do that to a friend. She knows how these things can go. She lost her mother; she doesn't know what waits beyond that door, but she knows how it can hurt. Estelle swallows, then she looks at Lucca.

"They think you needa see it," she says. "Face your fears or... something. Do--do you wanna do that?"

Estelle is taking a moment to try to work up the nerve.

[sparkofgenius]

The Makuhita and Golett nod silently. And shove Lucca forward. The scientist doesn't resist.

"I...don't really want to but I don't think I get much choice," she manages to quip as the two Pokemon push open the door. Noise floods the halls of the Ashtear house, the mechanical clatter, a slamming of hammers against anvils, and a scream for help

Inside, clearly visible through the doorway, is Lucca's own mother. Her leg is caught against some sort of conveyor belt, and industrial hammers are pounding away. One of her dad's inventions, steadily moving Lara Ashtear towards her fate. Estelle might remember her from home, a crippled woman bound to a wheelchair.

Lucca stands there numbly at first, watching as the seconds creep by.

"I...couldn't save her, then. I couldn't...I couldn't reach the controls..."

[brandnewshoes]

Estelle remembered Lucca's mother -- Mrs. Ashtear, she always called her -- and the fact that she had been maimed. She never asked how, but it seemed rude. The wrong thing to ask. She stares at the contraption, her eyes widening, as the conveyor belt drags her towards that gruesome fate.

"I'm sorry, Lucca," she answers, quietly. "That's... that's a tough thing to have to live with."

After a moment more, she asks: "How old were you?" she asks. She didn't know Lara Ashtear when she could walk. It must have been after they met; it meant that Lucca must have been young.

[sparkofgenius]

"I was six," Lucca says dully, taking a teetering step into the room. "And ever since then...I've been trying to find a way to make life easier. Because I can't undo this. I can't undo my greatest failure."

She just wasn't capable. She knew that. And even as she stands there, a tiny version of herself comes running into the room.

"Mama! Mama! Hang on! I'll help!"

The adult in her flinches, looking away as the girl runs towards the controlboard. She jumps and tries, but the controls are too high, at least the ones that matter. A combination of keys needs to be put in, and the child not only doesn't know that...she can't reach them. Her voice is weirdly modulated, detached almost, her Steel typing obvious.

"I...can I...should I try now? Does it even matter, here?"