bravenewworld | Descent into Darkness

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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Caves don't bother Fili, not usually, but something about this one sets his teeth on edge. He came here in the hopes of not only discovering something useful, but finding his runaway brother, who'd disappeared immediately after returning from his trip. Kili had a knack for finding trouble, so it made sense that this was where he would go, doing another incredibly stupid thing after the first. Only this time there was no Belbul to let him know what direction to even start looking.

His Pokemon companions are uneasy too. Dagny is sticking very close to his legs, slinking along beside him nervously. Even unflappable Alden is spooked, the Skiddo pressed against his opposite side. Egil the Mawile takes up the rear, unusually quiet as they proceed. Fleur and Keil stayed behind; Keil didn't like caves and Fili hadn't liked the idea of carrying an armful of crying Teddiursa.

"Fili!" Kili. Fili can tell just from the tone of his voice that he's scared and in trouble. Hair standing on end, heart pounding in his chest, he starts to run.

"Hang on, Kili, I'm coming!"

The yells continue, turning into screaming, and to Fili's horror, it seems no matter how far he gets, his brother is always just out of reach.

"Fili, why won't you help me? I need you!"

He keeps running, growing frantic, until the screams are suddenly cut off. Fili freezes in place, and Alden nudges the back of his knees gently, reminding him to keep moving. Find Kili.

There, around the next corner, is a strange shape on the ground. "Kili!" He drops to his knees to gather him up. There's blood everywhere. He isn't breathing.

"Wake up, wake up, do you hear me?!" Fili shakes him roughly, but the still-warm body of his brother does not stir. He's gone.

Edited 2015-07-19 22:12 (UTC)

Going into the tunnels once had been hellish. At least, once he knew that Kili had never even entered them (and what beautiful irony for him to have known better) he had no reason to linger. ... Not that that suddenly made it easy to make it back out.

He'd expected for Fili to be there long before him. Once again, it turned out he'd been wrong. Him immediately headeding back down should be no surprise to anyone who knew him.

"Fili?"

This time, he pays the bodies no heed. Barely flinches at the screams and accusations. The pleas. And if he screams himself hoarse.

"Fili!"

He has to find his nephew.

Fili doesn't know how long he's been here. Days? Months? Years? It feels like an eternity, trying to work his way through the myriad of tunnels with his brother's body on his shoulders.

"You were supposed to keep an eye on him, Fili! How many times do I have to tell you?" His mother's voice, frustrated and disappointed, echoes through the caves. "Kili is your little brother. You need to take care of him."

His knees buckle and he collapses as a fresh wave of despair overcomes him. The blood on his arms and face and everywhere else has long since dried, the body cold in his arms, but Fili cradles it and sobs, begging him to come back, to wake up.

Another voice, this time not his mother's. Thorin. Guilt stabs at his insides, tearing him apart, and Fili swallows. Thorin sounds afraid. He'll come, he'll see Kili, and...and...

And what?

"Uncle?" He croaks it out, hoarse and wobbly.

Finally. Finally an answer that isn't just his own mind screaming at him, that isn't Dis and her how could you ever let them out of your sight? I trusted you, they're all I have left, I trusted you-

He runs the rest of the way, follows the voice further down the winding tunnel. Doesn't stop calling his name, just to be sure, but this feels a little more like hope now. Tentative, probably foolish.

But there he is, and there's his nephew, except - Thorin barely has to glance at what it is he's cradling to know. He slows to a walk.

"Fili..."

Thorin's face comes into view and that's all it takes for Fili to break down again, pressing his face into Kili's shoulder (which has surprisingly not started to smell).

"I-I tried, I came as fast as I could, but he's...he's..."

Deep racking sobs escape him, muffled into the body in his arms, and Fili tries to stop but he can't. He's been crying since he found him and how can he not? It's his little brother, his baby brother, the one he was meant to protect and take care of.

Of course he cries, of course he falls apart. It was much the same for Thorin in the face of the things he saw. Years ago, he would have been precisely here. Thorin kneels down in front of his nephew and what his worst fear has left him with. This... this feeling of loss and failure, he knows all too well there is no way to mend it. Luckily there is no need to.

All he can manage is wrap his arms around Fili and the body he cannot let go.

"It is not your fault."

"It is!" His voice is hard to understand through all the sobs, and he clutches at Thorin with one hand desperately. "H-he needed me, and I...I wasn't..."

He wasn't there. He wasn't a good brother. He just plain wasn't.

It makes a hypocrite out of him to even argue. After all these years, Thorin still blames himself for Frerin's death. For not having been there. For not having found something, anything that might have saved him. In that way, he feels like a failure of an older brother, and perhaps he always will, but this is another matter.

He shakes his head, with what little room there is between them, pulls away from his sobbing nephew and the cold, heavy body that he too has to keep reminding himself isn't real.

"Fili. Look at me."

Even if he has no idea how, he has to get through to him.

Fili is startled by Thorin pulling away, his brain telling him that Thorin is ashamed of him, disgusted by his behavior.

He tries to calm down, to quiet the sobs, and it takes a moment before tear-filled blue eyes finally rise to meet his uncle's.

It hurts to see. All that loss, all that pain he never wanted his nephews to have to face. All the harm he wanted to keep them from but has no right to, no chance to.

"I need you to listen to me." Thorin holds his nephew's gaze, steady as he can be, and keeps his hand on Fili's shoulder.

"This place... or whatever is down here shows us what we fear most. What will hurt us the most. But it is not real."

Fili swallows hard, trying to relax. His heart is beating fast, a lump in his throat, and Thorin's words take a moment or two to process.

He can't breathe.

"Not...not real...?" He looks down at Kili, heavy and cold and too still. He should be wriggling around. Laughing. Generally being a pest.

Descent into Darkness

Open

at some point toward the end of the week.

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