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

OTA.

[ladyofluminosity]

It didn't take long for Lux to notice that something was off about these caves. Her eyes glowing a faint blue, she tried to get a read on what was going on. The air wavered, using her Analyst Eyes gave her a headache. Closing her eyes, she put a hand over her forehead, groaning a bit. Was it the radio waves?

"It is your duty as the daughter of the Crownguard family, Luxanna."

"You will marry Fai Flourite when you come of age."

That was... her father's voice. And her mother's.

Looking up suddenly, the blond opened her eyes, finding herself in the Crownguard estate. She could smell the roses in bloom from the outside--her mother's pride and joy--and, brushing up against her leg was a young Growlithe looking for attention. Her gear was gone, and the first thing she did was look down at her hands. They were smaller, fingers slender and pale, unblemished from over a year of work. She recognized the dress she was wearing--it was a gift from House Flourite, presented to her shortly before her their official betrothal. The summer of her 10th year.

She turned toward her father, indignant words escaped her before she could catch them; "I could care less about duty! This isn't your choice to make! I refuse! I will not--"

Despite being only a memory, she could feel a hand crack across her cheek. Stinging red hot, it brought tears to her eyes, and she clutched the side of her face lightly. She ran through familiar halls, voices echoing; her father's, her mothers, and others she didn't quite recognize.

"You are my daughter, and you will do as you are told!"

"This is the only option available to you."

"You should be honored, Miss Luxanna."

"She's barred herself in her room again."

"What a selfish, spoiled child."

"Giving her father such trouble. I wonder where they went wrong."

"We all have a role we must play."

"She'll learn her place eventually."

Finding her way to her bedroom, Lux rested her back against her bed, drawing her tiny legs to her chest.

"Stop it..." She had to drown those voices out somehow, before they swallowed her whole.

[wishingalone]

Mami already wasn't pleased with this place. She had her share of secrets -- more than her share, really -- and she didn't want them shared. She assumed that the same was true: that others didn't want their fears and weaknesses exposed. It was out of their hands, though, and they could only make the best of it.

Or so she told herself. It didn't make her feel better about witnessing this.

She watched Lux run, turning her head and blinking after her; she recognized her quickly enough from the events at Sanctum. Except, of course, that she was quite younger. She heard the voices, too, and that made Mami's skin crawl. The Valkyrie's eyes widened for a moment, before she took off after her.

She cracked the door open after she caught up. Mami looked down at her, trying to push away the strangeness of meeting someone as a child who she first new as an adult. "Lux...?" she asked. "May I come in?"

[ladyofluminosity]

Lux? Her mind felt muddled. Right, she preferred people call her that over her full name. Somehow that felt like a bit of a dream, the real world falling away in her own mind.

The blond looked up. That voice sounded familiar. One of her handmaidens? "You... did my father send you here?" She held her knees closer to her. "You can tell him that I refuse to come until he calls off this silly engagement."

[wishingalone]

It wasn't hard for Mami to put the facts together from that. An arranged marriage that her father had made. It was the opposite of how things were done in Citadel for her family. It was strange to consider, but it seemed unfair in the extreme. She hesitated, before she knelt down next to her.

"No, I... we met once before on a trip," Mami said. Did she not remember her? She supposed that was how this place worked. "Your father didn't send me, though. I'm sorry about the engagement."

[ladyofluminosity]

"A trip?" Lux asked, looking up a bit and tilting her head slightly. Her brow furrowed a bit, and she put her head down again, blue eyes focused on the opposite wall. "You must be mistaken, then. My father would never permit such a thing."

She was lucky if she could go to and from the library on her own. Lux frowned a bit at the mention of the engagement, but stayed silent.

Still, the child considered it for a moment, turning her head toward Mami. "But if it was true... Where did we go? What did we do? What sorts of things did we see?"

[thewindything]

[Well. It took him three seconds to figure out what nightmare he stumbled into. Mostly because it was a memory and it was something he'd about from his best friend. Man, he sure didn't miss how stuffy her parents were. Bluh.]

[It's not until he phases through the wall into her bedroom that he realizes he's changed to mirror the setting of the illusion. Wow. That was. Alarming.]

What the frick?

[That sure was slang vulgarities out of a ten-year-old's voice.]

[ladyofluminosity]

[ Seeing him there as a child didn't help her perception of reality. Standing up quickly, she shushed him, trying to push him back through the door he came in from. ]

You shouldn't be here! What if my father finds you?!

[thewindything]

[skdjls whoa no he is not getting shoved back through. He goes entirely intangible so she probably goes right through him and comes in the rest of the way. Sorry Lux.]

Its okay. If he comes I'll just disappear!

[It was weird, he knew this wasn't real, but it was hard to think otherwise.]

OTA.

[indy_wannabe]

[Suddenly small boy swinging down from the canopy of her bed]

This is really fancy. Too bad rich people all suck I guess.

[ladyofluminosity]

[ She jumps to her feet suddenly as he lands beside her. Backing up a few steps, she looks startled. ]

Who are you?! How did you get into my room?!

[ That noble lilt to her voice was back in full force. ]

[indy_wannabe]

I'm the best damn explorer in Union! Your stupid noble locks are no match for me!

[tagteams]

[There is a knock on the bedroom window. Not by a hand, by a beak. There is a large majestic bird pecking at the window.

Tiny child who looks like Lux... Is that Lux? Valor isn't quite sure and this would be easier if he didn't get separated from Quinn, but he presses his face against the window. Hello tiny child.]

[ladyofluminosity]

[ Hearing something tap at her window, the tiny blond looks up, raising her head from her knees. Then immediately jumps to her feet. Giant. Bird. Giant bird! At her window! WHAT SHOULD SHE DO???

She very, very cautiously makes her way over. Those talons look intense, friend. Very good for ripping apart small children. She isn't too sure. ]

Ah... hello? Are--are you lost?

[ She should probably open the window, but she's a little worried she's going to get her eyes clawed out or something. ]

[nippy]

[ whatever is going on with this place has to have some solution; there must be a cause, something they can break or yell at or bargain with until it all goes back to normal. that is the resolution that Jack has come to, at least, and he holds tight to it even as his surroundings shift and blur again. these will just be more illusions, more strange passing visions that he can't understand.

until he follows the voices down the hall, and finds himself in Lux's bedroom. as if he's just going to leave a kid here, even if it is because of an illusion. Lux is older than this, and this is probably something she has already been through - but there's no way he could ever bring himself to just walk away from this scene.

he sneaks across the floor barefoot and crouches down in front of her. ]

Hey. [ his voice is hushed and gentle. ] You wanna get out of here?

[ladyofluminosity]

[ Feeling someone's presence hovering over her, the small blond slowly looks up. Her prismatic hair is gone, and any features that came from two evolutions have been abandoned for much younger features. She looks a bit different--her face is a bit more round, even a shade or two paler than normal, and the freckles she had from being out in the sun were gone. She looked like she hardly ever got outside, if at all.

Lux looked up at him, and for a moment it seemed she might recognize him, but that moment quickly left as she sniffled a bit. ]

Who are you?

[ There was an interesting lilt to her voice, one that wasn't present when they talked before. The high-class magi spoke in a similar fashion.

The confidence she had before was also missing. ]

How did you get in here? Surely the guards would have seen someone pass through, if not one of the Growlithe...

[ Now she was just talking to herself. She shook her head, drawing her knees close again and resting her temple on top of them. ]

Father would be mad if I left.

[nippy]

What, you mean you haven't heard of me?

[ he springs to his feet and sweeps a bow so exaggerated that he even balances on one foot, his other leg going out behind him. ] I'm Jack Frost, the spirit of fun and adventure! I come to rescue children from boredom and rules. Parents and guards can't stop me when there's freedom to be spreading.

[ just for effect, he lets ferns of frost spread across the floor from his feet as he straightens up (he pretends to be losing his balance as he does, "luckily" landing steady) and then he twirls his staff around in his hands and points to her with the crook. ]

And you look like a princess in need of rescuing, Lux.

[bellyofthebeast]

When not directly faced with them, Shyvana could ignore her fears. However, in this dark place of nightmares she has been struggling with her inner demons. That said, stepping into an unfamiliar land far from her troubles has helped her shut them back in the box at the back of her mind.

But this was Lux. And it wasn't... the Lux she knew, this girl was smaller and more vulnerable. Not the happy girl she's used to. She knocks on the door, opening it slowly and calls out, trying to catch the younger girl's attention but staying her distance so she wouldn't scare her.

"Miss Lux?"

[ladyofluminosity]

"Go away."

She answered when Shyvana knocked, her face still burrowed in her knees. The last thing that she wanted to deal with was one of her mother's handmaidens, or any of the other house staff.

Hearing the door open, her head shot up, and the young blond shot a harsh look at Shyvana. "I said--"

She stopped, her eyes going wide. This woman wasn't from the estate. She looked much more severe, much more formidable. Lux stood quickly, taking a step back. "How--how do you know my name?" She quietly asked.

[bellyofthebeast]

Oh no, she didn't even recognise her- well, of course. This was little Lux, and not someone Shyvana was familiar with at all.

"I... I know you. Later, in the future." She holds her position, so not to scare her away, and opens her arms as a sign of surrender. "I'm a friend."

[darer]

This wasn't a place Thorin recognized. It also wasn't who or what he was looking for, but now that he was here, he couldn't exactly ignore it, even though he couldn't help wondering if Lux would even recognize him.

He knocked, standing in the half-open door she hadn't quite slammed shut and looking quite out of place, dirt-stained and dressed more practically than to impress anyone, much less Union nobility.

4am tags are the best right?

[ladyofluminosity]

She was going to get her new dress dirty from crying. That was the most prevalent thought running through her mind--besides how much she hated that that was the case. Her betrothed sent her this dress, and it was going to get dirty, and she was both upset and angry at that fact, and how much it really, truly did and did not matter to her. Lux wanted something, anything, to pull her attention away from this ridiculousness.

It would seem that fate had a strange sense of humor.

"Leave me--" Her head shot up as she prepared to spit venom at a servant; what she found standing on her doorstep, however, was not what the young girl expected. Her expression changed quickly as she leapt to her feet, pressing herself against her bed. Holding a clutched hand to her chest, she shrank back a bit, staring up in awe at Thorin, who was far taller, far more intimidating, to a ten-year old Lux than he was a seventeen-year old.

The illusion changed slightly, and an arcanine that had not been there before stared at him from atop her bed with a low, protective growl; she put a hand on the pokemon to try to calm him (or herself, it was hard to say).

"I--who are you? How did you get here?" She asked, her voice small, thin.

of course!

[darer]

The sound of her, the look she gave him, even the arcanine suddenly appearing before her, all this gave him pause. Made him look down at himself and realize, with a brief sigh, because all things considered it was no surprise she was intimidated. Perhaps even frightened.

He didn't step closer and into her room, making no move that might be interpreted as a threat by her or her pokémon companion.

"My name is Thorin." And what was he supposed to do for the rest of this explanation? If he had more of a way with words, perhaps. "I heard someone crying, and went to see what was wrong."

As he spoke, something about him shifted to better fit him into the scenery. His clothes, while still travel-stained, still Calderan in pattern and design, changed into something richer than they were, more elaborate, more vibrantly colored.

[my_father_is_a_tycoon]

[While all of this was going on, a certain pink-haired 12 year old had been told to wait in the foyer of the Crownguard Estate while Lady Luxanna was 'speaking with' her parents. Of course, voices carry in big houses like this, and even without being able to make out the entire conversation, Lenna knew something was wrong.

Still, she knew interrupting would only have made things worse, so she sat quietly and waited. Finally, she was told that her friend was not seeing any visitors today and swiftly dismissed. Lenna, known as an obedient girl, was seemingly trusted to leave the house of her own accord. And as an obedient girl, that's exactly what she did.

But no one ever said she couldn't come back ten minutes later astride her father's Dragonite, lightly rapping at the window of her friend's bedroom to check up on her.]

[ladyofluminosity]

[ Lux didn't acknowledge the tapping at first, not quite hearing it over her own gentle sobbing. After a few rounds, however, the blond looked up, glancing at her window and looking away... only to quickly look back with wide eyes.

Jumping to her feet, she quickly rushed to the window, not quite sure what to do. She slid open the window, looking quite bewildered. ]

Lenna!

[my_father_is_a_tycoon]

Ssshhh!

[Lenna quickly raises a finger to her mouth as she reaches out to steady herself before stepping through the window. She doesn't want Lux's parents to find out she's up here. Turning back for just a moment, she pats the Dragonite on the nose, feeding it a berry and whispering.]

Thanks, Hiryu. I'll whistle for you when it's time to go, okay?

[With a nod and a brief trill, the Dragonite takes off back toward the Tycoon family estate. And with that taken care of, Lenna looks back at Lux.]

...Are you okay, Lux?