bravenewworld | Descent into Darkness

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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He's not real. There's no way.

[ Jack scrubs a hand over his face, trying to ground himself, to concentrate. that voice drags him in like a magnet, and when it's talking about his memories— but Yosuke is here, there are other people wandering through these tunnels, and if he forgets that then someone is going to get hurt. ]

Whatever it is, it's pretending to be the Mage that created me.

You poor thing. You've spent your whole life looking for me, and you won't even accept it when I'm finally here.

[ the man that steps into sight is old, dressed in an overwhelming amount of white, his face shrouded by a hood - but beyond that, he is difficult to describe. everything about him is somehow vague, in a way that is only seen in dreams; like the mind is rejecting anything the eye attempts to process. still, he smiles. ]

Of course, your "whole life" has only been three years.

[ despite how obvious it is that something is wrong with this picture, Jack has gone absolutely still, terrified. there is something wild in his fear, a frightened creature waiting to bolt or to lunge at the next sign of movement. the frost that usually spreads over his skin is crystallising into solid chunks of ice. ]

[He glances over to Jack, knowing full well after what he's already seen of the guy that this might end badly. The ice on his skin is a telltale sign, and Yosuke's teeth grit. This cave is seriously messed up, and it's only going to get worse from here. His hands fall near the handles of his kunai, though they stay sheathed and hidden under his jacket.

He doesn't know how to diffuse this, but he at least makes an assumption-]

Well, if he's been looking for you, I bet he's got some questions to ask you. And you're sure as hell gunna answer them. [He demands of the mage, poised and ready to move at any second. He doesn't know if this guy is going to attack, or if Jack was going to lose his mind.]

Let me guess: "Why me?"

[ the Mage folds his hands behind his back and paces the cave. his first step snaps Jack out of his frozen stupor, who scrambles to mirror the Mage's movements, to maintain that same amount of distance. ] That would be a good start, sure.

Why were you chosen to be like this? What did you do to deserve such a wretched existence? I could always save the trouble and tell you what you really want to know. [ the Mage stops and regards Jack with a calm stare, his eyes pale. ] No, Jack. Those answers won't fill that big scary void inside of you.

[ Jack's breath hitches, stutters on the exhale. there is the hollowness that he feels in his chest as a result of the Ghost-typing forced on him, and for a moment, he thinks to play off the Mage's words with that. but now that it's been brought up, he does think about the real thing. how he feels incomplete, shattered. everything he tries to fit in has a jagged edge and he is always aware of it. the gaping chasm that he can feel every time he thinks about his identity, his existence. too much. it's like staring into a black hole, like it latches onto him and drags every part of him down, darkness creeping into the edges of his vision and cold down to his bones, the kind of cold that hurts, and he sinks deeper and deeper, can't see can't move can't even think, everything presses down around him and the water fills his lungs—

he takes a sharp, hoarse breath, as if he has come up from drowning. ] What? I don't have any—

Pretending it isn't there won't make it go away. All that flippancy, those jokes, just so you don't have to think about it.

Yo, Jack. [He dares a step forward, keeping an eye on the older man as he approached.] This dude's a real creep, don't let him get to you. So what if that's the truth anyway? It's not like you don't have every reason to feel that way. The least he could do is tell you what you need to know. Now's your chance.

And if he tries anything funny, I got your back. [He grins.]

[But what was it that Jack really wanted? A plethora of questions could be asked, and would the guy even give up the information?]

Hey! Stop beating around the bush already! [He shouts at the Magi, pissed off. It wasn't any surprise that Jack might actually feel the way he does- if the guy was telling the truth that is- so the teen turns his mouth up, irritated.] Answer it, dammit!

[ if this Mage were the real thing, the Moon Man in the flesh, then there would be nothing that either of them could do. and yet even knowing that, Yosuke's support means the world to him. years of nightmares, of wondering about a confrontation like this even in his waking hours, and it had always been him standing alone. there had never been anyone else, and he had never thought that there would be. Jack's smile is wan, the corners of his mouth tense and his body language all wrong, but it is still there in return of Yosuke's grin.

at least, until the Moon Man starts to speak again. ]

Alright, then. The answer to all of your questions is this: It doesn't matter. [ Jack starts angrily at that, moves to shout or to attack, but the Mage's next words stop him like a blow to the gut and he cringes back instead: ] "How can I know who I am until I find out who I was?" Who you were isn't going to save you from what you've become.

[ it hurts to have his own words thrown back at him by this construct - this fake, and still a nightmarish vision nonetheless. every night alone that he had spent asking the forest about his existence, his identity, twisted with agony over the unknown life that he had lost. what he was, what he is, how the two could ever be reconciled. how can I know who I am until I find out who I was? it had come up often, and it had become the easy lynchpin of Jack's questioning. it's more than just another question that no one will ever give him the answer to, though. that is the most honest, open, raw thing that Jack has ever said. to hear it from the Moon Man, plucked straight from Jack's mind and memory as if it is nothing, makes him feel ill. it doesn't matter whether this is the real thing or not.

but Jack can't turn away from that obvious pull, not with so many questions and so much desperation for any answers, so he asks, hesitant, cautious: ] ... What I've become?

[ the Moon Man's pale eyes fixate on Jack with icy intensity. ]

Damaged. [ Jack recoils in horror. ] Regardless of what came before you, Jack Frost is a broken thing. Jack Frost flinches when he's touched, because he has lived alone for so long and he can barely remember what it was like to know touch. Jack Frost is terrified that everything in his life is temporary, because he has never known permanence.

And you want to think that finding your answers will fix all of it, because you can't bear to think anything else.

[ there is silence in the cavern for a long moment, and it rings. the Moon Man draws himself up, and yet he seems to relax at the same time; his gaze is still luminous and bearing down on Jack with too much weight, but his expression softens at the edges. that cold, harsh cruelty drops away, and he speaks to Jack like a father to his child. ]

Jack— [ his voice gentles. ] You cannot continue this way.

[ Jack snaps out of the terror and dismay that had held him in place, kept him silent this long. he shakes his head, trembling all over - with rage or fear or both - and there is a high splintering sound, like a great crack through a shelf of ice. like a frozen sheet about to collapse, like the too-thin ice on a river about to give way beneath someone's weight to the cold black depths below. it is something dawning and dangerous.

it is the sound of Jack losing his control. ]

Shut up! Gods, you are so full of it. [ he doesn't even hear his Pokémon friends crying and clambering for his attention. ] You don't know me. You don't know anything about me.

[His eyes blink a few times at the words spoken to Jack- though it seems like information that Yosuke already knew, to a certain extent. He knew that Jack was a Homunculus, he knew that he'd been experimented on and lived in the woods by himself. He knew that he had trouble controlling his powers, and that he lived a life that must of been damned because of what he was- not that it made it any better. This isn't the first encounter he's had in this cave, and it was all too clear what this was. The anger he feels for the other man isn't because of what the magus is saying, but rather the fact that Jack has had to live this live and deal with it. It's not right that the boy who controlled the frost went through the horror that he did.

His head turns to look around, the sound of ice starting to crack startling him into a state of fear. This was looking bad, and he scrambles to think of what to do. There's no one here to tell him to calm down now, and he shouts.]

Stop! Get a hold of yourself, dude! [Yosuke takes another breath, panicking but attempting to stay calm. He knows Jack has to come to realize what's going on, and deal with the information presented to him by this phantom.]

It's true though, isn't it?

[He says, solidly.]

That guy isn't lying. But just because this asshole really screwed up your life like this doesn't mean you aren't trying to move forward, right? Living your life like that...it's gotta be totally rough. But pushing people away and acting like it doesn't exist isn't helping either.

[He pauses, before continuing on.]

And there's a lot of people who'll help you now.

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Descent into Darkness

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i'm so sorry for the delay, work kicked my ass

no worries! as you can see i am much much later

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