EVENT #10: AFFLICTION - IC POST

[abraxasmods]

Event #10 - Affliction

go to the OOC event info & plotting post

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With tensions heavy across Abraxas and all the destruction that's happened, it's no surprise that the dark shadows which sweep over the land go unnoticed...at first.

Winds initially stir in Solvunn, where the influence of the Old Gods remains the strongest. Slowly each Herald infects Thorne and the Free Cities, as well. The Summoned are the first to feel its effects and are the most heavily impacted.

Though no one will realize it until well afterwards, Nocwich remains unaffected. After all, the Summoned don't reside there.

NOTE: This event will deal with themes of death (people and animal) and horror imagery.

Emergence

It begins sometime in mid-October, around the 18th. Not everyone will experience it at the same time. You might even believe you're spared until days afterwards when you're visited by an unusually vivid dream.

The dream starts the same for everyone: you are going somewhere, anywhere, walking to your bedroom or enjoying a stroll on the beach. You might be driving down a familiar neighborhood. Wherever you're headed, you eventually come upon a stone tablet engraved with your Arcana. Laid on the tablet are three objects:

◎ A dead moth trapped inside a wilted rose, symbolizing Koth of Festering Lands
◎ A teacup inside which sits a single nightshade berry, symbolizing Adlewyrd of Poisoned Tongues
◎ An ornate cracked hand mirror that contains no reflection, symbolizing Sannleikr of Many Faces

Make a choice. Something inside your soul will be drawn towards one of the objects. Maybe you spend hours in the dream deliberating, but sooner or later, you'll pick one of the items up. The moment you do, the other objects vanish and the chosen Herald appears before you. Where one might expect a god to seek subservience, the strange figure instead extends a friendly hand towards you - as though it's greeting you as an equal.

Whispered around you, you hear its name. Then it fades and with it the dream. You awaken.

Affliction

You go about your day as usual. That's when you realize something isn't right. Creatures and people around you behave strangely. You begin to sense that you are the cause.

Depending on your chosen Herald, you'll experience at least one of its afflictions. The effects might start small, then grow. They might rush you all at once. You can't shake what haunts you, though you can try. Spells, potions, and willpower can help keep the afflictions at bay but you won't ever be completely free.

As the afflictions seep into your mind, you start to find shadows of it following you: a dead moth here, a nightshade bloom there, a cracked mirror elsewhere. You may even wonder if it's following you in the first place. What if instead, you are the one leaving these signs behind?

Corruption

The first time you inflict your ability on someone else, you don't mean to. It might be a stranger, some unsuspecting soul, or it might be another Summoned. Regardless, the afflictions that ail you seem to spread through you into another. Someone falls down as if in the throes of an invisible death or secrets spill. You brush by someone and they're suddenly upset and confused.

The more this happens, intentionally or not, the better you feel. You may grow full of life and energy, gain a renewed strength of heart, or radiate a charm that turns heads and garners compliments. The afflictions haunting you could even start to fade or completely vanish. And if you use your newfound power deliberately? You'll feel better even faster for longer. Of course, these boons are temporary, lasting at most an hour or so. When the feeling wanes, you might miss having it.

You are not possessed. You can't control this power that spreads through you, but how you respond or behave is up to you. You could be attracted to the allure of power, enjoy the boons you are granted, or realize you can gain relief from your afflictions if you choose a victim. Not everyone will fall headfirst into the pull. Some are not easily swayed by power, some struggle to overcome their dark impulses, and others would rather endure their suffering than inflict it on someone else. But others still might succumb to temptation and turn on those around them with purpose: once, twice, multiple times. The choice you make is yours alone.

Blight

With the call of the Herald at your fingertips, the world around you twists. No one knows whether this stems from you and your newly imbued afflictions, or if the Heralds are exerting power on their own. It's for sure easier to think of what occurs as the influence of something monstrous beyond your control. No matter the cause, the earth is changed all the same.

Omens

The omens arrive shortly after the initial Summoned receive their dreams, but they don't come to every faction at once. SOLVUNN is first, being home to the Old Gods' shrines, before THORNE and the FREE CITIES follow only days afterwards. Depending on where you are, the omens will affect things a bit differently.

Solvunn

In Solvunn, the ground stirs. A desiccated hand breaks through the grass, a cloven hoof. Human or animal, they crawl forth, animated against their will. Some might attack, but most do not. At the same time, crops around the settlements begin to fail. Some chickens lay rotten eggs while cows produce spoiled milk. Any livestock that perishes overnight will surface in the mornings with empty eye sockets - pecked out by crows or gnawed on by rats. From a distance, the ocean can be seen bubbling as leviathans beneath thrash.

Worth noting is that many of the dead are concentrated around the shrines, especially the ones deep in the woods. They're too decayed to recognize, and some might not even move from the site, as though they are waiting for the earth to take them again...or as though they once chose to give up their life at this very spot.

Summoned can assist by helping to cast spells or place warding charms around shrines, farms, and gardens to protect crops and livestock. As a commune, the Solvunnites will share their resources as much as possible and would appreciate those who might lend a hand bringing supplies, herbs, and offerings to neighbors who are lacking. The Summoned can also brew a common herbal remedy to aid any animals who have fallen ill or to help purify the well water.

Free Cities

In Libertas, the dead buried under the rubble dig themselves out. More crawl forth from graves in Cadens' cemeteries. Beasts and bandits slain in the desert wilds rise, hungry or searching for the ones who killed them. At the same time, dead fish wash up onto the shores of Aquila while birds fall dead from their perch, dropping like flies from an unknown illness. Vultures and other scavengers begin to prey upon the eyes of the dead, leaving behind hollowed-out corpses.

Worth noting is that in the Badlands, a few very old and skeletal corpses rise with a metal plate or two screwed onto their bones, which are also oddly elongated. Only one or two make their way near the city. The army is quick to dispose of them before many can notice. They will not disclose any information about this and will claim these are just monsters like anything else.

Summoned can assist by going on patrol with the soldiers to put down any risen dead. Merchant caravans are also hiring escorts for their journeys. Additionally, they can help look through any received supplies and packages to make sure the food isn't rotting or worse, use a special dissolving compound to purify the waters, and donate staple food items to refugees and the less fortunate who can't afford the rising prices.

Thorne

In Thorne, the dead emerge only from the outskirts of the castle city. Thanks to information from one of their Summoned and their recent monitoring of the Singularity, Thorne was able to act swiftly and was able to ward any royal or otherwise significant burial sites. Graves and tombs of less importance, though, will not be protected in the same way. There are fewer encounters with eyeless corpses, though some animals might appear outside the castle in such a state. Normally extravagant dishes from the Castle's kitchens use simpler ingredients as they struggle to ration their food stores.

Worth noting is that a few unexpected corpses make their way up from deep under the castle in places beyond the dungeons. These are twisted and mangled, missing limbs, heads, fingers. The castle guards are quick to dispose of them before they get too far into the rest of the castle, but one or two may be spotted.

Summoned can assist by contributing to the wards around Castle Thorne and the city, using spells to put down the dead without mangling the corpse, and taking inventory of food stores. Further, in Nott the situation is more dire for anyone who is traveling there to continue assisting with repairs following the attack. Nott will welcome help with any problems caused by the omens. It'll be clear the kingdom has neglected the city somewhat. Thorne will claim the Castle takes priority, of course, due to King and Queen residing there along with the entire royal court.

Apprehensions

Across the factions, locals are beginning to catch on that something isn't right with you, the Summoned. No one will say it outright, but there's an air of caution and wariness around you where you go. Merchants might be quick to hand you your wares so you'll leave or locals give you a bit of space when they walk by. Chatty innkeepers are more reluctant to hold lengthy conversations.

Much of the time, it may not be conscious. The natives might simply sense something off that instinctually makes them want to put some distance between them and you. The only exception? If you've chosen Sannleikr of Many Faces, you'll continue to exude your charm towards people you encounter. At least for as long as you continue to inflict that ability you've been gifted.

Displacement

Everyone responds differently while in the Horizon. You might exert better willpower over your afflictions or you might feel its effects more strongly. It all depends on the individual and their mindset. Regardless, the Heralds are only one part of the equation. There's a much bigger disturbance going on.

It could happen as soon as you enter or it might be as you're stepping over the threshold into another's domain. Whatever the case, you are suddenly not where you're supposed to be. Instead, you're in one of two places depending: transported into a domain you never meant to go into or in a foreign setting altogether.

Visitation

Whether you're the one transported or someone teleports unexpectedly into your space, the Horizon becomes unpredictable for the next little while. Rooms normally locked to strangers, areas you yourself may not even realize exists - you and your fellow Summoned continue to pop in and out despite your intentions.

The effect isn't painful, just disorienting, like missing a step you didn't see or stumbling through a door into a too-bright room. The person whose domain you've inadvertently visited might sense an unwanted presence, whether they're inside the Horizon or not, or they may be completely oblivious. This will depend on the strength of their connection to the Singularity and the Horizon.

Not to worry. You won't be trapped or anything in these cases...unless the domain you land in happens to seal from the inside. You might stumble on secrets you weren't meant to find, though, locked away in someone else's mind.

Ensnared

The less fortunate will be pulled into a space that they've never encountered before. The bizarreness of it resembles the glitchy visions that flashed through a few months ago, but rather than an image flickering by, you are now inside the space itself.

Trapped between minutes to hours, you can't use the Horizon's creation magic as normal. Attempts will falter or go sideways: trying to fly out might cause you to tumble, tools and objects are broken or not quite right, wounds don't vanish or heal completely, etc. More significantly, you can't seem to send or receive messages through your connection. Anything that manages to come through will be garbled and distorted. It's as though the place you are in is just out of the reach of your control.

Luckily, you may not be alone. Someone else may have gotten lost alongside you. They might already be there when you stumble through or they might arrive after you do. They might even fade out sooner than you, unintentionally leaving you behind.

Eventually, you'll be released back into the Horizon proper, spat out in a random place in the Horizon. While you're stuck, though, you can try to survive, explore, sit and wait it out, or make friends with your fellow trapped partner. Each area has its challenges and quirks that you'll need to deal with.

Scenes to Explore

JUSTICE ◎
FULL IMAGE

High in the clouds, these snowy peaks are as cold as they look. Giant marble hands reach out, though their sheer scale means you might not recognize them as hands from up close. You can scale the mountain, but if you try to go down, the hands will flip the mountain, which sends you tumbling to the top again.

It's up to you whether you can be injured when you fall. Maybe the snow will feel like marshmallows, or you'll break a bone on the jagged rocks. No two experiences are the same. If you have a partner, they could end up faring better than you despite being in the same place.

Conjure some warm clothes or a log cabin even if you wish - they might not manifest perfectly, but it'll be better than nothing. At least the view's fairly nice...while the sun is up. A blizzard will come through by nightfall. With it arrives a strange hovering light that entices you or your friend to follow it into the frozen darkness. What draws you out depends on you. It could be a familiar voice, an image, or a simple compulsion. If you're lucky, the person with you is unaffected and can try to stop you. Or maybe you're the one desperately chasing after the other person?

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THE CHARIOT ◎
FULL IMAGE

From a distance, it's hard to tell if they're shipping containers or houses stacked atop each other. A gooey mess covers the ground below. Oddly, the smell isn't as unpleasant as the goo looks. It smells like bubblegum or cotton candy, artificial and sweet. When you first fall in, you might land inside one of the homes, on top of the stacked structure, or the ground. You can try to reach anyone else who's there with you, but be careful: the ooze is spreading. Climb if you must or move from room to room. If you don't keep moving, you risk getting sucked into its sticky mass.

Each block of a home is different. Some are furnished, whereas others are empty or filled with strange knickknacks. Some might even have subconscious creations spawned by you. Keep ahead of the gloopy substance, and you'll be fine, probably. Or you can try to fight it back or block its path by sealing yourself in a room or otherwise, which can slow it down significantly. Mostly, you'll have to hope you fade out before the pink mass completely consumes the landscape.

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THE WORLD ◎
FULL IMAGE

The hazy neon glow obscures a nothingness that seems to extend forever. In the middle of the wet ground are several stacked television sets with wires plugged into nothing. Inexplicably, there's also a cat. At first, it appears perfectly normal, but keen observers will notice that its behavior is on a loop where it will walk a certain path, pause at specific intervals to lick its paws, and meow at set points. It does not acknowledge any of its intruders. You can break its loop by picking it up, at which point it'll go limp as a ragdoll. As soon as you set it down, it'll resume its actions as before.

While you can see the same images as someone else on the screens, it's also possible you'll each see something different despite being in the room together. What you see is up to you. It could be an old fuzzy movie, home videos of your childhood, trivia questions you have to answer correctly, or even a memory or vision you wouldn't want to share. Words or faces taunting you could appear between staticky flickers, or maybe your very thoughts are projected onto the screens for anyone with you to read.

Break the televisions if you want, but given a few short minutes, they'll reform between one blink and the next. Looks like you'll have to keep watching until you're released.

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THE FOOL ◎
FULL IMAGE

Sprawling and massive, you're unlikely to recognize at first that you're trapped in a labyrinth. Stone walls rise around you, and your surroundings are pitchblack. Manifest a torch or a flashlight if you can, though these will be prone to going out at inopportune times. Escaping over the walls will only send you into another section in the maze.

As you navigate the twisting corridors, you'll encounter any variety of trials and troubles: gaps in the ground, spiked traps, haunting whispers, monsters, decaying corpses. Some of these might've formed from your mind, others might've spawned from anyone else who's trapped with you.

If you aren't alone, do your best to locate your fellow Summoned. Voices do carry and echo over the walls, and there could be landmarks that help you find each other. Finding the exit, however, is another matter. Walk and climb all you want. A way out is impossible until the Horizon chooses to set you free.

Players can pick any scenario that interests them from the four choices above. Unlike the visions from before, characters can accidentally be trapped in as many of the scenes as you want, as many times as you want. Another option is that they can stay trapped in only one scene while a variety of characters fade in and out to join them, or some combination of the two. Choose what works best for your plans.

Each scene will once again carry an associated Arcana etched somewhere inside it, which can change from person to person or instance to instance. It might be on a wall, a table, or on the ground. Characters with a stronger connection to the Horizon are likely to be trapped for longer but the extent of this is your choice and it won't ever exceed a few hours. It's also your choice whether the afflictions continue to haunt them or not. If you want characters to deal with both problems while stuck together, you're welcome to!

Generally speaking, there are no restrictions other than that they won't be able to communicate with anyone outside the area, they can't escape it until the Horizon chooses to release them, and their creation magic will go wrong just enough that it'll make things tricky.

Comments

[tobeclosetohim]

It goes down. Geralt is on top of a pile of air, and if she could think outside of the shame (and relief when that heavy rattle of breath makes it dead), it would be comical. But it's not. Nothing is funny now. Every laugh, every smile, every deep silence is demolished utterly and stripped to nothing but her skin and even less than that.

Jo's jaw is locked, teeth pressed so hard there's pain radiating into her neck and head. Too certain if she released it, they'd be shaking, chattering inside. It's hard to say if it's hate or shame or fear that has the more brutal hold of jaws around her neck. One part of her yelling to get back up, spine straight, shoulders level. The other wants to burn these last five minutes to the ground, take back any proof she could ever be this weak. Another is desperate to curl up tighter into herself until the Horizon makes her disappear.

There are tears in her eyes, and that pressure is keeping them only there, too. She doesn't cry, doesn't do tears; another weakness. Her fist is pressed against her mouth, but there's not a single sound coming out of her (just that still speeding sprint of her heart; that too forced rhythm of her breath muffled against that curl of fingers, trying to escape her and being granted, forced into, only even breaths).

It's his feet she can see first. It's worse at that, though. It's worse that it's him. It takes her seconds—nearly makes her nauseous to try swallowing; hot, sticky, clinging shame is so much worse than fear, suffocating in her blood; this isn't her—to even make it to four words. More breath than sound in them, like any more force, might crack her voice, too. "I need a moment."

[ordinar]

In the dark, his eyes follow the new voice. It's the sort of dripping sweetness that hides a knife. Whatever the taunt means to Inej, he guesses it's a wound she'd rather hold close. So he squeezes her hand again, making a silent pact not to pry.

As they continue down the corridor, he hopes she won't think it's weird that he hasn't let go. Holding onto her hand really does make it easier to get through this. The maze. Everything else.

"Sorry about the fire. It would make this place less creepy."

Maybe. Considering that Inej couldn't even see a way out from the top of the wall, his hopes for escape are dimming. They can't be trapped here forever, though, right?

[funbreaker]

[ The rocking chair, the blanket, it's all not quite what Thancred would have expected out of Alucard. He raises an eyebrow, then moves over to climb the few steps up to the porch. ]

Yet I made no such walk, at least not so far as I remember. Nor did I have any intention of coming here.

[ Which is all rather troubling. He heaves out a sigh, then takes a seat on the top step for now. ]

Apologies for the interruption.

[ Alucard likely came here to be alone, but the Horizon has other ideas in mind. ]

[funbreaker]

[ That rap on the wall rings through the silent maze, though Thancred cannot feel any vibrations in the stone itself. Which means that these walls are rather thick, though thankfully not to the point that it drowns out voices.

The voice is familiar, and this would not be the first time Thancred had ended up trapped somewhere in the Horizon with Geralt. (If an unending staircase counted as being trapped, that is...)

There is some relief in finding that it's someone he knows, as well as someone he believes to be competent. They'll find their way out of here in time. ]

My apologies if I ran late. [ He steps back from the wall to the other side of the corridor he's in, trying to get a sense for how high they would need to climb to meet each other. ] Do you think you can make it over? I suspect you might have better luck than I would.

[ It's not that Thancred isn't quite agile, but there aren't much in the way of footholds, and he is only human. Geralt is something more. ]

That, or we each keep walking until our paths meet, but that's rather boring, isn't it?

[shadowthief]

This time, she squeezes back. A silent thank you. A grounding line. That is a horror she does not wish to break onto such a new acquaintance and his silence is a welcome promise not to dig into things better left alone.

She shakes her head at his apology, “It’s all right. Not your fault. Everything seems a bit… off here lately.” Like this labyrinth they find themselves stuck in at the moment. This is nothing like anything she’s seen inside the Horizon before.

“It looks like it goes for miles, in every direction,” she says, sliding more easily into a role of practicality. “But isn’t there a trick to mazes? Something about constantly turning left and you find the way out? Or was it right…?”

[cryptsleeper]

[Sometimes you just want to be a cozy grandmother out in the woods, Thancred.]

Both the real world and the Horizon seem to be at odds with our desires lately. [Alucard can recognize the weight of that sigh. It is familiar, and he's made it several times already.

He can't offer another chair to sit in, not with how the Horizon is acting at the moment. Going inside would be an option but...he'd be a liar if he said he wanted that to happen.]

There's precious little to apologize for, all things considered. I can fetch a chair from inside, if you'd like.

[ordinar]

It's not your fault, the voice coos, before turning sharp. That's sweet. She doesn't know what a fucking mental case you are.

Ignoring it. Biting down on the inside of his cheek.

Oh, wait. Now she does. Oops.

"We could try it," Wilhelm says more loudly than necessary. "It's not like we can get more lost than we already are."

Almost as if on cue, the corridor ends and presents them with a choice: right or left. After a moment of deliberation, he steps toward the left, tugging her along with him. The new corridor is somehow even darker than the last — whether due to a shift in the bruised clouds overhead or something else, who can really tell.

[familysucks]

Michael wouldn't have liked being compared to Castiel any more than Lucifer would have—maybe even less. It's for the best that she doesn't find out.

He'd been on the cusp of exploring the domain beyond the tree, but the sound of his brother's name stops him dead in his tracks. Michael grimaces, feathers he hasn't bothered manifesting ruffled.

He has questions about Demyan—and he's sure she has questions of her own, they always do—but for a moment, he sets them aside.

"Do you?" he asks in turn, his attention snapping back to Inej. Her saint of the newly dead is unknown to him, but the rest of her beliefs might not be so unfamiliar if the mention of archangels calls to mind the likes of Lucifer. Is it a version from her own religious texts or one she's met personally, though? Michael himself is here. It's not so hard to believe she might have run into his brother. "I know a Lucifer, but perhaps not the one you do, this place being what it is."

Even before being brought to Abraxas, he'd seen he's not the only Michael his Father had created. Who knows how many versions of Lucifer were written into His rough drafts, let alone walking about in this reality?

[assembles]

[ Steve isn't at all prepared for someone to call his name in this chaotic mess, and he glances down toward the source of the sound even as he pulls himself up onto the balcony. ]

Wanda? [ Fancy meeting her (or anyone) here. ] What is this place?

[ There's no way it's her domain, not unless it's undergone a serious overhaul since he last saw it. Which might be possible, given everything that she's gone through, but it doesn't explain the pink sludge. Wanda seems just as confused about that as him.

He's so used to her relying on her magic that he doesn't expect her to lose her footing trying to follow up after him. As soon as she ends up balanced precariously on the side of the roof, he races to the edge of the balcony and reaches down to take her hand. The goop is spilling out of the window she opened up, but thankfully just pouring down the side of the building instead of defying gravity in this case.

As soon as their fingers touch, Steve grips Wanda's hand tight and lifts her all the way up onto the balcony with him, one-armed, as if she weighs nothing. ]

We probably can't stay here long. Are you all right?

[gynvael]

A pause. Something in his expression shifts. And yeah. He does get it. Knows this is not really something to solve with talk. That isn't his nature, anyhow.

Dead wolves surround them. The body of the strange wolf or hound remains, even if it's unseen: a lump that he can nudge with his foot. There's nothing left to kill, no further threats looming.

So he sits down with her. Not close, but not too far. An easy distance between them where she can ignore him if she wants. It is not difficult, if he gives it some thought, to begin to piece together what may have occurred. He doubts any regular monster would bother her so. And this maze has proven it likes to spawn what they least want to face. What is it then? Her death or another's? (The one he made her witness without meaning to? Dean's?) Both?

Silence hangs over them. Not uncomfortably, not on his part. More a lack of need to fill the air with words for the sake of it. He stays that way for a while. Manages to conjure a scrap of cloth to at least wrap his arm so he stops dripping blood on himself.

That's what he's doing, tucking the ends of the cloth in, when he finally says, "At least you didn't vomit."

There's a softer edge to his words, deadpan but with a kind of understanding alongside it. Because they've both had their turn, have they not? Being thoroughly fucked with? And here they are. With the person they least would have chosen, but since when does the fickle mistress of life care about what they might have preferred?

closed to thancred

[aquaveiled]

[ It had taken some time, but finally...finally Himeka was able to lift the veil, connect with the strange but not discomforting presence since that dream. The image of the moth has been ever-present, both in her mind and in her peripheral. It cannot be a coincidence. Something has awakened.

Yet from everything she has gathered from the locals and mages, this wouldn't be a Primal. Not quite, at least not an intentional summoning. With no real place of worship, Himeka is left to her own devices in trying to contact the entity--this Koth--if she even can.

She's successful.

And she's left with more questions than answers, a litany of unintelligible mutterings mixed with what she can only believe is a prelude of things to come. It wasn't exactly like but also not unlike speaking with the Elementals, both holding a consciousness that is difficult to interpret at times. Yet something about it...it. Left her feeling a little weak, a little off. So she treats into the Horizon to gather her thoughts and step away from the decay that the commune has become.

Only to find herself hit suddenly with a sickening sweetness--which, coming from someone who loves to indulge in sweets as much as she does, shows just how terribly sweet it is. The scene before is anything but sweet, however; a strange tower of block-like houses being overtaken by a sticky pink substance, as if the ground itself has spat out sugary waste to consume everything above it.

Himeka has the misfortune landing in the ooze. She sighs, lifting her hand.



From one unsettling vision to another, it seems. ]

[assembles]

[ Before the day is done Steve knows that he's going to be covered in blood and guts, but it wouldn't be the first time. Nothing about this is pleasant, and even if these bodies are rotting, some of them are still fresh enough that there isn't a huge disconnect. These are humans, or were humans, and there's no getting around that.

But he's taken human life before. He fought in a war, and did what needed to be done back then. This is the same.

The person he's fighting alongside seems to understand what stakes they're working under too, as he brutally takes one of the other undead down with his bare hands. Steve, meanwhile, pulls his shield free from the one he'd killed, wiping viscera from the rim. He looks away, sizing up how many are still around them (a lot), before looking back to the stranger.

Who's... not a stranger. His face has resolved into the reality again, and Steve recognizes it. That confirms that theory, then. ]

Murdock.

[ Steve nods to him, a brief acknowledgement, but that's all they have time for. As another zombie creeps up on them, he races toward it and sends a roundhouse kick into its face, knocking it to the ground. ]

[tobeclosetohim]

Panic and fear are not rational playmates, and asking for any patience of Geralt feels akin to some level of forfeit she did not come into this day, no less the Horizon, ready to shed. But her heart is only starting to slow, and she takes a long deep breath in her nose. Takes that fist and opens it up, using both hands to rub her face, and she's right on the cusp of saying something like—

sorry

—when he speaks,
and Jo snorts despite herself,
not prepared for that at all.

For Geralt to be self-deprecating. It's raw, and she swallows around the space it leaves, startled up from who knows where. Jo licks her lips and lets her head finally come up if to rest it on the wall. There is that, she thinks, and doesn't know if she should be grateful for a segue of something like compassion or a reminder it could be worse.

(It could be. She could be dead again. Right here.
Guts ripped open, blood pouring out of like a foundation.)

Jo swallows against dryness, sour sticking to the back of her tongue, blinking her eyes back dry by focusing on the bodies around them. The ground and the wall can't have anything worse on them than she already has all over her, and it is everywhere. Blood and black and fur. "Didn't have anything clean left to put it on."

[gynvael]

[ With his days working outside the city, Geralt doesn't realize anything's wrong at first. When he returns, though—he knows. He knows without needing to ask. She's almost never not there to see him when he's back.

She won't wake. He enters her club more than once, in between searching the rest of the Horizon. He cannot find her inside it. He hasn't any fucking clue what he's meant to do. She's not in her domain, but he knows she isn't completely lost because the club exists. Changed, corrupted. Her consciousness is still connected to the Singularity. He just can't find where she's gone. He's looked, fallen into those strange realms, stumbled into other' homes.

He's even gone to Jaskier for help, dragged him to the Singularity. Touched the damn rock himself. Come up empty.

Grasping at what he can, he finally asks the bartender she calls Steven: if he's seen her, when he last saw her, if someone's come by looking for her, too. (Ignores the man's current appearance.) He expects nothing useful, but—maybe. He tries, palms flat on the table. If there are any flowers or plants nearby, they shrivel, wilting and brown.

Fuck. It's been days. He's been trapped like everyone else, but for hours at most. Sometimes only minutes. Where the fuck did she go? ]

[thedevilwhorose]

"Help him?" Lucifer fires back, incredulous.

All his poorly-crafted masks around Michael have immediately slipped away again, back into this unhinged state of his. Lucifer would be angry about that if he wasn't so completely blown away that Michael would think he'd ever help that man.

But while there is the concern that Lucifer would be thrown back in the Cage again, the crossed-worlds nature of Abraxas provides him with an eerie comfort. Lucifer promised Wanda that he would break her out of any cage she was thrown into for what she was--what she could become. He imagines the same courtesy would be true for him, and she knows he would prefer death than ever go back to that containment.

"Why would I ever help him again? Just to be used and d-discarded once more?!" He sweeps around in an errant circle, arms spread, a crack of power splitting free with his emotions. "I don't know what's going on with you Mikey to be out of the Cage, but last I knew old Pops made up with his sis and peaced on out once again!"

Emergence [OTA]

[harmonian]

[Sasarai is shaken when he dreams about the looming figure reaching out to him. Vivid dreams always come to Rune Bearers and sometimes it is hard to glean their meaning. He decides to push the event from his mind.

But something continues to haunt him. He can feel it as a veil of power closing in on him. When he catches his own reflection he can't be sure if he is really seeing himself, his twin brother Luc, or their father Hikusaak who had cloned them from his own cells.

Over the next day he feels scrambled, as if he were suffering from the mental equivalent of a fever with his Rune trying to burn something out of his soul.

He decides to he needs to talk about this with someone so the next time he finds another Summoned wandering Castle Thorne he will approach them and look them over for signs of distress. If he can't see any he'll just ask.]

....Are you feeling okay?

closed to steve harrington

[satanicpanics]

[ Eddie has been scared out of his mind multiple times in the Horizon over the last few days, but the Upside Down offers a very specific brand of terror that he never wanted to feel again. He did not ever want to be here again, and he feels sick to his stomach as he begins the slow trek towards the dimly lit Scoops Ahoy building. In a habit formed very, very quickly, he lifts his legs high and steps over the vines, careful not to stumble over them. It may not matter here, but he’s not taking any chances.

He pushes through the door and in a hesitant voice, he calls: ]

Harrington? You around? This creepy bullshit belong to you?

[ Who else is it really gonna belong to? Eddie and Steve, at least as far as either of them know, are the only ones in Abraxas who should really know that the Upside Down exists, and this certainly isn’t Eddie’s doing. Scoops Ahoy was never that noteworthy.

There’s no response, but talking out loud helps to ease Eddie’s nerves, even if there’s no one around to listen. It fills the deafening silence and blocks out those pesky whispers that have been plaguing him all week, even if they are much more quiet in the Horizon. ]

I, uh, really hope this isn’t what this place normally looks like, man, because I am gonna have some questions.

[ His fingers twitch by his sides as he slips behind the counter, trailing his fingers over old, scattered receipts and kicking away half-disintegrated garbage. He isn’t looking for anything so much as he is just looking, occupying his anxious thoughts and his anxious hands by any means possible.

He carries on, rifling through things that don’t belong to him, spinning a grimy ice cream scoop between his fingers and speaking out loud, until he spots it in the back: a metal elevator door, half ajar, practically inviting someone to step aboard and see where it leads.

That is not a good idea, he thinks, tilting his head as he sizes the elevator up. Silence settles thick in the air again, just enough silence for a faint whisper to reach his ear: That’s just what a coward would say. And you know he’s here, right? He just doesn’t want to speak to you.

Cupping his hands to his mouth, attempting to block that nasty little voice out, Eddie all but yells: ]

Hey, Steve! I’m taking your freaky elevator. Gonna find out all your secrets, dude!

[ Just like everything else, the elevator is in a state of decay. It’s a short ride, but extremely rickety, and when the lift hits its destination, Eddie practically has to pry the door open himself. He peers out into a stark concrete room that very much does not match the blue and white color scheme of Scoops Ahoy. It’s empty, save for some uncomfortable metal chairs, and some very nasty looking medical instruments laid out on a steel table. ]

Jesus Christ. Steve? If you're around, I’m about to really freak out, dude...

[gynvael]

He huffs, quiet. Yes. There is that small detail. They're sitting in a sticky pool of rapidly congealing guts and gore, and frankly he can't give a fuck. Is there a lake in this maze? A bath? He tugs idly on his hair, coming away with a glob of slimy flesh. Flicks it away to join the rest of the mess on the dirt.

It's almost companionable between them. Almost. If you squint. Maybe being too fucking exhausted will do that.

Another minute or so passes. Then: "You've come across that creature before."

It's not a question, but it is. Underneath it lies a, What was it? and What happened? He knows better than to ask outright. It's not his place, anyhow. Not any of his business. But there's room for her to explain if she cares to. There's no real expectation one way or another.

[thedevilwhorose]

Delight dances wickedly in Lucifer's gaze the moment he sees Dean's pet monster.

He is not at all, not even for one second, considering shutting this door. He's in the Horizon. He doesn't have to fear for his life--at least not at present. There's maybe still some concern that could change. Die in the Horizon, don't wake back up.

That--that isn't to say that he has any fear for this bulk of a man--no, never.

What happened in the woods was a fluke. Lucifer was reckless with his power. That was all.

Lucifer absolutely tries to push the door open, saying as he does so, brows waggling, "Oh, does the dog have some hidden bones?"

Visitation [OTA]

[harmonian]

[Sasarai does not appear peacefully in other people's domains. They may see him as a sudden gust of sand or as rumbling earth knocking items over.

Somehow, there is a sense that this earth elemental also very confused by the situation.]

Ensnared [OTA, Area is Tagger's choice]

[harmonian]

[No matter where he appears, Sasarai backs up a step, lifting his hands in front of him.

He handles some areas better than others. At the mountain he shivers, at the tower of structures he reflexively covers his nose and at the neon expanse he stares at the televisions, obviously unsure what they are.

After a moment of adjustment the insanity of the situation paradoxically snaps him into full awareness and he will draw himself upright into a military bearing.]

...Well, this is new.

[familysucks]

Lucifer's anger should be anything other than reassuring, but that is the plain truth of it. Worse than facing off against their Father again would be facing Him and his brother both.

(The hypocrisy of this sentiment is not lost on him, but Michael has a talent for ignoring sentiment.)

"You've missed a few things." Michael waves a hand, dismissive. How he got out of the Cage isn't any more important than how Lucifer is standing in front of him right now. It's the present reality, and that's all that matters for the moment. "Our Father returned. Again. The last I saw Him, He'd seemed to come around to your notion of destroying humanity. If He were to show up here and you're not planning to help Him, I suppose that would give you a week to kill Him. Assuming this isn't all some joke of His, of course."

Michael's not a writer. He can't begin to fathom their Father's logic. To the best of his knowledge, He had shredded all of His rough drafts. By all rights, Abraxas shouldn't exist. Either this world is another experiment of His or it's something entirely separate—an almost inconceivable notion, but he's getting used to downing those hard-to-swallow pills.

[thedevilwhorose]

It's a little annoying that their Father took Lucifer's one and only trick (as Sam was gun-ho to remind him), especially since Lucifer's most recent play had been reckless-abandonment destruction versus any well thought out plan.

It just... it seems cheap. And sours Lucifer's own desire for destruction. Short-lived, sure. It'll creep back in as it always, always does.

"Or he just goes to be squirrely in Cadens and with neither aware he's here," Lucifer mumbles. "I mean you've been here, what," he hums, "last Summoning... so, three months or so?" He claps his hands. "And I had no idea! Until little after Nocwich. I mean that's... just great..."

If there was a pendulum for where Lucifer's emotions kept swinging back and forth rapidly between, it would be anger on one end, indifference in the middle, and unnerved on the other end. A constant metal sphere clinking, clinking, clinking.

"It seemed like a joke at first," he says, voice distant. His body is still once more, his head cocked to the side, eyes staring unblinking at a diner wall like he could see through it to the odd Cage structure beyond. He lulls, "I had a demon named Abraxas, you know. Seemed soooo fitting to be a joke, but..."

[tobeclosetohim]

It took Jo an extra second to realize she'd nodded an affirmative without saying it. She should get up. It's biting at the back of her neck. She should push herself off this ground and get up. But Geralt isn't moving; hadn't castigated her for keeping him here, falling apart, being utterly useless in the last few minutes.

"Yeah."

The stinging in her leg is a riot of ants, but she's leaning into it. It's real, or as real as anything is going to be here. Pain means she's alive. It's bent, but she almost wants to press down harder on all those cuts. Want a wall of red to cut the fog sharp in her head. Let the pain ride her like a coat and get her nerves all firing into one fine razor point she'll drive into whoever made her go through all of this.

"They're called Hellhounds."

"It's all really there, right on the tin."

Demon dogs from hell. Plus, invisible. Obviously.

[satanicpanics]

Mat isn’t the only one who’s been seeking solace in the Horizon. Eddie’s domain consists of hardly anything at this point, but he’s found it hard to leave. If he returns to Solvunn, those nasty little whispers will continue to plague him, prodding at him and digging up every crumb of worry and guilt he’s been burying since he arrived.

The Horizon is beginning to weigh on him too, though. It’s been practically non-stop; he blinks or drifts off to sleep, and he’s dropped into someone else’s domain, and more often than not? There’s something wrong with his surroundings. As he stumbles through the dark, hand outstretched in front of him just in case he should bump into something, he can only imagine that this place hasn’t been spared either.

This darkness is almost unrealistic, and he thinks he’d almost prefer to be back in Geralt’s domain. It was cold and dilapidated and had that terrifying screaming going on, but at least he could see where he was going. Anything could be lurking in this darkness.

If the voice that calls out nearby weren’t so hesitant, Eddie might shriek in fear, but someone out there sounds just as scared and uncertain as he feels.

“Hey!,” he calls back, hushed and anxious and shifting nervously in his spot. “Hey, who’s there?”