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

[cryptsleeper]

--Indeed so.

[Alucard does not wear exhaustion well. His eyes have bags under them, and his shoulders are more than a little slumped. His current spot is a rocking chair outside of the shack, feet up on an ottoman and blanket on his lap, watching the scenery and seemingly nothing more.]

It is the same principle as your domain, except one takes a long walk through the woods.

Horizon - Open

[nadine_he_loves]

Nadine's Domain

Something isn't right. Nadine's used to the sky changing with her moods, and with things as they are, the storm clouds aren't unexpected. But there's other changes. A pale yellow tint to the clouds that's never been there before. The windows along the streets of the square are dusty and dirty, the buildings themselves somehow looking faded and as though they've been lying empty for decades. There's a sickly cast to the light, like right before a thunderstorm.

Or worse.

Try as she might, she can't set it to right. The clouds stay over her little bit of New Hampshire, the light stays wrong, the windows refuse to come clean. Even her own little cottage house isn't spared, the front yard looking untended and filled with dead grass and flowers, the paint of the house worn. Inside was better, but still there was a film of dust on the furniture.

She checks every bit of her domain, from the little square with the church to the farm fields and small stretch of woods to the little red schoolhouse at the very top part of the land she calls hers. The stream running by it is brackish and thick.

What the hell is going on?


Horizon Misadventures

This...is not where Nadine intended to be. She'd meant to arrive in her own domain, but wherever this is, it's certainly nowhere familiar. Had she made some sort of mistake? Or was this just more of the madness that was taking hold of everything?

If she's lucky, it's just someone's domain that she's never seen before.

[OOC: feel free to either be stuck in any one of the four trap scenarios or have Nadine pop up in your domain!]

[gynvael]

The grunt from Geralt is exasperated. A distinct, Does it look as though I fucking know? rolled up in one brief noise.

He's moving for the same reason. Hasn't got any desire to sit and think and remember what's buried deep in his home. That she saw it, that he has no wish to get into it with her. It's not a secret, how his kind are made. But knowing the bare facts is one thing. Witnessing the scars it left behind is another. He doesn't want something so personal, so rooted in his past, in her hands.

Except it's too late for that, isn't it?

They bump up into another stone wall before long. Geralt makes another sound, impatient this time.

He glances over his shoulder. Turns back—and then hears a click under his foot where he knows, without a doubt, should be solid ground. They had walked over it only a second ago. But the Horizon does what it will: the floor they're on spins, swinging the walls around. He stumbles, catches himself on a pillar as everything shuts on all four sides.

Tight. So tight there's barely room for two.

And somehow, that stench drifts through again: rotting herbs and thick magic. He curses. Swallows down the spike of rare panic that rises inside him. A door. Is there a damn door in this place? Where he's often been unshakable, steady, there's something almost erratic in how he feels along the walls, searching for what he already senses is not there. He almost forgets Jo is even trapped alongside him. He just wants to get the fuck out.

[carmesi]

[he snaps at her, and wanda is not without being used to harsh words being thrown her way—but matt's always been calm and good-natured with her, despite all the anger he feels inside. she knows—she understands—that he isn't directing his anger at her, but it's enough to rattle her and have her let go of his hand.

the cat returns to his leg, rubbing against his ankle. the tv generates again, broken pieces of glass from the screen returning to their position, as if time had been reversed.

the screens all switch on at the same time, showing a large image of a man's face—it's familiar—and the voice that comes out from the speakers is soft, caring, but hurt. wanda's heard this voice before, in matt's mind.]

What are you doing, Matt? You're a lawyer, you're supposed to be helping people.

[there's disappointment, too, a rejection of whatever it is matt's muffled, quieter voice is trying to say in return.]

Is this what you do? When we call trying to get you to come out for drinks? Trying to find you when bombs are going off and we're worried? You just hit ignore?

[wanda raises her hand to mute it all with her magic, because this isn't— this isn't what matt needs to hear right now.]

—Matt.

ii!

[aquilus]

[It's easy to miss Altaïr at first, crouched at the beside of the wall as he is. He's been here a while, walking the maze and examining the walls — and now, the ivy, for all the good it does. He is no botanist.]

There is no point in attempting to climb it.

[He of all people should know.]

[tobeclosetohim]

"So eloquent."

Jo mutters it under her breath, to herself, more than says it to him; it might even be a concession to the fact some part of her has begrudgingly accepted she has to deal with him until they get out of whatever this long, weird, vaguely chilled hallway is. Jo is trying to find something to focus on anything, even the stupid back of Geralt's shirt, rather than let the cold slip into her bones, remind her of the cold taking over both of her legs.

There's a half collision with that shirt and Geralt—who is still too god damn tall—when he suddenly halts, and she'd been fixating on not fixating, which just fucking made a loop of fixating-not-fixating. It's right as she's trying to step back as the floor lurches upward, spinning, a wall somehow suddenly behind her, and she doesn't even intend for it to happen when she braces herself against some part of Geralt.

Who is rigid as a fucking statue.
As that column he's clutching.

Not because she touched him. A thing she notices only when she does it accidentally on purpose (why is that getting to be a thing? At least it's not with a weapon this time; not that his was). Muscles coiled, still enough. She's pretty positive in the tiny box, he's not breathing. "Sorry" is habit (all of it still happening, being realized in a stamp of seconds) at not quite average volume still, but at least it is specifically for him this time.

Then, like the world coming back to life he's all movement, shifting hands on the walls so close to their sides, and Jo tries to press back into the wall at her back, but there's almost no room, and as she's frustratedly taking a breath in her nose, feeling at the wall behind her, when it comes back.

That heavy, cloying sweet something that makes her throat tighten and her stomach roll a little. It's almost nauseating in this small space in a way it hadn't been in a massive room, and she coughs slightly just out of reflex even when nothing's in her throat. "What the hell is that?"

[gynvael]

[ One of the last times they spoke, Alucard had extended a quiet invitation. A place should he need it.

He doesn't intend to bother the dhampir. Just to stay in the courtyard, away from the city but not exactly in the open desert, either. The wandering undead are not what he wishes to deal with tonight. He isn't here to hunt. He isn't here to clean up the Badlands or save lives or do anything. He just wants a fucking rest.

Spotting a familiar figure on the path, Geralt urges Roach forward. Hadn't thought Alucard would be out here. Brave of the merchant, too.

He pulls up from behind Alucard, waiting for him to conclude his business—and when the merchant looks up, Geralt's head tilts in greeting. Someone he's done a job or two for in the past. And who also owes him...in case Alucard wants to take advantage. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Alucard's gonna just. Stare for a minute. Because this is fine, he totally expected someone to just pop up and intersect his path.

There's a thin and serious frown on his face.]

I'm aware. Floating upwards and changing form have been equally unproductive for me.

[More importantly:] How long have you been here?

omens

[aquilus]

[Altaïr finds the living corpses unsettling for reasons other than the obvious. Primarily because he's more accustomed to dealing death. He can't help but wonder what would have happened in his world if some of the corpses he had created had been able to seek him out and avenge themselves. Best not to delve too deeply into that subject, however.

He spots a familiar face at the edge of the cemetery and nods. He can't speak for the other man, but despite their unsettling nature, Altaïr still finds himself more comfortable among the living dead than among dancers who expect them to join him.]

There is a disturbance on the west side of the graveyard. [He points. Like so.] I expect more of them are about to emerge.

[Hence the very sharp sword already in his hand.]

[cryptsleeper]

--Oh.

[Alucard's tongue has too much frankness now. But it also means his other emotions are less masked. So to see Geralt is an actual surprise, and it shows on the dhampir's face with a slow blink and then a head tilt of consideration. The fuck? is plain on Alucard's face and--

--He did offer, didn't he?]

Intending to ride until first light?

[gynvael]

Mm-hmm.

[ A commonality between them: they can navigate the endless dark of the wasteland with ease. No light needed that will attract to the monsters.

He urges his horse forward once Alucard returns to the road, riding alongside him. The slope of his shoulders speaks to how exhausted he is. It's been a hell of a few fucking days. And harder to ignore the mark it leaves on him. ]

You don't mind? [ He won't take it personally if Alucard does. He can go elsewhere. He knows Alucard likes solitude as much as he does. ] I'll keep out of your way.

[cryptsleeper]

You're the one bound to form. If it gets especially bad, I can become a series of bats and go to the next cave over.

[Does Geralt even know about the bats? Alucard can't recall. He's too spent from everything else. His eyes cast over to Geralt, and he offers a statement of the true obvious:]

You look like shit.

[gynvael]

[ He almost laughs. Of course Alucard has a second cave to retreat into. Useful. And yeah. He remembers the bats. Also useful. Helped in a job once.

Scared the shit out of Jaskier another time.

His fingers tighten around the reins. With the setting of the sun, the temperatures are low. His breath frosts in the moonlight. ]

I feel like shit. [ Frank, no hesitation. ] You? Hair's still in place.

[ That's a joke. Alucard's hair is always in place. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Scaring the shit out of Jaskier as bats was and continues to be hilarious, thank you.]

Barely. Graveyard's wrecked. Again. Spent days pinning everything down, I'll have to figure out reburials soon. I only just bathed to get the smell off.

[It was recently not in place, thus communicating everything.]

If this happens again next year, I give up.

[aquilus]

Does it matter?

[To Alucard, certainly. To the situation they've found themselves in, perhaps not. The maze is as unfeeling as the rock it's made from, indifferent to their plight or their desire to be elsewhere.]

Some time now. I attempted to map my way out.

[Obviously that didn't work.]

[cryptsleeper]

The fact I didn't hear you at all? Yes, actually.

[He snaps, but doesn't seem especially sorry to do so at the moment. The dhampir pauses at the spot where wall begins to truly transition into greenery, then tilts his head.]

I wonder what happens if one simply stops moving.

For Jaskier

[nadine_he_loves]

The dead are rising. There's something foul in the city. Some madness is slipping among them. Nadine hasn't been spared. She hasn't missed the two or three nightshade blooms popping up amongst the other flowers in her window box garden over the last two days. Or that she hasn't been making what she'd consider the best of decisions of late.

But as far as everything happening, some impulse shopping and snide comments aren't that bad. And maybe she's had a few more glasses of wine than she normally does, but why not? The world's going crazy, again, and there's a laundry list of things for her to be worried about. She can sit in the kitchen in her shift and have wine. And a joint. What else is she going to do, pace and fret about Julie? There's nothing she can do.

But the silence in the apartment is grating on her, and that little voice is urging her to do something about it. Why not? She's lonely and unsettled and she wants to feel better. It's a simple message she sends Jaskier, hastily scrawled on the tabletop with condensation from her glass.

"Come over?"

[gynvael]

The darkness is suffocating. Even he struggles to see without a single pinpoint of light to aid him—or perhaps that's simply a feature of the Horizon. Of where they're trapped. He isn't thinking about it, because he isn't thinking about much at all except not being here.

He slams his palm against the wall—trying to knock something loose or sheer frustration, it's difficult to say. The crack is sharp; the sting drags his attention back to reality. In time to hear Jo speak, reminding him that she's here.

He takes a deep breath, and the smell immediately roils his stomach.

"It's not real." That isn't an answer. He might not even be talking to her, but it isn't. None of this can be real.

He closes his eyes. Imagines a door. A hole in the wall. Nothing. Not even a doorknob.

He's so fucking done with this place. His head hurts; his eyes are beginning to burn like they've been dipped in hot coals. It's his imagination, probably, but he can't shake it. For the first time in a long while, he doesn't know what to do. The dawning realization that they've no choice except to wait this out grips him. He does not want to sit and wait. He's not certain he can. And the fact that Jo is with him is—

His fingers dig into his palm. Like he's trying to stop himself from clawing through the stone itself. "There has to be a way out."

[tobeclosetohim]

Yeah, that's definitely not an answer. But it's not like earlier; it's worse.

Because it's not to her, it's like he heard the question but then forgot she asked it. Forgot if it might not be serious. Or for him at all. But his voice is a brick truck of serious swerving. Shuttered by quick breaths and Jo doesn't need a face to know what first-stage not-going-to-hyperventilate sounds like. She's had it firsthand more times than she will ever admit to. Between that and the viciousness he's hitting the stone, Jo doesn't even check the stoplights before she's talking, walking straight over the fucking sudden weightlessness of the bonkers weird.

"Hey. Woah. Woah, there." Jo's hand lifts and almost goes out, instinctive, even as it stops in midair in that dark. It can't even be far from him. But she can't quite, beyond that, doesn't know enough to know if it'd be worse, even as she keeps talking. "Breathe. There's a way. There's no point to us being trapped in a two-foot cube until we die."

She does not need the guy with fucking black eyes, who can body slam her in less than a second, and keeps incredibly suspect things around in his (basement? Domain?), losing his shit in less breathing space than half an elevator.

[carmesi]

[wanda does not scare easily, but it startles her significantly to see movement so sudden. she jumps back in surprise, but it's the familiarity of the figure that scales upward which centers her to take quick action. with her magic, it's easy to remove the glass from the pane as if it never existed, leaning over and out to look up at—]

Steve?

[she calls out, because is there a reason why he's vaulting across balconies? should she be doing the same—? there's no real room for an answer or to ponder upon these questions before said pink sludge reaches her floor. it's the smell that hits wanda first, giving her enough time to raise a hand and blast forth a hex burst, making it tumble a few floors down.

whipping her head down to look, all the goop starts reforming despite the blast, pulsing back together.

okay, so maybe steve has the right idea vaulting from balcony to balcony.

pulling herself up on the windowsill, wanda stands and puts her hands onto a jutting air conditioner unit, holding herself up as her magic helps her levitate the rest of the way upward onto a protruding roof. shit, her magic isn't working right. her boots scrape against the brick tiles as she pushes back to her feet, back flat against the outer wall.

yeah, the goop is climbing, part of it splitting off and entering the window of the hallway she had just been in. wanda raises her head, trying to find a direction to follow.]

Uh— [what the hell kind of situation is this? she reaches upward with a hand, stretching her fingers as far as she can go.] A little help?

[gynvael]

[ Ah. So like mages, essentially. Some things never change.

Geralt is genuinely intrigued by the information he finds, distracted for a moment reading over the pages. He's only stopped learning because he ran out of much more to learn after so many decades. Tossed in this world, he finds himself drawn back into texts, tomes, of other spheres, curiosity pulling him along.

He glances up. Oh? He follows. At first, he thinks Dean is showing him his room. Which would be something on its own. A personal thing he'd understand the significance of. But he sees the wolves (fucking absurd), and.

He shifts, the air around him changing. He knows there are domains he's welcome in. Dean's has been one for some time. This is more. This is not just an invitation to visit. It is a rare thing, still, for doors to be open so readily to him.

For awhile, he's silent. When he finally replies, it's teasing but soft. Acknowledging. ] You don't snore through the walls, do you?

ensnared (the fool)

[funbreaker]

[ Thancred's intention had been to return to proper consciousness after some time spent in the Horizon. The hold that Adlewyrd has on him is still present, even here, but seems to be less prevalent than when "awake." As if the Horizon has a means of weakening that connection, at least some of the time.

It had been nice to have some manner of respite from the invasive thoughts and the effects he's had on others around him, but he can't remain here indefinitely.

Yet when he expects to come to in his room in Thorne's castle town, he instead finds himself closed in by tall stone walls that seem to extend endlessly in either direction. Has he stumbled into another's domain, as he had with Alucard?

Once more, he tries to concentrate on leaving the Horizon, but it almost feels as if there's some mental block preventing it. He lets out a groan under his breath. ] What's this now...

[ With no option but to explore and try to find a way out, he soon realizes he's in a massive labyrinth. Yet before long, he hears footsteps to his left, on the other side of the wall. ]

Is someone there? [ He raises his voice, well aware that he should not be in any true danger while in the Horizon. Hopefully it's a fellow Summoned. ]

[gynvael]

Her instincts are good. It would be worse; even the sensation of her hand hovering near makes him pull away reflexively. As much as he can in this cramped cell.

He doesn't need her to tell him to breathe. Except he does, and it bothers him that this is so. That part of him recognizes he's losing his grasp on himself, his composure, on everything that he has spent his entire life building, brick by brick. He should not be this easily rattled. Not even over...these memories. He's faced them down so many times. They shouldn't be haunting him as though they're fresh wounds.

He exhales, slow.

"You need to—make something." Because he can't. He can't concentrate well enough to do it. Not right now. "Like a door. Or...stairs."

Doesn't matter what. Maybe it'll not be perfect, maybe it'll send them falling into a pit of snakes. He doesn't give a shit as long as they're elsewhere.

[aquilus]

[Altaïr frowns, but doesn't press the point. He's quiet, they're both distracted — but pointing out possible logic behind why they didn't notice each other immediately seems like needless pedantry considering their circumstances.]

They would grow very bored. [He pauses.] Or perhaps vines would grow out from the mass and strangle us to death.

[It's...meant to be a joke but comes out more like he's suggesting a serious possibility.]

[tobeclosetohim]

He slams himself back harder and faster, and Jo's teeth nearly shake with the sound of that impact. No, not impact; retreat. Hard, heavy, desperate. It's clawing up her spine, the fucking freaked-out level that he's just ramping by the second, and she can't stop breathing in that horrid scent.

"Yeah. So. I'm—" Jo's voice is a little taut. "—not so great at all of that yet. At least where it comes to things that aren't inside the bar."

It feels stupid to admit, comes tumbling off her tongue a little too haltingly fast, and like something she should have figured out. But Dean. The Roadhouse. The Bunker. Libertas. She hasn't had the time. She hasn't taken the time. She's only been focused on her single goal from day one: hunting. And fuck all now, she needs those things she wasn't looking at.

"Look. Just." She doesn't even know. "Hold still. I'll try."

It's probably comic. Jo's once-floating hand ends up on the pillar. Her eyes close, her forehead scrunches, and she thinks about a door. And kill her, but it's right now the door in the bar going to the bunker? She tries to think about it as clearly as she can, teeth pressing, and it feels fuck all stupid. Eyes slit for staring at a wall, and going wide as a skinny crack of yellow-white light starts making the trail outline of the tall rectangle shape.

But the light won't get bigger even as she pushes hard as she can fathom, fingertips gripping the column to white. The space inside the line still looks like the wall.