TAKSHAKA + GHENA

[soulping]

[As you stand around waiting for something to happen, you begin to feel something pressing on you, vaguely...as though a heavy blanket has been draped around your shoulders, although there's still nothing there. You close your eyes for just a moment - just a blink - and then-

The floor drops. You go plummeting downwards, or so it seems; you can't quite tell, because suddenly everything is pitch dark and you feel like you're falling, falling, falling...]

Comments

RULES

[soulping]

• Teams will find themselves in a series of rooms that force them to confront some common fears ("common" as chosen by the majority who signed up- y'all got some issues).

• There will be four rooms. They will be run in a semi-exploradora format, although "exploration" is not the actual goal. In that sense, it is more like a heart or shadow game.

• The game takes place in a nightmare/mindscape formed by Knut, so that no one can actually get hurt from what happens. However, your characters will not know this. Everything that happens will seem completely real, despite being occasionally vague and absurd in the way that dreams are. Stuff will only seem weird after they wake up!

• This means that anyone who comes late or leaves early will simply appear or vanish and their fellow players won't really find it odd, because again: dreams. (In other words, don't worry too much about it.)

• People may get hurt during the course of the game! It IS a nightmare, after all. But no matter how bad an injury is, the character will only feel it in a conceptual way; like they're remembering the pain rather than actually experiencing it. This will seem normal at the time. Dreams!!!

• Powers are ON but characters will not realize this unless they actively make an attempt to use them. And certain rooms will prevent them from doing even that!

• These rules are all OOC. Your characters do not know what is going on.

• However, this does not exclude the possibility that they might eventually figure it out. That's up to you.

ROOM 1

[soulping]

You don't remember hitting the ground. But you must have at some point, because that's where you're lying now- on your back, staring up at a dark, blank ceiling. There's no indication of where you fell from...wait, fell? Did you actually fall? You can't seem to remember anymore. Your thoughts seem a little hazy and dreamlike around the edges, but your surroundings, at least, appear to be solid and real enough. So do your teammates, who lay nearby.

As everyone sits up and looks around, you see that you are in a small, dingy room. The floors and walls are rough-cut stone that is cracked and crumbling, covered in grime and mold, and there's an inch of filthy, stinking water covering half of the floor. One wall is covered entirely in thick steel bars like a prison cell. Although you can make out your dimly lit surroundings well enough, immediately beyond the bars you can see nothing but a solid wall of darkness.

There is a buzzing in the back of your mind and you feel weak and tired, sapped of any power and strength.

Re: ROOM 1

[transcends]

[...pokes the water]

It's dirty. This would be nice if it were clean.

Re: ROOM 1

[freewilly]

Yeah, it would be.

Re: ROOM 1

[experiencepoints]

[i really really don't wanna get up

but i guess i have to because babby teammates]

Wonder if we can squeeze out through the bars...

Re: ROOM 1

[transcends]

It's dark outside, though.

ROOM 2

[soulping]

You're in the middle of a cemetery. That's subtle.

If you were at Knut's capture the flag game, you might recognize it from there. It's completely overgrown, the ornate headstones and statues are falling apart, and there's a thick, thick layer of fog on the ground. You stand in a small clearing in front of one grave which looks much less run-down than the others. How did you get here? You don't know. You don't even think to question it at first. Your thoughts are almost as foggy as you surroundings.

Your heartbeat pounds unusually loud in your ears, and you hear muffled footsteps in the distance that never get any closer.

Re: ROOM 2

[transcends]

[sits down and gently touches the gravestone]

What is this?

Re: ROOM 2

[soulping]

It's a modestly sized headstone. It's still pretty ancient, but it looks like someone's been taking care of it. There's writing but it's incomprehensible to you. They're definitely letters and numbers but for some reason your mind can't make sense of them.

Re: ROOM 2

[experiencepoints]

... Let's get out of here, fast.

Re: ROOM 2

[transcends]

Why?

Re: ROOM 2

[girlmeetsribbons]

[ >HIDES BEHIND ]

Re: ROOM 2

[girlmeetsribbons]

[ ...Since walking forward isn't working, what if this baby snake decides to turn around and try to walk towards the footsteps instead? ]

Re: ROOM 2

[soulping]

They never seem to get any closer, no matter how far you go, and all you see is fog and graves. But you don't end up back where you start, either, so, progress???

The sound of your heartbeat in your ears gets louder, a bit.

ROOM 3

[soulping]

You're outside Takshaka's dorm. The game is over. You lost, and you've come to give this news to your teammates. The news that you've failed them.

But the door is locked. It won't open, no matter how much you rattle the knob or pound on it. You can hear voices behind it, that you recognize as belonging to your team. You can't make out the individual words, but they sound happy- and every now and then you think you recognize your own name, followed by jeering laughter. No matter how much you knock or call for them, they ignore your pleas and the door still won't open. And you know, deep in your soul, that it will never open for you again.

You turn away and find yourself facing a wall of people. The crowd presses and jostles around you, leaving you smothered and seperated from the group (what group? There's no one here but you, is there? You came into this game alone and you failed alone, didn't you-). You are surrounded on all sides by a mass of figures whose faces you can't quite make out, their features all blurring and sliding together. They speak to each other, but the words are totally incomprehensible to you.

And nothing you do is able to get their attention. They ignore you completely as though you aren't even there.

Well, that's only right, isn't it? You shouldn't be there, and you aren't there, not really...not in any way that actually matters. You're just taking up space from someone who deserves it more, aren't you? Everyone has more important things to do than bother with you, more important people, why would they ever need YOU?

Re: ROOM 3

[experiencepoints]

[ah

this again

cool. time to just. give up, sit down, and bury her face in her knees.]

Re: ROOM 3

[freewilly]

N-Nightingale.

[ crouching down besides her ]

Re: ROOM 3

[freewilly]

N-no, that can't be...

Re: ROOM 3

[girlmeetsribbons]

[ Someone is taking your hand. Notice me, senpai. ]

Re: ROOM 3

[girlmeetsribbons]

[ Feeling invisible and insecure is my constant state of being anyway. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

She breathes out, putting her hands over her ears. ]

The don't need me, I know that. But you don't need something to be friends.

[ It's said firmly, albeit with a slight tremble. ]

Re: ROOM 3

[soulping]

The crowd continues to ignore you. You continue to be alone.

(But the words feel True.)

ROOM 4

[soulping]

You step forward and find yourselves somewhere else again; standing in what was once a grand ballroom. The high vaulted ceiling, elaborately detailed fixtures, and tall latticed windows all give a hint to its former glory, but now the place is a ruin. The hardwood floor is badly splintered and rotting, much of the glass is shattered, and the entire room is coated in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs that muffles all sound. The room is utterly still, except for your team...and, of course, the single lone figure standing in the center of the hall.

Re: ROOM 4

[girlmeetsribbons]

[ Carefully tiptoeing the floor making a face. ]

Who's that?

Re: ROOM 4

[soulping]

[As you approach, you see that the figure is a young woman with a long braid of brown hair and fancy medieval dress, moving in a loose circle with her hands held up as though waltzing with an unseen partner. There's something off about her, and as you get closer you suddenly realize that she's not quite solid at all. Her form appears to blur and fade around the edges, and she's subtly translucent- you can literally see right through her.

She hasn't seemed to notice you.]

[soulping]

Your heartbeat pounds in your ears, seeming to grow louder and louder until it finally becomes deafening, drowning out everything else. The dreamlike fog at the corners of your mind creeps in, and you feel that same sensation of falling as everything goes black again.

In the darkness you think, for just a moment, that you can feel a cold hand gently brushing the hair from your face.

Then you wake.]