MISSION 1

[adsum]

Participants: Hanako, Amami, Clamor, Lucifer, Meng Yao, Shinobu, Gundham
Location: Courtyard
Date: 08/07

(ooc notes: I will state any possible content warnings in the subject line of the mod response when it comes up. If anything makes you uncomfortable, please tell me so I can back off and refocus the thread.

There will be no tag order, and a mod response will come after at least 6 player responses OR the next day, whichever is earlier. Please note this means that if you're absent for a day or more, the thread will move on, but I will pace things so that people aren't missing large plot beats.

For this mission, characters will icly split into two groups, and there may be an opportunity to remix groups later in the mission.)

Comments

[sisters]

( oh shit, hey y'all... amami starts like he's about to wave, and then remembers that there's a deadly man-eating invisible something out there and seems pretty visibly alarmed instead. )

[sunstead]

[........ Clamor waves back

this whole situation continues to be alarming but hey, this is progress]

... I don't think we should go near those shadows. [it's hard to know for sure if it's the same thing that chomped that boy in half and killed all those other students, but. he can make a wild guess, and he doesn't like the feeling this place is giving him.

cautiously, he flips his spellbook open]

I can try to illuminate it... unless one of you has a better idea. [chances are this shadow isn't going to go away that easily, but hey, maybe it'll help...?]

[carpevinum]

I might be able to put a stasis spell on the shadow. Stasis hexes are a little more difficult to cast, and at the level I'm at now, [unfortunately handicapped by the school, from what he's found out,] I'd need time. In that time... illuminating it might not be a bad idea.

[But he's also not going to put Clamor down for a fucking minute, because in that time Clamor might die, so. You know.]

[insecution]

I’m afraid I can’t hurt something without a tangible body.

[ And that mass of inky black… something-or-other doesn’t look like it’ll respond well to stabbing, so the floor’s all Clamor’s. ]

[sunstead]

Stasis might not be enough if we still have to pass through it. We don't know if it's something hiding under there, or the shadows themselves, or anything really... [lots of details he really doesn't want to have to think about at all...] but alright. I'll give it a shot.

... Would it be easier if you let me down? I can stand just fine.

[carpevinum]

[....................................................................

.......maybe....... maybe it would be..................

Reluctantly, Lucifer gently sets Clamor down, but he's still hovering nearby. I'm sorry he's just like this, he's literally the most obnoxiously-overprotective person.]

If you need help standing... [Lucifer please.] ...Do your thing.

[sunstead]

I'm fine, really... you don't have to worry so much. [smiling, trying to wave it off again... he's not fine at all but y'know, his legs work fine, that's what we're talking about right now.

but anyway, right. Time to try... something. Clamor turns his attention to the clearing before them, taking in a steadying breath before looking down at his spellbook. Just don't think about what might happen if this doesn't work, or if it only enrages whatever that shadow is hiding...

yeah. no pressure at all. it'll be fine.]

I'm going to make a light up ahead. Try not to look at it directly. [because it's going to be blinding, we're going for the magical flashbang route (sorry to Amami's eyes, he'll attempt to warn him in advance by waving his spellbook and gesturing with a hand over his eyes, if he doesn't catch on then uhhhh Clamor will apologize later sorry)

With one hand tightly holding the spellbook open, he points his other hand forward. There's a glow among the pages of his book as a circle draws itself in the air over his palm, then a fast streak of white light shoots out, collecting into a tiny ball above the centre of the garden. It shrinks in on itself, then bursts outward into a brilliant little star, showering smaller star-like lights as it slowly starts to burn away.

if he was better at celestial magic he could probably make that hurt, too... but he's not, so it's just pretty fireworks.]

[adsum]

[ The sky lights up and the shadow withdraws in on itself— for a moment it almost seems as if it disappears, but the next they see that it has simply condensed into a puddle of black ink that flows over towards the group far quicker than ink has any business being.

Shinobu gets her wish of fighting something tangible. Darkness rises before them, spreading out as if to wash over them like a wave and swallow them whole. ]

[carpevinum]

[Hoo boy.

If this is anything like the last guy they fought, it's sound-aggro, and Lucifer turns his tank stance on would prefer to be the one dealing with the biting jaws of death than have Shinobu or Clamor do it. Shinobu is speedy enough to take this thing out if its back is turned, so...

Even though Amami was waving from the window at them like, "shut the fuck up guys"...

Lucifer is not a man who knows how to shut up. First thing's first, though, this thing is not allowed to move.]

"Hear my voice and heed my command..."

[It's just that same spell over again because I don't feel like writing out a variation of a binding hex, my brain's sleepy.]

[adsum]

[ As if the monster would let Lucifer finish speaking a single phrase. They are enveloped in the darkness, and if it must be bound then it is binding them all with it, with a feeling of pressure on all sides, the pounding headache that can be felt by all three of them now, something itching and crawling underneath their skin, the urge to scream, the urge to cry, the thirst for blood. For flesh, for bone.

A distinct feeling of wrongness. ]

[insecution]

[ Nobody planned for what’d happen in the event Clamor’s idea backfired, but it’s too late for them to rethink their strategy now. The moment Lucifer starts his chant, Shinobu takes that as her cue to move. She barely takes a step, though, before her limbs turn to lead and the world around them goes dark.

Shinobu’s eyes sting with unspent tears, but she blinks through the burn. They dart to and fro, desperately searching for a way out. Is there anything she can see in the dark that she might think to attack? ]

[adsum]

[ She can barely make out two shapes in the darkness! That she probably knows better than to attack.

But there is nobody else with them, no single hostile presence any of them can sense. The darkness that envelops them is like night, like cold fog, doing no direct hard other than giving off a sense of foreboding.

The world shifts beneath their feet, sweeping them along towards where they may recall that building being. Their stomachs feel hollow, and their hunger grows with the sound of scratching claws on wood that fill their heads. ]

[sunstead]

[The shadows move, and for better or worse they have its attention now. Clamor holds his ground next to Lucifer, knowing that he probably won't have enough time to finish that incantation, scrambling to flip back to his last page and focus—

the darkness hits them first, plunging them into lightless fog. an uncomfortable aura, sensations and thoughts and urges not their own, pressure that builds and claws against his mind, drawing them forward into further uncertainty

... but he's dealt with illusions before. these aren't his thoughts, he's scolded Noah enough times about not losing sight of what's real to let that be the end of him. he can still fight the currents, he's not ready to just give up and let it take them.

Clamor sucks in a breath through his teeth, drawing out as much mana as he can muster before pouring it into his spell. There's a faint glow from his book, and if successful, a shimmering bubble of protective light will expand outwards from it to envelope their group.]

[adsum]

[ The light pulses outward, shoving the darkness away and lifting the burden from their bodies and their minds. In this space the three can see each other, no worse for wear, but nothing outside the cloud— not the forest, not the building, not any of the three fighting to free themselves of it.

What they do see now are shapes within the darkness, short, tall, thin, wide, all distinctly human, wandering the space as if lost and adrift. Some travel alone, some huddling in groups over half a dozen, some noticing the light and approaching and placing inky hands upon the barrier that shines no light upon their features. Most don't care, heads bowed, already surrendered to their fate. ]

[adsum]

[ It's enough to keep them safe until there's that feeling again of the world shifting, of being drawn to something while leaving something behind. ]