![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
MARCH EVENT LOG
At midnight on March 1st, a rolling lightning storm hits Yogen. Thunder crackles, and strikes of Anvil Crawler lighting can be seen lighting up the sky; anyone paying attention to the courtyard may see the explosive strike of lightning hitting the wisteria tree. Petals scatter throughout the air and are carried off in every direction by the wind...
As the month goes on the school will start to look even more barren. As the month goes on, several students start to disappear, with rumors spreading here and there about students disappearing after entering the forest. Those rumors twist and warp, and within just a few days there are rumors of a witch in the forest. But it's not a witch, nor a ghost, or anything else, but a dream, and those who enter will find themselves reminded of such by a soothing voice, the voice of a person they're familiar with, speaking gently in their ears:
"You are dreaming... They have always led and will always lead you here... Remind yourself, this is a dream..."
The world shifts subtly. There are gravestones marking the pathway now, and before long the forest is replaced by a completely new scene. A voice reminds you once more that this is a dream, and that you have always been here. You have always been led to this place. But where is this place? It's the world of a player character. It's nothing more than a snapshot in time. It might be one that they wish to escape, or perhaps a warm memory of a time that they wish to return to, but it is always an important memory to the character.
Whichever it is, the only way is to move forward. As characters move through the memory, characters will soon notice a snake and holly tattoo that spreads over their body will be. It starts small, a clump on one's back, but will spread across all parts of a character's body. It will reach the neck and face last, killing them upon reaching the eyes. As the curse spreads, they will notice changes in the dream including hallucinations, hearing lullabies, and shades that pursue them. They will also notice increased exhaustion and lethargy.
Upon reaching the end of the memory, they will find a glowing ball of light representative of a lost student's soul. Finding the soul will lead to both characters awakening at the edge of the forest, and the character who had been dreaming will be covered with the tattoo for a brief moment before it disappears.
Those who entered the dream may hear that same voice from before that tugs at their mind as the dream fades away:
"Remind yourself, this is a dream, and soon you will awaken. But you are here, as you always have been, and as you always will be... Soon, you will wonder where you were, and each moment after, will bring you here..."
The world shifts subtly. There are gravestones marking the pathway now, and before long the forest is replaced by a completely new scene. A voice reminds you once more that this is a dream, and that you have always been here. You have always been led to this place. But where is this place? It's the world of a player character. It's nothing more than a snapshot in time. It might be one that they wish to escape, or perhaps a warm memory of a time that they wish to return to, but it is always an important memory to the character.
Whichever it is, the only way is to move forward. As characters move through the memory, characters will soon notice a snake and holly tattoo that spreads over their body will be. It starts small, a clump on one's back, but will spread across all parts of a character's body. It will reach the neck and face last, killing them upon reaching the eyes. As the curse spreads, they will notice changes in the dream including hallucinations, hearing lullabies, and shades that pursue them. They will also notice increased exhaustion and lethargy.
Upon reaching the end of the memory, they will find a glowing ball of light representative of a lost student's soul. Finding the soul will lead to both characters awakening at the edge of the forest, and the character who had been dreaming will be covered with the tattoo for a brief moment before it disappears.
Those who entered the dream may hear that same voice from before that tugs at their mind as the dream fades away:
✽ Dreams may be whoelsale memories, or they may be more akin to dreamscapes based on a person's memories or mental state.
✽ The holly pattern represents the pain of love and aches of the heart, while the snake represents the yearning for the dead that consume a person.
✽ The tattoos will be blue or red.
✽ Characters may be drawn into the forest more than once, or require multiple memories to be gone through before reappearing. In those cases, the character who had gone through the initial memory will simply wake up in the forest alone.
✽ Characters who hear the voice upon leaving the dream will be more susceptible to entering and being lost in the forest.
✽ Anyone who is not rescued by the end of the month will be found at the edge of the forest. The tattoo will cover their body and stop just short of their eyes. It will disappear within an hour, but they will be exhausted for the rest of the day.
✽ The holly pattern represents the pain of love and aches of the heart, while the snake represents the yearning for the dead that consume a person.
✽ The tattoos will be blue or red.
✽ Characters may be drawn into the forest more than once, or require multiple memories to be gone through before reappearing. In those cases, the character who had gone through the initial memory will simply wake up in the forest alone.
✽ Characters who hear the voice upon leaving the dream will be more susceptible to entering and being lost in the forest.
✽ Anyone who is not rescued by the end of the month will be found at the edge of the forest. The tattoo will cover their body and stop just short of their eyes. It will disappear within an hour, but they will be exhausted for the rest of the day.
no subject
But she's also learned she doesn't know exactly what each option does. She doesn't even know if the "hint" is the right one - she came in here because somebody she thought she trusted was actually a trap, didn't she?
She doesn't care about the strategy. She throws caution to the wind. She's too scared for her friend and roommate.
Ignoring the options entirely, she darts forward to check on the body - to see if he's still breathing, to see if she can get him out of harm's way. ]
no subject
Oh? Do your best.
> Sacrifice.
> Observe.
> Save.
> Run.
[If there's any ire to her throwing caution to the wind, any fear, or consternation or spite or upset, it's not apparent. The unseen presence regards the throwing away of the now splintered, greyed-out mechanics with the infuriating amusement of a persistence predator. The world works the way it does... and it will always catch up in the end.
Speaking of... as she runs by most of the heads are occupied. But the one closest to her and furtherest from the meat sees it's chance and leans out as far as the rest will allow it, snapping it's teeth and catching Nanami's arm with a horrible crunch. She's able to pull away and get to the form on the floor, but she leaves some part of herself in it's jaws.
The form on the ground is... surprisingly intact. Where Nanami's blood drips on it, wounds close and seal and fill in absence, spreading like ink in water. His face is pale and waxen, his breathing when it stutters to life is shallow, and he looks like gaunt death warmed over... but he's alive, if still unresponsive.
There's a weight in Nanami's existing hand. The axe has offered it's assistance. It's heft feels warm, protective, encouraging in a sturdy way. It might make her think of grounding surroundings, cinnamon and honey.
She gets a little more time before the wolf finishes lapping the last morsels off the floor and turns, licking it's chops. There's no counter, no turns, no options any more. Just action, and the lingering sense Nanami is marked for certain death.]
cw gore
No
It's just pain. It's just pain. She hobbles along, gritting her teeth, blood gushing from her the stump where her arm now ends at the wrist. But that means there's plenty of blood to seal up the wounds, bring her friend's breath shuddering back to life.
She freezes in her tracks. So that's how this world works.
The axe is a comforting yet scary weight in her good hand. For the moment she drops it to the ground, dropping to her friend's side and shaking his shoulders urgently. Her blood pours over him - she doesn't have a free hand to stem the bleeding, and she's starting to feel a little light-headed. ]
Sou-kun... S-sou-kun, we have to go. Please wake up... please!
no subject
As her blood continues to fall, he continues to improve; colour coming back into his face, breathing evening out and deepening, even becoming less worryingly skeletal as vitality flows like sand in an hourglass. His eyes flutter under the shaking, and he starts to sit up, propping himself up with an elbow, covered in blood and disoriented.]
Mmngh... Nanami? Your arm...!
[The disorientation doesn't last long, as the full state of the situation smacks him like a 2x4. He pulls at his scarf, hunched back and flicking eyes suggesting he is Very Aware of the wolf as he hurriedly takes her arm above the stump and begins wrapping the fabric around it, tugging tight to stem the flow. It's blue colour has turned to red in patches where her blood has soaked it, despite blood not being all that good a dye. Shh, it's a dream. He's muttering as he does so.]
Why would you- I can't believe you'd do something this stupid. You should have just...
[The axe clatters a warning, the ringing tone of a tuning fork struck. The wolf is padding towards them, and the blood drains out of Shin's face again as he struggles up to his feet, eyes wide and every line of his body tense.
The wolf opens eighteen disturbingly-human eyes, fixed on them.]
no subject
W-we have to go... [ She repeats it again, more quietly. This is bad. All of it is bad. Thinking is harder, though.
The wolf growls, and she looks up. Right. Her mission.
Adrenaline flows into her. She can do this. She will.
She struggles to her feet and grabs for the axe - it takes her two tries to actually grab its handle. ] Look for the exit, Sou-kun.
no subject
[He's distracted, head going between the wolf and trying to crane around the corner, even as he's already slowly backing up as the wolf pads forward.
The second her hand closes around the axe it thrums through her once more. Not strength nor courage, but the support needed to not break down completely, to keep the jittering fragments of yourself pressed together, to put on a brave face because there are people relying on you. A scaffolding of her bones in bands of once-bitter oak and once-hot iron, fed by her determination.
It's sorry, that this is all it can offer her.
He notices her set herself as she sways, catches her resolute stance out of the corner of his eye, and- it's almost like a small earthquake strikes the house, the creak and groan and keen of rattling wood warping and twisting against itself, like the dream is gnawing at it's own flesh, the seams and gaps closing as the shaking subsides. He yells from the base of the stairs where he'd been clutching his head and throws down his arms.]
Do you think I don't know what you're doing?? No way you're going to last long enough against that thing for it to- just run! You think you'll be some kind of hero? That's a completely worthless line of thought! It's not going to solve anything!
[But it doesn't really matter what he thinks or says, because while it stopped in place when the tremor hit, heads tilted, ears pricked, the wolf is close enough that now, with one spring, it's upon her.]
no subject
All she needs to do is give him time to get out. That was her mission. To get him out.
And as the wolf leaps towards her, she knows she can be enough distraction for that. ]
Go! Please! [ She screams as the wolf knocks her down, she holds up the axe with her left hand - too slow, she knocks one of the heads out of the way, but the others set upon her with terrifying ferocity, crunching bone and tearing flesh. ]
no subject
[She's knocked down, her vision filled with ceiling and fur and fang and so she only hears it; the cry and then an inarticulate yell like he's the one getting ripped to shreds, and then finally, on the edge of her dimming consciousness, the sound of footsteps running up the stairs and a door slamming at the second of her losing awareness completely.
She bought time. She can't know the results, and that's the price.
She may or may not be surprised to wake, whole and doubly behanded, lying on her back on what feels like a wooden floor. Her view of any kind of ceiling is obscured by a layer of thick grey smoke high above her, undulating in constant shifting marbling patterns like a preset on a very old media player.
Looking down reveals she's pinned to the floor through her stomach by a four-sided gravestone that'll be recently familiar. It doesn't hurt so much as is just kind of... there, in the way of dreams where something that should be objectively horrifying is just... a thing. The inscription is readable from this angle.
She can roll to the side or stand up or whatever she wishes; she's pinned to the floor and she's free to move, not so much clipping through the stone as... these statements don't conflict here, in this space where physics need not apply. But yeah in practice if she really wants to pay attention, it looks like clipping through the stone. There's no wound left.
Immediately around that stone is an area where the wooden floor is especially polished, a radius almost like a small pool in it's reflective sheen, her double visible in it. Further out it's an ordinary muted shine, then dusty, then visible through a thin layer of the grey paper-ash that ever so often drifts and flutters down through the air.
Around the small clearing, where the stone takes the center-stage of what in an ordinary library might be a small area instead filled with seats or beanbags or the like, are massive shelves reaching all the way into the unknown ceiling and disappearing into the smoke like towering tree trunks.
Don't ask where the light is coming from without windows. Oh look, there were always paper-shaded lamps attached to the shelves here, casting circles of glow around their brass fixings.
The source of the smoke and ash is also readily apparent upon the nearby shelves... patches of some of them have been burned away in large charred spheres of absence, like the holes a lighter leaves in a photograph having been translated into to 3-D format. Orange still glows in the carbon rims but... there's the general sensation of aftermath here. The fire has dimmed down, and all that's left is to sift through and pick up the pieces.
The axe is lying on the floor near her. It's not supposed to be here at all, but this place is full of holes as it is. It's role has faded and it's edge is capped in leather... but it's there if she wants it.
She's probably very tired... but it's not far now.]
no subject
Then she's awake again. The pain gone, her wounds gone, but fatigue very much spread through her entire body. She really isn't enjoying this trend of dying over and over...
But she completed her mission, right? Maybe? As her hearing had faded, she'd heard somebody run away - he must have escaped. He must have... made it.
So all that was left... was for her to leave now, too.
She slowly gets to her feet, tiredly observing the gravestone. She takes the axe, the closest thing she has to a friend in this desolate place, burning up at the edges of reality. It can't be far now. She can't have much longer.
Then slowly she starts walking through the library - looking to see if there's an exit, or if this is her final resting place after all. ]
no subject
The axe is with her, calming in it's grounding presence.
It doesn't matter which direction she walks... eventually something starts to happen to the shelves, a slow hum rising as she walks past a few of the equally large server banks they slowly turn into, the lamps disappearing and the place being lit only by tiny LED lights.
Even they fall away and she's walking in a pure blackness, and something in front of her resolves into a grey panel covered in buttons below a plethora of square screens of various sides, all lit up with static casting stripes upon the darkness. There's a nice looking ergonomic chair in front of them, and a familiar form slumped down onto the panel, beanie'd head resting on folded arms. It could almost be sleeping, if there were any rise and fall of it's chest at all.]
no subject
Maybe he made it a little longer - to this server room, apparently. But it wasn't enough. He still passed. She couldn't save him, even with her sacrifice.
She falls to her knees at his side and wraps her arms around his body, burying her face in his hoodie, shaking with grief at his side.
It doesn't matter, maybe, he's gone to a better place, this'll all be over soon anyway, but she can't help old wounds from getting torn open, she can't help feeling this overwhelming sadness anew. Another friend has left her. ]
no subject
It's unknown how long they stay like that, her clinging to him, who does not protest. Without warning, the body glows a solid bright red and fades, leaving her arms arced around a small, glowing ball of light, first a bright white, then fading itself into a will o' wisp ball of cool blue flame.
It stays there for a bit, hovering in place as if half-asleep, shifted and flickering with her breath... then it slowly circles her, picking up speed until it suddenly races forward into one of the screens like a comet, disappearing and casting ripples across it which spread to the other screens and cause them to reveal a collective view of... a very familiar looking forest.
There's the sense of... that feeling of the last class or club of the day in winter, where it's already dark. Somewhere, in the nebulous dark behind her, lights are turning off, chairs are being put on desks, and doors are being quietly locked from a ring of keys. It's empty, and quiet now, dormant until the life that's the heart of it returns to it.
Return the way you came?]
no subject
Some of it starts to come back to her, like a forgotten memory, or a dream she once had. The forest. Where she'd found the tower of televisions in the first place. Where she'd been looking for--
A couple more things click together. Memories of-- seeing her roommate gone, and not returning, and going searching for him-- stumbling into the forest that she'd known was dangerous but she hadn't known where else to look--
She all but scrambles on top of the panel, to get close to the monitor. Hesitates, but-- touches it. The surface ripples...
Well, it worked once before, right? So... she steps through the monitor. ]
no subject
Behind her, is still a tree, but the dream is fading from it. There are no lights on it, nothing feeding into it, no hum of power... it's a silhouette, a shadow.
There's a crack in both sound and vision as the motion travels longitudinally up it's length, splitting it in two. Four fingers appear in the gap, prying at the edge. It opens up, collapses and dissipates... revealing a familiar form... who collapses to his palms and knees on the forest floor, panting. Visible on his face and the backs of his hands, a red tattoo pulses before disappearing.
After a moment he tries to stand up and ends up stumbling and sitting back down again, one hand going to his head.]
Ouuugh... What... How did...
no subject
[ She can't help but cry out, and she's at his side in moments. He's alive, he's here, he-- of course he hadn't really died (had he? this place is so confusing), but-- he's here now, he's safe, they're both in the forest together, they can leave. ]
It's me, it's-- it's Nanami. Are you feeling okay?...
no subject
[He blinks as his head turns towards her, seeming to slowly focus on her with some effort. Give him a second, it turns out the contortions his soul has been doing to create all this, turning inside out and fragmenting like a fractal along it's faultlines and then back, really does a number on you. He feels... strange. Lightheaded. Like he's that wisteria jar Komaeda shook up like a snowglobe and only just starting to settle.]
F-fine, just... give me a minute, ahaha...
[He... can't remember why he came here, or... what he'd just been doing, to feel this way. There's.. the shape of something, feeling and sensation, about as graspable as smoke and dissipating as quickly. It's enough to make his heart squirm in his chest a little even under the false calm of slowed thought. Gaps of time are never good.]
Should I... ask what happened?