Welcome to Gaia! ::

Mia Seidel*

RNG: 2 6 1

"There we go" Mia grunted in triumph as she and Ananke jointly hauled Adorea back to relative safety.

Given Ananke's lack of reaction to the sheer bizarreness going on, one could only assume the thought of magic wasn't foreign or new to her. Sure, she seemed wary and possibly unnerved by the breaking surroundings, but then any sane person would be. Mia certainly was. Somewhat surprisingly, the other two women quickly agreed to the explorer's assessment and plan to move further... inland? Was that even the right word?

She was used to being decisive on her own, and often had little trouble convincing her usual companions of her point of view. But practical strangers? Either they too saw the need for action or were very easy-going. Mia smiled inwardly at the "dependable" compliment nonetheless.

"No time like the present," the historian offered, starting to head in the direction previously indicated.

No sooner had she taken a single step than she was assaulted by visions of flame and panic. The horizon itself seemed to be aflame, lit a hazy orange by levitating blazes overhead. the sounds of the shadow creatures behind at once grew more frenzied and organized. The flames didn't completely dispel the shadows of the place, but they revealed much more than the previous bio-luminescence had. The monsters were horses: great panting beasts with manes and tails flying as they stampeded in a tightening circle around the group and other people who had been unfortunate enough to have been captured. The stone under the maddened animals splintered and cracked, falling away into the disturbing nothingness.

To compound the issue, a great teeming mass of a crowd was fleeing the flames. While the realm was still uncomfortably cold, it seemed the threat of the fire was real enough to incite panic. As the runaways sprinted closer, Mia noticed that they were just as strange as the rest of this place. Faceless and unidentifiable. Humanoid ghosts, almost.

As ephemeral as they seemed to her, they paid the blonde no mind in turn. Several refugees ran past, narrowly avoiding plowing into her. The next to pass did make contact, clipping the civilian's injured elbow and sending pain jolting up her arm.

"Watch it!" she growled, throwing up her good hand to shield her eyes as the skyborne pyrotechnics burst into a full-blown inferno, growing in intensity by the moment.The heat was noticeable now, and over the din of pounding feet and hooves the carnival music droned on dispassionately.

This might be what the waiting room for Hell is like, Mia thought unbidden, bracing herself in a losing battle against the witless throng.

Foot by foot they drove her, their crazed passage forcing her inexorably toward the line of horses and the abyss beyond. Each impact was chilling, the cold further draining Mia's strength despite the searing temperature of the flames. The distance shrank quickly until she was once again among the horses, now having dodge both behemoth and person. Being able to see didn't help much, and she still took some noticeable collisions.

With a wordless cry both a mixture of worry and anger, Mia whirled to swing a leg high and drive a food into the muzzle of an approaching shadesteed. She might as well have plunged the limb into a bucket of ice water. There was a strange resistance, but it didn't hold and the blow passed through with no visible damage. In fact, the combination of the kick's momentum and the shocking numbness the contact imparted stunned the woman long enough to destroy any hope of dodging. The creature hit her full-on, sending her careening to the rocks and clutching desperately for a handhold among the flashing hooves as she slid.

She managed to stop her tumble just shy of the crumbling lip of the visible earth, frantically gripping and twisting to hold on while avoiding being trampled. Precarious ledges were nothing new, but add in a wild torrent of shadow things and the quickly failing strength of her battered muscles screaming in protest at the strain? The situation was a bit dire, especially as the rock around Mia began to crumble and give way to the void. That attentive yet annoying part of her mind made note that gravity really didn't bother the horses at all as they galloped on thin air.

Lt. Lavendulan - Half Youma
5+4 + 10=19

It seemed, for a while, that Wolframite’s idea to use the earrings seemed to be working as the two captains guided her towards the center platform. Laven looked between them and for a moment she felt like a lost child holding desperately onto her parent's hands. But they were not her mother or father, they were her friends and she was completely useless to them both. For now, all she could do was concentrate on their voices and look to their lights for guidance.

But then things shifted as the noises got louder and in the distance, there was a cold fire.

Laven hesitated, like a deer caught in the headlights she stared out at the faceless people rushing past the ring of horses towards them. Their bodies bumped into hers but she did not react, for in the fires she saw what seemed to be a massive tent.

The carnival music gradually became louder until the sounds of screaming became nothing more than white noise in the background. That was until she felt a sudden sharp pain in her arm which pulled from her a startled yelp. Then there were images… No... Not images but memories that flashed through the tether that linked her to Wolframite.

Chains that bound and fire the burned. The scent of charred flesh and burnt fabric clinging to the air and a woman with hair the color of the flames she intentionally started.

Fear.

Panic.

Darkness…

There was no way she could have prepared herself for the onslaught of sensory overload that flooded into her mind. He was supposed to be her anchor but it seemed the storm that swept through was too much for either of them to handle. Then, without warning, her connection to Wolframite was abruptly cut off and in the wake of him tearing off the earring, Laven’s body swayed heavily to the side before falling to her knees.

“Ti-Tina..” She whimpered.

Her hand tightened around the captain's hand while her injured arm hung limply at her side as she swallowed the bile that burned at her throat. Yet when Laven turned around the shadows that ran away from the rising flames pushed him away from them. “Tina… where is he? Where is Wolframite?” She needed him… They needed him.

“WOLFRAMITE!” Laven called out to him and tried to get up, to go after him, but could not find the strength to stand for more than a step before falling against her friend.

Makemake

9+6+2

As she and Lazurite began to move for the center, that is when the pressure in the air dropped. Then came the screams in the distance, and something running towards them. Most unsettling, however, was the orange glow of flames hovering in the sky, and the glow seemed to illuminate some sort of creature chasing them- were those...horses?

Maybe Lazurite's carousel idea had a little merit...

Suddenly the wind whipped violently, and Makemake found herself battered by the sudden mass of shadow people around them, running as if for their life. Soon Makemake felt an emptiness in her hand as the barrage of people pushing around them tore the two apart. And Makemake found herself getting shoved closer and closer to the edge.

She could smell smoke and feel heat the closer she got to the edge, and she found herself desperately trying to hold on.

Alexandre Evans
Score 6+5+4

"Somehow I feel like we should have expected this." Given how the holiday season seemed to go around this city. Shouting over the people pushing at him, pushing him towards the edge and away from where he wanted to be - the center. As he pushed back against them, which was no easy task for him, he stumbled a few times as his feet almost went out from under him.

The horses were...scary, he didn't like them being there. There had to be a reason and he wondered what their purpose was - did they represent something? As he moved towards the center he also made for Aiden. "Aiden!" Calling out over the noise as he headed towards the other, he couldn't leave him to fend for himself. This wasn't something you did on your own; he was sure of it. He felt like something bad, really bad, was going to happen. He needed to be with Aiden when it did, so they both got out of here. Every time someone had hit into him, had pushed against him, he'd felt like someone had dumped cold water into his blood. Like he was going to hit the edge and fall...to something, or maybe nothing.

"Aiden, lets get to the center. The edges are falling apart."

Landry Croix
Rolls: 8 + 9 + 4

Wherever Daphne went to, it didn't mater a single bit to Landry. She was the one who chose to wander away. If she died, well, what an unfortunate circumstance. Lori could do better anyway.

Even as he thought this, he watched his own partner scramble back up to his feet and rightly answer him, proving the big man knew who was in charge.

"Good." While his words weren't exactly cold, he was serious about the situation, and took a moment to dust of the large man's side. At least he could listen in the worst situation.

Gryphon's hand was reassuring atleast, even as rude shadows shoved him around, nearly toppling him over. Thankfully that hand on his back kept him steady enough.

"You believe me now? Ugh, don't you dare doubt me again." Fire, he could deal with. Atleast it provided some light, and with that, he easily began to march forward, determined to get him, and Gryphon out of here.

Indigo_Plateau

Orangeish Sherbert

Rolls: 4 + 6

Sumner cursed as he banged his knee on yet another object that he hadn't been able to see. And he was starting to get very annoyed with the situation. Was this something that he would have to be expecting now that he was a Page? If so then he couldn't help but be angry about the situation. He didn't even have magic on his side to help him with anything. Perhaps he would just have to keep a bag of some sort on him at all times in case of situations like these? Where a flashlight might have helped?

He heard something. He turned his head to where the sound was coming from and listened to it for a bit, realizing that taking any more steps would have been futile.

It was screams. Unnatural screams and certainly not human it seemed. Whatever was out there, it was loud and suddenly everything seemed to erupt into chaos. There was fire and more light, but still silhouettes. There were people, and horses, and somehow he was on a rotating platform with non-shadow people, and he could feel himself getting pushed, seeing fire, and his brain was unable to keep up with everything that was going on, eventually ending with him closing his eyes, hoping that he wasn't just going crazy.

Transcended Eternal Ida

Ida heard the screams before she saw the orange light begin to grow around her and the others trapped here with her. They sent tingles down her spine. Was that people from the city? She had too many questions about what was happening, and too few answers right now. She had to focus on keeping herself safe, and anyone else she could find to team up with.

The debri on the ground was about what she expected after what she’d been stumbling over, but the glimpses of things moving in the darkness unnerved her. Why didn’t they attack? What were they?

Flames. More light, and the moving shapes… Horses? Ida stopped in her trek inward to stare at them. They ran around the platform they were all trapped on, tossing dark manes, backlit by the fire that surged upwards. The surroundings were hellish and the sensei almost wondered if this was some sort of nightmare.

Suddenly people were rushing at her, jostling her back and forth as they fled the horses and the fire. Ida gasped as she got an elbow in the side and she struggled to get out of the way, for what good it did her. The people were everywhere. Another shove sent her stumbling and she fell to a knee, rocking back to get out of someone else’s way. It kept her away from the edge, but there was precious little she could do.