|
|
|
|
|
Molten Tigrex rolled 1 100-sided dice:
59
Total: 59 (1-100)
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:27 pm
Any further attempts to question the prisoner just provoked the same howling rant - the horsemen were going to take their FEAR, and they were all too late to stop any of this. Several years too late.
The only question now remained why Medea would show them this, throw them into a dead world ruled by horsemen. Ancient battles and dead hunters he understood. Respected, even. But Medea was a horsewoman. She had just vilified her own clan, her own kind, and horsemen were nothing if not loyal to their own interests.
Was this future avoidable, or inevitable?
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blade Kuroda rolled 1 100-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-100)
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:23 pm
Quite frankly, Shun was expecting to walk right onto another battlefield, considering how the past two doors had gone. Instead, it looked like he had landed somewhere after all the fighting was done. The area was desolate, bleak. It was like everything around was slowly dying.
As they were lead, he paused as he noticed the glyph on the ground. He recognized this. It was like the one he had stumbled upon at War. Furrowing his brow, he listened as he heard one of the non-students speaking. The guy looked absolutely horrible.
No humans. No fear.
Perhaps he had heard incorrectly.
Hissing as he was shoved into a cage, he looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened.
"Where the hell are we now?" he murmured, before catching the attention of one of the prisoners.
"Aren't you a rebel, like one of us? Pro-Human World, saving what remains of Halloween against the Four Clans and all that. I recommend you keep your voice down though, there's no use attracting unneccessary attention."
This answer came as a surprise. It sounded like Halloween had pretty much just been destroyed, going off of 'what remains'. He was starting to get a few ideas here, but he wanted to know more before he drew any conclusions.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blade Kuroda rolled 1 100-sided dice:
9
Total: 9 (1-100)
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:27 pm
While Shun was thinking it over, he heard the prisoner repeat himself. Staring at the guy, he was beginning to think that perhaps he wasn't all there mentally. Then again, the other and this land in general seemed to have gone through quite a bit.
Once more, he heard the same words, and indeed the Reaper was certain he had lost it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
xoxomenai rolled 1 100-sided dice:
63
Total: 63 (1-100)
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:27 pm
Faustus's eyes grew wide as the boil realized where they were being led. Certainly, this was a little different from the location on Conquest Isle, but the familiar markings (though fewer) and the strange, soft glow as they journeyed deeper were all too obvious.
His inner fears were made real as he stepped into a cavernous room, filled with the bright aura of raw FEAR. His figure, even now, shifted and faded, so near to it, and his stomach churned.
Oh Jack, please tell me this is just a nightmare! he thought. Little scared the demon, but one thing that did was the memory of those moments spent almost lost in the raw power of FEAR. ... And right now, he was all too close to reliving that experience.
He listened with a building anger towards the amazonian clanswoman barking orders before the huddled group. Who was she to sentence them to a slow non-existence down here?? ... He wanted with all his might to fight back against this tyranny, but for some peculiar reason, what remained of his body wouldn't seem to obey him. Instead they were marched to a large cage and locked inside, left to wither away slowly to the ebb and flow of FEAR.
Faustus noticed a few others, not fellow students, in the captivity with them. Curiously, he turned to one boil and asked, "What time is it now?? ..."
The boil only seemed to roll his eyes, glaring to the young demon. "Does it really Jacking matter? How about several hours before they feed us to their little Fear-eating contraptions? How about several years too late from stopping their Jacking Apocalypse?"
Apocalypse?? ... were the Clansmen really trying to bring about the end of their world?? ... the end of all worlds?? ... By channeling all this raw FEAR?? ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
xoxomenai rolled 1 100-sided dice:
36
Total: 36 (1-100)
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:29 pm
Faustus turned to a boil who was leaning against the cage bars.
"Who are you?? ..." he asked. "I don't think I've seen you before ..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Blade Kuroda rolled 1 100-sided dice:
39
Total: 39 (1-100)
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:29 pm
After waiting a bit, Shun decided to try with another question.
"Who are you?" he asked, hoping to get something a little more substantial here.
"It's going to be a long wait till my final dissipation isn't it? Fine I'll humour you, I was called Eis, from a place once known as Halloween Town. It's gone now, like most of pretty much every other Jackforsaken thing the Four Clans took. There's nothing now, they took everything. First the Humans, then us, and now well, the rest you can see for yourself."
Hearing this, he furrowed his brow once again. Not only was Halloween practically gone but apparently it's been that way for awhile, judging the word choice. That wasn't all that he picked up on. Maybe he didn't mishear the one prisoner before he was thrown into the cage. All of this was reminding him of Stacey in general. Or rather, the things he had said. The hunters were fighting to prevent the slaughter and destruction of the human world.
Basically, to prevent what had apparently happened here. He also recalled the carvings on the wall he had found in the glyph room.
Over all, this was making little sense to him. First off, why the hell would the Horsemen want to take out the humans? Now while Shun wouldn't mind killing off all the hunters, doing it to the whole race seemed nonsensical to him. They needed them to survive. And not all humans were bastards like the hunters. Not only that but... why was Medea showing them this? Death was a part of the four horsemen. Revealing this sort of thing wasn't exactly wise. It could turn the students against the Four Clans as a whole.
Unless that was what she wanted.
Turning one's back to the 'family' for a cause was something he was now fairly familiar with after all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:29 pm
Ignore this, forgot to roll dice this post -.-'''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
xoxomenai rolled 1 100-sided dice:
37
Total: 37 (1-100)
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 7:30 pm
The boil had apparently misunderstood the question, as he cocked an ear in Faustus's direction. Carefully, the demon repeated himself.
A soft sigh escaped the prisoner's lips. "It's going to be a long wait till my final dissipation isn't it? Fine I'll humour you, I was called Eis, from a place once known as Halloween Town. It's gone now, like most of pretty much every other Jackforsaken thing the Four Clans took. There's nothing now, they took everything. First the Humans, then us, and now well, the rest you can see for yourself." He shrugged and fell silent again.
Wait, he was from Halloween Town?? ... By Jack! What was going on here?? ... could they, could they possibly be in the future?? Faustus wondered. Was this the fate of Halloween Town?? ... of Earth even?? ...
Faustus shuddered. He would probably soon find out.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MoonKitsune rolled 1 100-sided dice:
97
Total: 97 (1-100)
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:24 pm
There was no breather between the time, and as the world faded from one battle in the dark, the next door opened, and the world swam in violent colors. Rust reds and desolate darks rose up in crumpled versions of former glories, and Calder stood, a small, crisp figure among ash and swirling smoke. Despite not knowing this place, he felt that they came to the end of a era. He felt depressed for seeing something he was sure was once grand, and a heavy, bitter smell tingled his nose.
The sense of destruction left him thinking back to the Horsemen trials. It was was if remembering the memory had inspired actions to take place again, and soon they were approached by horsemen. War horsemen, considering Calder had just spend and entire week previous with them, and noticed the wings and feathers adoring the rather serious looking warriors. Part of him felt hurt that the War clansmen weren't as welcoming to them as they had been when they went to take classes with them, and soon they were corralled and lead into a deep cavern.
His sense of place was turned askew as he noticed the cavern and the strange symbols, and he looked to the other students who had been with him during the War training for their first week with a raised brow. Most of them had been in this very dangerous cavern and nearly had their body disappear into the shimmering light of the runes, but this time it wasn't overpowering. The power was pressing, but the Fear was twisted and felt abrasive now.
What was strange was the aggressiveness that horsemen has to them, and then, without any sort of warning, a remorseless disposal of another student behind them. Just like that.
Calder's eyes went wide, staring as the student dissipated. He would have thought his eyes were tricking him. That maybe he had seen things, or maybe these were Hunters who had them captured - but then again, didn't Scary Future Arel and his group want to kill them? But they thought they were hunters, not this way. These horsemen KNEW they were Halloweeners. Right?
Unfortunately, asking questions seemed like a bad idea for horsemen who seemed to be itching to hack off a few heads, and they were pressed into cages.
Cages. Like hunters. Cages HORSEMEN put them in.
Calder was beyond confused as his world was turned on yet another axis. He moved to one of the other prisoners, and asked. "What's going on here?"
"What does it look like?" The prisoner's tone is flat, sarcastic. "We got ambushed while trying to escape this place. There are no Humans left, not that we know of or care to know, they died off moons ago. There's just us, and now they hunt us to get the remainder of their Fear. It wont be long before there aren't any of us either."
The prisoner turned away to get some rest, looking faded and pale. Like the color was drained, the life was drained from them.
The humans were gone? That's not what they wanted - or was it? All this time he had started to hate humans, and wanted them to die. He felt they were being trained to be able to get rid of the humans, but without them.....they turned on each other.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
chirigami rolled 1 100-sided dice:
37
Total: 37 (1-100)
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:48 pm
The sky. The ground, the buildings.. everything. It looked like it was all on fire. Olivia didn't know know who she had clung to, but she buried her face into the person directly in front of her as Medea moved the group of students through the third door. Their third day of lessons and things just seemed to be getting worse.
She tried hard to ignore the warmth, which was a lot easier that she was blocking the sight of the place, imagining it just any other heated place. Instead she concentrated on the sounds, the papers that scraped against the dead ground as they hit and the death and the silence. There was so little to hear that it spooked the ghoul when angry voices rose up suddenly in a language she didn't understand.
She looked up briefly, an unfamiliar looking clansman was heading towards them and barking orders for them to follow. And the class was moved once again like a herd of cattle down a flight of stairs with illuminating walls of yellow and positioned soldiers at the mouths of various doorways and caverns.
This place. The Fear that emanated from it. The pulsing runes and inscriptions in the center. How oddly familiar it was. Olivia was surprised the same reaction from the alcove didn't descend upon them, there was no dizziness. Just buzzing. Perhaps, this wasn't the same place, she wondered as she managed to pry herself finally off the peer she had used as a guide down.
Her blue eyes stared wide as they settled at the bottom and then so much happened before her gaze that she silently wished she had kept them closed. There were horrible cages everywhere, poor creatures fading and dissipating. Dying. A fading student cut down by a bladed weapon by an angry female in leather and feathers. Accusations upon them, boiling rage. News of the death of all the humans - how? How was that possible? - and their imprisonment. This... what... Olivia couldn't process a single thought from what transpired. Trapped.
Recollecting herself, Olivia came to notice a few of the captives weren't students as she was. Held here for reasons unknown to her, taking a note from a few that were addressing the others, the ghoul carefully stooped close to someone.
"Ex... excuse me..." She quietly said, trying to get their attention. It took a few coaxing, and a slight raising of her voice to rouse a reaction. "Um... who are you, if you don't mind me asking?"
They didn't seemed pleased the question, sighing in irritation. "It's going to be a long wait till my final dissipation isn't it? Fine I'll humour you, I was called Eis, from a place once known as Halloween Town." Olivia's eyes perked with interest. "It's gone now, like most of pretty much every other Jackforsaken thing the Four Clans took." The ghoul made a small motion, trying to get him to slow down. She didn't understand what he was telling her. But he went on. "There's nothing now, they took everything. First the Humans, then us, and now well, the rest you can see for yourself." They shrugged, falling silent again.
The Wight opened her mouth to speak, but no words seemed to come out. How was it gone? How would the Four Clans take something? So many questions sprung into her mind but none escaped past her lips.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stratham rolled 1 100-sided dice:
80
Total: 80 (1-100)
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:48 pm
Out of one dream, and into the next. Ouranos felt as if he were at work, floating from nightmare to nightmare... except this time, he was the victim. It wasn't a pleasant feeling. This was for the sake of learning, the boil had to reassure himself constantly. Even if Medea gave no answers by the end, he would have achieved something, gained a nugget of knowledge... hopefully. Ouranos closed his eyes as the priestess appeared before them, her hand upon the third door; it was time to take another dive into darkness.
Thick, ash-choked wind lashed at his face and clothes, whipping about the apocalpytic scenery before them. Everything glowed with the blood red of destruction; Ouranos looked around slowly as the class followed the Clansmen. They were heading deeper and deeper underground, through an ominously glowing chasm, flanked on both sides by grim Clans soldiers. The class arrived at a large cavern, filled with the buzz and hum of ancient runes; recognition immediately struck Ouranos. This time, though, an imposing figure was present-- a wild-looking female regent, bedecked with strange items.
The boil did not move nor blink as the queen interrogated a wisp of a Halloween student... but he realized the dire nature of their exchange. Humans dead... a shortage of Fear? Something gripped Oura's heart, as he recalled the past few lessons... all of them involving the slaughter of humans. What had they done? What had he done? The boil looked on helplessly as the Halloween student gasped, a blade through his chest, falling back to disappear amongst the runes.
The queen was furious, that much was certain. What was also certain was that she would hold nothing back to sap all remaining Fear, to hunt down the very last human. Ouranos felt a surge of emotions battling within him. They had been trained to feed upon humans... not kill them. This wasn't the way it should be. He thought back to the first day of class, when he'd felt a veiled warning within Medea's mysterious words... is this what she had wanted to show them? The consequences of Horseman rule?
There was a large iron cage nearby, stark and unwelcoming. Ouranos waited until the nearby guards had passed, then approached it; faint concern creased his brow. Everyone within teetered on the brink of disappearing... weak, weary, hopeless.
Ouranos needed to know more about what was going on. He turned to the closest prisoner, a skeletal woman sitting in a corner, her knees drawn up to her chest; her sunken eyes watched his every move. Undeterred, the boil asked quietly: "What exactly happened here?"
"What does it look like?" The prisoner's tone was flat, sarcastic. "We got ambushed while trying to escape this place. There are no Humans left, not that we know of or care to know, they died off moons ago. There's just us, and now they hunt us to get the remainder of their Fear. It wont be long before there aren't any of us either."
He listened silently, expression blank; however, his heart sunk as he realized how close his suspicions had been. So it was true. The Horsemen had conquered the world and erased its humans... and with it, their sustaining source of Fear. What a terrible mistake that had been. They had consequently turned on the Halloween citizens... effectively guaranteeing their doom. They would all become extinct.
Ouranos swallowed, feeling faintly nauseous... everything he'd ever known or cared about now felt trivial, even stupid in the face of this. But was this reality, or again, yet another dream?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stratham rolled 1 100-sided dice:
69
Total: 69 (1-100)
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:49 pm
If this was the Horsemen's apocalypse, with all humans dead and Halloween citizens soon to fllow... were they currently in the future? Ouranos' head reeled; he stared blankly at the walls of the cage. Prophetic dreams were very difficult to weave, even for master Sandmen; someone of his level couldn't even hope to understand their basics. But right now, Ouranos hoped with all of his being that this prophetic dream... or vision... was merely that. A dream... and not a true prophecy.
But he had to make sure. The boil approached another prisoner, a shell of a man with long, unkempt hair and a wild gaze. Even though the man pretended not to see him, hacking and spitting to his side, Ouranos remained before him patiently. There was too little time and too many questions. "What time is this, currently...?" His eyes focused on the prisoner, distant but inquiring.
"The time now?" The prisoner rolled their eyes. "Does it really Jacking matter? How about several hours before they feed us to their little Fear-eating contraptions? How about several years too late from stopping their Jacking Apocalypse?"
The Apocalypse... everything came down to that. There was no doubt that they were witnessing the future of the world, hundreds, maybe thousands of years past their time... and what a bleak, broken world it was. Ouranos watched the man turn away, his face hidden. This man, and the rest of the huddled, crying prisoners, would all soon be gone. Fear-eating contraptions? Who had dreamed such horrifying-sounding machines up?
The Four Clans... Oura's lips tightened in a frown. Was this their idea of paradise? Dead, deserted, Fear-less? In the end, did they have no sense of right or wrong, torturing and hunting everyone else... until it finally destroyed them?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
chirigami rolled 1 100-sided dice:
25
Total: 25 (1-100)
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:49 pm
Processing the information took a lot for Olivia, though she still didn't fully comprehend what she had learned from Eis. Her home was gone. Everything was gone. From what she had seen on the surface, before they had come down to this place... that was nothing but flames.
How much was left. Still shaking, the ghoul pressed a hand upon her informants shoulder trying to get his attention. Touch was a little easier to use as a tool than her meek little voice. But she didn't even get to ask her questions for further information when he went into the same words as before like a broken record.
"... There's nothing now, they took everything. First the Humans, then us, and now well, the rest you can see for yourself...." He repeated, like they were the only pieces of information that he knew of.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
chirigami rolled 1 100-sided dice:
65
Total: 65 (1-100)
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:51 pm
Disappointment was apparent on her features as she simply stared at the ground. Her blue eyes slid closed for a moment as she re-situated herself on the ground where she sat. Her mind thought back to the beginning of these tests. The open field and the humans. The battle that had transpired to the shift in the tunnels with the humans and their glowing weapons. Each door leading to someplace different, each a different time. It had to mean something. All of it. The priestess after the first day had asked questions, trying to get them to think after all.
Resting a shoulder on the prisoner once more, Olivia was determined to get her next question in. It was bizarre even to herself, but she found herself asking "I'm sorry to bother you again... but... the time? Wh-what time is it?"
At first she wasn't sure if he understood the question. It took some time before she got a response. "The time now?" The prisoner rolls their eyes. "Does it really Jacking matter? How about several hours before they feed us to their little Fear-eating contraptions? How about several years too late from stopping their Jacking Apocalypse?"
He was clever this time, shifting completely to not be bothered by her any longer. Olivia's posture slouched where she sat, her hands falling to the ground defeated. None of this made any sense to her at all. She had hoped something would from the last inquiry even, even as a last ditch effort from a random assessment.
Contraptions? Apocalypse? What did any of this mean? Were these yet more concepts the Wight didn't know about but should?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stratham rolled 1 100-sided dice:
71
Total: 71 (1-100)
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:51 pm
Oura was having a hard time believing the disastrous events that surrounded him. If they were false visions, then they were powerful ones, enough to muddle his brain and grip his insides-- was this fear that he was feeling? Fear, confusion, and even remorse for the human slaughter he'd helped take place? Questions floated around within his head, overlapping each other, echoing in the murky space.
The prisoner he'd just spoken to was looking at him strangely. The boil had been standing there, statue-like, for quite some time now. Before Ouranos could stop himself, his mouth opened again, and out tumbled words: "Could you.... repeat that again? About the time... it's years past the Apocalpyse. Which year would that be?"
Laughing bitterly, the man shook his head. "You think it's not hard enough to say the words once? Now you're making me repeat myself? Jacking hell." Nevertheless, he gave a grunt, and told Ouranos the same thing he'd said before. They would soon be victims of the Fear-eating contraptions; they were too late to have stopped the Apocalypse. He did not know the exact year-- they were all too disoriented, and had lost sense all sense of time.
Oura felt like an island amidst the madness. No clear grasp of the situation, no exact time nor place. The only truth he knew was that the Horsemen had overstepped their rule... would it be the Halloween citizens' job to stand up against them, before it was too late...?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
