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 Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 4:43 am
[ PROMPT 6 ] [ OUTSIDE ] Awakening
Your character wanders around outside, too scared to go into the hospital, too scared to go back to the fog. At some point the fog encroaches, and envelops them entirely. They begin to hear voices from all directions, and it directly shatters their psyche as they are no longer able to process or comprehend what or who they are. They wander the fog for hours, trapped in a state of non-living, as they begin to develop several personas, and talk to each persona of themselves to cope with the situation.
Eventually the effect subsides, and they escape the fog, feeling shaken. It feels like however, a switch has become undone, and they might become unstable again, to the point of even being taken over by the other personas.
If rping this event with multiple people, you only have to pick ONE person to get trapped by the fog, as the other people simply search for them. At the end as the fog recedes they can find them again!
When the event is over, add +10 infection to your character's infection meter
Infection status - 30
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 5:03 am
Gilda didn't want to lose Ras again, so when they moved through the fog, she held his hand tightly, trying to convince herself that so long as she could feel him, he was real. But she knew from experience of her field that even physical stimuli could be fraudulent, that when your brain controlled every single facet of your perception of the world that nothing could truly be relied upon.
She could not get over the itching and the constant half-heard voices that were uncannily similar to the voices said to be heard by someone suffering from schizophrenia. She wondered if it was something in the fog, if it was some kind of horrible unethical experiment.
She said calmly, breaking the silence. "I won't let them separate us."
She felt like they'd been wandering for hours without getting anywhere, the foggy landscape void of landmarks or ways of orienting oneself, it was just concrete for miles and miles with rows of indistinct buildings that rolled past like shapeless black sentinels lost in the gloom.
"If there us any "they" left. It might just be us, this might be all there is." and even then she couldn't be sure if it was even them or if at any moment once again she'd find Ras gone, replaced by nothing but swirling fog, simply some desperate facet of her solitary mind.
When a figure appeared nearby in the fog, she almost wasn't surprised this time, it was tall, very very tall and only tenuously human. This might have scared her if she thought that there was any chance at all that it was real, but it couldn't be, all clad in golden armour and with impossible antlers that it should not have been able to carry. The most damning aspect of the thing was that it looked like her, and when it spoke, it spoke with something close to her voice.
"How can you live with yourself?" it asked her. "So wantonly pursuing things, so openly revealing your weakness for all to see?" the disgust was evident in every word. "Have you no pride?"
She glanced over wearily at the terrifying figure and then back to Ras, who was still there, still with her.
"Do you see her?" she asked, looking back to the tall figure which had easily fallen into step with her, wings trailing soundlessly on the ground and with feet that were more dinosaur than human.
"I have pride." she said, addressing the figure that possibly only she could see. "That is why I value myself enough to finally pursue what I want. And what I want is him."
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 5:26 am
"Yes," Ras said, the figure sending chills up his back as he pressed closer to Gilda. He had never seen anything like her, different from the undying and more...just more.
A different figure appeared, more stationary, his long claws neatly folded behind his back. He had long, ridged horns, and with him came a heavy, wistful, floral smell, a mixture of salt and melancholy.
"It doesn't matter what you want," he said, voice rich with regret. "We all know how this turns out." He sighed. His face was similar to Ras, if strangely colored. The gentle blue-gray of his skin had a stiff and sickly pallor. His face was elongated in a way that was slightly alien, if beautiful. His his hair was well-kept.
He seemed apologetic when it came to Gilda, but his expression darkened when he addressed Ras, "and we all know whose fault it will be. You just can't help it, can you? You're going to ruin everything again."
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 5:43 am
Gilda was convinced that once again they must have somehow blacked out, that like the thorns there was something triggered, something hallucinatory in their brains. Perhaps this was part of the infection, perhaps it burned out all of your neurones one by one before you died, perhaps they were dying bit by bit.
She found herself wondering if this was where the idea of angels came from, the strange figures were a twisted sort of echo of angelic, especially the strange armoured one that moved close to her, all perfectly polished gold and long, elaborate feathers. She was not afraid simply by merit of being so numbed to horror and madness that she was somewhere beyond its reach.
And Ras could see it, that was the worst part, it made her question if he was there at all or part of her own imagination as much as the figures were. She was lost, probably hopelessly, and saw no reason why not to engage with the only company she presently had.
"What I want matters." she said to the long horned figure, her tone clipped and cold, addressing him the way she might address her Ras. "What I want is the only thing that does matter. It's an extension of me, it is what controls everything. And how this turns out is down to me. It is my choice."
She turned and almost jumped out of her skin as she found herself way too close to the long face of the horned figure and despite the gold helmet covering where its eyes should be, she felt that she was being looked at, looked at too closely for her comfort.
"You don't believe that." the figure stated. "You don't believe you have any control at all, and you take pleasure in giving up that control, in surrendering to the path of least resistance. And yet there is some part of you that knows. It doesn't believe. It knows. It knows that you do have control, you could have control."
She moved back, glancing at Ras directly, seemingly unable to bear to look at the horned figure.
"She is lazy. She will leave you. She will ruin you because she does not know herself. How could she ever hope to know you?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 5:56 am
The horned figure was not as shy about looking as the gold one. He moved symmetrically to her. "And we will give up when she does. We have nothing else."
The horned one took the gold one by the waist in a smooth gesture, expression cool, taking her other claw as if about to lead her in a dance.
"She'll never marry you," the horned one said softly, and Ras looked even more pale at this. "I-" he said, clutching his chest and wishing more than anything that his monstrous doppelgänger would take it back, would have said anything but that. He looked at Gilda miserably, "I don't-"
"She'll find a surgeon. A lawyer. A general. Someone who's capable. Who's accomplished something. And you'll watch as she raises their children," The horned one kissed the gold one's palm, "for as long you are capable."
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 6:20 am
The golden figure seemed to tolerate this intrusion on her personal space, but inclined her face away from the other, cold and distant, exhibiting not the slightest degree of warmth or tenderness. She moved like a partner at a formal dance who knew all the steps and did so out of social graces and little else.
Gilda looked over at them both with a twisted sort of rage at the comments and found it hard to argue. She had no intention of finding someone else, someone more acceptable, someone she could use like a trophy, but there was an impenetrable wall of pride in the way of her saying that she would marry him, that she wanted to stay with him however necessary.
"And why shouldn't she?" the golden figure said, observing the kiss with a distant gesture of ownership, as if this was an entitled degree of worship, like a monarch so used to having their hand kissed that it hardly registers at all. "Why shouldn't she aim high? Why shouldn't she have self respect? This mess is because she had none, she took a job in a prison. She forgot about her pride and self-respect."
Ras got a passing glance as she looked straight past the other figure. "And found someone without any. She will do well to leave him before he leaves her. She saw him waiting at that door, longing for death, craving suffering so much that he will bring nothing but suffering to her also."
Gilda shook her head. "No. He has brought more than that, he has brought good things."
The golden figure smiled faintly, her perfect lips parting to reveal perfectly neat and razor sharp fangs. "Only that it might heighten the pain when in the end he leaves you. He might have no self-respect, but he is so fond of his own misery and loves it best of all. Do yourself a favour and learn to put yourself first and need no one else."
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 6:59 am
"High," the horned figure repeated, "You see? And after those junkyard dogs have ransacked her temple, putting their blood on the steps won't rebuild the stone. Although I did try."
"You're a liar," Ras said, hoarse. "Like the rest of them. The Doctor would never allow that. Who are you? What are you?"
The horned figure clicked its tongue, releasing the golden figure reluctantly. It moved close to Ras now, hand folding over Ras's hand and pressing it into the folds of his jacket, to wrap the hand gently around the knife.
"I thought so too," the horned figure said.
The horned figure's other hand lay across Ras's throat, and the tender touch gradually began to tighten.
"I am Drozoliel, second-born. Rejected by my sister, murdered by my brother, I died with no Heirs. I have nothing. Your fate is my fate. If you end it now, you can keep your illusions. You won't have to watch it unfold. Otherwise you will lose everything you have ever loved, and be plunged into the very heart of Despair."
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 7:28 am
Gilda felt sick listening to the conversations, a tight, anxious feeling building up in her chest. She wanted to scream and shout, to defy every word of the lies that were being tossed around, but she couldn't bring herself to, there was some grain of truth in the words of the strange golden woman, not about Ras, not about wanting something better, but about the control, about fearing the effort that establishing control meant and the fear of failure itself. The figure had four arms and one of them clasped about her shoulder, steeling her but also subtly restraining her as she watched the horned man speak to Ras.
"You owe it to yourself to find someone worthy of you." the tall woman said coolly, finally looking to the two men with a cold rigidity to her posture and a tightness in what was visible of her expression. "You must set a standard to attain, and if it is too high, then you will know that all were unworthy and that you are the most exceptional individual there is. Under those circumstances, there is nothing to regret about your solitude, about this solitude."
And yet, despite it, it seemed difficult for the golden figure to look for long, once again turning her face from the sight, and there was something dreadfully and terribly lonely about the gesture, though Gilda wasn't even sure why she found herself thinking this.
There were options, there was no such thing as inevitability, she knew that, she understood it. The only way you truly lost was by never fighting in the first place.
"No." she said again. "No. you are WRONG. If I make nothing but standards and spurn everyone, everything, even the people I want. I'm only ruining things for myself. I'd be my own worst enemy. I am STRONG. I am ALIVE. In this shitty end of the world, I've made it this far." she reached up and shoved the hand from her shoulder. "I KNOW what I want. I know what little I have. He's mine. He belongs to me and I want him, I don't want anyone else, I don't want someone who thinks they are better than me. I don't need him to be better or even my equal. I just need him to be mine."
She drew her own knife with purpose and brandished it at the horned figure. "You heard me, he's MINE. I told him he wasn't allowed to kill himself, via gun or anything else. Even if he's an illusion, he's my illusion and just because you ******** things up, doesn't mean he or I will."
The golden figure did not move to stop her but shook her head and turned away from such a crass display of surrendering to the easy option.
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Toshihiko Two rolled 2 4-sided dice:
1, 4
Total: 5 (2-8)
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 8:08 am
"You want him for your use," Drozoliel clarified sweetly, "but she did not deny the rest. She will never marry you, or make her family with you. You would spend centuries waiting. Do you think she'd give up her license? Who would support the pair of you? You? There's no work available for average citizens, much less someone with your record."
Ras trembled, twisting the knife away from Drozoliel's grip and taking him by the shirt collar, "No," he wheezed, "Even so. I know how worthless I am, I can't ask... But I'll stay by her always, until she no longer has need of me. And she needs me now. I won't abandon her, if it all only leads to misery, at her word I would endure it. Leave! Leave, you aren't welcome, you aren't me!" And with that he plunged the knife into the figure opposite. But as he did, the pain radiated immediately from his own shoulder and he cried out.
Drozoliel gave a dry and sad laugh. "Aren't I?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:02 am
"I will." Gilda snapped irritably. "I will stay with him and who cares how we make money? If I lose my license then so be it. But I could also simply keep him secret for a few years, it could be done. It doesn't matter what needs to be done I will do it."
She felt her heart pick up its pace, ready to attack, ready to defend them both, but she didn't have to. Ras fought back, and it was more than she had hoped the other man was capable of, convinced that his deep apathy and depression would make him susceptible to the coaxing words.
"Enough." she said, narrowing her eyes and closing the distance to take hold of Ras, seeking to separate Drozoliel from him, to claim him back from the strange creature.
"You still don't believe it." the tall, golden figure said. "It is too good to be true, he didn't abandon you now, but one day, you will see. He will abandon you despite his words, misery is something he cannot endure for ever." All four of her taloned hands clenched into fists. "And words are something he is good at."
The figure shook her head despairingly. "You will see. Both of you will see. And you will wish you had listened."
She gave the one who had called himself Drozoliel a long, slow look before giving Gilda a final look. "Sometimes circumstances are incompatible. Spare yourself the pain."
And with a grim serenity, she turned and headed off into the fog.
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:03 am
Drozoliel did not join the other figure. Instead, his body shifted around where Ras had stabbed him in the shoulder, falling apart. It was not quite decay, but as if he had gradually turned into the mist itself, parts of him dissipating into an invisible breeze.
Ras was left breathing hard and clutching his shoulder, but with the disappearance of the figures he rested heavily against Gilda.
"If things go badly," he swore, "it won't be because of us."
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Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:14 am
She held him close, squeezing him despite herself, now of all times pushing pride to one side to simply embrace him the way she wanted.
"No. No it won't." she said, it was all she could say, it wouldn't be their fault and more and more she was certain she wouldn't let him go if he would give her the same thing in return.
"And we need to fight every step of the way to make sure no one else successfully gets in the way."
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