Path to Nowhere (14) : There are many parks in Destiny City, and if you’re willing to venture to the outskirts of the city you can find an incredibly vast forest system. It’s unlikely that anyone has explored every inch of the forest, but it’s still odd when a strange path into the forest suddenly appears in an area that you thought you knew pretty well. Where there was once just a wall of trees, now there is a faded wooden board with an old fashioned, thatched roof with a thick layer of moss. Pinned to the board, behind broken glass, is yellowed paper. The portrait of a woman wearing vintage clothes watches you with an eerie smile. A map used to be here; you can see where the corners are pinned, but someone has torn it out. A few dried flowers are pinned to the board. Someone has pinned a message that says ‘DO NOT ENTER’ and ‘DANGER’. The path is eerie but doesn’t appear dangerous otherwise. Dark shadows fill the space between the trees, and sometimes you can make out mushroom covered logs in the distance. Many flowers grow but they all appear half wilted or dying. The path winds on for what feels like forever once you are on it. If you’re lucky you can turn around and find your way out, but once you start walking, the path seems like it forever winds. You can walk until you collapse, or until you fall asleep. If you make it into the heart of the forest, you will find a giant tree with branches so heavy that they droop towards the ground, and a strange, bright-eyed owl that watches you from the branches. It’s too dark to see beyond that; regardless of the time of day it was when you entered, it always appears to be nighttime here. A slow breeze disrupts a sea of half-dead dandelions, and suddenly white wisps swirl around you and your vision fades. Whether you exhausted yourself trying to get out, or if you made it to the heart of the forest, you cannot escape the wave of sleep that falls upon you. When you wake up, you’ll be in your bed but you won’t remember how you got there. You can find the path again, if luck wills it, but all trips end up the same.
Asuka had first spotted the strange path in the woods a week or two prior. She'd considered following it, but honestly? As an experienced Scary Story Youtuber, and with the knowledge that there was actual magic in Destiny City, one look at that eerie grinning woman told her that this was absolutely the beginning of a story that ended in "and she was never seen again" if she wasn't careful.
So, she'd gone home, done some digging, and found reports online of people having similar encounters. Finding paths where they shouldn't be, finding the portrait, and it just got weirder from there. She'd meant to leave it alone, but honestly, it was too cool to just set aside--but as Reiko or as Asuka, there was no way in hell she was going alone.
Thus, recruiting a friend.
She'd met Hela in that crazy museum, and now, she waited for the other Dark Mirror by the sign, having sent her the coordinates for this weird little adventure. Hopefully,. two spook hunters were better--and less likely to vanish into the ether of the woods--than one.
Sara Draconia
Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2024 1:58 pm
The first step of not getting bitten by another space alien was to find a buddy and Hela now had someone who just so happened to also be all about spooky stuff. It was pretty nice to be honest since she was still only part-time doing the whole magic thing between semesters at DCU.
So after the whole hubbub in space and meeting Iranaea's spooky friend she was more than ready to go on a spooktastic adventure and loaded up some things in her subspace for urban exploration just in case. Looking up all the weird stuff on her forums between streams, Hela had a decent idea of what kind of photos she could get together for her portfolio and Instagram page.
So when she showed up at the place Asuka had sent her the details too, she had her camera in hand as well as almost any sort of thing she might need to wrangle her way through a spooky forest. It couldn't be that bad, right? As long as they went slow and kept an eye out, she was sure she could handle any of this. If she had handled a bear last year, this would be a cakewalk.
"Sup, ready to get some spooky scary photos? I really think your fuku fits the theme really well." Holding up her camera with its strap double-tied to her, she smiled at the other senshi. She had half a mind to invite them out to that cemetery she'd gone to with Hybris last year to get some nice photos for them as well. Hopefully this time without the ghosts, that was something she was one hundred percent not about dealing with. Magic was one thing, ghosts were a very different thing altogether and she didn't want to have to explain a haunting in Connecticut style thing at her place if she could avoid it. She'd already had to explain away that Annabelle doll that she'd gotten from Almadel last year with.... varying levels of success.
Asuka had to admit, she really, really didn't like waiting next to this spooky trail sign with its super cursed picture and general ominous vibes. Yeah, okay, haunted locations were her hobby, but this one felt--
Different. Real. She'd been plenty of places with leaky pipes or weird deaths that were probably actually the Negaverse or even EM fields or weird carbon monoxide stuff going on, and this place didn't feel like any of them. It was summer, she sohuld have been melting, and yet she felt--cold.
It was probably all in her head, though. Especially since just seeing Hela perked her right up and made her feel loads better without anything but the factual existence and presence of another person.
She reached into her subspace and produced her camera, holding it out proudly.
"Totally ready," she said, even if she didn't really feel all that ready. "We are absolutely going to conquer whatever spooky bullshit this is and come back to receive our due in internet clout."
If she thought of it that way--thought of it as an exercise in views and For The Content--it was really, really hard to be scared. So, she turned to the path, and took her first step down.
"Stick close," she said. "Like, this is totally a normal path and we definitely don't need to worry? But, uh. Stick close anyway."
Sara Draconia
Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2024 9:52 pm
Taking the first pic of the night, Hela checked a few settings on her camera before deciding that the creepy sign would be a good start. "Def gonna talk about it when I do my next stream. This city has one hundred percent giving me some weird things to talk about during my just chattings." That and it was good for viewers for her to talk while she working on the faceups on dolls during things since she really didn't have her face on the screen most nights.
Nodding at another camera being available, she hoped there wouldn't be a repeat of that graveyard but there was at least a back up now too. "Yup, got it, stay close and keep an eye out." It was the usual drill and she'd gotten used to checking more things out now that she knew there were youma and stuff running around the city. This was different though, nore up her alley, but it was always good to be prepared and cautious.
Taking a few steps forward, she brought out her trusty maglight and flicked it on to one of the lower settings. It was enough to see but not be seen from too far away by anyone that might have set this up as a prank.
"Yeah, this is gonna be a whole video on its own," Asuka laughed. "I mean, what a perfect mysterious, scary story, and I live here and walked the trail. My viewers are gonna love it." As much as they'd loved her story of a graveyard that corrupted the photos and videos she took of it. Hopefully this time she'd at least have some eerie visuals to back her story up, though.
"So, got any theories?" She asked, as she pulled out her own flashlight, glad for its illumination. She took a quick shot down the path, and another of the strangely wilting flowers she noticed near her feet. "This doesn't really feel like Chaos--ours or theirs. Maybe some other Senshi with weird ghost magic? Though this would be a pretty big area to affect..."
Sara Draconia
Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2024 3:36 pm
Waving the flashlight around, Hela noticed that some of the plants looked wilted even though there were puddles here and there between the trees. "I mean dead plants and stuff but forests are pretty spooky for city folk, it's like.... nature scares em?" Something she'd figured out by seeing some of her classmates freak out over wildlife getting into the building or being amazed when she showed off pictures of the deer that frequently ate her mom's flowers back home.
"I think it's that or like, a big barn owl or something. Maybe some shrooms that like spew stuff that makes people forget? I mean nature is pretty weird even back home where there isn't any magic crap to add to the weirdness." The magic part didn't seem like it could be a thing but then again she'd seem Remarque do that whole big show of strings and stuff to get them all out of the air and not like dying from hitting the ground.
"I feel like we'd feel, em if it was someone else? Especially if it's like the whole place." And it was happening more than once so unless someone lived in the woods or had something to hide their aura it really didn't seem likely.
"Yeah, no, it's me, I'm city folk," Asuka admitted with an awkward little laugh. "You're probably right, though, it's probably nothing. People are going in expecting it to be scary, so they look to be afraid. It's like...like...you go into a haunted place expecting to have a ghost experience, and suddenly everything is ghosts, you know?"
She saw it all the time, especially with people clout-chasing as paranormal investigators on YouTube or Twitch. No debunking, just credulous nonsense.
She shook her head. "You're right, and it wouldn't last that long. Magic's like....a minute or two at best."
Still, as they walked, it felt....bad. Wrong. And the longer they went, the more she felt....tired.
Ugh, annoying. She reached into subspace and produced a travel mug, taking a swig of coffee.
"Is it just me, or are you feeling sleepy at all?"
Sara Draconia
Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2024 6:04 pm
"I mean... you seemed to handle the weirdo space crap just fine I guess? But bugs are gross no matter where ya come from. But yeah those like people who hype it all up ugh... The worst are the people who go into those abandoned places and mess it all up. It really ruffles my feathers when I find a nice place to explore and photograph just to find it's been hit by the copper strippers or tagged up with spray paint." The fun was seeing the eerie silence of a place that looked like it was lived in until you turned the corner and saw all the black mold or standing water. Where it could have been someplace you swore was just full of people at first glance.
Taking more steps as she waved her flashlight around, she did feel tired but she also had been running around doing a lot more magic stuff without classes hanging over her. It was better anyway than spending time laying around being bored or going home for some of the carnivals or fairs.
Feeling a bit bad she shook it off and yawned. "A bit but like I've been staying up working on my portfolio in the downtime between semesters and streams." Had to keep things running to keep enough funds in her account to afford school supplies.
"Those were weirdo space bugs," Asuka said, "and somehow that was less freaky than like, finding a cockroach in my house? Or getting bit by a mosquito?" Still, she couldn't help but huff angrily, being reminded of people who were so...disrespectful. "I think the worst is when you find the detritus of a party. Like, a bunch of stupid ******** teenagers or undergrads got plastered in this house and screwed it up and left their beer cans and used condoms everywhere. Gross."
Talking with Hela was a good distraction, and it kept her from feeling totally panicked about everything going on. Because the longer they walked, the more she felt like she just...wanted....to lie down....
....And the more certain she was that doing that here was a terrible idea. Like, way to set yourself up to get kidnapped by some kind of malevolent forest spirit.
"Ugh, yeah, mood but with video editing," Asuka sighed. "I just....I dunno, I wasn't this tired when we got here, you know?"
Sara Draconia
Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2024 11:55 am
"Yeah like rolly polly but like angry?" Shrugging a bit as she yawned again and stumbled slightly over a branch. This path seemed to be a bit more bumpy than she figured it should be for this time of year.
"Yeah it's super gross, I've been kinda lucky on that front of only finding like trash and stuff but never something hella gross like that. Just ick... why would they want to do stuff like that in a place that might have mold and stuff." It was gross enough as is without taking into account that some of the places she explored had mold or standing water. Now those were things that actually worried her when exploring but she was always careful about it unlike a lot of others it seemed.
Shaking her head, trying to wake up a bit, she found herself stumbling more over some of the other downed branches even though she'd seen them with her flashlight. "Oh sh..... Watch out...." It came out a bit slower than she'd meant it to and she felt herself blacking out as she fell.
