The Horseman (13) : Fog is not uncommon in the latter half of the year, so it’s no surprise that Destiny City has been plagued by it. Historically, it has never brought anything good. Walls of white so dense that a deep breath feels like drowning, the rolls across the city in the late hours of the night like a herd of stampeding horses. You can hear them, too–the gallop of hooves. You can’t see it, but you hear a single horse, massive. Trotting behind you. If you speed up, it speeds up. No matter where you go, it follows. Sometimes, you can feel an icy breath on the back of your neck. It’s uncomfortable and unnerving, and there’s the distinct feeling of being followed by some sort of predator. It’s worse, if you run. It chases you. If you look behind you, you’ll see nothing but a dark, swirling mass, and sometimes the glint of a large blade. It’s terrifying. There’s no way to fight it, but if you’re lucky you can hide. If it catches you, you feel a painful sensation around your neck before the horse and its dark rider disappears into the night. Your heart feels like a bomb in your chest, and when you are somewhere safe you may find a deep, red mark on your neck, as if someone attempted to lop it off. The injury will fade after a few hours, but unfortunates may find a strange mist lingering outside of their window, accompanied by the sound of hooves and horse whinnies. The horseman cannot be interacted with; he does not speak, he does not have any form. He is simply hunting.
They'd made it out of the forest.
Irkalla was grateful for that at least. The oddest part of that journey was that she, Irkalla, had ceded over control to Tea to navigate them out of harm's way. Oh, it wasn't like she had done nothing while acting as the rearguard - quite the contrary. The trees were like those stupid ghosts in the Mario games. If you kept your eyes on them, they wouldn't attempt to reach out to grab them. So while Tea was the navigator she was making sure that her constant gaze was on any of the trees that seemed to be awake.
But as soon as they had cleared the danger of the woods it seemed as if another danger had snuck in; creeping silently. Ghosting along lawns of the residential area they now found themselves located in. Letting go of the ribbon that Tea had suggested she hold onto Irkalla stared out at the sight of the ghostly vapor that was the fog rolling in before she sighed.
"I suppose it was too much to hope that once we made it out of the forest that we could just head off towards are respective homes. I'm not exactly put off by this fog but I'm not sure I trust it."
xxLP
Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2024 11:45 pm
tefla
Tea gave a sigh when they were out of the woods and dropped the cord she'd held onto as she looked around the area they'd emerged into. She saw the fog lazily rolling in but she thought she heard something coming with the fog.
She paused, "I don't like it," The chibi senshi said as she watched and listened to the noise grow louder in her ears, soon she could make out the hoof beats.
"It's silent hill fog. That's what this is." She finally concluded, it wasn't completely off putting but it felt and sounded like something was coming for them. ". . . the question is, silent hill fog or trees that want to be a little too friendly."
She was looking to see if there was an option for a way to go that might avoid the fog, but alas it didn't look like they were going to be lucky.
"Hmm. That is a tough choice. I think even if this is Silent Hill fog, that I'll take it over the idea of going back into the forest. Those trees were just a little too friendly for my liking."
Considering the idea of keeping a hold of each other seemed to have worked in the forest, was there any doubt that it would help out here as well. Her gaze turned pensive as she thought through the benefits of sticking together once more and she glanced down to the senshi at her side. "I'm thinking that for as long as this fog lingers, we should continue to stick together. I don't know if it seems like we could lose our way, I just don't feel like having that option even be present right now."
Hopefully the fog would simply dissipate after a short period of time but Irkalla was pretty sure that with how dense it was becoming, that it wouldn't simply just go away. She held out the cord of her ornament weapon to Tea before grinning down at the senshi, "let's not lose each other as we brave this phenomenon."
LP
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 11:42 pm
Tea nodded as Irkalla said she'd rather take their chances with the silent hill fog. "I just wish I knew what was going on, because it seems really weird we've run into trees that are alive and now this...." She said motioning to the fog.
Tea nodded in agreement about sticking together, "Yeah I agree we should stay together." She smiled softly, there was safety in numbers after all.
When Irkalla handed Tea the end of the ornament weapon, she took it once again, "Alright then, lets be off. Hopefully we'll find the end of it sooner rather than later." She looked around, "Would you like to lead the way this time? Or would staying side by side be preferable?"
Tea was looking at least they had a road they could follow that would probably help since the fog seemed rather thick and she assumed it'd be hard to see more than a few feet in front of them at that point.
Irkalla gave the question a moment of consideration before she replied, "honesty, I don't know if anyone should lead in this stuff. I think staying side by side works better in fog. With the trees it seemed more practical, but here, I don't know," Irkalla's voice trailed off as she brushed a few stray curls away from her eyes before listening intently. The fog muffled most of the regular noises that could have been present and it left Irkalla feeling more than a little unease. Fog like this wasn't exactly unnatural, but the sense that something could be lurking deeper within the growing fog bank was unsettling.
It was though, as Tea had pointed out, a good thing that they were now at least on a road. It could make navigating to respective areas of the city much, much easier.
"I think we shouldn't count out the fact that something else could happen but the best idea is to just push on forward as best as we can."
Moving forward, into the ever growing cloud of white, did Irkalla try to maintain an appearance of being calm, but this, this fog ... felt unnaturally wrong.
LP
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2024 11:36 pm
tefla
Tea nodded when Irkalla finally said neither should lead they should stick close together and push forward. As they walked Tea looked around something was unnerving.
And then she heard something that sounded like hooves, "... does it sound like there's something behind us to you?" She asked quietly as she tried to glance over her shoulder behind them.
They had to be fairly in the thick of the fog by now, as it was hard to see beyond a few feet in front of them. It was silent hill type fog; Tea hated silent hill type fog. And what sounded like a horse trotting behind them did not help her.
Straining her ears the squire attempted to figure out if she could hear whatever it was that her companion believed that she was hearing. The blasted fog wasn't helping at all as it muffled all ambient noises around them. That in itself wasn't too unusual as even your garden variety fog tended to do that. Even as she got ready to deny that she heard whatever it was Tea seemed to be catching noise from, did Irkalla pause and really, really attempt to block out the silence.
Her eyes began to widen as she felt her heart begin to hammer in her chest. There was still no sound that she could pick up on by why did it feel like she was now actively being hunted? The classic fight or flight reflex was kicking in and yet Irkalla couldn't see what it was that needed fighting, so it left fleeing on the table. Yet she stood frozen for a moment before the fog began to take on a darker hue as if something was breaking through the wall of white that surrounded them.
Yanking on her cord in order to bring Tea to be closer, if not totally behind her, Irkalla hissed softly, "try to stay behind me, something is most definitely here."
LP
Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2025 11:08 pm
tefla
Tea was looking around trying to see where the trotting was coming from. It was difficult to tell in this fog as thick as it was. Tea squeaked when she was yanked behind Irkalla "O-okay."
She moved behind Irkalla and was looking around still to try and determine where the noise was coming from. "I think what I'm hearing is a horse..." There was something very rhythmic about the steps. "Maybe it'll go away if we get out of the fog?"
The chibi was looking around, staying as close to Irkalla as possible but hoping to see a shadow or something to tell her where it was.
The sound of hooves striking the cement. That's what Tea seemed to be hearing. She couldn't exactly pick up on the sound herself but that was perhaps due in fact to the fog muffling everything. But thinking back to urban legends did Irkalla recall the story of the Headless Horseman. The first instinct that the squire had was to simply grab the chibi senshi next to her and book it but therein lay the question of how to escape the fog and whatever it was that was lurking deep within the bowels of the white, dense clouds. Was there time in which she could recall herself and a guest to her Wonder? Irkalla had never tried to go in a situation in which she was considered to be in danger but was it worth a try?
Feeling Tea move behind her was the best thing and Irkalla straightened before sighing softly. Would it be wrong to simply get out of the fog the best way possible before any possible encounter happened? Would Tea be okay in being taken into space without being asked first?
The sight of a figure coalescing into something that was more than just a shadowy unknown mass had Irkalla grimacing before ducking down, closer to the ground in order to hopefully get lost in the fog herself. She gestured to Tea to do the same before she put a finger to her lips to indicate silence.
It would have to be enough for now. If the unknown spectre passed them by then she could get Tea away to safety.
LP
Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2025 11:56 pm
tefla
Tea was watching the fog as the hooves striking the cement continued. She was trying to figure out the best way to get out of the situation herself. She looked back to Irkalla who motioned to duck down and be quite.
Tea did indeed duck down and motioned to ask if they should try to sneak out of the fog hoping that maybe they could get out of the silent hill style fog without having to do too much more running. It was fairly crazy the amount of issues they ran into so far for the night.
She was watching the spectre who seemed to be hunting for them at this point. Tea frowned heavily as it continued.
It didn't appear as the spectre in the fog knew they were there. Or if it did, at least it couldn't physically see them, could it? Given the fact it had passed by them a few times as she and Tea remained in a crouched position; still and silent without reacting at all. Was the spectre blind? The sound of hooves striking the pavement would have meant that the horse should alert the rider if it sensed a presence but still nothing seemed to happen.
Tapping the child on the shoulder Irkalla once more mimed the need for silence before she began to crawl on her knees in a direction away from the sound of the animal's presence on the street. Even if it meant going back to the eaves of the creepy forest ... at least for a moment, Irkalla figured that she could just use the brief respite in order to get out of this hellish scenario. She would take Tea, if the child agreed, to a place that would offer a little more refuge than what they were finding here tonight.
The squire just hoped that the senshi was still following her. If Tea decided that she had had enough then who was she to physically stop her from splitting up.
LP
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2025 9:29 pm
tefla
Tea was watching carefully as the shadowy horseman moved in the fog and seemed to be looking for them. When Irkalla mimed the need for more silence, Tea nodded softly.
And as Irkalla crawled she followed. Surely there was a way out of this. Though she was curious if heading back the way they came was the correct answer. The chibi didn't have much of reason to ask though as they moved through the fog when they were finally far enough away from the headless knight she gave a quiet sigh.
Now how were they going to get out of the fog though?
Once she thought that they were far enough away from the spectre in the fog did Irkalla briefly pause in her silent crawling. Her gaze took in the sight of the forest they'd exited earlier looming nearby, all ghostly looking wrapped in the shroud of fog and back to the direction they'd just come from. She couldn't promise safety and it seemed as if Tea's magic wasn't something that could be used for attacking. Quietly she thought of her Wonder and pondered the wisdom of trying to reach it with a guest in tow. In a hushed tone she began to speak quickly, but softly, trying to at least put a viable solution on the table for Tea's safety.
"I don't know if I'm able to, but I could try taking us to my Wonder. The place of space I was assigned to protect. It'd be safer than remaining here and it's an option I can offer ... I think. If you feel like we can avoid the fog and the forests ... I can try to escort you towards the area of town you call home as well. I leave the choice up to you. But I think I need absolute concentration on the idea of going to my Wonder. So the choice needs to be made before our foggy friend realizes we've slipped away."
LP
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2025 11:14 pm
tefla
Tea listened when Irkalla mentioned taking her to her wonder but having to concentrate to do so. There was a frown as the senshi looked around, "I think we've been through enough tonight." She said softly before trying to figure out which way would be best to go.
She nodded, "Let me take a rain check, we can take the longer way, maybe there won't be this thick fog." She said nodding in the opposite direction, if they had to skirt the fog when they got out of it so be it. Tea was fine with that. At least there was more than one way home. They could also use the rooftops if they moved that way as well which should theoretically be out of reach of the fog. "There's some taller buildings we can use the roof to escape as well."
All in all, perhaps it was wiser that Tea decided to take a rain check on a trip to her Wonder. The squire nodded in response to the decision made before she made mental notes of the routes that could seem to work best in order to work their way around the danger of the fog and the forest. Getting slowly to her feet the Cosmos Squire took a cautious step to her right before squinting into the thicker patches of fog. Somewhere in the haze the sound of hooves echoed but she couldn't hear anything now.
Motioning for Tea to follow her Irkalla began to take a circuitous route around the fog patch and stayed just outside of the reach of the eaves of the forest. Once one obstacle, the forest, was behind them, it was easier to at least visually make observations of which way the fog seemed to be drifting in. As long as they didn't get surrounded by the whiteness, Irkalla believed they'd be okay.
It took longer than usual, but eventually it came to a point where Irkalla was able to send the senshi off on her own. She had made a note of the general area that the small figure seemed to head off in before simply taking a seat on the rooftop that she was currently occupying. Her gaze was wary as she watched the patches of fog over another section of the city. She'd jump down into it if it decided to drift back this way in order to play decoy. Soon though it seemed as if the fog was lightening up and Irkalla breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe and she hoped that Tea was safe now as well.
One day she'd take the girl to her Wonder ... it just wouldn't be today.
