in the woods dark and deep I offer you eternal sleep

[aarnethompson]

Who: Alba, Alexia Swiftdawn, Anna Demirovna, Bruce Wayne, Cliona Donovan, Data, Don Draper, Ilde Decima, Irene Adler, Jae-hyun Kim, Jaime Lannister, Kalinda Sharma, Marie-Sixtine St. Vincent, Martel, Nuray Amedi, Penelope Lane, Odessa Wander, Pepper Potts, Rex Lewis, Seoraj, Shrieky, Sunny, Wolfgang Einhorn, Xas
What: Something bad is afoot, and you must help.
Where: Abrogate Green, Badside, Barrackham, Chnum, Echomire, Flag Hill, Gallmarch, Ketch Heath, Pelorus Fields, Raven's Gate, Sangwine, Serpolet, Sobek Croix, Stoneshell, and the northern woods
When: July 22nd to the 30th
Notes: People are slow right now and a few are on hiatus, so slow-tagging and back-tagging are totally fine. Please check the accompanying OOC post for info and to coordinate.
Warnings: Disturbing content, will include violence, choking, drowning, body horror, and animal death.

Strange events tend to go unnoticed in Baedal, compared to the much stranger things happening around them. People don't tend to be noticed when they go missing, either. The city takes these things in stride. After all, people get called back to their homeworld all the time, or they die. Everyone knows this.

Still, rumors start cropping up around the city about the sudden appearance of twelve identical towers positioned around the city like the face of a clock...

ALBA ♞ Cliona Donovan
DON DRAPER ♞ Pepper Potts, Kalinda Sharma
ILDE DECIMA ♞ Irene Adler, Marie-Sixtine St. Vincent
JAE-HYUN KIM ♞ Sunny
MARTEL ♞ Data, Jaime Lannister
NURAY AMEDI ♞ Alexia Swiftdawn, Anna Demirovna
ODESSA WANDER ♞ Rex Lewis
SEORAJ ♞ Bruce Wayne
SHRIEKY ♞ Xas
WOLFGANG EINHORN ♞ Penelope Lane

Comments

SNOW WHITE.

[aarnethompson]

abduction ♚ ilde.

[aarnethompson]

At the market, you come across a lonely stall operated by a sad, tired old man. He encourages you to sample any one of his wares: a beautiful golden comb, a gorgeous embroidered corset, or a pretty velvet ribbon choker. Whichever one you choose is poisoned. As soon as you put it on, you will fall down immediately into a sleep that resembles death. While thus asleep, he takes you to a tower in Serpolet, where you reside in a glass coffin surrounded by red roses. The tower is guarded by a massive huntsman, ten feet tall and wielding an axe, who will not let anyone inside until they pay the toll...

[rhinemaid]

It's never been difficult to lure Ilde with fine things, inclined that way by temperament as well as nature; one of the few things she shares in common with her mother is a weakness for hair-combs, to go with the hair she also inherited, long and dark and blue-black when the illusions fade with her consciousness and leave her gleaming, eyes rolling back in her head as she crumples from the knees. If she hits the ground she doesn't know it, heartbeat (heartbeats) slowing until imperceptible, her body still, insensible and breathless with nothing to fog the glass that she's encased in.

(The gold design is intricate - before she slides it into her hair she turns it over in her hands, presses her fingers over the folds and grooves and can't for the life of her find where any of them lead. She's still thinking about that when she just isn't, any more.)

She was already cold; she dreams of roses.

rescue ♞ irene, marie-sixtine.

[aarnethompson]

There's an old woman pacing outside the tower. How did you get here? Chance, maybe, fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it. Either way, she looks relieved by your presence. She rushes at you, entreating your help; there's a girl locked in this tower, a river fae abducted by a bad wizard.

She promises you a reward, should you help. A generous reward.

She tells you what you need: there's a golden stag somewhere in the this city. She isn't certain where. Barrackham, Sobek Croix, Sangwine, the Northern Woods, or maybe even the fields of Stoneshell? You'll have to find it, cut out its heart, and bring it back; it's the toll you need to get past the huntsman. You have only three days. You must hurry.

[aconitum]

'Destiny' is a thing that follows Marie-Sixtine around like she owes it money (or blood); she's not surprised, any more, when she turns a corner and ends up somewhere she didn't quite mean to be, or when a series of events like closed streets or shops send her down unfamiliar corridors. When the old woman tells her that a river fae has been taken, she knows, instinctively, who that must be. It isn't that there aren't others in the city, but these things tend to follow in-cohort.

She doesn't want to kill the stag.

She doesn't want to kill anything, but especially not an animal, something big and -- not helpless, but blithe. A stag does what a stag does and nothing more.

But she's going to find it. Maybe she'll be able to pull the trigger (take the knife) when she gets there, maybe not, she feels anxious and unsure because her gut always says one thing and her head tells her another, but still, she stands on the street outside the tower, shoes scuffing the cobblestone, arms wrapped around herself, and feels the chill that always accompanies powerful magic.

"Sobek Croix," she says, half-to herself, "to start."

[thedominatrix]

Irene doesn't care about the stag. Curiously, though, she cares about Ilde- which shouldn't be a shock, in that she knew it logically, academically, but now that it's actually been tested it's something of a surprise how deeply it cuts because how dare they.

She may actually be offended.

Sobek Croix to start is her idea as well, and whether that's destiny or coincidence is up for debate; Irene isn't concerned with it at the moment. In fact, she has only one thing on her mind.

Only an idiot wouldn't learn to use a weapon after the sky opened and monsters came in, in Irene's opinion; she wishes guns were more practical, but the crossbow in her hands feels more familiar every day.

She should look out of place, but she isn't, not really. The image of Irene Adler as someone who does this kind of thing seems odd in theory, what with her expensive clothes and affinity for diamond-studded everything- but that's just what it is, an image. Beneath that, there is a kind of brutality, a practicality that happily leaves no survivors, just as long as there's an exception made for her and (apparently) the people she wants around her.

Anyway, she left her diamonds at home.

The moment she hears movement, she turns and levels the crossbow with no hesitation whatsoever.

[aconitum]

The longer she stays here, the more apparent it becomes to Marie-Sixtine that the way she responds to the world around her is left to center of normal, and certainly of human. When she sees a crossbow pointed at her, she doesn't really do much in the way of visible response, immediately; she looks at the weapon, unhappily, and then up at Irene, hugging her arms around herself to draw the cardigan she wears in closer. It's not cold enough to warrant that, but circumstances have led to her feeling a bit of a chill.

She doesn't say anything. That is not the most reassuring reaction, but it is the only one she can think of, because she doesn't know what to say, at least not out loud. 'Don't shoot?' If someone really wants to shoot her, they'll do it, regardless of what words she gives them. She's experienced enough of the world by now to know that pretty persuasion is not all it's cracked up to be.

So she looks, calf-eyed, at the woman on the other end of the crossbow, and lifts her right hand, which has a knife in it. It's not so much a threat, particularly given her position, as a 'you, too?'

[thedominatrix]

Irene is far too clever to point a weapon at someone she doesn't mean to kill. There's no dramatic frozen moment, no should I should I not, just Irene's quiet, measured breaths and then the crossbow is lowered, pressure slowly drawn off.

She's vaguely impressed with Marie-Sixtine's reaction. It seems eminently sensible. Perhaps she'll try it, the next time someone points a weapon her way- but no, it would never work for her.

"So. Let me guess. You're hunting a golden stag," she says, which is not the most charming introduction she has ever given- then again, after pointing a crossbow at a stranger, one can only really improve. For some reason she feels unsurprised, as if this is one more step in a story she's heard before and didn't like. Perhaps she's just trying too hard to keep herself under control- perhaps she can't unwind the tension in her far enough to be surprised or shocked or even too curious.