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

[whattigerscanchange]

She nods her head once, drawing in a quick breath as she braces her hands against the floor and the wall behind her for balance, pushing herself upward with a groan. She's been on her knees scrubbing so long that her legs protest being straightened out now. When she steps forward, it's experimentally, wobbling as if she's finding balance on new legs entirely. The shoes on her feet don't help matters much. The fact that she'd tried kicking the wall (viciously) more than once to shatter them to no avail doesn't help matters much. Shockingly, it only made things worse.

"You found me by accident?" Odessa surmises without any sense that she would be put out to be told that that is indeed the case. With a small whine to convey her dismay, she finds herself compelled to turn back toward the window and wipe at the pane with what remains of one sleeve. "Nothing ever gets cleaner," she laments, looking back at the dark-haired man over her shoulder. "But I just can't stop myself from trying. Please, please help me."

[inkdamage]

Severus stands, watching this display with knit brows, and then in a truly Gordian Knot fashion, twitches one hand and murmurs an incantation. In the blink of an eye, the room is immaculate - completely free of dirt, grime, dust, rust, cobwebs.

And then something in the foundation groans, and it snaps back to being filthy.

"..Damn."

There's something in this tower that makes him feel like he's shouting underwater when he tries to cast anything. He's not particularly surprised it didn't work, even if he doesn't feel very secure knowing his magic isn't working properly. A bit closer, he attempts finite incantatem on Odessa herself.

[whattigerscanchange]

There's relief for one brief moment when the room is clean, her shoulders sagging and a heavy sigh escaping her lips, but it's so short-lived that the woman curses herself for having held the hope at all. She could cry, if she'd let herself.

She's less wary now when he makes his approach, willing to believe at least for the moment that he's here to help her. His second spell seems to have little effect, however. Odessa merely squirms and pulls a face. "That felt strange. So you're a wizard, then."

Her gaze drifts to a spot on the floor, which she stares at for a long moment, visibly attempting to fight against the irresistible urge before she finally drops her to knees again with a frustrated groan, and begins scrubbing furiously. "I don't know if this helps, or maybe I'm just tired, and babbling, but... The last thing I remember before I found myself here was being in a bar with a man." And if 'Dessa had a nickel for each time she admitted to that... "It was midnight, and then I was here."

She wipes at her brow with the back of her arm, stifling a wide yawn against the crook of her elbow before returning to her work. "I did all this to myself. My dress and the scrapes, I mean." She shakes her head. "Fuck," she mutters, "these shoes aren't even mine."

[inkdamage]

"That's the rumor." Dry, quiet, in response to the assertion that he's a wizard - Severus is trying to puzzle it out. The thought definitely occurs to him that the tower itself is containing whatever spell has her in its grip, but the idea of trying to manhandled her all the way down the massive spiraling stairs without the aid of magic, fighting against her involuntary cleaning impulse and whatever else might unleash itself - no, best to try and sort it here.

"Your shoes?" Let's see those, then. Being out, midnight - yes, she was abducted and spelled, but it doesn't offer much in ways of unraveling it. Items appearing on her during the transition might, however.

[whattigerscanchange]

There's a hint of sheepishness from Odessa that follows Severus' response. She feels dumb suddenly for ascertaining the obvious, and then voicing it. Swallowing her insecurity down, she rocks back to sit on her backside and stretches her legs out in front of her. "They won't come off," she says of her shoes.

With her back against the wall, she tilts her head upward with heavy sigh, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes. Maybe if she doesn't look, she won't be compelled to clean. Frustratedly smacking the back of one glass heel on the cold stone floor yields no effect. Save perhaps for the impressive sound it makes, almost like a bell, which she follows up with a groan. "I can't even break them."

[inkdamage]

Glass slippers, really? Severus frowns, crouching down near her and inspecting - carefully. The evidence of her attempts to remove them are obvious, and he can only imagine how much it hurts. He only tugs on one once, gently, because if these things were going to come off with someone besides her trying, glass would pop away immediately. Nothing. So he tries again, and it's an awkward Wicked Witch of the West versus Dorothy's ruby slippers moment for all that happens. (Again, nothing.)

But...

From out of his pocket, he takes the diamond hammer, holding it up to her. "This came with the keys."

[whattigerscanchange]

Yes, Severus, really. Odessa's truly as thrilled about this scenario as can be expected.

She opens one eye as if to see exactly what it is that came with the keys, but it's on the side with the worst of her facial scarring. She at least gives the impression of peering cautiously or reluctantly before opening the eye that actually has sight. "A hammer?"

It doesn't take more than a split-second's thought before Odessa's nodding her head in a manner that further betrays both how shaken up she is and how much she's actually talking herself into the validity of the implied plan proposed here. "Do it."

[inkdamage]

Fairy tales in their original formats - dark, unhappy, twisted - are normal for Severus; the Wizarding World pulls few punches, in its literature (to say 'fiction' wouldn't be entirely accurate). But he still never pictured himself participating in one, and so this is... surreal. Even more surreal, perhaps, is the fact that he says: "Sorry," and for a moment looks as awkward as he sounds.

He doesn't actually want to sit here groping some woman's feet, all right, that's extremely weird and maybe he has a complex about touching people, which is not anyone's business.

But he does take her right foot, and tap the hammer against one side of the glass shoe. Nothing happens, but the sound it makes is more akin to finding a hollow in a wall versus an impenetrable force. Again, harder, and the glass cracks. It takes a few more applications and it's all shattering, splintering away - Severus brushes broken glass away and urges her to scoot over so she doesn't end up with glass shards embedded into her foot.