PLAYER PLOT: Enfenim

[mythalenaste]

WHO: Pel, Sina, Cyril, Beleth, Sorrel, Myr, Saoirse, side of Anders and Alistair
WHAT: A demon has trapped Pel in the Fade.
WHEN: Forward-Dated to 25 Firstfall
WHERE: The Gallows, the Fade
NOTES: Trigger warning bonanza for insects, body horror, corpses, dismemberment/maiming, death, illness, drowning, blood + will update if any more happen.

What am I to do with all of these dolls?
They've covered the floors, they've covered the walls.
They're stacked up chin-high all over the floor,
But my greedy child is screaming for more...

Comments

Wave Two: Sorrel and Saoirse | tw: suicide, blood, and dismemberment

[mythalenaste]

"Stay down there! Just stay down there, Merrick!"

The voice belongs to a man who stands high up in a tree, trying a hemp cord around a branch. A young boy is trying to climb up the tree. Behind him, Pel is trying to pull him down.

"Merrick," says Pel, who can be no older than fourteen or fifteen, "obey your father. Come down. Lethallin!" That call is directed at the man up in the tree. "Do you need help?"

The man does not respond. When he is finished tying the rope around the branch, he loops the other end, tied into a noose, around his own neck and tightens it. His lips move, though his words are too soft to be heard. Pel yanks Merrick back from the tree as far as she can.

"Papa? Papa!"

The man steps off the branch. At first, there is no sound. Then, the rope tightens, making a peculiar twang at the same moment as there is a sickening snap of bone, sinew, and flesh, and the man's body keeps falling while, for a moment, his head remains caught in the noose. The headless body hits the ground, followed a second later by the head, which rolls down a slope to Merrick's feet. There is blood everywhere.

Merrick is silent for a moment. Then, his jaw unhinges. His eyes roll back into his head. And he starts screaming.

His scream makes the Fade around them warp. The forest melts and drips upward toward the rippling sky. The air distorts outward from Merrick's voice, like heat waves. The earth rumbles. A massive shadowy hand descends, reaching toward the boy as if to claim him as well as his father. Pel snatches Merrick up in her arms and flees, sheer terror lending her preternatural strength. The hand chases after her.

[writteninblood]

Sorrel approaches the scene, almost curious. It seems, for a moment, peaceful enough; the children arguing, the tree. And then... and then...

Creators.

The scream would have woken him, were waking an option. It seems to strike the world like a physical blow, upending reality around them all in a tumbling, horrifying wave. Sorrel, along with all else, has no choice but to ride out the shrill, piercing terror, and to struggle against the nauseous feeling of a shifting ground beneath them. Sorrel glances to the left, and finds himself no longer alone-- Saoirse?

"Saoirse! We have to follow them!"

[sulena]

After the rivers of blood that washed over her alienage, Saoirse is grateful for the change of scenery and the chance to simply breathe from the assault on her own mind by the demons lingering here in the Fade. She approaches the voices with caution, only truly recognizing Pel and tempted to almost reach out before the sickening scene plays out.

She covers her mouth in an attempt to hold any noise in, staring with wide eyes and trying to remember how to calmly breath.

In, out, in, out... Again the words are a mantra in her head. Thankfully, Sorrel is there to draw her out and she nods, already turning on her feet.

"We must hurry!"

[mythalenaste]

Pel and Merrick escape sight, but the screaming leads the way. Down the path, the forest starts changing. Severed heads line the path, at first only bearing the face of Elan, the man who hanged himself so gruesomely. Then they start to change. They alternate between Sorrel's face and Saoirse's, all glassy-eyed and staring. The shadow-hand hits the ground as if throwing a tantrum.

"Come baaaack!" cries a child's voice. "I want to play with my dolls! I WANT TO PLAY WITH MY DOLLS!"

There's another slam, brought on by a second shadow-hand, which clutches Elan's headless body like a figurine it was playing with.

[writteninblood]

Sorrel curses softly, and winces at the first impact, then startles, grimacing at the second, at the grotesque burden it bears.

"The demon," He tells Saoirse, terse and carefully not making eye contact with any of the heads on any of the pikes a they charge past, "It knows we're here. We need to get to Pel, before it does. It'll do anything it can to stop us, be ready to fight."

Fighting giant disembodied hands is not Sorrel's idea of a good time, but he's perfectly willing to do it. He takes a deep breath, and glances upwards. The rest of the dream is itself, but in the Fade, there is always one part of the sky that never changes-- the black city hangs above, silent and ominous.

Good. At least there's that to ground him.

"How fast can you run?"

[sulena]

"I fought through my Harrowing," she says with a tense voice most unlike her usual demeanor. "I will fight this too if I must. We will save Pel, we must. I will not allow for anything less."

It is mostly words to herself than to Sorrel personally as she takes a deep breath and focuses. Her hands bunch into fists at her side and she glares at the sight laid out before them. The light will guide her, protect them and help to lead Pel from this cursed place where demons tried to turn her own memories against her.

"Fast, so do not fear. I will stay at your side." She says, offering him a softer look. "We will make it through this, we will get to her but we must hurry before the land changes once more."

[mythalenaste]

The shadow-hands clench into fists. Both are brought down on the earth at the same time. The resulting shockwave levels the forest, trees snapping and crashing down. There is great pressure in the air around for a moment, then it is gone. Everything is quiet. From here to the horizon, there is no sign of Pel.

"Why?" asks a voice directly behind Sorrel and Saoirse. If they turn to look, it is teenage Pel, no longer holding little Merrick. "Why hurry? This day already passed. You weren't there to save her. Nobody saved her except for me. It's already over. You can't change it. Why are you trying to take her away? Why can't you leave us alone?"

[writteninblood]

Sorrel lifts his head from the instinctive crouch, hands coming down. He's cautious. The silence is as deafening now as the noise was a moment ago-- enough that Pel's voice carries calm and clear, right through it. Running may still be the order of the day, but... For now, not yet.

"Because you-- Because Pel needs to wake up," Sorrel begins, not looking away from that painful, young face any more than one would an agitated snake. It is dangerous to engage with spirits and demons, when to argue at all is to expose some part of your mind, yourself, to your interlocutor, "No one can change the past. But you haven't saved anyone, you've just trapped her here. She has more than this nightmare, a daughter, a cause."

[sulena]

The voice sends Saoirse reeling to face the vision of Pel. She is much younger now than the one she knows, breath catching in her throat but she steps forward with determination and with her needed strength. Nevertheless, she faces it with a calm expression.

"She has a future that she deserves to make her own and a daughter that needs her," she says lightly. "Sorrel is correct. We cannot change the past, we cannot change what happened to her but we can be strength for her in her times of need. We can help her overcome these horrors while she paves her own way into the future."

[mythalenaste]

"But I'm so hungry!" The demon stamps its foot. "If I do all the work and she does none, that's not fair!"

It takes two steps forward, then stops, scowl fading into frown.

"You...you could help me!" it says suddenly. "One of you could--either of you! I can wake her up and still help her! Just let me in so I can go to your side."

[writteninblood]

"Oh come on, you know that's not going to work," Sorrel drawls, sarcastic despite-- because of-- the chill of fear. Exchange his life for Pel's? More than fair, true. But he spares a glance at Saoirse to confirm their mutual unwillingness.

Even if he'd wanted to give in, out of pity or self-sacrifice, or sheer stubborn idiocy, Beleth would only keep coming back here until either Sorrel died, or the demon did. And there's no telling what his mother would say. Or Sina, if she woke up to find him-- no. No.

"You have her trapped here, torturing her, yet you say it's not fair? Please. No one's forcing this on you; go on back where you came from, if it's so hard."

[sulena]

Her features never change as she holds onto her staff, staring down at the demon through its tantrum and through Sorrel's words as he speaks.

"That's not how this works. You do not have a place in her future or at her side," she says calmly. "You have a choice now, which is far more than what you deserve to awaken her and return to your corner of the Fade. Whether you agree or not, she will leave this place and you."

[mythalenaste]

"Then you're just getting in my way," the demon snarls. It raises its hands. Shards of ice form in the air and fly toward Sorrel and Saoirse.