bermuda....? ♔ and it will take you to fears you never knew

[behindcloseddoors]

♬ Vessel - Zola Jesus

WHO || Stiles, Fiona, Astrid, Lila, Drax, Snow, Phineas
WHAT || A wish goes awry and the team finds themselves lost in a world of shadow...
WHERE ||Maybe Bermuda. But not.
WHEN || April 14th, 2015 [backdated].
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

It started as a simple enough mission.  Travel to a remote area in Russia where an entire town had fallen from the Shadow World years ago and remained largely entrenched in the culture of that world, to check on a Russian woman who had married the local baron for her parents, who had stopped hearing from her.  The woman had expressed paranoia about her husband's behavior, and upon investigation, the party discovered why: Anya's husband, Stepan, harbored a dangerous secret that threatened not only his family, but the entire town.  Years ago, he made a dark deal with an entity who lived inside a family heirloom called a Midnight Mirror - an artifact of Loviatar used as a magical prison to punish those who offended the goddess.  Agreeing to let this entity take over his body for a year every decade, the shadowy figure helped Stepan to trap his own brothers in the mirror and take over the baronry for himself.  His marriage and the subsequent birth of his child, however, made him change his mind about following through on the next swap, and the shadowy being, angry at him for reneging on his deal, released a plague upon the local town called tallowthroat, a horrible disease wherein shadows birthed out of the inflicted's throats.  

Stepan convinced the heroes to enter the Mirror and destroy the heart of it, ending the threat to the town and freeing him of the deal once and for all.  After a fierce battle against the horrible form the Heart had taken, the Shadow Manor began to collapse, taking with it their only escape route.  Trapped and uncertain what would happen to them if they were there when the entire Manor fell apart, they made a wish on Fiona the genie, to escape to Bermuda.

Where they found themselves seems to be the beach - but they are also in a world still drained of color - trapped somewhere, perhaps, on the Shadow Plane, with no known way to return home.

Comments

[bittersweeter]

We found a city, or.. something.

[killingtodeath]

What, seriously?! Let's go check that out. Screw tree tents.

[unlost]

[Snow doesn't look so excited about that.]

It looked mostly abandoned, and I'm positive there were things...lurking around in there. If we go, we'll need to be extra careful.

[killingtodeath]

So long as we go together we should be good, right? And if there's creepy shit lurking out there, that doesn't really make the beach much safer. We might be able to get inside a structure and make a home base that's actually got decent defensive capabilities.

[Thank you video games.]

[spinerip]

We will work on your strength training later, skinny one. [Drax claps Stiles on the shoulder, then removes both knives from the trees.]

I am certain I can subdue any threats that lurk within the city. They cannot match the might of Drax the Destroyer!

[unlost]

[Snow nods.]

That's exactly why we came back. Like I said, we'll need to be careful, but we can't just stay here forever. We should be fine, if we all go together.

[bittersweeter]

[ shifts in the background, lighting up another cigarette. gonna make astrid's head explode with her bad health, tbh. also gonna let snow take the lead because she doesn't give much of a fuck anymore. ]

[killingtodeath]

[Stiles points to his eyes, then to Snow's eyes.]

Same page. Okay, so we'll go check it out together. Buddy system, but like- all of us. If there's an answer, it's probably not on the beach. Not sure if it's in an abandoned city, but it's probably a start.

[He looks at the group, waiting for objections.]

Everyone good?

[spinerip]

Let's waste no more time on words. [Drax starts walking towards the city.]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila is 100% not looking forward to this walk with everyone else, but w/e. she'll deal. and drift behind them so she can continue smoking in peace and out of arm's reach. it's not like it'll be hard to find the city again, since they left their duct tape path. la de da, walking. ]

[pathology]

[seriously lmao astrid is like STOP TRYING TO GIVE US LUNG CANCER AND EXPEDITE OUR INEVITABLE DEMISE but she doesn't say that shit and just keeps walking along with everyone else.]

[unlost]

[With the help of duct tape, Snow helps lead everyone back to the creepy city, yay.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ moving through the streets of the city, anyone who makes a wisdom check of 15+ would get the distinct feeling of being watched. occasionally, the shadows seem to move out of the corner of their eyes, but when they look that way, nothing appears to actually be there.

the city itself consists of buildings that are hard to place in terms of how modern they actually are - inspecting anything too closely seems to make you feel cross-eyed.

a low hilltop overlooks the city in the distance, on which a large, older looking building sits. there is a gaping black doorway visible on its side. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila feels something, fidgeting as they walk. (wis 16) she just assumes shadow plane = shadows so she doesn't bring it up right away. i'm sure that's a good plan. ]

[killingtodeath]

[Stiles got a wis of 6 so he's fucking clueless. Just looking around, not at all worried about the creepy shadow town.]

[pathology]

[astrid's wis was also 16 (twinsies) so she keeps ... trying to jerk her head around to catch the shadows in her periphery and failing. ow. gonna give herself whipslash tbh. or maybe everyone think she's suffering from some severe form of tourette's.]

[spinerip]

[Drax's wisdom was a 7 so he's just marching forward without a bit of concern. He's pretty sure he can punch his way through anything anyway tbh.]

[unlost]

[Snow's wisdom roll was a 21.

She hates this so much udek. Her shoulders look tense as hell as they walk along, and her eyes seem to dart from side to side.]

We should head up to that building, to get a higher vantage point.

[She speaks quietly, as if loud noises will attract unwanted attention.]

[pathology]

Makes sense. [she has so many things she wants to say ... and yet doesn't blurt them all out at this very moment.]

[bittersweeter]

Let's go, then. [ and she'll just lead the way. it's instinct to draw her gun, but she only pulls one, keeping her other hand free to smack a bitch if need be. she keeps her eyes peeled (spot 17) as she moves forward to the building snow indicated. ]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ a beacon illuminates a lonely dock on the shore. no other beacons are in sight. the dock appears to be deserted, but a path leads from the landing up a short, steep bluff into the darkness. low briar-covered hills slope up from the lake shore. the path leads up towards the hill about half a mile, coming upon the ruined shell of a gatehouse of some larger compound, where a dim lantern burns. an iron bell hangs from a post by the door, and they can see a handful of torches glowing faintly in the ruins beyond, the gatehouse's narrow windows glowing like baleful eyes in the darkness.

close to the gatehouse sits a building that seems to have once been a stable. the remains of four large stalls are still visible within the crumbling masonry. an empty archway from the stables leads to a courtyard inside the walls of the larger structure. ]

[killingtodeath]

Well, this is nice and creepy. [He's so helpful.] Anyone else wondering who lit all these torches?

[bittersweeter]

Probably the stuff in the shadows. Should we ring the bell? [ candy gram? ]

[unlost]

I'm not sure we should draw more attention to ourselves than we already have...

[killingtodeath]

We're kind of sitting ducks out here, so if we're not going to see if anyone's home, we might want to find ourselves somewhere nice to hole up and get some rest. [He jerks his head towards the stables.] Those look like they could work.