deercountry | Otherworld Log

Entry tags:

Otherworld Log

Who: Anyone & Everyone
What: Open Log for those who want to participate in the Otherworld Player Plot (though you're free to use the player plot in your own logs)
When: December's Log
Where: All over Trench (and ever a ways outside of it)

It doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing, whether or not you're among friends or strangers, it comes for you: the fog. It rolls in so thick it muffles every sound and obscures your vision until you can see nothing but white. And then the siren begins to sound, a split-second of warning before darkness begins to descend upon you and swallow the world. You can feel the change in the air, the hairs on the back of your neck raising up, and can taste it on your lips. It tastes like rust and rot and ash.

Should you be lucky enough to have a light upon you, or see in the dark, you get to witness the world shift and corrupt right before your very eyes. Everything you see begins to fall apart. The paint on the walls chips and cracks and yellows. The wallpaper peels up, floating upward before it dissolves into nothing, revealing the bones of buildings. The carpet or the wood beneath your feet rots away and it doesn't matter what once was hidden beneath those layers, what lies beneath now is grated flooring, old tiles, battered cement, or just sheets or rusted metal. It's over in seconds and the darkness lifts and you're confronted with a Trench you've never seen before. A Trench that's been devoured and tainted.

Some may open their eyes to this place alone, others with friends or strangers by their side, but it doesn't matter who you're with, what matters is how you're going to find your way back to the Trench you know.

Exploration will prove dangerous and difficult. This Other Trench has fallen apart. The streets you're familiar with may have collapsed, forcing you to find another way around, and the buildings and shops and homes you're used to may prove impassable, doors locked or jammed or somehow blocked. Home won't be home now and might not be safe. It's the monsters, though, that make this world dangerous. They roam the streets and haunt the buildings and are drawn to every little sound you might make.

Walk fast, move quietly, and you may very well get through this.

Welcome to your Otherworld.

[ ooc: Feel free to hit up the Otherworld Plotting for more information, plotting, monsters, and more! Or DM here or add me on plurk

lobselvith ]

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Luz had admitted to herself that it had hurt, that she felt like she could have been stronger, that she could have helped. She understood, or thought she did, why Sharon had been so disappointed with her. Those Zealots were horrible, and they did horrible things with no remorse. She wanted to stop them, to prevent them from hurting her friends.

But then it turned to killing, and Luz knew, no matter what she told herself, she'd always have a problem with doing it.

"I wish I wasn't scared. You're so strong, Sharon. When I see someone lose their life in front of me, it...well. I just feel it, no matter what I tell myself."

But she appreciated Sharon saying that. A part of her had always found herself wondering if she killed before, would she do it again, without prompt? It scared her to think of a future where that was the only way to keep going.

"I'll do the best I can there. I don't like the most extreme action. But I know if it's necessary, if there's no other way? I'll do it. I wouldn't want you to die, even if you do come back."

Sharon didn't see herself as someone who was very strong but Luz wasn't the first person to tell her that. With pursed lips, she gave a shake of her head but didn't bother to voice her denial. She just did what she felt needed to be done, no matter what it was or how she felt about it. Maybe that was strength.

"There are going to be moments where you won't be able to consider other actions. Where it's do or die. In those moments, don't hesitate. Don't think about it. Don't let your feelings get in the way, do what you have to do to survive. No matter what," She meant it. Hesitation, and overthinking, those things were killers in the middle of chaos. She'd seen Luz's hesitation in that tower with the zealot, "Remember the zealots. They wouldn't have hesitated or given it a second thought to putting an end to us."

"When you encounter people like that, when you're on the other side of that, do what you have to do to survive and worry about everything else afterward." She won't lie to Luz and tell her she won't change a little because of it but she'd change just as much by suffering at the hands of others, "You may even have to kill to protect someone else and it works the same way: don't think, just do."

The seconds matter.

In Luz's estimation, it WAS. Luz was certainly a person who went with her gut given the situation, and Sharon, like her mother, was able to do this without magic or much of the power many people had. It took courage and pluck and the ability to stand on your feet even in the worst kind of situation.

"Right," Luz said, her teeth chattering a little. "I...wound up going back there again, for my friend Vi. She was weakened and needed help. I had to hit them first then, and I didn't hesitate there. I couldn't."

Luz didn't mention that having a girlfriend changed her whole perspective there: dying, she knew, could happen at any point. The last thing Luz ever wanted to do was cause her girlfriend pain, and concentrating on that made her even more determined to strike first.

But Luz listened and nodded. Even if she had done this very thing for Vi, Luz knew it was a lesson she needed to be reminded of. When it came down to your friends or killing? You chose your friends. You didn't want to see them die, so you struck first, like with the cannibals, and soul searched afterward.

"Those monsters, the ones in the forest. I think they were a reflection of me. Like, the me if I decided to just kill, without remorse. That's what I'm always afraid I'll do if I stop caring about how precious lives are."

And by contrast, Luz knew the shrieking monsters she met, the ones that gave her position away? Was the other part of her she feared.

The cowardly one.

The fact that Luz returned to that place of her own volition shocked Sharon but then she felt something swell up in her akin to pride. She'd helped rescue Vi and she didn't hesitate. Sharon nodded her head as she listened and then said with firmness, "Good."

Do what's necessary and never look back.

Sharon remembered back to those creatures and how they'd fought. In a way, she could recognize the similarity. She didn't know if she agreed. She wasn't really sure what to think about the creatures if she were honest. She didn't understand them. The creatures in her Silent Hill, in her Otherworld, had mostly been people. Real people turned into creatures by her power; a reflection of both themselves and Alessa's distorted view of reality.

But it was different in this world. These weren't Trenchies or Sleepers, these were born solely from the minds she'd dragged in.

"What makes you think that? Is it just a feeling?" Or did she just know? Maybe if Sharon better understood, she could better prepare others for this place.

Luz had actually been the aggressor that month. Remembering what had happened to her and knowing what the Zealots would do to others had sunken in finally, so Luz had sought to stop them before they got to sink their hooks too deeply into her friends.

It hadn't quite turned out how she wanted, but at least she'd done something.

Luz didn't like to think of where she was now, here. From the moment that monster had started shrieking, Luz had a nagging feeling, a hunch. She'd known enough that she was in Silent Hill, but like Sharon, had thought she'd be encountering Sharon's demons. Instead, this monster had reacted more like someone cowardly, harmful yes, but something about it punctured a part of Luz, and she tried not to think about it.

With the arrival of that one that attacked though? It had made Luz realize that she did know these monsters.

"I painted them," Luz said quietly. "After what happened in the dark, I felt pretty bad, and the only way to feel better was to paint how I felt in that moment. That was the first thing that came to mind."

"You painted them?" she gasped out, stunned a moment, "Shit, that means they're really..."

They're really, truly a reflection of Luz. Silent Hill was hell and it has taken directly from Luz. From each and every single person she drew in. Her stomach rolled.

"Don't overthink what they mean. If they're your fears, your worries, you can conquer them," and Luz had been conquering her fears the whole time she's been in Trench, in addition to the dream. She did it when she rescued Vi. She did it when she began to explore this version of Trench.

"But... If you need me to, I can,.." She licked her lips, "I can pull us out. Now."

Sharon normally keeps this going for a few more hours, mostly to prepare her body for the energy this power takes from her, but she was willing to jump the gun; willing to push herself harder for Luz's sake.

"I did," Luz said, looking guilty. "The barest concept of what I felt that day, actually. They're kind of more terrifying in the flesh."

Luz had wondered why the screaming banshee had seemed so familiar, and now that she realized she'd painted it, she was beginning to have an understanding of what Silent Hill WAS. She could also see how some people might take umbrage with what it was.

"I'm trying not to. I mean, if this place is meant for you to look your fears face to face, then I have to make sure that I do that. But if that screaming me is the cowardly part of myself, then that one powerful one was-"

What I'm scared I become if I kill too often.

Luz didn't say that aloud, but she couldn't help look at that monster and think of Willow of Trench when she was corrupted. Luz had always respected Willow, and seeing how Willow was then, it reminded her of her darkest fear.

She never wanted to attack lethally unless she had to, and sometimes it felt like it was happening more and more.

"No, it's ok. I understand what you're doing, and you want to get stronger. So I can brave it out."

Sharon didn't have the heart to tell Luz that the Silent Hill she saw, this Otherworld, wasn't about facing your fears; it was about torturing you with them. Most would never realize the monsters were just born from aspects of themselves and the people around them, not without the right knowledge, and would just accept them as monsters. As horrors chasing them, not as something to be confronted.

She'd rather Luz confront and conquer them. Maybe next time Luz won't have fears in her it can take from.

"Nothing here is a sign of who you are or can be," she said firmly.

"You don't have to brave it out but... It'd help me a lot if you did. It's draining to bring this place forward and it's even harder on me to send it back. I try to let it exist for a few hours at least, just to give me some time to get my energy back before I do anything else."

For Luz, it was always a Deerington or Trench situation, which tended to BE about torturing them in one way or another. It was probably due to this and Luz finding herself constantly assailed by her own flaws that she saw them as something to overcome.

After all, Luz was not someone who allowed herself to stay miserable anymore.

"I sure hope not," Luz said. "They're both pretty bad places for me to be. I don't ever want to be overpowered and conquering everything in my path."

The other option was, in her opinion, more likely, and much worse.

"Of course I'll brave it out! It's just spine chilling terror with a bit of trauma, after all. It's kind of a typical month in Deerington."

Luz REALLY wished that wasn't actually fact.

Sharon grimaced at the statement but she knew Luz wasn't wrong. She never had the chance to experience Deerington and its horrors but she knew enough to see the similarities between that nightmare and her own. It sucked, though.

"Listen, we shouldn't stay in here too long. There are some safe places scattered around here but this..." she took a look around the room. It had been safe enough but there was something foreboding about the room, "This isn't one of them."

"The only one I know for certain is my place in Crenshaw. It's a bit of a walk but... It's better than sticking around a place where we could be ambushed by something in the shadows."

"You think you're up for a trek outside?"

It was pretty bad. Luz didn't love this situation obviously, but she was still able to come to grips with this better than Deerington. It was still Sharon's creation, after all. She trusted her.

"If you say that, then I'm inclined to believe you." Luz slowly got up, making sure to try and make as little noise as possible. The last thing they were wanting to do was to get something new come after them.

"Boy am I missing the lamps," Luz muttered, but she wouldn't complain. It was this or nothing, after all.

"If you're here? I think I can do it. I'll try to watch your back."

"Don't worry, I'm not about to leave you to deal with this place alone," she assured her, "Promise."

It was a promise she planned on keeping.

Sharon finally moved past Luz to the front door, taking great care as she opened it to peek outside. There was a creature hovering in the distance to the left, seemingly idle, but it wouldn't take much noise or movement from them to draw its gaze and ire. They'd have to move quickly.

"All right," she said with a nod, licking her lips in growing anticipation, "There's a monster to our left but if we run, we can probably avoid having to deal with it. The less we have to fight, the better."

Sharon was ready to face Luz's monsters again but it felt important to make sure the other girl was prepared for that, "You ready?"

"I wouldn't have doubted you," Luz said, managing a thin smile. She was still slightly scared, of course. It was one thing to see Silent Hill in memories, and something else altogether to witness it in person.

Luz moved a few paces behind Sharon, her hand at her shirt in case she needed to draw out a glyph. Without a gun, it was really the only kind of protection she had.

She listened to Sharon's instructions and nodded. She might have been inclined to toss a light glyph at it as a distraction, but it was just as likely to backfire and attack them, so she was going to attempt what Sharon asked.

Luz took a long, deep breath, and nodded. "Yeah. Let's do this."

Once she had Luz's confirmation, she opened the door and led them both out, careful to keep her footsteps light. The creature hovered a distance away from them in the air, listless in its movements, but didn't appear to notice them in the darkness of the streets.

She moved as quickly as she could across the street and kept to the right, only ever stopping to make sure Luz was keeping up with. They had a long way to go before they made it to Crenshaw and she would make certain Luz made it there in one piece.

Luz, despite being clumsy and sometimes accident-prone, was doing her best to keep up, and found it was not as hard as she thought. All of her flying and running around with the farthers had made her pretty fast. It was keeping quiet that made Luz pause, because the last thing they needed was another animal coming at them.

On the plus side, it at least looked like they were going to make it!

Sharon led them down alleys and side streets. Always careful, always quiet. She never strayed far from Luz's side. There were times she'd ask Luz to wait in a quiet area to check something out that wouldn't be safe for the both of them but she was never gone long.

She knew this world like it had been carved into her heart. No matter the changes others brought in with them, it was still hers. It still breathed with her.

It's not long before they come across a street that's collapsed. Most of the buildings that had lined it have survived, a nesting of apartments, but the tail-end of them has fallen into the pit. A bed hung precariously at the edge of a second floor. Sharon groaned inwardly. This had been the quickest route to Crenshaw from where they'd been and now...

"I think we might need to backtrack just a little, take a turn down that alley we passed up." They'd passed it up because there'd been strange sounds echoing off the brick walls and Sharon hadn't wanted to deal with some monster encounter in such an enclosed area but... It looked like it was their best option now.

Luz walked with her, and was now starting to take note at how foggy everything was. She wasn't used to something like this happening without the help of the weather, and it just added to the sense of creepiness that was starting to creep at her skin.

Still she stayed close, hoping that she wouldn't have to depend on a glyph. Maybe this would all just end simply?

"Down the alley?" Luz said quietly, nodding. Ok. Ok. She could do this. She might have thought that too soon though: just as they were starting upward, there was an empty can Luz failed to see, and stepping boldly, it was slippery enough that Luz let out a yelp when her feet gave way under her, and she attempted to catch herself and instead rammed her leg hard into some concrete.

"MIERDA! " Luz yelled, then covered her mouth. Oops.

It all happened so quickly. One moment, they were on the move, silent as they could be, and the next, Luz was yelling. Sharon whipped around to look back at her companion, bolt upright. Even in the darkness, she was pale, her fear evident. They'd been doing so well.

She crossed the space between them to hurry and pull Luz to her feet just as the sound of footsteps began to echo out from behind them. Wet bare feet slapped against concrete. And then came the groans. High-pitched, almost shrieking. The creatures that stepped out from the fog around them appeared to glow from the inside out. Their bodies were dark, their skin flaking, but it was as if the fires that turned their flesh to ash still lived within them.

Luz could have kicked herself for the noise that she let out right now. Dang it, she'd been doing so well! But now she managed to give away their position, and Luz knew there was no turning back from that.

Not that she wouldn't try.

With Sharon's negging she was on her feet again, and the sounds of the monsters seemed to echo in her nightmares. She just needing a little of their gross, slippery noises to come to life, running alongside Sharon and pulling a glyph of light that might possibly distract them.

She let it go instantly, trying desperately to catch up with Sharon.

The crying, shrieking childlike creatures try to block their path and reach out toward them with their hands, their fingers dark and melted together. They don't try to attack, though, they just crowd and cry. They were desperate. Needy. Yearning.

The light glyph Luz tossed out away from them helped some and caught the attention of a few of the stray children but the large bulk of them remained focused entirely upon the pair. Sharon dragged Luz along with her. The two of them could move faster than the grey children but the creatures were coming out of seemingly nowhere. They tried to grab at the hems of their clothing. Sharon screamed when one hand scrapped against the bare flesh of her other hand and she wheeled her body away from them.

The children burned, every touch like being kissed by fire. Sharon lashed out, blasting a handful of them back telekinetically. They were just feet from the alley mouth now. They were almost out of the tight space. From there, they could easily get away.

"Sheesh!" Luz called out, somehow still unable to curse, even here. Luz felt a few hands reaching out and did her best to kick them away (she was actually better at doing something like this than she thought]. She was still a little angry at herself for giving away their position, but there was very little time to think about that when these squelching, creepy children thing were coming for you.

When she felt one of them actually grab her hair Luz shrieked and didn't hesitate: she had the glyph pressed against it's forehead, and a peal of fire now erupted over the one in question. Now the mass were shrieking even LOUDER, and Luz was desperately trying to stay closer to Sharon, scrambling for the alley, her scalp screaming.

They make it to the mouth of the alleyway just in time and stumble out onto the street. Behind them, the Grey Children crowd together, shrieking and hollowing and crying out for them. Sharon refused to let go of Luz's hand even once they were in the open and didn't once dare to slow.

It took almost ten minutes of racing down the street, picking and choosing their direction at random, that Sharon finally felt they could slow. The sound of the children was so far in the distance now that she knew they free of them for the moment. She released Luz's hand and doubled over to catch her breath.

"Fuck. Fuck," she straighted herself up to look Luz over, touching the other girl's face to twist her head this way and that. She winced, "I think they singed your hair. Are you okay?"

Luz didn't stop even while the pain was stinging. It hurt, but if they got a hold of her, it would be nothing BUT pain. Moreover, she'd promised Sharon she would help her learn more about her power, and Luz had every intention of living up to that promise.

She just had to make sure not to die. Easy peasy?

The pain was enough of a motivator though. Luz ran with Sharon, swerving when she did, moving as fast as her legs could carry her. If she was lagging, she refused to show it, and only when Sharon let go did Luz allow herself to fall to her knees, trying to catch her breath and stop trembling.

"Y-yeah, I'm good," Luz insisted, but did flinch at the touch. She WAS bleeding, and Luz had refused to acknowledge that until now, telling herself it was just sweat that hurt. It had been a comforting lie.

Sharon was careful as she checked Luz over. The blood made her grimace, "We'll get you cleaned up when we get to the house."

She's grateful she had the foresight to keep a first aid kit on her when she shifted the world. Sure, it had aged with the world but it would still be plenty useful.

"How's your leg? Can you walk?"

Luz sighed. It seemed like wherever she went, she always seemed to wind up hurting herself inadvertently. She had to get better at dealing with this kind of thing by now!

Clearly this girl needed to get her priorities straight.

"All right," Luz said, though she could feel the adrenaline moving in her. "I can keep going. I just need a few minutes to catch my breath."

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...I may have Luz trip over something in the next thread.

lmao sounds good to me!

Re: lmao sounds good to me!

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