Xerxes Break (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
payingfordeliverance) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
deercountry2023-02-25 05:23 pm
payingfordeliverance) wrote in deercountry2023-02-25 05:23 pm
Entry tags:
007: Night has always pushed up day
Who: Xerxes Break and you
What: Break's Silent Hill dimension, courtesy of this player plot!
When: Backdated to the end of January
Where: Break's personal Not-Trench
Content warnings: Monster-fighting, serial killers, grief, drowning, struggling to breathe; others to be added as I think of them
Prompts to write your own starters with:
Monsters: The primary monsters of Break's world are demons of a sort known as Chains, all of which are based on creatures and figures from Lewis Carrol's Wonderland stories. They follow the typical demon trope of seeking out a sucker with a wish, and convincing that person to make a Contract with them with the promise that their wish will be granted if they can help the Chain grow strong enough to bring them to the center of the Abyss. Spoilers: You accomplish this by sacrificing humans to the Chain, and you are never going to have your wish granted. Unless you have certain special qualities that enable you to take a Chain as a partner rather than becoming bound to its whims, once you make a Contract you are essentially damned to become a serial killer, and if you don't get taken down by the Pandora organization before you can murder too many innocents, you'll die when you're dragged into the Abyss and your body is warped into a whole new Chain.
They are present in Break's Silent Hill world because he is the one sucker who actually survived all this and did indeed have his wish granted, and after this only made life much worse, he spent the next fifteen years working with Pandora...for Break reasons, but in part to take down other Contractors. They represent his drive to prevent people from making the same mistakes he has made, and the way his understanding of just what makes a Contractor has been of use to him in Trench. The beauty of using them in this setting is that every Contractor attracts the Chain that suits them best and each Chain has its own individual special power, so anyone who'd like one gets something custom-made especially for their wish baggage. If you're interested in working with wish baggage or simply fighting a monster with a certain power, get in touch with me here and we'll sort something out!
The Pool of Tears: Here and there throughout the false Trench, there are patches of black ice that aren't ice at all. Step on one of these by accident and it will open up beneath you into a pool of saltwater, and you won't be getting out of it alone. It's not that the water is that deep. Rather, once it has you, the abrupt weight of intense grief holds you underneath the surface -- because grief is an emotion that strikes without warning, immobilizing. Once pulled out, whoever has fallen to it will struggle to breathe until enough hurt/comfort has been applied.
The Safe Rooms: These will be marked by gold butterflies rather than blue, because of Break's strong attachment to Ange Ushiromiya.
- The Rainsworth garden: A door in a stone wall opens up into the sort of magnificent garden you might find in the estates of the wealthy in Europe, all perfectly tended rosebushes and beautiful marble statues and even a nice gazebo. The temperature is pleasantly warm, the sun is shining, and there is a pleasant little table with a pleasant little tea setting waiting to go. The tea is gently flavored and delicious, and there are all sorts of cute little sandwiches and cookies. Honestly you should probably just stay here. This is where you're most likely to catch flashes of various Rainsworth ladies, if you'd enjoy drilling Break on the family he left behind -- the woman he loved, who passed away ten years ago; that woman's young daughter, who Break ultimately came to consider his own even though he was "officially" her big brother; and the grandmother of the family, a fine duchess Break felt safe showing vulnerability to.
- The Pandora House movie room: This is just straight up a piece of Break's house in Trench. They keep a room set up with a screen and such for frequent movie nights -- movies are terribly exciting when you are a rich Victorian and in your own time if you want to see a show you have to put on your nice pants and go to the theater. The couches are fantastic for napping, there are cookies and hot chocolate on the coffee table, and an omni projecting onto the screen cycles through some of Break's favorite comfort movies: Beauty and the Beast, Pride and Prejudice (The Version With Miss Knightley), and Sleeping Beauty. There is no exciting dirt to be found here, unless you consider a forty-one year old man enjoying musical princess movies to be a juicy deet. Break does not, and isn't sorry.
- Ye olde generic tavern: A blast from Break's distant past, this is where Break used to hang out with his knight buddies in his early twenties. There's a warm fire, cozy lighting, and hearty stews and warm bread set out if you need something more substantial than tea snackies. There's also a certain table that seems drenched in shadow, though it shouldn't be. And, though the tavern is empty, now and again the echoes of fiddle music and laughter drift past. Listen long enough and you may find that the voices solidify, turning into familiar voices from your younger days. Fortunately, this is a safe room, so those voices are most likely offering words of comfort -- whether you want that comfort or not.
What: Break's Silent Hill dimension, courtesy of this player plot!
When: Backdated to the end of January
Where: Break's personal Not-Trench
Content warnings: Monster-fighting, serial killers, grief, drowning, struggling to breathe; others to be added as I think of them
Monsters: The primary monsters of Break's world are demons of a sort known as Chains, all of which are based on creatures and figures from Lewis Carrol's Wonderland stories. They follow the typical demon trope of seeking out a sucker with a wish, and convincing that person to make a Contract with them with the promise that their wish will be granted if they can help the Chain grow strong enough to bring them to the center of the Abyss. Spoilers: You accomplish this by sacrificing humans to the Chain, and you are never going to have your wish granted. Unless you have certain special qualities that enable you to take a Chain as a partner rather than becoming bound to its whims, once you make a Contract you are essentially damned to become a serial killer, and if you don't get taken down by the Pandora organization before you can murder too many innocents, you'll die when you're dragged into the Abyss and your body is warped into a whole new Chain.
They are present in Break's Silent Hill world because he is the one sucker who actually survived all this and did indeed have his wish granted, and after this only made life much worse, he spent the next fifteen years working with Pandora...for Break reasons, but in part to take down other Contractors. They represent his drive to prevent people from making the same mistakes he has made, and the way his understanding of just what makes a Contractor has been of use to him in Trench. The beauty of using them in this setting is that every Contractor attracts the Chain that suits them best and each Chain has its own individual special power, so anyone who'd like one gets something custom-made especially for their wish baggage. If you're interested in working with wish baggage or simply fighting a monster with a certain power, get in touch with me here and we'll sort something out!
The Pool of Tears: Here and there throughout the false Trench, there are patches of black ice that aren't ice at all. Step on one of these by accident and it will open up beneath you into a pool of saltwater, and you won't be getting out of it alone. It's not that the water is that deep. Rather, once it has you, the abrupt weight of intense grief holds you underneath the surface -- because grief is an emotion that strikes without warning, immobilizing. Once pulled out, whoever has fallen to it will struggle to breathe until enough hurt/comfort has been applied.
The Safe Rooms: These will be marked by gold butterflies rather than blue, because of Break's strong attachment to Ange Ushiromiya.
- The Rainsworth garden: A door in a stone wall opens up into the sort of magnificent garden you might find in the estates of the wealthy in Europe, all perfectly tended rosebushes and beautiful marble statues and even a nice gazebo. The temperature is pleasantly warm, the sun is shining, and there is a pleasant little table with a pleasant little tea setting waiting to go. The tea is gently flavored and delicious, and there are all sorts of cute little sandwiches and cookies. Honestly you should probably just stay here. This is where you're most likely to catch flashes of various Rainsworth ladies, if you'd enjoy drilling Break on the family he left behind -- the woman he loved, who passed away ten years ago; that woman's young daughter, who Break ultimately came to consider his own even though he was "officially" her big brother; and the grandmother of the family, a fine duchess Break felt safe showing vulnerability to.
- The Pandora House movie room: This is just straight up a piece of Break's house in Trench. They keep a room set up with a screen and such for frequent movie nights -- movies are terribly exciting when you are a rich Victorian and in your own time if you want to see a show you have to put on your nice pants and go to the theater. The couches are fantastic for napping, there are cookies and hot chocolate on the coffee table, and an omni projecting onto the screen cycles through some of Break's favorite comfort movies: Beauty and the Beast, Pride and Prejudice (The Version With Miss Knightley), and Sleeping Beauty. There is no exciting dirt to be found here, unless you consider a forty-one year old man enjoying musical princess movies to be a juicy deet. Break does not, and isn't sorry.
- Ye olde generic tavern: A blast from Break's distant past, this is where Break used to hang out with his knight buddies in his early twenties. There's a warm fire, cozy lighting, and hearty stews and warm bread set out if you need something more substantial than tea snackies. There's also a certain table that seems drenched in shadow, though it shouldn't be. And, though the tavern is empty, now and again the echoes of fiddle music and laughter drift past. Listen long enough and you may find that the voices solidify, turning into familiar voices from your younger days. Fortunately, this is a safe room, so those voices are most likely offering words of comfort -- whether you want that comfort or not.
Open to all: The White Queen
It only gets worse if you try to run.
Then the ground opens beneath you in a whirl of light and shadow, and something pulls you through it. If you keep your eyes open through the ensuing fall, you'll notice a myriad of broken toys and dolls, shattered teacups and books with half the pages torn out, floating listlessly in the darkness you're plummeting through. At last, the journey ends, and you find yourself slammed down onto a cracked marble floor smeared with unpleasant rust-colored stains.
"Everyone!" a merry voice rings out. "We've a new guest! Let's please make them feel welcome."
The person the voice belongs to was once a young girl, and her room was once a private wonderland of beautiful things people who don't bother to get to know children as individuals would assume a young girl would love. But she's as corrupted now as the rest of this awful version of Trench, eyes gone black and bones lengthened as though pulled, her delicate fingers reminiscent of spider legs. Her room is smeared with ash and blood. The fine fabrics of her curtains and upholstery have been slashed, there are several bouquets of wilted roses scattered around, and more of those same broken toys float around the tea table in the center of the room. They chatter horribly, laughing along with the girl in a way that makes them sound exhausted.
Break is seated at the table, eye wide with alarm. It's bad enough that he's been pulled here. He's well aware that this girl is not his Alice because his own treated him with incredible tenderness towards certain old wounds while she was here — she would never have put him in the cracked and tarnished suit of armor he's currently wearing, or insisted on using his old name. But he has some idea of how to deal with her, all the same. If she turns violent on anyone else —
"Hey, hey, who will you be?" Alice is asking, clapping her awful hands in joy. "What role are you going to have in my story?"
no subject
But then his "host" speaks, and that is recognizable. Lucius remembers when white-haired Alice was corrupted, last year, or maybe the better term is possessed. She certainly seems that way now, with those black eyes. Alice can't be back - they would know if she joined them on land again. So this must be some kind of reflection of her, or of something that she was at some point. He looks everywhere in the room he can see, expecting to find black-haired Alice somewhere in here. Surprised to see Break, in a battered suit of armor, instead.
"Oh, silly me," not-Alice says, "you already have a role, don't you Askeladd?" She leans over, resting her chin on those misshapen hands.
And immediately his hair is loose, his clothes become oversized and halfway to rags, his shoes disappear, and he's smudged all over with cinders and dirt. The ash boy.
no subject
His tone is gentle, but there's a solid and unmistakable disapproval underneath. Whatever chastisement he might have had in mind never comes, however -- Alice's face warps horribly and she rounds on him in a petulant fury, fists clenched.
"I'm talking to this person," she snarls. Her voice comes out of her as three different discordant notes all together, and several of the teacups in front of Break on the table burst into shards. The explosions are enough that he jerks back, lifting his face in an instinctive gesture to protect his eye.
"Don't interfere," Alice adds, her voice sweet again. Only once Break has bowed his head in subservience and murmured a soft apology does she turn back to Lucius. But as soon as her attention has shifted again, Break looks up, making it a point to stare the boy straight in the eye.
It was one thing to indulge her on his own, but with Lucius here, he needs to get the both of them free from her quickly. The meaning behind his expression is plain: Lucius is going to have to use every bit of his precocious cleverness, and he and Break are going to have to keep up with one another. Oz surprised him, back in the day, by being able to work on Break's level. He is confident that Lucius can do this also. But will the boy's pride actually allow for such? He's as terribly independent as Break is...
no subject
All sweet enthusiasm now, Alice leans towards him. He doesn't dare not look at her, for the moment. "Won't you join us for tea? Three will make it a proper party." She turns and waves a hand, floating a chair over to the boy. He takes the chance to look at Break now, giving the man a quick nod. Break is the expert here. Nothing is going to work if they don't work together.
"Askeladd, Askeladden, Askefis," Alice half-sings as she abruptly floats both the chair and the boy over to the table to sit next to Break.
"No one thinks the youngest son is good enough to do anything but sit in ashes, but you prove them all wrong, don't you?" Her gaze travels back and forth between Askeladd and Break, hungry for a reaction.
Open to all: Empty chairs at empty tables
The third isn't anything he's expecting at all, and it knocks the air out of him when he enters.
It's not a remarkable place at first glance. Just a tavern, all polished gleaming wood and creaking chairs, with cozy lighting provided by oil lamps and a warm fire blazing in welcome on the hearth. The table nearest the fire is laid out with a filling, hearty meal of beef stew and hot fresh bread, and the smell of these and other tasty things permeating the air is a relief after the scents of blood and rot so prevalent outside.
What's weird about it is that although there's no one there but Break and whoever else may have stumbled in with him, the faintest sounds of merriment can be heard, if one stops — laughter and chatter, fiddle music and singing.
After staring for several long moments, Break remembers to breathe. Bypassing the food entirely, he heads straight to another table close to the wall, which is shrouded in shadow despite being well within the fire's glow. His hand comes to rest on the back of one chair in particular, and despite himself, his eye falls shut.
When he picks out a voice he remembers among the echoes, Break quietly sings along, heedless of whoever may be in the safe room with him.]
...Kind friends and companions, come join me in rhyme.
Come and lift up your voices in chorus with mine.
Come and lift up your voices, all grief to refrain,
For we may or might never
All meet here again...
Closed to Ange
Closed to Qrow
Closed to Oscar
He certainly lost track of some of his prey here and there, back then. That's how word of the ghostly red eyes shining in the darkness started going around, and how Pandora managed to link the prolific new Contractor haunting the city with the knight who disappeared in the aftermath of the Sinclair massacre. But a few escaping his attention is not much compared to the one hundred and sixteen victims he did get.
Break was an excellent serial killer.
Fortunately -- unfortunately? -- it isn't a Contractor who ends up setting their attention on Oscar Pine. As he wanders the rotting streets of the alternate Trench, he'll come aware of a strange growling sound. A burbling sound, you could call it, a rolling snarl somewhere in between bubbles bursting and bones cracking.
Something is whiffling through the streets, and it has noticed Oscar.
no subject
A way back home.
Oscar tread the cobblestone streets lightly and carefully, never straying too far from the lamps or the larger roads unless he was certain that it was safe to do so. Diggs, the little deer-like creature with wings, followed at his heel with their ears pulled back and the wearied, alert disposition of a woodland creature that knew they were the size of a decent midnight snack.
"We'll be okay, Diggs."
Oscar said quietly, looking down at his omen with a reassuring smile. It didn't matter whether he was saying it for the omen's sake or for himself. He was not going to let his fear take over so easliy.