Deer Country Mod (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
reddosmod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
deercountry2021-12-08 02:19 am
reddosmod) wrote in deercountry2021-12-08 02:19 am
Entry tags:
- *event,
- ahiru: timmy,
- anakin skywalker: michele,
- ange ushiromiya: jelle,
- anna amarande: celene,
- ariadne: wizera,
- cassandra: drizz,
- chara: kai,
- darth maul: shade,
- darth nox: saint,
- fat billie: lucy,
- glitch: ceej,
- izuku "deku" midoriya: tea,
- lance: charley,
- luna lovegood: cheryl,
- luz noceda: pedro,
- makoto kino: mesi,
- manabu yuuki: elle,
- mebh og mactire: oggy,
- minako aino: fay,
- nehan: ray,
- obi-wan kenobi: timmy,
- orpheus: qv,
- palamedes sextus: laura,
- paul atreides: beth,
- peter graham: jhey,
- reaper: vette,
- rose da silva: jhey,
- savage opress: vette,
- scorpia: gore,
- snow white: jax,
- soldier blue: elle,
- stiles stilinski: charley,
- varian: tf,
- willow rosenberg: lucy,
- wu: mads,
- yuri lowell: mads
I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't
DECEMBER 2021 EVENT
WINTER MOURNING
RUN, RABBIT, RUN
LOCKJOINT
CODING
Hello! We are trying a new style of event this December with archival-like entries that characters can ICly find in the Archives. This should allow characters to be able to plan against certain events that occur in-game and do research ahead of time, during the event, or after the fact.
The idea is that these prompts will provide you with all the possibilities characters could theoretically face from the prompt. We hope this leaves more open-ended opportunities for people to engage with. Anything mentioned in the excerpts could be an experience characters encounter. You can always ask for clarification on any prompt on the plotting page.
This is a way to keep all event prompts relevant since new characters would be able to "read up" on these events/excerpts by visiting the Archives or other such resources for information about past events and what they can anticipate from the setting.
We hope this new style makes sense and is fun for players to work with! They will rely on players creating more of the atmosphere than the prompts, but we think that the prompts will provide the perfect guidance as to what the atmosphere should feel like. Enjoy!
IMAGE DESCRIPTORS IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE
Prompt One
[Image One: Holiday themed antler decoration.]
[Image Two: White stag with perfect, circular antlers with bits of ice attached.]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Sculpture of white rabbit with neck caught in a snare. Non-graphic.]
[Image Two: Person in red cloak and wolf mask turning around.]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Puppet making bloody snow angel in snow.]
[Image Two: Bloodied hands wrapped in bandages clenching.]
The idea is that these prompts will provide you with all the possibilities characters could theoretically face from the prompt. We hope this leaves more open-ended opportunities for people to engage with. Anything mentioned in the excerpts could be an experience characters encounter. You can always ask for clarification on any prompt on the plotting page.
This is a way to keep all event prompts relevant since new characters would be able to "read up" on these events/excerpts by visiting the Archives or other such resources for information about past events and what they can anticipate from the setting.
We hope this new style makes sense and is fun for players to work with! They will rely on players creating more of the atmosphere than the prompts, but we think that the prompts will provide the perfect guidance as to what the atmosphere should feel like. Enjoy!
Prompt One
[Image One: Holiday themed antler decoration.]
[Image Two: White stag with perfect, circular antlers with bits of ice attached.]
Prompt Two
[Image One: Sculpture of white rabbit with neck caught in a snare. Non-graphic.]
[Image Two: Person in red cloak and wolf mask turning around.]
Prompt Three
[Image One: Puppet making bloody snow angel in snow.]
[Image Two: Bloodied hands wrapped in bandages clenching.]
WHEN: Begins in December and can last until the end of Feb.
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Spoilers for various canons, survival situations, forced memory share
WHERE: Everywhere
CONTENT WARNINGS: Spoilers for various canons, survival situations, forced memory share
[A passage from Rituals of Trench: Remembering Our Pasts reads the following:]
"A long-standing tradition to celebrate Bone Season is for Deerians to collect antlers and bones salvaged from natural resources and create decorative home accents. These antler-bone decors are known formally as Winter Mournings and can be found in almost every residential home throughout Deer Country. Winter Mournings can be made to look like wreaths, candle holders, or simply an antler with a bow hung up on a wall.
Winter Mournings is seen as a way to honor one's past tribulations and how one has managed to survive and overcome hardships during their life. Winter Mournings serves as a testament to survival and a willingness to keep surviving even when things look bleak and dismal.
Creating Winter Mournings is considered a blessing to the Pthumerians Dorothea, Remina, and Argonaut. You will know if the blessing was accepted once your Winter Mourning begins to glow like the moon. Touch your Winter Mourning and you will be pulled back in time to a memory of a specific time when you or someone else had to survive something physically or mentally challenging. For some, it is merely a memory that cannot hurt, but for others, you may want to proceed with caution as it has been known to pull people physically back to times of war.
One cannot choose which memory they wind up in if it is their own, a friend's, or a complete stranger's. Winter Mournings was designed to create a sense of union and empathy among residents and is meant to open your mind and heart to those who have suffered around you. It is time you explore your past, or someone else's past, with an open mind and see how the other side has lived through hard times. These memories are known to be from adolescence, adulthood, or sometimes even futures that have not yet happened or timelines you have never known. After all, Remina sees all past and all history. That means they see all of your past and history too.
No memory lasts forever though. Once the memory has been concluded, you shall be brought back to the present by the Winter Mourning Stag: a great white beast with a circle of frozen antlers. It will come to you when the time is ready, and you will return to the present like waking from a dazzling dream.
Experiencing Winter Mournings can stabilize one's mood and provide restful sleep after, even if the memories may be difficult to swallow. It truly is a tribute to honor past horrors and traumas. Some memories are painful to remember, but forgetting them will never do anyone any good either. So hang your Winter Mournings and remember what matters.
Survive another day. You are worth it."
FAQ
"A long-standing tradition to celebrate Bone Season is for Deerians to collect antlers and bones salvaged from natural resources and create decorative home accents. These antler-bone decors are known formally as Winter Mournings and can be found in almost every residential home throughout Deer Country. Winter Mournings can be made to look like wreaths, candle holders, or simply an antler with a bow hung up on a wall.
Winter Mournings is seen as a way to honor one's past tribulations and how one has managed to survive and overcome hardships during their life. Winter Mournings serves as a testament to survival and a willingness to keep surviving even when things look bleak and dismal.
Creating Winter Mournings is considered a blessing to the Pthumerians Dorothea, Remina, and Argonaut. You will know if the blessing was accepted once your Winter Mourning begins to glow like the moon. Touch your Winter Mourning and you will be pulled back in time to a memory of a specific time when you or someone else had to survive something physically or mentally challenging. For some, it is merely a memory that cannot hurt, but for others, you may want to proceed with caution as it has been known to pull people physically back to times of war.
One cannot choose which memory they wind up in if it is their own, a friend's, or a complete stranger's. Winter Mournings was designed to create a sense of union and empathy among residents and is meant to open your mind and heart to those who have suffered around you. It is time you explore your past, or someone else's past, with an open mind and see how the other side has lived through hard times. These memories are known to be from adolescence, adulthood, or sometimes even futures that have not yet happened or timelines you have never known. After all, Remina sees all past and all history. That means they see all of your past and history too.
No memory lasts forever though. Once the memory has been concluded, you shall be brought back to the present by the Winter Mourning Stag: a great white beast with a circle of frozen antlers. It will come to you when the time is ready, and you will return to the present like waking from a dazzling dream.
Experiencing Winter Mournings can stabilize one's mood and provide restful sleep after, even if the memories may be difficult to swallow. It truly is a tribute to honor past horrors and traumas. Some memories are painful to remember, but forgetting them will never do anyone any good either. So hang your Winter Mournings and remember what matters.
Survive another day. You are worth it."
FAQ
1. Winter Mournings can produce new memories every time you touch them or the same memory.
2. Characters cannot choose what the memory is.
3. Characters can arrive in each other's memories regardless of if they already know each other. Multiple people can experience the same memory.
4. You can either experience the memory as a memory you can't touch or experience - or you can physically be in the memory and have to survive the situation as well. If you die in memory, your body will die wherever you had been touching the Winter Mourning.
5. Palebloods are capable of altering memories or how they or others experience memories.
6. Characters can be pulled into memories at random - as long as one of the characters in the memory share is touching a Winter Mourning at first.
WHEN: Month of December
WHERE: Everywhere/the woods
CONTENT WARNINGS: Themes of hunting, ghosts, curses, attempts at animal violence, hunting people based on blood types.
WHERE: Everywhere/the woods
CONTENT WARNINGS: Themes of hunting, ghosts, curses, attempts at animal violence, hunting people based on blood types.
[An excerpt from Legends of Trench: Curses and Causations reads the following:]
"One of the most notorious legends of Trench is without a doubt the tale of The Huntress and the Hare. Most Trenchies have been told this tale since they were children, but for those unfamiliar, settle in.
This story begins with a mischievous god and an ambitious huntress. The Pthumerian Dorothea loved to play tricks on hunters trying to survive the Bone Season, setting animals free from traps and remaking the traps to catch the hunters instead. One day, a darkblood Huntress was fed up with Dorothea preventing her from catching food for her family and decided to settle the score. The Huntress began to hunt for Dorothea specifically, but it is no small feat hunting the god of trickery and survival.
The Huntress started to rely on her darkblood powers to alter reality to make the perfect traps. Innocuous trees turned into glue traps that anyone would stick to until they were freed by a darkblood or death took their pain from them. Walking through bushes would snag legs and necks, effectively trapping whatever creatures were unfortunate enough to wander for food. Magical snares and beartraps lock around victims with unrelenting force, leaving people and animals to try for help until they cry no more. While this took many innocent lives in the woods, animals, and people alike, it never seemed to work on Dorothea.
Dorothea continued to outwit the Huntress until she eventually drove the Huntress insane. The Huntress died without ever catching Dorothea, but they say her vengeful spirit awakens in winter and begins to set her traps yet again. The Huntress sends her traps and her dead animals after vilebloods and warmbloods to spite Dorothea and hope to maybe catch the god's attention. But Dorothea is no passive god. Dorothea spurs vilebloods and warmbloods to defend themselves against darkbloods and coldbloods.
Infamously, this has created enormous tension between the blood types during December some years, and it is said that the blood lust has caused the types to begin hunting one another regardless of old friendships and alliances. Beware the Huntress's curse. Some believe darkbloods and coldbloods can still hear her haunting commands and cries from the Trenchwood.
They say there is no ease for the tension between the bloodtypes until December has passed, but some believe palebloods may provide relief if they are willing."
FAQ
"One of the most notorious legends of Trench is without a doubt the tale of The Huntress and the Hare. Most Trenchies have been told this tale since they were children, but for those unfamiliar, settle in.
This story begins with a mischievous god and an ambitious huntress. The Pthumerian Dorothea loved to play tricks on hunters trying to survive the Bone Season, setting animals free from traps and remaking the traps to catch the hunters instead. One day, a darkblood Huntress was fed up with Dorothea preventing her from catching food for her family and decided to settle the score. The Huntress began to hunt for Dorothea specifically, but it is no small feat hunting the god of trickery and survival.
The Huntress started to rely on her darkblood powers to alter reality to make the perfect traps. Innocuous trees turned into glue traps that anyone would stick to until they were freed by a darkblood or death took their pain from them. Walking through bushes would snag legs and necks, effectively trapping whatever creatures were unfortunate enough to wander for food. Magical snares and beartraps lock around victims with unrelenting force, leaving people and animals to try for help until they cry no more. While this took many innocent lives in the woods, animals, and people alike, it never seemed to work on Dorothea.
Dorothea continued to outwit the Huntress until she eventually drove the Huntress insane. The Huntress died without ever catching Dorothea, but they say her vengeful spirit awakens in winter and begins to set her traps yet again. The Huntress sends her traps and her dead animals after vilebloods and warmbloods to spite Dorothea and hope to maybe catch the god's attention. But Dorothea is no passive god. Dorothea spurs vilebloods and warmbloods to defend themselves against darkbloods and coldbloods.
Infamously, this has created enormous tension between the blood types during December some years, and it is said that the blood lust has caused the types to begin hunting one another regardless of old friendships and alliances. Beware the Huntress's curse. Some believe darkbloods and coldbloods can still hear her haunting commands and cries from the Trenchwood.
They say there is no ease for the tension between the bloodtypes until December has passed, but some believe palebloods may provide relief if they are willing."
FAQ
1. Characters will increasingly feel the urge to actively hunt one another using traps/etc.
2. The Huntress's curse includes undead animals/beasts chasing after warmbloods and vilebloods and magical traps. Players can invent unique traps for their characters.
3. There will be an innate urge to chase/hide from one another.
4. The curse can be broken by paleblood intervention, character death, or a gradual wearing off by the end of the month.
WHEN: All of Bone Season
WHERE: On Sleeper bodies
CONTENT WARNINGS: Mild body horror, blood magic curses, physical curses, cures through blood ministration/blood letting, possible skin removal, injuries, possible death via starvation/exposure.
WHERE: On Sleeper bodies
CONTENT WARNINGS: Mild body horror, blood magic curses, physical curses, cures through blood ministration/blood letting, possible skin removal, injuries, possible death via starvation/exposure.
[An passage from The Sleeper Condition; Chapter 13: Bodily Aches and More. Found exclusively at the Lumenarium:]
"Generally speaking, Sleeper blood allows Sleepers to navigate this world without the fear of illness and disease. However, no organic body is perfect, and Sleeper blood has its own set of ailments to fret over. Blood Ministers have studied the phenomena of Lockjoint for years now and believe that it is linked to the crystalization found in Sleeper death, though the exact connection remains unknown.
Lockjoint tends to begin and last throughout Bone Season. Some Sleepers may never experience it, but for many, it becomes a reoccurring issue to dread each season. This condition forces blood magic to gather at the joints and effectively lock up. Sleepers find it difficult to move their bodies at the bends, fingers, knees, shoulders, etc without some form of discomfort. Minimal lockjoint can be painful and annoyance, but critical lockjoint can be fatal.
The most severe cases of lockjoint documented have shown Sleepers to have crystalization form over their joints, rendering parts of their bodies completely immobile. Some Sleepers have been found dead in this condition, all their joints crystallized, and it is believed most died from natural causes thereafter.
One can determine they are experiencing lockjoint when the coloration around the joints begins to darken in color, typically looking like a bruise. Calcification may occur rapidly the more magic a Sleeper uses or the more they expose themselves to outside elements. It is imperative that Sleepers remain properly clothed during Bone Season, even if they are coldbloods, and to invest in enchanted clothes that can lock in heat.
A known cure for lockjoint is the art of bloodletting. Puncturing the joints with small incisions seems to allow a release of the built-up magic and can provide immediate relief to the Sleeper. Catching lockjoint early is imperative. Alternative methods are soaking in hot springs and salted water.
Those who are in a more severe state will have to carefully have the crystals removed. This will likely remove the skin as well. Local anesthesia is highly recommended for the procedure. This process is known to leave scarring. The crystals can be saved and used as bloodstones from whoever they were harvested from. If you find a Sleeper dead from lockjoint, make sure to harvest the crystals as they are incredibly valuable.
This curse is believed to stem from Sleeper blood magic congealing within the body in contrast with the atmospheric magic of Bone Season. There is no known prevention for lockjoint. Lockjoint can impact all Sleepers regardless of bloodtype or the material their bodies are made from."
FAQ
"Generally speaking, Sleeper blood allows Sleepers to navigate this world without the fear of illness and disease. However, no organic body is perfect, and Sleeper blood has its own set of ailments to fret over. Blood Ministers have studied the phenomena of Lockjoint for years now and believe that it is linked to the crystalization found in Sleeper death, though the exact connection remains unknown.
Lockjoint tends to begin and last throughout Bone Season. Some Sleepers may never experience it, but for many, it becomes a reoccurring issue to dread each season. This condition forces blood magic to gather at the joints and effectively lock up. Sleepers find it difficult to move their bodies at the bends, fingers, knees, shoulders, etc without some form of discomfort. Minimal lockjoint can be painful and annoyance, but critical lockjoint can be fatal.
The most severe cases of lockjoint documented have shown Sleepers to have crystalization form over their joints, rendering parts of their bodies completely immobile. Some Sleepers have been found dead in this condition, all their joints crystallized, and it is believed most died from natural causes thereafter.
One can determine they are experiencing lockjoint when the coloration around the joints begins to darken in color, typically looking like a bruise. Calcification may occur rapidly the more magic a Sleeper uses or the more they expose themselves to outside elements. It is imperative that Sleepers remain properly clothed during Bone Season, even if they are coldbloods, and to invest in enchanted clothes that can lock in heat.
A known cure for lockjoint is the art of bloodletting. Puncturing the joints with small incisions seems to allow a release of the built-up magic and can provide immediate relief to the Sleeper. Catching lockjoint early is imperative. Alternative methods are soaking in hot springs and salted water.
Those who are in a more severe state will have to carefully have the crystals removed. This will likely remove the skin as well. Local anesthesia is highly recommended for the procedure. This process is known to leave scarring. The crystals can be saved and used as bloodstones from whoever they were harvested from. If you find a Sleeper dead from lockjoint, make sure to harvest the crystals as they are incredibly valuable.
This curse is believed to stem from Sleeper blood magic congealing within the body in contrast with the atmospheric magic of Bone Season. There is no known prevention for lockjoint. Lockjoint can impact all Sleepers regardless of bloodtype or the material their bodies are made from."
FAQ
1. This impacts characters regardless of blood type or their body - meaning it can impact characters with metal/plastic/plant/wood/etc bodies.
2. Players can choose how rapid or severe this gets and how quickly they can be healed.
no subject
Run to where?!
[ .. okay, perhaps there's just a bit too much Exasperated Teen in the way she says that, but Ange can't help it. Ange figures that if there were supposedly some simple way out of here, Shiro - the Shiro in this memory? - would have taken it already. Especially since she can now clearly see all the emotion in his face.
This isn't a good memory. It must be a terrible one. Especially with how hazy everything seems.. Ange isn't too sure if she's seen a memory in this state so far, even though she has mostly just seen her own up to this point. ]
no subject
[Instead, he just gestures toward a wall. If she's there, his terrified, panicked brain says, she won't be seen. Right? He'll be in the center. He'll take the fight, he'll have all the horrible eyes on him.]
Just - Stay down!
[His voice wavers. Cracks a bit. No matter how hard he tries to throttle it down, how much he tries to stay calm. This moment, this scenario, was too much for him to bear. He'd been so sure he was going to die here...]
Please!
no subject
So Ange does take a step backwards. Then two. She isn't all the way with her back to the wall, but she's at least a little closer to it now, putting him between her and the big doors on the other side of the arena.
She just hopes it's enough to soothe this particular concern of his a tad. ]
.. Shiro, it's.. okay.
[ Not really okay, but-- ]
This is just a memory. This isn't really happening right now. [ Or at least Ange hopes it works that way. She hasn't been in a memory yet where she ran the risk of actually getting hurt, but she figures that it'd be really weird for her to get hurt in something that isn't really happening in that very moment. ]
no subject
[How is any of this okay? He's back here and now someone else is trapped with him. That just makes things worse. So much worse. If he can't protect her, then he won't be the only one getting hurt and that's the whole point of him being here. The whole reason he's out here, shaking on the sand. To keep someone else from being hurt - being killed.]
[If something happens to Ange...]
[His head jerks up. Trying to keep everything in sight at once. It's a failing effort. If he looks at her, then he can't keep track of the Doors. If he looks at the Doors, then he can't see Ange, and if he can't - ]
[just a memory]
It... what? [He should know better. But the other memories have never felt like this. He's never been front and center like this.]
no subject
But she remembers the sensation. Something poking her. Like antlers. Like the thing she made herself as well, hanging in her own house. That thing that invokes memories.
Just like this. ]
We're just in your memory. [ She repeats, as if that might make it get through to him more. Despite his reaction telling her that Shiro heard her loud and clear. ] At least, I.. think so. It's not my memory.
[ Ange pauses for a moment, and then continues with: ]
But.. you seem to recognize it.
[ Even though Ange has absolutely no clue why Shiro would ever have been here, inside of some sort of arena-looking place. What was he doing here? And why?
It can't have been some hobby, considering how freaked out the other seems. But that's why Ange is trying to keep her voice steady, perhaps even gentle at the edges, in order to keep Shiro from freaking out all over again. ]
no subject
[His whole body shudders. Like he's drawing himself slowly out of it again. Like somehow, it's cold, even under the blazing lights and on top of the scalding sand. But the realization, the words, don't seem to change anything. There's a haze in the air. An odd, shimmery feeling.]
[It's not as solid as the other memories he's seen. Is it because of - because of how many difficulties he's had in remembering this? Still, years later, he can only recall bits and pieces. Moments, sensory feelings.]
[Death...]
I - I've been here. Before. I don't know how long ... [How many days, months. How many fights.] I don't remember more than this.
[Maybe if he talks about the arena itself, the memory won't have to progress. There won't be any battles to speak of.]
no subject
Then maybe this is all there is to it..
[ Ange hopes so, anyway. Not because she's worried about her own safety, but more just because she isn't sure if Shiro's mind could handle it if something more were to happen right here and now.
He seems tense enough as-is. It's what keeps Ange from digging too hard into this memory. She doesn't want to hurt him. ]
I'm.. sorry that you've found yourself in a place that's clearly hurtful to you. [ Ange can figure out that much. Since this place looks like an arena, Shiro fought here. Or maybe had to fight here..? ] But look. We're still safe, aren't we?
[ Her voice is gentle. Usually she would have come a little closer to Shiro for this, but she doesn't want him to freak out, so Ange is instead using that tone in his voice as she keeps standing where she is now. ]
no subject
It... isn't. It isn't all, I'm - I'm sorry.
[It's weird to apologize for something he can't control, and deep down, he knows that too. But it comes out. It comes racing out like there isn't anything he can do to stop it - like blood from a cut.]
People. Died here. I - they had to have. I didn't have a choice - no one did. None of us - I don't even know how many...
[He remembers one. And then, only in flickering, jittering images, sensations. He'd remembered enough to face it down when the monster loomed. And then? Then he had tried to forget. Tried to bury it away all over again.]
[The gates rattle.]
no subject
Things are never that easy, are they? It's the first thought that comes into Ange's mind when she hears that gate rattling. It'd be so easy if they could just poof back into Trench without anything like this, especially when Shiro already seems to be having a hard enough time as-is, without some monster or enemy coming after them.
But if this is the way things are now, they'll have to make do. ]
No one is going to die now.
[ She tries to sound confident, wanting to reassure Shiro that at least this will be different. That he won't have go through that again - fighting alongside people who didn't make it, apparently. People who were forced into this arena without a choice.
Just like Shiro.
And Ange doesn't know if there's anything she can do here. It's a memory, for one. She doesn't even know if her powers work here, but she's pretty sure they don't, just so she can't interfere by making this easy for him - but she's darn well going to try all the same. Because this isn't fair on Shiro, not when he's usually having a hard time already. ]
I can fight if something comes out of there.
no subject
[He doesn't doubt it. So many people here are stronger, more capable, than they ever appear to be. She shouldn't have to fight, though. That's the rub. That's the issue. Ange shouldn't have to fight in this horrible place.]
[No one should ever have to be here.]
[He starts to speak again, starts to say something again, but before he gets the words out, the doors begin to slide open. Like the rest of the memories, the creature that steps forward is a hazy mess of half-recalled things. Sometimes bipedal, sometimes on all fours. Sometimes slithering along. It's impossible to tell what it truly looks like - muscular, or slimy, humanoid, or something that defies definition. Claws, teeth, or a weapon.]
[All of it alternates. All of it twists, shifts and flickers.]
[Except for its eyes. Its eyes stay the same, no matter how many or how few it suddenly seems to possess. They're yellow, baleful, glowing yellow.]
[Locked on the two of them.]
no subject
[ There's a brief moment of surprise when the kind of creature that's approaching them slowly registers with Ange - or rather, that the lack of any solid form is registering with her. She's pretty sure that it isn't supposed to be this way, that it's yet another effect of the oddness of Shiro's memory, but that just makes things harder.
If it was any particular thing, Ange could probably figure out how to deal with it. But something like this, a nebulous form? What do they even do against that?
Ange's shoulders tense, but her brain is racing with thoughts, trying to figure it out. ]
Is that thing just everything at once..?
no subject
[What it is. If it was even real to begin with, or just some awful amalgamation of bits and pieces lodged in his head. In his nightmares. The only thing he recalls with any sort of certainty are... the eyes.]
[The Witch's eyes.]
It's - it must be something they made. An experiment, like - [He barely catches himself there. Barely stops himself from the words: like me.]
[The thing moves. It jitters in place, as if it's trying to perform every kind of locomotion a living being can use. Automatically, Shiro's throwing an arm out. To block Ange from its sight. He can't help the gesture any more than he can help breathing.]
no subject
There are so many things Ange could ask about in this situation. So many things she's curious about. But she knows that this isn't the time for it - not when this thing is rapidly approaching them. So unpredictable in its shape, in the way it moves. One might think that she'd feel at least more safe with Shiro looking out for her like this, but.. honestly, it just makes her worried about him instead, and she's already taking a few steps forward, until she's practically right behind him. Just in case.
She doesn't want him to face this thing alone. ]
How do you usually deal with something like this?
[ How does anyone even fight something that seems to change shape between every step? ]
no subject
[They usually turn into a giant robot and hit it until it stops being a problem. Which is not... the best plan ever. But hey, it worked. But there aren't any robots here. He doesn't even feel like he can summon his Omen. His hand... his hand is human, here. In this memory.]
[All he has is a hunk of metal barely qualifying as a weapon.]
... teamwork.
[Is what he says, finally. What else is there? It always won the day in the end.]
no subject
It's a little surprising. It's certainly not the answer she expected from Shiro here - but not in a bad way. In fact, this is better than anything she could have imagined him saying. Better than anything she expected the guy to acknowledge.
So Ange nods. ]
Then.. what are we waiting for, huh?
[ Maybe she just has to take the first step. After all, these circumstances seem much more traumatizing to Shiro than they are to her. Maybe she has to show that this situation is conquerable.
So Ange dives past the arm he was holding out to shield her, starting to run forward. Ange doesn't have a weapon here, and she isn't too sure if she could even use her magic, but maybe she doesn't need to.
Maybe all she has to do is distract that odd thing, just to give Shiro a chance to strike.
Her feet push off against the ground, jumping up into the air, trying to be as flashy as possible to draw the odd amalgamation's attention. ]
Hey, ugly thing! Over here!
cw; dissociation/derealization
[He startles. Of course he startles. He's too weighed down by the panic, the fear of the thing in his memory. He hadn't expected her to go running, even if he should have. But he stops short, feeling the heat and sand stick in his throat.]
[It's too familiar.]
[His brain shifts to autopilot. Ange - ally, partner in fight - causes a distraction. He moves in the opposite direction, body doing it before it checks in with his brain. There's a diversion, he's got to use it. The creature bobs and wavers, steaming after her.]
[It's exposed.]
[Once again, he loses track of himself. He can feel the movements. Feel the ground under his feet. But nothing goes through his mind. Nothing of himself. Just the motions. Spying an opening and slicing down with the metal in his hands.]
[The amalgamate of nightmares howls in pain.]
no subject
But she's just used to it. Skirting close by death, running away from lethal danger. It's nothing new to her, so she doesn't look, doesn't think. She just runs, feeling the creature following her--
Until it makes that sound.
It's only then that Ange stops to turn around and look. It's hard to spot it from her current view, but she moves over a little more towards the side, just so she can see Shiro there from that distance. ]
You got it..!
[ He's got to have, right? Why else would that horrible monster make that kind of sound? ]
See, Shiro.. You can do this! [ She calls out, practically yells, just to bridge the distance. ] We're going to be fine!