etrayamods: (Default)
∎ ETRAYA MODS ∎ ([personal profile] etrayamods) wrote in [community profile] etrayalogs2025-09-19 08:20 am

MISSION 011

WHO: Everyone.
WHEN: September 19th - October 3rd
WHERE: Etraya
WHAT: Mission 011
NOTES\WARNINGS: Psychological horror, hallucinations, paranoia, body horror, violence, death imagery, loss of autonomy, existential horror. Threads may have their own individual warnings.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Psychological horror, hallucinations, paranoia, body horror, violence, death imagery, loss of autonomy, existential horror.





❬ Ashen Veil ❭


Aurora had issued a warning: the nebula's particles were coming, whether or not they were wanted.
Through multiple conversations, she had made her limitations clear: she could let them know what was coming, but provide no assistance in finding the vent to end it, nor offer safe haven outside of the already established mechanisms for skipping missions. This was a puzzle they would have to solve regardless of how much they hated the idea of participating, and solving that puzzle means being an active participant: it mean searching through the particles to find the vent, physically closing off the thing allowing them inside their city.

Yet some allowances have been made: on September 18th, she gathers up all the animals she can convince to come along with her, ushering them into the same dome that those with mission passes will find themselves within. People are welcome to bring her their pets, too, to ensure they do not experience the same horrors they will - all will be kept safe and fed, cared for by the companion bots and Aurora herself until the vent is closed and the particles are fully filtered out. They are not participants, and she would hate to have them suffer through a mission when they can be protected elsewhere.

The night of the 18th goes by quietly, companion bots ushering animals out of the way while Aurora herself offers a hand clearing the way. And once they've all been herded in, the vent opens, allowing the nebula's particles to slowly begin making their way through Etraya's atmosphere.

It doesn't take long at all for the small bits of dust to accumulate in the protective barrier's atmosphere. Thick fog enshrouds everything, it makes it's way through the cracks in windows, the space under doors, through the very fabric that makes up every piece of Etraya. And with the spread of the Fog comes the horrors it brings.

Everything becomes hazy.

While Etraya is green, brimming with life and bright colors - the Fog dims everything. What was once light and beautiful now looks drained, color leeched out and left as nothing more than a husk of what it once was. Every flower and leaf appears to wilt in moments under the heavy weight of the Fog's touch. The air itself grows heavy, tasting of metal and rot, seeping into the lungs of those under it's influence like a slow suffocation. Sound itself dulls - footsteps echo strangely, or perhaps even sound duplicated, the steady taptaptap making it feel as if one is being followed. Then again, considering how difficult it is to see mere feet in front of them - perhaps they are.

Shapes stir in the haze. Some may be tricks of the eye: distortions among the thickened air, but others linger a little too long, watching with patience in a way that feels wrong. Eerie. A shadow may linger where no one should be, only to dissolve when approached. Or worse - it does not dissolve at all but turns as if it look at those who approach it.

Yet the Fog also remembers things it should not. It bends itself into shapes familiar to those within it, taking the outline of loved ones and enemies alike, whispering in voices that should not be present. But it's whispers, it's movements, are all wrong. There are cracks, clear distortions of what may have been a happy memory now turned menacing. Perhaps a friend appears to offer comfort, before their features distort and their comfort curdles into ill wishes.

And through all of this, the vent breathes unseen. The nebula's particles continue to seep their way into the city, digging deep into every possible surface, clawing it's way through skin to settle deep. There is no safe space left upon the surface of Etraya - as soon as the Fog has been given leave to spread, it has entered not only the atmosphere but those within it. It lingers behind eyes, under skin, whispering that it will never leave.

You belong here now, under its veil.





❬ broken symmetry ❭


The street below doesn't feel stable - it shifts and sways, shifts from stretching out into the Fog to folding in on itself, leaving those on it at unfamiliar crossroads. Yet one will find that they are not the only one who has arrived here: a stranger, or a friend, stands opposite, but something does not quite feel right: they look distorted, not quite as they should, but it's almost impossible to tell what has changed. And yet both individuals will feel the same pull: that this person in front of them isn't as they should be, and something needs to be done.

Perhaps their hair is too long and needs to be cut, and one feels the intense need to take out a pair of shears to trim. Perhaps it is their clothing, somehow wrong in how it hangs off them. Or perhaps it's something - a little more dire. The shape of their nose, the color of their eyes. Regardless, it needs to be fixed. Repaired.

Yet the one being judged may feel as if everything is completely normal, and the person opposing them just happens to be calling out the thing that causes them the most insecurity: the shape of their nose, the weight of their hair, their clothing. But the feeling of something wrong goes both ways.

Perhaps what is truly needed here isn't to change, but to accept.





❬ that which burrows ❭


Something pricks against the skin - sharp, fleeting, similar to a mosquito bite or perhaps a bee sting. But by the time one reacts, whatever it had been that had touched them has already slipped beneath the surface where no hand can reach. Yet it was no insect that had touched them, nor was it anything real in any sense one could understand.

It gnaws at the edge of thought, settling in one's gut and swelling into a panic. A worry that perhaps they had once dismissed, or perhaps had never stopped to truly be concerned over, blooms into something monstrous and all encompassing. It fills every corner of their mind, until breathing becomes near-impossible. Reason fractures, and the thought writhes, burrowing deeper, until there is nothing left.

Maybe they should have never been born. Maybe their existence is a blight upon those around them. Perhaps they truly are the disappointment their companions have assured them they are not. Maybe a mistake made eons ago resurfaces, until they are left sobbing with regrets and begging for forgiveness that has long-since been earned and yet they cannot accept it. Perhaps they are choking on regret, heart pounding as bile rises in their throat and nothing seems to successfully swallow back that sensation, the gut-feeling that their regrets were truly their fault.

For those familiar with panic attacks, many of the same techniques that help to manage can help push back the thought, but cannot circumvent it - physical contact being the most effective way to reduce cortisol, grounding the mind if only for a fleeting moment. Still, the presence remains, thrumming beneath the skin like a parasite of unease. One can muffle it, console it, distract it, but never banish it.





❬ hollowing road ❭


A narrow trail winds through the forestry of Etraya, murmuring to them that this is the way, this is where the vent lies.

If one follows, the Fog rewards each step with a loss. At first, it's nearly impossible to perceive what has been lost - perhaps it was a favorite color, a memory of where one had left a friend, or the taste of a favored meal. Small things, gone before one even notices their absence.

But as they continue down the path, they will find that the loss increases. Memories unravel like a thread being pulled from it's spool, leaving behind remnants from memories lost. Objects may become buried in the foliage behind them on the trail - a piece of fabric from a favored dress, a key that once opened the door to their childhood home, a picture of a family lost. Each pulses faintly with the echo of the memory they belong to, begging to be picked up and held close - or perhaps buried deep in the forest to never be found again.

Eventually, the truth will become impossible to ignore: those on the path will no longer remember why they came, nor what waits at the end. Turning around, they may find evidence of what was left behind in their wake, leaving them to gather the pieces that once made them whole. Each item will dissolve once pressed close to it's owners chest, sharing the memory itself with anyone who happens to be close enough to get a taste.


❬ MISSION NOTES ❭


📌 — The above prompts are just there to get you started. Feel free to play with the setting and concept beyond what we've suggested here!

📌 — For all questions relating to this mission, please refer to mission plotting. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ.

📌 — Custom scenario prompts can be threaded here or anywhere else, as you like. Mod-driven threads will be posted here.



rudelanguage: (pic#17713237)

ota

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-09-19 03:42 pm (UTC)(link)
>the Box
CWS for threads in this prompt: claustrophobia, body horror/detailed descriptions of body morphing, abuse/starvation mentions, depersonalization/derealism

Knife spends several days avoiding the Box, but the problem with that is they've never really left it. Not entirely. It's why staying in closed spaces is difficult - the horrible remembrance of time uncounted confined, hungry and in pain, waiting for the next warm body to emerge. The odds feel better in the open air, toxic though it may be, than willingly walking themself into such traps. But...they never wholly left.


When one turns a corner for a fresh street or a safe alleyway, it abruptly stops. Shrinks. Thick stone, six-by-six foot encases all around, save for a narrow slit of light in its ceiling.


The Perfect Blank Canvas lay curled up on the floor, drowning in fabrics too numerous and too big for it. There's an odd assortment of implements that have scattered from the pockets: scalpels, little knives, trinkets...familiar, perhaps?

Pale white, ghoulishly emaciated, lacking distinctive features of the face or even proper eyes, it lifts its head, trace wisps of hair left askew and forgotten in the process, and focuses on one who has entered. In the slow movements, its skin seems to glimmer, as though almost pearlescent.

This is how it works - how it's always worked - and it's funny that Knife ever thought they'd gotten outside.

A new warm body.

Change.

Mimic.

Kill.

It need only observe and start.

[if you do not want Knife to try and shapechange into you to some degree, please avoid this prompt. opt-out is here if you have parameters (partial changes, etc).]
loveandsin: (Default)

Vincent, Gorgug, Gustave - alien/dead space cw: ...yes

[personal profile] loveandsin 2025-09-19 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
The fog has played many tricks so far, from seeing things ranging from personal to horrific (and sometimes both). Vincent thought he had experienced the worst of it when the fog trapped him in a memory he would prefer to put out of his mind but cannot, as the events of Shinra Manor thirty years ago will continue to haunt him the rest of his life.

Now, however, after walking through a dense part of the fog, he suddenly finds he is indoors. Confused, Vincent turns to look behind him, seeing a closed pair of front doors rather than a city street. It appears to be the foyer of a well-decorated home. Classy, even, and previously the residence of Hannibal Lecter. Vincent might like it were it not for the abruptness of his arrival.

Cautiously, he steps forward and opens a door that leads from the foyer into the next part of the home, calling out a quiet, "Hello?" Is anyone home? Judging from some collected dust he sees on the furnishings, Vincent suspects no one lives here. Which begs the question, what is he doing here and is he alone?
tinflower: (pic#17957193)

[personal profile] tinflower 2025-09-19 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Ugghhhh. He doesn't want to be in a spooky ass house!!!

This is Gorgug's state of being, soon after coming to in a living room housing too many animal heads for decoration. Skinned, full fleshed; they might not be looking at him (and skulls can't, really, lacking eyes and all), but they're staring into nothing, and that nothing feels like something these days.

Every corner of Etraya is a spook fest waiting to crawl under his skin. None of it has been real, but it doesn't stop Gorgug from picking up a couple of the glass bottles sitting pretty on an even prettier cabinet. For throwing purposes at the illusions, you see. He hovers around a door, and despite better knowledge, he hangs around it, tries to listen in on the other side. Not knowing where it leads -- he should probably just bust on through and run, really.

Maybe in a second. ...Maybe in the next second.

(But perhaps for more keen, attentive ears, they may have heard the creaking of his footsteps from the room. Real footsteps, or perhaps the footsteps of a fog toying with them?)
demainvient: (Y22)

[personal profile] demainvient 2025-09-19 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
He hardly knows how long it's been since the fog first rolled in, only knows it's been too long since he last caught sight of Maelle or Sciel or Lune. It feels strange to have his sword swinging at his side; stranger still to be so cut off from his pictos and chroma.

The house, at least, is a small respite from wandering among nightmarish recreations of the Continent. He moves from room to room, examining the art and... other things hung on the wall, his footsteps the only break in the silence. Until—

He turns at the sound of a voice, hand going instinctively to the grip of his sword, though he doesn't draw it you. "Hello? Who's there?"
shadowsincryo: (Why can't I breathe?)

[personal profile] shadowsincryo 2025-09-19 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
CW: claustrophobia, body horror/detailed descriptions of body morphing, abuse/starvation mentions, depersonalization/derealism

The scent hits him first. Darkness is an old friend of days long, long gone. Or he thought they were. They are too close to the surface lately. He is a dusty-looking traveler with his cloak covering the usually bright clothes. He draws in his legs and pushes himself into a corner to give the being in the space with him more space.

He can get surprisingly small, as if making himself small was once a gut instinct. One that never left him either.

He holds up his hands to show he has nothing in them. Then gestures to the lantern on his belt. "Do you mind if I light this? I don't want to harm you with sudden light.

It will be a low flame, I promise."
rudelanguage: (pic#17713237)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-09-19 07:06 pm (UTC)(link)
The lack of fear is rare, but not unheard of. It's still...strange. Don't you know what's about to happen? That you were lied to or betrayed?

No one signs up for this.

It cocks its head, listening to the tone of his voice more than the actual words themselves, and then stills. Familiar. Am I making you up?

"Am I making you up?" it repeats itself, each syllable pitching differently, growing closer to Kaeya's own tone.
brat: (17446046)

damian ( robin ) wayne | dc comics | closed.

[personal profile] brat 2025-09-19 07:50 pm (UTC)(link)
( closed starters below, but feel free to dm me or reach out to me at [plurk.com profile] crowbars for a starter if wanted. )
shadowsincryo: (Nothing but lies and crooked wings)

[personal profile] shadowsincryo 2025-09-19 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
CW: same warnings. Same collapse.

In a way, this is familiar too. He doesn't like it. His smile is thin and sharp like a knife. "That would be the greatest joke. But, no. I'm real." He tilts his head slightly to one side. "And quite tired of boxes and chains, I'm afraid. What is with those above and having an obsession with control?" A faint bitterness can't be hidden.

He isn't bothering to hide it. He gestures to the lantern again. "Yes or no to the light?"
rudelanguage: (pic#17713238)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-09-19 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I may be stupid
"Joke..."

Sure, it's all one big joke. This place, this life. It-- It's real, because Knife can feel it. But the Canvas shouldn't be...the scar is already...

If anyone's tired of being here, isn't it me? Aren't I already out? Didn't I already do this? I'm--he's--

"Die in the light, die in the dark," they hear it mutter, but it's them, they're it. Thinking in this confusing circle puts a tremble in the borrowed voice. "Let me see you. So I can be you. And then you..."

It sits up on all fours, then shakes.

"You can't be here. Kaeya. That's you, Kaeya? Kaeya, you can't be here, you gotta go. If you're here, I gotta be you, then you won't be. Go away. Hurry up and go."
Edited (fuckin up live on tv) 2025-09-19 20:09 (UTC)
shadowsincryo: (pic#15815032)

[personal profile] shadowsincryo 2025-09-19 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
cw: mentions of past trauma, mild description of ptsd.

For a moment, it doesn't click. He's had moments like that. Sometimes the pain of something didn't fully register until he saw the blood on the weapon. Or saw the machine that caused it looming above him. One burning eye fixed on its target. Or as far back as a rain-slick night, he hadn't fully caught what had been done, even when it was reflected in widened, tear-filled, red eyes.

The wall behind him starts to crack as the realization crystallizes. It is hair-thin, as he says carefully. "I'm here. And you don't have to be anything you don't want to be ever again." His face ices over, a harsh light like the setting sun through ice lives in the depths of his eye. "I'll kill anyone who tries to force you to." Or die trying.
brat: (17446037)

» bruce @batsymbol (cw: animal abuse/death, child abuse/death, suicidal ideation)

[personal profile] brat 2025-09-19 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
( the fog is all encompassing, and damian has been wandering through it for - some time. he couldn't place it any longer, when this started, how long he has been endlessly searching for - something. he knows it's there, lingering on the tip of his tongue, what he's looking for, but he can't quite put it to words. regardless, when his pathway brings him to something that looks like a table, he knows without direction that it's time for him to sit at it.

his tutor should be arriving shortly.

there are several things laid out on the table - glass vials, a small stove, books with blurred text, but it matters not. his attention goes to the bat, sleeping idly while it rests on the branches of the bonsai tree placed toward the center. there's a smile on his face for a moment, gentle and easy. )


It's. . . cute. ( he says, half turning behind him toward the tutor: she has no face, blades for hair, all sharp edges meant to bite into flesh but damian doesn't see that, not yet. she says something, but it comes out a garbled mess of sounds sharp enough to hurt. ) And what is this bat supposed to teach me?

To not get too attached.

( those words are audible, yet still just as sharp. the blades of her arm strikes out, cutting the bat from it's perch quickly enough it likely didn't feel a thing as it fell to the ground, deceased. damian's entire demeanor shifts as he - comes out of the memory, for a moment. he gets himself up from the table, twists toward the knife-creature that certainly isn't who she's meant to be. )

They were harmless! ( it's screamed, but the thing in front of him shifts within the fog, too. the corpse changes, too. no longer a single bat but a massive pile of rotting dragon bats of all shapes, sizes, and colors. tears stream down his face, blurring his vision, but there is nothing damian can do. he cannot bring them back. and when the bladed creature takes a step forward, it isn't a mangled mess of sharp edges but a blood-soaked damian, green eyes almost glowing through the fog and tear tracks carving through the blood soaking his face. )

But you are not.

( the new damian raises his blade, intent on thrusting it straight through his midsection.

from the pile of damian-shaped corpses laying adjacent, it's clear this isn't the first, or even the second time they've done this dance. )
Edited 2025-09-19 20:42 (UTC)
cactusy: (yay‚ nightmares!)

Sameen Shaw | Person of Interest

[personal profile] cactusy 2025-09-19 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
A - ashen veil + broken symmetry + that which burrows

[Spooky on its own doesn't do shit to Shaw. If there were zombies roaming the streets or monsters bursting out of buildings, or even just ominous vibes, she'd be set. But she's an easy target for these particular horrors, and as particles dig their way into preexisting cracks, her sense of any sort of goal or mission fades. There is no mission. There's no point to this. And what's more, this is no different from business-as-usual Etraya, setdressing aside.

That's right, an insidious voice whispers, so bone-deep that it really doesn't feel like it's coming from an external source. You know. This is what Etraya really is and what it always will be, even if it has everyone else fooled. This is it. There's nothing else for you.

She walks, if only because stillness feels suffocating right now. Shapes in the fog call out to her (some formless, and some not; she recognizable, and some not), but she ignores them. Not all of them are content to leave it at that. Some might be fellow Etrayans, concerned about the aimless path she's tracing or the haunted look in her eyes. Others are not.

"This is what I meant," says Root, faint light shining through the holes in her torso as she drapes herself over Shaw's shoulder. "We'll be together forever here. It was always going to be like this, but I never told you because I knew you wouldn't understand."

"I didn't want to die for you," Cole says darkly, following her at a distance of several paces. "I would have made a different choice if I'd had more than a second to think."

"I'm disappointed in you," says her father, over and over again. "If you'd died instead of me, your mother and I could have had a child who was whole." He always appears ahead of her, and is gone by the time she catches up.

"I trained you better than this," says Hersh as he suddenly appears by her side, his stride perfectly matched to hers. "The agent I thought you were would never have allowed herself to break this badly. I won't bother telling you to pull yourself together. We both know you're no longer capable."

But it doesn't matter, does it? murmurs that first voice - the one inside her head; the one that sounds a little too much like her own. It doesn't matter that you let them down, or that they would have come to hate you in the end. It doesn't matter that you'll always be alone - because you don't care if you're alone.]


I don't care if I'm alone.

[Shaw repeats out loud, and the voice hums its approval.]

B - hollowing road (cw: themes of suicidal ideation of you squint)

[She's been walking for a while, for hours or days or maybe years, and her brain has shut itself off to the point that it takes her longer than it should for her to realize what's going on - and by the time that she does, she's lost enough that it doesn't really matter. It feels kind of nice, actually, to be sloughing off bits of herself. Personhood is a heavy load, and she doesn't have enough context anymore to understand why it's significant. Each new loss is a relief, a weight off her shoulders, and even if she were to turn around and see the tonnage of what she's leaving behind her, she'd see no point in picking any of it up. Let her become a shadowy wraith, insubstantial both inside and out. That's fine.

Anyone following will find a wealth of items left behind. There's a dog's leash. A MetroCard. A set of dog tags. A handful of IDs (all with her face, all with different names). There's a motorcycle key, a scrap of leather jacket, a slip of paper with a phone number on it. A chip of decorative tile, a coil of IV line, a page of poetry in Farsi. All these and countless more litter the trail, abandoned and there for the taking.]


You can have it.

[She says, if anyone approaches her with something in their hands.]

I don't even know what that is.

[OOC: I focused on the ashen veil prompt for option A because that's what's going to give Shaw the most grief, but I'm happy to mix and match with elements from the other two prompts!]
Edited 2025-09-19 20:34 (UTC)
rudelanguage: (pic#17713238)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-09-19 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
cws for the violence and the body stuff
Briefly, there is a glimmer in one eye, in the attempt to recreate what is being seen. It blinks out with a hiss of pain, and the Canvas claps its hands over its face, doubling forward while encouragement is being quietly and carefully extended. The absolute absurdity of it shifts the fear to outrage, as if Knife, of all, wouldn't know the stakes here, as if there'd be any getting out.

With just the dim shaft of light from above, the way its skin ripples and then darkens is subtle, but like an octopus, the bloom to darker shades from its ghoulish pallor is fast and soundless, save for the ruffling of fabric as the Canvas yanks free of some of the clothing and lunges toward Kaeya with hands out, scrabbling for his face or neck, whatever's faster.

The skin color's right but the face isn't. There aren't proper eyes, too-thin, cracked lips that split in spots exposing uneven teeth. A single, long line of a scar traces the right side of its face, scalp to jaw.

"You're dying in here with all the rest!" it shrieks, tinging Kaeya's voice with a fraught pitchiness it lacks in its proper host.
loveandsin: (04)

[personal profile] loveandsin 2025-09-19 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Vincent opens the door to the next room and finds Gustave standing there, looking cautious with his hand on his sword, but Vincent hardly blames him.

"Vincent Valentine," he responds. "I suddenly appeared here. I take it this is not your home."

He still suspects no one lives here. It's then that he hears the footsteps in the next room, so Vincent lifts a hand to hold the conversation and walks to the door. There's a pause as he glances to Gustave, followed by a nod, indicating the man should be ready, just in case some trouble is lurking on the other side. Vincent's right-hand hovers over the gun strapped to his thigh, poised, as his left hand opens the door to reveal Gorgug on the other side.
shadowsincryo: (pic#15176044)

[personal profile] shadowsincryo 2025-09-19 09:08 pm (UTC)(link)
cw: disembodied hands.

Everything feels like it happens in slow motion. Behind him, cracks spider up the wall and spread outward. Knife reaches for his face, and he shifts enough to dodge. But there is not enough space to altogether avoid a grab. Knife's hands end up around his throat.

Laughter bubbles up in the back of this throat. "No, I don't think I will." The wall explodes, and sickly purple glowing hands pour in, reaching for him and tearing the walls asunder. Beyond then is the glitter of stars in the void. There is a sense of hunger to it. It is seeking a way in. Any way in. It has never stopped hungering. The floor begins to crack. He puts a hand on the hands around his neck.

His smile is small, but real. "I'm not surprised you can't match my face. It's safer for you that way." The glowing hands grip at unseen chains wrapped around him, and Knife will feel them too. Chains that seem to stretch into the upper depths of the void. Unyielding and inescapable. "Take the lantern, Pending."
tinflower: (pic#17771726)

[personal profile] tinflower 2025-09-19 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
There's footsteps. There's footsteps! So Gorgug hears from his side, talking too, and it almost sounds normal--but is that a trick? Wouldn't a creepy, horrible mission like this try to lure him into a false sense of security with the murmurs of two very normal-sounding guys?

Gorgug holds his bottle in hand, no bigger than a drink can, and not even as wide. He takes a worried step back when those footsteps pick up again; but he's not ready for it, when the door opens wide--

"Weh!" is the sound he makes, startled, and throws the bottle clumsily from his hand that can either miss Vincent, or still do the unceremonious effect of hitting him around his mid-section. Vincent's assailant? A 6'7" tall green figure dressed in a hoodie and jeans, a pair of goggles on his head, and a backpack hanging from behind.

There's also throwing axes strapped to his waist, but did he choose to use those? No. Instead, he chose the option of closing his eyes in the instance of attacking his potential spooker, only opening them after the fact; black scleras against white pupils, and crow's feet at the edges, and a tuft of white hair making up his fringe.

Gorgug stares for a second, unsure of what happens now. M-maybe he'll need to grab an axe--?
rudelanguage: (pic#17713237)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-09-19 09:22 pm (UTC)(link)
words here that you click on it's the same cws idk what to tell u
The Box breaking seals it: I'm not fucking HERE, I didn't make SHIT up, and he's still fucking DEAD--

But it doesn't really help with the stomach-curdling dismay of things being so different as to make it hard to know what to do. Kaeya's neck pulses against his palms, and where their wrist is grasped, it is somehow both hot and cold. Not the time for knee-jerk fear of touch, and actually...anchoring (wis 20 (19+1)).

Knife's skin is...strange to touch. Until they start to swallow the fear, it feels like holding a snake, like there's muscle movement there that doesn't make proper sense for a humanoid arm. At the sound of Pending, the Canvas' face snaps its focus away from the darkness breaking in and down at Kaeya, face still hollow.

While still co-opting Kaeya's voice: "Take it yourself. Get out of here!"

With a little shove (unintentional; they need the leverage to get to their feet), Knife releases him and springs to their feet and snatches at one of the chains.

It's just air.

"What--"
twin_blade: (02)

Vax'ildan | The Legend of Vox Machina (closed and open prompts)

[personal profile] twin_blade 2025-09-19 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[ For Gustave - closed ]

The fog shifts. Often morphing into places inspired by those lost within. What was once a shrouded city street in Etraya begins to change. First, it's in the air. The fog grows thicker until it's not fog but smoke. The smell of burning wood and charred corpses hits the nostrils hard all at once. From the sky, ashen embers begin to drift down like black snow.

The fog opens up and the surrounding area has become a village. On fire. From a distance there's screaming, but it's impossible to tell the direction it's coming from. Then, the source of the fire is clear. A large, winged shadow is cast over the town, flying from west to east. The dragon opens its mouth and releases a stream of flame that cuts across the street, decimating every house in its path.

As the smoke clears, down the street are a pair of children. A boy and a girl. Twins. They stand together, staring at the decimation and at the body of a beautiful woman at their feet. Judging from her looks, she's likely their mother. The boy gently takes his sister's hand and looks up to see half a dozen dragon hatchlings, ten feet long from nose to tail, flying down from the sky and screeching, heading straight for the children.

[ Wandering - open ]

Finding the vent is becoming more and more difficult. Every time Vax thinks he's heading in the right direction to some edge of the city, the fog rolls in, and he finds himself lost or turned around again.

Now, he's stuck on another unknown street, one of so many in the city.

"Why does Etraya have to be so fucking big? There's not even that many people who live here." Grumbling to himself, he carries on as he passes a few storefronts.

When he sees a figure in the fog, he calls out to them. "Hello? Someone there? Do you need any help?" Might as well try and be useful.

[ Wildcard - anything you want to set! ]

[ plotting post is here. ]
Edited 2025-09-19 21:41 (UTC)
shadowsincryo: (If I burn out and slip away)

[personal profile] shadowsincryo 2025-09-19 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, all the content warnings from above apply. + undeath, degrading souls

He doesn't move. The chains have him, and even if they didn't. The hands do. More of them seem to rise from the depths of the void. Thousands of them, holding him fast. "It's alright." It isn't.

The hands pull the lantern from his belt and hold it out, offering it to Knife. Things are moving in the void now. Hundreds of shadows that weep bitter tears. The hands gain bodies to go with them—people in various states of being erased.

Our hope...our hope...the last hope...

Their pupils match his. Some sharper, some not. All of them have the same eyes. An eight-sided star like the ones on his shoulder guard and subtly hinted at in his clothes, adorned somewhere on their clothes, tattered and not. "I can't tell if this is an illusion or not. Even if it isn't, I'll find you. Alright?"

There is no need to roll for this one. He is putting on a brave face for Knife. He is still a young man. And this is a nightmare made real.
brat: (17908597)

» gustave (cw: child abuse/death, light gore)

[personal profile] brat 2025-09-19 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Move, idiot!

( the yellow of robin's cape may be near-impossible to make out through the thick fog, but his voice is shrill and noisy, impossible to miss mere moments before he comes barreling straight for gustave, ramming into his chest to knock him down onto the ground in front of him as a blade whirs by them.

there's a maniacal laugh that echoes in the fog around them, and just as quickly as robin had rushed into him, he's pushing himself back up, grabbing for gustave to keep going. it's almost frantic, almost, except it's robin, who manages to sound calm moments after yelling despite the rabbit-beat of his heart. )


I said move.
loveandsin: (03)

Vincent Valentine | FF7 Rebirth (closed and open prompts)

[personal profile] loveandsin 2025-09-19 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[ For Luthor - closed ]

The atmosphere changes. It's subtle at first. The hazy gray of the fog pulsing with blue light. Electrical. It's soon touched by bright white flood lights that cast a sterile appearance over the room that morphs out of the fog, except the room is in a haphazard state. Tubes and wires run along the floor or across it in some places, supplying massive amounts of power to the large cylinders, which act as containers. Peeking inside the cylinders reveals human-sized creatures floating in blue tinted liquid. Some retain vague, human features, like a mouth or an arm, while others are more beast-like. They remain dormant, for now, at least.

Light also pulses from the buzzing computer terminal. There are pages and pages of notes strewn about as if a whirlwind flew through the workstation. Some words are made out, hand-written in an elegant script: Chaos. Omega. The rest of the notes are a combination of scattered thoughts, theories, and formulas that could take years to decipher.

At the end of the room is a pair of metal double doors with a red logo over the front. The room is quiet, but eerie with the occasional sound of an electrical buzz from one of the lights or a bubbling from one of the tanks. Then, the silence is suddenly broken, as the sound of gunshots comes from behind the double doors.

[ The Train - open ]

Finding the vent is a priority. Only then will this nightmare end. But where is it coming from? It would have been nice of Aurora gave them some sense of direction. The size of the city means the vent could be anywhere, but the fog must be thicker in the place closer to the vent. To scour the city, one must move quickly, so Vincent has opted to take the train system. Circling around the city might lead him to see what areas contain denser fog than others.

And so, he rides the circuit, seated in one of the cars to hopefully reduce some of his exposure to the mind-altering stuff in the air. It may be that someone else has a similar idea or seeks to get on the train to outrun something chasing them.

Whatever the case, Vincent will be ready to respond should someone enter.

[ Wildcard - open ]

[ plotting post is here. ]
Edited 2025-09-22 19:34 (UTC)
rudelanguage: (pic#17713221)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-09-19 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
moooore body shit
There's an awful lot to put up with right now. Existential identity crisis aside, Knife hasn't seen semi-spectral shit like this, and that's grounds enough to want to run the fuck away. And they would've, if Kaeya hadn't said that dumb hero bullshit and made that expression at them.

Pisses Knife off.

They shake off the unease of having gone through so-called solid objects and growls, the planes of the Canvas' face bulging and shifting as Knife's focus pivots to other parts of its body. The bare, brown shoulders broaden and arms thicken, hands growing, ill-proportioned. It's not human hands they're thinking of anyway, and Erast was always unnaturally chunky.

One of those meaty hands pushes the offering back to Kaeya's chest before moving to his shoulders.

"Shut up, knees up." They bend their own and move to get their hands under him and heft him up. "Hnrrh-!"

(athletics 7 (3+4))

"Fucking--!"

Different tactic. (16 (12+4)) The Canvas yanks Kaeya roughly up by his collar to sitting up, then forces him over his shoulders for a fireman's carry. Much better.

Not the best, but y'know. They can get shaky knees up under themself.

"Is it still there? The box?" Knife's skewed, reptilian-slitted eyes are fixed on all the fractured bodies and mess ahead of them.
Edited 2025-09-19 21:58 (UTC)
shadowsincryo: (Nothing could be worse)

[personal profile] shadowsincryo 2025-09-19 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Mm, girl. Same warnings.
"W-what are you-" You know, he should have expected this. All his friends are like this. This is the same attitude he turned on Alex and Verso. The souls grab at him. They try to pull him back. But, ultimately, they are degrading souls who lack the power to hold him.

Like a shocked cat that's picked up and hasn't yet decided to commit violence, he holds fast to his companion. He looks up. The tie on his eyepatch is slipping—damn souls. Wait.

He squints. "Is it supposed to have a door in the far side?" It's a way out of this bullshit. The cracks in the floor continue to spread.
rudelanguage: (pic#17730072)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-09-19 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"No, it--well, sometimes, but only--" Oh, there's just too many words. Who cares, who cares, who cares?!

Reflexively, the Canvas snaps at one of the reaching spirits as a dog would, its mouth extending briefly to be like one. It's just air. Stupid, pointless. The panic is now more fury to fuel an indignation in Knife's belly as they remember.

"It's the FUCKING poison," Kaeya's voice yells harshly, losing some of its familiar tone into something gravelly. No one here sounds like that - it's someone back home.

Abruptly, they turn right around to face exactly what Kaeya said was there. Door. Fucking...whatever. They snarl and kick at it. Kick at air. And pitch forward, yelling in irritation as that means landing the step hard. My fucking KNEE!

It sends one of Knife's forgotten scalpels skittering away, clothes and gear still forgotten. And so Kaeya gets himself stomped through the 'door' by a naked, genital-less amalgamation of ill-proportioned limbs and features, a scaly tail snaking out to keep balance with the excess weight.
nottheboss: (Default)

B

[personal profile] nottheboss 2025-09-19 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Aurora said they'd have to rely on teams this mission. It's a nice thought but Bossie was separated from his people almost immediately.

It's days or who knows how long before he finds Shaw.

He takes the page, calls on rusty Farsi skills to interpret it but it's not a clue, is it?

"Where'd you get this?"