[IC] Books, Dreams, and Bleeding Things

[Shamitako]

A strange magic circle opens up, tossing you out, you find yourself inside an almost pure white box. A small shadow of darkness peeks out from the corner. The Black creeps forwards, covering over the White in an effort to consume you, an escape must be found

 

~~~

 

The Unnoticed Girl finds herself in a room with a clear exit. A gap in the wall not much bigger than she. It seems to lead out onto a long and narrow path, and that path leads to more white. Although it's hard to tell for certain, it almost looks like the path has no walls, as though stepping just the slightest bit to either side would have one falling off

 

~~~

 

The Brumal Girl emerges into a tall room, at least four times her height. Near the top there appears to be a gap that she could just barely squeeze into if she could somehow reach it. The Black looks to be creeping up the wall more than across the floor, giving her at least a little time to try to escape

 

~~~

 

The Plant Girl finds herself in a small cube, barely large enough to fit her. The Black is practically on top of her already, held at bay only by the momentary presence of the sigil that placed her there. There is a shaft next to her which appears to lead out into a much taller room, but the shaft is even smaller than the room and could be tough to fit through

 

~~~

 

The Serpent Girl is dropped unceremoniously from the ceiling of a rather large room. At the end of the room there is a door, it is completely seamless and would be indistinguishable from the wall if not for the white knob on it. The Black here has already climbed up the walls and across the floor, forming a solid wall directly opposite the door. It creeps forward ominously, a shadowy wall of death

 

~~~

 

The Thousand-Eye Girl is in a small box of a room that opens out into another room. The second room has vague outlines of what appear to be pillars.

 

~~~

 

The War Girl is dispelled forcibly from her sigil, launching up several feet into the air. She has fast enough reflexes to land on her feet and looks around to discover her surroundings. She finds herself in a large white room. At the end of the room there is a door, it is completely seamless and would be indistinguishable from the wall if not for the white knob on it. The Black here has already climbed up the walls and across the floor, forming a solid wall directly opposite the door. It creeps forward ominously, a shadowy wall of death

[Sutoratosu]

The Brumal Girl

Rei slowly got to her knees after the rough ejection, eyes scanning the strange white interior. There in the corner seemed to be... god only knew what creeping along the edges of wall, like someone had spilled a vial of ink onto some fabric and just let it run. She had a feeling that whatever the hell it was, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to get too close.

She again let her eyes wander the otherwise empty space as she stood fully... and only then caught an actual glimpse of her hands and her clothes. Skin tinted blue, frost covering every inch of her dress, in fact, every few seconds she caught a few wisps of fog curl up and fade into the surrounding air. And then there was the opening in the ceiling, far, far above her head. To be honest, it reminded her of one of those Bottle Dungeons she'd once read about. The mere thought of that coupled with all the other oddities was enough to finally make her question

"Am I... am I dreaming?" Yes... that would've definitely explained alot of it, and the very last thing she could remember was drifting off. But damn if this was already shaping up to be one of the strangest dreams she'd ever had before. She could pick it all apart and analyze what any of it meant later though, for now... she just wanted to get out of the cell.

The ceiling was much too far for her to reach without any help. The walls... were already covered in a nice amount of black...whatever. With little other options available to her, she picked up a leg and stamped it down hard on the white floor, listening for the resonance... hopefully there'd be some sort of space or room beneath her, somewhere to drop down into. How the hell she might even get through to said space if it existed, well, that could wait...

[Shamitako]

Unfortunately for Rei, the ground sounded entirely solid. In addition to the general frigidness of her appearance, her hands and feet seemed to be freezing solid. Ice formed around her fingers and began to creep up her hands and arms at a rather rapid pace. The Black was already about half her height and covering the entire width of the wall opposite the gap, it seemed to be expanding to the side walls as well, though it was still a good ways away from reaching across the floor to Rei

(OOC: Just to be clear, she's freezing over because she hasn't yet made a conscious effort to exempt herself from the effect, not anything to do with low control or something)

[Twinwolf]

Ciri gained consciousness, and was quickly aware of something off. This wasn't her bedroom. Her arm felt stiff, and she rubbed it... why does it feel hard. No, soft? What? She looked, and saw that her arm... wasn't her arm. It was as if instead of a human limb, some kind of plant grew there. It had fingers. She could move them. She could bend her elbow too. It functioned. But why was her arm a plant? And was that the only thing that was changed? She couldn't see the rest of her. Her other, still human-looking arm was tinged green. That wasn't normal. She shook her head, and was suddenly aware of her predicament. She didn't know why, but the Black was bad. She knew she was on a Sigil. And she knew she had to get the heck out of there.

The hole was small. But who knew how long the Sigil would last? It was her only visible option. She would try to crawl through it.

[Sutoratosu]

"Damn...so much for that" she had bigger concerns at the moment though. She could sense the growing ice on her, though... more with a sense of vague awareness than actual pain or discomfort, the exact opposite of all her past experiences in the snow. Yet another oddity conjured by the random firing of her neurons, she supposed.

How was she supposed to stop it though? That was the real question...and then it hit her. She was aware she was dreaming. Which meant...

"I'm free."

Nothing happened. The darkness and ice alike continued to grow. Rei pouted, trying again with a bit more force behind her voice, only to find yet the same results for her efforts. Yet something else came to her though, as she turned her attention to her frozen palms and shins. A silent beckoning in her mind, a raw impulse... the spark of a single idea, a single concept. And with that idea, came thundering forth her voice with every ounce of intent she could muster, eyes narrowing on the expanding ice

"HALT!"

And like that, the stuff instantly ceased it's march. Rei smiled. Good, good, at least something was responding. But this was still definitely the strangest lucid dream she'd ever had. And the only one, really. She willed the accumulation to dissipate, and like a loyal hound, it followed suit. Soon enough she could flex her fingers yet again.

"Good... if only I could do the same thing to that black stuff over there. Though...huh..." Yet another impulse, the words Bruma briefly flashing in her mind, something she knew from her classes to be the latin equivalent for Winter, and the memory of her own hands immobilized in ice just moments earlier accompanying it. It was worth a shot. Rei took a short glance all around at the inky expanse thus far, and closing her eyes and concentrating on... Cold, she guessed-anything that reminded her of the sensation: Snow, Ice, Rain, Overdraft Skies -and took a stab in the dark. Within moments, the fog surrounding her dissipated as the molecules forming the very gases of the air itself ground to an absolute halt, the aura of utter chill spreading towards the walls as the very color itself seemed to be sapped from her area as it expanded.

[Shamitako]

Ciri dragged herself down the shaft, it was fairly long and she was given a brief respite from the Black at the end of it. The wall to her left was cracked slightly, perhaps to the point where she could break through it with enough force. The room on the other side of the shaft dropped down quite far. At the bottom Ciri could see more Black, as well as what looked to be another girl.

"Halt!" The other girl yelled quite loudly.

She hadn't yet noticed Ciri, so it seemed unlikely that this command was directed at the Plant Girl. Still, the sound of it was jarring

~~~

The walls around Rei were quickly covered in a thick layer of ice, it's rough surface very different from the previously smooth wall. It seemed likely that she could carve out hand and footholds with relative ease. If she was quick about it, she would easily reach the top before the Black. It also seemed that the Black was resistant to freezing, as the ice quite abruptly stopped forming when it found Black and instantly melted to nothing when the Black expanded under it

[Twinwolf]

Another person... too help, or not too help? Well, the Black was bad. And it was behind her. So she wanted to escape. However, she had no idea what was ahead. Two people have more options and more ideas than one, and she wasn't the greatest thinker. So logically, helping the girl was the correct thing to do in this instance, if possible.

That, and she'd just feel horrible if she didn't try. Ciri peeks out the shaft, cautiously.

"H-Hey! Down there! You have any idea what's going on?"

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

Latens widened her eyes in a forceful daze, discovering herself in a secluded, limited vicinity of nothingness but a stark, pure white enveloping every corner; she couldn't make out the situation, but the strait path before her extended into an exit that barely accommodated her size. The path before her threatened to topple her off the seemingly steep road if a careless step would doom her to it. A propagating, minacious dark shade extended behind her, coating the white with its dark hue and influence, approaching her at a swift pace. With the limited time she had for herself, she noticed her change; the absence of the soft feel of her usually elegant hair came first as her hands reached upward to touch her curls -- only to find they were no longer there -- warped into a rough, unkempt mass of gray. As she did so, she noticed her hands, as dark as the black that menacingly approached her with strange, ominous carmine patterns around her limbs, her legs -- she could've guessed that it made her in this nightmare of a situation.

Little time did the girl have to decipher the situation for options and take the right course of action, her voice yearning to scream but none of it coming out. With what she knew about herself and with what circumstance such a predicament had landed her in, the repertoire of knowledge that the once resourceful Latens possessed was of little use. As she quivered in fear and hesitation of her next move -- bolting her head back and forth towards the extending mass of darkness and the only exit a stone's throw away -- her body unconsciously faded away into the white, but she could still feel her presence as her body vanished in an instant, the line between black and white ever narrowing even as she did so.....

((This is basically an unconscious/unknown test to see if her invisibility does anything, she doesn't even know she can turn invisible/intangible yet))

[Sutoratosu]

"Heh..." this was going better than she thought. She'd been hoping to maybe freeze whatever the black stuff was, but... this was good too. At least now she had a way out... she thought. Climbing the ice couldn't be much harder than climbing a tree, if she just... put her mind to it like she'd been doing. She was just about to put her weight onto the frozen surface and begin the ascent when yet even more madness was introduced to her dream;

"H-Hey! Down there! You have any idea what's going on?"

"Another girl? Is she just a figment? No, she has to be... how could anyone else be sharing the same dream?" "Uh... not really" she called back up, rather sheepishly. "I think I'm just as lost as you, but I've got an idea to get out..." with that said, she leapt onto the icy surface, taking yet another stab in the dark and willing the unnatural ice and frost to reform itself around her hands and feet, give them a tight grip, and lo and behold, it actually worked. She reached a bit higher on the wall, the ice expanded to accommodate her as she kept her intention of using it as her medium of climbing up and out of here clear. And she did it yet again, and again, the ice expanded beneath her and formed a new hold for her to grasp. and yet again, and again and again. The plan was working like a charm, her progress actually surprised her.

She looked back up at the girl in the distance though, making sure to keep at least some small part of her mind focused on the task so the hand holds didn't unform beneath her. She honestly had moved close enough that neither of them would have had to shout so much to be heard anymore "Uh, hey, you don't happen to see any of that weird black ink stuff where you are, do you?"

[Okami]

Why'd her bed feel so hard? It usually felt the most comfortable when she woke up, Cora squints up and stiffens. Above her was a dark fog, turning her head slightly she could see more of the same behind her. "Ok. Relax. Relax. It's a dream." Cora consoles herself, struggling into a sitting position. She had had her fair share of scary dreams after the car accident and- Oh... None of them did this... In front of Cora, or, rather, below her, was a large black tail. In the woods behind her house Cora had captured her fair share of snakes, she liked them when they didn't make her hands smell, they were quick, silky, and well... Cool! But as much as she liked the legless reptiles she didn't fancy having them for her lower half. "Remember.Dream.Dream.Notreal." Cora says quickly, she could barely understand her words from gibberish. She closes her eyes, as she had heard falling asleep in a dream wakes you up, only to find she could still see. Tentatively, Cora waves a hand (clawed, she notes with increasing panic) in front of her eyes. She could still see it, like she was looking through a window that was a bit fogged up. Her eyelids were clear. Cora jams a fist in her mouth to muffle an upcoming cry of panic only to yank it out with a yelp. Two neat little holes marred her snow white flesh and they stung like a bee. "Oh no... Did I... Poison myself? If there's anyone Up There, looking down on us..." Cora begins, "please make me non venomous snake..."

Edited November 24, 2016 by Okami

[Twinwolf]

"I did, unfortunately! Woke up in some kinda tiny box of a room, on a... I really don't know what it is, but Sigil sounds right? Surrounded by the stuff. The shaft's kinda tiny, but I think there's a weakness in the wall we could use to try to get out!"

[Shamitako]

Latens hiding herself proved pointless, as there was nothing to hide from. The Black in her room had coated the back wall and advanced towards her ever quicker. She heard a strange screech, almost like that of a crying girl, but it was unclear whether it came from within the Black or from outside

~~~

Rei scaled the wall with ease and quickly ffound herself within arms reach of the gap and Ciri. The Black was barely halfway up the wall and had yet to coat the entire floor. The Black from Ciri's room was inching forward, but not at an alarming pace. The two of them were safe for the moment.

~~~

Cora didn't have much time to contemplate whether or not she accidentally murdered herself, as the Black was cascading towards her

~~~

Ei jumped out of the sigil and landed safely on her feet, as though she had practiced the maneuver a thousand times. In reality she had no idea what she was doing and it just so happened that she was ejected in such a way that she looked proficient. The room she found herself in was a blank canvas with a splatter of ink in the corner. If ink splatters were capable of writhing about. This particular ink splatter seemed rather ominous as it spread across this strange canvas. Ei looked down at herself. She was in her usual summer dress (which she often wore regardless of weather), and happily barefoot. Were it not for the lizard's eye staring at her from her elbow, she probably would have felt perfectly normal. Instead, she screamed in shock.

"There is a purple eye on my arm. Lots of eyes." She said aloud, desperately hoping it would make more sense that way.

She noticed, however, that she didn't have time to panic over her appearance, as the foreboding Black was quickly consuming the room. Without any choice left to her, she forced the eyes from her mind and exited into the second room.

~~~

Ei found herself in a room full of square pillars of varying heights. She herself stood on a small ledge that seemed to serve the purpose of giving her a starting point. A good ways beneath her was the room's floor, which seemed to be made of spikes. It wasn't hard to guess what would happen if she fell. There was the option of trying to jump between the pillars, but Ei was not particularly agile so an attempt at that could prove fatal. The Black in the room behind her seemed slower now that she had left, almost as though it was waiting for her to give up and turn back

(OOC: Separating OP-me and player-me is proving to be a rather fun challenge in this RP)

[Twinwolf]

"Up you go..." Ciri mutters as she helps Rei into the shaft. "What was that you were doing? It seemed really cool! ...No pun intended... Anyway! There's that weak bit I mentioned." She indicates the cracked left wall. "I think we can break through, if we work together. Ice is weaker than most walls, right? So you freeze it, I break through. We can freak out about each other's appearances when we're safe."

[Sutoratosu]

"Uh, climbing, I think. And thanks..." Rei managed as she emerged through the shaft. She took a moment to look at the other girl and instantly took a step back in surprise. She looked more or less like one might think a Dryad would, well...if Dryads had massive juggernaut arms. Pushing down her moment of shock though, she turned her eyes instead to the structural weakness she'd pointed out, still stealing the occasional glance at the other being out of pure morbid fascination.

"Well, if I can apparently make footholds out of the stuff, I guess this isn't too crazy a use for it..." She began, "definitely worth a shot..." and with that, she again closed her eyes, once more focusing on all the things that reminded her of the blistering cold. And just as only moments before, the cryoaura cloaking her lithe form began to expand outwards, snaking towards the aforementioned breach in the wall as the other girl stood behind her, Rei having stepped in front of her just before the experiment began. She still felt sure that the girl was just a figment of her mind, conjured up by the memories of her studies, especially given her... peculiar appearance, but even so... she didn't really want to risk freezing her solid by accident.

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

Subsequently a chilly screech resounded, though Latens could not pinpoint the source -- it could be the menace of the darkness behind her lunging and gaping toward her, or it could be someone else....Latens hoped it to be the latter.

She took more steps toward the door until she was only one step away from the exit, having been driven into that narrow corner by fear of the ever-encroaching darkness -- she had no real option left. That one screech was her only reason to stay in there any longer, to not jump into the other realm of coated whiteness free from the clutches of the dark shade that unrelentingly hounded her still....

"Hello?! Is someone there? Hello?!"

[Twinwolf]

Ciri herself was rather curious about the appearance of the other girl. Blue-ish skin, hair pretty much made of snow, cat eyes, and fangs. Certainly far from normal. But the Plant Girl wasn't sure she looked much better.

She put those thoughts aside for the moment. Once the weak part of the wall was frozen, she would pull back her plant-arm as best as she could in the tight space, and then punch at the weakened wall, as many times as it would take to break it down.

[Okami]

The darkness... It was moving! Cora, ignoring her hand, lays onto her back and rolls, winding up on her stomach. "Those garter snakes were fast..." She murmurs, "Let's hope I am too..."

Cora couldn't really explain how she moved, she just did. It was as easy as blinking or wiggling her fingers, she didn't have to think "move" or anything, instead the powerful muscles in her serpentine tail propelled her forward at a speed similar to running.

"Hello?! Is someone there? Hello?!"

Cora's movement halts, the sudden lack of motion nearly having her face plant the ground. A girl's voice. It was probably just a dream figment or something but... "Um, hi! Do you hear me?" Cora calls, hoping to no longer be alone with the approaching darkness.

[Shamitako]

The cracked wall was smashed on the first try thanks to the strength of Ciri's arm. It opened out into a long white hallway, long enough that the end was indistinguishable from the walls. A good ways down there was a person or creature that appeared to be wearing a large black coat. Despite the color, it didn't exude the same feeling of danger that the Black did. It also didn't seem to be paying attention to the girls, allowing them a brief rest before they had to deal with whatever it was.

~~~

No response came to Latens except the Black creeping ever closer. There wasn't even another screech

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

She cried, yet not but a response replied to her. A cornered rat with no way to fight back, all forms of her rationale and intelligence failing her at the moment to scramble for another option, Latens braced herself as she hastened into the narrow passageway.

[Shamitako]

Latens found herself in a massive open space. There was a wall not too far off to her left, but she couldn't discern any of the other surfaces from the rest of the white. The ceiling didn't seem too far away, but the floor was certainly a far drop. The path she stood on was only as wide as her foot was long. The room she was in was a small rectangle jutting out of one corner of the massive area. Around the corner there was a ledge protruding off of it, just on the other side of the wall. It was too far away for her to reach it from the pathway, any attempt to do so would almost certainly lead to her falling to her death

[Noir]

The Unnoticed Girl

Latens opted for heading into the narrow path but only found herself in a more risky space -- extremely limited to that of which the path was so narrow that yet again a careless step proved her downfall, with only a ledge too far for her to provide respite. At least she was slightly ahead of whatever was chasing her -- but she didn't have much time.

Why was she alone here? Was it truly so in that she was the only one going through what she was going through right now?

"Is anyone there?" Another bout of hope struggled to contain itself within her as she shouted those words, if not to call for help for another, perhaps futile time, but to wake herself up if her meticulous mind was making this nightmare in her sleep.

[Shamitako]

Latens yet again heard a screech, this time it was clear it came from this outer room. But the echoes in the large space made it impossible to pinpoint the location. It sounded far away, but was still rather chilling. The path ahead of her seemed very long, crossing it would be very tiring and time consuming even without it being extremely narrow

[Twinwolf]

Ciri blinks as the wall crumbles in front of her. "...That was easier than I thought. Uh... wanna keep going, or is there anything you think we should talk about?"

[Sutoratosu]

"well...aside from the creep in the distance" the Brumal Girl replied, nodding her head towards the mysterious figure. "I'm kinda... wondering whether or not you're even real. No offense, but I don't think it's really possible for two people to have the same dream... and uh, you seem perfectly nice and all, but, well... yeah..." She tipped back and forth on the balls and heels of her feet idly, frost crunching loudly beneath her light body weight as she looked at the ground sheepishly. It was a rude thing to suggest, yes, her not truly existing, but one that had puzzled her ever since she first saw the other girl.

"That and... well... you don't really look human either, so that's not helping. But then again, I guess I probably don't look much like one myself either..."

[Twinwolf]

"I mean, I could say the same I guess. I have no idea if you're real either. And this is pretty logically a dream. You don't look human, either, actually. Kinda... frozen? Huh, this could cause an existential crisis if you thought about it too much, thinking about which one of us is the figment of the other's imagination or if maybe science didn't know about something."