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Tweak says, "Well hit sir! Very well hit!"

disappear_npc (disappear_npc) wrote in disappear_plot,
@ 2011-04-08 19:49:00

Endgame Dungeon 2
The group arrives at the planned location on Friday, and are herded onto a bus with little ceremony. They reach their destination soon enough...

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	II. THE HIGH PRIESTESS disappearedmods 2011-04-08 11:50 pm UTC (link)
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Re: II. THE HIGH PRIESTESS

anthesphoria
2011-04-09 02:18 am UTC (link)

Kozue awakes in a large room, with a high, vaulted ceiling, and vaguely Grecian pillars. It looks like the lobby of a swanky, swanky hotel. The space is expansive and lavishly decorated; there’s a huge chandelier at the apex of the room, and gold balloons everywhere. The room even has a few tropical plants here and there; ferns and short palm trees and hibiscus in bloom. There are, however, no doors, and in the centre of the room stands a human-shaped shadow, indistinct save for its piercing yellow eyes.

Kozue's head is still ringing; she climbs to her feet, slowly, admiring the beautiful space, looking around––wondering if she's in the afterlife or something--until her eyes hit the shadow. It's a lot less admirable all of a sudden. She freezes, deer in the headlights, waiting for it to attack her.

The shadow does no such thing. It doesn't even move - simply watches, waits. And, eventually, speaks, in a voice neither male nor female, one and many: What is thy purpose?

".... what?" Strangely, it is when the Shadow speaks that Kozue finds the courage to move again, and she totters forward a step or two. "My purpose? I don't want to die, I want to go home."

People in ballroom dresses fade in and out of existence around the perimeter of the room. Kozue hears the ghost of laughter, and the familiarity of the place strikes her suddenly. What will become of thee?

She starts, head whipping to the side, trying to figure out if she's been here before, why it feels like she's been here before--sure, she's been to places like it, hundreds of them, but this… feels, she doesn't know, she might just be dead. The laughter strikes a chord; a shiver runs down her spine, she's heard this before, this must have happened before.

But she can't remember when. She turns back to the indistinct form, with those sharp yellow eyes, and, shivering, considers it. The sense of familiarity seems to have given her a speck of courage, just a small speck, "I guess either you'll kill me, or something else will. Not that I want to die, but…" She eyes the scenery again, the ghosts of dancers fading in and out, "I don't know what I can do about it."

The shadow's voice changes to something that sounds far more similar to Kozue's own: Do you think we could actually make a life for ourselves and not fail utterly? Without having someone hold our hand and do it for us, or tell us what we need to do?

“Who said you could wear your hair like that?” "Can't you pour tea without spilling?"

"Never have I ever aced a test."

“Are you having fun yet?”
What will become of thee? The shadow repeats. What is thy worth?

She startles, for a moment terrified, hearing herself talking, "I never said--" except that it's familiar, these are her grandmother's words, and her own, and her thoughts even if she's never spoken them aloud. "My worth? Is…" she falters. For a brief moment, there is a flicker of a sense that she has wrestled with this before, and emerged battered but victorious with something the fight was all worth. "I'm me," and then she falters again, and it's gone like the dancers around the edges of the room and Kozue is left hollow without it.

The plants in the lobby twist and grow out from their pots, crawling along the walls, floors, winding around the pillars, but never passing the shadow that stands between Kozue and them. Speak my name.

"What's happening?" But her attention only flicks to the wild plants for a moment; the shadow has her riveted. Her name? (How did Kozue even know this was a her? But she did. She was certain.)

Slowly, the shadow advances, bringing with it the lashing vines and plant tendrils it holds back only by the virtue of its presence. SPEAKMYNAME.

Her heart was racing; her pulse was thumping loud in her head and for some mad, mad reason she did not retreat, but held her ground, staring, as the shadow closed the space between them. The terror she had felt throughout this whole ordeal still gripped her––but there, for one moment again she saw with clarity, that she did not need to be afraid, that she could be fearsome instead. Her face relaxed--open, in wonder, "I know you."

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Re: II. THE HIGH PRIESTESS

anthesphoria
2011-04-09 02:19 am UTC (link)

The shadow's eyes flash as it halts its approach. Again, it speaks, but this time in a woman's voice, smooth and cold as steel but somehow comfortingly familiar. Speak, she commands.

It's like a sigh, almost. A relief. A return at the end of winter. "Persephone."

The word has barely left Kozue's mouth before she's blindsided with a flood of memories, flashes of sights and snippets of sound that have somehow been forgotten. The room fades to white and she can feel her strength fading, but the voice, once again myriad, continues in her head loud and strong:

The Priestess knows the heart of herself and her companions. Through her, they may know themselves.

With that, Kozue blacks out again...

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