HEARTGAME DRESS REHEARSAL
Apr. 12th, 2024 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
finalbowsthank u rah u hero
tracking sheet
[ ..somewhere in the pasture, Angel Devil falls down.
His clothes have twisted away into bone-white rags, leaving a body covered over with only thick swathes of red fur, and downy feathers. His long tail is curled into a tense arc, banded fur standing on end.
The air wavers like he’s a heat mirage, not a man. He’s boiling away with absolutely stupid amounts of arcane power… and, most frighteningly, he does not seem in control of the fact that it is there and being brought to bear. It’s impossible to get any closer to him.
When he speaks, it’s quite timid. ]
Ah,
I thought… I had a little more time.
[ (and in a blinding flash of light, there is the sound of something breaking.) ]
tracking sheet
[ ..somewhere in the pasture, Angel Devil falls down.
His clothes have twisted away into bone-white rags, leaving a body covered over with only thick swathes of red fur, and downy feathers. His long tail is curled into a tense arc, banded fur standing on end.
The air wavers like he’s a heat mirage, not a man. He’s boiling away with absolutely stupid amounts of arcane power… and, most frighteningly, he does not seem in control of the fact that it is there and being brought to bear. It’s impossible to get any closer to him.
When he speaks, it’s quite timid. ]
Ah,
I thought… I had a little more time.
[ (and in a blinding flash of light, there is the sound of something breaking.) ]
~KRRSHHK~
[any observers will see, strangely see-through and superimposed on the scene, some kind of vast tree, illusionary roots twisting over and around to frame a door. the door itself is wrought of opaque stained glass in blacks and whites and greys; a stylized rendition of Angie in that strangely ragged, feathered form, curled in on himself, eyes closed. Angie himself is nowhere to be seen. ]
instead, a shadow . . . steps into view from behind the door. for a moment it looks like nothing so much as a second genome – then it turns, gaining features and definition with the movement. The monkey tail separates into three plumes; a ponytail unfurls into wings that lift up from the sides of the head.
Teleute(?) is here, dressed in her customary black, but there is colour in her skin, and her hair and eyes are blue. she’s frowning.]
. . . well. This is the least I can do before I go, in exchange for the safe harbor.
[she lifts her head, nodding to any observers, and gestures at the door.]
You’ll want to head in there now if you don’t wish to lose your flockmate, I think. Even the false-death of this place won’t be much help to him, if his soul is left to finish pulling itself apart.
My sisters and I can maintain the way into and out of it for you, but we were not made to knit such wounds by ourselves. Have a care.
instead, a shadow . . . steps into view from behind the door. for a moment it looks like nothing so much as a second genome – then it turns, gaining features and definition with the movement. The monkey tail separates into three plumes; a ponytail unfurls into wings that lift up from the sides of the head.
Teleute(?) is here, dressed in her customary black, but there is colour in her skin, and her hair and eyes are blue. she’s frowning.]
. . . well. This is the least I can do before I go, in exchange for the safe harbor.
[she lifts her head, nodding to any observers, and gestures at the door.]
You’ll want to head in there now if you don’t wish to lose your flockmate, I think. Even the false-death of this place won’t be much help to him, if his soul is left to finish pulling itself apart.
My sisters and I can maintain the way into and out of it for you, but we were not made to knit such wounds by ourselves. Have a care.
THE APPROACH
Date: 2024-04-13 03:45 am (UTC)at first, you find something beautiful:
A towering castle over an endless rolling field of houses, that builds itself eternally higher, to the heavens.
There is only one path to follow, so, that path is where you go.
But it's strange.
Those buildings down below... are familiar, aren't they?
That one.
Right there.
That's one you once stayed in. Years ago.
Those clouds, high up to the west,
are exactly the same as the ones up in the sky
on one of the happiest days of your life.
That window on a castle parapet, that just rose up before your eyes,
is to a room you could never forget.
It doesn't make sense. This is Angel Devil's soul. Why are you pieces of you in it? Pieces you certainly could never have purposefully shared, in their sheer minute intimacy of detail.
But no matter why it's happened, for some brief, painful moments, you can look down on scraps of home, lost in a patchwork. ]
THE APPROACH II (final save point before the end.)
Date: 2024-04-13 03:54 am (UTC)it looks like it was once a familiar barn door, but it's already fallen apart into rotten pieces.
Mist, whispering of death, anger, and despair, rolls out from the darkness beyond the empty frame.
do you want to take a moment to collect yourselves? speak to one another, if someone else real happens to show up while you make up your mind on how to proceed?
because, after this point, you simply cannot turn back. ]
BACKSTAGE I
Date: 2024-04-13 08:00 pm (UTC)and the tree roots, of course. mind that you don't trip. one of the stagehands just did, though the other one that was walking beside them keeps trudging on, completely ignoring the clumsy doll on the ground.]
make sure the player comes to understand they have two options: to ignore the proceedings onstage, or to take part in the shows -- with the goal that, by doing so, they will preserve fragments of angie's soul.
Re: THE APPROACH
Date: 2024-04-13 11:17 pm (UTC)It's hard to tell if this place is lifting her own memories, or if she's feeling Angie's memories as if they're her own. It's happened before, after all, whenever she's tried resonating with the crystals he's made.. If she's in his soul, it makes sense she'd be feeling his life, too. Still, it's a little uncanny.]
[...She continues walking.]
Re: THE APPROACH
Date: 2024-04-13 11:28 pm (UTC)a voice very similar to hers hums a familiar hymn just behind her shoulder. ]
Re: THE APPROACH
Date: 2024-04-13 11:31 pm (UTC)Re: THE APPROACH
Date: 2024-04-13 11:32 pm (UTC)but for the memories,
she is alone. ]
Re: THE APPROACH
Date: 2024-04-13 11:35 pm (UTC)[Thank goodness.]
[hustles along toward the destination at a slightly faster pace this time.]
Re: THE APPROACH
Date: 2024-04-13 11:38 pm (UTC)Re: THE APPROACH II (final save point before the end.)
Date: 2024-04-13 11:43 pm (UTC)[She opens the door -- carefully, so not too many pieces fall off, if she can help it.]
Re: THE APPROACH II (final save point before the end.)
Date: 2024-04-13 11:50 pm (UTC)...
[ the Mist flooding your lungs quickly turns overwhelming. you feel your stomach clench. it is officially too late to turn back. for who? who knows.
there's a point it gets unbearable.
...with a certainty that this will help, somehow, you now feel a nagging urge to do something rather strange:
speak into the darkness the name of one you envy. ]
Re: THE APPROACH II (final save point before the end.)
Date: 2024-04-13 11:55 pm (UTC)Révérence!
[Yelled as if she's scolding him. YOU CUT THIS BOTTOMLESS PIT OF MIST OUT THIS MINUTE!!]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:01 am (UTC)[ thusly unburdened, the way is now clear:
though the darkness shrouds you from sight,
you are identified by what you covet.
the "truth" of who you are stays with you,
resting heavy on your face.
Gained MASK OF CRUELTY.
...lucky for you, a mirror to your right with rows of bulbs along its frame lights up, if you want to admire your new treasure(?). ]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:11 am (UTC)[...She smooths her hands over the mask. What's this for...?]
[Can she take it off?]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:15 am (UTC)the lights around the mirror blink, and grow dimmer, but that seems to be all the protest she's currently going to recieve. ]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:16 am (UTC)[what if she puts it back on?]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:22 am (UTC)sure, it looks and feels like a regular mask...
...but masks are at their core symbols, right? ]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:24 am (UTC)[Alright. She'll keep it on for now, she guesses. Whatever.]
[She looks around, trying to orient herself. Are there any hints on which direction to travel?]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:36 am (UTC)[But it's a direction, anyway. She will cautiously proceed toward the sounds, moving quietly, and sniffing the air for hints about what they are.]
1/2
Date: 2024-04-14 12:39 am (UTC)2/2 - BACKSTAGE
Date: 2024-04-14 12:43 am (UTC)and the tree roots, of course. mind that you don't trip. one of the stagehands passing your shadowy corner of the room just did, though the other one that was walking beside them keeps trudging on, completely ignoring the clumsy, collapsed doll on the ground.]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 12:51 am (UTC)[She keeps to the shadows as much as possible, trying to stay out of sight. She knows Angie's soul is broken and she's supposed to fix it, but she doesn't have the faintest idea about how, or what she's supposed to be looking for. So for now she's going to creep along behind the genome, to see where they might be going. She'll keep a lookout for anything that looks broken, in the meantime.]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 01:08 am (UTC)in terms of broken things, there are quite a lot. it is almost as if the playhouse in his soul is one big collection of the discarded: coils of rope too frayed to rely on, crates with gaping holes in their sides, scraps of fabric off of long discarded costumes... I could keep rattling this kind of stuff off but you get the picture.
But none of them feel like the wretched festering wound that is killing her flockmate. None of them feel like they could be the source of the rotten material that he has enterprisingly used to his own designs, time and again, that clever, stupid craftsman--
until the Genome leads her by a closed metal(?) gate, and she inhales lungfuls of Mist again.
there is something broken in there.
something sick. ]
no subject
Date: 2024-04-14 01:14 am (UTC)[she's putting a pin in that thought for now, though, and turning to her attention toward the smell of rot. What does this gate look like?]