Day 1

[mirror_mod]

The first sign is maybe different for all of you – the hard ground underneath you, the lack of a body next to you, or no blanket to pull over your shoulders when you reach for it. Either way, when you open your eyes you know for certain you aren’t in the castle.

It’s a little too quiet here, except for the sounds of people around you moving about. There is a strange, unreal quality about everything, as if were viewed through the grimy patina of an old piece of film or photograph and half-realized blurs of images and words seems to hang suspended in the air like solid smoke – there but not quite there.

The group seems to be at the edge of a dead forest, the trees dark and twisted and the ground swirling with mist. A path seems to lead into the depths, but the sky that way is cast with dark umber and hanging shadows that don’t seem terribly inviting.

Not far off, however, is a long stone bridge stretching over a chasm of nothingness and leading to what looks like a city. Far beyond the rooftops, there is the briefest glimmer of dazzling light, gone almost as soon as you see it.

((OOC: WAIT FOR SECTIONS PLEASE! Aaaaaand GO!))

WAKING UP | THE CITY

Comments

[chippedcup]

[Belle wakes up suddenly, and knows she's not in her bed. For a minute, she thinks she might have gone home but no, she realizes this looks nothing like it. It all looks...wrong. And she's in her pajamas.]

...Now what has this place done?

[cloakand_danger]

[Yuan is up and about now, looking around and getting a sense of who all is here. He's looking pretty confident and steady for a man in boxers and a tank top, although his unbound hair keeps getting in the way.]

Your guess is as good as mine, unless you recognize this place. Sometimes it sends us to places the other residents are familiar with.

[He squints around them, still trying to get used to the unreal look of everything.] The real question is, where are all of the others?

[chippedcup]

No, my world tends to have living forests in it. [She's having the hair problem too, sadly, and is currently trying to tame it without a hair tie.]

Perhaps it only took some of us.

[cloakand_danger]

It doesn't- [no, wait, yes it does] ...Sometimes it does that. But it's just as likely we've been split into groups somehow for this world change.

...Although usually when it does that, we have our journals with us.

[chippedcup]

And we don't have journals. [She finishes the thought for him.] So that leaves the question, if this is a world change, why did it cut us off from everybody else?

[cloakand_danger]

[He chuckles humorlessly.] ...A friend of mine would tell you the castle's playing 'silly buggers' again.

[Weird that he finds himself missing Crowley, of all people, but having the demon around to crack jokes would make the shadows seem less threatening, somehow.]

[chippedcup]

[She tilts her head, trying to place where she's heard that, and then realizes it and laughs.] Crowley probably would say that.

[cloakand_danger]

[Yuan grins lopsidedly at her.] Ah, so you know him, too. Not surprised, he's awfully sociable for a demon.

My name is Yuan, by the way. [Because any friend of Crowley's is a friend of his.]

[chippedcup]

As sociable as a demon can get. Especially if you provide alcohol.

I'm Belle. Nice to meet you, even if it's not in the... best of circumstances.

[cloakand_danger]

Likewise, Miss Belle. [He looks over in the direction of the city.] It looks like that's where we should be aiming for, once we're ready to set out. Obviously there isn't much for us here.

[chippedcup]

[She nods.] Even though we're probably doing exactly what it wants, we don't have much choice.

[cloakand_danger]

[The smirk he gives her this time is particularly ironic.] A common theme, to life in Paradisa.

[chippedcup]

I'm starting to realize that.

[ironlady]

[Caterina's gaze settles on Belle.] It is difficult to say just yet.

[chippedcup]

[She stands up, brushing herself off.] Definitely. ...We need more information.

[ironlady]

We do. Where we will find it is another matter entirely.

[chippedcup]

Probably the city in the distance is our best bet. [She gestures in that direction.] I doubt standing on the edge of this forest is going to get us much.

[ironlady]

No. We'll likely be put into danger heading that way, but that cannot be helped.

[chippedcup]

Of course. It's probably one huge trap for us, but we don't have any other options. The castle is clever like that.

[ironlady]

So it is. We've made it through these trials time and time again. This one will be no different.

[chippedcup]

I've only been here for a few months, but...that seems the way of things. The castle throws things at us, and we survive. That's all we really can do.

[ironlady]

You've caught on quickly. It's not all hopeless thankfully. The people make the trouble worthwhile.