HEARTGAME

[was_no_monster]

[the moment you touch Kaito, a hideous screeching, clanging noise fills your ears: metal on metal on metal, slamming and scraping together as it strains against something. the cacophony is followed by a deafening crash, and then—

a sharp snap. another. and another, and suddenly the high pitched, metallic noises are all you can hear, like heavy hail on a metal roof. even if you've never heard the likes of it before, there's a part of you that knows with a deep-rooted certainty what that sound is.

it's the sound of chains being broken, and with each one that goes a little more of your awareness dims, until there's nothing left but darkness.]

Comments

the dungeon

[was_no_monster]

You open your eyes to a dim, watery light.

You're in a small, cramped room, with crumbling brick walls. Archways leading out stand across the room in front of you, as well as to your left and right; if you turn around, there's one more behind you.

In the center of the room, the floor falls away into a circular, stone pit— about eight feet deep, with a plain staircase cut into the wall as a way to safely climb down. The pit is almost entirely taken up by a cage, with no more than an arm's length of distance around it— but that's still just enough room to see the edges of shelves set into the walls, and more importantly, the blood that's been splattered everywhere— on the floor, on the walls of the pit, and all over the multitude of chains that have been wound around and through the bars of the cage.

The cage door is open, the chains are all broken, and whatever they once held is gone. However, it's easy to see where it went; a trail of more blood (relatively fresh) leads from the open cage, up the stairs, and out of the pit and through the archway on the left side of the room.

What do you do?

Re: the dungeon

[done_rare]

[. . . Well. Better to be on the trail of something than have something on his trail.

Havoc's taking off down the archway with the blood trail, quiet and cautious as he can be.]

Re: the dungeon

[was_no_monster]

It had already been kind of chilly, but as soon as you step out of the room the cold starts to sink into your bones. The damp air has a palpable heaviness to it, dragging at you as if to try to hold you back, or down.

It's brighter, though. A grey, featureless sky is visible up above the walls, casting a washed-out light over your surroundings. The brick walls stretch out before you in a narrow alleyway, only occasionally interrupted by boarded up, broken windows with nothing immediately visible behind them but dense fog. It seeps through the gaps between boards and cracks in what little glass is left and spills to the ground to lie thickly there, billowing and grasping outward with hungry, curling tendrils. ...The blood trail fades into the first patch of it, and does not come out the other side.

Beyond the fog lies the first turning— you can go either left or right.

Re: the dungeon

[done_rare]

Hell . . .

[He hesitates a minute . . . and with an irritated huff turns down the right path]

Re: the dungeon

[was_no_monster]

Your voice echoes, and then dies. Something creaks in the distance, like rusty hinges.

The alleyway twists and turns as you keep going, in places almost doubling back on itself. As you walk and more of the ever-present fog clings to your feet, a growing numbness starts to creep its way up your legs. It almost feels like they're falling asleep.

Soon enough, though, you come to another turning. Left or right?

Re: the dungeon

[done_rare]

. . . [trying left this time, practically stomping to try to wake his legs back up]

Re: the dungeon

[withoutharbor]

[ALL TOO FAMILIAR with the feeling of opening his eyes to a place completely foreign to him, though the feel of being shoved first is new.

There's a pause to mentally check if he'd been given any particular goal, to double check if this is a Game (and he can't be certain it isn't)... Well, the first thing is likely to determine who this heart belongs to, so he is following the blood trail to see if there's a person at the end of it.]

Re: the dungeon

[was_no_monster]

It had already been kind of chilly, but as soon as you step out of the room the cold starts to sink into your bones. The damp air has a palpable heaviness to it, dragging at you as if to try to hold you back, or down.

It's brighter, though. A grey, featureless sky is visible up above the walls, casting a washed-out light over your surroundings. The brick walls stretch out before you in a narrow alleyway, only occasionally interrupted by boarded up, broken windows with nothing immediately visible behind them but dense fog. It seeps through the gaps between boards and cracks in what little glass is left and spills to the ground to lie thickly there, billowing and grasping outward with hungry, curling tendrils. ...The blood trail fades into the first patch of it, and does not come out the other side.

Beyond the fog lies the first turning— you can go either left or right.

Re: the dungeon

[withoutharbor]

[Whatever, suspicious fog. Self-preservation levels are not actually high enough to make any big efforts to avoid it. He does sort of kick as he walks though, wondering if he'll see where the trail went if he can get it to clear a little.]

Re: the dungeon

[was_no_monster]

...That might have been a mistake. The kicking not only fails to clear the fog, but causes those wisps to reach higher— and wherever it touches, numbness sets in, as if your legs have fallen asleep in patches.

Re: the dungeon

[withoutharbor]

[This is a displeasing turn of events... IS GONNA GO BACK AND SEE IF HE CAN YANK A PIECE OF CHAIN FREE before he tries the fog again]

Re: the dungeon

[downvoted]

[Wow this is distressing. Touching the blood, how fresh is it?]

Re: the dungeon

[was_no_monster]

The nearby patches leading out of the room are fresh, and cling to your fingers; the same dark, thick stuff that Kaito was bleeding only a few days before.

The spatters at the bottom of the pit are too far away to tell by sight, however.

Re: the dungeon

[downvoted]

[Taking the stone stairs down carefully to check out the cage.]

Re: the dungeon

[was_no_monster]

Close up, it's easier to tell that not all of the blood is Kaito's; some of it is lighter, and obviously human. All of it is in varying stages of freshness, although most of the human blood has long since dried.

The cage itself has iron bars as thick around as your arm, but set widely enough that whatever was inside could probably have fit a limb through. Aside from the blood and broken chains, it's entirely empty.

However... now that you're at the bottom of the pit, you can more clearly see the shelves set into the walls, just barely within reach of whatever was in the cage. They're mostly empty, but there is a lone teddy bear sitting on one of them. Although more of that dark ichor is spattered all around it—in fact, is heaviest there—the bear itself is still completely clean. Pristine, in fact; its fur is still beautifully glossy, and it's posture is stiff in the way of a toy that hasn't been played with enough to break it in.

Re: the dungeon

[downvoted]

[He's going to see if he can pick up that suspiciously pristine teddy bear.]

the shack

[was_no_monster]

The door opens into a small, filthy room. It's dingy and dilapidated; the paint on the walls has mostly peeled away, revealing holes and cracks where the fluff of insulation peeks through, and the floor is nothing but rough concrete.

The only things in the room are a worn duffel bag and a small pile of threadbare blankets in one of the corners furthest from the door. Both are covered in a thick layer of dust.

Re: the shack

[done_rare]

[going to check out the duffel bag first]

Re: the shack

[was_no_monster]

It contains a small collection of canned and packaged foods, and some very worn clothes.

Tucked into the clothes is a drawstring bag, just small enough to fit in your palm.

Re: the shack

[done_rare]

[Opening the bag up too, curious]

Re: the shack

[was_no_monster]

It looks like a child's collection of trinkets. There are so many things stuffed in there that it's difficult to make them all out, but you can at least see two badges of some sort, a ribbon, and some sort of carved wooden figurine.

Re: the shack

[withoutharbor]

[Wanders over to take a look at the two things, dusting them both off slightly, though he keeps the teddy bear away from it]

Re: the shack

[was_no_monster]

Whatever is in the duffel bag is soft enough to let the surface give slightly under the dusting, but there's something harder wrapped in the blankets.

Re: the shack

[withoutharbor]

[Huh. Starts unwrapping them, then, distracted from the bag.]

Re: the shack

[was_no_monster]

It's wrapped up pretty securely; whatever it is, the owner wanted it well cushioned.

...it becomes apparent why when you get it out into the open: it's an urn, made of a lovely turquoise ceramic. A name has been engraved on it, but it curls around the right side so that it's mostly out of view.