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Vergil's heart game (out of time)
You feel weak, your body won't move no matter how you try, and you are falling, away from everything you know and love. Away from everything you need to accomplish. If you could just reach out, maybe you could hold on to it, claw your way back. But it's a useless endeavour, you fall unconscious, and your mind goes blank except for poetry and a familiar voice.
O mother Enitharmon, wilt thou bring forth other sons?
To cause my name to vanish, that my place may not be found,
For I am faint with travail,
Like the dark cloud disburden'd in the day of dismal thunder.
My roots are brandish'd in the heavens, my fruits in earth beneath
Surge, foam and labour into life, first born and first consum'd!
Consumed and consuming!
Then why shouldst thou, accursed mother, bring me into life?
You wake on the ground in a cave, cold, wet, and sticky. It smells of rotting flesh. Your objective is clear, but you can't recall a name or face. Nothing else about your memory of him is changed, but for some reason the name "Vergil" just won't come to you, and you couldn't describe how he looks if your life depended on it. But at least your body starts to respond to your will, slowly regaining enough strength to carry on.
To cause my name to vanish, that my place may not be found,
For I am faint with travail,
Like the dark cloud disburden'd in the day of dismal thunder.
My roots are brandish'd in the heavens, my fruits in earth beneath
Surge, foam and labour into life, first born and first consum'd!
Consumed and consuming!
Then why shouldst thou, accursed mother, bring me into life?
You wake on the ground in a cave, cold, wet, and sticky. It smells of rotting flesh. Your objective is clear, but you can't recall a name or face. Nothing else about your memory of him is changed, but for some reason the name "Vergil" just won't come to you, and you couldn't describe how he looks if your life depended on it. But at least your body starts to respond to your will, slowly regaining enough strength to carry on.
rules & info
-This heart is actively trying to steal your own life for itself.
-Distrust, self-reliance, and willingness to do anything no matter how difficult or distasteful are key to survival in the Underworld.
-Either canon OR Imeeji powers are on, you can pick.
-You arrive with no weapons and nothing else on your person that you aren't wearing or carrying in your pockets. ie no pocket knife but a pen is fine
OOC info
-For powers if I really have no idea how to deal with something or it'll ruin fun it's not gonna happen but generally, go wild.
-You can freely interact with others unless otherwise stated.
-If anything is destroyed or taken it will respawn for the next person unless you're doing things together. Basically you only change anything for yourself and anyone part of the thread or otherwise decidedly running with you.
-There are revives, so as much as you should be careful, it won't be over if you die.
-To avoid injury or death, or to get past other obstacles, you'll need to spend Perseverance points to pass a sort of skill check.
-You'll gain Perseverance points generally for performing harrowing or unsavoury tasks, or going it alone.
Objectives
Find pieces of [Vergil]'s soul and return them to him - how will you know what they are? You'll just have to figure that out. Some are objects to collect, others will be something to destroy or fix.
OR
Cultivate demonic power. Likewise up to you to figure out how. But you should know demons feed on blood, for one thing!
Feel free to ask questions here or on discord/plurk
channel is #motivated (.iam motivated) if you want to add yourself
Also please tell me your character's worst fears
LIVING CAVE
That does freeze my bones around!
Selfish, vain,
Eternal bane,
That free love with bondage bound.
A cave with a giant, exposed, beating heart in the centre. There's several massive...roots? coming from the heart. The walls of the cave are a web of similar thin red vines and pulsing sacks like blisters. The ground and what remains of the walls and ceiling are slick and fleshy. Some gaps between walls have a thin membrane over them.
On one end of the room is a gate, from ground to ceiling, about 20 feet tall. Innumerable red vines cover its frame. There are two openings in the walls that appear to lead into tunnels, with pointed talons or perhaps ribs poised around them that move occasionally like fingers drumming. One heads east, the other south.
There is never anyone else in this cave with you. You are alone.
Re: LIVING CAVE
[ ignoring the “exits” she chooses to, instead, focus on the heart and the tumors??? around it. ] ...what the fu-
[ she draws her heart weapon, a scythe, a decides to test its effectiveness on one of the blisters. the roots she’ll make an attempt at too, because fuck anything plant like, honestly. ]
[ but also why is the heart nestled in something like that anyway??? ]
Re: LIVING CAVE
The roots seem to start from the heart, and most connect to the gate. One particularly large one breaks through the ground, then pops back up near a wall on the west side of the cave, twisting along the ceiling until another hole that it's broken through there.
It looks like a root, but considering it sprouts from the heart, maybe it's better to call it a vein or artery. When you get close, the blood rushing through it becomes apparent, not only to see but to hear. It's also plain to see an opening from its outer shell where it winds back up along the wall. If you don't mind a squeeze and being submerged in blood, you could ride the flow.
When you attach the blisters, they burst just like one, full of rank liquid and slime. So, now you're drenched and smell awful. Awesome.
But as for the veins, those along the wall simply bleed, while attempts on those attached to the gate are more difficult, much more tough, like hard leather armour. You could do it with some insistence, though.
1/?
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Done
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I can't imagine how anyone could stand this...
[Well, she's a bit of a special case. It's fine. She stares around her, deliberating before picking the East exit to start.]
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dva
The heart is gone, leaving only the evidence it was here of stray veins hanging. The destruction is here too, but not so advanced as the rest. Still, the ceiling is beginning to crumble.
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[ the void is the obvious choice, but she's going to first head over to where the heart was and take a look at what's left, which doesn't look like much. ]
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PETRIFIED FIELD
Of paved heaven,
With sorrow fraught
My notes are driven:
They strike the ear of night,
Make weep the eyes of day;
They make mad the roaring winds,
And with tempests play.
Like a fiend in a cloud
With howling woe,
After night I do croud,
And with night will go;
I turn my back to the east,
From whence comforts have increas'd;
For light doth seize my brain
With frantic pain.
It takes some walking, how long have you been wandering through caverns? It becomes more and more difficult to tell them apart. Have you already been this way? Do you know how to make it back? Do you even know where you want to end up?
The area opens up into what looks very much like a field of feather grass and wildflowers. The grass however is a light lavender shade, and the red petals of the flowers seem to glow. It's light here, the sky muddled and grey like night, but still, this is a far cry from the near blackness of the fleshy caves. The rock outcropping that looks like coral reef is almost beautiful. It could be nice to rest here.
You're getting tired. You should rest, it's awfully tempting...
Re: PETRIFIED FIELD
[Oh. This place is different than where she was. She hadn't expected to suddenly be outside, surrounded by flowers. She blinks, feeling tired all of a sudden. Part of her doesn't think that would be exactly smart, but she can't help it. She feels it, like her entire body is begging for rest.]
I shouldn't...
[She still finds herself dropping down to her knees to look at the flowers up close. Would it hurt to pluck one? They don't seem dangerous at first glance.]
Maybe just... for a few minutes?
[The field of flowers looked soft, after all. She decides to touch the flowers, curious, before committing to actually taking a nap. While she examines the flowers and the grass, she looks around - is there another way out of here or perhaps something she can take with her? Can she take any flowers with her?]
Re: PETRIFIED FIELD
The grass might be a strange colour but it's light and fluffy, tall enough just to brush your knees. It makes the patch toward the centre that is either missing or flattened quite distinct... The way the path leads seems to be far too overgrown with the rocks to get past, but from one of the spikes there's a book hanging by its cover.
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ROOM OF FALLEN ONES
Death?
Urizen is a clod of clay.
You're dropped in the middle of a lake of blood, the blood from the vein pouring out onto you, slowly filling the pool.
The lake stretches out as far as the eye can see. Shallow enough here to only brush the knees of most, but it quickly grows deeper further out in any direction. Pieces of ancient, ruined buildings hang in the sky, more still are scattered throughout the lake. And between them are countless shattered statues, easily 50ft tall if they were standing.
There's a distinct feeling that the statues are watching, even with their heads sunken in the blood. Their demonic presence is immense despite their broken state and appearing to be inanimate objects. Even more of them than there would appear, on into the distance...you may not be able to see them out there, but they see you. They see right into you, through you, and weigh your worth.
There doesn't seem to be any way back out, the flow of the vein much too strong to ride it the other way.
Re: ROOM OF FALLEN ONES
[ in retrospect a deep breath would have been a good idea, so she just chokes on a bunch of blood. she's doing great. as soon as she lands in the shallow pool, face first, BECAUSE OFC, she sits up and grumbles a single stream of color korean curses, climbing to her feet and looking around to find... mostly nothing. ]
A picture is worth a thousand words, assholes. [ to the statues as she draws her heart weapon. ]
[ with no real demons to fight she gets the feeling that breaking the statues might be the key... and perhaps she's a bit ticked that every single decision made has been bad, so taking a bit of her anger out on some "inanimate" objects will "help". ]
[ time to slice&dice. ]
Re: ROOM OF FALLEN ONES
When you start trying to trash them, those eyes form slit pupils, as if they're carved in real time, fangs growing over its bottom lip. Its voice booms loud enough it could practically blow you away.
"You dare defile Us, mortal? Leave this place."
Any attempt to smash them doesn't seem to do a single thing.
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LIBRARY
O do not walk so fast!
Speak, father, speak to your little boy,
Or else I shall be lost."
The night was dark, no father was there,
The child was wet with dew;
The mire was deep, and the child did weep,
And away the vapour flew.
You come to a broken down library within the endless, gory cave system. It's just as dark here, but by now you've gotten used to the lack of light, haven't you? Hopefully so, because there are beams and shelves strewn across the floor. In fact if you want to actually get in, you'll need to climb over quite a bit of rubble and trod on the books that have fallen with them. You'll also have to contend with the roots and branches of demonic trees that have broken through the windows and the floor.
That which is still standing looks absolutely ancient. Books so worn down they might turn to dust if you even look at them. Even with the damage there's a great number of shelves though, and standing by one with the blue glow of an ethereal sword lighting the book in his hands is a young boy.
A mirror floats near the centre of the room, a statue by the doors carrying an hourglass, and another off to one side with lights glowing in its hands.
There's a door to the south, and the opening to the tunnels north.
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[She spends a moment just taking in the ruin. It actually makes her a little sad to see it so destroyed. That can wait, because her attention is now on the boy.]
Oh! [She moves towards him.]
Hello.
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The boy glances at you as you approach, his expression utterly cold, ready to go right back to the book. But his eyes widen with recognition just for a moment.
"Hm. I see, you showed up."
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MIRROR WORLD: DEVIL MAY CRY
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears
Night and morning with my tears,
And I sunnèd it with smiles
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright,
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,—
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning, glad, I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
It's...well it's a building. Hard to tell what the purpose of the place is exactly. This one huge room has it all. A bar, jukebox, stadium size speakers alongside some other musical equipment, boxes and piles of documents crammed on a shelving unit in the corner, a dart board, clippings from nudie mags pinned up, weapons on display in a framed velvet case on the wall, a few plants, a neon "Devil May Cry" sign, a fridge but no kitchen or even a sink. A lot of trash. Pizza boxes, crumpled notes, and empty bottles of booze all over. A mantis-like demon pinned to the wall above the bar with swords.
There is some evidence someone has put in minimal effort to clean up. At least around the leather couch against the wall on the right. No garbage strewn about immediately beside or in front of it. Though there is a stack of books on it, and a shelf beside.
There's a man in a red coat who you probably know slumped over the desk in the middle, head down. The mirror seems to have replaced a front door.
THRONE ROOM
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink & sing:
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength & breath:
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.
A room made entirely of white marble, almost blindingly bright and reflective, a massive throne opposite the sole entrance that could seat a being of 50ft or more. In the middle of the floor, just in front of the throne, is a stark contrast of a thick, black puddle, scattered with various bits of what must be trash, mostly. But some parts sticking out might be bones.
Suits of armour line the walls, most simply standing at attention, others chained down and grunting or even screaming. Though any noise is quite muffled by their helmets, there's a certain quality to their one shared voice that sounds familiar.
MANOR
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.
And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.
And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.
You enter the front garden of a manor on a river. The stone fence is mostly eroded, making the iron wrought gate entirely ineffective. Vines bearing fruit creep along the house, especially above the door, and there are plenty of trees and bushes on the property. Out back is the real garden.
On the left side is a woman sitting on a bench under a tree, from which a swing hangs. On the right, a rowboat lays on shore. It's summer here, easy to tell by the heat and scent in the air, the parched grass, the humming of cicadas.
If you came through the Hell Gate, it remains unsealed behind you. If you came any other way, then there is no gate. The path leading away from the house only stretches out into empty hills.
URIZEN
The eternal abode in my holiness,
Hidden set apart in my stern counsels
Reserv'd for the days of futurity,
I have sought for a joy without pain,
For a solid without fluctuation
Why will you die O Eternals?
Why live in unquenchable burnings?
A giant of a demon sits before you upon his throne, a cheek resting against a fist. Disinterested. He doesn't seem to acknowledge you whatsoever. A cluster of crystals floats in front of him, shining, spinning.
The room itself is solid enough to be made up of steel, but on closer inspection it seems to be petrified roots. There is a pool of blood like a moat at the demon's feet, and like everything here he too is covered in tree roots. Almost bound to his throne by them.
If you came through the Hell Gate, it's vanished. There is no exit.
You know immediately upon entering that you shouldn't be here.
Re: URIZEN
Sup?