melodiesofeternity | Event || A History of Light and Darkness

Event || A History of Light and Darkness

Who: Brave Explorers and/or Those Poor Souls Being Dragged Along by Friends
When: Oct 15-30th
Where: Thilmit Border Post, inside the Old Heranean Doll Museum
What: The Heroes of Light received a strange letter, and are now being asked to investigate the strange occurrences at the old doll museum.
Warnings/Notes: OOC Post Warnings for Spookiness, Creepy Dolls. Post toplevels for each group. Please post warnings as needed for memory fragments and exploration. For random numbers, use the dice functions on Plurk or Discord.

The Old Heranean Doll Museum is a small building, but somehow the dark, dusty windows and poorly maintained roof give it a menacing feel as you approach. The sign says, "OPEN"...although, as you approached, you think it might have been turned to "CLOSED".

The door creaks as it swings open, though there is no one from the museum to greet you as you enter. A cold breeze blows in behind you, sapping any lingering warmth in the room. The building is dark, and cobwebs are starting to form in the corners of the lobby and on the velvet rope stanchions that guide the flow of traffic in and out. Out of a shadowy corner, a large centipede skitters across the floor and into a crack low on the wall.

At the reception desk, one of the antique dolls sits, unmoving, unblinking. That goes without saying. Its eyes do not follow you as you enter.... The hairs prickling up on the back of your neck are just coincidence, that's all.

There is another doll perched on the wooden brochure display stand near the door. It's strange that the curator leaves the display pieces out where visitors can touch them....

As you enter, you hear something whistling through the air toward you a moment before it makes a impact. A tiny pebble, too small to do any damage other than a brief stinging. During this moment of distraction, the door slams and locks.

When you look at the spots where the dolls were perched a moment ago, there is now just empty space. There is movement in the shadows, and the nearly imperceptible sound of tiny shapes creeping around.

As you move past the lobby into the exhibits, a sign above the entryway declares:

Welcome to the Old Heranean Doll Museum. We hope you enjoy our historic Heroes of Light displays.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Dolls have traditionally been used in magic and religious rituals throughout the world..."

"The earliest dolls were made from available materials such as clay, stone, wood, bone, ivory, leather, or wax..."

"Archaeological evidence places dolls as the foremost candidate for the oldest known toy."

He could have sworn the power was off in the building, but nothing stopped the droning sound system from giving factoids while the pair stood face to face with wall-to-wall placards and cases filled with sheets of old wax samples, stray bits of doll hair made out of yawn. The air was still and dusty, lending a hollowness to the narrator's voice hanging and echoing through the abandoned building.

But he blinked, froze. Within the stacked-high little jars of finely-crafted glass eyes ready to be used to grant expression and purpose into a waiting doll's countenance, he could swear some of them had turned to look at him. Some had even begun to follow his movements.

Oddly enough, the PA system still running was a comfort to Naoto. Focusing on the facts and less on the fact the museum might apparently be haunted, but the brief flicker of acknowledgement to their predicament had her squeezing her companions hand.

Even with Shiva beside her this time - even with Cristo hovering nearby - she felt foolish, but the paranormal was normal here. There was enough reason to be disturbed by the on-goings that could be around them... and the glass eyes on the shelves were not helping. "Okay... jars aside, any... any other peculiarities?"

He forced his eyes away from the jars. As his hand instinctively squeezed in kind, he puzzled over what could be going on in here. Ghosts had been the huge thing in Vaikuntha of late, so maybe it wasn't too far off to wager that maybe something got in here.

Man, he would have loved to visit this place in its better hours... but there was something about really old-fashioned dolls that always kind of creeped him out. It was the unending stare, the stiff faces, and god damn near everything else about them that he just didn't like about 'em.

"Yeah... the power was supposed to be shut off in the building. So why's the recording still givin' us a history less-" He trailed, as he watched something slip back behind the jars.

"...Lesson."

The staccato tapping of tiny footsteps running right to left just then, somewhere behind them.

Naoto herself was never particular to dolls. Sure, her grandfather had some, but they had belonged to her grandmother and her mother before - a traditional handed down collection from years passed and she only bothered to maintain when Yakushiji didn't. However, they weren't like these dolls - no, a majority were only ceramic and painted.

How could anyone like dolls like these honestly? Though, getting scared at all made her feel so ridiculous... dolls were just that. Nothing to be afraid of...

And yet, at the sound of tiny footsteps, she jumped and whipped her head around.

"O-ohhh dear, kupo... I'm loading up an Asterisk!"

He hadn't heard her, focusing instead on the increasing presence of small creatures that seemed to emerge out of thin air: From behind the jars, behind the podiums and even from within the cabinets housing the speaker system that had long since shut off, yet was still patiently informing them about what countries built what sort of doll.

Porcelain, wax, wood and plastic all turned their heads in unison to watch the door and their accompanying critters, quiet giggling leaving two of three of them. In their hands were box cutters, scissors, needles from the repair kits... for one of them, a pair of pens would be plenty to jab out some unsuspecting eyes or put a few extra holes in the intruders.

"...They had us surrounded the whole damn time. Great." At that time, the armor had begun to materialize. Paladin, huh...? He had some fairly good use out of the class, but had hoped more for Berserker. Still, perhaps higher defense would work out better with all the little blades and sharpened writing utensils they had. Goodness knows what the fuck these guys were capable of.

"If they want to be used for target practice..."

Naoto was quick to draw - maybe a little too quick from her nerves - and raised her gun, already putting the nearest doll into her sights. Meanwhile, she felt the Ice Veil courtesy of Shiva wrap around her, ready to help absorb some of the damage the dolls might attempt to inflict. If they were going to break these creepy things, the small detective was fine with this.

The dolls didn't seem to like the remark, or they were just ready to roll from moment one. Whatever the case was, they all converged at once, brandishing their makeshift weapons and giggling the whole way, empty eyes fluttering.

Kanji adjusted the one-handed grip and thrust the greatsword downward, impaling the first doll to get close. The porcelain shattered into pieces, but one or two of the little hands used their fingers to spider-walk their way up his legs and grab on to him.

"Naoto, back to back? No sneak-ups?" He called, and immediately turned himself to block off any further ambush.

The doll didn't have a say in her remark as she put a bullet into its forehead. With several cautious steps back, she managed to place herself behind Kanji, Shiva quietly informing her another step would have them bumping into each other.

"No sneak attacks..."

She still had a few bullets to put through some dolls if they wanted to try their luck.

He nodded and maintained his position, kicking another away. Though it lost its footing, it didn't stop that doll from crawling on its hands and knees with a newfound speed. Thin needles began to push through its skin, adding traction and an unfortunate pain as it tried to slip past and crawl up Kanji's leg.

So occupied with stomping a second into waxy pieces, he couldn't catch it, and yelped in his own surprise and bites of pain.

"Ya little shit!" The sword was brought down, cleaving that one in two. But crawling out of the system were more, like spiders...

"There's gotta be hundreds of the damn things in the building!"

Naoto didn't have another gun - she wished she had another gun, and some more ammunition in her current round, but she can use Flamethrower to keep a number of dolls away from her.

"I can burn them all to ash if they want to be persistent."

Seriously, she did not want to put up with this right now.

O-okay, holy crap, that was fire. Naoto was not havin' this shit, and he agreed with her. When his searching gaze turned to the door leading deeper into the museum, a lightbulb popped into his head.

"Okay, you up for a sprint? If I can nail everything with a Saint Cross and blow 'em back, we can haul ass to that door and close it behind us. It'll buy some time for us to figure out what's goin' on in this place."

She doesn't like anything haunted - he knew this by now, and if the solution was to burn it, she was going to.

"... Sounds like a plan. I don't want to burn this place down, but this situation is making me less-than hospitable." They really needed to know what was happening here, but the solution could always be found in other locations if necessary... Still, she was ready to make a run for it.

"Y'know I got your back. A'right, ready! One, two..." He fought to ignore the dolls crawling up his legs again, the bites of razor blades and the pokes of needles, the bites of odd clacky dolly mouths. He drew the holy energy inward and spaced his stance.

Saint Cross was an outward burst, searing the haunted creations, and sending them flying backward. Those that hit something fell to pieces, too old to be anything other than fragile. Others were scrambling to rise again. He swiftly sheathed the greatsword.

"Three! Hang onta me!" Because, w-well, it did feel a lot less freaky in here before... he reached for her before he'd make his dash.

Knees bent and keeping her flamethrower trained on the dolls trying to get closer to her, she held, waiting for Kanji to use his ability. Sure enough, the violent burst of holy power blasted the dolls had some shattering and others scrambling back to their small feet.

Fortunately, that would take some time.

Tucking her gun away, she grabbed hold of Kanji's hand and held tight. "Let's go!"

Lifelines always helped. He put the pedal to the metal in a forward march, taking the opportunity to leave that horrible dogshit of a room. He liked dolls. Now it was hard to like them... old ones, anyway. He was so glad dolls looked the way they did now, without that Uncanny Valley shit.

But the next room, upon Kanji slamming the door and cranking the lock shut, was likely no better: Wall to wall, there was little room other than a pair of trails through the room, the rest of it swallowed up by placards and display cases cleaned of dust... but cleaned of dolls as well. The hall stretched into what looked like forever, and some of the cases were rattling, giving off a tapping sound.

"...Who the hell wants to be surrounded by these things when the cases were full?"

Naoto would make a real doll once they got out of here and away from these... things. Really, everyone would probably be better off if that room was just gone, but she digressed; they were moving on from it.

Within the next room was... well, it would not be any better except for the fact all the displays were empty. The barren exhibit was more welcome to her than the last. And the placards were still present so they could have a look at them.

"No one according to what we've heard about this place. We've unnerved by it while the natives find it boring..." She guessed they hadn't come around at night at all. "Let's have a look around while this room is still unoccupied."

He nodded. Whatever made the dolls like this likely went through here before casting their spooky magic or whatever. Any trace or clue would be handy, but just about anything may give them the breakthrough they need.

Sheesh, but it was no wonder folks didn't come here. As he read the placards, he noticed more and more that rather than one of those cool hobby museums, this place was a little too... educational.

Huh. He blinked. This display case was rattling earlier, but as he approached it, it had stopped. But something was inside...

Unlike Kanji, Naoto was a little more fascinated by the more educational placards, resting a hand on her chin as she read the inscriptions they came across. They gave the name, date of discovery, how it was likely crafted (likely?), details like that.

However... one of the display cases had been rattling. Instinctively now, she just grabbed Kanji's hand as they approached to see what was inside.

"Is that..." Her expression flattened. "... a chicken?"

"...Really good-smelling chicken. Like someone just left their lunch here before they clocked out."

Really, they'd been spooked out of their wits for weeks now, and here was a perfectly good dinner that could go to waste if they just left it behind. But it was kind of weird that there was food sitting here. Right?

"Damn it. I hate wasted food." Why was he lingering? He was lingering.

... She had to be mishearing things because she gave a look in Kanji's direction. Sure, she might've had to take a step back, and maybe Shiva was joining her in this 'look', but how could either of them not.

"Kanji-kun, are you actually considering eating a chicken which neither of us know how it's gotten there, who prepared it, and how long it's been here? Also, might I remind you of our current location in general?" She gestured towards the placard which was attached to the chicken's display case.

But he could be the man who's eaten haunted house wall chicken. Then again, he'd never met a Belmont. With two pairs of eyes burning away at the back of his head, any ideas of reaching for the meal and helping himself had slowly begun to fizzle.

He frowned. What a waste of perfectly good food.

"Okay, but... hear me out: What if it attracts monsters? I mean, there ain't nothin' that says we can't take it, right? Ahh, but we don't have somethin' to really pack it in, do we...?"

With the saddest face, his mind was reluctantly made up. He nudged the case closed, trapping the aroma of baked herbs and perfectly crisped skin.

"...Sorry, suspicious chicken."

Exchanging a look with Shiva - who seemed a little more lenient than Naoto - the detective stood for a second long... and then sighed. He had a point if it attracted monsters, but then, it would be better for it to stay in this room while they moved on.

But there was a possibility they weren't the only ones here. Others would have to pass through here given the way the museum was structured. Monsters seeking out food would be in here and then...

"... Look, if you can figure out a way to pack it, we can take it."

She was going to regret this. She just knew it.

He scratched his chin, puzzling a way to hide the thing for now. He had no means to wrap it up and take it along, but... he glanced to Suzette.

"You're... you're kidding me, kupo. You want me to hold your haunted, shady chicken dinner?"

"Yeah. You could fly it out a window and keep it somewhere safe."

Suzette puffed up. She was no delivery girl!

"I remind you that I'm workin' on a holiday line of clothes for you."

"YES, of course, right away, kupo...!" She fluttered down and got to work gathering up the chicken, case and all. Surely the museum won't miss the whole darn thing.

He nodded to Naoto, idly cracking his knuckles. "There. I guess this room's got nothin' for us. Wanna move on?"

Waiting for the two to finish their exchange, she look at the display placard again. It's... not a name she recognized, but it was supposed to be one of the Heroes of Light apparently. Well, she would keep it in mind, but without the doll, there was no face to give the name to.

With Suzette taking off with chicken in tow, she rose back to full height and turned to look at Kanji, nodding once.

"Yes. Surely we'll find more clues in the next room and not more... entrées..."

Kouhai Team: Kanji, Naoto

A History of Dolls

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Display Cases (Treat!)

Woohoo!

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