Event || A History of Light and Darkness

[eternitymods]

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.

Comments

[failtsuninari]

"I'm Kenichi," he said with a nod. Even in his dragoon gear, he still felt a bit uneasy. Why did it have to be dolls? He just hoped he could call his chocobo in here in case he needed to swap to Cavalier.

"Just be ready. Who knows what sort things this place contains. Places like these a magnet for those with malicious intent."

[roseinbattle]

"Now now, I'm sure there's no need to worry so much. Whoever designed this place may have more...interesting tastes, but that doesn't mean this is dangerous."

Says the bard who came in as a black mage. As much as he's playing around, he's also taking this seriously. Olivier isn't quite attuned to what his combat capabilities are here yet, so it's better to be more cautious.

"I'm Olivier, wandering minstrel, and hunter of love."

[wheretheresawill]

Terra is fiddling with his sword, trying to find a way to carry the two-handed weapon that doesn't risk bonking it into the ceiling, floor, or fellow adventurers. He's having limited luck.

"If it's like the other Moogles calling themselves the Heroes of Light, they could be dangerous or just annoying." Or both. "My name's Terra, and I have the Paladin Job equipped, so don't worry about letting me take a hit or two."

[kuposcreed]

"Bonnie!" The moogle raised her paw in cheerful greeting. She was using her Ninja job right now but had Dragoon as her secondary and Catmancer in reserve if needed. The moogle then fluttered over to Angeal and Olivier in particular to shake paw to hand since she hadn't met them previously.

Sadly Bonnie had missed the moogle incident that Terra mentioned, but she still gave him a little bit of a look for the incidental slight. "Anyway, I'm sure we'll be able to handle things. "We just need to watch each other's backs, kupo!"

[charming_jerk]

Johnny had planned to come into this with Bard equipped, but in the end, he went with Cavalier. I wanted to play the offense here, for a reason.

"I'm Johnny. And I've seen at least half a dozen horror movies that start with a group of people wanderin' into a weird place fulla creepy dolls. Just sayin'."

He partly wished he had something on hand like holy water, but being a half-demon himself, he'd just stick with good ol' steel weapons for anything they come across.

[chocobosnap]

Prompto waited while they all introduced themselves. Reno and Bonnie he knew fairly well, but the others he didn't. He had been doing it again lately, sticking just to his friends sides, and he didn't get out much without them.

Even though he had Cavalier as a second job, he was very comfortable in Gunslinger and almost never changed it. He wiped his gloved hands on his pants nervously.

"Uh h-hi." He smiled shyly. "I'm P-Prompto. Argentum. Yeah."

He knew what Johnny was getting at - he'd seen many a horror movie too, that never ended well, but he didn't think he'd be afraid of that aspect of it. They were just dolls right?

[shinra_dog]

"Hunter of Love, huh?" Yeah, Reno wasn't really impressed. He reminded himself to give Olivier a pass for being ignorant, but hopefully the minstrel would wise up soon. There was no way the Turk believed this was some kind of prank.

He did smile encouragingly at Prompto, trying to share some courage. He was thankful the gunner had his back.

"Look -- I know half of us here weren't on Crystallis, so the weird letter might not mean much. But it's shady as fuck to me an' I'm taking it seriously. So let's stick together an' prepare for the worst, an' hopefully we'll be pleasantly surprised that it's just some asshole with a creepy doll fetish." And not some psycho cultists plotting a murder.

[angealwings]

"Did such letters make their way to those called to Crystallis?"

Angeal was taking it seriously, though not nearly as on edge as some - he was too well aware that it could be detrimental, to get emotionally entangled. That did not work well for him.

"From what I gathered, there have been missing quantities of kupo nuts nearby. Whoever the person or people in charge may be, that is something to keep in mind." He inclined his head towards Bonnie, kindly. "We ought to all be careful." Whether someone wanted the nuts or wanted to make it seem like those who like them were responsible, it would be good to pay attention, not with limitation to one people or another.

[kuposcreed]

At first Bonnie thought that Angeal was going to say something trying to connect her to the kupo nut thefts somehow, he wouldn't be the first, but as he instead expressed his concern her expression softened. She felt bad for instinctively turning towards defense. They were all here to work together and they needed to trust each other.

"I will, kupo. And as much as I wanted to pack one for a snack I left mine at home. I thought it would be safer that way, kupo." Safe from being robbed, and safe from being blamed.

[shinra_dog]

Reno nodded. "Yeah. I actually thought it was kind of weird that it went to everyone."

On Crystallis, everyone had been labeled "heroes" and expected to fix things somehow, even though they had no idea why they were there or what to do. It was all some sort of prophecy or strange expectation. But here, there was none of that. The Dream Width just sort of spat people out on occasion and never with this quantity before. There were no "heroes of light."

Not until their meeting with the Empress.

"Wait..." Wow. He was stupid. Why hadn't this occurred to him before? "Shit. I think I know what's up."

[chocobosnap]

He was mostly listening and observing, because there were a lot of people for what he was used to, people he didn't know. It wasn't a bad thing, just it had his nerves on edge like he was worried about something unusual happening.

"W-What is?"

He hadn't been on Crystallis before, he didn't really know how these things went, but he wanted as much information as possible.