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

Gladio's eyes scan the room, noting all the dust and debris. Six this place could use a serious clean. He sees the dolls in varying places, their lifeless eyes almost ... following him?

They're unsettling, but nothing he can't handle. Ten years of darkness and daemons means he isn't quaking in his boots at a few creepy dolls. Their glazed gazes totally don't affect him, except that they do. He's on edge and it shows when the slammed door results in him immediately unsheathing his broadsword and holding it up.

"Caution never hurts anyone, Dylas. With all the weirdness here -" his voice cuts off with an irritated grunt as he brings a hand to his forehead, rubbing at a fresh pink mark. "Who the hell threw a pebble at me?"

For some reason his eyes dart to the now-empty brochure rack. Did someone move the dolls? The only one who might is Dylas, and he's not even facing him.

"Something's not right here... I'm with Ravus. Let's keep moving."

'Not right' is putting it lightly. With the last glare to the reception doll, Ignis leaves it and follows after the others. The building is eerily silent, only their footsteps echoing through the halls. Ignis is not speaking much- bickering is pointless right now.

"We are all in the same cooking pot," Ignis says, "we might as well get along."

After they leave the lobby and reach the end of the hall, the door is locked in front of them, which only leaves them to turn to the blue door with crayon markings on them. 'Children's fun Corner' is scribbled in obvious children's handwriting and it sends sickening in his gut. Without Ignis even moving, the door opens itself, as if inviting them inside.

Huge tables and cribs, shelves and bookcases are scattered throughout the room, clearly placed there with the purpose to entertain children. Ignis is very reluctant to step inside but there is nowhere to go except forward. He hears the others step inside after him and chill runs down his spine.

"Perhaps we should try to--" Ignis turns to Ravus to suggest but-

"Ravus, get o--" the purple smoke engulfs him in a blink of an eye, slamming the door closed the entire group. He coughs violently and tries to get his bearings but to no avail.

"The only thing to fear here is getting sick from all this dust and mildew," he grumbles. Gladiolus has vouched for Dylas, in spite of his daemonic appearance, but that means that Ravus will tolerate his presence, not his attitude.

He ignores Gladio's protest about pebbles and follows the hallway to the child room. The whole room is filled with cheap crafts and tacky decorations.

"We'll find nothing useful here," he protests to Ignis, or begins to. Partway through, whatever trap lies in wait in this room triggers. In a dizzying flash, Ravus finds himself looking up...and up...and up to the now-towering bins of craft supplies. His body feels...strange. Light, almost unreal.

"What the hell?" he curses, in a voice much higher pitch than his usual tone. He whirls around to get eyes on Ignis, Gladio, and the snake.

"Tch. It's only weird if you let it be weird. I've seen worse."

He clicks his tongue at Gladio. He's not going to argue. His eyes make it very, very clear that he still wants to argue, but he's going to drop it. He doesn't know these people, but if they're friends of his then maybe he can choose to be a little less of a bully than he feels like being.

He hovers outside of the children's room before slithering inside, almost considering waiting for them, but he doesn't want to look scared. That proves to be a big mistake. He's assaulted by smoke immediately, and no amount of venom would've prevented what follows. One moment, there's a naga with twenty feet of tail.

And the next, there's a stuffed snake a mere fraction of that size. He moves effortlessly, with all the fluidity of a real snake, voice projecting from a voice chip from somewhere inside of his fluff.

"Whose fault was that? I need to know for later. Or right now. Thanksss."

Dylas' snark could outmach almost anyone's, Gladio thinks, but he grins anyway because he's gathered that it's just how the Naga is. Hopefully both Iggy and Ravus will see through the rough exterior.

The Children's Corner looks even creepier than the entrance, though he'll credit that to the abandoned craft supplies and fading crayon drawings. He doesn't feel like waiting for the massive tail, so he slides in alongside it and immediately inhales the smoke that blinds him as it seems to fill the room.

Where before stood a six-foot-six man made of flesh and bone now stands a soft doll holding a piddly sword that looks more decorative and dull than anything else. "What the hell is this?!"

Oh Gods, his voice is higher than it has any right to be. Higher than it was when he was a kid, even! But is this the only effect of that smoke?

"Other than all of us being... dolls, is everyone okay?" Ever the Shield, even in stuffed form, he needs to know his companions are safe.

Relatively speaking, of course, considering they're all still in this weird-ass museum and now none of them are normal-sized.

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"Whose fault? If anyone, it was yours." Ravus attempts to growl, but ends up squeaking at Dylas. Don't think he didn't see that door slam in the last room, snake. He's sure Gladio can intuit he's doing ok, given he's able to argue.

As Ravus looks across the now-wide expanse of floor that leads to the door out, he hears a hissing sound. He gears up to turn around and blame on Dylas, before it begins to amplify, too many exhalations to be from a single source.

A writhing shadow falls over the toy party. Above them, a spectral Medusa begins to manifest. Her eyes glow an evil yellow in the darkness, and her tangled mass of snakes snap their jaws at the dolls.

"Gods damn it!" Ravus draws his sword, now resembling a sharpened knitting needle with a handle, and darts forward on his spindly legs to unleash a Flurry of strikes on the Medusa's ankles.

Edited 2018-10-25 00:27 (UTC)

"It is no one's fault," Ignis turns to the stuffed snake with a sigh, trying to bring the tension down. "The room was trapped. There was no way of avoiding this." Unless they don't stop in, but that would mean they wouldn't be able to move forward.

"We should look for the exit on the other side of the room- perhaps there is a way in the other room to revert to our previous states." He hopes they will fix this as fast as they can before they get into real trouble.

His plan gets thwarted when spectral Medusa slithers in seemingly out of nowhere. So much for finding an easy way out of this situation. Ignis draws his daggers (more like toothpicks) and uses smokescreen to become invisible.

Some extra damage from a blind spot won't hurt at all. Hopefully, his "daggers" still hold some power in them.

"Shit! I don't even have hands!"

Dylas' deep voice continues to come from somewhere inside of him, warbled, as if someone had stuffed a voice chip inside of him for a child to press during a hug. As if. He slithers in a tight circle and focuses, ignoring the others. The ground beneath him starts to glow, and shortly after an ominous energy starts to fill the room—the energy of an interdimensional rift. A hole is torn open an a wail is heard before a ghostly monster drifts through. Dylas wastes no time in springing upward, landing on its solid center.

"I have no idea how this spell works but I'm not doing any walking—"

The galajelly wails (how?) and turns to face Medusa...before turning the other way, looking at the dolls. It lifts its gaseous arms and sends a stream of Rainbow Wind at Ignis, threatening to drain his HP, blind him, and silence him.

Dylas looks pretty shocked. Or, he would, but you know. He's a plush snake. He writhes on galajelly's core, thwapping his tail against it. "Damn it! Not that one! The other one! I'm your master!"

Gladio's relief at hearing his companions voices fades when the floor starts glowing. Could a daemon really be manifesting here, now?! He readies his blade (basically a letter opener) to attack the Galajelly when he sees Dylas on its shoulder and remembers that his friend is a necromancer, which means this summoned monster is under his control.

Or so he thinks. Before he can even address the Medusa that appeared scant moments before the Galajelly, Gladio watches in horror as the summoned beast turns away from the enemy as if to attack one of their party. When it's arms(?) appear to aim a blast at Ignis, the Shield lives up to his namesake and casts Cover so that he'll take the damage meant for his oldest friend and newest boyfriend.

"Got your back, Iggy!"

Not knowing what he'll face from this attack, Gladio tries to encourage his new friend and the newest member of their party. "C'mon Dylas, you can get that thing under control!" Hopefully the Naga can beat the Galajelly into compliance, otherwise they'll all really be in trouble.

This turned into a mess really fast. The attack of Dylas' summon almost rendered Ignis' efforts to max his attack useless. Thank Heavens Gladio was fast at his side to cover him and prevent him from slipping from his smokescreen.

"Bloody hell," Ignis curses. "Thank you Gladio," he yells and resumes his charge at the Medusa. Hopefully, their new -friend- can get a hold of his summon soon or they will all be dead in seconds.

He delivers a hard blow to the enemy, minding the tail and making sure he doesn't graze Ravus with his attack.

The Medusa's snakes thrash as she aims a Petrify attack at Ignis. In spite of Ignis' bad luck up until now, though, that stony gaze fails to connect, and the attack misses.

"Get your act together, snake!" Ravus growls. He swears to the Six, if Gladio or Ignis are harmed because of their 'ally's incompetence, Ravus will not forget nor forgive.

He uses his Bushido attack, now charged with wind from his previous attack. It seems laughably weak against the towering monster, even though it is the strongest attack he's unlocked.

As long as the medusa ignores him, he's content to more or less ignore the others. He doesn't have to apologize—he's not doing anything wrong.

That train of thought lasts until the Galajelly turns to Ravus and repeats the same attack as before, using Rainbow Wind in an attempt to silence the yelling doll and blind it. Draining his HP would be a nice bonus well.

"This thing doesn't have ears! How the hell do you expect me to get it to lissssten?" He wants to wince at the comedic sound effect his voice chip makes, but he doesn't have eyelids. Or eyes. He continues to writhe around the Galajelly's center, trying to squeeze it into focusing. Slowly, it starts to get the picture, turning towards Medusa because two turns of nonsense is enough.

Fortunately for the others, the Galajelly is here to fight alongside Dylas, not for him. And being reduced to a doll doesn't mess with his magical fortitude. The lights in the room start to flicker as an orb of black energy appears in front of him and his mount.

"Eat shit!," is his battle cry as Dark Savior is hurled towards Medusa, dealing dark damage.

Everything is dark.

His energy is severely depleted.

Gladio can only hear what's going on around him and try to picture how it all looks. He can't see who or if the Medusa is attacking. And he can't see if the Galajelly is rearing to attack one of them instead of the actual enemy. It's only when he mutters a low "shit" to himself that he realizes he can still talk.

He knows he's near Ignis, and since he hasn't heard the man grunt in pain or surprise he's reasonably sure that Iggy isn't injured. But with Dylas shouting that response to Ravus and Ravus' suddenly cut off expletive...

A look of grim determination on his face, blank doll eyes follow the abruptly cut off sound and Gladio casts Cura in what he hopes is Ravus' direction.

"You're the Necromancer - figure it out!" Gladio tries to look at Dylas while he says that but is, in fact, shouting at empty space. That coupled with the lowering of his letter-opener should indicate to any trained combatant that something is definitely wrong.

But he pivots and tries to face Ignis, facing just a little too much to Iggy's right, and clarifies his current predicament. "Iggy - Igs I can't see anything."

Very useful advices, coming from all sides and just rising tension. What bothers Ignis the most is that they barely did any damage while taking some serious hits. Gladio is currently incapable of doing anything and he's absorbing most of the damage hurtled at Ignis. The advisor retreats to his side, placing a steady hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright Gladio, hang in there. The ailment will wear out- I have your back."

And he does. Noting that his physical attacks barely did any damage- even the assassination from the shadows which should multiply the damage output, he resorts to casting some ninjutsu. Hopefully, he will be able to nail down the element, anything that is the monster's weakness.

His fire attack seems to aggravate the Medusa- and that's a tail swipe!

"Ravus! To your left!"

The Medusa hisses at the party who has been poking at her ankles and attacking her with elements. She stomps her foot down at Dylas for a physical attack.

Ravus, meanwhile, finds the curses he is yelling at Dylas cut off by the Galajelly's attack. He feels a stab of pain as his voice fails him, but Gladio's magic helps negate some of the damage, at least.

Anger floods him, and he has to forcibly remind himself to attack in the direction of the Medusa, not Dylas and his gods-damned jelly monster. He uses Oblivion, which fails to banish the monster to the Interdimensional Rift, but does some damage nonetheless.

Right now, he feels less like a necromancer and more like a snake plush desperately clinging to sanity, but he's thankful for the vote of confidence from Gladiolus anyways. It's helpful, especially after Medusa lifts stomps on him while he's still floating on Galajelly, his trusty(?!??!) steed. Yikes. A power move. It hurts damn bad, but the Galajelly is unharmed.

"Don't worry too much about my thing—I'm still going to outpace all of you."

And he's damn sure about to prove his point. Now that he's got the ridiculous monster from the rift under his control, they attack in unison. The Galajelly's Spirit Blast is moderate physical damage and a guaranteed critical hit if it connects, and Dylas uses Earth Grave to send the ground beneath the Medusa right back up at it, dealing moderate earth damage.

"Get out of here! There's only room for one snake in this room!"

Edited 2018-10-30 04:35 (UTC)

Gladio's ears pick up every sound and his mind races to catalog everything as he tries to think of his next move. So far it seems like Dylas is the only one who hasn't been hit - never mind, that's the sound of the Medusa hitting their newest party member.

"You already outpaced us in collateral damage!" He says it with a grin, one that the Naga can hopefully hear if he can't quite see it. Because as irritating as being subjected to friendly fire is, Gladio knows it just happens sometimes - apparently especially when beings from other realms are summoned. So he doesn't blame Dylas entirely for the current situation, though he'll definitely tease him relentlessly about is so long as no one dies or is seriously injured because of this Galajelly mishap.

"Take this!" With his simple battle cry, Gladio aims a Holy Blade attack at the Medusa - well, at where he's pretty sure the Medusa stands.

"Please, remain focused," Ignis says, although it comes off more comical than guiding. "Leave the competition for when we are out of here-!" Well, even as he says this, he is convinced that it will fall on deaf ears. Or half-deaf.

The Medusa swipes her tail at them and Ignis pushes Gladio out of the range; she got rather agitated with Gladio's attack that struck her. Ignis can't tell how well they are doing because it feels as if they are doing no damage in these doll forms. Perhaps... he should start working on a retreat plan?

He imbues his daggers with elemental magic, courtesy of his second job, and makes a lunge at the Medusa. Mostly a distraction as he tries to figure out how to get them out of here while the others do more serious damage while the monster is distracted.

With their combined attacks and the Galajelly finally attacking the right target, the Medusa at least appears wounded now. Her snakes spit out a cloud of Poison at Gladio, which will wear off in 2 turns.

Ravus uses his Bushido attack again, which is this time infused with dark element. It's probably for the best that he's still silenced, because if not, he'd be steadily cursing at Dylas and his terrible monster for hitting him earlier.

Shit!

He can't see to dodge the poison cloud and Gladio winds up coughing like it's going out of style as he stumbles blindly, trying to at least step away from the noxious spray.

"F-fuckin'-- damnit."

Gladio can't bring himself to launch another physical attack, not when he's still drained and blind and now probably poisoned. So he pulls in a shaky breath (though really how can dolls even need to breathe?) and casts Saint Cross on Ignis, Ravus, Dylas, and himself. While it means he doesn't damage the monster, at least all of them could recover a little health and, with it, some energy to keep going.

"Someone just kill this thing already!"

"I'll do more than that. This is gonna feel great—"

It's the same song and dance from the Galajelly. It howls an ethereal, otherworldly screech as it unleashes it Rainbow Wind at the Medusa, knocking it to the floor. Thanks to Dylas' maxed-out magic skills and the joint attacks from his (finally focused) monster companion, he feels confident enough to show Medusa who the real snake freak of the room is.

A hiss echoes from the voice chip inside of his plush body as he prepares his Soul Thievery. Medusa's soul lifts from its body as he starts to pull it towards him, but the strain on her body is too great. Dylas wins the tug of war, and the monster's body falls to the ground, vanishing as suddenly as it appeared, leaving a hefty bag of gil behind.

As for Medusa's soul, it orbits Dylas before entering his body. Even in this form, his body seems to smirk and his eyes glow for a moment.

"And it's outta here! Damn, it's about time."

Ignis breathes a sigh of relief when the medusa finally disappears by sinking through the ground. He wants nothing more but to take a hike from this room, as soon as possible, before something else shows up.

"Is everybody alright?" He asks and rushes over to hand each of them a potion flask. Gladio should use it, Dylas and Ravus can keep it if they don't need it.

A creak makes him turn around and he spots a stream of light through the door on the other side of the room- coming from a hallway they didn't go through. The door they did come through remain sealed shut.

"We should take our chance and leave," he nods at the door, "before something more sinister shows up."

As the battle ends, Ravus' voice returns, and he growls out a threat.

"Gladiolus, tell your asshole friend to watch himself." Seems like taking down the Medusa didn't erase the sin of that friendly fire from earlier.

He stalks over to the Ignis doll. "Yes, let's go. The sooner we get out of this section, the better."

"Gladiolus, tell your asshole friend to get good."

With a wave of his plush tail, Dylas turns the Galajelly towards the exit. He has no plans of dismounting his steed just yet. Keeping the beast summoned seems like a good idea for now, and he doesn't want to slither on the floor next to everyone else.

It turns out there's another good reason to keep his monster summoned: the fight isn't over. He tenses at the sight of the doll walking through the doors immediately. It's a mixture between a plush doll, a deer's body, and himself, but the body the doll is modeled after is clearly a perfect match for Dylas' upper half. It's taller than the other dolls by a few inches, has buttons for eyes, and is menacingly holding a box cutter as it approaches them. There's no mistaking that the doll's periwinkle 'hair' is a perfect match for Dylas' own.

"Kill that thing," Dylas hisses with surprising urgency, already casting Dark Savior in conjunction with Rainbow Wind. It dodges both spells, running towards Ignis in an attempt to double-slash him and expose some of that sweet doll stuffing beneath.

Edited 2018-11-10 16:28 (UTC)

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Children's Fun Corner - Dice Roll: 3

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1: Enemy Encounter

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Dice rolls: 3, 1 and I'm SO sorry.

i love our little shitshow

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Dice Rolls: 1d2: 2 (attacks allies) 1d4: 4 (attacks Ravus) 1d3: 1 (Rainbow Wind)

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1d4 - 2 (hits Medusa)

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It was agreed that this would be the last round of combat, so...

o7

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