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

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)

Gods the behavior of Ravus and Dylas is hilarious and annoying all at once - like siblings having an argument. Gladio would laugh if he wasn't still feeling the drain of whatever poison he inhaled. At least the potion Ignis gave him replenished some of his health. "Dylas, just control your Jello monster and we'll be fine. Ravus, I'm pretty sure he heard you. Let's just get outta this room, alright?"

Thankfully his eyesight returned when the Medusa apparently disappeared, so Gladio sees the doll that walks through the exit doors. And he absolutely notices its resemblance to Dylas.

He also notices the way it dodges the spells thrown at it and sprints towards Ignis instead. Like hell is he letting that creepy imitation doll anywhere near his boyfriend with those blades. "Not on my watch!" His battle cry rings through the room as he rushes towards the doll and uses Holy Blade. He'll worry about how his lungs burn at the exertion later.

All the bickering and going back and forth almost caught Ignis off guard when the doll lunged at them. Their fighting isn't coming to an end just yet it seems. Thankfully, Gladio still has his head in the game and his yell distracts the doll a split second.

Just enough for Ignis to jump back and get his daggers at ready. He imbues them with fire- hoping that a doll made of cloth is weak to fire- and kicks the dagger at the doll, hitting it just below the shoulder, making the thing recoil back.

That looks like a nice opening for Ravus if he ever saw one.

Ravus has rarely been so motivated to inflict harm as he is to this periwinkle deer doll. ~~He's pretty sure he'd get a lecture from Gladio if he does it to the snake-version that is theoretically on their side.~~

He takes a leap and brings his toy sword down in a physical attack from above.

The doll, looking very weakened from the barrage of attacks, growls out, "You'll pay...for what you did to Mog!"

"This little shit! Who the hell is Mog?!"

The galajelly moves forward, and it swings one of its amorphous arms at the doll. This time, it hits, and the doll is sent staggering backwards. Dylas tries to hit it with another spell, but he misses for the second time in a row—the doll is fast, much faster than the Medusa had been.

Those who get a glimpse at the doll's back might notice that there seems to be word stitched from shoulder to shoulder. It doesn't stay still long enough for it to be read.

The nauseated feeling starts calming a bit, thankfully, and Gladio is able to lunge after the doll as it dodges Dylas' spell. And he curses the doll's speed even as he darts after it. "I'm gettin' sick of chasing this thing around. Let's end this!"

Sorry friend but Gladio wants to decapitate your lookalike. So he swings his letter opener in a Holy Blade attack at the doll's neck. If the attack is successful they should be able to read whatever he glimpsed on the thing's back.

Everyone is starting to lose their cool the more these battles prolong. Ignis just hopes they will wrap this up soon enough before they end up on each other's throats again.

...but the question, is indeed, something Ignis is curious about. Mog...? Would capturing this doll for questioning be too much to ask? From to looks of it- yes. Gladio just managed to behead the spirit-doll-thing. Ignis doesn't even know what to call it anymore.

He rushes over once the doll is down, frowning at the stitched things in the doll's shoulder. "...What is this?"

"Mog is our ally. He helped summon the Heroes of Light here, but you Calamity-Marked have been keeping him weakened!" the doll accuses. Before his neck is chopped. Hopefully the party isn't hoping for any more answers after that.

On their way out from this battle, the party will discover their prize(?), the Curti Center Charity Calendar from two years ago. It has pictures of some of the most well-known Center Employees, trying to raise gil for research during a year when funding was light.

Ravus hates every minute of this. His doll arms cross and he huffs. "Can we go? This has passed 'ridiculous' and moved on to 'absurd'."

Dylas doesn't know what a Mog is. A Moogle? But he doesn't care. What he does know is that there's still a doll body and a head just laying there, and he decides to disintegrate both by casting a final dark savior that captures the head and the body, reducing the doll's body to ashes before it can be inspected too closely, though the stitching in the back suggests that whatever the doll is meant to mimic might have a tattoo of some sort on its back.

He should've aimed for the calendar, too.

"What, are you waiting for my permission?" He hisses at Ravus and slithers right out of the door, dismissing Galajelly as he goes. As soon as he leaves the room, he fades back into the form of his naga self and starts to stretch, looking pissed off.

"Hey, I wanted to see what its back said! It could be useful for us." Gladio shouts after Dylas, hurrying to the door and cringing at the feel of changing back into his normal human self.

"At least we got some information. And an old calendar..."

He's a little irritated that Dylas simply destroyed the enemy doll's remains before he could get a good look at them, but he's glad to finally be flesh and blood instead of felt and stuffing.

"C'mon Ravus. Iggy. Let's keep moving." He casts Cura on himself again, to make sure he's back up to full (or close to full) health as they enter the new room.

Clearly, everyone's annoyed from so much fighting and Ignis doesn't know what to do anymore to keep everyone's agitation on down low. The more annoyed they get, the easier they will keep falling into traps.

Ignis feels like he was reborn when he's back in his own body when they step out of the room. He cracks his neck, following closely behind Gladio and next to Ravus. "Let us keep the heat and arguing on the down low. We don't want to attract even more attention." Three grown men and a naga- it's enough of a commotion as it is.

"Keep your eyes open for clues on who or what Mog is."

"You can stuff your suspicion down your scaly throat," Ravus grumbles as he crosses the threshold and returns to his human form.

Looking at the signs in the hallway, Ravus strides in the direction labeled 'Multi-Media Room". In his mind, it's the best hope at getting information in an efficient manner.

"This way. Tread carefully." He directs that to Ignis and Gladio. As far as he's concerned, the snake can slip and fall on his face

The Multi-Media Room is dark, but the video on the small theatre screen provides some illumination. In the video, Puppetmasters can be seen manipulating the Hero dolls. A voiceover gives a dry overview of the dolls' history.

Edited 2018-11-20 03:19 (UTC)

"It's not useful to anyone," he says to Gladiolus. Dylas does his best not to look unnerved by the appearance of the other doll and holds his hands his hands at his chest. Why was there a doll that looked exactly like him, but back when he'd been a wendigo? Why does this place know about that?

It's still on his mind when he approaches one of the monitors. He focuses on the history of the dolls instead of what's going on, but he attempts to trip Ravus with the tip of his tail as he passes.

Event || A History of Light and Darkness

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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