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

[sonoftenebrae]

Ravus stumbles over the snake's damn tail, and takes a stomp at it in revenge. Bastard. He ignores the puppetry symbolism for now.

The video shows the historical tour visiting places the Heroes of Light now recognize- the town squares and theatres of most of the major towns and cities around the world. The Puppetmasters and dolls dance and play out scenes from some of the most famous legends of old.

The video distorts for a second, and a clip plays, showing the tour in an unfamiliar location. The backdrop shows Night of the Thirteen Moogles designs, but they seem more permanent than the decorations hung during this month around the world. The video is taken from an angle off to the side, and the actors are all oriented toward a main camera straight ahead of them.

A rift tear opens behind the oblivious troupe and a crowned moogle, laughing silently, peeks out from behind them. No one in the video reacts, even when the moogle emerges and zips over their heads and flies straight at the recording camera. Moments before it would impact, the video distorts again, and goes back to the normal loop. Even if they watch through another loop or two, they will not see that clip again.

"What the hell was that?"

[sullenstallion]

When his tail is stomped on, Dylas opens his mouth to hiss, but manages to keep his cool. Unfortunately, his fangs still extend from his gums, so when he turns to glare at Ravus it's with an overbite. The tips of two deadly, serpentine fangs hang over his bottom lip as slitted eyes stare at the old man.

He turns around. He watches the video.

When Ravus is done asking his question, Dylas turns around, and he attempts to slash Ravus right in the face with his claws. There's no warning, no prompting, just Dylas deciding he's had enough of this.

"Hold on, there's something on your face—wait, no, it's just your stupid face!"

[hashtagdaddy]

"Maybe that thing is Mog...?" It's freaky as hell to see, that's for sure, and Gladio wonders at the decor of the new area. Is it a temple? What sort of temple would be so devoted to the Night of the Thirteen Moogles?

Before he can share any of his questions, he watches in shock as Dylas swipes at his boyfriend.

"Dylas, what the hell?!"

[regalblaze]

The play and mysterious footage that suddenly appeared almost turned Ignis' guard off completely. Luckily, he spots Dylas moving from the corner of his eye and jumps back, knocking over a chair but managing to make some space to pull Ravus back as well and out of the reach of Dylas' claws.

That was too close.

"Can we please lower the tension!?" Ignis finally raises his voice. He very rarely yells but even his nerves are brought thin to the point of snapping. He's standing between Ravus and Dylas for a single main reason- preventing both of them from lashing further out. Especially Ravus, who Ignis can swear, is getting ready to leap at Dylas if the chance presents itself.

"We have more important things to do. Once we're out you can, as Gladio likes to put it, 'deck it out'. But not here."

[sonoftenebrae]

Ravus envisions, in exquisite detail, grabbing Dylas by the throat and crushing his larynx with his magitek hand. He takes a step forward to see it done, but Ignis' voice cuts through the haze of his anger...barely.

He'd had to censor his anger and follow Ardyn's orders back on Eos. At least listening to Ignis is less humiliating than that.

"I'll gut the worm later," he growls, not even dignifying Dylas with a look. "And we'll talk about your abysmal judgement in allies later as well, Amicitia."