[ The instant your hand touches the lantern, the small flame blooms into a something huge and bright like an unfolding star, light flooding the Haven as well as your mind.
In that moment, the world disappears into that flash of light and it feels like the satisfaction of a full stomach when you have once known hunger, and having enough to make sure the plates of your loved ones are full as well;
it feels like a soft, warm bed when you've once known exhaustion, and knowing your loved ones are safely asleep and having good dreams;
it feels like sun on your face on a crisp, spring day, like the color of new leaves and a budding feeling of potential, like the humanitarian solidarity behind the words "my heart is with you";
it feels a little bit like love.
Your eyes adjust to the light and the Haven resolves back into place, right where you left it. The newly brightened lantern illuminates an even greater radius than before.]
[ In this larger, brighter, expanded circle of light, you can see more of the immediate surroundings beyond the edge of the Haven. You see the skeletons of bushes. What once was lush grass is now crisp, dry tufts, crinkled over bare dirt. The naked trunks of what used to be conifers extend overhead and vanish into darkness. ]
[ One side of the platform-shaped Haven slopes gently down to the ground. From there, a dirt path winds off into the trees. ]
[ You follow the path through a forest long dead. ]
[ Out here, the air tastes bitter and caustic. The unnatural silence is occasionally punctuated by sounds: a distant, echoing crash of something crisp and wooden getting broken. A lonely groan from an inhuman throat. The intermittent scrape of dry leaves, disturbed by feet that skitter away before your circle of light can touch them. ]
[ As you walk, the path starts to climb up a slope, leading you through several switchbacks. The trees thin out, and the sky seems to lighten a few shades, like something up ahead is illuminating the very air. ]
[ You can see light glinting off boulders and tree trunks, guiding you forward like a beacon. ]
[ You have to scrabble over some rocks, picking your way upward. Then you look over a ridge and there it is:
—The ugliest city you’ve ever seen in your life. ]
[ The city is on the far side of a huge expanse of cobblestone — which, now that you’re looking at it, appears to be a parking lot. ]
[ After all that climbing, you have a better vantage point of where you just came from. Behind you is a steep drop into a vast canyon. You climbed out of there somehow, but from here it looks like a huge cleft in the earth that someone poured an ocean of heavy, dark fog into. ]
[ It might have been beautiful once, back when the buildings were still brightly painted and the streets were full of people. But now the buildings are boarded up, and roads that were once broad and inviting and now blocked by thick makeshift barricades cobbled together from metal signs, wooden pallets, rusted cars, barbed wire — anything and everything that wasn’t nailed down, and probably some things that were. ]
[ The barricade and building are run through with cables, and bright lights of all shapes and sizes are pointed outward as if trying desperately to keep the darkness away. The light illuminates the thick, dingy haze that squats over the city, which you can feel in your throat with every breath. ]
[ From here, you can see some spots along the wall where the lights have burned out, leaving some buildings drenched in shadow. ]
[ Someone on top of a building turns a spotlight on you. You hear shouting from a familiar voice. ]
“There's a survivor! Raise the gates!”
[ You hear activity from beyond the wall, and a moment later there's a groan of metal and clank of chains. ]
[ Two cars, stacked end to end in a cage of rusted beams and rebar, is raised by powerful winches like a massive gate. Behind it is a narrow, well-lit alley, leading the way into the city. ]
[ As you enter the alley and the gate shuts heavily behind you, the lantern you've been holding shatters into bright flakes of white light and vanishes. ]
[ You can still feel it, though. ]
[ Innately, you know the lantern is not gone, and not broken. It has gone into your Armiger -- a space inside of you, next to your soul. You can feel it in there, ready for you to call it into existence once again, any time you want. ]
[ In fact, now that you're paying attention, you can feel there is something else in your Armiger besides your lantern, waiting for you to call it into being. You know that all you have to do is hold out your hand and it will appear in your palm the moment you will it to be so. ]
[ In a glittering flash of white light, the thing you called for drops into your palm. ]
[ It's a sword with a golden hilt inset with a gleaming turquoise opal. The white-silver blade reflects subtle prismatic rainbow colors, even in the harsh light of the street lamps. ]
[ As you turn it in your hands, you can feel something strange about it. You can feel... that it has been imbued with the power of lightning. ]
[ As surely as you are breathing, you understand: while you are holding this object, you will be able to channel its power and cast Thundara at will. ]
[ You now have access to your Armiger. You can put things into it at any time, and they will appear or disappear from your hand at your whim. ]
[You hold you your hand dramatically! and a bolt of force lightning peals from your fingers, ripping up the wall and blackening the ground. Garbage bursts into flames; charred bits of plaster sprinkle down all around you like rain.]
[Though the electricity crackles over your arms and through your hair, it feels tingly but does not hurt. You're immune to it.]
[her eyes widen into sparkles for a moment as it sets in what she just did.
and she lets out a little peal of delighted laughter.
and then quickly composes herself to be a serious person in an unknown place. But the sword goes back to her armiger-- and she? moves forward. secretly delighted]
[ With the closed gate at your back, there’s only one exit, and it’s in front of you. ]
[ The alley is narrow and zig-zags through crumbling buildings. Eventually you see the exit, and the man who’s standing at the end of the alley, waiting for you. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Haven
In that moment, the world disappears into that flash of light and it feels like the satisfaction of a full stomach when you have once known hunger, and having enough to make sure the plates of your loved ones are full as well;
it feels like a soft, warm bed when you've once known exhaustion, and knowing your loved ones are safely asleep and having good dreams;
it feels like sun on your face on a crisp, spring day, like the color of new leaves and a budding feeling of potential, like the humanitarian solidarity behind the words "my heart is with you";
it feels a little bit like love.
Your eyes adjust to the light and the Haven resolves back into place, right where you left it. The newly brightened lantern illuminates an even greater radius than before.]
Re: Haven
that's. that's a lot.
but now this is her newest treasure, gotta take it somewhere safe.
but she'll start by moving forward?]
Re: Haven
[ One side of the platform-shaped Haven slopes gently down to the ground. From there, a dirt path winds off into the trees. ]
Re: Haven
Re: Haven
[ Out here, the air tastes bitter and caustic. The unnatural silence is occasionally punctuated by sounds: a distant, echoing crash of something crisp and wooden getting broken. A lonely groan from an inhuman throat. The intermittent scrape of dry leaves, disturbed by feet that skitter away before your circle of light can touch them. ]
[ As you walk, the path starts to climb up a slope, leading you through several switchbacks. The trees thin out, and the sky seems to lighten a few shades, like something up ahead is illuminating the very air. ]
[ You can see light glinting off boulders and tree trunks, guiding you forward like a beacon. ]
[ You have to scrabble over some rocks, picking your way upward. Then you look over a ridge and there it is:
—The ugliest city you’ve ever seen in your life. ]
[ The city is on the far side of a huge expanse of cobblestone — which, now that you’re looking at it, appears to be a parking lot. ]
[ After all that climbing, you have a better vantage point of where you just came from. Behind you is a steep drop into a vast canyon. You climbed out of there somehow, but from here it looks like a huge cleft in the earth that someone poured an ocean of heavy, dark fog into. ]
Re: Haven
or signs of people?]
Re: Haven
[ The barricade and building are run through with cables, and bright lights of all shapes and sizes are pointed outward as if trying desperately to keep the darkness away. The light illuminates the thick, dingy haze that squats over the city, which you can feel in your throat with every breath. ]
[ From here, you can see some spots along the wall where the lights have burned out, leaving some buildings drenched in shadow. ]
[ Someone on top of a building turns a spotlight on you. You hear shouting from a familiar voice. ]
“There's a survivor! Raise the gates!”
[ You hear activity from beyond the wall, and a moment later there's a groan of metal and clank of chains. ]
[ Two cars, stacked end to end in a cage of rusted beams and rebar, is raised by powerful winches like a massive gate. Behind it is a narrow, well-lit alley, leading the way into the city. ]
Re: Haven
[oh good, she's going to clamber over to them as quickly as possible, to that alleyway]
Hello?
Re: Haven
[ As you enter the alley and the gate shuts heavily behind you, the lantern you've been holding shatters into bright flakes of white light and vanishes. ]
[ You can still feel it, though. ]
[ Innately, you know the lantern is not gone, and not broken. It has gone into your Armiger -- a space inside of you, next to your soul. You can feel it in there, ready for you to call it into existence once again, any time you want. ]
[ In fact, now that you're paying attention, you can feel there is something else in your Armiger besides your lantern, waiting for you to call it into being. You know that all you have to do is hold out your hand and it will appear in your palm the moment you will it to be so. ]
Re: Haven
she's going to do that?
this is very remniscient of heart weapon, after all]
How do I just... know this stuff?
Re: Haven
[ In a glittering flash of white light, the thing you called for drops into your palm. ]
[ It's a sword with a golden hilt inset with a gleaming turquoise opal. The white-silver blade reflects subtle prismatic rainbow colors, even in the harsh light of the street lamps. ]
[ As you turn it in your hands, you can feel something strange about it. You can feel... that it has been imbued with the power of lightning. ]
[ As surely as you are breathing, you understand: while you are holding this object, you will be able to channel its power and cast Thundara at will. ]
[ You now have access to your Armiger. You can put things into it at any time, and they will appear or disappear from your hand at your whim. ]
Re: Haven
she's going to cast thundara right now]
Re: Haven
[Though the electricity crackles over your arms and through your hair, it feels tingly but does not hurt. You're immune to it.]
Re: Haven
and she lets out a little peal of delighted laughter.
and then quickly composes herself to be a serious person in an unknown place. But the sword goes back to her armiger-- and she? moves forward. secretly delighted]
Re: Haven
[ With the closed gate at your back, there’s only one exit, and it’s in front of you. ]
[ The alley is narrow and zig-zags through crumbling buildings. Eventually you see the exit, and the man who’s standing at the end of the alley, waiting for you. ]
[Approach?]