[ 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. ]
[Wondering if this is actually a good idea as she goes, but then she finds the city -- and her home is pretty ugly so it's almost comforting but for the eerie post-apocalyptic empty feel.
Naturally, she breaks the treeline and then bellows across the parking lot:]
[ 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, are 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 an absolutely massive crescent wrench. It's several feet long and hefty. You could absolutely kill a person with this. ]
[ 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. ]
[ She does both those things, and it looks very awesome the whole time! ]
[ 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. There's also a tall, outrageously muscular guy you may know. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Haven
Oh. . . what happened to you?
Re: Haven
[It seems like it's probably been this way for a long time.]
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
Naturally, she breaks the treeline and then bellows across the parking lot:]
HELLLLOOOOOOO!
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, are raised by powerful winches like a massive gate. Behind it is a narrow, well-lit alley, leading the way into the city. ]
Re: Haven
[Strolling over to pass through the gate because obviously she would get invited into this random place she just found and doesn't know.]
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 promptly does so. Hopefully it's not a weapon that might alarm the locals.]
Re: Haven
[ It's an absolutely massive crescent wrench. It's several feet long and hefty. You could absolutely kill a person with this. ]
[ 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
So's there's fightin' to be had, huh.
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. There's also a tall, outrageously muscular guy you may know. ]
[Approach?]