[ 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 an embrace, like wanting to wrap someone in a hug that's warm as a sweater straight from the dryer and twice as tight, their fluffy head that fits neatly under your chin as you try to hold them until their sadness blows away like smoke, and if it never does then you'll just keep holding them and that's okay, because you like this anyway;
it feels like sitting side by side in the dark with your hand around the small shoulders of a boy who struggles but who nevertheless keeps trying, and you're so proud, you're so proud, you're so proud that he tries;
it feels like Halloween candy and folded paper lanterns and water fights with ridiculous pool floats on a hot summer day, like having someone at your back when your world seems dark and perilous, like wanting happiness for someone so hard that it aches;
it feels 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.]
[There's no answer. It's just quiet, and the air moves a little, suggesting maybe you're outside.]
[ 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, strongly resembles a parking lot. On this side of the lot, to your left, is a lookout where tourists could stop and take in the vast and devastatingly scenic darkness-filled canyon you just crawled out of. ]
[ 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 pair of katars. They're long and sharp and sci-fi sleek, and the light from a dozen street lamp slides off the dark carbon steel like oil. Unlike another pair of these you might have, these are glossy and pristine.]
[ As you turn them 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. ]
[Everything in this alley looks superficially charred and there's probably some garbage on fire, but everything holds up to your assault pretty okay, overall.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Haven
[Reaching down, careful, to pick up the lantern]
Anyone here?
Re: Haven
In that moment, the world disappears into that flash of light and it feels like an embrace, like wanting to wrap someone in a hug that's warm as a sweater straight from the dryer and twice as tight, their fluffy head that fits neatly under your chin as you try to hold them until their sadness blows away like smoke, and if it never does then you'll just keep holding them and that's okay, because you like this anyway;
it feels like sitting side by side in the dark with your hand around the small shoulders of a boy who struggles but who nevertheless keeps trying, and you're so proud, you're so proud, you're so proud that he tries;
it feels like Halloween candy and folded paper lanterns and water fights with ridiculous pool floats on a hot summer day, like having someone at your back when your world seems dark and perilous, like wanting happiness for someone so hard that it aches;
it feels 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
[oh]
[that's]
[please hold a second,]
Re: Haven
nothing's going anywhere]
Re: Haven
[Possibly he is tearing up,]
Re: Haven
feel your feelings
you're safe here]
Re: Haven
[That makes him cry in earnest,,,]
Re: Haven
it's got you]
Re: Haven
...Cobalt?
Re: Haven
[ 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. ]
Re: Haven
[Time to head out]
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, strongly resembles a parking lot. On this side of the lot, to your left, is a lookout where tourists could stop and take in the vast and devastatingly scenic darkness-filled canyon you just crawled out of. ]
Re: Haven
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
[Hesitates just a second longer, and then presses forward into the alley]
Re: Haven
[ 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. ]
1/3
[How could he break it, how could he ruin something so good - ?]
Re: Haven
Re: Haven
[He holds out his hand...?]
Re: Haven
[ It's a pair of katars. They're long and sharp and sci-fi sleek, and the light from a dozen street lamp slides off the dark carbon steel like oil. Unlike another pair of these you might have, these are glossy and pristine.]
[ As you turn them 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
[Casts Thundara, just to see, because what else do you expect a sixteen-year-old-boy who was just granted lightning magic to do with it, honestly,]
Re: Haven
Re: Haven
[Surely no one will mind if he tests it out again]
[Like, a couple more times]
[For science]
Re: Haven
Re: Haven
[Maybe better stop messing around with this, huh]
[And put out the garbage fires,]
Re: Haven
Re: Haven
Re: Haven
Re: Haven