Timeslot #1

[dramatispersonae]

[You fall through the dark for what seems like a long time. Are you rising, or diving? It’s hard to say. . . and then ahead of you, there is light, faint and grey. You break the surface and find yourself standing in a dingy puddle of water, the grey skeleton of a burnt and weathered tree rising out of it. If you look into the pool, you can still see the black willows and the hedges of the maze, upside down and far away . . .

The puddle rests in a little hollow. Nothing grows in the scorched ground around it, but tufts of bleached, lifeless grass still cling to the earth. Grey, leafless trees, the bark long since stripped away, surround you on all sides. . . and beneath the trees are headstones, crumbling with age, most of the names and dates no longer legible. At the edge of the graveyard, looming up through the gloom, is the ruin of a stone manor house . . . only one wing still stands.

It is so still here -- no breath of wind stirs the clammy air. The sky is stormy grey, despite having no visible cloud cover, and is scarred with a number of rifts much like the one that briefly opened above Wonderland . . . but these, rather than being filled with shimmering colour, are stark, dead black. You cannot pinpoint the source of the light in this place. There is enough to see by, a dim and gloomy twilight, but there are no stars, and neither is there a sun, nor moon.

You feel strangely heavy, cold and lethargic. The further you stray from the rest of your group, the worse the feeling grows. You’ll also find that any magic or powers you have are even further dampened than usual . . . they barely work.

The soft ticking continues without an apparent source.]

Comments

The Graveyard

[dramatispersonae]

[Most of the headstones are simple, worn stone, but there is a mausoleum, half tumbled down, a little way away. The ground in the graveyard is uneven, rising and falling in small hills and vales -- who knows what lies hidden from view?

A cracked stone path, split and scorched in many places, winds around the haphazardly placed graves.]

Re: The Graveyard

[mythlology]

[ lands with an inelegant stumble-- ]

Oof.

[ and turns in place warily, taking the new world in, and rubbing at his arms as he shivers in the weird cold ]

Re: The Graveyard

[glorious]

[pulling himself up]

...Seems we found ourselves in quite the predicament.

Re: The Graveyard

[regrets]

[blinking as he steadies himself, and he looks closer at a nearby headstone to see if he can make out a name]

Re: The Graveyard

[dramatispersonae]

[It's weathered almost completely smooth. . . maybe one of the letters is an M? Maybe there's a 4 . . . ]

Re: The Graveyard

[itsalluseless]

...I've got a bad feeling about this.

Re: The Graveyard

[sharksong]

[Kind of distracted over here, rubbing at her ears]

Did it get quieter . . . ?

Re: The Graveyard

[mythlology]

It's like someone dropped a wet blanket on everything.

Re: The Graveyard

[browbeater]

[uh... what...?]

Re: The Graveyard

[glorious]

[looking around]

I think it's safe to say the Darkness has this place.

Re: The Graveyard

[thankyouverymooch]

[ there's not a single thing that's okay here and having powers watered down sure doesn't help. Looking around the place, and if he's nervous at all, he's certainly not showing it. ]

Looks like we're off to a promising start already. What a gloomy place.

Re: The Graveyard

[glorious]

[kind of...just staring at the gravestones for a moment]

Re: The Graveyard

[autorejoin]

[ looking around. deadpan: ]

Well now, this looks cheerful.

Re: The Graveyard

[thankyouverymooch]

Looks like it! Any idea where this is?

Re: The Graveyard

[ademoelord]

What happened?

Re: The Graveyard

[glorious]

[...holds a hand out to him.]

Are you all right?

The Manor

[dramatispersonae]

[At least three quarters of the building were destroyed long ago -- only one wing still stands, though the door is blocked off by rubble -- you'll have to climb over the heaps of stone, the mortar and plaster dissolved who knows how long ago, and through the blackened timbers if you want to get into the intact part of the building. Although it's probably none too stable...]

Re: The Manor

[glorious]

[so the largest person in the group will be looking at the noodle in the group]

Re: The Manor

[browbeater]

[there's got to be a better way in there...

gonna walk around and try to find, at the very least, what looks like the most stable route]

Re: The Manor

[thankyouverymooch]

[ well, he's got his ninja skills back so climbing is probably big deal for him. A little more careful than he usually would given the whole weakness thing, but he's going to be as fast and agile and LIGHT ON HIS FEET!11 as that will allow ]

Re: The Manor

[sharksong]

[. . . WELP, starts carefully picking her way up the rubble pile]

When The Clock Chimes

[dramatispersonae]

[Wherever you are, when the clock chimes, you feel a tug in your chest. Your vision goes grey . . . there's a sensation of being rushed along . . . and without knowing quite how you got there, although a few scrapes and bruises suggest that you just rushed headlong down a stack of rubble, you find yourself back in the graveyard, in front of the puddle through which the maze can be seen.

The clock still rings insistently, loudly.]

Re: When The Clock Chimes

[browbeater]

[are... we supposed to jump in the puddle...]

Re: When The Clock Chimes

[ademoelord]

W-what...

[and he's holding a child's skull from where he was rearranging his pile of rubble]

Re: When The Clock Chimes

[thankyouverymooch]

[ checking out the puddle... ]

Guess it's our only way back, huh? It's worth a shot anyway.

[ AND JUMPING IN ]