Mirage Heart

[dramatispersonae]

At first, it feels like your limbs have gone totally limp and you’re floating gently underwater, slowly and serenely making your way down a dark blue abyss... and then it occurs to you you’re actually flying rather than being engulfed, and it's actually the deep blue sky stretching out around you in every direction. It’s awe inspiring, and it leaves you with a wonderful feeling of being completely capable and free...

That is, until you begin having difficulties, your body is too unbalanced and heavy to keep the flying up. It soon becomes apparent the floating feeling you’ve been having is actually falling, and as if to reflect the realization, the velocity changes immediately to a gut-wrenching DROP.  The world blurs, the sound of something shattering echoes in your ears, and your body feels like it is about to be pulled apart as something CRUNCHES.

The experience leaves you utterly befuddled. It takes a while to regain your senses...

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Comments

The Atrium

[dramatispersonae]

As you slowly pull yourself together, you feel piercing pain not unlike jagged pieces of glass piercing your skin... oh. Wait. Those are jagged pieces of glass. Be grateful, if this were not a heart, you’d be dead. But somehow this all the damage you took, after you literally fell to your doom and... from the looks of it, through a glass ceiling of a grand atrium, landing on ground that is solid water which reflects the bright blue sky. No matter where you look, the atrium and ocean-like floor seems to go on endlessly into the horizon. The air around you is palpable, heavy.

At least you are not the only things that have been falling. There are continuous shattering sounds as things crumble from the sky above-- the sky which is not actually a bright blue, but just a glass reflection of the floor below you, the broken through glass of the ceiling showing that behind it the true sky is instead darker than midnight black with no galaxy in sight. Every-so-often that dark sky seems to press down on the atrium glass until it cracks and falls through itself, leaving shards and dark scars running along the water-floor under your feet.

Somehow, as you take this all in and become more aware, you get the feeling that it is the sky itself that is falling and that this is the End of the World.

In a small blessing, you're not the only one here? There are the companions who joined you, of course, and one person who didn't -- a young boy, around ten, with ruined clothing that seems to shed feathers is watching you all calmly from atop a throne of broken glass made in what you know is the center of the atrium. For those who would recognize him, he's almost certainly Mirage.

Re: The Atrium

[crueltobekind]

[This . . . is already as bad as Kaoru worried, though it sure has happened so much sooner than he expected. He's biting down on his lip to keep from crying out (which really only serves to reduce him to pained whining)

All the same, he's tttrying to focus on Mirage, reaching uncertainly for him]

J-Jae Hoon??

Re: The Atrium

[immaturelycursed]

[Shino needs a moment to pull himself together for sure, shaken, but trying to sit up and look around himself to make sense of everything.]

Where—?

Re: The Atrium

[surefire]

[Collects herself with one deep, shuddering breath—more due to the adrenaline from the fall than any pain—before taking in the scenery with composed interest, casually picking out pieces of glass as she does. Eventually her gaze settles on where Mirage is sitting.]

It's been a while since I've seen you looking like that.

Re: The Atrium

[forgotmenot]

[OW. . .]

[s-slowly sitting up and wincing as he tries to pick a few of those glass shards from his arm. when he speaks, he addresses Mirage, and his voice is strained. . . like someone who is trying not to convey how much pain they are actually in]

M. . . Mirage. . .?

Re: The Atrium

[adisaster]

[ WELL

pain sucks

but he grits his teeth :I!!! as he regains his bearings, looking around ... then at Cal ]

Mirage -- ?

Re: The Atrium

[boxupallthebutterflies]

Ah...

[she keeps staring up for a while, before her attention drifts down towards Mirage]

Well, you're a little far out, aren't you...

Re: The Atrium

[knighttolast]

[wwwwince, ow, all of this hurts like a lot. picking the glass off himself. . .]

. . . you're—[you look. . . .??? like mirage??]

Re: The Atrium

[nexrophilia]

[ well it's not like she's any stranger to pain. She just reaches up to pry the shards from her body, wincing, and glancing up at the boy... ah. ]

... Jae-Hoon?

Re: The Atrium

[fragmentedimago]

Cal...

Ow ow ow. [starts picking glass out of himself]

The Apartments

[dramatispersonae]

You find yourself in an overgrown courtyard surrounded by old, ruined apartments. There is a breeze coming from somewhere-- it comes strong, then slow, not unlike rhythmic breathing.

If you are looking for a direction to go, there is clearly a right and a left side to take -- on the left, the apartments completely barren and run down, grey and in run-down condition. There are bugs buzzing around it. On the right, while still abandoned, the apartment looks much more green-- almost Peridot green, in fact, covered in bright vines. It's almost like there has been some effort to remodel it in such a fashion.

There's no obvious safe entrances to both, but if you poked around, there's a chance you could find your way in... or maybe even a way to somewhere else.

A black cat crossing the courtyard, carrying a white bird in it's mouth, freezes at the sight of you.

Re: The Apartments

[twindividualism]

[P. PATTING HIMSELF DOWN TO MAKE SURE HE DIDN'T DROWN

and heads towards the Peridot colored side once he's satisfied]

Re: The Apartments

[forgotmenot]

[takes a deeeeeep breath to compose himself, scratching at his bloody arms as he does so]

A-all right, Pastel. . . i-it'll be all right.

[glances at both pathways, stopping when his gaze falls on the cat]

. . . oh! Goodness, hello there.

[he says to the cat]

Re: The Apartments

[surefire]

[taking another deep breath, geez. then glancing between the two buildings before giving a slight shrug and heading towards the Peridot building.]

Re: The Apartments

[adisaster]

[ he takes in a deep breath as soon as he arrives, taking a look around ...

...

stares back at the cat ]

What are you looking at.

Re: The Apartments

[knighttolast]

[. . . . oh that was fun. exxxxxhaling and taking a breath and. . .


. . . sstaring. at the cat.]

Re: The Apartments

[nexrophilia]

[ Stares at the greyed apartments for a long moment, after she manages to get her bearings, before glancing down at the cat. ]

Re: The Apartments

[fragmentedimago]

[draws a few deep breaths]

...Hello, kitty.

[grabs a lock of his hair and waggles it at the cat]

The Hospital

[dramatispersonae]

The hospital looks like any other modern hospital, really, though out of the corner of your eye you imagine you see... things. Things like blood and hands beckoning and eyes watching. But when you turn to make sure, they're not there.

In fact, there's no one here. It's so very empty, absent of all life. But surely, there has to be something . . .

Re: The Hospital

[immaturelycursed]

[Shino is falling face first onto the ground when he gets there, on his knees. It takes him a long moment to gather himself together, shaken and panting, feeling like he wants to puke, disgusted at the awful sensation crawling in the back of his mind.

After that pause, he stands up. Finally taking in his surroundings, before he goes inside to start to explore it.]

Re: The Hospital

[twindividualism]

[Kaoru is still . . . not . . . entirely here . . . Still driven by the urge to destroy.

And so he does. Trying to smash one of the windows as he passes it, frustrated with the glimpses at the edges of his vision he keeps seeing.]

Re: The Hospital

[adisaster]

[ ugh, puts his hand on his chest at the sensation, breathing sharply inward -- heartache and loss are the worst he doesn't like them at all

once he steels himself a bit he starts walking through the hallway, taking glances into the rooms he passes if he can ]

Re: The Hospital

[surefire]

[Gulping hard as she comes to, her hands instinctively balling into fists as she gets up—those feelings hit hard. Quickly gathering her wits and glancing around, though, looking for a person, or an exit.]

HUNGER

[dramatispersonae]

If you haven't closed your eyes in terror by now you'll notice that the walls around you are flesh and pulsate grossly as you fall, with some kind of black substance that is so unique that you couldn't place it if you tried. As if that's not bad enough, looking down you see a large caricature of a human baby awaiting you, but deformed as the body morphs and bulges constantly, barely held together in it's shape. It opens it's gaping maw of a mouth, carnivorous, clearly intending for you to be it's next meal --

Suddenly, everything is red. It seems you're on something warm and squishy... and the corruption you've had since you've entered the heart feels painful, your veins pumping painfully. What do you do?

Re: HUNGER

[immaturelycursed]

[cry out in pain, of course. Shino is shaking heavily, trying to curl up on himself and the more time he spends here the less his body language seems to belong to someone his age. He's looking at his arms and around himself before he looks around, holding a hand up to clasp it around his mouth, feeling sick.

but after probably a long moment, he tries to touch around with his other palm.]

True Heart

[dramatispersonae]

Once again a bright blue sky stretches out above you-- but this time there's no broken glass, nothing falling down. The breeze is refreshing and rustles the bright green trees, the same shade as Peridot, surrounding the hospital. It's a beautiful day.

After everything you've been through to get here, it's almost hilariously simple how accessible everything suddenly seems. All that seems to be in your way now is a door to a small apartment mysteriously placed here on the top of the hospital.

Re: True Heart

[immaturelycursed]

[do I still feel like hell and kind of not together at all, though.

He's looking around anyway, looking if Mirage is still there . . . then slowly makes his way to the small apartment, at this point only moving out of stubbornness.]