TURQUOISE

[dramatispersonae]

[The Ring tilts under your feet, and with a sudden, gut-wrenching twist you're falling. A sense of how someone might have come to be in this position wraps around you as you fall; you (no, not you, but someone) could have leapt from a cliff to avoid something chasing them, and in the sick vertigo of freefall thought only that this could not possibly be as bad as what was behind them catching up--

You land with a thump. That phantom hunted feeling stays with you, leaving your hands shaky and your mouth dry.

You're in a perfectly circular and thoroughly strange workroom. The floor is made of polished rosewood and the walls are clear glass, but they're both hard to see because of how packed and active the space is - a clear brook bubbles incongruously over stones through the center, while shelves and tables crowd the walls and books and clock-or-wirework projects crowd the shelves and tables. Unfinished clockwork dummies stand here and there with a faintly gloomy air. A brand-new pottery wheel is turning slowly in the corner, its movement driven by the current of the water through the room.

Despite the cheerful clutter, the feeling of dread is still very strong here - papers have been rifled through frantically and left in heaps, and a few of the little mechanical toys have been broken, as though they were handled with too much haste and not enough care.

When you look around to identify the source of your unease, you see that the one broad uncovered section of glass shows a mirror hanging on the white wall beyond, out of reach beyond the glass. An indistinct dark shape lurks in it, and when you approach it you can hear whispers:

it's been summoned
did you say its name three times?
it's coming.]

Comments

ROUND 1

[dramatispersonae]

[No sooner have you taken in the mirror's clearly concerning nature than the room pivots entirely, revealing a different section of wall beyond your glassed-in space and cutting the water supply off in the brook. Your sense of unease grows. There's writing on the revealed wall...]

What do you do when you feel fear?

discussion

[dramatispersonae]

Re: discussion

[autorejoin]

Is "get drunk" an option?

Re: discussion

[ninetyninelives]

Is that what you do.

Re: discussion

[autorejoin]

Sometimes!

[ Clue shrugs. ]

Honestly, it depends on what I'm afraid of. I think more often, I would like to just flip off whatever's scaring me and go ahead anyway.

answer

[dramatispersonae]

((Please submit a verbal answer -- you may answer together or individually as you please. What you describe can be anything: do you make cathartic voodoo dolls of your fears? Do you suck your thumb and cry to make yourself feel better? Do you face the fears down in mortal combat? Anything goes.))

Re: answer

[autorejoin]

Well, the answer to this one is simple. You flip them off and then you destroy them! After all, it's better to laugh in the face of your fears and then crush them. They can't scare you anymore that way!

ROUND 2

[dramatispersonae]

[There's a click and the room pivots again. A lump of wet clay drops onto the pottery wheel with a thump; where did that come from? The shift unblocks the water channel, and wheel starts to spin much faster than before. Your breath is coming a little faster too. Does it feel cramped in here?

There's a new question:]

How do you find the means to perform that action?

discussion

[dramatispersonae]

Re: discussion

[autorejoin]

With middle fingers to flip 'em off and a sword to slice through them. How would you do it?

Re: discussion

[ninetyninelives]

[pokes the clay]

If we're using an actual sword, I just need to bleed to get one of those.

answer

[dramatispersonae]

((Describe verbally how you would you go about making -- for example -- cathartic voodoo dolls if that was your answer in the last section. Do you need to acquire wood and pins first, or do you prefer to use something else? Where do you find the stuff to build them? Please address physical logistics and actions as much as possible. Again, you may answer together or individually.))

Re: answer

[ninetyninelives]

Raise middle finger, lower other fingers. "Flip the bird."

Obtain sword. Or, if you're me, set your spilled blood on fire. It can do this automatically, and it will turn into a flaming sword.

result

[dramatispersonae]

[One of the clockwork dummies extends its hands and begins to refine the hideous fish vase pottery wheel. With each word you speak, the creation grows, until it's an elegant free-standing vessel. Despite its fishy shape, looking at it reminds you strongly of the badass answers you’ve just given... maybe this is some kind of Gyarados metaphor.]

Re: result

[ninetyninelives]

Nice.

Re: result

[autorejoin]

Well, that's pretty cool.

ROUND 3 (bonus)

[dramatispersonae]

[As the room pivots again, it brings you back to the mirror side of the room - at least, you think it's the same mirror? It's hard to say. The dark ominous shape in it is much closer.

As the room clicks into place a stone smashes through the glass ceiling above the pottery wheel, crushing your wet pot and the wheel itself entirely. The clockwork dummy's hands jerk, snapped off at the wrists. With their destruction the sense of panic rises in your throat, clogging it. There’s a wave of heat through the room. The final revealed question appears burned and distorted . . .]

W̠͞h̡̙̠a̡̬͔̞͍̗t͓̩̰̻ ̠̳w̖̳̮͘o͡u͏̞͖̬̱̹̮l͚̙̝̦d̲̪̤͇̦͚ ̸̹̼̬y͉̻͝o͚͚̘̮͕u̧̪͖̼̦̯̻̳ ̬̭d̙̝̜ͅo̵͇̜̞͎̯͔ ̖͈̼i̲͖̭̼͙̪̯f̧̣̩̺͕̪̦ ͕̙t͚͘h̢̙̻̥a̴̺͔̩͎t̨̩͕ ̗f̱̱̳̗a̫i̶̝͎̳̻̲l̯̲̞̣̺͜ͅe̤̥͙͇̟̜͈d͟?̲͇͟

discussion

[dramatispersonae]

Re: discussion

[ninetyninelives]

[BRISTLES]

Then I've got teeth and claws, and he's got fists, and we'll tear you apart with our bare hands if we have to.

Re: discussion

[ninetyninelives]

...uh, hypothetical general "you."

Re: discussion

[autorejoin]

I've got a claw, too.

answer

[dramatispersonae]

((Please answer individually as you please; answers can be verbal or you can do something more creative if you please. Characters are ICly aware answering this will not affect their score either way (so they’re not obligated to answer) but that it’s important to the gamerunner to know.))

Re: answer

[ninetyninelives]

[setting up his new tiny clay fish. some of them are decorated with little bits of pieces of things from around the room-- bits of broken window for scales, small gears from the dummy's hands to make eyes, wirework fins. one has a long strip of paper from a book to make it into an eel]

If... you fail. If you're overcome by fear or if you try as hard as you can, and you still can't stop whatever it is from happening... All my masters have died. Some of them were killed, or got sick, or had nothing bad at all happen to them... I still outlived them. I'm scared of the people I meet dying and leaving me alone. But you can't stop. You go away from the challenge and pick yourself up. Get another master or set up with a team, bite them instead of stabbing them, think about a lost fight and figure out what you need to practice, maybe take some time and just recover. You can't stay scared forever, so keep your courage up and keep going back until you can overcome it... One failure is a hundred opportunities.

Re: answer

[autorejoin]

You know what? If you fail, you keep picking yourself up and try again! I know what it's like to not fight, to not give up. And you know what? It's a shit life! It's miserable and you can never stop being miserable and then you die. You die and all there is left of you is nothing! No one to care, no one to remember that wretched, cowardly wretch!

So you keep moving! You keep fighting! If you want to have any kind of life, you have to fight! And if your fears kill you, if that's the end of it— then as long as you go out facing it, grinning and going for it with your most, then it's all worth it.

END

[dramatispersonae]

[The room gradually starts to fade out around you, the glass wall sliding into total transparency and then nonexistence first. The last thing you see is the burned and distorted question on the wall: it hasn't faded out in the slightest. The burn marks are spreading like a blight, calling rot to mind as they spread swiftly over the blank white space. Streaks of ruin stretch towards you, like searching fingers...

...you blink, and you're back in the Ring again, leaving the fear behind like a bad dream.]