⇨ DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS

[ringleaders]

Who: Anyone out in the library.
When: Day 59
Where: The Athenaeum
What: Towards the end of the visit, we are visited by a series of worrisome NPCs, who may or may not be illusions. There will be at least 5 NPC toplevels posted overall, all happening in a similar time period ICly (in rough chronological order), so not everyone needs to be in every thread.
Warnings: Possibility of very real danger to anyone who participates. Remember that Sans has told everyone to travel in groups, so if you aren't, you'll probably get a scolding later.

TURNING THE PAGE↴ As the carnival continues to explore the Athenaeum in the pursuit of more information about the legendary Miracles, the tension is thick with the knowledge that the Summer Court could be in pursuit any day now. On Day 59, a series of threatening encounters will begin manifesting - but are they real, or an illusion?

Comments

[starseedling]

After the others left, she held him for what felt like a very long time. It was at some point during that time that he realizes what he'd done.

The fear was coming back. Memories of her garden, memories of her and the things she had done to him - visions of the times that she'd held him in her arms as he bled, comforting him even as she was the one hurting him. He's horrified by the reality he's allowed himself to be taken back into, but he still can't seem to make himself move.

Instead, the Rose Queen touches his hair, his face, his gem. She's looking for something inside of him, and it isn't until she mentions the Blue Rose that he understands what. It had been a part of her before, she explains to him, but she'd lost it. To feel it within him, now, brings her such joy.

"Please stop," he finds himself pleading as she produces something between her fingers - a seed, he thinks. He already knows where this goes, and for the first time, his fear overcomes her control, allowing him to struggle against her.

His fingers extend, growing like vines and tangling around her arms, trying to push her away. Both his gem and faerie strength is behind him, but all his resistance does is making her upset. He flaps his wings wildly, he kicks his legs, but it isn't enough. He can't do it.

She takes control of him again, forcing his fingers to retract, her own vines rising up to bind him. She lowers the seed to his chest and then pushes it inside. He starts to cry and she presses her other finger to his lips, shushing him gently.

He loses track of things soon after that, and she leaves. At some point, he passes out.

[starseedling]

When he wakes up again, his body hurts all over. When he tries to sit up or move around, he finds himself held down - wrapped up in his own vines, extending from his arms and feet, grown around him and pinning him to the ground like roots. He can't fight them off, not without ripping off his own limbs.

Yet, the pain in his chest is only getting worse, and it seems like that pain was what woke him in the first place. The feeling is gradually creeping towards unbearable, lines of sharp discomfort throbbing through his body that feels like the roots of the seed she planted in him. There's a faint blue glow in the darkness, of crack-like patterns forming across his skin.

He hates this. He hates the feeling of his body working against him, changing outside of his control - he's dealt with it before, but it never hurt like this. He opens his mouth and all that comes out is a helpless whimpering sound. There's no one to help him, here. Not his dad, not the Gems, not his friends. No one.

He thinks about having seen Yuya reaching out to him as the others left. He wishes he could go back. He was wrong, he can't do this.

"Please help me," he whispers, tears rolling into the dirt at the sides of his face. It's then, as the pain starts to become too much for him, that a warm light emanates from deep within him - the same light he felt when he had taken on the mantle of a Star Guardian not long ago.

The power of Creation embraces him, offering its comfort and soothing his pain. The agony reduces to an ache and then vanishes altogether, replaced with the gentle feeling of being held by someone he loves. He can breathe again, and his tears stop, peace coming to his heart from the touch of its incredible presence.

The Rose Queen still has him, he realizes. He still can't escape. Yet, he finds himself drifting back to sleep, content with knowing that someone is still with him, even if they aren't here now.