04 - week four

[afflictionmods]

WEEK FOUR

Saturday comes to a close, and it’s time for some rest and recovery. Perhaps the TLC you deserve will come this week, or perhaps the nightmare will continue. It’s hard to say with things being so strange around you, from Wei Wuxian’s disappearance to the sudden addition of objects and places and creatures from your homes. Who knows what this week will bring? Nothing ordinary, that’s for sure.

You wake up on Sunday to an increase in those little glimpses you saw yesterday. What were snippets of songs, locations that might’ve seemed familiar, and creatures that were dormant, are now all alive and whole. When you go to the karaoke bar, the songs you once knew are there. Monsters and animals are alive and sentient. New business are abound. Vehicles are operable, and perhaps some of your old belongings are back, too.

However, some of these things aren’t even things that should exist outside of your dreams. They may be far too strange and unusual to be real, or just things you don't remember ever seeing. The only thing you remember about these things in particular is that they were, quite literally, in your dreams this week.

That being said, every few hours, all of these things from your homes and dreams fade out and get replaced by new sounds, places, beasts….only to maybe come back again at another time.

Well. At least there's one constant here: You’ve got a handful of new locations to look at, with the fog having spread once more, and they aren't going anywhere. There aren’t as many new places that are native to Estelline this time around, but that may be for the best, considering everything going on.


SETTING TRACKER

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

NEWSPAPER SUBMISSIONS + EDITION #1

SAGE / FLORENCE / LORELEI

MEM SHARE DETAILS

OOC NOTE

OOC: Details on this week can be found here!

Also, we have a lot of participants for the news activity from last week. Neat! Everyone who participated in some capacity will have a small polaroid camera delivered to their doorstep. There's limited film, though - 10 photos per camera. It doesn't seem like there's any extra film at this time, either.

Finally, there will not be any weekly tasks this week. You guys are going to be busy with memshare and dreamscape stuff; instead, enjoy the Estelline University Newspaper!

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[sicklysweet]

Of course it's worse - whoever would put you down here wants you to suffer.

[It's not a claim he can make with any sort of definite proof, but. It's too familiar to be anything else.

He hesitates, the tears making him uncomfortable in a way he can't explain, but he shoves that feeling aside and awkwardly reaches out to pat Fai's head.]

You don't need to be sorry to me. It's not your fault.

[The chill of Owen's hand is only somewhat mitigated by the gloves he wears, so he hopes that doesn't bother the boy too much.]

[accursedtwin]

[ owen being nice is so off-putting

He tries not to shrink away from the hand on his head. ]

But it is. Our curse is probably the reason why you can't escape. That message you read... it probably said something about it, didn't it?

[sicklysweet]

[it is and he doesn’t like it]

Did you curse yourself?

[His voice is dry, almost amused.]

That would be very impressive.

[accursedtwin]

...Does being born count as cursing ourselves?

[ He thinks that it does, in a way. ]

[sicklysweet]

No. That’s stupid.

[totally nailing this comforting thing, i’m sure]

You didn’t choose to be born or the circumstances of your birth.

[accursedtwin]

[ totally ]

I... I guess not. But neither of us offered to die either. That's why we were sent here.

[sicklysweet]

Why would you? Why should you die? You're children. You haven't done anything wrong and there's nothing cursed about having magic.

[man he hopes adult fai doesn't remember this conversation]

They're just heartless cowards.

[accursedtwin]

[ don't worry owen, he will remember :) ]

But... we're omens. Twins are a bad sign for the country.

[ So many bad things have happened since they were born, so it must be true. ]

Having magic... it makes us dangerous, especially when we're together.

[sicklysweet]

[no!!!!!!!!]

Really? I've never heard of that before.

[Considering the closest thing the Northern country has to authority are twin brothers, that sounds incredibly fake.]

Magic is only dangerous when you don't know how to use it. Locking you up isn't going to make it any less dangerous. You need to learn, not suffer.

[accursedtwin]

[ Does he? He isn't sure about that. Wouldn't learning magic just make him more dangerous...?

There's one thing he's stuck on, however. ]

You've never heard about twins being bad...? But that's been believed here since the start of the country...

[sicklysweet]

I haven't. I'm not from here, remember?

[also, like. he's old.]

Where I'm from there's nothing wrong with twins, or having magic.

[accursedtwin]

So it's okay in other places...

[ That gives him some renewed hope, at least. ]

If we can get to another place, maybe it will all be okay...

[sicklysweet]

Maybe. Have to find a way out of here first, though.

[Staring up again.]

Should we just knock the tower down?

[accursedtwin]

Y-you can try... Will it work?

[ He has no idea if something like that can, so he just stares at Owen. ]

[sicklysweet]

Impossible to tell until we try.

[He'll at least start small, to see if any damage done to the tower will reflect back on them. He places himself between Fai* and his target, starting with a blast of energy that should just chip the wall and waits to see what happens.

*not fai]

[accursedtwin]

[ He's successful! A few bricks look like they've been almost eaten away. There isn't a hole through them just yet, but if Owen keeps at it, he might manage one. ]

You... you might be able to do it...

[ He sounds amazed. ]

[sicklysweet]

[Of course he’s going to keep at it! He puts more magic behind his attacks, more power, only partially concerned for his own safety just in case the whole thing comes tumbling down.]

[accursedtwin]

[ More and more of the wall starts to chip away, until eventually a big enough whole is made for the two of them to slip through. ]

...You did it...

[ He sounds astonished. ]

[sicklysweet]

Of course I did.

[Owen, smug? Never.

He walks over to the hole, leaning forward and to stick his head out and see what’s on the other side of the wall - and also to see if anything will happen to him. How protected is this tower?]

[accursedtwin]

[ It's not protected at all! Owen can easily grab Fai(?) and take him out of the tower. ]

...Should we leave?

[sicklysweet]

We should.

[Yoink! Back onto the broom, kid.]

Might have better luck grabbing your brother this way, too.

cw starvation, child death

[accursedtwin]

[ He nods, holding on tight to the broom. ]

Let's go.

[ Owen won't have a hard time moving, but once he hits a certain elevation above the ground, he feels a sharp pull back down and suddenly he's in the tower again.

Although this time, Fai(?) looks like he's been here for much, much longer. He's gaunt, his face almost skeletal, and his hair even longer than before. He sits next to a strange portal with a voice telling him to make a choice.

Before he can say a word, a child looking exactly the same as him, comes falling down from the top of the tower. The two make brief eye contact before he lands on the ground with a sickening sound.

Blood starts to pool from underneath him. ]

F...ai...?

cw starvation, child death, corpses

[sicklysweet]

[He's going to burn this entire tower to the ground.

First, though, there's... a dead kid. Corpses don't usually bother Owen, considering how many people he's purposefully sent to their doom, but it's not usually children locked away in towers for the sin of being born.

He's out of his element.]

...

[He frowns at the portal, the voice.]

How long have you been in here?

[accursedtwin]

[ He scoops Fai up into his arms, listening to the portal for a couple of more minutes before it blinks out. It's like he can't see Owen at all until it disappears.

It seems like some parts of memories aren't meant to be changed. ]

...Me? I don't know...

[sicklysweet]

[...]

What's your name?

[Though, you know. He has a bad feeling about what the answer he's going to get is!]