the waking nightmares aren't as bad as dreaming, i suppose

[morns]

🧙 WHO: Kate (morns) & various (and maybe you?)
⚔️️ WHAT: Sometimes you get canon updated. Sometimes that canon update tells you your brother died. And sometimes you take that really badly.
🕒 WHEN: End of April through May
🗺️ WHERE: Various places throughout Avalon, check the prompts for locations!
⚠️ WARNINGS: Violence, loss, grief, probably other things eventually.

prologue

she comes to with a crick in her neck, aches from passing out on a couch that was never meant for sleeping, pains that numb the knowledge rattling around in Kate's head long enough that she manages to take in the sights of her flat first. everything looks the same, down to the half-drank coffee she had been nursing before her unexpected nap.

except for the dark haired woman staring at her, perched motionlessly on top of Kate's coffee table, a flash of yellow twisting between her hands.

... that's new.

and in that moment, as eyes still heavy from a too-long sleep take in the yellow fabric and her mind puts together the pieces, the dam the aches of her rest created breaks.

the memories return. the solemn, echoing voice of Faith as she stands outside the hotel door and grips her uniform's hat too tightly.

You should know, Marc was found in the break room today at lunch. He'd turned to stone.

she expects pain. a tearing of her chest and the shattering of foundations. but all that comes is a buzzing, hollow noise ringing in her head. the echoes of two simple sentences.

turned to stone
dead
dead
dead

her eyes turn to her familiar, and the obvious becomes clear.

she knew. all this time, she knew. she had to have known.

"Get out."

— caster / the lightning and thunder ignite a wilted rose.

prompt reference

Enter the Edge of the Dusklight Wood and seek out the Shadlins. Though their eyes are haunting and you won't forget about them soon, those brave enough to chase after them will find themselves utterly lost in an endless forest so dense that you cant see the ground or the sky for the treetops and foliage. Don't try to find your way out, just keep walking, listening, watching and following whatever direction you see the eyes of the Shadlins next. Travel with another as the silence of the forest can be deafening and has been known to drive people to talk to themselves, hear voices that will attempt to coax them into doing harmful things to anyone else they run into, or even attract ear wyrms-- a tiny draconic creature that curls around a person's ear and gruffly (they are wyrms) sings the last song they hear endlessly on repeat until they hear a new one-- and doesn't let go unless someone else whispers a song into their ear... at which point, it will switch to theirs. Good luck tricking someone else into trading ear wyrms!

( the dusklight woods are a foreign place to Kate, but maybe that's what she needs now. she doesn't hear the call to go into the woods, but she's here nonetheless, the darkness steadily enveloping the space around her until it fills up her vision and blanks it out.

she keeps walking, deeper and further still into the unknown, the silence baring its weight down so heavy that thought escapes Kate. it breaks something apart, renders time irrelevant in the face of nothingness. the ground beneath her feet and the motion of taking one step after the other the only sign this isn't a freefall.

wherever she'll end up doesn't matter. maybe it never did. she's just one little cog in an endless machine, a soldier. a blade.

she's always known it, but that pointlessness has never seemed so clear before. the scramble for purpose, the reason to keep going even if she hates it, has turned into stone. swiped away from her in one stupid action.

so what does it matter where she'll end up?

well, if it's so bad, shouldn't others feel it too? the whisper comes from somewhere behind her shoulder. if nothing matters, nobody here does!

Kate waves a hand at the nothingness, in the vague direction of the whispers wrapping around her. )

Fuck off.

— archer / maybe i'm wretched and deserve this, i don't know.

prompt reference

Yesterday, you may have seen my work! My new Balloon Spell! Turn any balloon into a death trap, all you have to do is convince your target to take the string! The string will wrap around their waist and become impossible to break, then the balloon's helium will increase to carry them high into the sky, much like the weather balloons they use on some planets. I will send the instructions to any who wish to learn how to do it on one condition: you must use it to rid the world of at least one despicable person. I wish to clean up the roads of Camelot and Elphame! Rise up, vigilantes! Raise your enemies high into the sky! Rise, Heroes!
(OOC Note: They will come down... eventually. Rapidly. Balloons pop eventually. Splat.)

( spells are such simple little things. a few pieces or words and you can do something like this.

Kate's eyes flick from the instructions on her burner phone to the business she's already looked up. there's plenty of dark web rumours about this owner — blackmail, embezzling, choking smaller businesses. and that's just his business transgressions; the list of rumours about his personal sins was much, much longer.

seemed like a perfect fit for this request, in Kate's eyes.

of course, the question becomes: how to get him to take a balloon? locating them isn't a problem, she's already noticed a promotional event a couple of blocks down. but would he even go that way? she frowns. if he's close enough to one, kinetic magic should do the job of getting his hand around it, at least.

hm...

she's so caught in watching the door of the business that she doesn't notice she's not the only person crouching suspiciously in this alley. )

— rei / don't save me, i'm almost glad if this is how i go.

( her feet lead her this way. but that seems to be the theme of things now. her usual restless urges taken to the max. work becomes a weight around her neck rather than an escape, and by the second lesson of the day, she's aching to leave. to stop with the charades of being groomed and sociable, patiently explaining concepts that should be obvious by now.

her staff try to raise questions, pipe up with are you oka— because this has been happening for weeks now — Kate arriving, starting work, and dipping before lunch. she doesn't bother to answer, leaving them to cover the rest of the day by tossing the keys for locking up and all but sprinting out of the place.

and now, after more than a day riding her horse until she finds herself at the edge of everything, she's walked herself to this damn cave. of course she recognises it, how could she not? the damn thing that sprung up fears that, once upon a time, Kate would have shrugged off as the product of an overactive imagination and never going to happen. because Marc was clever enough to know better than to get himself in that situation. clever enough to —

yeah. apparently not.

she steps inside as her stomach knots with a humming, buzzing rage. how dare he be that stupid? nothing was worth it. no power or job in the galaxy could be worth the risk, and yet he took it anyway.

she steps inside because she has to know: just what can a cave of fears show you when you've experienced every worst case scenario life can throw at you? what could she possibly be scared of any more?

and the answer it gives is simple: nothing. the cave transforms into a bleached white space, an empty expanse of nothingness where the only noise is Kate's footsteps as she walks further in. it holds itself there, featureless and bland, and Kate laughs.

of course. )

— wisper of trouble / the monsters in my bed want to beat me to it though.

prompt reference

I've caught a not insignificant number of wisps that came for us a couple of weeks ago and have used advanced sealing spells to trap them in my basement until they have angered and possessed the various household objects I left for them to rage about in. Anyone interested in invading the business of your enemies with a battalion of brutish brooms? All you need to do is round them up in a carriage and open the door at theirs! Rounding them up and driving the carriage with them in there is on you!

( Kate is staring.

and Kate is staring because, well, those are some pissed off looking brooms. the sight is so strange, even after so long here, that the numbness in her head eases off long enough for Kate to turn to her partner for this whole thing, a brow raised, and ask; )

Sure y'wanna use these?

( she thinks murder might be easier and less chaotic than this sabotage plan. just saying. )

— auction / every word that they've said goes round in my head.

prompt reference

The auction begins and despite expectations, money isn't the only thing you're allowed to bid. There are fae involved, and the black market. You can bid organs, services, hot dates, control of your name, all kinds of things! Outside of the the grand prize of the hourglass coins, a glimmering set of coins forged from frosted glass that are able to filter and stabilize time magic on a small-scale, but extremely breakable that is necessary for the success of the Bermuda Station mission later this month, there are other prizes you can win, such as:
Legendary Phoenix Feather - These feathers are extremely rare, from the original phoenix herself. They can be used to defy death and bring back loved ones with healed ailments, no rot or injuries, in perfect condition. (However, it is not legitimate. It is just incredibly shiny. You have been scammed if you bid on this item.)

( at first, Kate only plans to sit in the back of the auction and ignore it. she doesn't particularly want to be here, even if she's dressed for the occasion in a well fitted all-black suit. were it any other month, this should, could be interesting, could be a night of information worth gathering and names to remember, but all Kate sees is a sea of meaningless people given chances her idiot brother robbed himself of.

...not that he'd be here, unless he was busting the whole thing, but that isn't the point. the point is they're all alive and getting to do whatever the fuck they want. they'll have lives to go back to. loved ones to greet. chances Marc decided he didn't fucking want any more.

he's such a fucking idiot.

and her mind continues on the tangent as the auction begins, a blur of hands raising for a myriad of strange items whose descriptions wash over Kate until

... used to defy death and bring back loved ones...

she sits straighter, more alert, dawn cracking through the endless night of her expression as the pieces fall into place.

she could save him. maybe. who knows what the multiversal regulations were but after everything Avalon has done, why couldn't it revive her brother, even across dimensions?

her hand's up before she has a chance to think anything more about it. she needs that feather. she has to try. )

Comments

auction

[garyoutensei]

[ It was too late to stop the bid being counted, but Baiken's own hand was quick to move to catch Kate's, to try and bring it down, her head shaking. ]

Girl, what in the hell do you think you're doin'?

[ No, that question was pointless, wasn't it? They'd both heard the description. She knew what Kate was trying for. And yet, still... ]

[morns]

( it's a shot in the dark. it might not even work when she's a world away, but fuck it. what does she have to lose? she has plenty of money. what she doesn't have is a brother.

if this has even the slightest chance of fixing that, it's worth every bit of gold in her account and then some. )

What's it to you?

( isn't it obvious? but she's outbid there, and her hand is already rushing to hover back in the air and offer more. )

[garyoutensei]

Look... I know I don't have any place to lecture you on this, but...

[ Baiken sighed, shaking her head. ]

"If it sounds too good to be true..."

[ She had to realize that, right? ]

[morns]

( If it were any other situation, she might. But not right now. Not when she's out of other options. There has to be something she can do. Some way she can save him, even now.

Even if the only thing she'd do the second he was back is lecture him for a good hour about being a fucking idiot.

Perhaps especially in that case. )

At least it's something. ( Her words snap out clearly, so unlike Kate's usual, rushed way of speaking. Isn't it better for her to at least try? Isn't that what her parents would want her to do? To try? To be a good sister who keeps him safe?

Well, she failed on keeping him safe, but undoing what was done is the next best thing. )

[garyoutensei]

And what if it's not?

[ Baiken didn't buy it. That sort of power wouldn't just be put up for auction like this, not at an event like this. Not to people like them. Everything about it set her nerves off. ]

Forget the money, what's gonna become of you if this turns out to be smoke and mirrors?

[morns]

Who cares?

( that response is so immediate that it's clear Kate has thought this before. Perhaps for a long time.

Much like Baiken said she has no plans to survive her revenge, what does Kate have to live for now if she doesn't find a way to get her brother back? It's irrational, and perhaps tomorrow, in the distance from this auction, cooler heads will prevail and she'll realise Baiken was right.

But right now? Right now all the impossibilities of Avalon make her wonder why can't this also be true? )

murder time

[unknowntodeath]

[Archer still had his doubts about this quest. Sure, the guy he was targeting was grade A scumbag and probably deserved a death sentence, but this wasn't exactly his style. Then again, he was no longer aiming to become a hero who saved each and every one... and this was a man whose disappearance would save multiple other people.

Archer get distracted from his thoughts when he notices the alleyway he picked for stalking was already occupied... by someone who had her eyes at the same direction. The business the man owns.

Instead of talking out loud, Archer sends a mental note through his magic. Which works both ways, thanks to the magic upgrade.]

Don't be alarmed. I'm a cognitive mage and you can talk back to me through this connection. I'd rather not draw attention right now... but I'm offering assistance if you also have business with the owner of that establishment.

[morns]

( A strange voice hitting her thoughts is, in some bizarre way, a comfort. It's another part of business as usual, even if this hasn't been a part of her usual since she left the army.

It reminds her of a simpler time, and for a moment, she's just a soldier, relaying information and following orders. The anger numbs itself and becomes a stone in her gut instead of boiling rivers in her veins.

This is just a job. Nothing more. )

There's a business handing out balloons a few minutes down. Southwest, towards the centre. Couldn't find any reason he'd go that way. Ideas?

[unknowntodeath]

[Archer is surprised of the no reaction, but also glad for it. It makes things easier when you can communicate without words.]

Part of this magic is hypnotic suggestion. I could plant the thought of checking out the business for "rivals" into his head. It should be something that interests him.

[morns]

( Unsurprisingly, the military likes telepathy powers. Firepower is great and all, but silent communications are 90% of a victory. )

... Better than forcin' him.

( Which is the only thing she was coming up with for kinetic magic. The hypnotic suggestion is less suspect. )

What d'you need to make it happen?

( Do they have to buy time? Get him closer? What? )

[unknowntodeath]

It works the best if I can make eye contact with him. So the closer I can get without raising suspicion the better.

[Maybe a distraction of some sort to anyone too close.]

[morns]

( Hm. Kate's eyes remain trained on the door. A distraction, huh? )

... Got it. Get ready to move.

( That cart across the road should do it. She slips into the street and lets kinetic magic buzz at her fingertips, and with a few quick pushes, the brakes are off and it's careening towards the shop, creating plenty of hubbub and people crowding around to try and figure out what happened while the owner comes out, face redder than the tomatoes which have spilled into the street with Kate's action. )

[unknowntodeath]

[The distraction gives Archer enough time to get close enough to move in close to the target - but not too close to be suspicious. He gets into eye contact with him and uses his cognitive magic to suggest he go and check the business handing out balloons. Rivals. Good intel.

He takes the bait well.]

It worked. He's headed that way.

[groundzeroes]

[Kate's been acting weird.

Rei has circumstantial evidence: testimony of her employees, the weird hours she kept, the paths traced by her GPS. But it's obvious enough just by looking at her, even when she turns her face away, that something's up.

Rei hadn't asked-- their friendship isn't exactly known for its specifics in discussing trauma. But seeing her geolocation disappear around a certain magic-suppressing cave... well.]

...Kate.

[The blank white walls are eerie and blinding.]

[morns]

( She's there, but she isn't. Or, perhaps, he isn't? It's hard to say what the truth of the matter is, but though they stare at the same empty nothingness, bright blinding white, Rei's voice doesn't seem to reach her.

She doesn't even blink. Because there's nothing here. Nothing and no one. She's alone, because of course she is. What else would life give her but this? One by one, it's torn away every bond she's had or forged — family, friends. Everyone eventually leaves her.

Marc wasn't even the last. She found out about JJ disappearing from Avalon and ended up here. It won't be long until everyone else follows suit and this nothingness is her reality. She spins on her heel, back to where the entrance should be but isn't, facing Rei but looking straight past him, at more endless white expanse that only confirms what she knows:

She's trapped, forever losing until there's nothing left. )

[groundzeroes]

[Kate might not say anything... but Rei isn't stupid. He can put together some context clues here. And compared to what he'd seen from her last time they were in this damned cave, it's clear Kate's experienced something that's left her completely unmoored.

He frowns.]

Hey. Look at me.

[morns]

( it's faint. A crack in the illusion, maybe. Or simply the fact that the cave is registering that Kate isn't so much scared by this as she is resigned to it, now. But she hears the noise — the indistinct muffling of a voice whose owner still remains concealed by whatever magic this place uses to drag them into terrifying situations.

A familiar voice, at that.

It's enough to snap her out of her daze, at least. But the question is how does she get out of here? The last time, this place just dragged them through harrowing scenarios.

But this? This is literal nothingness. )

Oi! Let me out, I'm bored.

( yelling at the cave's... one way of trying to deal with it. And for a second, the walls tremble, as if the cave's considering her words, the emotions it can sense warring within her.

It doesn't dissipate, but something changes. )

... Rei?

( Kate blinks, exhales, and almost laughs again. Of course they'd be stuck here together once more. )

[groundzeroes]

Oh, good. [Did the cave just gift Rei to her in response to being bored? Or did he poke a hole in its illusion just by asking?] If you were ignoring me on purpose I was going to be offended.

[His frown evens out again, regarding her with more curiosity. He's seen her laugh more in the last five minutes than he has in the whole year he's known her, but it doesn't feel too mirthful.

Well, he's never been one for tact. One hand in his pocket, he observes:]

Looks like you got fucked up since the last time we were in here.

[morns]

( it could be a good sign. Knowing this cave though? It probably isn't. )

The hell are you talkin' about?

( as responses go, it's terrible and even Kate knows it. The shift in what the cave's showing isn't exactly subtle, but if she says it with enough irritation, enough dismissal of the idea, maybe he'll believe her.

Or at least not try to pry any further.

Which... Yeah, she'd be kidding herself if she thinks that would hold. The cave is shifting in response to allowing her Rei's company, opening a door in the white that wasn't there before. A new way to illustrate her demons. )

... Great. Playin' the fucking Crystal Maze.

( what shitty puzzle of her psyche is through here? There's only one way to find out. And stepping through reveals — well. Something that looks more like the initial cave before it morphs to a place of fear. Something that would say, you're out, you're home free.

Were it not for the statues littering the place. People, some Rei may recognise from Avalon itself — Akira, JJ, among others. People who were there and not — and others Kate flinches away from as she passes them. A tall man with dreadlocks down to his waist, grinning easily and waving. Teenagers, their faces chipped away and indistinct. A woman and a man, holding hands as they walk — the man lanky, head sprouting wild curls, his wife shorter and with the same long nose and sharp jawline Kate has. A child, her hair the same mass of wild curls as the lanky man inches away from her, grinning as she holds a medal, dressed for running.

And the one that least surprises Kate: Marc. Same as last time, his curtained hair turned to dull, stiff rock, his hand pressed to his mouth as though he's just popped a pill. )

Thanks. ( Last time, the fear had her frozen. This? This just makes her angry. ) Can I get the fuck out of here, then?

Big care time

[colchismagecraft]

[The Dusklight woods...somewhere she'd explored on a couple of occasions, but never gone in too deep- especially not at night. Even for one who commanded the darkness as she did, it felt distinctly like she would have the disadvantage here. Like her own magic would be sucked out of her by the creatures that lurked in the shadows here.

But tonight was different. After all...she'd seen Kate's familiar lurking around, diligently washing Kate's hoodie. That was different.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

And so it was that she found herself charging into the forest, quickly downing a potion that would help her see in the darkness- not that it helped, in these circumstances- and another that made her footsteps glow behind her. Nýchta. Opalesce. The further she got in, the oppressive darkness seemed to care little for her magic.]

Kate-...! Where- where in Hecate's name are you-

[She had to find her. Please let her suspicions be wrong-]

cARES

[morns]

( However long she's been here for doesn't matter. It's the whispers that are incessant, the little urges getting darker and more violent with each passing minute they're allowed to fester around her. Thoughts of taking out anger she can't vent at the person who earned it. She has no idea where she's going, whether she's deeper in the forest or closer to the edges now, but the pounding of her feet and the way the darkness shrinks the world around her to nothing...

Well. It does something. Certainly better to scream in the darkness where no one else, she assumes, is going to hear her, to blindly hit whatever the fuck she runs into — a tree, by the feeling of bark under her knuckles — and pause her incessant movement for a minute.

Might wanna follow that wordless yelling, Caster. )

[colchismagecraft]

[A scream- yes, yes she heard that scream- and another. Medea's breath caught in her throat. She had to find her, and quickly...!

She rushed forward. Staff in one hand, her twisted dagger Rule Breaker in the other (it didn't help much, not really, for cutting those sharp branches away as she ran).

Was something attacking Kate? She could only hear her, but that said nothing. Medea grit her teeth, ready to intervene with her magic.]

[morns]

( There's no hiding the anger that rips through her voice each and every time her fist connects with the tree, the cover of darkness allowing the trunk to be anything.

Or anyone.

What, or who, should she have this anger towards? Her brother, for being an idiot? Or herself, for never being good enough? Spending so much time and energy trying to make sure he was financially provided for instead of making sure he wasn't doing stupid shit like falling for the false hope those pills provide?

Both of them, for being broken messes of people. At the bastards who figured out how to make Hepatestryl in the first place and ruined everything for everyone. The ones who found ways to create knock offs and decided profit was better than safety.

At everything.

She hears the steps, the cutting of branches, in a moment's silence where her lungs give out and she stops punching the damn thing, and those whispers start anew.

I bet this is someone awful! They're going to see you like this. How terrible. )

Who is it?

( Hard to sound intimidating when you've just ripped all the air out of your lungs, really. )

[colchismagecraft]

[The voices tried to creep their way into her ears- and Medea was grateful that her heart was thumping loud enough to block them out, for a time- but the deeper she travelled, the louder they got.

You want to save her? You, who are only capable of murder and betrayal? What are you hoping to achieve here? You can't save anyone.

It was right, of course it was. But she couldn't afford to focus on those voices, not when even the potion she'd drunk to strengthen her sight in darkness was reaching its limit. As if the shadows of this place were sapping its potency-

But then she heard Kate's voice. Strained, but- it was her. Just her.

Even she mistrusts you, Witch.

Medea scowled at that, focusing on trying to call out. She was close.]

It's me. Medea. Are you hurt- I can't see anything-

[morns]

( Her knuckles are bleeding, but not badly, scraped up by the bark of the tree, and that, thankfully, is all. It's fine. She's been in worse states. Much worse states.

(Falling apart at the seams was never a physical thing.)

Medea's voice is a million things, it's relief and companionship and incredible irritation that she's not alone any more. The silence of the forest breaks and maybe that's a good thing because it shuts up those goading voices for a second. It's a break Kate uses, quickly grinding her burning knuckles back into the tree in a deliberate attempt to shoot pain through her body and pull her thoughts to the present moment.

To Medea. Not Marc. Not Marc or her parents or her powers or anything else that's come crashing down around her with the weight of its unfairness since she woke up in her flat.

And not the voices saying that nothing good will come of Medea being here, that it's better to just kill her now and return to being alone. )

Ah— Shit. The hell are you doing here?

( But first: WTF are you doing all the way out here, Medea? You're not grieving. She doesn't think. )