EVENT: MELPOMENE ▒ HOME

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: Corridors in the belly of the Tranquility
WARNINGS: Creepiness, disturbing imagery, violence, etc.
SUMMARY: Characters discover slices of sanctuary deep in the maze.
NOTES: Open to all! Covers Stage Four of the plot & Escape.

You've been running and fighting for what feels like weeks now. Exhausted and desperate, you find another door, stumbling through into— You're home, finally, far away and safe from monsters or spaceships. You're not alone, someone here who's been waiting for you, and they're so happy to see you. Relief overcomes you; you just want to rest, and there's no reason to believe anything here isn't what it seems, is there?

Comments

[wolfchild]

[ several things happen at once: the creature meant to be catelyn stark swipes at gendry's face; arya, unable to strike at her mother, drops to the floor in a dead weight; nymeria dives around grey wind to jump the woman.

catelyn stark's screams pierce the cold, cold air, sounding more like a wolf's howls than a woman's cries. arya closes her eyes and slaps her free hand against her ear in a futile effort to stop the sound. she's freed a second later; though the pretender is strong enough to shove nymeria off her, she must let go of arya first.

arya doesn't think. confused and terrified, her wrist aching each time she puts weight on it, she scrambles away. she tastes earth when she slips. her hand flashes out blindly to find something to help her up and finds gendry's leg. the woman is still screaming. her mother is still screaming. arya sobs. ]

[bullshead]

[ pains sears from his cheek down to his throat and a flash of dark grey knocks him back. the creature screams and panic rises up in gendry's throat, every fiber of his being shouting at him run. blood seeps into his tunic but gendry doesn't notice, a hand grabs his leg and he all but jumps out of his skin.

arya. arya. (seven hells, she won't stop screaming.)

limbs move before his mind has a time to catch up, picking arya up with ease. he curls his fingers tightly around her to stop them trembling, feet instinctively moving back, moving away. they need to get out of here, they need to do it now. ] Robb─ [ shit, her wolf. arya won't forgive him if she gets hurt. his head snaps back to the creature─ ] Nymeria!

[northerner]

[ for all that robb knows it's a lie, its still horrifying to watch nymeria, to watch how grey wind rushes in after her. gendry is bleeding and arya is crying, and they cannot stay any longer. this is their moment. he whistles, high and sharp. ]

Grey Wind! Nymeria! To me, to me.

[ if they don't answer gendry, they'll answer him. and they do, coming with blood-streaked fur, the thing impersonating their mother unmoving on the ground. it turns robb's stomach. ]

Can you bear her weight?

[bullshead]

[ gendry doesn't hear robb, doesn't truly remember his presence, his eyes fixed on the prone form of the being pretending to be catelyn stark. before falling the creature looked at him, eyes boring deep, and changed. warm living flesh replaced with torn dead flesh of another. lady stark became lady stoneheart that with look alone set ice in his veins.

the bloodied fur of nymeria startles him out of it, jerking away to stare at robb with wide eyes. a startled and concerned animal. ]

A- Aye, I can.

idk what happens now DOES THE DREAM COLLAPSE

[northerner]

[ later is the time to consider this further. right now, everything in robb is determined to get them away safely. they cannot linger. he doesn't trust the tentative peace here, the prone figure on the ground. nothing works according to logical law, and robb wants to retreat as quickly as possible before something bigger and more threatening makes itself known. ]

Then let's go. Come, keep up with me.

[ and the illusion of adulthood and kingship shatters as robb reaches out to grab hold of gendry. it's a tight grip, terror betrayed by how he clutches like he's scared of them parting, of being left on his own and of losing them. ]

I GUESS SOO??? time to get the fuck out bro

[bullshead]

[ he doesn't feel like a knight now, he doesn't even feel like a man grown. he feels small and weak and he jumps at robb's grip, instincts screaming at him to pull away. he doesn't, it grounds him in place. ]

I will. [ and he will, stick as close as humanly possible. clinging like robb is a lifeline, the only thing keeping both him and arya afloat. following wherever he leads in a half-daze.

later when arya is safe he will breathe again. (and even later when he retreats to somewhere isolated he will tremble until exhaustion takes him.) ]