who stole your heart and the key?

[steelmyself]

In the dark, you taste something sweet and tart on your tongue, almost like apple but not quite: pomegranate juice, out of nowhere. A hint of something metallic accompanies it.

You fall down.

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START

[steelmyself]

When your eyes open, you're in a blasted wilderness, with cracked, parched ground all around you. The air smells of heated metal, but there's no forge to be seen. Shadows fall on the ground from above.

Just ahead of you is a large rock, with a young man leaning worriedly over it. Next to it, a narrow crack opens up in the ground, leading down, down, down.

[hailstormed]

[ W... what. What??

He freezes and stares for a long moment, confused, before cautiously approaching the man. ]

... Um...

Re: START

[swordingitout]

[Picking herself up and dusting herself off as she looks around.]

[She does not, immediately, approach the man, rather cautious in fact, she surveys the landscape with a frown before calling to him.]

You.

Re: START

[lonelydemon]

[Mm wastelands, his favorite... Caster takes down his hood and approaches the young man.]

Hey.

Re: START

[marezydoats]

[ Rin hesitates, looking around for a good long moment at her surroundings. She shivers, though not from cold, and walks towards the young man. ]

Excuse me.

Re: START

[autorejoin]

[ Saber climbs up, brushing his clothes off and grumbling. ]

Seriously, what the fuck is wrong... So rude...

[ He glances around at his surroundings. ]

Well, this is a fresh hell. Hey!

[ He walks over to the young man. ]

[mentifact]

[ ... gonna go peer into the crack to see if xe can see anything ]

[unaffective]

[Huh.

Well, this is easy enough to figure out. She strides up to the man and reaches to tap his shoulder.]

Hello.

Re: START

[dicktionary]

[ ...peers around him to see what he's busy with ]

Re: START

[no_hero]

[no. no no no this is way too familiar, way too personal.

--but also, grabbing the young man from behind so he doesn't fall into the crack or something]

THE FIELD

[steelmyself]

Though the scent of brimstone lingers faintly, before long the crack opens up into a small field in a narrow valley. Unidentifiable red and pink flowers grow amidst the grass. Further ahead, the valley's walls close in again and slope down once more.

A woman sits over a campfire in the middle of the field.

Re: THE FIELD

[hailstormed]

[ he hesitates again near the opening, intensely unsure, before cautiously making his way towards the woman. ]

Re: THE FIELD

[lonelydemon]

[loooooking around first, then steeling himself and walking to the woman.]

[mentifact]

[ heads for the woman ]

Hello.

Re: THE FIELD

[autorejoin]

Flowers?

[ Saber's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. But just as quickly as he is startled, he shrugs and gets over it and walks over to the woman with the campfire. ]

Re: THE FIELD

[unaffective]

[That... That didn't go as planned. She knows she can't go back now, though - so she makes her way over to the woman.]

Re: THE FIELD

[dicktionary]

[ is she recognizable?

> APPROACHES ]

Re: THE FIELD

[swordingitout]

[Checks to make sure the kid is still with her.]

Do you know that woman?

THE CAVERNS

[steelmyself]

You leave the lovely field behind you, and soon the walls of the valley close around you, forming a winding cavernous passageway. Strangely, terrible winds whip through the tunnels, making it hard to continue.

The wind carries the faint sound of a young girl singing, but it's impossible to make out where the voice is coming from in these wind-blasted twisting passages. Every now and then, an agonized roar echoes from far away.

Re: THE CAVERNS

[lonelydemon]

[BALLS

does his best to hold the sword steady as he does his best to follow the girl's voice, opting to go against the wind rather than with it.]

THE DINING HALL

[steelmyself]

As you move onwards through the caverns, the misshapen walls become more even, until you're clearly walking through a manmade basement rather than a natural tunnel system. After a short while, it opens up into a long, narrow room, with a lengthy and somewhat odd-looking table set in the middle of it. On the far side of it, a plain door is set in the wall.

The table is stacked high with food.

Re: THE DINING HALL

[lonelydemon]

[Slows to a stop, looking around. Is there anyone in sight?]

THE LIBRARY

[steelmyself]

Beyond the door, a short passage leads you into another room. This one is much wider and more high-ceilinged than the dining hall, and every inch of every wall is lined with books. Aisles of more bookshelves fill the room. Dust clogs the air.

An impatient muttering and clanking noise can be heard from within the aisles of shelves.

Re: THE LIBRARY

[unaffective]

[Fucking noise

She'd love to sit and check out the books, but she has to find the source of all that clanking first. Looking around, straining her ears to pin a direction to the sound.]

THE CHASM

[steelmyself]

You really are approaching Hell now.

In front of you, a deep, jagged chasm yawns open, with a dull, flickering red light dancing far away within it. There appears to be no way across it save for one.

It isn't even a bridge: merely six swords laid end to end, somehow suspended across the gap in the stony earth.

Re: THE CHASM

[unaffective]

[Uh.

Well, nowhere to go but over. She approaches it slowly so she doesn't slip.]

THE FLAMES

[steelmyself]

All around you, fire leaps up high into the air. Ahead, it rapidly becomes impassable. Even here, the heat of the flames sears your face and dries your throat.

Just before where the flames make it impossible to press forward is some kind of lump of debris. On top of it sits a young woman.

Re: THE FLAMES

[unaffective]

[Even for her, this is a little too warm. She removes her coat and shields her eyes with her hand while she walks - until she can't make it any further. Then she stops.

She'd wave if her hands weren't full.]

... Pardon me.

THE THORNS

[steelmyself]

A thin chill clings to the air here, and the scene that greets your vision is no more promising than the cold air. The ground is hard and rocky, but still there are things growing from it--for certain values of "growing."

Blocking your way through the narrow valley are a series of eight gnarled, thorny trees. Walking slowly amidst them, watering them with a pitcher of something that doesn't appear to be water, is a small blonde woman with distant eyes.

Re: THE THORNS

[unaffective]

[She could walk through those, she feels like. It wouldn't be pretty, it'd hurt and they'd cut at her skin but it'd regrow sooner or later.

After that last one she's starting to get the impression these are puzzles, though. She approaches the woman as close as she can with the trees.]

Miss?

THE HOUSE

[steelmyself]

There's nothing of note in this dusty, open wasteland, save for one thing: a low, Japanese-style house, with a few outbuildings around it. Dust clogs the air even more thickly here than in the library, and a sense of desperate abandonment seems to almost seep through the ground.

Shadows and footsteps indicate that someone--or something--is making their way around the house.

Re: THE HOUSE

[unaffective]

[She sneezes, first of all. A good three or four times.

The feeling is nothing new - that's a problem. Feeling it so suddenly and deeply makes it harder to tell if it's hers or this place's; it makes her skin crawl, and she sits quietly, anxious and sniffling, for a few good, long minutes. Once she's gotten that out of the way, though, she sets off to find this mystery person, listening for their footsteps.]