can you see all of me

Quite a bite in the wind, isn't there?

A stray would most certainly appreciate a little shelter in times like this.

Perhaps you can give me a little guidance.


[ooc: As a heads-up, if you reply to Cat, there's a 90% chance he'll materialize in front of your character wherever they are. If you DO NOT want him to, be sure to let me know!]

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

[Voice Post]
((Click.))
((Slam! Slam! Bang! Slam! Collision on collision on collision--and a few groans or growls. If one knows the voice and one knows the sounds, one could recognize it as Cain trying to kick down a door. A heavy door. Perhaps a stone door?))

((One more good hit and then a pause. Breathing hard now, catching his breath--such a waste of precious air in a space like this...))

It's not only a trap. It's far from just a trap. It's also agrave!

((One more good strike, then silence. Breathing. Nothing. ... He speaks again.))

Don't you dare follow me, Riff! Don't you dare! Don't even consider it! ...no matter how much I want you here, don't you dare fall into this trap!

Seal up the hole. Use...brown paper, bandages, I don't care.

It's not just a trap, it's a grave...

((A pause, a brief silence.))

And all of you who said it might be trap, you'll have time to gloat later. I don't need or want to hear it now. So shut up!

((Silence...one, two footsteps. A pause. He must be leaning against some dark, marble wall, and he slides down to the floor. A long silence... So long that, perhaps, it almost sounds like the recording has ended. But then, quietly...))

The things that happen to a person if one is buried alive--can you imagine it? Can you imagine waking up in the dark, unable to move, hardly able to breathe, perhaps still weak from having been so deeply asleep even the doctors thought you were dead?

And more than that, the cold, dark loneliness when she realised that the man she loved was not coming to dig her out and rescue her. She realised that she had been betrayed by the man who still wore her ring on his finger.

The darkness and the loneliness, and the air thinning with the inevitable onset of death drove her to madness...

Suzette...

((One long, slow, ragged breath...then silence...))
((Click.))
[//voice post ends]

[ooc: Okay, I don't like posting twice in one day (stfu, Caru!), but it seems worth it to post with Cain in the mausoleum, yessss~? Yes. So. Buried alive Cain is buried alive. He fell through the tear accidentally (really!) and found himself in his own bedroom at home and tried to run out into the hall beyond it...only to end up in his own grave. He found the Network device in the middle of the floor, taunting him. He'll dig himself out tomorrow and survive, even if he'll be unhappy about it for a while yet.]

[AUDIO- POINTED, VERY CLEAR AUDIO, BECAUSE HE IS SPEAKING THIS SO THAT SOMEONE CAN HEAR EVERY WORD. THERE IS A NOT SO FAINT CLAMOR IN THE BACKGROUND. LIKE THAT OF MORON ATTACKING DOOR]

I would like to make this very clear--

At no point in time did I think that the "tear" in the barrier would in fact lead to freedom and the return to my world. It was too flawed a proposal; after all, the fountain claims to reflect a reality as well.

That said, I was unable to thoroughly examine the other side before being plunged into this place-- so, should the subject ever rise again,

I did not willingly set foot into Kurosaki's bedroom.

I do not presume to speak for Kuchiki-san.

By the way, Kurosaki, you might want to listen to me after all, given that the popular network opinion is don't open the do-

[OMINOUSLY CUT OFF BY UH, IDK, DOOR BREAKAGE.]


[ooc: fffffff ... yis. OK some circus animal was harassing one of hie neighbors, that is the story as to ishida in the room, believe it mmk]

[Voice]

I saw it: Shibuya. There were the sounds and even some of the smells, too. But something was off... and that's when I realized it was too good to be true. Nice try deities, but it's "104." Not "109." I won't fall for the same crap twice.

I knew it was stupid to get my hopes up in the first place.

If anyone wants me, I'll be in my room watching the... rain. Or whatever it is.

...You guys really think this is the end?

[/end Voice]


((ooc: Ironically enough, he did see a "real" Shibuya. Just not the Shibuya that he's from.))

[voice]

Midget, don't think I won't get out of here, because I will. And when I do, I'm going to kick your ass so hard you'll come back to life.


[pauuuuuuuse. smallest sniff] This place sucks.

[ooc; in a mausoleum, fff, a few hours before midnight and being buried alive ok.]

[ voice ]

--this still working?

[The device shuts on and off a few times. For a moment, it switches to video, revealing this scene. Then it's back to voice.]

See? We aren't so trapped. We can still communicate. That's important, isn't it?

[More loudly:]

This is Lockon Stratos of the Curse Brigade, calling off this effort to rescue those trapped beyond the barrier. It turns out that trying to anchor yourself to the City with a cable doesn't work.

That doesn't mean we should stop trying other methods. Right now all we've got is the word of the deities that after we finish doing their dirty work for them, the people trapped beyond the barrier can come back. I'm not satisfied with that.

[OOC: backdated to shortly after the rain of blood started. Lockon and Tieria are now stuck beyond the barrier as well.]

Excuse me, but what is the situation with mending as the deities requested? Do we have more information? Has someone managed to escape? Thank you.

I implore to those who find themselves in a familiar landscape to remain there, don't try to escape by destroying the door. You will continue trapped, however the accommodations will be traded by something far more uncomfortable. Don't forget this warning, please.

[Hospital]

Unfortunately, I am unable to attend my shifts. I was caught up in this. I beg you all to report me how is everyone faring inside the installations.

( [Closed Action: Abel Nightroad and Aion] )

[The camera is watching from a table as Ikuto, transformed into Black Lynx, attempts to rip through the fake bedroom's door using his claws. With a loud sound of cracking wood, something in the door gives and he kicks it in. He stands there for a minute to let the dust clear, but looks confused by the room beyond.]

As if this couldn't get any weirder...

[He grabs the network device off the table and points it through the now-open doorway, showing a small, stone-walled room. Offscreen, the mic catches Ikuto muttering to himself.]

Broken barriers and architects and fake worlds... What is going on here?

[Ikuto hesitates for a long minute, obviously not wanting to go into a strange place again, but he eventually steps through the door and into the smaller room. He places the network device down on the stone bench and starts walking around. His voice echoes slightly off the walls, despite the size of the place.]

Huh. So what's the point of this being here?

[He notices the door on the other side, also made out of stone, and pushes on it, but it doesn't budge. Stepping away from it, he glances back towards the other door, and a look of shock covers his face as, offscreen, it starts to disappear into the stone wall.]

Dammit!

[Ikuto runs to the opposite wall, but gets there too late. The audio picks up the sound of him sliding to the floor in defeat.]

Looks like I'm stuck in here now.

((OOC: Like everybody else, my LJ notifications are five to seven hours behind still broken, so please be patient with comments! The link is not-IC and is a visual aid.))

[There is Lucy; she's walking and peering out at the rip in the barrier. It's near the Pevensie house, and it doesn't look bloody around her at all.]

....wow....

[She pauses and leans forward, and walks another step, when she trips, and is moving headfirst towards the tear. But what's this? A little flash of brown and red zips by and pushes her back, so instead she just scuffles over and lands on her behind]

.....Reepicheep?

[Voice]
[Have some creepy breathing over the network device. The voice sounds strained and pained.]

Wakaba-san. Stay out of that room for today.

[Huff]

That's real. That all is real.

[Huff]

This place is literally [Huff] covered in blood.

( [Private to Lady] )

( OOC )

There are holes in the sky--holes in very sky. It looks like a trick, like an illusion, to see the horizon in the distance, but a hole so close. It's beautiful in a terrifying way. The animals have escaped from the carousel, the barriers have closed around us--perhaps this really is the End of All Worlds. I still hear the ticking, but how long with that continue? Perhaps that madman who turned up on the Network raving about the barriers and the City was right. Perhaps it is collapsing. Perhaps it's only the City that's collapsing. Will they rebuild it? Will they recapture us all?

Maybe his offer is the genuine one. The 'deities' would never send us home again, and we saw proof enough of that with those boxes--those damnable boxes--but perhaps he has opened a few paths for us. I don't know whether I should believe him or not. The 'deities' are telling us to ignore him and to patch up these holes. He's shouting at us that we should go through while we still can.

And now, of course, those holes and tears in the sky are bleeding. It's fairly raining blood now.

I shouldn't be surprised. I'm not, really. Of course these tears and holes in the City's walls would bleed. We blame the City, not the 'deities' for curses. Why shouldn't it bleed? The carousel or the Clock might be its heart, and here holes have been torn in the skin of the thing.

I can see our house through this one, Riff. I don't care how much it all bleeds on me. I've seen blood before. It was a year ago that the City let me go back for a fortnight, just two weeks. It gave me a glimpse of home and I was oblivious to any chance of being dragged back here. All of this was a stupid, mad dream. It sent me out as it pleased and dragged me back again. I walked down an alley in London towards a carousel in the City and crossed some threshold in between. I walked down an alley in the City and found myself in front of a toy shop in London. And then a London alley became a City alley once again. It's been a full year.

This is my house and my garden. I can reach through, I can feel the air on the other side. It's still spring there--of course it is, since that's when I left.

Riff, you're all that's keeping me from running through this hole this very moment, you know. If you were here, if I hadn't sneaked away, I'd say we were to run through immediately. But you abandoned me here more than once. I won't do the same to you, Riff.

I pressed the button that threw Mr Witwicky into a nightmarish trap, I admit it--or so the carousel tiger told me I did. And I did it because I've not even seen this much of my world and my house for an entire year. I was alone in the City for months on end. What would you not do for the barest taste of home. I explained my reasoning enough the day I decided to press the button. If my suffering here is for the survival of my world, then I wanted some proof that my world still existed. I suffered in my own world to save it, I'll suffer here to save it too, now that I know it's still real and that my father hasn't won.

There's little else about this place that's worth keeping. Most everyone I've known has come and gone, and I'm still trapped here. It's never been my intention, nor is it really in my nature at all, to befriend everyone. I'm more familiar with enemies, or at least reputation and dislike. That's been the whole of my life. And it seems it's followed me here at last. If Mr Witwicky has set his mind against me, then so be it. I shall not trouble him with my presence any longer. When one is with unpleasant company, sometimes one has to make an early evening of it. I'll say that's what I'm doing. If I do decide to pass through, if I can collect Riff in time, then give Mr Witwicky my farewells, Princess Rosella.

Megumi, thank you for all that you've done for me in the time we've been acquainted. That doesn't begin to thank you enough in the least, but perhaps you still understand. I suppose this will break the ties between us-- I haven't decided whether I should take this chance or not, but you deserve thanks before I go.

Do I believe this madman more than I believe the 'deities'? I can't be certain yet. But he's given me more than they ever have.

Riff, I need you here.

~C.

[ooc: And so, Cain goes to the edges of the barrier. He's not entirely in his right mind at the moment, so please bear with him. I mean, really, he was attacked by Yuri, then attacked by a tiger, then verbally attacked by Sam... All in all...not such a great start to December. I haven't entirely decided if he'll go through. If he does, it'll be accidental, certainly, since he is weak from everything. That would make for a nice conclusion: ending up buried alive like the woman he loved... (How evil am I~?) If he does fall in, it'll be later today. I hate posting twice in one day, but...we'll see.]

Ugh, this is seriously nasty, all this blood dripping from the holes. It makes repairing them that much more difficult. I really need an umbrella.

I am very proud to announce the reopening of the tea shop!

We've all worked so hard at restoring all that we lost in the fire, and I still find myself awed by the strenght of the Edensphere community. Together, are able to rise from the ashes. Literally.

I only hope that no matter what new trials we face, we'll be able to keep strong and look after not only our friends and loved ones, but our neighbors as well. That we'll keep being an united front.

I have faith in all of us.

As a little morale boost, this week the tea shop will offer free sweets with each cup of tea! It's not much, but we all need a little pick-me-up now and then.

Stay strong, Edensphere.

~Koi <>{

This is vile.

It soaks through the tape before it can take.


|[ooc; dead Brian has nowhere to go, and so is patching holes. Saw bits of Deb's future with permission. ♥]|

[Snowy screen, then focus on some rifts in the sky.]

Krrzrrsttchtzz.

[These particular rifts look a bit red.]

Fzzzsrgkkrszzz.

[Then...red splats on the lens.]

MOUSE IS BLEEDING?!?

[Oh wait. The lens is wiped clean to tilt towards a now messy Mouse.]

UMBRELLAS TO ALL BATTLE STATIONS. NOW.

Mouse is pink! Pink! Messy sticky gooey pink! It smells!

CITIZENS DO YOUR DUTY. PATCH. PATCH. PATCH.

[Sob.]

Mouse is all wet...

[ooc: Those red rifts are spilling blood on the City beginning now, 12:00am EST Dec 7! It will last till the end of the event on 11:59pm EST Dec 8. Feel free to have your characters getting dripped or rained on! It's not all over the City so players can avoid having their houses stained if they want to. Vampires and other blood drinkers take note: the blood might make them sick, from minor tummyaches to vomiting 83]

So there's a guy running through the square, at full tilt. He's tall, with dark hair that falls in front of his face in dirty strands. His face is very recognizable to some. He's wearing a grey sweatsuit that just happens to have four bullet holes in it, complete with bloodstains, but he isn't injured at all. He's just scared out of his mind.

After about twenty yards, he finally looks back and realizes he's not in the woods like he thought he was. "Oh, god. What-"

He stops running and starts looking rapidly in a number of directions. "No, I- oh." He starts trying to catch the eye of passers-by, but his hysterical nature isn't helping anything. "Please.... can you help me? They were chasing me, and I don't- I can't-" He shuts his eyes tight and shakes his head. "I need help! Please- please, someone help me!"

[ooc: Notifs don't appear to be working on this post. Apologies, everyone! I'll definitely keep checking it for replies, though. <3 ]

.... for anyone that knew him, Artemis Fowl has left the city.

Well, that was an eventful week.

( [ private to shotahouse | unhackable ] )

( [ private | unhackable ] )

...Okay. So. I think my best friend has finally found her destiny.

As a cat lady.

She just got this huge orange cat--I know, I know. You're thinking to yourself, so she has one cat now. Big deal.

But no. It is a big deal. Because she's a workaholic, totally boyfriendless and flat-chested, her hair has never seen a deep conditioner in its life, and now... she has a cat. To fill the void created by loneliness. Or something.

And as she spends Friday and Saturday nights with this huge orange cat, she'll think to herself, this humongous orange cat makes me feel loved like people do not. So she'll get another. And then another. And then another. And on and on until she has more cats than years. Until she dies alone and friendless, and her neighbors, disgusted by the smell, find her body a week later, half eaten by her thirty six cats.

And that, guys, will be her unfortunate path to cat ladydom. This is just the first step.

So does anybody know how to take care of cats? I think we should name it Naruto, Sakura. Since it's fuzzy and orange and eats its weight in cat food.

[Accidental Video Post]

[Rosella is standing near the edge of the lake in Xanadu, her back to the camera as she gazes out over the water. This is the second time in two days that she's come out here, but this time she is alone, a solitary figure wrapped up snugly in a bright red cloak. She moves, and there is a brief glimmer of silver as she raises her flute to her lips and begins to play, gentle and sad. It's not a perfect rendition by any means, but she's not playing to perform; indeed, from the way she's acting, it's clear she doesn't even realize that her device is recording at all.

As she draws to a close, she slowly lowers her flute and stands a moment in silence before beginning to speak.]

It's strange, isn't it, to watch the world fall to pieces before your very eyes?

[She glances down at her flute, then back up again at the rip in the barrier, out over the water.]

Once upon a time, I would've believed it was really you out there. But how many times I have I learned, again and again, that all they ever do is spin out lies and half-truths and hollow promises? Maybe the truth really is that they'll never let us go.

Maybe I'm the awful one, that I can't find it in myself to believe so easily anymore.

This world and that world, and I'm halfway between. I don't know what the right answer is, Daddy. I don't know what the right thing to do is this time. I can't choose. I don't want to choose, don't make me...

[An abrupt pause, as she covers her face with her free hand and chokes on her words. A minute later, when she's managed to compose herself, she returns to speaking, softer than before.]

There was a day, once upon a time, when I accepted the thought that I'd never see any of you again. But I will. I know I'll see you again. I'll be home someday, I promise.

But this isn't home. It's nothing but a lie.

[She stands in silence a moment, the wind playing about the hem of her cloak and the curls of her hair, and then she raises the flute and begins to play once more.]


[OOC: Yeah, um, she's having a really bad week. So much for December looking up with the coming of the holidays? Right. Anyway, the link is not necessarily the exact song she's playing, but it's pretty and fit the mood, so there you go. Action for anybody out by the lake, Network for everyone else.]