[IC] Lost Carcosa, the Immemorial City. [Horror, Survival]

[Hjalti]

@KindledBeast @lenorist

Looking around, Yuri and Evie would see nothing for a moment, just darkness. Neither were in the same place as the other, both being completely lost and totally alone. Around them are the sounds of insects chirping in the night, but the sound was wrong, something they would not be able to place. If either were to look to the night sky for some kind of navigation, they would be greeted by a impossible sight. Where once there were familiar stars and constellations now there were the swirling masses of numerous galaxies, the vast distances between each one barely comprehensible, some even having seemingly collided with each other over what must have been millions of years.

To the right, both would hear the sound of flowing water and upon taking their first steps in their chosen direction, would find themselves propelled higher and farther than they would typically be used to. The thick, humid air would cause their clothes to stick to their stick almost immediately, so thick it would feel as if they were in a tropical rainforest or something similar. At the same time however, they would feel stained for breath, as if there were somehow less air around them. They would begin to feel out of breath before long and slightly lightheaded, but there would be just enough air for them to get by. For how long was anybodies guess.

[lenorist]

It was late in the afternoon, hinging on six p.m. and the darkness of that winter night was just beginning to drape around the museum. But in the basement, amid the "Stacks" time stood still. In the windowless repository, it could have been six in the morning for all Evie knew.

The work from the historical preservation society had kept her busy for a large part of the day. Evie leaned back in her chair with a groan and rubbed her eyelids. There was an ache inching up from her lower back, and her hand had begun to cramp. She slipped her pen back into her lab coat and relaxed for moment, her eyes flitting over the few white cardboard boxes she had yet to sort. Across her desk, Evie had spread the other boxes' plunder: stacks and stacks of monochrome photos being readied for preservation. Each photo needed to be identified by place and date taken and then filed into manilla folders. Later they would be scanned and stored on an SD card. Some were in perfect condition, with their dates written in small precise numbers on the back, while most were yellowing with age and water damage, no discernible date or place.

A stack of folders sat neatly to her left, the topmost folder labeled with a piece of red sticky tape. The historical society were planning to open a local museum. A small one room building with an assortment of antiquities collected over the years, including a set of pictures depicting the town's inception in the early 1800s. There were about twenty photographs that Evie had found sifting through the boxes that met this requirement, and now she only needed to deliver the marked folder to her boss so that he could give them to the historical society. They would, in turn, mount the original photos on the wall.

Evie couldn't quite remember the last time she had stood up today. She stood and stretched before grabbing the folder and heading for her boss's office. A little bit of walking right now wouldn't hurt. She took the two flights of stairs slowly, looking out the glass wall to the parking lots below where cars sat pooled in yellow light from the posts. At the end of the hallway she stopped in front of a door emblazoned with 'Mr. Elliot- Director' and rapped on the solid wood. Before he could give an answer, she turned the knob and stepped inside.

And then the world turned upside down.