Mokley

RATTLECHOMP

<Snipped quote by Mokley>

Is it feasible that Toni might have felt something from it? Like a slight tickle? Or would it be too different from feeling Rue to do so?

@Wayward

Oooohhhh good question. Ok thinking on this... 🤔

What about a stab of pain? A much milder form of feeling the bullet hit its target?

RATTLECHOMP

For clarification, only Sasha can here the sound of her revolver firing? To anyone else it's just a click?

@Wayward

Yep - to Sasha, there's a gunshot and a spark. Everyone else only hears the click of an empty gun but can see the kickback as if it has fired (or as if Sasha is a pretty good mime).

RATTLECHOMP

Trying to give you all a bit to work with - there's no wrong answer and no expected action or reaction. I'll follow wherever you wanna lead. 🎃

RATTLECHOMP

Fascinated as she was, Toni couldn't help but question the need for such a laboring journey. If the tree produced the medicine that could cure the disease, why not have something made in Oaken? Would the machine even travel well through the Corridor? Could the Rue harm it and the tree it was preserving?

..."There's something here," she said to the others. She stood upright and pointed towards the tracks. There, the red lights of the incoming train illuminated the forming mass of thick, dark mist. It was larger than the Rue she had seen in the past, it's fog-like form rising up to the height of two grown men.

Toni looked to her new companions. "We may need to deal with this one."

@Wayward

“Yiya, wh-what is that?” Neomi asked as confidently as possible. She wasn’t sure why she had asked. The old lady had not seemed to notice it, but the question fell out of Neomi regardless.

And then it hit her. She had seen something like this before. “Is… is that a rue?”

@Mole

She listened, then, as Yiya explained the purpose of her journey and her need for an escort. The plant the terrarium held was needed to cure her village of a Rue; the old woman didn’t mention any medicine, just that the plant itself would repel the Rue, which was strange. If the plant would protect her village, why would she need an escort to protect her from the Rue? Unless it only worked on that one kind of Rue? But then why did it sound like she expected it to draw other Rue to her to stop her from reaching her village?

...A hand moved to the holster under her coat and Sasha pulled free her father’s revolver. Holding it with both hands she aimed it at the shadow’s back, held her breath and pulled the trigger. It kicked in her hands, despite holding no bullets and produced a gunshot that only she, so far, had been able to hear.

@King Cosmos

In this standstill moment, the chandeliers trembled with the thunder of an approaching train. Red light bathed the concrete walls and floors in a murderous hue. Red glinted on Echoh's glass chamber, flashed in Yiya's calmly smiling eyes, and sparked on the barrel of Sasha's revolver.

The thing on the tracks fizzled like a broken television screen. A smell of wet stone and hot metal permeated the stagnant air.

click

Neomi and Toni only heard the empty click of the revolver echo in the hollow vaulted space, barely audible through the rising noise of the approaching train, though Sasha braced against the kickback jolt of a fired gun.

Toni and Sasha would see the shape vanish immediately: a puff of smoke dissipated. The prickling feeling on Toni's skin snatched away and was gone.

Only Neomi heard it scream. The curdling, high-pitched howl echoed through the hollow chamber, piercing her ears through the rumble and metallic shriek of the train that raced through the spot where the figure had been. The cry dimmed and silenced as the train came to a scraping stop and opened its doors.

"That," declared Yiya, gesturing with the small end of her cane, "is a train, not a Rue. The looks on your faces -- I'd think you've never seen a train before! Well, then, it's about time you all had a taste of the outside world, I see. Sasha, stand down and put that gun away: we're not going to shoot it, we're going to board it. Come along, then, don't be shy!"

Yiya had neither seen nor sensed anything of the figure on the tracks. To the old woman, her three new companions had become frightened of the demonic, snarling approach of the train. She couldn't blame Sasha for shooting at it: the engine of the Darklight train had been carved into the horrible visage of a gargoyle, its smiling stone jaws emitting the hellish red light that burned into the black corridors. Each train car behind it had been painted black and carved with intricate patterns and symbols, some of which Sasha, Neomi, and Toni might have seen before carved into the witch pilings that surrounded the city. The train was packed with every known ward against Rue that might interfere with the train or its occupants

The heavy reinforced doors slid open with a knock and a clang. The windows were black. The train cars were dark inside, dimly illuminated only by an eerie red light with no substantial source, the seats in rows of comfortable cushioned benches that seemed new and untouched. The train appeared to be empty of any other passengers.

Echoh crawled happily toward the train, spidering across the platform and ducking through the wide open door, where it crouched in a slightly wider area between the rows of seats. Yiya was slower, her kindly smile perpetually calm, her cane clacking on the floor. She was in no hurry, and the train appeared to wait for her.

At each end of the car was another reinforced sliding door that led across the connectors to the next car. The forward door would lead through one empty car before the engine. The rear door would lead back through three more empty cars behind.

Toni might feel another very faint brush against her skin, pulling from across the door toward the front of the train.

Sasha might see, in the corner of her eye, something dark flitting through the seam in the rear door.

Neomi might hear a small scratching noise, tiny as a mouse, underneath the floor. The traincar was sitting over the track where the shadowy figure had been shot.

"I know you have questions." Yiya was still hobbling her way onto the train. "We have a long time together for answers."

RATTLECHOMP

@Dragonfly 9 Aw thanks so much for dropping in and for the cool character! If you ever change your mind we'll be here! 💖

RATTLECHOMP

Woop! Action sequence! 😮

Is there anyone else in the wings who'd like to jump in? @Sailorsadie @YoshiSkittlez @Dragonfly 9

Unless another claim is made, I'll stake my 3-day claim!

RATTLECHOMP

Begin post is UP! :)

Any characters who are approved but haven't arrived yet can still drop in! At this point they'll be arriving late: all posts that have gone before yours are events that have already happened at the time of your character's arrival or action. In other words: from here out the post order is timeline order, so please react to and interact with the posts above you. 😉

If you want to claim the next post, you've got to post within 3 days of the claim or it's forfeit. If someone is within 3 days of a claim, please hold your post until they've posted or 3 days have passed, whichever is sooner. Claims are optional. 👻

RATTLECHOMP

Sasha didn’t sit. She shuffled her feet instead, adjusting the straps of her bags on her shoulders and looked down at the ground in between them. “I’m Sasha. I… I’m here to help with…” The machine? Like Yiya said? No, she had no idea what to do with something like that. “I saw the notice. You need… an escort? I’m here for that. I’m good at finding my way.” ...

Making her decision, Sasha lifted the bag from her shoulder, long and narrow, and laid it on the floor next to the blanket; ... The rest of her belongings were in a second bag, an ordinary backpack ... Now divested of her burdens, Sasha sat at the very edge of the blanket facing the old apothecary; she felt just as awkward as before, but at least now she had followed Yiya’s request.

“Um… are there going to be others? The notice… didn’t…”

@King Cosmos

The old woman's earrings clattered (wood and beads and strings of sturdy silver) while she turned her turban-laden head, her sharp eyes twinkling, amusedly following Sasha's nervous movements. Once Sasha had finally sat down on the woven rug, Yiya squinted with a pleased, smoky smile. In answer to the question, Yiya slowly canted her head toward the stairwell and gestured with her pipe over Sasha's shoulder: someone else was arriving.

-

Dressing appropriately for the journey to come, she strapped her boots securely, fastened a holster with a sixshot revolver (a gift from an insistent Olivia) to her waist, and grabbed her backpack. ...

Toni stepped forward to join the other two. From her pocket she pulled a folded copy of the flier, presenting it to both women. "Uh. I'm guessing I'm in the right place," she said. "Antonita Hawkes. But I go by Toni."

@wayward

Yiya puffed thoughtfully on her pipe, and the air filled with the musky spice of incense. Her wrinkled eyes fell pointedly on Toni's revolver, then drifted aside to the rifle-shaped bag that Sasha had laid on the rug. The old woman hummed to herself, puckered against the pipe, and wheezed a stifled cough while she peered distrustfully at the red glowing herbs in the bell of the pipe.

"That's my flyer, Antonita Hawkes, you guessed right. Sasha here arrived just before you." The beads on her turban jangled while she leaned toward Sasha with a smile. "I'm Eudora Abby, but I go by Yiya. Sit down, Antonita, sit down! Don't strain my old neck to get a proper look at you." She waved a knobby hand insistently at Toni while, out of the stairwell, another traveler drew near and happily occupied another sitting space on the rug.

-

As she drew closer, the old woman spoke. She seemed wise and content. It made Neomi smirk, and she took her seat. Quickly she explained in little detail that she was the the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adams of The Burrow, and she knew hardly anything outside of Oaken City. She rolled her eyes and continued with a small expression of how much she was looking forward to the journey.

As she said all this, Neomi had taken her backpack and opened it. She had removed her sketchbook, a few pencils and an eraser. And, like the woman, Neomi sat cross legged as she began recording her surroundings. There was no hesitation in her actions. If anything, it was all rushed.

@Mole

While Neomi summarized the small tale of her Burrow-dwelling within the city, Yiya puffed thoughtful poofs of incense smoke and watched the sweeping scrape of pencil on paper, her brow knitted with interest. After a few moments of quiet (in which the mechanical terrarium-robot squeaked and released a short hiss of pressure) Yiya removed the pipe from her mouth and exhaled a cloud of blue smoke. "I hope you plan to draw everything and anything interesting that you perceive, young Neomi Adams of the Burrow. You never know when a sketch will prove important." She gestured, bangles clacking, to the other two who occupied the rug. "This is Antonita Hawkes, who goes by Toni and has come quite impressively prepared, and Sasha, whom I glean is an excellent scout and a tracker." She smiled through the last word, straightening her posture proudly. "Yes, I think we all will do nicely, if you finally decide to come along."

Yiya tapped out her pipe into a stone bowl beside her, then she pressed her thin palms on the rug and her joints creaked and cracked while she groaned with the effort of climbing to her feet. She accepted any help that might be offered, until finally she was upright and taking a deep breath.

"Now. Where did you put my cane?" She squinted over her shoulder and whipped out a skinny hand, smacking the glass terrarium as if it were a misbehaving child.

The robot sank slightly on its pressurized legs and a wooden cane toppled clattering to the stone floor seemingly out of nowhere.

"Thank you." Yiya stared in exasperation down at the cane on the floor before she made a wiggling gesture at her guests. "Neomi, dear, could you please pass me my cane?" It was polished, golden-brown wood with a dragon head for a handle. "Sasha, if you would be so kind as to take that bowl and dump it out in the railbed and pass it back to Echoh." With a gesture, she indicated that Echoh was the name of the terrarium machine. "Antonita, come on and roll up this rug, give that to Echoh as well. That means everyone off it, come, come on! And I'll tell you, in the meantime, what you're in for."

Yiya hobbled swiftly off the rug, and Echoh the terrarium-robot squealed and hissed after her, quick and nimble on its six spidery mechanical legs. The little ecosystem inside its glass bell was not at all disturbed by the movement, not a flower petal out of place, so smoothly and carefully it stepped.

Should anyone attempt to give something to Echoh, the robot would reach out with one of its spindly legs, open a pair of scissorlike claws, and snap them shut around the proffered object, which would immediately disappear as if swallowed by the air. Echoh would accept anything between its claws, and anything would simply disappear with a snap.

Out of habit, the old woman placed the empty pipe between her teeth, and she squinted beyond the chandeliers and blue-shining mosaics into the hollow dark of the rail tunnel, where cool stagnant air hovered like a ghost.

"I come from a village far away from here," she said, her words echoing on the vaulted stained-glass ceiling. "It's called Geami, the windy meadow, beyond the last of the mountains, near enough to the ocean, you can smell the salt. For years a dark ailment has plagued us, it's gotten worse: we hear every sound as loud as a gong. A pin dropping rattles your skull like a thunderclap." She pinched her fingers and released them over the floor. "Every shuffle of clothing scrapes your ears. The shriek of a seagull feels like your head will split in two. Wax and earplugs do little good. The turban helps to block the noisy vibrations," she tapped the heavy wrapping on her head, "but as the years go on, even if you've gone deaf, your bones are always trembling so badly from the noise that the people are simply falling apart, inside and out. Children collapse in the road, their parents pass out in the fields. Some just go toward the ocean and never return. Your body is a tuning fork, and the world is a hammer."

With a shuffle, Yiya turned around to see how her new companions were getting along with the cleanup. "There's a Rue responsible for it. And that tree," she smiled tightly and pointed at the terrarium with the small end of her pipe, "is the very poison that will be rid of it. The plant is called the Trailing Bird, extremely rare and very finicky: it only grows in a tiny little spot on the mountain over Oaken City, and will die the moment it's uprooted. So I'm taking that little mountain spot with me. But the flowers of this tree, the very color of them, sends the Rue into a tizzy. I journeyed here, I climbed mountains, I found the Trailing Bird and stole it, but I know I'm not prepared to fend off angry Rue. So I ask you: will you help us?"

A high-pitched mechanical sound accompanied a trembling in the rail tracks below. The railroad corridor behind them paled with a deep red light that grew brighter and brighter like an approaching demon, rumbling like distant thunder.

Toni was the first to sense it: something was standing on the tracks, the air around it breathing, its presence gentle as a breeze.

Then, Sasha and Neomi might catch glimpses of a shadowy, smoky figure, as tall as two men, hunched with dangling arms, its head the shape of a hexagonal prism. The last trails of Yiya's pipe smoke swirled in its hollow eyes.

It swayed on the tracks. The red light of the approaching train shone straight through the smoky figure while it raised its long arms high as if to engulf the train with its expanding presence.

Yiya only watched her guests expectantly. She couldn't notice anything was strange at all.

RATTLECHOMP

Not sure why, but the piano track in this piece comes to mind when I think of what Rue are.

music.youtube.com/watch?v=9-L5GS_7JNc…

@Wayward

Ooo I dig it! The haunting repetition, but also the beat! It is absolutely Rue. 👻

Are we sharing music???? music.youtube.com/watch?v=RilTolc2WPQ…

I'mma mod post... soon! ish!

RATTLECHOMP

The passenger entrance to the Darklight Corridor is easily missed. In Lumin Park, where morning light dapples the freshly swept walkways between well-tended beds of bright flowers, a gentle hill overlooks a little pond where flocks of geese float lazily honking. Atop this green hill sits a white-painted gazebo, which seems at a distance to be a perfect alcove to rest and to admire the scenery, but up close is only a decorative roof for the stairwell that leads down, down, deep into the earth below.

Like Lumin Park, the marble stairs are impeccably clean, illuminated in the bright blue glow of alchemic sconces placed at regular intervals on the walls. Occasionally there was a potted plant with cascades of flowers overhead, as if to remind the traveler of the beauty of sunlit life even as they descended toward a low hiss and rumble deep within.

The stairwell ended abruptly at a clean platform, where stained-glass blue light glowed down from the arched ceiling, accented by the brassy shine of hanging chandeliers. The platform hummed with a low breathing noise like a peacefully sleeping dragon. It smelled like wet stone and charcoal and it was empty.

Or, nearly empty. On the far side of the platform stood a great mechanical contraption: four robotic legs held up a huge glass terrarium, within which a small ecosystem thrived. There were flowers and rocks and running water and flits of insects and a skitter of small creatures moving about within a great glass jar. Cloudy condensation partially hid the delicate tree that brightened the terrarium with pink flowery constellations. The walking terrarium sat silently alive next to its purple-draped handler.

The old woman had spread a prettily woven blanket on the platform and now sat cross-legged upon it, staring meditatively down the dark rail corridor while she puffed occasionally on a bamboo pipe that swirled a musky smoke of incense all around her. Wisps of gray hair curled out of a heavy, fringed turban wrapped with purple and coral and teal. Her every movement rattled with the stones in her earrings and long necklaces. She was the only one on the platform, for now.

Upon the arrival of a stranger, she would turn her head with a wrinkled smile and sparkling eyes. "Please forgive me if I don't get up to say hello: my knees are mad at me for the audacity of that stairwell. I'm Eudora Abby, apothecary and herbalist, but you can call me Yiya, everyone does. Are you here to help me with this confounded thing?" She gestured with the pipe over her shoulder at the stationary robotic terrarium. "Come, sit, sit down! There's room on the blanket, I don't bite. Tell old Yiya your story, child, while we wait for this hunk of junk they call a train."