I'm allied to the winter

[singmod]

JULY 2025 EVENT

PROMPT ONE: BURIED ECHOES: The green fog from fissures that had begun to appear last month takes on a new form of attack, and Interlopers find themselves forced to share their greatest betrayals and deepest shames.

PROMPT TWO: ADURERE: The Interlopers are not the only ones caught in the current machinations, and return to Milton House once more.

PROMPT THREE — TERRITORY: Interlopers who venture out to the Last Resort Cannery come face to face with the Timberwolf packs who have claimed the place as their own — high risk, high reward.

BURIED ECHOES

WHEN: The Month of July
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: atmospheric changes; mild mental manipulation; memory sharing.

In June, a green fog began to curl upwards from fissures dotted around the Northern Territories — warping Interlopers into frenzies of rage or fear. These afflictions have ended up easing as the month turns over into July but the vapours themselves don’t dissipate. At first, they begin the mingle in the air, like a drop of ink in water — causing a green hue to taint the atmosphere. When one looks around, it's almost like the faint sepia tone that obscures the lens of daylight at sunset some days. The skies feel darker, the days are dull, and green.

There’s a distinct tingle of fear in the air. Something low rumbling — a constant drone in the background.

The reach of these green vapours extend even further as the month goes on. The fogs will grow thicker in places and at times will extend to filling huge spaces of areas quickly and silently. You could be out in the wilds, travelling alone the tracks in Lakeside, or making your way down the Coastal Highway when the fog drifts in.

It doesn’t take long before it encompasses you entirely.

With it, the skies darken further. The world turns to night, lit by the eerie green, and everything feels empty and fraught. For plenty of Interlopers, this is a familiar experience, and a sensation of fear washes over you. Or most of you.

You hear whispers in the fog: a chorus of frightened voices chittering nervously. And then out of that chorus comes a voice that is old and terrible.

She binds me, but she cannot banish me. I am coming for you, Interloper. You cannot be rid of me. The Darkwalker, you realise. It is reaching out to you within the fog.

The Yawning Grave has been opened, and I am so very hungry. One way, or another — I am coming for you. I will break you, consume you. You will go into the Dark.

The Darkwalker has its ways of coming for Interlopers, that is well known by now. The fog shifts and swirls around you. As you watch it, familiar shapes begin to form — a room, a place. Somewhere familiar to you, but it doesn’t fill you with comfort. You remember this place, and you find yourself within a moment of your history. It is not a fond moment.

The memory that forms around you and begins to play out is a memory of your greatest betrayal, your deepest regret. The thing that brings you the most shame. You and your companion will witness this — and there's no escaping this.

The Darkwalker has ways of coming for Interlopers, yes. It has ways of trying to break you down. Your deepest fears and insecurities, showing you for what you truly are; isolating you from the world around you, finding ways to lead you into the Dark. You are the Interloper, after all. You are not part of nature’s design. One way or another, it will break you down and put an end to you. To pull you apart. Now it seeks to show who you truly are to others — a moment where you find yourself at your worst.

Bonds between Interlopers are strong, but are all secrets revealed to the ones you’ve come to know and trust? Do you still have skeletons in your closet? A moment you have tried so desperately to keep buried and hidden from those around you?

No more. The question is whether the people you’ve come to know and trust will be able to look at you the same way again.

ADURERE

WHEN: Late July.
WHERE: Milton House… ?
CONTENT WARNINGS: fire; house fire; death of a child/children; hauntings; illusions of burning/being burned; potential injuries via falling/unstable building collapsing; dead bodies; gore/blood/maimed bodies; body horror; eye-related trauma/horror.

You wake up in a bed that is not yours. The air is still and cold, and for a moment everything is calm. It is night time. You are not the only one who wakes up with you, another Interloper has found themselves sharing the bed with you — maybe it’s someone you know, maybe it’s an Interloper you’ve yet to meet. But you’re in a strange home you don’t recognise, and you’re not sure what’s happened.

You have a little time to get your bearings, at least — to explore the room itself. The furniture is a little more refined from what you’ve come to know in Milton: well-made and old. The master bedroom is that of a husband and wife. There are family photos on one of the dressers: a wedding photo of a happy bride and groom in the late 1970s or early 1980s; a photo of two small boys stood in Milton Basin, holding up freshly-caught fish; a photo of a sad young girl on a tree swing.

Interlopers who have been in the Northern Territories for some time will come to realise that the family in these photos is the Barker family. The young girl is Enola. You have found yourselves within Milton House, before the fire.

If you had turned on a light to explore, power goes out. There is smoke in the air.

You hear the crackle of flames from beyond the bedroom door. Opening it into the corridor will reveal a fiery inferno, and the distant screams of children.

But there’s something different about this place, just as there has been last time. Even with the blaze, the home does not look at is should. While it looks like the burning, ruined insides of Milton House, it feels more like a maze than anything. The walls warp around you and at sudden moments, tree branches will break and jut out from the walls, burning and snapping and falling before you.

Together, you must work to escape the burning home. Getting out of this place will be far more difficult than those who found themselves in this place well over a year ago. Turning down the corridor in search of the stairs brings only more corridors, opening doors to bedrooms in search of a window will bring you to more corridors, too.

Persist, and you’ll find the stairs eventually. And like last time, the heat and smoke feel real and may even cause you pain but the flames won’t actually burn you. Whatever this is, as real as it feels, there’s some kind of illusion to all of this just as it had done before.

But what didn’t happen before is the sight that greets you as you finally head downstairs.

In the ruined mess of the blazing inferno that is the living room, bodies litter the floor. They pile on top of one another, covering every inch of floor, slumped against the walls. There must be some seventy or more bodies here. Some are harder to look at than others: some are coated in blood and wounds, some caused by animals, some by humans; some lie in crumpled, contorted messes; some are half-frozen; some are barely recognisable.

Looking at these bodies, as difficult as it may be, will bring the awful realisation: these are the bodies of Interlopers who have died within the Northern Territories. Some you recognise, people you knew only too well. Interlopers who have died at the hands of the Darkwalker, of Mother Nature itself, of other Interlopers; each of them appearing just as they had died in this place.

What’s more: scattered in amongst these bodies are the bodies of the Barker family: Thomas and his sons — half-charred and blackened by the smoke and flame.

In amongst this carnage, there’s a figure kneeling on the floor. A woman, dressed in furs, her hands covering her face. Some may recognise her as Enola, and you realise: this is Enola’s deepest regret. What brings her the most shame, her greatest betrayal.

Interlopers may choose to leave, if they wish. Making a break for a window or a door will bring them out into the snow and the world will snap to normal — you find yourselves outside Milton House, green fog swirling around you and fading with a low echo of laughter: the Darkwalker.

But others may choose to go to Enola, to try and help her, to try and end this memory of hers.

Enola feels real when you touch her. Managing to pull her hands away, you’ll realise something is very wrong. Even more wrong than all of this. Those who have seen her before in dreams, or when she appeared to Interlopers in June last year will note that she appears very different. Enola looks gaunt, exhausted — and more frightening: her left side of her face is black and withered, her eye absent from the socket.

It’s hard to say what’s happened to her, but Interlopers may draw their own conclusions and suspicions.

“It’s my fault.” she’ll whisper. “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault. I caused it.”

Enola seems almost catatonic, and cannot seem to engage with Interlopers at first. She will rock slightly as she kneels, her one blue eye staring into nothing, her expression wounded.

“It’s my fault, it’s my fault— I couldn’t.. I couldn’t make it stop.” she continued. “I didn’t mean it, I— I tried, I tried so hard to stop it— I never meant for it, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

The house groans and shudders around you. Enola will look up, tears streaming down her face.

“I didn’t mean for this. I didn’t mean it.”

Speaking to Enola softly, offering words of encouragement or comfort will slowly begin to calm her down. It will take some time to calm her in this terrible place, but she will respond to it. She seems almost child-like: cowed and broken and small. She looks so tired.

“They were meant to be home.” she tells you. “And I ruined it.”

When Interlopers have calmed her down enough, she’ll finally look at you, like she finally sees you again. For the first time in this moment, she sees you in a way that’s hard to put into words. She reaches for your face, your chest, touches you gently — her expression is so sad, quietly crushed by the care from you.

“I’m sorry.”

In a blink, everything snaps to normal. No bodies, no flames. No Enola. Just the rotted insides of a broken, ruined home — curls of green smoke drifting upwards, out through the cracks of the walls.

TERRITORY

WHEN: The Month of July.
WHERE: Last Resort Cannery, The Coast.
CONTENT WARNINGS: themes of survival; gore; human remains; (wild) animal attacks, altered wildlife, possible character injury/death, possible (wild) animal injury/death.

Moving towards the south east from the village of Silverpoint will bring Interlopers along the cracked and crumbling road that loads to Last Resort Cannery: a complex of several warehouses and workshops, and has long since fallen into disrepair. Most of its staff were employed by the village of Silverpoint, and with some even coming from Milton to work — but economic decline has seen the company fall into hard times.

Murmurings from around the village will have Interlopers discovering that there may be some leftover stock that is still usable, such as canned goods, but the villagers have found it incredibly difficult to scavenge there, due to the increase in hostile wildlife. Many villagers that have attempted to travel there have never returned, and those who have, have returned maimed, injured, often dying due to their injuries — and Silverpoint residents have often persuaded Interlopers not to go there.

Interlopers, however, are made of sturdier stuff these days, and maybe it’s worth checking the place out in hopes of finding some useful loot.

The Cannery itself sits right along the coastline, and incredibly bitter and open — much like most of the Coast’s area. As Interlopers head closer, they will soon discover exactly what the villagers spoke of: the frozen, grisly and often skeletal remains of those who have tried to venture forth scattered around the area, torn backpacks and clothing — as if the bodies have been consumed by animals.

Not even Jace has been out here to scavenge, either out of safety, or respect for the dead.

Most of the buildings are open to the elements, having been hit hard by the extreme weather — and provide little in the way of shelter. But not all of them are so open. There are some buildings that will provide ample shelter: warehouses and factory floors, even some small staff breakroom quarters. There are even spaces where it appears that some of the workers even lived on site, with bunk beds and shower facilities.

There will, indeed, be crates filled with canned goods that remain in relatively good condition: mostly canned sardines, tuna and salmon. Interlopers may find seafood soups, too. But there’s an overall theme: the Cannery is a processing place of fish and seafood, after all. However, that is not everything that is housed within the Cannery’s site. Explorers will be able to find heavy but durable work clothes and boots, along with survival tools and equipment that belonged to workers. There are workshops that could be used during the Aurora — which can be used to repair tools and… interestingly: craft ammunition.

A spray painted wall reads: THEY HATE THE LIGHT. Another reads: LOUD NOISES = GOOD FOR SCARES. Another, more ominously: THIS PLACE WANTS US ALL DEAD.

Why would such a plan require a workshop in order to craft ammunition? It might have something to do with the culprits behind the grisly finds Interlopers have come across in their approach to the Cannery itself: the packs of Timberwolves that have made their home here and often prowl the area. And soon enough, they will come running.

A lone howl on the wind, carried on the air. More joining the first. Then, the demonic chittering and growling as one of the packs descend upon the Interlopers. Fortunately, these timberwolves are not quite like the wolves faced by Interlopers right at the very start of their time in the Northern Territories — but they are still altered in terms of the Aurora: smarter, and far more aggressive that wolves have ever been known to be.

They do function in a similar manner, at least. Pack morale is important, and breaking that morale can send them back. If they’re broken, their morale is depleted. Fire is your biggest friend: torches, campfires and flares will keep them mostly at bay and only the bravest of these packs may attack. Striking them with flares or flames will actually send them into brief retreats. Bullets and arrows are effective with both noise and injuring the wolves, and although hitting one will be difficult due their speed, it’s possible. Killing one of these wolves will dissolve the pack’s morale entirely, and the rest will flee.

And at least then, for a while, you might be able to scavenge in peace — and make it out alive.

FAQs

BURIED ECHOES


1. The memories cannot be interacted with in any way.

2. Interlopers with Darkwalker’s Revenge will feel slightly revitalised in general during the month of July and be extra revitalised during these heavy fog instances. They will feel fit, hale and alert — probably the best they’ve ever felt in a long time due to the polar sun.

3. Memories can be from a character's future in their canon, not just their past.


ADURERE

1. All Interlopers who have died in game can be found within this prompt. This will also confirm the deaths of Interlopers who have been missing but never confirmed dead and also confirm Interlopers who have simply gone home. You can check out the Interloper Masterlist for further details.

2. Interacting with Enola is optional. Interlopers may choose to simply escape house and the memory.

3. Interlopers have limited interaction with the memory. They can look at things, or even touch the dead down in the living room, but not remove anything from the house.

4. Characters will not be physically burned in the fire, but only feel as if they have been. The effects of this illusion will last a short time after they're out the house before they will fade.

5. The only real injuries characters can sustain will be from fall damage, or if the floor gives way and their feet go through, etc. whilst in the house.

6. Please see the January 2024 Event Prompt ‘Adust’, or the Areas Page, or the October 2024 Mini Event under the February 1994 for further information/context.

7. Interlopers who are in Milton will find themselves in Milton House when the memory/illusion ends. Interlopers in other areas of the world will find themselves in a random, rundown/dilapitated home found in that area.

TERRITORY

1. You do not have to kill a Timberwolf to scare off the pack, simply defeating the pack's morale with noise and flame is sufficient to scare them off for several hours.

2. Timberwolf packs typically range from three to seven wolves.

PLOTTING POST

Comments

Sameen Shaw | Person of Interest

[cactusy]

A - buried echoes

[The fog comes over her when she's walking between two houses in Milton: single-story cabins that aren't anything like the brick city buildings that take their place. The only similarity is the distance between them, the shared driveway morphing into an alleyway lit only by the streetlights of the bigger roads on either end. Shaw - another Shaw - stands a short distance away, face to face with a tall guy in a suit. She looks like death warmed over: unwashed hair, baggy eyes, a slightly glazed expression. And her companion? He looks guarded. Suspicious.

"Something's wrong with you," he says. "We're not going back to the Machine 'till we talk this through. Come on, I'll buy you a cup of coffee."

He turns and starts to walk, in expectation that she'll follow. Instead, she stays put, her body swaying and jerking like she's having a small seizure. And then, smoothly and without hesitation, she lifts her gun and fires a bullet into the man's back.

"John? Sameen? Are you all right? What's going on?" This second man's voice is disembodied, coming from over an earpiece, but the observers can hear it regardless. Breathing heavily, Shaw approaches the body, her gun still held at the ready.

"I don't know what happened," she says softly, almost at a whisper. "Samaritan ops - they came out of nowhere. They got him. John's dead."

But he isn't. The shot had been critical, yes, and he's actively bleeding out - but as she stares at the body, he's clearly still alive, his breathing labored and audible.

"No, this can't happen," cries the man over the earpiece, and another voice - Root's, for those who would recognize it - breaks in. "Shaw, you have to get out of there. I'll come find you; bring you back!"

"You can't, you're hurt," Shaw says, her voice quieter still.

"I am not ready to lose you again, Sameen! Whatever happened - we'll fix it. Just... stay alive."

As Root pleads, John's hand moves, laboriously trying to reach for the gun at his belt with what little strength he has left.

"Don't," Shaw murmurs, her breath shaky. "No, please, don't--"

Her finger moves for the trigger on her own gun, but she doesn't pull it. John's hand slows, and then stills, falling limp. Shaw moves forward, shoving his hand aside and grabbing his gun. She turns to look over her shoulder at three shadowy figures standing at a distance, calmly watching the proceedings.

John is still breathing faintly as she walks past his body and leaves the alley.]

B - adurere

[Whoever is waking up next to Shaw is definitely getting kicked; sorry about that. In her defense, it's not a hard kick, and she doesn't mean to do it; she withdraws her foot as soon as it makes contact.]

Where the hell--?

[She mutters, sitting up and surveying the unfamiliar room.]

Okay, I'm calling hallucination; no chance anywhere around here still looks this good.

Chloe Frazer | Uncharted

[desperate_times_right]

[Starters will be posted below. I will match either prose or brackets. Plotting comment here. Feel free to wildcard under this comment, or contact me via plurk at nonhoration or discord at nonhoration with ideas.]

Open Prompts

[desperate_times_right]

Around Milton and Lakeside

At first, Chloe is alarmed at the sight of the green fog curling through the air. The last time they'd seen fog like this, it had severely burned her face after just a momentary exposure. However it soon becomes clear that this fog is different.

For the first time in months, she's feeling energized and healthy. She can be found working in the greenhouse quite often, and also running around town and even making a trip to Lakeside. She doesn't quite trust the weather to hold long enough to try for Silverpoint, but even this feels great.

Despite concerns she might have in other arenas, she can't hide her cheerfulness right now. Anyone she encounters gets a smile and a friendly wave.

"Some weather, huh?"

Buried Echoes (potential cws: mild blood and gore, death, non graphic allusions to torture)

It's not all fun and games with the green fog, though. Yes, she's heard the voice in the fog by now, but the Darkwalker's got to try harder than that to scare her these days.

Soon, however, sometimes when she's talking to someone, friend or not, the fog begins to shimmer, showing a man and two women - one of whom is a younger Chloe in black leather jacket - in an ornate chamber with a large window, and a decorative pillar in its centre shaped like a tree. The same scene plays out, again and again. Somehow, the tenth time dredges up the same sense of dread as the first.

"Oh, not this again."

Come on, Darkwalker, she already knows this is her fault.

Konstantin Veshnyakov | Sputnik + Edward Little | The Terror

[sputnik]

CLOSED STARTERS

plot post / horreur / hagfishs @ discord

Randvi | Assassin's Creed

[meadqueen]

[Starters will be posted below. I will match either prose or brackets. Plotting comment here. Feel free to wildcard under this comment, or contact me via plurk at nonhoration or discord at nonhoration with ideas.]

Open Prompts

[meadqueen]

Around Milton, late June and early July (please note in your header if you want to avoid Clair Obscur spoilers)

Randvi’s little expedition will be heading back to Silverpoint soon, so she's taking a few days to stock upon supplies and say goodbye to her friends in Milton. Her excitement is tempered by sadness at the disappearances of Jon and Lyanna, so she's often wearing a complicated expression.

"I wanted you to know that I will be leaving soon."

Encounters on the road, early July, one on one or group threads optional, Clair Obscur spoilers likely

They're travelling at a bit of a slower pace than she had on her first trip, but that does have its own benefits. Now that she's more familiar with the route, Randvi can truly explore and take in the area. Sometimes she splits off from her group with Ulfrùn in order to investigate things she hadn't been able to explore last time.

Anyone she encounters on the road gets a raised hand in greeting.

"Hail, it's Randvi."

Territory (please note in your header if you want to avoid Clair Obscur spoilers)

They aren't in Silverpoint long before Randvi's group has decided to investigate the Cannery, which had been off limits on Randvi's previous visit. The reason for this becomes quickly apparent.

During some of the battles with the wolves, Randvi occasionally becomes separated from her group. She's got her spear in hand, and one hand bared despite the cold for ease in harnessing her fire abilities to scare off the creatures.

Once she spots another person, she's running directly to their side.

"Are you injured?"

Travel Prompts | for Teddy and Maelle, threads will include Clair Obscur spoilers

[meadqueen]

Lakeside

Randvi leads Teddy and Alicia on the newer route to Lakeside, so that she doesn't need to take two new people - one with limited vision and one with a dog - through the mines. This is still a bit of an adventure, as they need to cross the lake to get to the habitable cabins, and Randvi has to walk each of her party through offering a gift to the creature in the lake for passage.

"The creature is called Nor'pogo. So long as you give it an offering before stepping onto the ice, it will not harm you."

Buried Echoes - on the road to Silverpoint (cw arranged marriage)

After a night in a luxury cabin in Lakeside, the group makes their way through the frigid waters of the flooded hydrodam without incident.

"We are making good time. I estimate that we will be in Silverpoint in four or five more days," Randvi says as she prepares the evening's fire. "In two, we will reach a waystation and have a roof over our heads for the night."

The green fog has been swirling above their heads all day, but it seems to thicken now, like ink dropped into water. "Watch out, fog here can be dangerous -" Randvi warns, but the world is already shifting and changing.

It resolves into the dim light of a bathhouse at night, with a torch casting dancing shadows onto the far wall as the wind howls outside. A slightly younger Randvi sits in water not quite up to her shoulders, crying quietly as a battle scarred blond woman sitting on a bench behind her braids her hair. The woman tells increasingly ridiculous stories about her brother falling off of horses and out of trees until Randvi laughs.

Present-day Randvi stares in horror, but can't do much but say, "No."

They are treated to a sort of a book of the ensuing years of Randvi's life: standing stiff and nervous as she's married to a man she's never met, trying to settle into village life in Fornburg, standing on the dock as ships leave and return, travelling by longship to England and constructing a settlement there. In every image Randvi is clearly watching the blonde woman at the expense of all else.

She shakes her head as the fog recedes. "It was not like that."

Arriving in Silverpoint

The trip has been draining in many ways, but the motley group has finally arrived in Silverpoint.

"You have both made it," Randvi announces with no small amount of pride. "There is an inn here where we can stay while we are here, but I plan to go order a drink and a hot meal first. Would you like to join me?"

Territory

Both of her fellow travellers have expressed an interest in exploring the Cannery, so after making sure that both are adequately armed she leads them through the bitter cold of the coast to the site.

When she sees the first body lying in the snow, bones picked clean, her heart sinks.

"Wolves."

Maelle | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

[shewhograspsthesky]

[OOC Note: Clair spoilers are inevitable even if the initial prompt is spoiler-free. Maelle will be in Milton Early July and very Late July but will be around Silverpoint for the middle of the month. Also~ I am taking a lot of ~creative liberties~ with her Buried Echoes memory as we never get specific details of what happened in canon so apologies for that in advance.
Content Warning: Burning, death, house fires.
If you wanna plan something specific feel free to attack by PM, plurk or discord @ alexceptionally. Original plotting post found here. If you wanna wildcard, go for it~!!]

Buried Echoes

Buried Echoes - Contains Act 2 Epilogue Spoilers for Clair

When the memory comes it does so with a wave of heat. White hot burning flames surround a room and in the center stands Alicia. She tries covering her mouth from the flames and smoke, but it’s useless. She’s choking and it’s clear she won’t last much longer. She cries for help and makes it to the door only for the handle to sear her hand at its touch. She screams again, stumbling back in the thick black smoke, overwhelmed she falls.

Whatever she sees is hazy, clouded by the thick smoke and endless fire. But what is distinct is a voice, "You’re ok." She believes it. She knows that voice, it’s her brother’s. It’s Verso. He’ll help her, keep her safe. He picks her up, carries her and all while the flames engulf them both. There are screams and shrieks just when it seems like the smoke has cleared but she’s barely conscious to register who is crying now. But dread slowly settles in with the end of the memory. Verso didn’t make it. But she did.

Adurere
When she awakens it’s with alarm that anyone is near her on a bed that isn’t her own. She stands quickly and realizes soon after that everything in the room is wrong. It feels out of place to her as if something hanging in the air is amiss. She takes a few steps around the room, careful and cautious as she approaches a framed photograph on a bureau. Her fingers trace the frame’s edges as she stares at the faces depicted. She’ll turn as if finally acknowledging the other person in the room.

"What- What is this place?" Her voice is a dry, harsh rasp.

Silverpoint
Who knows how she made it here. Without Randvi and Teddy she would have died long before even reaching the dam. But they did it. Did she slow them down? Yes. Did she nearly die at one point? Probably. Was it worth it to see more of the island? Absolutely. She hasn’t been in Milton long enough to even be stir crazy, but she’s relieved to find it isn’t in its own isolated dome, that there are people elsewhere.

She spends time walking the roads of Silverpoint, looking around and just watching. Everything here, just as Milton, is different and yet the same from what she’s used to. Despite all she watches, it’s hardly any people or passersby, she’s more interested in the landscape and getting to know the layout of this town. She notices the lighthouse just as well and makes a note to herself that she’ll have to visit it one day, even if it isn’t today. It reminds her of something... cold, sad, distant.

Lakeside

[shewhograspsthesky]

Clair Spoilers

She stares back at the lake as they cross, marveling that this is even real. This doesn't seem normal, but something she'd find within a canvas. A creature that guards a lake? A creature demanding offerings just to cross that lake? This can't be real. Maybe it's just more things the aurora has touched and influenced within this island.

She looks back to Randvi curiously. "What ..kind of offerings? Do we need to give it more on the way back?"

A

[desperate_times_right]

[This mist really is great for Chloe. Once again she's outside, running just to run around after being all but trapped in her house for months.

While she easily spots Shaw, she doesn't see the alley at first because of how dim the mist makes everything. She looks like she's on her last legs, shaking and shivering in the street, expression blank, and she's wearing just a hoodie in the snow for some reason.

Before Chloe can get to her to see what’s up, Shaw raises her arm and fires her gun. She may not have caught the conversation, but Chloe hears that and yelps in a way that is definitely not cool. A guy she hadn't even noticed before immediately goes down, still alive but it's not looking good.]

Shaw!

[Maybe it's not smart to draw the woman’s attention right now, but self-preservation is a trait that Chloe’s never been accused of having.]

What's going on? Who is that?

Re: Lakeside

[meadqueen]

“It does not seem to matter as long as it receives an item.” This is a relief, as making sacrifices of things that actually matter would eventually make travel in Lakeside prohibitive. “I typically carry some small stones with me for the purpose. It requires a gift each time you cross the lake. We could go around, but it would add more time to our trip.”

Levi | Fear & Hunger 2: Termina

[solitarysoul]

Buried Echos

CW: Child Soldiers and Death thereof, War & Violence

Levi does not like it when the air or light takes on a green hue. Rher's light had been a sickly green and here its never been anything good. The Darkwalker is associated with that color. That month last year was that color. So when it starts showing up again he feels uneasy and does his best to avoid pockets of it. But he can't avoid it when its everywhere.

He's not in town when the Darkwalker comes to him, but he's not far from it in the woods between Milton and the basin. He freezes at the voice, drawing his bow though he knows it won't do any good. "Fuck you," he snarls at the voice.

This was perhaps a bad idea, or perhaps what followed would have happened either way. But when Levi moves again the scene shifts from the cold woods to field of mud and barbed wire. Levi freezes again, eyes going wide as the sounds and sights of the war spread out around him. There's a body at his feet, and a few others can be seen in mud where they fell. Victim to either the enemy's gunfire or a mine.

They are all too small to be soldiers.

((reminded of other Content Warnings that may or may not come up.
Feel free to hit me up with other plotting! Also I'll match your style, I just default to prose))

[cactusy]

[Shaw doesn't react. There's no indication that she's purposefully ignoring Chloe - she simply continues on with her earpiece conversation as if she and John are the only ones in the alley.

They're not, though, and Chloe isn't the only exception. Another Shaw - one dressed appropriately for the weather, this time - jogs up, and without stopping to so much as glance at Chloe, she beelines for her double and makes a wild grab for her shoulder.

Her hand goes right through.]

[wingbound]

And of course, as luck would have it, Levi is there too.

Maybe they've teamed up for a hunt again. Maybe they've figured it's safer to travel together when the sky is like this, or perhaps Levi had returned to this side of the island just recently and wanted a 'report'. Maybe it's just for company.

But he's there, and when the green intensifies, swirls around them and makes reality melt away like a honeycomb over a fire, he's pulled in, too.

Explosions. Gunfire. Artillery.

Immediately, he tenses, crouches low, eyes wide, hands instinctively moving to -- a weapon, a non-functional trigger of his cables, just about anything that would normally be in reach. Instead, he's met face to face with a corpse.

It's small. Too small. For a moment, it's as if he's in the Underground again, gazing down a dark, muddy alley before his mother's hand covers his eyes and gently turns his face away, rushing him along, but the stench clings to him like an illness.

He stares, tries reaching for it, perhaps looking for a pulse, but his fingers never touch flesh, as if it's just an image on the surface of still water that ripples away without allowing contact.

[solitarysoul]

Looking for a pulse wouldn't have done any good anyway. The small body isn't breathing and upon closer inspection is riddled with bullet holes and what looks like one knife wound. Levi's eyes dully track the other Levi as he moves, but its uncertain how much he processes.

"N-n-n-no no n-no, t-t-this isn't right."

[desperate_times_right]

Shaw! [Chloe tries again. Hopefully this isn't going to wind up as one of those “she's the real double, shoot her!” things.]

What the hell is going on?

[shewhograspsthesky]

Clair Spoilers

She smiles and there's a dry, harsh laugh. "So it likes.. rocks."

[meadqueen]

“It truly seems to like anything.” Randvi doesn't really understand it either. “Rocks, small scraps of cloth, dried meat, a dull blade…”

[shewhograspsthesky]

Clair Spoilers

It reminds her of Esquie and his rocks. Although it sounds like Esquie might be a bit more picky than Nor'pogo. "Well, that should be easy enough." And just like that, it feels like some of the initial excitement of travel starts to fade. She huffs a breath. "We're.. close to a place we can rest, right?" She's been doing her best not to complain or worry either of them. Her legs are fine, but her breathing has been struggling for what feels like an hour now. Admittedly, the laugh probably wasn't her smartest decision but she couldn't help it.

[meadqueen]

“Yes. Once we cross the lake, there are cabins on the other side where we can rest out of the weather.” They should enjoy it while they can, since they will need to sleep out in the open for most of the trip to Silverpoint.

“You’ve done well.” She knows the girl had been concerned about her ability to make the journey.

[shewhograspsthesky]

Clair Spoilers

"Thanks." If she had more breath in her, it might sound almost sarcastic. But instead it's short, stagnant and sounds like she's been sprinting for the last day. She knew she was weak, but this is her first time testing her limits and all she feels is disappointment. At least they'll be in a cabin tonight, she knows to be grateful for that much. As much as she enjoys the open sky, this isn't the climate for it.

"After this, where are we making camp?"

— Wynonna Earp. (spoilers for The Terror will be in this thread!)

[fidior]

[ He feels the shift. Subtle at first, but with how ill he's been these past months, held captive in the ache of his own skin by the relentless sunlight, any reprieve at all is alarmingly noticeable, to Edward.

It's the fog. He figures that out quickly enough. He can feel what's behind it, deep down in his spirit — what causes that sharp sensation of alertness in the air, that rumbling drone. It already exists in him too, now. To others, the acerbic green prickles unpleasantly, frightening. To Edward, it brings only comfort.

He regains some strength, vitality. And then more of it, and more. He's better than he can remember being in so long. Not quite as well as he is in true darkness (when his senses are all so alive and capable, when he feels the uninhibited power of a predator), but a shade or two thinner than that. Still, it's enough for now. He can actually move, breathe, think, feel. The closest he's had to this are those little spurts of energy that come right after— taking, from Wynonna. When the part of her life-force that's entwined with the powers of this place becomes his, or some of it. When she shudders weaker, and he breathes in stronger, hands clasped against hers or grasping her forearms or holding her to his body like an embrace with one arm lifted around her and one hand pressed to her cheek. He has to be physically touching her. He hates what his hands have done to the person he would do anything to protect.

He's outside the cabin when the fog rolls in heavier than it has before. For the first time in a very long time, he's been able to shed his outer layers upon stepping outside, coat and vest left on a hook inside, the sleeves of his jumper rolled up towards his elbows. He won't dare chance this for long, but for just a little, he indulges in being able to be physically active again beneath the sun. He chops wood, energised, and then the fog's coming closer, and he feels alarm as he turns his head towards it but he also feels yearning — and that awareness is a horror, but he won't shirk from it. His body's turning to face it now too, letting it reach him. He could almost cry for how good it feels to roll in upon him, easing anything remaining that hurts, anything that's tired and ill, easing the cruelty of the sun's light. He closes his eyes for just a moment, and when he opens them again, the sky above is too dark, and growing darker by the second. And the fog is moving towards the cabin, where Wynonna's inside.

Edward's heart jumps, and he's calling out loudly to her, dropping his axe to the ground, taking a step towards the small home they've shared for nearly three months now as he readies himself to go find her, though his vision is rapidly becoming clouded by the thickening miasma. They find each other when something dangerous happens, and even though he doesn't particularly feel in danger (every part of him wants to keep welcoming that fog around and in), they all know what happened the last time a green fog like this rolled in and swept across Interlopers. ]

Miss Earp! Something's happening outside— it's the fog! Be careful!

[meadqueen]

Clair Obscur spoilers

After her own injury, it had taken Randvi months of work to be strong enough to make this trip herself. She remembers well enough how frustrating that had been.

“Tomorrow we will make our way through the hydrodam, and we will see how we all feel once we are on the other side. After that, we will need to rest on the road. Halfway through there is a waystation where we can stay for a night.”

[shewhograspsthesky]

Clair Spoilers

"What's after the hydrodam?" There is a tinge of concern to her question. She's undoubtedly slowing them down. But eventually there will come a point where she can't simply turn around. If they have to see how everyone feels, surely whatever comes after is worse.

— James Fitzjames.

[fidior]

[ The past months have been very strange. Time itself has moved strangely, the summer sun relentlessly un-ending. Edward stays reclusively away from the world around him, with only Wynonna Earp for company (and so much more than only that; she's his life-line in every sense of the word. Her company is something he holds to happily and lovingly most days, and desperately others. He feeds from her enough so that he doesn't lose control of himself again.)

And his world becomes that. Seclusion, the agony of sunlight that won't end, Wynonna there with him. He loses the others. Many leave, heading out to the new path carved out in this unknown land. Weeks and months pass, and he doesn't see any of them. He wonders if news will come to reach him one of these days, that another of his precious ones have died in some horrific manner. Not a day goes by that he doesn't think of Crozier.

Then the fog starts rippling in, creeping at first, then sweeping in heavier and thicker. The more it comes, the better he feels — and he knows it's because the horrible thing this green miasma was born from also lives within him now, too. He's able to properly leave his little cabin again. He's coming alive.

One day he hears wind of Fitzjames returning from Silverpoint. Edward hasn't dared to properly meet John yet, and certainly not Kate, but— he's filled with immediate need to seek out James, worried for his state and what so much time in a new place filled with potential new horrors might have done to him. He's also missed him. And so he heads to Fitzjames' doorstep, apprehensive and aching to see him all at once, not knowing if he'll truly even be here. He knocks at the door, still looking rather worse for wear, shadows of fatigue darkening his eyes, complexion pallid, but physically he's feeling better than he has in a very long time. And when he speaks up, his voice is loud and rich through the wooden door. He might almost sound like himself again, for a moment. ]

Sir? Are you inside? It's Edward.