Personification Life, the Universe, & Everything [IC]

[Monfrox]

Frozen Rain

The meeting came to a resounding close, and the trio had celebrated by getting some much needed food and water into their systems. Candida had returned as well and helped them warm their food up. Though it was nice, the night was still going and they were running out of time. Candida led them all out of the basement and up to the main hall. Ford was allowed to pick a rifle if he so wanted, but they had to move fast. The white-haired girl threw the hood of her parka over her head and wrapped a scarf around her neck before she led them out into the cold.

"The shadow people are what worries us out here, not the Germans. But the shadow people are blind. That makes traveling at night both good and bad, but we can get through this. Just follow me. Do as I do."

And do as she did, they...uh...did. Though not able to really see them, the shadow people were definitely around. The moans and cries resonated in the otherwise quiet woods they trudged through. Candida seemed to know where she was going, and any doubt had been removed after a half hour between stopping and starting, as she helped them avoid the shadow people wandering about. Now, they stared at the bunker from the treeline. Spotlights, machine guns, pillboxes, watchtowers, guard posts. It had everything, and yet it didn't seem out of place. Nestled quietly into the middle of nowhere, it barely looked like it was built there. Rather, almost made naturally. But this was the final stop on the rescue mission, and even the music seemed to know that.

"I'm afraid this is where we part ways. I cannot take you into the bunker, and if I am caught, I will certainly be executed as an enemy saboteur. Good luck, friends. I'm certain you will bring your friend home."

Candida gave each of them a hug before she turned and headed back, vanishing into the dark of the night and leaving the group alone at the proverbial gate.

Feast

Before Lidev could really make a reply, Mon had called for her.

"Hey, go set the table."

"Sure thing. DINNER TIME!" She announced.

Mon went to placing main courses along the middle of the table as Lidev handled plates and silverware. Luckily, everything was stocked. Within about five minutes, the table was set and the food on it. There was almost anything and everything to eat.

"Get it before it goes cold, everyone!"

[Northwest Slobovia]

Frozen Rain

The hike to the base went as Ford desired: no contact with the enemy, one of two rules of battle Sandy had first-hand experience of.

As he stared slackjawed at the German 'bunker', he recalled the second rule. The other, actually, is Amanda's rule: 'an ambush has a right side and a wrong side, and it's better to be on the right side.' But this place doesn't seem to have a right side.

With a slow shake of his head, he whispered to Willow and Sterling. “This isn't... real, uh, historical. There was nothing like this in Belgium, and if there'd been, the Allies would have bombed it into dust when they liberated the country. Somebody is just messing with us.”

After a moment. “Allies: the less bad side in this war. America, where Sandy's from; England, where Minerva's from; and Russia, the... most bad of the less bad. Only distinguishable from the Nazis in amount of wickedness, not degree.” He returned to looking out over the fortress, squinting to try to make out something. “My kingdom for binoculars... Brit's diary said something about ventilation shafts, but that's just further messing around. No real fortification would be that vulnerable.”

Ford turned away and looked off into the darkness, letting his magically-enhanced eyes readapt. “Let's take a walk around. Whatever it is may not be on this side.”


Holiday Feast

Amanda caught Sandy reaching for the potted grape seedling out of the corner of her eye, begged the Froxians' pardon, and hurried over to him. “Dear, perhaps you'd like to say what you're going to do with that?”

He began his answer with a crooked grin. “Ultimately, these mid-winter holidays all trace back to the agricultural cycle, and once upon a time, Dionysus was an agricultural god. I was just going to thank him for the wi-- Oh, don't give me that look; all I have is a couplet, probably the end of a longer prayer. Some very naughty person – apparently only a few years before the Mouseion burned, to judge by the book's tag – violated the sanctity of his Mysteries and wrote it down. It won't take more than a few seconds.”

With a flick of her index finger, Amanda set the golden angel she'd hung from the seedling rocking. “And you don't mind if I say Grace?”

“I never have before.”

Amanda's dirty look made Medusa look beautiful. “I've never asked before.”

Sandy shrugged. “The Big Guy's just downstairs; do you want Him to think you're--”

Amanda's tone hardened. “He knows it's not for Him. Anyway, the Olympians can't hear you.”

“Insha'Demens”, Sandy chuckled, before doing his best to sing the hexameric verses in key. He spent a moment conjuring a glass full of Naxiote wine, which he poured over the seedling, completing the ritual celebration of the agricultural year. Amanda, for her part, waited until she was decently seated at the table before mumbling through the Christian Grace. First time in... nineteen years? Seems about right. Well, happy birthday, Jesus!

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Feast

Oh dear, oh dear. I'm going to be very late, aren't I?

These thoughts and similar ones ran through Meritari's mind as she took quick strides across the hallways of the Building, making her way to the so-called Winter Feast that Sandy and Amanda had invited her too. She'd been around for a few months now, so of course she had memorized how to get to the important locations... for the most part, and of course she had memorized what floor the dining hall was on! She just lagged behind a little in remembering!

That's not to say that she'd been held back so long by such trivial matters, though. In reality, if these had been the only issues, she would've arrived only a bit later than everyone else, and well in time to attend to the start of the feast with her fellow Chosen. The one thing that actually held her back was that in her attempt to cook some food to contribute to the feast - which she had been told is customary in the Building - she had pretty much set fire to her kitchen.

The issue was fortunately resolved by now, but it took its toll. The tips of Meri's hair were now singed, she was late to the feast, and she bore a clay tray with one large piece of emmer bread dressed with honey, baked according to a recipe from her birthplace, instead of two.

Let's hope they haven't started already... The Kemetian pleaded as she opened the door to the dining room and walked inside.

Oh dear. They've already started.

"I see you've already started." She observed in a very helpful manner, so as to inform the inhabitants of the room that they were currently in the process of feasting. "Sorry for being late. I brought a little something, if anyone still has some space." She added in an attempt to draw attention away from her absurd previous sentence, raising her tray for emphasis.

[Giovenith]

Frozen Rain

Belgium; America; England; Russia. These names meant nothing to Willow and yet he could tell that they contained a great deal of baggage behind them by the way Ford said them. It reminded him that in a grander scheme, the Equestrian really didn't know all that much about humankind. It seemed obvious, in hindsight, that a race with such a capacity for war would have developed complex divides amongst themselves. But that was irrelevant now, in the fantastical reflection of that war.

"It's not real." Willow replied coldly, eyes locked on the building. It was not out of spite towards Ford. It wasn't even entirely in reply to him. It was a self-reminder, a mental preparation as Willow slipped into a defensive state at the feeling of the foretold shadows all around them. They'd seemed to had lucked out in avoiding them thus far, but that meant nothing. If they were anything like before, they were just stalking, waiting for the right moment.

But he remembered. They wouldn't get him again. And if they tried to get Sterling, or Brit, or anyone else, he'd be the one breaking them this time. Promise.

Willow whipped his head around the area at Ford's suggestion, senses peeled for where the things were treading. Candida said they were blind, but not much else about how they got around. Still, they wouldn't need much sight if hapless wanderers like themselves were bumbling through the night without consideration. Feeling like it was safe for now, he nodded.

"Let's go." He took the lead, and slowly, used the gun to gently prod ahead of him in case he failed to spot something. He was still pretty sure he couldn't shoot for shit, but it was better than using his arms. "And stay close. And..." Willow trailed, not sure how to word the advice he was considering. "... and no matter what happens, remember that I won't ever abandon you. Ever." With that bizarre and seemingly out of place uplift, he trudged on.

In the Unknown

"Oh, the abyss gets way more flack than it actually deserves," the young woman huffed irreverently at Dax's quotation, leading him down an unseen hill. Everything seemed black and shapeless, and yet a path seemed to form anyway. "It plays its role in things, you just have to get used to it. Besides, it leads to that."

She pointed ahead at a growing light that becoming slowly more and more ginormous as they approached it. It was a deep and powerful orange, and it elongated into tendrils that swirled around the two as they approached.

"Mister Liebsturk, was it?" Giovenith asked, reading into her pocket and pulling out an apple. She casually tossed it over to him. "You strike me as the kind of guy who worries about his place in things a lot. Most of us here do, in some way or another. But it's really one of those things you've got to let go of, there's no sense in worrying over things that aren't your job."

Finally, they approached the source of the light. The pure inkiness gave way to a more shaded darkness, with pinpricks of more light in the distance and shadows cast on them by newly forming red giant star they walked above. They were in space, and yet not in space, able to see the marvel as clearly as if they were in person without suffering any of the heat, lack of oxygen, or apparent lack of mass to stand on.

"You see this?" she gestured to the star. "Where do you think this is happening in?"

[Northwest Slobovia]

Holiday Feast

"Sorry for being late. I brought a little something, if anyone still has some space." She added in an attempt to draw attention away from her absurd previous sentence, raising her tray for emphasis.

"Oh, you brought bread!" Amanda followed the tray with interest, then sniffed the air. "Or cake? Either way, just set it down and take a seat."

Sandy stood to help clear a spot for the tray, then looked up at the Kemetian. "Bread as you're used to? That'll be... definitely something worth trying!"

[Holy Lykos]

Frozen Rain

After the breakneck... dinner? Midnight lunch? Who cared, it was food, even if they had to eat it stupid fast to keep going. But it was food, and it was water. Sterling needed that to keep his energy up, maybe even in this strange fake world. Who in tartarus even knew if they did, but it helped calm his nerves.

But they had to move on. And this news of the shadows being blind, the trudging through snow and night towards something called a bunker and further danger, the strange music resuming once again... Sterling had no idea what to expect here. But Brit must be here, of all places. In the darkness of this castle of death. Sterling had no idea how to interpret the harsh stone and metal structure. There simply was no point of reference save the castles of royals in his homeworld. This was a twisted comparison, however, given the bright, lovely, and friendly shapes of castles in Celestia's realm.

Sterling was happy enough to give a firm hug to Candida. Affection simply came naturally to him as many ponies. He turned his head to watch her disappear into the darkness before speaking, and after the other two. "The music's back. I feel this is almost like a film, at this point, isn't it?" He dropped the topic to focus on the task though, stepping forward with boots crunching the snow on the ground, following after Willow with firearm slung over his shoulder.

"Should we simply walk around until something is pointed out? Phantasms of Brit seem happy enough to guide us to her so far. But I feel now that we must be so close... perhaps they will be less so."

[Monfrox]

Frozen Rain

The machine guns were not manned. The spotlights did not move. And the guardposts were empty. For a huge bunker in the middle of the frontline, it seemed rather barren. In the snow, there was drifts and mounds, but Ford could tell that, even after several days, some areas were more low than the rest. In the sense, it wasn't hard to figure out that these small indentations in the snow used to be footprints that had now been filled in after a few days of snowfall. There was also the distinct chatter of gunfire, but muted very heavily. The only explanation was that it was coming from inside the bunker.

Feast

Mon smiled as Meritari came by.

"Not often I get so much help with cooking. Have a seat, we're all ready to eat anyway."

Lidev went about pouring the wine into the glasses for everyone before she found herself a seat next to her compatriot.

"Don't be shy, now."

[Northwest Slobovia]

Frozen Rain

In the sense, it wasn't hard to figure out that these small indentations in the snow used to be footprints that had now been filled in after a few days of snowfall. There was also the distinct chatter of gunfire, but muted very heavily. The only explanation was that it was coming from inside the bunker.

Ford stopped in his tracks, letting the others trudge forward has he tried to strained to catch more of what he thought he heard. He cursed under his voice, then hissed to the others. "Guys, something's happening in the fort! I hear sounds of fighting... a firefight. Could be Brit, but... after a day there, I... don't know what could be happening. Could be other-- Allied forces could be attacking from the other side, which is draw...ing..."

As he spoke, he caught something up ahead, and trailed off looking over Willow's shoulder. His eyes followed the trail of footsteps, and then his head, first to one side, where the trail disappeared into the darkness, and then back to the other, as they went around drifts towards the fort.

Ford took a step forward, paused, carefully looked over the near side of the fort to verify that it was still unmanned, and then took a few more steps for a better view. "Footprints, along here", he pointed out as he passed the transformed Equestrians, "Leading...." He placed his feet into the footprints with care, walking around a drift. "There!" He pointed excitedly to a chest-high structure half-buried in the snow. "That's it! The vent! Brit pried the, uh, vent grate out of the housing." A corner of the grating stuck up through the new snow near the dark opening.

After glancing back at the empty defenses, Ford rubbed his cheek while he thought. "Hoo, boy!" He turned to his companions. "In the way Brit went, or through the front door nobody's minding?" A long silence, then: "And for stealth or for blood?" He turned back to the fortress, pointing. "Through the gate, up those stairs, and try to take a machine gun from its mount. Just the ticket for an indoor slaughter... if that's what we want.

"I..." Ford stared into the darkness beyond Sterling, half thinking aloud. "I'd rather sneak in, but without a weapon, against an unknown number of opponents in an unknown area...? But, um, I'm not sure I could kill men in cold blood, even... um, 'imaginary' Nazis. If this isn't entirely unreal, if this has any reality to it... just draped in illusion, no telling what we're killing. I... hoo, what a choice!"

[OOC: Description approved by Mon.]

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Holiday Feast

---

---

"Cake? Ah, no, not exactly..." Meritari replied to Amanda. Perhaps it would've been better for her to bake some cake instead? That would've certainly fit the festive spirits more, from what she had learned of these winter holidays at least. "Yes, bread as I'm used to. It was a little difficult to get the flour, though." She told Sandy with a nod, placing down the tray on the space he had helped clear up. Difficult was an understatement: it had been an authentic odyssey to figure out what the grain her people used was called by the people of Bielefeld, though the rest was relatively easy to get.

Hearing Mon's welcoming words, the Kemetian smiled and nodded. "Thank you!" She sat down close to the Belas and looked around at the sheer amount of diverse foods that were present on the table, by far dwarfing the scale of the feast she, the Belas and Maghrl had enjoyed in Corellia. Unsure about what to pick, she eventually settled on an appetizing mutton dish and eagerly began digging in, briefly thanking Lidev for the wine.

"You do this every year, yes?" She asked, taking a brief pause from feasting. "Are you in charge of it every time?" She looked at Mon and Lidev.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Holiday Feast

"Cake? Ah, no, not exactly..." [...] "Yes, bread as I'm used to. It was a little difficult to get the flour, though." [...Meritari] eventually settled on an appetizing mutton dish and eagerly began digging in, briefly thanking Lidev for the wine. "You do this every year, yes?" She asked, taking a brief pause from feasting. "Are you in charge of it every time?" She looked at Mon and Lidev.

"Not exactly cake?", muttered Sandy. He cocked his head at the loaf, decided it was a very rich bread, and then took advantage of Meritari's distraction to get up and get a bread knife from the kitchen side of the room.

He offered it to her, handle first. "'cuse me for interrupting. Would you care to the do the honors, or should we just cut our own slices?"

[The World Capitalist Confederation]

In the Unknown

He began to become more comfortable around her, stuttering and trailing off less. "Well, actually, the quote was referring to the fact that reflecting upon your experiences forges you into a new man. In this context, when you look into darkness, you become darkness." Dax said, still stuttering mildly and his speech almost not making sense.

As they approached to the light, he thought that it was a star, or perhaps a black hole glowing orange from Hawking Radiation. He had a minor grasp of science, just not a large one, from his time at Utopia.

"Mister Liebsturk, indeed. Almost Dr. Liebsturk, but what are you going to do about it now? Especially when you're here.." He quipped, remembering the time he went into journalism instead of becoming a professional author or something like that. He grabbed the apple, thinking of it as some sort of analogy for science following Newton's theory. "An apple falls on a man's head, people realise that they can fall. One apple created so much fear within people; they feared the tall.." Dax said, almost as though he was quoting someone. He stared at the star, looking at it and his surroundings with a mix of marvel and confusion.

"This is happening in the middle of nowhere and this is actually an out-of-body experience, as we have exited our bodies from back in the hall!" He proclaimed, as he became less introverted and his more rambly side took over, as it did when he wrote. "Although that is merely one more theory.." He continued, calming down. "Is this a birth analogy or have you led me here to show me how small mankind is? Because trust me, I already know. I'm a nihilist: we're just a small rock in the middle of empty space where there's a star throwing just enough light at us, with then even more empty space and then a sandbox of stars, with some more boxes after that..But then, after that, it's just space that begins to slowly leave us, the fading universe. We'll all die in an empty hell and there's no inherent meaning in humanity. The world is meaningless and eminently worthless. I know that, and yet, I am no sadder for it. Not because I'm a hippie like I used to be, just enjoying life, but because I...well...meaning, truth, they don't matter. They're not the things that give us our place in the universe. We do. So, I guess I'm a humanist then." Dax continued, making a long-winded speech as though it was a monologue.

[Giovenith]

Frozen Rain

There wasn't enough time or energy to worry about what the gunfire was for. They had to focus on what was in front of them, and on the goal ahead. Willow considered.

"Any chance we have at avoiding the enemy, we should take," he finally said. "Sterling is right, we have no idea what the consequences for hurting them is. Besides, even if we get a better weapon, they're still better trained than us, it would be only a matter of time before we go down. We might as well take our best chances and avoid having it come down to that."

Even as he said it, he wasn't sure. But it seemed like the best choice at the time, or at least the least bad.

"Besides, if Brit didn't think it was safe to take them on, we probably don't stand much of a chance either." He went ahead, swung his things to his back, and crouched up to maneuver into the vent.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Holiday Feast

---

Meritari looked away from Mon and Lidev and towards Sandy as he offered her a knife for cutting the bread. "Oh, um, I suppose I can do the honors!" She nodded at the man before grabbing the knife's handle and standing up.

"Fair warning, it tastes very sweet, so keep that in mind if you want to combine it." She said a she deftly used the knife to slice up the loaf into smaller pieces - once upon a time she had marveled at the fact people now had these widespread metal things to eat with, but she had quickly gotten used to it while living in the Building.

"There we go. Have your fill, everyone!"

[Northwest Slobovia]

Holiday Feast

"Fair warning, it tastes very sweet, so keep that in mind if you want to combine it."

Sandy took a slice of bread, and passed the tray down the table. After pulling off a crumb to check the texture -- more like a muffin than the bread he was used to -- he bit into the slice and chewed for a while. Different expressions played across his face as he considered the bread: surprise, delight, puzzlement. "It's not like the breads I bake... different grain, or maybe grains, right? Barley, perhaps? And, um, no soft wheat. Hmmm..."

Amanda enthusiastically ate the slice she took when the tray passed by her, nodding in deep appreciation at Meri. She swallowed most of what she was chewing, took a sip of water, and half-mumbled, half-barked "Pancakes", before nodding at Sandy and then at Meritari. And then she returned to the bread, familiar and homey but novel.

Sandy let half a smile curl his lips, then looked towards the Kemetian. "She means I should show you tēganitēs, Greek pancakes from a... little past your time." He said the last part playfully; practically all of human civilization was past her time. "They're sweet and spicy; the recipe I know is for feeding wealthy scholars."

[Giovenith]

A slender hand reached out towards Dex, and promptly pinched his nose. The young woman waved it a few times before pulling herself closer with a terse smile.

"Want to know a secret, Doctor Liebsturk?" she asked, plainly. "Most people, for everything you just said? They already know that. It's not the eighteen-sixties anymore. 'Life is objectively meaningless' and all that prose stopped being a surprising revelation for anyone but the staunchest traditionalists and sentimentalists a long, long time ago. I didn't bring you here to teach you that, and this place certainly isn't some analogy. So please, don't flatter yourself."

It was a bit more candid than the woman typically spoke, but recent events had left her with little of the patience and flourish she usually put these things in.

"The question..." she said slowly, deliberately. "... isn't what life is 'supposed' to be. That's the easy part. The real question you need to overcome, is what you're going to do with yourself now, now that you've got no one to hold your hand?" Apparently that question did not apply to his nose, as Giovenith wasted no time apparently summoning the gravity of the strange dimension in her favor in order pull Dex along by his nose in order to better observe the evolution of the star. "I brought you to this star to tell you the literal truth, so here it goes: there are gods out there, Mister Nihilist. And there are things bigger than gods. Since before time, they've been maintaining this universe, in a balance between creation, change, and destruction. Their reasons are irrelevant, and it's even less relevant whether or not you would like those reasons or consider them legitimate. What matters is that the forces that be have chosen to bring you here because they require your help in missions across time and space in order to maintain some semblance of order. You're going to fight big ol' monsters, both figurative and literal, and we really don't care if you become one, since so many of us are already monsters to begin with, capiche?"

She finally let go of his nose.

"I'm sure you've come a long way in your journey to figure how the 'hows' and 'whys,' or rather lack thereof, Doctor Liebsturk," she said, in a gentler tone. "But the fact is, the universe has never cared about you figuring out that it doesn't care. Indeed, that's sort of the point. Spending all our time repeating such facts is a waste of our time, subjective though its quality may be. So, let's move on and get back to that real question: What are you going to do now?" She leaned in again. "Are you going to help us to make your existence at least interesting while you wait for it to sizzle out, or are you going to go back home and keep futilely looking for someone to gasp at your revelations?"

[Holy Lykos]

Frozen Rain

"None of us are fighters, so avoidance and words would indeed be the best." Sterling nodded. His foot kicked at the snow on the ground in anxious busy-work. "Let's go in the back way, it'll likely be the one that Brit's nearest. If we can finally catch up with her, we can figure out where to go from there."

Sterling tilted his head for the vent. "Its just our best bet. We get in, we find Brit, we get her out and figure out what we need to do next to get home." Sterling tried his best to sound confident on this, but worry bled through his tone. "If we have to we'll defend ourselves. But without my magic I don't know how much of a use I can be in a fight. I guess these," He gestures as if holding a rifle, "weapons I could use, but they seem much too lethal for my tastes. I'd rather not leave dead here, too., even if imaginary.

"Either way, lets get going. Ford, could you lead the way? You're the human expert."

[Monfrox]

Frozen Rain

The vent it was. It was rather spacious to move a lot of air in and out through the complex, and so one could even stand up enough to crouch through it. The vent went down at an angle and all three of them slid down into the proverbial belly of the beast. Though in the vent, the key Ford had could still had the ability to tell him which way to go. But something was wrong. Very wrong. Everyone could feel it. The whole atmosphere was different. It was disturbing. The chatter of gunfire in the halls was still echoing from far away, but through grates they could see in. Some halls were normal. Completely fine. Some had flickering lights. Streaks and splatters of blood on the walls and floor. Discarded remains of what may have once been someone, but too mangled to really tell now. The farther they went in, the more the blood and bodies became common.

Feast

"Well, we'd like to do it every year but..." Mon looked to Lidev. "Sometimes things come up. We've only now just been able to start doing it again."'

"You should've been here the first time. It was certainly a treat." Lidev said a bit distantly, remembering the simpler times while she made herself a plate.

[Giovenith]

Frozen Rain

Willow froze at the sight of all the blood, but collected himself and breathed deeply (through his mouth, so as not to be overwhelmed by the possible stench.)

"Keep going," he said. "Don't be distracted by it, but keep everything peeled for her." A difficult balance, but one that had to be made regardless. He didn't bother to guess what had caused this — hopefully they wouldn't have to find out.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Frozen Rain

Ford tried to keep his eyes off the evidence of fighting. Sandy had seen worse, but Ford still wore an expression of horror and stunned disbelief. "Looks like somebody... beat us to the slaughter." He fetched the heart-key from his pocket; looking at the threads of ousia streaming from it was far better than looking at the corpses.

[Holy Lykos]

Frozen Rain

"This seems like... some story of horror and despair, rather than real events. It must be. No one could cause such carnage." Sterling shivered as he glanced down the hallways of viscera and blood. He'd never experienced the nastiness Willow had in their own world's history. Sterling unwrapped his scarf, winding it around his mouth and nose. "If you have something to cover your mouth, it might help with the smell."

"Let's keep going. Ford? Which direction?"

[Northwest Slobovia]

Frozen Rain

"This seems like... some story of horror and despair, rather than real events. It must be. No one could cause such carnage."

Ford moved his eyes from the key to Sterling's face, an unhappy expression on his face. "We've done worse. Better you don't read our history."

In answer to Sterling's question, Ford gestured vaguely at an angle to the vent, then took the lead, following the strongest of the filments of magic he could see, and avoiding bodies mostly by peripheral vision. He managed to squelch through a few pools of drying blood, much to his disgust.

The group's course wound along with the vents, ending with them facing another grate, and Ford puzzling at what he beheld. "I think this is it. The ousia seems to trailing off in all directions now. We'll need to get this grate out of our way." He took his gaze off the key, and looked through the grating.

[Giovenith]

Frozen Rain

"Scooch back a bit."

Being small in frame did have its own advantages. Here, Willow was able to maneuver himself around in the small space in order to place his boots against the grate and give it a swift kick—something that felt good and familiar in human form.

[Holy Lykos]

Frozen Rain

Sterling resolved to avoid studying human history in too great detail after the aside from Ford. Humans were quite a violent species, it seemed...

Sterling stepped back, having to keep himself from gagging as he stepped into a blood puddle. "That get the grate open?" Sterling asked. "I can pull if needed, it might need a bit more.

[Monfrox]

Frozen Rain

The grate had been secured, but after a few more tries and a concerted attempt by all three of them, the metal gave way and flew off. The trio found before them...a room. In fact, it looked in a very suspiciously similar layout as the basement and Brit's room from before. Same furniture, same arrangement, same except for the phonograph that was now busted into pieces. There was a table with the medals from before. They were now displayed on the desk. Next to it, in a glass case, was a very realistic looking model of a human heart, entwined and tangled in barbed wire. The door in and out was heavy and made of metal, and secured with a bar.

For it being the same room, it was notably in disarray. The dresser drawers were pulled and open and clothes were all around it. The bed was not made and the blankets were falling off. Something metal gleaned from under a pillow. The desk drawers were also open, with something metal in one of them too. The chair was toppled over. The bookshelf was barren and in disrepair. The endtable was dusty and the lamp lay broken on the floor. The posters were torn and dirtied. Everything looked worse than when Sterling and Willow had first saw it back in Bastogne.

[Giovenith]

Frozen Rain

As an abstract artist, Willow usually thought himself pretty capable of understanding... well, abstract things. But the more this situation unraveled, the more confused he became. It was the same room? Clearly this wasn't a mere case of capture.

"She's not here?" he remarked, carefully dropping the floor and looking around. "Brit!" He called, wondering if maybe she was hiding somewhere in here. No... he had to be thinking symbolically, he kept forgetting that. Where were the symbols leading?

Tentatively, his eyes moved over and winced in disgust at the mangled, displayed heart. He was briefly reminded, rather absurdly, of an old song Gio used to incessantly play back in the day. He saw the medals next to it and remembered the old riddle from before when they found the key...

"Sterling, do you think this has anything to do with that note, or the key?" Willow asked, carefully picked up the model. "Bring the heart outside?" He was willing to try anything at this point.