descent

[cancrymods]

growing heavy for the vintage

Like flakes of snow, the days spent in the Sloth Layer slowly but surely begin piling up. Life here is quiet and easy, even with the anxiety that comes with needing to move onto the next layer. But as the days drag out, so do the mysteries at play here – with the gradual uncovering of the odd doppelgangers and the seeming lack of any way to proceed to the next layer, it leaves the Executors at a loss for what to do. Until one day, everything changes. It comes entirely without warning – the ground lurches under everyone's feet in a sickeningly familiar way as a brief but violent earthquake rattles through the town. Then all of you feel it; a snapping sensation deep from the very foundations of Purgatory followed by the most cataclysmic impact any of you have experienced in your lives – or unlives. Snow explodes up from the ground, houses creak and lurch and the whole layer seems as though it might shatter apart under your feet. It seems like it's going to last forever. Then, finally, it stops. The silence that follows is even more pronounced in comparison to the hell-rattling noise from before, but as some semblance of calm starts to return, you realize several things. First is how eerily quiet the town is. Surely after all that, you'd hear a Specter or two... but there's nothing. Secondly – a splash of something wet strikes your cheek. Then again. Until it becomes clear that the weather has taken a sudden drastic turn and in place of the gentle snowfall from before, the heavens have opened with a torrential rainfall. Why? Possibly because of the steadily growing heat you suddenly feel burning up through the foundation of the layer and radiating out through the town. Will you investigate?

Comments

[schardynfreude]

An old version of myself, one could say.

[He gives a vague motion to Wolfsbane's whole...yeah.] And? What of you?

[emberserker]

That's...

[She actually looks thrown off, as if she for some reason hadn't expected anyone to point out the crystal shards sticking out of her. Shaking her head, Wolfsbane puts on her usual air of superiority.]

Death taking one more insult for the road, that's all. Hardly worth mentioning, nor as perplexing as yours, unless you died of fashion.

[schardynfreude]

Your form has taken on that which has killed you? Troubling. But, at least it was an exciting way to go!

[emberserker]

Don't give me that nonsense. It was part of me by that point, anyway, or I'm sure I wouldn't be walking around like this. Really, you've become more and more insufferable.

[daughterofthemark]

I think both of you appear quite striking!

[emberserker]

........thank you, Veil. Or Arianna, or whoever you've decided on.

[daughterofthemark]

I'm not altogether certain yet.

[mementomoritz]

Does it hurt? [Medic has been silently fussing over those crystal shards ever since she caught sight of them, and only the need to keep healing Lion is keeping her from jumping over there for a closer look.]

Because even if surgical removal isn't an option you want to explore, if it's causing you discomfort we can work on improving quality of life! ...Um. Quality of death?

[emberserker]

[She looks off for a second. Even knowing how Medic is, the offer throws Wolfsbane off, and the question of how it feels sends her back to that moment when she almost had everything (literally) in her grasp and then...? And then VIOLA KATZE's bladed tail piercing the stone projected into the ARMANOX, and the damage reflecting on the real one in the cockpit, in her, and the mage who would be Wolfsbane losing her grip and collapsing to the floor, screaming as her soul was sucked out of her dying body.

She shakes her head.]

We can deal with it later. We're almost to the end now, and Ardyn's current state is far more concerning.

...thank you, Medic.

[schardynfreude]

Concerning.

[emberserker]

What would you call it?