#intoxication wra

She has a goal. Hope, a light at the end of the tunnel. She won't... She won't give up. The lines of people, devoid of will, movement, just standing there, waiting their turn for their doom. She won't be like them, she will keep going, keep fighting. There are things, and she is starting to feel them. They chase her, she can almost feel them nip at her sometimes. But they couldn't be as bad as just stopping. Falling in line, looking towards doom as hope.

So, she follows her little light. It is elusive, always on the move. But if she listens closely, she can hear the song, hear Alwrenn, remember the comfort he would bring, taught her to bring. He keeps her going, keeps her trying.

The first time she lost the song, she held back her despair, instead humming back. And the song... it was faint, but it came back, she could find it again. It stayed where it was for a moment, let her catch up a bit, before going forwards again.

The second time she lost the song, one of the creatures decided to push her. Creatures lurked around her, and some liked to see just how close they could get before the Light around Schara would just be a bit too bright. But just that hiccup of despair, that tiny moment of doubt when she lost the song, started humming back... The creature had looked like a large slug, just on the edge of what she could sense. At that hiccup, it exploded into a wave of darkness and doubt over her. She wrestled with it, her light dimmed like a blanket had been thrown over it, and all the lurking creatures started swarming, nipping, tugging.

What if she lost the song, lost that bit of hope? Is she strong enough to keep going on her own?

She doesn't know, she doesn't... No.

Alwrenn is her brother in the Light. And he didn't want her to rely on him, he wanted her to know that the Light loves her. And that she is strong. They can guide, help, and lift each other, he had guided her here, given her more hope, but she is a priest in her own right. She can do this.

Pulling in that Light, praying and concentrating, she then straightens and screams at the creatures, to "Get away from me!"

Monstrous shadows turn to rats, bats, and various other scurrying things, fleeing back into the shadows as fast as they can, the blanket shriveling back into a slug and squirming away best it can. Schara ignores it, deciding now is a decent time for a rest. The creatures won't bother her for a bit, she knows.

After that, Schara did hear the song again. And figured that if she needs rest, maybe the times she loses the songs are when Alwrenn is resting. So she clears her area the best she can, and rests too until she can hear the song again, where she sings along to tell him that she's with him again. He waits for her, letting her get a bit caught up, before he gets going again.

She can't always rest the whole time that the song is gone. The creatures are always there, and when she's moving, it's easier to ignore the feeling that something's coming for her. Just resting is more difficult, she has to check the area more, stop her rest and start going again. It feels like something is chasing her, most of the time. So it's easier when she's also moving, but she does need rest, to be able to know she's safe a moment, and on very rare occasions, meditate.

Some of the creatures get braver, the more she tries to take a rest. She has to show a force of the Light to chase them away, if she wants to snag those moments of peace. She knows they are lurking, but she can... she can keep going. She keeps going, and she keeps following Alwrenn, singing to him when she's done with her rest. Because he might need to know she's alright just as much as she needs him, right?

Some things start to become familiar, some places and things she knows she's seen before. And she long ago put aside the idea that Alwrenn was trying to bring her to a physical exit. As things start to become more familiar, she can make things out besides just the deafening roar, shadows and creatures... Maybe he's helping to show her things. Things to pay attention to.

There are plenty of formless shapes that just move around, in and out of the shadows. But one, as she passes... A glint of the eyes here, a smirk of a smile there. One time Schara could almost make out the edges of a face. This shape moves around as much as anything else, but is more distinct than any of the other blobs, she knows... all the glimpses she caught were somehow from the same thing, same person.

And another, she thought it was a creature at first. One of the creatures that poke at her, nip at her heels, keep her going if she stops, try to drag her down. But this one... didn't chase her. She encountered it again, a fearsome, angry beast, snapping, raging, roaring... She avoided it again, but it looked... familiar. That roar, that rage. She'd heard it before.

The third time, she saw the ropes. The snapping beast was tied down, chained, roared with all its fury, but didn't have much space to be snapping at things. And... it -was- a familiar anger. It had yelled at her before. But it's an anger not directed at -her-, it's directed at getting things done, at finding whatever is needed to break chains. Before it had been her own chains, now it had its own chains.

Schara now regularly visited this beast as she continued following Alwrenn's song. Tried to figure what was keeping it down. After a few times, she placed the anger, this was Twitch. He was fighting with everything he had, she could see it. She went as close as she could without the snapping being able to get her, trying to figure out just what was keeping him down. She feels a constant sapping, she knows. Is something like that happening to Twitch too? The chains and bindings, as well as how she saw the beast, changed in form each time she visited, but their existence stayed. And something did seem to be pulling at Twitch. She didn't know what, or how to break the chains, but this was important.

Maybe this was a rescue mission. She doesn't know how she got here, and Alwrenn had been on his own mission before. She's here and Twitch is captured still. This is... a horrible state of being to be in, but... she would be the one better to do it, right? Easier for a Forsaken to be in a strange, weird body world. And then Alwrenn is helping her through it, with the kind of place it is. He probably remembers better than her. That's probably it! Why else would she and Alwrenn be here, right where Twitch is?

She's sorry, Twitch, Alwrenn, that she forgot. She will figure out these chains. And she'll still follow you, Alwrenn, it does keep her going, give the strength to fend off the creatures. But Twitch. Rescue mission. Alright, let's do this.

@intoxication-wra, @mercutiomalache, @liliesandlight, @qualmemalache

It was slow and unpleasant work, sorting through the dead. They gathered up their own, lining them up along the beach with all the rest, and left the Alliance fallen where they lay, food for the crabs and seagulls. The wounded were another matter entirely, and after some discussion and fretting, it was realized they would have to go on The Queen Bitch as well, as that was the only ship properly equipped to handle them. Not exactly the best arrangement, but it was the best they could do.

The rest of the work was left up to more qualified others (implying that he was qualified at all, Seilir thought with some amusement). The Reaver had arrived at last, bringing with her carpenters and shipwrights to get The Kingly Dispute seaworthy again, and now that her cargo of workmen had been delivered, she would be towing the point of this entire bloody venture, the captured ship, back to port at Dead Sun Harbor. Privately Seilir wondered how that was going to go over. The port's proprietors were so unfriendly... He couldn't imagine they'd be pleased with Intoxication trying to effectively set up shop in their territory.

Nor, he remembered, was Intoxication going to be pleased with the way the Dead Sun people had immediately turned tail and retreated the moment things had started to get rough. The blue grimaced and cringed internally just imagining how that was going to go once they were all back at the harbor. He was going to make sure he and Zhell were far out of the firing line for that little confrontation.

...Speaking of Zhellik, Seilir paused in his directions for some of the wounded to make themselves as comfortable as they could on Flaxin's ship, looking around for the young man. He wasn't hard to spot, and as soon as he could, the blue made a beeline for him, guessing that the blacksmith needed all the help he could get right now.

They all did.

All that work -- months of contacts and connections and carefully forged lines of communication -- gone. Fucking gone in two minutes with only a half dozen careless words. And on top of that, five more of their number had now been outed as members of the company within spitting distance of Silvermoon. He should have known better than to let them go that close to the city, at least not without a handler. But he had trusted them, and now Vipers' Cove was ruined. They were ruined.

The only bright side in all of it -- and he had to struggle hard to find something even resembling one -- was Zhellik's conduct throughout the whole thing. The boy hadn't said a word and had even tried to turn the situation into something salvageable. He was learning. Too bad it had to be in the midst of a crisis that might very well cripple them.

He slumped in a chair and buried his head in his hands.

But the hunting. They were low on food, everyone knew it, and every person who was able joined the regular hunting parties. Karise wanted to join them, to get right back up and fighting again, but there is a big difference between being able to move and being able to fight. And the parties had to go pretty far anyway, it's not like there was much that was safe to eat around the lake. It was wonderful when they could bring home a boar, but of course, those hunts are not the easiest.

She understood why she couldn't go yet, she's still recovering. Still, it was frustrating to have to stay back, here at this unnerving place. She did keep busy, able to do more and more each day. There was a lot of clean up and recovery to do from the battle. The ship crashing took out a lot of the courtyard.

They did recovery on the edges, but the mages were keeping a fog up as a protection, and the fog was just too thick where there was damage to the structure. Karise could see all the strange magics, the protections woven in. It wasn't like the tunnels had been, but she still didn't like being near some of them too much. The whole place just had a shifty feel that wasn't quite right.

The manor had been in such a state of disuse, sheets thrown on most of the furniture, but with people gathering for the funeral, they were cleaning it all up. They had a barracks, many bedrooms, and just kept preparing, opening up plenty more space for more guests.

One of those guests came in the other night, Karise saw. The archaeologist they had done a job for here and there. She hadn't interacted with the woman much, but hoped her presence meant there would continue to be jobs. They needed the money. Needed the food...

For now though, she focused on resting as she needed, and preparing for the funeral. The crypts were also not as bad as the tunnels, but it was still darker the further she went. At the crypts, at least, the access to the tunnels and catacombs were thoroughly blocked off, barred, and chained. She would see the monkey girl, Delhi, there a lot. Leaving things, talking to the shadows. There were some souls there, ones who just hadn't passed yet, but she wasn't always talking in their direction. Karise did watch her more than most, but let her be like the rest of the group did.

So, there was plenty to do, plenty of preparations. And Karise pushed herself to work at them as much as possible, trying to get her strength back, and most of all, trying to keep herself feeling useful. As much as she felt the unease with being inside, she preferred helping on the inside as opposed to the courtyard. Outside, she would just pause a lot and try to stare through the fog. Wonder if she is doing what's best. Logically, it made sense to stay here, stay with this group. What could she do, anyway? But still. Argus loomed over them all.

Huh. Moving doesn't feel like... moving. Maybe she should open her eyes and look around. But that... doesn't feel quite right either. She... isn't sure if she is seeing, or just feeling. Just this vast space, this green. Like the water, it was so dark, but when flashes of light hit it, it was an unending green tint. She feels it surround her, just a constant presence.

Moving, it feels 'greener' in the direction she is heading. So eventually she should... What... these words, they feel like she knows they mean something but they just don't... feel right. What is eventually... oh! That area is super bright. Whatever moving she is doing, it's not quite working to go further. Maybe the... oh! super bright. Floating around in the middle is better.

Some of the bright spots change. Shadows passing over, or clouds. Swirling around, she notices one of them, reaches for the cloud. Pain. That's a word she knows. It didn't feel right for anything, but it definitely applies now. She retreats from the bright area. Oh look, a shadow, a cloud, she starts to reach... Oh. We did that before.

...What's before? She stays away from the edges, swirling around.