♛ ▌ＲＥＳＥＴ ❣

『 THE CASTLE BEGINS TO TREMBLE. 』

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INTOXICATION
[ x x x x ]
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The scent of apprehension filled the air, as the castle suddenly began to shake.
Sangria shot upward, the essentially empty bottle toppling on its side.

What did the little search party do? Release an elder god from its slumber? Sangria scoffed and pushed the bottle down the table, as it rolled away from her and fell off one of the edges near Vex.

"Looks like they found it-- whatever it was." She said to herself, mildly annoyed. Sangria quickly tapped at Morji and picked up her purse.
She called out to Marina. "I'm sorry that this is happening in your first time, hun." She winked and smiled. "Consider it a part of the experience, will you?"

However, Sangria felt something jagged crawl through her heart. In all her time spent within this godforsaken castle, she could not at all remember a sequence of events as curious as what had just happened, could she?

They couldn't leave the castle as well ... Hmhmhm.
She turned back to the others and stared at them.
It looks like things were turning interesting after all. But the question is, would this benefit her in the end?

"Don't be so tense, you folks. You're already worse than boards. You'll make your backs even worse, dears."

She needed a drink.

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☾ Mood: Shaken ☾ Location: Hall of Games ☾ Theme: ☾ Clothes: ☾

☾

Rosaline stumbled as the castle started to tremble. She thought about what to do. She wondered if she should stay with Crestatia, it seemed to be the safest place right now. Or if she was better off going back down stairs. But, if the castle was falling down, it was more logical to stay on the rooftops, because the ceiling would be caving in.

"Maybe it's not going to crave in.... maybe it's something.... else." Rosaline thought. "But the question is... what?" That sparked many many ideas and theories in her. She wondered about what else it could be. There were so many possibilities. She shook her head. She could always theorize later. First she had to make sure she was safe. For all she knew, this could all be part of the game.

Her eyes didn't look calm. Her legs were shaking, and her breath very heavy. But still, Rosaline took in a breath. "Crestatia, what's going on?" Rosaline asked her calmly. "What is this bell? And why did the castle start shaking ONLY when we found it. It can't be a coincidence"

☾​

 

Darren dusted himself off and had to keep in his laughter to maintain his stoic facade as the little tackler righted herself and the game finally began. He was quiet on the outside but his mind was purring like a silent engine as he entered a dutiful student-like mood. Marina's voice becoming the sole thing he focused on as he accepted the rules and selected his card. Which he pocketed without a fuss.

Darren was a born human who had won his Valen status in his game, so upon entering the world of Aether, he learned that including the freaky things that happened in his game, that the impossible things on the human plane were normal here. It was sometimes even expected, especially dealing with powers. After assimilating into the Valen culture for decades, Darren had never heard of or heard tell of a bell in the Hall before. The hairs on the back of his neck tingled and he held onto a jump that threatened to move his body as the deep bell rang out.

A volunteer team was formed whether Crestatia asked for it or not, and since it composed entirely of three people, Darren felt obligated to go. Especially after Annalynne AND Crestatia left together. Explosive things usually happened around them, physically or emotionally.

With rapid leg movements he followed the crew until he was apart of it, approved or not. He read the cryptic seeming words and frowned, wishing he had researched the history of Aether before. He looked to the three women with him, knowing that Annalynne and Crestatia were here before him, and may know more about the bell. He was taking deep, calming and slow breaths because he wasn't sensing dread, but he was nervous. The person who kept the Hall up and running was never around, if there was even a person to do such a thing. Everyone present for Marina's game didn't have the ability to manipulate the environment like this.

He was glad Rosaline asked the question he was going too. Because this had to be one of their high level spells. His ruby colored irises flickered from one girl to the next, analysis flowing through his head like the blood in his veins.

 

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CRESTATIA TOOK A STEP BACK, CLEARLY TRYING TO MAINTAIN HER COMPOSURE. It didn't seem to be working, though. Her chest was heaving with harsh breaths, and a hand lifted to run through her thick plum hair. Then, without any warning to the rest of them, Crestatia was turned around and running - or sort of weakly teleporting back through the gates of the garden. Annalynne followed her immediately, and Rosaline tagged behind as well.

「 Crestatia, what's going on? What is this bell? And why did the castle start shaking ONLY when we found it. It can't be a coincidence.」

「 It is not.」 Crestatia looked frustrated and reached out to unlock the gate. The latch glowed white hot and the demoness flinched, looking panicked before resuming her calm expression. Annalynne folded her arms across her chest, eyes wide and brows knitted with concern. 「 It is the King of Aether - God. Do you not remember? ... Aah ... Quite a bit ago, about the time games like these were invented, the God of Aether gave us Valen a time limit. A millennia to wrap these sorts of games and declare a new God of Aether.」

「 ... I'm assuming time is up.」

Crestatia gave her a dark look as though to discourage her from speaking again and Annalynne frowned. She knew she was clever and witty and whatnot but that hadn't been an attempt at any sort of joke. There was no reason to explain that, though, Crestatia wouldn't care. She rolled her eyes.

「 There is no way to leave the castle before a match has ended. I would suggest regrouping with the others, but it seems the gate has locked and I cannot teleport outside of it - they will have to find us. In the mean time, please help me silence this damned thing. The silence will at least give us some peace of mind until whatever happens happens.」

 

『 FIND A WAY TO STOP THE BELL. 』

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@calxiyn @FuzzyBlueLights @Jayn​

 

『 25 』

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『 24 』

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『 23 』

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INTOXICATION
[ x x x x ]
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The noise continued, and it began to throb at Sangria's head. This was tiresome. She didn't come to this little match for something as annoying as this to happen. She looked back across the Valen and groaned. Waving her fingers in the air, she tried her best to reduce the sense of hearing the bell and the pain of the inner ear that came with it among all of them, but with the negation-aura of the castle and the extreme spread of her powers, it probably did only very little.

It helped a bit for her, at least. She took a deep breath, hiding her hands within the confines of her purse.

"It's been too long, and I'm getting bored, and this stupid rotten bell won't stop its chorus of insanity," Sangria looked through all of them. "It would be helpful, my dears, if we had a way to get in contact with them." They might be in danger? Ufufu, she didn't mind that too much, but if it meant completely ruining the game as a whole then it would be better if these immortals started pushing themselves into shape.

"Alright, dears ..." She swept a bit of dust off of her lap. "I may try and find them myself if they are not back in a few minutes. This may all become very dangerous. Would any of you be willing to join?"

She kept her composure calm, but lost much of her joviality through all of these nonsense.
At the same time, she realized that there was little they could do unless they established some sort of connection with the lost party. Sangria slumped back into her chair, her arm accidentally sliding against Morji's, letting out a hiccup of alcohol.

Unfortunately, she hadn't felt being this close to sober in ages. She took out her bottle again and graciously attempting to slowly create a few drops of weak wine.

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『 22 』

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『 21 』

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☾ Mood: Shaken ☾ Location: Hall of Games ☾ Theme: ☾ Clothes: ☾

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Rosaline stared. "God of the Aether.... how fascinating." Rosaline collected herself. Deciding it wasn't the time to be asking questions. She paced around, thinking and trying to figure out what kind of power she could use to help. She couldn't silence the bell. "I can lure the rest of them here with my singing. Someone else must have a power to stop it." Rosaline smiled.

"Please, bare with me. Since my powers are limited I don't know how well I'll be able to lure them here." She faced her self toward the hall, and starting to project her voice as loud as she possibly could. She didn't know how well this would work, but she had to try her hardest. Her singing was beautiful, though it was very very loud. She crossed her fingers that someone would be able to hear. They needed to hurry so they could continue with the game.

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The bell kept ringing as Crestatia explained their dilemma. And as he sat and absorbed this new information, he wasn't surprised. There had to be someone controlling the Hall like they controlled the game. But when Cressy finished the summary of their situation, he was striding towards the bell, not away. The tolling was foreboding and it was getting worse by the minute.

Nervousness flowed through his heart like water. If a God was controllingthis in the first place, then what chance did he have? He took a deep breath before the gargantuan bell and held out his hand, palm forward towards the pendulum swinging bell. He concentrated as best he could in the power dampening halls. The bell was an object in motion and therefore subjective to his speedy domain. He could feel a pressure building in his temple as he put more and more effort into slowing down such a colossal bell with his powers hinged.

He glanced back and let his blank face break into a masculine plea, since this was fr their sake as well as his. "Any help would be appreciated!" He nearly snapped, this heavy bell would have taken a toll no matter where he was. But even he didn't know what would happen to him if he didn't stop this bell and the trembling walls.

 

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I, Gotterdammerung, watched intently as the drunken immortal went on her tirade of self-frustration regarding everything that was happening at the moment. Correctly enough, as effective with my mistress, something did indeed happen as I, Gotterdammerung, had observed. The castle began to shake, almost toppling I off the table, but it was here I implored my mistress to use one of her powers, if applicable.

This time, she consented, but this may have been because she was the one who implored me to inform her in the first place. She projected a random leap of faith in terms of thought towards the area all around her, and through her manipulation of the eternal fundamental "voice" that permeated all living things, I, Gotterdammerung, observed as my Mimi-mistress received a faint signal of distress from a location to the upper angle and north of our present location.

My Mimi-mistress relayed this information to me, and channelled my being to relay this information to the collection of immortals that were present.

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It is of course I that always feels the deepest connection with my mistress.​

I, Gotterdammerung, feel the thoughts of my mistress flow through me.



Mimi-mistress has made a rough attempt to trace the location of the cry.
She claims she feels a presence of communicating distress coming from the garden at one of the rooftoops of the castle.
It is imperative that a number of immortals proceed to investigate this issue.

I, Gotterdammerung, noticed by Mimi-mistress stand up from the table. She turned to Magnus, ripped two more shreds of cloth off of his shirt, placed them in her hands, and in a sparkling burst of light formed two more weak cloth-orb dolls that bobbed and levitated.




... Mimi-mistress is requesting the assistance of as many immortals that she feels will be
Appropriate for this search party. However, it is recommended that the search party and the party staying within the hall keep a direct form of contact so that the search party itself shall not be separated.



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『 THE BELL SLOWS AND QUIETS, BUT THE CASTLE CONTINUES TO TREMBLE. TWO OF THE LARGER TOWERS BEGIN TO COLLAPSE IN THE DISTANCE. NO ONE IS AFFECTED. 』

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INTOXICATION
[ x x x x ]
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Sangria half-intently listened to the bear of the little girl talk. Well! The problem was, she didn't know which way the garden was, since these corridors change often!

She huffed, but at least they had a lead--
Ah?

Suddenly, the ringing stopped. Sangria looked up.
The ceiling continued to crumble, and some of the white dust settled on her nose. She rubbed it off and turned back to the others. In the distance, the room was silent as the winding sound of stone smashing to the earth echoed through the chambers.

"Was that--"
She looked back at the ceiling and saw larger pieces fall onto the table.
Quickly grabbing her purse, Sangria began to walk towards the hall that the first party had gone through.

"Dears," She said with some hidden vexation in her voice. "My powers are useless for whatever calamity is happening to the castle, and I would appreciate it dearly if some of you decided to help our fellow players ... what good is a game that loses its competition to ridiculous means, when it is up to us who can get their land in the end, after all? I call that a waste. Hmm!"

She saw the little cloth dolls move around her and stared.

"I am not sure what good these will do either, but I am on my way to go find them before this little game is ruined." She looked back at Marina, whom to Sangria seemed unable to comprehend what was happening, but, Sangria mused, what good would a fresh-meat pawn know? Her heels clicked sharply on the marble.

"I'll be on my way, and I'll ask anyone who is willing to join me."

tl;dr: a party consisting of sangria, mimi + GD, daphne, arius, vex, johnis, asterion, ambrose, garret, nero, and morji move through the halls to try and get to the castle garden while the castle turns into dramatica around them. before leaving, gotterdammerung is like "sup dawgs if we ain't back in some time and thngs are about to fall on y'all then call for help mimi will try and locate u thx"

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☾ Mood: Shaken ☾ Location: Hall of Games ☾ Theme: ☾ Clothes: ☾

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Rosaline looked over. She had to think. "What could it be? The bell stopped, but the Castle is still falling. If it is the God saying time is up, there is one explanation. This could be just a message saying we have to start. If we start will the destruction continue?" Rosaline thought. "But is it wise to say?" She nodded. She couldn't just sit around now, she had to do something.

"Crestatia.... I don't think stopping the bell is going to stop the castle from collapsing." Rosaline explained. "The God is saying time is up, that we need to get moving. So if we start the same, maybe they'd be satisfied knowing that we're starting." Rosaline told her. "We'd be sending a message that says we're ready to get down to business. We have no time to waste." Rosaline took a deep breath. "I think that's what we have to do! We need to go back to the others and start the game." Rosaline exclaimed. "We'd better hurry too, I'm afraid something will happen to the others!"

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After a bit of concern and talking things out, a fairly large portion of the people that were in the foyer of the Hall decided to go looking for the demoness and the others that accompanied her. It seemed bizarre that they hadn't made their way back already. It was even more bizarre that the whole Hall was trembling and, from the sounds of it, that parts of it were collapsing. All of this was so sudden, they couldn't really make heads or tails of it or why it's happening. For now, they had to focus on finding the group that left. They might've found out something about why things were going to shit, so finding them was a good idea.

After a while of searching, they happened upon a gated garden on the roof where the demoness, the witch and the two others were. Well, they finally found what they were looking for, as well as the source of the ringing. It was a large bell with something written on it. That much was apparent, though he had no idea where the hell it was from or what it was doing there. Garret stared at it in awe, mouth agape. "Holy shit, that's a big ass bell..." he muttered.

When he was done admiring the size of the bell, he composed himself and opened the gate in front of him. "Hey, you guys, just what the hell is that thing?" He had hoped that the know-it all demoness would actually know something about the bell. Just looking at the thing gave him an overwhelming sense of foreboding. As if something major was about to go down. Something that would change things drastically.

 

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I, Gotterdammerung, dutifully followed my Mimi-mistress and her immortal companions as they traced the location of the faint noise, eventually reaching the large open garden at the roof of one of the castle towers. I, Gotterdammerung, watched as the other immortals conversed with those beyond the gate, and as the Thief dutifully opened it. However, among the various discussions of the immortals, they did not step into the garden yet, nor did the garden denizens explicitly step out.

Above stood a the large bell that had been making the noise. It was silent now, and I observed the large engraving upon the bell that read "Time Is Up". I attempted to query my almighty Mimi-mistress as to what this could mean, but she was in one of her spells of generally blocking out most connections to get the greatest effort from her thinking. Because of this, she was not involved in the conversation that I, Gotterdammerung, observed taking place between the other immortals, despite the necessity of her powers, she had once again become distant and disconnected from the rest of them, almost nearly forgotten.

I, Gotterdammerung, noticed my Mimi-mistress stray a bit farther away from the group, and I, being the greatest and most servile servant, decided to assist my Mimi-mistress in her efforts by moving closer to her. She placed one of the cloth-orb dolls in her hands, still jittering with life, and tossed it over the edge of the tower, from a far enough distance to keep herself safe.

I, Gotterdammerung, was at first very puzzled by my Mimi-mistress uncharacteristic discarding of her dolls. And as if appropriate, I felt a spike in sadness emanate from my mistress as she waited to see it fall away from the tower. Of course, I, Gotterdammerung, being fairly observant of my mistress, contemplated what the necessity of the doll would achieve.

In my limited neural capacity, I, Gotterdammerung, believe that the descent of the doll would determine the safety of escape from the tower by means of open-air escape, through jump, flight, or any other factor, and if the doll were to be fried, lose its sparkling life-power of Mimi-mistress, or disintegrate, it would indeed imply that there is a barrier around the tower in the open air, and open-air escape by jumping or otherwise may not be applicable.

So I, Gotterdammerung, sat and waited upon my Mimi-mistress. She is truly the most quiet and contemplative of mistresses, though I felt right now the deep hunger within her belly.

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