welcome to mayfield: day 3

[mayfield_mods]

[Those who wake up in the town on the third day will soon notice that something's definitely off. The cracks in the sky are appearing more frequently and lasting for minutes at a time, and there's a strange white fog drifting over the clouds.

For those who've just arrived, welcome to our new little town! We're sure you're glad to see your missing friends again; nothing to worry about here, they've just been too busy enjoying the upgraded carnival to go back home. Any bleeding limbs or serious wounds you may spot are obviously just a sign of how much fun they've been having.]

OOC: If your character damages or affects the carnival or town in a noticeable and normally permanent way, please comment here.

Comments

[kinship]

[He's not stupid enough to get on the ferris wheel, not by a long shot, but he can't stop looking at the fog snaking around the top-most cars.

What was happening here?

He glanced over to where Abel was nearby, making sure other people were safe, before turning his attention back to the fog.]

[gezellig]

Hoi.

[He'll hear a familiar, and slightly relieved voice. Holland is on his way back to the funhouse, but he'll stop to talk to Cain.]

[kinship]

[Only one person greets him like that, and his stomach sinks a little. Are all the people he's friends with trapped here?]

Holland... when did you get here?

[gezellig]

Yesterday.

[The implied 'you?' is there in his expression.]

[kinship]

Yesterday too, we spent the night in the church last night.

[Along with quite a lot of others that had that same bright idea.]

[gezellig]

I didn't see you.

[But it seems like a lot of people were there, and he'd kept as much distance as possible after arriving very late. . . he'll blow a bit of smoke; he'd been hanging on to the few cigarettes he had left, but he really needs one at the moment.]

Broke a lot of mirrors in, but there doesn't seem to be anything there.

[He'll pause again.]

You haven't seen Belgium, have you?

[kinship]

[He hadn't known Holland was a smoker, and it seems a bizarre and surreal thing to focus on in this situation. They're trapped in a prison within a prison, and he's worried about the effect of smoke on his friend...]

I'm sorry, I haven't seen any of the other nations that I know here.

[Admittedly, that number had severely dwindled over the months.]

[gezellig]

[He's been smoking for so long that. . . let's just say it's good nation bodies aren't affected by it, or things like cancer. He'll blow another puff of smoke away from Cain, this one a bit more frustrated.]

I don't have any idea what this is.

[He'll gesture to everything.]

[kinship]

Me either, though some people have said there are virtual reality pamphlets in the houses.

[He almost wonders if this area is a sort of... advertisement for the main place.]

[gezellig]

Pamphlets?

I haven't seen anything in the houses yet.

[kinship]

I haven't been in myself, but someone said there was something about the latest in virtual reality.

[mayfield_mods]

[Suddenly, a sheet of pure nothing comes striking down from one of the cracks in the sky. Unlike a bolt of lightning, the empty space lingers, a white gap where the carnival simply doesn't exist, as if something took an enormous eraser to it.]

[kinship]

[Yikes!

His attention is abruptly pulled from Holland to that empty space, shocked and a little scared.]

...What...?

[gezellig]

[At first, he's watching Cain talk, but when the other suddenly looks over, and he also sees some strange kind of movement, Holland will simply stare at it.

It made no sense at all, but his hand is on the boy's shoulder, keeping him close.]

[mayfield_mods]

[Spreading from the gap at an alarming speed, faster than the eye can blink, are tendrils of more empty space. If they happen to touch any part of Netherlands or Cain, whatever they touch will be deleted. No blood, no pain - it'll simply be like it never existed in the first place.]

Abel is going to tag in right after me, hope that's okay <3

[kinship]

[It all happened so fast, a flash of light and it was over. It touched Cain at the forehead and neck, and... all of a sudden they were gone. There was no blood, no severed head on the ground, just a body that ended at the shoulders in smooth skin.

He teetered there on his feet for a couple of seconds, before folding to his knees and collapsing on the floor. Well damn, Mayfield. At least it wasn't a long and painful death.]

oh god ;;

[bloodsugar]

[Abel had been jogging forward when that first... 'jolt' of emptiness had cracked down from the sky. he hadn't been far -- just beyond arm's length behind the two as they spoke, his attention on watching his little brother from peripheral vision as he scopes out the rest of the carnival for goings-on. seeing it hovering there in the air in front of them, he knew it couldn't be anything good--]

--hey!! Cain! [he's calling out his name, a little urgency in his tone but he has no idea what's about to happen.

one second, his little brother is right there with the other man's hand on his shoulder... and-- then, just as he's reaching out for him--

...he just...

. . . .

his footsteps come to a jerky halt just short of their goal. ...

Cain...?]

D:

[gezellig]

[One blink.

Then another, and that was all that it took. Cain no longer had a head; Holland saw it with his own eyes. He only narrowly avoids a similar fate as tendrils move swiftly towards his own body - if it even was his body.

Hell if he knew anymore.

Hearing Abel behind him, Holland curls an arm around the headless body's middle, then turns and takes a fistful of Abel's shirt. He will haul the other man back and away from the surreal white shapes, at the same time ]

Get away! Stay back!

[He won't stop or let go of Abel until they are what he deems a safe distance away.]

[mayfield_mods]

[A few moments after they leave, the empty spaces closes up and disappears, the carnival restored as if nothing had happened.]

[bloodsugar]

[--haa. he had been stunned -- dumbfounded. locked in shock at the sight of something horrendous. something sickening, buried...

...familiar.

but being jerked like that jolted him from his stupor, and any worry for his own self-preservation is clearly absent; he's gone dumb to his surroundings as he reaches out. pulling that headless body-- Cain, it's Cain... -- into his arms with wide eyes full of a terrible disbelief. no... just-- a second... a-- second ago, he was... fine, he was -fine,- he was--]

...

[gezellig]

[Holland can't really do anything but hand the boy's body over to Abel. He'd seen awful things; he was a nation who had lived through countless conflicts. But this was completely disturbing, and it didn't follow any rules he'd come to understand as being part of the world he existed in. He could hardly dwell on it; it was already leaving him feeling sick inside.

And Cain. . .

If his experience with Mayfield was any indication, they would see the boy again. They might have to go through some hell, a lot of hell, but ultimately, they would all be stuck right back in the town again. They seemed to be pretty valuable to whoever was running the facade. He'll set a hand on Abel's shoulder.]

I'm sorry I couldn't stop it. I know it looks awful now, but it won't change things. You'll likely see him again in the town.

[He hopes, very much, that he's right.]

[bloodsugar]

[he heard what the other man was saying, but -- when it came to absorbing anything, there's a lack of comprehension. he'd certainly appreciate the gesture if this was any other time, but...

it is all so surreal.

this wasn't the first time his brother had died. died... in a place where there -is- no coming back. and for that reason...

...

there's no response to the well-meaning words; he might feel guilty about it when he's back in his right mind, but his world has narrowed down to the terrible thing the small boy's become and he can't acknowledge Holland at all. instead--

holding the fragile body close as if to protect it from further harm, he's turning his back on him wordlessly -- and in the next moment, he and Cain are simply gone.]

[gezellig]

[With a sigh, Holland will turn away from them. As shocking as it was, the suddenness might have been a gift; he hardly had time to process it. He needed to get back to the fun house, hopefully with Charles so they could pick up where they left off.

He was going to fight his hardest to get out of here. Cain's suddenly death only reaffirmed that he couldn't stand it here any longer. His heart was heavy for the boy who had been so kind to him.

He'll walk away without looking back behind him at Abel.]