warpweft: (Default)
Nessa ([personal profile] warpweft) wrote2023-01-19 08:43 pm

[ENTER THE PALACE]

[You find yourself with a sensation like floating in water.]

[Above, the sky is dark. You can occasionally see things shifting, like gusts of wind, or perhaps waves of water. Is it…even a sky above you? Or is it some kind of giant ocean? Whatever it is, you can’t make it out very well. All around you, you appear to be floating in what appears to be water. It looks like a great, wide ocean of…space in every direction around you, with stars and lights twinkling in the distance. It looks like water and feels like water, but it doesn’t make you wet. You can reach your hand into it and pull some out, the purple and violet water and the tiny points of light inside it will even rest in your hands if you cup them to carry it, but once you’re not trying to hold it anymore, it’ll flow off of you, not a single drop remaining behind. You feel something similar if you go underneath the surface. The “water” doesn’t touch your eyes, mouth or nose when give the chance, it merely drifts around you, allowing you to breathe and see unabated. And you can see for a great distance, the twinkling stars illuminating the ocean of space all around you. Though perhaps less dark and empty, it feels every bit as vast as the sky above. You feel like you could swim forever and never reach the edge.]

[It’s quiet, here, with little noise around you but the starry ocean’s waves crashing back into its surface. It’s peaceful. In another situation, it might even be comfortable.]
velluminous: (you'll never meet another me)

[personal profile] velluminous 2023-01-30 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ —releases a tremulous breath.

her nail clicks on the metal dome as she shakily rings it properly
]

[personal profile] voidhearts 2023-01-30 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[A soft ringing noise echoes through the lobby....]

[...]

[...]

[Miss Sprezzatura is your teacher. She's the first real witch you've ever met. Outside of....you know. The coven. Which doesn't count, so why bring it up?!

Anyway.

Miss Sprezzatura....you try to not act all starstruck, like a little kid, when you're around her, but it's...really hard not to just be in awe of her, sometimes. She's so much like what you spent your childhood imagining a real witch is like. Not like, you know, the fake witches from your stories, like Gandalf or Glinda, who just automatically know everything and can solve everything, but like what you imagined a real witch being. She's always studying, trying to improve herself as a witch. Witches in books and movies are always going on adventures but you always imagined it was mostly a lot of reading.

But that's not what makes you like her so much (okay, it is part of it). It's... ...Svetka.

Svetka is definitely the worst monster here, by a lot. She's nothing like Fran or Zarya, she's probably also....at absolute lowest the third scariest thing you've ever encountered in your life, and sometimes you think she could give Esmau a run for her money. It takes just about everything you have to not just start crying and screaming whenever you see her. The idea of sharing a body with her instead of Zarya makes you wanna throw up. But Miss Sprezzatura somehow...deals with it. She actively rejects the idea of getting rid of her with the Hierophant because it might make her wind up with someone else, or worse, free to do whatever she wants. She would rather deal with this horrible monster tormenting her than risk passing it off to someone else.

And you know she hates Svetka. You know she's terrified of her, probably even more than you are. But she deals with it anyway.

A real witch has to have the strength to do what she needs to do, the freedom to do what she wants to do and the wisdom to know what she should do. You know "freedom" is a relative concept in this place, but....you can't think of a better embodiment of that than what Miss Sprezzatura is doing. She could get rid of Svetka. But she chooses not to because she knows it's not the right thing to do. And you feel like if you told her all of this, she'd insist that she's not strong at all, but she is. You think she's stronger than anybody you know.

Much as you try to not act like a kid around her, you just...really want to be like her.

Oh yeah, you still don't know what to make of that dream you had where that library was on fire. A bunch of stuff from your dreams that night kind of came true, but kind of didn't? It's weird. But you're pretty sure she didn't burn a library. Maybe you should just ask her about it.]
velluminous: (i want your whole world)

[personal profile] velluminous 2023-01-31 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
[ by the end of this, she is ambiently weeping, one hand covering the ugly grimace of her mouth. there's a mote of her that's almost smugly pleased at this assertion, as well, but that mote doesn't come from the being in charge right now, so a mote it remains. ]

Mammon, girl...

[ she's selfish. she'll tap the bell again, to hear it all again, and cry a little bit more. ]

[personal profile] voidhearts 2023-01-31 01:47 am (UTC)(link)
[The bell rings again and after a few seconds, the voice repeats everything... ...]

[...]

[...]

[...]

[If everything goes right, and you stop the Warden and you're able to leave the prison, are you and her going to have to go your separate ways?
You miss your family so much.
But you don't think you want to say goodbye to any of your friends, either.
You don't want to think about it. You don't want to choose.
]
velluminous: (my name is ruin)

[personal profile] velluminous 2023-01-31 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ no, she thinks. not you, too.

as if her experiences are utterly unique. she knows she isn't the only one to feel this way—and it is at once both comforting and a terrible, awful ache.

she places a hand over the bell, to silence it. muffle it. shhh. shh.
]

You don't have to choose yet.

[personal profile] voidhearts 2023-01-31 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
[The voice fades and the ringing slowly comes to a stop.... ....

When the motel is fully silent again, you hear a short tone come from your phone. When you check it, you see you've somehow earned 100 NessaPoints.]
velluminous: (are you on the level?)

[personal profile] velluminous 2023-01-31 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ i'm being catered to.

she'll check that out as she turns to leave—she wants to investigate the clocktower next.
]

[personal profile] voidhearts 2023-01-31 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
[The clocktower looks….off. The clock’s normal blue hue is gone. No chimes come from it no matter how long you wait, the hands seem to be stuck in place (even moreso than usual), it just looks like it’s…not working.]

[As you get close, you spot two doors. One is locked and the other is more of a hatch. Looking in the hatch, you see some of the clock’s inner workings and that pretty quickly elucidates the issue - there’s a big spot missing that probably needs a….gear or a lever or a pulley or something? Whatever, you’re not a clock maker.]

[Maybe the other door will open if you fix the clock?]
velluminous: (loot plot armor from NPCs)

[personal profile] velluminous 2023-01-31 04:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ the furrow in her brow appearing as a result of scrolling through the NessaShop turns into a furrow in her brow as a result of staring into that hatch.

no.

no...

she isn't meant to ... go inside that, is she? can she squat down and peer inside, just to see if this really is a video game level or just an indication of where to put the missing piece?
]

[personal profile] voidhearts 2023-01-31 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[Thankfully, you won't have to do any platforming on rotating gears today. It is resolutely the latter. Besides putting the missing piece back in, there appears to be very little you can do, here.]
velluminous: (the disdain and abhorred lash)

[personal profile] velluminous 2023-02-01 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
[ do i look like an adventurer to you

i don't solve puzzles

she's going to turn back, then. there's apparently a couch in the west wing she can rest on.
]
voidhearts: (R02)

[personal profile] voidhearts 2023-02-01 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
[Zarya gives you a passing nod as you leave.]

[You can return to the Courtyard.]