My Heart Is Like a Haunted House, Verse I

The sprawling underdark of Karnor.

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Euripides
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12 FROST 120
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What they needed to do now was put distance between them and everything else. Distance that also seemed to mean they were getting further and further from the exit. But this was a new route, a different way than she had ever known. The woman could only keep moving. Even if it meant that she was headed toward the depths of this cavernous hell. What was hell, even, in comparison to this? And she was here, all because she’d not opened her mouth to speak when she should have.

Any other time and she would have let loose a string of profanities. She would have cursed his name to every mistlord she could think of, every dragon god that popped into her head. But she hadn’t. She couldn’t have. A hand landed on her shoulder and she jumped.

The scarred woman stared down at her. She was at least a head taller. She’d said her name once before, when she was still up for talking and hadn’t fallen into the contemplative silence that had taken them both. Ryia? Feia? It had sounded like the latter one.

“Keep moving.”

She was back to giving orders. Perhaps it had been a moment of the morbid reminder that they still drew breath that had rocked her from her attack of the woman. What it was, Feia had let her glare rest upon the woman before she shoved forward and decided that she would take the lead again. Which was just as well; she didn’t want to lead. Her leading them might have been toward death.

At the very least, Feia had done a good job of at least leading them somewhere with light. She hadn’t been sure if it was just her state of being, or the strain of the situation, but her eyes had begun to join the chorus of parts of her that had ached. The throbbing in her head had grown worse and Jieun’s visage was marred by her distress. A wavy mirage that she unsettled her more than the situation they were in. She shut her eyes now, let the soft glow of fluorescent moss around them soothe her senses.

She had not a clue of where they were, but it was cold. Colder than the forced embrace of a dead body as she wailed. Her eyes flew open. It shouldn’t be cold, no matter how damp and dank this place was. Feia continued on, the woman trailing after her. Her fingers burned — she would have made a song of this at one point. Two brave, foolish wanderers seeking safety in a cursed land. The Warrens might as well have been cursed. But cold? Like this?

Her breath misted in the air and a chill set into her bones.

Keep moving. I’m not going to wait around for you.”

But she couldn’t.

Something held her in place.
word count: 515
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Euripides
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Special

She couldn’t tell if it was fear that held her or something else.

Could it be fear? The icy finger that traced the line of her spine through her clothes, through her skin. Scuttled bony digits over her lungs and made her gasp. She couldn’t be sure, but it was the same sense of foreboding that she’d felt that day. Her gaze ripped from Feia to the blurred image of Jieun. A thin line of red had carved itself out on the girl’s face and the grip of fear or not-fear was tight on her throat.

What’s the matter, my love? Jieun’s brows furrowed.

My love? Jieun had never actually used those words. She liked things sweeter, more poetic. She liked the way that the woman had strummed her guitar and warbled out a note or two in dedication to the smooth lines of her face. The shift of her dress and the dance of her hair. ‘My love’ was never a phrase turned upon the woman from the girl’s lips.

Everything about this place felt wrong. Twisted it into something different. Even the moss, glowing to provide them some light, was wrong. She didn’t remember seeing anything like this in previous ventures into the Warrens, which meant that this was something foreign. They could have wandered into another Deep without realizing it and that thought alone made her stomach coil and her muscles jump. Limbs twitched as she sucked in a breath. The sliver of red along Jieun’s face pulled back, revealed the sticky wilting flesh beneath and she shut her eyes. It didn’t stop the tears that stung the corner of her eyes from falling. Her breath was shaky when she opened them again.

“What is wrong with you?”

A tear slid down her cheek, hot. Searing. It felt like it might have burned a red trail in its wake, almost mirroring what she’d seen on Jieun.

“I guess I shouldn’t ask that. You’re a loon, after all. And here I am, talking to you like you have any sense.” Feia hissed as her fist collided with something when she swung it. She shook the appendage out before turning to look at the woman again. “What use even are you? You could have just died and given us a way out.”

The thing about this scarred woman, the thing that made her so formidable to the other, was that she could say those things without a hint of remorse. She had gone on and on earlier about the woman’s decision to leave their comrade behind with haste, and yet. She had no qualms with discussing leaving her behind. And yet she didn’t do it. It was a dance between hypocrisy and fear that the woman could admire — if she were at a distance. She was much too close to it now.

Rather than answer her, the woman turned slightly. Just enough away that she was faced with a greyed expanse of darkness and rocks where the moss’ glow couldn’t reach. Beyond it stretched shapes and figures she couldn’t be sure were creatures or shadows. They could have been the maws of monsters waiting for them to give the signal that was needed, the opening to be presented. She sucked in a breath.

The last time that the woman had sang had been ages ago. Not ages, not seasons, but maybe days. Nights stuck in her lonely quarters with nothing but a ghost and her thoughts to keep her company. Sometimes they quieted around the edges of her song. She was out of practice; too many days being bone-tired collected together to amount to her finding oblivion before her head hit the pillow.

That first note left her lips on a scratchy whisper.

Do you remember—

Feia stepped toward her, rock crunching under her boots.

Winding your arm around my shoulder.

A hand on her shoulder, soft and gentle. Almost in time with her words.

Sweet Drimera, let the mourning come.
Pray that I leave my body,
Carry it on to the planes below.


Her song broke like her voice, a crackled cry that rose in volume with each word. Until it was no more than frenzied screeching. “Lyren! Take my soul and make it whole. Fill in the gaps left by my beloved—”

Feia’s hand clamped down over her mouth, another hand firm on the back of her neck. It felt like everything had been bottled up inside her again. A ragged breath, a broken sob; it was one of the two. But muffled all the same as Feia gave her a solid shake.

“Shut the fuck up.” The other’s voice was right in her ear, low as she glanced toward the darkness. Feia might not have been able to see, but it didn’t change that they both suspected something could be out there.

That something was.

And she’d just called it toward them.
word count: 846
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Euripides
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Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2021 7:41 pm
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Character Secrets: https://ransera.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1273

Special

The woman suspected that Feia was not a woman of faith.

For one, she spat out the names of her lords like they were curses, blights upon her life. The very life she’d turned into this by her own hands. There was nothing to curse her gods for. Only herself. The woman glanced at Feia, then back to the shadows. They curved and twisted in ways that didn’t seem natural. There wasn’t a breeze. Which meant they had to be from something living.

She turned her gaze to Feia once more as she was released, left to gasp in a breath. Jieun’s touch was feather-light. Danced over her skin like she wanted to touch, but not really. Or maybe that she hadn’t wanted to touch her in the first place. That stung; she didn’t want to think that was it. She let out a shuddered breath as her feet carried her closer to other.

“I should have said something when they said you would be with us.”

Feia acted like anything she said would have changed this. They all would have died at one point or another in the Warrens. That was just how that went. Just how it was. Which meant that they might as well try to appease the powers that presided over life and death. But each step she took was racked with a heavy wave of grief. Over what? She ran a hand through her hair, tugged the ends. A few strands came off with her fingers, trailing in the space from where her hand had been to where she held it. She rubbed them together between her fingers.

Death happened in varying degrees. Her gaze drifted back to the shadows before she turned again. Feia would not be able to see it, not the way she could.

She began to pray under her breath.
word count: 323
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Fable
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Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 5:20 pm

Y O U R xR E V I E W

Lore:
Navigation: Realizing that you are somewhere different
Navigation: Acknowledging that you might be lost
Psychology: Religion as a source of comfort
Psychology: Your hallucinations may make things worse for you
Singing: Starting off-key because you're out of practice
Survival: Probably best not to draw attention to yourself when predators are potentially lurking about
Points: 5

Injuries/Ailments: N/A

Loot: N/A

Notes: I'd be lying if I said I didn't want everyone she was traveling with to die >>
word count: 118
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