CECILIA

[fallenapple]

Characters: Cecilia the witch and her opponents
When: The entirety of Walpurgisnacht
Where: The entire Southeastern Quarter
Rating: R, for violence, character death, mentions of suicide, starvation, abuse, etc.
Summary: Adstring fights the unicorn witch

Comments

THE FAITHLESS CITY

[fallenapple]

Pica/Gon/Kil - arrival-ish thread

[checkmychainyo]

[The empty orchards flow swiftly into the suffocating, almost skeletal landscape of the city. Kurapica's feeling of being watched, of a kind of imminent danger lurking within every shadow, heightens here. He could stay composed at a crucial moment as this; he would make himself stay composed. Despite his efforts, he feels increasingly on-edge the more the trio advances into this bizarre...world. Kurapica doesn't know what else to call it: he hadn't been around the majority of Adstringendum yet,--at least, not that he could remember,--but this place defied anything he had ever seen. It was almost...illusory.

Something tugs on the bottom end of his tabard. Kurapica whirls behind him, Nen surging to his now raised chain glove, but he finds only Killua and Gon close behind him. Off in the distance, he thinks he hears footsteps, but...that can't be right...]

Did either of you feel that? [His tone is severe as he asks the question to his partners.]

[ooc: Just. Figured this might be useful in terms of setting the stage and starting the

[freecssofnature]

[The atmosphere is affecting Gon, too; he's barely a step behind Kurapica, his own aura already flaring out into the dull air. The sounds of movement are all around them, shifting footsteps, the rustle of cloth.

But he can't hear breathing.

His head snaps toward Kurapica as his friend moves.]

Feel what?

[There's nothing alive approaching them inside his own aura--

Something tugs at the hem of his shorts, and his eyes go wide as he spins in turn.

There's nothing there to see, any more than there was to feel.]

-- Let's hurry.

[kill_joo_ded]

I don't think... there's anything there.

[But he says so cautiously as he eyes the landscape surrounding them. Right now it's really bugging him that his en is so lacking, but none of his other well-honed senses are picking up on anything beyond the initial alert. It's not a good sign, to say the least.

His hands gravitate toward his pockets, where two yoyos (nowhere near the strength of the ones he'd lost) and a taser reside, courtesy of Urahara Kisuke. He does his best to appear nonchalant about the change in posture though. It shouldn't alert anyone... or anything.

A nod in Gon's direction denotes his agreement. The faster they get to the bottom of this, the faster they get out.]

[checkmychainyo]

[But he swore he felt it: that gentle tug. Gon must have felt it too, the way he spun around, eyes wide. Was it an illusion, a trick of some kind? Who was responsible for it?

Despite all of this, he had to submit to Gon's reasoning. They needed to move on.]

...Alright.

[Kurapica pursed his lips and continued forward, glancing out of the corner of his eyes at his surroundings. It bothered him that nothing appeared to have a presence here, as if the city they traversed now were a ghost town.]

[fallenapple]

[The town is continually in silence- not a sound rings out except for the occasional footsteps running away from the group. Even the buildings seem incapable of sound- they look like images from a painting more than anything.]

[It's this silence that makes a voice off in the distance so surprising. It's distorted, quiet, but not in that alien language the creatures before had babbled in. It sounds vaguely human.]

Listen to me, listen to me.

[freecssofnature]

[The voice is clear enough that Gon perks up instantly, scanning the streets. It's not the same as those footsteps that don't echo from the walls. It's something else.]

Someone's talking! -- Did you hear that?

[kill_joo_ded]

[Yeah, he hears that, and it's creepy as all hell. He instantly turns to scan the direction he thinks he heard it from, biting his lip. When a disembodied voice tells them to listen, is that really what they want to do...?]

[checkmychainyo]

[Once again, Kurapica whirls around in the opposite direction from where he thinks he heard that voice. The tension makes his fists clench at his sides.]

Yes.

...It could be a trap.

[But it also couldn't be. It could be Kyoko, or someone else trapped here in this place.]

[fallenapple]

What a fool, what a fool.

Didn't listen, didn't listen.

[The moment you turn your head, you'll notice there are three signs in places where they were not before. Each one is placed in the center of the road, spaced a few meters apart from each other.]

[freecssofnature]

[They almost look like letters -- but they aren't. They don't make any sense. Gon scans the three signs, confused, and glances to Killua and Kurapica.]

Can you understand them?

[The voice sounds distracted, as well as distant, muttering its lines to itself. Is it Kyoko? Trapped somewhere inside this illusion?

Gon turned back to the unblocked road stretching before them.]

[kill_joo_ded]

[Killua only shakes his head. It doesn't even look like Japanese or English or those other weird languages so many people here speak. He can't figure it out at all, but it must say something because the appearance of the signs is a pretty clear indicator that whoever put them there is trying to communicate something.]

I don't know. Something might happen if we try to pass them.