... It begins

[keep_hallways]

It’s dark when the Keep’s newest guests arrive. The cold night air has seeped into the stones of the barracks sending a chill throughout the rooms. No fire has been laid, no lamp lit to beat back the cold or dispel the dark. Each cell remains exactly as it has for months on end, almost as though no one were expecting the small rooms to be occupied

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[halfbrokenwings]

The first thing that Isabella noticed, was a burning ache along her back and her wings. The second, was that the ground had, quite suddenly, become softer than when she had first laid to sleep. Then the third came with the awareness of her surroundings and that she was no longer outside in her little lean-to, but in a small enclosed space. The muffling of sounds and the closeness of the air gave away the her environment almost as surely as if she had seen it

[keep_hallways]

The hallways are silent, silent and dark. The air was so still that it seemed to stifle any sound, thick and suffocating like being swaddle in a down blanket.

But there was light. Down the end of one hall, a fain flickering glow bit into the darkness, it's source as silent as the stones themselves. And it was getting closer.

[halfbrokenwings]

The small hairs stood up on the back of Isabella's neck as she noticed the light. Feathers began to rise on her wings in response to the decidedly creepy and silent approach of the willow-wisp.

“Hello?” She tried again, venturing ever so slightly into the darkness beyond the entrance to the room despite her misgivings. “Sir? Ma'am?”

She braced herself to use the door as a shield should the creature behind the light , or the light itself, prove to harmful. She was feeling especially vulnerable in nothing but her sleeping shift in this strange new place.

[aegisofsilk]

"My Lady, if you please," Though Isabel had to admit that meeting someone well-mannered was a pleasant surprise.

Yes, the light had resolved itself into nothing more mysterious than a woman holding a lantern. She looked impassive, not friendly, but not uninviting.

"And you are?"

I will tag around tomorrow... on my laptop. /phoneslow

[triedinception]

All around him, everything had been collapsing. He'd swam out of the van with Fischer, pulling Peter Browning's forge around him like a blanket.

And when he'd expected to wake up on a plane, to find Saito and Cobb either saved or served up as vegetable omelettes, he'd woken in total darkness.

Eames tensed, immediately going for his totem. The brightly painted heavy metal object was still heavy and cold in his slacks pocket, the unique ridges the same. So why was it total darkness here, cold seeping into his clothes, and the scent in the air not unlike what he thought an old castle would smell of?

He got up, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the light; when it didn't, he took slow, cautious steps forwards, hands out in front of him. He hit the desk, felt the journal and quill; then he found the door. Pocketing the key he raised his foot and kicked it open, stepping out into the hallway and eyeing it warily. Where the hell was he?

[keep_hallways]

The smell of old stones is even stronger in the hall. The darkness, however, is not constant. There's something shining from down the hall, casting a flickering white light. It's not like fire, but what is it?

[triedinception]

Eames notices the flicker and moves towards it, driven by curiosity and, well, a need for light. The weight of his totem is heavy and reassuring, but also unsettling; this is far too strange to not be a dream.

He moves sidestep, hugging the wall, one hand out. When he nears the light source he strips his coat off and throws it towards the light.

[keep_hallways]

The light is blocked by the coat, but only momentarily, as the coat hits the floor some distance away. One second passes with no movement. Two seconds pass with no sound. Then three seconds pass, and the hall goes dark.

[allthesame2me]

Alex was amongst many others, but for the moment he didn't know this and he was terribly alone. A moment before he'd been walking back toward his apartment, but then everything had reeled. Nothing was the way it was supposed to be: smells were off and everything sounded muffled. The very air around him tasted stale and old. He didn't know where he was, but it was not home in any way, shape, or form

I'M SO SORRY I DIDN'T SEE THIS ;A;!!!

[keep_hallways]

The hallway is dark and silent, cold stone walls and a hard floor to match. For a moment, nothing happens, and then from somewhere in the dark comes a rather distinct sniff. Something big is hiding in the shadows, tracking a scent down the halls until noticing Alex.

Coming to a pause, the monster growls, pale blue eyes glinting in the otherwise black hallway and fixing on Alex.

:3 S'alright!!

[allthesame2me]

Alex is only a few yards from 'his' room when the very distinctive sound of a growl causes him to freeze mid-step. His head cants slightly, his head the only part of him that moves as he himself tracks the sound until his blue-green eyes lock on the source. Dark and silent though the halls may be, there was no missing the growl nor the brightness of the eyes watching him in the darkness.

The hair at the nape of his neck rises and his gaze narrows, nostrils flaring as he tries to identify the creature in the wash of darkness. "I know any number of creepy crawlies that like to hang around in the dark," he murmurs softly, his own body tense and ready to react. "You the kind that's looking for a bit of sport or a bit of dinner?"

Fey though he may be when human, this creepy crawly was in for one hell of a surprise if things got ugly. Alex, for his part, couldn't decide if he was eager for a fight and edgy or just amped up on adrenaline, because his skin was practically tingling with the urge to shift. "You want to come say 'hi'?"

<3

[keep_hallways]

Closer it stalks, ever watching it's target and still sniffing at the air. It's footsteps are light, silent, the only real indication that it's moving at all coming from those two blue burning eyes.

And then it stops, lifts it's chin and howls. The sound is loud, echoing throughout the Keep.

am I too late? :c

[notpredictable]

Inventing inventing inventing - that's what he'd been gloating about and oh, what a breakthrough he was going to make - finally, a way to bring down Metro Man and take complete control over Metrocity! All he'd had to do was wait for MEtro Man to be in juuuust the right spot...

Roxanne had, of course, been mid-scathing comment while she sat so neatly in that chair, completely unfazed by the vehicle sized gun that had been trained on her. Memory beam, that's right - or had it been?

The details got a little fuzzy after he'd thrown the switch.

But ohoho - it was going to be today, all right, today would be his and Metro Man would be nothing more than a babbling incoherent lump that couldn't remember his own name.

Except he's suddenly standing in the middle of a room that, while inherently a bit familiar and similar to the Lair, was most definitely not his humble abode.

"Eh? Minion! What have you done?!" Roxanne and Metro Man were nowhere in sight

Never too late!

[keep_hallways]

The halls echo Megamind's call back to him. It would almost seem that Megamind is alone.

Almost.

At the end of the hall there is a light. It's whiter than one would expect from a torch, but that is all it could be. Isn't it?

[notpredictable]

He listens as it rebounds back to him, his frown settling into a deep scowl. Oh, of all the inconveniences...

Narrowing his eyes he straightens, flicking the tips of his cape so that they're properly framing his head and neck, he glares at the light and stalks forward, with purpose.

"You there! Yes, you, I see you there-! Explain all of this!"

Gun out, he heads in that direction.

[blackantiquas]

There is no answer, but the light shifts around the corner.

It's a figure.

Really, that's all it is. It might be a person, if it had more definition around the edges. It might be a person if it had more body to it than floating specks of light. It might be a person if it had a face.

But it does not.