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sixthiterationlogs2017-03-12 03:44 pm
3ofswords) wrote in sixthiterationlogs2017-03-12 03:44 pm
[ota] i kept running for a soft place to fall
WHO: Kira
WHERE: Anywhere between the canyon walls and the edges of the Village; The Fountain
WHEN: Evening/Sunset, March 15
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Flying insects with intent to harm
STATUS: Now closed to new threads
the woods
If not for the cloud of insects herding him, Kira isn’t sure how long it would have taken him to find the village again. His cards were back in the woods, somewhere in the fog, and the creatures spared him no time to choose directions--only cut him off in glowing streaks, stretching across openings in the trees until he was forced to turn for another. Once he was darting in what seemed the acceptable direction, they would pull back into their teeming mass, gather, and dive at him again, on an arc that dragged the ugly, static noise of them terrifyingly close to his head.
He’d dreamed of being consumed in a roar of fire, concussive heat, for a third of his life. They should only be fireflies, should only cast small lights in the fog, but at every cluster and pass, there was fire in their glow, a roar in their wings, a prickling terror. He wondered if their touch might burn, if their rounded bodies hid sharper parts.
They’d been pretty, like the lush moss around the spring, when he’d found them in the narrow cave. His exploration of the foggy woods had taken him north and west, until the dirt had become chipped stone, and his hands were touching the cold surface of the walls. Trailing along it, hoping to find the river and follow it home, he’d come across a natural crack--some feat of water and winter cold--that he’d just been able to slip inside. The passage had carried on to a slight corner, starting to widen, and the blue-dark walls had been dotted with winking lights like a night sky.
Kira had stood transfixed, another moment to wonder if there weren’t small rewards in the shit-river they were swimming against the current of--until the lights had drifted from the walls, forming the buzzing cloud he now ran from.
When he’d backed out of the narrow passage and into the open, the fireflies had streamed out after, and he’d lost his coat fending off their first attack. Sweeping it through their ranks had bought him a few moments of time, but had cost him the protective layer, his knife, and his cards. Down to his dark scrubs, he’d bolted into the forest, dodging and pushing himself around trees as they appeared through the fog. The paths this far out were unclear, but they seemed intent to steer him in some direction--perhaps the river, perhaps home. All he could hope was that a shelter or body of water was on their trajectory, and that his aching legs and lungs didn’t drag him down before he found it.
the fountain
As the sun sets against the blooming canopy, new leaves briefly gold above the fog, Kira breaks the trees at the edge of the fountain path. His faded scrubs are torn by branches, his hair damp with fog and sweat. His bare arms are striped with scratches and scrapes, but he still flees the dreaded burn or bite of the insects, the cloud of them building behind him in a final coil before a strike.
With one backwards glance, he carries on his breathless momentum, dragging one cold and cutting breath into his lungs before he pushes himself up, a long leap over the stone lip of the fountain, crashing through the water in a splash that reaches up as the fireflies swipe down. Lungs already popping from the exertion, he snatches only moments of cold sanctuary before he breaks the surface with a gasp, but the insects are already following their arc up into the sky, dispersing out over the trees.
The water is too cold for comfort, a shock to his exhausted body, but he makes no immediate move to pull himself out. He sucks down another stinging breath, letting himself float on his back, staring at a lone star appearing against the purples and reds of sunset. “What the fuck,” he sighs in the exhale, body slipping higher and lower in the rippling water as he catches his breath.
[Feel free to join his flight from the fireflies in the first part, or find him in the fountain in the second; again, if you want to use this as an opportunity to get stung, feel free, but Kira is bite-free.]
WHERE: Anywhere between the canyon walls and the edges of the Village; The Fountain
WHEN: Evening/Sunset, March 15
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Flying insects with intent to harm
STATUS: Now closed to new threads
the woods
If not for the cloud of insects herding him, Kira isn’t sure how long it would have taken him to find the village again. His cards were back in the woods, somewhere in the fog, and the creatures spared him no time to choose directions--only cut him off in glowing streaks, stretching across openings in the trees until he was forced to turn for another. Once he was darting in what seemed the acceptable direction, they would pull back into their teeming mass, gather, and dive at him again, on an arc that dragged the ugly, static noise of them terrifyingly close to his head.
He’d dreamed of being consumed in a roar of fire, concussive heat, for a third of his life. They should only be fireflies, should only cast small lights in the fog, but at every cluster and pass, there was fire in their glow, a roar in their wings, a prickling terror. He wondered if their touch might burn, if their rounded bodies hid sharper parts.
They’d been pretty, like the lush moss around the spring, when he’d found them in the narrow cave. His exploration of the foggy woods had taken him north and west, until the dirt had become chipped stone, and his hands were touching the cold surface of the walls. Trailing along it, hoping to find the river and follow it home, he’d come across a natural crack--some feat of water and winter cold--that he’d just been able to slip inside. The passage had carried on to a slight corner, starting to widen, and the blue-dark walls had been dotted with winking lights like a night sky.
Kira had stood transfixed, another moment to wonder if there weren’t small rewards in the shit-river they were swimming against the current of--until the lights had drifted from the walls, forming the buzzing cloud he now ran from.
When he’d backed out of the narrow passage and into the open, the fireflies had streamed out after, and he’d lost his coat fending off their first attack. Sweeping it through their ranks had bought him a few moments of time, but had cost him the protective layer, his knife, and his cards. Down to his dark scrubs, he’d bolted into the forest, dodging and pushing himself around trees as they appeared through the fog. The paths this far out were unclear, but they seemed intent to steer him in some direction--perhaps the river, perhaps home. All he could hope was that a shelter or body of water was on their trajectory, and that his aching legs and lungs didn’t drag him down before he found it.
the fountain
As the sun sets against the blooming canopy, new leaves briefly gold above the fog, Kira breaks the trees at the edge of the fountain path. His faded scrubs are torn by branches, his hair damp with fog and sweat. His bare arms are striped with scratches and scrapes, but he still flees the dreaded burn or bite of the insects, the cloud of them building behind him in a final coil before a strike.
With one backwards glance, he carries on his breathless momentum, dragging one cold and cutting breath into his lungs before he pushes himself up, a long leap over the stone lip of the fountain, crashing through the water in a splash that reaches up as the fireflies swipe down. Lungs already popping from the exertion, he snatches only moments of cold sanctuary before he breaks the surface with a gasp, but the insects are already following their arc up into the sky, dispersing out over the trees.
The water is too cold for comfort, a shock to his exhausted body, but he makes no immediate move to pull himself out. He sucks down another stinging breath, letting himself float on his back, staring at a lone star appearing against the purples and reds of sunset. “What the fuck,” he sighs in the exhale, body slipping higher and lower in the rippling water as he catches his breath.
[Feel free to join his flight from the fireflies in the first part, or find him in the fountain in the second; again, if you want to use this as an opportunity to get stung, feel free, but Kira is bite-free.]