🏝️ dulces sueños group excursion! 🏝️

[hearthwarming]

🏝️ who: intrepid adventurers (vacationers?) and more!
🏝️ what: ori organized (origanized?) a group trip to the resort! mass memshare ensues.
🏝️ when: fall 9-10
🏝️ where: dulces sueños resort
🏝️ warnings: threads will be marked as needed for memshares.

[ Hopefully everyone had fun on the Arco Lunar! The morning after the boat departs from the docks, a letter arrives to your mailbox: ]

Hello, intrepid adventurer!

I am excited to have you along for a group excursion to the mysterious new island! In two days' time, let us gather in the town square and set off from there! Please be prepared to stay the night. It will be so fulfilling and memorable for everyone to spend a night on an adventure together!

If you have any questions or concerns, please come find me at my flower shop in town or at the forest farm where I live!

Sincerely,
Oriphi

[ If she accidentally delivered it to a few wrong mailboxes, then... Oops!

On the promised day, once everyone (and likely a few surprise tag-alongs) has gathered or been gathered, Ori distributes little paper bags of snacks to everyone. Inside are cookies, oat snacks, and a freshly-picked apple from her and M-21's orchard. Do with them as you please... Just don't let her catch you throwing it into the sea or something. 🥺 ]

Alright. I think we should head out, then! Thanks for coming along, everyone! I hope it'll be a great time. Oh, and please don't forget to drink plenty of water and use this incredible ointment I discovered on this island! It's called "sunscreen!" Tieflings don't really get sunburnt, but you should use it!

[ And with that our intrepid adventurers set off to the mysterious, dangerous, unknowable... resort island! ]

( This is the ill-fated mass extinction memshare event. Please refer to the event for details on the resort and the plotting post for any specific details for characters' memshares! There are toplevels for each area of the resort (and for the memshare). Enjoy! )

Comments

[for8000amonth]

[ It's a valiant effort, on his part. His fingers brush the white bone, just barely, but they fall just as the rest of him does. And as Syrlya drops to his knee and his lips move in unwanted, feverish repentance, Alexei smiles down without much of a touch of emotion in his eyes. It's like looking into a dark room, only an inky blackness greeting you in return, and yet you know something unpleasant lurks within.

He is listening, as he does. Carefully, all whilst paying attention to little else.

You can hear the noises behind you, of cracks of magic and swings of steel, and the dull muted noise of the battle around you that sounds faintly like it's underwater. Your legs refuse to move, and whilst your hands shake in protest, you find you cannot unclasp them- not until every sin is confessed, every shame of yours laid bare for all to hear.

Something cold and dark scrapes at you, at your clothes- there are hands around you as well, clawing at the waxiness of your skin whilst you cannot move. It stings, but rather than burn, it leaves a faint cold in it's wake. Hollow, empty, like it threatens to leech the life from you directly.

You hear the shift of grass, and Alexei barely shifts as a sword slides through the space in front of him. It thuds into the grass, slicing through some of the black hands in front of you, and Sasha's brows furrow slightly in their silence. Their sword is large, requiring both hands, and it seems they are debating on how to grab the locket whilst defending themselves at their stature.

You do not hear Adelis' confessions anymore, nor can you see him. ]

[chronosynthesis]

I have killed purely out of emotion--[Syrlya isn't fool enough to believe Alexei truly isn't paying attention to everything else around him. He doesn't think his babbling confession is really drawing all his attention, like it's that interesting--this is a taunt.

The shadowy hands clawing at him sends an uncomfortable shiver, a deep pit of wrongness twisting in him as he's completely at the mercy of Alexei. He needs to rely on everyone else, but the thought doesn't alleviate the discomfort at being vulnerable.]

I have put my allies at risk to manipulate my enemies--[Especially being vulnerable to something whose eyes are so empty.

He just--needs to focus on the after. There is only so much he can confess to before he's exhausted his life experience.]

[for8000amonth]

[ You can feel, deeply in your bones, this is a battle you cannot win the normal way. He is toying with you, the way a cat toys with a mouse, batting it between their paws and watching it panic in an attempt to free itself with a predatory eye. This is a cold, empty creature, smile as blank as the look in his eyes, and it makes the claw of the hands seem harsher.

Sasha's small hands struggle to reach, even with the heft of their sword, and whilst you see the crackle of magic near him every so often, it is clear the other two are not physical combatants, used to being up close and personal. The hands seem to rise ever-flowing, no matter how many get batted away, and you watch their hand miss again as Alexei merely peers down with that omnipresent gaze-

And then he blinks.

His hand is empty.

There is a still moment of quiet as he stares at his hand, and then looks up. You can crane your gaze from where your head is drooped, and you can feel the power slowly return to your limbs as his concentration seems to shift fully.

You can recalled seeing something quick, a blur when Sasha's blade was swinging, but now it is evident what that was- Adelis stands, faint claws marks raked through his clothes, and in his hand is the locket. He had been so quiet, so quick, it had almost been impossible to tell, taking advantage of the other's strikes to slip it from the vampire's grip in a split second of distraction. His face is tight, staring at the man himself with an unreadable expression, but by the wide of his eyes and tenseness of his body, you think he might be...afraid.

'...My.'

Alexei's voice is...amused. But there is something else, something dangerous, that rings under his tongue, and you don't like it. He slowly lowers his raised arm, and with it, the shadows around you seem to slowly dissipate. As does the hold on your body and your tongue, control returning gradually now that the game is over. Sasha retreats a bit, their gaze shifting down to you if only for a brief moment.

You notice he has not stopped looking at Adelis.

'I will admit, I wasn't expecting this outcome, but I am a man of my word. Congratulations, on proving your worth. Such a thing is worthy of praise.' ]

[chronosynthesis]

[Syrlya's defiance never wavers, despite the continual futility. So the moment the control slips even a little, his head cranes with resistance--it's inspiring, and as the confession slowly, finally dies on his lips and he unclasps his hands, his gaze also follows Adelis standing triumphantly.

And he smiles with relief and pride.

Until Alexei speaks, and then his expression slips as he looks up back the vampire. His empty eyes boring down on Adelis, and he knows... knows what this leads to.

Fury burns up in him, and the memory of his body carries him through swift and practiced motions while Alexei stares at Adelis.

His hand levels to the ground to set a gravity well under him and Alexei. The magic is thicker than the other wells, seeking to grip the vampire and drag him off his feet to the center. And while it pulses, Syrlya surges forward to grab his blade, the motion fluid as he gets up on his feet to try and angle it right through Alexei's chest whether he's on the ground or standing.

It's a really bold attempt, and a part of Syrlya knows this won't mean anything. But the rest of him is furious at the man who tried to reduce Adelis to nothing.]