[open] spooky scary for october time

[invasif]

Who: Ilde & Open
Where: the Temple
When: Early October
Rating PG13 for spooks
What: Ilde is trying to find some method to the madness of canon powers flickering on and off. Which involves using hers when they're on: too bad she's a fear manipulator. Happy Halloween :9 OOC post for plotting if you need it!

You are likely minding your own business in walking past her rooms, she doesn't pick you because she knows you or has anything against you, certainly. She picks you because she needs a victim in her experiments, nothing more than that. There is no warning or prelude, walking in of the open door to her room seems to transport you into a nightmare. The already ancient ruins of the temple grow dark and further encroached upon by nature: riddled with lichens and slime. There is no longer any light save for the window she is sitting in front of, a lightning storm at her back.

The interior of her room now seems more like a dungeon, and she much more like a terrible witch. Her black dress, cloak, and crown all seem to be made of swirling burnt ash and there is some infernal thing glowing like fire on a chain around her neck.

She rests her cheek against the back of one hand... wondering how long she can maintain the illusion and to what degree before it flickers away from her again. It would also be a lie to say she wasn't also curious to know how much terror each visitor can tolerate. It's always useful to know who is resistant to her powers before a situation becomes dire.

Snakes writhe on the floor of her room, and she invites pleasantly, "Come in."

Comments

hope you don't mind this ultra late tag!!

[cuedoves]

Zuko's no stranger to exploring creepy, probably haunted places -- his hunt for Aang has taken him to all corners of the world, and he's been in the dragonbone catacombs. He's also no stranger to being on edge -- which is exactly what this situation puts him in. He's immediately alert, squinting against the darkness with his fists drawn out --- his firebending is back, and he's ready to use it.

But there's someone there. And Zuko's not exactly sociable on the best of days --- let alone when weird things are going down.

"Who are you?"

He stays rooted in place, eyes flickering between her and the snakes.

also late but with starbucks

[archaeo]

"Huh."

That's the first thing she says when she sees it all because really, what can you say? Making a living off of old temples and creepy Sith Lords, this isn't quite her first rodeo, but it's fascinating all the same. When the woman beckons her inside, Aphra smiles and tip-toes cautiously, as if stepping on the wrong tile will spring a trap. There's also the snakes too, but there's no need for a bad Indiana Jones snakes joke here when it's waspworms she hates.

"So this is a fun thing you've got going here. Like, I've gotta say, love what you've done with the place. Is this all for me or?"

not at all, it's not even halloween yet!!

[invasif]

A boy. She inspects him for a moment, that he is not trembling but is wary. Strong-willed, brave, watchful. Interesting traits. She smiles faintly. She knows she can't both project this illusion and try to feign friendliness, but neither does she need to appear overtly menacing.

"My name is Ilde," she answers openly. "Have you noticed how strange the magic is in this temple?"

A light tone, giving some hint that perhaps she wasn't sitting here fucking with people for no reason at all. Although she kind of is.

adds whipped cream

[invasif]

This one is even more overtly brave. While Ilde finds that a valuable trait, she also finds it terribly irritating. It burns in the center of her, that she'd maybe like to squeeze that braveness right out of the woman. But, she is not really trying to make enemies at the moment. She is just testing, probing, trying to understand something she can't quite understand. While she has this power, she has never had much control over magic. It has always controlled her, an intoxicant that warped her mind.

"Do you always laugh in the face of danger?" She asks, pleasantly.

There's no real danger here, it's all illusion but... she won't confess that unless called out.

[archaeo]

Brave isn't quite how Aphra would describe herself, or how others might view her either. She's more foolish than anything, though she'd consider herself a risk-taker. And in their current situation, it's hard for her to take anything seriously. No Empire, no Darth Vader, no serial killer droids. What more could a girl ask for?

"Not always," she says as she stretches her arms behind her head. Aphra walks closer to the other woman, carelessly kicking the snakes in her path.

"To be honest, I'm still not sure if this is a real danger thing or some kind of roleplay you're going for?"

[invasif]

The snakes hiss and spit, but if Aphra isn't paying attention to them, it would be difficult for Ilde's illusion to convince her brain she was being bitten. They don't bother.

To call this roleplaying wouldn't be entirely incorrect. Ilde's powers were very much smoke and mirrors, illusion over substance. An illusion she had used to rule a kingdom still reeling from war, a kingdom that had not wanted her as queen. A kingdom still bitter over the actions of the man who had come before her. The man who had infected her with this power as he lay dying, boiling from inside.

That's all so very serious, however, and when faced with such a lackadaisical personality right now... Ilde can see that sternness and stoicism won't amount to much.

"Isn't it fun?" She inquires. "These strange powers we have."

...as if Astoria was the cause of this, as if this wasn't the darkness she came here with.

c:

[cuedoves]

He's been through quite a lot in his short lifetime -- he isn't easy to scare. Besides, the scariest thing to him is his own family. A stranger would have a hard time really rattling him.

"Who hasn't?" It's still a bit of a sore spot for him, he isn't a fan of the strange goings on. He's been a victim of pixies and flower crowns a few times already.

"So what is all this? More magic?" She seems like she knows, in any case.

[archaeo]

She shrugs. "It'd be more fun if that boss lady took requests."

At the top of her wishlist? Shapeshifting or force sensitivity. The first's mostly practical, but there's plenty of fun you can have with it too. The second? At this point, it just makes sense, she figures. She's probably wielded more lightsabers than Skywalker and while she doesn't think too highly of the Jedi or the Sith, she knows a ton about them.

"So how's yours work? You just think it and boom snakes? Or are they your pets and have nothing to do with this? You could be a girl who just loves snakes. I won't judge."

[invasif]

"It seems to come and go," she says airily. "I was sitting here to see if there was any pattern, and how well I could control it."

Things shift and squirm, as though the walls are somehow alive.

[invasif]

"I'm not certain," Ilde lies in response. "It's a strange sensation, stranger still to acknowledge it and receive these results."

A gesture with her hand to the things around them. The truth is that she cannot create illusions of anything she herself has not suffered. She can't reach into anyone else's mind and pull out their fear, only project her own. And she has seen so many an ugly thing. She had absorbed the magic from king Dreus as he lay dying, but it was also his reign of terror over her entire life which had given her so much fodder.

"And I am not very fond of snakes."

In the caravan, as a war orphaned child, snakes had been just one of many ills waiting to pick off refugees in the night.

[cuedoves]

Zuko takes a step away, still glancing between her and the shifting and squirming motions.

"Wait--- this is you?" He was willing to chalk it up to the general weirdness, but his eyes narrow. "You're doing... all this?"

He gestures vaguely at the aforementioned things.

[invasif]

"Yes, I think so," as if she doesn't know. As if she hasn't practiced this a hundred times before, as if she hadn't terrorized anyone who came near her palace with visions of fire and death.

"How does it feel, to you?"

[cuedoves]

Instead of answering the question, he sidesteps it and follows it up with another. He's still very much on guard, even more so now.

"How?"

And how can she just think so? "You don't know if you're doing it for sure?"

[invasif]

"You aren't... frightened, at all?"

For a moment, the air in the room seems to squeeze him. A dizzying wash of darkness and panic. But it's just a moment, released just as easily. Rather than acknowledge whether or not she does this on purpose, she muses,

"It all seems rather frightening to me."

sorry for the delay!!

[cuedoves]

Well, that about clinches it. It's definitely her doing this --- but no, if he is unnerved at all, it doesn't show. He narrows his eyes at the feeling -- but once it's passed, he advances on her, fist outstretched.

"Enough! Stop messing with me!"

His firebending is working intermittently. Lately, he's not been one to pick fights (at least, compared to how he was), but all of this is really pushing him towards the edge. His temper is still intact, after all! Plus, there's a lot about this situation to be unnerved by.

[invasif]

The Lady of Cinders watches the firebender's temper flare, her head tilting slightly. The charm around her neck -- the charm filled with the ashes of a dead firelord -- glows warmly in recognition. She had never known the firelord when he was a boy, she had met King Dreus well into his adulthood, but she wonders if he was like this. She had heard he was rather a charming young man, until the madness had started to take him. Imagining Dreus as a boy is at odds with her last memories of him: boiling to death from inside on his own magic.

Until she had smothered him herself.

She gestures with one hand, scattering droplets of flame in every direction. All that had been dark and wet goes up in flames. It's an illusion, like all the rest of it. Damaging only in belief, not in reality. The heat imaginary, but terrible.

"You're a tempestuous boy."