hot_mess_express

Senna

You find yourselves in a much smaller chamber than the one you just left, though it's still in no way claustrophobic. Before you are two doors. The door to the right is inscribed with the image of an ornate silver key; the door to the left with two golden keys crossed over one another.

The door behind you … is gone. And is it just you, or is the sound of water just a little bit louder in here?

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Now you must choose which path you will follow.

[SInce Pen seems to be playing alone (except for tagalong demon), let's go with Door Number 2 (aka the left)].

[noticing the door disappear]

Now that... that is unsettling.

The door locks behind you, and you find yourself in another chamber identical to the one before it. Floating inside a clear, crystalline bubble, far above your reach, are two keys.

Tepid water swirls around your ankles … or, you could've sworn it did? Maybe? You must've been imagining things.

Awaiting you, on a stone pedestal in the middle of the room, is a small crystal vial full of a deep blue liquid. There’s barely enough for a single mouthful. You know that you can send it away to another team by speaking their name clearly and with intention.

Lord Bastard, I offer You this truly terrible idea, if it pleases You to accept it.

[time for plan: see if I can get through this without self-inflicted poison. Pen picked up the vial and carefully climbed on the stone pillar. He carefully poured the liquid into one hand. Assuming nothing catastrophic happened, he threw the empty vial over his head, at the key bubble. If it hit, great. If it failed to hit (or didn't break the bubble, he brought his other hand to his mouth and drank.]

BONK

That's the sound of the vial hitting the bubble.

CLONK

That's the sound of the vial hitting the floor, completely unharmed. The bubble, too, is unharmed for now ...

Until he drinks. The potion tastes of cold and sharpness, but nothing seems to happen …

… For a few minutes, anyway. A sense of dread builds slowly, subtly, and at the edges of your senses you might begin to notice things — things you fear, figments of your nightmares. The hallucinations grow in intensity as time goes by, so that by the start of the fourth round, they're hyperrealistic. They're real, you know they're real; your worst nightmares have come to life.

The bubble holding the key shimmers and vanishes, leaving them to drop to the floor.

[Pen pauses to have a silent argument with Desdemona about the wisdom of drinking mysterious potions when Desdemona can't current even detect poison, let alone neutralize it.] .

[welp, better try another two-key door to get this over with]

Okay, that wasn't so bad. One more, and we can pick the easy choices for the last two.

[Pen, you don't have to speak out loud. And we might want to consider some insurance. Only if you are up to it.]

[Des is not sure he is.]

The door locks behind you, and you find yourself in another chamber identical to the one before it. Floating inside a clear, crystalline bubble, far above your reach, are two keys in your team's colour.

On the pedestal this time is a small crystal vial filled with … blood? That's blood, isn't it? There’s barely enough for a single mouthful. You know that you can send it away to another team by speaking their name clearly and with intention.

Your clothes are dry, you are dry, but you could've sworn you felt cool water swirl around your waist just now. The feeling vanishes as soon as you try to focus on it.

(Please include the door you'll choose next!)

[you know what, he's going to drink the blood, because what are good decisions any more]

Okay, now to get through an easy door.

[going for the one-key door]

The potion tastes exactly like blood, and the moment it passes your lips you feel thorns: stabbing pains spreading throughout your body, the worst of it centered around your ribs and lungs. It’s getting harder to breathe … and as time goes by, coughs will come, light at first but quickly intensifying. By the middle of the third round, you’ll be coughing up blood. It'll be touch and go as to whether you'll make it to the end of the fourth …

The bubble holding the keys shimmers and vanishes, leaving them to drop to the floor.

[Des, don't you dare say I told you so.]

[Send it away, Pen.]

We're not sending it away. We'll... figure something out.

The door locks behind you, and you find yourself in another chamber identical to the one before it. Floating inside a clear, crystalline bubble, far above your reach, is a key.

On the pedestal this time is a very sharp serrated knife. The moment you touch it you know that the task is to remove a finger, a toe, or an ear. You know that you can send it away to another team by speaking their name clearly and with intention.

There's water up to your neck, cold and still. Or … wait, is there? No. There's nothing there. Maybe you were imagining things …

[between the pain, blood loss, the creeping dread that unseen foes are after him, Desdemona demanding that he send the knife away and arguing with him about his hallucinations, Pen is going to pick up the knife, but mostly gets as far as brandishing it as he slumps against the pedestel].

[Pen. You need to say a team name. Not Senna.]

[... if they wanna finger, they can take it from my corpse. Prolly will anyway.]

[Pen, there are no Roknari pirates after you. You need to send the knife away and get somewhere with people, or I will for you.]

[I won't let you do that, Des. Not our job.]

"Bastard's Hell... Licorice!"

Edited 2019-12-01 03:54 (UTC)

[staggering toward the one-key door after failing this task]

[ The door won't open until the trial is complete, one way or another. ]

This is... [cough hack] the light task?

♬

You're completely submerged in icy cold water. The surface is so far away, completely out of reach; your lungs burn for want of —

Air. You're not underwater, silly; you never were.

… Right?

In the center of the room, below the crystalline bubble holding the single key, are two pedestals. One holds a basin filled to the brim with water so still and clear it offers a perfect reflection. When you look into it, you understand that you can, if you so wish: steal one key from one team; steal two keys from one team; steal one key each from two teams.

On top of the other is a miniature guillotine with a red hot blade. You know the moment you touch it that it's meant for a hand or a foot, just as you know that you can send it away to another team by speaking their name clearly and with intention.

[I don't even know if Pen has the health to even operate that]

You have 5 KEYS. Water trickles in, slowly at first, but within a few minutes it'll be above your heads. Soon enough it'll fill the entire room. Some time later, when everyone is still and gone, the door opens and a current carries you away …

endgame & revivals

Edited 2019-12-01 05:36 (UTC)

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Senna

ROUND 0

Decision

Re: Decision

Re: ROUND 0

ROUND 1

Decision

Re: Decision

no subject

Re: ROUND 1

DOOR DECISION

Re: DOOR DECISION

ROUND 2

DECISION

Re: DECISION

no subject

no subject

Re: ROUND 2

ROUND 3

Trial Decision

Re: Trial Decision

Door Decision

Re: Door Decision

no subject

Re: ROUND 3

ROUND 4

Trial Decision

Stealing?

Re: ROUND 4

RESULTS