Searching Dogtown [Closed]

[canofmanji]

Who: Manji and Yelena
When: Now
Where: Dogtown
Summary: Exploring D14 of Dogtown
Warnings: Claustrophobia

Initially Manji had thought about coming in here alone to explore, but with how strange Dogtown was before they closed it up? Having a partner made sense even to him. Despite his immortality he wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't something in there that might be able to find a way to kill him.

The fact that is was Yelena who was coming with him made him feel much more confident. He knew he could trust her to get the job done if they ran into trouble.

So far nothing seemed wrong. Especially as they left behind the bog and made it onto firmer ground. The trees were a bit tightly packed in, but surely if they go a little further they should eventually clear out. “So far so good.” He says to his travel partner.

Comments

[musicdied]

"If there are any monsters lurking in the trees, you're just tempting them to come out and try to eat us," Yelena says, though there's a hint of amusement in her voice. It isn't dismissal of the potential threat so much as it is awareness that the horrors lurking in Dogtown don't typically need any tempting. If they're there, they'll make themselves known, with or without any famous last words.

She scans the trees, frowning slightly as she notices just how many heavy branches have fallen and lie strewn across the path, as though brought down by the weight of ice or storm. Has there been a storm since the sirens and the sea creature had fled? She can't remember one of significant force, at least.

[canofmanji]

"Maybe I want to spice up today a little?" He says with a cocky smile. While he was ready, and always itching, for a fight even Manji knows it's better if things stay quiet. His one good eye glancing up towards the skyline again. Normally a blue sky would be a comfort, but something still felt off to him.

[musicdied]

She snorts quietly at that, and shakes her head in mock despair. "If something horrible does eat you, it serves you right," she says.

The trees creak and groan overhead, and she frowns at them again. "It isn't windy today, is it?" It feels still. So why are the trees creaking and sighing?

[canofmanji]

"I'll be sure to choke them on my way down their throat." He says this with a smirk. Not that he wanted to experience that, but he was more than ready to go down fighting if it did.

He didn't feel any wind at all. "It sure is." His eyes also glance up at the tree line. "Maybe we should move a little faster? Get the blue sky under us? Don't want one of these limbs to come down on us with all this... wind."

[musicdied]

Yelena nods slightly, and pulls her gaze from the stooped trees, stepping carefully over one of the larger fallen branches, the broken end of it long and ragged.

"That sounds like a very good idea. It looks like it thins out a little bit ahead."

If it isn't just an optical illusion. Anyone who's ventured into Dogtown with any regularity must, by now, have come across at least one illusory path.

[canofmanji]

"Good. Let's pick up the pace." Not because he was scared and feeling like he was having irrational thoughts of the trees bending in to close around him. "It will be good. Keep us limber in case anything happens." It's not because he's scared. He'll keep telling himself that and maybe he'll believe it.

[musicdied]

"As long as we're careful to not let anything close in behind us."

Like the damned trees. She can't help but remember the cave that had twisted shut behind her like a great, strange mouth the last time she was in Dogtown. This shouldn't feel remotely similar, out in the open air, and yet - it's like there's a weight pressing down, an invisible mountain hanging over their heads.

She hastens her stride, and forces herself not to continually look back over her shoulder. That's nothing but a recipe for tripping and impaling herself on a fallen spur of wood.

[canofmanji]

Now that she's said it, Manji can't help but to feel like someone is behind them. Now he starts to constantly look behind him. THERE! He thinks he sees movement and tenses up, but no-- just his imagination.

"I don't like this place." His shoulder grazes a branch to the point where he actually jumps with a shout. Grabbing for his blade, but stopping short of actually drawing it. Doesn't stop his face from developing a blush as he feels foolish for being afraid of a tree.

[musicdied]

Under other circumstances, she'd probably laugh at him for flinching from a tree. This being Dogtown, hostile plants are a legitimate risk.

"No one likes this place," she says. It comes out a little ragged; the air feels thick here, half-congealed to liquid. Or maybe it's just the pounding of her heart that makes it difficult to get enough oxygen.

They break through the trees, into the clearing. The sky looms too close, pressing down with all the vastness of space behind it.

[canofmanji]

It's oppressive. Much too oppressive. He hunches over, but even trying to make himself smaller doesn't make him feel like he has more room.

"This isn't like me and if you try to tell anyone I turned coward I'll deny it." He glances up at the sky. How does the sky feel closer? What is happening here? "But maybe we should get out of here. There is something really wrong here."

[musicdied]

She looks upward. The few thin clouds that streak across the looming blue expanse seem like they're reaching for them, to clutch and crush and grind. It should be an absurd impression, but the sense of weight makes her back and shoulders ache, like she's trying to brace a too-large load.

"I won't tell anyone if you don't," she agrees. It rankles a little not to keep probing, to find some source that they can confront - but she can see the path ahead, just as littered with fallen branches as the one behind, and it is all too easy to envision snapped bones instead.

[canofmanji]

"Besides, getting late. Probably not a good idea to camp out here overnight just the two of us." The only part Manji hates about this turning and running idea is that they have to go back into that forest. Something he's really not interested in.

But, they did it once before, the could do it again. "So, yeah, just 'cause it's late, right?" He stops and looks back towards the way they had come from. "That's the real reason we're going back."

[musicdied]

"I definitely do not want to stay out here overnight," Yelena says. Here especially. Her breathing already feels constricted, and it's all too easy to imagine slowly suffocating if they were forced to camp out for the night in this space. And nothing behind them is any better - there's precious little solid ground in the bog behind them, and the cave is an absolute non-starter.

Better not to imagine what else they might encounter at night, whether in camp or on the way back, were they to try to push on after lingering too long.

"So yes. It is just because it's getting too late to go any further."

[canofmanji]

"It's the only sensible thing to do." He starts to lean forward just a little as he walks. The sky feeling like it was sink down around him. There just wasn't enough space for him to stand up properly. His heart beating in his chest. "There is something really weird about this whole stupid place. Is this really the same Dogtown as before?"

[musicdied]

"It's the same Dogtown," she says, rolling her shoulders in a subconscious attempt to throw off the weight of the looming sky. The walk back out of the clearing seems interminable, like the atmosphere is dragging at their feet, pinning them down so it can crush them more easily.

"There are parts I recognize from before. But it's more...chaotic now. The effects are smaller areas, but more concentrated. I think fencing it off and leaving it alone to fester was a very bad idea."

[canofmanji]

"Festering, really does seem like the right word." He hurries along. Desperately wanting to get out of this terrible place.