Open - The un-mapped Groove

_____Another lovely morning of peace and quiet, why could that never be something? The forest abuz with life, animals and creatures alike rushing around in rather odd ways. Birds flew circles, Bears rolled across the grass, wolves growled at what was once their fellow pack members, and many other unusual actions. Everything was out of order and to be honest some players might label the area simply ‘glitched out’ but that was not the truth and only covered the surface of the issue. Those that entered the fog covered grove would be in for a treat or maybe a fright depending on how they chose to see it.

_____Players would likely be walking, minding their own agenda before something would seem to pull at them. At first it seemed like nothing but as they walked it would grow stronger as the fog began to settle at their feet. Maybe it was the voice of someone they searched for, a child crying, but no matter what SEEMED to be the case you would be ushered into the fog. Slowly it would rise higher, thicken, and eventually you would lose sight but still feel the unworldly force pulling you deeper in.

_____Then it would began to lessen, lower back down, and eventually vanish. You could turn around but won’t see any sign of it, and you would see the oddities the same way as Morpheus. His head slightly shifting as he rested a grey eye on you before turning to fully face you with a worried gaze. It was a change, but it was also a sinking feeling that overcame his heart. Tapping his cane slowly Morpheus would turn away and set his gaze back onto what seemed an endless grove.

”So, you had fallen prey to it’s lure also? This place… It’s not like others i have seen in the game… Something evil… no something lost is here and it does not want to be found… or maybe it wants to be found but nobody has managed to find it...?”

_____Morpheus’ voice seemed lost, he had been here for longer then he could remember. So many things he had tried, so long alone with only his own voice and the odd animals around them as he began walking into the groove to try his luck once again. He walked strait, if others followed him they would likely be in for some shock. After walking for what felt like hours they would return, back to the same spot they had departed from. Morpheus walking towards a tree and adding another slash to total up one hundred times as he sighed lightly.

”No matter what you try it keeps you here, evil… good… lost… hero… evil… it traps anything until the end of it’s days. This… unmapped groove…”

_____With a shallow gesture, cane lifting to point out into the groove as bones of people and animal alike seemed to appear for only a few moments before they fell back into the grass covered prison you found yourself in. Can you find the escape, or are you trapped inside this endless groove?

 

“This must be him,” Iván muttered as he noted the strange behavior of flora and fauna alike. Astorea’s forest was as busy as usual, with the exception of its inhabitants’ bizarre behavior. Was it just a mere glitch? Or was it something more? Iván believed the latter, half because of prior research on strange phenomena in his quest to uncover more knowledge on the god-like creature he encountered down in the Spire and half because he was growing physically exhausted due to his non-stop crusade. “This grove… It just can’t be a glitch.”

There was a similar fog down in the Spire. Iván swallowed air, remembering the strange creatures he and his party had encountered down there. There was the giant sea monster that bit off Portia’s ear. There was the masked porcupine creature that wasn’t as ferocious but was still intimidating. There was the spindly colossus that stepped on one of them, killing that person. Iván shook his head, trying to concentrate, to focus on the reality before him instead of being dragged back into his nightmares. Lastly, there was the god-like creature, the Bound Prince (or was he the Bound Prince?), the masked purple machine deity. That encounter might’ve ended in his death, but Iván couldn’t stop obsessing over the Purpletrator, wouldn’t stop obsessing over the powerful being. He had no name, its real name unknown to him and every scholar he’s asked so far, but he vowed he will. He will have its name. He will know what it was. He will see it again. Eventually.

Strangely, as Iván continued to move towards the fog, mustering all of his courage and determination not to run away for fear of the monsters he keeps seeing but weren’t actually there, the fog itself seemed to have gone away, died down, disappear somewhat. What replaced it was an old man.

“Do you know what it is?” Iván cut to the chase, his obsession getting the best of him. “Please. I need to know. I need to know it is what I think it is.”

There was desperation in Iván’s voice, a quiet desperation that one could easily ignore. Like most of him, his feelings, they were intentionally muted down to preserve the air of mystery about him. It was Iván’s greatest known, the fact that not a lot of people knew anything about him, about what he could do, about what he has gone through.

“If it is what I think it is,” Iván swallowed air in the middle of his thought, knowing full well that the truth he would espouse could risk his own safety, his security, but feeling that it would be worth it should he come face-to-face with his savior once more. “…then it can keep me for as long as it wants. I need to see it. I need to know it. I need to be with it.”

I must, I must, I must.

 

_____The boy’s voice fell on deaf ears, akin to how the scent did not faze the man who smelled his fair share of repulsive stench over the years. Morpheus simply looked out into the groove tapping his cane and wondering what this place was all about. What drew some but not all that passed the area? What fate would befall players who fell victim here? Was any of it truly happening was also a thought that sparked in his mind as Morpheus simply moved his free hand to stroke his beard and grumbled.

”Ain’t no reason to beat a horse if she won’t move a muscle…”

_____Moving his cane aside Morpheus lowered his body and sat in the grass. If not for being trapped this place was truly peaceful, well outside the occasional rise of bones but that was not scary. Crossing his legs and resting his cane on his lap Morpheus enjoyed the peaceful vibe of the area while he still could. Maybe something would spark his mind if he tried a different approach like not rushing forward.
@Iván Carl

 

Horse? What was this old man talking about? Iván grimaced behind his mask as he saw for the first time how old the old man really looked. It was almost absurd, how the game developers would go with such a geriatric NPC. What purpose did the man's age have that they needed him to be this close to death when a younger man could have sufficed? Maybe a younger man wouldn't have sufficed. But they were in the middle of nowhere anyone would go to, of a chaotic strangeness that was hard to truly explain. Maybe the man's age was deemed appropriate for the kind of story the game developers wanted to tell.

No, it wasn't that. It wasn't just that. But whatever it was with the old man, it wasn't important. In fact, to Iván, it was more than irrelevant. He wasn't going to be useful, it seemed. Maybe he should just go in alone. He's faced giant ant queens before, nightmarish monsters that could end armies just by stepping on them... Whatever there was in this grove, whatever this grove was, Iván wouldn't let it intimidate him, deter him from his quest to reunite with the masked purple god-machine-thing. He was going to meet his savior once again. One way or the other.

"I guess you won't be of much use if you'd rather stay here and sit while curiosities abound around you," Iván scoffed, shaking his head. "From the looks of things, whether you wait or move, the result will stay the same: Death will come for you. Perhaps sooner than you'd like." The illusionist began walking away, towards the grove, towards his salvation, towards death itself.

 

_____Morpheus already tried to explore the groove, he had done it countless ways and each time the result ended up the same. Exhaling slowly Morpheus trusted his hearing, listening the the boys footsteps and any sounds he made. He would listen to it fade, then return behind him, his hand lifting slowly to wave to show he knew he would return. Morpheus had been here for a couple hours now, going into the groove has and still was one of his main attempts to find an exit.

”My curiosity was already saturated by the first seventy times I tried exploring the area. The thirty after had been my attempts to escape here. I simply sit down as my bones ache, and I wish to clear my mind before trying again. As I’m out of ideas.”

_____Moving his hand down Morpheus exhaled once more and relaxed himself The boy could do what he wanted, he would simply try to think of something he had not already. This puzzle area was one that would take more brain power then muscle and brute power. Calmly humming a light tone the old man began trying to center himself to think clearly, something he rarely did and hopefully would yield new results like he wished for.
@Iván Carl

 

Se--- Seventy times?! Although Iván appeared indifferent with the old man’s statement, deep down, he was befuddled. So he’s been trap here for a long time… This was starting to look like a terrible idea. Was this a test? From the otherworldly being down in the Spire? Or perhaps it was just that, a glitch, and Iván had strayed off his path and got himself trapped in the process. Thirty times… The old man had tried to escape thirty times, and thirty times, he had failed. That was not inspiring any confidence in Iván. But… He’s old. Maybe his old mind just couldn’t figure out a good way to escape.

Iván turned his attention back to the strange mannerisms, the strange scenery, before him. If they were indeed trapped, then they had to find their way out, but if the old man has failed thirty times to escape, the forty times he spent exploring the area or more likely being lost in this mysterious groove, then maybe Iván should think of something that old man could have never thought of.

He looked at the old man again who was now humming something as he thought. This is no time for music. Certainly no time to sit on the ground… The ground. The old man had been on the ground the entire time. Not just sitting of course but walking around. That was why his old bones were aching. Well, aside from the fact that his bones were old. He had been walking around, tiring his bones and his joints and his muscles.

Iván turned to the sky and grinned under his mask. All that time on the ground, seventy times to be exact, and nothing helped him escape. Perhaps, the ground wasn’t their ally, but maybe the skies are. Using his magic, Iván summoned a smaller version of the Ant Queen he had faced during his first mission with the Aristocracy, a mission that had failed thanks to two traitors. It was all good, though. Players gotta play.

Without a moment’s notice, Iván sent the summon flying towards the sky. On the ground, the old man and the masked illusionist would be helpless, but up in the air? Oh, no. Iván was taken aback by what he saw: his summon, the smaller version of the Ant Queen, had fallen to the groove’s magic. The darn thing was now flying in circles, much like the rest of the winged creatures around them. It seemed that the groove also affected all manners of life forms within it. Were Iván and the old man being duped as well? Was the groove controlling them, too? Or were they excluded because they were Players?

“Looks like the skies are a no go as well,” Iván muttered as he called the miniature Ant Queen back, sending it to wherever plane it belonged. The alternative was to use the miniature Ant Queen as a jet pack to fly high into the sky, but even that sounded ridiculous now that they've established the groove messes with life forms, mostly lesser beasts. “We’ll need to work together to escape this place.”

Great. Another team-up in an unfamiliar setting. Now where has he heard that one before? The last time he did something like this, one person got her ear bitten off, two got scratched and slashed, and one even got murdered by getting stepped on.

Iván sighed, hoping no one was getting stepped on, at least not him. Maybe at the end of this, he’ll actually come face-to-face with that otherworldly being from the Spire. Maybe. Maybe not. First, they had to move. No point in getting stuck here. No point at all.

 

_____Morpheus was not in the mood to try again at the moment. Humming louder if the boy kept trying to talk him into moving while he wanted to rest. Morpheus was a stubborn old fool and sleepy, however since even he knew this place was dangerous he had to stay awake. Hands slowly moving as he exhaled and further centered himself before they would hear a distorted voice emerge from the grove. The fog that once encased them began to roll from the grove, a shadow rising, then another and more began to lurk in the approaching fog.

_____Morpheus slowly opened his eyes before grumbling and rising to his feet. One hand pointing over his shoulder as he began to move towards the forest line. He did not feel the need to explain his actions since it seemed clear staying in the open was a bad idea. When he got there Morpheus began to scale a tree, a quick look to see of the boy would do the same with another tree before the old man sat down on a branch and yawned lightly.

”Happens every so often, stay out of the fog you don’t get dragged off, where you go… well i have not been dumb enough to find out…”

 

Iván was not amused when the old man (@Morpheus) started humming. Every time he tried to open his mouth, the old man seemed to protest by humming louder than before. It was annoying, but then again, he didn’t really have anything useful to say, useful which in this context meant something that could help them get out of there. So far, they had nothing. Even Iván’s magical familiar was of no use. This place, this glitch, was affecting every flora and fauna that came near it. Did the old man have the right idea? Should they just wait until someone rescued them?

No. They had to do something. They can’t just wait for the cavalry. They didn’t even know if there was cavalry, if cavalry was coming, if it even knew they were trapped there. They had to come up with something. Fast. Who knew what prolonged exposure to the glitch could do to them? It was a question Iván did not want answered. He already had a much more important question to deal with.

Iván was about to speak again when he heard some sort of distorted voice from the grove. He instinctively took a step back when shadows appeared from the fog. “Looks like your nap is over, old man,” Iván braced himself for whatever was coming for them. Those things sure didn’t look like cavalry.

He turned to the old man as soon as he got up, confused at what he was doing. Turning back to the shadow creatures, though, quickly made Iván realize what the older, wiser person had intended to do. So he followed him, followed his leadership, as the old man led the way. Iván got up on another tree, this one close to the old man’s tree, and sat down on a different branch. Soon enough, the old man gave the illusionist some advice, which served to bolster Iván’s assumption about the plan, his plan.

“Hmm,” Iván deadpanned, his eyes on the shadow creatures, at least where they had last seen them. “How long does this last?” The old man’s seen this once or twice at least, right? Maybe something else happens after this, something good hopefully. Iván sighed, a little annoyed that his personal quest to find out more about that otherworldly being from down in the Spire was now officially put on hold.

 

_____Morpheus looked over to the boy in the other tree, his gaze almost blank for a moment before he blinked and made himself comfortable as he could while shrugging his shoulders. To be fair Morpheus never felt reason to time it, nor did he think others would ask him such a question. Closing his eyes again he started to doze off, but not without speaking up a bit.

"Hell if I know, never thought to count it or that somebody be trapped with me. All i know is that sudden mist ain't a good sign, and shadow figures in it much worse. What i do know..."

_____Morpheus voice cut off with a sudden snore, the old man relaxing to much and causing himself to pass out. Rather comically one could say he left @Iván Carl Hanging when it seemed he might have some information that was important. But after a couple of minutes the fog would slowly go back to the grove, and any creature that had not escaped it was now gone. This along with a few new bones added to the shifting groove.

 

Iván narrowed his eyes at the old man in the other tree for a few seconds, minutes? Whatever. It was definitely longer than he expected himself to be staring at an old man. From the corner of his eyes, he saw some really weird crap: shadows exploding into colors, chibi Curry!Portia floating in front of his eyes followed by chibi Alphabet Chocolate doing the macarena on his right shoulder, a bunch of gross eyeballs appearing everywhere he looked, the enitre sky drowning in purple, some tiny red spider whispering to him "I don't feel so good" on his left shoulder, and finally, replacing the old man from where he should have been was a buff two-headed manly creature, its right head Haru's and its left head Bradwynne's.

"Hey, Iván, you wanna know a secret?" the creature's Haru head asked him, its voice sounding a little too distorted to actually be Haru's. Instead of the same head, the creature's Brad head continued their conversation, "We are your father."

Iván narrowed his eyes at the buff two-headed manly creature that he had named, in his head, Haruwynne. What happened to the old man? He should be the one in that tree. Did he disappear? Did he turn into Haruwynne? Why? Was he actually Haruwynne the entire time? Who was Byron Saxton? Why was Gamora? "Ah. Cool, cool, cool."

A few moments of silence transpired between Iván and Haruwynne, seemingly getting themselves trapped in an awkward staring contest, which of course Iván would've won if it was an actual staring contest. Haruwynne would've clearly gotten themselves disqualified, on account of having two heads and four eyes. "Also," the Haru head softly smiled at Iván before the Brad head spoke to continue their sentiment again. "...curry is the devil's boiled fish water."

"What..." It took Iván a second or two... A minute or two? ...to realize the ramifications of what Haruwynne had just told him. "...the..." He could accept the fact that his father was a two-headed buff freak, but calling the world's greatest meal the devil's boiled fish water? "...actual..." He hated boiled fish water. He thought it was gross, disgusting, inedible. How dare does his father compare curry to such a terrible dish?! "...frankenheimerschmidt?!"

Out of his damned mind, and fueled mostly by his anger at such a dastardly insult, Iván launched himself towards a laughing Haruwynne, which was actually an oblivious @Morpheus, with the sole intention of tackling him to the ground, perhaps to end his dirty mouth by spearing him off the tree and breaking his back on their fall. "Take that back! TAKE THAT BACK YOU BUFF PIECE OF SCHINDLERSTEINFRAULEIN!!!"

 

_____Morpheus was no stranger to the effects of drugs or the sort in his system. Not only was his meds like that, but one did not serve in the military for forty years without having seen enough crazy or otherwise terrible shit to sanely live each day without something to make all that bad go away. So when things started to get weird Morpheus simply labeled it his grand kids decided to give him his meds while he played. With that in mind he figure, why not enjoy it.

_____Well that was until he was tackled from his spot in the tree by the other person who seemed intent on yelling and calling him some name Morpheus roughly pinned for Italian. Grumbling Morpheus moved to nearly throw the boy off him as he rose and grumbled. Damn green horns who can't handle their drugs. It did not dawn on his mind the boy did not get the same meds as Morpheus, far less at the exact same time.

_____What did cross Morpheus' mind was the boy had overstep and now he was going to get a damn hard smack on the head for that. Frame Moving to kick the air as he pushed off the ground. Landing on his feet before Morpheus charged forward towards the male. "LEEEEROYYYYYY KINKINS!!!!" If the old bullet train reached the male he would soon fine despite his elderly appearance Morpheus was not only strong, but knew how to make it hurt more.
@Iván Carl

 

"Oof!" Iván winced as he felt the brunt of that fall. Well, maybe not the brunt of that fall, exactly. Maybe just some of it? After all, that digusting two-headed freak named Haruwynne should've been the one to feel the brunt of that fall. Iván had leapt at him shoulder-first, allowing himself the option to roll through, which he had failed to do, to save himself from pain, if any. Ah, well. At least Haruwynne was dead, right? Nope. "What the heck are you?!"

Haruwynne was already getting up to his feet... Its feet? ...while Iván was still massaging his ribs on the ground, still reeling from that impact. He wasn't ready for it, didn't actually think it would feel so painful, or maybe it was something else that made him so sensitive to everything else. He pointed a finger at the monstrosity before him, right eye closed, the other hand still on his ribs. That finger soon changed into an open palm, as if he was gesturing for a momentary time-out.

"We already told you, son," the Haru head softly smiled at Iván again before again the Brad head spoke to continue their sentiment. "...WE ARE YOUR FATHER KINKINS!!!!"

Haruwynne charged at an unprepared Iván like a bullet train. Or a hurricane. Iván's body was burning, figuratively, and it was starting to shout to him. Something about desire coming? Pain was breaking out loud, his sanity in a cage, the storm in his head breaking loose. If only he could make it with someone he had chosen. But night was calling for him, and soon he'd have to go. This wolf was hungry after running the show, licking its lips, ready for the win, on the hunt tonight for love at first sting.

Earlier this morning, as the sun came out, he remembered how last night was shaking pretty loud. Someone's cat was purring, scratching his skin. Iván remembered wondering what was wrong with another sin? There he was! Slow-mo charging as Haruwynne! There he was! Actually old man @Morpheus but like a bullet train! Iván was, rising up, only to get rocked by the hurricane.

Everything faded to black. At least for Iván, who found himself unconscious on the ground.

Hidden

​

 

_____Morpheus, to be honest expected the male to stay awake longer then one simple tackle. Grumbling at the lack of fighting effort the person made despite starting their tussle he slung the boy over his shoulder and glared at the odd shifting world around him. Grey eyes watched the area slowly before he inhaled as much air as he could to get ready to shout his usual words to get rid of the tipsy oddness of drugs in his system.

"I HAVE... NO TIME FOR TRIPY MOOD!"

_____Waiting a few moments after he shouted as none of the odder things returned to normal. Blinking for a moment or so before he simply sighed and went to try and get out of the odd groove once again like he had tried so many times before the male showed up. It was not going to be easy, but maybe with enough time and the fumbling from the effects of the shifting world he could get out. Only time would really tell.
@Iván Carl