illusional | 10th l o s t s o u l ~ [Action]

[Cheyenne was hungry.]

[It had only been a few moments since she awoke, resting in the snow and shivering, and she was already on her feet and walking. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realized where she was. This wasn't the desert anymore. No, this place was still familiar... Luceti. But the name held no significance for her yet. Her mind was racing. For the first time in what felt like forever, she could actually think. The hunger was still unbearable, but the shift into the barrier was enough to give her some control.]

[She needed to figure out what to do before she froze to death or gave in to temptation. She didn't know why, perhaps her mind wasn't clear enough to understand, but she knew she couldn't go into the village yet. She needed to wait... but for what? Waiting wasn't going to make things better. Perhaps, if she could find just one person, she could pull herself together long enough to feed without putting them in danger?]

[But did she have the self-control to do so?]

[She was so hungry...]

--

[Much later in the evening, Cheyenne will make her way around the village in an attempt to refamiliarize herself with the setting, this time wearing her blindfold. It hasn't changed too much since she was last here, thankfully. She'll grab a few things from the item shop to bring back to her apartment before finally stopping by Seventh Heaven for dinner. Her memories of Luceti place are still coming back in bits and pieces, but at the very least, she remembers she ate here often.]

[Feel free to run into her at any point, though she'll probably be a little unresponsive until after she's eaten actual food.]

--

((ooc: Okay, so! Cheyenne here is an illusionist. Normally she's much more in control of her powers, but after a month and a half of not feeding at all, she doesn't have a very strong hold on mind right now. The powercap brought back some of her sanity, but until she can manage enough to go into the village without eating every soul in sight, she'll be wandering around the forest just outside the village. Unfortunately, she's doing so without her blindfold on, which means anyone who happens to see her is at risk for being fed on.

If you want your character to run into her in the first part, please fill this out! And keep in mind she might avoid your character in the future if they didn't already know each other from her last stay here. Basically, when someone looks into her eyes, they will be trapped in an illusion of whatever it is they fear the most. Only your character will see the illusion, and they won't be able to move until freed. If your character wears sunglasses/goggles/anything that obscures vision, or is blind, they won't be affected by illusions. And don't worry, she won't feed long enough to leave any damage to your character's soul.

And of course, she'll be completely sane for the second part!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[...she isn't wearing her blindfold, is she?

No. No she is not. But she should be. Oh dear lord, she should be.]

I...

[Oh, god. How do you even explain this? He doesn't know. He's out of practice. Rachel was a long time ago. The threat of her gaze suddenly makes it hard to think straight.]

...d-do you know where you are?

No. I don't know where I am. But do you know where you are?

[She takes a step closer. There's something very strange about her demeanor right now. She's walking on her feet in an unsteady manner, and clearly not only because of the cold. Even her voice sounds more distant and disconnected than usual, as though she weren't really thinking about what she was saying.]

[Her voice remains blank, but a strange grin begins to spread across her face.]

Do you know? I wonder. He knew where he was. And he knew what I am. Do you know what I am, too?

[Each step closer is matched by a step back.]

Yes, I know where you are.

And I know what you are. For a while, I was what you are.

It was horrible.

You were what I am? What a strange thing to say. You are a human. You are not a monster. You can't understand such a thing.

[Still approaching. Her eyes are closed... for now. After a few more steps, they're going to open. Will he look away in time, or will he be trapped in her gaze?]

...but I can show you.

[Morbid curiosity, an inability to actually turn his back on such a strange and pitiable creature, fading memory, or simply the fact that her voice is almost hypnotic in its flatness means that he won't. He'll try, a split second too late, but to no avail.]

[The illusion starts the moment she opens her eyes.]

[Suddenly he's standing in the village. The buildings are in shambles, as though they've been unoccupied for years and years.]

[The village was empty. He was the only person there. That's the thought this illusion is trying to drive into his mind. False thoughts and memories, in addition to the images flashing before his eyes.]

[Above, the sky is red. The barrier's gone and broken. The third party already took their chance years ago and swooped in, taking out everyone he ever knew and loved one at a time, day by day. He stands before their graves, each dated only days apart. Grune, Helios, and even Buffy...]

[Now it was time to dig the final grave. The tombstone was in place and the grave was ready. He only had to bury the body. The body of Ginia, still twisted as though frozen in the state of her death, reaching out to Giles for help that never came. He couldn't help her. He didn't save her.]

[It was all his fault.]

[And now he was alone.]

[He didn't even feel himself collapse.

But collapse Giles did, falling to his knees like a puppet missing its strings, like a man with literally nothing left to go on for. Because he didn't. They were all dead. All his fault. All over. Everyone, he's so sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry...

Giles stares back at Cheyenne blindly, well and truly caught in her gaze and frozen in the heights of horror and despair. In his mind, he's placing the tombstone, laying down the shovel, turning away...but in what he doesn't even remember to be the real world, Giles is well and truly helpless as he sobs in broken defeat.]

[Mercifully, the illusion doesn't last long.]

[Something in Cheyenne's mind is telling her this is wrong. She's torturing someone, torturing them, and they haven't done anything to deserve this. It takes everything she has just to end the illusion, reflecting it off of something else instead. Anything else...!]

[In the end, it chooses Cheyenne's own memories to replace that illusion. While Giles is still locked in Cheyenne's gaze, the scene before him suddenly goes dark, and when it reappears, he'll find himself kneeling down in a sandy desert. And unlike the previous illusion, he's allowed awareness of the fact that both this, and the scene before, we're real.]

[The desert itself doesn't seem to contain anything, save for a few strange tree-shaped statues made of twisted glass. It's also cold, even though the sun is shining brightly overhead. And somehow, the sand seems to have a texture closer resembling snow.]

[He knows that this isn't real. Or at least, he knows that it shouldn't be real. Yet all of his senses are subsumed by the feelings of this fresh horror, down to the feeling of the thick sand between his fingers.

Even so, Giles is no longer so insensible that he can't take in his surroundings. And he does, the better to figure out where he is.

As soon as he can just bring himself to move...]

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