[??? Day 465]

[quitplayinggames]

[you wake up.

the first sensation you feel is your key, warm and alive against your chest. you know immediately that this place is responsive to this power, the power of your will applied to magic. if you've started to experiment with what your special ability is, or if you want to, that realization might be easier to find here as well - though it's not strictly necessary. all you need for sure is a question: what are your desires. . .?

. . . you're in a blank white room. the walls and ceiling are featureless. the floor is covered in a million feathers and scraps of cloth, which drift up in muffling gales around you if you so much as move.

up in one corner high off the ground, you glimpse a splash of bright electric blue through the drifting airy debris. the only other thing of note in the room is the door on one wall: it's white and featureless as a piece of paper, and you get the sense that it will vanish into the wall again if closed. undifferentiated noise pours through the place where it's cracked open, unbearably loud. even with the feathers in the air shutting out the noise a little, it's hard to hear yourself think.

there's something hard and clanging underfoot too, hidden by the feathers. you trip over it immediately because of course you do; ow! what is that?]

((This is a short, individual, play-at-your-own pace plot explore, which will run until 11:59 PM EST on Tuesday, June 2. Anyone jumping in before then is welcome! This is not directly connected with heartgames, so people are free to jump in regardless of whether they've played or run another heart this round.))

Comments

[fullmoonblooms]

[thinking for a long moment...then writes 'where do you go when you disappear?', holding her key and just focusing on the desire for an answer, but not to make the paint remain]

[quitplayinggames]

[there's a long pause. . . then words form on the wall before bleeding away:

Here.]

[fullmoonblooms]

[looking around the room...oh. then tries to paint again:]

"There's nothing wrong with staying in a safe space just with yourself or someone you trust, so long as you can make sure you're ready to come back out again."

[grabbing her key and focusing on the warm feeling of security she feels when she was in Fell's realm, or is just staying by Sixes and Shirayuki.]

[quitplayinggames]

[your paint sinks into the wall as if it had always been there. the process of applying your will to the space around you with your keys is more familiar, now; it's not the same effort of mere imagination as it was in the cloud realm, but this is still a power you can access.

whatever you left feels like a rebuke, a message to see through even the haze of noise and feathers and listen to. get a sense that this disruption of the white in the room will at least last for a long time. . .]

[fullmoonblooms]

[considers a moment, then paints a smily face and a "We believe in you!", adding a dash of good feelings with her key.]

[quitplayinggames]

[:)

while you're contemplating the results of your actions, you hear a tinny sound, somehow cutting completely through the noise each time: it layers itself on top of all the other voices rather than removing them, so now it's really loud in your head.

it's coming, improbably, from the cord-cut hotel telephone in the pile of feathers.

the sound is impossible to ignore, hideously compelling - who's even calling? it would be very, very hard not to react to the ringing.]

[fullmoonblooms]

[going to take a look, grabbing some feathers and putting them over her ears so she can maybe focus]

[quitplayinggames]

[it's ringing! the cut cord is sparking a bit, with no indication of where - or if - the other side is in the mass of feathers. THIS IS A TERRIBLE SYSTEM.

R I N G]

[fullmoonblooms]

[...i have a feeling a piece is missing if it's sparking, can I find that piece first?]

[also taking a moment to try and shape her feathers into a more ear-muff like shape]

[quitplayinggames]

[you can do that and your new headpiece is VERY fetching.

your key reacts to your urgency, blowing the feathers aside. there-- the cut cord disappears into the floor over that way, hanging loose. there's a couple of feet of slack there.]

[fullmoonblooms]

[I'll even give it little wings for Maximum Cuteness.]

[picking up that cord and connecting one end to the spark to see if it fits.]

[quitplayinggames]

[SO CUTE.

it's definitely the right cord! it might take more than that to fuse it together, though. . . ]

[fullmoonblooms]

[...connecting it to the handset together, and then pulls out her key and sees if she can't will the cord together.]

[quitplayinggames]

[this is a weird way to fix a phone, but your key keeps glowing on your chest. . . and eventually, your Red Green bullshit succeeds.

the phone comes off the receiver as you finish. there's a moment of silence. . . then a click. they've hung up.

you feel a powerful emotion, hard to identify. . . mixed hope and dread. . .? it hits you so hard that you physically double over.]

[fullmoonblooms]

[why is my bullshit Red and Green when I am a pretty pink sterling knight princess...?]

[fullmoonblooms]

[OH WAIT. DOUBLING OVER FROM INTENSE EMOTIONS...!]

[quitplayinggames]

[oh not everyone gets that reference

ah. . . the noise is dimming around you, as if it was drowned out by that shock of emotion; perhaps this is all for today. You hear Dream's voice, a little uncertain, as the noise finishes fading out.]

"Well, that's one way to do it. . ."

[. . . you wake up. don't forget how your key worked here; you can keep using that.

don't forget any of this.]

[fullmoonblooms]

[thank you for bringing this new joy into my life, narrator.]

[taking a moment when she wakes up to process what just happened.]

...I hope it helped.