forum i'm out of clever titles, who wants modern action/romance? (closed, o/o)

Started March 14, 2021 by Deleted user

tune

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Lancer nodded, slinking his way carefully down the staircase. Spiders — and by extension, Arachne — were almost defined by their agility and maneuverability. Unfortunately for Lancer, he was only one-fourth spider, three-fourths human, and carried the appropriate ratios of eloquence, his careful slinking not more than desperate wall-clinging and under-his-breath complaints that this was the dumbest architectural decision ever made and whoever came up with this better make sure they had liability insurance.

"Hey, that's good enough," he replied to Juno as he awkwardly fumbled around the tripwire, so hyperfocused on it that he neglected to address that the stairs ended past the tripwire. "I—!"

He quickly extended his arms for more wall to hold, only to grasp air as he miscalculated a step and lost balance, stumbling some distance across the floor before falling over with a thud and a grunt.

The room they had entered was much wider than the cramped staircase. It was made of stone brick and was dimly lit by sparsely-placed torches, their flames eerily and quietly flickering. A banner hung on the north wall, a matte red with black and white stitching detailing a human skull with eye sockets leaking the void. Beneath it were words in Old Chaotic, only comprehensible to anyone knowledgeable in the language, but given their placement it wouldn't be incorrect to assume they were a motto of some kind. To the east and west were wooden doors, and in front of the banner was a small offering table, currently covered with freshly burned scraps of paper.

Lancer sat up, rubbing the ache from his head and examining the room they now stood in.

"Uh… does this room give you magic vibes…?"

Juno winced as Lancer fell to the ground, and reached out a hand to pull him up. He quickly retracted his hand when he remembered the whole avoiding-touch thing his spider companion had going on, and rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll just uh, let you get up on your own. Less overwhelming." This whole situation was seeming increasingly fucked. The room they were in looked like the ultimate cult headquarters.

"This room feels like a goddamn magic orgy," Juno said. The magic feeling was buzzing across his skin, like he was about to be electrocuted. The hairs on his arms were standing up under his sweater. "Pretty sure someone summoned an old god in here," he half-joked.

He couldn't stop staring around the room. This entire scenario was getting more batshit wild by the second. He went up to the offering table and peered at the scraps of paper, carefully not touching anything. There were words that he couldn't read, and drops of bodily fluids on them. He assumed it was blood, for the aesthetic, but assuming things never worked out well with cult magic, as he knew from experience. He stepped away from the table and looked between the two doors.

"Which way should we go?" He asked, glancing back and forth. "Maybe I can feel some magic coming from one of them, or something." He walked to one door, and then the other, and felt nothing. Maybe there were some kind of wards blocking him from sensing anything? "Uh, nevermind, I've got nothing. Are your spider senses giving you any hints?"

Lancer stood, the dust in the air tearing a sneeze from him. "No," he admitted, "except that this place feels fuckin' huge. It's like a second school in size."

His gaze flickered between the two doors, "I suppose splitting up wouldn't be the brightest idea then, huh?"

After getting a sense of where he was, he pulled out a small notepad he'd brought to try and cheat the test with, flipping through hastily scribbled notes until he found a blank sheet to work with. He scribbled a small map with his pencil, marking the staircase the two had come from and a basic rendering of the room they were in.

Once he was finished, he flashed Juno the map. "Just to keep track of where we've been. It might help us get out later."

He stuffed the notebook back into his pocket.

"Okay, which room? Should we just pick a room, or should each of us peek through a door, or..?"

(Sorry again fjfnfj I took a depression nap that ended up being 12 hours long)

Juno snorted. "Yeah, no, we're not splitting up. Not that I particularly enjoy your company, I've just watched a horror movie or two."

He nodded at the map Lancer provided. "Good thinking. If it ends up being a labyrinth at least we'll have some idea of how we got in." A labyrinth was seeming increasingly likely at this point; why wouldn't a secret cult live in a labyrinth?

"Yeah, I guess, we'll just take a look and see which one looks more cult-y yeah?" He looked between the two doors. They looked about the same. Just wooden doors. He picked the one to his left and walked over to it. "Should we do this one at a time, or both at once? Like if we find a crazed old man behind one would it be more convenient to have another door open? There could be a crazed old man behind both, though, and we wouldn't wanna get like, jumped by multiple old men." He shook his head. Overthinking was the bane of his existence. In this case, it might count as just thinking ahead, being strategic, or something, which made him feel better; he liked being smart. He was generally smart. This whole situation was killing his smart vibe.

(adwoawd no you're good!! just got back from the store)

"Oh, jeez, that's not a very pleasant visual," Lancer replied, his tongue sticking out in disgust as his face scrunched up. "I guess we can just do it one at a time? The less old men, the better."

Seeing Juno choose the left door, he moved over to the right and cracked it open, peering through the slit cautiously. No old men, thankfully, but what was there was, frankly, almost weirder.

The room was devoid of people, but it was neatly organized, several glass display cases sitting on tables against the walls. He couldn't get a glimpse of exactly what was being displayed, but what caught his attention were banners strung across the room in the same color scheme as the banner in the first room like it was some kid's birthday party, but instead of joy and happiness it only brought pain and death and suffering. Kind of reminded him of how his own birthday parties always went. The scattered torches only enhanced the vibe.

"This room's all good, I think," he called back to Juno, "but it doesn't look like it leads to anywhere else. What's it like over there?"

(I am extremely sorry I abruptly lost wifi)

Juno let out a sigh of relief as Lancer relayed that his room did not contain an old man waiting to kill him. However, this did increase his chances of finding an old man in his room. Which was a worrisome thought.

Taking a deep breath, he yanked open the door. Quickly glancing around, he confirmed that there were no elderly folks of any gender in this room. But it was a weird goddamn room. It seemed to be full of massage tables, a table every 2 feet, filling the room. He supposed there were a lot of cult members with sore backs. Or a lot of murder victims being lured to their demise with the promise of a massage. The walls were covered in shelves, which were covered in small bottles. The room produced an overwhelming scent of oranges. There was a door in the back of the room.

"This one's uh, clear, I guess," he informed Lancer. "There's a door in the back, either it's a supply closet or a continuation of the labyrinth. I guess we'll have to find out which."

(no problem!! i hope everything's okay :0)

"Every room without an old man is only increasing the chances of an old man being in the next room," Lancer muttered to himself, shutting the door and walking over to Juno and his door. He hic'd and coughed, waving a hand as if to disperse a smell.

"Gods, a spa cult. Maybe not too out of character for him, now that I think about it."

He took a gander at the bottles that ran across the walls, his brow furrowing as confusion contorted his features. "What's in these?" he inquired as he stood on his tip-toes to snatch a bottle from the shelf. When he pried open the cap, however, he began coughing again, capping the bottle just as quickly as he'd opened it. Whatever was in the bottles was very, very potent. He handed it to Juno, taking a moment to catch his breath.

(Internet's been very bad but I think its stable now! I should be as active as I normally am now!)

Juno wandered the room in mild disbelief. Whatever he had expected to find within the room, this wasn't it. Lancer handed him a bottle and started hacking up a lung, and Juno, being completely unprepared, almost immediately dropped the bottle onto the floor. "Shit," he picked it back up, and luckily it seemed to only have a hairline crack near the cap. "You can't just- I'm not dexterous," he said as he placed the bottle back on the shelf.

"What was in there, anyway?" He asked, as Lancer had provided what seemed to be a very strong reaction to it.

(rad!!)

"I got no fuckin' clue, but it's probably whatever's making this room smell like oranges," Lancer choked out in a ragged voice, the amount of coughing he'd been doing taking a toll on his throat. He cleared it, taking a deep breath and another gander at the bottle.

It was empty.

He grimaced. "Nothing was in there. But it smells like… fruity, but bootleg fruity. Like, it wanted to be peaches, but it was a sad corporate attempt at peaches and it's just disappointment instead of peaches."

And then, an "aha!" perked him up, and he turned back to Juno. "You! Magic detector dude! Is this room magic? Does magic normally smell like fruit?"

"Does magic- what?" Juno shook his head as if to clear it. "There's, I mean, there's definitely magic in here. there's a whole, like, hum going on. Magic doesn't… smell, though, it's more like a feeling. Not the emotional kind, like the physical sense- anyway, no, I don't think I've envountered magic that smelled like off-brand peaches."

He looked back at the shelves, and noticed that a lot of bottles appeared to be empty. "Maybe they're like, storing scents. Like magic cult aromatherapy." He poked around at a few bottles, examining them. He definitely got a strong magic vibe from the bottles; whatever was contained in them was fairly powerful.

"Maybe we should bring some with us, just in case it would help," Lancer suggested, grasping for a backpack that, he'd realize, wasn't on his back. He huffed, minorly inconvenienced, and began spinning himself a satchel out of silk, weaving the shining thread with his fingers in a dexterous manner that revealed this wasn't the first time he'd had to do this. It only took him around a few minutes, and when he finished, he grabbed a couple bottles and threw them in.

"You see anything else that might be useful?" he asked, casting a glance around the room and marking it on his map. "Is the magic pointing you anywhere or is it just.. a general aura?"

"You can just make shit out of your- dude, I underestimated the usefulness of being part spider, that's dope," Juno said, mainly to himself. Maybe fucking spiders was the way to go. "I uh- yeah, no, the magic vibes don't really like, point me anywhere. I could like, see if there's a stronger magic feel somewhere but…" he trailed off, walking around the room. There was a general feeling of magic all around the room, but nothing specifically was jumping out to him. "Yeah, just a vibe. Nothing special."

(Juno was supposed to have a completely different vibe but he just ended up being me lmaoo)

(awdadao that's a big mood)

Lancer stared at Juno for a moment, bewildered. The irony of the guy he liked least being the only one to ever compliment him on his talents was, well… it was something. Something he didn't really know how to feel about, given that as far as he knew, there was a reason he'd aged out of foster care.

But he only let himself get caught up in those thoughts for a brief moment, returning to the situation to hear Juno relay the magical vibes he was getting.

"Well, uhm," he began, a crack in his voice causing him to cover his mouth. He cleared his throat again, "Uh, you mentioned there being a door, yeah? We can just.. try that, see where it leads. I'm not, uh, really getting any reads on my end, so I'll be relying on you a little bit. I-If that's fine," he added quickly, not sure why talking was becoming such an issue for him. "I-I mean, of course it's fine, neither of us have a choice, but…"

Maybe it was a good thing he'd never decided to take Public Speaking; just this conversation alone was becoming a disaster. He took a deep breath and rubbed his face with his hands.

"Let's just fuckin' go."

(Shit I spaced many apologies, I should've warned you that my memory is shit before I started this xkdjxnj adhd makes internet interactions SLIP from my mind)

Juno raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Let's fuckin' go," he repeated, shaking his head slightly and heading for the door. As soon as he put his hand on the doorknob, an intense surge of magic washed over him. The difference was like walking outside of a bakery and smelling the bread, and then going in and sticking your head in the oven. "'Kay, wow, I think we're close to the uh, whatever we're looking for," he informed Lancer.

He hesitated for a moment before pulling the door open. "You marked this on the map, right? I don't wanna get lost behind this door." He took a breath and pulled the door open.

Behind it was what appeared to be a library. It was incredibly tall, and the door opened to one of many balconies that went around the room. He could hear voices below. "Where the fuck do we go from here?" He whispered to the spiderling behind him.

(aowodoa no you're completely fine!! i got depression and dissociate a lot, i gotta put stickynotes to remind me to check my rps, i completely understand lol)

Lancer nodded absentmindedly, patting the notepad in his back pocket. He seemed lost in his thoughts with a hint of confusion etched on his face, only coming to his senses when Juno opened the door to reveal the balcony. His eyes widened, the smell and sight of books new and old filling his senses.

A library. With people in it, he concluded, given the voices murmuring beneath the balcony. He stiffered, unsure how to answer Juno's next question.

"Okay, okay, uh, let me get a feel for the area," he suggested, dropping to his knees and resting three of his hands on the floor, the fourth clutching his head to prevent himself from getting too disoriented. He closed his eyes, trying to get a feel for the room's layout.

"The balcony circles the room, leading to a staircase just before the circle closes," he whispered. "There's, uh, lots of shelves, lots of books, and the floor has… many things. Probably tables."

He glanced up at Juno, taking his hands from the floor and offering a look of uncertainity.

"Is this.. should we go in here?" he asked, nervousness chipping at his voice. "These could be the old men we were worried about."

(It has been so many days wmfjemxjx I wish notebook gave me notifs so I might have a chance at remembering but no, I'm gonna put up a fuckton of sticky notes and hope that I notice one of them I- sometimes I baffle myself with my incredible lack of short-term memory)

Juno nodded uncertainly. "If they're not old men then they're definitely suspicious, anyway. Anyone whispering in a secret library isn't someone trustworthy." He took a second, seemingly realizing that he was currently someone whispering in a secret library. "Anyone choosing to whisper in a secret library, I mean," he corrected. This didn't actually make the statement apply to him any less, so he gave up with a sigh.

Juno crept towards the edge of the balcony and peered over, spying what was indeed a group of people sitting at a table and making quiet conversation. They were all dressed similarly. If his professor was down there, he couldn't tell which one of the murmuring figures belonged to the old man.

Relaying this information to his companion, Juno shrugged. "They don't look like they're doing anything suspicious. Dunno why the magic vibe is so strong in here, unless the books are enchanted or something. I guess we could just get closer and try to eavesdrop?"

(awdwoa no you're good!! i've been busy trying to figure out therapy shit so now i'm the one taking a while to respond hhhhh)

Lancer, despite his anxious demeanor, couldn't help a snicker as Juno dug himself into a suspicious-whispering-related hole. What a dork. Dork as in the most negative connotation associated with the word possible, of course. Without a doubt.

He peered carefully over the balcony to see the situation for himself, his four eyes darting back and forth to try, in vain, to locate their professor. But one thing was for sure, and that was this was definitely a cult. No book club of old men ever showed up in ominous robes underneath a school.

"Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Eavesdrop on the cult. They probably have cameras or a Seeing Eye or some shit around here that'll incinerate us the second we get anywhere near them," he replied, but it wasn't much like he had a better idea, so he grit his teeth and sighed.

"You have any cloaking magic?"

(Sometimes I baffle myself with my incredible ability to procrastinate things I actually want to do dkdbdmxj mental illness is so fun, we'll just accept that this is a slow rp and just vibe along with it)

"I mean it's not like we have anything better to do than eavesdrop on a cult," Juno muttered before shaking his head. "I can't do cloaking. I can do a distraction charm, which would hopefully make them look the other way if they spotted us. Doesn't always work, but it's worth a shot."

He whispered some vague magic words, and when he felt confident that he'd done the spell properly, went back to peer over the edge. "We can just hope they're too busy doing cult shit to notice us."

(hhhhhh that's a whole mood, it's near ap testing season for me so im not any better about replying awdwaodo)

Doesn't always work was better than never works, Lancer bargained with himself, wondering if he'd already progressed through the seven stages of grief this quickly.

He dropped to the ground, slinking out on the balcony until he was above the hooded figures before pressing an ear to the ground. He lifted his hands off the ground, closing his eyes and focusing entirely on his sense of hearing. Other than his heart pounding through his chest, there were sounds. Voices.

He couldn't make out what they were saying. The more intently he listened, it dawned on him, the less he could understand. It was like someone was talking to you but you zoned out and had to ask them to repeat themselves, except the feeling was constant.

Only Lancer was as alert as he could possibly be.

He frowned. This never happened. He sat up, peering over the balcony, before pressing a hand to the ledge and hopping over it, trailing down slowly via a line of silk before he planted his feet on the table.

The figures still moved, murmured amongst themselves, but paid no mind to the arachnoid that now stood in front of them.

He braced himself before throwing a kick at one of their heads, his foot phasing through the figure. They talked as if nothing was wrong.

"They're illusions!" he called up to Juno. "That's probably why you were getting the strong magic vibes. These guys aren't real! Come down here, see!"

("wondering if he'd already progressed through the seven stages of grief this quickly" I'm wheezing)
(Also rip ap testing is shit xkdbxn)

Juno's eyes were wider than they'd been in a long time. He blinked, looking over the edge at the spider boy fucking around on one of the tables and recieving no reaction.

"Hey, what the fuck," he called as he rushed down the stairs, tripping more than once and sliding more than running down the last staircase. "Ow," he muttered as he brushed himself off.

This was officially the weirdest day of Juno's life. He cautiously went up to one of the talking figures, whose voice he realized he still couldn't make out, and poked his arm through it. It passed all the way through, and the figure didn't move at all except to shift in its seat.

"Okay," he began, thinking out loud, "so we went through all the creepy shit, passed multiple secret doors and booby traps, and the big reveal is fake. Cool." He glanced around the room, dumbstruck. "So, now what?"

(bhbhbbbbbbg yeah)

"Maybe it's better than there actually being cultists here," Lancer muttered, waving a hand in front of another illusion's face in some weird attempt at confirming what he already knew. He squatted on the table, elbows on his knees with his chin resting on two of his hands, watching the idle animation of the illusion with a furrowed brow.

What were illusions doing in here to begin with?

"Hey, Juno," he piped up, a new edge of wariness to his voice. "Have you thought about why illusions would be in here in the first place? They're only really used as distra–"

Then, in an almost comedic cliche, the door to the library's first floor slammed open, with four very real people in very real religious attire flooding into the room. One of the four wore more elaborately decorated robes than the others, but the identity of each was concealed by an ominous drooping hood.

"Get the infiltrators!" the most decorated of them called, pointing a gloved finger at the two unfortunate bastards. The three other cultists heeded the words of what could be assumed to be their superior, and Lancer shrieked as a ball of electricity was hurled in his direction, ducking just in time.

"Holy shit, this is a cult!" he exclaimed, scrambling off the table and bolting out of the way of another ball of electricity. He frantically scanned the room for Juno, not wanting to immediately abandon his companion.

Now that Juno thought about it, the illusions were rather suspicious. There was no real point to them unless- as he was puzzling this out, the doors to the library opened and actual cultists entered the room. There was shouting, and then some sort of curse hit him in the leg as he ducked behind a table.

"Ow, fuck," he muttered, quickly glancing around the room. As soon as he spotted Lance, he shouted, "fucking run already!" The ominous hooded figures were getting closer, and Juno whispered a quick prayer to whatever god was out there before leaving the safety of the table, hurling a chair at one of the cultists.

The guy barely stumbled. So that had been a useless plan of action. Juno had no idea what to do now.

(HAHA FIRST TEST DONE I GOT TWO MORE THEN I CAN START BEING BETTER ABOUT REPLYING CONSISTENTLY)

Lancer turned, very much so on board with running away, but ended up smacking his head face-first into a shelf of books, staggering back in a slight daze. Before he could gather himself again, he felt a hand grab and pull on one of his arms.

"Don't touch me!" he cried out, whirling around and slamming his elbow square into the cultist's jaw, the force enough to send both Lancer and the cultist reeling. While the cultist lost his balance and fell to the floor, Lancer was able to regain his just in time, wide-eyed and surprised, and backed away, clutching his satchel close and booking it. As he brushed past Juno, he took his hand and barged through a door he'd randomly selected. Between getting grabbed and smacking the guy in retaliation, his senses were a little fucked at the moment, and it only worsened as he forced himself through the door and into a wide corridor with several doors scattered down it. Too many things, not enough time to focus on those things, and he could already feel the headache coming on. As the door shut behind them, something sharp pierced through the wood – a knife or a dart or something that wasn't much intended for the door, but better the door than them. He let go of Juno's hand, not comfortable dragging the guy around, but kept running himself.

"Juno!" he called, clutching his head with a hand as the effort of speaking made his head pound harder. "Do something! Do a magic trick, scare them off, divert their attention!"

(AA i had exactly one month to get my grades up so i had exactly 0 energy for writing but school's officially out now so… perhaps a vaguely consistent summer rp?)

Juno yelped as he was dragged along behind Lancer, barely stumbling to his feet as they ran. His mind was racing, trying to come up with anything that possibly be helpful right now. All he was good at was illusions and vague distractions, and- and he had an idea.

Juno sprinted as far ahead as he could get, then turned around and muttered under his breath, focusing all of his energy on the spell work he was trying to achieve. He was praying one of the cultists wouldn't shoot him while he worked.

He thanked all the gods that it didn't take an eternity for the illusion to form; a wall several yards behind them, a door where there was a wall, footsteps coming from every direction except the direction in which Juno and Lancer were heading. Obviously, these people were powerful, but he hoped that some confusion would buy them a minute to get out.

"Okay, shit, where do we go now?"