[IC] [Reverie] SEPTEMBER 2022 - PALACE GAME

[pyrighteous]

[ Welcome to the inside of Hunter's heart! Potential CWs include (but are not limited to):

- Torture
- Character death
- Gaslighting/manipulation/bad parenting
- Child abuse (onscreen and implied)
- Experimentation/vivisection
- Body horror
- Drowning
- Full Owl House Spoilers

Generally speaking the onscreen stuff will be kept PG-13 (this is a Disney cartoon after all!) but the implications may be exponentially more horrific (this is a Disney cartoon after all!!)

If at any point you are uncomfortable or need to me take extra care in glossing over ANY topic, please ping me right away in Discord. I am happy to do everything I can to keep this game fun for everyone! ]

Toplevels:

START AREA - GENERAL
- Session 1
- Session 2
- Session 3

???

AFTERMATH - GENERAL

Comments

[pyrighteous]

[ Belos turns slowly. ]

You need to keep your nose out of agreements you’re not involved in.

[agentgymstudent]

Child murderers don't have an opinion worth listening to. Met far too many to think they have any valid points.

Unlike you, I have a moral compass and a sense of decency.

[He approaches, step after step, light, careful, testing consistency, hands in his pockets.]

And any sensible government would rule someone underage can't make legally binding agreements. Specifically to protect them against abusive assholes who target the vulnerable because they're too cowardly to try and manipulate people who can hit back. Like you.

[pyrighteous]

[ It’s tricky going - any step Leo takes threatens to drag him under - but it’s not just liquid either. His feet sink a little but not completely as long as he’s cautious.

(The Hunter in the cage watches, eyes wide - too submerged to do anything but breathe.)

Belos is unimpressed, meanwhile. He gestures at the cage. ]

This is not a child. He’s not even a person. He is a tool at best, one that is currently not serving its intended purpose.

[agentgymstudent]

Literally nothing you say is going to convince me you're in the right, you psychopath. I know what a person is and he's way too messed up by your bullshit to not be one.

Hunter, why can't you leave the cage? Talk to me, I'm getting you out and away from child murderer.

[pyrighteous]

[ Hunter makes a choked noise, struggling to speak. ]

It’s - it’s locked. And the lock is under the mud.

[ Belos shrugs. ]

Well. If there’s no reasoning with you … so be it.

[ His right arm extends into a sludgy tendril with a scythe on the end of it; he swings it down at Leo. ]

[agentgymstudent]

Key?

[Sees that scythe.] Trying to murder two children, huh? [Leo dives as he speaks, moving into a roll as he extends out his wings, using them as extra surface area to make it harder to sink as he rolls.]

[Landing on his knees, surface area, surface area, use it for ice and sink holes, and throwing out a jagged, rusted blade for Belos' eye with expert accuracy.]

[pyrighteous]

[ Belos scoffs at that. ]

Despite what you may look like, I doubt you are a child. You’re like me, aren’t you?

[ The scythe passes over him for now, but Belos is taking the opportunity to retrieve his staff. A more powerful spell is building there—

Just as the blade catches him in the eye. OW. He howls and lurches back. ]

[agentgymstudent]

[well, that's a curious statement, but instead he throws himself at the cage, grabbing the bars with one hand, tucking his wings in close to his body.]

[He takes a deep breath, pulling out a bobby pin and a rusty ice pick tool from his pocket and dives down into the mud, pulling himself along as he feels for the lock.]

[pyrighteous]

[ Belos is distracted for now at least, though given those squelching noises, it’s unlikely the distraction will last for long. He’s already pulling out your tetanus knife.

The mud is freezing cold; it presses in close, trying to drag Leo down further. Give up, it seems to whisper to him. Nothing is going to change. Just accept it.

It takes about ten seconds for Leo to find the rusted lock on the outside of the cage.

[agentgymstudent]

[The thing is, even if that tempted him, Leo Was Not Allowed To Give Up.]

[That whole unable to stay dead thing means having to get up again after far worse things and he pushed through then. He certainly could now, because a friend, a kid, needed his help.]

[And he would frankly rather die ten times before he even considers giving up.]

[Thankfully he knew how to hold his breath a while. It's the sort of thing he trained for years to do.]

[As well as picking locks, shoving the bobby pin in with the pick and is getting to work on forcing that lock open.]

[pyrighteous]

[ The lock is rusty and difficult to work with, but after some strugglign he can get it open. The door doesn't SWING as much as it ssslowly nudges open. ]

[agentgymstudent]

[He's patient and he knows keeping calm is the best way to keep holding his breath longer. He is Getting This Lock Open.]

[When it finally clicks, he shoves the tools into his pocket, and shifting to pressing his feet against the outer bars and use it as leverage to yank open the door wider.]

[pyrighteous]

[ It yanks, finally. Leo can't see what's going on, but he can feel the Hunter inside the cage carefully swimming his way out. ]

[agentgymstudent]

[yes good]

[Time to use the bars to YANK HIMSELF back above the sludge again.]

[pyrighteous]

[ Both of them resurface with a gasp, then. Belos is dangling over them. ]

Annoying. Do you know how much of a pain it was to get him in there?

[agentgymstudent]

Be mad, you deserve every annoyance in life, child murderer.

[Where's Hunter, does he need help getting out?]

[pyrighteous]

[ He is definitely struggling! The mud seems keen on sucking him down in particular, and ...

Well, Belos comes over to try to shove him back down. ]

[agentgymstudent]

[He moves forward, and gonna WHACK AN OLD MAN in the face with a wing!]

Hunter, we need to get out. People are waiting for you!

[pyrighteous]

[ OW HEY. He glares and mjutters something? Leo will feel one of his legs starting to petrify.

Meanwhile, Hunter gasps and struggles. ]

I - but - it's better, he promised -

[agentgymstudent]

[Well, that's a thing.]

[We are just gonna ignore that! We got two extra limbs to keep us moving and fine tune leg movement is not as necessary right now.]

He is a liar.

[He is grabbing Hunter's arm and he's using his wings to help pull himself and Hunter out of the muck, get them higher up. Time to use that surface area trick again.]

He will continue to hurt you, no matter what you do, if you choose to stay, but there are people outside this room who will do everything to protect you.

[pyrighteous]

[ For a moment, it seems lie Hunter might be stuck ... and then he abruptly comes free with a sucking pop. ]

Are you sure?

[agentgymstudent]

Hunter.

I am not leaving this room without you.

Either we both leave, or we both don't.

That's how sure I am.

[pyrighteous]

[ Yeah, Hunter looks at the awful mud pit around them ... ]

How do we leave?

[agentgymstudent]

We go out that door. [He points to it and he's gonna keep trying to move that way, using his wings how he can to help pull them along because that is the most surface area he's got and the easiest thing to move while holding onto Hunter.]

[pyrighteous]

[ Hunter follows carefully, stumbling on the slick surface. ]

R. right. I can - I can do that -

[ Until Belos surges up behind them again, staff in hand. ]

You two aren't going anywhere.