daily, nightly

[fancylad]

Who: Angus and... someone
Where: Angus' room
When: The night of 9/16
Rating: PG probably? I have no idea where this is going to go honestly. Warning for mentions of puking.
Summary: Angus' gift of a claw has been tormenting him since he received it, and now he's going to find out its secret.
The Story:

Angus has been consumed by a voracious hunger since he received his special gift.

He doesn't know who it could belong to. Mabel may have received one of Alice's eyes, but there is no creature in Mr. Lewis Carroll's books that this claw could represent. Wonderland, though, has never been a one-to-one representation of the books -- or vice versa, whichever came first, which Angus goes back and forth on. He's convinced, though, that the claw is some sort of clue, and has tried everything he can to study it. Nothing about it has seemed to jump out at him, aside from its strange effects.

It makes him very, very hungry. He's certain his sudden need to continue eating and eating is linked with the appearance of the claw; he tends to pick at his food and eat smaller portions, so the sudden 180 in his appetite must correlate directly with the claw. Maybe it's cursed. Angus has written his thoughts on the matter in one of his notepads, and even taken notes on everything he craved throughout the day in case that was relevant.

Sandwiches, macaroni, pizza, pancakes... he even tried out one of those "tacos" Mae mentioned. All of it completely delicious, flavor heightened by just how hungry he has been.

He's eaten himself completely sick. He's finally puked up a lot of what he ate just from sheer overeating -- thankfully he made it to his bathroom. He feels completely awful. And it's after voiding his stomach of half its contents that he weakly retreats back to his bed and collapses onto his stomach, passing out from exhaustion almost instantaneously.

He'll address the problem of the claw again in the morning.

Comments

[manxomnivore]

Light.

Painful light.

Whiteness so intense and unrelenting, it could tear you apart.

And then, mercifully, the shadows seep in. Soothing tar oozing from above and below, puddles that bubble and turn into solid ground underneath, tendrils of black which snake and twist into twigs and branches and trunks, and gnarled roots which anchor the ebony trees to their earth.

At last the world exists, dark, empty, and never meant to be anything but that.

Dark. Empty.

Vast expanses of dried and cracked earth, further than the eye can see. Pebbles, stones, rocks, and perhaps something like mountains at the very end of the horizon. Trees. Some stretching high, like claws desperate to sink themselves into the sky. Some pressed low to the ground like shrubbery, like something afraid of something else that might find it. Barren trees, all of them.

The wind blows, a subdued howl.

Everything else is quiet.

Dark.

Empty.

Yellow--

--eye opening in the middle of a large tree, blinking.

Blinking.

Opening wide, fixed on its unexpected visitor.

Not so empty after all.

[fancylad]

Angus has had a lot of scary, scary dreams. You tend to, when you're a kid who's a frequent target of vicious mockery like he is. Mean kids becoming meaner monsters, terrifying adults becoming something unknowable. And then there are the stress dreams, where he just fails at everything he tries to do until it's completely unforgivable and he has to hide himself forever but can't, and...

Well, the point is, this one kind of takes the cake.

There's something about dreaming about nothing that is so much different than having no dreams at all. Experiencing a nigh-complete void, a vacuum of everything but endless, powerful, painful light is so much worse than basically not existing for several hours. Angus is scared, he wants the light to go away but his eyes are already closed, and he tries and fails to cover them until finally, darkness comes. Darkness that looks almost like the Hunger.

It's found this plane. It's finally here. The darkness is almost worse than the light. But then Angus looks closer, and he sees rock and sand and the harsh stabbing of trees stretching upward in the distance, but the trees and the earth are both dry and brittle. Like nothing alive can stay that way here.

Reassured he's not about to be consumed, Angus feels the palms of his hands against his face, looking down at himself to convince himself that he's whole and he's alive and he's safe, for now at least. He counts his limbs, counts his toes -- still wearing his clothes, smart shorts and dress shirt, but no shoes, and he feels weird about having his bare feet in the dirt but it also helps, in a way, to feel the pebbles jutting out against his skin, like a reminder that he's solid.

At the top of his vision, a yellow, piercing eye turns its gaze on him, and Angus shrinks away immediately. He doesn't realize he's dreaming, but maybe even if he did, he still wouldn't feel safe. He's somewhere dark and harsh and, worst of all, he's not alone.

Ever polite, manners drilled into his head more firmly than breathing, he hesitates, but he still calls out.

"Hello? Sir or ma'am or neither? Or, uh... Gosh, i-it could just be an animal..." he stumbles over his words. "If you can understand me, um, where are we, please?"

[manxomnivore]

Black branches stretch and twist into legs and claws as it, sir or ma'am or neither or just an animal, unfurls from the tree and climb higher, heaving its body above the leafless crown. A torso not thicker than the trunk it hid behind, darkest black with endless marks of grey all over, scars and scars and scars across the creature, like the cracks across dried and dead earth.

A tail uncoils like snake disturbed from its rest, and wings twitch to life at its back, withered and tattered and unfit for flight, eaten at and destroyed when it should be the one to do the eating. Its claws sink into the tree, cracking wood. Save for one place, where a claw is missing. Finally then, it turns its head.

One glowing eye turns into two, maws open impossibly wide. Fangs show, large and sharp and yet, many torn or broken and anger... so much anger in its eyes, that there should still be a thing for it which proves too big for it to swallow.

The Jabberwock lifts its head, and roars down from its perch.

"ｆ ｅ ｅ ｄ ｍ ｅ"

[fancylad]

Angus stumbles backwards as it emerges, almost unfolding itself from the confines of the tree, pulling itself with apparently no lack of effort. And Angus, five foot nothing with too-large glasses and noodle limbs and no crossbow at his side, hits a rock at a painful angle and trips onto his back into the dry, hard dirt.

Ever the detective, though, and ever observant, he sees the claws, save for one, hears the hunger in its voice as it bellows an almost imperceptible crescendo of a roar. It's been here for a long time, Angus deduces. It's been here, starving, left to rot. Body in tatters.

And Angus happens to be the easiest meal here.

Trembling, eyes wide, Angus tries to back himself away, the edges of tiny rocks pricking his arms and back as he hurriedly retreats.

"I-I'm sorry, um, I don't have any... food with me... I don't even know how I got here. I'm sorry." Golly, it sure would be helpful if he could cast Produce Food and Water, but that's a third level spell, and he's never so much as attempted that one before. He never thought he'd need it.

And it's with that thought, that Angus is suddenly reminded of the wand he always keeps on a lanyard around his neck. He grabs it, pulling it over his head to brandish shakily at the creature, though he's not exactly menacing from his place, prone on the ground, arms trembling.

"Not that, um, not that you would, but if you try t-to, to eat me, I have, um, spells. I have wizardly magicks. I'm very... very powerful."

It doesn't sound all that convincing, but it was a good effort.

[manxomnivore]

Its maws drip black where fangs were torn out, where its last meal left lasting wounds. Its tongue flicks out, and laps up the ooze. "ｃ ｌ ｏ ｓ ｅ ｒ," it rasps, and with a loud thud the Jabberwocky jumps from its tree.

For a shambling and tattered thing at the very of starvation it moves with considerable speed. Despite? Or because.

Its body closes a circle around Angus, nine claws leaving their mark in the dirt. An uneasy twitch where the tenth ought to be. Heavily the creature exhales, with breath that isn't hot or cold... is barely air at all. But then its tongue licks the boy's arm, black trail of ooze left behind.

The lanyard disappears down its throat as it inhales.

Its nostrils press against Angus' chest.

"ｃ ｏ ｍ ｅ ｃ ｌ ｏ ｓ ｅ ｒ"

[fancylad]

Angus just shrieks as the creature jumps towards him, suddenly upon him, its tongue dribbling black ooze on his outstretched arm. His mind goes completely blank for a moment, and it's like he has no spells at all.

And then he casts the first spell that comes to mind, the first thing he can think to make it go away. It wants to eat him, its long fangs far too close, it wants to hurt him, that's all he can think as he fights to focus his mind. It's unpracticed and takes a moment, white lights sputtering from the tip of the star at the end of his wand. Evocation magic, so he tries to find a will to fight somewhere amidst his abject fear, tries to pull the energy from the world around him, and finally, three white-hot darts of light burst forth from the wand and head for the beast hovering above him.

Magic Missile. Not the strongest spell, but... it always hits.

[manxomnivore]

For every hit it sways against the impact. Once. Twice. Three times. The darts are not meant to be solid. But the Jabberwock's skin is pierced, three times, by white-hot bolts at its shoulder, back, and flank. The Jabberwock turns, and pulls them with its teeth one by one. When they are gone, not a single mark is left on the creature. When they are gone, swallowed, the Jabberwock's fangs glow bright, white-hot, and where its maws were once damaged they grow back and mend, brighter and sharper than even before.

The Jabberwock grins wide to display its new teeth.

The Jabberwock disappears.

Everything disappears.

Wonderland is back, wraps itself around everything.

Ocean, meadows, orchards, gardens, the lake in the distance. Vibrant and sunny and just as it is, was, and always has been.

A trail of red blood leads to the mansion's doors.

im soooo sorry i am so late

[fancylad]

Angus breathes hard, heaving breaths, staring at the returned scenery of the mansion's grounds. He was... Was he out here this whole time?

Angus pulls himself with considerable effort back to his feet, wiping sweat off his brow. He drags himself up and instantly notices the trail of blood.

He really wants to run away. He really wants to give up and never look back. His heart hasn't slowed, still beating a harsh rhythm against his chest. But he takes a shuddering breath and slowly follows the trail of blood.

"H... Hello?" he calls out as he opens the mansion's doors. "Is everyone okay?"

The image of the broken, regenerating creature is still fresh in his mind, but if someone's hurt and bleeding... He has to do something.

He wants to be anywhere but here, but he has to do something. He's a detective. He took on this responsibility, and he has to follow through.