Hush, little baby, don't say a word...

[onlythingtofear]

Who: Anyone!
Where: Anywhere inside, and outside, the mansion.
When: 1st - 3rd
Rating: Likely some disturbing imagery, at the very least.
Summary: Little fear gas dispensers have been left around Wonderland, by a particular scientist. Treat this as a mingle-party-gathering post. Even if you don't want your character to be gassed, you can come help someone who is. Or be attacked by them for your trouble. Heheheh.
The Story:

Overnight, on the grounds and inside the mansion, toys appear.

Small, innocuous, sweet things. Teddy bears. Ragdolls. Stuffed animals. All of them appear hand-sewn, and all of them are very appealing. That's the whole point of them, after all. Nestled into their neck, or their chest, under and amidst the stuffing, are small devices with a aerosol-delivered payload. Just the slightest amount of pressure will release a small dosage of Scarecrow's very best fear toxin. A new, lighter kind. He wants to know how long it will last, and how effective the housing is for grabbing potential victims.

Wonderland is, unfortunately, the perfect testing ground.

He waits just out of sight of them, placing them when most people are asleep, lurking in the darkest corners of the mansion with a small clipboard to take notes on. What do people from different worlds fear? He's keen to find out, in addition to everything else. He places them in front of doors, in chairs, on tables. Anywhere they'll look potentially out of place and worth investigating.

Everyone here is so good at investigating.

He's counting on you all to help him.

[ooc: I'll tag in for anyone who would like to run into Scarecrow. He's being a good boy and is keeping a distance from his prey, unless you want to come across him. (Said encounter could be lethal. For either!) Otherwise, tag in with what your character is seeing, etc, and where they are, and whether your post is reactionary or open for people to tag! Have fun! Tag around! Have feels! Be terrified! MUWAHAHAHA!

Also, you by no means need to keep things to this post, of course. Feel free to post network entries of fear gas results, or other logs! Have a ball.]

Comments

[watchthedetective]

She wants to ask about that, oh how she wants to ask, but however fascinated she may become with all that is bizarre, she still knows you don't push for information in the middle of what increasingly looks like a panic attack. Fishing for traumatic details is for later.

"It's going to be okay. I'm here, all right?"

[doctorweevil]

Owen's spent a lot of nights too afraid to sleep since he arrived in Wonderland, worrying that if he does sleep, he'll get sucked back into the darkness. He's never thought that it might happen in the middle of the day, while he's fully conscious, and that's somehow almost more terrifying than slipping away while asleep. Oh, sure, he's accepted death - there's no real way to avoid it if you've spent weeks as a walking corpse - but he's never accepted the finality of what happens afterwards, because it scares him shitless.

But suddenly, in the middle of this, he realises that he's hyperventilating, which means that he's still capable of breathing. He's still got a body, and his heartbeat is pounding in his ears. What he thinks is happening can't possibly be happening. He's silent for a long moment as he tries to work it all out. Everything feels real, the darkness is pressing in around him - but there's someone else there, too.

"Who are you?" he croaks finally.

[watchthedetective]

"My name is Joan Watson," she says, still carefully, deliberately calm. "Do you know where you are? Can you tell me what happened?"

[doctorweevil]

"I..." Owen trails off. "I don't know." His words are halting and hesitant, but as he speaks, he fancies he can sense the darkness receding. (Though he's not aware of it, his eyes are squeezed shut.) "I was in the library, getting a book, and I touched something soft. And then the darkness..Everybody says you just come back when you die here."

Except he's not dead. He has to force himself to think about that fact, because if he doesn't, it's easy to just slip back into believing that he is.

[watchthedetective]

Oooh, it looks like her instinct that the teddy bear was significant may have been correct! Joan is pleased, though it's probably inappropriate under the circumstances.

"That's right." She may not have witnessed it herself, but it's certainly commonly accepted. "But you're not going to die right now. You're still in the library, and I don't see anything dangerous." She pauses, for a moment, considering the best way to proceed, and settles on- "Do you think you can open your eyes?"

[doctorweevil]

It's not that he thinks he's going to die - in fact, Owen isn't especially afraid of the act of dying. What he's afraid of is the afterlife (or, to be more specific, the lack thereof). He's always been an atheist, but he'd never really given the entire concept of not existing much thought till he'd been dragged back into existence the first time.

"My-" Oh. Well. That would explain the darkness, wouldn't it? As the fear starts to lessen, he feels a little foolish. "Right." He cracks one eye open - so far, so good - and gingerly starts to uncurl from the position he'd been in.

Yeah, this is a little embarrassing right now.

[watchthedetective]

Joan's not going to judge, she knows too much about the tricks the mind can play for that. Besides, she has a puzzle now, and that's much more important, right?

"Has this ever happened to you before?" she asks. It's still possible this was the result of an ordinary trigger, after all. She'll ask about the bear if he doesn't have any kind of history.

[doctorweevil]

Owen shifts so he's sitting up, leaning back against the bookshelves. "What, having panic attacks for no apparent reason? Nah, I'm not that mental." He's got triggers - it's impossible not to, having died and come back to life - but he generally doesn't have spontaneous panic attacks. (Not in broad daylight, anyway.)

[watchthedetective]

She nods, considers for a moment whether this next thing is really a good idea, and then picks up that bear. "Is this familiar at all? You mentioned something soft when you were reaching for a book, and I saw this on the shelf."

[doctorweevil]

Owen gives the stuffed toy a confused frown, shaking his head. "Haven't seen it before, but I reckon it could be what I felt." The bear is small enough to be unobtrusive if tucked away in a shadowy corner, and the thought makes his skin crawl a little. Is someone dosing them with hallucinogens?

[watchthedetective]

Joan's own thoughts are on similar lines, and she doesn't like the idea much better. On the other hand, she's been handling the thing and nothing has happened to her, so if there had been anything in the bear, it had obviously been used up on... "What's your name, by the way? You seem to be doing better now."

[doctorweevil]

"Owen." His voice is still a little shaky. "Owen Harper." He runs a hand over his forehead and through his hair, trying to regain his composure. "If it's not some sort of neurotoxin, it's probably magic." He grimaces at the mention of magic, still a little unwilling to accept that it's even a possibility. For someone who's spent the last few years saving the Earth from aliens, he's awfully skeptical sometimes.

[watchthedetective]

Joan's not thrilled by the idea of magic, herself, if it comes to that. And she hasn't even had aliens to deal with back home.

But either way, she wants to know, so even though it's probably a bad idea, Joan starts squishing the toy in her hands, feeling for something harder than poly-fill. And she does feel it. "There's something in this, whatever it is."

[doctorweevil]

Squeezing the bear doesn't seem like a good idea to him, either, and he draws back a little, just in case it happens again. "What sort of something?" Owen wishes he had a knife or a scalpel - hell, even some keys, something to rip the bear open with.