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

[oversight]

What in the—? Blake looked instantly confused, trying to process Greed's words. Obviously they weren't meant for him, as he didn't have a brother, but even if he had, this guy wouldn't know that much. No, it was clear that, for whatever reason, the toxin's turned him into something to fear.

What luck.

Blake lifted his hand and took a step back, voice a little more imploring. "Gotta really concentrate — gotta listen. You hear me? Cut through that crap an' start thinkin' with that brain of yours." Because he'd be quicker to convince himself than Blake would be to convince him. Especially like this. "Think 'bout this, man. It's not real."

[appealingavarice]

"Shut up, shut up!" He wasn't quite sure, himself, who he was talking to; the sobbing prince in his head who didn't seem to register what was going on, or- or whatever was talking, because Bradley didn't have much more to say so where was that voice coming from-?

And why was he backing away? Bradley was aggressive, vicious, he'd killed Greed so many times he'd lost count before he'd even processed that the man was a serious threat and hacked his crew to pieces in between. Hell, his crew, that still hurt like it was fresh, and the pain focused him in the midst of this confusion. He still didn't attack, though. If Bradley was retreating it could only be to lure him in for something nasty.

"I remember now. What you did to my stuff." The talking was mostly for Greed's own benefit. Bradley holds him in too much contempt to care, and even though he's Wrath, he doesn't lose his temper before he chooses to. "Even if it was gone forever, did Father think I'd be any happier taking orders the second time around?"

[oversight]

Blake was beginning to wonder if he had the worst luck, or if he was just always in the wrong place at the wrong time. From what he could tell, Greed wasn't getting a word of it from his side. If it weren't for the fact that his armor looked really tough, John might actually reach out and just punch the guy unconscious until the chemicals worked their way out of his system.

But that wasn't his way. Even if he felt a bit too tense and really wanted to lay into something.

"Don't know what you're talkin' 'bout," he managed through his teeth. A few days ago, he might have waited to make a move, but not today. The man, skilled in evasion, stealth, and famously agile, faked to the left and rolled to the right like some kind of basketball player. It would give him opportunity, and a well-placed foot to the back of the knee meant he could secure Greed's hands behind him if only he could get him down on the ground.

Blake grunted with exertion and spat a few words. "Not gonna like what's happenin' here, man..." They really didn't need to fight, did they? He's just... apprehending.

[appealingavarice]

Oh, there was the rush he'd been anticipating and dreading. Greed hopped backward, once, twice, got to stay away from that sword until Bradley was overcommitted. Take it away if possible, even he couldn't do much to Greed with his bare hands. Right?

And quickly, if possible, before he decided to take off that patch and use his damnable Eye. Greed shuddered, and made a move for Bradley's left- it should fucking stay a blind spot, maybe if Greed could gouge the thing out? Did Wrath even regenerate? He aged, he had a scar, did that mean no?

And in that moment, the shadows surged and shifted and opened their eyes, but Greed was already moving, couldn't flee now that it had become the only good option. He could only let out a horrified gasp. Big brother was here after all.

[oversight]

"Why do you run? Pathetic," Blake spat, his words suddenly distorted, much like his face. Of course, he was totally unaware of being an unwitting participant in Greed's mind, because he's totally crooning out gentle words explaining he was only around to help.

But things weren't always as they seemed. Because John had no idea what Greed was seeing, he had no idea how to react. Should he have tried defensive maneuvers more readily? Perhaps he would have been better off going on the offensive right away. In any case, this struggle only seemed to get worse by the minute.

"Why don't you give up, you simpering fool! Make this the end, you know you want to."

[appealingavarice]

"Nah, I'm greedy as hell," he gasped. "Want your life, Wrath. Won't be enough. But. I want it." And he focused on raising more of his Shield and to hell with what it made his face look like, hoping to get himself entirely protected before Wrath inevitably skewered him again.

Because there was no excuse for giving up in the face of certain torturous unmaking (never mind that, unlikely as it was that both of them had suddenly arrived, the idea that they could take him back to Father was clearly ridiculous; that was exactly what he didn't want so it was obviously what they were going to do to him). He was pretty much doomed now that his brothers, oldest and youngest, had taken hold of him, but he'd laughed in Father's face while being melted down so why should he give up just because he was pinned to the ground by enemies he couldn't hope to defeat?

[oversight]

"Wrath?" Somewhere in reality, where toxins weren't altering the state of everything, John Blake was arguing against the idea of being wrath. Granted, he was once the type to give into his anger and upset — to punch back a bit harder because of it — but this wasn't him Greed was reacting to. It couldn't be. He'd been imploring the other man to stop his onslaught in order to work it out between them. This wasn't the type of situation he wanted to be in, especially without some armor of his own.

John found he couldn't get the leverage he needed from the position he was in, so he vaulted over Greed, using him as a point of contact, and when he dropped down on the other side, he threw his arms around the other man's torso and tried to pin his arms against his sides with a massive bearhug.

"You gotta listen, man. I am not Wrath. I'm John. John Blake, y'hear? Snap outta it!"

[appealingavarice]

For all that Greed's body had been pushed near the limits of human capacity by the Philosopher's Stone, it had still belonged to a boy of not-quite-sixteen, and was slender enough for his opponent to encircle completely with his arms. Without much range of motion, and with most of his head still uncovered, Greed could only brace himself.

The pain never came.

Bradley alone was so damnably fast, he should have died by now- once, then again while he was still regenerating from the first time, again and again with no chance to get any more of his Shield up. But nothing happened, except some increasingly unintelligible words that didn't sound quite so much like threats and insults anymore.

For a moment, Greed went totally still, and still nothing happened. Then he started to struggle again, but this time it was less desperate and more insistent and accompanied by mutterings of "what," and "I don't..."

[oversight]

"'Course you don't," came a dark reply. The last vestiges of wrath were seeping through, warping reality in such ways that John Blake, unaware of what he was spewing, spat vitriol. "'Cause you're pathetic and you've screwed up everything. Always a threat, always comin' out pathetically short. Kill you for makin' me bother..."

But that was all the further it got before Blake was registering the confusion and the change in posture. As Greed relaxed in his grip, John slowly freed his arms from around the other man and began stepping back. He didn't want to scare the guy — didn't want to make him angry or upset — but he needed him to know that things were under control, despite the fact that the Scarecrow's toxin seemed to say exactly the opposite.

"Man, you okay? Can you hear me? What's— Tell me you're all right, Greed. Answer me."

[appealingavarice]

Greed backed away much more quickly, his wine-colored eyes wide and fixed on the figure before him. Not Wrath. That wasn't Wrath anymore, and the shadows weren't speaking or moving in to grab him themselves- Greed wasn't quite clear-headed enough yet to place him immediately, but Can you hear me and you're all right finally registered.

"Ah, fuck, what's happening? I hear you, I do, but the shadows are full of teeth. I hope he's not really here. Even by my standards he's a monster. Seriously, what the hell's going on?"

It came out desperate, embarrassingly close to a sob- the hallucinations were fading, but the terror wasn't gone just because it seemed like it might not have a cause anymore.

[oversight]

"Hallucinations," Blake confirmed, his expression remaining wary. "Toxin. These toys've been laced with it." He gestured to one of the strange teddy bears in the corner and shook his head. Of course, that was Scarecrow's way, wasn't it? He would have preferred the madman focus on the adults and leave the whole concept of involving children in any way out of it. Of course people were going to wonder when they saw discarded toys. It was almost a sure bet.

He felt on edge, but the bulk of it was beginning to fade away. John stepped back again, his hand coming up to run through his hair. This has him sweating, not just from the exertion, but the situation itself. Being constantly thrown into these kinds of situations wasn't foreign, but it never really got easier, just less painful.

"You gonna be okay, Greed? It's Blake. You back here in reality now?"

[appealingavarice]

"You?" Greed knew it was a stupid question as soon as he'd asked it; this was definitely, visibly Blake. The world was starting to settle and seem real again and oh shit Greed had just been trying to kill him, hadn't he? For a moment he thought he might start screaming, but he laughed instead, loud and manic and a little hysterical, and sat down heavily on the ground. His heart was still pounding, but with no brothers in sight anymore, his Shield began to recede.

"We've got to stop meeting like this, seriously," said Greed, and hated himself a little more for the way his voice shook. "You're good, but you're gonna get hurt one of these days."