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

[onlythingtofear]

Throughout the weekend, Scarecrow prowls the corridors. He sneaks with the best of them, just out of sight, and lurks where he think one of his toys will be discovered. He wants to see most of his results in person. Some of them, perhaps, might be showed over the communication devices, but he wants to leave nothing to chance. Science is all about results, tests, and tries. He wants to get as much information as possible. When he's spit back to Gotham, Batman won't know what hit him.

that place'll eat your mind

[builditstrong]

One moment everything is normal. He's shooting bottles off of a fence, just some basic target practice to keep himself occupied. A rather sickly feeling comes over him slowly and he thinks he smells mud and damp and fungus. He shakes his head to clear his mind.

One moment it's normal. The next moment it's Jawson's Bog.

He's up to his ankles in mud. The reeds and twisted plants rise well over his head and gnarled trees block out the sun. Suddenly there are insects, and aside from their buzzing and the distant, staccato pop pop pop of a Pincushion going off, everything is silent. Eerily so.

He can't be back here. He absolutely can't be back here. It's impossible. But he can feel the mud creeping into his shoes and the sting of biting insects and he can smell the foul scent of Lungblossom. If you catch that scent, he knows--he knows all too well--then it's already too late.

He clutches at his hammer and rifle, though he knows even they won't protect him here.

[doctorweevil]

Owen's in the library, reaching for a book, when he bumps something soft on a shelf just above his line of sight. There's a small hiss, and suddenly-

-everything is dark. "No," his mouth forms the word, but no sound comes out. He slides to the floor, or where the floor ought to be, but nothing's there anymore. He's not in Wonderland, he's dead again, and everything's been swallowed up by the darkness. He can't see anything, can't feel anything. He clutches desperately at his knees, burying his head against them - there's no point, nothing to block out (that is the point), but he needs whatever small reassurance curling up on himself might possibly give (there is none). He doesn't realise that he can't be dead, if only because he's got all the physical symptoms of a bloody panic attack - his shoulders heave as he desperately sucks in one breath after the other - because he knows he is, and his belief is stronger than logic right now.

He's lost again, and there's no hope of being saved this time.

[no_eels]

Toothless is out for a walk when he hears the sound of a Viking's nervous footfalls. Aimless. Searching? Or walking in circles? The pattern confuses him so much that he sets off to find the source, snuffling along the ground until he catches the Kid's familiar scent. Following it to his source, he looks to the Kid with a visible (if dragonish) frown. Why does he look like that? Why is he holding his weapons? He glances around, looking for the source of the Kid's anxiety.

[builditstrong]

Something is coming.

The Lungblossom--that's what it has to be, right?--is already affecting him. Sounds have taken on an echoing, colors are warping. He keeps hearing voices. Rucks whispering at him, Zia singing.

Where are you, Kid? You left us allllll alone. Abandoned us.

"Shut up," he mutters under his breath, hefting his hammer. They're not real, they can't be real. He's miles and worlds away from the Bastion. Yet here he is in Jawson's Bog, and the last of his rational sense, his understanding that this should be impossible is slipping away from him.

Something is crashing through the trees. Lunkhead no doubt. He runs. He could kill it, he knows he could _{wait for it to leap, roll, circle behind, back of the head} but some lingering sense of clarity tells him don't kill anything, not here. Just run.

[watchthedetective]

It's pure luck that Joan finds him like that, as she passes through the library in search of something, anything, to solve. Fetal position, hyperventilation- it looks like severe distress, whatever its source.

Any other day, the priority would be to help him out. Today, it can wait a few more moments while she looks for whatever might have caused this.

She does say "Are you okay?" while she's looking, at least.

[doctorweevil]

Owen barely registers a voice - a woman's voice - Tosh, he thinks first, instinctively, and then Katie. But it's not a voice he recognises, and there shouldn't be voices in the darkness anyway, it's antithetical to everything it is. "I- I can't find my way back," he stammers, and he's surprised to find that he still has a voice, too. He still exists as a separate entity, Owen and not part of the darkness that isn't threatening to consume him like it was a moment ago.

[watchthedetective]

Huh. Joan hasn't seen teddy bears on the library shelves before. She'll just grab this one as potential evidence. She's pretty sure it's what Sherlock would do in her place. And now, with her need to investigate momentarily satisfied, she can actually focus on the person in distress.

"You're in the library," she tells him gently. This seems psychological, so staying calm is probably the best thing she can do right now. "Why can't you find your way?"

[doctorweevil]

"It's dark." His voice is a ragged sob - he'll hate himself for it later, when he's in his right mind again, but he can't help it right now. "The darkness - it's everywhere. Everything." Everything and nothing at the same time, the one thing he's feared the most ever since he was brought back. "It's going to take me again. I can't let that happen, I can't."

[seekinghome]

Ed's outside, getting away from the shit going on inside to try to avoid running afoul of anyone else that may want to experiment on him when he hears a hissing sound.

He looks around suspiciously, but not finding an obvious cause, continues on to the hedge maze to get himself lost for a little while.

This particular victim of the fear gas isn't going to display anything until he runs into someone else, sadly. Hopefully whoever finds him is hardy enough to handle him.

[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?"

[seekingbrother]

Al goes looking for his brother after a little bit, having found an interesting volume on aeronautics he might want to see. He manages to not run afoul of any of the fear gas himself, winding his own way through the maze.

[appealingavarice]

All this testing is fun and all- even when it's sometimes kind of painful- but it can be tiring even for a homunculus. Greed is in need of a break, and when there's a stuffed dog on the nearest comfy chair, he just grabs it to toss aside.

And then he doesn't sit down. Suddenly, he doesn't feel safe anymore, though he couldn't say exactly why. The prince is screaming something about that bodyguard of his, but she's not here, right? And Greed can't focus on that right now, anyway, not when he's looking around and hardening his skin to deal with whatever the danger is, because never mind that nothing's actually changed, he suddenly knows he's in danger.

You're a worthless pack-rat, Greed (he hears the contemptuous voice of Wrath before he sees him) who never lets anything go, and craves even the past!

Fuck.

[no_eels]

Who is he talking to?

Toothless looks around, expecting to see someone there, but doesn't. He rumbles, low in his throat, at the Kid, trying to get his attention. What's wrong with the Viking? Is there danger that Toothless can't see or smell, for some reason? (He wouldn't put it past the mansion.)

[seekinghome]

When he finds Ed, Al will see him at a crossways, looking back and forth, trying to decide which path to take.

[seekingbrother]

Al smiles widely and heads towards Ed at a jog, waving. "Brother, there you are!"

[seekinghome]

Ed freezes. That voice... He turns his head just enough to confirm that it's Envy approaching before bolting further into the maze.

[seekingbrother]

"Brother?" Something is clearly wrong and Al runs after him. "Brother, wait!"

[seekinghome]

Ed's running through the maze like a scared rabbit and isn't stopping for anything, especially now that Envy seems to be pursuing him.

[seekingbrother]

Al frowns and puts on a burst of speed, trying to catch up and grab for Ed's arm. "Brother, stop!"

[seekinghome]

Congrats, Al. You get a panicked yell and Ed ripping himself free to make an abrupt right turn to take another path to get away from you.

[seekingbrother]

Which only makes Al even more panicked and confused, flinging himself after Ed to try and tackle him to the ground. "Brother, stop, it's me!"

[seekinghome]

When Al tackles Ed, Ed yells again and claps his hands together as he falls, slamming his hands to the ground to make spikes. "I won't let you kill me again!"

[seekingbrother]

Al yells in panic--this was the last thing he'd expected, and he stumbles back from the attack. One of the spikes catches him in the arm, and he falls over clutching the wound.

[seekinghome]

Ed scrambles to his feet and takes off again. Sorry, Al. Ed will feel bad later but for now, messing with him isn't a good idea.