entrancelogs | [OPEN/EVENT] There was a face on a hoarding that someone had drawn on;

Who: Angel & you!
Where: Quor'toth.
When: 12/02 - 12/05
Rating: PG for now.
Summary: Until now, all Angel has known about Quor'toth has been secondhand. He had no idea that something could be even worse than what he'd imagined.
The Story:
a. settlement

[It doesn't take him long to find the first drawing after he wakes up. It had been on the wall nearest the front door of the hut he'd found himself in, the image itself presented like a crudely pieced-together shrine.

He doesn't have to go any further to know where he is, where they've all wound up. He doesn't have to seek out any locals and ask. The picture is enough to say it all, his stomach knotting as he finds himself unable to tear himself away from his son's image. It's been too long since he's seen Connor in person, years, and even then, their last meeting had been brief-- but he still saw his son's face almost every night, silently mourning all the ways he had failed him.

He'd let Connor be taken to this place. In the moment, it had seemed like the only way to save him. He hadn't had any other options, not if he wanted his son to live, but what Connor had suffered here-- it had broken him beyond repair. The life he'd led after Quor'toth could barely be be called living at all, until Angel had made a deal with the devil to fix it.

When he finally pulls himself away, Angel starts investigating the settlement as a whole, looking into hut after hut, feeling his chest grow tighter as he finds image after image of his son, some drawings more elaborate than others, but all of them unmistakably Connor. He knows he can't stay in the settlement for long, knows that he's going to have to explore beyond it, and he can't help but wonder if hoping to find Connor himself in this place is entirely in vain. This isn't the real Quor'toth, it's Wonderland toying with them, but Wonderland had done him small kindnesses before. Maybe it would do the same now.

He exhales, emerging from the sixth or seventh hut he'd chosen to rummage through. Before he goes anywhere, he needs to make sure that everyone else who'd woken up here was safe, and knew better than to wander beyond the settlement unprotected. After that, he needs to find Faith-- to hear what this place has to offer, because this has to be her memory. Given what he knows of Quor'toth, he'll want to be as prepared as possible before setting out.]

b. wilderness

[Nothing about Quor'toth's landscape is at all comforting. There are no portals to Quor'toth is the phrase that keeps echoing in his head, over and over as he presses onward. He's unarmed, but that doesn't matter. Angel himself is a weapon, and learning the truth of this place, of what his son had been forced to suffer, was far more important than the feeling of security a broadsword or an axe would have offered him.

There are no portals to Quor'toth, and for a very good reason. It's probably the most hellish of all the demon dimensions in this known plane of existence. The only way to Quor'toth is to rip right through the fabric of reality.

Connor had been strong enough to punch his way through, desperate enough to claw his way back to their world, and now Angel was beginning to fully understand why. He's prepared to fight and claw his own way through whatever demons he counters, prepared to do whatever it takes to understand this place-- and to take his anger out on it, that anger that he's been carrying for years, ever since he'd let his own son slip away from him.]

c. wildcard

[Whatever you like! Angel will mostly be outside of the settlement after the first day, though he may stop by occasionally just to make sure that people are staying safe. He's mostly likely to be found out hunting demons or scouring the landscape for any further trace of his son. If you want to plot something specific, feel free to PM me or PP necrofancy, otherwise leave a starter and I will match your format and play along!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I wasn't able to find him. He found his way back on his own.

[Angel's still not exactly sure how, but if anyone was determined enough to tear through the dimensional veil with some combination of brute and supernatural force, it was his son.]

For awhile, we had some time together, but this place had broken him beyond repair.

What do you mean, 'beyond repair'?

[ She asks, eyes wary and a little nervous- was this event going to be all over, before anyone stuck here got broken beyond repair? ]

Did he go crazy?

Something like that.

['Crazy' almost seems too general a term.]

When he showed up again, he was almost feral. He had a psychotic break after awhile-- he was ready to self-destruct.

['Feral' meant something like stray or wild. Coraline only knows that because of the cat back home, who belonged to no one. It must be hard for a man to admit his own son became like a far more dangerous George of the Jungle in this place.]

Well... I guess a place like this wouldn't be good for normal human society.

[ She admits, chancing a second glance around. ]

I'm sorry that happened. This event must be really tough for you, then... [ Stepping closer, she reaches up and lays her hand comfortingly on the crook of Angel's arm.] but it's not real, remember that. This will all go back to being the mansion in just a few days.

[The touch is unexpected, and he stiffens slightly beneath it, unused to open displays of comfort or affection-- but he softens a moment later, appreciative.

He can't hold the fact that she's trying against her. She didn't have to stay and talk to him at all, and yet she did.]

It's not real, and we'll be done with it soon.

[He can agree with that much.]

But it was still real for Connor.

Yeah...

[ She sighs, hanging her head. ] I wish there was a way we could have helped him... but guess what happened, already happened.

[He nods slowly. Much like his experiences with Dipper, talking with Coraline gives him an opportunity to see a kind of earnesty most adults have forgotten how to show.]

I can't change things, and I know that. But being here, seeing it for myself for the first time-- it just makes me wish more than ever that I could.

[He pauses before giving her a sidelong glance.]

Thank you-- for listening. You didn't have to.

There's not much else a kid like me can do. But you're welcome?

He looked like a strong, interesting guy... to defeat all those monsters and stuff.

[ Coraline says shyly, glancing back at the tapestries. ] I bet if he'd stayed with you, he could've been really good at school sports? Or even the olympics! I mean, if he could wrestle giant snakes...

[ She points out the pictoral stories, trying a little clumsily to be positive. ]

My parents probably wouldn't even believe me, if I went on an adventure like him.

[Angel actually smiles at that, though it comes out awkward and sheepish-- as so many things he does manage to.]

I wanted him to grow up to play hockey. Bought him a little baby hockey jersey and everything.

[He looks at her curiously, sinking his hands into his pockets.]

I'm sure they would-- but I think you'd be better off not spending more time than you needed to in a place like this.

Awww!

[ She melts a little, clutching hands over her heart. That just makes things extra sad, thinking about little tiny unused baby clothes. ]

In a place like Wonderland, too.

I really hope my parents back home don't end up going through the same thing. Missing out on all this time...

It should be different for them. Time-- it shouldn't be moving. They won't even know you're gone.

[Not to say he doesn't think they would notice if she were, but...]

People who've gone back home and then returned to Wonderland, they've said that it was like no time had passed at all. Like it froze until they got back. As long as we can get you back, you should have all the time in the world with them.

[Unfortunately, it wasn't really that simple.]

That's what everybody says, and I hope that it's true? But who can be totally sure? I was gone for a long time, and everybody says I should've gone home over all that time, but I can't remember too much of that happening.

If I went home at all, it must have been really quick. Time works really weird, in-between Wonderland.

You don't remember going home?

[Interesting, if worrisome.]

Guess it makes sense that not everyone would have the same experience, but-- not very comforting. Leaves people worrying about what they've left behind. Nobody here needs that. I hope your parents aren't missing you-- that when you do go back, you won't have missed any time together. You all deserve that. To spend as much time together as you possibly can.

I kind of remember having a weird dream about the ghost children from back home? [ She squints uneasily. ] But not going home.

My folks are busy most of the time we're together. It's kind of boring. But I still wish they were here- Not here Hell here, but Wonderland. Then they wouldn't have to work, and we could just have a bunch of exciting adventures together, and I'd never have to go to school, unless it was Hogwarts or a dancing academy or something a bazillion times more fun than actual real school.

[OPEN/EVENT] There was a face on a hoarding that someone had drawn on;

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