Hekate
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Player Character
Posts: 40
Trainer Class: 
Player Name: Nerea Lovely
OOC Username: hannahs
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Post by Hekate on Jan 16, 2024 6:26:48 GMT 9
She's not sure how long she'd been following her Torchic.
Even with the improvements to her balance that came with her digital body, Hekate still struggled in her heels. At the very least, she had more stamina here than in her real body. And while Lil Guy ran from her, he never got too far away. A glimpse of orange here, a quiet peep there. Enough to keep her following, but also enough to stay just out of her reach. So she followed.
"C-come on, Lil Guy...!" She called after him, short of breath. "We gotta... we gotta... work together, right? I- I said I'm sorry! Just... just come back, okay? Please..."
At some point, her chase turned steep. The sky turned grey. The air turned... not cold, not warm. It turned still. Eventually, Hekate crested over the peak of some rocky incline, stopping to catch her breath. Desperate panting slowed, steadied, and she took a deep lungful of stagnant... air. When she looked up, she saw two things - the first was her Torchic, only a few feet ahead of her, looking back. The other was an expanse of land, stretching ahead of her - far, far ahead of her. In all her life, she'd never seen such a vast, empty space.
Though, it wasn't empty, was it? There was movement. Trickling across the terrain, something... something wrong. If she'd played more video games in her life, she might've been able to make a comparison to a glitch, or to corrupted data. Hekate, though, has no frame of reference for the not-shapes that spill and flow across the craggy terrain. And she certainly has no frame of reference for the things that twist within the not-shapes.
She realises she's been holding her breath. She breathes out warm, breathes in... breathes in...? She realises now that something's wrong with teh air itself. It's tasteless, odorless, temperatureless. Every time she exhales, it's like a bit of her warmth, her colour, floats out of her, and whatever she's inhaling is replacing it. She feels it, spreading through her body. This not-air, carried through her veins, tingling the tips of her fingers.
"We... we should... we shouldn't- shouldn't be here, right?" She glances down at Lil Guy. He looks up at her, and rolls his eyes, before taking a step forward. He disappears in front of her, sliding down a gravelly slope towards the expanse.
"Hey! W-wait! Come- come ba-" Hekate takes a step forward, and feels a tug at the back of her mind. She should come closer. She should take another step. She hesitates, and that's all the time the ground beneath her needs to give way.
Lil Guy - 100/150 HP Remaining |
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Hekate
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Player Character
Posts: 40
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Nerea Lovely
OOC Username: hannahs
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Post by Hekate on Jan 17, 2024 8:17:42 GMT 9
She lifts her head again, and the horizon stretches to the edge of her vision. She couldn't have rolled that far when she fell, right? Hekate looks behind herself, and the ridge she had just been stood on is small, distant. Far too distant. She's adrift in a dry sea, larger than anything, and she is so, so, so small.
Hekate shakily rises to her feet, and realises her Pokémon is nowhere to be seen. Panic rises in her spine, overwhelming a creeping sense of dread she'd only just begun to notice. "Lil Guy? Lil Guy??" She calls out, frantically turning to and fro to spot a flash of orange amidst the grey.
behind you, she thinks, and she turns to meet a black shape crashing over her. Her vision goes red, just for a moment, as she enters it's space.
The vast emptiness of the Zone disappears in a buzz. Noise, noise, so much noise! And when her vision clears she sees them - eyes, eyes everywhere, looking at her, watching her, examining her from all angles. In the darkness she can make out shapes, moving shapes, shadows. People? A crowd? It's all around her, pressing in on her, a flood of movement that she struggles to stand against. Each shadow looking at her, looking past her, looking anywhere but her. Everyone's watching her, but nobody's paying her any mind, but they can all see her, so why can't they see her??
The noise shifts. It sounds like laughter for a moment, or was it speech? She tries to listen, but it hurts. It hurts her head, it hurts her heart. It makes her sick to her stomach, but she can't stop listening. If she focuses, with all she can muster, there's something there. The beginnings of syllables, the cadence of words. The rhythm of speech. Every fragment feels like a cold dagger, but she has to know, right? She has to know. What are people saying. They're all looking at her, talking about her, what are they saying, what are they-
Then, she spots him. A flash of orange, amidst the shadows and the eyes. He's distant, but she can see him. He's not running any more. He's... he's cowering. He's hurt. Hekate gasps, and feels a rush of dark, heavy not-air enter her lungs. It's searingly painful, and she crumbles. She falls to her knees, as the eyes press down on her. A mounting pressure, and her visor's begun to crack. It's too much, it's too much, it's too much...
but he needs you.
She looks up, and catches a glimpse of orange once again. Hekate tries to rise to her feet, but the weight is too much to bear.
So, with her Torchic in sight, Hekate begins to crawl.
Lil Guy - 50/150 HP remaining |
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Hekate
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Player Character
Posts: 40
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Nerea Lovely
OOC Username: hannahs
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Post by Hekate on Jan 17, 2024 12:03:26 GMT 9
Her digital fingernails dig into the digital earth beneath her, but the sensation is real. Realer than anything she's ever felt, even. A part of her mind, a voice at the back of her head - no, not this one - reminds her this isn't real. That she can just log out at any point. As Hekate drags herself across the gravelly soil, she considers returning to her comfortable bed, in her comfortable room, in her... comfortable life...?
Run and hide. Draw the curtains closed. This isn't for you.
but don't you want to see where it goes?
A diverging road, then. Between what was and what could be. And she sees it, down the road of if - a yawning void. An unknown. A nothing-space, brimming with terrible potential. It's a threshold that she cannot see the other side of, and that terrifies her. But at the same time... Hekate can't help but grin, ever-so-slightly. Under the crushing weight, the pressure threatening to destroy her, the fear and the pain and the struggle, her heart pounds with adrenaline.
She reaches out for Lil Guy. Her fingers barely graze his downy feathers. Her heart holds, hope threatens to vanish. The distance between them stretches out. The eyes, the shadows, the shapes, the sounds, everything vanishes. Hekate hangs alone in the nothing, with nothing to reach for. The strength saps from her body, exertion unfamiliar even to her digital muscles finally catching up with her.
The last thing she sees before she fades out is a glimmering light in the distance. Something that calls for her to return. And then-
Lil Guy - 0/150 HP remaining -she snaps awake. First, she panics. Where is she? Outside? Did she sleepwalk? What kind of a nightmare was that? How did she-
Then, she notices the UI still floating in her vision. Soon, her surroundings come into view. A far cry from the nothing where she had been moments before - a warm forest, sunlight dappling through the canopy. The sounds of Pokémon in the distance. Grass rustling in the wind. A wave of calm washes across her, though there's a chill in her bones still. Not only that, but there's... something in her lap...?
Hekate looks down. "Lil Guy!" She exclaims, although the Torchic in her lap looks... different. He's not quite there, it seems. And oddly quiet. She reaches down, cautiously, to pet him, but when her hand touches him she immediately feels something is wrong. Wherever they went, whatever just happened there, it's clearly taken it's toll on her partner. Hekate starts shivering, her eyes welling up, and soon the peaceful forest is filled with the sound of her wailing tears.
After some time, she calms down. Well, mostly. Sniffling, she rises to her feet, cradling Lil Guy in her arms.
"I'm... I'm sorry, Lil Guy. I-I-I should've been more... more careful..." Hekate mumbles between tired sobs. "I'll... I'll find a way to- to make you b-better, I promise, okay?"
With Lil Guy nestled in the crook of her arm, she turns her attention back to the present. For the first time since leaving Dr Bunya's lab, she notices the Tutorial Quest popups in the corner of her vision. Maybe... maybe it would be best to learn what she was supposed to be doing. Maybe she could... do better, next time.
...without realising, her gaze drifts to the horizon. To the direction her heart knows the Zone to be in.
There shouldn't be a next time, right? Her heart quickens at the thought. Maybe... maybe just another peek. Maybe... |
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