scribble_puppet | Central Silent Hill/Alchemilla Hospital (Foggy World)

Central Silent Hill/Alchemilla Hospital (Foggy World)

Their feet hit gritty pavement.

It's the middle of a block of foggy street in a run-down commercial district. Not the skyscrapers of New York, but squat, huddled old buildings of a quaint New England town. Behind them is a dusty toy store; other storefronts litter the street to either side and in front.

The whole place echoes emptily, the movement of the fog the only sound other than themselves.

Amber scuffs a sneaker on the asphalt. "So... yeah. Here it is."

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"...uh..."

She cautiously approaches the hole in the floor and peers down.

"What the fuck..."

::Jump:: Rachel sighed. ::It's the quick way down instead of wandering hallways looking for stairs. Besides, I don't know where the crazy woman and her son went.::

"What the fuck ever," she grumbles, shifting to the edge and then hopping ungracefully down.

She eyes the now-still charred remains of the three men.

"What happened while you were gone Amber?" Rachel asked, finally moving forward enough to stir the ashes with a foot. She was letting her flames die away to a trickle after catching Amber.

"...buncha shit," she says evasively. "Don't really wanna talk about it now.

"I was havin' a really good dream, too... Guess I shouldn't sleep in a place like this, though.

"Think we can get out?"

"No" she answered simply. "Not yet." the way the crazy old lady had been talking had sounded like programing. Probably not as extensive as the Hound program, but, programming.

And...Amber really wasn't acting like herself.

"What kinda dream?"

She waves her hand vaguely. "I dunno... movin'. Like, on the train, when the tracks are out in the open. And there wasn't anyone else. Just sunlight."

She gives a rueful smile, then looks Rachel over. "What about you? Figure you can take care of yourself, but..." But the place is messed up.

"Well, I got to deal with a crazy old lady and her son, ID'ed their 'God', nearly destroy the reality, and then....you had a peaceful dream in a nightmarish place like this so I'm pretty sure they messed with your head." she summed up. That was everything, right?

"Fuck... Can you, y'know, tell?"

She does not want her brain messed with. Not even by Rachel, but... she's preferable to unknown crazy people.

"...probably." She was pretty sure she knew what this place, and it's power, 'felt' like now. "And they were talking about making you a Mother, so do you want me to check your body too?" She really didn't know how to put that delicately.

Wut.

"...think I'd know if they'd done something there."

"Not if it starts as an infection by a Power." It wasn't the easiest way to bring about Life, but 'Gods' were weird. "But yes, I can check your head? Best to do it here in case it's only active in this place."

"...'kay..."

She sits on one of the benches and watches Rachel with some trepidation.

Rachel folded to the floor by Amber's feet, spinning shields among shields among walls around them. Better to be safe if they were going to be so distracted. "Would you like to be with me when I look or would you like to not know what's happening?" she offered after a moment of thought and external construction.

"With you," she replies firmly. If anyone is mucking around in her head, she is going to be supervising every step of the way.

"Alright. That'll make things easier." The best person for sensing something wrong in a person's head was always the person themselves. With Amber there, they were less likely to overlook things!

"Deep breath now, don't worry." she took Amber's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, and suddenly they falling inward. Every mind was organized different, giving each mentalscape a unique appearance. Some liked to think of their mind as a house, some as a park, a theater...

Rachel's mental form was different, slightly, from her physical one. She wore facial tattoos openly and she seemed to have flame under her skin rather than muscle. She still held Amber's hand, sending reassurance and strength as she looked around. ::This is where we start::

A maze of tunnels and tracks; concrete and steel and scaffolds and tiles. There are distant hums and murmurs, a threatening tone.

In her mind, Amber is slighter, grayish, shadowed. Her jacket seems an armored carapace, swallowing her body. Her right hand is dark, blotchy, obviously Wrong.

She pulls back slightly, avoiding Rachel's eyes. "What now?" she asks, in a 'let's get this over with' tone.

In it's own way, the scene was comforting. Being enclosed yet able to run and hide...yes, Rachel could like Amber's mind. ::Now we look for anything wrong. Things that make you feel uncomfortable, anything you might think of as a taint. Think about Silent Hill, and how it makes you feel...then see if that feeling pulls you in any direction.::

Xavier would do it differently of course. He didn't like her methods, but then his was a very controlled, and controlling, mind.

"Um..."

She looks down at her hand immediately, then looks away and scuffs the ground.

"Dunno... I mean... I don't think anything's different."

Rachel also peered down at the hand, then tilted her head to the side. ::In a place like this everything is connected. Like strings knotting memories together, or scents that lead back to something. It's your mind, you can follow any connection you like. Start with your hand. Feel it. Can you feel any connections in it?::

She gives a noncommital grunt. "It's connected to my fuckin' arm, so?"

But it's also connected by a faint chain, barely visible- a thin pen line leading off into the darkness of one tunnel.

::Your arm, your bones, your blood, nerves, skin, and mind.:: she agreed grimly. ::And, also, this.:: she reached out carefully to tweak that thin chain. Like plucking a guitar string just enough to set it humming.

::Do you feel that?::

"OW! FUCK!"

Yes. She does.

And so does the tunnel- things shake and crack.

::Shhhh:: she soothed, standing well clear of the chain now. She was going to focus on shoring up the tunnel around with flame licked resolve. A calm, solid emotion to seep into cracks and fissures.

Strength. She had plenty to spare.

::Can you follow it?::

She spends a moment waiting for everything to go back to normal.

"...I guess?" She gingerly reaches for the line, wincing a bit as her fingertips brush it. Gritting her teeth, she follows its path into the tunnel.

The path is long and winding. Once, sunlight filters in through a long grating above, and the constant background noise becomes louder- it's the voices of people, a cacophony spattering the walls around them. Amber rushes through, head hunched down between her shoulders to block the noise out.

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