event: portal seven | the void

[mayfield_mods]

The final portal doesn't seem to be a portal at all. It's a glitch hole.

Located on the lawn of the library is a hole much like the ones that have plagued every new location for the past week. As with them, it hurts your eyes to look at too long, but even if you should muscle past the pain and stare straight into it, you can make out nothing on the other side. Nothing, save for a shifting, twitching, swirling void.

Unlike the portals, which were vertically placed like doorways, the hole at the Library is strewn across the lawn: if you want to enter it, you're going to have to jump. Of course, there's no guarantee it will even lead anywhere. Touching the hole or sticking your arm in doesn't have any effect: you'll pull your arm out unharmed. As far as jumping in completely goes, those who jump in disappear from sight. As long as you're on the Mayfield side, there's no way to tell what lies beyond the hole.

There's only one way to find out.

[ooc: Feel free to roleplay up to the point your characters jump in, assuming they do. A single group subthread will be created in a few hours revealing what happens on the other side.]

Comments

[encored]

[whoops hi again, today is a day of bumping endlessly into each other apparently. not that it's very difficult here...]

I could certainly do with less cramped quarters.

[strike_you_out]

[This time it was clearly an accident and Slugger still seems a bit shaken. He's holding his bat vertically and close to his chest up as if anticipating a repeat performance.]

Did you see that??

[encored]

See what, the glitch you just skirted? [he takes his eyes away from the side of the void for one second... but the flippancy of his attitude has definitely faded, given Slugger's unsettled reaction.]

[strike_you_out]

No, the hand.

[As if on cue, another disembodied hand reaches in from the void at which Slugger swings with his bat.]

[encored]

[oh. he's caught a few glimpses of things moving just beyond the barricade, but this is the first one he's seen actually make it inside.]

How very reassuring. [the snappy tone does little to cover his alarm, and his posture is tense and ready to attack.] If the barrier is this weak to begin with, I can't imagine it will hold up long.

[strike_you_out]

[Where once was a single hand there are now three more. Slugger continues to bat them away as he moves with the traveling bubble. It seems Charles is right - whatever it is they were supposed to be looking for, they had better find it quick before the void collapses in on them.]

Whose are these? [An unanswerable question, of course. The arms could belong to the nothingness itself, though he's noticed each is different from the next. However, he's no hand expert so he can't actually tell if any are recognizable.]

[encored]

[any hand that he spies disappears almost as soon as it enters the bubble thanks to the lightning-quick reflexes he possesses. Slugger might see a flash of something distinctly inhuman about Charles's arm in between hits, but with both of their attention focused outward it might be difficult to catch.]

I have difficulty believing anything sentient could be living out there. [for some reason, "the void itself" is a less comforting answer than "lost people".]

[strike_you_out]

[Slugger isn't anywhere near as fast as Charles, which is why he's suddenly grabbed when a particularly long arm reaches through and jerks him toward the void by his wrist.]

Ah-!

[encored]

[though he told himself he wouldn't interfere with other people for the duration of the trip, there's barely a moment of hesitation before he's between Slugger and the void. that grasping hand? neatly severed at the joint in a blink.]

Persistent creatures.

[strike_you_out]

[At the sudden lack of resistance, Slugger catches himself from nearly tripping backwards. A moment is taken to stare briefly at the severed hand on the ground, then at Charles. He doesn't know how exactly it happened, but it was cool.]

Thanks.

[Once again he starts moving, this time keeping away from the walls but still holding his bat at the ready.]

So what are you, exactly?

[encored]

[and he'll just casually be kicking that severed hand back out into the abyss, because he doesn't want to share his space for even a second with something unpleasant to look at.]

Think nothing of it. [his nose is wrinkled in an expression of mild irritation, but none of it reaches his words. he'll definitely be keeping his distance and guard up after that, though.]

What am I? A Chiropteran, by species. By uneducated colloquial terms, a vampire. [he'd explain it with more depth and pride on any other occasion, but his attention is pretty divided as things stand.]