Opening the door [Forward dated to day 11]

[nobasisinfact]

[There's no message, just this,followed by laughter. The laughter doesn't sound right. It's like nails on chalkboard and static all at once.]

Comments

[11calls]

[Alex knows that's not his laugh. It's definitely not his laugh and he's been missing, and so while she's been avoiding using the Sphere's find function to locate him, she does after this. Only to be told he's in the catacombs. That's not really surprising, considering well... He's been there trying to preserve the old books, but this is him definitely not right. Richard would never post the Unsound, and he'd never just laugh like that.

So, in the end, Alex just goes to find him, ignoring the demons around her. Her face is pale, and she's not bothered to put makeup on in order to hide the dark circles below her eyes, and the flashlight that she's holding shakes a little bit, but she still goes. One good thing is that she knows how to stop the skeletons from attacking her, so she makes use of that before she goes in deep enough that they would bother her. Instead, her voice is clear and loud when she calls:]

Richard?

[nobasisinfact]

[There's that laugh again. Clear and seeming as if it's coming from everywhere at once.]

It calls vessels as well.

[The voice doesn't sound right. It's almost hollow and cold. Something Alex might remember from a dream somewhere.]

[11calls]

[In more than a few of her nightmares, Alex has heard that tone of voice, but not in those combinations of words. Vessels, she knows. There's no way that she couldn't not know what he means by that.]

Richard.

[It's not a question now.]

Where are you? This isn't funny.

[Even though she's already suspecting that she's definitely not dealing with Richard right now.]

audio

[unknownmoirai]

What is this?

Re: audio

[nobasisinfact]

M~usic.

[This definately doesn't sound like Richard.]

[nobasisinfact]

Isn't it?

[More laughter erupts in the darkness. Of course, it's funny. She came, just as he knew she would.]

He's coming.

[11calls]

[Alex just frowns, and her hands are tightly balled into fists, and she's just taking the same sort of effort that she took with Warren when she met him about the Horn of Tiamat.]

Are you taking your creepy cues from Simon now? Because I'm definitely way past being scared by that at this point.

audio

[unknownmoirai]

It doesn't sound like any music I've ever heard.

[A beat.]

Who are you?

Re: audio

[nobasisinfact]

Just a nameless soldier.

[More laughter.]

audio

[unknownmoirai]

What does that mean?

[Should she know since she was once nameless... before Seregil gave her a name.]

[nobasisinfact]

The vessel has been prepared and he'll come. Aren't you pleased, to play such an important part?

[More laughter. It sounds as if his voice has started echoing.]

Re: audio

[nobasisinfact]

He's coming.

[11calls]

Richard isn't a vessel. And he's not coming here, if he's coming at all. You're just the Sphere taking my nightmare and making it real.

[Alex just walks forward, one hand on the wall as she tries to find him.]

[nobasisinfact]

Are you so sure? He's everywhere.

[11calls]

Yes I am. That's something that you forget back home, that Richard Strand is the most stubborn ass I've ever met. He'd never let this thing use him for a vessel. And he'd never open the door.

[Alex sounds so very sure of this. And she is, mostly. But she suspects that he would if she was in danger.]

audio

[unknownmoirai]

[For some unknown reason, the lost angel's voice lowers to a trembling whisper.]

Who is coming?

Re: audio

[nobasisinfact]

Our king, our general. So many soldiers for the army.

[More horrifying laughter.]

audio

[unknownmoirai]

Let me be clear.

I will not let you hurt those here and whatever you've done to Richard, I will bring him back safely.

[nobasisinfact]

He is inevitable. The key will unlock the door and we will come. Our army will conquer, and you will have a place among us. He will lift you to the place you belong.

[The voice sounds so sure. Then, there's a pause, a sound of pain.]

Alex,

[It sounds like Richard, but he sounds like he's struggling against something. Like he's in pain.]

Go.

Re: audio

[nobasisinfact]

You think you can defeat our general, little angel?

audio

[unknownmoirai]

For my friends, I will.

[11calls]

[If there was anything in the world that would make Alex not go, it's that. It's the pain in Richard's voice, his real voice without the weirdness of the demon. Instantly, Alex jolts into action, moving at a run despite the skeletons and the shadows around them. There's something that Alex does know without a silver of a doubt: that Richard would never leave her to the demons in the dark anymore than she can.

Of course, she knows that this could be a trap, because of course this could be bait, but she finds him in the dark and grabs his hand.]

Richard.

Re: audio

[nobasisinfact]

Is this man really your friend?

audio

[unknownmoirai]

Yes.

[He might not think so but she does and that's all that really matters to her.]

Audio | UN: MsCarol

[becauseyouhaveto]

So...I take it you and Alex weren't able to prevent the spread of that noise out across the world, huh?