Once upon a time, in a land not so far away...
You wake to the feeling of being watched. Of a set of unfamiliar eyes, of warm breath on the back of your neck. A jolt back to the land of the living, and it's gone. No matter how quick you are, how sneaky, the source of the disruption has long since disappeared, so you have no choice but to try and ignore it. To continue on with your day and try to set that moment of strangeness aside.
You eat, drink, speak with others. Perhaps you explore a little. Whatever it is you choose to do for the day, that feeling from the morning won't return. And by the time the sun sets and the moon glows brightly above, you've likely set those moments of strangeness aside. It's not like it's anything new, after all.
It's the same again for the next few days. No better, no worse. Something best ignored, right?
A speck of blood on the doorframe. That wasn't there before, was it?
A snap of twigs in the distance. A crunch of leaves.
Claw marks gouged deeply into the door.
Into the wall above your bed.
Scraps of red fabric, turned darker with blood. Pieces of fur. Of flesh.
Do you run and hide? Do you fight? Whatever you choose, it's definitely time to make sure your body parts aren't scattered next...
...what a horribly big mouth you have.
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Since first waking up on the island, characters have been stuck with that feeling of being watched. It isn't a constant. Isn't more than a few seconds at a time, dotted throughout the day. Investigation has never turned up much, and there's never been any sightings of the cause of it all.
Until now.
Throughout the first half of the week, characters will find themselves suffering from that feeling of being watched on a far more constant basis. Rather than it being a one-off, few seconds occurrence each day, that feeling will last for minutes at a time, and on multiple occasions.
However, it isn't until the fifth day that they'll start stumbling across physical signs of their monitoring. There are claw marks on doors. Spots of blood on the paths outside. A crack of twigs in the forests, or the imprint of bloodied paws in the snow.
Ten days in and those signs start finding their way indoors. Wet footprints, tinged with red. Claw marks in the walls, the floor. Torn sheets and the smell of wet...something. Whatever it is that's been watching you, its finally decided to come and say hello.
Two weeks in and characters will begin to have sightings of the creature, its fur dark and its eyes a glowing yellow. At times it looks like a wolf, prowling in the distance. At other times, it's walking on its hind legs, almost human were it not for the muzzle full of gleaming sharp teeth. Get too close, and it slips away like a shadow, gone between one blink and the next. It decides when to reach out to characters, not the other way round.
It's after characters finally get a good look at the creature that it starts leaving...gifts. Characters will start to find familiar items from their home worlds amidst the mess. The remains of a childhood pet, perhaps. Photographs of loved ones, faces torn almost beyond recognition. It's only once it delivers its final gift that the creature retreats to the trees again: a blood-splattered item of clothing that clearly belongs to the person the character misses the most at the time, alive or dead.
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Abigail Hobbs | Hannibal | OTA
It's been a while since Abigail has been able to be outside -- Hannibal keeps telling her they'll take a trip soon, that he has something to show her, but he's been busy -- and she thinks, at first, that she's dreaming. She dreams about being outside often, about being back in the house she grew up in, though more often than not lately, Hannibal's there too; but in those dreams, she always has both ears, and it only takes a few moments to realize that's not true right now.
She runs her hands through her hair nervously as she sits up, making sure it's covering the place where her left ear is gone even as she's peering around, trying to make sense of the surroundings. She doesn't recognize anything, not even the bag sitting behind her, and it makes her uneasy. Even more so when she goes looking through it and finds clothes she knows sitting on the top; it spooks her enough for her to close it again, leaving it in her lap as she tries to figure out what to do.
The rustling gets her to jump to her feet, the pack clutched almost automatically in her hands, whirling around to try and spot the source of the noise. She's alone with no weapons, and the idea of animal and the idea of unknown human are about equally scary, but at least the second might not rescue her. Or it could just be some random skittish animal not planning to eat her, so maybe if she makes noise it'll run?
At least if she makes noise she might figure out which one, so she calls out into the trees, "Hello? Is anybody there?"
[ two/three/four days in ]
The feeling of being watched isn't exactly unfamiliar for Abigail, but if anything, that makes it less comforting. She does a fair bit of avoiding people, even though it doesn't seem to really make a difference; she's more comfortable exploring on her own anyway, wandering out more and more. She doesn't really have the resources to make it far, especially since she'd rather not sleep out in the open, but she pushes out here and there, seeing how far she can get before the terrain starts to get unfriendly, exploring where the borders meet.
She's not looking for people, but she'll do her best not to be unfriendly if she runs into anybody else taking a look around, giving them a smile and responding easily enough if she's addressed. At least unless they catch her right as that weird feeling of being watched hits or has just passed, in which case, she'll be jumpy and suspicious.
[ wildcard ]
[[Or throw whoever you'd like! I'm open to anything, but PM me if you'd like to work anything out.]]
Arrival
He looks Abigail over as if deciding whether she's a threat or not. It seems like he doesn't trust as he doesn't come any closer, but neither does he disappear back into the treeline. "Did you just wake up here too?" He says in a deep voice that doesn't quite fit his pretty boy looks.
no subject
But then he asks, and -- and, well, at least she didn't have to bring it up herself. At least maybe she's not the only one. Though really, what difference does that make, when you wake up in the middle of nowhere. But she'll take what she can get.
"Yeah." Her hands twist around the bag, the biggest sign of her nerves she'll allow herself. "Just a few minutes ago." She hesitates a second before asking, "Do you know where 'here' is?"
no subject
Hi golden eyes flick to their surroundings. "If I knew that, I'd be looking for a way out," he says. This place, for all its strangeness, is better than where he'd come from. Tsume's world was a dying world and soon would be no more.
no subject
She considers that for a second before asking, "What are you looking for now?" She pairs it with a small smile, hoping she doesn't come off as prying.
few days in
She's still not sure what to make of any of this but hse's not complaining. Sure, there have been some weird encounters but even those are better than what she was dealing with prior to being here.
As she makes her way into the woods, Loki spies a young woman. Everything about her reads as uncertain, cautious and maybe even scared. No, not scared, but maybe waiting. Waiting for something to happen, for something to come up behind her or dive straight into her.
She shakes her head, calling out to her.
"Hello," Loki smiles a little as she offers out her greeting, maybe a little unsure herself but hoping it comes off at least somewhat friendly.
no subject
Still, she tries a small smile in return, and lifts her hand in a little wave. "Hi." She stops for a second, not sure what else to say; she was already finding it hard to talk to people before the last few months with just Hannibal for company. Too much time feeling like people were looking at her words too closely, and even before that, like she had to censor herself.
But Loki addressed her, and Abigail's trying to be... open? Trying not to come off as horribly unfriendly, at least, so she takes a tiny step closer and tries, "Are you looking for something? Or just exploring?"
no subject
She takes another step closer but still leaves an arm's length between them. "Have you arrived recently? I'm still trying to sort out all ... this myself." SHe gestures around them. SHe doesn't mention the creeping things that she feels around her. It seems better to keep that to herself for now, just in case Abigail has yet to pick up on that, though she doubts that's the case.
no subject
"Yeah. A few days ago. It's.... I'm still trying to figure out what it is," she finishes after a second, laughing at herself a little bit. "I was exploring too. Might as well get to know the place if we're stuck here, right?"
And it's so, so nice to be outside again. She missed trees, and the ability to go run around wherever she wants. It'd be better, she thinks, if Hannibal were here too, but it's still a freedom she's been longing for, however much staying hidden was for her own good. She's not telling a stranger about all that, though.
no subject
Which may not be how some people would put it but despite the eerie nature of the place, it's better than where she was. This strangeness is a much welcome break from where she had been.
"Would you--" She pauses for a moment, unsure of whether an offer of companionship would be welcome. "Would you like company? I don't know much but safer in numbers and all that?"