finalflight | THE JARS THAT BLEED BEFORE THEY BREAK.

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THE JARS THAT BLEED BEFORE THEY BREAK.

Congrats! You've somehow stumbled upon the pocket dimension where five people with questionable morals (some more questionable than others) live and operate. Are you here on business? Do you have an appointment? Or are you here to see a friend? (Come on, don't make us laugh.)

Maybe you're here on accident due to some multiversal, magical, or otherwise supernatural nonsense? It's happened before, it was bound to happen again.

You can wander towards the house, see if anyone's home. Or you can explore the lush grounds, and maybe run across the wolfman groundskeeper who might try to usher you out towards the nearest portal, anyway. The world is your oyster, just try to be a good guest.

Threaded | Flat

[You want to say hello to Morgan? Do you have an appointment? No?

Then don’t be silly.

He’s nowhere to be found if you don’t.

Though boldly trespassing inside the house, if you somehow manage it without running into any of the others first, might earn you some unwanted interest. If you’re lucky. Unlucky. Take your pick.]

[Jacob is a lot easier to find, though. He could be the first to greet you out on the yard, a skeptical look to his eyes. Suspicious, even. He’s tired, beleaguered — maybe they just came from a job, and he doesn’t have time to deal with newcomers who can’t bother to call first.

Or if you’re supposed to be here, he might try to be vaguely more polite, asking:]

So why is it you’re here, exactly?

[Only vaguely.

Otherwise? He’s having a drink in at the bar inside the house, first floor. Or he’s outside, tending to… a large patch of dead flowers?

Weird, but okay.]

[At least Lyra has more manners, even if her smile is faint when you find her; likely somewhere near the pond, a fishing rod in hand, the line gently strung across the top of the water. She sits atop an old, gnarled tree that's long fallen over.]

The fish are biting today. But they're always biting, so sometimes I wonder: what's the fun in that?

[She laughs, and it's an ethereal sound, made to draw you in.

(Still, she's harmless enough. Probably.)]

If you're here to see the fireworks, you have to wait until it's nighttime.

[Her looks seems to ask: Are you even staying that long?]

[A man named Thomas sways gently on his feet, reaching out to grab you delicately by the arm, smiling lazily and declaring:]

Dance with me.

[Or maybe he's just leaning up against a tree, cigarette hanging tiredly from his mouth one day, blood on his shirt, eyes dull.]

Boom, baby. [-he mutters to no one, and his eyes flicker a barely-there glow, and the tip of his cigarette lights glowing amber.

Or it's nighttime.

And his eyes are surging with a bright, unfettered glow, and he's spinning about in place in a clearing away from the house, tossing up huge swaths of colorful, heated energy straight into the sky. It burns into the atmosphere on the way up. One after the other, he lobs them into the bleakness of the night, and they explode in an impossibly intricate display of fireworks. Color, color everywhere. It almost turns night into day.

And he's just laughing, aimless and delighted the whole time.]

BOOM, BABY! Haha!

Edited 2023-04-12 23:26 (UTC)

[Rachel walks the perimeter of the grounds, seeking something out. Her expression is stolid, too serious to quite be neutral, but pretty darn close.

She stops when she sees you. Maybe she doesn't recognize your face, and that's something to be concerned about, but apparently, she has a bigger issue at hand.]

...You. Walk with me. I need your help.

[And she continues, trudging through the overgrowth beneath the copse of trees far beyond the main house. Do you follow?]

Edited 2023-04-17 15:14 (UTC)

clicky

morgan:
leader, soul-sucker, "siphoner"
can remove souls from bodies, leaving the physical form an empty husk that will eventually waste away and die
can "read" souls in others, getting a hint of their histories, wishes, fears, power, etc etc. nothing super detailed, just a general vibe
hated his father, loved his mother - she died from a chronic illness i have not decided upon yet when he was a child
he ended up murdering his father with his powers. regrets nothing
lost a huge portion of his humanity after he removed his own soul in a bid to end his life just to upset his brother, but he didn't die and kept his soul in a jar instead
THIS MADE HIM A LOT MORE SOCIOPATHIC
immortal because of it; can only temporarily "die"; will either regenerate on the spot from less grievous wounds OR is spat out from the pond in the pocket dimension (buckass naked) if he dies in a more physically destructive way
bottom of the "pond" is where he keeps all his precious items from their jobs; also where he keeps all the souls he's stolen and stuffed into jars - he fashions them to look like crystalline flowers, a callback to his mother's garden
is secretly hoarding all of them to gather enough energy to tear a hole through all dimensions (this is unknown to all, including jacob)
collector, hoarder, makes a good drink at the bar in their house
keeps a polite and calm demeanor, but sometimes the mask slips. once said to everyone else, "you're just pretty glass jars, too, except you all bleed before you break." (thomas remembered that.)

jacob:
older half-brother to morgan, shares a dad
hated his dad, too, was never upset that morgan killed him
they were on their own after that, though, and he did his best to keep them both safe as they dove into shadier dealings with the magical and supernatural over the years
torn because he loves his brother but he doesn't know if he was made for this lifestyle
acts rude and tough guy (partly to make up for the above) but also is actually fairly level-headed. there is a nice guy under there somewhere
his powers are basically very very strong telekinesis, his soul able to extend as "tendrils" to wreck everything (think lucy a la elfen lied)
he was a late bloomer, though, and his soul powers only triggered after morgan nearly died on a job
the voice of reason within the group
tired all the time, or restless
secretly wonders if there is a way to forcibly give morgan his soul back and/or negate his powers completely
well-read, actually

thomas:
can generate hUGE amounts of energy
220 years old, thief from france
trapped in the pocket dimension for much of that time after a job gone wrong and a betrayal from a friend
"found" and freed by lyra
believes he has the soul of a star reborn into a human body, far too big for this form, and that makes him feel restless and a little delirious if he goes to long without discharging his energy/powers
once he does he falls asleep and then gives everyone around him nightmares*
(*because he is not the reborn soul of a star, but rather the reborn soul of a star-alien-creature that once resided in the far reaches of the galaxy,,)
rachel had to tattoo a dream catcher "hex" onto his arm with blood magic so that their nightmares would be redirected to thomas' arm and they could sleep at night
thomas can expel the nightmares and curse someone else with them - they fall asleep and, obviously, have terrible nightmares for a few hours straight
thanks to a cutting remark from morgan, thomas jokingly calls their group "The Jars" and it has, much to some of the group's chagrin, stuck

lyra:
***need to find a new pb for her***
escaped her abusive family life via the key to the pocket dimension
(need to fill in more background here, she probably murdered a family member and threw their body in the pond)
has a special bond with thomas because of it but like. only slightly.
she's much more willing to do shitty things than the rest of them, despite her seemingly easygoing demeanor; minus morgan, of course
siren of the group, has powers of persuasion that work on anyone that possesses a soul (so not morgan). these powers have their limits, though: she must remain in close proximity and she must remain focused
she has zero tolerance for people who treat her badly
stays with the jars because they keep her safe, fed, and they adhere to no rules other than their own
it girl energy, she and jacob argue a lot

rachel:
from a parallel dimension
comes from a deadly group of blood mages who practice their craft high in a snowy mountain; their headquarters is a large palace-like structure carved into said mountain
needless to say, the cold doesn't bother her anyway
her father leads the group; she is very talented with making curses and hexes (manipulating the concept of "luck" in general, but never focuses on the good lol) via drawing with blood, however she cannot actually perform any other spells at all. her father (and herself) finds this shameful
met morgan and jacob when the brothers visited her dimension after being hired by her group — she assisted them and morgan changed his payment requirements to enlist rachel instead
her dad said yes please take her, maybe under your guidance she will actually learn to unlock her full potential, and if so, then you must return her
rachel is not sure how to feel about this, bargained away like that
but she diligently follows orders because she is technically still under them
she tattooed thomas' arm to catch nightmares so they could all sleep at night by god

the pocket dimension:
home of the jars! the have a kinda-cozy kinda-creepy house there big enough for all them to live in. sometimes the rooms shift around, but not always
there is a big fishing pond next to it, lyra likes to fish there
there ARE fish in it, but it's very deep and at the very bottom is a chamber* where all their artifacts that morgan's collected over the years are kept (and his soul collection)
morgan is always revived via the pond if he is killed irreparably
the entire area is surrounded by a thick forest, where a creature they call "Gnaw" roams. they consider him both a guardian and a groundskeeper; takes the form of a wolfman on his good days
the truth is that the dimension itself is just the eternal dream of a long-dead old one (it's not jen verse without aliens)
(* yeah that chamber is just the giant skull of said old one sunken to the bottom of the pond, dead but still dreaming)

Edited 2025-01-14 16:59 (UTC)

Threaded | Flat

MORGAN KYLE.

JACOB KYLE.