forsaken_queen: (Default)
Sylvanas Windrunner ([personal profile] forsaken_queen) wrote in [community profile] lastvoyageslogs2013-02-20 12:47 am
18

(no subject)

Who: Sylvanas and anyone who'd like to join
Where: Beginning on level 3, the rest depends on how far she gets
When: Evening
What: Arrival
Warnings: Violence more than likely.


She awoke to darkness.

This wouldn't be terribly unexpected if it weren't for the lack of wails and pain. She had died. Truly died, and the afterlife was not a kind place. Not for her anyway. Her sudden removal from that place should have pleased her, but there were only a finite amount of reasons for a soul to be pulled out of Hell. To say she was disconcerted would be an understatement.

She sat up, taking stock of herself. She was whole, unwounded. A brief exploration told her she wore her own leather armor, but her weapons were not on her person. Nor were they laid near by. Strange circumstances.

She disliked being without her bow. But that was no matter, she wasn't lost without weapons. Whoever had summoned back her soul from the pit would not be kept safe just because she was bare handed. And she did not believe for a moment that she'd been returned to her body for benevolent reasons. She was still undead, only necromancy could do this. And no necromancer with such skill should be trusted.

Gaining her feet, she crossed the room and found the door. She waited and listened. When she heard nothing, the door was cautiously opened to a hall. Strange circumstances indeed. Where was she? Silently she slipped out, the door closing softly behind her, and she made her way down the hall with silent steps. The doors she found uninteresting for the moment. She was looking for a way out.
lastincident: (Disengaged)

[personal profile] lastincident 2013-02-20 07:19 am (UTC)(link)
One of the doors opened; it was a a door suited to a cottage, out of place among the various items -- and one quite lose to the stairs, too.

From within it stepped a fairly nondescript man; curling brown hair, brown eyes. Not very tall, though he was broad of shouldered and weathered. He paused, realizing he was not alone in the hallway, and glanced in Sylvanas' direction.

"Ah, hello." He offered a polite smile and a nod.

He can't say he recognizes her-- but Bruce kept to himself. He didn't know a lot of people on the barge.
Edited 2013-02-20 07:20 (UTC)
lastincident: (How About No?)

[personal profile] lastincident 2013-02-22 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
One of these days he's going to have to send a card to his maestro. Bruce's eyes flare wide fro a moment, before he takes one strangely fluid step and weaves to the side.

"New inmate, huh?" he said, voice still deceptively mild. "Let me be the first to tell you that you really don't want to attack me. It would be very bad for everyone on the boat, yourself especially."

He was, despite his small stature and human appearance, remarkably light on his feet. You get that way when avoiding conflict becomes a central part of your life.
lastincident: (Placating)

[personal profile] lastincident 2013-02-23 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"I didn't, actually. The Admiral, did. You have been drawn from the moment of your death, to find redemption -- so that you may be returned to life," Bruce said, disturbingly calm about a woman hunting him. He was moving back, back toward the stairs, weaving to keep her from blocking him in the hallway. Last place he needed was a hulkout in the Hallway.

"Come up to the deck," he said, and then smiles slightly. "I'll race you there."

And then he turned and bolted for the stairs. If she could get on deck and see where they were, maybe he could talk her down from the crazy...

... and, if not, worse comes to worse, have a relatively safe place to let the big guy out without punching in random doors.
lastincident: (Frustrated)

[personal profile] lastincident 2013-02-24 05:31 am (UTC)(link)
Oh good.

Maybe seeing the rippling void beyond the ship might distract her from what was small fry in comparison. Bruce was quick to get on board and years of being on the run, when being fleet of food would make him difficult to get to...

Meaning he might be able to make it to the warden areas without getting caught. Hopefully she'd be stunned enough now that he could talk her down... safely.

lastincident: (Do Not Want)

[personal profile] lastincident 2013-03-02 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
Bruce's primary goal in combat was evasion, and so far, he remained very good at it. Seeing her lack of reaction was disheartening, but it allowed him to dart back, watching her.

"I'd really suggest you stop trying to attack me," he said. "It would be bad for both of us -- you more than me -- if you succeed. You really don't want to meet the other guy."
lastincident: (Calm)

[personal profile] lastincident 2013-03-02 11:56 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'd like to avoid that," he said, stance loose as he stopped near the Warden Area door. "But I'm not going to stand still and let you strong arm me either."

And he'd keep moving if he had to. Thanks to the Hulk, he could do this dance all day. "I suggest you find the device you were given on your person and familiarize yourself with how it works, and where you are. This is the barge; you have died at home, and you have been pulled here to find a way to save your own life and return to your world."
nolongerhollow: (smiiiile)

(have some wtf? :))

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-02-21 08:06 am (UTC)(link)
Dracula was still looking for his cat. He was getting increasingly worried, though he did his best to be nonchalant about it. He kept smelling fresh scent-trails around the Barge, meaning that the little bastard was still alive, not captured, and bent on adventuring further, but...this was the Barge. Even a cat's luck had to run out sometime.

He walked along, swathed in his black calf-length coat but with a simple shirt and trousers underneath. He sniffed occasionally, his booted feet also making no sound.

He caught sight of a semi-familiar form up ahead, and blinked, then sped up slightly. It had been a very long time, and he had only known her briefly, but...they had seemed to have a lot in common. He raised his voice, calling out to her.

"Queen Sylvanas?"
nolongerhollow: (orly?)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-02-22 06:36 am (UTC)(link)
He tilted his head curiously. They had only spoken twice, so long ago, and so he was not surprised that she didn't recognize him. But the tension...

Uhoh. Barge Amnesia again?

He bowed, a gesture as formal as that military-cut coat and polished boots. "My apologies. If you have just arrived then you must be quite disoriented, and I imagine that I have added to that, however unintentionally. Count Vladislaus Dracula, at your service."
nolongerhollow: (confident)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-02-26 06:48 am (UTC)(link)
He could understand the wariness, remembering back to his first night, and how he had ended up furious and distrustful of nearly everyone.

"This is the Barge. A Purgatory of sorts, for those such as we as well as mortals, offworlders, and assorted others. People arrive her after dying, sometimes well after, sometimes before they know they are dead. I did myself. I'm aware of how...unpleasant...it can be.

"I will show you around if you wish."
nolongerhollow: (confident)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-01 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
He smiled and shrugged in the face of her skepticism. "Apparently whoever decided your afterlife was overruled. I do not fully understand the mechanics of how. But as for why...I only understood fully after I myself graduated the program. Someone out there, or some group of someone's, who have the right to judge these things, saw something in you that was worth saving--if you are willing to work for it, and endure this strange and sometimes painful place in the process."

He sighed, looking at her. "I would gladly let you hold me at knifepoint, if it would ease your mind to have one in your hand. But that would endanger others. I would rather face the brunt of your rage and confusion for being delivered unto this strange place. I can take it, and am willing to."

It was a matter of sympathy, which he had for almost all new Inmates, and the fact that he was supposed to help new Undead Inmates acclimate. "Spectacular and ferocious Undead Elf" didn't hurt either, but now was not the time for that.
nolongerhollow: (evilsmile)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-01 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
Dracula stood his ground, eyelids lowering and a faint smile curving his lips. Not mocking. He had no doubt that she had both power and expertise. He just loved a good fight.

"Mmmm. Well. I suppose that I should take care not to anger you, then." He had no intention of lying to her anyway, but if she wished to believe that that honesty came from threat of force, so be it. But he couldn't keep a faint tone of delight out of his voice.

"I will lead you around and answer any questions that you come up with to the best of my ability. Come, let us begin."
nolongerhollow: (rain)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-02 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Well, I will have to give you a big of backstory to explain that fully." He folded his arms as he turned to walk with her.

"This Barge moves in the space between worlds, making stopovers all over the multiverse. Sometimes people arrive here from their worlds for a time, then disappear. When they return they have no memory of their time here. There are theories as to why; either a person was taken earlier in their specific timeline than last time, for example, or leaving the Barge suddenly causes amnesia. Most here subscribe to the second theory."

He paused to bring up the Barge map and notes the Chromie put together and show her on his communicator screen. "You were, from my temporal point of view, here before, and we got along fairly well, though I know little about you aside from what is immediately obvious. So you aren't at that much of a disadvantage, and may ask me personal questions if you wish, to even the field."
nolongerhollow: (smiiiile)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-03 09:05 pm (UTC)(link)
"Of course." He had long sine learned to leave behind all expectations in such circumstances, because this was about the fifth time it had happened to him.

He shrugged as they headed for the stairway. "It depends on the person. Some people simply disappear, it is true. But others resist the Admiral's idea of what is good for them for years and yet remain." Like Arthas. But he knows just enough to avoid mentioning him.
nolongerhollow: (lol)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-04 07:20 am (UTC)(link)
He paused briefly, blinking--and then threw his head back, letting loose a roar of laughter.

"Oh you think I'm tamed, do you? Oh no, great Queen, no indeed. I have agreed to certain...compromises...in my lifestyle which make me more compatible with the living, but cooperation is not submission."

He continued on. "Circumstances here can temporarily rob one of one's dignity, but ultimately only the odd insane Inmate is looking to enslave anyone."
nolongerhollow: (letsworkthisout)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-04 08:17 am (UTC)(link)
"Actually that is not entirely accurate. In reality, the Admiral is your jailor. We have no power whatsoever to release anyone here from imprisonment. Some of us are even trapped here ourselves due to unfavorable conditions at home."

He pushed open the door to the stairwell from old habit, then realized that she likely wouldn't want to turn her back on him and stepped in before her.

"He develops a set of requirements for "graduation" for each specific Inmate. It is our tasks to help Inmates satisfy his requirements so that he will release you and restore you to life. He is godlike in power and cannot be forced. But he can be persuaded. On average an Inmate's stay is around a year."
nolongerhollow: (smirk)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-05 06:15 am (UTC)(link)
"Sometimes. Other times I am an advocate, a bodyguard, a supplier of requested goods and a confidant. Though Mr. Blonsky largely needs no bodyguard at all." He sounded proud of whomever that was.

"I also act as sometime advocate and orientation assistant for many of the Undead and supernatural beings who arrive here."

Another little pause. He remembered when his ego was brittle enough for her little digs to have caused him to erupt. But he just laughed it off inwardly, the corners of his mouth tugging up.

"A year and a half. I've always had better than average stamina." His eyebrows bounced and then he continued on breezily. "Though in all honesty there was no "breaking" of me involved."
nolongerhollow: (smileup)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-08 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
"Actually I am the fortunate one. After all, we of the undead races are not known for being docile. In fact the majority reaction of new Undead Inmates is to kill at least a few people. And for better or for worse, these mortals are my neighbors, and I don't like seeing them suffer through the Death Toll. Better that your understandable irritation be vented at me." A mild shrug as he led her upwards. "We'll go from the deck down. Ah, yes, also, I can answer any question or see to any needs that aren't automatically handled."

He berated himself a bit inwardly. She just got here, and it will take a month or more to even prove you're trustworthy. Stop flirting and do your job, idiot.

He was quiet a moment as he considered her opinion. "In any other environment and situation I would tend to agree with you. Being forced to accept a course of moral reform is not pleasant, and to this day I am not entirely comfortable with seeing it imposed on people. And yet the opportunities it has provided along the way have more than made up for that. And it certainly beats the Hell I was bound for.

Was I broken? No. Nor brainwashed. In fact if I spoke my true opinions on certain subjects I would doubtless outrage many of the Wardens. But neither was my redemption false." He had submitted to his God's judgment in the process, though it had temporarily killed him.

"In short form, I decided to change after being presented with sufficient evidence of both the benefits of change and the severe drawbacks of my former practices. Including the whole matter of getting myself killed." An ironic little chuckle.
nolongerhollow: (downcast)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-12 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"As prisons go the Barge is rather unique. Containment in a cell is possible, if one is idiot enough to run around murdering people, but it does not last long. Restraint of our powers is common, however, though it certainly has not done anything to prevent violent outbursts. Some Wardens, like myself, patrol, but many only chose to react to crises after the fact, which is...less than productive." He smiled thinly. He had no illusions about this place's flaws.

"Despite this, however, the Barge is inescapable, even through death or jumping overboard. The Admiral does not release anyone until he considers them redeemed, and tends to wander where he pleases through the multiverse in the meantime."

He reached the top of the stairwell and pushed the door open, holding it for her out of centuries of habit.
nolongerhollow: (fuckyousmile)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-15 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Dracula stepped out under the swirling, psychedelic sky of the Deck and thought about her question, hands behind his back.

"There are people here whom I wish to help to leave, is part of it. Another part is that the Admiral pays his Wardens in wishes. I have a curse to undo and no other means of handling the problem.

"Many of us are in the same situation; we work here, not necessarily because we trust the Admiral, but because there are horrors in our lives that we seek to undo."
nolongerhollow: (letsworkthisout)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-20 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
He chuckled and shook his head, looking up briefly before turning back to her. "That is not altogether true. Every day in this place, the dead are raised, curses are undone, plagues cured and crippled men made whole. I have seen quite a bit of that sort of thing in the last few years."
nolongerhollow: (gotapoint)

[personal profile] nolongerhollow 2013-03-23 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
He paused again, then nodded, conceding the point. "That is very true. We must always live with the memories of what was done, and what we did to others. Undoing a curse does not change the fact that one was cast, and had to be lived with. And I will never not have blood on my hands.

"This place doesn't offer any perfect solutions. In fact sometimes it can be very trying to live here. But I have seen it help a great number of people from every possible background."

He sighed and then pointed around. "Greenhouse is there; it's generally locked. Those are the pub windows. Knock on them and generally someone will let you in. There are some other locked areas over there, but you'll need to have a Warden let you in."