HEART...spelunking...something...

[pyrocatharsis]

HERE

Entrance
You’re standing at one end of a large foyer; the ceiling is high and arched, decorated with a gilt latticework of supports. On the walls to your sides are large frames, each easily the size of a person and covered with heavy curtains. Behind you is a decorated doorway, but a plain wall where the door should be. At the other end of the foyer is a set of double doors--carved wood, but looking oddly plain in this lavish room.

• “Frames”
  the curtains pull aside to reveal a shattered mirror. There are a few pieces missing, but it’s still mostly holding together.
  • touch
    at the touch, the glass explodes outwards, revealing the wooden frame. There are scorch marks on it, as if someone had once tried to set it on fire but failed.

Hallway
the doors swing slowly open with a slight creak, revealing a dim hallway, painted white. There are torches right at the beginning, which reveal a door a slight ways down to your right, and another further down to your left. Both visible doors are white and unmarked. The rest of the hall is shrouded in darkness. However, from the darkness comes the scent of blood, noticeably stronger with each step you take in.

First door: training room
It’s a large room with a tiled floor and a high ceiling. There are men dressed in black suits all the way along either side...they have no faces. There is a door at the other end of the room, and a large screen on the wall.

• the screen flickers to life, revealing a really really ugly dude. He can clearly see what’s going on inside the room, and is waiting for you to say or do something.
• the subordinates launch themselves at you, all clearly skilled fighters.
• getting to the other end => tournament ring

Second door: Citrine
The door opens into a replica of the Citrine cabin--so to speak. It looks as though no one’s been in the cabin for a long time, with a gathering of dust on all the surfaces. Much of the furniture is upended, as though there had been a fight or an earthquake before the cabin was abandoned. The windows are dirty, and the corners of the cabin dark with shadow. There is a solved Rubix cube sitting on Kurei’s usual bed. It is the only thing in the cabin that looks clean.

• cleaning the cabin => fixes some of Kurei’s :/ at the team, depending on how much gets cleaned.

• cleaning the windows
  There is a gorgeous garden outside, lots of flowers and lit with a warm sun. Just looking at it is relaxing and comforting.
• picking up the cube
  A kid appears, holding his hand out for the cube. He’s about 14, and has a cheeky grin on his face.
  • He scrambles the cube, hands moving quickly. He’s clearly accustomed to playing with the cube, and by the time he offers it back to you, it is well and truly mixed up.
• Unscrambling the cube, or asking him for help to do it.
  • key to shortcut
    The wall starts folding in on itself, like a puzzle, and opens into a beautiful garden.

Third door: masks
Unlike the first two, this door has a plain white mask hanging on it.

The door opens into a small room, a sitting room. There is a fireplace, with the dying embers of a fire, and a wingback chair in one corner. From floor to ceiling on every single wall are masks. In the current light, the masks aren’t actually visible. There is a...thing. sitting on the chair, mumbling quietly to itself and picking at its hairline, in the shadows.

• approaching the thing
  It is vaguely humanoid, with an incredibly thin torso, bones easily visible through the thin stretch of skin--run through with lines, as though someone had cut it up and sewn it back together. The fingers are long, nearly twice the length of the palm, and tapered to a sharp point, tipped with metal. It is slowly working away at the skin near the hairline, carefully slicing it open and sliding the tip of one finger in and easing it away from the muscle, before pulling out and working at another part of the face. Not unlike picking at a scab that is almost, but not quite, ready to come off. Each part of the face that is eased away reveals raw muscle underneath, dripping blood.
• taking a closer look at the masks
  they are all of the same face--Kurei’s face. Some hold expressions of joy, some of pain. The edges are all jagged, and a close look reveals that they are all made of human skin. As if his face had been peeled away right when he was making this particular expression. There are some that are still bleeding from the edges. These “masks” run the gamut of when he looks to be about five or six years old all the way until his current age. The burn on his face doesn’t show up until he looks about sixteen or seventeen.

Fourth door: tournament ring
This door has a symbol carved on it.

The door creaks open, leading you to a ledge overlooking a tournament ring. The scent of blood that was so heavy outside only grows stronger from within.

• spirits of the deeead that really hate Kurei :’Da
  There is a <i>presence</i> that even those who aren’t normally spiritually sensitive can feel, coming from the center of the ring. It’s chilly, unsettling, prickling at your skin, but not actively malicious--yet. There’s a slight murmur, inaudible. The only word that can be picked out is “Kurei”, heavily laden with hatred and fear.
• stepping off the edge voluntarily => village
• falling off the edge on accident => FOYER. AGAIN. haha sucker.
• going to the other side => training room

Fifth door: blood
There is the impression of a handprint embedded in this door, and a knife attached by a cord. There is no handle or knob.

• blood to the door will open it
• The room is dark, with no windows and no doors. There is a low growling sound from inside, as well as the sound of chains.
• A strong, sterile light turns on at the motion, illuminating the room--a cell, more like. At the far end is a beast, with shackles around all four of his legs and one around his neck, each attached to a short chain holding him in place. He looks somewhat like a cross between a wolf, tiger, and bird, with a long snout and large ears, a lashing tail, black markings over a deep red body, and talons instead of feet. There are two large horns curling out from behind his ears. The fur is matted in spots with blood, some visibly self-inflicted, some not, and the areas around the shackles have been rubbed raw, clearly the result of much thrashing and attempts to get free.
• Upon seeing you, he growls, deep in his throat, before lunging with a snarl--then crashes to the ground when the chains whip taut nearly immediately. The moment he hits the ground, the room shakes and a strong current runs through the chains, shocking the beast who responds with a shriek of pain before struggling to his feet again, breathing heavily.
• reassuring the beast will release the shackles

Sixth door: garden
There is a rosebud in a vial attached to this door.

the majority of the flowers here are roses, but there are a variety of others, filling the area with colors and a surprisingly light scent. The scent of blood that was so heavy in the hallway is gone, as if it never existed. The light is soft and warm, and there is a overall feeling is one of happiness and contentment.

• picking, destroying, or touching a rose summons Kurenai
  • A girl appears, about sixteen. She’s is holding a bouquet of fresh-cut roses.
• mazeeeeee:
  There seems to be one of those fun garden hedge mazes just up ahead! Except it’s like a rose bush crossed with a hedge, since there are pretty flowers spotted about it. The entrance beckons...do you go ahead? or will you go back?
  • As you enter the maze, a heavy fog settles over the area. You can no longer hear anything from outside, nor can you see further than a few steps ahead of you.
  • The way gets more and more narrow, and the thorns get longer and longer. There is a slight curve to the pathway.
  • Raiha: spikes and sudden explosions.
  • Joker: ROCKS FALL. Also sudden shifts in gravity.
  • Kurei: someone that trusts or believes in him will get through easily. also people who aren’t afraid of the flame. otherwise it burns.
  • SCORCH SPOT
    stepping out of the maze, the air clears up and the garden seems once again that place of tranquil serenity. Except for that large scorch spot a bit ahead. Nothing is growing there, and everything in the immediate vicinity seems to be leeched of color.
    • touching the ash:
      it feels rather like dipping your hand into a bucket of ice.
    • stepping into the spot fully:
      a sharp coldness envelops your entire body, followed by numbness--as though you’ve fallen through thin ice. immediately following is a sense of despair, of devastating loss, crashing through. Fear, horror, guilt. Nothing is visible, but you can hear Kurei’s voice in your head screaming “Kurenai, Kurenai!” as though from a distance. Above it all, a man’s maniacal laughter interspersed with words that grow louder and louder: “You’re a machine!” “You don’t need love!” “I told you to give up your emotions!”
      
      It gets harder and harder to breathe, until you’ve fallen to your knees. The ground beneath you is dirt.
    • shortcut to village

Seventh door: birdcage
At the very end of the hall is the last door. Unlike the rest, this door is made of metal. It is glowing slightly and emits a slight heat--as if there is a raging inferno on the other side. The handle is golden, and looks like two alternating spirals attached at either end to the door.

• touching the door is like touching a hot stove
• handle is cool to the touch
  • the room this door opens into is not actually a room. Unlike what the door may suggest there are no flames. There is a floor, but no walls and no ceilings, just a darkness that stretches out all around. The room is almost unbearably hot. Set in front of the door is a <i>giant birdcage</i> made of a metal wrought to look like flames. There is no door on the cage.
    
    Within the cage is a perch, relatively high up, upon which sits a beautiful woman with feathered wings. She is made entirely of flames, with the suggestion of nudity but nothing actually visible. On the ground, lounging against the far wall of the cage is a man, broad and muscled, clad in a gi. He too, is made entirely of flames. At the very top, outside the cage, is the shape of huge flaming bird--a phoenix, to be exact. They have all turned to look at you.

last room: Village

• “true self” + hatred of Recca
• can see the village and hear the happiness, but trying to approach means getting pelted with an invisible force that feels like rocks

---

A lot happened that I had accounted for, but in my planning, I did only go so far so that I could respond as stuff came up. Anddd that's what I did. But people also did things I didn't expect, which was awesome and made me figure out stuff as I went.

Mostly, I was concerned about two things when I planned this out. One, would people get bored and how can I (hopefully) avoid that. Two, is there enough stuff to touch and are they symbolic enough that it'd affect him. I HOPE PEOPLE WEREN'T BORED. As for symbolism and stuff...for the most part, I did okay I thiiink. The problem came down to how something represented something else, but the way people poked at most of it didn't hugely affect things and I am wondering if it's because some parts were based too much off of memory instead of EVERYTHING BEING SYMBOLIC. If anything, it just made that part of him stronger... uh. specifics!

Entrance:
pretty much what I expected. People did a cursory look around and then went for the doors. Mithos was the only one who touched the mirrors and found the scorch marks and then I had to come up with something for them and it was only then that I realized why I had set up so many broken mirrors in the first place. SO THE MIRRORS ARE JUST... A very...basic and surface idea of self-hatred.

The scorch marks formed a rose, because he was a lot more okay with himself before Kurenai and she's represented by roses in his mind/heart. The her from before she was a flame, at least. The exploding and shattering of the mirrors was a warning and a hint, but isn't hugely symbolic of anything else.

First room: training room
This is a generic room based off of one shown in canon. This represents the "training" Kurei underwent to get to where he was before he met Kurenai. It's part of the basis of his ruthlessness and his desire to survive. The faceless subordinates Mori Kouran had attack whoever tried to cross the room represented exactly that: faceless subordinates.

Jade went and massacred everyone which--was the way to get across the room. But since it was what Kurei would've had to do, probably, it just strengthened his resolve to KILL THOSE IN THE WAY and to protect the self. By smashing the screen with Mori Kouran's uglyass face, it made Kurei (even) more confident about killing people under his own will as opposed to it being what he was taught.

The room was a shortcut to the tournament ring because...that's kind of what it was meant for. Training -> tournament :|b

Second room: Citrine
noooot much to say for this beyond what I had planned. Jacuzzi found the Koganei NPC, who chills in the Citrine cabin because Kurei remembers Koganei being someone he was like "I'll raise you like a brother" to and most of the Citrine kids remind him of being in that position. By amusing Koganei and not...annoying or pissing him off...Jacuzzi did strengthen Kurei's resolve to protect who he sees as under his care. However, he is still irritated with Citrine and his concept of the team as a single, close-knit unit is falling apart.

The shortcut to the garden exists because it's basically his two most feelings-y rooms. ...That could be linked, at least.

Third room: masks
The thing and the faces on the walls represented what Kurei saw as a necessity of keeping certain emotions in check. The thing was pained and upset by it because he's having a harder time in Aather than he normally might, due to a combination of the memories he has back and his attachment to various people.

...Itachi nailed one of his faces to the wall. This...didn't do much, since it was what the thing would have done. What it did do was essentially tell Kurei (however subconsciously) that what he's doing is the right thing. There was a mask on the mantle that I put there after Itachi walked in, so it wasn't in my planning doc. If Itachi had tried to stop the thing and taken the mask, it would have lowered Kurei's desires to keep up the :| face. However, by just taking the mask and then helping the thing, it's made Kurei even more desperate to get his mask back. The physical one, not just the metaphorical one.

Also Naruto ran off with the mask decorating the door, but that doesn't do anything since it was just an indication |Da sorry.

Fourth room: tournament ring
This room actually represented his guilt. He hasn't remembered all of his kills yet, but he knows he has killed a lot. What the "spirits of the dead" say about him are essentially a combination of what he thinks of himself as well, what he's heard people say about him, and what he has been told to be. (This is a recurring theme in Kurei's heart). By talking back at the spirits, Alice and Naruto assuaged some of his guilt and made it...better. ...They could've teamed up with Goku and made a big difference in his heart |Da

Jade wandered in and I thought, I really thought! Someone would toss a pebble off the edge or something. Because it wouldn't have had a landing sound and then maybe someone would step off the edge XD but no. The tournament was a shortcut to the village because the tournament ring is Kurei's strongest memory of Recca from after the murder attempt when he was four. It had to be deliberate, because Recca gained Kurei's respect when he didn't give up and refused to die. The intent to live on and not be afraid is important.

Fifth room: blood
The chained beast represented Kurei's rage, as well as loyalty and, as such, betrayal. The chains made up of tiny words and whispers is everything he was told that hurt him, whether he would admit it or not. It ranged from Mori Kouran's words when he killed Kurenai, to what Percy and Goku said during the Green Knight's game. With Jade's help, Goku managed to loosen the shackles significantly, which goes a long way towards fixing Kurei's anger at him specifically and also soothed his annoyance towards LIFE and THE WORLD in general. In an ideal situation, assuming Kurei was mostly at peace and okay with everything, it would be a docile beast with chains loosely wrapped around one paw. Just keeping him in place, but not actually restraining or hurting him.

INITIALLY, it was going to be a beast with spears stuck in it but then I felt bad. ...It was also going to be a malnourished dog, but then I got sad whenever I looked the doc so instead I made it a MIXED-UP-THING so I didn't feel guilty about hurting it a lot.

Sixth room: garden
THIS IS HIS HAPPY FEELINGS PLACE mostly. Mithos talked a lot with Kurenai--Kurei's projection of her, anyway, since her actual soul is in another room. While it didn't make any huge impact on him, it will make him more receptive to Mithos if he ever wants to talk to Kurei in the future. Kurenai basically represents the parts of Kurei that he represses and tries not to acknowledge about himself, so she told Mithos too much about him that he...won't be happy that someone knows. The garden is made up of the memories of when he loved her and was happy, so it's a really nice place to be.

Unless you go through the maze :'Da the maze protects the memory and feelings of when he lost her. There are three sections to the maze, the first two protected by someone he remembered as being loyal, the last by himself as a last-ditch defense sort of thing. It's also not actually a maze. From the entrance to the end, there is a straight path down. However, that is the path that is actively protected and thus, the most dangerous. All of the paths curving out do not have protections, it's just windy and thorny and scratchy and uncomfortable to go through. Also it makes it easy to get lost and turned around, as Jacuzzi realized. Because seriously, the maze looked like this:


The scorch spot was the only way to the village, other than stepping off the tournament ring, but no one got that far |Da

Seventh room: cage
THIS ROOM IS THE LEAST SYMBOLIC but also one of the most necessary since it was his flame. The door handle is his tekkou--a tool sort of thing that both he and Recca have to prevent their flames from going out of control and killing them. Since Kurei only has the very basic ability to summon his flame back, he doesn't need it. Once he gets the next level back, though, he is going to go on an immediate quest for it.

The birdcage represented Aather and the locking down of skills. Since both Kurenai and Jisho haven't been unlocked, they're in the cage. The flame itself is unlocked, but not his higher level of control, hence the chain holding it to the cage. Alice, Naruto, and Itachi found this room but none of them did much other than talk to the flame beings who...couldn't talk back. Then again, I don't think anything done in this room would have done much since they weren't metaphors for anything :'Da

Village
NO ONE GOT HERE. WHICH IS ACTUALLY KIND OF GOOD, I GUESS since I figured it out as far as I have in the doc (which wasn't very) and had a rough idea of what I wanted to do but then I was like "if anyone figures out how to get here, I'll work it out then" and...no one did. :|a


ALSO, BECAUSE IT AMUSES ME. This was my first level of planning before it got all typed out:

It was written on tracing paper with a red pen (because that's all I had on me) while I was on the plane over the Pacific when my laptop ran out of battery halfway through 500 Days of Summer.



OKAY QUESTIONS CAN GO HERE. For Kurei and Naoya (and Madame White), if you're so inclined, but mostly Kurei. Also comments if that's what you wanna do.

Comments

[fraternalorders]

So basically Jade and Itachi just made Kurei more determined to continue bad habits... Ooops...? :'D

[pyrocatharsis]

Um.

Yes. :Db

[fraternalorders]

ahaha ha haa...

:B

[yourmama]

INITIALLY, it was going to be a beast with spears stuck in it but then I felt bad. ...It was also going to be a malnourished dog, but then I got sad whenever I looked the doc so instead I made it a MIXED-UP-THING so I didn't feel guilty about hurting it a lot.

THIS IS THE CUTEST THING ilu pie ♥

[pyrocatharsis]

...

8(!!!!!