World of Darkness World of Darkness: Attrition - Once Upon a Time in the Land of Arcadia [Complete]

[Emma L. Carter]

Earth date and time: February 21st, 2008., appx. 1450hrs.

Time spent in Arcadia: Five Months

As Emma stirred from her unconsciousness her body was still due to the temporary paralyzation that the Fae plagued her with each evening. The laws of day and night stayed the same, which Emma was thankful for, but there wasn’t much else. Her days were spent on a stage; unable to control her own bodily movements, but it was the only movement she was ever likely to get again. She’d heard of people like her from the other dolls. Each of them was carved from wood, though their souls once resided in the human body. They were taken from their homes for their affinity towards statues and dolls and that they were the only ones who could appreciate the true workmanship the Fae had put into them. Each of them had their own style, looking like different artifacts from different cultures in different times. Her cohorts, who all participated in their masters dreadful plays, each had the same opinions of their True Fae Master, or Gentry as the Changelings preferred to call them, and it was that it was a monster. The stories that children heard as they were young were as the Brothers Grimm intended them to be, and that was cautionary tales. When the unwitting little girl slips into the door of mysteries while chasing the rabbit, it wasn’t that it was a world of wonderful mysticism, but it was a world for terrible beings. Physics were not as they should be and it seemed that each Fae was their own god, creator, and citizen. They had their own rules for what was to be done, how it would and could be done, and the level satisfaction that should bring them. If Emma’s foot was three inches further than it should be, she would be tortured into submission and tears. If her foot was spot on, she would be rewarded with pleasures immeasurable. The thought of escaping was more terrifying than staying, however. She’d seen the scrap piles that remained of those who tried to escape. Their wooden remains would be strewn about the castle, each piece aware of its detachment and the pain never seemed to stop. It was as if the pieces themselves were alive but connected to the head live a hive. She’d once felt the pain of being torn. It was the Faes warning to all who was unlucky enough to have been captured. She’d remove a piece of the body, sometimes it would be a finger and other times it would be the torso. Regardless of the piece, it was an ordeal that no being should ever have to experience. It was as if their lungs were being torn apart, atom by atom.

As she began to realize her place in the room, it was nothing she’d seen the like of before. The Fae must’ve been feeling either generous or cruel during the night, because the sight she was seeing was as breath-taking as it was panicking. She was placed on a window sill, looking out into the world she’d never seen or forgotten. It was a forest composed completely of marble and mercury. The black and silver marble made up the trees and the leaves, while the mercury poured from the sky. The dimensions of this world were so utterly abnormal that the very foundation of her sanity was beginning to come into question. She’d spent her life enjoying the arts of writers like H.P. Lovecraft, but nothing could’ve prepared her for the indescribable horror that was the Faery Land of Arcadia, the land that served as a prison to a thousand wooden manikins, each with their own little role in each little play that the Gentry conjured. Emma’s rabbit hole had brought her only what she could have never imagined or wanted. So when she found out that she would star in the Gentry’s new play, it was far from a wonderful thing to hear. Her performance had to be nothing short of spectacular or it would mean the termination of her existence as she knew it. She would become one of the piles strewn about the castle, each in a cycle of never ending torture and anguish. But if she were to succeed, it might mean her release from the world of the Fae, and this terrible land of Arcadia.

[Emma L. Carter]

In the severe sins of the world of Arcadia, directly opposing the Gentry was the worst offense imaginable. This might include sitting in a chair incorrectly, verbally protesting anything whatsoever, or attempting an escape. A sin can be construed as whatever the Gentry decided to say was a sin in that few seconds of heightened emotion, but in the next moment it your sin could be the action that would get you the most praise and reward from the Gentry. Arcadia was a place of severe emotions, and it was the Gentry’s one and only one weakness.

So as Emma studied the play she kept this in mind. The dialogue was so absolutely ghastly that Emma thought she would be punished for merely reciting them. She lipped the words as they came across her sight but she could scarcely remember what the word she had just read was. There was only three more days until the play and she knew almost nothing about her role in this grand act. She moved her legs and was forced into a smile. Having control of her movements was so relieving. She ate under her own power and had even been given privilege of exploring the castle as she pleased. Emma was no longer subject to the forced unconsciousness that happened during the night, and she even got a bed to sleep on now. The Gentry was improving her situation before the play, Emma had decided, which is why it was being so nice to her. Emma had the lead role so she must have celebrity privilege. This made Emma more nervous. She wasn’t entirely sure exactly what to do with all this new freedom, so she usually went to her usual spot and wasted her days away there with the script.

Rehearsal was painstaking. They did each scene what seemed to be well over 100 times but whenever time came for the final act, the Gentry would dismiss practice. They were supposed to make up the ending on their own. The Changelings would have to satisfy the Gentry in the end, or run the risk of each of them being their own pile of torture and pain. Several other of the Changelings were convinced that their lives, both in the Human world and here on Arcadia, were over. There would simply be nothing left of themselves after the entire disappointment that would be the play.

Two days and two nights passed. Emma was still no further in memorizing the script as she was on deciding on an ending. All the other Changelings decided that it was for Emma to decide on the ending. None of them were particularly creative, they had advised her, and she could use her privilege to wander the Castle and see what the Gentry was interested in. In those two days and two nights, Emma hadn’t come up with any idea as to what they should do, nor what the Gentry liked. On both of these days, she wandered the Castle aimlessly occasionally speaking to the other Changelings who were in charge of services other than entertainment. Emma had counted more than eighty in the ‘employ’ of her Gentry, and each one she met seemed more and more depressed. Each night she was forced to sleep next to the Gentry, in a bed seemingly the size of an entire apartment. The Gentry, in all of its terror and power, had taken a liking to Emma. They ate together and slept together. Emma was afraid to where it was leading, but after the play it surely wouldn’t matter.

[Emma L. Carter]

It had been three tedious hours of footwork and pronunciation. Emma would die happy if she never had to repeat any of these words again.

It was intermission and the final act was quickly approaching. The play, so far, had gone off without a hitch. All of her lines seemed to come to her naturally, and though her steps were rough and clunky she hit every one of them too. The other actors and actresses were as lucky as her, each of them performing at the top of their game as to not raise the suspicion of the final act. The play was written to be about a long since forgotten emotion between two alien creatures. They were from different worlds who’d not spoken in hundreds of millennia but these two youthful rebels would break all rules to see each other, even if the cost was their lives. It was up to Emma to create the final act, which was something she had done during the first two acts. The crowd was full of other Changelings. They were the servants and beasts of the Gentry. They were forced to clap and cry through this epic love story while the Gentry took the entire praise. There were times when he would sit in the crowd and admire his own work. Emma had gotten the idea that perhaps the Gentry was teaching her a lesson about the love that the Gentry insisted he could have. Emma hadn’t much of a choice in the matter, but things seemed to be pushing in that direction. This made the finale of the play so much more interesting for her. She’d told everyone to follow her lead and told only two others, the other stars, in what she had planned. They were all for it.

When the music horned through the grand theatre everyone took their places. Emma stood across from the lead male, a Changeling named Christian Eggleston. He was an actor which only showed how terrible she was on stage. As the curtin rose Emma stood still as Christian moved in and declared his love for her. It was a standard for the nearing the end of the play. The Gentry was sitting in the front row, center seat. He was visibly excited and the anticipation was getting the best of him. Suddenly from the right side of the stage, Emma’s characters father swept in on his intergalactic starship which apparently did not need to be protected from the harmful vacuum that is space. He shouts some incoherent words as he chases Emma and Christian around the stage, whirling by planets and stars. Finally, after another half an hour of pure mind-numbing crap, the final showdown happened. Emma’s character, her friend, and Christian stood across the stage from both of their parents, with the armies at their backs. There are words of togetherness by Christian while Emma hangs off of him. The crowd was eating it up. Emma’s father draws a gun, but Christian was faster. He pulled it from the back of his pants, conveniently placed their in an earlier scene, and shot Emma’s father. Emma sobs, telling Christian that now they will be outlaws forever. Christian gives some heartwarming and surprisingly upbeat words for a kid who just killed a man, and they exit stage left followed by the army. Which consisted of 8 other Changelings.

Next, another Changeling would get on stage and give a quick speech while the Gentry waited to give his own. It was how all the plays ended. They’d done over twenty in the past six months that Emma resided in the hellish land of Arcadia. And this was how she was imagining it was happening now.

Emma and Christian informed all the other actors and actresses who just exited the stage of their plan. They were running, and they were running now. As they eventually made it outside the castle and into the forest of marble, the sky began to tumble. Amazing colors shown through clouds while drops of chrome fell, splashing against the inexplicably still trees. Suddenly a pain thrusts through all of the women. Screams were heard for miles, but they kept on. Several of the men had to carry the women, Emma included. It wasn’t long before Emma succumbed to unconsciousness due to the pain.

She was home, in her green forest.