//EVENT026.EXE

[reparator]

Who: All of the unlucky souls who are dragged along for the ride
When: IC: 5/22 to 5/26 ; OOC: 2/13 to 2/20
Where: The Dark Parts of Cerealia
What: File Not Found
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for violence and some scary situations; please let the mods know if the rating needs to go up or the log needs to be locked!

---

//event026.EXE

You're probably woken up by the explosion first. A loud, deafening boom comes from behind the walls of the residential district. When you look outside your window towards the darker, more secretive area of the city, you might see the structure around it... crumbling, the land falling in on itself slowly but surely. That might be what wakes you up first. If it doesn't, you may be awoken instead by the sudden jerking feeling behind your navel pulling you from where you are to somewhere... else. It's dark. The first thing you notice is that it's dark -- and then come the scrabbling sounds of creatures in the dark, like metal being dragged across metal, a chilling, sharp sound. The first thing that becomes clear, as your vision adjusts, is that you're on a rickety pathway, metal and rusting and frail, above what appears to be yawning blackness. Far, far below, there's the faint sound of rushing water, a ways away. The second thing that becomes clear is that you are very much not alone. Something is out there with you, and from the screeching metallic noises that come ever closer, it seems to be stalking you. Thankfully, you're not alone -- right? ... ........... ................ :)

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I [ ??? ] It’s drafty here. You’re below ground, that’s for certain from the echoes of the wind in the darkness. If you continue on forwards along the rickety, metal railing that serves as a walkway, the skittering noises of creatures in the dark follow -- but they don’t appear. It seems everyone has been dumped along this pathway at random; you may be with friends, with enemies or with someone you’ve never met before, but either way, it soon becomes clear. There are only two ways to go along this path: up or down. If you choose to take the path that follows a gradual slope down, the sounds of water lapping against a surface increase bit by bit, the air growing heavier and danker, until finally, the metallic platform gives way very suddenly (watch your step!) to a muddy bank. Down here, everything is darker, and not far away there’s the water. It’s cold and frigid and there are unfriendly creatures that await if you choose to delve into it. However, if you brave those creatures, and dive deeply enough, there is a mask. It rests half-buried by silt and rocks, but it’s there, and can be found by any intrepid explorers. Somehow, it feels a little familiar. And if you carry on in the cave system underground, eventually you will come across what appears to be an altar. There is blood on it -- not fresh, but not more than a month old -- and pieces of trinkets. Old bits of cloth, locks of hair, and some of them may even be familiar. Any dropped character who has a reasonably large amount of spiritual or magical power may have left scraps, such as pieces of clothing, trinkets, hair, or the sort behind at the altar. Maybe that's why they weren't in the Nexus Code. PHASE II [ ??? ] If you go up, you will eventually make your way above ground. It takes some time, and some luck -- you’ll have to avoid rusty railing and pathways, the path crumbling under you and that creeping sensation that something is following and watching you -- and then you’ll suddenly be in fresh air. Well. It’s not so fresh, really. The landscape is broken down and crumbled. It may have once been part of the city of Cerealia, but now it is in utter disrepair and decay. Buildings have crumbled, and debris is everywhere. There are signs of the same level of technology that Cerealia has -- but it is all broken down and utterly inaccessible. And you’re not alone. It seems the technology and metal and broken down destruction has gained sentience over its time sitting alone, waiting. And it is not happy to be disturbed. The creatures are made of pieces of everything around them, and when cut down, they’ll just slowly rebuild themselves from the debris. It might be time to run. They aren't happy about being disturbed, and you're in their way. PHASE III [ ??? ] Above ground, there are a lot of broken down buildings. Some can’t be accessed at all; some are too broken, too reduced to rubble. For those looking for shelter, they'll be able to find buildings where the doors can be forced open and they can camp out on the inside to various degrees of stability. Though the ceiling may cave in or the floor fall out from under you at a moment's notice, it's better than being out there. Be careful, because none of the architecture here can be trusted anymore. And other buildings... are even less trustworthy than that. There is a series of buildings in the midst of the wasteland, somehow still standing. They stand there silently, towering over the rest of the rubble in their two-story glory, and if the doors are forced open, it soon becomes clear that the building itself is full of mirrors. Once, the mirrors had perhaps covered the walls and ceiling. Once, this building might have been akin to something of a ballet studio, somewhere to express yourself creatively. But now the mirrors are shattered and broken into pieces and the building lacks the joy it might have once held. Shards of mirror cover the floor, some big, some not so big, but they still hang from the walls as well and everywhere you look, you can see yourself. And then, the reflection changes. From one blink to the next, you see a memory playing in the mirrors. Your memory. You’ll see a glimpse of one of your most traumatic or life-changing moments, broken up but clear in the shards. Blink and look away, and it’s gone, only to show up again in the next mirror a few moments later. Surely it’s just a trick of the light, right? Except if someone else is with you, they’ll see it too -- and you might end up seeing a bit of their own past as well. Hope you're fond of sharing. PHASE IV [ ??? ] If you survive the monsters, the crumbling landscape and the untrustworthy buildings, you may eventually find a terminal. It is buried deep among the rubble. One turn around a corner, one stumble into a hole, and you will find it. It sits there, out in the middle of nowhere; the building in which it used to be housed is apparently long gone, reduced to nothing but rubble. And if you turn it on, there is a brief message. Transmission Broadcasting. Transmission Connected. And then, there is a face. BONUS [ ??? ] For those who have been wearing their masks a little too much, they might also start to notice that there are some strange effects attached, which worsen the more they’ve been wearing said masks. How badly they worsen is up to your discretion. ➝ Broken Mask: An intense feeling of paranoia, focused on whoever your character is with. They might also begin to remember fabricated memories of being betrayed by those people. ➝ Barcode Mask: Everything will begin to have value to them. There will be whispers in the back of their mind of the worth of their friends, the worth of a monster, the worth of everything around them. An intense need to own and consume as much as possible and as quickly as possible. ➝ Dripping Blood Mask: An intense lack of self-worth, a hollow feeling and thoughts of being weak and empty. Feeling as disposable as possible and an intense listless along with it. ➝ :( Mask: A need to prove yourself, to show everyone how strong you are as quickly as possible. You can do things, you can be of worth to everyone around you. Why won't they see that? Why? ➝ Ivy Mask: A choking sort of terror from all things metal and technology based, and a need to lash out against it. An intense distrust for anything that they feel is against the laws of nature. ➝ Grey Mask: More personable than normal, more emotional, more empathetic. An intense feeling of kindness and gratitude to those around you and a renewed love of life. ➝ Feather Mask: A dulled, lack of emotion. A detached feeling to everything around you. A sort of bland curiosity towards things without any empathetic reaction. ➝ Bloody Fingerprints Mask: They'll feel absolutely fine. No change. The effects of the broken mask can stack on top of the others, if they chose to break their mask after the other effects began to appear. No other effects can be stacked, as no other changes can be stacked. PENALTY [ ??? ] For characters who die while in the dark parts of the city, things will get... a little strange. They will die as normal, but they will wake up almost immediately after their death -- in the Nexus Code. They will have a few surreal moments to be there, to see their friends who have left Cerealia hanging lifelessly from odd, glimmering strands (though there are some faces, of course, that are missing, anyone who was spiritual, or magical, seems strangely absent) and then -- They’re back to being dead. When characters revive in Cerealia, anywhere from one IC day to three or four IC days later, they will find that things are… not quite right with their code. They’re glitching, for a lack of a better word. Sometimes, their fingers will phase right through an object, their own limbs registering as cold and lifeless. Sometimes, they will see a face watching them -- but when they turn around to try to see who it is, the face will be gone. These effects will last an IC week, before slowly things go back to normal. That was strange. [ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to Cerealia's February event! Please visit the OOC information here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. This event will last from 2/13 to 2/20, or IC 5/22 to 5/26. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you!

Comments

[complices]

➟ phase vi

[ The terminal flickers to life, and there's a message:

Communication Transmission Beginning.

And then, on the screen, there's an alien with a mask. It's clear that whatever it is, it isn't human; while it stands upright, there is no uncovered skin, and nothing can be seen behind the mask or dark clothing.

On the mask, there is a smile.

What now? ]

---

Comment here if you'd like to attempt to contact the mysterious masked alien! There's definitely a bit of a puzzle to getting them to be willing to chat, but there must be some way, right...?

[faceplate]

[ while zero could smile back, their first reaction is to tilt their head and project a ? no hello, beyond that, but it's a quick expression of their curiosity as they come to stand in front of the terminal. ]

[zerotohiro]

[Fighting his way through the monsters proved to be worth it. He recognizes this, too. He recognizes it, and when he connects to the terminal he simple stares right into the screen. His suspicions...had been right? That's startling and yet mildly unsurprising all at once.]

...you again. [His mind's whirling with ideas already but he's bracing himself for what he hopes is a slightly more useful conversation.]

[bropane]

I hope this works.

[ he shows his face first before putting his sad face mask on. ]

How are you connected to CERES?

1/2!

[corona]

[ Honestly if they hadn’t fallen through the crevice by accident, Rapunzel wouldn’t have stopped in front of the terminal at all. Staring at it now, her expression doesn’t change. She blinks once, twice, and then turns away, wiping fruitlessly at the dark, ambiguous liquid on her cheek. ]

It's a computer. [ She won’t even bother trying to catch Jaune’s arm as she turns away either, simply checks the bloody clothes iron in her left hand and starts walking away. ]

[manolia]

[Ah, a terminal. It looks a lot like the one he set up in the Zinit, where Chibi kept his personal assistant; still, in a place like this it holds a strange aura. He turns it on with a feather-light touch, as though something's going to jump out at him at any second.]

[In an attempt to match the figure that appears, he pulls his hat over his eyes, then slips the mask onto his face while they're obscured. A use for the creepy damned thing, finally...!]

Hello. --Are you an AI, or something physical, if I may be so bold to ask? [He types the words into the terminal as he says them, just in case.]

[covenantal]

[ This guy is familiar. Hiro had shown him a drawing of this mask during their experiment. ]

You.

[ Yu's long since emotionally beat up, angry and worn down and long past patience - but he can be patient for this. His voice is even to the point of being a little flat. ]

Who are you?

[jinko]

A... computer...?

[ Okay, admittedly? He has no idea how to do this or how to really go about this, but he has to try something. A shot in the dark, let's go.

So, here he is, typing: ]

My name is Atsushi.

Is there anything you can tell me about what's going on?

[heiroglyphs]

[Okay so... this is a little creepy. Weiss leans a bit away from the monitor, just in case it wants to pop out of the screen and eat her or something.]

Okay, mask... guy. Are you the one who sheds light on what's going on here?

Because I'm ready to go home.

[onerous]

[...Sure, okay. ThisIsFine.jpg

Is it a ghost? Or just an alien? She touches the screen lightly, brow furrowed as she attempts first to 'read' the terminal itself before she withdraws her hand and blinks at the creature.

She'll try to be polite, first.]

Hello? May I ask you some questions?

[om_nom_namur]

[When Namur finally bothers dragging himself out of the deep below, smeared with mud and blood and other things that might most accurately be classified as ick, the last thing he expected to welcome him to the surface was a computer terminal with a smiling mask like the one he'd found in the water. He snorts at it at first. Screw you, Mosley or Murderbot or who the hell ever.

But he's been wearing the grey mask a lot, because if the damn thing's just going to follow him around it's not worth fighting, and besides, it's just a shitty mask. Little did he know it would rub his emotions raw, bringing them up to the surface like a scrape draws blood, bubbling and oozing in small but inevitable amounts. He's feeling... everything a lot more lately, and the good feeling is dampened by what he'd found at the altar.

So he tosses the found mask in his hand, turning it around so he can hold it in front of his face and the grey mask, and blink at the computer terminal through its cut out eyes. Two can play the shitty mask game, and by his count he's winning by one.]

Asshole.

[fortheprincess]

[ Hak's seem some creepy shit during his lifetime but this takes the cake. He looks shocked, almost frightened at first, but Hak knows no fear and he studies the alien carefully. ]

Who are you?

[forceofnature]

...You know, normally, I'd leave the RPG puzzles to the RPG heroes - I'm more of a rail shooter gal myself - but I have to say. I'm oddly curious.

[The feather mask follows Viridi around as she yawns at the terminal.]

I have a feeling you're not human, too, which makes this infinitely more tolerable. What are you?

[specialization]

[whatever it is, Chrollo knows that mask, the one he'd nearly frozen himself to the bone and risked losing his arm to a monster to bring back. and that one is in his pocket, had been weighing him down for days now while he slept and traversed.

without a word, he takes it out and puts it on, leaving the mask the fortune teller gave him in his pocket. there's no real reason behind it other than perhaps the stranger would respond to something familiar before risking scaring this alien off. he remembers the carnival, after all.

leaning forward, he types on the keys.]

Hello. Can you see me?

[cestmagnifique]

[ It's a very unsettling face. It makes the hair stand on the back of her neck. Is there really a person behind it? Though "person" may be a generous term.

Is it...waiting for something? ]

...Is this an open communication?

[moribound]

[A mask...Minato's not quite inclined to put on his own yet, so he'll try to communicate with it first.]

Who are you?

[OOC: For reference, Minato's mask is dripping blood!]

[fatalstriker]

[yuri's survived a lot, but he's definitely worse for the wear. tired, hungry, and with his dominant arm hanging somewhat limply—he's surviving. he's got the ivy mask sitting atop his head, since that was better than the damn thing attaching itself to his face...

and his eyebrow is quirked at the image of whatever this thing is with mask.

okay.]

...You the one behind all this? [he's not beating around the bush here.]

[zombiedude]

[Well, that's a bit creepy. Nico's seen creepier though, so he's not deterred.]

Hello...?

[debossy]

You there!

[His gray mask is strapped to his back, wings crossed defiantly as he leans in close to the screen. Maybe he ought to try typing, but this does at least appear to be a video connection . . . ]

Who are you? What is the meaning of all of this? To whom am I connected?

[trueend]

[The fact that the terminal is still functional despite being buried below the rubble is kind of... weird, if they want to be generous. Downright creepy, if they stare too much at the person displayed on the screen.

After a moment, they type:]

hello ?

[babermetrics]

[He isn't wearing his bloody-printed mask, but it's in his jacket pocket, because he's given up on ever leaving the friggin' thing behind at this point. The face is turned inwards, in an attempt to conceal the stains on it.

He strides up to the terminal, squinting at the screen and rubbing a hair through his hair.]

The hell . . . is this for real? Hello?

[fittedgloves]

[ A terminal, huh? Kyouko examines it, surprised to see a mask appear. She watches the mask for a few seconds before finally deciding to ask a question. ]

Who are you?

[ukakus]

[Ah. This is why not watching where you're going is a bad idea. She brushes dirt off her limbs, grimacing at some scrapes, and when she looks up — there it is. A creepy as hell looking terminal with a creepy as hell mask displayed on it.

Despite knowing this is probably a bad idea, she moves closer.]

... What the hell is this?

[geophile]

[ that alien... it has the same mask as the one armaldo had found at the bottom of the lake.

it's unsettling, to say the least. but turning back now would mean possibly losing information. ]

Who are you?

[ it's a start. ]

[bakudanma]

_{[ Now. This seems familiar. Katsura didn't directly see this creature, but Tadashi and Hiro informed him about it. Something to this description— but he was connected with the Research Lab during their raid.
His eyes squint. The mask with a bar code is resting on his temple but not placed over his face. ]}

Ah. Hello. _{[ scary.. ]}
What is your connection? Why are you reaching out to us?
_{[ why did you talk to his comrades a few weeks ago?
He's still in a wheelchair and recovering, and Elizabeth— who is also an alien— is accompanying him.
He also has a bar code mask. ]}