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?  ...
...........
................
:)
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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. ] |
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i.
Do you know who these belong to, specifically?
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Don't touch them, Athena. You don't want to bring kegare with you when you leave.
[There's a note of fear in her voice, and genuine concern. A fear of the taint associated with death.]
But yes, I know some of these objects. [Pointing to the four afforementioned items. One of Chie's buttons, a cracked bit of Yosuke's headphones, a shard of etched armor, and a ring bearing a signet.]
These four.
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Kegare?
[ she pulls away and just inspects the objects carefully, then. ]
Saber... [ well, that's all that's familiar to her. ]
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[Letting go now that the trouble seems past, she waves to take in the altar.]
This is for sacrifices. Blood sacrifices. These belong to people I presume were sacrificial offerings.
[Which hurts to say.]
and yes, Saber. Leia Organa. Chie Satonaka, and Yosuke Hanamura. None of whom were in the Nexus Code when we visited. I looked.
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[Mars looks back at the objects, eyes narrowing into points, anger thrumming through her. The air fills with heat, a sudden surge of thought hitting her.]
I don't know who. But look around, Athena. Does this look like CERES's work?
[The stonework and ivy?]
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It's connected to CERES for sure, especially if people who were here before are related.
But how is this connected to the Nexus...? [ the question is more to herself, as she begins to ponder on these things loudly. ]
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Blood Sacrifices weren't CERES's style, but...]
It may be. But only by location. This place looks older, more worn. Less...advanced. Athena, I know you got the reports from the jungle. There was another. This is just a theory, but what kinds of beings expect sacrifices? What kinds of being here take sacrifices?
[Was this what the ghosts meant? This was where they'd come from. This...was their sacred place. They'd called what was back here an aberration, and after feeling the lack of any spirituality here...that had to be what they'd meant. This couldn't be a sacred place, for good or ill, with no sense on a spiritual level. Of course, deaths led to returning to the Nexus Code...but...those people weren't there. They'd seen that themselves.]
If someone disappears, they return to the Nexus. But not these people, if these things are indications that they were actually here and this isn't a cruel joke. They vanished, but they didn't go to the Nexus. They came here.
[They came here, and what? They were sacrificed? Murdered? Probably. But to what end...?]
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it's the same feeling she has when she discovers a body. she wants o u t.
she says nothing and goes around the altar, and eventually finds necklace. ]
Oh no...
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The thought vanishes rather quickly, though, in the face of that necklace.]
Maya-chan...
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[ she's blacking out. she's blacking out. her world feels like it's spinning, and everything is closing in on her. ]
She was sacrificed?
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We need to leave this place.
[She won't take no for an answer, and she uses her strength to start pushing Athena away from the stone slab. If Athena does actually black out, she's being carried away.]
We've seen what we needed to see. We have no answers that are definite, but we have probabilities. That's enough.
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she can barely speak, and all rei will be able to hear are whispers of "no". ]
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Athena. Athena, you have to calm down. Panic is only going to make things harder.
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—m trying. [ that's all she manages to say aloud. ]
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Think about me, Athena. Listen to the sound of my voice. Look into my eyes. You've seen plenty of bad things already, this is just another. It'll be okay. We'll figure this out and get through it but you have to stay with me okay? Just focus on me.
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okay... she closes her eyes and tries to listen to the voice of mars' heart. it's not calming or anything, but takes her mind away off the horror that she's thinking about. ]
Ri- [ oh, it seems her voice is back. ] Right... Thank you.
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[And she's getting pulled closer, Mars's hands guiding her to rest against her torso.]
Anytime, dear. Just...cry, if you need me let it out.
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I won't. [ cry, she means. ]
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[Athena you cry at the drop of hat, but it's good that you don't, right now. Mars pulls back a little, looking down into her friend's eyes. But she seriously needs to say something, half to steady herself.]
It can't be permanent, you know. Yosuke's been here twice, now, and he wasn't in the Nexus Code months ago. And those stains were too old to be his blood, he's not even been gone two days.
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What do you mean? If they were sacrificed-- [ god. just the thought makes her shudder. this is terrible. ]
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[She states that flatly.]
I don't think the sacrifice is permanent.
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That makes no sense, though. I mean—It would be great if it weren't permanent, but... it doesn't make any sense.
[ she shakes her head, then opens her eyes. ]
It's just weird. There are so many things left unanswered.
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Everything about this is weird. There's no life down here at all...no energy. That altar should be brimming with it, but nothing.
[Which is troubling...as troubling as the sacrifices.]
Destroying it might be good, honestly. That way it can't happen again.
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Destroy it? But— [ we need this. for evidence. for future investigations... she looks a bit hesitant, and even thinks of something else in the midst of her paranoia. ]
What if there's more of these... things? We've got to find them, too.
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