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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[in the dark, he relies more on what he can feel rather than what he can see. an increase in presence to feel out the corners, make sure that where he steps isn't so weak that it will cut off any opportunity to go back. and soon enough, after enough careful steps on the walkway, there's the water, which he can hear and just barely see by the light of the lighter he has open in his hand.
water was never a good sign in stories, but at the same time, there's an allure he can't fully pass up. so he has to make a decision. coming to the edge of the bank, he waits for some sort of sign or wave of intuition, little flame flickering some in the damp and dark like a beacon.
at this rate, he's going to end up diving in himself.]
phase III.
[Chrollo walks slowly through the mirrored building, eyes wide and taking in the sight of it all. while this landscape was easy to navigate, just another place to discover the secrets of and hiding in the corners when it's time to rest, a building like this practically radiates something wrong or at the least something odd. he half expects the shards to rise up, form into something that will fight back.
except that in one of them, it's not the same, and it draws his vision over to stare rather than look away, seeing something of a life - his life, practically daring him to do anything about it. alone, he can handle it, because it's no different than the usual walking through of his recollections from the day to day, no matter what they might be. but someone else...
well. Chrollo wants the recordings out of his head now. they shouldn't see this.]
[[ooc: different commenters will each get a different memory! i'll describe it in my response.]]
wildcard.
[for party groupings, resource sharing/stealing, random encounters, and anything else!]
wildcard.
Your sins are showing.
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Oh? What makes you say that?
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Your moves were hidden, but not from my prying eyes.
[ zero displays a marqueeing ellipsis for a moment. the red light of their helmet shines off the rocks around them. ]
It's interesting.
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Why were you watching?
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[ zero looks back at chrollo, helmet implacable. ]
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[what Chrollo's implying, offering out - something in his tone has an edge. a reminder that this would end up costing at one point. perhaps not now, but one day.]
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phase iii.
Just to his right, he sees a reflection of himself— a child, without the scars that run up his face and expose open teeth and jawbone. His mother is saying goodbye to him, like every cliche in every conventionally sad story. Adolf barely gives it a second glance. (How stupid, of course it still hurts.)
The matter of the other figure in the room is a bit more pressing. His collar drawn over his mouth, Adolf turns to look at the guy and casts his gaze up towards the ceiling instead of the reflections in the mirrors. (Ah, there are mirrors up there too, how bothersome...) ]
...Sorry. It'd be difficult to navigate with my eyes closed.
[ 'I don't mean to pry'. ]
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the man in person has his lips pressed tight together, hands shoved deep into his pockets, curling themselves into loose fists. as if that pain could ever dull. as if there could be a hint of relief while they weren't able to give him a proper burial, take him home.]
Why apologize? You aren't the one that did this.
[unless he did, and then there would have to be words spoken.]
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He figures he owes the guy that much, for prying. ]
No. Regardless, it's not a comfortable position to be in.
—But I suppose getting an apology might make it worse.
[ No one likes being reminded of being vulnerable, right. Some people might be better at commiseration, but Adolf is lousy with it. ]
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[the bluntness in the other man's words is more bracing than he knows. he doesn't want sympathy for what was there. he doesn't want someone asking him if he'd be alright. he just wants to let it be, and hope that was the worst this house of mirrors chose to pull out.]
I'll do my best to forget what I saw from you.
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— Adolf exhales, a sound that borders on a laugh if he remembered what that sounded like from his own mouth. A mess of tragedy and failures, and all he can offer is that much. ]
It's never the time for feelings, is it.
[ A dry joke, maybe self-deprecating. But it's also an agreement, and he kicks a shard of glass on the floor that keeps reflecting his personal life aside, as if he's tired of seeing it. Seeing himself, mostly. ]
This place keeps wanting us to think about these things. It's pointless.
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[discreetly, Chrollo plucks a shard of the mirrors out of one of the many that surround them, letting it fall into his sleeve. if there's anything strange about it, he wants to figure that out later, to see if there's something he can discern to explain the connection between a person and the images.]
Has something like this happened before?
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wildcard.
Rapunzel, after spending the night having just made it above ground and, accompanied by various friends, through the mirrors, wakes to find herself even less troubled about her growing hunger and disheveled, poorly outfitted state than the day before.
Only Pascal's nudge reminds her that she ought to do something about their continued survival, which is why she approaches Chrollo out of nowhere, her cracked, feathered mask still serving as shoulder armour. ]
Have you found any clean, running water? Pascal is thirsty.
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so he takes her in, but his expression doesn't move from the quiet neutrality he'd settled into a while ago.]
Not yet. I don't have anything to contain it in even if I did.
[he has a way to get by, but he's not going to reveal it to anyone unless he has to.]
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What have you found?
[ Her emphasis on the "have" is only just noticeable, as if it's something she had to remind herself to do on purpose and not a natural inflection. The end result is that she sounds a little sheepish, despite not feeling anything - literally anything - of the kind. The fact that she's still standing there does nothing to aid the pitiful lost kitty impression. ]
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[it's almost sad. almost eerie. it reminds him of another set of green eyes, never losing their spark despite what might rage on around them. maybe if he thinks about it, that's the reason for indulgence.
(untrue. he knows the difference. this is still just something that he has a sense will turn up in his favor.)]
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Then, as if making an important announcement, she adds: ] We talked to the mask. If you don't know where the water is, that's all right. Goodbye.
[ Which will be that except for Pascal climbing to perch on her head, waving frantically back at Chrollo as she calmly strolls away. He loves his Rapunzel dearly, but she's going to get them both killed with her apathy!
Not all of them have healing powers!!! ]
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phase iii.
Sonnuvabitch! Get outta my goddamn face, you shitty whore! I'm over you, dammit---
[That's when he'll see Minatsuki pause in front of a particularly large, slightly more intact mirror than most of the others, and should he draw closer while she's left staring wildly at it, he's going to see a younger version of her, alongside an older woman in her thirties who greatly resembles her---probably her mother. The younger Minatsuki is clinging to said woman; they seem to be running from something, until the real Minatsuki angrily snarls and starts lashing at the mirror, yelling:]
I don't--- [The mirror cracks with each strike from whip wing, but he'll still see the younger Minatsuki...sort of struggling with the woman? Grabbing at her as if she's trying to push her away.] ---I don't need you anymore...!
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except, the image changes, and it's no longer her and her mother. it's someone standing in front of others in a junkyard of a landscape, a young man looking at them and speaking with a serious expression - a younger version, in fact, of the man who's standing behind her, looking taken aback from the sight of this in front of him. that day...that one that had changed so much.
Chrollo takes one step back, then another, waiting for it to pass. he wants this to end. (he wants to be alone, and look at their faces in the mirror.) but he's not alone, and he needs to maintain control.]
...Well then.
phase i
Because here's this kid, and he's got something with him, floating a foot or two behind. It's not just practical, with Saturnus's flames giving off light - with the monsters that lurk in these depths, he's ready at a moment's notice to fight back.
When he sees Chrollo he pauses, and Yu glances at the water. ]
Thinking of going in?
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I was considering it.
[nothing ventured, nothing gained. but someone on the shore to ensure nothing could try to sneak up on him, or maybe even go in the water in his stead? that was more ideal.]
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He looks up at Chrollo again, considering. ]
If you're sure about it, I don't mind keeping watch for you.
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[crouching down, Chrollo touches the water - chilly, but not unbearable. he's running the risk of being dragged down by some unseen, unknown creature, but if anything can be found - fish, a way through, a dead body - it's worth knowing.
okay. standing up, he takes a few steps back before he sheds his coat, everything important in those pockets rather than his pants. after this, he can try to dry himself, but the coat remaining dry would be key to not getting frozen. shoes are next for not wanting to be weighed down.]
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Cerealia is full of interesting people.
With a mental nudge from him, Saturnus moves off to the side, a floating, burning lantern that casts strange shadows across the dark water. Yu stays near Chrollo's things, preparing to settle next to them for however long this takes. ]
Be careful.
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