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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no subject
Funny how those initials tie right into Bellona Recreare, isn't it? [He leans in closer to the camera, lifting his eyebrows. Casual. He can be casual.] Got something against her?
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B A R E
[ Do you want to try for a third time, Hiro? ]
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Sorry I went back to reread something!Of course he does. He's been plagued by this mask for weeks since he and Tadashi first saw it on the terminal in the CERES tower. He's questioned and theorized and he even drew a conclusion to Yu a few days ago that the masks looked very close to this one's face. He understood that. He doesn't understand what's happening though.On the other hand. What if his initial reaction was right? What if it wasn't an acronym but an actual word? He and Athena and Dipper had talked about it, and now he has to wonder.
Bare. His…face? The alien's wearing a mask. Maybe…
He's avoided wearing his. But…for science. He takes a deep breath and slides his mask on to make sure his face isn't bare, reconnecting to the terminal one more time.]
…may I ask you a question? [He has to be careful, he knows that. He's even being polite instead of blowing up everywhere.] What about us interests you that made you want to watch us?
["Please work please work please work, I just want to understand what's happening on this planet."]
no subject
Yes. Disinterested in you.
[ It worked, Hiro. The connection stays. ]
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Yeah...with so many other planets and aliens out there I guess I'd be a little disinterested in us, too. [Wow. There are words.] But I'm very interested in you. You've made a pretty huge impression on this galaxy. Does CERES know you're speaking with us?
no subject
Disinterested in them too.
[ And then: ]
Interested in CERES. They're past due.
no subject
...this got something to do with the contract they signed with the natives when they first got here?
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No. Not our concern. Between us and CERES only.
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Am I allowed to ask who "us" is? [Wait a minute.] ...wait, if that part isn't your concern then...[He knows way too much and none of it makes sense and maybe it's unreasonable that he knows as much as he knows but it's the luck of the draw. The information from the jungle. The raid. The second raid. Everything Katsura told him.]
...the Flamine Federation? [Rojo had announced it on the network. That had to be a viable option.]
no subject
[ There's a flicker back to the face and it spins in a 180 until the face, the mask, is completely upside down. It stays like that for a long moment just watching Hiro before suddenly, the screen turns black again. ]
Where is CERES?
no subject
Dear.
God.
He flinches back away from the terminal the moment the mask turns, almost scared to proceed with the next line of questioning. This...the Flamines. The Flamine Federation was real. It wasn't some made up company and it wasn't an alias of sorts. It was a live corporation and this...alien, or what-have-you, had access to the CERES tower via the terminal. It had access to this place, too. How and why are both questions he has but he's determined not to screw this up now. This is bigger than he ever expected and in a way it's both terrifying and mollifying. His hands hover near his mask, just in case he needs to spin his, too.
(Yes, that's stupid, but still.)]
It's...nice to finally meet you. [He keeps his tone steady and at least behind the mask he can appear to be braver than he feels right now.] That's sort of the question I've been asking myself, too, for about as long as I've been here. I wish I had an answer. [More than ever.] I'm still continuing to look for them. It's...why I've been going to places all over this planet. I don't know if our goals align, exactly, but kinda sounds like we seek out similar things.
[No they don't. He has no idea what the Flamine Federation wants from CERES other than to pay them something, but for the most part he understands on a base level they want to find them for answers.] I'm searching for answers every day. But how are you contacting us through the terminal? CERES doesn't know you've connected to us, do they?
no subject
CERES left? No. Do not make it sound so. What we seek is compensation, not answers.
Through another terminal. Maybe. Hopefully. Need to contact CERES. They are past due.
no subject
I'm...gonna guess that the compensation you're looking for isn't credits. [He pauses. Through another terminal? Could it be possible that the masks are somehow blocking CERES out, too? Like the glasses he's created.
Or maybe he's putting too much thought into this.]
...CERES has something I want, too. It's why I'm looking for them. [There's another pause. This...is a bad idea. Engaging is a bad idea, even thinking his next thought is a bad idea, but...he needs to know.]
...if we found CERES for you. Would you consider that a fair trade for something else?
no subject
No. Credits. Currencies. Compensation. Why look for anything else?
[ Then, at Hiro's question, the face tilts to the right. It seems to be considering his question. ]
Even exchange. You have what we want, we give you what you want.
no subject
Even more surprising is the fact that he recognizes that look. He recognizes someone thinking and he perks up just slightly. (Bad, bad idea...)]
Okay. I understand. I find CERES for you, we'll discuss what I want. [A beat. He wants to ask if there's a time limit, if it wants CERES dead or alive. Those questions, but he's not willing to risk that just yet. Just in case.] It's not money, I promise. It's...a little more of a personal favor. [How the hell is he going to find CERES...what does that mean? Bellona? Mosley? Someone else?]
How can I contact you again? Are there more terminals like this?
no subject
[ The face tilts upwards, away from the camera before the next message appears. ]
Likely. Not concerned with how. Just do. Remember to wear your mask.
no subject
[Speaking of the masks though...] And I'll remember that, too. Got time for one more question? I know I'm keeping you but...I'm curious about something. [He's aware he's pushing his luck but they've been helpful to him so far.]
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What do these things really represent? I mean...I got it. I got that a lot of them are indications of what we are or things we've done. [He understood that due to research with his friends. The masks with the bloody finger prints, the blood dripping down them, some of the others made sense, too, but a barcode still makes little sense to him in terms of who he is. He's not an object. Not really.] I just want to understand where they came from and how they affect how we communicate with you. Is...that too much?
[Are the masks functioning to block the signal from the implants like the glasses he's made? He's curious about that, too.]
no subject
They are your true face. They are honest. They are deeds. Actions. History.
They speak. Words lie. Masks do not.
It is wrong to speak without masks.
no subject
But I don't understand what mine means. [They assumed it was loosely related to tech, but that still strikes him as strange.] CERES lied to you...? That's why you won't trust anyone without seeing all of the cards they hold.
[...he doesn't have anything to offer as compensation, though he has a lot more questions.] I see. Thank you. I...hope my true face is valuable enough to speak to you again in the future. [Well that was weird. He usually wouldn't set a price on himself but he feels like he has to with this.]
no subject
For that you have some worth.
Remember compensation.
[ and with that, the terminal shuts off, and the connection cannot be re-established. ]