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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OTA
[It had been just a bit ago when William had thought that CERES was about to do something horrible to them again. This was one of those times when he really hated being right though.
Steadying himself, William took in the smell of rusting metal and dank. He thought about creating a flame, but the things moving in the dark stopped him. Those were not the sounds of something human and the last thing he wanted was to draw them near. Not that he liked the idea of stumbling over anything in this wretched nightmare.
Swallowing as he looked around, William saw the way the path branched. Up or down. Neither one was going to be particularly safe, but his instincts told him that going up would be the better course of action. More light, fresher air, more space to escape whatever nasties were out there.
As he started to embark though, William froze, seeing someone but a few feet in front of him. At least he hoped it was someone and not some abomination. After a few tense moments, he called out, keeping his voice soft.]
Who is out there?
Phase II-Above Ground
[This day was just getting better and better, William thought as he ran and hid behind an over turned chunk of road to avoid the sight of one of the strange robots wandering about. Strange robots with suspicious faces covering their bodies. Did that have something to do with those stupid masks? It made William glad he hadn't worn his. At least he hoped that had been the right choice.
But that was in the past. Right now he needed to wait for the coast to clear and...
Oh who is that out there and why are they out where the stupid robot can see them? And why do they not notice it? Picking up a pebble, William tosses it towards the poor idiot, hoping to get their attention before it's too late.]
Phase III
[This building doesn't seem to be crumbling too badly, which is a bit suspicious, but everything is suspicious here. Though the moment William sees the mirrors, he takes a long pause. He'd been watching enough horror movies lately that he knew mirror filled rooms were not to be trusted. But at the same time, there was something captivating about them. Beyond how absolutely bedraggled he looked in them.
And when he sees an image start to play in them, William cannot look away.]
Wildcard
[Have adventure of your own to play out during Phase II? Want non-mirror shenanigans during Phase III? Feel free to throw them up!]
Phase II - Above Ground
The more he wandered about this place, the more the similarities to the Lockdown kept smacking him in the face. Abandoned buildings? Heavy collateral damage? Monsters roaming the area? A distinctive feeling of helplessness and dread permeating the very air? Ah, it was almost a carbon copy, except whatever place Ceres had dumped them in was... gloomier, somehow.
At least the monsters were easier to deal with. They broke easily, but they compensated by being able to pull their shredded parts together. A fact Kazuya had found out after venting his confused anger on the poor creatures with borderline disturbing violence. Thankfully, he was past that phase now, and was onto staring blankly out into the wasteland, wondering that if he willed it hard enough, he would wake up and be back to boring, every day Cerealia.
Instead he got a pebble to the face]
... ow?
[It didn't hurt much, but it succeeded in knocking him out of his pity party enough so that he spotted the lumbering monster heading his way. Ugh. He casually swept his hand, letting a wall of fire spring up between him and the monster. That'd keep it off his back for a few minutes. He then turned his attention to where the pebble had come from. Now who had...? Oh.]
William?
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Kazuya. How long have you been wandering about up here?
[Because you look terrible, though William didn't say that. Because the calvary was here. Not that he wasn't able to fight, but the ability of these creatures to put themselves back together was a bit troubling and William wanted to conserve as much of the COMP's power as possible.]
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[With an apparent lack of urgency, Kaz meandered towards William's hiding spot, hearing the crackle of flames behind him dwindle down. The robot had been roasted to pieces, but Kaz knew it'd only be a matter of time until it pulled itself back to together, annoyingly]
A while, I guess. How about you? [He stopped near to the hiding spot (thereby compromising its ability to be a hiding spot) and gave a quick glance over William] You alright? The monsters here are persistent. They haven't hurt you, have they?
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They haven't manged to land a blow on me yet, as you can see. [They had come close, too close though. Truth be told, his mind was feeling a bit more strained than William wanted to let on. But admitting that would do no good right now.]
Do you want to work our way out of here then?
[That rubble Kazuya left behind is beginning to shake and slightly shift. Troublesome.]
We might have a shot before they can see us.
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ii - on the way up
Still... he's human and not a monster... so far.]
Lili An.
[A pause. She wonders if she even cares but-]
And you are?
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He doesn't make a move to come closer for the moment, least he frighten her more.]
William Twining. William is just fine though.
[No, she definitely doesn't appear to be any threat to him. Then again, the female demons back home are the same, so it's a good idea to not relax too much, though a little good faith doesn't hurt in this situation.]
Were you planning on making your way up as well?
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"As well", is it?]
Yes... I grew weary of the idea of staying in the same place.
[After a momentary breakdown but you know, details.]
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If you want, I have a way to get up there fast that will not require much walking.
[He had been thinking of flying up on his own, but taking the girl along wouldn't be a problem.]
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Phase II - Above Ground
In the middle of his thinking, a pebble hit him square in the face. It didn't hurt, but when he caught who threw it...]
Ah, a survivor! Sweet!
[How he could keep a smile on his face was a miracle. Either he was doing a damn good job forcing it or he was truly a hopeful person even in the darkest of situations. Hiro quickly bolts over to William and makes sure that none of those monsters had caught wind of him yet...]
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You seem to be doing well enough so far. Good.
["Doing well," was relative in this situation of course, but the reality could be dealt with once they were out of this situation.]
I do not suppose you know of a way to deal with those monsters other than running away from them?
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The only way that I know how to deal with them is fighting. But considering that we don't know how many are around nor what kind of abilities they have...
[He pauses as if he's in deep thought, then the next statement sounded like he was squeezing itout from his mouth.] It might be wiser to run in the situation.
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That is what I figured. [He looked around carefully. The one robot that had been patrolling was moving away from them. He had been watching it for a while and it seemed to take the same circuit when nothing caught it's attention. If they waited for the right moment, they could gain a head start for the next pile of rubble to hide behind without it catching on.]
If we do this right, I think we should be able to make shelter without them noticing us. Though it's no guarantee though. Are you game?
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III
But the more that he walked further in, that was when he saw a familiar person]
William-san? [He said before he turned his head to see whatever image William saw]
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Takeru?
[Then he looks back at the mirror quickly, because yes that is a lot of blood. Not the most.. .child appropriate thing to see. Whatever this is, because he certainly doesn't remember it happening. Even though that is clearly the night Mother and Father died, but William had never remembered what had happened back then. Was that even real? No. Surely not.
But he he shakes his head, forcing down whatever panic attack he is about to go through.]
You shouldn't look at that. You really shouldn't. I do not know what they are playing at, but it's tasteless.
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Was....was that...? Was that William and his parents...?
Whatever it might be, he just stared straight ahead not realizing William was speaking to him. It wasn't until Patamon began to tug his clothes that he noticed him at all]
...Was that.... [Did she want to finish that sentence?]
God I am so sorry
With out a word, William marched over and gently, but firmly grabbed Takeru's wrist.]
Come on, let us leave this place. Right now. When I said it wasn't for your eyes, I meant it.
Dont worry I'm just as horrible!
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Phase III
However, his priorities hardly ever change, and he is flying out of the cave as soon as he is certain young master is not there. Metallic abominations, crumbling buildings. It turns out up is no better than down, but if that is a metaphor for Kevin's life choices, let it be known that he misses the point entirely.
What he doesn't miss is infinitesimal glimpse of a blond head as he flies past a broken window.
Kevin alights just in the middle of the hall of mirrors. Gently, he approaches his most precious person from behind, and covers those most precious eyes with kid gloved hands.
Still not quick enough, was he?]
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And there's someone else there...
Oh a familiar pair of hands are on his eyes now, though the shock going through him causes William to flinch and turn around./small>
Kevin!
[It's as if his mind is going slower than the rest of his body, which is wound tight as a string.]
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Don't look at the mirrors.
[He gives him a back rub too, gently attempting to pry him out of that cursed room. ]
I am going to burn them to the ground. [He adds evenly. Nobody, nobody messes with young master. Not under his watch, they don't. Even if they are just non-sentient mirrors.]
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Kevin...
[They are out of the room now at least, but he can still feel it's presence echoing in his mind.]
It's strange, isn't it? How shameless those people are.
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ii - on the way up
Me? [ Of course the guy means him, there's no one else out here. ] Ah... I'm Yuuri.
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Hmmm, Yuuri? I am William Twining.
[He glanced around a little to see if there was anyone else.]
All alone down here?
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Yeah. I haven't seen anyone else since I've gotten here.
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III