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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iii
[There's no denying that he's a stranger but Lili's immediately running when she sees him. It's a little scary, rushing toward someone she doesn't even know like this but there's something about the frantic way that he's clawing at the mirrors that overrides her fear.
She tries to fit herself between him and the mirror, her hands trying to catch his wrists so he doesn't pain himself further.]
What are you trying to do?!
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he looks at her, but it does take him a bit to actually look at her, to realize that she's there and in front of him. at the very least, she's managed to distract him from his task, even temporarily.
after a slow, shuddering breath, his words come out more calmly than expected, though there's still something desperate about the way he sounds. ]
I'm trying to save them. You'll help me, won't you?
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It takes her a moment to look past the blood on his fingers. His words stab her, causing an ache for someone that she doesn't even know. She knows that there are still horrific images behind her. It's clear to her that this is something important to him and it... hurts to realize there may be nothing capable of soothing his pain.
Tears prick at the edges of her eyes.]
I... We can't....
Please understand - you're just hurting yourself...
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pressing his lips together, he shakes his head, stubbornly protesting against her words, and against the truth. ]
They're hurting much more than I am.
If something happens to me, I can just be fixed. Even this... [ he holds up his hands, palms upturned. ] It can be fixed, too.
But humans are so fragile — if something happens to them, they die. And they're going to die again, if I don't do something —
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The word "humans" catches her attention and she immediately looks him over. Sword or demon or something else? Should she be afraid?
In her heart, she knows she's not. For some reason, even those who aren't like her here... they don't try to harm her.
Instead, this world is harming him and that's unacceptable. Her fingers around his wrists tighten a fraction, just to make sure that he won't try to claw at the mirrors any longer, her head shaking slowly.]
No.... You can't - that's not.....
What you see isn't real, it can't be helped - [she chokes on that word, the hopelessness of the situation beginning to truly weigh in] - your loved ones will cry if you hurt yourself anymore.
[Lili can already feel the tears stinging at her own eyes.]
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But, my loved ones... they're dead.
[ his loved ones, he means, because he's sure that these people loved him the most, even more than the rest of the swords and haru probably do; and the fact that it was an instant conclusion is somewhat sad in itself.
it's true that he's loved in the present — in between gossip with kashuu, or pranking kousetsu, or leading naki into aimless adventures, swordhaus is fond of him, but to say that he's fond of them in the exact same way would be a lie.
so, his voice is solemn as he speaks. ]
Dead people can't cry.
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It stains her fingers, her palms and she doesn't flinch. It's evidence of this person's pain and it would be shameful to turn away from it. Even if they're strangers, this is the least that she can do as another human being, she thinks. Even as his words hurt her.
What must that be like? To be so alone?
A shake of her head.]
You don't know that.
Their souls may still be watching - [and she's grasping, she knows it, she knows nothing of spirituality] - and this... this is painful to watch for even the living.
Please... stop.
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either way, while it doesn't change the fact that he still can't reach them, but it does make him feel that much less alone. ]
You're right.
[ — regarding the souls and the afterlife that she's grasping for, because his love and care for the living died with these people in the mirrors.
for the first time since their encounter, he sounds relieved, lifted of the weight in his chest; he's even smiling, just a bit. ]
It's been a few hundred years, though. Do you think that they're doing okay, out there?
[ he's looking for her opinion, rather than anything right or wrong, since he's guessing that she's probably not a Certified Informant™ on how the afterlife works... and that's fine with him! ]
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She sighs out a breath she hadn't even realized that she'd been holding upon seeing him relax a fraction - though the smiles earns her confusion. She blinks. Is it not a trick of the light? How can he smile like that now....?
Against her will, her heart swells with a fragile hope. Maybe he'll be okay.
Her answer comes slowly after a moment's deliberation, but her words are sincere. ]
They loved you... didn't they?
So I believe as long as you're alright.... As long as you remain happy and healthy, won't they have something to be happy about even in the afterlife?
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They did. [ even though in the lifespan of a thousand years, two decades is nothing, he's certain that he was loved — because the time beyond their death makes up all of the time when he wasn't loved. ] They didn't have to treat me so kindly — I was just their sword, you know?
But If they've heard everything from then up to now, I wonder if they still love me.
[ there's a small pause, as if he's contemplating telling her or not, because there's a part of him that feels as if he's burdening her with too much, considering that she's someone that's not too familiar with him, and what if she ends up concluding that he's thoroughly strange... ]
You see, after they died, and the clan that owned me afterwards also died a few decades later, people started saying that I was cursed, and that those clans died because they owned me. They died in some pretty horrific ways, too — you saw it earlier, right?
[ and an attempt at a light-hearted laugh, but ah, well... he tried. ] It's not true at all, but if they're watching, I wonder if they're mad at me.
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Lili has met swords here and she's probably far fonder of Kashuu than she really should be, but after encountering Mutsu and Kousetsu and many other kind spirits, she's overall made the (reckless) judgment that therefore, all swords must be kind. Suddenly, this man in front of her is sorted along with the rest of them.
It makes her all the more determined to try to wipe the pain away from his expression.]
No...!
[A rather sudden, forceful answer for someone who was stumbling just trying to find words a moment ago. If she feels overwhelmed hearing the history of a stranger, it doesn't come across on her expression at all.]
Of course they're not - they're probably mad on your behalf! [Lili, just because you're mad on his behalf doesn't mean that you can speak for the dead....] Rumors and gossip like that - it's baseless and unacceptable, I--
I know that they're not mad at you.
They would never be mad at you for something that isn't your fault.
[She knows nothing of love.
But this is how she would hope it would work.]
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so perhaps, it's why he's alright with her speaking on their behalf, and why he finds comfort in her words in the first place. ]
Rumors and gossip were how they died, too — when you put it like that... I think that they would definitely understand. [ a smile at her, and then: ] Thank you.
[ and maybe that's a morbid connection to make, but it's a connection nonetheless, and strangely enough, he finds happiness in it; being subject to the same pitfall makes him feel that much closer to them. while being careful not to agitate the injuries on his hands, he brushes stray strands of hair from his face — and maybe across his eyes, along the way. ]
Even if it's not that, there are other things they could be angry with me for — ah, you see... when they were buried, they were placed in mass graves, and I was placed in with them. The ruler of the time had heard of me, so he went and overturned my clan's graveyard, searching for me. And when he found me, he took me without second thought.
Would they still love me for not being able to stay with them?
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Yet he continues on.
What a painful history.
Even though her hands begin to shake, next to her sides as they are, angry on his behalf, there's no tremor in her voice as she has to ask sincerely:]
Why are you looking for reasons for them to not love you?
[Is that how love works? Is that what it's like to search for approval? Lili knows herself to be useless, it's true, but she's never had these thoughts in regards to her own father... and now the seed of doubt is planted in regards to her own life - should she?]
Of course they'd still love you...
That isn't your fault either.
no subject
[ his answer is something that he's spent a great deal of time thinking about, before any of this; even though they've been able to live more human lives here, at the end of the day, they're still swords, with all of the burdens that come with being swords. ]
A sword that supposedly kills its masters isn't too deserving of love, don't you think?
Those humans seemed to think so — and so, I came to think so, too.
[ it's why he looks upon swords — shinsengumi swords in particular, who seem to know no ends to their love for their masters — with some kind of disdain, but also with some jealousy, that they have the privilege of loving and being loved in return. ]
Having to justify why I can be loved now, and if it's even okay for me to be loved in the present day, in the first place...
[ he looks back at her, blinking calmly. ] As much as I don't trust them, don't humans have the same struggles?
no subject