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
But only a fraction.]
You - [Does he understand?] .... You don't recognize anything here?
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No, I don't. [ Genos looks at the things around him and the relics and...feels nothing. Well, maybe nothing as he does feel respect for those who must have fallen and the trace remains of them. (No one should have only bits and pieces left of them like this...) ]
But they mean something to you.
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They... were my comrades.
[Though her voice sounds hollow even to her, distant. She's trying so hard not to break down, to not cry loudly and painfully as she wishes to, but there's no helping it.
This is cruel.
Silent tears escape her without her permission.]
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Though, there still is something that comes to mind in this situation that he can do and Genos goes to do just that. It may seem like a little heartless at the time as he wordlessly leaves her but he's looking something and picking up rocks in various sizes.
Genos doesn't take too much time and when he comes back he carefully stacks the rocks on top of each other. Like a little make-shift grave. ]
For your lost comrades.
no subject
He knows nothing of her and nothing of her comrades - perhaps he'd thought that he was in her debt for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean that he would have to go out of his way to do this. This has nothing to do with her safety or protecting her. And yet.... and yet this just manages to make more tears escape her, even as she valiantly tries to brush them away before they fall.
Weakly, she tries to find the words.]
I.... Thank you....
[He didn't have to do this.
But it is kind of him to.]
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Lifting his head, he'll look back to her and hopefully this is enough? For the moment. ]
You're welcome.
[ And this is where Genos is at a loss to do now... What are the appropriate words to comfort a girl who is crying? A girl who from a previous encounter seemed to be so vibrant and demanding. Genos is a bit quiet for a little longer as he ponders his next move. ]
Do you wish to...talk about them?
[ Or would you rather leave? ]
no subject
Her face is clean when she straightens up again, every inch of her trying to harness her resolution once again instead of breaking down like this.
A breath.]
... They were good people, if rather... odd. [Slowly but surely, she tries to find her footing to stand.] I... will never accept that this is what became of them.
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They found a way to bring us back before, in their own way, perhaps they can do it again. [ He's not really sure if these words are comforting but it's better than standing here and doing nothing, right? Genos is a person of action and while he doesn't want to force her to do anything rash, something is better than crying. Maybe she'll appreciate the gesture? ]
However, I've been beginning to wonder if CERES is an organization we can fully trust.
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So she sighs and straightens her shoulders and now that she's not caught in despair, flicks of anger begin to rise. She turns to Genos with an almost somber curiosity.]
You are only beginning to think so?
I decided that I hated them from a long time ago.
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I try to reserve my judgments until I learn more about them. [ With the exception of his instant attraction(?) to Saitama but that was an entirely different case. Most times Genos plays the field and waits to see how things are shaping up. Or well, that's what he tries to do. ]
At first I thought they were just confused and careless but now I'm not too certain of their motives.
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Lili shakes her head at that. Perhaps it's fair for him to remain observant for a while, but Lili is quick to judge. It's a rather rash trait of hers but she doesn't seem to be tempted to fix it at all-]
No. Even if they're confused or careless, they're not meant to be in a position of power over others. That in itself is malicious.
Now that we've found ourselves here.... that's unacceptable as well.
[She feels the ground beneath her feet stabilizing. This is fine. If she harnesses her anger, she'll be fine.]
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Very true. [ Maybe sometimes it was not all in the wrong to be quick to judgments. ]
I would say that "Unacceptable" would be the reserved way of putting it. We should not be here nor find ourselves in this position at all.
[ So what matters now is where they go from here. ]
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[ the frustration leaks through her tone, coloring it with her own distaste for everything. Were they truly only brought here to - what? Find this altar? Suffer? Is there really any rhyme or reason to this cause?
What force them even brought them here in the first place? ]
What's the point?!
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According to them it is to fix an error that occurred due to aliens who corrupted our code. [ Look he's a cyborg, that powerpoint was something he could actually somewhat process unlike most people. ]
However, given what has happened so far, I'm not certain that is not the complete truth.
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