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!
(File SAVED.)
They stay determined. And then they turn to look at whoever is with them, rubbing their hands over their upper arms in an attempt to warm themselves up.]
... We should head up now. Don't think there's anything else to look at here.
PHASE III:
So, naturally, they head for the buildings that seem the most structurally sound. The ones that stand in the middle of the wasteland, still standing despite everything else around them having crumbled. They can't force the door open themselves (for obvious reasons), but with another person's help, they manage to get inside. A building full of mirrors is not what they expect, that's for sure, but it seems fine. Having to look at their reflection is okay — until it isn't.
This scene begins to play. The toy knife cutting through Toriel, her last words to them, and finally... her body crumbling into dust, her SOUL following shortly after. Sucking in a sharp breath, their hands go up to cover their mouth. They take a step back, then another, and in their moment of panic, they might bump into you as they try to get as far away from the mirrors as possible.]
BONUS (SORT OF):
Maybe, if they wear their mask for just a little while... they might get to see something new? Something they have never, ever seen before? That would be Fun, wouldn't it? They bring the mask up to their face, furred, clawed and skeletal fingerprints displayed on it along with a very fine crack, and — they abruptly throw it on the ground. Step on it once, twice, thrice. But it doesn't break. They're not strong enough to break it. All they do is make it dirtier.
Oh, well. At least it feels good to try and destroy it again.]
WILDCARD:
iii.
what he doesn't expect is the room of mirrors, nor what he sees in their reflection. that person... he recognizes them from the picture that frisk had shown him. that's one of their friends, and they were being attacked.
it's probably naive of him, but he doesn't want to take it at face value. there has to be some sort of reasoning for frisk to have taken that kind of action, some part of the story he doesn't have --
and that's when frisk bumps into him, and he's snapped out of his thoughts to look down at them. he doesn't look judgemental, but he's a little confused... and even more concerned. ]
...
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They realize then that they aren't in the Underground anymore. That there's no toy knife that can slice through magic with the ease of a real knife. That whatever was just displayed in the mirrors, they weren't the only ones to see it. And that— that isn't what they wanted. This is wrong. Nobody else was supposed to know. It was meant to be something that they could keep to themselves, with Asriel as the only exception. They didn't want anybody else to know about this.
And that makes them freak out even more.]
I— You— [He knows they're a bad person now. He's going to hate them.] You didn't see. You didn't see.
[Repeating things won't make them come true. Doesn't mean they won't try.]
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at least, he hopes.
in any case, he'll kneel down to their level, looking at them head-on. his voice is soft and calm, his expression seasoned from showing the uncertainty in his thoughts. the first step would be to calm them down. ]
Frisk, look at me.
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They'll shake their head, looking down at the floor like it's the most fascinating thing ever.]
I fixed it. Know I fixed it, so... So...
[So why did they have to see that again? They feel like barfing.]
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This room shows us things that we aren't proud of. You have to remember that you're more than that now.
[ if they do glance up, they'll be met with a small smile. it doesn't quite have his heart in it, but he wants to be reassuring. ]
You don't have to worry.
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Bonus
Are you okay?
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No. No, that's stupid. Need to stop thinking weird things. People don't ask other people if they're okay, if there here to hurt them... right?]
Y— Yes... 'M okay.
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If you say so... you don't like your mask?
[Hajimes, frowning with a barcode, just floats idly by]
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... They decide to answer by changing the subject, glancing at her mask.]
How come your's is floating?
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[Did they not all do that? She hadn't really bothered with it, since it didn't seem to do anything]
It's like a buddy!
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i.
Or maybe he's just exhausted and can't muster up the energy to panic.
In any case, he nods. ]
We don't want to stay down here long enough for whoever did this to come back, either. [ Not right now, anyway. They needed to get to the bottom of this eventually, but even he can recognize what a disadvantage they're at right now. It's as bad as the jungle. Worse, maybe. ]
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Can't hear anybody coming, but... We don't. [They look back at the altar, reaching to touch some of the dried up blood. This is really... bad.] Think they might be tougher to avoid than the monsters in the water. Don't think anyone was able to fight back here, anyways.
[They know what the signs of a struggle look like. None of those signs are here.]
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His stomach turns. ]
Whoever did this is a completely different kind of monster. [ One who was calculative, and Dipper will get to the bottom of it. Just...not down here. Not in their court.
As he starts to walk back towards the path, he glances at Frisk and asks: ]
Have you ever seen anything like this before?
[ He hasn't, and he's seen a lot of weird stuff. He's not sure what's worse - how grim it all is, or being out of his depth. ]
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[Because to them, what has the potential to be more dangerous and deadly than a monster? A single human, of course.]
No. This is... a different kind of bad.
[Shaking their head. Not what they're used to at all. They would feel less overwhelmed if it was the brand of awful they're used to. Less inclined to start walking toward the way back like they're eager to leave, in any case.]
Did any of the stuff look familiar to you? Didn't look familiar to me, but... Looked recent.
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[ Stripped of their humanity, to commit acts like these. To sacrifice the lives of innocent people who didn't even belong to this world. His jaw tightens. ]
...A few things, yeah. [ Korra's hairbands. He'd seen her a week ago. Yosuke's headphones. He's seen him yesterday. ] Definitely recent. What's going on down here, it's...happening regularly. And frequently.
[ That was evident from the sheet about of discarded items lying around. ]
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iii
The absolute worst thing about this is that Frisk looks to be about the same age as Nanako, maybe. His heart wrenches in his chest. ]
Hey. Calm down. We don't have to talk about it, but let's get out of here together, alright?
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bonus.
and he has something like a worn smile on his face. concern brought him here; understanding, too, knowing that this situation was pretty trying on anyone. he doesn't exactly blame them if they're expressing their frustration this way? or at least, that's what he assumes they're doing. ]
It's been pretty tough, huh?
[ hello, what's going on. ]
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III
It's obvious that Frisk isn't. What he watches is startling, heart-wrenching. Humans are fragile, but whatever being that gets cut through with a knife... she doesn't look like she deserved it. Though, the way Frisk reacts, it seems like they had no choice...
He'll keep them from running past. It's dangerous. He won't let anyone put themselves in that position. ]
... you can't go out there like this. Take deep breaths, it'll be alright.
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