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
This, probably.]
Then why don't you let yourself want something more? Why don't you let yourself want something...?!
[Something. Anything. A kind word, a million credits, a new life. Whether it's small or extravagant, it occurs to Lili again that Leon never lets himself want for anything. Is this also why he doesn't have things that he likes? There are incorporeal things such as knowledge and while that's satisfying, that thirst for knowledge doesn't drive him.
Again, she realizes that he deserves so much more than what he's been given and it kills her.
Even so, she can't deny that to some degree, she understands. If something had happened to Yona, Lili would never be able to forgive herself - even in death. Is that what this is? Is this what would've happened to her if they would both lose their lives to something like this?
It's haunting.
It's terrifying.
But more than that, it breaks her heart to realize that out of everything, no matter what she says, Leon's the only one who can truly set himself free.]
I don't believe that you truly hate the world so much....
no subject
[That answer comes sharply, almost immediately, before he can even think of the words that are escaping his mouth. But... he can't take it back, either. He doesn't hate the world. Of course he doesn't. How could he hate a world that contains people like Stahn and Marian in it? Even if he was treated poorly by it, he still knows that the world isn't a bad place.
He still wants his world to be saved.
He still wants a place where Stahn and Rutee and Philia and Woodrow and the others can live safely and happily.
Leon just knows that he doesn't deserve a single place in it. He doesn't deserve to want things, to be living like this. For someone like him, who did so many horrible things-- (and he remembers when he killed that young soldier who had admired him so much, who had told him that he couldn't step aside, because he wouldn't be able to look Leon in the eye if he didn't do his duty then, and so he'd killed him, and there was his blood on his sword) --someone as horrible as him really doesn't deserve anything but what he got.
He was content with his ending.
It was the right one, for a filthy traitor like him.]
no subject
[The words leave her mouth without her permission - without her thinking about it.
It's rude, she knows it is. She's telling him what she thinks of his own life - she's trying to tell him what he deserves. She's trying to tell him how to live his life in a certain sense but.... she also wants him to live at all. Perhaps in a moment she'll think to apologize for overstepping her boundaries as clumsily, as heavy-handed as she knows that she is. But for right now, it doesn't occur to her.]
You worked so hard. [To be a knight, to be as strong as he is, to be so capable even though they both came from similar backgrounds and she can feel it. She can feel it like she can feel the times when she would be tutored alone and only given matters that would help her be useful to her lands. She can feel it like she can feel the ache of loneliness of looking outside a window for so long.] Making mistakes is part of living too, you know...!
[Right?]
Isn't that why I'm allowed to keep moving forward - even though I make mistakes?
What's the difference...?! It's not fair!
no subject
He hates the thought.
And he hates that she's trying to tell him now something that he's always known. Mistakes are a part of living--for other people. For him? It was a fatal mistake, and he knows it. For him, the mistakes he made were not mistakes you return from.
For him, his mistakes are going to follow him to the grave, and beyond. Leon Magnus, betrayer. Leon Magnus, villain. Leon Magnus, he who betrayed the heroes who were to save the world--
He snaps back, like a cornered animal.]
You still do not understand. [Their lives were similar in a lot of ways--but in this, Leon knows they differ.] This was the only possible outcome for me. This was my purpose, from the moment I was born. This was all my fa-- what Hugo ever intended for me. To pretend otherwise would be to ignore the truth of the matter.
I was only ever intended to die when my use ran out.
[That just...happened to be the end of the line.]
That is the difference!
no subject
[They differ. They differ in this way that Leon was supposed to die when his use ran out - and that's cruel. They different in this way but also the way that Lili never accepted what her father had in mind for her. Her way of fighting came far later, but it happened. After 17 years of being locked up for every single overeager suggestion, every "wrong" opinion, every emotional outburst, she made her difference.
Isn't it awful, then?
That Leon... didn't?]
Find a different outcome! If all you do is live your life based on the intentions of others then - then how can you ever expect to take control of your own future...?! You don't have to live by someone else's plan here, do you? You get to make your own...! We both do--!!
[Which is scary.
Lili knows it's scary.
She has no purpose here except to get stronger and to find a way back home. Her lands are too far out of sight, even if they're not quite out of mind. In truth, she's left grasping at straws every single day and it's only due to a strict schedule that she's not floundering entirely.
But freedom is scary - and she thinks that maybe this is freedom.]
no subject
[It's yelled now, angry and fierce and distressed, so distressed and a little choked up as well, because that had always been his entire life's purpose. From the moment he'd been old enough to comprehend fighting against his father, he'd tried. At the age of 6, holding onto a sword for the first time, he'd thought that maybe he could make a name for himself and get away from his father. At the age of 9, being groomed to be his father's perfect little soldier, he'd entertained the thought of escaping Hugo and living on his own. At the age of 16, he'd though that maybe he'd made it, maybe he'd found his way, maybe he'd earned enough to escape his father's thumb.
Maybe he was safe.
Maybe he'd done it.
But he hadn't been safe. He'd been too weak. Everything he'd tried to do--it hadn't been enough. He'd tried so hard, with everything he'd had, and it still...]
... It wasn't enough. [It's soft now, his words are soft and his tone is soft and his voice is choked up, though he refuses to cry.] I wasn't enough.
[He was too weak. His father had beaten him down in the end. Had beaten him completely. Had mocked him, taunted him, stood over him and laughed at his feeble attempts at fighting back, and in the end, he'd sent him to his death.
And Leon had gone. Knowing what would happen--he'd gone. Because he wasn't strong enough, and that... spelled his own doom, and that had been all he'd deserved.]
So do not act as though you understand what is best for me. Do not act as though you know. You don't know anything. I...
[... He tried.]
no subject
It's unfortunate and selfish how it takes her back.
It takes her back to when she'd come back to the capitol after running off to the coast, after her first encounter with Yona and everyone. That moment when she'd done everything she can to try to motivate her father to mobilize the soldiers, when she'd called out to him to listen and he'd told her that she was being rash. Told her that she needed to cool off in her room for a weak and the crushing feeling had begun to set in. It wasn't enough. Even when she said that she'd fight alongside him--
But the difference is that Leon fought directly against his father. Hugo. Whoever this man is.
Before anything else, the words that escape her as tears again prick at her eyes are the ones that she had always tried to tell herself, voice small yet certain:]
You are - and always have been - enough.
[It's funny.
She thought that she was done crying over him.]
... I'm sorry, I didn't mean - [to upset you like this. to dredge up even more bad memories. to remind you of your own inner demons.] .... I'm sorry.
no subject
And all of these things that he's gratified to hear.
Hearing that he's always been enough... it's not true, he knows it isn't, and that thought is bitter, but... that she thinks so means something too. That someone has thought so, over the short course of his life--it means something. Maybe, in another world, another time, another situation, his work would have been enough. Maybe in some way, he would've survived.
Maybe in some way he would have made a difference.
But he didn't. And he wasn't enough. Not strong enough. Not brave enough. Not certain enough. Not... enough. In the end, he couldn't even save Marian--and that had been why he'd done all of those horrible things in the first place.
In the end, Stahn had to do that as well.
Quietly, he breathes out a slow, shuddering breath, looking away. It takes focus and determination to steady his breathing and expression, but he won't cry. He doesn't have time to cry. And he swallows.]
... Leave it.
[Just...leave it alone. Her apology isn't necessary either--she's meddling in things she doesn't understand, but it isn't as though he can be angry at her when she's just trying to tell him that everything's...okay.
Even though it's not.
But it's best to just...leave it alone at this point, he thinks. They still have to survive out here. That's--better to focus on than his own inability, and the way that this girl in front of him has infinitely more faith than he does.]
no subject
[Perhaps she’s a fool.
Perhaps she’s a stubborn fool who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. After all, she hasn’t known Leon for that long and he’s only now just telling her about everything that he’s been through. But Lili hardly thinks that the time that you know someone or what you know about them should make that big a difference – not when a night was all it took for Yona, a stranger, to use her own body as a shield to protect Lili.
At the time, Lili had thought, I want to be like that.
She can’t shield Leon with her body, she can’t even pretend to believe that she’s strong enough to protect him against this place. But if he’s tired from hoping, from trying, then the least that she can do is manage that for him.
Yet she settles then, watching him. She can push and push - and god knows that she will for some time after – but it can’t all be done in one day.
Not after what he’s been through so she adds, without losing even an inch of her determination.]
… But belief is hard.
[Growing is hard. Trying to be strong is hard.]
So it’s fine if it’s not yet… but I won’t give up.
[Not on this.
Not on you.
That is her promise.]
no subject
Because she's right. Belief is hard. Belief is especially hard when Leon doesn't think he deserved any more than he got. He'd always rebelled against his father and the things he called him, the things he told him he was-- (worthless, a tool, a disappointment) --but failing to save Marian had, in a lot of ways, hammered home that Hugo had been right.
Hugo had been right about a lot of things.
He doesn't like it admit it, even as he can't deny it.
So he doesn't believe. He doesn't believe in what she's saying, and he doesn't believe that he deserves better. He doesn't believe, even, that she'll necessarily uphold her word, but that's because he's afraid to believe in that sort of thing. Afraid to believe when someone might just leave him behind. Afraid even more to believe when she might actually keep her word, and it might put her in danger instead, like Marian.
He turns away, and he starts to walk, but slowly enough for her to follow, because if he lets her die here... then all of this talk of belief and determination and not giving up will mean nothing. He doesn't know why he cares, exactly, but--he can't let that happen either.
He doesn't have a response to that.
But he does think that maybe... maybe if she does keep her word--maybe he won't entirely die alone, afraid and lonely and cold.
That... maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing. So he'll lead, and she'll follow--at least until things go wrong, because really in the end, things can never be that simple.]