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?  ...
...........
................
:)
|
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. ] |
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
but being stubborn as hell, it doesn't mean he'll get up or lose strength. once again, he would fight until death if he has to. but even he'll even fight death itself? then, at the same time he knows he has to stay alive... but then he would also accept death if it was for the Shinsengumi.
well. it's a bit complicated sometimes. he can't die if there are things left to do... like waiting, and waiting to see Souji, or Kondou show up once again. he at least wants to see them one more time.
he looks at Tsurumaru, as everything just spills out. everything would register much faster if he wasn't thinking about the pain he's stubbornly trying to ignore. Hijikata knows this- the yelling and holding back tears of sheer loneliness and frustration. it's nothing new to him.
but he can only stay silent, for some reason. but he has to say something... ]
Ah, well... [ honestly, he's shocked? ] It sounds like... You're blaming yourself when it's not your fault.
[ because well, he really couldn't do anything. but it really ... sucks when you can't do anything and people disappear. even Hijikata doesn't even have good advice for this because he struggles with the same type of problems. because really, he would act the same way: a violent outburst on the verge of tears. ] Killing me isn't going to make it less painful, is it. You can cry if you want.
no subject
[ see: oda nobunaga, and all of the insignificant people that came after him. ] But the rumors aren't true at all — I can't really kill anyone just by being there. Still, everyone that I ever came in contact with kept dying before their time, and when you start hearing stuff like that, it really gets beneath your skin, you know?
[ he continues trying to hold things back, biting his bottom lip — but in the end, it doesn't work out; when he blinks and looks back up, his cheeks sting uncomfortably, and he's angry, at a world that he'd wanted to love but failed to love him back. (and he'd gone ahead and gotten attached to it anyway.) ]
And you — I was foolish to spend much time with you, just because I enjoyed it. It's dumb, it's stupid — visiting you and dragging you around everywhere was fun for me, and for the first time in centuries, I liked being around a human, but what if I ended up shortening your lifespan, too?
[ lifting his arm hurts — but he braces himself, slowly aiming until he holds the point of his blade at hijikata's chest. ]
If you die somewhere else, out of my sight, I absolutely won't forgive you. That's why killing you right now will make it more certain for me.
no subject
it doesn't last long because at the threat of dying it's only natural Hijikata would resist. yet, he still can't go anywhere, and even if he does pull his leg free it's not like he can do much with it. there's no way in hell he'd run either. he has to find another way to stop him... but... ]
There's no way I'd die so easily...
[ he can't. he simply just can't.
he shifts his gaze to the side, contemplating to unsheathe his other sword since he doesn't seem to have much strength to hold Izuminokami at the moment but his eyes capture the shards of mirror again which seem to be changing shape. which seems to paint another image: of Hijikata, with that same pained look in his eyes- he's visibly upset, almost shaking. almost like an echo he speaks in a low voice then almost explodes into some furious rage.
of course, he just doesn't stop there, hitting the wall of the room with a fist in a rhythmic manner, making the other person in the room flinch. his knuckles turning rad as he continuously pounds against the wood. Hijikata easily remembers this time, a time of one of his weaknesses. he sighs, almost feeling rather defeated. ]
It's almost like this place is mocking me... I guess I was foolish to say it myself, saying it's not your fault is pretty easy, huh. I really don't understand, I admit. [ what Tsurumaru's been through, at least. ]
no subject
so instead, he puts his hands together and hopes that hijikata will receive his sentiments, no matter how poorly delivered. with his fingers intertwined together, he watches the glass blankly, eyes subconsciously glued onto the surface of the mirror fragments — watches, as the hijikata in the mirror looks the way that tsurumaru imagines that he himself would have looked on that day, saying the things that he would have said on that day, and feeling the same kind of pain that he'd certainly felt on that day.
once it ends, he peels his gaze from the mirrors and glances at hijikata, and while his sympathy isn't the obvious sort, tsurumaru speaks in the rare way that he does whenever he's alone, whenever he doesn't have to impress anyone with his smiles and his jokes — quietly, softly, and almost monotonously, making no kind of expression at all, because whenever he doesn't have to try, he comes close to not existing at all. ]
So you are capable of making an expression like that... and saying those kinds of things, too. The things that bother you. The things that make you cry.
[ still, he thinks that he doesn't mind hijikata when he's like that — angry and tense and enraged, because it's raw emotion, and tsurumaru appreciates how honest and unbridled it is. ]
But you did understand, even just a little bit. If I told you the same thing — that it's not your fault, you'd give me a similar reaction, wouldn't you?
no subject