reparator: (Default)
C E R E A L I A ★ M O D S。 ([personal profile] reparator) wrote in [community profile] estoria2016-02-15 05:12 pm

//EVENT026_OVERFLOW.EXE

Who: All of the unlucky souls who are dragged along for the ride
When: IC: 5/22 to 5/26 ; OOC: 2/13 to 2/20
Where: The Dark Parts of Cerealia
What: File Not Found
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for violence and some scary situations; please let the mods know if the rating needs to go up or the log needs to be locked!




//event026_overflow.EXE



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?

...

...........

................

:)


//SCENARIOS.EXE


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. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to Cerealia's February event! Please visit the OOC information here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. This event will last from 2/13 to 2/20, or IC 5/22 to 5/26. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you!

specialization: (plan.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-17 09:59 am (UTC)(link)
Close by. I moved away from it not long ago.

[a desire that quietly burns, that makes him want to push and keep pushing. a short term goal, as they go, but definite. it was how he was - he saw a power that he wanted, that he could take, and so he did.]

Is it far to the surface?
Edited 2016-02-17 09:59 (UTC)
pseudonyms: (And I've been waiting for so long)

[personal profile] pseudonyms 2016-02-17 06:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[She's quiet again, though she doesn't confirm anything after that. She's locked onto his signal and she's watching him move upward.]

It's not too far from where you are. Underground has a couple of levels to it. You're higher up than the very bottom of the cavern. How's the pathway down there? I've heard it was kinda unstable.
specialization: (control.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-17 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
You heard correctly. I'd guess it's fallen into disrepair and there are parts that just drop off. Kind of risky to be navigating if someone can't step lightly.

[he's definitely moving faster than walking, but the good thing about telepathy was that you could run and talk at the same time without needing to worry about breathing getting in the way.]

If someone else has been down here recently, I don't think they used this path. Just a guess.
pseudonyms: (She's slipping away)

[personal profile] pseudonyms 2016-02-18 05:48 am (UTC)(link)
Well it's not like we can just stick an "out of order" sign on it. Careful, there's a hole to your left. Anyway I don't think there're a lot of people still down there anyway. Most people have made it back up to the surface by now. ...is it worth going down to look though?
specialization: (write.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-18 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
That depends on what you're looking for.

[time to hop over that hole before keeping on moving upward.]

There's some sort of underground lake, a collection of caves and tunnels, and things that are out to kill that I don't know what to call other than "beasts". Not machine like the ones you described, but flesh and blood, aquatic sorts.

[a pause as he has to take a leap over a gap.]

And some sort of shrine. Makes you wonder what religion is like in this place, and who'd call for such a thing to be built.
Edited 2016-02-18 22:27 (UTC)
pseudonyms: (Follow us back to when)

[personal profile] pseudonyms 2016-02-20 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
After being dropped in a swamp when I first got here, I think I'll stick any sort of lakes. But what do aquatic monsters and shrines have to do with each other? What did it actually look like? [She's still tracking him to make sure he doesn't suddenly disappear, but this is all news to her.]
specialization: (take.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-21 07:08 am (UTC)(link)
Old, stone and lit by torches. Bloodied but not this day - any stains were dried. And small things that I can only call tokens. Bits of cloth and hair, other things as well. I found a piece of chain I think came from a necklace. All the clues pointed towards it being used recently, if not in the past several weeks.

[as he tells her all this, the mental voice that comes through doesn't waver in its quiet control. it was unsettling, but not that bad he thinks.]

Whoever's using it likely doesn't come down the same way those like me did.
pseudonyms: (Your words don't mean shit to me)

[personal profile] pseudonyms 2016-02-21 10:36 am (UTC)(link)
[That should have said skip, not stick. Anyway, that's hardly any more promising and sounds a little like--]

A bunch of weird offerings. What would those have to do with the sacrifice made on the altar? [Wait.] Why would there be a sacrificial altar anyway? [It's going to be worse when she learns what Yu found at that altar, too.]

You didn't see any other entries or exits down there? It's hard to believe they'd have another way in.
specialization: (question.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-22 09:15 am (UTC)(link)
Teleportation abilities aren't out of the question.

[he'd do that exact thing if it was him. the question about the offerings get bypassed - he had assumed they were from the sacrificed, if they were things like hair and other things that people didn't just randomly part with.]
pseudonyms: (I'll bring the sticks and stones)

[personal profile] pseudonyms 2016-02-22 09:37 pm (UTC)(link)
And just how many people do you know that can just randomly teleport? [Not that it's out of the realm of possibility, but.]
specialization: (crossed.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-23 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
Not so randomly. Technology in this place has advanced far beyond what I'm used to. [except for that game.] If they have some type of device with them and put in a location, they could teleport themselves all over. That's not so far fetched, is it?
pseudonyms: (I walk a fine line)

[personal profile] pseudonyms 2016-02-23 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[Considering that even in 2011 there's a TV that pulls people to a totally different world? No, not so farfetched.]

When you put it that way, no. I just don't get why anybody would even want to transport to a creepy place like that. And how could you even see what you're doing at the shrine if the whole area's dark? It's a really poor plan.
specialization: (reverse.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-23 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
You could always bring a flashlight.

[or light a fire or something, but that's not the important part.]

If the person teleporting there is the person who made the shrine, then I'm sure they have their reasons for it. Even if those reasons aren't the...hmm, should I say most innocent of them.
pseudonyms: (Do you really want to throw it all away)

[personal profile] pseudonyms 2016-02-25 05:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Are you saying it isn't any of our business to find out what they're doing?
specialization: (forward.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-25 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
No, I'm saying that there has to be a why behind what they're doing. Discovering the what of the matter comes first. Then we can deduce the why if we know the who.
pseudonyms: (I'm losing hope 'cause she's so)

[personal profile] pseudonyms 2016-02-28 10:03 am (UTC)(link)
[Much better answer.]

Good luck finding the who. I don't think they really want to be found, whoever they are. And maybe--[She cuts herself off with a gasp.] Chrollo, I'm sorry! The monsters are on the move again. Can you make it out the rest of the way okay?
specialization: (guard.)

[personal profile] specialization 2016-02-28 10:55 am (UTC)(link)
I can manage. Go and look to yourself, and stay safe.

[they could be caring words, or concerned, but the way he says them, there's a minor sense of instruction. old habits, being used to assigning roles, thinking about who could play defense and offense. telling her to look out is no different.

later, when this is over, he'll contact her. he needs her to stay alive, after all. there's no use for her corpse.]