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
[When it comes to hiding, anyway.
He'll lead the way back through some halls and down toward what appear to be rooms - office rooms, maybe? Empty for the most part, which is also fine enough. After scouting out the interior of one of the first rooms, he gestures Stahn over.]
Here! This one should be fine. Nothing seems weird in here.
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[he follows kashuu's lead, entering the room he motions towards. he circles the room as an extra precaution, trying to see if there's any clues or anything else of use. there isn't really, considering it's mostly empty.]
I wonder what the was before. It seems like nobody's been here in a long time.
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[Because they're apparently full of SECRETS and also REALLY RUDE ALIENS.]
no subject
[well, he doesn't like most things about it, but the way it's locked away specifically is really bothersome to stahn.]
Something probably happened here, right? If it's been hidden away like this for so long. [but what happened, and why were they brought there at all?]
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[As he talks, his gaze rises upward and travels along the length of the ceiling before dropping down the wall, moving across the floor.]
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That's what it seems like. I wonder what it could have been though... or how long ago it was.
[he's pondering, but of course, this is one of those times when dymlos decides it's prudent to speak up.
"It seems as if CERES wanted to keep this place completely hidden from our view. There's no telling what led us here, but the way they act as if it doesn't exist it at all makes it's suspect."]
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And it was like, right under our noses the whole time... [Which somehow manages to make it even more suspicious in his eyes. He folds his arms over his chest, tapping his foot against the floor for a few beats.]
I don't really get it, but whoever lived here must have left fast for everything to kinda still be standing, right? And I mean, I haven't seen any signs of fires or explosions or anything like that yet, so...
[He's definitely curious about what happened here.]
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stahn remains quiet for a moment, humming a little as he listens to what kashuu and dymlos have to say. dymlos remained silent for a long time, but he was once a military leader; when it comes to things like this, he can't help but to speak up and try to help them formulate some kind of viable theory.
"We've been told that the colony CERES operates out of is fairly new; There's a possibility that before their current base of operations was formed, this was were they worked. And with that open, it's also likely that whatever led to our being brought here could have been tied to the events that led to this location being sealed away from us."]
no subject
Mm... Then whatever it was, it still probably wasn't good. If it's something like that, it feels even worse, actually. Like - that'd almost feel like culling off some stock to replace it with something fresh, right?
[A somewhat crude metaphor, but it's the best way he knows how to get across this particular budding concern.]
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sometimes using your sword as a personal dictionary isn't the best idea.
"It could be something akin to that. Given how experimental many of their projects seem, it's entirely possible that they failed in the past and hid it away—much of what we've seen on this side of the wall is questionable. There's always the chance there's something far different or more dangerous, but we don't have any way of proving that with what we've seen."]
no subject
This kinda stuff is way over my head... [At least Stahn's not too alone, there.]
But if that's what happened, we'll need to get to the bottom of this, too. ...I wonder if this place has anything to do with those ghosts from earlier?
no subject
though when kashuu makes that suggestion, things click for stahn too.]
The ghosts... Then that would mean...
["Right. If the ghosts we encountered earlier are connected to what may have transpired here, then it's possible many lives were lost at the hands of CERES, and they wish to keep that knowledge from us."]
no subject
Right. And with the kinda stuff that's down here, I totally wouldn't put something like that past them, y'know? They can talk about wanting to help us until their faces turn blue, but if the actions don't line up, it's meaningless.
[Normally Kashuu has a little more wiggle room when it comes to his opinions, but he's definitely not feeling generous after the assumptions he's drawn at the altar.]
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which they don't totally have. but dymlos and kashuu both make a good case for it, and stahn finds himself clenching his fist reactively to the thought. he's quiet for a moment as he tries to rationalize things.]
But... it might not be true, right? We could still be wrong about it.
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[He'll concede that much, even though he doesn't look happy about it.]
But it's still a preeetty big possibility. You see it too, don't you?
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[he won't deny that he does, but he still hates it a lot.] I just... don't want to believe it's that bad until we can prove it.
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I get it. I mean, I don't wanna get mad at the wrong person, either. [Because then he might stab the wrong person and that would just be bad...]
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So I guess it's a game of patience again.
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...Yeah, I guess so. We can't do anything until we know more.
no subject
[Not that Kashuu actually needs it, but even a sword like him can get physically tired, and he's feeling the effects of dealing with a lot of bullshit all in one go. While he may not indulge in sleep here, just a quiet breather is fine - and maybe Stahn could get a little rest, too.]
S'that okay? Just for a little. Then we can head out and keep looking.
no subject
[stahn nods in agreement. it's likely he may actually fall asleep for a bit, because he's exhausted in every way—though even for stahn's absurd sleeping habits, it probably wouldn't be much. not that it matters, dymlos wouldn't dare suspend his functions at a time like this, so one of them will always be acutely aware of the situation.]