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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[Usagi's distracted herself, almost tripping but managing to get her balance back as she hastens to follow him, heading towards that light, squinting as she raises a hand to shield her eyes initially. It takes a moment before she all but lights up herself in her triumph.]
We did it! We did it, Hiro!
[It's enough in that brief moment to try forget about the mirrors, what they'd shown in this small success of theirs together.]
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[Away from the mirrors now, it feels like she can breathe easier. Start to really calm down and possibly talk or ask about it. She's just not entirely sure how to. How to address what she saw, even if she herself might barely know some bits and pieces from what Hiro and Tadashi have mentioned already. What she saw of his memories in the broken shards of glass.]
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So he shakes his head.]
Wanna go find Rei? [i.e. "Usagi, let's keep walking and talking about these things."]
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[Rei and the others had been. Right nearby and were really hovering and protective ever since they ended up here underground. Taking their duties seriously and as worried as they were over Usagi being here in general, it's of course not necessarily enough that guarantees they would remain together the entire time.
Still. That's what she tries to focus on. Still unsure how to bring up the mirrors and all.]
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Usagi, can I ask you something? [A pause, hesitating again.] Do Rei and the others know about what happened to you?
[Guess that's one way to bring up the mirrors.]
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[She. Probably should have guessed, the moment he paused, after their initial silence as both of them half wonder how to even bring up the mirrors, what was seen for both of them.]
Ah. Well, yes. Rei-chan and the others remember.
[Of course, she's vaguely aware that Hiro knows Rei and Ami as their senshi identities too. But she's still unsure how much Hiro might have been told in the details of it. And in regards to Usagi herself, exactly.]
When I remembered that, recently, back home, that meant everyone else remembered too. Luna said I wasn't supposed to remember everything that soon, but....
[As hard and effective as Minako's attempt to claim she was the princess in order to protect Usagi while they figured things out, it didn't last long. What with the way events unfolded that forced the seal to break. That Usagi reacted in such a way with how it all mirrored the present and past.]
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The whole thing sounds pretty complicated.
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[It....takes a moment before she registers she just. Kind of admitted that her cat could talk. Oops.
But then, Hiro already knows a lot as it is anyway. So maybe it isn't as major as she is expecting that revelation to be. As she gets a little flustered before trying to focus on his next question and observation.]
I'm not....really sure, exactly. Minako-chan was trying to help, to pretend to be me to fool the enemy, but....a lot happened. Mamo-chan tried to protect me and got hurt, he was kidnapped. At the time, I was more focused on trying to help save him.
[Understandably, the whole thing rather overwhelmed her in that period of time. She's a little calmer about it now, but seeing it in the mirrors playing out like that just brought it all right back to when she initially recalled it all. That and, well, it's....nice, comforting? To have someone else aside from the senshi to talk to. Even if she constantly second guesses, unsure how much Hiro might have actually already been told. How much she should actually reveal.]
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Considering that Venus, Mercury, Mars and Jupiter were part of the Royal Guard for the Moon Princess, this makes sense. He hasn't really heard much about Mamoru but it's not a hard stretch to fill in the pieces that he must be the Prince and everything.]
Because you loved him. [He thinks he can understand that. If he had a destiny tied to one person, someone he loved more than anything even if he didn't entirely remember them and all that they were, he'd do the same thing that Usagi had done.]
And Minako's...sort of the head of your protection squad, isn't she? So that part makes a lot of sense, too. [It's funny how they're both on the same page and still sort of dancing around the subject here.] Sorry, it's just a little hard to grasp still that all of your memories really are tied together.
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[Even if she's a cat that talks and thus a cat that pesters her about homework and duty when all Usagi wants to do is read manga or play video games.
Still, Luna isn't really the important thing here. It's Mamoru. It's piecing together from what Hiro says just how much the others have actually told him, or starting to.]
Mm. I did. I do love him. [All the more now her memories are back, even if it's also painful in knowing their past. In a way, it helps to know that whatever happens in between, she knows that ultimately, things will work out, since the others had mentioned the wedding.
Usagi gives an almost sheepish look at that though, the question about Minako as their leader.]
And of course it was Minako-chan! Someone like me couldn't really stay the leader after we found her. Or....ah, she found us.
[Either way. Usagi still doesn't really quite consider herself leader material. She only stepped up when necessary, because she had to, someone had to do so before they had encountered Minako as their final senshi with their inner guardians.]
It's okay to be confused. I know this is all....a lot.
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Love makes people do a lot of weird and crazy things. [He's already finding that he would do anything for Ruby, so this isn't surprising at all.] And I don't know about that. Sometimes it just takes time to grow into being a really good leader, even if it's just temporarily passing the job on for a bit.
[He's heard a lot of the stories from Rei, and some from Ami and very few from Minako as well. Rei is a dear and trusted friend at this point who has told him quite a bit. It's still interesting to hear these words from Usagi, however.] It's definitely a lot, but I think I get a lot of things about it. It's okay.
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[The same way Minako probably misses Artemis. Still, she's starting to get the idea that Hiro has likely been told a lot more than she's necessarily aware, at the very least.]
But you're right. It's just not something I expected. Being a leader. Even if I did at the time have the most experience...
[Not literally, but in the sense that aside from Minako, she was the first to awaken to her senshi powers.]
I'm still not sure how much to say.
[But, well. Hiro hasn't given her a reason not to trust him. And the others obviously do, if they've been talking to him about things back home, when he knows their senshi identities.]
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Let's put it this way, Usagi. I probably know a lot more than you think I do. I...Rei's a really good friend to me.
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[Not that she's. Actively detailing just what she means on the whole leader side of things aside from the obvious of being royalty, from her outfit and status given to her in the flashbacks that Hiro saw.
And yet she can't help pausing for a moment when he says that, before giving a nod.]
I know Rei-chan said you knew about the senshi and all. I just don't know how much she or the others have already told you. But I know she and Ami-chan are good friends to you and Tadashi-san.
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I didn't know she told you I knew. Makes things easier. [He purses his lips in thought as he thinks of how to explain everything.] The others haven't told me too much but Rei pretty much gave me a whole summary of events...who you guys are, the things you've fought, all of the other senshi that you guys recruited or whatever, the stuff that happened to the moon kingdom. It was a really long history lesson.
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Ah, well. I mean, I knew you were aware of her and the others as the senshi. [So it wasn't....too much of a stretch to guess he might be aware of her. Of course the others would have mentioned her, or Sailor Moon. Just not necessarily that they were one and the same. Still, she gives a nod as Hiro explains.]
Her or Ami-chan would probably be the best to explain it. Besides, they do remember more than I do. I was told about Pluto, so I guess there might be other senshi too. But I could try help, if you did still have some questions.
[A summary is good, but that doesn't mean Hiro might not still be curious about some details. Focusing on him rather than dwelling on the mirrors helps.]
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As far as I understand there's a senshi for every planet. I guess the only real question I have is how much do you really remember about your past life or whatever? Rei told me about multiple lifetimes.
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[So she doesn't remember nearly so much. Nothing about Chibi-Usa and all that, nothing with the other Outer senshi. Not yet. She just recalls the past generally happier life on Earth until the war, Endymion trying to stop it, along with her normal life on Earth living in Japan.]
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[He knows he shouldn't reveal everything though just in case timelines are blurred and broken.] I think maybe it's not something we should worry about too much here. This is sort of a new place to make new memories and not dwell on old stuff, right? We have time to learn more things about ourselves anyway.
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[Which is the main thing, right? Even if it hurt. Even if it wasn't easy, dealing with having Mamoru kidnapped and controlled to work for the Dark Kingdom and all. But well, Hiro isn't wrong there either.]
Hm. You're right! I mean, I may not know much about what happens next, but for now I can try make the most of things here in the meantime. Meeting everyone and....and trying to get stronger.
[Because in spite of their reassurance and protectiveness, Usagi does still feel a little insecure about the others being so much older, so much stronger now.]
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[They appear to be coming up on the senshi camp now.] That's really all we can ask for right now.
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[She can't help the reassuring smile at her lips as she nods before noticing the others and giving a wave.]
Ah, there they are!
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I guess this is where I leave you. Be careful out here, okay? Stick close with the others. [And with that he waves, turning on his heel and immediately making his way somewhere else. He feels better knowing she's in good hands with the other senshi. That's one less thing to worry about, at least.]