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expiationlogs2023-07-13 02:36 pm
{EVENT #3} ADVERSITY 1665648.6754
| MOD NOTES: Please direct any questions to the corresponding comment below. Note that character decisions and actions taken on these prompts will affect future events, storylines, and relationships with other peoples of Expiation. You can find the OOC poll here. Please pick from the corresponding options with the appropriate character journal. If you use a personal journal or a journal not part of Expiation, your votes will not be counted. Remember that if your character did something different than what is in the prompts given, leave a comment in the OOC poll entry and link to your comment in the option made available. We will provide an IC post in exactly one week with the results of the poll that will wrap up the event. You may mingle on it if you like, but the most important purpose is to share the effects of character decisions on this event. The various prompts are, of course, optional. |
FOLLOW THE FAIRIES
On the morning of the 14th, Chosen will wake to the sound of loud clanging outside as what seems like a band of fairies has arrived to town. Most of them don’t talk, they simply stare expectantly as they float above the ground and gain the attention of the Chosen. If a character tries to speak to them, most will roll their eyes or shake their heads—some possibly using rude gestures to get their point across. They seem like they’re waiting for something, and their stubborn silence might be a problem for some of the more impatient Chosen. Characters who are nice to them might get some sass, or some eye rolling. Characters who are more impatient and try to yell, fight, or harm the fairies might find themselves… afflicted. They might not be able to hear for a while, they might not be able to see—maybe they’ll be floating in the air as if in a bubble, not able to move one way or another besides squirming and yelling at the cranky fairies. It could be a lesser affliction, too—maybe your allergies suddenly act up, or you have a massive cramp in your legs so that you can’t go anywhere. These effects don’t last long, though, only about ten or fifteen minutes. Their purpose isn’t to harm anyone, they’re just trying to tell the ruder Chosen to kindly fuck off. Other lesser status effects might happen—but the intention is never to harm, just to distract.
A larger fairy comes flying up, and the others surrounding him roll their eyes in even more exasperation than anything the Chosen would’ve gotten out of them. He sighs in an exaggerated way, before putting on what seems to be a fairy’s sort of version of a Customer Service Smile. When he speaks, he’s smiling but he sounds bored out of his mind:
The fairies behind him make a motion, almost like they’re unzipping a zipper. With a sound of tear, a hole appears in the air behind him, almost as if the scenery itself has been torn. A couple more fairies pull and stretch the tear until it’s big enough for the Chosen to walk through. If the Chosen to look through the tear, they can see that there’s a desert on the other side of it. It looks to be some kind of ruins, actually—but don’t wait too long.
Mr. Expedition isn’t too happy with hesitation.
**NPC will be available for interaction at this point!
JOURNEY TO THE DESERT
When the Chosen step through, they find themselves in the middle of some desert ruins. There’s not much on the horizon to see other than sand, and an oasis that looks like it’s off in the distance. If characters try to exit the city and go further out, they’re stopped and find themselves teleported back somehow. The fairies give a little chuckle when it happens, so maybe it was them? They can’t go further into the desert than where they’re at right now. There are stone buildings, but there are also metal remains of structures scattered around the area—just about the size of Aldrip. There’s remnants of businesses, restaurants and houses. Some are standing, and some are only remembered by a single dining room table sitting in the middle of the sand.
**NPC will be available for interaction at this point!
I. THERE'S SAND IN MY SHOES
Chosen who wander the ruins may note that it looks like some of the buildings were left in a hurry. Some of them look like people just disappeared from the inside— everything remains intact, as if nothing has been moved or taken out of the building. Plates out, covered with dust and sand, as if waiting for a lunch that’ll never come, or at the bar with liquor still in smaller shot glasses. Twinkies that have been unopened and are, somehow, inexplicably,, still good—
The remnants of the interiors are covered in thick layers of dust, but when they look inside, everything is painted. Everything is treated as a mural, from the inside walls to the outside. From religious figures, partial landscapes, and even some cartoon-looking characters—there’s a little bit of everything painted. Nothing seems to be just plain, almost as if the people who had lived there had considered everything a blank canvas. There may still be buckets of paint that characters find still hanging around, dried up from disuse, but still there. Beneath piles of rubble, the Chosen can find canvases, easels and other art supplies, most in various states of disrepair from age.
Besides paper used for art work, it doesn’t look like there’s much in the way of books or newspapers.Instead, they’re able to find something that looks almost like a smartwatch: sleek, with minimal interface, but when touched, they activate a few seconds of what looks like decayed hologram log.We have to work together! We can’t let them separate us— The hologram disappears. The Chosen can fiddle with this device and try to restore the hologram, but it just repeats the same distorted words over and over in a loop.
Besides the watches are what look like datapads that are found around the buildings as well. Touching them will cause the screen to flash in and out, almost as if there’s something wrong with their wiring. But words on a screen can be found intermittently—Those bastards, they left us THEY LEFT But wait… You feel a sudden chill down your neck. Are you being watched? Was that a shadow moving from the corner of your eye? You look, but don’t see anything. No, that’s silly. Mr. Expedition is the one watching you. Of course. That’s all it was
Of course.
II. LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED
The Chosen are a thorough bunch, aren’t they? As they continue to investigate the ruins, they’ll be able to access places like pantries, drawers, closets, and basements that are still roughly intact. Kind of. There are various things in these nooks and crannies: characters will be able to find various sundries like money, or sheer metal, or old dilapidated clothing. Jewelry boxes may still have earrings or necklaces, tool boxes may still have tools inside, things like that. A lot of it is personal, tucked away in storage, waiting for owners who have seemingly not returned. Some of it is useless junk: broken toys, half-disintegrated candy wrappers, and the like.”You might want to keep those items for later.” Mr. Expedition says this over the Chosen’s shoulder, but when they turn around, he’s gone again.
What he doesn’t warn for… are the traps. There’s tripwire, and devices on the doors to ensure that they’re not messed with. What kind of traps?
Well, they’re mostly harmless.
Most of the traps are just pranks: trap doors springing open beneath a character's feet, a loud burst of firecrackers upon opening a drawer, pie-in-the-face pranks with pie shells that have long since dried up. There is an endless variety, and nothing causes more than light bruising or startling. What will the Chosen pick up? What traps will they end up springing? Well, that's up to you.
THOSE WHO COME AT NIGHT
As Mr. Expedition mentioned earlier, there are some… people hanging around. Or are they people at all? Sometimes it can be as simple as a shadow, a trick of the light...others look as if they’re merely ghosts. Whether the Chosen try to talk to them or not, they don’t say much.
Why us?
Why why why why why
It’s nothing that really makes sense to the Chosen… so maybe it’s not that important to interact with them. Right?
As the day gets darker and it turns to night, the figures become more tangible. Their forms become clearer, now: what looks like people with strange but possibly familiar markings running along their skin. They’re probably unnerving enough, with their incoherent speech that just gets louder and louder.But they're not the only concern here: the bigger problem is that something else is becoming more tangible, too. These creatures might have been humanoid, once: they seem to have two arms, two legs, and what looks like a head…but all of them look fuzzy, almost like they're half-there, with indistinct features and black holes where their faces should be. Even if they don't have mouths…they still scream when they attack.
III. DESERT'S HAUNTED
These creatures see the fairies—and anyone who might be accompanying them—as a threat, and they react accordingly. The marked humanoids ("Oh, ew, Infected!" Mr. Expedition will hastily explain, if asked), who had barely paid attention to the visitors earlier, turn more hostile at the sound of the screams, almost as if the shadowy mutations are encouraging them to join the attack. Curiously, their markings become more prominent at the sound of the screams, as well. They all seem averse to light, which might be why Mr. Expedition has encouraged the Chosen to stay close to camp. The campfire provides refuge from all of the hostile creatures, but for those enterprising enough to try exploring at night…well, good luck."Ah, yep, there they are," Mr. Expedition ponders aloud, ducking behind a group of the Chosen. "Now, let's see. What was I supposed to tell you about them? Hmm…something about 'the attack'." And then, just like that, he's gone again.How helpful.
Chosen who attack the Ghosts will find this to be a futile effort: weapons, magic, and objects lobbed at the creatures are absorbed in the black void of their bodies. Physical attacks with fists and the like are repelled: the Chosen will find themselves thrown several feet away after trying.
The Infected, as Mr. Expedition called them, do not seem to be invulnerable. The Chosen are able to attack and push them back with weapons, magic, and physical attacks, which can prove fatal to them. When they die, their bodies disappear from the field moments after they're struck down.
Both the Ghosts and the Infected are able to hurt the Chosen, tearing at them with claws. The wounds caused by these creatures seem normal enough, but are invulnerable to magical healing, and take a strangely long time to heal…
IV. KNEW THAT'D COME IN HANDY
"Aha! I got it!" Mr. Expedition cries, reappearing over the Chosen a few minutes later. "Be nice! Remember the attack! And items have power!" He bows, as if he's made the most helpful announcement in the world, and then disappears again. So…what does that mean? And why did he wait until now to even say anything?
Chosen that are able to think quickly may remember his words from earlier about holding onto some of the personal items they found in the ruins. They might also remember how some of their ranks had been Branded before, and how selfless acts helped them overcome those struggles. The Infected may stand down when they're held back from hurting others, or given a possession that someone found earlier. If given a personal item—any personal item—from the ruins, they pause their fighting, their faces going blank for a few moments. The markings begin to face, and they collapse on the ground. they're still alive, but unconscious.
The Ghosts are more formidable. They don't have the same reaction to the personal items, but they seem to be strongly affected by acts of protection. Witnessing the Chosen exhibiting these acts of kindness is what ultimately gets a Ghost to stop in its tracks. These creatures are too far gone to revert to a humanoid form, though—if their tastes are met, they simply fade away.
THOSE WHO STAYED BEHIND
We get it, not everyone trusts fairies. Those who choose not to go on the expedition to the ruins might find things eerily quiet in Aldrip. There are a few fairies who stay behind and continue to coax the ground back to life, of course—and just as before, they encourage the Chosen to help them do so.
But if they're paying attention, the Chosen might notice that something is amiss. Parts of signs on buildings have blinked out of existence. Some of the local residents of Aldrip act as if they're lagging. Some even flicker in and out of existence…but that's fine, right? Nothing to worry about.
Right?
V. IT'S NOT A BUG, IT'S A FEATURE
For those who have stayed behind, there's plenty of work to do in Aldrip and the surrounds. Buildings still sit in disrepair after the last event—haven't the locals been working on that? no? what have they been doing all this time?—and decayed wood and underbrush need to be removed from Pessiria Forest.
Now would be a great time to begin working on building up new things, too: plenty of Chosen have been talking about building homes or dorms to ease the pressure on the Inn, and some of the locals still whisper concerns about what happens if refrigeration fails again. Do they have enough crops to feed everyone, after that giant monster withered so much of the area? Where are you going to put all that debris, anyway? And what about the paths between towns that still lie in disrepair?
Unfortunately, the Chosen are almost entirely on their own for this. The people of Aldrip seem particularly helpless in the face of change, and some even seem to freeze up at the thought of helping out…wait. Are they actually frozen? They're not blinking. Or moving. …Oh, they're fine now.
This is fine!
VI. FUCK IT, WE BALL (WILDCARD)
Just because there’s not a prompt for it doesn’t mean that your character’s actions aren’t acceptable. If you wish to do anything that hasn’t been directly addressed by the prompts, leave a message for the mod team to say what your character would do. If you choose to go down this path, note it as a comment on the OOC poll when it goes up, and leave a link to your threads so that we can take all actions into consideration for the next State of the Game.
1
He may have already been able to see Ange approaching, if not just by her shadow starting to move closer as she was approaching him. Even if the girl may not exactly be social by nature, she's figured there's only so much she can figure out about this place by just looking into stuff herself.
And since it seems that Emet-Selch is working on something, she figures he's at least seriously trying to investigate all of this too. Might as well see what he found out then - or maybe help find something out, when she realises he's struggling with it once she gets closer and hears him speak.
Hence her question. She doubts they'll be able to find anything much better than what he's working with right now, but who knows.
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"This device is surprisingly advanced in comparison to the level of progress shown by the township we arrived in. It requires far finer tools than what I have found so far in order to open it."
Pausing, he narrows his eyes and mutters something in a harsh, foreign language. "I suppose I could simply create the tool myself..."
With a snap of his fingers, a small tool appears in his hand: some sort of long item with a flat head that allows him to try and lever at a thin crack on the back of the pad.
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Except she's seen a whole lot of crap in the last year, and somehow him summoning that tool to his hands feels like the least strange of those things. It doesn't even make her blink anymore - nor does she address the act out loud when she speaks up again, instead focusing on what he said.
"You found that here?"
Apparently Ange hadn't found one herself yet, judging by the faint hint of surprise in her voice. She glances around them before her gaze returns to this device in his hands.
"It seems so out of place here. As if something or someone planted it." (Which is, of course, the most cynical possible interpretation as to why it's here - but of course Ange would see the glass as half empty in that sense.)
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He pauses his work to stare out at the ruins. "Mayhap those who once lived here were brought here forcibly as we were. Did we not bring with us relics of our own stars?"
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It's an angle Ange apparently hadn't quite considered. It sounds like the girl is thinking about it even as she admits that he's right. Maybe it's since she's so pessimistic, but it felt so much easier to jump to the thought that these watches don't belong here because they're planted than to imagine the people here might have been in the exact same situation as them.
It's such an interesting thought that the man's odd usage of the word stars goes right over her head for the moment. Maybe it'll actually hit her later.
"Maybe that's why we are here? It could be a warning." She gestures with one hand at their surroundings. "It doesn't exactly look like things ended up well for them."
Not with this place so empty, looking like everyone just left one day.
"Unless they all got to return home."
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His attention back to the watch, he frowns at the inner workings. It is (predictably) far smaller and more intricate than he's used to. It's not likely he'll be making headway with it any time soon.
So, after a moment's pause, he pockets the watch instead. The tool he had created to open its back vanishes. Or rather, it dissipates into nothing. "I am going to see if I can find any other similar devices. Mayhap a comparison will yield some clues."
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And since he doesn't seem overly social, Ange figures she can tolerate his company. Better to be looking around here with him than with one of the local chatterboxes..
So if he starts walking, she's more than ready to follow. And to actually keep out an eye for anything that looks like the device he's holding, considering that Ange does want to solve the mystery of what happened here.
Still, she can multitask, which means that as she's looking around, she can also ask: "What do you think it'd be like? The sentencing here?"
Sure, no one would have a perfect idea of it, given that none of them have experience with it. But maybe that's exactly why she wants to pick his brain a little, see how different people imagine it.
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(His voice is still terse though.)
"That would depend on the benevolence of these so-called gods, now wouldn't it?" He picks his way through the abandoned toys on the floor of the first home they come across. This must have been a family's home once. The pot on the stove is crusted with some sort of long-evaporated liquid. "I don't see why they have to wait to begin with unless they need time to discuss a fitting punishment for our crimes."
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See, the upside of talking about this with a guy who seems to act the way Emet-Selch does is that Ange can just easily say this. She doesn't have to think about what the other's reaction might be, since she's pretty sure he won't startle the way some people have in this place after she uttered similar ideas.
It's not even like she's saying it to be edgy, after all. Ange sounds fully serious about this - like she really thinks it's a very possible thing that could be going on here, as she opens up a few drawers, only to find nothing interesting in them and closing them again.
"Maybe they want to see us anticipate it. Dread it. The longer you make people wait for the inevitable, the more crazy things they start to do, after all." And Ange is very used to supernatural entities - there's got to be something like that in charge here too, she figures - finding it incredibly amusing to see people panicking.
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Case in point: this whole ruin exploration thing. It's not exactly a punishment, is it? Granted, Emet-Selch's idea of torture is a twelve thousand year-long ordeal of watching mortals so who is he to judge...
He crosses his arms, scowling at the room. "Now, if they mean to suggest to us that this abandoned place is what happens to those who disobey then that is another matter. However, the fae who brought us here made no mention of it."
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It's a look that lingers for a moment or two, like she's trying to figure something out here, but when she can't seem to tell from appearances, she just flat-out asks:
"Are you human?"
You know.
A totally normal question to ask someone else in the middle of all of this, right. Nothing strange going on here.
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"I certainly am. Are you?"
Mortals have thinner souls in his eyes. Literally. But that distinction has been made murky since being thrown in here with people from a myriad of other worlds.
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At least the girl answers the question easily, willing to take in what she dishes out. And though there might be no way to tell for sure, she is actually telling the truth here.
In fact, she's even apparently willing to elaborate on why she was asking Emet-Selch this in the first place, since after a moment she moves on to say: "The way you were talking about everything just made me curious. Kind of like you are above emotions like that."
Says.. the girl who has basically been pulling a pokerface and using an emotionless tone this entire conversation..
Pot, kettle, you know how it goes.
"Most entities I met that were like that weren't human. Mostly witches. Sometimes demons."
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He looks aside in disgust. "I am none of that. I am most certainly a man and a mage. I know not what a demon is but I presume 'tis nothing good. Mortals fear what they do not understand and I am well beyond their limited understanding."
Creating something from pure aether had been a normal skill in his time. Now depending on the time and place, it's either reviled or worshipped.
"I resent your assertion that I am above emotion as well; I simply do not see the point in expecting any better. If you had spent centuries upon centuries observing mankind then you would be disillusioned with their world as well, but that does not mean I'm devoid of feelings entirely."
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And yet there's that claim at the end. Not that Ange doubts it, though.
"That explains a lot," she instead says, still relatively calmly, even in the face of the offense and disgust in his tone. "I thought you sounded like someone who's lived a long time, that's all."
Even if she couldn't help but default to the standards of her world, where such a person could never be human. She guesses his world must work differently.
"I think it's easier to feel dread or worry when your life is very short. When it can end at any moment." Not that Ange sounds like she's dreadful or worried, but.. you know, that might just be since her tone sounds so flat at all times. Hard to tell any emotion from that.
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He doesn't expect her to understand or even agree with him. He's long since given up on expecting anyone to sympathise with his position. Still, he eyes her.
"You do not seem very surprised to learn that I am immortal."
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Which might be obvious. It sure is the easiest possible explanation as to why she isn't very surprised, right? Even though Ange knows that sort of statement would sound ridiculous if she said it out loud to any normal person back in her own world.
But it sure isn't going to sound ridiculous to a guy who's.. claiming people are destined to be immortal?
Kind of wild, but it's not like it's the weirdest thing Ange has ever heard. Guy's just clearly got strong beliefs, she figures.
"So the concept really isn't all that weird to me. This is definitely the first time I'm hearing though that supposedly all people are supposed to be immortal."
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The venom in his voice when he spits out that name hints at a deep, long-held grudge. His hands ball into tight fists.
"She sundered the star and all those upon it, you see. Divided them on a material and immaterial level, to the point where their lives are so thin that they are a fraction of what they used to be."
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Maybe the hypocrisy of it is why she keeps that deadpan remark to herself, instead quietly listening to him speaking before she speaks up again herself.
"So that's how you became immortal? You got so mad at her doing it that you made it your life-long quest to gain immortality and do the same for all other people?"
It's kind of what it sounds like, after all. Especially when she considers the emotion in the man's tone - such a contrast with the way Ange speaks so calmly, despite the.. well, odd nature of the subject they're discussing here.
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"No, no, no. I and two others escaped her blow. I am one of the original people of my star. I did not become this; I already was."
Quite frankly, calling it immortality isn't accurate either, but it's the easiest way for others to understand what he means so he isn't going to quibble over syntax unless she asks further.
"What I want is to repair the damage she wrought and restore all the souls she split to their rightful whole."
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Yeah, that's definitely different than what she was thinking, though it still seems to be believable enough in the girl's book. She certainly doesn't seem to be questioning his story either way though.
Instead she picks out what seems most interesting about this story to her. Or, perhaps, most relevant to their current situation. Which in this case means--
"Did you escape it on purpose? Or was it an accident?"
Sure, she can get that Emet-Selch didn't want that immortality taken away from him, but his wording leaves her unsure if he just got lucky, or if this was his plan all along.
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It's one of two sights he will never forget: the darkened skies as their city fell to ruins, and later, the searing light which changed their star forever.
"The three of us lost our corporeal bodies as a result. Had we not abandoned them, I imagine we would have shared the same fate as the rest of the star and been none the wiser." He crosses his arms and glares at the floor. "Which was likely Her original intention."
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Because that doesn't technically count as human anymore, Ange thinks. It's like the way she technically isn't human anymore in some ways too, and yet she feels like she's still closer to the concept than he is, considering this entire explanation.
Not that it really matters, it's just.. maybe Ange would like to know what she's dealing with here.
(Or maybe she's always just been too curious for her own good.)
"Or did this place give you a normal body?" She pauses, stares at him for a second, and then adds just as calmly as everything else: "You look pretty normal to me."
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Ahem.
"To answer your question, I exist in an incorporeal state when I am not inhabiting a vessel. Obviously I currently possess one or else you would not likely be able to see me. This is the form of the man whose identity I last assumed."
i'm so sorry for how late this is, i must have lost the notif!
.. she can't. Granted, Ange does have other magical powers, so it's not like the idea of her being able to see spirits is that far off from the truth.. It's a power she actually wouldn't mind in some ways, honestly.
But she'll take his explanation anyway. It makes sense, mostly, if not just because Ange is used to weird magic mumbo jumbo from back home.
"But I get it. You took someone's body. Kind of weird, but I imagine you just didn't like hanging around as some formless entity that can't do anything."
no worries! always happy to tag back
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apologies, xiv patch ate me
it's fine, thank you for getting back to the thread! <3
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