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expiationlogs2023-09-11 06:30 am
- !event,
- ai tsf: mizuki date,
- arcane: caitlyn kiramman,
- arcane: jinx,
- arcane: silco,
- arcane: violet / vi,
- blazblue: ragna the bloodedge,
- bungo stray dogs: nikolai gogol,
- bungo stray dogs: sigma,
- final fantasy xiii2: noel kreiss,
- fire emblem three hopes: marianne,
- fma:b: pride,
- magia record: mitama yakumo,
- original: astralin turnont,
- persona 3 portable: kotone shiomi,
- persona 4: yosuke hanamura,
- persona 4: yu narukami,
- persona 5 royal: goro akechi,
- umineko wtc: ange ushiromiya,
- x-men movieverse: scott summers
{EVENT #4} ADVERSITY 2933165.9475
| 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 ten days 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. |
WHEN THE FOG ROLLS IN
On the night of September 10, an impenetrable fog covers the town of Aldrip. When characters wake in the morning, they find that Aldrip has disappeared, replaced by a large, enclosed maze.
Characters will wake up in one of three different levels of this maze, and they may—but don't have to—find that they are not alone. As they explore the maze, they will encounter trials and stumbling blocks both physical and mental. It seems the maze is testing them, poking at their fears, their past, their feelings. Confronting these questions about themselves and their very nature will allow them to progress through the maze in hopes of eventually finding the exit—and hopefully the town along with it.
While they do not all wake up in the same level of the maze, all characters do, in theory, have to complete all three trials in order to leave. This may not be so easy to achieve; due to the nature of these trials, if someone cannot get past one area, they may remain stuck there. Other characters are able to help them confront these issues, and may instead (or in addition) pass through that way if they choose to. Aside from the level where they wake up, characters may approach these levels in any order as they so choose.THE GROUPS
GROUP A:
Serah Farron
Elidibus
Nakahara Chuuya
Tsunayoshi Sawada
Rei Suwa
Caitlyn Kiramman
Ragna the Bloodedge
Kotone Shiomi
Monkey D. Luffy
Yuja Wightshade (WoL)
Yosuke Hanamura
Astralin Turnont
Dazai Osamu
Ange Ushiromiya
Hythlodaeus
Ethlyn
GROUP B:
Violet (Vi)
Silco
Mizuki Date
Claude von Riegan
Noel Kreiss
Kazuki Kurusu
G'raha Tia
Jinx
Marianne von Edmund
Goro Akechi
Sooyoung Han
Saito Sejima
Nikolai Gogol
Erichtonios
Emet-Selch
GROUP C:
Yu Narukami
Pride
Sigma
Usagi Tsukino
William G Maryblood
Scott Summers
Gundam Tanaka
Quentin Quire
Akira Kurusu
Mitama Yakumo
Med'an
Ken Amada
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Izuku "Deku" Midoriya
Echo
EXPLORING THE MAZE
The walls of the maze are made of stone slabs; tall, solid, and imposing. As far as one can see, there seem to be no cracks or seams in the wall. They're cool to the touch, perhaps a little dampened by the foggy weather. Some of the stones seem to glow with a dim, inner light. Most of the corridors are stable, but some are a little more risky. Walls or ceilings could collapse, leaving passages blocked and some Chosen trapped within tunnels or rooms of the maze.
Some corridors within the maze are less built up, as well, more like dug-out caverns that look somewhat like mining tunnels. In these tunnels, you can find the raw form of those glowing stones, which seem to light the darkness, allowing the Chosen to see at least a bit. They're enchanting, and some may have a hard time resisting trying to pull them out of the walls.
Occasionally, characters may find larger rooms with small tables of food, equipment, and supplies set up. These areas seem to be safety zones, untouched by the trials, where Chosen can eat, rest, treat any wounds, and replenish their energy.
ii. PERILS IN THE DARK
As the Chosen progress through the challenges of the maze—both illusions and real—the air itself may begin to feel more oppressive and heavy, making movement feel very difficult at times. As the week wears on, characters may find themselves worn out faster or feeling more sluggish than normal. More than that, they may find that their emotional lows become more intense: characters may become more easily frustrated, paranoid, scared, or impatient. In general, this seems to exacerbate the worst parts of their personalities.
On other occasions, Chosen may feel as if they are being watched. They get the feeling that something lurks in the shadows of the maze, that they are being watched or followed. They may hear something scratching or skittering across the walls. When they look…there is nothing there, nor any evidence of creatures stalking them through the halls. Characters who had bad luck in the Casino are particularly prone to this feeling; occasionally, they may feel as if someone—or something—is tugging at their hair or clothes, or breathing against their neck. Try to keep your head, Chosen. The hardest part is yet to come.
THE TRIALS
iii. A DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL [TRIAL A]
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what location or event triggers the beginning of the trial; it seems to be different for every character. Chosen will find themselves in a long corridor, laced with fog. As they progress down this corridor, they begin to see and hear hallucinations and illusions that highlight their greatest insecurities: their flaws, their weaknesses, the darkness they suspect dwells within their soul.
These illusions may come in a variety of different forms. Perhaps they experience voices or images of peers issuing criticisms that they fear are accurate, or they may face a shadowy figure that bears their appearance that embodies all of their worst qualities. The form these illusions take is up to you, the players, and whether other characters are able to see those illusions can also be decided between players. Confronting, challenging, debunking, and/or accepting these criticisms and claims is the key to exiting this level.
Once they have confronted this challenge, the illusions and hallucinations stop immediately. The fog lifts, revealing a turn in the maze they didn't notice before. They may progress in their exploration.
iv. THE SHAPE OF YOUR FEARS [TRIAL B]
Similar to the first trial, this seems to trigger with little warning or fanfare. At some point in their exploration, characters will find their way blocked by something representing their deepest fears. This can be literal—a dark hallway for those who fear the dark, as an example—but can manifest in a myriad of other ways, too. A character could see someone from their past that represents this fear, or a monster, or an object or memory of something that connects to that fear. These fears will be made tangible and visible to anyone around them, leaving them exposed and vulnerable. In order to progress, they must be able to pass by these fears, and may do so in any way the player chooses, whether it requires fighting a monster, negotiating with an authority figure, finding a light in the darkness, or anything else players and characters can imagine.
The nature of this trial can be as massive or mundane as you, the player, chooses. Whether they need to simply turn on a light to abate their fear of the dark, or whether they need to take down a massive beast to confront something bigger, the area they find themselves in seems to accommodate the size of their trial. Once they have confronted this fear, it disappears, revealing a hallway that might not have been there before, allowing them to progress.
v. IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE [TRIAL C]
As with the first two trials, this one seems to emerge from the darkness when a character is ready to face it. They enter a room lined with obsidian mirrors. When they approach these mirrors, characters are confronted with memories related to the crime they have been charged with. This can be a specific moment or a series of moments related to their crime either directly or indirectly. Characters may become lost in these memories and may need help navigating through them from other people: the longer they remain lost in these memories, reliving them again and again, the more they run the risk of losing those memories entirely, either permanently or temporarily. Only by addressing the crime, the way they feel about it, the relationship that crime has to reality and to who the character is, can characters be free of this particular trial.
Once they have surpassed this trial, characters find themselves able to step back through these obsidian mirrors back into the maze, where they can continue their journey.
Navigating all three trials elicits no special fanfare or celebration. Upon completion of the third trial, they find themselves in a foggy corridor, where they will find an exit from the maze.
OPT-OUT AND AFTERMATH
Those characters (or players) who do not wish to interact with the maze will occasionally find quiet corridors that mysteriously place them outside the maze, unable to reenter. They will find that the town is, indeed, gone, as are their living quarters—hope you don't mind roughing it for a while. However, thanks to recent efforts to bolster the town's supplies, some of the underground storehouses organized by Claude and Marianne seem to remain intact and are available as temporary emergency shelter, should your character choose not to camp out.
After one week, the maze will disappear and life in Aldrip returns to normal. As for the locals? They don't seem to notice that anything strange has happened at all. Maze? What maze? Strange weather we're having this week, eh?
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.
no subject
She won't have to face this all alone.]
I... it's... [She shakes her head, trying to clear her thoughts enough for a coherent answer.] Grannvale. My home.
[She forces herself to look at the boy with the cruel face. There is something in his eyes--it is like what she sees in Sigurd's eyes, and Quan's, and Altena's--the blessing of the gods, shining faintly from within. But it isn't like theirs. It isn't light in his eyes.]
I can't place that mark on his forehead--or those children--but that's Grannvale's throne--and--it must mean that we failed.
no subject
A-Are you sure? But we're still in Aldrip, this maze sprung up suddenly, and...
[ And well, she can't explain what's happening, but a part of her wishes these cruel images to be illusions so they wouldn't torment her friend so. She reaches Ethlyn's side and stands with her to face the children. ]
no subject
[She has a terrible feeling about what this means for Sigurd, if Arvis' son is on the throne, looking as malevolent as one of the old emperors out of history texts. Maybe he survived as the leader of an underground rebellion, but she knows him too well to think he would live this long as one.
Another woman fades into view at the cruel king's shoulder when Marianne steps closer to Ethlyn, looking at the young man with conflicted eyes. He turns to her, gesturing at the children with satisfaction.]
"Only the fittest will survive, and those fittest will become the ideal citizens of Loptous' new world."
no subject
[ The cause of Ethlyn's death, and the death of her husband and family. It's all too cruel. If the illusions were true, the throne which should have been occupied by the rightful king has been overtaken by a cold lord who sits on it with indifference.
She has an equally bad feeling when a woman appears to join the man. Her words send a chill through Marianne. ]
What does she mean?
no subject
Sacrifices. [Her eyes go back to that mark on his forehead.] The Loptrian Empire would sacrifice children to their dark god--the god that inhabited their emperor. That was hundreds of years ago.
But that mark... those who carry the major bloodline of Holy Blood often carry a brand on their bodies to signify the pact. I can only think that the brand on his forehead is that of Loptous.
[If it's real... but why would she be shown an illusion of people she doesn't know? It would mean nothing. And the other visions, the Gáe Bolg and the slaughter at Aed, she knew those were far too real.]
The dark god has returned to the throne of my birthplace.
no subject
[ Marianne whispers in horror. Not because she doesn't believe Ethlyn, but because what she is hearing is too awful to imagine. An empire practicing child sacrifices, goddess... Her hands come together and she intertwines her fingers. ]
What should we do? Why would the maze show us this? [ Her voice turns quiet, as if the very act of saying it would provoke the shadowy figures. ] Should we try to stop them?
no subject
That's what her parchment says. And from the first day of her arrival in Aldrip, Ethlyn has been disclaiming its accuracy, using it as an example to encourage others not to take their own accusations too much to heart.
She died. Quan died. That is Arvis' son--and that woman must be from Friege, a house that framed Ethlyn's brother and father for treason. It is looking more and more certain that Sigurd did not make it back home--or that if he did, a terrible fate befell him. He would never be alive and allow such words to be spoken from the throne of his fatherland.
Marianne's words startle her out of her horror, and at the suggestion of doing something, Ethlyn strides forward. She doesn't have her sword, only a small knife, but it's still enough to drive into the young man--and it goes right through him. She makes a sound of surprise as she stumbles to regain her balance.]
An illusion. [She shudders.] An illusion of something real. The crimes of Grannvale... the crime I was charged with.
no subject
I don't understand. Weren't they the ones who attacked? Why would you be held responsible?
[ What's more, the crimes of an entire empire doesn't seem like it should be one person's to carry. ]
no subject
[Seeing what they're seeing now, there is no way to deny that truth. She failed. Quan failed. Her father and Sigurd failed. Lewyn, Ayra, Brigid, Claud... all of their efforts were for naught.]
We tried to stand against Grannvale when we realized what it had become--but they had already forced us out of its borders with false charges. Its military was so strong. [That had, at one time, been something Ethlyn was proud of.] We took up arms against it... but....
[She shakes her head helplessly.]
no subject
[ Ethlyn had paid the highest price. What more could she have done? Marianne comes to stand by her friend's side in solidarity, staring at the phantom figures and their cold expressions. She shivers inadvertently. It must not be easy for Ethlyn to witness the future in all its cruelty. It's a wonder that she hasn't yet collapsed in despair. ]
no subject
Instead, she was ambushed and cut down long before she could reach her brother. She had set out to help him. But she knows that once he learned of her death and Quan's, he must have been crushed. Maybe so much so that it clouded his tactical mind.
What if she had doomed him?]
But we could have fought better. We tried to take them head-on... match them might for might. My brother's army held many Holy Weapons, but...
[Did Sigurd have Tyrfing? She doesn't know how he could have unless Father had somehow gotten it into his hands. Would that have tipped the balance? With Forseti, Yewfelle, and Valkyrie--if four Holy Weapons weren't enough, she isn't sure what could have won the day.]
Now the continent suffers because we didn't find the right way.
no subject
[ She doesn't know how much her words could reassure Ethlyn against the phantoms that stand present before them, but Marianne presses on. ]
There are battles I've fought where I wished I did something different. If I was faster or stronger, I could have saved more lives. It's easy to say what could have been done in hindsight. [ Her normally soft voice grows stronger, as if trying to drive her point through. ] The continent suffers not because of you, but because of the wrongdoing of those I see before me.
[ ...and she even fixes the phantoms with a glare, though it's not a very practiced one coming from Marianne ]
no subject
Is she responsible for the evil that's gripped the continent since she departed it? Marianne's words are what she would say herself to someone else in the same situation... perhaps she ought to try and reach past her own horror and pain to believe it.]
...perhaps. [Its still difficult to even try and feel when she sees the consequence of being unable to defeat them, laid so bare.] I know I'm not responsible for their choices. But---to see it like this--
[She shakes her head, unable to find the words to describe the chasm her feelings lie in.]
no subject
[ It's easy to blame yourself for not being able to do more. It's hard to look away from the horror. It's heartbreaking to see it happening and be powerless to prevent it. She's sure Ethyln must be feeling a tumult of emotions, but... ]
But you can't help them if you remain in this maze.
[ Gently, she touches Ethlyn's arm. Escape, then maybe someday, there'll be a chance for her to return home. ]
no subject
...no... no, you are right about that.
[Whatever the truth is about her culpability for the evil her birth country embraced, staying in here to wallow in the pain of it doesn't do anything to make it better. Ethlyn takes a dep breath so she can pull herself up straight. That is the world her children live in. But her children live--at least now she knows that much. And if they are alive, then maybe so is her nephew, and the children of her friends, and others who can take up the battle their parents lost.]
I wish my children didn't have to keep fighting this war, though. I wish... we could have protected them from that.
no subject
[ No mother should have to watch their children wrapped up in a cruel war. Marianne's heart goes out to Ethlyn. Not all hope is lost though. Her children are alive, and they can be thankful for one small miracle. She'll pray for another one. ]
I hope you'll be reunited with them someday. I'm sure they're strong, just like you. Have faith in them.