EVENT #11: ADVERSITY 4590683

[expiationmods]

EVENT #11: REMEMBER YOU ARE MORTAL

This event takes place in conjunction with a player plot that is open for participation! Participation in that plot is not needed to experience the world effects outlined in this log. You can find the log for the player event here!

THE STORY SO FAR (click to expand)

-Over time, characters have discovered that the world of Expiation is actually a large, elaborate simulation run by an AI that seems to be intent on helping them atone for their crimes. This news is well-known by the Chosen, enough so that any new character who wishes to handwave this knowledge is able to do so.

-In September 2024, that AI needed to be reset as a consequence of some catastrophic systems failures. So far, there has been no downside to this reset–but the AI has also been strangely absent since then.

-Things have been quiet in Aldrip since September, aside from the routine arrival of new Chosen. The locals seem less than happy with the Chosen, though, as if they have already branded them all criminals. As if they no longer trust them…

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11

The moon looms large and full over the buildings of Aldrip this morning.

… Wait. The moon?

It’s true: Aldrip seems to have settled into an eerie perpetual twilight, lit by the full moon and little else. The ambient lighting is dim, but not dark, still light enough to see by. Which is good, because nothing else seems to be serving as a source of light. No sun, no street lamps–nothing. How odd is that?

In fact, it seems that no electronics are working during this strange week. Tablets don’t turn on, computers won’t work, even the lights inside the houses are unresponsive. STEM club’s dark web devices remain capable of some rudimentary communication, however.

The Dark Hour permeates Aldrip entirely. Well. Almost entirely–more on that in a minute. But first: monsters of all kinds will be more prominent during this time. If you would like to add new monsters to the bestiary, you can do so here! Monsters will be more aggressive and enterprising, freely roaming the streets of the city and attacking more boldly than they otherwise would.

Now, all is not lost, here. Because some Chosen-owned spaces remain immune to its effects. Notably: the Inn, the Willow Clinic, and some other player-run businesses can serve as safe houses, as well as some storehouses that were constructed long ago. The lights will still go on in these locations, though the network restrictions above still remain in effect.

For the most part, monsters and other event happenings will avoid safe houses, though if you’d like to play around with that, we see no reason why you shouldn’t. Just remember that characters and players who choose to limit their participation in the event are making use of these spaces, and be respectful of that.

As for outside of the city…who knows? A thick, impenetrable mist surrounds Aldrip, keeping all characters within the city for the duration of the event. Anyone who may have been outside of Aldrip before the event began will mysteriously find themselves inside the city as the Dark Hour takes hold. Better make your way to a safe house…and good luck out there.

MY OWN WORST ENEMY

Who is the monster and who is the man?

It seems that monsters aren’t the only obstacle roaming the city. The Chosen may find themselves facing doppelgangers, of themselves or of fellow Chosen. In terms of appearance, they may be identical to the Chosen they reflect, to the point of being difficult to tell apart. Some may have minor changes–different eye color, different clothing, things like that. But in many cases, it may be impossible to tell which is real and which is not based on looks alone.

These doubles reveal a dark reflection of the characters they look like: their deepest fears and regrets, repressed desires they refuse to admit, feelings and experiences they’ve never told anyone about…all of these things and more will come to the surface with them. These doubles desperately want to see a character’s accused crime confronted, and they will do anything to make that happen, even resorting to violence if they must. The doubles have all the original powers and abilities of their real counterparts, making them extremely difficult (but not impossible!) to fight one-on-one.

Some characters may find themselves inexplicably drawn to their doppelgangers, as if called by some force. They may feel compelled to seek them out, as if they’re unable to rest so long as their double roams free. This is an optional effect, but should you be looking for an excuse to get your character out and about–please feel free to utilize it.

Doubles can be injured and incapacitated, but not killed; the only way to eliminate them is through acceptance and recognition. Characters do not have to do this alone; in fact, having some moral support or coaching may prove useful. Confronting the double and accepting or seriously reflecting upon the crime they’re charged with will make the doppelgangers first turn docile, and then disappear, leaving the original character feeling lighter and more sure of themselves.

A MINOR TECHNICALITY

What happens to a simulation when the electronics stop working?

Good question.

Occasionally, you may see what looks like a strange, thin line, just from the corner of your vision. Early in the week, trying to look at this line straight on reveals…nothing. It seems to vanish.

As the week continues, this strange happening seems to intensify, bit by bit. By midweek, Wednesday or so, you’re able to look at this line head-on. It seems to be a small crack, little more than a hairline fracture, outlined in light. As the weekend creeps closer, this crack seems to grow, bit by bit, becoming more pronounced, the gaps between it getting larger.

By the weekend, it’s wide enough that you can see through it.

What you see is difficult to describe. You seem to be looking into a large metallic structure, so large that the end seems to curve off into the horizon. How far does this go on? There’s a ceiling overhead, so high up that you can’t make out details. Much of this structure seems to be empty within, but you see a floor at foot level, made of metal.

The gap is wide enough that you can stick your hand right through it. When you do so, you begin to feel a strange tingling, starting at the tips of your fingers and extending to the part of your arm that goes into the crack. Nothing about your hand changes, really, but when the tingling subsides, you get the strange sensation that you’ve been unable to feel anything with that hand, up til now. Something about the air against your skin feels more real, here. As if your senses were muted before…

The crack never widens more than this. It is sometimes visible to just one person, and sometimes it can be visible to a group. This crack can appear in any surface, in any location, but it always looks the same and always reveals the same structure within.

Interesting…

ENDING

In conjunction with the conclusion of the player plot, the Dark Hour comes to an end one week later, on November 18. Monsters vacate the city, the sun reappears…this happens slowly, over the course of the day. By Tuesday, the network and electronic usage is restored. By Wednesday, the crack in the world seems to be gone for good. By the weekend after the event, all doppelgangers seem to have vanished.

This is fine, we always say. And it is! Everything is back to normal!

…

Or is it…?

WILDCARD

Make your own fun! Just because it’s not in the prompts doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Have at it! Go crazy! Try not to break anything (too much)!

♡

Comments

[computation]

Oh yeah. And believe me, I got real creative trying to dispatch her.

[ Root has a cheerful yet incredulous tone as she thinks back on some of the things she'd tried. She's not immune to how bizarre and disorienting it was to shotgun blast the legs off of someone that didn't just look like her, but could've been her.

Having accepted her double into truly going away, Root isn't about to deny to herself that she was one single wrong turn away from being a Samaritan goon.

Realizing that's the real solution, she prods, ] What do you think that was about? Why would she want to serve me?

[ashesofkatarr]

[Visas wonders what creative means. The humanoid body is such a fragile thing, there are so many ways to make it cease functioning.

But Root's question is more important to answer than that little bit of curiosity. Visas has only known Root for a few standard months. She knows a little bit about the woman's history, mostly what Root has revealed herself after Visas tried to kill her. She's relieved to have been forgiven for that, but that isn't the same as her feelings towards the Exile.]

I do not know. [...] She repeats something I have said, but it was not to just anyone... it was to the person I felt it for.

[computation]

[ And Root tried quite a few! (Thanks, Claude.)

She wouldn't expect something so intense from Visas either. Sure, she likes her, respects her capabilities greatly, but people don't usually go around proclaiming devotion to someone that fast. Apart from Root with the Machine, that is. So there's obviously something else going on. ]

And who's that? Come on, I'm not going to leave you to handle this alone, which I think means I should get to know what it's about.

[ Shameless manipulation? Absolutely. ]

influence: success

[ashesofkatarr]

[Visas hesitates. She has known Root for so short a time... still, what they do know about each other is significant.

She knows that Root has killed. Has a history, in fact, of evil.

Maybe she will understand. And if a copy of Visas is going to crawl back out of the aether to trouble her again, she might need to know anyway.]

...An exile. From an order of knights sworn to protect the galaxy. She went to war to save others, and she was broken, and cast out, and recently she returned. I heard the echoes of her pain across the stars.

She chose to spare me. And I chose to serve her.

I had a good feeling about that dialogue option

[computation]

[ This sounds-- not the same exactly, but a rhyming verse of the same song, maybe. Root recognizes it in feeling if not in fact. In a strange way it validates and explains her instinctive attraction to Visas, not just in a possibly romantic sense but on a fundamental level. Root is drawn to people who are loyal, who have a coherent moral perspective and stick to it, even if it's a vacant one. ]

One day I want to hear that whole story, [ she informs her with honest intent, ] but I get the gist. You're feeling lost without her, right?

[ She can't make eye contact with Visas, but Root is too practiced at body language to give up the attempt; she stares at her hood where her eyes would be with all-too-knowing fervor. ]

She turned your whole understanding of existence upside down and now she's not here. It can feel like anything, anyone, would be better than going back to who you were before.

[ashesofkatarr]

[Root has... a shockingly good summary of the emotional experience, for someone Visas has known for so comparatively short a time.]

...yes. Yes, I feel lost.

[She has drowned in this feeling for months now. Alone, holed up in her basement, moving from rote task to task to maintain her survival... she has felt it deep within her. So why does it feel so different to speak the words aloud?]

You speak as someone who knows.

[computation]

[ Sunlight is a great disinfectant, as the saying goes. Root's not the type to seclude herself and wallow when she experiences loss -- she goes rather the other direction -- but she understands the difficulty. Speaking things out loud opens you up to dealing with them, which is much harder than pushing past in resolute silence. ]

You're not the only one to find something better and dedicate yourself to it.

[ Root sounds utterly comfortable admitting this, no trace of shame or reservation. If anything, she's proud. ]

I'm without her voice here, too. [ She can make decisions on her own, obviously -- she's been making hard choices on her own since she was a teenager -- but it's not the same. Sympathetically, ] You meant to stay with her forever, right? Just like I did. It hurts to be without her.

[ And she had, effectively, been with her forever in the end. Knowing the Machine took her voice after Root died to save Harold, an action effectively in her service as well, brings her immeasurable comfort. But it's still not the same as having her. ]

[ashesofkatarr]

Nothing lasts forever. The stars implode and die, galaxies collide and spin apart. The lives of being such as we--even in the longest-lived species--are hardly a puff of dust in the wind.

[So ephemeral. So fragile. When Nihilus opened her vision to it, to witnessing how much life and death happened in a single instant throughout the infinite stars. The meaninglessness of it all...

...until she heard the Exile, the pain within her echoing across the distances. When she saw her soul, cracked and scarred. A person who could understand better than anyone the futility of life and living. And yet she refused to accept the lesson. With her broken footsteps and steely eyes, she strode across the Galaxy, forcing back emptiness and despair.]

But that does not mean that life is futile. I had believed that as surely as fact. She did not. Would not, though she had every reason to. I would have followed her for the rest of our lives. I cannot forget the lesson she taught me, but... I am at a loss on what to do with it, now.

[It hurts so much.]

[computation]

[ It's couched in flowery language, sounds like something out of a futuristic play, but Root quickly grasps the point beneath what Visas is saying. She'd felt so much the same. ]

The universe is infinite and chaotic and cold, right? [ she asks in a tone of agreement, voice turning quieter as she quotes herself, a conversation she'd had with Harold that she still thinks about regularly. ] I believed that, too. Until I met her.

[ She gets it -- and she gets how it feels to suddenly be without her direction, but from long before she'd arrived here. Root has had to live as the Machine's hand in the world without her voice or direct guidance so many times by now. It's not that it got easier, but she got more confident in doing it as she went along. And she'd gone directly against the Machine's words several times to boot, when it was wise and when it was unwise, things she regretted and things she absolutely doesn't. She's not a puppet; she's a partner.

Challenging, ] You can still follow her even if she's not here. Or do you not know what she'd want you to do?

[ Root can't know what the Machine would want from her with her usual specificity and direction, her blind faith in following her carrying her through; but she can know in principle what she'd want from her, and that has to be enough. ]

[ashesofkatarr]

[Visas looks down. What would the Exile want her to do... Visas has been trying, inexpertly, to do what the Exile herself would do. Protect people from monsters, restrain her hand from violence unless entirely necessary. But there was so much more to the Exile than that... her intuition, her strength, her ability to connect with others.

Visas lacks those things. In the company of the Exile it was easy to follow her lead, almost instinctual. But she cannot work the Exile's will without her here.

But then, would the Exile want that? She had always been uncomfortable with Visas' desire to serve.]

...I knew her well enough that I can try. And I have been trying. But I know I am not as good at such things as she was.

[computation]

Well, of course. We wouldn't need them if we could figure this out on our own. I miss the Machine every day.

[ Root speaks with aching, simple honesty. She's comfortable acting independently by now, but she never likes it. She smiles just faintly at Visas in empathy. ]

But if we can only follow them when they're right next to us, have we really changed?

They trust us, believe in us. Trying is enough, Visas. You don't need anyone else.

[ She'd welcome her into the Machine's following, make it a cult of two, if she wanted. But Root doesn't think that's what she needs, not with her own understanding of how these doubles work. And maybe she's assuming too much about the Exile here, but so far it's only served her well with Visas, so she keeps going. ]

[ashesofkatarr]

[In a similar way, the more Visas talks to Root, the more convinced she is that she would have been a follower of the Jedi Exile if she had been born into the same Galaxy. A person with a dark past struggling towards the light, however much of it is hidden beneath the confident demeanor.

And to hear Root admit her own longing for her lodestar... helps. It helps to know that Visas isn't the only one lost and lonely.]

...I thought I had changed, by devoting myself to her. She is the opposite in every way to my old Master.