Entry tags:

August Event Log: Part II

Who: Everyone
When: Approximately two weeks into the exile
Where: The core of the crashed Moira
What: The travelers reach the ship's Ingress and discover the truth of why they're here
Warnings: Potential violence. Please label your content!

A NOTE: As this log functions as something of a short-term bridge between the previous event and what comes next, it is being posted separately from a more standard log that covers a longer time period. As seen on the calendar, that log will be posted Saturday.

a change on the wind

Without warning, the part of the Moira that houses the Ingress and the energy signature that brought the travelers there is no longer closed off. Doors unlock and open, revealing yet more halls that lead deeper into the ship. Only when everyone has entered and come closer to the Ingress chamber do their surroundings change.

Instead of a dark, dead ship, travelers find themselves upon the planet Aueia, home of the space whales, the first world opened to them after arriving on Thisavrou. But this world, too, has been touched by the life-twisting storms that still rage across the landscape, stirring up dangerous waves in the fluid that makes up the "seas" of the planet and leaving dead spaces on the dry land that normally teems with life and local habitation.

After approximately one hour, just as impossibly, the world blurs around the travelers and becomes Deslora, a world that once resembled nothing so much as the inside of a funhouse or a circus, but whose colors have been turned black by the storms and whose native fauna, including the clown bees, have been twisted by the storms that have somehow made their way inside.

And so it goes, the world on which they walk changing once an hour. The sleek, futuristic world known as Asteroid 276 looks more like a post-apocalyptic wreck, with the outer walls of the space station shaking so hard from the storms that it appears they might give way—and they start to, just as another shift begins. On Escoria, the water feels thick with some contaminant, perhaps the rot of those who once lived in the water, for only monsters shark-like creatures remain. And then they stand upon Aioros, a planet that is no longer poisonous to all because after the storms have ravaged the planet thoroughly, nothing upon the planet lives.

nothing but white

Finally, with just as little warning as the first shift, the world blurs a final time and travelers find themselves in a featureless room, a large space with soft light and no visible doors. Any pets or companion lifeforms that accompanied them to the Moira are no longer in sight. As they begin to get their bearings, a single humanoid being steps through a wall as though it were nothing but a hologram. Upon him is a silver strip of cloth—the marking of a Savrii intermediary, and he is not well; a great strain is etched upon his face, his coloring is pale and he holds himself as though barely able to do so. Whatever the travelers might wish to say to him, whatever sounds they would otherwise make, they'll find they cannot—for a brief time, some outer force has inflicted silence upon them. That same force will prevent them from coming too close to the intermediary just yet.

"I wish that I could—I would apologize for bringing you here." His voice is as tired as he looks, and a strange combination bitterness mixed with desperation can be heard in his tone. "But I haven't brought you anywhere. None of this was true—from the moment you thought you stepped through the Ingress, it was a simulated reality, technology and our power combined to occupy you while they decided what to do, while they made their plans. It was to be peaceful to keep you docile, but I knew better, I knew you had to see—"

For a moment, the Savrii flickers, like an old television signal being interrupted. When he reappears, his expression has grown even more urgent as his words quicken.

"You have done great damage to our home but you are the only ones who act, who might listen. They told me, the whispers in my mind that grew clearer when you broke the Ingress—the mother and her child. They told me what could happen, that it will if we don't change, but they won't, they don't even know how—the storms, the end of everything. We are not as protected as we think. This could happen to Thisavrou too."

Then he flickers again, returning with wide eyes and speaking even more rapidly.

"This was not an act of cruelty. This is a warning. You had to understand for yourself what is at stake. When this simulation ends, when they discover what I've shown you. They are trying to truly send you away, and you must not let them or all may be lost. Please. Please."

There is a sense of release as ambient sound returns. Travelers will find they can approach the Savrii to ask questions (or to punch him if they so choose! Though anyone who wishes to commit excessive violence will find that death just doesn't take), and though he is nearly panicked now, he will answer as many as possible in the time that they have.

Eventually, though, he will emit a sharp gasp and disappear once more, not returning this time—just before everything goes black for the travelers.

Threaded | Flat

[The Savrii will speak with characters in their own top-level posts as well, but direct conversation can also be had with him here.]

[Magnus wakes up, confused and disoriented, and not really in the mood to be silenced by a stranger and lectured to. But he lets the lecture pass, seeing as though there's nothing he can really do about it, before approaching. His jaw is clenched and he looks angry, but not likely to actually do anything violent - in fact, he may well step in if anyone else seems about to try something violent.]

Is it just me, or did that not explain anything?

[And more directly to the Savrii - ]

I don't need any more warnings, I need answers. What do you actually want from us?

[It wasn't real. That's pretty much all that Asriel takes away from what the Savrii says - his filthy clothing, his hunger, all of it was meaningless. And now they have to help, despite everything they've been subjected to.

Because it's the right thing to do. Because what they need help with is big enough that Asriel should just forget about all the comments, how socially ostracized he was on that planet, and how they took away his sibling.]

... No, I won't do it.

[It's not the right thing to do, it's not the right thing to say. It's selfish, but he's exhausted enough to not care.]

We'll just be gotten rid of once we help, right?

[Elsa is wearing a long, warm-looking cloak over her gown, and a sort of fluffy furred helmet that ties under the chin -- not for protection from the cold, but in an attempt to preserve her senses. Her hands are bare, though.

Everything that has happened has been so strange that the news that it's the result of a kind of magic actually comes as a relief to her. Magic is something she understands, even if it's not the same sort that she possesses. There are other kinds out there, and if something happens this way, it can un-happen. This horrible place doesn't really exist except as a warning.

So, as the man speaks, she considers his words carefully, then nods slowly as though she understands them and takes them to heart. For the most part, anyway.]

Is this the child I saw? I heard that she died.

[ What the Savrii says: this was a warning; this could happen to Thisavrou; all may be lost; please.

[ What Maine hears: the Savrii took his sight; the Savrii endangered his squad; the Savrii is unrepentant; the Savrii demands their aid.

[ How Maine responds to any and all threats: kill it.

[ The moment they can move, a bestial snarl rips out of Maine and he reaches for the Brute Shot. He's going to slaughter this son of a bitch. ]

[Lavellan doesn't approach the Savrii at first; he's reeling too hard from the revelation of the whole thing to even process the finer details of what he's saying. But after a while, dimly, something resonates, something he hadn't even wanted to think about at the start because the idea of more consequences of what he'd done was simply too much.

They told me, the whispers in my mind that grew clearer when you broke the Ingress—the mother and her child.

He's hesitant. His heart is in his throat. He can't dare to hope, that something good could have come of it. And yet--]

What did you mean when you said they spoke to you when-- [When.] --when the Ingress was broken?

...It was all fake.

All of it. An illusion, a dream, created to-- to what? Convince them that they should help save Thisavrou? Did they Savrii think that the newcomers would be so unwilling to do anything to save this place - the place they'd been living - that they needed to be made to think they had been cast out and made blind and abandoned in order to convince them?

Something close to anger, hot and sharp and painful, rises in Ginko's chest, and his hands tighten into fists, knuckles going white.

"Why didn't you just-- just tell us? Why all this? You didn't-- you didn't have to do this if you wanted our help!"

Edited 2017-08-25 01:44 (UTC)

[ Ocelot is silent for some time, as he best tries to think about how to proceed. none of it sat particularly well with him, that was for sure, but he was going to be very careful with how he picked his next words.

how did they know this wasn't another trap? that they weren't being monitored? that this wasn't a way to eliminate them. ]

Where do they want to send us?

[ a save enough question, though he still doesn't know if he can trust the answer. ]

[Fan-fucking-tastic.]

[Heavily armed and clearly more than just irate, Elizabeth is watching the proceedings with sharp, livid eyes. This is, quite possibly, even worse than someone abandoning them on the Midway Hub. Someone messed with their minds, put them through pain and stress for what? So they would do something to stop this natural disaster because "no one should suffer like that"? Maybe that would work on bleeding hearts, but Elizabeth? She's almost to the end of her proverbial rope-- forget other planets, forget the storms, she's not even supposed to be alive right now.]

[All this talk about living energy and misuse of the power makes Elizabeth shrink to the back of the crowd. Have they been watching everything they've been doing? Do they know about what Elizabeth can do? That she might be what they consider an abuser of whatever energy allows the Ingress to open to different places and timelines?]

[If that's true, all the more reason for her to tear these bastards a new one the second they get out. She's not going to be tortured and imprisoned for her abilities, not again, she has to get away. There is, of course, nowhere to go right now. So she stays to the back, staring forward at nothing in particular, thousands of miles away as she tries to breathe evenly.]

[after a very public fight amongst the esteemed agents of project freelancer, north has taken a walk. wherever anybody can see the hulking brute that is agent maine, north is at the opposite end of the room. it isn't maine he's avoiding, but he knows washington is at the man's side, and for once, he doesn't trust himself.

[he'll find a place to sit down, eventually, removing his helmet and just setting it aside to feel his gloved fingers roughly pushing through his hair. he needs to breathe.

[did you see the fight? are you concerned about this very tall man in bulky armor? feel free to say hello!]

Threaded | Flat

a change on the wind

nothing but white

Questions/conversation/punching

Magnus Burnsides | OTA