August Event Log: Part II

[savmods]

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.

Comments

[pleasereset]

[It makes Asriel sick, being controlled and used. A small, frightened part of him wants to recoil - do as they say, and it won't hurt so much. That's how it always is, isn't it? No matter where they go.]

N... no.

[His voice raises in pitch, nervous and unsure. The voice of a child struggling to be defiant but knowing he doesn't stand a chance.]

They're just - they're going to get rid of us when we stop being useful! Because it's like that wherever we go! They'll get rid of us, or - or they'll make us suffer more, or keep blaming us for whatever new problem they have...

[mttbrandlegs]

It won't change unless we prove that we are better than them.

Not because we should have to. But because these Savrii are petty, shallow ones. They must have viable proof that that which is different...is not a threat. And that we are just as capable of being harmed as they are.

[Mettaton reaches a hand out, intending to set it on Asriel's shoulder. But he leaves space for the boy to pull back, because he knows that if someone had been telling him that and he had the energy to fight back, and the anger to back it up...he'd pull away from the one speaking these words.

He won't begrudge Asriel arguing with him on the matter.]

[pleasereset]

[Asriel doesn't pull back. Mettaton's one of the very few people that can get him to calm down these days, or at least provide him with some sort of comfort that seems to be harder to find these days.

He wants to argue, but he already knows there's nothing to argue. They'll be used, thrown away, and it doesn't matter how they feel because things like him don't have a right to be defiant anymore.

He doesn't get a choice anymore.]

I want to go home.

[It's hard to go home when you don't know where that is anymore.]

[mttbrandlegs]

So do I, sweetie. So do I.

[Mettaton's hand rests gently on Asriel's shoulder, and he tries to smile--and he sort of pulls it off.]

But we aren't meant to go home yet, it seems. And perhaps there is still something to be gained from the Savrii with regards to that anyway. We help them, then thy will help us.

[Was there an edge of threat there? Whaaaat? No!

...Yes.]

[pleasereset]

[Asriel catches the threat in his tone, and... oddly enough, it calms him down a little. Even though it shouldn't. He wipes at his eyes, feeling a deep exhaustion.]

Okay...

Okay. We don't have much of a choice anyway, do we?

It'd be nice after all this, we can finally be left alone.

[Asriel isn't sure if it'll happen. But it'd be nice... right?]

[mttbrandlegs]

Mmm-hm.

[Mettaton's smile softens into something less forced, and his fingers gently move to tilt Asriel's chin up.]

You're very brave, doing something that is hard like this. You really are, darling, and it's inspiring to me that you still have such capacity for good in that loving SOUL of yours. I know it's hard...to forgive those who'd play such a dirty trick.

[His fingers twitch, but he holds to what he's saying.]

It hurts...but we are still monsters nonetheless. We have to forgive them and hope for the best...right?