A Spacemas Carol: December's Mod Event Log

[savmods]

Who: Anyone and Everyone
When: December 19 onwards
Where: Avagi... and beyond?
What: Your past, someone's present, and potential futures.
Warnings: Body horror and an associated image in the second part. Otherwise, label your content.

While the Ingress may have been destroyed, the energy powering it remains alive and well. The residents of Avagi know this intimately: from their own arrivals, from the portals that have appeared, and the short-lived changes (as well as longer-lived possessions) that have cluttered the station over the last few months. Recently, whatever force is manipulating this has even gone so far as to revive the dead—demonstrating, perhaps, an unwillingness to relinquish those it has brought to this place. To say this entity is seasonal would probably be a mistake. In the heart of Avagi's storms, there are no stars to mark the seasons, much less connect them to a certain planet's holidays—or the literature thereon. Still, from luck or from intention, the current fluctuations comes with a certain theme...

Past

It starts at the turn of the station clock's midnight. Flickers at the edge of one's vision. Indistinct whispers, ghosting through walls and down corridors. Those who are sleeping will be untroubled, but the wakeful and wary can watch the light build: from flickers to pulses, from pulses to pools. Over several hours, silver mist fills rooms and corridors, varying from a thin veil to dense, obscuring fog. If you step into the mist, you'll feel a sense of displacement; of sound and color, energy and a shift of life. Ingress travel. Except... not quite. Shortly after entering the mist, you'll find yourself free of disorientation and apparently free of physical form, unable to interact with your surroundings. As a quasi-ghost, you've been transported to somewhere and somewhen—a location from the past, back on a world of someone’s origin or from any place you've been since first arriving through the Ingress. While these experiences can vary wildly, some things remain consistent: The past matters: These visits to the past are not repeats of idle afternoons—each has emotional significance to someone currently on Avagi. The past cannot be changed: As real as any given scenario seems, you're fundamentally incapable of altering it. The past event will play out as it did in real life and dissipate when it reaches an ending. Trying has consequences: Attempting too hard to interfere increases the emotional significance, and will consequently draw onlookers further into the scene. You may find yourself anchored to any participant in the scene: first physically (experiencing the scene through their eyes) and then emotionally (experiencing their emotions and thoughts). If drawn in too deeply, you may lose track of your own nature during the experience, drowning in the sense of being someone else.. You are not alone: While immersed in a scene, you'll see nothing but the history playing out. However, at the its conclusion, the fog will once again displace the world around. As it melts away, you'll find themselves back in Avagi's halls—and face to face with whoever else was also viewing that piece of the past.

Present

Whether through one memory or several, eventually, the fog disperses. Only a faint mist remains, gathered in corners of the station's halls. It's simple enough to avoid, and nothing obstructs efforts to return to your rooms, your friends, or any other destination. Nothing, that is, except finding them. The layout of the halls has shifted. The clutter you so painstakingly cleared is back. The GPS on your ACE mistakenly reports that you are floating off in space far outside the station, and any efforts to locate or call your companions results in glitchy static. Something is interfering with your calls—more effectively than the distance between worlds. Inference and intuition are all you have to put together the pieces. The layout has changed, but the construction stayed the same. You're still on the former Ingress station. But not the same area that you called home. This is a different section of Avagi. An inhabited one. Dank, warm air pulses in and out of the vents in odd rhythms. Water damage stains the walls, and some seep dark liquid. There's an odd symphony in the distance: four notes, hummed to a pattern that buzzes in the back of your head. It's possible to wait it out. But if you do explore, you might come across your friends. And together, you might find the source. Further in, a wall of flesh fills the pathways, rising and falling with intermittent, massive draws of air. A fluid wash of features glues it to the bulkheads. Claws and eyes, hands and faces: half-made bodies shifting in and out of recognition with each pulse of breath. And always with the same gold glow beneath the skin. It's a familiar shade, to those who witnessed Thisavrou's destruction. It's the being who destroyed it. Those who flee will escape her notice. Those who wait may watch in secret for a time. Mother's focus seems to be elsewhere...or, perhaps, something else is hiding your presence here from her. Any attack on Mother's flesh shape, or any overt effort to draw her attention, will meet violent, immediate reprisal. You'll experience an immobilizing psychic force before the flesh consumes you. But whether you hide or fight or run, your time on this section of the station will end in the same way: a burst of brilliant, clear light providing transport back home.

Future

You flash back to reality amidst a burst of light—but this time, you recognize your surroundings. You have returned to the Avagi you know, and the silver mist that filled the halls has cleared. Over the next few days, most of Avagi will settle back into a state of normalcy. The ACEs are working properly, and station residents will have all the time they need to compare notes on their experiences—and, perhaps, on any plans to act on what they've learned. Avagi is not as empty as it seemed. And one place in particular will remain changed in the wake of the event. The Ingress Memorial, once inactive, has come to life, emitting a swirl of silver light that shifts and flickers, like the light of the portal it once contained. For the next five days, it will offer a vision to anyone approaching it: a single, brief scene from their potential future. Players have the following options: Canon future: Your character catches a glimpse of their future if they were to return from Avagi to their own world. This consists of a canon event. Avagi future: Your character catches a glimpse of their own future on Avagi. This can be a short-term future (i.e. an actual vision of a future scene you plan to play out), or a potential longer-term one in which they stayed on Avagi for months or years. Storm future: Your character catches a glimpse of themselves as a Mirtos—a desiccated husk and incarnation of the storm's hunger. As seen in Thisavrou's destruction, these creatures are carried by the storms and destroy all they come across. The visions can observed by any present when the Memorial is approached. And while the past is fixed, the future is always capable of being altered. What will you do regarding yours?

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[OOC: Check out the OOC post for more information!]

Comments

[clussy]

(Eddie feels oddly relieved to know that this man, whoever he was, was a scientist. Maybe a soldier would have made him feel better, but Eddie couldn't deny that it was nice to know such technical people like scientists could also feel way too much.)

Jeeesus. I barely even know what astrophysics is. (Which means that it sounds very impressive.

It wasn't easy missing the people special in one's life. Eddie missed the Losers who weren't here. Even if the ones he was closest to were around.)

I'll try.

(It isn't something he can promise. He's never been good at trying to be strong against people who bullied him- as Shiro had plainly just seen. Eddie could barely even talk back. Had been too scared.

Hug time was the best time. Even if this time he feels his face warming over. He tucks in against Shiro and squeezes him tightly. With the memory still fresh in his mind, having Shiro's arms wrapped up around him made him feel terribly safe.)

Thank you, Shiro.

[shiro2hero]

Maybe Pidge could teach you sometime... he was her brother. It's -- genius runs in their family. [And so does him having a weakness for them, apparently. Because talking about Matt, about Pidge, makes his voice turn endlessly fond. Painfully fond.]

[If he could see them reunited...] Sometimes you remind me of him.

[It's not an easy admission, but maybe it'll bolster some of Eddie's courage. He looks like he could use a little more. Maybe that's just Shiro projecting, but -- it can't hurt.]

Trying is all anyone can ask. Try your best.

[As long as you do that, there's nothing to feel ashamed of, right? What was seen just now was in the past. It was over. Done with. Eddie could move on. Could change things. Anyone could. It didn't matter if he was scared then, he could do better for himself now.]

[It's also good to know this was the right thing to do. The right choice -- feeling the return hug. He'll hold on for as long as Eddie needs him to. Mindful, as always, of the strength of his arm. Careful not to hold too tight.]

Hey, any time you need it. Really.

[clussy]

I think the only thing that runs in my family is me. (It's a horrible joke on the account that his mother was essentially a whale, and his father was dead. He doesn't bother to mention that though.

Eddie looks up at Shiro in surprise. Him? Remind Shiro of some distant genius? Eddie can feel his face burning a little.)

Do you think he's cool?

(Because...Eddie maybe needs that indirect validation. That and he can't even begin to imagine the kind of people Shiro thought of as cool. Not when Shiro himself was, respectfully, The Coolest.)

I guess. I have been training a lot.

(He wonders if Henry ever showed up on Avagi, if Eddie would be able to do something more than just screech and cry like a baby this time.

Shiro was really good at knowing what to say, what to do. He sometimes made a habit of making Eddie feel untouchable. Eddie didn't know what to do with that feeling.)

You too, you know. I know I can't really kick ass or anything, but I can offer a mean shoulder to cry on.

[shiro2hero]

That's okay. Not everybody has to charge in, head on. You'd... take a lot of our jobs away if you did.

[He's kidding. On the last part, anyway. So far, in his experience, the more cautious people are the ones you should trust the most. Like Hunk, for example.]

Matt? I... yeah. I've always thought he was incredible.

[That's not even a lie. Or an exaggeration. Shiro's weakness is, apparently, the Holts. From admiring their father, to the brother and sister themselves. He loves them. Dearly. So there's your validation, Eddie. In the form of Shiro's undying adoration of those two.]

Yeah, buddy, I know. You're doing great. Keep it up... you're going to be amazing.