Asteroid 276: Conclusion (OOC Post)

[savmods]

event ooc

Hey, Savrites!

As you may have seen, there is a new log post up concluding this month's exploration of Asteroid 276. The previous log and signups for modifications remain open, and the events of the new log won't actually transpire until April 30. However, given those events take place within a single day, we figured players might appreciate a chance to plot or thread responses in advance.

Part of the goal this month was to move away from the slice of life situations toward a more player-driven line of metaplot in which character actions (or inactions) have lasting consequences on the story going forward. Over the next couple months, we'll get to see some of the effects of these events on Thisavrou as a whole. We'll also be working to provide responses to individual efforts at exploration and engagement with the setting. As always, if you have an idea you'd like to pitch or a question we can help with, feel free to hit up the Feedback page, FAQ post, or any of our OOC plot posts like this one.

dreams

The dream described in the log post will be experienced by every character that set foot on the asteroid. However, the following groups will be exposed much more directly to the source:

• Characters who (willingly) donated samples of their own biology.
• Characters who came into physical contact with the Greeter.
• Characters who underwent genetic modifications (double effect)

These circumstances can, of course, be handwaved (the Greeter's careful to be polite, but plenty touch-happy to anyone who seems open), though we ask that all modifications be commented to the link above. Once you've figured out how many incidents apply, tally them up and check below for the continuation of your dream. [CW for descriptions of blood, death, body horror]

One:

You claw your way free of the blood. You cling to shelter and try to clean it off, but the more you scrape away, the deeper it runs. You're made of it, and your flesh seems to squirm of its own accord, a disgusting, melted sack you're trapped inside of. You curl in on your flesh-mass, retching--

Two:

It's wrong. The loathing, the loss, the sticky liquid all around you. It isn't yours. None of it was, none of it ever was, and you pull back, with the startlement of a dreamer awoken... but you don't wake up. The shape is still there, a thrashing monster in a sea of corpses. But the figure isn't you. You're trapped in someone else's nightmare, and you feel the moment when their gaze turns in your direction, jagged fingers lashing toward your flesh--

Three/Four:

It's wrong. The loss, the loathing, the keening, absent sense of grief. None of this is yours, and you pull back to see the nightmare. No: the need. This is a focus. This is a call: to kill, to wake, to come together.

Save them.

The shape subsumed in the blood sea bears no resemblance to any creature you've seen. You couldn't name its face or size-- not truly, and trying only presents you with your own delusion. Whatever the being is, it sees you, though. It knows you. The world contracts in on itself with the impression of laughter, and it considers you a moment before reaching out. You have time, you know, to ask one question. On contact, you find your body dissolving around you, leaving an acrid ache like screaming in your lungs--

All characters awaken the same way. The vision, whatever its origin, was experienced as a dream, and may linger or fade to whatever degree you deem appropriate. This applies as an opt-out as well! However, if your character does retain their memory of a dream, the severity of the empty sensation in the log will intensify with their connection to the dreamer. (i.e. regular visitors to the station might shake it off in a day or two, but someone experiencing the fourth-level dream could be affected for a month or more.)

For questions or comments (IC or otherwise), hit up one of our comments below. Otherwise, feel free to comment directly to the post for inter-player plotting!

Comments

Questions/Comments (OOC)

[savmods]

Dream Questions (IC)

[savmods]

[[ooc: Open to those in category three/four of the dream effects above. (Others are welcome to ask questions, but will not have the dreamer's attention long enough for an answer.) Comments are fine too, but keep the circumstances in mind; no yelling out an essay!]]

[pleasereset]

[Asriel wants to escape, to get as far away as possible. It's all wrong, it's all painful and he doesn't want to be here-

The figure reaches out, and Asriel twists away fearfully. He opens his mouth, trying to desperately find his voice.]

-How do you know me?

[savmods]

[The trembling of the world grows, a hissing boil of red clouds. It's laughter, but it's fury, too. A cold, angry sneer-- or an impression of one, hard as steel and suffocating, paralyzing him in place.]

"A jar."

[It doesn't speak the words. It doesn't have to. They flare out with a flicker of contempt, a brush of fingers that aren't there. Asriel disperses, and wakes up ill.]

[brokencode]

[The nightmare draws what feels like very real screams from her lips -- maybe they are. She tries to throw herself backward, away from the thing that has her in its sight, but it's too late, too late.]

[She tried to use her powers, tried to shift the world around her, but knew not if it would even work. Doubted that it would -- it was all purely defensive, purely illusionary and this beast seemed beyond all that.]

What are you? [The words rush from her lips just as freely as the tears seemed to spring from behind her eyes.]

[savmods]

[There is nowhere to run. There is nothing to shift. This place belongs to someone else, to something else, and Angel is nothing but a candle flame, flickering desperately as if it could escape its wick. The dreamer stays its ground, for just a moment. It listens, and the ground splits apart with the force of its whispered reply.]

"Mother."

[A title? A name? It seems stronger than either, and Angel will have no chance to contemplate the word, not here. She's falling through a sea of blood, and nothing at all is underneath her. Only the cold of space, only her own last breath squeezed helplessly out of her chest. As it leaves her, she will wake, retching out an empty stomach like the rest.]

[lavelly]

[Lavellan holds his ground the best he can, chin up in defiance, despite the revulsion and fear thrumming through his bones. He's come too far and been through too much to fold at the first threat, as alarming as it is.

This is so alien, such a bizarre, unsettling experience, though, that he can't keep the waver out of his voice regardless.]

What do you want from me?

[savmods]

[His defiance doesn't matter. How he stands, what he speaks, the tremor that quavers through his pitiful collection of skeleton and flesh. The world around him sneers, savage and triumphant. It has won. It has won, and he has helped it, and the thought that brushes out to crush him is just as incidental as the rest.]

"Nothing."

[alan_1]

[Alan doesn’t flinch when the thing reaches out, but not out of bravery; there’s nowhere to go, no means of escape. If there were anywhere to run out of this nightmare, he’d take it.

Of course he’s afraid. Horrified, disoriented, repulsed. But it’s his. What he had felt before—that belonged to someone, something else.

He barely feels that he can breathe, much less speak. But the question comes out all the same, unbidden.]

What happened to you?

[savmods]

[It sees Alan. It knows him. But it's not until the human speaks those words that the full heat of this creature's rage descends on him. It's the blast of an inferno; the edge of taloned pincers clenching in on something much to small to take the blow. It's two words, spiteful and vicious, thrown back with enough force to grind the listener to dust.]

"I did."

[If the agony of the phrase is indescribable, it's also mercifully brief. Alan will wake gasping and shaking, only to give way to nausea just like the rest.]