spoofer: (piano)
Xistentia: Mod ([personal profile] spoofer) wrote in [community profile] xistentia2017-06-24 05:42 pm

Crash Log #1 & Will-o'-Wisp Mini-Event

Characters: Second wave of Xistentia arrivals, greeters/rescuers
Summary: The second wave of characters arrive in Xistentia unexpectedly early... only to face an unexpected threat. D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.'s multiversal attack is disrupting the energy flow, causing a very unusual stampede— of will-o'-wisps, that lure travelers off their path with thoughts. It's up to the residents of Xistentia to help the newcomers!
Date(s): Mid-June 2017
Warnings/Notes: Coercive magic, collisions, moderate injury, dystopian themes

Wisp Mini-Event & Crash #2
Wish you were here. Love comes in waves
A WARNING FROM DAEMONS


Early in the morning, the glow of light to the East, where F.A.T.E.S. resides, begins to turn red in warning. Seconds later, all of the daemons begin to project the same message to their owners. The alarm continues to repeat until the characters acknowledge.
F.A.T.E.S. WARNING SYSTEM

Threat Assessment: Mild
Phenomenon Type: Native Creature Behavior
Predicted Duration: 24 hours

Due to the cosmic energy disruptions by D.E.S.T.I.N.Y., will-o'-wisps are engaging in unusual migratory activity. Residents are advised to remain in the city, or be on-guard against a low level of psychic influence. Wisps feed by creating visual, auditory, and olfactory illusions based on the viewer's needs and temptation. Individuals in compromised emotional states are more susceptible.

The migration will be complete in 24 hours.

It seems straightforward enough. But as dusk begins to fall, the distant sounds of crashing and outcry come from the beach once again. It's familiar-- the first wave of Xistentia residents arrived the exact same way only 2 weeks ago. They're going to need your help.
CRASH LAND INTO ME

For the second wave of Xistentia arrivals, the day is not nearly as ordinary.

Exit one dimension, enter the next. It was chaos: pressure against your ears, light bending in an impossible, unimaginable way. The very molecules of your body vibrating against one another. If you have windows, the view outside makes no sense. Even if not, your hands, your face, your feet seem like an uncertain thing. It's the feel of reality itself tearing apart, reshaping, reconnecting, thread by thread.

And suddenly, there's a beach— or ocean, whichever you land in. Smoke. Fire. Salt water churning up, fizzing around. It's dark— you've arrived at nightfall.

Maybe you crash, in a ship wrecking into sand. Maybe you merely stumble out of a portal, a ragged wormhole in space. Or maybe you fall off the back of an incredible steed, some creature that carried you into this place. Either way, there's pandemonium around you. Incredibly, severe injuries are far and few between— nobody's screaming about the dead. But you might have to help pull someone free of wreckage, or move quickly to salvage burning belongings from the landing craft. Maybe it's the crafts themselves, that you're trying to salvage.

Likely, you don't know them, these other strangers who arrived here[1]. Maybe you don't trust them— you just came out of a dying world, after all. But you all have one thing in common: you're here now.

When you get a second to breathe, the danger doesn't end... because that's when the wisps come.



At first, they're just a stream of pretty lights. Like fireflies, except that their illumination holds steady as they float through empty air. It's helpful for those of us who don't have night vision. However, as the minutes wear on, the terror and stress of the day starts to change to longing. And then the illusions begin. Voices of lost loved ones calling out, or flickers of familiar figures in the distance. The scent of burgers or cinnamon cake floating through the trees.

Maybe the ones you lost aren't lost after all. Maybe there's dessert out there. Isn't it tempting to follow? But watch your step-- there are ditches, fast-flowing rivers, and sleeping trolls you might run across. The wisps are impervious to these dangers, but you likely are not.
SAVE THEIR SOULS

As rescuers venture into the forests, the wisps' illusions change to accommodate the wishes and fears of the new intruders. Each person sees their own illusion, blind to the experiences of others. However, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Resistance from the psychic intrusion is far easier when you know what you're dealing with. Still, that doesn't mean that persuading a traumatized apocalypse survivor is easy. They've been through a lot, and if you're claiming that they're seeing things that aren't there, who's to say you aren't imaginary, yourself?



And the trolls get cranky when their sleep is disturbed.

By morning, however, the wisps have cleared and the other creatures of Xistentia are off on their business. Maybe that's when you choose to come out and help, to find new refugees sleeping in trees, thickets, beach-wrecked fuselage, and other places they had found sanctuary for the night.
WELCOME TO THE CITY

The second wave of arrivals comes into a city that is very different from the one that the first refugees did. Sure, there are still animals and overgrown trees intruding in many buildings and streets— but the center looks very civilized now. Eight full city blocks where the hedges are groomed and the building facades are clean and orderly.


There are a number of fully operational businesses, including restaurants and a tailor. Agriculture is taking off gradually, albeit in a disorganized fashion, thanks to the fact most of the people involved are amateurs. Street lights, the beacons that sense character interactions, are fully operational throughout the day-- likewise, most of the city's functions work just fine now, including indoor lights, plumbing, electricity, etc. Cable isn't great, though. Depending on how badly your encounter with the Wisps was, you may also get acquainted with the hospital. It still looks shabby and moss-eaten, but its glowing recovery enhancement beds work very well. Better bring someone with you, though!
Current Sentient Population
of Xistentia:
222


We now have Instagram!
There's a lot to explore, if you're into that. The two most prominent landmarks are the Central Citadel that overlooks the sea to the West, and the Temple on the Eastern edge of the forest. The former has a bar and lounge, and an oddly self-replenishing availability of liquor, as well as a variety of defunct audotitoriums, bedrooms and technology laboratories. The latter contains strange stone artefacts that blur the line between magic and technology, but are largely unresponsive to touch. The only exception is one sleek screen, black and shiny as volcano glass: an amenities request interface. Tell F.A.T.E.S. what you need.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

hells yeah



Footnotes
  1. Some of these can be nameless, plot-device NPCs to facilitate interactions! But even in this case, please avoid gore in describing their current state of being. Anyone dead or catastrophically injured will have disappeared by the time your characters make it to Xistentia. There are no corpses or dying here.

  2. But like OOCly ask permission ofc.
helical: (367)

[personal profile] helical 2017-07-04 01:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ alec makes a face. that's about how he's finding it. ]

It's not great? [ unsure. undecided? ] Mine's not always helpful. And I prefer working with phones or tablets.

[ than, you know. looking at an animal and typing on air projected keyboards.

he frowns down at the screen axel is fiddling with, trying to make sense of it. ]
If it could ping us when something's crossing some pre-defined border, or something, that would be a start. Would tell us when someone new crashes and gets to the city, too.
(deleted comment)
helical: (118)

[personal profile] helical 2017-07-06 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[ alec has noticed that. they seem to respond to them with something more than programmed responses, and even have personality. it's... a little jarring.

attention on the map axel draws up, alec is already seeing possible weak points. namely how large the city is and how few of them there are. new york is big, too, but the population isn't a scattered couple hundred.

alec listens to axel's ideas and nods, though he points to what seems like a city border. ]


Maybe have it set up so when a daemon crosses the limits we draw up, we get a different alert. That way we're not just tracking people right as they get here without their awareness? Just being told when someone comes into the city limits. This way we don't have to go off of information we don't actually have.

[ figuring out when, where, and how the daemons come into being might be a lot more complicated if they're not giving answers, while drawing up some kind of safe zone would be simpler. he also figures some newcomers would be deeply unsettled if they were keeping track that closely, and he doesn't want to give anyone reason to see this as nefarious.

crossing his arms, still looking at the map: ]
Two miles sounds adequate.
(deleted comment)
helical: (pic#11579007)

[personal profile] helical 2017-07-16 03:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Then we set up some alert for the crash, but not something so specific. Or ask around and see what the others think works best and go with the most popular solution.

[ that sounds fair, right? they should consult others before making that sort of decision, anyway, and not be the only two people in on it. alec would rather get as many opinions, given the variety of people here, and the diversity of the worlds they all represent. it's valuable, to have this, all kinds of life experiences working together usually leads to interesting solutions.

also a lot of arguing and fighting, but alec is going to hope that since a majority of them know one another it'll be manageable. ]


Someone here is bound to know how to code. [ if not, maybe some daemons around here are more cooperative than his has been.

he swats away a fly, wiping his hand on his leg before tapping at the screen, menus appearing that he skims over to get a grasp of the sort of options available to them. ]
Yeah, I don't think it's size we have to worry about. Not even intent. Which complicates things, but doesn't make them impossible. We've had all sorts of measures back home, for demons of all sorts. We can work with this.