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.
lacquers: (personal and professional lives)

[personal profile] lacquers 2017-07-05 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Magnus gives Rose a knowing expression (and smiles a bit at both the reference to his name and the name of the band). Ah, the things you'll do for a handsome man. A handsome musician, too...

That's not a tease, either. It's serious. He most certainly knows what it is to have your heart captured by an artist. Romantically or otherwise. ]
He sounds like an amazing person, Rose.

I'd love to see him, [ he says, the words easy, but not exactly casual. He watches her for a moment. ] Is that when you learned to play the guitar? [ He cocks his head to the side, the question casual in the way that his comment was not. It's to leave room for her if she'd rather not answer. ]
hasitsthorns: ғᴏʀ ʜᴇʀ ɢᴏᴇs ᴏɴ (Default)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-07-10 12:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She was doomed from the start, Magnus. Handsome and a good singer! That's really all a guy needs to be in Rose's eyes. And even then, a good enough singer can make 'handsome' be waived as a requirement. ]

He was. One of the best souls I've ever known, [ she adds, without hesitation. Ren might have had his shortcomings - what had led him to the ring wasn't anything good, after all - but he wasn't a bad person by any means. Anyone who was willing to make the sacrifice for her that he did couldn't be. ]

I learned after he passed, actually. He, uhm. He left his guitar for me. So the one I have was actually his.
lacquers: (i'm magnus)

[personal profile] lacquers 2017-07-10 03:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Those are good points. Magnus has been known to have a weakness for musicians. Of course, he would've thought they were all beautiful or handsome or both. Everyone he loves is beautiful in his eyes, you know? Falling in love with people is easy. Even a song can do the trick. ]

He means a lot to you. [ Magnus uses the present tense, not because someone is alive or not, but because the meaning's still alive. Obviously, if she carries mementos of him. A picture, his guitar... ] Was it the guitar that inspired you to learn then?

[ Again, he doesn't mean the guitar itself inspired her, more like the gift of it. He's curious, but not in a nosy way. Just wants to encourage her to talk if she's ready. ]
hasitsthorns: (I'ᴅ ʀᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ʙᴇ ᴡʀᴏɴɢ)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-07-15 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Rose wishes falling in love were easy. Ren had been because he was the first. Roxanne was... unexpected. Charlie, she thinks, was probably the one she struggled with the most. Well. At least until Vanyel, but there were so many unique factors to consider there that it only made sense it was difficult.

Still, she fell in love with all of them despite herself. So maybe it is easy, in some ways. Terrifying and hard in others.
]

He does, [ she doesn't hesitate to say, also in present tense. He's never left her after all this time even if his life was over. ] It was. It just seemed right, y'know? To carry on his memory that way and... Well, after everything that happened after he died I needed a job that would help me move, so.

Roadie work was big in the 80s. A blond-haired, starry-eyed young adult who was apirising to be a musician was appealing I guess to some bands looking for hired hands. It worked out well. Got to move, got to play music, got to live a cool life roaming around and seeing things, learning about humanity first hand... It was pretty great, all things considered.
lacquers: (stay for just one more drink)

[personal profile] lacquers 2017-07-15 10:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It's interesting they approach love so differently, but seem to sometimes have such a keen understanding of the other's experiences. Similarities in their past, maybe their longevity, something makes it very easy for Magnus to hear what Rose is saying and feel it resonate within him.

Falling might be easy, but picking yourself up afterward? There's something Magnus has struggled with.

Profoundly. ]


You carried the best parts of him with you? [ It's not entirely a question. It's more like he's saying this is something he's done. That it does seem right when you lose someone, to let yourself hold onto something that was important and carry it into the future.

He's done that with people - people who didn't die. ]


It sounds like you have some fond memories of that time. You've been playing since then? [ That is a question. ]
hasitsthorns: (Tʜᴇɴ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ғɪɴᴅ ᴍᴇ)

[personal profile] hasitsthorns 2017-07-16 03:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I do, [ she answers, still in the present tense. To this day, she looks back on him as one of the only reasons she made it through the ring. It's true in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Without him, she likely wouldn't be here right now. Even if she wishes she could be here with him, well.

An expression she learned fairly quickly from humanity was 'you don't always get what you want.'
]

More or less! I picked up some other instruments along the way, too, like piano. Violin. Flute. I really want to learn how to play the drums, but just never found the opportunity.