synflux | PRE-FIGHT EVENT #1

PRE-FIGHT EVENT #1

PRE-FIGHT EVENT #1

CONTENT WARNINGS: natural disaster, PTSD, mind-control, psychological trauma, violence, delirium from heat, temporary blindness, hallucinations, dead bodies.

▶ 001. STORM CHASERS.

After weeks of searching for clues on the kaiju and missing people, the desert landscape begins to blend together. Didn’t you pass that cactus earlier today? That rock formation looks exactly like the one you passed the other day. It’s natural to loop back around when conducting a search but doesn’t it feel like everyone has been going in circles more frequently?

The heat isn’t helping either. Temperatures start to rise and continue to rise to all time highs. The sun is unrelenting and the only reliable shelter they have are their campers. Prolonged exposure outside will result in heat exhaustion, dehydration, and delirium.

Warnings will be sent to the Outsiders via their implants to keep them up to date with the weather as well as providing health tips such as reminders to stay hydrated or seek shelter during the hottest parts of the day. They will also receive warnings for sand storms and tornadoes called dust devils. The storms start of short and relatively weak but gradually begin to last longer and become more powerful. Pretty soon, Outsiders will not be able to see ahead from the dense sand and wind.

Outsiders will be told to chase after the storms and if they progress far enough, they will begin to find traces of people. They will find random belongings, articles of clothing, and occasionally, human remains in varying states of decomposition. Eventually, however, they will start to find survivors suffering from extreme fatigue and dehydration. They speak incoherently to themselves and as soon as they regain their strength, they try to run into storms while calling out to things that people can’t see.

Outsiders can wait for emergency caravans to arrive from Vegas to take survivors back to the city or they can take back the survivors themselves and use the opportunity to restock on supplies.

▶ 002. THE STORM CALLS.

The sandstorms increase and grow stronger until eventually, they last entire days. The sands shift, the grounds shake, and something thunderous can be heard in the dust. It becomes harder to see out in the desert and it’s almost like the storms are trying to hide something. At the edge of a storm, sharp eyed Outsiders may catch sight of a great shadowy serpent in the heart of the storm. Messages to their implants will urge them to get closer and investigate but be careful.

The storm grows stronger as they approach and the camper vans may slow down or get stuck in the shifting sands forcing some of them to proceed on foot to make visuals. Eventually, they will get close enough to finally establish clear visuals on their target: A giant sand worm. It’s size is not immediately clear due to the poor visibility and it being partially underground. However, the worm also sees them and when it does, it glows. The light catches on and reflects against the sand particles and that’s when it hits some of the Outsiders: A sudden splitting headache followed by an inability to look away.

Some outsiders may suddenly find themselves entranced by the worm; hypnotized. They will begin to see mirages and hear voices calling out to them in the storm. Captivated Outsiders will find themselves wanting to run into the storm to chase after the phantoms, some of them images and figures of people from their past and present back home. If anyone attempts to stop them, they will become irrational, violent, and turn on their friends and allies. Some Outsiders may begin to view their allies as enemies and attack, turning on one another in a gruesome frenzy. Some of the hypnotic beams will effect those still in their campers, turning on their friends and other Outsiders.

Outsiders will have to restrain each other to keep them from running into the desert or harming each other. In the chaos, the worm disappears into the storm. The psychic effects of the monster will weaken after the worm disappears and the storm dies down but it may leave some characters feeling overwhelmed and confused in the aftermath. Some will remain in an erratic state for several days, occasionally acting normal. In the insanity of all of this, Outsiders may have picked up another Outsider into their camper van for their protection or camper parties remain shuffled. It's up to the ones unaffected by the psychic attacks to watch over the others while retreating from the desert.

▶ 003. CITY OF DREAMS.

Following the disaster of the first sighting, LILITH will order characters to return to Vegas so they can assess what happened. En route to Vegas, some Outsiders may notice some side effects from the prolonged exposure to the sandstorm. They may experience shortness of breath and coughing as a result of breathing in so much dust. Furthermore, they may experience a splitting headache or pain behind their eyes. Their implants may lag, glitch, or go completely offline which will render them temporarily blind in one or both eyes. It seems that the fine sand and dust combined with whatever psychic damage the worm did may have messed with their implants and crossed some sensors which is all the more reason to return to Vegas for treatment.

Outsiders may become lethargic and experience vivid daydreams while they are awake or regular dreams while sleeping. In these dreams, they may relive memories. Some of these memories may be pleasant but others may be traumatic or things characters would rather keep secret. Unfortunately, being in close proximity to someone suffering from these effects will force a link through a glitch in their implants and drag other characters into the dream.

These links will function similarly to how simulation training works. The dreams they visit appear to be very realistic and characters can experience pain and be hurt within the memory. They will be able to interact with the memories. While in these memories, they can try to wake up the memory holder to bring them back to reality. Who knows, maybe helping each other understand what is real and a dream may even make them more resilient to the worm’s attacks the next time they go into the desert...

▶ 004. REST & RECOVERY

As characters recover from the psychic effects and implant glitches, LILITH will try to assess everyone’s biometrics to understand what happened. Characters who need therapy or counseling after reliving some horrible memories of theirs will be provided sessions via their implants. They now understand that the worm has some sort of psychic mind control power that it can use on victims. It is currently too dangerous to go back into the desert until they can come up with a proper defense against it.

Outsiders will be ordered to stay in Vegas and focus on recovery, given two queen side bed hotel rooms again OR if they would prefer to stay in the camper vans, that is also fine, with their same room mates or new ones. They are confident that they can fix the implants with the right upgrade but they aren’t sure what to do to stop people from following the call of the desert and making them act erratically. What is important is that LILITH sticks together.

In the meantime, those who have recovered, and even those who are experiencing these issues are ordered to remain close to one another; a buddy system of sorts. Each Outsider will be given designated groups to keep tight watch over one another while in Vegas. They will be responsible for physically checking on those in their groups and making sure one another’s whereabouts are properly tracked in order to avoid losing anyone to the desert.

LILITH encourages Outsiders to hang tight and wait for instructions before adventuring back out into the desert.

▶ 005. AFTERWORD.

In light of the results of the scheduling poll, here is our first event with a preview of the kaiju. All side effects from either the sandstorms or the worm kaiju can last for as short or as long as players would like.

For the daydreams/memory share, players can decide how they would like characters to experience the memories, whether it plays out in front of them like a movie or if they're reliving it by acting out the scene all over again or a mix of both. We encourage you guys to have fun with it and use whatever format feels most comfortable.

As always, feel free to leave questions under the QUESTIONS thread. All tags on this log are worth 2 points and will count towards June AC.

EVENT BREAKDOWN (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. STORM CHASERS: Outsiders, still in the now expanded Mojave Desert, face problems with heat and sandstorms, resulting in dehydration and delirium. Still, LILITH encourages them to press onward in their camper vans and desert approved attire. Many dead bodies are found, but those that survive, Outsiders can keep an eye on survivors until emergency care can come pick them up.

2. STORM CALLS: A glimpse of the creature causing the problems is seen beneath the sands surface: a giant sandworm. It attacks LILITH recruits with psychological damage, causing Outsiders to hallucinate memories of their past, act erratic and violent and turn on LILITH crew. Outsiders are tasked to wrangle in one another and retreat back to Las Vegas to recover.

3. CITY OF DREAMS: Seeking refuge back in Las Vegas, character's implants go haywire from the psychic attacks, causing a memory share between characters that are close enough to one another.

4. REST & RECOVERY: Outsiders are placed in hotels again, or if they prefer to stay in the camper vans. They are tasked to keep an eye out on one another and sit tight for further instructions while LILITH assesses their data and next move to wrangle in the sandworm. Outsiders are to wait until given instructions.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's alright! I've given it my best already.

[ He answers pleasantly, as if his exam weren't blank and a definite fail, but it isn't going to get any more filled out if he sits around here. Elan stands up to go, feeling the gaze of the proctor on him. He's not sure what he'll do once he's outside, but he'll figure it out. Unless the mirage ends there and locks him into the room or something... ]

[ That gaze follows him out the door, silent and unmoving. And he is certainly allowed to leave. But on the other side of the door...

Is another classroom, similar in appearance. There are students milling around, preparing for class. Eavesdropping on any of the students' conversation will reveal that the class is on mathematics, specifically on number-field and function-field analogues of prime number races. Whatever that means. Graduate level topics, presumably, because the students don't look young enough to be undergraduate. There are even a number of much older students, looking every bit professional as they take their seat in the lecture hall and work away at whatever work they have while they wait for the professor to appear.

What do you do, Elan? ]

[ Elan breathes a sigh of relief when he reaches the door only to find on the other side... Oh, you've got to be kidding.

It's not a hallway that greets him but another classroom filled with students trying to cram in some last-minute studying. Prime number races? He's not even sure that's a real concept, but what would he know, he never finished high school. What happens if he slips over to the door and takes a peek at the next room... ]

[ If he exits again, he'll find himself in yet another classroom, this time the topic on Philosophy. It seems there's no escaping the class, but if he keeps trying to exit the class over and over, he'll eventually find that the difficulty of the subject starts to lower. It almost seems as if this dream that he's stuck in expects him to try to learn something before he'll be released. ]

[ Boy, this is like something out of a horror movie (it's not that dramatic). Elan ducks out a few more times before it becomes clear to him he's stuck in a revolving loop of classrooms. He tests a few more doors to try to luck his way into an exam he can comprehend, observing the test contents changing and even growing easier almost as if... ]

Alright, geez.

[ He'll pass on history and other subjects too specific to the world they originated in. Math is certainly an option, but what he's really looking for is open-ended essay-type questions he can bullshit. ]

[ The classrooms loop through a wide range of subjects: engineering, medicine, biology, math, philosophy, physics, computer science and natural theology. Of those subjects, philosophy would be his best bet for open ended questions, and eventually he'll find himself in a first year undergraduate Philosophy class.

Should be easy, right?

But if even that doesn't entice him, nothing is stopping him from seeing if there's an end to chain, because it's not like the proctor has taught an infinite number of classes, right? ]

You have the wrong guy for this.

[ He's pretty sure philosophy was Four's special interest. Elan looks over the essay questions and balks, but eventually settles on one - to compare and contrast different philosophies on the meaning of life.

After inheriting Four's room, he'd flipped through the guy's meager possessions and turned up a philosophy book. He remembers perusing it, not out of any interest in the topic, but to understand what his counterpart might have been thinking as his fate closed in on him. The thing is, Elan didn't get far before putting it down because that shit was depressing.

Perhaps Four thought something like this: Human desires cause only grief and suffering. Suppressing one's desires is the only way to escape the despair of wanting something unattainable. Maintaining emotional distance and giving up one's will are ways to practice self-denial and avoid pain. As he writes, he's going to cite his source as some guy he once knew because this is a totally serious essay.

Then he's going to argue against his previous points with a different philosophy. Life should be about seeking pleasure and minimizing stressors like examinations. Instead of self-denial, try being greedy. Enjoying yourself is the best way to stick it to the ones who want you miserable, and people would be happier if they practiced the art of not giving a fuck. Source? Just trust him.

It ends up a tongue-in-cheek essay, the tone too casual but embellished with points and coherent enough. He hits submit to send in his shit essay and pushes the tablet away. Happy? Now let him out of here.
]

[ He still has to wait patiently for the exam period to pass, lest he cause a ruckus, but if he waits obediently, the exam will finish, and he'll be free to go.

The next room he enters will be a familiar one—the cafeteria in LILITH's base. It is set up much the way it had been when exams had been progressing in it, just days before they were sent to Las Vegas. But there are no exam papers to be seen—at least none that are meant for him. Instead, that familiar proctor with his plaster bust is sitting at the far side of a table, marking papers.

He doesn't react to Elan's presence just yet. What does Elan do? ]

[ Dear god, he's free of exam hell...possibly. Elan's glad when the scenery changes to something familiar, but this wasn't the desert he had left behind and was hoping to see. What he does see is a man marking papers at a table. ]

This mess was your doing?

[ His surprise echoes loudly in the quiet room. It all makes sense now. The guy with the alabaster head is the same doctor on LILITH's network who had proctored examinations in the base's cafeteria. Only someone that obsessive about his job could have dreamt it up. ]

[ He continues marking, as if Elan hadn't said anything at all. He's silent for a good few seconds, but then: ]

Do you truly believe seeking pleasure and only that will bring you happiness?

[ The pen stops, and Ratio looks up at Elan. ]

[ It hits Elan then the doctor must have read his cringe essay. Maybe it's sitting in his stack of papers right now. Wow, that's a little embarrassing.

The real question here is whether he would be sent back to the mines if he said yes. Because at this point, he'd tell the man whatever he wanted to hear if he could escape this place for good. ]

You have to enjoy life when you can die the next day, right? That was a last-ditch piece written under duress! Don't read into it too much, professor.

Edited 2024-07-18 07:15 (UTC)

[ Don't worry Elan, you're done for good. It's not as if Ratio has any control over this dream, but if he were to guess, his subconscious simply wanted Elan to engage in education somewhat seriously instead of constantly running away.

He doesn't believe Elan, of course. But it's fair to say that even he could argue that position if that was the point of the assignment. ]

Then what do you believe in? It seems to me that you do not believe in struggling to live, judging by your search for an excuse to be indolent last we spoke.

I'm offended you think I don't struggle!

[ Maybe he doesn't look it on the outside, even acting flippant while he says it, but if he doesn't keep his cool he might just snap. They're treading on a topic he's deeply bitter about. ]

There's nothing I've fought harder for than my life. I doubt you could understand. What do I believe? You're a smart man, try to figure it out.

[ Challenging him to read into your heart... This man is a distinguished scholar, not a trauma counselor, Elan.

He makes a sweeping gesture around the room with his hands. ]

If we're done here, can we head back to reality?

[ The thing is, Ratio is very familiar with this flippant attitude, paired with a sort of hopelessness for one's life, despite trying one's best to survive. It's actually starting to become concerning, how many people's he's meeting here with that sort of mindset. His frown remains unseen behind the alabaster headpiece he's wearing. ]

I will not make assumptions about your beliefs and desires precisely because my experiences are not comparable to yours. What I seek is evidence that you have thoroughly considered what you desire in life. If your true wish is to be indolent and indulge in worldly pleasures, I will not stop you.

[ Ratio waves dismissively towards the exit of the cafeteria. ]

I am not in control of this shared dream. However, it is likely you will find the exit now.

That's easy for you to say. Not everyone has the luxury or time for lofty ambitions! Not when your life has been cursed.

[ Why is he even telling him this? He thinks the man couldn't possibly understand how it feels to have his entire life denied to him, and then be told he's not doing enough with it. Elan turns on his heels to leave, the doctor's words hitting a nerve. It's not the first time he's been confronted with his lack of purpose, but he's stubbornly refusing to do anything about it. Right now he thinks he's fine following his whims and just trying to stay alive. ]

Don't take it too personally I don't care for your classes.

[ With a bitter smile, he waves a hand dismissively in the air before he steps through the exit. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

PRE-FIGHT EVENT #1

▶ 001. STORM CHASERS.

▶ 002. THE STORM CALLS.

▶ 003. CITY OF DREAMS.

▶ 004. REST & RECOVERY

▶ 005. AFTERWORD.

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i'm sorry this got so long i wrote YOU an essay

you're fine half of ratio's tags are this long normally... that's why i'm so slow ;;

crawls back here from my hiatus, sorry for the delay

It's all good!

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crawls back here to wrap up. one problem child for you