THE MARK OF THE ATLAS
Into the heart of the city you go.Down below the lowest levels of the city, somewhere beyond the twisty maze of passages, several of the paths converge in a huge underground cavern. Here the air is blissfully cool compared to the desert above. A single shaft of light shines down from somewhere on the surface; motes of sand drift lazily as if suspended in the light. Elsewhere, the cave is lit by small clusters of glowing fungus that live off the moisture collected down here. Dim but navigable for most.
But perhaps the most striking items in the area are the
monoliths. Great fragments of stone over three meters long, too smooth to be natural but too jagged to be whole either. Several of them glow from the pulse of energy running through them. Others, while dark, have recessed notches large enough for a person’s hand. And still another group seems nearly shattered, a larger fragment surrounded by smaller ones. All of them react when the interlopers draw close enough...
LIGHT
Upon closer inspection, the lit monoliths have a curious pattern worked into the tone. The symbols are rather arcane, but perhaps they make sense if one tilts one’s head and squints. This one has strokes that resemble tongues of flame. That one is covered in cascading, fluid lines. Another … well, that look more like a
warning sign than anything else.
Interacting with these monoliths results in a warning crackle and the scent of ozone before the monolith
opens. Something comes pouring out of it in response. Gushing water is the most common, matching up with the cascade monoliths; others open to flame or greenery or other odd things. And one
definitely opens up into a vacuum. Careful with that unless you want to have something sucked out into space.
Whatever connection they make is brief and non-traversable, but whatever comes through stays on this side.
DARK
The unlit monoliths aren’t nearly as flashy as their glowing brethren, but they have their own stories to tell. With the help of a little light (and the suit), the interlopers will find that these monoliths are covered from top to bottom in alien script. Most have at least one solid crack or chunk in them - at the juiciest parts! - but there may be enough left to be intelligible, given a little luck.
VISION
The last set hum with an ominous energy that belies their dilapidated appearance. Interlopers who approach these monoliths trigger strange images that float in the air. No two visions are alike, though they all share common themes. Silhouettes descending to the surface of the planet and spreading out across it. Exploring and interacting with an alien environment. There’s something deeply familiar about these shadows despite the variety of body types represented by them. The shape of their clothing is reminiscent of your own suit...
Other snippets are set in space. Here the silhouettes are a darker patch of black against the darkness of space. The mood in these images is strangely pensive, somewhat tense. These figures are searching very desperately for something.
There is one, though, that’s different from all the others. No silhouettes, no searching, no space. Only a shaft of light starting from a point beyond this planet’s moon. At first it’s a too-bright star; then, a solid beam stretching down to the planet itself. The light increases in intensity and breadth exponentially until it impacts physically with the surface of the planet itself. The eruption kicks up huge clouds of dust that race towards the city with all the heat and speed of a pyroclastic explosion. It rises up like a wave...and then crashes down, burying the city.
Eventually, each of the images go dark once again.
BROKEN
Amidst the myriad of strange monoliths and now-flowing water? Is some sort of chassis. The ruined frame of an old robot of some kind, easily as large as a cement mixer's chamber and just as tall. Most of it lies buried beneath the sand, stuck near the far end of one particularly large chamber within the caves' network. It takes a bit of walking to get there, but there's a reward to be had for those who find it:
The room is not empty.Standing in the exact middle is a strange, hulking figure. It stands at eight feet at least, a massive frame encased in black. Whether it's carapace or suit is impossible to tell, and whether or not it's
alive is another story altogether. It stands perfectly motionless, skull-like face staring ahead at the robot's husk as water pools in through cracks and recesses, giving the ground a glass-like appearance through which
tiny grass-like eels can be seen rising from tiny holes in the sand.
For all intents and purposes the figure seems nothing more than a statue.
Eerie.
OOC
There will be an
24-hour event encounter which runs from
Nov 26th at 8:00am EST to
Nov 27th at 8:00am EST. Feel free to let characters toy around & thread in the innermost areas of the city before the main event! Sections will go up in this entry and will be linked here when they are ready.
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no subject
No. But just 'cause they weren't up there doesn't mean they're not down here. This place is kinda... y'know....
[He shrugs a little, searching for the right word. It's hard to articulate, mostly because he doesn't know what this place is; it just seems important? valuable? sacred? He isn't sure.
He lets himself focus less on the monolith and more on the structure of the room, following the high walls up, up, up. If it had been his family putting up the defenses, none of them would have gotten through the door. Through that lens, he finds the best way to describe it he can think of:]
Seems like it'd be something worth protecting.
[It just doesn't make sense to him that it wouldn't be.]
no subject
It might just be the remnants of a people they can't understand, or perhaps a people that they were meant to understand. For Lexa, it's difficult to come to a definitive conclusion.]
Especially if all has been lost. I'd think it's where people might come in those final moments.
no subject
[That's a sobering thought, one that briefly humanizes the abstract "people" that were here before them in his mind. He's a lot of things, most of them not very upstanding, but he's always been respectful of people and places that deserved it. Put like that, he suddenly feels like he's trespassing, instead of just exploring.
They have to do this anyway, they need the information, he knows that. It doesn't stop him from feeling sort of gross about it.]
We'll leave it the way we found it. [Beat. Even that might be a little unrealistic.] Or, you know. Not fuck it up as much as we can. That's the least we can do, right?
no subject
But she could be wrong. Everything about this room tells her that might be the case.]
It's what my people would want, though there is no way of knowing that these people believed in anything similar. [Lexa is accustomed to differences in culture. She knew that long before she turned up here.]
That said, we shouldn't hesitate because we fear disrupting what got left behind. We have to survive, as well. For now, it might provide some answer as to what left this place in ruins in the first place.
no subject
[Maybe the people wouldn't care, but then again, maybe they would. Maybe they've already broken a bunch of unspoken cultural rules just by being here. They can't be sure, so they should at least try to minimize the damage, as a sign of respect. That makes sense to him.
He advances on the monolith, slowly and at an angle, like with each step he's concerned that a spear or an arrow or something might come shooting out of nowhere (he is). He stops when he's close enough to touch, when he can make out the winding patterns on the stone. It's pretty, in a spooky way.]
Still alive. [Against all odds. He looks back over his shoulder at her.] I'm gonna see what happens if I touch it. Are you- are you ready?
[read: he's stalling for time to psyche himself up for touching weird alien rocks.]
no subject
In fact, she's fairly certain it won't.
With some reluctance (though it's definitely internally expressed rather than externally), she draws closer.]
If something happens, I'll draw you back. [Reassurance and a solid plan: better than going in without one, and she should have thought of this first.]
no subject
Yeah, great. [Sardonically, as he reaches one hand out towards the stone.] Assuming it doesn't just blow us both into next Tuesday, that is.
[There's one final moment of hesitation where he stares down the monolith, hand outstretched and mouth pressed into a thin, nervous line.]
All right. Here goes.
[He presses his palm flat against a section of the stone devoid of glowing symbols—
— and startles back a few steps when it gives way, the panel opening up into a spill of lush vegetation. He doesn't think he's seen anything this green since he woke up on this shitty planet. Of all the things he was prepared to expect from this, that was definitely not one of them.]
... The fuck?
no subject
Lexa draws nearer in part because she knows it isn't fair to have him do all of the testing. After ensuring that her gloves lack any openings, she takes hold of the vegetation and draws it upward so that she can observe it clearly. The light shining through into the area helps.]
It appears to be genuine life, [she offers him.] Without any need to take caution. Our initial beliefs regarding this place may be incorrect. What if this is how they survived?
no subject
[It makes... a surprising amount of sense, given that he just touched a big rock and plants started bursting out of it. The science seems... murky... but he's not a scientist, and also this is an alien planet, so. He feels comfortable with speculating.
Since the plants don't seem to be burning her suit off on contact, he leans over to press some of them back, to see if he can figure out how far back (what he assumes is a) compartment goes.]
I mean, if they could make it work.... Not like they were gonna get much outta what's up there.
no subject
Since I woke up, I met people who have abnormal strength, who can heal quickly, and who can burn things with their eyes. If all that is possible, this may be, as well. [Along with keeping people in pods that couldn't entirely be disrupted.
If this was a source for other people, it may be for them.
Then again:]
But it may be a trap. [She tugs out some of the greenery so she can examine it more closely.] What seems safe may just be a way to lure others in. But it's hardly an effective trap.