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
Pretty freaky, right?! I mean, who even put these here?
[ He isn't sure he wants the answer to that question. He divers his attention back to the monolith in front of Clark. ] At least they, uh, color-coded? Sort of...
[ That, in retrospect, was certainly a hazard sign. ]
no subject
[ There's no way the others like them had time to prop and develop large monoliths. It seems like a remnant of whatever life was on this planet - perhaps, before ATLAS came and re-purposed it. He feels the faint flickers of anger in him. ]
Want to take a closer look?
no subject
Yeah. Is it just me, or do some of these not light up...?
[ He advances, past Clark and right up to the stone face. ]
You remember when we went looking through the city? No metal at all. Just this rock.
no subject
[ Like Earth. His stomach turns. ]
It might be fluorescent rock or algae within the grooves. Or some other kind of technology - a recording system perhaps.
no subject
Or space magic.
[ A beat. ]
Which is totally a real thing, okay?!
[ He's seen it in action--the Galra's Druids performing feats he never could have conceived of, before. But then, maybe there were a lot of things he couldn't conceive of, before. ]
no subject
I've never heard of . . . space magic. But I don't know what kind of life is out there.
1/2
2/2
[ Haha, moving on. Lance lays his hand on one of the unlit monoliths, realizing with a start that his suit is reacting to it, like back in the hull. THe words make sense. ]
C-Clark! C'mere! Can you read this? Put your hand on it.
no subject
I seem to be able to now. Did we interface with it?
[ That removes his fluorescent theory. They're clearly mechanical. ]
no subject
[ Lance is hesitant, drawing back his hand. After a beat, he realizes that nothing's going to happen--whatever strange property make the suit capable of keeping him alive in a hostile environment is also enabling him to read the text. It's the suit, not the monolith.
Maybe. ]
What does this say? [ He dusts off a line of relief with his fingers, squinting. ] "The Travellers came from beyond our moons to seek the divine Atlas..."
no subject
[ They weren't experiments. Perhaps they were pilgrims, sent out to find the mythic Grail so to speak. ]
It seems like they were people here before us. Wearing the same clothes.
[ His expression is vaguely troubled. The idea of being hailed as godly or even a savior comes with a fear that Clark has buried since coming here. ]
They mention a treasure and that they helped them in some way on their . . . quest.
no subject
So the 'Atlas' is some kind of religious thing, you think?
no subject
[ This was like playing with a jigsaw but never being sure if the pieces fit. ]
no subject
[ And why here, to a barren bug-infested wasteland? ]
no subject
The ATLAS could be something bigger.
no subject
Let's see if there are more of these...giant tablets.
no subject
[ Clark helpfully points them out. ]
no subject
"Our homes were lost among the stars and hope had left us all..." Man, this is gloomy. Come read! It's like it's missing a part at the bottom.
no subject
Most likely the stone degraded over time due to the storms and weather conditions.
no subject
"Through it we would find..." what? Hope and what?
[ He looks back at Clark, catching the shadow lingering over the other man's face, and his expression softens. He has no experience of his own with dead planets, though he's privately glad Allura isn't here. ]
no subject
[ He traces the word that looks like "hope" to him. ] My house symbol meant hope.
no subject
Your house? Like, your family?
no subject
The House of El. The symbol looks like a S on Earth but it's our coat of arms.