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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[She's content to be here, helping him. She can't actually help with the making of the bowls that he's using, but she can help him find rocks suitable to carve into. Used to his powers by now, she doesn't pay much attention to what he's doing as much as falling into a routine that makes it easy to work together.]
It almost makes me wish we could take off our suits. I could have you building me a bath in no time.
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Instead he smiles faintly. ]
I think you're not alone in that.
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We've been here weeks now.
[She's carrying a rock with two hands, and leaves it by him as she steps away to find another.]
It feels like we're still back at the beginning, trying to scramble to stay alive. Having this much water will help.
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We've made progress. We've worked well together. Maybe it can't be measured, but it's there.
[ He adds, his tone rueful. ]
I never would have helped like this in public. Or even talked about it.
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[She glances up at him briefly with a dimpled grin, pleased that he doesn't have to hide here. It's not unknown to her that his powers are a point that he takes issue with, in the sense where it leaves him questioning who he is and how he's meant to live among so many others who are different from him.
Grabbing one of the bowls he's already made, she goes to fill it and set it aside.]
I always did in my classroom, when one of my students was brave enough to stand out.
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[ His answering grin is faintly teasing. ]
I never did speak out much. I entered a science fair once and won. That was the height of my bravery.
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[Smirking over at him, she stands and watches him carve the rock into another bowl.]
Though, it's always the ones that never speak out that you have to keep a keen eye on. They're always the ones who end up being the most trouble.
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[ He had a few friends on the fringes of his life, but it had always been too dangerous. One slip up of anger was all it took. Clark remembers the time the bullies had pushed him against the fence, his fingers digging grooves into the metal. I could have killed them, he tearfully admitted to his father, fear colouring his voice. ]
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Maybe not. But it's usually the quiet ones who are hurting and need the most help.
[Much like she's been going through the past week or so. Becoming too quiet and withdrawn, keeping to herself. And like he tends to do when things upset him, like at the tree or when he first showed a display of his powers back when the spiders flooded the camp.]
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It wasn't that bad. I had a small world. But it grows.
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[Of course, her world view was relatively small until the past year when she took to traveling around time and space. ]
It's getting even bigger now. Soon enough, you'll have a whole universe to feel small against. Here. [She hands over yet another rock, this one ridiculously small. She just wants to see him turn it into a cup.]
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Eventually. . . . Possibly.
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Try doing it while it's still in my hands.
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That seems like a terrible idea.
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I'm filled with those, apparently. Go on, you won't hurt me.
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See? Everything's just fine. It wasn't that bad of an idea after all.
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I feel we got lucky.
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[It's about time she's had luck on her side for one thing here.]
We'll have a collection of cups and bowls in no time. Then no one can say we weren't productive while they were off exploring.
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[ It's better to keep moving. Clark also feels uneasy to linger in these empty spaces, relics of an alien race. ]
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[She's determined to do that, at least.]
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Let them know that it's here.
[ People don't need to know his involvement though. ]
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[She's picking up on the fact that he doesn't want to be named in doing this for everyone, and goes along with it without questioning him.}