The Mark of the Atlas

[atlasmods]

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.

Comments

[winscenario]

They don't have to be recordings. They might be... memories. Memories of people who came before us, or people who lived here.

[ He's certainly far more inclined to believe that than visions or prophecies of some kind. He doesn't believe in those, after all. Although he is fully prepared for the possibility that more pods might show up in the near future.

Stepping over to the nearest monolith, he touches it to see the next vision. Then another, and another. He repeats the process a number of times until he gets the vision of the beam of light triggering the explosion that buries the city. ]

This one doesn't look like a vision. [ He looks to Lexa. ] It looks more like it's showing us how the city ended up like this.

[adamance]

[A fact that will be clearer when she follows the others into the room to "speak" with the statue, but she's not convinced just yet. She glances out the way they've come, debating the path they've taken.]

If your theory of memories is true, do you think that this image may be a memory, as well? [She isn't shooting down the memory theory. Instead, she's asking him to explain it more—for both of them, really. If he has knowledge of ... saving a memory somehow, she'd like to hear it.

In part because it sounds ... familiar to her.]

[winscenario]

I don't know. [ He looks up the height of the monoliths, his hand dropping slowly once the vision reaches an end. ] I'm just making wild guesses at this point, and there's a chance we might not ever be sure about what these really are. But I think...

[ His eyes move from one monolith to another, then another, finally landing on Lexa. ]

They might be here to tell a story. Like... recorded history, left here by those who lived in the city before, or those who came here before us.

Someone else... looking for the Atlas. [ They can't possibly be the only ones. ]

Whoever or whatever brought us here, it might've done the same before. With other people, from other worlds. [ He points at the nearest monolith. ] That might be what these visions show us. Those same people, taken from their homes the same way we were.

[adamance]

So, it may be that we are working in a cycle. [The thought has occurred to her. Everything about these monoliths proves it. Still, therein lies the next question:] Did we arrive with them or are we the "next" to come? Depending, we may have been intended to be with them, but somehow managed to be found much later. Someone had to wake the first of us up, after all.

[Someone ... or something. Reason states.]

If they knew there would be others to arrive, they may have built this city expecting it to be a beacon. They may have left behind these memories to inform others that there were others before them. They may have expected it.

[But then, that means the hull was left untouched, as were their pods. Did they not think to look, or did they travel a similar path, with the same hull, covered again by years of wear and tear?

It's difficult to say.]

[winscenario]

I haven't seen another ship around, so it's possible they came with us. On the other hand, it's possible they were just dropped here and their ship left afterwards, or that it landed elsewhere on this planet.

[ Jim can only imagine there's a lot of land around where another ship might be. He doesn't want to be overly optimistic either, but the possibility that they might find a less damaged ship somewhere on this planet is actually encouraging. He wouldn't call himself an engineer by any means, but he does know enough about starships that he'd at least give it his best shot. ]

Whatever this city was, it's not anymore. This... vision. Something tore up this place. Maybe because of us. Trying to stop our... quest, for the Atlas, or trying to delay us so they could get to it first. Whatever the Atlas is, though, obviously it's something big. Important.

[adamance]

And given that the previous individuals like ourselves may have woke up to find themselves marked this way, reason states that they would add to the importance of the Atlas. [It's something that comes naturally to Lexa. While she knows the truth about Becca from Clarke now, as well as the Flame that resides in her neck, she really feels as if Polis is significant because of the hidden piece of machinery, as well as the painting on the walls where it's hidden. It's hard for her to abandon that; too many commanders believed in the same thing, and she is the result of all of that.]

Whatever it is, it had a great deal of power. [She pauses here, looking upward.] Perhaps unnatural power. Like many of those around us. [They've spoken about it before. Whatever is here might be proof that their ancestors (so to speak) weren't so different.]

[winscenario]

Oh, undoubtedly. The Atlas seems like this... big mystery, this thing that most people don't really know what is supposed to be. And that's if anyone at all even knows. That sort of thing tends to build up to the point that it's almost a legend or a myth.

[ Which, to be fair, it might be. They know next to nothing about the Atlas. What if it's something like the search of the Holy Graal or the city of Atlantis, things that may or may not have existed, but that people have searched and tried to find nonetheless? What if they're just here to search something for a group of mere believers, who have no real proof that the thing actually exists? ]

Almost makes me not want to find it, when I think of it like that. [ Almost. Jim's fear of what some people might do with access to something so powerful isn't quite as strong as his curious and adventurous spirit. ]

[adamance]

[Her head cants for a moment before she looks up at the monoliths. Lexa is still thinking of her people, and what she's learned about the spirit within herself. Before she passed, she had promised to commit to a new way for her people. If she had known the true nature of the Flame, she would have asked that the novitiates prove themselves some other way.

In fact, she sees Luna's willingness to run as something other than cowardice. It's almost like she saw the truth all along.]

Is it better to be ignorant, or to know the truth? [It's a question that almost requires no answer. Lexa does like asking questions.] Before I woke up here, I'd say that it's the latter. I've learned ... a great deal that makes me think otherwise. Can we cling to false importance if we manage to build up the Atlas?

[winscenario]

Small minds prefer ignorance.

[ Not that Jim's one to judge, but when it comes to that, it's just beyond him why anyone wouldn't want to know the truth, even if it's not pleasant— or especially if it's not pleasant. How can things change for the better if people refuse to see what's wrong with them in the first place? ]

I want the truth. I want to know what we're really doing here, and I want to know if there really is something to this Atlas. If it might even be a means for us to go back home, or if it's just a fictional construct that serves no purpose whatsoever.

[ Of course, wanting the truth and getting it are two very different things, but the point is he's not going to contribute to some story being spread across this quadrant if he finds no proof that it's real. ]

[adamance]

Or if our homes still exist in the first place, [she points out. Their surroundings hint that there can be great ruin in a world, and the visions themselves are proof of that, too. Lexa doesn't know how true her words are, but she knows that her world was in danger when Clarke left it ... and the pods themselves exhibited a great deal of wear and tear.]

I'd like to know regardless. Knowing who we are will depend on our hopes regarding our homes. Knowing the truth of that will matter. [To a captain. To a commander. To many others.]

[winscenario]

Well, if destroying our worlds was part of their plan, there's... a lot of worlds to destroy where I come from. [ The Milky Way alone has more developed and inhabited planets than Jim can count, even if he has some pretty extensive knowledge. Still, the thought of even one of them being gone unsettles him immensely. Watching Vulcan vanish from the sky had messed him in more ways than he can even explain, and it wasn't even his home. ]

It will. It'll definitely determine what we do, and where we go from here. [ Because if they have no homes to go back to, then this galaxy might just become their new reality. They might find themselves looking for a new home right here, instead. Not that Jim's particularly eager to keep his feet on the ground for long. ]

[adamance]

If it was their plan, but I was thinking more along the lines of time. I'm uncertain about believing it, but everything here is an indication that we may have been forgotten, but meant to wake up eventually. If what we've found here is proof of anything, it's that time has passed. Wouldn't you say it's unusual to believe that nothing has changed where we've come from?

[It's a concept that had been difficult to broach with Clarke, and with good reason. But she has less of an emotional investment in Jim—or no investment at all.]

Still, I think you'd agree that home is determined by what we favor most. That vision shows that we may very well have lost that through power such as this.

[winscenario]

Not necessarily, no. [ Jim presses his lips, trying to figure out how to explain in a way she'll understand. ] That's... if you think from a linear perspective, then sure, it'd be weird. But thing is, time's not linear, and it's not a constant stream. Some people even argue that time only exists because you perceive it, actually— that's neither here nor there, though. Point is, you can be taken from a certain point in your timeline, be gone for days, months or years, then be put back as if nothing had changed. Especially if we're talking multidimensional traveling, that seems even more possible than doing it within the same universe.

[ Honestly, he's not even sure if that'll make sense to her or if she'll just think he's some guy with crazy beliefs. But he does have some very personal experience with time travel, so he adds, for whatever may be worth. ]

I have this friend of mine, actually... a much older version of him traveled back to the past, to around the time I was born. So time travel might be involved in this too, in some way.