Fort_Master_Gustav (damn it why your team missed mine every time)
Rumors of the Lost
Dumb We were never meant to be together it seems
Dumb
...as they headed back southwest, step by step, they began to notice that neither the environment, nor the people seemed to change, neither back, not further devolving...
It seems, they were stuck in worn down mockery of the embassy, at the least for the time being...
After a while, they came back to the fountain, still spouting water, although the sky remained the same starless and sunless dull grey, the people aimless shadows, trodding along endlessly...
Had they made progress or not?
Fort_Master_Gustav
As they wandered towards the center of the octagon, they registered people becoming less and less, those they met, all walking in the opposite direction, the sky began to get an... odd streaky black tone...
As they moved on, noises became, less and less, until all that remained was their own thoughts and steps and even those sounded hollow...
They had made about half the way to the center...
Though the further devolving environment begged the question, were these signs for the right way, or the wrong way, in this twisted world?
- Edited
Drakador_Chaos
Gillian slowly walks the path he had already taken in the original embassy, checking every plaza which came across and paying extra attention to the position where they get the clues until they reach the plaza with the bipyramid.
Drakador_Chaos
Change was good, after all at the moment that the scenery stopped changing, it was obvious that they were going the wrong direction. The ominous darkness doesn't scare them in their preplanned route, if there were nothing there, they'd just come out the other side anyways.
Dumb
Things did not seem to change considerably as they walked, however, soon they learned, that now all plazas were as degraded as the ones they had been to last...
As they reached the plaza with the obelisk, the sky was still dull and grey, with formless shadows of people walking of aimlessly into all directions...
The most disturbing thing about the plaza, was the obelisk itself though, where before they only felt watched by the accursed thing, it was now like a formless spire of shadows, covered over and over with red glowing depiction of simplified, eyes, each and every one staring at them, following their every step...
However, there were no new clues here...
The next plaza was downright depressing, the man atop the pillar, seemed to be waning, his eyes sunk in and his body seemingly about to collapse under the weight of his own thoughts, his muscles limp and worn down, like those of an old man...
No clues here either.
As they reached the last plaza, the sky was still dull and grey, the edges of the black bipyramid glowing in a bright purple for no apparent reasons, it´s mere presence seemingly attracting to attention of some unknown god, indicated by a suppressing feeling...
...and yet no clues.
Fort_Master_Gustav
As they closed in on the center, the sky darkened further the atmosphere felt so thick as if it wanted to suck out their very last breath as they walked...
...and then they reached the center, everything around them was just silhouettes and outlines now, a shadow of the former embassy, In the center of the plaza stood only two things, there was a small black pedestal, about the height of a humans hips, it´s sides slightyl angled outwards towards the bottom, atop the pedestal a thin red glowing line rose to the sky and an ominous... presence seemed to emanate from it...
Besides the pedestal however, stood something that was arguably even more interesting, there was young man, possibly somewhere between 20 and 30 of indescript race, humanoid with pointy ears and silver hair, wearing white clothes with red ornaments, looking almost like some sort of adventurer, he didn´t seem to have noticed them yet, simply staring at the top of the pedestal...
- Edited
Drakador_Chaos
"Another lap mayhaps?"
"......"
Watching Gillian walked the path just to find near to no clues, Chesed can't help herself and snicker involuntarily.
"Nah, we arrived at where I want us to be."
"Yea, yea, we will still follow......wait, huh?"
"Mhm, you heard that right."
"So...the middle?"
"Yes."
"You are going to walk towards there normally, right?"
"......"
"You are going to walk towards there normally, right?"
The lack of response doesn't help reassure Chesed by one bit, and with the eerie smile slowly spreading on Gil's face, she can only prepare for the worst...
......
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"As long as it works, it's fine."
"But...what if it doesn't work?"
"And we will deal with that when it doesn't work."
Standing in front of the bipyramid, and with Gevurah, now in spear form, pointing 45 degrees above the middle of the hypothetical dome, Gillian's smiling like a kid with a new toy, repeatedly doing thrusting motion with the spear.
"Hey G, say something will ya."
"?"
"No, not you, the other G guy"
"...I'm only a spear."
"Oh damn it!"
"Well then, ready?"
"Spear is ready."
"Ugh...Yea yea."
Gillian slowly draws the spear away from his body, while lowering his center of gravity, forming a position that somewhat resembles spear-throwing.
sneakly insert BGM
"Here comes the countdown. 3, 2, 1"
"Fire!"
The inner side of the spear's edge glows in the hue of blue, where a piece of psychic-enhancing material is embedded onto the weapon, allowing for a bit of range attack potential, or, in this case, a propulsion device. The glow brightens exponentially, and with Gil thrusting the spear, the trio is launched into the air.
"GIL!"
"I know!"
Upon reaching the space above the middle plaza, Gil spins the spear around and gives another thrust to nullify the inertia, before Gevurah and Chesed resuming back into their humanoid form and just let gravity do the rest, (presumably) kicking off quite a dust cloud upon landing.
The main replicant, or be it, the standard model, smiled, for of course they reached the point they should've. Whilst the other replicants formed a somewhat half-circle around the being in the center, the main replicant simply walked towards the humanoid with a lit cigarette between his lips, a very usual routine for his model.
Surely enough, he put his hand on the pedestal and used it as support whilst looking at the being, quickly saying:
"Fancy seein' you here mate.
So what's this little gizmo 'ere?"
- Edited
Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
As Gil came crashing down into the ground the first thing he saw, was a man with silver hair and pointy eyes, wearing white and red clothes jumping out of his way and drawing his blade from his back in a wickedly fluid motion...
Likewise, the first thing the replicants saw was Gil dropping on the ground, essentially right in front of their feet...
There were a couple of rather tense moments before anyone said anything, then the odd man shook his had and put the blade back into the sheathe.
"Hm. So there´s 3 now? Interesting.
As Gil looked around he saw... darkness, aside from him and the replicants, he now realised he had passed two times looking back at it and were apparently on teh same plain as him, likewise on the replicants side. Everything here was solely darkness, the surrounding only shown in faint outlines and silhouettes, there weren´t even any wandering shadows here.
The only thing that somewhat set itself apart from the darkness was a black pedestal in the middle of the plaza, a plaza which definitely had no equivalent on the embassy, the pedestal had smooth sides, angled outwards towards the bottom and a thin red glowing line above it, casting a presence on the audience...
As both were now relatively close to the pedestal, also saw the symbol atop of it, an octagon, or rather, three concentric octagons, one inside the other...
The man looked at them and sighed.
"Well, this 'little gizmo' here, is supposed to get us out of here, like a sort of key or something."
He walked over to it and put his hand on top, apparently trying to feel something on the surface, judging by the movements of his fingers.
"Name's Halcyon, you can call me Hal if you want."
He shrugged.
"Not that it really matters."
Drakador_Chaos
Gillian originally wished to do a superhero-landing, making a unique entrance so to speak, but perhaps due to some timing issue, he ended up kneeling on both legs as if he is giving a prayer. Meanwhile, both Gevurah and Chesed just kind of splattered into two puddles behind Gil, before resuming back into their humanoid appearance.
After spending a few moments judging the surroundings and the assorted people, as well as the information in Halcyon's little explanation, Gillian slowly stands back up, and bows slightly, once towards Hal, and again towards the replicants.
"Erm... hello there, we are from the Crimson Republic, was just taking a little stroll before getting into....this"
Gil gestures to the surrounding darkness for a bit.
"Hal...um... how do you know about that?"
Drakador_Chaos Dumb
"A key eh?"
He also feels the interior of the pedestal with his left hand, whilst with his right, he grabs the cigarette and draws a heavy breath from it, expelling the fumes from the nose, and then smudging the cinders on the side of the pedestal.
"Anyone's got a key thing that's like three concentric octagons?"
He looks around, seeing that his party isn't in possession of anything like that, before turning back to Hal again and tapping him on the back.
"Well unless you have something like that, or those gel fellas don't wanna become some shapes, then we're as stuck as you are bud."
The rest of the replicants surround the whole event in a circle, but for now, they don't do anything.
- Edited
Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
Halcyon looked at both groups then he shook his head.
"Certainly not me."
He chuckled humorless.
"Would've been long out of this otherwise."
As the replicant examined the pedestal with his fingers, he... felt something, aside from the three glowing octagons, there seemed to be two overlaying rectangles etched into it which wren't glowing yet. Arranged in a manner in which they formed an eight pointed star together...
Halcyon continued.
"Though, two more of of those octagons began glowing a while before you came here.
What did you do since your arrival?"
He nodded towards the pedestal they were all standing besides.
- Edited
Drakador_Chaos
Fort_Master_Gustav
"Hmm..."
Not receiving an answer to his question, or rather, receiving the predicted answer to his question, Gillian slips both hands into his pants pockets, occasionally shifting his gravity to the sides while shifting his eyesight between the two other parties.
"We've been going around in circles...the octagonal path which the surrounding 8 plazas connect into, following some purposefully laid clues regarding a planet near the Core..."
Gillian carefully inspects any sort of expressional changes of Hal, before turning to face the replicant checking the pedestal.
"As for the key, doubt this can be solved with just masses of the same shape, so might as well share whatever hints we all received after entering this first, unless you already got the key that is"
Dumb Drakador_Chaos
"Aye that's true. So I can think of some options here off the top of me head."
The replicant leans over the weird pedestal, and stars citing off what he means.
"Now either Hal here has to go take a walk through these eight temples out there, maybe we have to activate them or something like that. Or there's another set of 8 things we have to go through, or a more inner realization, innit?
Because we did go through some odd places before we got shoved into this darkness, then we went through this second level, two octagons lit yes? Maybe there's another, more inner level. Could be Hal here, he's the first that got here after all."
The replicant shrugs in the end.
"But your guess's as good as mine, y'know how these things go, they are made to be confusing, every precursor or eldritch or secretive thing gets off on being secret and confusing, just how it be."
- Edited
Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
Hal seemed to be thinking, as the other two gave their answer, he lifted an eyebrow as Gil mentioned the planet, though didn´t show any other particular reaction. As they concluded he raised his finger and a red glowing construct formed above his fingers in the shape of the pattern atop the pedestal.
"Yes, I can affirm a physical key doesn´t work, tried that."
The construct dissipated, however, Hal seemed to have had an idea.
"Well, if the second and third formed when you came, the first one probably did when I was walking in circles, considering it was already there when I originally came here. The additional definitely makes sense, considering we seemed to have made some progress but are obviously not finished yet... Which would mean, those two..."
He pointed at the top of the pedestal with his open hand and lifted both eyebrows, as if demanding a supposedly obvious answer...
- Edited
Drakador_Chaos
Fort_Master_Gustav
"Hm?"
Following Hal's pointer, Gillian inspects the top of the pedestal and notice the overlaying squares
"Say, if the octagonal shapes light up when we walk the octagonal path, would the squares work the same way as well?"
"Well if you lads want to take a walk around the place, take the kid wit'ya. Since the shape seems to be inside, then A'reckon that it's sumwere in this darkness 'round us. I've had enough walkin'."
The child replicant steps fourth from the group of replicants that were gathered around everyone as the discussion carried forwards, meanwhile, the standard model reached for his trenchcoat and grabbed his lighter, flicking it back and fourth, obviously simply fidgeting for time.
- Edited
Dumb
Fort_Master_Gustav
_
Hal looked at both groups for a while and each replicant specifically, though he apparently wasn't able to tell what exactly, he seemed to sense something was off about them, as he briefly narrowed his eyes when he was finished.
"Yeah, I guess that is likely. Although I would argue we should split up without anybody being here at the time, we don't know what happens if we mess things up and I frankly don't want to find out."
It was a weird way to put it... though what he did say seemed sensible, at least to some degree.
"I will go with those three and head to the..."
He scratched his chin and seemed to be thinking.
"Obelisk. The obelisk and you can probably head to the fountain. Any objections?"
The fact that he seemed to be knowing the places around the octagon could lead to some interesting implications, alas probably none that would particularly useful currently, regardless he was waiting for the others input...
- Edited
Drakador_Chaos
Fort_Master_Gustav
"Consider how we start from a certain lizard statue, if your starting point isn't the obelisk, I would advise us to change our current heading, despite going on the same path"
"i thought you are just a spear eh?"
Gillian looks up at the pair as he fiddling something on the ground, before looking back at what he is building: a sheet of sort composed of purple rectangular pieces, all arranged in polygonal structure to maximize its surface area. After assembling the last few pieces, Gil stands back up, does a little stretching, and casually sits cross-legged on the metallic mat, followed by the pair.
"phew...well then, if you don't mind, step right in, we will finish this in no time."
Drakador_Chaos Dumb
"Alll right, off to walking again I reckon then. Cya gents in a jiffy."
The circle of replicants dissasembles itself and gather around like a small platoon with the usual replicant model as the leader of it, he looks for a few moments inquisitively at whatever Gillian is doing, but ultimately he shrugs it off and begrudgingly walks away from the central area, dissapearing into the ominous darkness.
Once again they follow their telemetry data to get to the aforementioned point, taking to hurry in their strides.