- Edited
ONI (yo what)
ONI (yo what)
Dumb
Gillian turned a couple of times trying to locate the origin of the whisper until eventually leaving the plaza towards the northeast, the eerie atmosphere remained all teh same no matter how long they walked, and it felt like the surrounding grew darker with every step...
Once more they passed the group of replicants without knowing the actual significance behind it...
They reached another plaza, there was a large GL&M holodisplay in the middle with people standing around the plaza, merchants, diplomats and alike, their faces looking worn out and exhausted...
Gillian paused, the direction of the sound had changed.
They were being led, if it hadn´t been obvious already it was now...
He turned towards the east and began walking, whilst Chesed and Gevurah kept an eye on his vital signs.
Darker...
They found themselves on anotehr plaza, a monument of a indisciminate dna strain standing in the middle, people around. They looked... pained, despaired.
Gil looked around, southeast. Continued walking...
Darker...
As expected, they reached another plaza. A large marble cube in it´s middle, names inscribed, many of them washed out written in shadowy colours, as if crossed off a list...
The people around, their faces were, grey, indscriminate, pale and hopeless.
Gil shuddered unwillingly, they defenitely weren´t on the embassy anymore, or at least, not on the embassy as they knew it...
South. Gil took his first steps reluctantly, but walked nonetheless.
...darker.
Gillian, Gevurah and Chesed observed their surroundings in simultaneous horror and otherworldy fascination.
The sky was all wrong, grey and dull, the air thick and heavy.
There was not much left of the people around, all they saw was shadowy worn down figures, dragging themselves across the plaza from unknown places to unknown destinations.
No clouds, no sky, no 'people'.
They looked at the middle of the plaza and found themselves back where they had started, the odd sculpture of the lizard-like thing, looked down at them almost mockingly.
Whilst staring at the statue a faint but horrible realization crept up in Gillians mind, the whisper was gone... what would they do now?
Fort_Master_Gustav
After turning a couple of times the replicant who had been whispered to was able to ascertain the origins direction.
Southwest.
As they left the woman behind and walked of the plaza, she didn´t move, didn´t respond, didn´t say anything.
Neither confirming... nor denying their claims.
As they walked the surroundings, or possibly the atmosphere itself seemed to grow darked with every step they walked, after a while they reached their target... or, at least the first of them, passing the other group unknowingly once more.
What they found was a plaza with a black bipyramid in it´s middle, the edges were glowing in a faint purple, though more notably were the people which were walking around the plaza...
They seemed to be all equally worn out and exhausted, unnaturally so.
The direction of the whisper had changed and so did the destination of the replicants.
South they walked off the plaza, leaving the odd monument and the people behind.
Darker...
The next plaza they found themselves on, seemed to be even more degraded than the last one, there was a large greek looking pillar in the center, the statue of a muscular man atop of it seemingly thinking, though his facial expression seemed strained, forced, depressed as if worn out by centuries of thinking in downward spirals...
The people around... were no better, they expressions speaking of pain and despair.
Unsurpisingly, the direction changed once more. Southeast.
Darker...
They stopped once more, this time, it was a large black obelisk, smooth and without markers, yet it felt as if the thing was observing them, whenever one of them didn´t look.
The people around were... grey, indisciminate, looking pale and hopeless.
At this point it was not unlikely they were not actually on the 'embassy' anymore, at least, not the one they were used to.
...east.
...darker.
With a dull feeling they came to the realization, they had been led in a circle, the fountain in front of them, looking all too familiar, although the atmosphere could not be much different.
The sky was grey and dull, the air thick and heavy, no clouds, so sun, no stars.
The people were...
They were...
There was not much left of the people around, all they saw was shadowy worn down figures, dragging themselves across the plaza from unknown places to unknown destinations.
Even the sounds of the water in teh fountain seemed full and grey.
Even the replicants, which were mostly immune to such influences, couldn´t get around feeling a faint discomfort, standing in this atmosphere...
The child replicant stopped, pondered, before the otehrs could inquire about the directions, a faint realization came over their quantum comms...
The whisper was gone.
What now? Was this a dead end after all?
Music!
"Hmm?"
"Why are we stopping?"
The halted steps of Gillian brings both Gevurah and Chesed to full alarm, timing every pulse and even monitoring the body temperature and degree of sweating, but everything is still the same as before, at least, same as when Gil gets out of his post-trauma shock. Meanwhile, Gillian slowly analyzes the situation, considering all the little bits which he had collected...
"......what should we do..."
Speaking...or rather, thinking of "collected" items, Gil brings out the leaf which he snipped during the little walk-around, only to find the part of the plant gleaming green as usual.
"huh...hey Chezed, what sort of path did we take before returning to here."
"Let's see...southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, and... south."
"A hexagon."
"No... a circle, or even, a sphere..."
Gillian looks up to the sky while whispering to himself, then towards where they enter this plaza from for the first time, and shifts to where the two women were chatting at.
"...How does some more walking sound to you two?"
"Uh..."
"I mean, you are the only one who does the actual walking anyway..."
"Alrighty then, time to trace our steps, southwest we go!"
Drakador_Chaos
It clearly wasn't. The automatic telemetry of the internals of the Replicants could track their movement in real-time, it was a much useful and necessary tool if the group were to function as the collective team that they were meant to be. However, what that also meant is that their systems automatically knew and picked up on patterns of the environemnts they transited within.
That at first sight might seem a bit of a foolish endeavour, however, it is much more useful than one might think. Algorithms could sort out the telemetry data collected by the team and pick up on the trends of the location, like the intelligent guesswork of a fortifications engineer, and know, just by sheer probability and database analysis, what lay in the next room, or the layout of the surrounding environment, or even, who made it, if it were a sufficiently documented architectural style.
What this also meant is that they could calculate the many different mathematical laws that governed the location they threaded in according to the logged information. As soon as the second plaza was reached, the system knew the probable location of the others, which it followed with the aiding of the semi-sentient AI that governs the Replicants themselves.
But as the whisper faded and their subconscious-like processes became less clouded, they could once again reason by their internal computation. Thus, instead of regressing, then went inwards towards the center of the projected Octagon that their walking generated. If that were not the case, other points of mathematical relevance were available for inspection.
Fort_Master_Gustav (damn it why your team missed mine every time)
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?
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...
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?"
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.
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.
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."
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...
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?"