video, un: gorgug (pre-mingle)

[tinflower]

[ The camera turns on and focuses in on a motley duo: Riz and Fabian, a Goblin and a Half-Elf respectively (and, it has to be said, the camera has to be considerably zoomed out to accommodate both of their heights) who wear matching expressions of distinct disgruntlement. Behind them is a clue board that Riz refers to every now and then while he talks, his speech quick and efficient, words stumbling over each other in his haste to get them out. ]

Uh, hey everyone. Welcome back to Etraya, I guess? I’m just going to cut straight to the chase: a team of us did some investigation of what was happening back at Moorecroft, and I think there are some things that everyone should know. We went ahead and tried to figure out what the whole curfew thing was about – in case some of you just decided to behave yourselves the whole time, our curfew was being maintained by robots that would straight up kill you if you decided to stay out.

First, some of us went to check out the hospital, which is where most of the suspicious activity was coming from. Something there had the ability to lock away people’s powers, and they were able to somehow mimic people we knew from home, which were sent out to attack us. Presumably, that was to get our guards down. Fabian and I managed to get into the underground, where… [ He frowns, rubbing the palms of his hand together. ] Honestly? Things there were pretty inconclusive. There were a bunch of hand-drawn pictures along the walls of the corridor, stuff from around town, and it looked like they were raising some sort of… kids down there? Some of the rooms were obviously for teens our age, and other rooms were for really little kids, and it all led to some sort of tracks that led somewhere else. Where and why, we don’t know. But something real fucked up is going on there. You don’t find empty hidden bunkers of kids stuff without it being super fucked up, you know?

The others ran into other stuff around the city – smoke that turned into these big monsters that tried to eat them, the things those robots were trying to protect us from. Others ran into these android kids, who we can pretty easily assume the rooms in the hospital were for. The monsters didn’t try to go after them; apparently they only went after people who didn’t belong. Namely, us. Now, we don’t know what the hell those monsters were, but Adaine could feel what sort of arcane energy they were giving off – it was some seriously powerful reality-shifting energy. Conjuration, but the sort you’d only get from really, really powerful wizards.

That energy isn’t restricted to Moorecroft. She felt it here too, once we got back. That doesn’t bode well for any of us.

[ Riz takes a deep breath, glancing up at Fabian. ]

Did I miss anything?

Yeah, maybe some more emphasis on how fucked up this all is? [ Riz may have sounded relatively composed. Just objectively trying to get information across. Fabian, on the other hand, sounds anything but. He’s not looking majorly upset - yet - but he’s definitely both looking and sounding annoyed as he speaks. It isn’t aimed at Riz, nor even really at the viewers, like it’s some sort of general annoyance at this place. ] We almost died back there. Someone actually did die! And it’s not even the first time, since the stuff with the maze and the stuff with the plushies was just as fucked up!

[ Riz grimaces, a row of sharp teeth on display as he tugs at Fabian’s arm, hissing in a far less officious whine: ] Dude, time and place, this is just the mission report—

[ Unfortunately, Fabian just keeps going, wildly gesturing with his hands at this point as he speaks, the smaller boy visibly giving up on stopping him beside him: ]

We can’t just act like this place is normal! If it really wanted to help us save our worlds or whatever, then it could at least stop constantly trying to kill all of us, right?! How are we supposed to trust anything in this place when clearly it does not have our best intentions in mind in any way? [ His hand gesture arm swing is so wild that he almost manages to accidentally hit Riz. Sorry bud. At least it’s a near miss. ] I mean, the least we can do is for people here to stop holding hands with the companion bots! They’re trying to kill us!

[ Wait, what is that weirdly specific mention—

And a deep sigh can be heard from the other side of the video, which then ends there. Wow, wonder who that could've been!!! ]

( ooc: responses can come from one of the three boys (riz, gorgug, or fabian) just as an fyi! )

Comments

un: hidden | text

[matermali]

I would agree that these the robots were never to be trusted, and only less so with recent revelations, given their concept of protection involved attempting to murder us before something else could.

It is no excuse, but perhaps they thought to be protecting us from something worse than death.

[tinflower]

i think that place had an issue with communication or thinking it was worth it. everyone was really bought into the community eos had set up so. i understand it. they were scared and had their planets to think about.

i asked aurora if she would explain to us if anything like that thing showing up here happened and she needed to put us in curfew. i don't know if she will but she asked me for the feedback and said she would.

[ Not to be the blatant #BotHandholder here or anything. ]

[matermali]

I have also sensed the connection between the dark entities in our respective cities, but whatever is here does seem weaker. That, or it has become more skilled at concealing its presence.

Another enforced curfew would be intolerable. Does this mean that Echo is unable to control it?

If this thing is in opposition to Echo and their constructs, then perhaps there is a way to convince it that we are not its enemy.

Who might have conjured this energy, though, if not Echo?

[tinflower]

couldn't it have already been here? i don't know a lot about echo or this place but there's a lot of dangerous entities where i'm from

but it showing up recent (if it did) is strange if moorecroft's been around for years

[ He sends that, but then makes an edit: ] oh yeah, and my friend adaine asked but aurora said she didn't know anything about the presence. so maybe eos didn't share it with echo

[matermali]

If it was here before, then I was unable to sense it. I wonder instead if some fragment of it followed us back from Moorecroft.

If these intelligences are capable of keeping secrets from their master, then Echo's power may not be as grandiose as we were once led to believe. They may be overwhelmed by these experiments of theirs. It has already been suggested that Echo grows weaker by bringing in more people.

[tinflower]

i was thinking that it existed but then maybe us being in moorecroft let it come over here? like this whole project and bringing people together from different universes brought out this thing in the first place because the natural order of this universe is being fucked with

or something like that. i don't know a lot about that stuff. but gods and entities like that have a lot of rules and everything about this going on is a lot. something screwed up coming out or being made from that on accident doesn't seem implausible to me

and i read that post. they have to give up something to bring us here. or it sounded like echo links us to this place? i was wondering if echo had to try and make it seem like we belonged here but...if something out there knows that we don't, then it hasn't been working recently

[matermali]

The more I am forced to traverse these different realms, much of my understanding of any 'natural order' with the universe has been brought into question.

I cannot say that I feel to belong here any more than I did any previous world.

Where does Echo belong, one wonders? I wonder what this being might think of them, if not created by them.

[tinflower]

i don't feel like i belong here either. but i don't notice stuff like that well

we don't know anything about echo, right? just that bringing us here makes them weaker and they're the ones running everything?

[matermali]

So they say. Who is to say how much control they actually have.

[tinflower]

one person being in charge of all this is pretty strange, too

[matermali]

I would hesitate in calling them a person.

[stresstokens]

That seems to be the general rationale. Which begs the question of why whoever programmed them decided that it was better to just kill people instead of explaining the danger, and why it's kept so hush-hush.

They had to be hiding it for a reason. I just don't know what that reason is. Yet.

[matermali]

I doubt their reasoning is in our favor. Perhaps they are hiding their own mistakes.

[stresstokens]

That could be it. I'm also not discounting the idea that it even was a mistake. Those things they have roaming out there could be there by design.

They're not even trying to be diplomatic about it. There's no one we can go to for answers. I'm still stuck on why we were sent there in the first place. I thought for sure they were gonna make us fight to the death or something.

[matermali]

To show us what we will never have?

Or to show us what is under threat, what those from our worlds might lose, should we be unable to save our worlds. If that is even out true purpose for being here.

[stresstokens]

The latter. It wasn't that different from my home, so the whole "what we'll never have" thing doesn't quite work there.

But do you really think it was just to motivate us to work harder at this? You'd think threat of destruction would be a lot more effective than asking us to live with strangers. That barely even works in a roommate situation, let alone making grown ass teens treat strangers as Mom and Dad.

[matermali]

We may be attributing too much purpose to their motivations, after all. There is yet proof that we aren't all here is a function to their entertainment, and nothing more.

[stresstokens]

Hey, even reality TV is usually made with a 'purpose' in mind. We all know it's bullshit, but it's more entertaining if they can at least say they're trying to do something besides making people dance for their entertainment.

[maximumlegend]

[ Look at Gorgug and Riz. Comments so full of informative stuff. Real deep thoughts.

.. and then there's Fabian. Still in his whining era. Sorry, Vanessa. ]

why do people keep making robots that have murder as one of their options
because whenever that happens they always continue to default to murder

[matermali]

So it seems.

Did they confront you? Were you able to find a way to combat these ones?

[maximumlegend]

a group of them caught me and the ball right as we were trying to sneak into the hospital

we fought as well as we can
which is pretty well for the record
but these things were so tough

[ Read: They did get really badly injured. Fabian isn't typing out as much, since it doesn't fit the image he likes to project of himself, but Vanessa is probably smart enough to be able to read that in between the lines here.. ]

the two of us still made it into the hospital though
and we were both still alive
so mission accomplished there as far as i am concerned

[matermali]

Incredibly brave of you to continue onward after encountering such a danger.

While attempting to seek out the source of that dark energy, I was forced into my own conflict with the robots. Circumstance prevented me from continuing my search, but it seems others carried on in my stead.

Do you know if there were any deaths during these explorations?

[maximumlegend]

one person died as far as i know

[ Maybe there were more. Fabian wouldn't be surprised, given how tough those robots had been. He and Riz are used to regularly fighting strong creatures, face challenging encounters - and yet they only barely made it out of there.

He can't even imagine how much more difficult it must have been for some others.

.. but it's exactly that thought that brings his own thoughts back to Vanessa as well, and the things she just wrote. ]

did you get out of that conflict alright?

[matermali]

I did not die, and could have fared worse were I alone. I am grateful for that much.

What came of the one to pass? Were they fully taken? Or returned?

[maximumlegend]

they came back

[ It's not really anything surprising to Fabian, since he's more used to people coming back from that - even back home! - than people actually dying. Sure, the latter still happens, but the person who died was young and active enough that they surely would have been revived back in Fabian's world.. ]

though i am glad to know that you didn't die back there
no one should have died

the things this place does to us are all such bullshit and i won't forget even a single person this place hurt