Sphere Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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thespherelogs2020-09-06 01:51 am
sphererpmod) wrote in thespherelogs2020-09-06 01:51 am
(no subject)
Who: The People making the Left Choice: The Air Filtration System.
Where: The tunnels the room housing the air filtration system to the agricultural dome.
What: The Choice plot.
When: ICly: August 1st or so.
Warnings: Death, violence, creepiness, fire, drowning, being attacked, ghosts. (I will add other warnings as they come up in threads.
Important Notes: This is the first log of two for the Choices plot. This log only covers The Air Filtration System. The other choices will have their own logs going up. Please remember to warn for things that need warnings in these threads.
Where: The tunnels the room housing the air filtration system to the agricultural dome.
What: The Choice plot.
When: ICly: August 1st or so.
Warnings: Death, violence, creepiness, fire, drowning, being attacked, ghosts. (I will add other warnings as they come up in threads.
Important Notes: This is the first log of two for the Choices plot. This log only covers The Air Filtration System. The other choices will have their own logs going up. Please remember to warn for things that need warnings in these threads.
Departure
The door that Enis opened is large and dark. It’s something that’s more likely to be in a warehouse than a normal kind of door. What little emergency lighting that is present is weak and flickering and seems to peter out after a hundred yards, leaving no way to tell what’s beyond that dark stretch.
But with a creak, the door starts to close, rolling downward like a shade. Now is the time to make your choice: are you in or out? Once the door closes, it’s not going to open again until the power is fixed.
Encounters: Environmental
Once the door is shut behind you, and you’re moving towards the single path, you start to realize just how old all of this around you is. Where as things in the Sphere normally seem bright and sparkly and new this is ancient and rusting and crumbling. The light here is a sickly barely there orange that creates more shadows than something that you can actually see by, which makes the way the metal grating floor incredibly perilous. Water drips constantly here, making everything wet and slick and slippery. There are places where the lighting seems to have burned out. Or has it? Sometimes it has, and sometimes it’s just that the grating has no walls to hand hold across a chasm that you can’t tell the distance on. Hope you’re getting creative.
But needing to walk over epic heights isn’t just something that you need to contend with. There are places where the flooring just gives way below your weight suddenly, and places where there’s none of it all together. Better tread softly and be fast on your feet--it’s an incredibly long way to fall, and not something that you can live through.
Every so often, the pathway will end with a door with a rusted hatch, the window of it coated with grime and rust and dirt (and is that ash?!) that need to be forced open, and then closed behind them before the next door will even budge.
Sometimes these rooms are large, wide and deep enough to be storage spaces like in the back of stores, and some are so small that the largest among the group barley can squeak through them sideways. The temperature of the rooms varies as well. Some of them are freezing cold, and some are burning hot, so hot that the metal is scorching.
There are places where the rooms themselves are sealed because they happen to be on fire or flooded. In those areas, alternatives can be found in the floor and ceiling or in the walls. It’s just a matter of being crafty with discovering them.
Encounters: Creature.
The Sphere is something that has access to every universe and every timeline, so the things that they encounter can be varied. Some can only be defeated by magic, others by brute force and some much be plotted against. Basically, you can bring in whatever kind of creature your heart (even humanoids, aliens, fae etc) desires so long as they can be killed, destroyed or somehow trapped so that the characters can get to the next room.
Encounter: The Air Filtration System
As you approach the room that houses the Air Filtration system, the hallway becomes newer, more clean, more scifi. There is more lighting here, and after so many days of travel, it’s almost blinding. Additionally, after so long with your comrades and the relative quiet of them, there’s the buzzing of voices speaking a language that no one here can speak and the Sphere doesn’t translate.
Upon entering the room, it’s huge. There are people—or at least what look like people—wandering around. Some are seated at stations in front of complicated-looking stations, some are standing in front of others, some are holding clipboards. But whatever they’re doing, they don’t seem to notice your approach. Nor do they seem to notice if you try and talk to them.
Anyone with any sort of psychic ability, or some other way ability or way to see ghosts can tell that they aren’t alive. They aren’t people. All they are is ghosts. Indeed, some of them might even look familiar to you from when the ghosts invaded the Sphere. But they aren’t attacking you or anything. Yet, anyway.
Looking around the room will reveal that whatever those stations are labeled as, you don’t understand. That doesn’t translate either. But the screens are blank when you look at them. They have the dim red glow of power being on that the rest of the room has, but they don’t show anything other than that. It’s almost like a television caught between channels. When you stand there long enough, it’s easy to see that the ghosts are stuck in a loop: it’s a long one, but eventually it repeats in its entirety.
But you are here with a job to do, after all and you need to try and figure out which of these stations happens to be the one that restarts the air filtration system. However, when you touch them and break the illusion, it becomes clear that these are entirely in disarray. They spark and they stroke and there are pieces scattered around. There is hope: each of the scattered parts only fit one type of station, so they can be put right.
But it’s not as easy as all of that. As you start changing the environment around them, you become more and more visible to the ghosts, and they become more and more angry at what you’re doing. At the halfway point of putting the parts together, the ghosts will attack. It’s now up to people to defend those who are reassembling the stations: if they don’t sacrifice themselves then everyone will die.
The air filtration system is the last one assembled, no matter what order they are done in. As soon as it kicks on, the ghosts will disappear, leaving just the other dangers that were already faced on the way back. But you already know what they are, don’t you?
The door will only open if both tasks are completed.
photo inspiration
Own Risk
Honestly? If he really thought about it, the last one he'd been on had been with Maria, Liz, and the rest of them. Sometime during middle school or high school.
"I can keep up just fine," Alex tells him with a shake of his head. It didn't matter what kind of strange thing they were running into. He'd needed something to do. Anything to keep his mind off of the fact the one person he gave a shit about was gone. "Also, pot meet kettle."
Re: Own Risk
He offers a brief nod at the pot-kettle comment.
"I just don't like that my boyfriend might get himself into some stupid trouble while I'm gone."
no subject
It wasn't really a surprise, if he's thinking about it. There were some kids who didn't get permission or who just hadn't been interested. There were other reasons too and he didn't want to think about that. Thoughts like that led down roads he didn't want to think about.
"No one to watch out for him while you're in here?"
no subject
"Yeah, of course there is. But... But not like I would."
Because that's his boyfriend, and Tommy should be there for him. But mostly he'd just get tired and need to pass out. So this is at least something to help save the guy.
no subject
"I'm sure that your boyfriend can stay out of trouble."
Or, at least, he hoped that the people staying behind could take care of themselves. Those that they'd made friends with and that sort of thing. He didn't normally think about the significant others that people had.
"You been doing alright since the last time we talked?"
Which felt like a long time ago.
no subject
He sounds a bit tired as he says this, walking on as best he can.
"What about you? How you doing since Michael left?"
no subject
Not that Alex had really been hanging around with anyone. He'd talked to a few people here and there, but hadn't been hanging out with anyone. Of course, Tommy had to go and bring that up.
"Mainly keeping to myself. Something that I know I need to work on."
no subject
"There's places you can work if you need. Or there will be, when this bullshit is done."
no subject
Alex has only known the military. Michael had been a bright spot among his memories, as well as his friends. Until his old man got involved. Something that he really didn't want to think about. If not for Jesse Manes, Michael wouldn't of had a messed up hand. Wouldn't of gotten hurt.
"And what would need a military vet whose also good at breaking code around here?"
no subject
Yeah, he might be surprisingly good at keeping up with what was and wasn't going on here. When you got bored and the social network was so expansive, it became a habit.
no subject
He can't help but give a small smile," I think I'll do that. It'll keep my mind off of things a bit. Sounds like you keep track of pretty much everyone. Or do you just get that bored?"
no subject
"I sleep four to five hours, and the network, especially texts, is one of the few things I can engage with at my native speed."
no subject
Sansa had also been a friend of Michael's. So, he'd have to reach out to her once all this crazy crap was done and over with. At least with all of this, it was some kind of action. Something other than dealing with memories slipping through and exposing things to people.
"So, at top speed then?" He teases.
no subject
But as close to it as he can get. A single evening and he can get through all text posts from the past several days. Because time is fucking relative.
no subject
He watches the other for a moment," You sure that you're ready for this?"
no subject
He would be proven wrong. For now, though, he had to believe it.
Tommy grins, tries to be happy. Tries to pretend things are okay. But they aren’t that’s great.
“I’m here to help other people. To save everyone. That’s all there is.”
no subject
He wasn't sure if that would be boring or not. Abilities weren't something that Alex really thought about, even if he knew there were a few people in the Sphere who had some.
"Hey, that's all that matters right now. The only thing to matter."
no subject
At least Alex gets it. And Tommy smiles. Tired and pained and hungry, but he smiles.
“Yeah. We make sure everyone lives.”
no subject
Maybe if he'd been anyone else, he wouldn't have gotten it. If he had never been out on the battlefield. Hadn't been around people with abilities. People who could do things no one should've been able to do. Then he'd probably be lost. He wasn't, though, and he gives Tommy a tired smile in return.
"Lets go make sure everyone lives, then."
no subject