meadowlarklogs | EVENT LOG 004

EVENT LOG 004

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: The dreams.
WHEN: Starts October 12
WHAT: The displaced are put to sleep.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence, themes of death, gore.

> EVENT LOG #004

There is a version of reality where the displaced don't go to sleep. There are news reports where New Johannesburg lies in ruins like New Tokyo, like how New Amsterdam nearly did. This is a world where the worst keeps happening, and the foundations of the world lay in ruin. Chaos begins to lay waste to human civilization as the people of Earth begin to pressure the people of the colonies to work faster to terraform the planets so that they can have somewhere more acceptable to live. After all, the world is visibly dying around them, and the people of the colonies are supposed to provide them with the promised land.

There is a version of reality where the displaced do sleep, and that world goes on just the same. Will this be that version? Or will they set things in a different way?

For now, there are things to see – pressing matters, and an opportunity to finally see one another. Truly, in the most raw way possible. Revealed without anything obscuring that in a world where falsehoods and fears seem more real than truth.

> THE UNDERWORLD

You don't remember taking the dive or being near water. Movement is difficult, like a wheel trying to move from the mud. The pressure is overwhelming, pressing against your skin, your chest, your head. The air is thick, the pressure stifling; there's something deep in your gut that feels as if you're being undone from the inside, both physically and mentally. It doesn't subside, nor does it become tolerable, but you can ignore it in spurts in order to make sense of the world around you.

Where you are feels claustrophobic and lifeless – unnatural forms raise off in the distance, expanding in unique, abstract statues. From where you stand, you can't quite make out what these are, but they're shaped like obelisks. Even if there are no tangible walls, there is an emptiness that feeds into the claustrophobia – your footsteps are silent, and your movements flow like you're underwater. There's an echo far off, like the lurching, final call of a dying animal. Here, there is a harrowing feeling, one that buzzes in the back of your brain that there may be someone watching you.

Off in the distance, there is a light – bioluminescent in nature, coaxing you forward. The light grants you just enough vision for you to see the floating bits and pieces of dull blue debris, twisting in suffocation like faceless creatures beneath the harshness of the light. Soon, an outline of a person will brush past you, stop and stutter in their footsteps, before ending up behind you again.

At the heart of this – since it seems as if there should be a heart – there is a spear with a sharp metal head on a shaft beginning to get dragged into the ground by long, white roots, as if they were trying to swallow it down into the mud. On the edge of the head sits four copper and gray birds, their song piercing.

> THE FACILITY

◉ Dim lights coax the PCs further, but they'll find that much of their surroundings have been buried by a different form of life. The obelisks are covered in coral and barnacles that have formed in this otherwise lifeless place. They flow together, a red and white shapeless lump that conceals whatever was beneath it at one point.

◉ Where there were once large, metal pillars helping the facility withstand the immense water pressure, they're now abstract lifeforms that exist on their own. There are some stretches where it's obvious why the barnacles have latched on here, as they intently feed upon the remains of human life that were splattered there before.

◉ The overall feeling of the facility is oppressive and the pressure makes it difficult to move; even though it's a dream, it's hard to breathe. There's a constant feeling of something ripping away at their sense of self that will begin to impact their physical and mental state. Since it's a dream, time is nebulous; your character can be impacted from the start, or it can be gradual. They can be affected by either – or both!

◈ Physical effects include a headache much like the feeling of a driving spike in the temples, so painful that it becomes difficult for them to orient themselves. It's followed by bleeding from the nose, mouth, ears, and/or eyes.
◈ Mental effects include an eerie calmness that has strong feelings of detachment from emotions and body, along with a dissociation from themselves. This can be followed by strong bouts of overwhelming anxiety that cause irritation, rage or a prevailing feeling of desolation with no cause. These can come at interchangeable increments, or as one or the other.

◉ The spear with a sharp metal head on a shaft rooted to the ground will not move. Touching it causes a sharp feeling that cuts through the mind of anyone near it.

◉ Eventually the characters may find themselves standing in a cold room surrounded by the specters. A sharp, acrid smell pierces through the room. The specters range from nearly fully translucent to somewhat corporeal. They're dressed in nicely pressed lab coats with their names stitched on. These names aren't legible, blurring together and causing vertigo for anyone who tries to identify them. They repeat the same phrases in cracked, desperate voices, no matter who tries to speak with them.

◈ "What have we done? This is what we deserve for trying to be gods."
◈ "What we're witnessing is the height of human achievement. There's no turning back now!"
◈ "It was all a lie. They promised us everything, promised a better world for us!"
◈ "How can I face my son now? How can I? Forgive me, forgive me. If you ever learn about what we've done here, please … please forgive me."
◈ "Torn apart. My insides are all being torn apart!"
◈ "Why are you here? You shouldn't be here!"

◉ Dense clusters of unusual, deep sea fish and creatures swim around, all of them red in nature. They're likely unnoticeable at first. The specters and distant lights are more likely to draw the eye. Yet these creatures are on the edge of everything, feeding on what lives there now – and what may have been there before.

◉ Should anyone walk too far, they'll find themselves standing on a cliff's edge, peering downward. Malevolence wafts upward – anger, as well as the sense that anyone might be dragged down for eternity. This is a live grave. Anyone who risks jumping in will be forcibly tossed out of this part of the dreamscape. Wherever they end up next, they'll find themselves suffering from a great deal of nausea.

> THE CITYSCAPE

The sky overhead is gray and where they arrive is nebulous by definition. The ground is made up completely of limestone that paves the entirety of the city, and there are hints of days gone by visible as imprints in the fossilized stone: leaves, skeletons of birds, stones, and more.

The paths through the cities are rigid and linear, rows of different streets, set up tidily like New Amsterdam. None of the landmarks are the same: none of the districts maintain their typical appearance, instead replaced by a strange contradiction of familiarity and confusion.

There is a wealth of pathways for the characters to take. Each of these pathways are filled with buildings lining them, many shapeless and formless – a good number of them lack windows, as if incomplete in their imagining.

> CORPORATE INTERESTS

◉ As characters head toward what should be the financial district, they'll find a series of towering buildings. They aren't unlike the corporate buildings in New Amsterdam, but they're unique and fused together. A single skybridge hangs overhead, connecting Vyonation, Pulsar, and Giles Bell. There's an additional skybridge that connects each of these corporations to city hall and the governor's office.

◉ There are familiar faces in these offices, but they may not be where someone thinks they belong. Aoi Maeda drinks coffee in an office in Vyonation while numerous people surround her, waiting on her hand and foot; Jose Mercado mops up messes at Giles Bell, dressed in a janitorial outfit. Governor Lydia Gill-Jade walks about everywhere – but it's never just one of her. There are many of her, standing in office doorways, waiting for her barking orders. She never seems to have a mind of her own, repeating the same words to herself. If someone draws closer, the words will sound like the beginning of a speech, yet never make sense.

◉ Time isn't linear here, as being inside the buildings seems to accelerate the schedule outside. Once someone leaves, however, the depiction of the day outside will revert to what it was before someone stepped inside.

◉ There is no server access in any of these buildings. Technology is surface level – manifesting in a distant way, as if someone hopes to paint a picture but can't show the finer details.

◉ The monsters can attack in this section, but they can't impact it permanently. The buildings and people will persist even if the monsters destroy them. The people will remain right where they were even as the monsters attempt to ravage them. If the larger monster is led toward these buildings, they will recover simultaneously like someone hit a reset button.

◉ The potential safehouse coffee shop is here, as well. Though it's far less dramatic than the fusion of major corporate powers, the building itself is covered in vines. They don't look as if they belong to coffee plants, but on closer inspection, the flowers themselves provide beans. Upon retrieving a seed, however, it'll disintegrate in the hand of the holder. The interior is also covered in vines, with a path inside that leads deep into the underground portion of the city.

◉ While technology isn't on the same level, many of these buildings' insides will be inspired by the world as it's known to the characters themselves. Seeking out a specific person or their office isn't impossible – it just requires more guesswork and trial and error as individuals are seemingly displaced from their corporate branding.

> BE THERE OR BE SQUARE

◉ Several streets north, there is a large open square, filled with yet another festival: this one with people dressed in unusual garb with various different logos. On closer inspection, these are all sports fans, tailgating for an upcoming event. A large stadium looms off within reach, announcing the day's events on a large, scrolling monitor. Never mind the anachronistic nature of a monitor – surely it makes sense to someone, doesn't it?

◉ These fans rally around while talking about their favorite Vestica star athlete. Whatever the sports event is, there is a sense that it is somehow more glamorous than any current sport outside of the dream. In fact, today is meant to be the grand finals: a place for the different Vestica athletes to come together and show their worth. The information on the scrolling monitor details a number of different sporting events about to go down: Rugby ("Recalling the Sporting Past of Johannesburg"), a FPS competition featuring Overstrike Aeon ("Come see the best aim that our pilots have to offer!"), a timed raid in Planet of Battleforge ("See teamwork come together!") and a traditional decathlon ("Never forget the accomplishments of past Olympians!").

◉ Whether these events are an actual finals or a great exhibition of talent is unclear. There is no opposing team; there are no answers about this, either. Further investigation only leads to the impression that the Vestica athletes will win regardless of their efforts within the stadium.

◉ On the other side of the square, there is a large building, not unlike the 109 Building in Shibuya today. A large screen runs down the front of the building announcing what the various characters are doing in the world. Visiting Jose Mercado? Eating coffee beans off a vine? It seems that someone is tracking everyone's every movement. View of this building is limited to this section of the city.

◉ The base portion of this building opens up to a sports bar that appeals to the sensibilities of the displaced. There are numerous monitors that reveal the characters in action around the dreamscapes. The screens show other dreams, though the images on these cut in and out.

◉ Sound from this square reaches other parts of the city. While the sporting exhibition, whatever it might be, never seems to start, there is a rush of sound and noise elsewhere in the city. People screaming, shouts, booming beats with loud sports anthems (modern and old), as well as the cacophonous sound of vuvuzelas.

> A BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE

◉ If characters follow the river, they'll find that its mouth opens into a large, endless body of water. The entire area appears to be a large port – except an extremely unusual one, as the "docks" are glowing bridges reaching up into the gray, murky distance, reminiscent of aspects of the very first dream in the arrival log. For anyone who didn't experience that particular dream, there will be a sense of déjà vu, as if they've been here before.

◉ One of the bridges leads to a building for New Johannesburg Space Transit. There is a window for ticket sales, even if it's wrong and anachronistic. There is no entry into this building: it's locked, and the door is hot to the touch, like access here is barred for some reason.

◉ There is a paper poster on the inside of the ticketing window announcing trips to Pluto. "Come and determine if Pluto is a planet for yourself! Experience the mystical power of the edge of our solar system!"

◉ These bridges branch off on seemingly endless roads, with some ending with bright blue portals. Many of these portals are closed off with an invisible barrier blocking anyone from walking through.

> MONSTER PARTIES

◉ No matter where someone goes, there is always a risk of the monsters causing problems. The largest monster appears to be wherever the characters may be clustering – which means that it's possible to lead it to specific locations should anyone choose.

◉ The monsters are as described:

◈ One is 800m long and appears reptilian, with a tough, scaled hide. It has four legs, one head, and a long tail. Its coloring is dark, but its scales are iridescent, and shine in a rainbow of colors in the light. Its eyes, mouth, and many vein-like cracks along its body glow a bright gold.
◈ The smaller creatures are all roughly 2m in size, all have bright gold eyes, and come in three varieties:

◇ Serpentine creatures with two clawed arms. They move using their strong tails to propel themselves forward at extraordinary speeds and use their claws to climb, hook onto objects, or impale victims.
◇ Dog-like creatures with huge, powerful jaws. Slower moving, they will often track down a victim and hide motionless nearby, lunging out at the perfect moment to attack.
◇ Crab-like creatures with a large shelled back and a row of prehensile tentacles along the upper edge. Able to climb over most obstacles and squeeze themselves through small spaces, they lash out with their tentacles to ensnare and drag their victims to them. The tentacles also carry a venom which causes numbness and paralysis of the affected area for 10 minutes.

◉ There is the sense that these monsters can and should be defeated. While their destruction doesn't affect the financial district, the rest of the city can lay in ruins unless the creatures that have overrun the land have been stopped. They can destroy the stadium, any other seemingly familiar buildings, and even trample over any of the characters in the process. If it's mass destruction that can be caused, it will be caused.

◉ Killing a smaller creature will reveal that any damage they've caused will be undone. Does that mean the same will happen with the larger monster?

> UNDERGROUND CAVE WAYS

◉ Unlike the real New Amsterdam, there isn't an underground portion of the city where people live, instead replaced by a natural system of underground caves. There is the sense that the underground portion of New Amsterdam was once like this before it was corrupted by those with selfish interests throughout the years.

◉ There are numerous paths to the caves underneath the city. They're underneath businesses, through various sewer covers, as well as multiple other similar places. It's not hard to find a way in; someone just has to be inspired to try in the first place. They also connect most of the city to itself.

◉ There are also paths leading outside. One path leads to a forest, dense and humid. But tread carefully here, as the trees themselves are fragile, easily set alight or toppled by human influence. There are other areas that just lead out into water. If someone walks too long, they'll find that they may be sucked underneath. And then there are the ruins: large, deserted wastelands with no hope of life. They stretch for miles, are extremely hot, and offer someone little opportunity for escape. Walk too long, and someone may find themselves wandering forever – or until the dreams themselves are done.

> THE PERSONAL

While there are certainly places to visit, there are also the minds that have an opportunity to be understood with new context. Not every mind will have an open door – but there is a sense that they may be available at another time, in another context. For some, this is the right time and the right context – an opportunity to welcome someone in to see what needs to be seen, felt, and experienced.

> FINAL NOTES

A few final notes for clarification:

Characters transitioning between dreams: This is up to the player! Your character can find themselves in a different dream at any time.

Time: Time in the dreams is non-linear. For instance, your character may arrive in the city and see no sign of a monster attack, or they can arrive smack in the middle of the city being trashed.

World Changes: Refer to the thread below.

Can I assume something is present even if it's not described?: Yes, you absolutely can! It may not impact the world right away, but it definitely will in time. These descriptions are more cursory to give our players a lot to do, as well as highlight what we felt was significant.

I have another question! Where do I ask it?: On the QUESTIONS THREAD on the OOC Event Post. We also intend to keep the FAQ up to date.

Please refer to the OOC EVENT POST for this event for all OOC info, as well as for any additional planning that needs to occur now that the world locations are more obvious. Since this event currently has no set end date, we encourage you to keep planning what might be best or more fun for you. No one is late at this stage, as aspects of the event were still up in the air!

We'll touch base with everyone on MARCH 30 to see where everyone is, and how they feel about things.

As a reminder, there is one power level up available for this event. This will be granted for a thread of at least 5 action/log comments of participation in this event. We originally misspoke that they needed to use their power in the dreamscapes – they do not! They will need to reach the 5 comments required by APRIL 27 to be eligible. Submission will be handled on the wrap up post.

Our Activity Check will be posted on April 1 at 12 AM UTC. It will run for seven days and close on April 8 at 12 AM UTC. We will not post a warning list.

We will also post our April Calendar and accompanying CR meme on that day. If you still have things you'd like to do in your dreamscape, this CR meme should help you supplement your threads in progress!

> NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

PERSONAL DREAMSCAPE

[entering this dreamscape is a shock of cold air, freezing wind pushing back, making it difficult to move forward in the already ankle high snow. there's an inordinate feeling of abandonment, of despair, of helplessness; moving forward without being able to see what's up ahead, with nothing but the pervading feeling that you will die here, frozen to the bone, and no hope of rescue.]

[but when feet and hands go numb and it seems impossible to move on forward--there's a series of barks echoing past the howling wind. it's insistent, and as impossible as it seems, a wet nose pushes into your hands, impossibly warm fur pressing onto your numbed legs-- so you close your eyes, hope returning to you like the feeling in your feet and fingers, and when you open them again, you are met with one of two sights:]

A. NIFLHEIM TUNDRA
(MAGIC DOGS, TRIPPY CAMERA FILTERS, UNRELIABLE NARRATOR)

[the barking continues, and in front of you, there stands prompto in a winter attire, his back to you, a friendly looking dog with white fur facing you instead. there are robotic-looking soldiers lying on the snow, their hollow eyes black but a generator where their heart would be glowing bright purple, purring like a machine. the dog barks at you again, as if in greeting.]

Pryna--

[and prompto finally turns around, but is unable to recognize you. there's a gun in his hand. he stares for a bit longer and, without much warning, the world changes around you. it's like it's become nighttime all of a sudden with the sound of a gunshot, the tundra devoid of all previous sounds of life, an eerie tinge of purple on the snow, the moon bright and full the only source of light. there's a menacing feeling about the whole situation, and prompto's now breathing harder, as if struggling to catch his breath, pryna at his feet.]

Why are you here?

[he speaks to you, but it comes somewhat garbled, as if through a filter. he's definitely used his gun on one of the soldiers. the mask's come off, however, a familiar face, a human face--if the mask were to be removed entirely, prompto's face.]

[pryna barks again.]

B. UNDERGROUND LAB
(BODY HORROR, CLONES, MAD SCIENTIST DADDY)

[or perhaps the barking takes you, instead, to an enclosed facility--cold all the same. it's deathly quiet but for the sound of ventilation machines and automated contraptions doing their scheduled work. a door open for you without much prompting and you find yourself wanting to follow down the path, down into the darkness, until you meet prompto standing in a lab with eerie, green-lit tubes with people inside it. but they're not all quite right -- some are deformed, going through different stages of decomposition, riddled with black miasma, beast-like horns and claws replacing their human aspects. prompto glances at you, squats down, and puts a finger to his mouth, signalling to keep quiet.]

[no amount of keeping quiet will keep a memory from triggering, like on cue, a familiar man speaking candidly to another.]

[prompto closes his eyes and shakes his head, and the memory seems to crackle as if it were on film, interference from his own attempts to remove the scene from playing.]

...everything we lost that day is gone because of him.

[he motions instead at the other side of the glass, where more clones lie in tubes, where verstael besithia stands just as prompto remembers.]

This isn't my home. [he looks at you with a hard expression] I'm Lucian.

[it's like he's talking to himself at this point.]

C. FIRST MAGITEK PRODUCTION FACILITY
(CLOSED TO ARDYN, VIOLENCE)

[their meeting on the train en route to new tokyo wasn't the warmest of ones, and prompto knew without a doubt that there was no escaping ardyn's wrath--not after he had so blatantly mocked and bothered the man until most--if not all--sympathy for him was lost. prompto is well aware that he is not to expect any sort of mercy, but to fall asleep--all of them, without any sort of warning? might be the only blessing he could get, astrals or not.]

[unfortunately, it only means he wakes up here, in a place that looks familiar but has been distorted into an endless loop, by dream logic. there are hundreds, maybe thousands of magitek soldiers, standing still, unmoving, disabled. and it's dark, gods is it dark.]

[prompto stands among them, sticking out like a sore thumb, and he thinks he sees something moving behind him, but it's only shadows--and that may be the most terrifying thing he's come to conclude.]

Where are you? Show yourself!

[he has no way of connecting one with the other--with the ardyn so entrenched in his own rage he pushed towards prompto at the trains with one single, obvious intentions, to whatever lurks about, menacing, like a predator with its prey.]

[OOC NOTE: PROMPT A will be more about exploration and such! whereas PROMPT B will include fighting daemonized versions of prompto, plz do proceed carefully LMAO. also PROMPT C is just a mess, press F for prompto.]

[There seems to be flickering movement all around, like shadows jumping in-between each stoic MT, lined up like soldiers ready to be deployed into battle. It’s cold, it’s dark, and the ambient hum of the production facility, the occasional hiss of automated machinery, is all that accompanies either of them.

Either of them. Because Ardyn is present, his existence here felt like darkness crawling along the floor. There are footsteps behind Prompto, but turn around and there’s nothing — only the clockwork soldiers, lifeless, on standby.

But Ardyn’s voice suddenly echoes from every angle, above and around, as if filling the whole space. It sounds tinny but prominently loud, like filtered through a PA system.]

All around you, Prompto. Watching you fumble about in circles. Maybe you should stop, take a breath. Fall in line with the rest of your kin.

Ardyn.

[he growls under his breath, immediately recognizing the voice even before the man finishes speaking, even without the PA system noise around the edges of his words.]

[prompto's turning on his feet, looking all around him, in a clear disadvantage at the sight of the soldiers standing still, immovable. he bumps into one, and it crumples back, but does nothing to restore its previous position.]

[perhaps he should follow ardyn's advice--and stop, take a breath. he's making himself dizzy, his heart at his throat with panic: the one he had fallen asleep to returning to plague him in this dream that he doesn't know is quite yet a dream.]

Stop hiding.

[he says louder, eyes darting about, futilely.]

prompto | ffxv | ota

presses f

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presses b

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a.

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b. (i don't have active icons of lady rn ;;;)

i love this so much

b

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b for bad things

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picks B presses F bc here i come

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b

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b.

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do you want to build a snowman in the terrifying nightmare tundra

always