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meadowlarklogs2020-02-08 01:58 pm
EVENT #008 AFTERMATH LOG
WHERE: Lots of places—potentially? Mostly New Amsterdam as the focus.
WHEN: March 4, 2512
WHAT: Unlocking of the gates and the game's fast travel network.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Uninvited visions.
The vision itself is almost instantaneous once the last of the four gates activates, hitting the Displaced no matter where they are. It doesn't matter where that individual Displaced is: if they're in New Amsterdam, at one of the gates, or sleeping, they'll see the same vision. A flash of seven colors (red, blue, black, gold, orange, red, and white) followed by an image of a nomadic people heading up a long, stone bridge that appears to be naturally occurring. At the end of the bridge is an open, lit-up triangle that acts as a gateway, inviting them inside. Then there is another flash, followed by the nomads walking through the gate and ending up in a different, new location. And then another.
Any understanding of this vision isn't immediate. The answers won't be apparent until later, when there is an innate understanding of what they've learned and what they've unlocked for themselves. The world has opened up to the Displaced, and in some ways, it's there for them to access and even take for themselves if they so choose.
After the vision ends, any of the Displaced located at the four ruins will immediately begin to glow in all blue before they fade out of view and find themselves crammed into a new location. The relocation is immediate, and if anyone checks a map via their neural implant to see where they are geolocation wise, they'll be able to tell that they're underneath New Amsterdam. For anyone who's been in the underground cave system of New Amsterdam, they may think their surroundings are familiar, if not the same. After all, this area has been locked away for a very long time.
One more thing is apparent: they've landed on another form of gate that needs to be unlocked. After the numerous trials and puzzles the Displaced have faced, what's one more?
◉ The puzzle to solve is right beneath the feet of the Displaced on a bronze-colored mechanism. At the center of the mechanism are multiple overlapping triangles, and on the outside, there are five separated triangles that sit individually.
◉ Solving the puzzle involves connecting a daisychain of Displaced and having five key focal points step on the triangles at once.
◉ Once the puzzle unlocks, there will be another understanding: that what they saw in the vision belongs to them. Any of the Displaced outside of the caves will know what it means.
◉ With that work done, it's time to explore. The underground cave system of New Amsterdam is half-inhabited by the sprawling megacity, and half-uninhabited and untouched. This part of the cave system was locked away for centuries, and just like the other ruins, there are some relics and lost items from the past. The eras vary: some are early medieval burial sites with items like brittle, forgotten swords and shields, while others are crosses and manuscripts that refer to this location as the center of the Holy Roman Empire.
◉ The manuscripts are a mix of imagery from Catholicism and the same, omnipresent geometric imagery.
◉ The way out of the cave system involves touching a hand to a handprint alongside what appears to be a door. This print will only appear to the Displaced, so they will be able to move in and away from this location largely unobserved.
Now that the gates trip is done and the Displaced have new answers—if potentially unhelpful ones, depending on their perspective—it's time to return to their lives. Surprisingly, New Amsterdam has no festivals going on, as if it's time to now be hungover from a February that involved nonstop partying. The city has been cleaned up and everyone's returning to their jobs as if the city around them is not in a constant state of revelry.
◉ Ah, it's time to return to work! No one is required to lose their jobs, but it might take a bit of groveling for the Displaced to return to where they were working before. (With the exception of the Red Wings bar. Poor Mister Doctor Stephen Strange.) El will have sent along any excuses to any bosses who might need an explanation. Ze's used to this gig by now.
◉ What about those cities left behind? No one planned on abandoning those gates at that exact moment. They will remain open to the Displaced. Anyone who had a hotel room in New Oslo or even kept stuff stored at New Beijing will find that they can just teleport back via this new fast travel system.
◉ Though for anyone who's been dealing with tampered food, maybe it's time to go take a break. You know where's a good place to do it? The Displaced-run Red Wings bar. Ah, poor Mister Doctor Strange, at least the people coming in out of nowhere are all Displaced looking for proper food and a drink. It's time to mingle, share notes, and see what's what. Might as well get to seeing where there's overlap—and what to do next.
◉ Or it's time to explore! The world is finally open and available to one and all. Well, to one Displaced and all.
◉ The information on these gates and what they do won't immediately be available to El and Gaby. It's up to the Displaced if they decide to share with their NPC friends. (Of course, if it's mentioned via the Morningstar network, then they'll know!)
This is meant primarily as a laid back, return to life log for the Displaced after their exciting trips around the world (and trips-to-be, most likely). Any questions about the aftermath should be directed to our aftermath questions thread!
Our CR meme will be posted on February 14th (Happy Valentine's Day!), and our arrival log for all newbies will be going up on February 15th.
Thanks again for making this a great event!
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( he wouldn't have ordinarily left caroline alone so soon after everything but she'd told him she was fine and encouraged him to go and since things were relatively calm, he'd gone.
it was nice to be out of the apartment and out of new amsterdam, in a place because he could be and not because he had to be there for some crisis. )
Why this place?
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[ she bites into her fish empanada, a huge bite that devours half the pastry at once; clearly empanadas are important to her. it's always funny to her that place names and food names don't translate. how come she doesn't look at empanada on the menus and see "enbreaded" instead? how come the sign for buenos aires doesn't translate itself to fair winds? new fair winds! if everything translates, what even is the native language? does anyone actually know how to speak or is it all baby babbles that the implant turns into a language?
she blinks a few times, trying to coax her brain into focusing again now that it's gone on this wild tangent. right, come on silena. why are they here? ]
My grandmother was born in Buenos Aires.
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( that's something he hadn't known about her and he smiles, looking around and taking in the place anew. )
Had you ever met her? Your grandmother.
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[ not even a barely formed snippet of memory like the scent of her laundry soap or the songs she used to hum silena to sleep. she's seen pictures, of course, knows that she inherited her grandmother's dimpled chin, but it was always just her and her father, partners in crime. the two musketeers. ]
It was me and Dad and occasionally a hamster.
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( that sounds like a story. )
Why occasionally?
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[ her dad didn't buy her one every time the last one died, so sometimes there was a hamster free gap in her life. and then she went to camp and there were no hamsters at all.
except for the one time the stoll brothers "accidentally" smuggled one back from the city. ]
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( didn't most people want a dog or a cat or something like that? hamsters weren't a very typical pet. )
I didn't have pets as a kid. But, we had a dog back where I came from. Zingo. I think she favored John but I loved her too. She was great at keeping feet warm.
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[ she shrugs, not really fussed because: ] Plus when I went to camp I had a whole stable full of pegasi so I wouldn't say I lost out on the awesome pet situation.
[ she had horses with wings. every girl wants a pony, silena got ponies that could fly. they weren't dogs that could sleep at the foot of her bed, but given the chance the pegasi would probably try... ]
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( were those what he thought those were? he stares at her for a second before blinking. )
Flying horses?
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[ it is disheartening that a lot of her learned skills are useless here -- there are no horses, there are no gladiatorial rings, no need to teach anyone ancient greek because it all translates. being a demigod is meaningless which is still hard to wrap her head around considering it was the majority of her identity for half her life.
she gestures with her empanada, talking with her hands even when her hands are full. ]
I've never met the original Pegasus, the one the rest are named after, but Chiron said he was still alive so I always thought that one day I'd meet him, you know? The first Pegasus. [ a dream. ] But the ones at camp were amazing so it wasn't like I was really missing out.
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( flying horses. that's...that's a thing. )
Kind of makes the SUVs we drive look pitiful, you know.
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[ that is a LIE! you can have someone riding behind you with the weapon but marcos doesn't know so he can contradict her comforting. ha! ]
Be like bringing a hoverbike to a rescue mission, what are you gonna do, rescue one person at a time? Lame.
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( geez, marcos is so, so jealous. )
You have hoverbikes? And flying horses. I'm kind of envious here. Those would be pretty handy where I come from.
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[ admittedly the kids in cabin nine could no doubt build a hoverbike if they put their minds to it, they built the bronze dragon after all and charlie said there were rumors about a set of wings for the dragon but they hadn't the time to find them. ]
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( right, he's seen those around. he's just always been more of a fan of walking than riding anything this place puts forth. )
You ridden on one?
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[ pitfall of living in a city of terrifying drivers, car and motorcycle alike. ]
I learned to drive at camp, but just the camp van in case Argus or the harpies were busy.
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( really now? )
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[ horses (and pegasi) are Good Boys, motorcycles are not. LOOK DAD, IT'S AN IRRATIONAL FEAR. ]
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( because he'd lived on the streets for awhile. he shrugs, sighing. )
I'm not real big on motorcycles either. Seem like more trouble than they're worth.
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Maybe that is why Zerzura decided you would be my dad.
[ tsk tsk zerzura. ]
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( he smiles though because something he said excited her. )
But yeah, I lived there for awhile before coming to the United States. I'd like to go back there some day.
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[ it is probably more that silena looks exactly like his baby daughter will look in the future and zerzura was an asshole, but the south american thing ties into that.
after some quick googling, silena discovers: ] There is a New Bogotá. We could go there some time.
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( that actually makes him perk up a bit. he doesn't have a ton of great memories about bogota because of his family but that hasn't stopped him from wanting to see his home again. )
Have you ever been to Colombia?