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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!
no subject
"Hey, Quentin. Its good to see you." he smiles at the other, and extends a hand to shake, his hands covered in gloves, this time. His grin is warm as he does. He likes this man and hopes he has been doing well.
"I had been wanting to check in with you, and well, after the expedition, it seemed a good time to do so." What with the weird events and the massive amounts of chaos involved.
"Come, sit!" He shoves aside his notes and the artifacts he had been looking at, and pushes away his network interface as he does so.
no subject
"Yeah, that was pretty wild, right?" And by wild he means fan-fucking-tastic but he's trying to downplay his enthusiasm on the matter. Although he's also not good at deception unless it's in poker so the enthusiasm is hiding just under the surface. "When that first wall moved I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie and I was freaking out." And also he hummed the theme song under his breath as they went jumping from place to place doing puzzles. It was glorious.
"Did you pick up some stuff too?" Quentin sits down but noticed he was looking at something. "I came across some manuscripts while I was there."
no subject
"Yeah, I discovered several pit traps by falling into them." Kal's grin and voice were amused at his own ineptitude. "If not for others I am not sure I would have made it, but you know... I would not have missed it for the world." He nods again.
"I did, and gathered some that others picked up. He waves across his collection, which is not huge, but holds a lot of smaller almost fractional pieces. All of them as he waves over them, he calls up notes he has taken virtually, and flickers them to visibility so Quentin can save them to his own files.
"I was hoping you and others had more luck on figuring things out. I'm good at digging in and talking to people, but ancient mysteries and artifacts might well be past me." Not that he is giving up, but... yeah.
no subject
Quentin's eyes brighten when Clark shares the notes with him, dark eyes quickly dancing over them and thinking about it. He doesn't hesitate from sharing his own notes so far, although there's a lot more fractured way of writing and thinking with him, since it's personal notes. Q tends to talk to himself in half sentences that only make sense when he connects the thoughts. He'll probably get more organized going forward.
"They're more my wheelhouse, yeah. I am really trying to keep the destiny talk to a minimum here, but the vision only makes me think we may be in one of those situations." He shrugs. "I know it's as sensitive a topic as like, religion and politics, the concept of destiny, but it's something I've lived."
no subject
"For me, destiny has not a lot of meaning, yet, but I don't see why it cannot be true. I haven't experienced a lot of things. That does not mean they are not true."
He smiles at Quentin. "And if you say you've lived it, well, I trust you."
no subject
"Destiny is very real for us. I explained it to Clarke, it's kind of like ...." Quentin talks with his hands. "Fate is predetermined, you can't do anything about it, your actions only cause the things you're trying to stop. You're going through a stage play, with the illusion of choice." He lights up when he talks about these things, because he still hasn't lost his enthusiasm for the wonder and bizarreness of magic and destiny. Even if it's really fucked him over.
"Destiny is a little more like improv. There are things that you know for sure is going to happen, like party game options or group Yes And sessions, and your choices do matter. You may still end up in the spot you're meant to, but it won't really go according to an exact plan. Ish." He gestures around. "So this situation? If we're going by destiny rules, we are meant to be here, in this place. What we're meant to do is still a question mark and it may not be that what we're going to do is set in any stone. It's still up in the air."
no subject
He does interject one thing at the end. "Would the idea of us time-traveling into the past from sometime in the future make all of this fate, destiny, ort just time travel and neither of the above?"
He listens to the rest, and he takes it in, and mentally takes some notes because wow, he is going to need to think about that. A lot. Holy cow. This kid has been through a lot! He listens, even so, and nods, eyes flickering with compassion, and with some understanding of what he is saying.
"That's a lot to think about, really. And even if we are destined, and if it is not completely set in stone... it makes me wonder if there are more clues, hidden somewhere out there, for us to find. In your world, were there guideposts to... either fate or destiny?"