1 Dead Gary

[sculptedash]

[Emotion seems to flow across the murmur like a river as Ash figures out how to use it. For the most part it's chill, and energetic, but there's something bubbling just under the surface.]

Hey.

Ash here.

I was wondering if anyone else has gotten any weird messages across through this thing? Because I sure as hell did the other day.

[And she passes the message along trying to mimic it in the best way she can. the fragment of a memory, that reads as a journal entry:]

Our teams spent nearly two years attempting to anticipate what this event would mean for humanity- analyzing endless reams of lunar topography along with every known form of spectroscopy, all amounting to one hopeless conclusion: to burrow into the bowels of the earth and simply wait that whatever emerged from within would reach us there last.

As it would turn out, this one final act of humble surrender is what won the last of us the right to our own lives in these final days. Those of us alive now are not those who sought to battle with destiny and defiantly cling to a civilized existence at the surface- or even any existence at all.

It would seem that in the wake of this phenomenon, we were best served by our most base instincts, whose shame found no place to dwell. The ones who survived are those who spot their hubris and hid desperately down in the mud like rats.

[And she speaks up again, after passing on the message.]

No idea how long ago this message is actually from considering the state of things.

But I don't know if we want to be on the look out for any underground bunkers or something? Might be some answers to find.

Comments

[potentialman]

I got something similar. Dated about a month after this "Lunar Anomaly." They initially assumed surface life would be wiped out, but then concluded that there's...new organic matter. But what I got didn't offer up details.

[ Either because he only got a piece of the journal, or because that sort of detail would've been recorded elsewhere instead -- it's hard to say. ]

Survival should be the first priority...but if we want to know what's going on here, I think you're onto something.

Has anybody been exploring the subway? New York should definitely have one.

[sculptedash]

Hey- That's still more than what I had to work with.

Uh- Thanks for sharing.

[She considers her options for a moment.]

You're right about survival. At least in the short term, but learning more might help us more in the long term.

I haven't made it down that way yet. I've been to Earth once or twice, but I was never from here.

We could probably get a group together to scout it out.

[potentialman]

[ Well, they uh. Do seem to be from all over the place here, don't they? ]

I'm from Earth...but halfway around the globe from here. The subway should have maps, though, if they haven't been destroyed. [ At least one of the ones on the wall has a good chance of being okay, even if they can't find the kind on pamphlets you can take. ]

[sculptedash]

Serepentis, but it's been a long time since I actually lived there.

When I did come to Earth, we were in Paris.

I'll keep an eye out. I'll hold off until I can gather up a group to come with.

[hexrot]

I had some insight into a journal entry— about two months after this 'Lunary Anomaly'.

[ he's not sure how he should be doing it, but . . . he tries anyway. if he thinks like a system, systems could be worked through. fixed. navigational. he tries to remember what that thread felt like and make it . . . available? it's as concrete as trying to make runes work my remember how a mage used it. wild, but not the first time he's used instinct for science. ]

I've revisited it more than once, it's like a thread you can find again, if you think the right way. Still can't decide if it's describing a hallucination or . . . A message from beneath us.

If you find it too, [His voice reflects that. controlled, but heavy. a steady gesture, as if to hold the weight of it before letting it fall, ] my read on it is that it could be distressing.

[ just a warning for anyone going down that rabbit hole. ]

[sculptedash]

[Ash considers his words and weighs her options before she steels herself to find the thread later on.]

That's good to know. I'll try looking for it later.

[The fact that it sounds distressing isn't super reassuring, but she's lived through a lot of distressing times. One more likely wouldn't kill her.]

Well it's not reassuring. But if they did try to dig their way out of this mess and it didn't work, then at least it crosses off that option from our list.

I guess my next question is how bad are we talking?

[hexrot]

One failure doesn't invalidate the idea— There're people still out there.

[ this "espera"— and another. "one"? he vaguely remembers hearing the names searching through the network. there had to be more. ]

If it's all from the same person, this one . . . Succumbed to something.

[sculptedash]

I guess not. Sorry, just didn't like the idea of climbing into a bunker filled with.

You know whatever the heck we have going on here.

[Ash doesn't exactly like the idea of someone succumbing to something. But it makes her make the effort to search out the entry he was talking about. ...And she sure doesn't like what she finds.]

Waugh- Okaaaay. You weren't kidding about that.

Getting all the worst feelings of Deja vu here.

[She has been poked and prodded by an eldritch beings influence though. It's not something she'd forget.

Except there is one thing she notices in the mess of all this.]

Wait- I don't think they are from the same person.

At least- Someone else shared something from 75 days in, that sounded way more coherent.

...And this is from 69 days in.

[Don't mind her just trying to track this down.]

[merged]

[ That entry takes her breath away, and leaves her light-headed, heart pounding in her ears and through the Murmur as she speaks. ]

If this bullshit Lunar Anomaly is what caused the current state of this world, if it's what made them... [ A sharp stop. There is terror echoing out from her, along with a feeble attempt at controlling it. ] What do you think the chances are we end up like that?

[hexrot]

[ he knows who this is, and jayce extends a pang of guilt without meaning to— it's born from the fact that he doesn't have a hopeful response to this, neither can he lie about it. he has to be honest, or else what change or precautionary measures would they impliment? ]

—I can't say with empirical certainty, Sharon. [ a breath, ] but I have theories.

[ he scratches at his wrist, during; just a slow, methodical scrape that gets his mind concentrating on the prickling of the scars than giving into a disorienting fear. ]

Leaning more toward likely than not.

[shatteredlenses]

I also received a message like that. I don't have any kind of date indicator, but it must be later than yours.

[Ignis is both relieved and troubled that he is not the only person to get one of these messages. A part of him though it might have been a pain related hallucination, while the rest of him really knew better.]

Do you recall what you were doing or thinking about when you got the message? If this is happening to numerous people perhaps there is a pattern of some sort?

[sculptedash]

I'd agree there. Sounds like they've been burrowed down there for awhile on your end. If we're lucky there might be a few more that can fill in a few more pieces of the puzzle.

[Ash gives a nervous little laugh.]

What was I doing? Oh. You know. Very deep and meaningful stuff.

[This starts playing lightly over the murmur again. ]

Look! It's a cool song, Don't judge me!

[shatteredlenses]

[The song is not familiar to Ignis, though he can appreciate the dramatic nature of the instrumentation and find the irony in a song about coming back to life playing in someone's head when they just arrived in a world that is full of death. Still, it really doesn't match what he was doing in the slightest, unless drama can be considered a theme.]

I was contemplating my place in all of this.

[No, really. Having just lost one's vision kind makes them rethink a lot of things.]

That is likely a very large strike against there being a pattern, but that doesn't change the fact that we should look into finding a way underground. If nothing else, it will be warmer there should this cold continue to intensify.

[vocalistyodels]

[Cooper listens, taking it all in. Well, maybe it wasn't nuclear fallout after all. At least, not here. Considering he'd not run into any radiation yet, that did seem to be the way of things, but if this were true something else from the sky did all this.]

Was at the train station while ago, wandered a little through the sleeping beasts down there, but didn't go too far down any of the tunnels. If I bet anything, might be some vaults down there. Already a good underground support built, only make sense to take advantage of it.

[If these possible bunkers were anything like the vaults he knew back home then they were either right out in the open or hidden like that.]

[sculptedash]

Okay good to know. Sleeping creatures is a bit of a red flag, but we've got them up here too.

How do you feel about trying to get back down in there and going full on investigation?

[vocalistyodels]

Meant the trains, sweetie.

[Big long metal beasts that no longer move, just sit and creak and rust slowly under ground. Also that is 'sweetie' condescending, do tell him to shut up.]

Heading back there to chase some what ifs? Perhaps, could be useful stuff down there if there is some kinda bunker or vault.

[merged]

[ Sharon's connection with the Murmur feels somewhat muted, as if it were coming in through fog-choked streets. ]

You already know I'd gotten something, but... uh... [ Please hold on as she figures out how to tie certain things together, reaching back through the Murmur. ] Here, this is what I heard or... or felt, or whatever.

Given how many of us heard something, we might be able to find more of these... these echoes if we can search this mind network.

[sculptedash]

[Gosh. Ash couldn't help but realize how much all of this reminded her of her time in Final Space with Invictus.

"I would become an element unto myself and myself alone." sure rang a lot like "You will become you."

There's a dark sort of bubbling feeling that boils beneath the surface of Ash's connection, but an effort to hold it down too.]

Good to know.

I don't know how possible it is to get everyone on board with searching it out, but it's worth a shot. It kind of feels like different thoughts or personalities can reach out into different corners.

That's just a guess- or a feeling.

[merged]

[ Somehow, it's nice to know she's not the only one making an effort to Keep It Together. Thank you, Ash. ]

I bet we can get enough people to give it a try, but I'd get it if some people don't want to plunge the depths of whatever the fuck this is. It's kind of... uncomfortable, in some ways.

But maybe we can convince those people to help search the subways. Divvy the tasks up.

[guidingbookworm]

[Sirius couldn't help being drawn to the Murmur. It eased the emptiness in his soul from his missing magic but he was cautious how he used it. His thoughts were not as private as he would like and he stayed at the edge of the tide of thoughts, like the distant flicker of a star in the darkness.

He had managed to quiet most of his horror and guilt from when he first woke up in this ruined world but there was still a faint undercurrent of darkness in thoughts. The strange messages about a lunar anomaly helped ease his guilt, but he was also hesitant to trust it. It wouldn't be the first time he believed a clever lie and his pain was reflected in his tired tone.]

I received one as well.

[His thoughts turned somber as he echoed the words of a dying man recording his last thoughts.]

[sculptedash]

[Oh. There's something deeply familiar and relatable about this message, and that undercurrent of darkness.]

Thanks.

Sure sounds like everyone around here was going through it.

[guidingbookworm]

I'm happy to help. The grim nature of these messages makes it even more important to stick together, don't you think?

[The undercurrent of darkness became a faint whisper as his personal feelings were overshadowed by his polite tone.]

[sorte]

"To gaze upon the moon is to die," a supposedly 'unshakeable' rule for this new world. Very nice and to the point, don't you think?

[ he'll share the journal entry excerpt he became witness to through the Murmur earlier. ]

[sculptedash]

Huh.

That sure is an ominous little warning there. Explains why people might have gone underground.

It would be nice if we could get a location as to where exactly they started digging.

[sorte]

My guess is that, regardless of where they started, they probably have connections within the subway tunnels if the survivors lasted long enough after the incident to be able to start trying to understand how to live in this new world. They'd want to keep exposure as minimal as possible while being about to move around as much as possible, most likely.

... Still, even focusing on something like just subway tunnels is impossibly large for so few of us. If only we had a way to monitor movement underground like radar.