Team Alien Resurrection / Part 2

[floatingplot]

[You have escaped. Congratulations, surely all your problems are over and you can return to your apartments- Oh, wait, no.]

Comments

[aliksirette]

It will not likely be of use now, but I am an expert in the field of water magic.

[pchaaair]

Even though, you're allergic to it?

[moving along, though. :x]

[floatingplot]

[As you move along, a screen on one of the high-rises crackles to life.

Current events feed missing, repeating most recent entry...
With the current state of the city, all is not lost. Under the wise guidance of the king, the space program is being refitted into crafts able to reach the surface and the cities beyond.]

[aliksirette]

How ignorant. I'll have you know-

[She stops to look at the screen.]

A space program? Absurd. Even if such a thing were possible, those sort of craft would be nothing like submersibles.

[pchaaair]

It just seems like, a normal thing to think? But-- it's not that absurd, I don't think, if they were stuck under here, since, the surface is kind of like space to them.

[aliksirette]

You'd need a totally different type of propulsion system, as well as different building materials to cope with the pressure. It was almost certainly a lie told to placate the populace.

My kind are sensitive to large amounts of magic in the atmosphere, but we have an aptitude for using magic itself. It's quite different.

[pchaaair]

. . . Oh. I see.

[wandering on, still. not sure where to go, though, really. :x he sighs]

I guess, that would also make sense, considering what we've been learning.

[floatingplot]

[Another screen crackles as they walk...

Current events feed corrupted, substituting commercial...
Get your miracle magic cheap! The wonder substance that can make you resistant to any danger our new home might pose to you, Magic-S! One injection and all your worries will be gone!]

[aliksirette]

The oceans hear are charged with magical energy. I'm sure these were developed in an attempt to build up tolerance for that. They did not work well.

[pchaaair]

. . . No, they didn't. Or, maybe they didn't have the time, to properly do something like that. I'm kind of worried about what will happen, after we get out of here, considering where we are, because of that.

[floatingplot]

[All the roads seem to lead inward, towards the centre of the city.

Current events feed missing, replaying older entries...

The marine vessel program has been attacked by terrorists believed to be supporting the Servants. While they have yet to make a statement about it, [Static] no survivors.

It is eerily silent.]

[aliksirette]

I wonder. Are the servants the races that live in the other cities? This appears to be the city of the Ocean God. That god used to rule the others, and it seems likely that so too did his people.

[pchaaair]

... That could be possible.

[I don't like how eerily silent it is. Glancing behind him as they continue on.]

It seems really possible, at least. But, I am not sure, either. But, I do know that, I don't like it here. And that something feels weird.

[floatingplot]

[And you make it.

In the centre of the city...

It was a glorious thing, you can see white marble through the soot, broken statues littering the ground that once rivalled the Michael. Far larger than any of the temples on Atuin, this is the temple to the God itself.

And it is patterned in waves.

There's heavy double doors on ground level.]

[aliksirette]

[Pulls out the gun again, freshly reloaded of course.]

Quite lovely, isn't it? For being the holiest place of the accursed ocean god that supposedly created swarms of horrible monsters. I'm sure it's full of horrific, unspeakable things.

Let's go in, shall we?

[pchaaair]

[Lance: Out.]

We... yeah. We might as well, since, this might be the only way, we can get out of here.

[And let's get those doors open '-'a]

[floatingplot]

[YOU OPEN THE DOORS-

and nope, no monsters.

This level of temple is covered in cracking tile murals, no doubt once beautiful and colorful. They show a simple story:

The God appears on a world of raging water, alone.

He builds an island, and He crafts people to live on it, people in His image with all the traits of Humans, Long, Bast and Angha.

They shine like a beacon, so brightly that things begin to reach towards the world. Black things that eclipse the moon and sun, things reaching with twisted limbs and baring fractal teeth.

So He reaches into the crystal heart of the world and breaks away four crystals.

In His hands, they become four people, each a pale mirror to His own brilliance, for they only have one trait each of the species.

The blue-robed one, holding a sparkling rainbow fire, him merely the human body.

The red-robed one, casting dice with a smile, she who possesses only the glorious wings of the Angha.

The green-robed one, grasping a halberd, with the strength of the Long.

The yellow-robed one, wielding a sword, with the ears and eyes of the Bast.

Those four kneel at the four corners of the world and keep away the dark things while He stands king over all.

It ends there.

There is an altar at the back of this room, a heavy wooden thing, with a priest slumped over it clutching a scroll.

In the far corner there is an door opened to the first steps of a spiral staircase leading upwards.]

[aliksirette]

Impressive craftsmanship, if a little musty. Perhaps that scroll can offer more insight.

[Heading over to the dead priest, but with her gun still out.]

[pchaaair]

[following!

mostly because he really doesn't want to get separated from her in such an unknown area.]

We should be careful, touching that scroll. Things happened to Troll Indiana Jones, when he wasn't careful.

[aliksirette]

Troll Indiana Jones? Your culture feels the need to preface the names of their mythological characters with the name of their own species, just to remind themselves that they exist? Your society is utterly ridiculous.

[Nonetheless, she decides to see if she can detect any sort of magic on the scroll or the priest.]

[floatingplot]

[No magic on either, in fact, there is an absence quite distinct from the madness and magic of the surrounding city. This is a place untouched by the surrounding dystopia.]

[pchaaair]

It is not like, I can control that kind of thing. And, I have to use troll, since, I guess there is a human Indiana Jones, too. But, I am not the expert on that.

[poking around. 8|a while staying close to jeanette, of course.]

Does anything seem weird, about that?

[aliksirette]

Well, who came up with the character first?

Do not wonder off. I am not liable for anything that happens if you do. At any rate, the scroll seems fine. No need for superstition.

[Taking the scroll.]

[floatingplot]

[Which is when a skeleton hand bursts through the tiled floor, clutching at her ankle.]

[pchaaair]

[HOLY JESUS FUCK SMACKING IT WITH HIS LANCE]

[aliksirette]

[Okay, that prompts a scream. Being Jeanette, it's as much one of anger as of fear.]

Get off me you ingrate, or I'll put a hole through you!

[Using earth magic to make the ground close up around the skeletal arm.]

[floatingplot]

[The hand is knocked back and closed over. But more and more hands are bursting through the ground, clawing holes to drag their decayed and skeletal bodies through.]

[pchaaair]

[HELLO I AM NOW TRYING TO COMMUNE THESE THINGS INTO GOING OUTSIDE OF THE TEMPLE. CAN YOU COMMUNE WITH SKELETONS? Who the fuck knows but it's worth trying.]

[aliksirette]

[Dragging Tavros toward the staircase by the arm, blasting away at the undead with her pistol with her free hand. Devil Indiana Jones just needs a fedora.]

What are you doing you blithering moron?! Get moving!!

[floatingplot]

[You commune with the skeletons.

The undead, tainted by magical poison and madness, driven by hunger for the flesh of the living, for life itself, for magic.

Plugged directly into your mind.

H-Have fun, because now you can hear the whispering driving you to join them.]

[pchaaair]

[BAD END BAD END breaking off from that-- and then answering, although he's clearly in some kind of pain and clutching his head with his free hand as he's dragged.]

It-- I was trying to see, if I could make them go away. I can commune with things.

[aliksirette]

Why in the name of Five-Headed Dieve would you do that? You'll probably go mad, now!

[Has run out of ammunition, so she hands her gun to Tavros.]

Syllatrix that.

[But she still has tricks up her sleeves. Or rather, homemade grenades filled with incindiary jelly. I hope the undead hordes don't mind a little heat.]

[floatingplot]

[They don't, and nor does the temple. Some of the skeletons scorch and crumble to nothingness, but there's more, always more.

On the second level is a gate, a mirror to the one in Atuin, with a half-lit set of crystals.

Unfortunately it looks like it needs a magical charge to work.]

[pchaaair]

[IN GOES THE GUN-- and out come the crystals he's been carrying with him since the palace.

His head still hurts like crazy, though, even as he messes around with his sylladex.]

Do you think, those crystals will work?

[aliksirette]

Let's hope.

[Well, they are rocks, even if they are saturated with magic. So, she uses earth magic to fling them all at the crystals on the gate.]

[floatingplot]

[One two three four five--

And just as the skeletons burst through, it ignites!]

[pchaaair]

[LET'S BOOK IT OUT OF HERE.

Grabbing Jeanette and running through the gate.]

[aliksirette]

Wh- Unhand me!

[But letting herself be dragged because she wants out just as much.]