acatalepsy_ooc | TDM # 6

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test drive meme #6

It happens in the blink of an eye.

One moment, you are home. Perhaps you are with your family, perhaps you are at work. It's a completely normal day . . . and then, suddenly, your stomach drops. You are overcome with a sudden sense of vertigo. You cannot see up, or down, or where you are.

You fall flat on your face. It takes a few seconds for you to gain composure and catch your breath. You are surrounded by ancient stone buildings, with carvings you do not recognize etched into the stone. There's a sense of nausea, overwhelming and sudden, when you realize you aren't in Kansas anymore.

. . . or maybe you are. It seems oddly like a state fair, except a bit more mystical, and a bit more . . . well, touched by faerie-magic..

THE TEMPLE OF BEGINNINGS.

Welcome to the "Home Base" of Astoria's Circle. What the actual name of the base is called is lost to the ages, and there's no sense of where you could find it, unless you started asking around.

At any rate, this is a central hub of the Circle, a place of powerful magic and mysterious energy. It is a scattering of ancient stone buildings and for the most part, it looks abandoned . . . except for what seems to be a few items, some rooms taken, items moved or organized, even a small garden planted. These are just the smallest hints that there are people here that have been here before you arrived.

Overall, it's fairly beautiful. However, it is definitely not modern.

Upon exploration, you find that the buildings are kept up by some kind of magic. Some of the rooms have items, things from other Circle members already settled, and others appear to be unclaimed. Pick your rooms, explore the grounds, see the beauty and wonder all around you in such a magical place.

Once you're done with that, though, get ready -- there's a carnival in town.

FEAST FOR THE PEOPLE.

An array of familiar scents welcomes you — it reminds you so terribly of your roots. Perhaps it’s the clam chowder your grandmother used to make, or the distinct smell of your least favorite kind of enchanted crabapple pie traveling through the air.

Regardless, it leads you to a variety of food stands, each and everyone being manned by one of the unseen servants.And lo and behold, you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for: food from the very place you’ve come from. The plates and portions are . . . er, floating in air due to how unseen the servants are, but when you reach forward to have a bite, you are promptly stopped. It seems as though the servants are asking for something in exchange.

A sign floats up before you…

“The food is free ♥ But first, find someone and show them…
Your best smile!
A flower! Spring is abound ♥
A neat trick using the power I gave you~”

You’d best get on it — of course, you could try to simply steal if you’re hungry enough, but well...we’ll see how well that goes over.

Ironically enough, the foods you may not be especially partial to will be offered to you without any trouble. Huh.

TEN TICKETS GETS A PENCIL.

There are a large variety of other stalls too. While the food definitely follows you wherever you go, there are small booths set up with games. Anything from a ring toss, target practice, games of strength or games of balance have been constructed and set up all around this patch of grass. You might notice a game from home, no matter how specific or seemingly out of place it appears to be in this festival. You’re here to have fun! And maybe the person standing next to you does too. Will you challenge them? Or let them go ahead?

Besides, don’t you want those prizes? There is a wide selection of "stuffed animals" made out of grass and flowers to be won, but it all comes down to you. These prizes won't wilt or die, either! How lovely. Additionally, some of the booths give you out some arbitrary amount of tickets, regardless of how well you do. If you win, you seem to get . . . less tickets? But if you lose, you get the lot.

Astoria doesn't seem to really get the point of carnival games.

There is a booth to turn in said tickets, though! Ten tickets will get you a bright pink pencil. Fifty tickets will get you a kazoo that makes you irresistibly happy for thirty minutes at a time. A hundred tickets will get you a massive stuffed puppy made out of flowers. And two hundred tickets will get you a tiara made out of flowers. . . . these gifts seem to be Astoria-centric, but you'll surely like them, right?

LOVE IS IN THE AIR.

What is a festival without some carnival rides? They’re scattered around the faire grounds at random intervals, and seem familiar enough, if not for the fact they seem to be held together primarily through magic.

The ferris wheel is made entirely from giant leaves and vines, but is still running, and absolutely safe. You might want to jump on it to see the entirety of the Temple . . . in the (near-ish) distance, you can see Lake Dona, stretching on for what appears to be miles. You can see the Forest of the Fey, equally massive and sprawling . . . and neither seems to have an end in sight. But hey, at least you got a free carnival ride.

Bumper cars? More like bumper logs, floating in a small lake of sorts that (for those who have been in the Circle for some time) definitely wasn’t there before. Crashing into one another is a load of fun, but if you get up-ended, you might wind up being shoved back into the logs unceremoniously by some kelpies. Where in the heck did they come from? (They're harmless, for the most part. Astoria seems to have recruited the more tame ones.)

And, even better, the unseen servants are keen to get new people to know one another! Are you in line with someone you know? Or next to a complete stranger? Either way, you’ll get shuffled into the next cart and put on your way. The Tunnel of Roses is a great place to meet someone, right? It's seemingly sprung up out of absolutely nowhere . . . a dark, quiet, romantic ride on a tiny little boat, just big enough for two! You’ve got some...time to break the ice. The ride apparently lasts four hours.

COMMUNICATIONS.

Upon arriving, you will notice on whichever is your non-dominant hand, you will have a fairly simply screen. A smart watch, if you will. Upon exploration, you will find that it has a directory of all those here with you at the Temple of Beginnings- names, and access to a direct message to them. The watch also has video, audio, and text capabilities, as well as what looks like a collection of messages sent to everyone who wishes to open them. This is your 'network', and also how Astoria can reach out and communicate with you.

There is nothing keeping you from removing and/or losing your watch! But remember that you will not have access to this network without it.

OOC: Also feel free to join us and other possible players on our discord server!

enjoy! ♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ ok that’s cute. Simon valiantly ignores it for this very constructive venture he’s on. ]

Why don’t you come to the haunted spaceships and dying oceans?

[ His voice rises, and he twists and worries the lone, misused carnival rig in his hands. ]

How am I supposed to trust you? You’re saying you care, but you don’t even know us. I don’t know- what you are, or why you’re doing all this. Just tell me-

[ that you can do more; that you know where the worlds and the people that disappear go; that you can turn back time; that you can do the impossible, just because you are the most powerful single being he’s ever gotten to plead his case to. ]

Tell me something that makes all this make sense.

Edited 2019-03-26 18:12 (UTC)

Because I can't, Simon. I am trapped here; if I could leave, I would do this on my own, and happily. But I cannot.

[ it's said with some small amount of frustration, but once it escapes her lips, she sighs, turning her head to look back toward the shrine, her lips pressing together into a thin line. ]

. . . I am sorry, I should not take out my frustration on you. You, and your friends, deserve far more than what I can give you. But all I can tell you is that I am trapped here, and while it does not feel like it, you are doing precisely what needs to be done. Even if the cost is great.

[ she pauses. ]

I was created, to maintain balance in the world. My memory is . . . [ and she allows some breath to escape, her cheeks puffing out slightly, as she exhales. ] I cannot remember a lot, but I know that I cannot be trapped here. The Temple will not let me go, and you are my last hope to ensure that the universe continues on, as it should.

[ he holds her gaze for a moment; the startled pause he has to take to absorb this is enough to derail him, and even with the rigidity of the Power Suit, there’s a palpable deflation in his posture. ‘Trapped’ and ‘sapient but created by some oppressive force for one unfairly demanding purpose’ are just blows in all his squishy areas.

He can’t identify how he feels about this, hearing the extent of Astoria’s powerlessness — if it’s relief, or perturbation, or both. All this time she’s stood as a symbol from their dreams, a capricious god (witch, whatever), who occasionally surfaced to clean up messes and fling them to the next world they’d have to fix somehow. Now Simon lowers his eyes, having to recalibrate, almost like the childhood experience of having assumed your teacher is an NPC in your life who lives at school and then seeing them buying groceries. ]

You said it has a mind of its own. [ his tone is of resigned acknowledgment, and even when he speaks again, it’s carefully even. ]

Was it the Temple that brought me back here? Or was it you?

[ and there’s a brief pause, before he clarifies, as much as he can bring himself to: ] Not from the Horologium.

[ The festival is jarring, but— it’s more than Simon could have possibly hoped for when he was alone on Earth, waiting to die at the bottom of the sea. ]

[ she holds his gaze, a long silence hanging in the air. the clarification is unnecessary, truth be told; astoria knows what simon means, when he says that. death. destruction. coming back. ]

. . . I can imagine the answer ' a bit of both is an unsatisfying answer.

[ still. ]

But it is not a simple matter. Snapping your fingers. Bringing someone back. The Temple is the one who controls much of what occurs here, and I work within its confines . . . and utilizing my magic, and giving a piece of myself to ensure you are here, and alive, and safe -- the Temple has to allow it, to a certain degree.

We work together, but also work apart.

[ It is unsatisfying, and that sounds... symbiotic in a bad way. Like, creepy. But what Simon hears, perhaps colored by experience, is that the Temple chucked him back to the bottom of the sea, and though she may have used its power, it was her intent that returned him.

He taps the ring against the side of his leg, averting his eyes for a moment just to absorb this. It's not like owing the shit out of Astoria for that is a new idea, just something he has to acknowledge again. ]

What if we could free you? Could you find the people who disappear? Send back the ones who want to be home?

Would you free me?

[ a question in return, and she looks at simon, her eyes a little brighter than usual, her mouth curved into a faint smile. ]

Is that something the Circle would do?

[ Looking at the earnestness in Astoria’s expression makes the thought of her as their malicious kidnapper, sending them to their deaths, feel like a weird ghost story. More importantly, she doesn’t say it can’t be done. ]

Sure.

[ Except Simon can’t really forget her dodgy approval rating — how the terror of the last couple worlds felt, the helplessness and failure, because they knew nothing, and she did send them there. Many of them haven’t forgotten, and there are Circle members who can hold longer grudges than him. so he pauses, considering. ]

I don’t know if the whole Circle would be on board right away. But— if it’s possible, and it means things won’t have to happen the way they did in Akvos, and the Horologium, they’ll come around.

[ he shifts his weight from one foot to the other and offers her what is, even through the ungiving exoskeleton of the Power Suit, identifiable as one of those floppy bro-shrugs where you raise your hands and drop them back down. ] And I guess I owe you one.

Edited 2019-03-30 12:43 (UTC)

You all owe me nothing.

[ it is the opposite, in her mind, and astoria is quick to correct . . . but she seems energized, by the prospect of what simon is suggestion, and she fiddles with the edge of her shirt. ]

. . . I have been here, for so long, that I am not sure what I would do, if I were free. It has been such a . . . distant thought, memory, that . . .

[ she pauses. ]

The Circle is my last hope to save the universe; that is, truly, what is most important. To continue keeping balance. But if you could all free me, and I could return to my purpose . . .

[ he can’t help but believe in her sincerity now, no matter how many times they as a group have discussed her incompetence — if she is malicious, or negligent. But to be trapped here so long you can barely remember anything else... or allow yourself to imagine anything else... in a sapient world that freaks out occasionally and saps you of your magic?

(or whatever that was.) ]

Sending us to different worlds isn’t your purpose?

TDM # 6

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( 2 )

douche brain: write long-ass tags that the mods of the game have to respond to

( 3 ) i love these long tags what're you talking about!!

that was 4 btw!

(5) like i said below, this is why i am not a list mod. LOL

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( 6 )

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