INTRO 001: BEGIN

[706mod]

INTRO 001
NAVIGATION
⩕ ARRIVAL

It’s arrival time. Or is it? For some, this situation seems eerily familiar. In fact, this has happened before, you are sure of it. The voice makes the announcement and the door rolls open. You hear the frightened voice and it begins again.

There might be memories of this place but things will seem… off. As if walls are a slightly different colour, corners a bit sharper, the door handles a bit higher. If you explore the rooms of interest you will find a few things have changed.

The cooler with the tongue is now gone, and in its place a locked door with a strange device placed next to it. It looks like an intercom. The yellow message on the wall has changed, it now reads:

There’s sunshine, daisies, and tulips too
Just remember that when you’re feeling blue ☺

The writing is clearly different than the previous message.

The room with the tube is mostly the same, except the rusted cabinets are now shiny and brand new. The tube’s liquid is now dripping a rust colour fluid.

Any items collected will be somewhere nearby.

⩕ ODE TO BEVERLY

After exploring the new (?) developments something strange is now happening throughout the complex’s floor. A shrill crying. It sounds hysterical.

It leads you to the bathroom with the shattered glass. The sound is coming from the drain of a sink.

There’s broken words, too jumbled to really understand. But the hello from earlier? Definitely the same voice.

As your face nears the sink suddenly long black hair springs from the drain, shooting up and strangling and snaring any bit of you it can. The more you struggle the more it becomes aggressive, cutting in to your skin, peeling away flesh. All the while the shrieking and wailing grows to thunderous levels.

The only way to escape is with outside help. But your rescuer has to be careful not to also get caught.

The hair or whatever it may be seems intent on blood.

⩕ THE CHASM (PART ONE)

Some of you might have escaped the hair with most of your important parts in place. But any open wounds will freely flow blood and not seem to want to staunch. Any materials found seem to be useless in treating the cuts. And when your droplets of blood hits the ground it hisses as if like acid and then unexpectedly the floor around it cracks into a hairline split. The more blood that is dropped the more the cracks appear.

Throughout the following days and nights the cracks randomly split wider and deeper.

Investigating further you will notice that the same nausea you might have experienced before is now back-- and wait! Did you just see a pair of eyes inside those fissures?

Somehow you know in your gut that the only way to stop the progression of the splits is to drop more blood in to it, but not your own. In fact, this idea takes hold despite your better judgement. It is a compulsion. Better find a willing volunteer or perhaps it will come down to a fight.


⩕ HELLO GOD? IT'S ME 7░ ░

Something odd happens many hours in to your stay. Those of you who have found a walkie will receive a broadcast. It is a man speaking. It sounds like an old recording. Soft conversation is happening in the background overlaid with a hum of machinery.

Obviously I am a man of logic. In this day and age how could someone not be? Our primitive instincts are only a tool for survival so our higher minds can concentrate on things like advancement and discovery. This a belief everyone should have. Or isn’t it? It frustrates me that few are on this level of thinking. Too many are preoccupied with that in which cannot be seen. What cannot be hooked in to.

His voice then says your number. You are certain that you have never met this person, but he definitely just addressed you specifically.

I know you are reasonable. Tell me what you believe in? In this moment, what do you believe?

As you answer, you get the distinct impression that the entire complex stills to listen. But whatever frequency he was using is now dead. The question seems to be one to ask one another, broadcasted far and wide.

⩕ ⩕ ⩕ ⩕ ⩕ ⩕ ⩕

⩕ The Chasm will continue to grow throughout the next month. It becomes more and more cumbersome to navigate but the blood does seem to help to keep it at bay.

Comments

[gunslung]

[ With his free hand, Teddy reaches to take Yuuki's offered one, fingers curling around it to give a soft squeeze. His eyes widen, however, when he realises that even that slight movement of her arm has the hairs wrapped around her bicep pressing tighter, cutting deeper.

Fuck. ]

Hold on. [ Following that pattern, Teddy finds that the harder he pulls, the more the hair digs into his palm, his fingers. He understands then that he won't be able to pull Yuuki free that way, and frowns deeply. If he can't pull, he has to cut, but to cut, he'll have to let go and find something to cut with. ]

Ms. Kuran? I'm going to let go right quick and cut this thing off of you, okay?

[ And he does, his hand releasing both her and the hair that had been aiming for her neck. The strands press to her throat once more, some of them cutting in, and Teddy rushes to grab the sharpest piece of glass he can find. It cuts into his already sliced palm, but he pays the sting little mind.

Following the hair's length, he sees it disappear into the drain. So he starts cutting there, teeth gritting as his hand moves in quick, straight lunges to shear and slice. ]

[laving]

( the smell of blood and pain are overwhelming at this point- so much it caused yuuki to roll her eyes up, the view before her becoming blurred and dark. she didn’t know how long she could last like this and a part of thought she was going to die soon. the only things that kept her stabilized was a deep instinctive desire to live and teddy’s support.

as he released her from his touch, yuuki began to kick her legs to the sides, noticing the hairs weren’t gripping here there yet. she managed to push herself more against a nearby wall but stopped when her legs became tangled as well. she finally stopped moving, giving teddy a chance to cut away the hairs.

it seemed to be working- the hairs hissed and screamed out in some sort of pain to his movements. it was as if he had figured out the best way to tame them-

but the damage was already done. yuuki’s soft and pale flesh was now covered in deep cuts and wounds, blood coating all of her upper torso. )

[gunslung]

[ As the strands were sliced, they lost their strength. Frantically his gaze shifted between the mess still in the drain and Yuuki's state, and though all the blood had some kind of panic response triggering in his chest, Teddy had just enough self-preservation to finish the job and let the broken glass piece fall into the sink. ]

Ms. Kuran, can you hear me? [ The hairs were still wrapped around Yuuki's body, but this time Teddy was able to pull them free without much incident. The scent of her blood permeated the air around them sharply, thickly-- but Teddy ignored it as best he could, his hands working as quickly as they could to release Yuuki from those unnatural bonds.

But... ] Oh, God. [ She was bleeding far, far too much, the scrubs on her body covered in cuts and soaked with red. Distantly, Teddy felt a strange satisfaction at the thought of death, but pushed the thought away in favour of setting a hand on her shoulder. ] We have to get you out of here, get you fixed up.

I'm going to pick you up, Ms. Kuran. All right?

[laving]

( she laid there on the ground against the wall, not saying much only breathing heavily. the hairs had become loose around her neck, the strands falling down and resting against her clavicle. she remained still as teddy worked to quickly remove the hairs from her. if she was in a right state of mind she would have felt incredibly guilty about burdening the other with such a task-

after all it was her curiosity that caused her to be in this predicament.

for now though she remained silent, nodding slowly at his comment. her limbs were loose and she was light enough that he could pick her up with ease. )

Thank you...

( she managed to mutter out as the muscles in her fingers and arms lightly twitched from the pain. never had she felt such physical pain in a long time.

whenever teddy decided to pick her up, she leaned against him, her fresh and darkening blood staining whatever he may have had on. )

[gunslung]

[ He shook his head, a tight smile on his lips. ] It's all right. [ Teddy wasn't cut nearly as bad as she was, bleeding nowhere but in his palms. It was the decent thing to pick her up, the right thing. And so he did, and they left the bathroom behind them.

Too wrapped up in concern for the woman in his arms, Teddy failed to notice that each drop of blood that trickled from her body made a hiss as it splashed onto the floor. He checked open door after open door, and the first one he came to had-- well. Not necessarily anything useful for bandages, but yellow writing on the wall, and a door with some machine beside it. ]

Ms. Kuran? [ Unsure if she was still conscious, Teddy spared her a glance. ] Ms. Kuran, this room... you were here before, weren't you?

[ The writing was familiar in aesthetics and visuals, but something was off about it. Different. And though the room itself was nondescript, the door and the contraption at its side raised enough questions to get Teddy frowning. ]

[laving]

( in his arms yuuki remained still, her arms hanging from his side, swinging a bit with his movements. she hadn’t noticed the subtle hissing, her ears weren’t as sharp as they once were. this body she now had was weak, fragile, and so easy to destroy. in this position really teddy could easily finish her off, not that she was thinking that. no, for some reason or another she trusted him, perhaps it was naive of her. she was so old and still so naive.

to his words, she opened her eyes a bit, offering a strained glance. it took her a moment to realize what he was talking about, but she managed to look up at the room he was referring to.

it was the room that she had her first encounter with, or so it seemed. it was incredibly familiar but she couldn’t quite place her finger on it- something was off.

it also wasn’t drawing from her the same fear it had before, something about being covered in blood and a subtle craving for it caused the fear to drown out. )

I’m not too sure...is there something in there?

[gunslung]

Just this door. [ So Teddy fiddles with the intercom for a bit, but finds nothing of substance about it besides the noise it lets out when he presses a certain button. He plays the message over and over again until he hears all of it clearly-- and then, like a surefire program, his mind starts to work over it and make it make sense.

"The word on their tongues will open passages."

But what the hell does that mean? Teddy frowns, crouches in front of Yuuki, and hopes she isn't too far gone in blood loss to fail to understand him. ]

The door didn't open, and I think we need a code, so... do you know anything about tongues? Just in case. [ He looks her wounds over, the touch of his fingers gentle over her skin. ] Before we leave.