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15strangers2019-08-04 10:27 pm
strangerpeople) wrote in 15strangers2019-08-04 10:27 pm
WEEK 4
[After the meeting, Lilac gives everyone a small vial of something red. Those who left the meeting receive it from the rats on the crew. She gives instructions as to how to take it. Take in a drink, preferably tea. Drink it slowly. Make sure you can get to your bed once you finish. The headache will come quickly.
Nevertheless, even as everyone slips into sleep, they are visited once more by the Conductor in what must have been a dream. Or was it? It's not clear.
She is quiet as she speaks, looking out the windows, even though the view is obscured by the glass.
"I know you think me as a monster. Maybe I am after all these years. I have no illusions. But I cannot regret the things I've done.
"Nor can I regret the Bazaar...it was so wonderful. It opened my eyes to the truth of things and opened doors I never could have seen on my own. It was the first time I felt true love for another. I wasn't the only one-my daughter, too, passed through the Wicket. Saw the sea more sunless within the Bazaar's body. Learned as I learned. She sought to rival me in symbols, in marking skin."
She closes her eyes.
"She is dead now, of course. Everyone I knew in the Neath-on our Earth-is. Well. Almost everyone. London endures, naturally. But the Echo Bazaar...it's beautiful promise...it's gone. The Seventh City will never fall, and it's Message will forever remain undelivered. Of all the creatures in the universe who might remember it, I am alone in honoring it.
"Perhaps it's noble. Perhaps it's foolish. In any case, maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe it's the thought that's important. As long as I am here, there is yet a possibility that the deed may be finished, somehow.
"Still, I wonder. Maybe you have the answer.
What happens to a Message, when neither the sender and receiver exist anymore?"
As the day dawns, everyone wakes up to the sound of howling winds and darkness. Their head hurts, but they do have a new memory to accompany the ache. They are also at a new port. It is a dark place, teetering on the edge of safe space and the unknown in between void, where those who enter rarely return. Or, so you have to assume, right? Either way, that blackness on the deep horizon doesn't look particularly fun to try to drive through.
There is a legitimate fear in Lilac's expression that betrays her for the first time, as she lets everyone disembark, including the unicorn and the young man, who quickly jump onto another train to get away from this place. She also refuses to leave the train. She does leave you with a fair warning.
The Synod of Carcels is dangerous, in its own way, and everyone can feel it. Everyone can feel something hanging in the air. It's not natural. It's bending reality. It's also not something that started with you or your arrival. Yet it threatens to become that way, to become part of you. You can feel the temptation gnaw at you. You can hear the winds whisper of it. There is a hunger here-and knowledge as well.
The question, of course, is whether the price to uncover those things is worth it-and what will be found here with the price that is paid. But as the Conductor said-a reckoning cannot be postponed. Not forever.
There are eleven strangers left in this place.]
((IMPORTANT OOC NOTE: This week and it's investigations involve major Fallen London spoilers, in particular spoilers regarding Seeking Mr. Eaten's Name and one of it's endings. If you, as a player here, are playing Fallen London and do not wish to be spoiled, let us know, and we will make sure you are not given any ending spoilers to the best of our ability. We will also be marking spoiler-filled comments with tags, and we request that our players do likewise, in consideration for those who might look through this post in the future.
With that said, have fun, and remember-all shall be well.))
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So one of these Messengers was made to take the blame, erased from existence, and came back as something else?
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[wink]
Ah, well, the love stories-they're important, but not as important. Mr. Eaten...well, he were so buried he'd never come back. Not fully. But betrayal's a funny thing, y'know. It leaves a mark. A stain. It endures in it's own ways. Can't wash it all out, like Macbeth or what 'ave yous.
What Mr. Eaten became was a shadow that hated. That cried. That harmed. But especially hungered. And anyone who heard the call, looked into a well, saw a candle flicker. Some 'em went to Seek his Name. The thing buried most of all by them other Masters.
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... His Name is part of his power, then? But if they're something so different than mortal... that power would change them?
FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS
[Blows some more smoke.]
Even after I stuffed it. Meet people at least, even if they ignore wot I say.
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[He's not sure which one he's talking about anymore.]
FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS
Oh, and. When you get the chance.
[There is a strange glint in her smile as she takes one last drag.]
Tell Milly Mrs. Plenty says hi.
[She blows the smoke out. It's thick and hard to see through. When it does clear, the old woman is gone.
...
Continue on?]
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[Of course he will. Fortunately his flames don’t hurt him.]
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It appears someone in Caleb’s group has gotten to these ones first, so far. It was all too easy to find them in comparison.]
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[1/2]
Suddenly, as he walks, Caleb is plunged into a familiar color.]
[2/2]
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Is this where you stopped?
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They are not violet, as she turns back around and walks.
They are blue.]
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[1/2]
[2/2]
Skeletons with bone grown over their eyes are scattered around the tablet that appears. The candles here are bright red.]
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And what trapped you here?
EVIDENCE - FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS
Do you recall how He came to that place? And they sang of their lightnings and shapeful disgrace? And He tilted their vanes and ennobled their spires. He welcomed us then and commingled all choirs.
Then let us commingle our choirs. Let us ascend into the skies, even as He drowned in the deep.
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I need to see the end.
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But they are false. Of course they are false. What stars twitch?]
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[He pushes against the memories and keeps going. There’s knowledge here, and he needs to find it -]
EVIDENCE - FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS
They are silent as Caleb passes them, coming to the tablet. The candles are pure white, practically aglow with a lost innocence.]
He was torn so He may feed us. Then He went NORTH and knocked, so we may follow His steps. Then He was burned so we may see the truth. The Seeker betrayed us, but the Judgments too betrayed their oath. The Messenger would not complete its task.
Thus the doors were opened, and the frozen law has been fulfilled. The Seventh City never fell, and thus we are saved from the Counsel that would never come. Forthigan invited them in, until Arthur threw them back.
Every invitation is also a betrayal. This is the circle, complete.
Approach, for a reckoning cannot be postponed indefinitely.
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[Why? There is no need to be reverent, no need to fear. Only search and understand.]
No. Onward.
[And so he goes. There’s no need to fear when there’s no enemy other than the lack of knowledge.]
EVIDENCE - FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS - DEEP CUT UNLOCKED
(You are so much like her. But you lack the stains, the chains. The smirch. The emptiness.
Pity.)
Suddenly, Caleb can see fire. Torches blazing through a giant cavern. Figures in robes, staring at him, smiles sharp and wide. And right in front of him, at the entrance, a rock. It glows with light and warmth. It is almost inviting.
The parts carved in it are smooth and smoke black.]
To have begun this journey was a choice. To approach the end too is a choice. The heart is destiny’s engine, and even greater powers are driven by this alone. There are things that others want forgotten, buried, drowned. But they will not be forgotten, not anymore.
If you consume something greater, you may incorporate it, unless it incorporates you. The Chain which binds us is inflexible, unyielding, yet one may yet ascend into the skies and burn as the Kings do. There is no Law which cannot yet be overcome with the truth.
Down in the frozen law, they made Him less than nothing. Now, He Endures while they have perished. He is Eternal, Indivisible, Ever-Burning, a light in the void of the well.
Never forget. Give what is due. Be the spark that shall bring light to nothing, and cast yourself in.
All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
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