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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.))
no subject
It's a request that's terribly unfamiliar, and yet Tali cannot help but to accept.]
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I'd been told that it was a key to mirror images of my world, that someone had been plunging themselves back and seeing who lived or died, but...
They were far outside of the reach of any one of us.
And I can't imagine why they'd do such a thing.
[what am completionist gamer]
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Ah. I didn't realize other worlds had those. A pool of illusion, hm? And someone who, knowing it was there, would return again and again until they found a "Truth" they could accept.
Tell me, how much do you know about these "mirror images"?
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She was in the video our Conductor had given for the incentive. That's at least two.
Worlds where everything was the same, but where she might have lived. Or where I may have died.
Only one of the other girls I remember managed to never fall, but... she also remembered every timeline.
But the interloper wasn't her.
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What's inside of a matchbox? You think it's matches, but you don't know that until you open it, yes? Someone could have put something else in there when you weren't looking. Even if it is matches, there's a bunch of different individual matches. If you numbered them and shook the box, you'd have no way of being sure which ones were on top until you opened the box again.
Worlds can be the same way. In any system sealed off from outside observation, anything that's possible can happen. Even things we don't know are possible can happen. Would you agree?
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But if we are the matches, that leaves much to be resolved.
The Hand was far more deliberate than any of us thought.
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Imagine being outside this box. Imagine being able to reach in, and pull out whatever Truth you wanted at any time, if only you could find it. Imagine being able to imagine anything, and make it real, just by shaking the box enough times.
Wouldn't that be an Endless temptation?
no subject
I suppose you're no stranger to such temptations.