The Fifteen Strangers Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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15strangers2023-07-20 09:54 am
strangerpeople) wrote in 15strangers2023-07-20 09:54 am
FINAL INVESTIGATION
[Fifteen X-Passes. Six weeks. Freedom at last.
But it's not the end. Of course it's not. There are questions to answer, and souls to save. And now that the group is outside, they can see where they are.
They are inside a massive cavern, illuminated in an eerie green light, standing on a stone path. On one side is the ship-or rather, a massive, ship-shaped tangle of bloody branches, the trunk-like roots snaking out and into the river its buoyed on, as well as into the ceiling of stalactites. Said river is wine dark, but it's clearly not water. No-it is blood.
And on the other side of their little pathway? A root-encrusted palace. It sits over a labyrinthine city, bathed in emerald, and all is eerily silent save for some sounds coming from within the castle. It's clear the infestation somehow started here. And it is here that answers are likely to be found.
The doors are right in front of the group-and they are already open, covered in branches. From the outside, it seems little more than a ruin. Once everyone goes in, though?
It's even worse. The tree has taken over. Whatever lives here is no longer in charge. There's no easy way to disentangle the Qilphoth from this place. But there is life here, somehow. You can see figures entangled within the roots as you explore. And-they are still, somehow, alive. More than alive. They are beings that bleed ichor instead of blood-beings of incredible divinity and power. They are gods. And they are hostage to the tree, forever and ever, trapped in induced ennui, unless something is done.
[Once you enter, the investigation shall begin.
Good luck.]
((OoC: And here are team assignments!))
no subject
No, your name is Zagreus! Prince Zagreus! You're my frie--
[ It sounds a little distressed, drifting up towards Zack, looking up with its big, golden eyes. ]
You've got lots of friends down here who'd tell you that!
Well... if they weren't all napping they would! Maybe seeing some of them would jog your memory? Wow, those roots really did a number on you, huh?
no subject
[He slowly stands.]
I live in Greece. New York...and you're a talking sheep.
no subject
[ The sheep seems uncertain now, looking around towards the others nearby - perhaps the shade of Moriarty longer than the rest. ]
no subject
And now people calling him "Zagreus".]
I'm me. I'm me. I'm still me...
no subject
Yes, you are you. But who you thought you were? Is nothing more but a lie placed upon you by another's hand.
[Because, well. He DID wipe his own memory and implant false ones before, so!]
You are Zagreus, son of Hades and Persephone. The fact you stand here in your own body, and not condemned to a shade's form like myself or the other dead is proof of that alone.
Though realizing this is undoubtedly terrifying, there is no point to averting your eyes to the truth. Especially when your true family lies languishing under the tyranny of these roots feeding off of them.
Or will you let them suffer, Zagreus? Will you continue to deny your very self for a more comfortable truth, and sit by when you have the power to change this, and help us all?
no subject
[There's a loud whine coming from big doggo's direction.
He looks over towards the dog, towards Moriarty, towards the poll, then back towards the dog. The three-headed malodorous beat, meanwhile, stares back, looking utterly miserable.]
...my dog's name is Spot...
[He...reluctantly...starts to walk over to the biggest and goodest boy.]
no subject
[Which, you know. Is Literally Spot.
He'll stay back here, watching as Zack goes to his dog.
As the godhead who has forgotten himself returns home, and greets his faithful companion.]
no subject
Hey. Hey, don't worry, my dog gets scared too.
[Immediately-almost instinctively, one might say-he goes and pets the muzzle on the head closest to the desk.]
Shhh, shhhh, we'll set you and your folks right. Good boy.
[The effect is immediate. There's a contented boof from the pet head, and the seemingly familiar gesture calms down the other two heads as well.
Well then.]
Good boy.
no subject
[That's all he'll say, as he watches this.]
no subject
[He stares at his hands, now lightly dusted with red fur.]
I. I don't know what to think. If this is...all real...that's exactly how I would...pet my dog.
no subject
[ It's helping!
And also floating to maybe hide behind Zack. ]
no subject
[He stares.]
H-he looks so much like-my dad--
no subject
[ Of course he'd been nearby this whole time. ]
no subject
Fluffles!
no subject
[ He was simply going off of that Moriarty had called the little sheep Hypnos before, nothing more. ]
no subject
No no, it's okay! I'm not offended...
[ If anything, it seems perhaps skittish of the sleeping figure nearby, judging by how it's putting Zack between him and itself. ]
no subject
[He'll float a little closer to Zack, looking at him carefully.]
Because, perhaps, he is your dog. Just as the man over there -
[- one part of his robe lifts, as he 'points' towards Hades slumped over on the desk -]
- is your father. Only...the memories have been...distorted. Reworked. I've experience with that, with realizing exactly who and what you are through the haze of false memories.
[...That he did to himself in service of a scheme, but let's not get into that now.
His voice is firm, but gentle. Perhaps even saying things a bit more slowly and deliberately than he normally would.]
It is up to you to reclaim them - to reclaim yourself. If you wish to live as Zack Prince...perhaps, then, none among us would blame you. It is Comfortable to believe you are normal. Comfortable still, to think that none of your loved ones are in direct danger, and that you are merely an ordinary person innocent of all that has occurred here, no reason beyond malice for your plight.
...However. Can you live with the doubt of knowing such a thing...may not be the truth?
[...]
I can only lead you to the question you must face. You, my boy, must decide your answer for yourself.
no subject
..................I. I need a a bit to. To think. Please.
no subject
Thinking is all he's asking Zag to do, in the end. Just as how he wanted everyone else to keep thinking when the trial was coming to a close.]