Palace Game 6/3

[fujimaru]

The Dreamer In The Grand Temple
Humanity Foundation Value: ????

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Comments

NOVUM CHALDEA

[fujimaru]

You find yourself in what appears to be standing on the walkway in a strange room. The floor is tile except for the rough stone ring that surrounds the middle podium that is immediately in front of you. You have the strong feeling that something should be in the middle of that ring, but it stands completely empty. When you walk around the tall, strange striped walls (they hum with a low-grade steady vibration the whole time, an energy buzz, glowing a faint bright blue), you can find a flight of narrow stairs that will take you up to the four doors you can see from your starting point.

Along with the low-grade buzzing of the walls, there is the sound of distant voices murmuring, but you can't see anyone around, other than what companions that might have stumbled in at the same time as you.

It feels like home, but also not quite right, like someone has come through and just subtly rearranged the furniture when you weren't looking.

[cultfavorite]

[WELL. First things first: he's going to go for his Pokeballs if they're there and try to release his Pokemon if he can, as he heads down the walkway slowly to get a look at that empty podium. ARE THEY THERE?]

Re: NOVUM CHALDEA

[eudaimoniac]

[going up the stairs and e . . . examining the doors]

Re: NOVUM CHALDEA

[rugpull]

What an annoying place, geez, Ritz.

[heading up the stairs to check out the doors, though his ears are straining to try to hear those distant voices]

[heartlands]

[first off, he glances around quickly to see if there's anything around that might fit in that ring in the podium! if not, he'll head towards the stairs and the doors.]

Re: NOVUM CHALDEA

[truthliesinspace]

[what in the heckie


goes to stand in the middle of the ring??]

Re: NOVUM CHALDEA

[moonlit_knight]

...Where the fuck am I now?

[Going to get a closer look at that podium]

Re: NOVUM CHALDEA

[eggstinction]

What a place she has dreamt...

[glances at the podium, then skirting around the walls to go up the stairs. he rumbles to himself, growling uneasily at the energy buzz. for some reason that humming unsettles him more than the voices do.]

[cultfavorite]

[GUESS WHO'S BACK, BACK AGAIN.

If he weren't with Ritsuka and that globe, he would literally drop to his knees in gratitude right now that that door led here and not BACK INTO THE CURSED BLOOD SEA! As it is, he sags and lets out a long sigh of relief.]

The most beautiful sight I've ever seen . . . no offense, dear. Shall we?

[fujimaru]

[ HERE THEY ARE, AGAIN, she seems pretty comfortable in these surroundings. ]

Ehhh, it really does look just like home...

THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[fujimaru]

You have entered on the left end of a wide-open white-walled gallery, full of framed paintings of various sizes and shapes. Your footsteps echo, as does the door as it closes behind you. There is a sense of buzzing tension here, like you're holding your breath.

Immediately in front of you, a young woman kneels before a painting labeled as The Flame-Contaminated City. She is weeping, her face buried in her hands. The closer you get to her, the more you can see that while she appears mostly solid, there's something a bit of: a slight transparency, like she isn't entirely there.

Further down the hallway, you can see two other figures standing at certain points. One of them might be familiar to you, depending on how well you know the members of Sphinx. They have the same sort of odd near-transparency to them.

The gallery looks as-depicted, except there is one additional painting at the far end: that of a a young girl, bright-eyed and hopeful, her hands clasped as if in prayer.

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[eudaimoniac]

[trying to catch the attention of the weeping woman]

Hello?

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[heartlands]

[well, he's immediately concerned by the crying woman, coming over to kneel carefully next to her.]

What's wrong? Did something happen?

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[moonlit_knight]

[oh it's people. they'll get a closer look at the paintings and the other figures in a bit, giving the room a quick glance over, before heading to the crying girl]

Hey, are you okay?

THE CRYPT

[fujimaru]

You enter a round room with seven doors, each with a statue standing beside it, as if on guard. Four of these doors are badly damaged, their "guardian" ruined, reduced to rubble, though you can see that each door has something embedded on it, if you can make it past the debris. The other three are locked, each with a different symbol emblazoned on the center of it.

For just a moment, it feels like there is an intense crushing weight on you--not just the weight of the world, but of many, so heavy that it is impossible to breathe. Just for a moment, and then it lightens.

Re: THE CRYPT

[rugpull]

[WHY U LIKE THIS, RITZ

huffs out hard, well he's going to start with getting a good look at the statues]

[eggstinction]

[looking around in confusion and then alarm, shrugging all six of his shoulders as if to shake off the weight. he knows the pressure of his own shell, but that was something different.]

What happened here?

[going to the rubble first, picking through to see if there's anything that can't be recovered from them.]

Re: THE CRYPT

[eudaimoniac]

[OOF.

approaching a ruined door to see what's embedded there.]

MY ROOM

[fujimaru]

The door opens to a room that full of clutter in a controlled sort of way--there's just a lot of stuff that's been carefully arranged all over the place. Please note that none of the perishable food items can be found here, and you won't find anything past the "Bunny Ears". There's more than that besides, though--this is the room of someone who has gotten into the habit of accumulating little souvenirs of varying sorts.

On a shelf over the bed, there are five isolated items: a round stuffed dokkaebi toy, a tarot card of the Sun, a figurine that looks like a mass of black tentacles studded with red eyes, a torn-up bingo card. You might see flashes of team colors scattered all around the room as well.

Seriously, though, this room looks like the setting of a hidden object game. Have fun.

[cultfavorite]

[Oh . . . this place is cute . . . his expression slips into a little smile, and he heads over to the bed first (shut up), to take a look at what's on the shelf. First he gathers up the pieces of the bingo card to try and fit them together.]

THE CAFETERIA

[fujimaru]

When you enter, you find yourself in a large, fairly standard-looking cafeteria. There's the smell of something delicious coming from the food line, and there are various games--board games, card games, a whole-ass VR setup--scattered around, though no one appears to be around playing anything. You can hear voices, though, cheerful chatter and the occasional grumble and argument; even if there's no one to be seen, it sounds like there's a bunch of people having a great time all around you.

It feels comfortable here, welcoming. It feels like walking into a room and seeing beloved friends waiting for you... even though no one is here at all.

Re: THE CAFETERIA

[truthliesinspace]

Huh. . .looks like a place Ruggie would like. Wonder if this was like her work cafeteria?

[these better not be GHOSTS. wanders through to a table to see what was being played]

the delights of a human's heart

[fujimaru]

The first thing that hits you, upon walking into the cavern, is the smell--blood, old and fresh, layers upon layers of it, metallic and cloying. As dry as the command room was, there is suddenly dark liquid sloshing around your feet, up to mid-calf. In the dim lighting, it looks black, but you know with a deep, unpleasant certainty that it is blood.

The smell seems cumulative, too; it starts out as tolerable, but the longer you stay, the more and more overwhelming it becomes. You can hear whispers all around you, fierce angry hurting snatches of conversation, though it is impossible to make out actual words. It feels like there are thousands upon thousands of eyes watching you, and every single one of them wants you worse than dead.

[cultfavorite]

[Eesh. Saturn thumbs over the ring on his finger, wincing, and closes his eyes for a moment to gather himself. He's probably going to have to pull on some willpower here, huh. Crobat, keeping close to his side, seems happy as a clam, though.]

Don't drink any of this.

[She gives him a disappointed trill.

But he presses onward with her, head held high, walking forward.]

THE TEMPLE

[fujimaru]

You find yourself in a wide-open throne room that appears to have no ceilings. There are columns that thrust up and disappear from view, swallowed up by a soft blue sky that is crowned with a wide circle directly overhead by a dark ring. If you look up, you can see what appears to be an endless void.

Before you are hundreds of steps, so white that they glow faintly in the ambient light, and there is a throne at the very top. A man sits on that throne, looking down at you. His expression is flat, his lip curled in just the beginning of a bored sneer.

[cultfavorite]

[Ah yes, he remembers the glimpse he got of this.

Saturn recalls Crobat, and he begins up the steps, taking them one by one, looking right back up at that man.]

FUJIMARU RITSUKA

[fujimaru]

The room he leads you to is both simple and elegant, mostly empty except for a wide canopy bed at the very center. It's the sort of thing that an ancient queen might have used, once upon a time.

And there she is: small and fast asleep, curled around a smaller version of this device, which is glowing a gentle blue.

[cultfavorite]

[Oh who's not your queen now, King of Men? This doesn't look like not worthy to be your queen to me!

Saturn steps into the room, and then looks to Goetia, if he's still there. Well?]

?????

[fujimaru]

You are standing on the far end of what appears to be an ocean of blood. If you look behind yourself, you can see the way it seems to stretch on, endlessly behind you. There is barely any light here, but you can see slightly blacker shapes in the darkness, moving through the muck.

You can hear whispers, faded and distant, but still too close: fierce angry hurting snatches of conversation, though it is impossible to make out actual words. It feels like there are thousands upon thousands of eyes watching you from that darkness, and every single one of them wants you worse than dead.

[eggstinction]

[if his reaction to being studied and dropped by that great and terrible Nothingness was to start cheeping like a tiny baby chick, like the egg he is, well. that's between him and the creepy eyes.

pulling himself up and looking around, curling his tail high so it doesn't splash into the blood]

...Patxi? Ritsuka?