Event: Into An Abyss; Part One

[animusmods]

In the earliest hours of the fifteenth, the lights snap off all as one. After a long moment of complete blackness, red-tinted emergency lights turn on in the hallways, staircase, and dormitories. It's eerily silent, and the bitter cold begins to seep in through the cracks and holes of the Tower. Several things happen at once, then: a violent-sounding electrical crackle seems to shoot up the spine of the Tower, glass seems to shatter from somewhere behind the walls, and the loudspeaker crackles to life.

Some people might recognize the voice--she introduces herself anyway.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm sorry for waking you, and for the little power issue, but--well, sometimes you have to make a little bit of a mess to get everything cleaned up, right? I'm R-037, which means I'm a retrieval unit. You can call me Aria. I've been helping gather a few like-minded--that is to say, minded at all--retrieval units and worker units. We've got some autonomy and access you don't, so we want to help you all out.

What just happened is we've eliminated all administrative surveillance of your areas of the Tower. No one downstairs can see or hear you. This is only temporary, though, and, well, you know Jason, right? He's gonna be mad. I'm not sure what he's gonna do, but I think between you guys and us we can fight back! You guys need a place to go where they can't see you, though--so we're going to be working on that right now. We needed to cut off the admin access so we could work on it, but that's obviously going to attract attention.

So, guys, we need your help. Keep Jason from interfering as much as you can. You'll find that with what we did to the electronics in the Tower, he'll be a little easier to handle. Still, he's dangerous, so be careful! Just--give us as much time as you can. We'll help, of course! I'm sure you've noticed, but retrieval units are quite reliable in a fight."

Not long after the announcement, the Tower shivers and rumbles. Anyone who can see outside will be able to identify the source, as scraps of metal and wiring and glass seem to be floating about outside, heating and twisting and forming themselves. This is how the Tower builds itself, and it's a slow process. The movements are a little clumsy: whoever is moving these about probably hasn't done this in anything other than simulations before. Still, it's progressing. Also of note: all retrieval units following characters around have, for the moment, vanished.

Floor twenty-three can be accessed, though every elevator seems to be on lockdown. More alarming, however, is a growing point on the floor. It looks like a tear in space, giving a look into some strange void. And on the other side, something claws and pounds at the slowly growing rip in reality.

For the moment, it seems Jason really can't access the residential levels. But there's no way that can last.

Comments

QUESTIONS

[animusmods]

Re: QUESTIONS

[bloodyashes]

Does this mean (assuming surveillance does not resume by then) that characters would be able to directly talk to Aria during their collar checks? Would they be able to talk to other units and get a response?

[animusmods]

They can talk directly to Aria and get a response, yes. As for the other retrieval units, they're nowhere to be found for the moment.

[glassceiling]

So going off of that, will there be an NPC log for people to talk to Aria? Or do we just handwave whatever they talk about?

[animusmods]

There will be an NPC log going up tomorrow once collar checkups start.

[sarcasmancer]

For whatever it's worth, I'd also be interested in an NPC log, just since I'm new enough to the game that I don't think I'd be able to make any accurate assumptions.

[animusmods]

An NPC log will be going up tomorrow when the collar checkups begin.

[neverbeamemory]

It was mentioned on Plurk that if a character was to put a finger/hand into the reality rip on Floor 23 they would have said finger/hand ripped off.

If characters try to throw other things in to see what would happen - said items would just disappear?

[animusmods]

Correct. To clarify on body parts, they're literally bitten off by something.

[attheclocktower]

How long roughly will the characters have to prepare, or is that something you'd rather not say at this point?

[animusmods]

They'll have all of Sunday, with the next part going up on Monday.

[no_longer_a_king]

Glamour is still up, correct?

[animusmods]

Correct.

[no_longer_a_king]

Also, if the characters don't manage to kill Jason, would you be willing to tell us what the alternate revival method would be or would you prefer to wait on that until the inevitable Q&A after the game finishes out?

[animusmods]

The alternate revival method will likely come into play eventually, so I'm going to wait on letting people know what it is.

[no_longer_a_king]

Hence me asking just to be sure. Will ask more questions later on. I need to get some sleep in.

Re: QUESTIONS

[idkworldruler]

Would there be any affect if a person attempts to close the portal?

[animusmods]

How would they go about attempting to close it?

[idkworldruler]

Using magic in order to try and destroy it. Such as a surge of power being launched into it or attempting to put some form of a barrier around it via runes.

[animusnpcs]

These would have no effect on the rift.

[idkworldruler]

Okay thanks for the answer.

[sarcasmancer]

I'm interested in having Jade map/explore Floor 23, beyond the tear in the floor. Is there anyplace where information on what it looks like is available? (To clarify, I checked the setting post and it still has the old information there about vanishing if you go up and down for long enough.) If not, could I request information on that here, please? Thank you!

[animusmods]

Floor 23 is a completely empty floor. When the floor glitches, many elevator doors can be seen lining the wall, but none of them open right now.

[sarcasmancer]

Hmm, all right. Thank you much!

[puppy_lancer]

What if Lancer put the tip of Gae Bolg into the rift while grabbing onto the shaft? Would he be able to pull his spear back out? If he is, then will it be damaged?

[animusmods]

The spear would either be yanked in entirely or ripped off as far as he inserted it.

Re: QUESTIONS

[frilliance]

How long does the rumbling last?

[seventhsong]

Does anything interesting occur if one were to sit there and 'feed' the rift a while with random items, beyond them going missing (and risking losing fingers/hands)

Edit: Also when the rift is big enough, what might happen if a person is put in there? Or a monster?

[animusmods]

Nothing will happen beyond the items going missing.

There will be more information on the rift's growth in the next update.

[seventhsong]

okeydokey