Early on Monday morning, before most are likely to be up, a serious of cacophonous explosions, likely familiar by now to the residents, rocks the Tower. These are more violent than all previous, though, and ripple up and down the Tower's core--anyone on the staircase at the time will be killed. The damage done is obvious to any who explore: all along the central spiral staircase, the Tower's spine is exposed and sparking. It consists of a maze of wires, tubes of unknown substances, film, and computer chips, but it's impossible to get close enough to touch anything, as the shocks seem to be made of more than just electricity, and direct exposure kills in a short period of time.

It's not long after that when the power, already flickering, begins fluctuating wildly. Indeed, everything except the glamour seems to be extremely unreliable. That explosion must have done something to what little power supplies the Tower has left...

The results begin to show themselves later on Monday--little ripples out of the corner of characters' eyes whenever they draw near to the staircase. Shimmering air and little holes floating just out of reach. And it's not quite visible yet, but where these abnormalities are, there's something beyond them...

Beginning on the 27th of January, it will be apparent the Tower is running low on power. This is expected, of course, but happening a bit faster than everyone was previously led to believe. On Wednesday, Riki will request help from the residents of the Tower: allow themselves to be hooked up to a machine that will use some of their energy to power up the Tower for a little longer to keep everything from shutting down and the characters from being either killed or sent back to their worlds to languish in lonesome immortality forever. As a show of good faith, Riki will explain that he's figured out who is causing the explosions in the Tower, and will be informing the residents of who has caused it.

Please only sign your character up for this part if they would willingly aid in this; Riki is only taking willing volunteers. ICly, he will inform everyone that while he isn't entirely certain of all possible side effects, it will come with temporary exhaustion. OOCly, having your character participate in this portion of the event will present them with possible mental/emotional trauma, as well as some side effects that will last for the duration of February.

If your character wouldn't sign up for this, don't worry, there will be other things happening in the Tower during this event as well! If you would like to sign your character up for this, please reply to this comment, filling out the included form. Sign ups will close on Tuesday, January 28 at 11:59PM EST.

 Hello Animus,

Amie here, about ready to return from Hiatus slowly over the next week.

So, without further ado, I have another Player Plot ready to run for you all. This particular plot I've been working on for several months off and on and now finally the game has reached the correct set of circumstances for it to go ahead. I hope you all have as much fun with it as I have had going through the various revisions and details in writing this up. 

This post is an OOC-info dump only, but the Plot is happening in March - it's very early notice, so that there will be plenty of time for Q&A, and also for plotting as well. Clearly we have February to get through yet as well.

****

Tower of Jenova - Player Plot: 10 - 26th March

Vincent: The stigma. It’s a symptom of alien matter infesting the body. The body tries to eliminate it and overcompensates. Inside our bodies is a current, like the Lifestream. That current is what fights off any malevolent intruders.

Cloud: What do you mean by “intruder”?

Vincent: The Sephiroth gene. Jenova’s memetic legacy. Call it what you want.

Cloud: You’re well-informed.

-Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete

....except in the Tower of Animus; where we don't have bodies but we still have 'souls' - those bright shining cores of self that are both all that we need to survive and all that we have left. So powerful in their own right, as to still retain that which makes each of us ultimately individual.

The Plot Synopsis | Plot Details Part 1: 10th - 22nd March | Plot Details: Part 2 23rd March

Questions 

EDIT: Sign ups will Open 23rd Feb and run until 2nd March so that there is ample time to process them, and to provide yourselves with plotting time before the Event goes live on 10th March. 

The fight with Jason comes to an end messily; all characters involved with the conflict die, though Jason is left with grievous injuries. He drags himself back through a suddenly appearing rip in reality that opens up beneath his feet and sucks him in, closing behind him and leaving the faint smell of ozone in the air after killing anyone who could possibly follow him. In the chaos following the altercation with Jason, Aria comes over the loudspeaker again.

"We're almost done—I'm really sorry, you're going to have to deal with those things a little longer. Jason is really angry. But he's wounded, so they should be weaker now. When we're done—well, it's going to be a little loud. You'll be able to get into the room through an access point on floor 101 after that. I'm working on a little something extra for everyone too, as thanks for all the help!"

The plague doctors are no longer able to spot characters with orange and yellow collars after Jason retreats. Though they become increasingly aware of characters the higher up they are on the collar spectrum, they can be fought with any kind of non-powered attack, regardless of the attacking character's collar color.

On January 1st, the entire Tower gives a mighty groan, shaking from top to bottom. The tremors continue intermittently over a period of five minutes; when they subside, the lights in the tower finally return. The rift on floor 23 is woven back out of existence, ripping the plague doctors out of the tower along with it. There is now a teleporter on floor 101. When the glamour flickers, it becomes obvious that the teleporter is situated next to a familiar plant.

Utilizing the teleporter will transport characters to a room with the same metal aesthetic as the dormitory floors. There are basic structures – chairs, tables, and benches are scattered around the space, like a lounge without cushions. Terminals are situated in alcoves in the walls, but they are not connected to the Tower network. Worker and retrieval units with chipped collars mill about this floor constantly. Aria can always be found on this floor. This means that Aria is no longer overseeing collar check-ups, but they are being handled by a chipped collar unit.

On January 1st, Aria can be seen in a corner of the new floor working on a large, complex machine. She will be too busy for involved conversation, but if asked, she will explain that it's a matter replicator for the residents of the tower. Throughout the day, regains will appear in or near characters' trunks; if characters are on the new floor on January 1st, they will see that Aria is using the machine to create the regains and transport them to the trunks. However, after everyone in the tower receives a regain, the machine will explode with no discernible cause, killing all characters on the floor.

On January 2nd, the hidden level has been cleaned of all shrapnel and bodies. If Aria is asked about the explosion, she will state that she doesn't know the cause, as the machine was perfectly functional up until that point.

Please comment to this thread to request your characters' regains. Weapons are allowed, and all regains must be able to fit in a dorm room. All regains must be approved by a moderator.

The week is fairly quiet given what's already happening, although the void on floor twenty-three grows and grows until it swallows up nearly all of the floor. As soon as the edge of the void touches the wall of the Tower over the weekend, there's a crackle and a flickering as even the emergency lights turn off in the Tower. Only the infirmary is lit at all, and the nearly completed construction outside shudders and twists as power is rerouted to keep it stable.

And then something comes out of the void...

Meanwhile, Aria's voice comes on over the loudspeaker. There's a strange, distorted background tone, but her voice is understandable.

"Guys, listen--Jason is coming. The infirmary's the safest place for now, but I don't know how long we have. If anyone's capable of defending the infirmary, we could really use the help. And, anyone without any special powers who's willing to do something dangerous, please come see me. You won't have to fight anything."

The plague doctor creatures now attack anyone they notice, regardless of collar--but they are weakest against those with orange collars, and they seem to find it difficult to spot the orange collared characters. They are still immune to the attacks of any character with a yellow or higher collar, as well as enchanted objects used by orange-collared characters.

Aria will request that characters with orange collars and no abilities do a few supply runs for some retrieval units working upstairs on floor 101 to connect their construction to the rest of the Tower. This is a mission relying mostly on stealth, as the plague doctors cannot be led to the location of the retrieval units, lest they all get taken away. Of course, if the plague doctors spot the characters doing the supply runs, death may quickly follow. The elevators do not work for the duration of this event.

A mingle log for supply runs has been provided here. Characters will be supplying food, water, and various machinery.

Characters will not be revived until the twenty-fifth of December if they die during this event.

NOTE: I (Mel) would like to extend a formal apology for the delays in this event. I should have passed along some responsibilities when I had a few unexpected extenuating circumstances. Because this was my failure, there will be some extra content this week; it won't be especially strenuous content because I know a lot of people will probably be busy for the holidays, but it'll be a fun thing for you guys that will be followed by regains. Again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

As Monday dawns and the morning wears on, the rift on floor twenty-three grows ever larger. By mid-morning it's large enough for an adult to step inside entirely. Of course, anyone who tries will be torn to pieces and killed in the pitch black of wherever the rift opens into. Of course, if people can get in, then Things can get out--and they do. The creatures resemble plague doctors, when they resemble anything at all. They shift and twitch and warp in and out of reality, as if they're only tenuously connected to this plane of existence to begin with. Those who get close to them, they attack, with the following rules governing their behavior:

-Plague doctors use physical attacks, ripping and tearing their victims to pieces with hands and teeth. They travel very quickly and, when slipping in and out of reality, can seem to teleport from one spot to the next unpredictably.
-Characters whose collars are yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet will be attacked if the plague doctors notice them.
-Characters whose collars are yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet cannot harm the plague doctors. They must hide or run.
-Plague doctors become more powerful the closer to violet the character they are attacking is. A plague doctor attacking a character with a yellow collar will be weaker than the same one attacking a character with an indigo collar.
-Characters whose collars are orange will be completely ignored by the plague doctors unless the character directly attacks one.
-Characters whose collars are orange are capable of injuring and killing plague doctors, provided the means by which they attack are entirely mundane. They cannot receive enchanted items from other characters, for example.
-Plague doctors can only be killed by completely destroying the head. It has to be crushed into pieces.
-Plague doctors will carry any retrieval unit they notice into the rift they came from.


While all this is happening, of course, there are still collar checks to think about--and Aria is still in charge of those. The infirmary has been transformed into something of a fortress--there are only two retrieval units guarding the outside, because of the plague doctor danger, but the floor itself has been sealed up with all sorts of technological devices that make those sensitive to the supernatural feel a little strange and uneasy, although being on the floor is not harmful in any way.

Aria sends another announcement over the loudspeaker today:

"Hi, guys, don't forget your collar checks, okay? We've done our best to make the infirmary safe for you guys from those things. And, um, those things--I think they're after us. If you can figure out something that can be done about them, let me know, okay? Oh, but even if you can't, and you just want to talk to me, you can go ahead and come down to the infirmary anyway! I'd really like to talk to all of you. I'm the retrieval unit with glasses--I've been handling your collar checks for a while, now, so I hope you can recognize me!"

If you would like to speak to Aria, there is an NPC log here.

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.

Something strange is happening with the retrieval units following characters around. First of all, more characters will find themselves with a retrieval unit tailing them--those who participated in the large break-in or who boycotted their collar checkups may find a new companion. However, they're a little odd; they seem to be being followed by the same, chipped collar retrieval unit constantly, as opposed to a constantly-changing set. Characters who have already had retrieval units following them will find that, sooner or later, their normal sets will be changed with one retrieval unit whose collar is chipped. This change is permanent, but for now the retrieval units don't appear to act any differently from the regular ones.

More obviously, on the morning of the 25th, Zo's voice comes over the loudspeaker. He's been very quiet this month, and he sounds tired, but excited nonetheless.

Hey, guys! I've been real busy this month but I worked on a surprise for you! Come down to the cafeteria!

Anyone arriving in the cafeteria will find the entire floor has been transformed into a carnival. In spite of the current cold weather, this floor has been made into the middle of summer. There's a large roller coaster, child's roller coaster, merry-go-round, spinning teacups, and a ferris wheel. There are also standard carnival foods available, from ice cream to cotton candy.

For two days, the carnival is perfectly safe and normal. Then, on the twenty-seventh, there are several large explosions.

From the twenty-seventh until the end of the event on the thirtieth, the carnival takes on a more sinister appearance--the machinery all appears rusted and broken down, as if weathered with decades of rain and snow. Plants grow up and around the rides, ruining them, and all the food is rotten. Strangely, characters may black out during the week and come back to themselves on this floor, lost in the middle of the abandoned amusement park.

And, as they wander in the eerie silence, ghosts of the past may appear...

If your character is wandering in the amusement park while it is abandoned, please reply here. They will see a unique scene involving those who inhabited the Tower before the game began. These scenes will not be physically damaging to your characters, but they may be mentally damaging. Only one scene may be witnessed per character.

At the stroke of midnight, as soon as the clock ticks over to November 1, the bowls of candy, and all the candy with it, vanish. Anyone who didn't complete their final riddle is still punished, of course--but anyone who died over the course of this event will also return to life today.

Characters who solved none of their riddles receive nothing.

Characters who solved less than half of their riddles receive a chocolate-covered cherry and a note:
Better luck next time!
♥

Characters who solved more than half of their riddles, but still missed some, receive a small bag of ten pieces of assorted candy and a note:
Close, but not quite!
♥

Characters who solved all of their riddles receive a large bag of thirty pieces of assorted candy and a note:
You win! Clap clap clap for you! I hope you had fun!
♥

Each piece of candy replaces one meal's worth of food, so it may come in handy at some point. However, anyone who consumes the candy will attract shadow children for four hours per piece of candy eaten.

As those who are participating in the event wake up on the morning of the 26th, they'll see clawing hands at the edges of their vision that dart away as soon as they're fully awake. Maybe it was just a lingering dream? But there's another note left for them to find:

trick or treat
smell my feet
give me something good to eat

i f y o u d o n ' t

There is a drawing of a heart at the bottom of the paper, as usual for notes received during Ruana's games, though it's wet and red and appears to be fresh blood.


Still nothing, will happen until the sun begins to set. Once it does, skittering, shifting shadow children will come out to play, tracking down one of the characters participating in the game. They will request a specific kind of candy--not with a normal voice, but with a penetrating, tearing sort of mental intrusion. This is what all that candy you've been collecting is for.

The catch, however, is that they won't be especially straightforward about how they make their requests. They will ask in the form of riddles. These will start out simply enough, but they get harder every day--and they request more and more candy every day as well. Once one of the shadow children has made its request, the character has until 11:59PM to acquire the proper amount of the right candy. If they give the wrong kind of candy, don't have enough, or don't give them anything at all, there will be consequences.

Each time a shadow child's request for a treat is denied, the shadow child plays a trick on the one who refused it. This will start out with lasting mental tricks--paranoia, a sudden kleptomania for the candy of others, inexplicable fear, that sort of thing. However, continuing to deny a request will lead to worse and worse consequences, up to and including death. The severity of the trick depends on how much the shadow child was denied: it's better to give them some of their request than nothing at all.

Any character who is killed by the shadow children as a result of this event will remain dead until the end of this event.

In order to receive your riddles, reply to the log made for this event under the appropriate night. A shadow child will give your character a riddle. Reply to the shadow child once you have decided if your character has the candy, if they only have some of the candy, or if they don't have any of it in time, and we will reply back with any consequences. Make sure to note where your character got the candy they are using, as we are keeping track of how much candy is available for this event.

The plastic bowl and the note are not there before 6:30 AM - characters who woke before that time won't see them until they return. But any time after 6:30, the note will be able to be picked up and read.

You'd better stock up on candy while you can! They get awfully hungry, you know! ❤

Reading the note in its entirety will make a character feel like they must go and gather candy; they won't know quite why, but there will be a nagging feeling at the back of their minds like they ought to. A particularly stubborn character will be able to keep themselves from doing so with varying effects during the days that follow - on the first day it will be merely a slightly annoying feeling that they're forgetting to do something, but with each passing day the feeling will progress more and more towards full-blown paranoia and a sense of overwhelming dread that if they don't start looking, something terrible will happen. This feeling will go away when they have placed at least one piece of candy that they have gathered in their bowl.

Similarly, reading the note will give a character the feeling that they must put whatever candy they stock up on in the bowls - they are still free not to, of course, but if they hoard it elsewhere they'll have a nagging feeling that there's something they've forgotten throughout the week which will only go away once they've put some or all of their candy into the bowl. This feeling is much easier to ignore than the resulting paranoia from not gathering candy, however.

When a character sets out with the intention to search for candy, they will begin to notice that the candy is scattered about the floors of the Tower. It will be easy enough to pick up one or two pieces in passing as they go about their days, but they will have a nagging feeling that if they look more thoroughly, they will be able to "stock up" - though they will not be able to explain how they know this, or why they are compelled to look.

Characters will have six full days to scour the Tower: The 20th, the 21st, the 22nd, the 23rd, the 24th, and the 25th.

On the 20th, they will be able to search 15 floors before they stop perceiving candy. After they have searched 15 floors, they will not notice candy no matter where else they go - even if they are accompanying someone else who has not yet searched 15 floors and is still seeing candy.

On the 21st, they will be able to search 12 floors before they stop perceiving candy.

On the 22nd, they will be able to search 10 floors before they stop perceiving candy.

On the 23rd, they will be able to search 7 floors before they stop perceiving candy.

On the 24th, they will be able to search 5 floors before they stop perceiving candy.

On the 25th, they will be able to search 2 floors before they stop perceiving candy. At 11:59 PM this night, they will stop perceiving candy entirely, though it will still technically be there; two minutes later, on 12:01 AM on the 26th, any candy that is not already in plastic bowls will vanish from the Tower.

Any characters who, at that point, do not have any candy contained in their bowls will find themselves inexplicably on-edge throughout the next couple of days, and they may find themselves thinking things they wouldn't normally - such as, That person has too much candy, surely they wouldn't notice a few missing... - almost as though the suggestion has been whispered to them in the back of their mind.

If your character is gathering candy during the next six days, please respond to the proper comment below with the following:

1. The day they are searching and how long they spend looking
2. A list of the floors they are searching, in the order they are searching them
3. Their method of searching - whether this means scanning the floor and picking up the first few candies they see, or looking more thoroughly
4. If anyone else is on the floor with them and searching at the same time

You are welcome to post each character's actions for the entire duration all at once if you so choose, but it is also just fine (and expected) to do one day at a time because their actions the next day may be influenced by what they and their CR find on each of the floors. In this case, please post your first day's batch as a response to the comment below, and your second day's batch as a response to the mod comment you will receive in reply so that we can contain all of your findings to a single thread.

If your character is signed up for the event but is not gathering candy for whatever reason - be it their own stubbornness or they got distracted or some other reason - please respond to gathering comment saying which day they abstained from gathering, so that we can detail any specifics they will feel minus the fact that they will feel like they are forgetting something (though this will mostly come after skipping more than one day in a row).

Happy hunting!

Much of the month has passed without incident; it seems that Riki's intercession on the residents' parts has bought them some slight reprieve. However, nothing lasts forever, and towards the end of the month that will become apparent.

On the morning of October 20, some of the Tower residents will find a note and a plastic bowl on their bedside tables:

You'd better stock up on candy while you can! They get awfully hungry, you know! ❤

From that day on until 11:59 PM on October 25, characters who are signed up will be able to search the Tower for candy and gather it up. Different types of candy can be found on different floors, and the exact methods of searching will determine the amount found each day. The plastic bowl cannot be removed from the table, but depositing the gathered candy in it will keep it from disappearing. Unfortunately, if any candy is not stored in these bowls, it will disappear at exactly 12:01 AM on October 26, and the only candy that will remain within the Tower will be the candy that other characters stored in their bowls.

On the nights of October 26-31, characters will discover why they have been gathering candy. Between sundown and midnight, shadow children will be drawn to them regardless of where they are - they'll knock on the doors if the characters happen to already be in their dorm rooms, and will simply materialize inside them if they don't answer; if they're elsewhere in the Tower, they'll begin following them around. Characters will have to lead the shadow children up to their rooms to retrieve the candy. They'll want very specific types of candy, and if your character can't - or won't - provide them with their treats, they'll get a trick in return. These tricks will range from mild psychological horror to death.

One character per player may take part in this event. If you would like your character to participate, sign up below! Sign-ups will close at 11:59 PM on October 25.

It's late on Monday evening when those digging finally break through into the dormitory levels. As soon as there's enough space cleared for them, the worker units travel up in an unbroken single-file stream, making fairly quick work of the rest of the damage, although the area will be a bit dusty and unkempt-looking for another two or three days.

The worker units work for an hour, cleaning and doing emergency repairs. None of the dormitory doorways currently work, but after an hour, Riki's voice comes in over all the loudspeakers--even those trapped within rooms can hear him.

"I'll have to do a soft reset of a couple systems, so you guys are gonna lose an hour, but once it's over I'll have something for all of you. ...Thanks for helping out. I'll talk to the boss, see if I can't get her to play a shorter game with all of you."

Everyone will black out. When they wake up, they are in their own rooms. Any bodies within rooms have been cleared, and the dead revived in the morning. Wounds on characters who were not killed persist. The doors all function properly now, and things have more or less gone back to normal. Everyone who was trapped in their rooms or who helped in fixing the Tower receives one item from home. It cannot be a weapon.

Downstairs
There's nothing new to note until Saturday--by this point, floor 100 is clear, but floor 101 remains stubborn, and the dormitory levels still remain blocked entirely. Finally, though, Riki announces the results of the recording work over loudspeaker:

"Looks like there's been a bit of a psychoradiation leak. Nothing major--no one up there should be dead--but it can have some odd effects on that area. You're going to need to clear a path for the worker units in an emergency staircase. Be careful and don't work in the area for more than an hour or two at a time."

A door has appeared, apparently out of thin air, on floor 101. The rubble will have to be cleared a bit to open it, but it leads to a side staircase that goes up into dormitory floor five. It's completely blocked with debris, and no superhuman abilities work here, but it should be able to be cleared in a day or two. Unfortunately, the psychoradiation has spread into this side area...

Anyone clearing rubble from the emergency staircase should post here.

Upstairs

There's another delivery of sparse supplies via the small elevator: five more bottles of water, five nutrition bars, and a salve that will heal minor to moderate wounds at an accelerated but not immediate rate. There is enough salve to treat three minor wounds or one moderate wound. Instructions are written on the jar the salve comes in.

Unfortunately, the strangeness of their surroundings has only gotten worse. Anyone trapped upstairs will see flashes of stark white hospital rooms and children that live within them. Sometimes they'll be convinced they can see guards and doctors of all sorts wandering by, although at other times they'll know they're just looking at a solid door. They can hear it, though, constantly--all the sounds of an impossibly high-tech medical facility, except with an ominous air unusual even for hospitals.

From somewhere, a child will whisper "be quiet, okay?" If your character speaks above a whisper at any time, or makes noise louder than that, please post here.

Downstairs
There is little heard until about 2PM on Thursday, when Riki's voice comes on over the loudspakers:

"You're doing pretty good with clearing the debris. Some of you keep doing that, but anyone who isn't so good at moving chunks of metal around, I've got something else for you to do. I need photography and video of the scene. I'll be sending cameras and video cameras up for you to use. Record what you can of floor 100 and floor 101, if you can reach it, then send the cameras back to me by tomorrow morning. I need day and night footage. Careful about the monsters, though--these cameras're special."

Those who wish to participate can find ten digital cameras and three video recorders on a cafeteria table. Be careful with those, though--catching the monsters on film on either of those floors causes them to become quite enraged, which is apparently what Riki meant by "those cameras're special". Filming or taking pictures at night might bring up even more unusual things...

If your character is filming or taking photographs at night, please reply here following the instructions.

Upstairs
The whispers have risen to murmurs, and footsteps increase. It sounds quite busy outside, actually, and occasionally mechanical beeping, like being in a hospital, can be heard. Things still pound back if you make too much noise, still try to get in--but now, if you attract too much attention, other things might happen, too...

If your character is doing something especially loud, banging on the doors, or shouting in their room, please reply here following the instructions.

There are a few more explosions today, this time on floors 101 and 100. Floor 101 becomes completely unreachable, buried in rubble. Floor 100 is very difficult to traverse, but it's possible to move through it.

Late in the night there is a mechanical rumbling within the rooms of those trapped. After a few minutes, a small door slides open--it appears to be a very small lift fit only for items, and items are what it delivers. There are five bottles of water and syringes labeled with the name of one of the individuals in the room. The color of the fluid in the syringes matches the collar color of the individual they're intended for. There's also a note:

Temporary supplies. Will try to send more if necessary. Syringes are in place of collar checkups. Inject them into your arm, you don't need to try and find a vein. If you don't apply the syringes, you'll pass out, but someone else can inject it into someone who's unconscious and they'll wake back up in an hour or two. Injections cause a few side effects, but they're temporary.
Riki

The syringes, when injected, do as indicated, although they come with side effects as warned: headaches, dizziness, and temporary loss of powers. Powers will be lost for one to two days after using the injection. Still, it's better than being unconscious, right?

The silence in the dormitory levels has become a bit eerie. It's not long before it begins to be broken: for now, whispers outside the doors, as if people were talking and giggling to each other. Footsteps, occasionally, up and down the hallways. And if you make too much noise, or if you bang on the door, something bangs back, and claws at the door. It's impossible to tell what's there, though--no abilities work through the door of the room. Still, it doesn't appear as if anything can get inside...


Meanwhile, a loudspeaker announcement sounds off in the lower levels of the Tower. The emergency lights are on downstairs, at least, though everything is an unsettling shade of red. It's Riki.

"Working on restoration from down here, but I need your help to move the rubble upstairs. You see anything that looks like a bomb, leave it alone. Don't know what they look like, sorry. Should be able to give more specific instructions tomorrow for helping."

For now, it looks like just getting rid of the largest bits of debris will be the task at hand. Still, it's going to be impossible to get to the dormitory levels in just one day.

In the middle of Riki's Q&A, there is one explosion, coming from below - and then another, and another, and another. The series of explosions shakes the floor and the walls violently, but those who keep their wits about them and follow Riki's directions will escape easily.

Riki will instruct residents to either escape the dorm hallway and head down to the lower levels of the tower, or take shelter in the rooms - it won't be difficult to find an empty one, as the fifth dorm floor only has a few residents, and the staircase leading down will take you directly to floor one hundred and one.

That's where it stops being easy.

Those who escape into the bedrooms will find themselves quarantined and sealed off. Hope you didn't run into a room with anyone you really can't stand, because for better or worse you're trapped with them, and if there are more than six or seven of you, it will be very uncomfortable. Characters will be able to interact with people in the rooms directly to the right and left of them, and might be able to yell to talk to people in rooms further away...

But who knows if that's really a good idea? Strange, eerie things will be happening to those who are quarantined. It might not be safe to draw a lot of attention.

Those who escape into the rest of the Tower will find that they cannot access the dormitory floors anymore. The way is ruined with rubble - no amount of shifting it aside will make an easy path back up. The elevators will not take anyone up to the dorm floors, either. It's completely cut off. And both the Tower's power and the network are completely down during the quarantine; anything that requires electricity to run simply won't be working.

However, they will be in a position to help speed the recovery process and get their friends out more quickly by undertaking certain tasks - in fact, if there are enough people helping, those who are quarantined may be saved in as little as a week, but not sooner than that.

But what are these "eerie circumstances" that the quarantined will be subjected to? And who is responsible for the explosions? Only time will tell.

A mingle log for characters trapped in rooms has been made here.

NOTE: Even numbered rooms are on one side of the hall; odd numbered rooms are on the other. A character in room 5-06 would be next door to 5-04 and 5-08, for example. Characters who die within their rooms will not be revived until the end of the event, while characters who die in the lower levels of the Tower will be revived in the infirmary.

On the morning of the 18th, residents of the Tower will find that those who were killed by the shadow children begin reviving, although they will continue to trickle in until the 20th, when everyone will have finally been brought back to life. The shadow children themselves slowly decrease in number over those days as well--though they won't vanish entirely.

Jason makes the following announcement over loudspeakers on the twentieth:

I've done what I can to slow down the spread of psychelysis phantoms and cull them from your levels. Still, they'll linger from now on--a little unfortunate, but I can't say I expected all of you to find real explosives and use them like that, so you reap what you sow.

From now on, shadow children will remain in the Tower as uncommon monsters. Their bestiary entry is as follows:

Psychelysis Phantoms (Shadow Children)
World: The Tower
Rarity: Uncommon
Danger Rating DAY: 9
Danger Rating NIGHT: 9
Description: Inky black humanoid creatures with white, white, white grins, these are the warped shadows of friends and loved ones from the residents' home worlds. Drawing too close to one that recognizes you will cause that shadow child to follow you around, speaking in a voice only you can hear. They sound like whoever they were at home--someone important to you--except, warped by the Tower, they only speak about how terrible you are and how you've betrayed them by surviving. They will drain energy over the course of two to three days, killing you if you don't get rid of them. Shadow children cannot be killed, but interacting with others and forming bonds drives them off. If your energy is drained by a shadow child, your collar will turn completely clear and you will not be brought back to life until two to three days later.

They come crawling out of the elevator shaft and in from the walls of the Tower just after midnight on August 11--shadowy black humanoid shapes with white, wide grins. Attracted to the residents of the Tower, they trail after favored people. Sometimes only one or two shadow children will follow a person around, but others may have dozens.

At first, they seem eerie and vaguely familiar, but harmless. As the week continues, though, the shadow children begin to change. They begin speaking, first quietly, then loudly, but always in the voice of someone the person they're following would remember from home. Each one has its own unique voice, although only the resident they've attached themselves to can hear them. Their words and tone vary, but are always warped. Frightened, angry, sad, accusatory--they whisper or cry or shout blame and doubt at their chosen resident, tapping into their insecurities related to whoever they seem to be, to their situation at home, and to their behavior in the Tower.

No matter how the shadow children behave, they all say the same thing, though in their own way-- "I'm from your world, your world, we're all that's left, look what's happened to me, this is all your fault".

This is what remains of the souls that were torn apart and ruined in your own universe. Only one person is taken from each world, and this is what happened to all the rest.

During the middle of the week, however, some unfortunate residents may find the situation getting worse. What was destroyed was their past and present--and also their future. Some unlucky residents will be trailed by those who they do not yet know and now never will, those who do not yet exist and now never will be. They will not tell secrets of the resident's future, but they will shout and cry and scream at never getting to experience it. This does not have to happen to every character, but it may happen to some of them.

Those followed by shadow children will slowly have their energy drained over the week, represented by their collar becoming lighter and lighter in tone, as well as increasing lethargy, listlessness, and power loss. Once a collar is fully clear, the character will die. They will not be revived until the event is over.

Characters may be saved from this fate by others in the Tower--the only way to guard against the warped bonds of a dead world is with the new bonds of the Tower, and shadow children can be temporarily driven off by others who they aren't following. The more a character is attached to the bonds of their dead world, though, the more powerful the bond in the Tower has to be. Forming new bonds works toward this as well. Still, a misanthropist will find dealing with the situation much, much easier than someone with an innate connection to their worlds, who will have quite a difficult time with this.

In the earliest hours of the morning on August 9, there's what sounds like a series of massive explosions in the residential elevator shaft. The elevator plummets--anyone who happened to be in it at the time was killed, though they wouldn't be able to tell if it was in the explosion itself or the fall that must have followed.

A hurried network post goes up--although Jason doesn't stick around to talk, it's clear he believes the explosions to have been set by some of the residents, although he doesn't know who.

In spite of Jason's warning, however, it seems fairly quiet for now...