WEEK 13 - 01010000 01000001 01011001 00100000 01011001 01001111 01010101 01010010 00100000 01010010

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (13)

saturday (10) survivors Something is different. You can feel it in the air: an ominous presence that weighs down the ship like it's underwater. Try as you might, you can't escape the feeling that you're being watched, the sensation of someone just out of view tailing you. Tensions are high, and paranoia grows with it. You feel it more than see it, and that's what warps your perception of the ship. Is it darker? Are the lights dimming? Who is it that calls out to you? Why is it so cold? Who can you trust? The distinct sensation of not knowing who your back is to wraps around you. There is one thing you can trust in, however; though you feel exposed, you are not alone. Mother is here for you. taken list profiles private conversations setting rulebook ENTER COMMAND_

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the bridge

[al2955]

[As the ship drifts nearer the Queen, a constant buzzing drone begins to thrum in everyone's heads, subtle yet pervasive. The walls seem to warp and pulse, shadows flickering just there at the edge of your vision and yet gone the second you twist to look at it. Every now and then, the layout of the ship itself seems to somehow be off, hallways suddenly infinitely long and rooms nowhere near where you remembered them to be. Skittering and rattling noises echo in the vents, intermingled every so often with the rasp of someone breathing two inches away from your ear.

Amidst all this, the final locked door on the top level slides open, revealing an enormous area that could easily hold all of the original forty-one players, let alone the last remaining survivors. This is undoubtedly the ship's command center. The room is surrounded by glass, giving a perfect view of the vast expanse of space the ship is currently facing. Rows of seats have been set up in front of intricate panels of blinking lights (or they would be if they were powered on, as is they are simply many tiny dark bulbs) and switches. If you're familiar with starships or aircraft, it will look familiar - it's all obviously navigational equipment.

To the right is what appears to be a complex communications system, though like the navigational system, it's also mostly powered down. To the left are three large screens set up above an enormous supercomputer. Only one of the screens is on, displaying what appears to be a dilapidated shed full of machinery...and quite a few of the people you've lost on this ship. These are not the Furry Passing avatars you've come to know - they're very much as realistic as it gets, and they seem to be looking right back at you. Perhaps you can even speak to them?

Before you get the chance though, clouds begin pouring out of the usual statue in the alcove. Lin appears once more - but her voice is distorted, dropping to a low hellish tone every few seconds, drifting into an unrecognizable hiss, all while the screams of your loved ones on the Nuwa can be heard in the background. The clouds drift to reveal the usual sunny sky - but if you stare hard enough, you may catch the flicker of a massive eye, so quick that you may have simply imagined it.]

--energy readings are off the charts. I may [...] convert it as you get closer, but it could also [...] back wrong wrong WRONG WRONG.

[A low laugh echoes from her hologram, sibilant and amused.]

Go, ye heroes, go and die.

[Lin vanishes. Looks like you may be on your own for now.]

[tevinteriscoming]

[Watching all of this shit happening, with his staff at the ready. He still wants to get out of the ship and fight that thing, but barriers don't work in space, so what can he do.]

Well. If you insist.

[al2955]

[A laugh and--

Time suddenly seems to slow down for Dorian to an excruciating extent. A second passes like an hour, a minute like days. The effect will only last a few minutes for him, but to him it'll seem like he's been rooted to the same spot for years.]

[tevinteriscoming]

[Okay. Yes. That knocks the sarcasm out of him. When he comes out of it, realizes he can move again, his whole body is trembling.]

Vishante Kaffas! What are we waiting for, let's kill her!

[monsieurchatastrophe]

[he's already transformed, grasping his staff with BOTH ARMS!!! THAT HE DEFINITELY HAS NOW!!!! THANK GOD!! who is a teenager girl. he's been quiet and tense and shaking with jitters the whole time, but that might be because he's got a personal connection to the queen. either way, he still stands at the ready watching the whole thing... and then just laughs, nervous]

... As if this entire scenario wasn't messed up enough.

[erythristic]

[waking up with the creeping feeling that something is wrong has always meant that they have to see what's happening. the paranoia feels like that week again, and breathe, breathe and trust in small things like each step landing on solid ground, that they wouldn't be finding another dead body but something else.

(it's not real it's not real it's not real, fingers into fists, nails biting into palms so the pain can be grounding.)

the top level is where Grell ends up, the door that had not yielded to them before doing so, and the expanse of the stars is enough to steal words while the equipment is a mystery. Lin is gone before she shows up, she doesn't hear the ominous warning, but the psychic pressure remains.

one thing is important. everyone there. if they could speak, maybe they could fight with them?]

Can you hear us?

[please respond. be real. are they safe from the eye's presence?]

[al2955]

[The next time he blinks, the walls of the ship have been replaced with pulsating, rotting flesh. Creepy, but not too bad--

--and then the smell will hit him. His enhanced sense of smell has been fully returned, but the only thing he'll be able to smell is the reek of putrid flesh, rotting corpses, the stink of pus and guts and decay. The entire room is absolutely filled with it, as strong as if someone had shoved his nose directly into a corpse that's been out in the sun for days.]

[al2955]

[Grell will feel the back of her neck itch, as if something tiny just crawled over it. No matter how much she tries to brush it off, the feeling persists and only gets more aggravating--

- and then hundreds of maggots burst from her neck and crawl over her head and face. They burrow into her eyeballs, fill her mouth, wriggle into her ears until all she can hear is a constant chewing, the rendering of her flesh in thousands of tiny bites, until she can feel them squriming into her brain.

No one else will be able to see the maggots or any visible injuries on her whatsoever.]

deda 2: electric boogaloo

[al2955]

[ You can hear every beat of your heart rattling through your chest, sour breath entering and leaving your mouth as you struggle for new air. Breathing through a heavy fog. Everything seems far more solid, your body is heavy - almost impossible to move. The sound of static buzzes through your head, constant. You are alive?

You open your eyes in a dark, dank space. Wherever and however you may have been standing before, your position has suddenly shifted; it seems like you're being held tightly, upright against something that doesn’t wish to let go. It presses against your skin, constant and clammy, claws tense against the thin barrier of your body. You are awake. Or you were already awake, and have been laying here for hours, waiting in the darkness. It might take a while to recollect, as it's been several months for many of you, but the position is familiar; it's exactly the same as when you first awoke in your pods when you arrived onboard. You are waiting. Maybe for days. If you wait here, maybe you will sink back into the familiar warmth eventually and you will be free of the static in your head, constant. She is not unkind. She does not want you to suffer. Why are you fighting this? The sound of many skittering legs taps along the outside of the glass, as the pod unseals with a hiss. Like a beast waiting for you in the dark.

You are free. Tiny pinpricks skitter along the inside of your skin. Your body doesn’t seem to move correctly - as if it always two seconds behind your brain, the static interference weighs heavily against your skull, constant.. Maybe, if you move your arms (they are heavy, leaden) you can reach up to free it. Free the noise trapped behind your thin, thin layers of skin. Perhaps you’ll save that for later. This resurrection is imperfect, but it will have to do for now. You have been here for years, useless thing, what are you waiting on? You should find your friends. They may need help. ]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ It seemed as if it were a painful deliberation, awaiting for all of such things to truly be set into motion, with the distant, ever present thought that matters could escalate into something beyond their control. Yet, it would be truly foolish to immediately ascertain everything would necessarily take that course, and at once—— there it was, a familiar voice calling out and it belonged to an equally familiar appearance, that of which was welcome.

Of course, even if it were through monitor, it did not preclude the slight errors——the unmistakable glitches wherever they may be—— }

I can.

[bloodbiter]

[by now, she was expecting to be brought back to the ship, but she certainly didn't expect it to happen in such a way. she takes a few moments to try and collect herself before deciding the hesitation won't serve her well.

she pulls herself out of the pod with clumsy, shaky hands and starts to walk as quickly as she can manage towards the door.]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ Finally. He's waited for this moment, and for once his lips twist up into a smile of undeniable satisfaction at having returned to where he can take physical action. It does not take long for him to force himself up, of course, ignoring the demented, ethereal whispers of a misbegotten creature, most assuredly wishing to wrap them within her clutches—

Arumat's making his way to the door as well, doing his best to shake off the jitters from being just resurrected. }

... Feels like it's been too long.

[mnasthai]

Arumat, you were able to break that glass a few weeks ago~. [ Kazuma's not as quick to get up, but he still has his mouth so!]

[thanatosincarnate]

{ HE'LL SHOOT BACK REALLY QUICKLY. }

Don't remind me.

[breakshot]

[ It's an all too familiar feeling, his body struggling to break free and his vocal cords struggling to string together coherent words even though his limbs protest, his voice strains but a slight crack, and every nerve in his body has dulled to an icy, still, unmoving halt.

He tries his best to ignore the dull pinpricks, the skittering noises tapping against glass as the door swings open and Machias promptly falls out yelling. ]

--pen up!

[ Well, of course the first thing that happens to him after outright coming back to life is to fall on his face. He places a hand over the spot, slowly dragging it down as he groans. ]

... Not quite what I'd call a warm welcome.

[baptizer]

[ At first, she thought it was sparks of electricity. They zap at her skin and instead, she doesn't recall what she was doing prior to this moment, but now as she sees the glass creak open, her form shuddering as every pinprick and goosebump assaults her body. Elizabeth enters this world as she did upon arrival: a scream, a tired and panicked scream.

Her knees crash into the floor and her hands at the back of her neck soon after, doubled over as she is revived the fourth time on this ship.

A girl must learn to crawl before she can walk, after all. So soon, the woman stands and holds herself against the pod. ]

[tacklefordwhimsy]

[Shelley opens her eyes and manages to stand up. Wow, she is alive! She is alive, this is too good to be true!]

Oh my god, I had the weirdest dreams, and they felt so real... [She starts to dramatically point at people] ...and you were there! And you...and you...

[She's grinning so wide. Yeah, she's just joking, those wasn't dreams]

[missmaladroite]

[Well, if Elizabeth is tumbling onto the floor, she's got company!! Namely, this Marinette, who's clumsy on the best of days, let alone being revived from the dead. So she falls, face-first, and from the floor--]

We're.... in the pods?

[Brilliant observation, Marinette]

[baptizer]

[ It takes her a moment to regain the recognition of hearing Marinette's voice. Oh... oh God, Marinette - her eyes lazily shift up and she takes a heavy breath. ]

Give me your hand.

[ She says with a slur, reaching forward to the girl. ]

I -... I think we're alive...

[thanatosincarnate]

... What a ridiculous joke.

{ He'll scoff. He's so happy-go-lucky as always. }

[tacklefordwhimsy]

Aw, come on! We're alive, it's an occassion to celebrate! If only for a few minutes, because if I'm not mistaken soon we'll all be fighting an eldritch alien.

[erythristic]

[she would respond, if she hadn't dropped to her knees unconsciously, hands tearing through her hair, at her own face, at her eyes, no longer seeing anything on the monitor or hearing anything.

she doesn't realize that she's screaming, not yet. it's more disgust and horror than fear, but the illusions are so damnably real...

just. just give her a minute, Arumat.]

[jackhole]

[ remember how, when rhys first arrived on the pygmalion, he punched through his pod and got stuck in the door? something similar happens here where there's a shout from rhys' pod, the door swings open and --

and rhys immediately falls out, lands smack dab on his face. he's missing a few things -- namely, an arm, the pupil of one of his eyes, and the dataport in his head. there's a groan from the ground and he pushes himself up, blinking blearily at the rest of the room before narrowing his eyes. he can't... see, he realizes after a few seconds and his one good eye looks down to his right arm to see that it's just not there, frowning at the empty yellow sleeve.

he'll start trying to push himself up then, shakily and with lack of balance here and if you approach, you'll probably hear him swearing under his breath. ]

Not... supposed to be here. Freggin' shitty ass AIs, can't do anything right. Where is my arm.

[todorable]

That sounds like the opposite of a reason to celebrate...

[he'll just make his hoarse snippy comments from his pod, since he doesn't trust his legs to stay steady and being humiliated immediately after returning to life sounds like a minus]

...Does anyone know we're here?

[monsieurchatastrophe]

[haha joke's on you it's just like smelling hancock's mouth!!!!!

by which I mean he brings a hand to his face to cover his nose and mouth and-- nope, it's not enough and it's too late he runs to an empty corner to puke. he rhys'd it. he heaves a few times but his stomach was already empty when he puked, so it's all bile.]

Glad I... didn't eat breakfast today...