[network] @ADMIN; Arrival [open]

[snowblindmods]

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Comments

text, @JPHawkins

[rattlingthestars]

1. We don't know. It looks like they were here sometime before us and @admin made it sound like they were in charge of them. They didn't arrive in the same pattern as everybody else, anyway.

2. What do you want to know about the shots? They usually come after something weird happens and you wind up paralyzed for like fifteen minutes when you wake up.

3. We're somewhere on Earth, is the going theory. Does that sound familiar to you?

[meteors]

1. So then they might very well be entirely native to this town and area. I was told we cannot harm them. Can you verify that?

2. I doubt anyone here willingly lines up for them. If they do, I would know why and how they are administered.

3. No. The planet I'm from is named Gaia.

[rattlingthestars]

1. As far as we can tell. I lit one on fire and it destroyed the solid form of it, but there was a shadow-monster underneath that was just as dangerous. Someone else landed a hit and it didn't do anything, but if you managed to kill one I think the same thing would happen. I don't recommend trying it.

2. It happens while you sleep. If you're not asleep, they do something to make you pass out, somehow.

3. Gaia, huh? I think there are a few people around from there.

[meteors]

If fire works on their solid form, something must be able to hurt their shadow just as much. Only a matter of figuring out what. [ you might not recommend it, jim, but he wants to try. ]

Do you have names? Of those from Gaia.

[rattlingthestars]

Yeah, if you figure it out, let me know. Touching them or even getting too close can make you pretty sick.

[ Jim hesitates for a good long time before he answers Sephiroth's last question. ]

No, I don't remember.

[ But he totally remembers where they were from. This seems legit. ]

[meteors]

[ remembering where people come from but forgetting their names? how convenient. ]

Pity. Should you remember, I would like to know.

[ attempting to convince anyone of his intentions not being foul would most likely be an exercise in wasting time, so sephiroth lets it be. he ends up going back to their first topic; ]

Sick how?

[rattlingthestars]

[ Jim, at least, isn't particularly wary of Sephiroth. He's just remembered that he's supposed to be careful with his friends' identities over the network a little too late. That probably goes double for dealing with people from their home. ]

Nosebleeds, dizziness, wanting to puke. It gets worse the longer you're exposed, not sure if it'll eventually kill you.

[meteors]

Sounds like some form of materia... Though judging by how poorly mine worked that isn't the case.

[ since his hasn't worked at all. but it's the only thing he can compare the monsters to for anything to make sense. ]

[rattlingthestars]

Materia can do something like that?

[ Jim's seen the materia in Kunsel's bracer and knows what it's called, but he's pretty vague on what it's actually for. ]

People who have some kind of special ability can't do it here.

[meteors]

I have noticed.

[ he feels himself muted, in a way. sephiroth has never existed without the power of mako coursing through his system. now that it's gone... the feeling left with him is anything but enjoyable. ]

And yes, materia can be used to inflict quite a number of status effects. Some akin to sickness and the other symptoms you described.

[rattlingthestars]

Right. Sorry.

Can they do it without anyone there to use them? It's not just the monsters - sometimes there are places that feel wrong, that make you sick the longer you stay in them.

[meteors]

Normally no, though sometimes I wonder if large masses of crystallized Mako -- or in other words, materia -- could potentially radiate some form of energy or magic on its own.

...And who is to say there isn't truly someone using it? We might not simply see them.

[rattlingthestars]

What, Materia can make you invisible, too? Or you think they're hiding in the mechanism?

A big, radioactive rock would make more sense here.

[meteors]

Hiding, yes, rather than using Materia to disguise themselves, I think. Of course, it could be that they have Materia here unheard of in the world I come from, as well. Too many possibilities until we learn more about our captor.

[rattlingthestars]

Yeah, good luck with that.


[ Jim's been here long enough that the frustration has set in deep; for all that they've found some important things, none of them have lead any closer to knowing anything about the who, the how, or the why. A few minutes later he realizes that was probably not the nicest thing to say to someone new, though, and adds: ]

We'll figure it out eventually but nobody's come up with anything that makes sense by talking about it yet.

[meteors]

[ SUCH POOR ATTITUDE JIM ]

I only hope eventually doesn't mean another fifty or so days.

[rattlingthestars]

I can handle another two months as long as we get out of here eventually.

[meteors]

Something tells me you'll be saying the very same thing in two months.

[rattlingthestars]

Don't drown yourself in all that optimism, buddy.

[meteors]

I am simply being realistic. If indeed things have changed in our favor in two months, well, you will have an apology.

[ no u won't. ]

[rattlingthestars]

Uh-huh.

So.

Any other questions? About here? I've been here almost the entire time.

[meteors]

I believe most of the obvious ones I have answers to. Though if there is one thing, it's the number of people currently here from other... places.

[rattlingthestars]

Other than Gaia?

I think there's about fifty people here, though right now's one of the times when we get a handful of new people coming through. You probably saw already, but that happens about every two weeks.