What their Eyes See: Finale

[voidtreckermods]

It’s been a weird mission. The Voidtreckers have been busy investigating, making headway in mapping and saving citizens from the video games and strange illusionary creatures. Those in the fourth tier have made contacts, followed leads and gotten close to the high and mighty of the criminal underworld.

Yet what exactly is happening here is still unknown. Their new found ally Anan is as stumped as the rest of them, but even so, the hackers and technological knowledgeable voidtreckers have been successful in isolating the virus to study and make an anti-virus. A netpoint network has been set up across the city, and enough access data stolen that they can start throwing everything into the systems and networks across the city.

While the illusions remain a mystery and how they got there, finally the world is purged of the strange virus as the anomalies begin to clear up by noon of day ten. Spectura victims wake up in hospital beds, dazed and confused, while no more sightings of the impossible plague those on the other tiers.


On the morning of day eleven, the once housebound and terrified citizens leave their shelters with the first tendrils of light reaching through the fog surrounding the enclosed city. An exodus of people, from fighters of tier four to elites of tier one, are making their way into the streets...and heading down into lifts and outside, out into the smog-filled wasteland.

“It’s so beautiful,” is heard, a rumbling through the crowd as people smile, laugh or wave into the fog.

”I won.” Fighters from tier four look around in wonderment. Other exclamations, about a blue sky, a greeting to a friend fill the air.

There is a pull. The voidtreckers will feel it too, though to them the world looks and feels no different. This pull is easy to resist, or they can follow and investigate it, attempt to lead citizens back inside the city. It’s not safe in the smog, no one has canisters, but none will heed the warnings.

Nor is there time for better efforts when a crackling sounds in the air, light and colours flashing in the smog, everywhere at once and too quick to get a hold on.

“STOP THWARTING ME!” booms out, and a great force pushes them back while pulling the citizens farther into the wasteland, sand and dirt kicked up in a frenzied storm. The voidtreckers can hear the civilians in the smog, but getting to them will prove harder than they may like.

Grabbing an air canister is highly recommended for those who prefer life.



CIRCLE ONE: THE MAZE
No matter where one leaves the city from, they will find themselves in a maze of walls, of metal sheets, each blending into each other. It feels surreal, as if nothing is quite real, nothing quite solid.

But it is solid. For those voidtreckers who cannot see illusions it will look like they are merely stood in the wasteland of the world. But when they begin to move they will learn those walls are tangible, and those that look close enough will see the same almost-light as the creatures that purple team have been fighting as the source.

For those who are not immune to illusions it is a strange place indeed. No smog to be seen, just high unyielding barriers. The pathways are different colours giving off hues of brightest pink, red, purple, neon green, glowing white, darkest black. Sometimes there are symbols on the walls, Capsule Corp, royal insignia, ravager flames, HYDRA, marks of royalty. They are emblazoned on the walls, the floor, sometimes even in the sky. And the deeper in they get...

➤ WINDING ROADS
It's noisy as they move around. As well as the distant noise of the citizens in the distance they can hear an acoustic guitar, erratic piano playing, the sound of bamboo on stone. Or perhaps an eagles cry, a lullaby or a song is heard as they move their way through the maze.

Objects stand in their way, blocking paths and needing to be moved or destroyed. Larger than life playing cards, red apples, flowers. Spears and daggers hang in the air as does the moon and the sun. Water often cascades through routes, making it difficult to move through or fire creeps up walls, nonthreatening but ever present. There are clouds of butterflies and ravens perched on walls, watching their every move, and the smell of sugar often hangs in the air.

But it’s better to navigate these turbulent passages with perseverance than violence. Daggers and apples will shatter and slice apart to attacks, creating a way through to begin with - but those that try the method of destruction to solve their problems will find these walls crowding them tighter, rising higher, becoming all the harder to destroy than they were before. They will become trapped, and will need assistance from the outside to untangle them from webs or jails made from crystal.
➤ STALKING THE STREETS
It isn’t just the Voidtreckers or locals who wander the maze. Wolves, dogs, zombie sheep and ghost animals mostly mind their own business, sometimes inclined to growl or bahh, but easy to pass. But other times, you may sense that you’re being followed, a presence hovering over you...while another companion will see as well the large shadow shrouding you before a decaying hand grabs at you from above, threatening to send its victim to some other part of the maze if not stopped.

Monsters also stalk these paths from various realities. The dead will be met in robes of white while others in armours from medieval times. All are fast, unrelenting in their attacks, unconcerned with pain or stopping without being properly slain. Ghouls of all shapes and sizes search for prey, and many more seek victims.

How they act and how to defeat them may be known to some, but not all. Is it worth the effort to stay and fight illusions, however? Sometimes those illusions don’t give a choice, but in other instances, a person from the city may be found on the ground unconscious, the smog air getting to them. They’ll need help, and fast.

CIRCLE TWO: IS THIS HOME?
Voidtreckers will realise they’ve left the maze when they find themselves in an open field. It spreads out far with vineyards in the distance, a campsite, all of this leading into a forest of childrens board games. While the campsite is not a true campsite as many will realise, it is the first moment everyone will have to come together, to perhaps plan ahead. Air canisters are essential in this environment, and locals have been found needing, unconscious. Backtracking through the maze is a death wish for many, but with the talents of the voidtreckers, setting up a checkpoint here may not be that impossible before going on ahead.

And then, when they finally do…

➤ FAMILIAR
It is almost dream-like as they walk, areas changing without them fully crossing the distance needed. One moment they are in a shopping malls food court, the next the interior of a spaceship; streets of palaces, temples, and mansions line up as a mish-mash of glamour, while others offer more humble abodes, taverns, family homes, bakeries. Medieval structures blend into tech bases, maintenance bays and dark rooms. Beautiful gardens, beaches and dusty souks all share space. But as they move through it, they will be tempted towards what is theirs.

And these can be anything. Ships, palaces, home, and even singular rooms: all of these are seen, doors providing access, doors that draw your character towards it, as if they know what’s on the other side. Spaces personal to the viewer, and with the constant pressure of these illusions, somehow draining to be around, they will find it harder to doubt what they see. Even if their bedroom leads towards a volcano, a blacksmith housing hospital beds right beside it, it will not seem so bizarre to find these natural.
➤ DEARLY BELOVEDS
But it’s not only structures that exist in this labyrinth of streets: there are people, animals - family, friends and pets. Beloved mentors, a smiling loved one. The night sky will wash over, the ocean within view; your favourite plush rabbit, a worn jumper. Your favourite song playing, losing you inside this new reality.

Even people from the Voidtrecker Express are around, whether or not they’re still passengers. Feanor, Zetta, Noctis, Cassie Cage, Jin Ling; Elfnein, Link, Mami, Gyousou, Duo; Senku, Jiang Yanli, Olivia, Bucky Barnes. They walk this plane, friends and lovers of the voidtreckers, coaxing them further into the illusions. Assuring them everything is alright, offering reasons to give in.

Over all this though, they can still hear the citizens in the distance; their voices sounding more confused, frightened even. To push on the voidtreckers must walk away, ignore these temptations and push on to the third ring.

CIRCLE THREE: TWISTED HEART
For those who manage to get through the second circle, pushing away the temptations of home, they will find themselves back in the smog filled wasteland. But through the smog they will see more, always more. Once again the scenery blurs into impossibilities, from testing labs with padded beds, to other imagery associated with asylums of old, to dark cramped spaces, to hallways raging on fire. They sense fear itself, and even the most stoic will find apprehension digging into them as they make their way forward. Is this their fear? Or is it your own?

It may be hard to discern in this twisted reality.

➤ MISERY LOVES COMPANY
This time, as the scenery shifts around them, so does their own sense of self try to match what these places mean. The despair of being lost in darkness, the belief that they can’t be seen by others, all sound fading from their ears. They are on the moon, trapped there for years; at the edge of the vast ocean, on the bank of a river of lava, despair in their hearts. In a wrecked city, their own city destroyed almost beyond recognition. By opposing forces, by weapons of mass destruction.

They have lost everything. There’s no fixing this.

A Pandora box of fears have been unleashed, with seemingly no hope. Your worst enemy has been granted a second chance, family stumbling towards you on the verge of death before your eyes; forces that you were meant to be dealing with back home have found you, surely leaving your own world in ruins, from titans to ayakashis.

Or they might stumble upon a graveyard, stretched out as far as they can see where every name is someone they care about.

There are even voidtreckers of now and old opposing you: Danny Fenton, Lan Xichen, Darth Vader, Vegeta, Xue Yang. Kerry stands pointing a gun straight at a fellow passenger while shadowy ravens and terrifying dragons swirl in the sky.

All this emotional turmoil will do a number on the voidtreckers, but there is strength in numbers. More civilians have fallen unconscious at this point, and those willing to aid them can take them back to the city. But no matter how the voidtreckers move, they must keep their nerve and hold onto hope as they cross the final hurdles.

Comments

familiar

[blitzcheer]

[ Tidus is so trying his best to wear blinders about this place. Not real blinders, but looking left or right of him? Nononono, no thanks. The fact he can feel his body try to relax and be cool with this area is worrying enough, and all these buildings, a mish mash of sights- ]

Huh? [ --he doesn't even notice Della looking straight at one until she speaks up, his gaze raising with the height of the manor. ]

...no. [ No. ] I can hug you. Or shake you instead? Carry you away?

[ Shaking is apparently less mean than slapping. ]

[sos_pilot]

... All of the above will do nicely.

[ She can always count on you, blonde son. ]

... I know it's not real. I know none of this is real.

[blitzcheer]

[ Is scooping up Duck Mom into his arms Tidus's secret favourite pasttime? It might as well be because that's what he's doing, holding onto her tight. ]

It'd be nice if it were, [ he confides in her - because that's the appeal, isn't it? ]

Maybe we can ask Seto to use that big brain of his to make VR games that show our homes when we want them to? He's been through some crazy adventures back home.

[ He's walking and talking, his eyes somewhere on the path in front of them. Good bye, Manor...! ]

[sos_pilot]

[ Della closes her eyes, trying not to look back at the mansion, which feels like it's ripping her apart. Oof. ]

... I was raised there for most of my life. And now my boys are growing up there. My... my family is there.

[blitzcheer]

I know. [ His arms come tighter around her. ] You should be with them - but the real them. Not tricked into-- whatever this whole thing is about.

I'd let you stay, but I like you safe, y'know?

[ Meanwhile, even as they walk, even though Della isn't looking, the other buildings around give way to allow the manor to stay in sight; the path a mix between the street that Della's family home exists on, and as well...grass, the scent of a sea breeze. The sound of birds and waves, all mingling together.

And a pinkish sky of sunset above their heads. ]

[sos_pilot]

[ Della breathes slowly, in and out, trying to focus solely on Tidus. Just him and nothing else - because he IS real. He's the real deal in every sense of the word. ]

... I know. And you know I'd do the same thing for you, if it happened to you.

[ Pause.

Always time for a bit of humor. ]

... I mean, I cant pick you up, but you get the idea.

[blitzcheer]

You can climb all over and give me a good wallopin' when I need it!

[ A lot harder for Tidus to do - the climbing on part, anyway. ]

Everywhere this place shows me, I can't go back to. It's nice to think about, but- you guys, you're my present. You keep me grounded. Thinking about the things we'll get to do when we get back on the train...

[ He's started rambling, but for a reason, as the area changes to an expanding cliffside, where over the most prominent space sits the sun painting the sky. Tidus's eyes are ever lower on the ground, more on Della's shoulder than anywhere useful. ]

I'm putting together a guys' night for Inigo and Taiki, if you know him. I'll invite Senku, Seto if he wants to hang out. It started as a birthday party, Inigo's never had one, but you know him. He's shy.

Know any cool hang out games?

[sos_pilot]

[ As the smells come to Della's beak, her eyelids twitch, wanting to open her eyes so badly. But instead she tightens her grip on Tidus, trying to focus on his words. A boy's sleepover. Yes, good! ]

Let's see... scary story competitions, arm-wrestling... you having food at this party? Cause combining food and games is always a good time.

[blitzcheer]

Ordering food from their homes! Getting Roland to help me pay the costs, too. [ Because of course. ] Wanna help yoo? Even though, you know. Guys night. No parents allowed.

[ Cheeky to ask Duck Mum for money?? But it's duck mum. ]

I'll make sure you get some cake! With your name on it! [ His voice thickens, though he continues through it, a light chuckle. ] Geez, all I make are cakes! I used to wanna cook for people all the time... You should've seen my freezer back home. I had leftovers for weeks.

[ Breathe, breathe. ]

[sos_pilot]

Hey, you can guys can use all the points I have, if you want. I don't use 'em all that often. But if you make cake again, consider me first in line!

[ Della holds onto him tighter, nearly burying her face into his shoulder, trying not to shake.

everything is fine everything is fine everything is fine ]