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

[irrationally]

It's quite the sight.

Them just wandering after this huge man, this enormous presence, and the way said man seems to bend the entire space around them to his will - to a point where they actually find themselves outside.

For a moment Alice still stands there, watching Ares as he practically blocks anyone from coming after them. Then she slowly bends down, letting her rabbit back onto the ground as it starts to hop ahead of them.

"Guess we should follow him," she tells Thanatos as she starts walking in that direction.

Though it's not the only thing she has to say. With a last glance back at Ares, she says: ".. You've gotten better."

Compared to the last time she was trying to teach him how to use the power of his imagination.

[controlsthedie]

"Have I?" he asks quietly, feeling a little more vulnerable now that his rescuer is being left behind. If only Ares could break through the Void and help him get back home. Or lend him some strength to better fit the role of someone on the Red Team. "I just used what I remembered from that time and what I know of him now."

Maybe it's the external focus rather than internal that makes it easier. Thanatos is still small, still shackled. Mort is still nowhere to be found because the tiny mouse hadn't been with him when Sisyphus captured him. He hasn't tried to change himself.

They follow the white rabbit hopping before them. With any luck, they will break out of this illusion completely.

[irrationally]

"You still managed to make him appear. Isn't that the most important part?"

She's not going to let you downplay what you just did, Thanatos! Especially since this is the sort of thing Alice is fascinated by. She's so used to creating her own little mental world that she's never really seen anyone else do it.

"You can do amazing things with it, once you get used to it." Even if the downside in Alice's case is that she's exactly so good at this sort of thing because she's so weak to anyone else using it on her. Which is why it was so hard to get out of there, but now they have gotten out, their surroundings seem to change. They're not out of the illusion just yet, but at least it's changing into something a bit more friendly under Alice's influence. The rabbit hops on, leading them into a place that looks like a forest. But it's light, and incredibly calm and peaceful. There's nothing but the sound of calmly running water, a bright sky above them, odd oversized children's toys strewn throughout the landscape and hanging in the air, floating by. ".. Like right now. We should be safe here, until we get out of the illusion."

Hopefully. Unless whatever caused the illusion in the first place decides to turn its attention back on them - it would override this again right away.

[controlsthedie]

Was that the most important part? There's a lot Thanatos thinks he needs to learn. He hadn't realized that this would be a skill he would need to learn and practice, but that's no different than other skills he had to learn on the train. Thanatos nods, not fully understanding but making a note to pay more attention to what Alice does. If illusions are going to be a repeating thing, then she would be a good teacher.

When they reach Alice's safe area, Thanatos can't help but be amazed. He really has little experience being in a forest that isn't covered by snow and ice, and this is closer to Persephone's greenery on Erda. He walks around one of the large children's toy. "How... what did you do?"

[irrationally]

Alice is looking around them as they wander in. It's as if she's admiring the place, but really, she's just looking around to see if there isn't some threat around. She doesn't trust one bit of these illusions, especially since whoever or whatever is causing them in the first place seems to be much too powerful and experienced with them.

"It seems that whatever is causing these illusions is trying to show us either the things we fear the most or the things we long for the most."

So in that case it's not all that difficult to try and focus really hard on what she longs for. What she misses. What makes her feel safe.

"This is the latter. It's my Wonderland."

[controlsthedie]

Thanatos should be more cautious. He should be helping Alice look for threats, but he's just too distracted by this illusion of life. When he places his hands on the trunk of a tree, it feels so real under his fingers. The bark feels sun-kissed instead of the constant chill of winter.

He blinks. Even if this isn't directly his own illusion, there was enough for him to fall into that longing. Thanatos thought those illusions were in the second area, but there's really nothing stopping that from happening if these come from the same illusionist. They made the rules.

"You're working within the boundaries of the original illusion, putting a twist to it." That way of thinking reminds him of his elder sisters whenever they gave prophecies.

[irrationally]

"Exactly. I'm not strong enough to do more than this."

Even doing this is already a lot, honestly. Alice wonders if maybe through their escape attempt they somehow wandered a bit closer back towards the second circle, making it easier for this sort of illusion to appear again - who knows.

All Alice knows is that it seems to have worked for now, unless this is just meant to lower their guard for another attack. But this third circle doesn't seem quite as physically aggressive as the first circle - it just seems to try to break them mentally.

"I'm not sure anyone is. Whoever or whatever is causing all of this.. If it can trap all of us within illusions, there is no doubt that they must be incredibly powerful."

[controlsthedie]

Having seen her create this, Thanatos thinks Alice is plenty strong, but she's also right. The source of these illusions is very strong. The scope is wide, and the illusions are highly personalized and real despite how many there must be. It's not just the VoidTreckers but also the civilians of this world.

But what could Thanatos or Alice do at this point? The rabbit lead them here. Ares is likely destroying everything having to do with that palace-asylum. Thanatos looks at his hands, small and still bound by shackles.

Maybe he could try what Alice did. Thanatos closes his eyes and tries to picture a change. When he opens them, he's fully grown.

Although, his attempt at returning to "normal" wasn't perfect. He's still shackled. His dress is still that of when he was a child, only changing to fit an adult body now, and his hair is still long. However, when a Mort squeak rings out because he's no longer being hidden by the illusion, Thanatos finds the change good enough.

"... I didn't expect that to actually work," he says.

[irrationally]

Now that's a sound she recognizes.

Alice turns around, facing Thanatos rather than looking at the illusionary world around them. She can notice that his attempt at returning back to his usual self wasn't entirely a success, but he did get pretty far, as far as Alice is concerned. Especially since it seems that they can actually hear Mort again.

"Hello, Mort," she greets the little thing in the most friendly way. There might be even more of a smile on her face than there is usually when it comes to the adorable thing, if not just because Alice is so glad that they managed to escape that awful place they were trapped in.

(Though she figures they should at least somehow get Thaantos to realise those shackles are fake enough to get rid of them before they can fully leave.)

She straightens up again, replying to Thanatos himself this time.

"It gets easier and easier with practice, really. I used to do this sort of thing all the time when I was much younger."

[controlsthedie]

Mort continues squeaking as if he hasn't quite realized he's being heard but stops completely when he realizes it. The squeaking returns renewed a moment later causing Thanatos to cradle the tiny mouse close in an attempt to soothe him. Mort clearly doesn't like be separated from Thanatos like that, and he's very glad to see them both. (Or for them to see and hear him, to be more exact.)

"I prefer practicing in less dire circumstances." Or never having to at all because there is no need, but Thanatos doesn't believe for one second that will be the case. "Can you tell if we stuck here?"

They're safe, but they still have a mission to do. There are people out there-- VoidTreckers and locals--who may need help, and whoever is doing this needs to be stopped. ... And if they keep moving, maybe he doesn't have to think about what happened back there.

[irrationally]

"I'm not sure." Even if she managed to influence the illusion a little, it's still not fully under her control.

But that doesn't mean she can't make an educated guess. She frowns a little as she looks around them, seeming to think about it.

"I think we should be able to return to the wasteland if we just keep walking in this direction. Surely the illusion can't be infinite."

[controlsthedie]

Having calmed down, Mort gets returned to his perch on Thanatos's shoulder. Thanatos is still going to look towards Alice for direction and guidance. This is clearly more her domain than his. He'll be unable to tell if anything is different because of her or because he's just unfamiliar with it.

"I'll make sure nothing comes at us from behind. Mort?"

Mort squeaks, a little confused. Hair, Thanatos! Mort is moved to sit atop his head and facing the way they came.