[ENDGAME] Stage 4; Allegory
The clouds dissipate, and only then do the people below realize that they had never been clouds, by the ashen offal generated by so many bioelectrical creatures in the sky. The atmosphere is a seething, crackling mass of solid Entropi. They bump into one another, passing through and generating wide arcs of lightning, seeming like the whole racial population is crowded into the sky above Neocontra.
They are angry, the people below have not disposed of their enemies, the Keepers. In fact they've left them quite undisturbed, not that it matters much. The ones which call themselves the Keepers will expire shortly with or without the residents' intervention, though the Entropi had rather been hoping to get a little more insight on the resident's methods. Tricky, tricky humans and their frequency similars. They release the jarring sensation, and people all over are knocked around as their notables slam back into them, undiminished and intact.
But the Entropi can wait no longer, and even though it may prove a danger to them, the Drafted's pitch will soon be reaching critical mass. They must be stopped, and so the Entropi unite in one fluidic mass, every orb meshing with the one next to it until there is nothing but a shining, lightning-woven blanket hovering above the city -- and then it drops, covering everything. The people, the buildings, all of it.
It's disconcerting, to say the least -- like swimming through thick jelly. You feel suffocated even though you can breath, your skin snapped a thousand times with jolts that never penetrate. And you hear in perfect harmony an omnipresent sound, faint but never fluctuating.
Your eyes grow heavy, and when you open them again, your surroundings have shifted.
The afterlife is exactly how you pictured it, though it will be different for everyone. You wake up in the presence of a loved one long since passed away, and they smile and tell you how happy they are you've joined them. The war is over (won? lost? it is your paradise, you may hear either) and you were a casualty. But everything is all right now, and you can be at peace...
You stand across the battlefield, facing down a friend met in Econtra. They look grim and in an instant you know -- this is a fight to the death. How you came to this point is unclear, but you are past the time for words and negotiations. Only battle can save everything. It must be you or them, and there is no other way.
Silence. An empty wasteland that stretches on and on, the remains of a broken city your only compass point. The Entropi have gone, Neocontra stands deserted -- and yet you are left. How have you been forgotten? Were you left on purpose or accidentally? And what can you do now, with no way to return to the life you knew? Despair creeps into the corners of your mind... will you give in?
Home, at last. How long have you been away, and what will you find when you return? See old friends, tell loved ones you've returned from that place... but no one notices. You cannot touch, or speak, as though you were nothing but a lost spirit wandering. Try as you might you can't make anyone acknowledge you...
Each person caught in these hallucinations, these carefully crafted specters designed to trick the mind. Perhaps they'll experience one, or many, but the result is the same. If they succumb to the dream, their bodies will die in the real world. It is the Entropi's last line of defense, but a formidable one.
---
[OOC: Characters can go through one (or more, if you wish) of these hallucintaions. If they reach a point where they believe the dream completely, their real bodies will simply give up and die. Although the hallucintaions may take as little or long in time as they need, ICly this stage lasts about a day or so. You can use this post for posting the happenings, if you want.]
They are angry, the people below have not disposed of their enemies, the Keepers. In fact they've left them quite undisturbed, not that it matters much. The ones which call themselves the Keepers will expire shortly with or without the residents' intervention, though the Entropi had rather been hoping to get a little more insight on the resident's methods. Tricky, tricky humans and their frequency similars. They release the jarring sensation, and people all over are knocked around as their notables slam back into them, undiminished and intact.
But the Entropi can wait no longer, and even though it may prove a danger to them, the Drafted's pitch will soon be reaching critical mass. They must be stopped, and so the Entropi unite in one fluidic mass, every orb meshing with the one next to it until there is nothing but a shining, lightning-woven blanket hovering above the city -- and then it drops, covering everything. The people, the buildings, all of it.
It's disconcerting, to say the least -- like swimming through thick jelly. You feel suffocated even though you can breath, your skin snapped a thousand times with jolts that never penetrate. And you hear in perfect harmony an omnipresent sound, faint but never fluctuating.
Your eyes grow heavy, and when you open them again, your surroundings have shifted.
The afterlife is exactly how you pictured it, though it will be different for everyone. You wake up in the presence of a loved one long since passed away, and they smile and tell you how happy they are you've joined them. The war is over (won? lost? it is your paradise, you may hear either) and you were a casualty. But everything is all right now, and you can be at peace...
You stand across the battlefield, facing down a friend met in Econtra. They look grim and in an instant you know -- this is a fight to the death. How you came to this point is unclear, but you are past the time for words and negotiations. Only battle can save everything. It must be you or them, and there is no other way.
Silence. An empty wasteland that stretches on and on, the remains of a broken city your only compass point. The Entropi have gone, Neocontra stands deserted -- and yet you are left. How have you been forgotten? Were you left on purpose or accidentally? And what can you do now, with no way to return to the life you knew? Despair creeps into the corners of your mind... will you give in?
Home, at last. How long have you been away, and what will you find when you return? See old friends, tell loved ones you've returned from that place... but no one notices. You cannot touch, or speak, as though you were nothing but a lost spirit wandering. Try as you might you can't make anyone acknowledge you...
Each person caught in these hallucinations, these carefully crafted specters designed to trick the mind. Perhaps they'll experience one, or many, but the result is the same. If they succumb to the dream, their bodies will die in the real world. It is the Entropi's last line of defense, but a formidable one.
---
[OOC: Characters can go through one (or more, if you wish) of these hallucintaions. If they reach a point where they believe the dream completely, their real bodies will simply give up and die. Although the hallucintaions may take as little or long in time as they need, ICly this stage lasts about a day or so. You can use this post for posting the happenings, if you want.]