cancry | Superbia Underside Log

SUPERBIA DUNGEON LOG
Third time's the charm for the Executors, it seems. Their confrontation with Miss President ended peacefully and with the Superbia loop ended, the school was finally able to enjoy its hard earned festival. But it's not quite a straightforward happy ending – the way back up to the previous layers is still sealed and regardless, if the Executors want to progress, they'll have to make their way through the Underside. Finding the entrance isn't too hard. After all, it's where all of this began. At the spot in the gymnasium the previous Student Council President was corrupted, a familiar stairway stretches down, down, down into the darkness. It's been a long time coming, but it's finally time for you to graduate Superbia.
THE UNDERSIDE
♪♫ Maze Fortress – Sakuzyo ... or so you expect, anyway. Entering the Superbia Underside is just as disorienting as always, but for totally opposite reasons to the other Undersides. While the other Undersides have been vaguely recognizable distortions of their Layers, this one is so similar to Superbia that for a second it's almost unclear whether or not you really are in the Underside or not. It almost feels like a repeat of heading down to Superbia for the first time as you descend the stairs but as you get closer, your intimate familiarity with the Layer allows you to pick out the subtle changes. It's more run down than the school itself and you can see Revenants flitting around to and fro in all directions. A few locations seem to have been switched around and warped but for the most part, Superbia stands as you've always known it, frozen in perfect stasis, just the way a certain someone would have wanted it. AREAS OF INTEREST ⚝ SUPERBIA LOCATIONS: As mentioned above, many of the locations from the Pride Layer are in place as you know them here, carved into place by the repeating loops. They're run down and overrun by Revenants but assume that any locations not mentioned below seem to be the same below as they are above. ⚝ STUDENT COUNCIL ROOM: Given how things started, it seems like the logical place to go. The Student Council Room isn't a big place, so it shouldn't take long to examine, right? Or so you might think. The instant the door opens, dazzling light pours out, blinding you for a second. It takes your eyes a moment to adjust but when you do, you'll see the reason for that is that the walls of the room have been replaced with thick, almost perfectly transparent glass with the summer sun pouring in aggressively from the outside. As you follow the curve of the glass up, you realize this isn't just a room – it's a giant glass birdcage. And... I don't have to tell you it's occupied by a bird, do I? ⚝ CLUB BUILDING: Once a monument to the delightful inanity of high school life, the club building has been completely taken over by Revenants. To call it an infestation would be an understatement – the instant you open the door, you find yourself utterly swarmed by them and in the confusion, you'll be chased away from the exit! All you can do is keep climbing and fighting your way up to the third floor, and from there the roof, which is made a litttle hard by the fact that the Revenants seem happy to weaponize the equipment of the club rooms against you. Watch out for that falling piano!! Make your way to the top roof and you'll find a particularly grouchy Revenant on top who doesn't seem eager to let you go! ⚝ GYMNASIUM: See for yourself. HAZARDS ⚝ Structural Damage: Similarly to the Avaritia layer, many of the buildings around the city have fallen into disrepair due to the presence of the Revenants here. While some of the bigger structures are fine, Revenants may burst through walls to get to you and letting them go on a rampage in an enclosed space could bring the whole building down on top of you! ⚝ Revenant Types Present: Charles, Metrodorus

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[ Time...loop....?

Okay, they need to start from the beginning. He nods, his expression intent. ]

I'd been coaching soccer. But I started feeling strange....

[ Like there were things he had to do.

Like having things he has to do is very important. ]

I came here looking for answers.

You've found the right people for that. The lot of us scouring the depths down here are Executors, clearing out the Revenant problem -- like the unfortunate beast you just saw -- to secure the passage of anyone going further down. This is Purgatory, and the aim of it is for everyone in it to reach reincarnation at the end of it; unfortunately, the mechanism for that, called the Cogs of Renewal, is broken, leading to an overpopulated afterlife.

[ Executors and Revenants.....Purgatory. Cogs of Renewal. (Purgatory looks like a school?...why not, he supposes.)

Admittedly, thinking about this with pain shooting up every finger is difficult, but he's doing his best. ]

So you'll need to fix the Cogs.

[ This seems like a logical next step, right? If the Executors are acting to ensure the safe passage of souls, there won't be a point if everyone ends up stymied at the last step. ]

Precisely our goal. The layer we're on is about halfway down. We need to clear out the rest to make our way to the end first. Thankfully, there are still enough of us that we've been managing, and we haven't lost our healers.

[ ....It's that dangerous. Well then. The coach supposes that he may be lucky to have survived this encounter with a bite out of his arm and some all but self-inflicted hand damage.

He thinks about the story she's telling with the gravity it deserves. Executors are people who work to fix the Cogs. They have powers that let them fight Revenants. She had mentioned he'd "awakened"...Certainly, that's what it's feeling like. As if the life he'd thought he'd been living was nothing more than a dream, now hazy, half-remembered.

It hadn't even been a life. It'd been an afterlife, or the facsimile of one. Everyone he'd known in it, too, then, they're all....they're all the souls of the passed. Working through whatever they'd done in life, to make it to their next chance.

Something's stoppered that opportunity. Someone has made it so no one can move on.

The coach's fingers curl. He winces. ]

Why....would this happen?

[ Why would the universe just stop...working...? It doesn't make sense. And all those people - no one can move on. No one can move on.

He seems to have been the kind of person to get bothered by that. ]

We don't know, precisely. [She frowns.] We do know that there's a girl with a view to stopping us, who might have been behind what happened to our leader, Rei. She's lost her memories as well as her original team.

[ In other words, everything is messed up and they're fumbling forward as best they can. "As best they can" has saved his life, so the coach is in no position to critique. In fact, he finds it admirable.

So that's the situation at large. And the situation on a more localized level...

He's dead. He had a life, that is lost to him now. Someone may have mourned him. Without memories of his own, he has no way of knowing. ]

...I can't go back.

[ This is both a vow and a realization. Whether she's telling the truth or not - and he doesn't know enough to judge whether she has any reason to lie, or if she's working with not just complete, but inaccurate, information - there's a twisted second school beneath the school. There's a hole in the world, and it's dangerous. If those monsters escaped and targeted students....

He can't let that happen! ]

Edited 2021-10-26 19:56 (UTC)

In that case, we'll have to take you to Rei once the healing issue is over with. She's the one who can empower you to be an Executor, if you wish. We've got room, anyway.

[She pulls out her phone and texts in the group chat:]

If any of the healers are free, I could use it. A civilian wandered down here and nearly got himself eaten by one of those infernal curtains calling itself a Revenant. He's also interested in joining, if Rei is free.

[And, after scrolling up to the earlier messages as her face gets more, if not aghast, certainly disbelieving:]

What did you all DO?!

bring him to the gym
i can heal w/ one hand and keep trying to get this door open w/ the other
multitasking

[She has ONE JOB and by God she is going to do it. You people are going to survive if she has to kill you herself.]

Well noted, though increasingly alarming. We'll be there.

[She looks over to her civilian charge and nods with a serious frown.]

It looks like there's a situation in the gymnasium, so we'll have to go that way. I trust you can get that far?

[ He nods. ]

Yes.

[ If that's what he needs to do, then that's what'll happen!

Though..."a situation"...and their "situation" left him chewed and bloody... ]

Let's hurry.

[Wolfsbane picks up into as much of a run as she can in that dress, slicing through Revenants when they pass.]

It can't be that far if this follows the layout of the school!

[ He'd never have made it through this exploration on his own. The coach is glad for the Executor's presence, even as he can feel himself getting a little lightheaded. He has been bleeding for a while now, and it also hurts...

But Executors with a "situation" come first. They might need his helper as much as he needs that healer, or more! ]

There's a back staircase this way. We'll get there faster!

Don't tell me what to --

[She stops, spotting a Revenant down the hall, and launches a fireball at it before switching course down to the back way he's indicated.]

About how long?

Around this corner!

[ As promised, there's stairs. An out-of-the-way location, ideal for all sorts of dramatic anime school life encounters, a secret spot for delinquents to hang out, etc.

The coach doesn't think of it in any of these terms, but it's an anime high school, right? Gotta have one of these. (AND roof access.)

He fumbles the door open for her around his injuries and holds it. In case there's Revenants down here too, she should be the vanguard. ]

[Two consecutive leaps and she's down the stairs, somehow landing in those heels, and flinging the next door open.]

It can't be long now! You can still follow, can't you?

I can!

[ He promises, from his position still hurrying down the stairs, holding his hands higher to be sure they're above his heart. Whether circulation works the same in Purgatory, he can't be certain - but it likely won't hurt.

He's not quite as agile on the stairs as she was, but he does take them more than one at a time. Last dash....Please, let them make it in time to help if help is needed! ]

Good, because --

[The clatter and shouting in the gym gets Wolfsbane to pick up the pace suddenly. Continue?]

Superbia Underside Log

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