cancry | Gula Undercity Log

Gula Undercity Log

GULA
Now that you've been guided here by one of its residents, it's time for you to get familiar with the Undercity of Gula. With so much of the rest of the layer consumed already, its Specters have retreated to the last safe haven left for them. Just like the city above, when in the Undercity, you will suffer the same inability to fully satisfy yourself and will always be craving just one more... anything. The entrance to the Undercity is slap bang in the middle of the last remaining garden in the entire layer. A snapshot of what this place might have been like before, it's crammed full of all sorts of plants, flowers, vegetables... if it grows in the ground, it's here. There's evidence to suggest that even this garden was a fair bit larger than it is now, with plants looking like they were uprooted or crushed on the outside of the garden, but it's difficult to tell. In the center of the garden, you'll find a steep set of stairs leading down to the underground where you'll find the settlement proper. The Undercity itself is set up in a giant underground bunker, with a tall ceiling and huge open spaces that keep the place from feeling too claustrophobic. There's a mild bit of spacial distortion going on down here that make the ceiling much, much higher than it should physically be possible for it to be, but that's baby stuff in Purgatory by now. There's a few walls and some makeshift separators that section off parts of the bunker for privacy reasons, but more or less everything is set up in the same huge communal space.The walls, floors, ceilings and more or less every surface have been slathered in paints and cloths in a chaotic variety of colours to make things seem a bit less cold and dull. The effect is... striking, to say the least. In some places, where the paint or cloth has begun to peel away, however, you'll see that the surfaces underneath are cold and black and seem to be made of metal. The general vibe of the place is some weird cross between a convention or an indoor market and an airport at 3:48 in the morning. There's rows of chairs and bed and makeshift beds all over the place for people to set themselves down and take a breather, with wide gaps left in between each row to let people safely come and go without tripping all over themselves and dying again. But despite all the work gone into setting up the place, it still feels strangely empty – going by the number of Specters you can see milling about in here, even with the Executors' arrival, this place isn't even half full and that's a generous estimate. On top of all that, the uncomfortable sense of things being "thin" or "stripped away" increases almost tenfold down here. There's something else, too, but it's hard to immediately identify – you'll have to investigate that yourself to work out exactly what's wrong. Thankfully, despite how dour Gula as a whole is, you're free to come and go as you please. So while you still need to make your way through Gula to reach the next layer, the previous layers will still be available for you to rest and recharge if you'd prefer to stay elsewhere. ⚝ Rest Areas: If you're desperate for some shut-eye, or just to get away from the chaos a bit, the four corners of the bunker have been sectioned off with thick screens and padded mats, blankets and pillows have been spread out across the floor. It's basically a nap area for you to come and chill out and despite everything, it's pretty cozy over here. There's also a radius of about fifty feet around each of the rest area that's designated a "quiet zone", where everyone's expected to pipe down and stay quiet to not wake anyone up. They're generally a good place to recharge, even if sleeping out in the relative open can feel a bit awkward. ⚝ Dining Area: A number of long tables have been lined up end-to-end by the door that you can assume is probably the kitchen. They're covered in colourful tablecloths and a hodgepodge of mismatched chairs line either side of it. Dinner is served twice a day, with a ten minute warning beforehand so you can hopefully find yourself a seat before the rush is over. As for what the food is... well, it's pretty lacklustre! Pretty much everything is dried food, canned food or some horrifying combo of both. At least it's... mostly edible? ⚝ Music Stage: A little stage area that's been set up by pushing a number of crates and boxes together to form a stable platform. It's had a colourful cloth thrown over it and weighed down so it looks a little less slapped together, and there's a few instruments spread out across the stage – there's the regulars like an acoustic guitar and a bass but then there's also... a saxophone? An oboe? A harp??? It's pretty random. There's usually a handful of people milling about the stage with someone banging out the tunes, but it's also used to give announcements and anything else that needs the attention of the whole group. ⚝ Kitchen: Locked. Investigate to unlock further information. ⚝ The Rusted City: The once-majestic city of the Gluttony Layer, now reduced to rust and decay. It's a huge, sprawing urban affair with skyscrapers climbing to dizzying heights and buildings packed in to each and every space that could conceivably hold a building. It reminds you, just a little, of Invidia – envious excess beyond anything a single person could ever own or consume by themselves. But the unfortunate reality of Gula is that much of it has been consumed. Shops have been stripped bare of everything that could be useful and any houses or apartments you might be inclined to check have been raided in much the same way. It's a sad, lonely seeming place that feels as though it's slowly rotting apart from the inside out. Alarmingly, Revenants can occasionally be found here, though they seem to have aimlessly wandered up from the Underside and seem just as confused to find themselves here as you are. ⚝ Train Station: On the outskirts of the layer is slightly busted-up looking train station with a single platform. Rusty old trains come through here every half hour on the dot, stopping only briefly to allow Executors to board. Using these trains, Executors can either travel back to any of the other layers of Purgatory without having to pass through the Underside. Isn't quick travel convenient?
THE UNDERSIDE OF GULA
...?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...

Chiron, we...need to talk.

Do we.

If you're prepared to hear it.

About which part should we speak? The one where I cannot die, and thus have no clue how I ended up here? The one where I was hung up like an ornament and left? The one where some insane scientist with an ego larger than Bahamut himself kept me like a pet to experiment on?

...the part where it wasn't right.

[Phoenix's answer was quiet, his hand around Chiron's shaking in some kind of distress...or maybe it was anger, with how tightly controlled his even tone was.]

None of that should ever have happened to you, and it was an injustice on every front and failure of everyone involved that any of it did.

...It does not matter now. It's done. I've no idea how it happened, though I've an inkling as to why.

It matters to you. And it matters to me that it still causes you pain like this.

[Phoenix swallowed hard, briefly grateful he couldn't see Chiron's face.]

...I remembered something myself. After Altissia, though I don't know how long after--I spent a good deal of time searching for answers. I wanted to understand why it was decided things would take the course I knew they would, and if there were any way to stop it.

[He doesn't have it in him to say anything; apparently Phoenix wants to tell a story of his own. Chiron drinks. But he does pipe up for one thing:] The stairs are here. Careful.

[There was a quiet sound of acknowledgement and little else, while Phoenix spent a moment trying to find the right words.]

We found...something we weren't meant to find. Something intended left buried, knowledge rediscovered far too late to matter.

...And I'm sorry. On behalf of whoever I was and whoever I am now, I'm sorry he wasn't able to help you.

I was intended not to be found.

Neither was anything else about you. Even the bits and pieces we uncovered were so fragmented and deeply buried that I have no doubt they were deliberately hidden where they weren't destroyed.

...I know how you came to be imprisoned, Chiron. I know about the healer you were before the fact, and I know who was responsible.

And if we ever encounter him here, I'm going to make him wish he was anywhere but Purgatory.

Wait.

[He stops, even if they are on the steps, and tugs his hand from Phoenix's.]

Him? I do not...I don't know what happened, but I have to think--if I became the kind of monster that the people feared, surely they would feel justified in--

Did someone plan this?

...I don't know the full extent of it, only the shape. I can not say if it was planned out or done in a moment's choice.

Don't play coy.

I'm not trying to. I don't know much of what I wish I did regarding the situation. If it were planned ahead of time or not, I can not answer that.

...I only know it was your brother's doing.

...No.

Somnus may be many things, a thorn in my side, militaristic and without sympathy for those in need, pragmatic, but he would not--

[Hunting him down. Chasing him from village to village. Whether he knew how the gift of the gods worked or not, they vehemently disagreed on how to treat the plague. Would he?]

I love my brother. Stubborn as a spiracorn and as sharp as the judgement of the Fulgarian.

[Would he? If he thought it was the safest option?]

We--we have our differences, but...

Chiron...

[Softly, reaching out a hand to him hesitantly.]

I'm sure of it. I wish that I wasn't, but I am.

[Little wonder why Chief Besithia was convinced he would want heaping handfuls of revenge, when all the emotions inside of him felt as dull and lifeless as the rest of him.

Chiron doesn't know what to do in that moment. He wants to break something. He wants to cry. He wants to sleep, forevermore. The bottle drops from his hand and clatters loudly, rolls, down each step. He runs. Up the rest of the way to the empty city's topside.]

Chiron--

[If he didn't follow, Phoenix knew damn well he'd regret it. Maybe he'd regret it either way.]

[But the former won out, and he took off after the sound of Chiron's steps.]

[He doesn't get far from the garden, a few staggered steps before he's on his hands and knees. Each breath is ragged, and it's a good thing Phoenix can't see the death-like tone of his skin, the black ichor pouring from his eyes, his mouth.]

Why?! Why would he do that to his own brother?! Did he truly hate me so? Did I...did I turn, become a monster out of the sickness I was absorbing? Did I slay Aera the same as I slew Lunafreya?

[He shakes his head, voice drifting as he sinks lower and lower.] I could help, I was trying to help, I was just trying to help them...

Chiron...gods, Chiron, come here.

[He didn't pull the other man entirely into an embrance, that seemed a bit much unless Chiron decided otherwise. But he dropped down beside him, an arm brought loosely around his shoulders.]

I'm sorry. I wish I had any real answers for you, but I...I just don't. I don't know what you were or what he thought you were, but either way it just...it isn't right.

Edited 2021-11-14 01:37 (UTC)

[His shoulders shake, face half-buried in his arms.] I was in the dark. I was all alone, alone with only my thoughts, no sense of the passage of time, but I was there, always aching, hooked like meat to be cured, and I felt every moment of it, every second that my undying form tried to regenerate the constant damage.

Just me and my thoughts. Just me and my thoughts and me and my thoughts in the darkness for two thousand years, I can't take it--how can I even hold it in me, how am I meant to--I can't--

[His fingers dig divots into the dirt, and he screams. A horrified, guttural, animal noise.]

[Phoenix didn't speak in response--what could he ever possibly say? There was nothing that could fix this, nothing that could even remedy it right now. It broke his heart to know there was nothing to be done, and he hated every second of this.]

[He just stayed exactly where he was, running a gentle hand along Chiron's back.]

[He recognizes that this madness is because it was not there and then, very suddenly, it was all there. He had not become some cackling, deranged lunatic when Verstael's forces freed him; he had grown so used to the darkness and the isolation and the pain and the hanging that it put everything else into a starkly contrasted perspective.

Suddenly remembering a vast, vast expanse of nothingness is difficult to handle all at once. It needs room to breathe and to settle over him like a heavy film of dust.

Time means nothing, never had before and certainly not down here, so he has no idea how long it is until he scrabbles back some semblance of himself. That Phoenix remains...helps.]

Please...talk to me.

I'm here, Chiron. We all are--none of us are ever going to let you be abandoned again. It should never have happened in the first place, and we won't let it happen twice.

[He didn't move from where he was no matter how long it took; hand gentle on Chiron's back and voice quietly patient.]

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