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
...?

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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.]

[He thinks of that woman-beast, whose blade tore up his memories. Her words echoing distantly.

You will be trapped here like the rest of us and you will be aware of every moment that the years pull apart your minds and your hearts.

He shudders.]

I was...forgotten, wasn't I. Save for...the darkest of fairy tales...scraps hidden in ancient stories...

...that appears to be what happened, yes.

...Aera would have remembered me. She promised. [But whatever happened to her, she was long long dead.]

[Phoenix answered in a quiet hum of agreement; he didn't have any way of knowing what happened there, but it couldn't have been good.]

I wish we'd had any way of knowing sooner. Perhaps it does nothing to think upon 'what-if', but...maybe things would have been better. Perhaps neither of us would even be here right now.

I...can't...die. [At long last, with considerable effort, he raises his head.] I do not know what could possibly kill me short of flinging me into the sun.

...I'm not entirely sure myself.

[He'd seen it, back in Altissia. Had seen something, but making sense of it in the wake of everything else that happened had taken a backseat for Phoenix himself.]

[For now, he reached out and brushed Chiron's hair from his face with a light and caring hand. Trying to keep both of them grounded, in a way.]

But I won't let you be alone in figuring out the rest of this utter madness.

[He flinches back, still not keen on having anyone but Medic risk touching the scourge that afflicts him, even if it won't do anything here.]

An easy thing to say.

Harder to prove, but I will if you allow me to try.

Harder still to prove is that you won't turn on me.

Have I given you reason to believe I would? Even after remembering Altissa, I chose to stand with you. I risked my life against that witch because I was afraid for your life.

What you are or were is meaningless to me. I care about your heart, not your form.

And what do you know of my heart?

Gula Undercity Log

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