cancry | Gula Underside Log

Gula Underside Log

GULA DUNGEON LOG
As you make the now familiar descent, the screeches and chatterings of the Underside's inhabitants swim up to meet you alongside a suffocating wall of heat. The Gula Underside unfolds itself before you in jewel colours and sweltering heat. In stark contrast to the Rusted City stripped bare and the sterile Undercity, the Gluttony Underside is bursting with life - and danger. This densely packed rainforest spills out in all directions like a natural maze and you're going to have to pull out all the stops to find Gerda before something else does - or before it finds you.
THE UNDERSIDE
♪♫ Floating -Liquidly- – Sakuzyo The jungle is thickly clustered with huge palm trees rising to form an almost impassable canopy that only opens out occasionally when branches shift or when the wind blows, revealing the dim green light of the Underside's sickly looking sky. As you look up, you occasionally see the shadows of Revenants (or at least you HOPE they're Revenants) darting around high above your head. The ground is blanketed in luscious undergrowth that feels soft underfoot - loamy moss, tangled patches of grass, leaves. Occasionally, the uneven ground gives way to puddles of water or patches of loose, sloppy mud that you're forced to wade your way through if you want to proceed. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the jungle is so dense that you're never not within reaching distance of a sturdy tree or rock you can use to steady yourself. Somewhere in this place is Gerda and your way further down into Purgatory. Let's hope you can make your way through unscathed. AREAS OF INTEREST Due to the sheer scale of this Underside, explorations will proceed slightly differently. The Executors will be split into three teams – two to explore the Underside itself and the third being the team assigned to this layer's Boss Combat. Please see below for your role assignments. ⚝ NORTHBOUND: The Executors exploring the north are Medic, Etoile, Lion, Chiron and Veil. ⚝ SOUTHBOUND: The Executors exploring the south are Rei, Genius, Mona, Achilles, Ariel and Phoenix. ⚝ THE WATERING HOLE: Boss Combat volunteers, report! HAZARDS ⚝ Dense Wood: The overgrowth of the jungle and the tightly packed trees mean there are very few wide open spaces as you make your way through. For those of you who rely on your eyeballs, this means visibility is hampered - and that Revenants could ambush you if you're not on high alert! Uneven Footing: Given how wild the terrain here is, you might find that it's a bit hard to get stable footing when you're running to and fro here. Some of this is varied elevation but a lot of it is varied textures too. Stumble too close to anywhere with running water and you'll be slipping and sliding all up and down the Underside! ⚝ Revenant Types Present: Charles, Minturno

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mm. [A thoughtful hum, like considering it.] That's a conversation for if we get down there and can't fix it, I suppose. We've simply come too far to give up now. We'll make it, or some of us will, and then whatever happens from there happens.

[A beautiful dream would be a kindness, yes. Is it one he deserves? A question for another time.]

That girl. You don't like her very much. [Delicately stated.] You have a history with her. What we know--what we think we know--is that she is an Executor but without any of her memories. [He won't mention the butterflies, the revelation that while they had assumed they were Rei's memories, she hasn't personally regained a single one.] With the singular power to make more of us.

But you know better, don't you? What is she?

[ That terrible cold once again fills the space where words should be. It's only the steady tap, tap, tap that makes it clear she's still there at all. It should be a simple answer, but given where she begins when she does finally speak up, maybe there's nothing simple about this place. ]

Back when I and Purgatory were still young, I did my duties... carelessly, I suppose. Not imprecisely, but without care or warmth. I was not human. Nothing stirred in my chest as I guided each soul down to their next lives. I did not have a heart.

But... as time passed, one began to form. Like a curse. Or a tumour. It... changed me. Made me like the humans I carried to the Cogs, even though this was a duty no human could ever bear by themselves. This would be a terrible place to be alone for all eternity, would it not?

It troubled me, this heart so like a human's.

[ Tap. Tap. Tap. ]

So I thought it would be better... for all of us... if I were to cut it out.

[ Tap. ]

That is what she is.

[The revelation begs so many more questions. But he pulls his legs up, arms wrapped loosely around, and just breathes through it. The memories then aren't Rei's, but perhaps they belong to this girl? Hm, no, but who were these people that taught her how to be, how to exist?

Cut out the heart...yes, that sounds perfectly pragmatic for a being forced to exist in this place with no one sticking around too long. She seems so indifferent to her own fate should they fix the Cogs, but at least like this, there are those who stay.

Perhaps that wouldn't matter to Birdie.]

She's been nothing but incredibly kind to us. In her own way. A dear and human-like girl. I assume you don't want her back, and I can hardly blame you.

What does her existence and her heart have to do with the Cogs?

[ Again, that infuriatingly pretty laugh rings out. ]

It's just as I said. Purgatory is a terrible place to spend all of eternity alone. Should you reach the bottom and should the Cogs turn then all of you will walk away to your new lives and leave her here. Alone again and lonelier still for knowing what it feels like to have loved you all and been left behind.

So why would she ever allow the Cogs to turn?

[That's pretty much what he was afraid of, but then:] She can go through, too. Then she wouldn't have to stay here, same as you. Her whole mission, as she sees it, is to get the Cogs to turn again. Does she truly not remember and wants to try and fix something that feels wrong, or is she just...gathering friends to join her? Convince people to pal around with her until they all fall or...reach the end and then...

[Oh. Oh he does not like where some of these thoughts lead. Could Rei truly be capable of lying to them like that? That nervous wreck of a socially anxious child?]

We aren't the first, are we? That's why you, the Authorities, know what Executors even are.

No, you aren't.

[ Whether she means to make that sound as damning as it comes out is unclear. ]

There was one before you. A girl. But it was so long ago now that I...

[ For once her voice wavers and threatens to break. She stops herself there, composes herself and continues with something that seems... safer. ]

I don't... know what her intentions are. Maybe her heart is as hopelessly pure as you say and she remembers nothing. Or perhaps she's leading you all to your doom for her own satisfaction. I don't know. And I don't care to speak to her for myself to find out.

Why not?

[It's an earnest question.] You aren't going to want her back, even if you could take her in. I don't know how she'll react to you, but... What's the worst that could happen from having a conversation with yourself?

Don't.

[ For the first time, her voice sharpens. ]

It's bad enough that she still exists. Why would you have me come face to face with that awful reminder of what I used to be?

And what would you have done with her instead? Just let her be? Slay her? Let her suffer the same pointless existence as you? Fabulous, now there are two of you.

Why do you care so much what I do?

[ There's still a touch of that sharpness to her tone, but otherwise she just sounds a little... sullen? It's sort of hilarious to imagine her sulking up there in the tree... ]

[Somehow, that's easier. To imagine a broody teenager, even if perhaps she's existed since the dawn of time. Chiron stretches out his legs and tilts his head in that direction.]

Is it so strange to imagine that I might like to know what you would do and why you do it? You, who has such a vested interest in what we do? You've been a shadow of a presence in our afterlives nearly since we came into awakening. You made a very fine attempt at setting me to rest with a blade through me. I care very much about someone like that.

[It need not be a positive emotion for it to be care. She's a concern, certainly.]

I suppose.

[ Still in that sullen tone. It seems for a moment like she's going to leave it there, but when she speaks up again her voice is a little gentler. ]

... I still remember. All of it, for as long as I've ever been here. I remember what it felt like for my mind to fracture apart under the weight of the years and to know that even if I gave in to my despair and even if I sought to make it all stop... nothing would make it stop. I could only hope that I could somehow slip back into a peaceful sleep and let it pass me by, unawares.

No one could give me that dream. But... this is not a fate anyone should endure. I could, at least, do it for the rest of you.

[If she wasn't watching him like a hawk, she'd be forgiven for thinking that perhaps he'd fucked off after that. As it is, he takes it in, considers the situation. He's not sure what it means for Rei. If she truly has forgotten, or if perhaps the same sort of fracturing weight has driven her to a form of madness they haven't even begun to glimpse. His hand slides over to his phone and stops the recording, and he hangs there in a prolonged moment that feels like eternity. That feels like two thousand years.

With time, such as it is here, he can at least glance at it briefly without going utterly mad. But he does remember. He can delve into it, the years of nothing. In some ways, at least she had something--a job, people if fleetingly. He had the darkness, the eternal pain, his own mind and the hallucinated thoughts. Aera's disdain and Somnus' contempt. The sound of his own breathing, and then the sound of silence when he occasionally stopped doing so. The sound of his heartbeat. The sound of every creak and shift in the massive chains holding him in place. Distantly--so distantly--the sound of the ocean when the storms became furious, and thunder when the Fulgarian showed his displeasure.

And himself. And himself. And himself. Seconds and days were the same, and weeks and years as well. Every moment of time moving forward that felt infinitesimally small and so so wide with no ability to tell and no ability to care.

When he came out the other side, he was understandably a wreck. Some wretched gremlin of a man who thought him a prized experiment who wanted to goad him into joining a war with people he was so far removed from that--none of it mattered. He didn't care. He still said his prayers for food but barely ate. Drank quite a bit. Read what he could, trying to play catch up with the history and technology, but more or less floated through his time like a ghost.

It feels too big and too vast for his skull to contain, darkness bursting at the seams. He holds his head in his hands, heavy breathing transforming into laughter, a noise clearly unhinged from reality. Scourge drips from his blackened eyes, dribbles from his mouth. It evaporates the same as pneuma.

It beats screaming, he supposes.

When he finally regains control of himself, the memories settling back into locked boxes, he lies back on the rock, arms spread, chest heaving.]

You realize this means you should help us, I hope. [Such a rational, calm thing to say with only breathlessness to give it away after that fit.] Fix the Cogs. You can be the first one through to go to whatever lies beyond and leave this old self behind. I'll be right behind you. I know not what killed the unkillable, but continued existence is...[he flits a hand through the air, twisting his wrist that he might pluck the right word from the foggy branches above his head] burdensome.

Or you could let us strike as many blows to you as are needed to send you to sleep. You needn't fight anymore.

[ There's a dry laugh. It's a little breathless as if, like Chiron's, there's some quiet, burdened emotion at play behind her otherwise calm voice. ]

Burdensome. Yes, I agree. And... I suppose I'm grateful that even now, you would attempt to offer help.

[ There's a shifting, a creak in the trees and then a gentle thump. A landing. ]

But the Cogs will not allow me through. I've already tried.

Then there's only one thing for it, isn't there?

[It is possible the Cogs don't let her through because she is of this place. No life exists to reincarnate into. Might it have something to do, also, with not having Rei as part of her? Possible, though he knows not how much.

Chiron sits up, leaned back on on arm.]

Does your own blade work against you? If not, I'll attempt to be as quick and merciful as possible and send you back to Limbo.

It might. It certainly worked well enough when I needed to make use of it.

[ Rei didn't just pop out cleanly all on her own, after all. ]

With things as they are, though... I must admit, I'm hesitant to allow you to try.

And what is it about things as they are that makes you hesitate so? There's no need to fight. There's really no need to stop us, either. We make it down or we don't. We fix the Cogs or we don't, or something happens to us by Rei's doing. Either nothing for you changes, or quite possibly everything changes. If you wanted me to stop from trying, you've proven you can easily do so. If the issue of your blade is that it will only cut pieces from you instead of... [He flicks a hand.] All that it did to me, then we'll use other weapons.

What, frankly, could I possibly do to make you hesitate? Do you not trust this face?

That isn't the case at all. If you're so determined to make your way down to the cogs, then I have no further intentions of standing in your way. But consider for a moment – Purgatory is my domain. I am the Authority that controls and shapes it.

What would happen to it, should I cease to be?

[ She lets that sink in for a moment. ]

What would happen to all of you?

...Generally speaking, someone else takes over. That's what has happened to all the other Authorities that have been defeated. The power has transferred over.

Which makes this an ever-rotating wheel. [With a dramatic sigh. And yet so very tired.] If that weren't the case, I might suggest the whole damned thing would fall to pieces, and that might actually be a good outcome. But if your power, your responsibility, simply goes to whoever defeats you, then sooner or later whoever has that power will go down a similar path of madness and regretful emotion.

Precisely. Put a blade to me and you're just as likely to take my place as you are to do any real good. Even should the Cogs be repaired, the others would leave without you and you would be left here, alone.

[ She gives a breath that sounds almost like a laugh. ]

It truly would be kinder for all of this to break apart – for it to shatter at the root. Don't you think?

[He could do it, he thinks. Has done. What's a little more madness, leave sanity behind? And become a monster for Rei to play pretend with and defeat so valiantly?]

...I'm going to presume you know no way of doing it, else you would have done so. Or you would have tried.

But if it's all gone, that means no Cogs. No reincarnating into something new. Perhaps no afterlife at all.

[And would that be so bad?]

I have... theorized of ways that it could be done. If the Cogs can be broken and forced into stasis, it stands that somewhere in all this is something that could be broken and dismantled enough for all of it to be beyond repair.

But that would be the end for everyone – and everything. Everyone who ever has and ever will be born either snuffing out like a candle or spending eternity screaming alone in the darkness.

[ There's a wry note to her voice, as if to say: what else is new?

Muffled by the fog, there's the crunching of undergrowth beneath her feet as her footsteps draw closer. ]

But... perhaps if it can be dismantled... then something new can be created from the pieces. Something better.

Would not there need be the power of an Authority to make something newer, better, from all this flotsam and jetsam?

[Better to pay attention to the footsteps, to feel a line of tension in him even if they're playing nice. Better to think on that last bit of information than to dwell on the possibility of An End, finite and infinite both.]

You have power over this place. But how much change can you truly affect?

A question I've asked myself many times. Perhaps this world is too big for me alone to affect any true change.

[ Her footsteps come to a halt and she gives a thoughtful hum. ]

... Perhaps it would take more than one Authority to do much of anything at all.

...[It's alarming, actually. Imagine having the power, spread over multiple people--the Executors, perhaps--to create something new, something better. Something that works different. It's...frightening how enticing the idea is. But that isn't a choice he can make, here and now. Should he tell the others? Perhaps...Phoenix and Orthrus, at least?]

We've...some that share Authority over some of the layers. I don't think they've sought to do anything with their powers, however. Perhaps a little experimentation is in order? To see what they can change. How it feels. How much power they have in such a relatively short amount of time.

And if they who would wield the power of Purgatory might be able to dismantle Purgatory, there may not be any need for Authorities at all. Could they not make it so? I...do not know the extent of power Authorities truly have.

It's...something to consider. Another time, perhaps? If the plan seems more viable... [If they get to the Cogs and can't fix them; if they get to the Cogs and can and realize that perhaps there's a better way. Surely Mona might be able to have a strong opinion on this. He waves a hand.] An interesting proposition to be discussed at length. Without your dear other half around. I've little doubt that we'll cross paths again, little bird.

...Although. [And he makes to stand, a slow and casual thing with a lean on his scythe, dusting himself off.] It does beg the question, I think. Why are you here? It seems unlikely to be mere coincidence. And yet you seemed so caught off guard that one of our member wandered in here at all.

Gula Underside Log

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