descent

[cancrymods]

growing heavy for the vintage

Like flakes of snow, the days spent in the Sloth Layer slowly but surely begin piling up. Life here is quiet and easy, even with the anxiety that comes with needing to move onto the next layer. But as the days drag out, so do the mysteries at play here – with the gradual uncovering of the odd doppelgangers and the seeming lack of any way to proceed to the next layer, it leaves the Executors at a loss for what to do. Until one day, everything changes. It comes entirely without warning – the ground lurches under everyone's feet in a sickeningly familiar way as a brief but violent earthquake rattles through the town. Then all of you feel it; a snapping sensation deep from the very foundations of Purgatory followed by the most cataclysmic impact any of you have experienced in your lives – or unlives. Snow explodes up from the ground, houses creak and lurch and the whole layer seems as though it might shatter apart under your feet. It seems like it's going to last forever. Then, finally, it stops. The silence that follows is even more pronounced in comparison to the hell-rattling noise from before, but as some semblance of calm starts to return, you realize several things. First is how eerily quiet the town is. Surely after all that, you'd hear a Specter or two... but there's nothing. Secondly – a splash of something wet strikes your cheek. Then again. Until it becomes clear that the weather has taken a sudden drastic turn and in place of the gentle snowfall from before, the heavens have opened with a torrential rainfall. Why? Possibly because of the steadily growing heat you suddenly feel burning up through the foundation of the layer and radiating out through the town. Will you investigate?

Comments

[mementomoritz]

Maybe? Acedia was Sloth, so if there was supposed to be one layer left, then this... [She gestures around them.] ...should be Wrath.

But I can't sense anything up here! Maybe whatever stopped the Cogs was destructive enough to damage the layer right above it, too?

...Or maybe something was very, very angry.

[emberserker]

If Acedia didn't even have an Underside -- or perhaps if it

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If Acedia didn't even have an Underside -- or perhaps if it <idid,</i> before all this destruction happened and we skipped directly to this place. It's not as if we could tell the difference. Look at this mess.

[mementomoritz]

It feels like there definitely used to be something here, but I don't know what.

[If this used to be part of the Acedia Underside or the Ira layer or both, it's impossible to tell now- everything's just gone, and all the wreckage looks the same.]

Although... [She frowns thoughtfully.] If whatever caused this happened that long ago, what broke open the way to Acedia?

[The Cogs have been broken for a while now, after all.]

Was something building up in here all this time, and it couldn't be contained any longer? [She's imagining something like toxic gas, but more metaphysical possibilities aren't exactly out of the question.] Or did something change down here, today?

[daughterofthemark]

Perhaps some calamity was set in motion long ago, surviving past its creators' demise, and today it finally reached its activation.

[That's an oddly specific idea, Veil.]

[mementomoritz]

[Cheerfully:] That's an oddly specific idea, Veil!

But it's a pretty solid potential hypothesis, considering the information we have so far-

[She breaks off midsentence, blinking briefly in surprise as she notices something.] No, wait- part of this is newer.

It feels... almost like Acedia? All the newer parts do, definitely. But none of the older ones, they feel like something else.

[She steeples her hands in front of her face, putting her thoughts in order as she tries to piece together the timeline.]

So whatever happened down here happened a while ago, a really long time, and whatever it was... incinerated the Wrath layer. And even after the actual event, something kept building up until it finally hit the Acedia underside- and when the underside broke from it, that cracked open the way down here.

[cancrymods]

[ So hey, is Medic still reaching out with her sensory powers?

Just curious. Don't worry about it. ]

[mementomoritz]

[In the full knowledge that you may be about to vaporize my entire ass:]

[Yes.]

[cancrymods]

[ Great! Let me paint a little word picture for you.

When reaching out with her sensory powers, Medic usually gets a lot of pings due to how populated Purgatory is. The hard part is sifting through all that noise and working out what the relevant information is. This time, though, there's just... nothing. It's like standing at a doorway whose other side is completely concealed by pitch black darkness. By reaching out with her powers, Medic is doing the equivalent of reaching her hand into that pure, perfect darkness.

And when she does, something seizes her hand.

Clamping down on Medic's sensory powers and refusing to let her withdraw them. ]

[mementomoritz]

Um!

[Medic breaks off in the middle of theorizing about metaphysical layer structures- more muttering to herself as she tries to sort out her thoughts than anything else- when she feels herself get grabbed.]

[In the tone of someone not entirely sure if they're about to get in trouble for what they're admitting:] So I think something noticed me? Or felt me trying to notice them-

[When you're grabbed out of nowhere, the instinctive response is usually to jerk back, try to pull away. Because something might be dangerous, might be trying to hurt you.]

[Except...]

[It isn't Medic's instinct. She doesn't flinch back from potential dangers, because to her, they usually aren't. On that instinctive, visceral level, she just never quite learned.]

[And when someone takes your hand, even if it's strange, doesn't it mean they're reaching out?]

-hello, can you understand me? Are you out there?

[So instead of trying to pull away, she pushes herself, straining at her limits to try and flare her sensory powers wider.]

[She felt you, stranger in the doorway. Can you feel her?]

[emberserker]

Medic!

[Wolfsbane manifests her halberd and grips it in both hands. She's not doing anything right now, but the second anything goes wrong...]

[mementomoritz]

[Possibly unnecessarily, given that they've probably all noticed the ground shaking:] So, good news! I don't think we need to worry about finding a way to get down to the sleeping thing!

[emberserker]

Another earthquake?!

[She's ready to attack should something come up, but keeps looking over to Medic.]

[mementomoritz]

[Medic looks back over at her, strained from the draw on her powers but not visibly harmed, at least.] I don't know exactly what it is yet, but it's very big and it's waking up!

I think we might be about to find out, though...

[cancrymods]

[ No response. At least not in words, anyway. Instead there's a sharp yank – but rather than trying to pull Medic in, it's using this connection as a tether to pull itself out.

Under their feet, the ground starts to rumble. ]

[daughterofthemark]

Aaaah!

[Aaaah!]

[mementomoritz]

[Welp. It's not like she can withdraw from it at this point anyway, can she? And even if she could, she's still not entirely sure if she should.]

[So instead she's just going to brace herself, warn the others, and keep her eyes open- no matter how hard it pulls at her, she's not going to look away.]

[Whatever she can see about this entity, whatever she can learn, she wants to know.]

[cancrymods]

[ With the massive amount of power stirring under their feet now, it's not at all hard to identify. It's an Authority – the Wrath Authority. But that's all she's able to get, not because there's not enough to identify – but because there's too much. It's like trying to analyse a mountain range with a magnifying glass.

Beneath everyone's feet, the ground begins to shake even more violently. The scorched rock ruptures, opening huge fissures and there's the deep, resonant pops and cracks of massive glassy structures splitting apart and shattering in the distant.

Let's get a head count! Executors who are present, check in. ]

[crypddyd]

[Lion is here and looking just as feral and ready to throw down as ever]

[emberserker]

[Wolfsbane's ready to murderize this thing on a moment's notice.]

[daughterofthemark]

[Veil is here and she has regrets! She might be helping the nearest other Executor embark on an exciting new career as a handrail. The ground is doing things that it should not do and she does not approve!.]

[discutio]

[what the hap is fuckening]

[swordofajerk]

[Might as well do this. What the hell is going on?]

[twibeast]

[ You know maybe he was better off in Acedia after all ]

[mementomoritz]

[She's here, she's queer, she's ready to meet the beast. ...Not you, Achilles.]

[ourtomorrow]

[ Monarch is present! Horrified, but present.

And determined. Horrortermined. ]