terminus

[cancrymods]

the final layer

Down, down into the darkness you go. It's not the first time you've made such a blind descent... though some instinct beyond any kind of conscious thought tells you that it will be the last. There's no movement down here. No motion. The air is so still that as you descent, it feels like stepping into a wall of ice as you leave behind the heat of the Wrath Layer and continue into the bitter cold of... Oh. This is the end, isn't it? The machine that sits at the bottom of Purgatory is incomprehensible. The sheer scale of its size make it impossible to imagine that it could ever have been built by anyone – and yet, the sheer complexity of its design simultaneously has you reeling from the idea that it could have come into being without some intent. Wherever you look, frozen gears interlock in a labyrinthine network that soars high into the space above your heads and down into the inky depths below. All at once you remember what you had been told so long ago. Not even a god could withstand this. It's still here. So still that it feels obscene to move or to make any noise. The air is at once thin and heavy - like stealing a breath from the hanging jaw of a skull. You've reached the Cogs of Renewal. Investigate . . . ?

Comments

[cancrymods]

[ Reaching to touch the mind of the Cogs is like trying to read the mind of a corpse. There's the sense that there was something here once, living and breathing as best as anything can in Purgatory, but the stirrings left behind are no more than a memory of a memory.

It hurts to probe something so complex and huge. Medic, of course, can withstand the pain but the pressure of it makes something burst – her eardrums pop and a stream of sparkling pneuma sluices out of her nose.

But wait.

A gear out of place in the machine somewhere. A loose thread left hanging. The coppery tang of–

The connection breaks there. ]

[mementomoritz]

[The fact that she pauses to give Wolfsbane an affirming nod even while in the middle of her science fugue says a lot about how close they've gotten.]

[She instinctively raises a hand to the pneuma nosebleed, frowning curiously down at the smear of dark liquid on her fingers even as she reflexively heals herself.]

Is it... really...

[She looks up, expression firming.]

This isn't all there is. [She gestures around them with her free hand.] It's so big that I can't see where it is, but there's something in here that isn't done yet!

[Like finding warm flesh surrounded by dead tissue, a beating heart in an old corpse. Or even just a single vein...]

[cancrymods]

[ this is probably a ridiculous question, which i acknowledge in advance. But...!

Despite the danger, does Medic go back in for a second look? ]

[mementomoritz]

[Almost immediately, yes.]

[cancrymods]

[ The crushing pressure and weight of the Cogs immediately returns and it'll take a moment to adjust to it again, unless Medic wants to risk another nosebleed. Either way, now that she knows what she's looking for she's able to detect something interesting that wasn't apparent before.

That still living presence somewhere down here... does not belong to the Cogs. It's something foreign and new. ]

[mementomoritz]

[She settles almost unthinkingly into a professional posture, falling back on the old familiar habits of an old unfamiliar life for steady ground.]

I'll have to go in deeper... Beginning observational necropsy.

[Medic isn't very good with her own safety, when it comes to risk- but she does at least understand the importance of being careful with an experimental subject. It's no good if you carelessly crush something important while you're trying to study it, after all.]

[So when her mind reaches out, it's with a surgeon's steady hand- a gentle touch, light-fingered and cautious.]

[But never hesitating to reach out.]

[Murmuring, thoughtful:] A foreign body in the patient's system...? But is it malignant or benign...

[This presence, does it feel like anything she can recognize- an Authority, an Executor, a Specter, a Revenant? Or is it something as alien as the Cogs themselves, in a distinctly different way?]

[cancrymods]

[ Picking her way through the Cogs is hard. There's the distinct sense that at any moment, the connection might somehow lash back at her - not hostility, but the indifference of a person casually and unknowingly crushing a bug underfoot because they never noticed it was there. It takes a great deal of care and some toughing it out, but eventually Medic feels... something.

It's not part of the Cogs, first of all – it's some sort of foreign matter that's latched on, growing and mutating within the Cogs' environment. It seems... mostly benign, but it's still alarming to see.

Like this, Medic could probably track it... if she wants to? ]

[mementomoritz]

[This is why you should always keep an eye out for any weird bugs, and then scoop them up and show them to people so they can see the cool bug you found. Medic believes this with all her heart.]

A foreign growth, how interesting! But where did you come from...?

[If she can't figure out any more about it just from observing, she'll try and puzzle out where it is, yeah.]

[cancrymods]

[ It's somewhere much deeper down in the Cogs.

Investigate? ]

[mementomoritz]

[Medic's eyes snap open, and she points in the direction she can sense the new growth.]

Down there!

[Investigate.]

[emberserker]

Not alone you're not. I'd quite like to see whatever this is.

[Wolfsbane starts heading in the direction Medic's pointed.]

[crypddyd]

[And Lion too is right at Medic's side]

As would I. If there is any danger we will protect you as you work.

[schardynfreude]

I don't recommend touching the damned things if it can be helped. Terribly unpleasant.

[cancrymods]

[ Down is right. Looks like the only way to reach this... whatever it is would be to step away from this tiny safe space and essentially platform your way down across the gears.

It's just far enough that you can't exactly see what's there with the naked eye... but you won't lose sight of the others if you decide to descend. ]

[mementomoritz]

[Cheerfully:] That's why I always wear gloves! I have extra if anyone wants some.

[Yes, she brought a plastic baggie full of latex medical gloves down to the final gates of the afterlife. Look, you never know.]

I don't see another way down, so... forward it is! [And unless anyone wants to take her up on that offer, she's going to follow Wolfsbane and try to jump from gear to gear.]

[At least that rollercoaster stunt in Luxuria was good practice for something.]

[emberserker]

If any of you fall, I'm not catching you.

[Wolfsbane runs and jumps down across the gears, apparently not impeded by her dress (or, for that matter, the gems sticking out of her).]

[twibeast]

[ At this point he's decided to transform into his dog form and is following behind. Much more agile like this! ]

Yes, yes, we know.

[cancrymods]

Mm. I'm coming too.

[ As if there was even any question – though she manages the impressive feat of going even more pale than usual when she sets down on the Gears. ]

Th–they're so... cold. And strange.

[emberserker]

Suppose it's because they're ailing?

[She peers down into the abyss and manifests a fireball hovering above her hand.]

[daughterofthemark]

Ailing, or perhaps... upset, somehow?

[Look, she doesn't know. She would just be chilling and waiting for you guys to handle this if she wasn't following Rei.]

[schardynfreude]

Mm, perhaps, but it feels quite like the sensation of getting run through with our little Birdie's terrible-to-behold sword. Perhaps somehow she took part of the Cogs and fashioned it into a blade?

[We're back to holding the blind man's hand okay he will need assistance in getting down. He's scowling the whole of the way because he does not like this feeling.]

Where is she, anyway? If anyone's to help us reshape the whole of Purgatory, she would be the one whose assistance we need most. Given her being the Authority of Purgatory.

[cancrymods]

. . . You're right.

[ That makes Rei pause in her mascot platforming to straighten up and look back up at the spot they'd just left behind. Her brow furrows. ]

I thought... maybe when we arrived she'd be waiting for us. But...

[ And her gaze goes back into the deep dark below. ]

... is she waiting at the very bottom?

[mementomoritz]

[Medic has a very high tolerance for discomfort, but even she's walking like a cat with tape stuck to its' paws whenever she has to stand on these gears- light, quick hops, trying to touch the ground as little as possible.]

It would explain why her sword can affect memories! Although...

[A thought seems to occur to her.]

You managed to recover your memories, didn't you? [Pointing at Chirardyn.] I wonder if that means the effect of the gears themselves can also be reversed? Or maybe they're much stronger, here at the source...

[emberserker]

We'll have to find out from that demon. If she's waiting for us at the bottom, she certainly hasn't done anything to fix the Cogs... though perhaps she needs us for that.

[schardynfreude]

Don't call her that. [Snapped with a nasty little growl.] She's even more trapped here than we are. And while, yes, my memories recovered, I've little doubt that if she had managed to render a killing blow--forgive the term--that I would not have recovered anything upon reconstitution.