ximilialog | STATION FINAL

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STATION FINAL

● ● ● S T A T I O N F I N A L

INTRO • for nostalgia's sake • final countdown • FYI

// INTRO. one more time  

The halls of the station are strangely quiet. The team has lost members now — there are less of you than there used to be, and here at the end of the line, following the very last mission, the absence of all your missing companions is felt even more acutely. Phantom footsteps haunt the rooms where some of those voices will never be heard again.

All of this brings the return of a melancholy feeling, and it’s as if the station itself feels it too — the sterility of the too-clean walls feels more stark; the mural down the length of the corridor gives way to nostalgia and longing; and the quiet seems to hint at the bittersweet sorrow of many more partings to come. It all sits heavy in the air: waiting, expectant. You are all waiting for something to happen — sooner, or later.

And all through the increasing turmoil and the realization that you are all at the apex of your journey on the Ximilia, the doors to the North Wing remain closed.

Behind them, the orbs wait, too.

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// PART I.for nostalgia's sake  

Despite the strange atmosphere aboard the station, you should take this opportunity to rest and gather your bearings — get some sleep in your own bed, eat your favourite foods, have an actual shower, and maybe wash off all the sand from the Plains still stuck to you. If you ignore the warning bells chiming in the back of your head, steadily ringing louder and louder, this might feel like any regular downtime between missions.

1.0 The first day back passes in an in-between state, a limbo of sorts: waiting, but not quite knowing for what. There are ways to pass that time, of course — the kitchens have been very recently re-stocked, so those inclined to spend a few hours making fresh pasta or letting the mouth-watering scent of lemon muffins fill the room are more than free to do so. Or perhaps you head to the Sunlight room instead, to enjoy the slowly unfurling spring in the oh-so-real scenery; to hear the birds chirping and warbling; to watch the flowers waking up after a long season of frost, tilting their heads towards the simulated sun. It is like a literal breath of fresh air, especially after the endless dunes of Go’ama… and maybe something that can help you feel calmer, and more at home. Or maybe you’re spending the day with your friends and loved ones within the team, holed up in one of your rooms, or gathering all together to watch one final movie or play games — here, now, when you still can.

2.0 But it’s hard to ignore the constant warning that has burrowed itself into your every waking moment now — it’s the anticipation of knowing that something is going to happen, and whether it is what Viveca has warned you about or something else entirely … it feels serious enough for Degar to have withdrawn to guard the orbs, and serious enough to warrant this wait, the hours growing longer and longer without any clear answers when you might have been so sure the orbs would be fully unified the moment you got back to the station. For those who are not content to simply wait it out, figuring out a plan to deal with whatever is coming your way might be the way you choose to be productive: whether it’s through discussing strategies, compiling the spells you’ll need, and making sure you and your teammates are properly armed — though whether you trust yourself enough for that … that is another matter altogether.

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// PART II.final countdown  

It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s a slow, intentional switching on of your fellow teammate beside you; a shift in mood as you pass each other in the corridor; or a strange thing that they say while you’re just trying to enjoy your biscuits and tea. After eighteen missions aboard the Ximilia, and a clearer insight into the crew before yours, you know that the orbs are capable of corruption and manipulation, turning the best person into their own nightmare.

Whether you’re watching this happen to your teammates, or you’re feeling the orb’s effects on you, the feelings of unease amongst the crew builds and intensifies to the point of threat and fear, and then … irregardless if you’re under the orb’s influence or not, you all feel one thing burrowing itself within you like a sharp, cold blade beneath your ribcage: you feel unsafe.

3.0 For those under the orb’s effects: The ease at which you feel something slide around your mind like thick oil, rendering your thoughts sluggish and delayed, allows your subconscious to fill in the gaps with haunting visions and hallucinations, courtesy of your interaction with the orb that had once been Jial Bryn. You’ve met that particular orb before — when a great eye pulled the strings of a small, once idyllic town called Amaryllis Grove. You don’t even fight it; you don’t want to.

Now the power from that orb lingers inside of you, twisting your thoughts and prodding at your aggression and guilt and sorrow, any negative emotion that it can tug at. You might suddenly become uncharacteristically angry, or perhaps your worst nightmares suddenly feel real, visions playing across your eyes, causing you to lash out at your fellow crewmates — maybe with a warning at first, but eventually a verbal lashing isn’t good enough. You can’t help yourself, after all; you just want it all to stop. Your fellow crew are trying to keep you miserable. They want to take the power for themselves, take it before you can, and they will keep torturing you until you crumble. Amidst your misery, the answer becomes very clear: if you can get to the North Wing, where the power is at its greatest and most potent, and free collection of orbs that are trapped behind fortified walls, you will finally get exactly what you want, whether it’s relief from the nightmares haunting you, or your greatest desires realized. But you need to do it fast, and you need to do it alone. You can’t trust anyone.

NOTE: the severity and variation of the effects are dependent on the strength of your character’s will and player discretion. Your character may lose themselves under the orb’s influence, but they might also find opportunities for other characters to help get them through it.

4.0 For those who are not under the orb’s effects: You’re still yourself despite the increasing level of distrust surrounding you, with Viveca’s words still ringing in your ears: Trust no one. You start to see its effect on the team, the way people have isolated themselves from others. Stupid, petty fights are quicker to spark than they ever used to. Butting heads results in squabbles (whether verbal or physical) that you feel the responsibility to step in and mediate.

But you haven’t given up on your team. How could you, after all? After everything you have all been through? You could still get through to them. You first begin to notice it within the familiar glimpse in their stare, their recognition of you in between their raised fists and uncharacteristic aggression. It’s enough to give you hope that you still have time; and no, it isn’t much, but it is something.

Perhaps you will try to remind them of a memory about themselves, a story they told you and only you, a confession that became a bond neither of you have ever shared with anyone else, not even from your home-world. Perhaps physical touch (if you can avoid retaliation) is the key to bringing your teammate back, whether it’s to shake their shoulders, or to grip their hand, or even to pin them down with your own weight. If all else fails, you may have no choice but to fight them. Maybe it will only take one of you, or maybe help requires a small group — whatever it is that you attempt to do, you’ll need to keep them from hurting you and your fellow teammates, and you’ll need to keep them away from the orbs in the North Wing.

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F Y I

• This log takes place during the month of March.

• If you have questions about any of the prompts, please direct them HERE.

• If you want Viveca and Degar to offer their help to stop one of the affected crew members in a thread, please sign up for that HERE. Please note that you need to have a top level or an ongoing thread to link for the signup.

• The submissions regarding the corruption effects are open and can be submitted HERE.

• And finally, your soundtrack for this log: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For any questions regarding this log and its events, please ask them here.

If you'd like for Viveca and Degar to offer their help to stop one of the affected crew members in a thread, please sign up using the below form under this header.

Please note that you will need to have a top-level or an ongoing thread to link for the signup, and note that you will get either Viveca or Degar at random.

Character Name: Newton Geiszler
Top-Level Link: Gimme one of yours! 👀

Edited 2024-03-18 20:10 (UTC)

Character Name: Aleksander Morozova/ The Darkling
Top-Level Link: Linky!

1.0 for nostalgia's sake (we all lose in the end)

[In the strange quite of the station, Aleksander finds even quieter corners. In the kitchen, sipping hot, fresh coffee from a fishy christmas mug, reading a book. Or in the sunlight room, head tipped back against a tree and the sun on his face. Eyes closed, he might look as if he's sleeping, and not thinking about what is to come.

A goodbye.

He was never good at those, despite the practice.

So many friends, dead back home. So many lost or close to it, here on the station. And Aleksander thinks about all of it.

Wandering the hallways, a black rock cradled in his hand and notes in his pocket - from everyone who cared to leave him one during the past several years. Rhysand's buttons in another and Natasha's bracelet hanging from his wrist.

Small mementos of his time here, and perhaps, a vague, childish hope that when they leave for a final time, he will keep them with him in the days and years to come. No matter where he is found, he will blink and turn his dark eyes to the orber and smile.]

Just one more, and we will be done here.

3.0 final countdown (3, 2, 1--)

[He dreams, in his bed in a quite room. Another new thing; he stopped dreaming back home centuries ago. But he dreams now, sinking in to the

(icy water of a freezing lake)

(spell, cast to protect)

(portal to save)

(water, down deep where all the wonders glow against the deep, dark ocean-floor)

dead sands that Rhysand found inside of him. Sinking like a stone (a hope, a flame, a shooting star) as his feet drag through the remnants of who he was, who he had been and who he could have been (had the fates been kinder). Past the ruins of lost childhood hideaways and his blood soaked adolescence, past the tiny lights littering the shadows like fireflies. Past Finn's hands, and Daisy's warm skin. Past Yennefer's kisses and bright mind, and Peter's laugh. Down; down past Alina, the tether a pulsating beat living in his heart, past black hair, kind eyes and understanding (like calls to like, Wuxian)

He sinks and he dreams- Newton's potion never worked, and the Darkling screams with an inhuman mouth as his leathery wings takes him up in to a darkening, alien sky. Of being too late (always, forever) and between beats of his wings, he steps through a doorway just in time to watch as Cheri pierces Alina with shards of shrapnel (he sinks, dreaming of blood). He falls and there is a circle of (friends, enemies, those who touched him) people with tendrils of power wrapping around them, sucking them dry, the empty husks rattling to the floor of a castle. Too late, he's too late and in his restless dreams, Aleksander

walks across scorching sand under twin suns, following a breaking heart. Stumbles through red light and grimy cobblestone (to save, to find, to hold) to the sound of a revving engine. To the sound of heavy wheels thundering on old train tracks, a smile just out of reach and

screaming, so much screaming. As he sinks (drops, fumbles) deeper. Mission after mission, unspooling before him with every horrible consequence painted in the vivid blood red of his dreams (memories, fears, black and choking), they all

sink.

Through burning pyres and down through the slabs in a shadowy lab. He hangs from breaking branches, the sudden drop at the end leads him down.

Down, where nothing ever grows. Where every fear, every crushed dream and every fragile, burning hope might have lived - once. Leads him down in to the frozen lake, past Annika's rock and Alina's light, past hope and redemption

And he walks alone, eyes wide open in the impossible dark, listening to his own voice saying-]

Oh, I'm sorry. [His face smiles, soft and warm as he turns from the locked door to the North Wing] I was only curious. And we can never be too careful, can we.

[Daisy's storming down the corridors with only one thing on her mind. Free the orbs. So when she spots someone standing guard of the north wing anger floods through her, and it only intensifies when she sees who exactly is there.]

Get out of my way. Or I'll make you.

[Her warning is said through gritted teeth, hand already raised.]

Edited 2024-03-10 17:34 (UTC)

[He dreams, Daisy's voice cutting through the darkness even as his head tilts in the corridor and the smile never wavers, even as his fingers stretch and the shadows deepen around them.

There is nothing behind his eyes except chaos and malice. The other orbs are so close.]

I would love to see you try.

● ● ● S T A T I O N F I N A L

F Y I

QUESTIONS.

VIVECA & DEGAR SIGN-UP.

no subject

no subject

Aleksander Morozova | Shadow and Bone. OTA.

no subject

no subject

Final Countdown

no subject

Daisy Johnson | MCU | OTA

no subject

no subject

Sherlock Holmes | Sherlock Holmes The Awakened (2023) | OTA

1.0: The curtain starts to close on this strange play

3.0: But something happens before the final curtain call

Wildcard

Natasha Romanoff | MCU | OTA

3.0

no subject

1.0

no subject

1.0

anakin skywalker | ota

( 3.0 )

Wei Wuxian

A.

A.