WEEK 0 — ARRIVAL

[cartesio]

Week 0: Arrival

When you wake up you immediately feel something’s off. You sit on the bed and find it’s not your bed, and this isn’t your room either. You seem to be in a rather normal-looking motel room. To your side there’s a trunk, if you open it you’ll find a military uniform, the key to your room, a set of rules and a debit card. Don’t lose those items! Or do lose the rules, you'll find a brand new copy the next day under your pillow. There’s also a calendar on the wall, you can see today’s date. The year is unreadable, but the month and day are very clear:

March 28^th
There it says ‘Meet the Sergeant at the Lodge, 9:00 AM’. There’s also a circle around March 31st, with the word ‘END’ scrawled there.

For now leaving your motel room would be a good choice. When you reach the lobby, you see the receptionist’s desk— no one’s manning it. There’s a rack filled with maps, marking several locations in the town.

There are also many strangers here – and you’re one more. For now it may be a good idea to take a map and explore the town.

After all, looks like you’re stuck here in the boonies for a while.

Links

IC Rules
Room Assignments
Locations
Tasks (LOCKED currently)

March 28^th
March 29^th
March 30^th

Comments

[monstrology]

[The brief look of confusion should be confirmation enough for Serph, but Will gives a verbal response to further drive it home.]

I'm afraid not. Is that what's giving you the ability to do that?

[And if so, where can I get one, is the addition that goes unsaid.]

[dvaita]

Yeah, I'm not sure I would call it an ability though. [ He lets out a breath and closes his eyes for a few moments—when they open again, they're a light shade of grey that matches his hair. ]

You don't have an Atma, but you're not screaming that I'm a monster. [ Out of all the weird things and people he's encountered in the past few hours, this might just be the strangest. ]

[monstrology]

I see...

[There's a rising excitement in his voice as he says that and studies Serph's actions, an "I see" of intrigue rather than dismissal. What is an "Atma", then? He must know! Never in all of the skydoms would he have expected to come across such a being. While the current situation is dire, Will easily considers being stuck in it worth it for Serph alone.]

Had I done so, I promise that it would have only been out of the utmost praise. Monsters are wonderful, and sadly misunderstood. I am not surprised if the usual reactions that you receive are ones of fear.

[...so he's still calling Serph a monster in a way.]

[dvaita]

[ Serph smiles half-heartedly, not really minding the implication. It's not like Will was wrong, really. He hadn't ever actually given thought to what to call himself since everything changed in the Junkyard—there was never the time and it didn't really matter. He was Serph, and that was enough. ]

It was like that at first, but it didn't take long for those who resisted their Atma to be eliminated. Nowadays, we're all like this. The few of us who are left, at least. 

[He gives a quick nod of his head away from the Sergeant and the others gathered here, lingering this close is just tempting Varuna to make another move. Besides his conversation with the Sergeant is clearly finished, so off he walks to somewhere a little more private. Will's more than welcome to follow, he doesn't mind. ]  

[monstrology]

[Will does indeed follow. With his curiosity piqued as it is, he's more than eager to continue the conversation if Serph is.

And as that conversation topic shifts to something more somber, so does his expression. Now is a better time than ever to outright ask:]

What is an Atma, exactly?

[dvaita]

'The mark of demons and the power of our true selves.' So says the Church... [ The words come out more bitter than he had expected. Even now it feels odd to act in rebellion against the system he had known for so long. ]

We didn't always have them.

[monstrology]

[Ah. Disdain for the Church... Not unheard of in the least, and Will sympathizes. Far too many rotten apples in the bunch, and that's part of the reason why he tends to practice alone these days.

This Church isn't his own though, at least from everything he knows. He would have heard of something like this. He's certain of it.]

How did they come to be?

[dvaita]

[ He smiles bitterly. ]

I wish I knew. We were engaged in combat one minute, and the next everyone was hit with a blinding light and marked with an Atma. After that it got...messy. [ ... ] A lot of people fell prey to the hunger that day, and many more after. Officially, the Church stated it was a tool to help us in our battle to reach Nirvana. It took them a while to even acknowledge that Atma existed, so I doubt it was completely their doing.

[monstrology]

[Will does his best to paint a picture of the situation based on what information he's being given from Serph. The transformation is probably linked to the Atma, and the "hunger"...mm. That doesn't surprise him based on what he knows about monsters in his world. But for this to be happening to humans(?) really is like nothing he's ever heard of happening across the skydoms. It's so strange...

Well, one thing at a time.]

Did they really take so long to acknowledge it? I can't even imagine how they'd explain away such massive changes... [He's frowning, contemplative. Despite what Serph said, he still thinks it sounds fishy. Or at the very least, a very poor way to handle it.] Either way, I don't like the idea of them calling such a change a "tool". Were they leading the charge in whatever you were fighting?