phantasmalrift | DUNGEON - BELLMARE ENCLAVE (BELLMARE MOUNTAINS, PT 2)

The shadows are starting to grow very long as you crest his particular ridge - it's not night yet, but it will be soon. In the shadows of the afternoon, with a tall mountain already blocking the sun, lies a snow-covered valley that is different from the ones you've come across thus far in your investigation.

This valley is home to a town, and unlike all the settlements you've seen so far - Incendia, the Telovia mining town, and the manor - it's very much active. There are actual people in the streets, visible from above, going through their days on snow-free streets, bundled up against the cold.

Those of you who asked were told of the handful of people who didn't go into the slumber of stasis as the Fissure conditions of the world grew worse and worse, instead isolating themselves and trying to continue living their lives as they could. Now, it seems, you've found exactly such a group.

Welcome to the Bellmare Enclave, and enjoy your stay.

[[OOC: Welcome to part 2 of the dungeon! For the most part, interaction with the town's NPCs can be handwaved as described on the main information post. Worth noting are the following major things: The Bellmare Enclave isn't expecting visitors, though the people are generally friendly to the new arrivals. They don't know about the time dilation effect of their Fissure - to them, it's only been about eighteen years since the Slumber Plan was put in place and they withdrew from the world. And finally, by a similar token, they have no idea how far the Fissures outside of their own have grown - while it's not uncommon for them to find odd objects from time to time, they'll assume that the characters are just arrivals from other places within their own world, rather than outsiders, until told otherwise.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

-1: Fist Legally Distinct From That Of The North Star-

[Lin carefully climbed down the cave, followed by shifting visions. They were fragmented and it was hard to pick out anything too coherent, but they mainly seemed to be about a version of Lin with bloodstained clothes who wandered through the desert alone, with dead eyes. Or was she alone? She looked to be followed by ghosts. A sour looking woman in black. A wild looking gunslinger. A tired man with a cigarette and a rifle. A tall man with an umbrella in robes. A man with a lively smirk and a barely hidden aura of power...

The real Lin did her best to ignore it. Most of those people were still alive, as far as she knew. But, anyone following her could see her doppelganger killing people. Cruel people. Dangerous people. Perhaps some people who were just in the way of her goals. The fragmented visions didn't give enough context to tell.]

Stupid magic. Stupid fissures. Stupid crystals. I never would have ended up like that.

...Probably never.

-2: Sound Life-

[It wasn't all bad, though. When her visions weren't telling people they were already dead, they were all together sunny. Lin caught glimpses of herself from a world that had never been ruined by nuclear fire. She was a college student, surrounded by friends laughing at a cafe. She was a mechanic, wiping engine grease off her face at the end of a long day. She was a dancer, jumping and leaping across an enormous stage. She was anything she wanted to be, in a gleaming metropolis where life didn't force you to be strong to survive.

The real Lin, scarred and mangled by a hard life, slowly reached out and ran her fingers gently along the cave wall that the images were glowing on. She wondered what that life would have been like, where she had never had to hurt anyone.

Eventually she dropped her hand back down to her side and closed her eyes and spoke softly to herself.]

I can't change the past. But...The future is still open. I'll find a way out.

Edited 2019-01-02 23:58 (UTC)

Yous who could have been, huh?

[Pidonus couldn't help but smile as she slipped into range.]

Or is it more yous who can be, maybe, if you can get to another world after all this?