iStones, Nov 29

[hellawrath]

Sooooo, guess what we found over on ol' Maati! [Lup sounds as cheerful as ever, but it's clearly fake and tense. And it doesn't last.]

A freaking door set into the cliffside. Locked, natch. There's a sigil on it, one of those glowy bird tats some folks woke up with.

[Anyone else hearing the alarm bells, or just her?]

I don't know-- this may not be as bad as it looks? But let's be real, it probably is. Just, keep your weapons and shit on you at all times I guess, just in case. And if you wake up somewhere weird? Don't fucking touch anything until you're positive it's not gonna kill you.

We don't have the greatest track record around here, with locked doors. And I've got a bad feeling about this.

Comments

[devilstongue]

Hurrah, we're all gonna fucking die.

What kind of bird thing was it?

[hellawrath]

Wouldn't be the first time, homie. [Awfully grim, for a door.]

The one with like, a bigger and a smaller bird, in dark blue? One of my camp mates has the same mark, so it's definitely connected.

[devilstongue]

Great.

[ That's his marking, after all. ]

Did your friend try to open it?

[hellawrath]

Aww dern, why didn't we think of that! This was definitely our very first shitty puzzle rodeo for sure. [What do you think?]

[devilstongue]

I don't know how many idiots are in this place, so I figure it was best to check.

[hellawrath]

That’s-- fair, honestly, yeah.

So if you’re so full of good ideas, you got any about what those marks mean?

[devilstongue]

Nope. I don't know anything, that's my charm.

[hyperlit]

DEFINE-GLOWING-TAT

[The words issuing from the stone are robotic and automated - the stone's way of translating the Drifter's nonverbal nature into something coherent.]

[The interrogative is twofold - one, they have no idea what she means by tat. Two, they aren't currently aware that they have a tat. They'll probably be discovering that fairly soon, at least.]

[hellawrath]

[Well thank rabbit-god for caller ID, cuz this is pretty wild.]

Woah, haven't heard you talk through one of these before, buddy.

Oh yeah, the like, tattoo? It's this mark on the back of your hand that some people just kind of woke up with, a couple days ago. And... it... glows? [Does she need to define glowing, orrr--]

[hyperlit]

I-SEE

[Thankfully, the Guardian has...specified some. Cleared that up a bit.]

DID-NOT-NOTICE

[hellawrath]

Right, so we don’t-- Hang on. You don’t take off your-- like your cloak and stuff, ever? Not even to sleep? [Do they even know how to get comfy? This has suddenly become very important.]

[hyperlit]

NO

[They find the notion that they should be...puzzling? They are accustomed to sleeping and traveling light, so that there is never any hesitation should they be required to get up and fight or flee at a moment's notice. That is how they've lived here since arriving - and before.]

ALWAYS-PREPARED

[prettypurpleparlor]

[There's the quiet hiss of a sharp intake of breath, proof enough that Muffet definitely remembers the last mysterious cliffside door they all found, and what was inside it.]

[Being herself, the rest of the reply is calm and polite. A little mortal terror of your traumatizing crystal experience repeating itself is no reason to let standards slip.]

Thank you for letting us know, I'll be certain to keep an eye out for any other... worrying developments.

Did you have the chance to ask Anbaki about this sigil? The Storyteller couldn't perceive the mines because of the sigils there, and it makes me wonder if this might be intended to have a similar effect.

[hellawrath]

[Of course that’s no reason, one standard slipped and next thing you know it’s fucking Lord of The Flies up in here. That probably counts as a spider joke somehow.]

Nah, I didn’t try to catch up with Big Bird about it. I mean, they’re about as happy to give us a straight answer as the Storyteller used to be, y’know? And like twice as snooty about it.

Also, considering that the marks straight up are just birds? Kinda makes me think they know exactly what’s behind that door.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[Her own talk with Anbaki had gone well enough, but they hadn't discussed much beyond pleasantries.]

Ah, that's frustrating... [The Storyteller's come so far... Upon reflection, that incident in the mines was when they really started listening to the castaways, wasn't it? The shock of grief and remorse spurring them to go from awkwardly tolerating all the sudden new people to actively trying to work with them.]

[She wonders, briefly, if Lup is remembering that, too.]

I have the regrettable suspicion that we're going to be finding out what's behind there, one way or another. I wonder if we'll find ones for the other colors of marks, too...

[lesbeau]

Sooo which one was it? The symbol thing. Was it a color?

Also, gimme the deets on doors.

[She's finding it hard to catch up on the history of this place when nothing's written down, but she's mostly looking for a threat report.]

[hellawrath]

Dark blue, yeah. With the two birds looking at each other? Somebody I was with has that mark. Full on lost his shit about it, I could like, barely get him to keep it together. [Suck it, Kravitz.]

Doors like that are a bad fucking sign. [Lup sounds grim. So maybe she kinda invited door-related questions with that announcement, but that doesn’t mean she has to like talking about it.] There’s two on Enso, one in the old monkey compound and one up at the top of the mountain. When we first found them, they were enscribed with a sigil that kept the Storyteller from knowing what’s behind them? So they-- They sent all of us down there to check it out. Like, in a abducted in the middle of the fucking night kinda way.

[lesbeau]

[She lived her first month at the monkey compound, so she knows where that door is. Hadn't messed with it, so it just didn't come up. But what the other woman is saying is outright fucked, and Beau makes a 'tsh' noise in obvious displeasure.]

The god here fucking kidnapped everyone to go look into something.

[It's a flat observation, but with a seriousness behind it.]

Great. So you thinking we're heading for part two of door bullshit? What ended up behind 'em?