Atrophy

The Jericho Road

Yo, I've exchanged some world building details with Flagg over PM; I'm putting that here now for everyone's benefit. Have fun :3

The Rot

Yo Flagg, sup?

Since you encourage world building so much I wanted to pitch an idea for the symptoms, if not the cause of the disaster that has and is ravaging the planet. It's an idea I halfway developed for something of my own but haven't finished yet, and is loosely inspired by the Color out of Space. I don't know your plans, but I figured I'd let you in on it, perhaps you'll like it or it'll inspire you. The hope is to have an end-world scenario that is less generic than the norm (such as ye olde nuke-doomsday).

In my world I called the phenomenon "the Rot". What happens is that a 'disintegration' of sorts is spreading across the land. Everything - and I do mean everything - is falling apart until only a fine dust remains. Exposure to this dust directly leads to exposed objects also starting to disintegrate. Imagine a form of sand that turns everything it touches also into sand. The process isn't hyper quick, and only parts of the planet are consumed. Also, different materials are broken down at different rates, with organic matter generally being eaten up much quicker than inorganics, especially metals and minerals. Now, the 'weird' part of it is that in the deeper parts of the wastelands, the dust is reforming into new solids. Specifically, shapes resembling veiny cathedrals, heavily inspired by the paintings of Beksinski. Diseased lifeforms might develop a form of insanity (or is it?) where they believe to hear and feel a pulse in the earth, that they will one day follow until they arrive at such a cathedral. There they lay themselves to rest, to be eaten and reborn into the new world.

That's the gist of it. Considering the tone of this setting, I suppose creating weird, new lifeforms born from the dust wouldn't be amiss, and I would also say it should be possible to cleanse exposed wounds to stop the Rot. This way, exposed characters and NPCs could have a chance to "just" get away with some ugly scars, similar to acid burns perhaps. One could develop a cool aesthetic of protective gear that is needed to travel through Rot-lands, including some neat vehicles to make the journy quicker. It would also encourage a certain nomadic tendency for many civilizations, given that they might have to reposition every so many decades to avoid the Rot catching up, which I feel suits the setting quite well.

Also, there does not need to be any explanation known (to characters in any event) for where and how the Rot even began. All we know is that it's there and it will, one day, perhaps far away, consume the planet. Certainly there could be a lot of myths and theories though.

---

Since we have some high tech going on, there could be a type of generator that can create a force barrier to prevent the dust from swooping past. This would essentially be a shield generator against the Rot, and could allow people to prevent a zone from being attacked, provided they can maintain the generator. These things could be as rare as they need to be to keep things exciting.

Bonus points if the technology comes at a severe price for the relative safety from certain doom it afford. Like, say, a pillar that you have to chain psychically/magically gifted people to so that they can power it, but they can't leave and will have their minds burned out over the years.

---

Sure. On a global scale I imagine that there are basically "blotches" on the world map, which are spreading in all directions over the years.

@Ashgan

Sounds absolutely rotten. I dig it.

The Jericho Road

@FlaggOh hey you. This looks pretty neat. I should get something up in the next couple of days.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

---

St. Mercer Hospital

---

Billy’s dreams were normally vapid or incomprehensible, visions of buxom blondes turning into colors and noises turning into the color of noises, and it was infrequent that he remembered them. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t immediately bolt to an exit when the voice of the God Child awoke him but instead took a second in bed to parse through the memory he had experienced. He rubbed his temples, thankful that the doctors had left his glasses sitting on the stand next to him, and sat on the edge of his bed as he desperately tried to find some meaning, if any, to the vision of the past.

It was of one of his family vacations from a few years back, the one to a national park not too far outside of Farmer Hill. The last one. None of the Lawson siblings were particularly enthused to be out in the woods. Henry had wanted something less familiar—he had more than hinted that he wanted to visit another country, Japan judging by the only media that interested him. Penny, in her desperate attempt to seem cool and hip, was upset that they were going on a trip together at all, although she said that if they had gone to maybe Portland she would’ve been okay. Billy just didn’t like the idea of being away from his computer for a week.

The family had all crammed inside of a rental RV that Billy’s dad had gotten a good deal on from one of the guys who frequented the shop. It may have been a good deal, but it was too small for the Lawsons. Billy had flexed his older sibling privilege to get a bunk to himself and forced Henry and Penny to share a bed, an idea that mortified the two of them. It also united them against him, and for the week they had been a force of annoyance. Billy had found pinecones in his bed, rocks in his shoes, and, the turning point, poison ivy in his underwear. By the last day of the trip, he was ready for some revenge.

The plot was a simple one: he was going to get his little brother stoned. Billy crushed up the herb, rolled a joint, and found Henry putzing around by a stream. Penny had seemed to be beaten by nature and joined her mom on one last hike while Billy’s father was busy packing up their campsite. It was easy to convince Henry to take a hit; Billy only called the kid a bitch twice before his lips were around the end of the joint. Henry took one of the biggest drags a first timer had ever taken, and he coughed up a storm after the hit. Billy couldn’t hold back his laughter as his little brother kept coughing. The idiot had just blazed on some poison ivy.

Then he kept coughing.

And kept coughing.

Billy smiled as he looked around the room. He remembered the weird crack in the ceiling; it was the same one he had stared at while his parents chewed him out for his irresponsibility. They were such a drag. Could’ve died was different than had died; people could’ve died all of the time. What were the odds that he’d wake up in the same hospital room as his brother? It was funny.

The scream drew him out of the happy memory. Screams in hospitals were never good ones, like screams for ice cream. He decided now that the best idea for his survival was to beat feet. Billy crawled out of bed and took a few unsteady steps towards the door before he got balance back to his feet. How long had he been out for? With some uncertainty, he grabbed the door handle and pushed through into the hall.

---

St. Mercer Hospital
_@Fernstone

---

Rita followed Tuyen to the door and held her breath when the girl peered through the window, even though she wasn’t the one faced with immediate danger. Rita didn’t feel any relief when Tuyen said that nobody was out there. In a way, that was even worse; a normal, bustling hospital would’ve been a nice thing to see. She also looked through the small window after Tuyen had stepped back. It wasn’t an exaggeration at all: they seemed to be alone.

“Okay,” said Rita, her breath released in one big sigh. “That’s...that’s not necessarily a bad thing, right? Let’s be quiet, just in case.”

Slowly, she pushed open the door, thankful that the hinges were well oiled and didn’t make any deafening creaks. She gave Tuyen an uncertain look that said ‘here goes nothing’ and stepped through the threshold, half-ready for something to jump out and grab her. However, there was no boogeyman waiting for the frightened girl, and she motioned for Tuyen to follow her. Rita hugged the wall as she walked step by step down the hall, making certain to duck below the windows leading into other rooms (even the ones with the privacy curtains pulled down). She made it halfway down the hall when she heard a door click open behind her; her hair stood up on the back of her neck.

“Oh hey man, funny seeing you here. What are the odds?” said the voice that had haunted her dreams. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t even turn to look at him. She was completely petrified. “I mean, I guess they’re pretty good. We only have one hospital, right?” The tall man noticed Tuyen and gave her a superficial smile. “Sup dude, I don’t think we every really talked before, have we? I’m Billy, you’re...uh…”

_{”...run…”}

“Huh?” said Billy as he turned back to Rita just in time to catch a balled-up sheet with his face.

“Run!” screamed Rita as she bolted down the hall, hardly looking to see what was ahead of her at all.

---

St. Mercer Hospital
_{@Ruler Inc@Fernstone}

---

Shit. Penny had knocked the man away, but it wasn’t enough. As the man grappled with Justin’s burning tiger—for a brief second, Penny felt a tinge of jealousy that her abstraction lacked such style—she pulled herself together and swept the broken shards of pipe into her hand. While the other girl went toe-to-toe with the possessed nurse, Penny turned her attention back to the bloodied man. He now had the flame tiger in a chokehold, an action that also seemed to be hurting Justin.

No longer so concerned about her abstraction lacking flair, and having caught Caelea dodge out of the way of the nurse and get some of her own licks in, Penny moved to help Justin. She hurried to get an angle on the man and moved so quick that she almost slipped on the linoleum. She went through with the motion and dropped to one knee, hard, as she unleashed the bits of pipe at the man’s face before she followed through with a salvo of the last of her pens.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

FernStone saved the rp.

@Ruler Inc

Drat. Foiled again.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

I got something for Billy pretty much ready. I'mma wait for @FernStone to post and include it with my responses.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

---

St. Mercer Hospital
_@Fernstone

---

Rita’s hand clutched against her head as the screams invaded her mind. Was Tuyen responsible for them, or was it her Abstraction acting on its own? Either way, the look Rita gave the other girl was one of bewilderment. She tucked her arm back inside of the blanket and wrapped her hands around her as Tuyen guessed Rita’s abstraction. Her lips drew tight, but already she could feel the words crawling up her throat like worms after a spring shower. She bit her tongue and tried to swallow them, but Tuyen’s slight smile disarmed her.

“I...I don’t know...oh…” The words came out forced through gritted teeth. Rita was afraid of what would happen if another person knew about her abstraction. She had only told Martin about it. However, Tuyen didn’t seem disturbed by Rita’s ability, and she had seemed tight with Martin. Rita shook away her doubt. Perhaps it would be nice to have a confidant.

“Yeah. It doesn’t really work when the target knows about it, though, so...uh, and I wasn’t trying to pry or anything. It just sort of happens whenever I ask a question. Sometimes, sometimes it doesn’t,” said Rita. She stumbled over her words to get as many of them out there as possible. Her eyes looked around the room for the exit, and so that she wouldn’t be meeting Tuyen’s eyes. Those screams had been horrifying. “But you’re right. We should find a doctor or something and figure out what’s happened.”

Her eyes snapped back to Tuyen. Underneath her sheet the sigil on her arm glowed and then fizzled out like a sparkler. “The God-Child woke you up too, right?” Her voice was quiet. “Maybe answers should wait. We better get out of here before anything comes.”

---

St. Mercer Hospital
_{@Ruler Inc@Fernstone}

---

Penny felt a mix of relief when her shot striked true and disgust when she realized she had blasted the man in the eye. Gross! She watched, her jaw agape, as the orange light began to repair the damage she had done. She rubbed her shoulder and glanced over towards Justin as he helped out the thrown woman. It was good to see him. She needed to go a bit harder on this abomination, and Justin had one of the stronger abstractions. Penny turned her head back to the corrupted man and flipped her hair behind her shoulder, an arsenal of pens in her left hand as she flipped one with her right.

“About time you showed up. It felt weird doing this alone. You ever notice how we’re always the ones stuck dealing with assholes like this?” she shouted over to Justin; she could hardly make out what the woman was saying. “Is she o—”

And then Justin was tossed across the room like a doll.

Penny launched a pen at the woman before Caelea arrived and quite literally flipped into action, also going towards Justin’s aid. It was a sight to see through the eyes of her abstraction, but there was another threat. Penny turned her attention back to the man just in time to catch him upon her as a bloodcurdling scream nearly shattered her ear drums. The pens dropped from her hands and she fell backwards. The pipe missed where her head was but kept following through to where she had fallen. It would certainly be a bone-crushing strike if it hit her.

So maybe the case would be the same if it hit him. The sigil below her neck glowed as she threw up her hand, blasting at the man and the pipe a fraction of a second before it hit her. At the very least she should be able to shove him back enough to make the blow miss, but Penny truly intended for her power to drill the pipe back through her assaulter.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

@FernStoneTotally forget Tuyen's shadow protects her from that sorta stuff, which makes this a happy accident

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

Sorry there wasn't more! Gonna be slammed until the New Year and didn't want to keep y'all hanging.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

---

St. Mercer Hospital
_@Fernstone

---

“I’m sorry!”

The instant apology came naturally as Tuyen shouted at Rita to shut up. She withdrew her hand from the girl’s shoulder and took a tentative step back, more concern than anything in her wide eyes. She gave a slight, understanding smile as Tuyen backpedaled, although it creased closed as the other girl mentioned her Abstraction being sentient. Before she could even think, as question had formed on Rita’s lips, and the sigil on her still outstretched arm glowed for Tuyen to see as Rita asked, “What do you mean your power is sentient?

---

St. Mercer Hospital
_{@Ruler Inc}

---

Penny was on the move towards the scream. The God Kid’s voice had startled her awake, and she had wasted little time in bed. She had her own room and had torn through the cabinets look for DIY projectiles that she had stuffed in a pillow case; her own Santa’s sack of slings. Anger fueled her as she darted through the halls of the eerie hospital, the scream still ringing in her ears. The Glutton had killed Claire and now it was back to finish the job; she would do whatever she could to be a thorn in its side until the day she died.

Worry also seeped in to her anger, concerned that perhaps the scream belonged to one of her peers. In fact, she worried most that perhaps the Glutton had gotten to Britney. The bitch was her second most hated thing in the universe, but she was the only one with any answers. If she died then so did any real chance Penny and the others had to stand against the Glutton.

Her slippered feet slapped against the floor and made it awkward to run as she past by darkened room after darkened room. Penny turned a corner and noticed the light from the lobby shining through the windows on a set of doors like a beacon to guide her to the source of the scream. She slammed through the doors and practically slid into the lobby, the bag of ballistics unslung from her shoulder as she grabbed an assortment of pens and tongue depressors. She had expected to see the Glutton in all of it’s bizarre, undefinable horror; instead, she found herself faced against a man that gave her vibes of Scott Reese with his blood-soaked body and makeshift club. He had a woman raised up in his arms as they choked her.

“Hey asshole, You got three seconds to drop her before I turn you into a pin cushion!” shouted Penny. The world buzzed to life as she spotted his head start to turn towards her before it actually did, the orange glow of his eyes trailing behind as it caught up. The color was an all too familiar one; she had yet to notice that the victim was also the same. “Oh, fuck off,” muttered Penny as she unleashed a salvo of makeshift missiles at the man, with the intention to just wound him enough to make him drop the lady.

Vivid Recollections Season 2: Into The False Light [COMPLETE]

I spent today putting together a desk so I could better write.

I now have a desk.

I did not have time to write.

I am an asshole.