January 3rd, 5328
The New Year brought with it Epoch's toughest challenge faced thus far: A hurt and armed escaped convict, Luca Benini.
And the aftermath… wasn’t the prettiest, and tension is high. We have a few rough edges to clean up, though we have shown we’re willing and able to work together on something so high-stakes
We hoped Hana’s photos would shed light on something, anything. A closer view of Luca, maybe. Something for us to analyze. To understand.
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All we see is static.
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Trenchers who’d been trying to manage the amount of radiation in the air are obscured by a fuzzy cloud that spread through from the top of the photo. From it, white flecks scatter toward the edges of the picture.
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In the dark of the tunnels, it’s almost like looking through a radiation elemental’s eyes, zoomed in too far: There’s nothing but noise. Too much unknown.
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Then there's the watchlist. It's frustrating, knowing Epoch hasn't done wrong. But we're glad to have Danny back from questioning unharmed and free. Tommi reminds us all publicity is good publicity, and this could be our chance to prove what good we can really do. It could be worse, we remind ourselves.
Our sick are gradually getting better, and the destruction in the Bronze district has been cleaned up to the best of our abilities. The power in the Trench has booted back to life. Things feel like they could go back to better, that we could begin to look more into the events of Genesis.
But with the light, comes shadows.
At first, the purple-blue shine in their eyes can be mistaken for shuffling Blue addicts. Others might believe their side effects are acting up after the high stress of the last few days.
You might go visit Frankie Inque, wondering if your dose of Velvets is no longer enough, only to see he’s not there without any notice.
Others are gone. People you know. People you care for. The only connecting factor anyone has caught onto being the quickest glimpse of these shadows before they’re gone, taking bodies with them.
The Loop feels a little emptier when you come in.
Our informants tell us it’s not just in the Trench. There are people all over the districts who have simply… vanished in the blink of an eye.
Our latest tip off comes from The Wishbone, where the owner and one of our own, Moonshine, has gone mysteriously missing right before stepping through the door.
We know better. People don’t just disappear into the aether, and we sure as hell won’t let them be taken away into it either.
THE MISSING
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Anatole Rell-Kolam
Angela Mori
Anika Ansari
Archangel
Arista Vaughn
Benson Zivkovic
Brimstone
Callum Kingsley
Camila da Silva Ribeiro
Deadbolt
Dirizher
Dr. Ouroboros
Fahrenheit
Fiddler
Font
Frankie Inque
Icarus
Jack Rabbit
Lexi Toulouse
Lucy Oriol
Mistral
Mistali
Naa
Sawyer Valentine
The Cavalier
Weeping
Zephyr
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Abigail
Ardelia Connolly
Armin Toller
Azelvia Grear
Charlie Hyde
Eufemia Janus-Agnelli
Gaius Octavian
Hamidah al-Zaire Najdi
Hana Myung
Hortensia de la Rosa
Hektor Knockenmus
Hyvirian Shevindai
Jae Jung
Kennedy Matsuda
Laura Stanford
Manon Guillroy
Miserie
Ms. Cooper
Moonshine
Olyphant Rónán Coelho-Greer
Otto Graves
Riven Miya
Rene Gilt
Romeo Accardi-Casteele
Rowli Hughes
Sagan Gilt
Zach Watson
Zhong Jianyu
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DIFFICULTY LEVEL:
MEDIUM
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Chapter Two
Paramnesia
72 hours since the new year welcomed us has passed.
In this time, the news has dug into Aegis’ reliability and brought up only more questions.
Deadbolt and the other guests are still missing, with the culprits who took them still at large and Luca Benini still on the run.
Further investigation within the Science Building only led us to find one more note: Too Late! written in oil.
We still remain unsure if the events are connected, the timing having been too coincidental not to be yet without many leads. At the very least, we don’t have to be too worried over Epoch… yet.
Hours of scrolling through Percy’s footage yielded nothing but the image of three cars too far away to identify properly before static takes over. Surveillance reveals just as little, with the footage having been frozen in time. It’s near impossible to wrap our heads around the sheer amount of equipment that was stolen from the Science Department.
We have a name, but who are the Greasers really?
Failure hangs heavily over our shoulders, and the new day doesn’t bring respite with it.
Call after call hits the Investigation Department at Aegis.
A restaurant owner has gone missing. A bed-bound mother disappeared from her bedroom. Even famed war veteran turned celebrity, Lucy Oriol, missed an interview this morning and is nowhere to be found. Doctor Frankie Inque never makes it to work.
Alias Agents who try looking into the disappearances, don’t return.
Farenheit never clocks back in, his comms device completely disconnected.
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Zephyr never comes into work.
After everything that happened on Genesis, it’s hard not to assume these disappearances have everything to do with the kidnappings. But there is only one way to find out.
And we think we know where to start.
Tick tock...
Time is running out
Tick tock...
Prove it
Prove it
AEGIS digs deep underground until their hands are held into the pearlescent Opulent Repairs & Workshop.
It’s always been coated in blood, used as a war bunker and garage over forty years ago. Elementals have died here for years. The Opulent crew wasn’t innovative.
They only thought they were God.
They created one instead.
Do the shields understand this, in all their search for good and mighty? Do they understand we are so much more? Do they understand their fear comes from the unknown when the unknown is greater than they are?
They notice it, at least. CARRION speaks of the necessity of a time elemental in the trying moments of searching for the key to unlock the door. The key… The key is so much more than physical.
Time ticks down the minutes. TERRAFORM tries to move the glass cabinet.
Tick…
The floor plan to our recreation of the second floor is found, with a reminder of your planetary safeness: Your bodies may be buried and recycled into Caelum’s land. Good for you. You should be grateful.
We did not ask for this volatility.
Tock…
Rian Laisrén’s notes- may we call him Rian? We’ll call him Rian -are found and you see it, don’t you? The atrocities he led? The children he stole, experimented on, killed for his own whims and wants for immortality?
Tick…
The key is found and inserted in the wall. The clock stops. The walls opens.
Tock… Tock… Tock…
…
Nine are found. Lucy Oriol is dead.
Time continues.
The second floor goes by quicker. ARACHNE, HALO, and TERRAFORM reveal the roots of the ground, guiding everyone to riddle and body, riddle and body, riddle and body. CHARIS is found unable to sing anymore.
She was a waste of a body. A coward who abandoned her child.
Poor boy. At least he’ll be free.
DEADBOLT is found blinded, scarred, with one leg less, and CALLUM KINGSLEY is found dead and hollow in a pair of caskets. Don’t consider it personal. Symbols of purity need to be bloodstained.
You don’t look unless something is bleeding and dying at your doorstep.
CARRION finds a discarded thumb… and ICARUS finds a container with a piece of a meteor in it, with a fingerprint lock. Think you’ll use it for better?
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RIAN falls at your feet. What future will you make for him?
ARCHANGEL’s quick work of the keypad is impressive, though selfishly spurred. All agents AEGIS hires since conception to now base themselves in selfishness, don’t they?
The music stops again, and down the rabbit hole you go.
Keypoint is not kind, and EPOCH proves this to themselves. EXCEED chases a shadow of us, and dies in the nightmare we endured time and time again.
They’re returned from the aether, pieced together by KYRAH’s determination and nothing more. Pity them none.
The Workshop is forced open from the front, and through the back, CHAMELEON sees an image of us. Matias Benavides had never been a kind man. He hadn’t pretended the way Rian did. Fires don’t start from nothing. Children aren’t born evil.
GAINE takes a whole other entrance.
He crashes through the top of the Workshop. It’s luck and time that stops the descent of debris over his teammates. It’s luck and time that stops his teammates from being swallowed whole by his choice to burn through the wall.
WIDOW identifies the veil over the wall that would reveal its clockwork door. SAL finds the key to the door. Every piece of information found is another tell of our past. Treat it well, for it designs this present for you.
When the clock starts counting them down, PENDULUM begins another singalong. The door opens.
Nine are found. All alive.
WHISPER follows our mind down through a photograph, to the last day we tolerated. The day we sputtered every machine to a grinding halt… The day we discovered what raw time could do.
We were not built to live forever. We were designed to live as many lives at once… And to end just as many.
The photographs guide their way down to the lab-garage where nothing but torture has ever been found.
RADON collects the chunk of the time meteor, the missing catalyst to our existence. Don’t abuse that power now…
BIG LOVE follows time down two paths, outlining where his missing teammates are on this floor.
Are you not afraid of what you’re capable of?
Good. Show them.
GAINE goes forward again… Nothing saves HANA from being drained in her confinement due to his reckless thoughtlessness. EPOCH… for all the good you aim to do, your members think nothing of those beyond themselves… Do they?
Riddles and bodies, everyone is found alive.
All but Laura Stanford, whose loss is a necessity.
One less original elemental in the world would do no one any great harm. There is an abundance of them already.
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CHAMELEON finds us on one of our paths. Our eyes meet and one could say it was true loathing at first sight.
We’d swallow them whole if given the chance.
But let them see. Time has already been locked in.
The door opens and the music stops once again.
Down the stairs and past each twisted fairytale they go…
The sights are the same here.
Glass beds and bodies on the ceiling, blood on the floor.
This room has seen worse. It has never seen better.
The wire at the door is a warning. Slow down. Think. Consider.
GAINE trips it first, and gets his leader DANNY caught in a time bomb.
It wasn’t meant for you, but we suppose you’ll be the one voice listened to should you say, “Awful, isn’t it? To relive the past?”
ZEPHYR trips on the wire, but doesn’t pull it far enough. A pity and a shame.
VIAJERA triggers a wrong answer, releasing chains a breath from the floor. ULTRAVIOLET and VIPER are lucky to have kept their noses.
ARCHANGEL writes everyone’s fates into the code: The only way to avoid time is to Die.
BLINK ensures those chained are released safely.
The chains unravel with more blood and loss.
Are we really that bad, when it’s your own choices that found your timelines’ ends?
We delivered to AEGIS the lead head of this hydra in the form of Rian Laisrén. You’re welcome and good luck.
To EPOCH… You have your next evil printed in Rian’s neat cursive. We suppose you should thank him.
The rides home are silent and tense, no more singalongs to follow you in the wind. AEGIS goes back to their headquarters to get the injured medically taken care of. EPOCH to their base to tend to their own injured with medics of their own making.
As comms reconnect and spies share what information they found, each faction paints their future paths.
Erica “MISTALI” Straver. LUCY ORIOL. Angela “CHARIS” Mori. HEKTOR KNOCKENMUS. Laura Stanford. Callum Kingsley.
AEGIS holds funerals for each of them. Each gets to be remembered and mourned as heroes.
For doing what, exactly? Perpetuating monstrous stereotypes? Spreading gossip?
Former Uranian President, Jehiel Swan, followed by several members of surviving Talcord members resurface from around the planet to attend the funerals of their once great and now late LUCY and HEKTOR.
Do they see what their tolerance has allowed? Evil did not end with the War of the Gods, and you allowed it to persist.
DIRIZHER agrees.
Aoife Gilmore. Hanna Olson. Ebony Jackson, Jeremy Bridges, August Harvey… Name after name after name of those lost to Keypoint gets brought up to AEGIS leadership. CARRION is put in charge of hosting the memorial he imagines for them to honor their violent passings.
It’s been years since anyone has thought of them. Only some of them deserve the attention.
Corruption as deep as marrow lines the streets and infects the city’s heart, running deep in its history of abuse. Elementals were never meant to be against each other… But you narrated us as your enemies.
You made your own graves.
The Daily News
January 4th, 5328
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On January 3rd 5328, Glenys City’s shining star, beloved celebrity, singer, and philanthropist Angela Mori (age 50, stage name CHARIS), passed away in the Silver District, Keypoint.
She was kidnapped from her home without a trace (investigation still pending), and taken to the abandoned part of the city where she and others kidnapped were held. Her cause of death is unknown, but it leaves a gaping wound in our great city.
Glenys City will not forget the things that this angelic woman provided for our community. During her youth she was a beacon of hope and understanding for Elementals. With her voice she sang to soothe the burdens on Glenys City as it recovered from the War of the Gods, helping pave the road for equal elemental rights as a beloved and celebrated individual. Raised with core values in helping others, she donated several large sums of money to the starting foundationf of Aegis in order for citizens to feel safe and at ease.
The funeral took place at the Mori Family Estate, located within the Gold District. A tribute concert was held in her honor, with both family and friends invited to share in her stage one last time. Fans were welcomed outside of the Estate to celebrate her life and mourn her untimely death.
During the ceremony, her husband Danyl invited Andrei Mori (Angela’s only child) to the stage to play in her honor. What should have been a mournful ceremony then became a public scene as the scion of the Mori Estate began addressing the gathered crowd.
“You did this.”
Everyone attending the concert looked to the platform with confused faces, and curious glances. Not one person had an ounce of an idea of what was to occur. As the chattering silence of the crowd stopped, Andrei spoke once again with a pained voice and angry heart. Fingers point to journalists covering the event.
“You don’t care about her. None of you ever cared about her—you treated her like a doll! This is your fault. Because you all never saw her, you only looked at and saw what she did for you, never once asking who she actually was.”
It is clear through the tears and broken voice, that this was Andrei Mori’s breaking point.
“You’re all just like the humans who used to look down on us. Her smile was just to appease this city, wasn’t it? So that you wouldn’t get in trouble. So that she could quell the voices of unrest that are whispered in alleys—you’re responsible for this. If it weren’t for you separating everyone she wouldn’t have been taken. This isn’t a tragic accident, or some unforeseen consequence—this could have been prevented! I was there, I would know.”
It is here when the circumstances of Angela Mori’s death come to light as Andrei shares in a few key details that only an agent of Aegis would know. Angela was taken as one of many by Unnatural Elementals, and held hostage at Keypoint.
“You did this. You killed my mother—don’t turn and cover your shame looking for another to cast this upon. Gold, the government—Aegis. You’re all the reason that the man-made elements were being developed. You could never appreciate anything you were given, could never let us just live. You did this to her.”
Profanities and expletives were shouted as an apologetic Danyl Mori escorted his child offstage.
It is a tragedy to watch not only the passing of Angela Mori, but the extent of how much pressure our city’s great heroes are put under. Andrei Mori was correct, we did this. Glenys City fails to celebrate the heroes of Aegis appropriately. We must remember the risks that our agents undertake as they protect us—Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The lives of our agents and their family members are on the line to protect our city.
So let us not doubt our heroes and divide ourselves further. We must join hands, and face our future hardships together. Through support, and through devotion for one another. It is what Angela would have wanted from us all, and let us grant her spirit this one last wish.
Have you ever died in a nightmare?
Have you ever died in a nightmare?
For many, it did.
It starts like this: A club turned hollow with rot and a peaceful house transformed into a nightmare.
One path diverges through a washed-out neon wasteland. Where friendly faces, safe spaces, and sweet gases were prominent becomes nothing more than rust and memories twined around new melodies.
CHAMELEON gets close to a Truth when they seek the memory of MOONSHINE and APOLLO. Time reacts to its kin, manipulating the past to be a projection in the present. MOONSHINE rarely turns a villain or friendly face from the club, and come meet us he does. Time stops for him and their boy, and resumes for EPOCH.
The music is danced along. VINNIE and DANNY instigate a singalong. There is no timeline instruments don’t play to, and time responds. A swirling path of energy and music notes leads EPOCH to the back of the club where WIDOW’s little mercury critters have located one of the club’s secret doors.
What clever things these vigilantes are. What darling things. They care so deeply, yet hurt just as recklessly.
They are a group for the community, aren’t they…?
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Prove it
The other path leads us to Hero’s Edge, where the face of every hero should be not sculpted into stone, but pinned. AEGIS loses itself as it searches for its great Alias Chief, ZEPHYR. The only thing worth crying over is his poor abandoned dog POLARIS rescues.
Next time, we’ll make sure to carry treats he enjoys.
THE HUSK and HALO notice first the lawnwork. It should be considered an improvement. A chance to start over. It’s all the chance AEGIS needs. Bleed out the head and let another limb take over.
There is much less singing here, but your clever little heads find the trail and address all the same.
This is where the paths meet, at opposite ends of time.
Each oc earns 6 new stat points to distribute how you please! These are allowed over the stat caps, and you can add them to your PHP and EHP!
Additionally, as thanks for saving him, FRANKIE INQUE has awarded each Aegis agent a restoration kit that can be used for both EHP and PHP, good for 6 points each.
ABIGAIL earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
AKISSI earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
ALISTAR earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
ALIYA earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
ALVIE earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
ANASTASIUS earns 4 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
AMINA earns 1 EXP and has 5 SHIELDS
ANDREI earns 3 EXP and has 3 CRED and 4 SHIELDS
ARDELIA earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
ARMIN earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
AYMERIC earns 3 EXP and has 5 SHIELDS
CHARLIE earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
CLOVER earns 2 EXP and has 4 SHIELDS
CYRUS earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
DANNY earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
DEO earns 4 EXP and has 4 CRED and 4 SHIELDS
EXCEED earns 4 EXP and has 4 CRED and 3 SHIELDS
FANTIMA earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
FARRAJ earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
FLETCHER earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
GAIUS earns 2 EXP and has 6 CRED
GAINE earns 3 EXP and has 5 CRED - No Cred earned due to endangering the team.
GALE earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
HANA earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
HORTENSIA earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
HUSK earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
IRIS earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
JACKSON earns 0 EXP and has 4 CRED
JAE earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
JENNY earns 3 EXP and has 5 SHIELDS - No Shields earned due to giving out multiple identities.
JIANYU earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
KASPER earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
KATERINA earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
KIT earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
KYRAH earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
LUDMILA earns 0 EXP and has 5 CRED
LUDO earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
MAEVE earns 2 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
MATEUS earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
MOONSHINE earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
NICO earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
NOAH earns 0 EXP and has 4 SHIELDS
OBIA earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
OLYPHANT earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
OTTO earns 4 EXP and has 4 CRED and 3 SHIELDS
RADON earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
RAMYA earns 0 EXP and has 5 SHIELDS
RAYLEN earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
RIVEN earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
ROMEO earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
ROSEMARY earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
SAGAN earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
SALAZAR earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
SAMIR earns 0 EXP and has 5 SHIELDS
SIBYLLA earns 2 EXP and has 2 CRED and 2 SHIELDS
SONNET earns 2 EXP and has 4 CRED
TOMMI earns 2 EXP and has 6 CRED
ULLI earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
VERA earns 4 EXP and has 6 Cred
VINCENT earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
VINNIE earns 4 EXP and has 6 CRED
VIOLA earns 4 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
VIRGIL earns 3 EXP and has 6 SHIELDS
XIUMING 4 EXP and has 4 CRED and 4 SHIELDS
WY earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
ZACH earns 3 EXP and has 6 CRED
ZAYNE 4 EXP and has 3 CRED and 4 SHIELDS