Ascension: Entanglement TEST BUILD

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!Heading 1 !!Heading 1 !!!Heading 1 Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. //emphasised text//. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. ''strong text''. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. __underlined text__ Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. Normal text. ---- * List item 1 * List item 2 [[]] [[]] <<set $hello = "hello">> <<print $hello.toUpperFirst()>> <<= $hello.toUpperFirst()>> !!! Checkbox: <<checkbox "$checkboxVar1" false true autocheck>> Checkbox option 1 <<checkbox "$checkboxVar2" false true autocheck>> Checkbox option 2 <<checkbox "$checkboxVar3" false true autocheck>> Checkbox option 3 !!! Cycle: <<cycle "$cycleVar" autoselect>> <<option "Option 1">> <<option "Option 2">> <<option "Option 3">> <<option "Option 4">> <<option "Option 5">> <</cycle>> !!! Listbox: <<listbox "$listboxVar" autoselect>> <<option "Option 1">> <<option "Option 2">> <<option "Option 3">> <<option "Option 4">> <<option "Option 5">> <</listbox>> !!! Radiobutton: <<radiobutton "$radiobuttonVar" "option 1" autocheck>> Option 1 <<radiobutton "$radiobuttonVar" "option 2" autocheck>> Option 2 <<radiobutton "$radiobuttonVar" "option 3" autocheck>> Option 3 !!! Textarea: <<textarea "$textareaVar" "Type text here..">> !!! Textbox: <<textbox "$textboxVar" "Type answer here">> <<button "Button" "More Styles">><</button>>

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<<nobr>>  <li>[[CHARACTER CODEX]]</li>  <</nobr>>

ENTANGLEMENT

by StasisWeiss

!CHARACTER CODEX <center>In due time...</center>  <center><<link "Return to game" $return>><</link>></center>

!CODEX Your stats go here..  <center><<link "Return to game" $return>><</link>></center>

!Character Codex <h1>CHARACTER CODEX</h1> <div class="container"> <div class="card"> <div class="content"> <div class="left"> <div class="avatar"> </div> <div class="right"> <h3> Justiciar </h3> <ul> <li>Unaligned</li> <li>Celestial</li> </ul> <p>Among Celestial-kind, your very existence is a monument to stability. You are their mediator, their icon of order. Much rests on your shoulders.</p> </div> </div> <div class="stat"> <div class="labels"> <span>$Order$</span> <span>$Chaos$</span> </div> <div class="container"> <div class="bar" id="order-stat"> </div> </div> </div>

!Prologue Your very first memory is one of dust. You are a consciousness, a mind drifting at the mercy of an all-consuming darkness. You are awake: you believe you can //see//, that you can differentiate between non-existence and what you come to know as space. Space is vast and silent. You know now that many would find it disconcerting—being left alone with little direction or perspective or agency—but you find comfort in the solitude. You are content as an acquiescent “perspective” drifting along the tides of spacetime, with distant stars marching across your view as your only reference. On some occasions, you wish to return to that kind of silence. You do not yet understand what time is, but you know that it passes. In its steadfast passage, it brings you dust and gas to use and manipulate. It gives you the opportunity to begin coalescing a physical form. For each particle you accumulate, for every molecule and for every atom that you gather around your consciousness, you begin to fashion a vessel for yourself. It is rudimentary in comparison to what you are now, but at the time, it was enough. You are, at your core, hydrogen and helium and shimmering pieces of miniscule interstellar dust, strewn together by an invisible weave of dark, elusive connective tissue. You are a [[Celestial|Prologue-2]].

There are more of your kind. Those clusters of distant stars, once simply points that you used to mark the progress of your meandering in the void, have voices. They sing and cry with pulses and jets of light, hoping to find others like them. They are your kin. Some are vocal, sending rapid strings of colourful wavelengths in all directions, brimming with energy. These are the hopefuls, the ones who radiate brilliantly in the hopes of being seen first. Others prefer to commune in longer messages, reserved and steady. They seem happy enough that they can hear others, and that they are able to reply. You have come to know these other celestials in your collective incubation. Even long before your physical vessel stabilises, you begin to recognise each other’s radiation signatures. The vastness of space slowly becomes less empty, knowing that your siblings call out to you, passing messages through blinks and pulses of star fire. [[Continue.|Prologue-3]]

<<unset $celestialrole>> Math.clamp($AeterneReputation, 0, 100) <<set $AeterneReputation = 50>>

You rest on your back against a diffuse cloud. It is cold against your skin, billowing as you sink into it. Two of your galactic siblings, //Sanctuary// and //Siren//, loom over you as they rant about some new matter… Celestials do not have names. They prefer titles or epithets either designated by others or self-given. Take Sanctuary and Siren, for instance: the former prides herself on her disk hosting lesser life-bearing worlds, while the latter prefers to refine her voice in the cosmic chorus. <<fadein 500ms 1s>>\ <<fadeout 500ms 3s>>\ 'Justiciar!'\ <</fadeout>>\ <</fadein>> [[Continue.|Prologue-4]]

You are no different. Seniority aside, your siblings have naturally come to you to resolve tensions or waive their debts among each other. You like to believe you have a penchant for… [[Authority.|ChooseAuthority]] [[Diplomacy.|ChooseDiplomacy]]

<<set $celestialrole = "authority">>\ \ Under your guidance, the Celestials have become an Order with structure and hierarchy. While you do not exercise your right over your kin, they still come to you for your guidance. Your word, in their eyes, overrules all others. [[Continue.|Prologue-5]]

<<set $celestialrole = "mediator">>\ \ Your reputation for wisdom and previous intervention in all sorts of petty troubles precedes you. Your kin turn to you for input or resolution, believing your judgement to be fairer than any other’s. Your word, in their eyes, is the most fair. [[Continue.|Prologue-5]]

‘Justiciar!’ You snap from your mind-wanderings, greeted by a pair of wide, glowing eyes. ‘Are you even paying attention?’ Sanctuary straightens back up and crosses her arms with a huff. ‘The <<nobr>> <<if $celestialrole == "authority">> Order has <<else>> others have <</if>> <</nobr>>been chattering non-stop about ghost signals and strange interference reverberating through the universe. At this rate, they will spiral themselves into believing in some elaborate conspiracy if we do not shut these rumours down!’ ‘As if silencing them will do us any favours in disproving anything,’ Siren says. She narrows her eyes at Sanctuary, four slivers of light against the pitch black mask patterning on her face. Sanctuary’s vessel pulses a brilliant blue as she turns on her sister. ‘Don’t tell me that you’re believing that nonsense too! Brother, you need to say something. Anything!’ [[It might be best to address whatever this is, lest the unrest escalate further.|Address]] [[You came out here to rest. If they have a solution, then they are more than welcome to lead for a change.|Ignore]]

You shake yourself away from the cloud you had been lying on, its puffs clinging to your limbs as if it had the will to beg you to stay. You ask for a briefing on the situation, and Sanctuary seems to light up at the chance to assert her statesmanship. ‘Our kin have been hearing mysterious signals, Justiciar,’ she begins, holding an arm in front of her as she begins to sweep out a path to pace back and forth. ‘Envoy has verified this for himself and reported to us from his own sector, much further out in the universe than here.’ Sanctuary halts a moment and wags a finger before she continues. ‘From what we’ve heard, the signal seems to originate from the fringes, past the dead zone. It isn’t a steady sound either. It seems to be changing.’ Siren motions to speak, flaring up in orange light around her crown. ‘We think it’s either a dormant celestial re-awakening or… something else entirely, beyond the bounds of the universe.’ Sanctuary shakes her head. ‘Which is a whole load of nonsense. I think somebody simply is hearing some echo of sorts from being so close to the border which—if I might add—we know can mess with the senses. And if it were a re-awakening, then we would have been able to communicate with our bewildered lost kin, no?’ ‘You’re being presumptuous. Even you said that Envoy heard it, and I—.’ Siren is interrupted as Sanctuary shoves a finger to her vessel’s chest. Siren’s form quavers at the harsh contact. ‘Oh please. You know he spins all sorts of tall tales to make his work seem more useful than it truly is.’ [[Side with Sanctuary. This collective fear will only give way to incoordination and chaos.|SideWSanctuary]] [[Side with Siren. If there are any strange occurrences, it would be best to at least investigate their source.|SideWSiren]]

You are, after all, just one being. You have been inundated with all sorts of mundane grievances, what more is an attempt at spreading ghost stories? Sanctuary so insistent on proving herself, perhaps this is the best opportunity for her. You rise from your spot, leaving a shallow imprint in the cloud where you had been enjoying your sparse downtime. You wonder if you would ever have the chance to sink into the surface and remain still for a long while, how fine the details of the imprint would be. ‘I have other more pressing matters to see to,’ you inform them. ‘You are welcome to address this issue yourself.’ Sanctuary lights up and her posture straightens at your approval. ‘I will quash these rumours at the source. Anyone caught spreading falsehoods will be reprimanded accordingly.’ Siren seems to wither beside her, taking glances between the both of you. She doesn’t seem particularly pleased with your deferral to Sanctuary. Whether it be her own stance on the issue or her distrust of anyone but you in a place of authority over the Celestials, you can only speculate. ‘What will you do in the meantime, brother?’ Siren asks. Her voice has also fallen into a low-frequency mutterance. You wanted to clear your mind for a while, take a moment away from the endless stream of chattering. You wanted a return to the silence in which you were born, the way space—you believe—was intended to be in its most natural state. [[Don't answer.|SilenceSiren]] [[Lie.|LieToSiren]]

‘Envoy and I were supposed to discuss a way to communicate with our kin further from the universe’s centre. Seeing that he is not present, I will have to be the one to find him instead.’ Siren hums in a low pitch, though her satisfaction with the answer seems unclear. ‘Tell Envoy I send my regards,’ she says after a beat of silence. With a final nod, you leave. [[Continue.|PrologueIgnore-1]]

You do not owe them any explanation. Siren waits for an answer, her light dimming as you refuse her any verbal answer. Any attempt to glean your expression is bound to fail… After all, you refuse to give yourself features beyond a single four-pointed star for an “eye”. You can sense disappointment hanging in the air as you part ways. [[Continue.|PrologueIgnore-1]]

‘I rather take precautions over dismissing a potential threat,’ you begin. ‘Siren, you appear to have more knowledge on this.’ Siren’s eyes grow wide at the acknowledgement, pointing to herself to ensure she heard correctly. With a nod in her direction, she speaks up, crossing her fingers together and fidgeting with pieces of stardust flaking off her pale “hair”. ‘I was scavenging some rare metal material along the outer sectors of space,’ she explains, ‘I didn’t find much because while I was out there, I sensed… something. There was a tug of gravity, as if we were approaching another sibling, but it was coming from beyond the border…’ Sanctuary’s head snaps to her sister in a motion so swift that her crown is pulled along. Her voice frequency spikes to a speed you weren’t aware she was capable of. ‘And you went out there without me? I thought we agreed—’ You hold up a hand. Sanctuary holds her tongue. ‘You felt a gravitational interaction?’ You ask. An unknown signal could be the result of any sort of light-scattering, redshifting or other phenomena, but //gravity//? There was no denying an indication of another presence quite like it. This is strange. Any lone Celestials venturing out that far may be vulnerable to some unseen observer. ‘Warn the others to not stray beyond the dead zone immediately. Ensure that everyone is accounted for,’ you instruct. You leave with haste. [[Continue.|Prologue-6]]

‘Sanctuary is correct,’ you say. ‘Ensuring the stability of our kin comes first and foremost.’ Sanctuary draws out a long hum, leaning in Siren’s direction in an attempt to rub in her victory. ‘What do we even tell them?’ Siren asks. ‘What they need to hear. That their fears were rooted in a misunderstanding and amplified by exaggeration from the likes of our more imaginative siblings,’ you reply. ‘I trust you both to relay this message to the inner galaxies. I can cover ground in the farther sectors myself.’ ‘Or you could put Envoy to good use for once and tell him to retract his exaggerations,’ Sanctuary says. She crosses her arms lazily at the mere thought of your other sibling. ‘I will reprimand him for his involvement in all this if we cross paths,’ you say. With little else to arrange, you adjourn the meeting. [[Continue.|PrologueAddress-1]]

[[|Prologue-6]]

You venture past the denser, more lively regions of the expanse, passing siblings and their territories as they carve and shape their pockets of the universe to their own liking. You fly past the roiling spirals of great galaxies, beyond fields of planetary debris and unclaimed accumulations of interstellar medium. You spot the occasional stellar nursery, hosting formless consciousnesses and accumulating matter to one day crystallise into a body of their own. It is strange to think you were once nothing but a floating mind yourself, once. On your way further and further out, you happen across the occasional dormant celestial, exhausted of their power and in stasis. Eerie vessels and their respective true forms float lifelessly. These forerunners were born before you, as the first generation of your kind to emerge from the cosmic expanse. You pause upon one such figure at the edge of the universe, their structure dilapidated and their energy leaking and pooling around them. Primordial celestials have a distinctly gaseous quality to them, moreso than your generation. It seemed that once there was no heavy material for stabilising vessels or building elaborate physical forms decorated with crowns and crystals. It is silent out here, so far away from the celestial chorus. It feels a bit like space, in the aeons you were nothing but a quiet drifter in a great ocean of nothingness. Yet unlike that silence in which you were born in, this solitude is different. There is no ease, no steady waves pulling you along. There is no distant company of stars. It is cold here, but a cold different to the cool condensation in a cloud against your back. This cold is the sapping of energy, something slowly bleeding you of the dark matter ichor that courses through your being. You feel a faint pull of gravity. The force beckons you like whispers on the wind, like a murmuring but in your own voice, echoing in your head. With caution, you follow it until you stand on the threshold between the material universe and a gaping abyss beyond everything that ever was. Even still, you feel it from beyond the edge. [[Continue.|Prologue-7]]

Every fiber in your being knows that this is dangerous, but you approach the precipice. Space seems to expand with each shuffled step you take to the edge. Gravity remains strong. It beats, like interfering ripples on a wave. Whatever has been leading you from beyond the bounds feels your presence too. [[Continue.|Prologue-8]]

The pull strengthens to a peak like a taut line of filament. You catch a flash of red light in the darkness. <<nobr>> <<timedprogressbar 20 20em>> <<run Engine.play("Failure")>> <</timedprogressbar>> <</nobr>> [[Call upon a weapon.|Weapon]] [[Call upon a shield.|Defense]]

Your senses firing in a micro-instant, you call for power within yourself and draw a blade of pure light. Your new weapon leaves a luminous trail where it makes contact. The body of your enemy is rough, reverberations travelling up your arm as you slash. Your assailant as it lets out a warbled cry—a distorted signal not too different from your own signature. You suspect that you have inflicted an unpleasant sensation on it. This //thing// bears a striking resemblance to your celestial kin… yet there is something wrong. Its neck cranes at an angle far too unnatural, it has far too many upper limbs, too many strange, spiralling patterns carved into its body. A perversion of a crown sits on its head, spiralling, twisting with excessive spires. It spits up clouds of dust from an opening on its face. It turns towards you, thoughts inscrutable from its three beady eyes. They blink asynchronously. It raises itself upright, giving you a clear view of your swordwork: a chasm splits its body from an upper arm’s shoulder down to the core, weeping a glowing, orange-red ichor. [[Continue.|Prologue-AetEncounter]]

Your senses firing in a micro-instant, you brace yourself and form a barrier of pure light. The creature charges right into your defense and you deflect it, sending it tumbling into a pile of Celestial remains. A residual tingle lingers in your arms from the impact. The //thing// shakes debris loose from its unwieldy imitation of a crown. An innumerable amount of arms heave it out of the rocky chasm, clawing indiscriminately at anything it could reach in an uncoordinated tangle. Its face is near blank save for a deep void where eyes would be and a loosely-hanging jaw. The //thing’s// body writhes and wretches as it coughs up dust, stray material hovering in place before being reabsorbed. Its movements cease as it observes you from a perch on the debris you had launched it into. There is a degree of calculation in the way it holds itself so still. It seems to expect you to break the standstill. [[Prologue-AetEncounter]]

A jolt rips through your body. Something has charged right into you. Mass tear away from you from the impact. As you careen backwards, your back connects with a solid surface. Cold. Pointedly lifeless. One of the cast-off shells you saw earlier. You face whatever attacked you and are met with an aberrant mass of upper limbs. You are pinned as the writhing, clawing thing grabs at you. It grasps at everything within reach and holds tight. Frigid fingers reach for your face and you twist away, to not much avail. A hand lands around your chin and pulls you to look at it. The thing has a face. Three burning blue eyes scan you up and down with enigmatic intent. You notice that a structure erupts from its head: a poor facsimile of the crowns and halos of your kind. You feel a sickly weightlessness, an unnatural dilation dragging on your very core in such close proximity to… this thing. Being scrutinised under its iron grip and backed into a wall… You almost feel… //powerless//. [[|Prologue-AetEncounter]]

[[|Prologue-6]]