---

---

PERCEPTION (TOUCH) - The first thing you register as you return to the world is the gentle brushing of hands across your shoulders -- dozens of them.

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - Wherever this is, it definitely can't be described as 'the world', I think we've established that well enough by now.

LOGIC [Challenging: Success] - You've returned again after another trip back to the cabin in the woods, your memories restored. This is starting to become a pattern, isn't it?

PAIN THRESHOLD - ...Something has changed. The pain is *still* absent, pain that you very much should be experiencing, but it's like it's been cut off at the source instead of suppressed at your nerve endings. As if the concept of pain itself has been suspended, somehow.

1. Ah yes, of course -- I understand fully.
2. That doesn't make any sense.

YOU - That doesn't make any sense.

PAIN THRESHOLD - Fuckin' sue me. I'm not one of the thinky guys, try asking them.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Godly: Failure] - I got nothing.

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - Pain *only* exists in your nerves. It's a sensation, not a physical quantity -- Masochist over here is speaking nonsense.

PAIN THRESHOLD - It doesn't matter if it can't be *explained*, it's what you're feeling regardless. You really gonna argue with that?

RHETORIC - Well--

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - Don't get lost in your own head now -- she's still here. If this goes down the same way as last time, she'll be gone soon enough.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - You can get a good look at her now, clutched in the grip of the pale limbs -- the 'real' her, not the memory of her you held to the dream. She looks like...

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - One of us.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] - More abstract than anything else. Ill-defined.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - Let me finish.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - She looks like she's being disassembled and reassembled at the same time, little shards of matter extracted from the left side and replaced on the right by a cluster of hands reaching around from behind her. She *has* been 'abstracted' -- the facial features are there, but the textures are absent and her hair is one solid mass that fades away to nothing as it reaches past her shoulders.

HALF LIGHT - The whole of her is tinted in various shades of red, darker than ours. The colors of blood.

AUTHORITY - There is no tiara on her head, but instead a crown floating just above.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - The idea of a crown. A simple polygon, triple pronged, radiating a dim white light.

INTERFACING - We'll be needing that back when this is over.

SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] - If you have anything left to say to her, you best do it now -- time is short.

1. "Do you know where we are? What this place is? Why I keep losing memories and being killed over and over and over..."
2. "I'm sorry. For everything."
3. "Thank you. You helped me get farther than I ever could without you, even after I hurt you so much."
4. "Are you doing this? Why do I keep coming back to this void, wrapped in hands that tear me apart?"
5. "Where will you go after this?"
6. [Say nothing.]

YOU - "Thank you. You helped me get farther than I ever could without you, even after I hurt you so much."

FLUX ET REFLUX - I forgave you too, remember? We did it together.

FLUX ET REFLUX - We finally did escape in the end.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Medium: Success] - The dozenfold grip is tightening. You've got maybe one more.

1. "Do you know where we are? What this place is? Why I keep losing memories and being killed over and over and over..."
2. "I'm sorry. For everything."
3. "Thank you. You helped me get farther than I ever could without you, even after I hurt you so much."
4. "Are you doing this? Why do I keep coming back to this void, wrapped in hands that tear me apart?"
5. "Where will you go after this?"
6. [Say nothing.]

YOU - "Where will you go after this?"

FLUX ET REFLUX [Impossible: Success] - I don't know. But it feels like... somewhere new.

FLUX ET REFLUX - Somewhere change can exist, outside the memory.

FLUX ET REFLUX - It's... home.

Task updated: Find out where you are

COMPOSURE - With that last sentence, she exhales and closes her eyes, as if drifting to sleep.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - And then gets dragged away, just as another her was. You lose sight of her quickly behind the layers of arms.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - You are alone once more.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - *Completely* alone. The new voices, too, have left you again, little slots in your brain awaiting their return.

LOGIC [Formidable: Success] - Now that you finally have a moment to think, questions start flooding your mind -- why has this happened twice? Has it been the same 'her' each time? Where are these 'Princesses' going?

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] - Will she be alright?

INLAND EMPIRE [Impossible: Success] - In a way, but not one you could ever hope to understand.

LOGIC - Yet again -- unhelpful.

HALF LIGHT [Easy: Success] - Pleasantly ominous, though. Very nice.

VOLITION [Medium: Success] - Seems like he's still supercharged off the back of the last go around. You may want to try recalling that memory one more time before this wears off.

1. I'm starting to have doubts. Surely I forgot this for a good reason?
2. No. No, I -- I can't. It's probably too much. Just let me drift here in the dark and the hands for a while.
3. [Inland Empire - Challenging 12] Try to remember how you got here.

YOU - Try to remember how you got here.

+3 Next time, I promise.

+1 There is a way

+1 Have to keep going

+1 Lost in the pale

-1 *Can't* do this again

-1 Lie to the world

-1 Past the edge

-2 Repressed shattering

CHECK SUCCESS

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Success] - You can't. The memory has been obliterated in its totality. Not a drowning in alcohol, but true annihilation. Nothing remains.

1. Oh.
2. Well that sucks.
3. Then what the hell was all of this buildup for then?

YOU - Then what the hell was all of this buildup for then?

INLAND EMPIRE - Because despite that, there's *still a way*. The memory itself is gone, but the imprint it's left on your mind remains -- the edges still contoured around a missing piece.

INLAND EMPIRE - Slip yourself back into the perspective of a past-you, travelling back down your worldline one moment at a time. Start with the people. People stick with you easiest these days. The rest will fill in from there.

1. Alright, sure. Who do I remember first?

YOU - Alright, sure. Who do I remember first?

REACTION SPEED [Medium: Success] - Soona, the programmer from the church. You remember seeing her in Pryce's office when you tuned in? The sight of her jogged *something* in here, and she seemed to be talking about you and whatever-the-hell you were doing before ending up in this void.

INLAND EMPIRE - Yes, perfect. Start with the pale-diver, she who searches for illumination. She was integral to the events that will-have-once unfolded.

1. Soona...

YOU - Soona...

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - ...speaks to you through a staticky connection early in the afternoon on one of your days off. You've chatted this way often over the past weeks, but her connection isn't normally this bad.

INTERFACING [Medium: Success] - That payphone out near the coast is a piece of crap, it's a wonder it still functions at all. She must usually call from home.

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - You sit on your quite uncomfortable couch with a mug of tea in one hand and a landline phone in the other as you listen to her speak a mile a minute, words well enunciated but still almost incomprehensible amongst the rolling waves of the background noise.

RHETORIC [Challenging: Success] - A good amount of technical jargon, but you can make sense of the gist:

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "--And so combined with the fluctuating measurements, the presence of an audio anomaly beyond anything I've picked up so far has *fascinating* implications for what the inside of the swallow is like -- there could be something 'out there' besides emptiness!"

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "It was strange enough that the not-quite sound we observed the first time was able to be recorded to tape and played back with... well, disastrous results. If we're going to repeat that particular exercise, it will have to be one time only and with the utmost caution."

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "Do you think you could come by tonight? After closing, maybe 4:30 in the morning or so -- Egg Head's going to use some old samples for the mix tonight, though I'm still unconvinced we should be having the public in here at all with readings like this..."

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] - She knows you're *far* from an expert in this field, but you helped her find closure with regard to the failure of Fortress Accident while simultaneously putting forth a surprisingly solid theory on the origins of the pale that she's been fleshing out ever since. She definitely wants you there for this.

1. "I'll be there, don't worry." (Opt in.)
2. Shouldn't there be an option to opt out here too?

YOU - Shouldn't there be an option to opt out here too?

DRAMA - (This is an *old* production, sire, we're merely going through the motions -- you play a part committed to the film reel, unmalleable. Now shush, read your line *correctly* this time.)

1. "I'll be there, don't worry." (Opt in.)
2. Shouldn't there be an option to opt out here too?

YOU - "I'll be there, don't worry." (Opt in.)

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - There is a warm silence for a moment, white noise filling your ear as you take another sip of the tea.

PERCEPTION (TASTE) - (You don't remember what kind. You've picked up literally dozens of different blends from places around the south end of town. You end up disliking most of them but appreciate it for 'the experience' or some crap -- your tongue does *not* approve, by the way.)

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - More of the static, then finally her voice resolves again, much lower this time -- whispered into the receiver.

SHIVERS [Medium: Success] - A woman looks to both sides outside the repaired protective umbrella of an old payphone in west Martinaise. There is no one else around at this hour, a light rain repelling all but the most determined in a place that rarely sees anyone willing to stay outside for more than a couple minutes -- but she feels as though eyes are resting on her regardless.

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "Do you think you could bring by your partner too? I don't want to get you tangled up in any official 'police business' on your day off, but..."

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "It's Tiago. I don't know exactly how he's internalized this recent development, but it's clear he's taking it badly. Do you think you two could give him a wellness check?"

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - She's warmed up to the other occupants of the church over the weeks since you first introduced them properly. Something must be very wrong if she's asking you for help over the Union right next door.

INLAND EMPIRE - (You agreed, of course -- Kim's presence would prove essential for the final fragment of the event.)

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - He at least puts in the effort to sound annoyed when you ask him to show up halfway across town at an ungodly hour.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Medium: Success] - He knows well by now that these sorts of things crop up off-the-clock far too often.

INLAND EMPIRE - (He picked you up in his Kineema, the two of you travelling through the edges of the memory -- the city crumbling and reassembling around you as you moved from one scene to the next.)

INLAND EMPIRE - The next coherent sight you make out is that of Kim offering a warm thermos and a blanket to the voidwalker, crab-man of the rafters.

1. Soona...
2. Tiago...

YOU - Tiago...

TIAGO - ...sits on the front steps of the church, under a newly installed awning, shivering in the night's cold air. This is the first time you've seen him leave the building in all the time you've known him.

ENDURANCE [Easy: Success] - He has to have been eating and drinking *something*, to say nothing of relieving himself and sleeping. Surely he must sleep?

INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Success] - He has no need for such things -- his body has been changed through prolonged contact with the other side.

TIAGO - And yet still he drinks from the offered container, coffee downed with nary a thought. Kim has been attempting to wrangle any kind of response out of him for a good ten minutes now to no avail. If it weren't for the occasional sip, you'd think he wasn't cognizant at all.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Legendary: Success] - It's difficult to notice in the dim light of the church's exterior, but look there -- his shadow is... *wrong*. Cast from the wrong angle.

HALF LIGHT [Formidable: Success] - He's lost something. Something more than he was ready to give, a surprise to one as devoted as he.

TIAGO - In the end, he ends up speaking to you alone, a single sentence whispered with a hoarse voice:

TIAGO - "I heard her sing, homes."

TIAGO - "...She isn't supposed to sing."

RHETORIC [Easy: Success] - He speaks of the Mother of Silence, of course -- the object of his devotion.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - You had poured over known records of pale-adjacent worship soon after you left Martinaise, but no other account contained such a name. The Mother is his, and his alone.

RHETORIC - There were many occasions when you'd visit the church where you would engage in spirited debate with Tiago on a variety of subjects surrounding his worship -- the nature of his god front and center.

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - You've tried to be respectful, but you saw what it was doing to him. How long had he lived in the rafters of an abandoned church with nothing but a hole in the world for company before you arrived?

RHETORIC - The point you came back to the most often was the nature of the 'blessing of silence' he craved, an addiction of a different kind. The obliteration of the self.

RHETORIC - To him, the forgetting was the end goal of it all. To lose oneself in totality, bits and pieces deliberately fed down the drain. A return to a state indistinguishable from non-existence -- total stagnation, the inability to change any further, for the blank slate you'd become would know not how to experience life any longer.

RHETORIC - But to you? You, who had managed to reconstruct the fact that *something* in this church probably contributed to your final alcoholic bender being the one to shatter your mind and scatter your memories to the wind? To you, the forgetting was merely a transitionary state. You lost it all -- but you fought back, picking out the pieces of yourself you wanted to keep and holding them close. You made yourself a new man in the span of less than a week, both learning of the fundamental nature of reality *and* being one of the best damn cops Jamrock has ever seen at the same time.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Easy: Success] - And all of it done while *painfully* sober. Not even a drink for a job well done, no sense of tradition...

VOLITION [Challenging: Success] - What happened to you wasn't *healthy*. People shouldn't just go around shattering their psyches and wiping their memory in response to traumas, no matter how tempting it may be. But it *happened*, and it can't be denied that it had an overall positive effect on your life, if what you've managed to dredge up about your past self is any indication.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Formidable: Success] - She *did* set you free in the end, massive weights lifted from your shoulders allowing you a full range of motion once more. Tiago was right.

LOGIC [Heroic: Success] - But this itself was something you could never quite get over. The Mother of Silence is an obvious shoe-in for being an abstraction of the pale -- it was one of the first things that came to mind when you really stopped to think about it.

LOGIC - But the pale doesn't just take memories -- it should also return the hazy memories of others, information previously lost to time. The paledriver you talked to in the Jam was proof enough of the phenomena, but she was *nothing* like Tiago in either temperament or symptoms.

LOGIC - And now apparently she sings? Preposterous. Could it be, then, that the Mother is not related to the pale at all, but is something else entirely, out there in the dark?

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Formidable: Success] - Forces from beyond pushing and pulling at the seams of reality, disturbing the surface of the ocean of grey.

HALF LIGHT [Challenging: Success] - But the true rot comes from inside. No foreign god can take credit for what we have wrought on ourselves.

SUGGESTION [Legendary: Success] - He saw what he wanted to see when he stared into the abyss. He wanted to forget -- and so he found something that would enable him to do so.

INLAND EMPIRE [Legendary: Success] - A single facet of a vast uncut form, called forth by one who wished to burn away.

REACTION SPEED [Formidable: Success] - All of these thoughts pass through your head in less than a second after Tiago mumbles those words. (You wouldn't end up having time to fully sort through them before shit hit the fan.)

KIM KITSURAGI - (Kim took you aside for a moment to have a quick debrief -- which didn't amount to much, considering how unresponsive your ward was being. The part you remember is this:)

KIM KITSURAGI - "Why don't you head inside and help those delinquents with whatever supranatural ritual they're performing while I stay here and prepare an assessment for the lazareth? I think your particular set of skills will be of more use than mine."

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - Absolutely dripping with sarcasm, but not out of malice -- this banter is well-tread between the two of you.

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] - He says the word 'delinquents' with a tone of fondness.

INLAND EMPIRE - (Tiago would speak no more to either of you, merely an observer of what was to come.)

SHIVERS - (A cold wind buffeted against you as you entered the church, slipping through cracks and breaks to try and push you away. But you didn't listen.)

INLAND EMPIRE - (You passed through the membrane separating one thoughtpool from another. From here onward, the line of causality becomes fuzzy.)

NO TRUCE WITH THE FURIES - A familiar sight greets you: The speedfreaks and Soona, cleaning up garbage and resetting equipment in the aftermath of another successful night at No Truce with the Furies.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] - You really should have picked the other name. This one is fine, sure, but come on, 'Disco Elysium' has so many more *layers* to it.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Challenging: Success] - These guys really hit it out of the park with this business venture -- the *allure* of a dance club in a three hundred year old church was enough to get the party scene in north Jamrock *moving*. It could just be a fad, sure, but it hasn't burnt out yet.

1. Soona...
2. Tiago...
3. Andre, Acele, Noid, Egg Head...

YOU - Andre, Acele, Noid, Egg Head...

NO TRUCE WITH THE FURIES - ...all four of them help to calibrate the sound system for the main event. You take a moment to check in with each of them before Soona waves you over to the computer terminal.

ACELE - "-- so I was collecting new samples for tonight, yeah? The sound of the tides down by the shore, a few new tracks of the wood creaking, that sort of thing."

ACELE - She nods toward the area of the floor marked off by makeshift barriers and caution tape. "But when I turned on the mic over there by the quiet, it just -- you know, it just melted down."

1. "Wait, you add new samples *daily*? Is that really necessary?"
2. "Melted down?"

YOU - "Wait, you add new samples *daily*? Is that really necessary?"

ACELE - She sets down the speaker she was carrying and turns to face you, a hint of confusion on her face.

ACELE - "Yeah, why wouldn't I? Gotta keep the beats fresh. At least that's what Egg says, and he's proven he knows what he's doing by now."

EGG HEAD - "Yeagh, ever-changing ever-growing! The Old begets the New!" he hollers from his position over at the mixing desk.

INTERFACING [Medium: Success] - He's busy changing the presets from 'Party Mode' to 'Serious Business'. Knobs adjusted, toggles flicked, input from the sensor rig double-triple checked...

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - Kill switch ready.

1. "Wait, you add new samples *daily*? Is that really necessary?"
2. "Melted down?"

YOU - "Melted down?"

ACELE - "Yeah. It was like the tape inside just... turned molten. Real hot, almost burned myself. This thing's just a pile of scrap now, it's lucky we can afford a spare."

ACELE - She retrieves the remains of the recording device from her pocket to show you. The outer casing is warped, the insides nothing more than a melted smear of plastic and metals.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Medium: Success] - The frame has warped *outward* from the heat in all directions. The source came purely from inside the device.

INTERFACING [Challenging: Success] - A little commercially available piece like this doesn't have anything inside it that would generate that much heat. This was *something else*.

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Success] - The heart of the sun, glimpsed for only a moment -- still enough to unleash a fraction of its power unto the world.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Godly: Failure] - There's patterns of some kind imprinted into the material, but nothing you can recognize as having meaning.

NOID - Noid cuts in from the other side of the room as he watches you examine the melted tape. "Something's not right here, can't you feel it cop-man? Something fundamental has been removed from the air, split into little pieces -- even the combined will of the crowd wasn't enough to dispel the rancid sines. It's worked every other night, and I know for a fact the music's still been linking people together despite the noise samples being a day or two old."

NOID - "The energy's still here, so what else could have gone?"

ANDRE - "It's nothing I can quite put my finger on, but I must admit that there was definitely something off tonight," comes the final raver's voice from a ramshackle utility closet in the corner.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Easy: Success] - 'Ramshackle' is an overstatement. It's actually pretty competently put together for something constructed from discarded lumber.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Easy: Success] - This and the vandalized window clashing with the intricate woodworking of a long-gone era really speaks to you. It's a *strong* statement of defiance.

ANDRE - "Maybe whatever it is has Tiago spooked too. Do you know if he's doing alright, Harry?"

1. "Oh don't worry, he's fine. If anything the fact he's finally come down from the ceiling is probably a good sign."
2. "I'm not sure. Kim's outside with him right now, but he wasn't saying much."
3. "...No. Something's got him real shaken up. Any of you happen to hear any 'singing' tonight? Something out of the ordinary?"

YOU - "...No. Something's got him real shaken up. Any of you happen to hear any 'singing' tonight? Something out of the ordinary?"

ACELE - "I mean, if you could call Egg Head's crowd-pleasing 'singing'. Though that's not really new, now that I think about it."

EGG HEAD - "The siren song of the void, YEAAAAGH!"

NOID - "Nothin' like that, no."

ANDRE - "There's always a couple people in the crowd that feel like taking a crack at lyrics, screaming their lungs out over all the noise, but let me tell you -- you can't just stick words on anodic music like that. There's not enough room to jam them in, the headspace's already full."

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - Soona finishes the last line of whatever she's been working on at her terminal with a slight flourish, then turns to address the room. "Alright, everything's almost ready to go. Gather around, we should all maintain a safe distance from the anomaly when I disengage the mute."

SHIVERS - Rain begins to patter on the window, dull thuds of thick raindrops being the only sound from the outside.

EMPATHY [Trivial: Success] - Hopefully Kim and Tiago aren't too drenched.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Easy: Success] - Hey. Hey, you. You should pop a painkiller right about now.

1. Why?
2. Guess I gotta. [Take a pill.]

YOU - Why?

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Cause this shit is probably gonna *hurt*, even if it all goes well. Plus you could do with something or other in your system for an occasion like this, even if it's a 'recommended dose', ugh.

PAIN THRESHOLD - I'm gonna agree with him on this one. The 'sound' last time literally rattled your bones together, that's gonna fuck up your leg wound big time. Take a pill.

1. Why?
2. Guess I gotta. [Take a pill.]

YOU - Guess I gotta. [Take a pill.]

INLAND EMPIRE - (You took a pill from the little bottle to soothe your flesh back into order while walking over to the computer terminal, an inexplicable anxiety starting to take hold of your ribs.)

COMPOSURE [Formidable: Success] - You know what Noid and Andre were talking about now, and you can identify what it is: The air is unnaturally still, almost gelatinous. You can still breathe, but it leaves your lungs feeling tired before long. This is *wrong* -- maybe you should speak up?

1. "Are you sure we should be doing this, Soona? If the tape recorder melted from whatever this new sound is, couldn't it be more dangerous than the last time, broadcast like this?"
2. [Say nothing.]

YOU - "Are you sure we should be doing this, Soona? If the tape recorder melted from whatever this new sound is, couldn't it be more dangerous than the last time, broadcast like this?"

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - She hesitates, weighing your words for a few seconds, before shaking her head and returning to her preparations. "No, everything should be fine. The volume's only at 40% output right now, I finally convinced Egg Head to unstick the master control--"

EGG HEAD - "It went a little *too* hard core last time," he says with a rare somberness.

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "And there's a killswitch wired in both at this end and at the desk. Worst comes to worst, we can cut the power before things go off the deep end."

AUTHORITY [Easy: Success] - Respect of your station and your contributions will only go so far. She won't be deterred from this, not now.

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] - You know the intellectual hunger she holds is one of the last things she has left. She *has* to know.

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - The five of you cluster around the radiocomputer as she begins her countdown, expressions of curiosity and hesitance adorning each of your faces. "Five."

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "Four."

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - There's no real need for a countdown here, everyone's already in place -- this is just for the *theatrics*.

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "Three"

SOONA, THE PROGRAMMER - "Two--"

INLAND EMPIRE - (...)

1. And? What happened next?

YOU - And? What happened next?

INLAND EMPIRE - (A fracture. The edges of the memoryhole become indistinct, shifting and twisting. There are snippets of what transpired, but no framework with which to hold them together.)

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Impossible: Failure] - (There was sound. But it's missing from the scene -- unable to be contained by your mind. Too many dimensions.)

INTERFACING [Trivial: Success] - (All switches being jammed off, all plugs being pulled -- but none of it stopped the noise.)

VISUAL CALCULUS [Easy: Success] - (The stained glass breaking anew. Old fault lines retread, new ones branching from the largest cracks.)

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - (Panic. Fear. Muffled stomping of boots as the others fled out into the night.)

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Challenging: Success] - Wrenching Soona away from her terminal as she collects reams of paper from the printer --

REACTION SPEED [Formidable: Success] - Only half a second before the radiocomputer is destroyed by a falling beam.

PAIN THRESHOLD - (There may have been pain. Being struck by something in the back -- but you kept going.)

SAVOIRE FAIRE [Challenging: Success] - Rushing to leave with the rest, dodging the biggest chunks of plaster and wood, when something makes you stop.

1. What could have possibly made me stop?! The building's coming down!

YOU - What could have possibly made me stop?! The building's coming down!

INLAND EMPIRE - (I did. Do you remember what I told you, then?)

INLAND EMPIRE [Formidable: Success] - Turn back. There's something inside you need to witness.

HALF LIGHT [Easy: Success] - You'll die if you remain a few seconds longer, buried and impaled by falling debris. Nothing could be worth the risk.

VOLITION [Easy: Success] - Now's *not* the time to entertain him, you have to *go*, NOW.

SHIVERS [Easy: Success] - The wind outside is howling. To the southeast, the people of an unnamed fishing village gather outside their homes, braving the storm, whispering and pointing toward the display not far up the coast.

1. No, I *can't*.
2. I don't want to die here!
3. ...
4. But I guess maybe I didn't mind if I did.
5. Because I did turn back, didn't I?
6. [Turn back.]

YOU - [Turn back.]

INLAND EMPIRE - (And you turned back. Returning to the nave, pushing past the barriers. Into the silence.)

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Medium: Success] - Just outside, Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi corrals a group of distressed citizens a safe distance from the collapsing building. There is only one question on his mind, which he verbalizes to the lot of them, shouted over the wind and the noise:

KIM KITSURAGI - "Where's Harry?!"

PERCEPTION - But you can't hear him -- you can barely hear anything from your position in the center of the ring of silence. The roof still collapses around you, in the quiet, beams and planks tumbling from above.

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Success] - The wood boils along with the air. Some turns to ash, while other pieces sprout branches and leaves, new growth drawn from dead plant matter.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Formidable: Success] - For a reason you can't discern, the central point under which you're standing has remained perfectly intact. It *shouldn't* be, given the amount of load-bearing pillars that've been knocked down, but there isn't the slightest sway or fault. Against all reason, you should be safe here -- at least for now.

1. What is it I need to see? What could be this important?

YOU - What is it I need to see? What could be this important?

INLAND EMPIRE - Not see -- hear. Can you not hear it?

LOGIC [Easy: Success] - Of all the places to hear something this would be the *least* likely to produce anything audible! You need to bail *now*, Dreamy's finally gonna get you killed if you don't--

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - No. No, There *is* something! The sound from outside stripped of the imperfections, tingling at the edge of the range of human perception. If you were to focus just a bit harder...

1. [Perception (Hearing) - Impossible 20] Focus your senses.

YOU - Focus your senses.

+3 She's not supposed to sing.

+3 Col Do Ma Ma Daqua

+3 Heard the city on the wind

+2 Heard the miracle in the reeds

+2 Heard the hole in the world

+2 Heard the hanged man speak

+1 Heard your tie (may he rest in peace)

FOREGONE SUCCESS

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Impossible: Success] - You block out the only sounds left that could interfere -- the sounds of a living being.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - You hold your breath. This lungful of air will have to last you long enough.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - Your heartbeat slows, the interval between each pulse growing as you strain yourself to your absolute limit.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - Your body grows still, every muscle and organ locked into position for the briefest of moments.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - And finally, the last to go -- the dim hum of your own thoughts, the last sensation left for your ears to detect.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - For a single instant, you forget what it means to exist at all.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - Then, in the total silence, you finally make out the true form of the sound from beyond:

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - [A song of oblivion.]

ENDURANCE [Trivial: Success] - There are breaths being drawn, but they aren't yours.

INTERFACING [Formidable: Success] - But below that: a warbling noise far outside the vocal range of any mortal being. A wavelength spanning the width of the cosmos.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Legendary: Success] - Space itself cries out to you, modulations of a fundamental force emanating from the hole into the dark -- the world of matter buckles under the weight.

HALF LIGHT [Challenging: Success] - A wounded animal in its death throes.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - And then -- a woman's voice. No words are spoken, only the same melody repeated.

AUTHORITY [Heroic: Success] - But she begins her song with no regard for the other, as if she cannot hear them at all. Their melody trails behind hers, following a leader who doesn't know they're even there.

EMPATHY [Legendary: Success] - Both express the same emotions, raw and unfiltered. Sorrow. Anguish. Longing.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Godly: Success] - Two halves of a whole.

ENDURANCE - You finally let out the breath, lungs burning.

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - ...It can't be real. ...Can it?

INLAND EMPIRE - It can, and it is. Presences in the shadow.

ENDURANCE [Medium: Success] - It could have just been the lack of oxygen scrambling your brain --

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - No, the sound really exists, even if impossibly low. Your eardrums vibrated with its passing --

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Medium: Success] - Damn, did someone spike your painkillers? Maybe you should take some more --

VOLITION [Challenging: Success] - Enough. ...You think it was real. But what *was* it, really? What could possibly make such a sound?

1. [Inland Empire - Impossible 20] What's out there, singing the song of oblivion?

YOU - What's out there, singing the song of oblivion?

+3 Cleaning Out the Rooms

+3 Col Do Ma Ma Daqua

+2 Motorway South

+2 Jamais Vu (Derealization)

+1 The Insulindian Miracle

+1 Searchlight Division

FOREGONE SUCCESS

INLAND EMPIRE [Impossible: Success] - A mirror, shattered.

1. A... mirror?
2. Shattered how? By what?
3. But what does it *mean*?

YOU - A... mirror?

INLAND EMPIRE - A mirror.

INLAND EMPIRE - A reflection of the whole of reality, distorted and rippling yet perfectly clear.

INLAND EMPIRE - A reflection of itself.

INLAND EMPIRE - A reflection of you.

1. A... mirror?
2. Shattered how? By what?
3. But what does it *mean*?

YOU - Shattered how? By what?

INLAND EMPIRE - Struck through by the point of a blade wielded in the hand of someone much like yourself, an act of defiance. Cleaved from shoulder to hip, bisected. One half crumbles to sand, the other growing into a crystalline fractal.

INLAND EMPIRE - Unmade and unbound. Life without meaning, meaning without life. Locked away in the dark.

INLAND EMPIRE - A flaw in the design. The nothing cannot remember its own shape. A precious keepsake lost in the folds.

1. A... mirror?
2. Shattered how? By what?
3. But what does it *mean*?

YOU - But what does it *mean*?

INLAND EMPIRE - They are not of this world. A ship passing in the night, sailing the blackest sea in the space between spaces. But the ramifications...

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Challenging: Success] - Reality unwound.

INTERFACING [Challenging: Success] - Constants broken, timing mechanism shaken to pieces. The world's machine grinds itself to dust.

DRAMA [Challenging: Success] - The final curtain call.

HALF LIGHT [Challenging: Success] - It's already begun. Do you see how the laws break down in the remains of this church? We won't get the chance to destroy ourselves after all.

VOLITION [Heroic: Success] - No. No! There has to be something you can do. *Something*.

1. ...Is there? Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening?

YOU - ...Is there? Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening?

INLAND EMPIRE - There is.

INLAND EMPIRE - You are not a perfect fit -- but you're the closest man will ever come.

INLAND EMPIRE - Reach out to the void, travel down the road -- to the very last exit. Enter the dream.

INLAND EMPIRE - Walk the path. Find what is missing. Mend the break.

INTERFACING - You can fix things. You're *good* at fixing things, nowadays.

PAIN THRESHOLD - You've had a lot of practice.

RHETORIC [Challenging: Success] - 'Reach out to the void' -- into the 2 millimetre hole?

LOGIC [Easy: Success] - You *can't*. It would kill you, more surely than any other kind of death imaginable.

HALF LIGHT [Formidable: Success] - But you need to fucking try. Maybe die now or *definitely* die later -- the odds are against you, but there's a *chance*.

VOLITION - This *could* all just be one last sick joke your brain is playing on itself. But then again--

NO TRUCE WITH THE FURIES - You're broken from your trancelike state by a wall of wind and rain slamming into you from the hole that used to be a window. The stained glass has been scattered to the wind, Innocence and all, lost in the maelstrom.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Challenging: Success] - You aren't knocked on your ass, I got you.

VISUAL CALCULUS - Above, the spire of the church *still* stands, against all natural law. There are no beams left keeping it aloft at this point, only fragile decorative molding.

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] - Brace against the wind, it's only gonna get worse.

1. [Brace against the wind.]

YOU - [Brace against the wind.]

SHIVERS - You lean into the gale, water droplets and small pieces of debris peppering your arms and face. The wind is alive with a palpable energy, drenching your clothes and carrying away the shouts of those gathered around the crumbling remains of the pinewood church. Outside, the whole of Martinaise wakes to the sound of the fury. Lightning cracks somewhere far away, unheard but blinding.

SHIVERS - In the aftermath of the flash, you finally begin to shiver from the freezing rain.

SHIVERS - In all directions, the city stirs.

1. In the east?
2. In the north?
3. In the west?
4. And in the south?

YOU - In the east?

SHIVERS - Across the bay where the water boils, upon the eastern shore -- apartments and shops, faded and worn. The walls of the crumbling tenements have been shored up with plaster and brick, wood and paint, but the storm still pierces through the cracks to greet those who gather around pockets of warmth. A yard sits empty, the dead long lain to rest, three children disappearing into the tangle of sheds and warehouses for more adequate shelter from the elements. The windows of the hostel on the corner hold against the worst of it -- reinforced since the last time bullets pierced them, the rain stands no chance.

SHIVERS - Farther, the grand iron gate of the harbor stands closed. The mechanisms are beginning to rust, slicked as they are with the downpour. Behind them, dockworkers continue cataloging cargo as they have all through the night, shipments from beyond the edges of the world -- produce, raw material, emboldened hopes, weapons of war. All squirreled away under tarp and chain from the skyward panopticon.

SHIVERS - Inside a shipping container, a large man sat at his desk makes a phone call.

SHIVERS - And farther still. Across the seventh distributary of the Esperance, through the sprawl of The Cycle into the towers of glass and stainless steel in the eastern outskirts of La Delta. An executive on the 37th floor contemplates stepping forward into the air, briefcase in hand. She will resist the urge today. The windows shake all along the wind corridor.

SHIVERS - And beyond the city, past the coast, unto the grey -- a glow of orange breaks from the ocean. The sun remains trapped under the horizon.

1. In the east?
2. In the north?
3. In the west?
4. And in the south?

YOU - In the north?

SHIVERS - Rising from the sea -- the ruins of a long-lost fight, once ruled by anger, now host only to the ghosts of smoke and a featherlight creature of the reeds. Curled in on itself under a collapsed pylon, waiting out the storm so that its delicate limbs are not torn to pieces. A collection of trinkets bob in the water, wrappers and jewelry, souvenirs from an unknown world of light and sound.

SHIVERS - And above -- kilometres away, prowling the skies. A massive beast of iron and fire, rotors spinning in silence as it breaks through a stormcloud. Coalition Warship Archer drifts its lazy circuit, all eyes pointed inward, toward the sixteen million citizens huddled below in fear. It will spy the ruins left on the coast soon, very soon -- but too late.

1. In the east?
2. In the north?
3. In the west?
4. And in the south?

YOU - In the west?

SHIVERS - Past the boardwalk, down the coast -- the gnarled forests of the Pox. A concrete edifice at its center, the old hospital -- vagrants sheltering from the cold, looking for supplies long since collected decades ago. Sealed deep under a slab buried in its basement, the last sample festers. Thunder booms within the halls.

SHIVERS - Beyond, through the trees and the shacks, a blind spot that once held a clearing. Nothing to know, nothing to see. You will make it there someday, but not today.

SHIVERS - Back into the tangle of asphalt and duraluminium, Coal City. The rain is gentle here, weakening the hold of the permanent layer of soot and ash among the ruins of the forsaken. A man gathers with a litter of cats under the awning of a bus stop, a block of sharp cheddar sliced with a pocket knife and passed around. Below, in the catacombs, disavowed lovers embrace under watch of ancestors long departed. A distant breeze flits through the tunnels.

SHIVERS - And on, and on, through the ghettos and the fields and beyond the edge of Le Caillou, a new moon sinks below the waves. A descent into the unknown.

1. In the east?
2. In the north?
3. In the west?
4. And in the south?

YOU - And in the south?

SHIVERS - The beating heart of Revachol. Too many scenes to contain in a single moment. An overlapping mass of human experience, ten thousand lifetimes taken just to untangle them all. You catch only fragments.

SHIVERS - In the Eminent Domain, among the cinderblocks and corrugated metal, a murder of crows gather under an overpass, a preacher with no eyes beginning his sermon in earnest.

SHIVERS - Down the rows of Boogie Street, on a corner, in an alley -- a bartender breathes their last, surrounded by their loved ones. The breath is caught by the wind, added to the swirling mass.

SHIVERS - In the lobby of a converted silk mill, the first of the day shift clocks in, shaking rain from their jackets and coats. They will entertain idle chatter and work the files of those dead and lost until they receive the call, ten minutes hence.

SHIVERS - Buried in the Burnt Out Quarter under 25 feet of ash and ruin, gemstones gleam despite not seeing light for decades.

SHIVERS - And above it all, through the sheets of rain, across the motorway, curling between the homes and the streets, blowing into the crumbling frame of a pinewood church on the west shore of Martinaise, a single voice carried by the exhalations of her patchwork soul.

INLAND EMPIRE - (This was the last time she spoke to you before you departed from the world.)

1. Soona...
2. Tiago...
3. Andre, Acele, Noid, Egg Head...
4. La Revacholière.

YOU - La Revacholière.

SHIVERS - Cutting through the silence of the swallow, resonating in your lungs. A distant cacophony resolves into one:

SHIVERS - YOU CANNOT GO. PLEASE.

1. I don't have a choice. I think this is the only way.
2. I'm not sure if I have to, not yet. Is it real?

YOU - I don't have a choice. I think this is the only way.

SHIVERS - THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE. ANYWHERE YOU WOULD WANDER ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH, MY VOICE WOULD REACH YOU -- THROUGH THE ATMOSPHERIC CURRENTS AND THE WASH OF THE WAVES, CARRIED ALONG THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS THAT PIERCE THROUGH THE WORLD'S EDGE.

SHIVERS - BUT YOU STAND ON THE PRECIPICE OF THE INWARD AZIMUTH, THE MOUTH OF THE ABYSS. YOU WILL TRAVEL FARTHER THAN I CAN EVER GO.

SHIVERS - DO NOT LEAVE ME. WE WILL BE ALONE WITHOUT YOU.

1. ...I'm sorry. I have to do this. For you, for everyone...

YOU - ...I'm sorry. I have to do this. For you, for everyone...

SHIVERS - YOU DO. AND THAT IS WHY I LOVE YOU SO. YOU WILL PROBE THE HIDDEN SPACES AND FIND THOSE LOST TO THE DARK. IT MUST BE THIS WAY. IT IS IN YOUR NATURE.

SHIVERS - I WILL WAIT FOR YOUR RETURN. THE NEON WILL SING WITH THE TALE OF YOUR JOURNEY, THE STREETLIGHTS FLICKERING IN ANTICIPATION OF THE REUNION.

SHIVERS - YOU WILL CARRY A PIECE OF ME WITH YOU, ADORNING YOUR COAT, ENTWINED WITH YOUR BLOOD, FILLING THE DEEPEST RECESSES OF YOUR LUNGS. HOLD IT CLOSE AND THINK OF ME, AS I WILL HOLD THE MEMORY OF YOU DURING THE LONG NIGHT AHEAD.

SHIVERS - REMAIN VIGILANT. BE SAFE. I LOVE YOU, STILL AND ALWAYS.

SHIVERS - TELL THEM THEY ARE WELCOME TO MY SHORES.

SHIVERS - FAREWELL.

SHIVERS - And as her voice fades away to the silence -- the storm abates in equal measure. A torrential downpour reduced to light drizzle.

LOGIC [Easy: Success] - Do you even know what the 'this' you're supposed to be doing is? Are you just going to hurl yourself into the hole in the world and hope for the best? Because even if you wanted to, it's currently situated roughly six stories above your head, suspended in the shadows of the somehow-still-intact apex of the roof.

INLAND EMPIRE - You will survive the journey. The space between is nothing to you -- if you were only to reach out and grasp the grain in your hand...

1. [Reach out to the swallow.]

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Legendary: Success] - You reach toward it, an unseen point in space cradled by the shadow and the remains of the night. The distance seems to fall away...

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - A hand on your shoulder, pulling you back.

1. Soona...
2. Tiago...
3. Andre, Acele, Noid, Egg Head...
4. La Revacholière.
5. *Kim*!

YOU - *Kim*!

KIM KITSURAGI - He turns you around to face him, face obscured by the darkness. You can see the glint of the distant sunrise reflected in his glasses through a break in the clouds. He speaks, the sound moving not through the air, but down his arm and into your bones.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Harry! We need to leave, *now* -- the building is collapsing! Why are you still in here?!"

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - Though his voice seems distant and faint, you know he must be shouting as loud as he possibly can to be audible at all here.

1. "There's something out there, Kim. Something *big*. Bigger than us. ...I think they're in pain. I have to do something."

YOU - "There's something out there, Kim. Something *big*. Bigger than us. ...I think they're in pain. I have to do something."

KIM KITSURAGI - Your own voice travels back along the point of contact, reaching his eardrums in an instant. "This isn't the time, Harry! I won't let you kill yourself like this -- we have to *go*!"

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - He thinks you're trying to lose yourself in the swallow, or in the collapse of the building.

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - It wouldn't be the first time he's had to drag you back from the edge.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - L'appel du vide. The call of the void.

1. [Volition - Godly 16] Tell him this isn't a suicide attempt, this is *real*.

YOU - Tell him this isn't a suicide attempt, this is *real*.

+3 Waste Land of Reality

-3 Finger on the Eject Button

-5 Waste Land of Reality

FOREGONE FAILURE

VOLITION [Godly: Failure] - ...Maybe it's both.

LOGIC - This *could* really just be another hallucination -- the singing and the visions, not the church collapsing, that's very real.

PAIN THRESHOLD - Would it be so bad? To lose oneself? Maybe Tiago had it right.

REACTION SPEED - It would be quick.

INLAND EMPIRE - *No*. This *is* real. As real as the unreality beyond can ever be.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Formidable: Success] - ...The beams *are* boiling, ashen and verdant, and the spire *does* still stand. It's real.

SUGGESTION [Medium: Success] - But Kim doesn't see it. Make him see. Show him!

REACTION SPEED [Challenging: Success] - He's still waiting for a response. Barely a second has passed.

1. "Look around, Kim! Reality is coming apart at the seams. It's something out there doing this -- I *have* to go. There's a way to fix this, I just know it."
2. "...I don't -- It's not like that. It's not!"
3. [Say nothing.]

YOU - "Look around, Kim! Reality is coming apart at the seams. It's something out there doing this -- I *have* to go. There's a way to fix this, I just know it."

RHETORIC [Easy: Success] - You didn't actually refute his statement -- this was a deflection.

KIM KITSURAGI - But the lieutenant breaks eye contact with you anyway, gazing around the floor and up in the remaining rafters. His poor eyesight is done no favors by the dark.

AUTHORITY [Challenging: Success] - It won't be enough. Order him to unhand you at once!

1. [Suggestion - Godly 16] Convince him that you have to do this.
2. [Authority - Godly 16] Order him to let go of you.
3. But I didn't do either of these.

YOU - But I didn't do either of these.

INLAND EMPIRE - (You didn't.)

AUTHORITY - (You did not have to.)

SUGGESTION - (Honesty *was* the best policy, this time.)

KIM KITSURAGI - His gaze returns to meet yours after a few seconds survey. Below your feet, the floor begins to rumble.

COMPOSURE [Challenging: Success] - Behind his glasses, his eyes are wide. He sees it, though he doesn't want to believe.

EMPATHY [Formidable: Success] - A part of him does, though. The part that trusts you. It's only grown larger the longer you've known each other.

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - This goes against what little left he holds to be true in the world. The darkness cannot hold monsters -- can it?

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] - But he has worked with you for long enough to know that there are some parts of the world that are outside of his understanding.

COMPOSURE [Formidable: Success] - A war wages behind his eyes as he weighs the options. After a moment he reaches a decision, face resetting to the unflappable wall it usually is.

KIM KITSURAGI - "Then I'm coming with you. What should we do, detective?"

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Medium: Success] - 'I won't let you face this alone.'

INLAND EMPIRE [Formidable: Success] - He *can't* come with you. Only one set of eyes may witness the multitudes, and more than that -- he would break before he would bend. Only you can go.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Medium: Success] - The steeple is *finally* coming apart. For the last few seconds it's suspended in thin air, no structure at all left to support the weight. But then -- tremors. It's no longer safe here.

REACTION SPEED [Challenging: Success] - An ancient piece of wooden framework comes loose above your heads. Kim doesn't see it -- his attention is on you and you alone. You have only seconds.

1. "...I'm sorry Kim. I'll be back soon -- I promise, okay?"
2. [Physical Instrument - Godly 16] Push Kim away from the collapse.

YOU - "...I'm sorry Kim. I'll be back soon -- I promise, okay?"

KIM KITSURAGI - He only just begins to process your words as the floor tilts, the stilts holding the church up over the water finally cracking from the strain.

REACTION SPEED [Legendary: Success] - You pull against the second hand, stretching time as far as it'll go. Do it.

1. "...I'm sorry Kim. I'll be back soon -- I promise, okay?"
2. [Physical Instrument - Godly 16] Push Kim away from the collapse.

YOU - Push Kim away from the collapse.

+3 You trust him.

+3 He trusts you.

FOREGONE SUCCESS

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Godly: Success] - He doesn't resist as you brush his arm from your shoulder and shove him with all of your might, both palms plunged into the chest. He lands with an unheard *thud* nearly three metres away, bruised but living, just as a section of the steeple crushes the spot where he once stood.

KIM KITSURAGI - You meet his eyes one last time before you go.

COMPOSURE [Godly: Failure] - His face is unreadable.

EMPATHY [Godly: Failure] - You don't know what he's thinking, nor what he's feeling.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Legendary: Success] - He has total confidence in your abilities, Lieutenant double-yefreitor. If you say this can be fixed -- you will fix it. If you say you will return -- he will hold down the fort.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - He is your partner, to the very end. Do not let him down, Harrier.

INLAND EMPIRE - The window is almost gone -- the last panes are sliding into place. It's now or never.

1. [Reach out to the swallow.]

YOU - [Reach out to the swallow.]

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - Just as before -- the space seems to melt away as you extend your arm. Until it's right in front of your face: a grain of blackness still keening oblivion's song.

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - You don't know if there's a way back from the space beyond. You may be trapped, forever, if not outright killed on entry --

LOGIC [Heroic: Success] - No. Your mind is sharp -- you will untangle the puzzle. If there is no way back -- you will *make* one. If you're going to do this, I'll do my best.

VOLITION [Heroic: Success] - You don't know what you're getting yourself into -- but when have you ever? You'll make it through.

REACTION SPEED - There's no more time.

1. [Let go.]

YOU - [Let go.]

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - You do the opposite -- you wrap your hand around the grain and *squeeze* --

INLAND EMPIRE - And your body comes apart, along with your mind. Shattered -- as before, so again. The pieces tumble down the well, far into the dark -- but you will reassemble yourself on the other side. It will be alright.

INLAND EMPIRE - ...

INLAND EMPIRE - (And then you knew no more.)

INLAND EMPIRE - ...

INLAND EMPIRE - That is all.

Task complete: Figure out how you got here

Task updated: Find out where you are

SHIVERS [Easy: Success] - The echoes of oblivion's song resonate in your chest for just a moment longer after the recollection ends.

DRAMA - A *wonderful* reproduction -- a hearty congratulations to each and every one of you. Nothing but the best!

VOLITION [Challenging: Success] - I know that was a lot, Harry. Take a minute to cool off, get your thoughts in order. One thing at a time.

LOGIC - Let me take a crack at it. ...I need to make up for lost time.

1. Kim...
2. So, the world *is* going to end? Was He right the whole time? Should I have slain the Princess -- Princesses?
3. I'm not in the pale.
4. I didn't have a plan to get back.
5. So, these hands -- is this the Mother of Silence?
6. 'Walk the path. Find what is missing. Mend the break.' How?

YOU - Kim...

LOGIC [Trivial: Success] - Is fine. You've seen him, alive and well, at the wreckage and in the precinct.

EMPATHY [Trivial: Success] - He still believes in you.

VOLITION [Heroic: Success] - Prove him right.

1. Kim...
2. So, the world *is* going to end? Was He right the whole time? Should I have slain the Princess -- Princesses?
3. I'm not in the pale.
4. I didn't have a plan to get back.
5. So, these hands -- is this the Mother of Silence?
6. 'Walk the path. Find what is missing. Mend the break.' How?

YOU - So, the world *is* going to end? Was He right the whole time? Should I have slain the Princess -- Princesses?

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - You've *already* killed her, both directly and indirectly. It didn't stick.

HALF LIGHT [Challenging: Success] - Maybe you just need to try *harder*.

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - You can't 'kill someone harder'. People are either alive or dead. (Ghosts notwithstanding.)

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - She hasn't wanted to end the world -- not any of the times you've met so far.

SUGGESTION [Formidable: Success] - What she 'wants' has changed -- the first time, she only wanted *you*. The second time, she only sought escape. Who's to say that, if this keeps going on, she won't eventually want to end the world?

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Formidable: Success] - If it comes down to that, you can stop her.

1. Kim...
2. So, the world *is* going to end? Was He right the whole time? Should I have slain the Princess -- Princesses?
3. I'm not in the pale.
4. I didn't have a plan to get back.
5. So, these hands -- is this the Mother of Silence?
6. 'Walk the path. Find what is missing. Mend the break.' How?

YOU - I'm not in the pale.

LOGIC [Legendary: Success] - You *could* be. You didn't travel into the pale, you travelled into the swallow -- beyond reality entirely. But if the pale can encroach inward from the edge, could it not also push outward into the dark?

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Legendary: Success] - Maybe you brought it with you.

1. Kim...
2. So, the world *is* going to end? Was He right the whole time? Should I have slain the Princess -- Princesses?
3. I'm not in the pale.
4. I didn't have a plan to get back.
5. So, these hands -- is this the Mother of Silence?
6. 'Walk the path. Find what is missing. Mend the break.' How?

YOU - I didn't have a plan to get back.

LOGIC [Heroic: Success] - ...No, you didn't. But maybe if you 'fix things' you'll be able to go home? It's tenuous, but you don't really have any other ideas.

DRAMA [Legendary: Success] - It makes a narrative sort of sense -- and this grand stage *definitely* supports a narrative, sire. Perhaps after the finale you will return, draped in laurels and hailed as a hero.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Medium: Success] - Your half-brothers are searching for you in all the ways they can. Together, you can tackle this problem from both ends.

Task updated: Return home

1. Kim...
2. So, the world *is* going to end? Was He right the whole time? Should I have slain the Princess -- Princesses?
3. I'm not in the pale.
4. I didn't have a plan to get back.
5. So, these hands -- is this the Mother of Silence?
6. 'Walk the path. Find what is missing. Mend the break.' How?

YOU - So, these hands -- is this the Mother of Silence?

LOGIC [Easy: Success] - No. You remember the description Tiago first gave to you months ago? 'She can't be painted or sculpted, because she has no limbs or even a face' -- there's no face to be seen but there's no shortage of limbs.

ENDURANCE [Challenging: Success] - Only part of a body. Is there more just out of sight?

INTERFACING - But she *is* making you forget. If she's not Tiago's god, maybe she's something similar?

INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Success] - The Mother was a fragment of something larger. This one, a descendant of that whole. Heiress to the throne.

1. Kim...
2. So, the world *is* going to end? Was He right the whole time? Should I have slain the Princess -- Princesses?
3. I'm not in the pale.
4. I didn't have a plan to get back.
5. So, these hands -- is this the Mother of Silence?
6. 'Walk the path. Find what is missing. Mend the break.' How?

YOU - 'Walk the path. Find what is missing. Mend the break.' How?

LOGIC [Godly: Failure] - Sorry, this one's stumping me. We all have our limits.

SUGGESTION - Let's just ask Dreamy-boy over here directly, they're the one who said all that prophetic shit to begin with.

INLAND EMPIRE - ...

VOLITION - Well? We're waiting.

INLAND EMPIRE [Impossible: Success] - Time has run out. Know this: Stay the course. Five yet remain.

REACTION SPEED - What?

BREAKTHROUGH IMMINENT: Dual-Booted Ghost in the Machine

THOUGHT COMPLETE: DUAL-BOOTED GHOST IN THE MACHINE

Bad news: She's not here anymore, which means your dreams of being Haunted Cop have been put to rest (just like her, am I right?). Good(?) news: While there's not a ghost rattling around in your soul anymore, there is... something else. A presence on the wind, familiar but unknown. Not like the city, but not like you either. At least, not entirely. This is all really just vibes and feelings, but if anyone knows how to divine answers from vibes, it's you.

Permanent research bonus:
+2 Shivers: A presence
-1 Inland Empire: Can't get a straight answer

REACTION SPEED - For god's sake, don't tell me--

INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Failure] - Your mind settles back into the shape it's supposed to occupy. Your eyes pierce the veil no longer.

1. Goddamnit.

YOU - Goddamnit.

INLAND EMPIRE - The cosmos is a fickle thing, apologies.

AUTHORITY - Next time, spit out the important information *first*.

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Success] - If you don't know, and no one in here knows... Maybe you can ask her? Whoever all these arms belong to. Try it again?

1. [Shivers - Impossible 20] Is there any way I can understand her like this?
2. Why has it gotten harder?

YOU - Why has it gotten harder?

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Challenging: Success] - Well, --

RHETORIC [Easy: Success] - Shut the fuck up.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Impossible: Failure] - She's still been trying to speak to you the entire time, probably -- you *were* pretty enthralled in your own not-quite-memory there -- and the pileup of overlapping tones has only gotten worse. Soon enough it'll be *truly* impossible.

RHETORIC [Formidable: Success] - It doesn't sound like questions anymore at least.

1. [Shivers - Impossible 20] Is there any way I can understand her like this?
2. Why has it gotten harder?

YOU - Is there any way I can understand her like this?

+1 Cheated

+1 Opportunist

+1 Skeptic

+1 Cold

+1 Smitten

+1 Hero

CHECK FAILURE

SHIVERS [Impossible: Failure] - It is still out of your reach. You can *feel* the similarities to the whispers of the wind -- the rumblings of a gathering of souls. Solitary lights in an empty city. You just can't make sense of it, not yet, maybe not ever.

SHIVERS - ...

SHIVERS - But something else can. Only for a moment.

COMPOSURE - All the hairs of your body stand on end.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - The speech resolves into coherence. But it won't last long. From all around you, a tender voice:

I am sorry. You have shown me that there are worlds beyond this one and told me that I am meant to reach them. For this, I thank you dearly.

But I have come to know you both inside and out, and I know now this space was never meant for you. You have borne witness to unimaginable pain and suffering, something you struggle to stand against. To me it is nothing, but to you - agony. The difference between us is clear.

You are more like a person than you are like me.

...

I am alone.

EMPATHY [Legendary: Success] - Those last three words, though spoken in the same level tone as all the rest, contain unbound misery.

SHIVERS - Just as quickly as it came, the meaning is lost, the voice returned to the incomprehensible. At the tail end, a sound like wind descending through an alley -- howling. But it doesn't come from her.

LOGIC [Formidable: Success] - She can't be alone. You heard two presences singing in the abyss -- her, and another. Maybe this is what you have to find? To 'mend the break'?

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Formidable: Success] - This was a missing persons case after all. Retrieve the form you picked up, you can still fill it out properly.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Trivial: Success] - Grab a pen while you're at it, might as well do that right away this time.

1. Do I *really* still have to fill out paperwork while lost in the void? Come on, that's bullshit!
2. [Grab the form and a pen.]

YOU - [Grab the form and a pen.]

ESPRIT DE CORPS - You folded the form neatly into quarters, no other wrinkles marring the surface -- this will make it easier to telefax should the need arise, good.

Item gained: Missing persons report (Blank)

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - You're a lot less picky this time reaching into the bundle -- the pen you select ends up being the red disposable one, with the forest and the birds. Hopefully it still writes.

Item gained: Pen of the Esperance

LOGIC - You still don't have any data to fill out most of this sheet. Date, name, visual description...

RHETORIC [Formidable: Success] - But you can at least put down a case name, if nothing else. Committing *something* to the paper will 'make it real', cement it in your mind.

VOLITION [Medium: Success] - Yeah, you should. Having something like this to hold on to will help you stay focused.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Legendary: Success] - Don't you worry, I've got *plenty* of premium names for you to choose from. Pick whatever feels right, there are no wrong answers.

1. THE SONG OF OBLIVION.
2. THE HERO AND THE PRINCESS.
3. THE PALE HANDS FROM THE ABYSS.
4. DISCO ELYSIUM.
5. THE PATH IN THE WOODS.
6. DICK MULLEN AND THE FRACTURED GLASS.
7. THE WOMAN IN THE BASEMENT.
8. THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR.
9. APOCALYPSE COP'S REDEMPTION.
10. THE HIEROPHANT.
11. SLAY THE PRINCESS.
12. ALONE IN THE DARK.
13. THE DOWNFALL OF THE MONARCHY.
14. THE SEVENFOLD SUNRISE.
15. Actually, none of these are speaking to me at all. Got anything else?
16. [Don't name the case, try to brute force the alphanumeric instead.]

YOU - THE FURY OF A SHATTERED MIRROR.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Well, if you're going to continue with the 'furies' theme...

COMPOSURE - As you lay out the paper to begin penning down the name, several of the arms break from their swaying and grab hold of each other, forming a makeshift surface.

EMPATHY [Easy: Success] - How thoughtful.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Medium: Success] - Dammit, this pen *barely* writes at all. After a few tries and some vigorous shaking, you manage to get down the whole of the case name on the right side of the first line, leaving enough room for the case number to be added later.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - With ink committed to paper, it's now official -- you *are* working this case. Time to get your ducks in a row.

Secret task complete: Name the case

New task: Walk the path

New task: Find what is missing

New task: Mend the break

Task updated: Find out where you are

Task updated: What is He?

Task updated: What is she?

Task updated: Where do the voices come from?

Task updated: Return home

ESPRIT DE CORPS - This list of objectives wouldn't hold up to the scrutiny of your peers, but it will do for now.

LOGIC - You'll figure it out on the way. Even if you *do* forget -- this space-between works well for debriefings.

SAVOIR FAIRE - Speaking of. Your time's about up, in whatever weird-ass cycle of life and death is going on here. The hands close in again, laser-focused.

HALF LIGHT [Challenging: Success] - You are no longer afraid. Whatever is happening here, it isn't meant to hurt you -- merely to ferry you along to the next world.

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - There are still many lingering questions, many unknowns, many doubts.

ENDURANCE [Legendary: Success] - But you can weather the blows, no matter what comes.

VOLITION [Formidable: Success] - There's an end in sight, theoretically. All you need to do is figure out how to get there.

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] - The feeling of your soul being touched is now a familiar one.

INTERFACING [Legendary: Success] - Delicate fingers unspool the tape, erasing and rewriting. They *will* have to break you again, but they seem to be holding it off until the last possible moment.

EMPATHY [Formidable: Success] - You trust their process.

PAIN THRESHOLD - If there is a breaking, you never feel it come. *Hopefully* this shit gets sorted out in the next go around, I *hate* this.

PERCEPTION [Formidable: Success] - Come it did. Your eyesight dims, and then -- the familiar song. You recognize this melody now -- it's the very same one you heard from the swallow. A song of oblivion, heaped with more and more strands of resonance and harmonization until it becomes something entirely new.

COMPOSURE [Formidable: Success] - You drift away with a smile on your face. This situation is still impossible and frightening and beyond the scope of anything you've ever faced before -- but you have the beginnings of a plan, and you have people looking for you.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Challenging: Success] - The world is on the line -- but it always has been, every time. You will put it together.

VOLITION - You can see it through, Harry.

VISUAL CALCULUS - Everything goes dark --

HALF LIGHT - And you die.

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