prelude

[singmod]

January 1st 2015

Do you remember yesterday? What is tomorrow?
How will you face this quiet apocalypse?
— Raphael van Lierop.

As the old year falls and the new year begins, the skies fill with light. An Aurora comes on the last day of December, and with it the usual signs of it: the ethereal noise, the cracks and pops in the air, the stuttering of electrics as they struggle to power on and then blare and flicker. It is, as Interlopers have come to know, business as usual — in terms of the Auroras within this world. However, something a little different happens this time.

Interlopers will fall asleep all over the town of Milton. Even the ones who fight sleep and try to stay up into the small hours of the night will find themselves drifting off for a short while — as if their eyes just feel too heavy to keep open, and their minds slip into a deep kind of quiet darkness without their realising. And at first, there is nothing — nothing but the quiet dark. Something peaceful, almost.

A dream comes.

The first thing you notice is blood in your mouth, the cold in your bones, the deafening din in your ears — as if you are caught in static and the sound of howling winds through pine trees. You are afraid. At first, you do not know why. You find yourself on your knees in the snow. The skies are filled with green light, the air is thick with smoke. And then the realisation comes:

This is the ending of all things.

You look up, to the sight before you: a huge, shapeless shadow. Towering above you, over you. A head peers down at you: a cluster of three wolf skulls, eye-sockets glowing green and terrible, and their three open maws, dripping with more green. The sound it makes is unnatural, you cannot put it into words. The darkness draws in, you are so cold, so tired.

This is the ending of all things.

It is so hungry. You are so tired. The world falls away, you cannot see the stars, the dark hiding them from view. Were they even there to begin with? Or did they go out? You have forgotten. And you know, you know—

This is the ending of all things.

The skies glimmer, licks of strange, colourful wisps curl above — a voice screams out your name, from the static and winds. Through the noise. A woman’s voice. You have heard this voice before, in the lights and noise. Do you see? What could be? What you could become?

Can you hold on? Please. A hand grips your shoulder, but as you turn — the dream ends.

For some, they snap into waking with a shout or cry. Some will shudder awake to find tears in their eyes. All over Milton, the Interlopers wake: shaken, unsure, afraid. They will awaken to the dark: the Aurora is gone — slowly fading from the night skies into an otherwise calm and clear night.

It is a new year.

Comments

[meadqueen]

“It was so hungry. I could feel it.” Randvi sighs heavily. “I still feel it. I'm sorry that such a terrible thing still haunts you.”

[solitarysoul]

"It haunts you too, doesn't it? I'm sorry anyone has to deal with this."

[meadqueen]

“Perhaps it's proximity, because we were inside the hall.” The voice had called her name, so she doubts it, but it's hard to say.

[solitarysoul]

"M-maybe...last time everyone was on the same train. Well, for the first dream at least...I don't understand any of this. Not really."

[meadqueen]

“Is a train comparable in size to this?” Sorry Levi, she's a bit distracted.

[solitarysoul]

"Um, not exactly...each car is about the length of two or three of the cars you'll see around town. But on a train its a lot connected together."

[meadqueen]

“Were you all in the same car?” This is very difficult to picture.

[solitarysoul]

"No. We were close, but I think we were spread out in two or three cars. But if, like, its bound by buildings or something it could...I-I don't know. I figured it was because he picked us in particular and not where we were."

[meadqueen]

“You think that’s the thing that brought us here?” Randvi had imagined this god reaching into another realm because his prey had been taken away from him, but it could be worse than that.

[solitarysoul]

"I don't know...maybe the other voice, but I don't think Gro-goroth brought us here. It, um, it doesn't seem like a thing a god of destruction would do? Its too calm most of the time."

[meadqueen]

“It's calm now, but it does not sound like it always has been.” The ghosts sound like something that a god of destruction might have created.

[solitarysoul]

"Its been mostly calm," says the boy who was on the front lines of a war for 5 years before this. "But there was a pretty bad storm. And before that wolves attacked the town. There was something wrong with them. They just kept coming every few nights for like a month. They're still out in the woods, but I guess they learned to stay away from town."

[meadqueen]

"The wolves?" The last thing they need in this community is hydrophobia. “What was wrong with them?”

[solitarysoul]

"They were way more fearless and aggressive than usual...well, than where I come from. And they were sort of, um, glowing. I don't think its anything they could spread, I got bit a few times and I've been normal."

[meadqueen]

“Glowing as the skulls did in the dream, or in a different way?” Not that a wolf glowing in any way isn't a concern, but wolves looking as this god did would be even worse.

“I'm glad you're well. Even a regular wolf bite can be dangerous.”

[solitarysoul]

"I got bit a few times, but it wasn't that bad." He did need stitches once. "Um...I think their eyes were green...so maybe like the skulls did."

So that likely meant Gro-goroth was behind whatever happened to the wolves...that figured.

[meadqueen]

Of course any young warrior would say that. Randvi had said that herself once, about being shot in the leg. Animal bites do frighten her, though - they can fester so easily.

“It would suggest that the two are somehow related.”

[solitarysoul]

Levi has a strangely high pain tolerance from everything in his past anyway. "Yeah...he might have, um...I dunno...driven them to that." He rubs his head.

"Back in Prehevil, when I returned after the war, the people there were afflicted by...something. They called it 'moonscorching,' because the moon god Rher had...I guess burned them? Sort of. It mutated them and drove them insane, and almost all of them were violent." Though some he wasn't sure if that violence had been because of Rher or if they'd have been that way anyway.

"I don't know if he did it on purpose? Or if it just happened because he was, uh...there. Using his power on the city or something.
"Maybe that's what happened to the wolves? I don't know if anybody tried to look at the dead ones and see if they were messed up otherwise. I don't think they glowed after they died? But I didn't really pay attention to that."

[meadqueen]

No wonder this boy is so prepared to live in a world such as this. “Could it be something similar with the aurora? I recall seeing the lights in my dream.”

[solitarysoul]

"Maybe? I think that would make sense. The people who hadn't gone fully insane talked about a green light that burned them. Its probably not the same light, because the same thing hasn't happened to us, but it could be, um...I don't know, maybe gods just glow or something."

[meadqueen]

“That would align with how these lights function in my world as well, although I've never known them to burn anyone.”

Not that the moon has either. “Some people believe that the moon can cause madness, but the healer in Fornburg told me that is not the case.”

[solitarysoul]

"It is where I come from. I probably wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. I didn't really care about gods or religion before then." He still doesn't really care about religion, but now he knows gods are real and hates them.

"They might just not be close enough, most times. A normal full moon wouldn't mutate somebody, but when Rher was right there hanging above the city even if you couldn't always see him then things got bad."

[meadqueen]

“Oh yes, I can understand that. Many powerful things are more dangerous in close proximity.” People as well.

[solitarysoul]

He nods, he's seen that in both mundane and supernatural means now.

"I don't know if there's anything we can do...about the dream being a message or an omen or whatever. I think we just have to be...more careful, somehow."

[meadqueen]

“The woman in the dream asked me to hold on, but I don't know what that means.” Randvi often feels afraid, but she doesn't feel like anything is slipping away from her.