The Shimmer Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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theshimmer2020-07-18 12:17 am
shimmermods) wrote in theshimmer2020-07-18 12:17 am
Welcome.
WELCOME
The Shimmer is beautiful.
There are a lot of things that may or may not have been expected upon your arrival here – the walls of concrete and steel, the others that were brought here with you, the others that weren't brought here with you but have been a constant source of information and instruction and blatant, brazen surveillance – but the fact remains that this world does not seem, inherently, to be an unkind one. Foreign in some ways, perhaps familiar in others; either way, it's a world teeming with life, and with people, and perhaps most jarringly it's a world with beauty, and nothing you've seen otherwise is quite as repulsively and grotesquely beautiful as the Shimmer.
It defies desription, really; the boundaries of it are barely visible during the day, just a thin iridescent sheen encompassing the trees and thick-growing vegetation of the mountains, sweeping ever-closer and closer still to the boundaries of the compound you've been living in but are greatly unlikely to have come to call home. It cascades heavily down the face of the mountain, nestling into the tops of trees before it swallows them whole, arcing up into the sky so far that it hurts your eyes to try to find the crest. It seems almost ravenous in its grace; whatever it touches, it seems to consume.
At night, it's a different matter; it glows and dances in defiance of the bright lights of the compound, glistening bright like the Northern lights - a bit too low to the ground, a bit too far south, a bit too warm this time of year, but the effect is breathtaking. All the colors of the borealis seem to blink lazily at you as they twist in and out of view, sparkling scattershot among the remnants of a town about two miles off that has long since gone dark with abandonment and disuse.
Your mission begins tomorrow.
Your mission begins tomorrow and maybe you're ready for it, maybe you aren't; maybe you're trying not to think about it too much. But the fact of the matter is that there's a rooftop observation deck, open-air and about five stories off the ground, and it's granting you an optimal view of the surroundings and the Shimmer and that darkened town not too far off, and there are no other buildings around for miles. The air is balmy and humid, a little too warm to be pleasant but lacking the roiling heat of the day, a light breeze rendering the entire thing an acceptable respite from the training grounds within the building itself. The only sound this high up and this close to the Shimmer are those made by the people who are here with you – some you know, some you don't. Some are more recent arrivals than others; some have been here for just as long as you. You've all had information taken down about you, the results of which have been provided to you on a small device you found in your room, so perhaps it feels as though you know these people already.
Either way, the night is young, the sun having dipped below the horizon less than half an hour ago, leaving you with perimeter lights that are too bright and the ever-present, watchful glow of the Shimmer; there are tables set up around the balcony for you to use, to eat or socialize or just...sit. You haven't been deprived by any means, but the food that's been provided out here for you tonight is noticeably better than usual; perhaps they know it's the last time you'll eat well for a while. Perhaps it's an apology. Perhaps it's nothing to look into too deeply.
Feel free to stay out here for as long as you like; enjoy each other's company. Or don't let yourself enjoy it too much; it's up to you.
However you choose to do it, perhaps it's best to make sure you have no regrets.
There are a lot of things that may or may not have been expected upon your arrival here – the walls of concrete and steel, the others that were brought here with you, the others that weren't brought here with you but have been a constant source of information and instruction and blatant, brazen surveillance – but the fact remains that this world does not seem, inherently, to be an unkind one. Foreign in some ways, perhaps familiar in others; either way, it's a world teeming with life, and with people, and perhaps most jarringly it's a world with beauty, and nothing you've seen otherwise is quite as repulsively and grotesquely beautiful as the Shimmer.
It defies desription, really; the boundaries of it are barely visible during the day, just a thin iridescent sheen encompassing the trees and thick-growing vegetation of the mountains, sweeping ever-closer and closer still to the boundaries of the compound you've been living in but are greatly unlikely to have come to call home. It cascades heavily down the face of the mountain, nestling into the tops of trees before it swallows them whole, arcing up into the sky so far that it hurts your eyes to try to find the crest. It seems almost ravenous in its grace; whatever it touches, it seems to consume.
At night, it's a different matter; it glows and dances in defiance of the bright lights of the compound, glistening bright like the Northern lights - a bit too low to the ground, a bit too far south, a bit too warm this time of year, but the effect is breathtaking. All the colors of the borealis seem to blink lazily at you as they twist in and out of view, sparkling scattershot among the remnants of a town about two miles off that has long since gone dark with abandonment and disuse.
Your mission begins tomorrow.
Your mission begins tomorrow and maybe you're ready for it, maybe you aren't; maybe you're trying not to think about it too much. But the fact of the matter is that there's a rooftop observation deck, open-air and about five stories off the ground, and it's granting you an optimal view of the surroundings and the Shimmer and that darkened town not too far off, and there are no other buildings around for miles. The air is balmy and humid, a little too warm to be pleasant but lacking the roiling heat of the day, a light breeze rendering the entire thing an acceptable respite from the training grounds within the building itself. The only sound this high up and this close to the Shimmer are those made by the people who are here with you – some you know, some you don't. Some are more recent arrivals than others; some have been here for just as long as you. You've all had information taken down about you, the results of which have been provided to you on a small device you found in your room, so perhaps it feels as though you know these people already.
Either way, the night is young, the sun having dipped below the horizon less than half an hour ago, leaving you with perimeter lights that are too bright and the ever-present, watchful glow of the Shimmer; there are tables set up around the balcony for you to use, to eat or socialize or just...sit. You haven't been deprived by any means, but the food that's been provided out here for you tonight is noticeably better than usual; perhaps they know it's the last time you'll eat well for a while. Perhaps it's an apology. Perhaps it's nothing to look into too deeply.
Feel free to stay out here for as long as you like; enjoy each other's company. Or don't let yourself enjoy it too much; it's up to you.
However you choose to do it, perhaps it's best to make sure you have no regrets.
no subject
Specifically, they're the three Primordial Great Spirits, though I don't see much point in wasting my breath on the full title when no one here knows what I'm referring to anyway.
[ Plus Muzet and Maxwell's four hangers-on also suck, so he might as well include them all. Even if he doesn't really give a shit about, like, Celsius and Volt. ]
They're beings who've been around since my world was created, and they've been toying around with humanity for almost as long. Though if you're going to go a step further and ask me what spirits are in general, that's not really my department, so feel free to use your imagination.
[ WHAT ARE SPIRITS? i can't believe how much time i just spent trying to find a clip of that guy ]
Let's just hope this mission doesn't outlast our rations.
no subject
[Indeed, one gets the sense that while Rideaux has a whole grudge and half with these that will probably come up any time he needs curse words, Jean continues to give his somewhat lackadaisical but not insincere responses to... whatever Rideaux is going on about. He's doing his best (maybe).
(Very maybe.)
There's a slow drag as he tries some more to work out all this business of 'spirits' and 'world creation' and whatnot. Big talk for an audience that's used to much more mundane things, so maybe that's why he moves on after a moment -- or it's just that rations seem much more close at hand surrounded by food and the evidence of the Shimmer in the distance.]
... If it's possible to make it back, it should be possible to stretch them? I think.
no subject
I'm not willing to stake too much on the assumption that we'll be able to come and go at will.
[ After all, it was impossible to leave a fractured dimension until you destroyed it. If the divergence catalyst was well hidden, you were just stuck there until you found it, no matter how many days it took or what emergencies arose.
That's not exactly the case here, of course, since part of that last team made it out before and the thing is obviously still there, but. He doesn't trust at all that there won't be something keeping them in there until they meet whatever hidden condition it's looking for. (And it looks like their overseers are considering similar possibilities, if they're sending them off with this much in supplies.) ]
no subject
Hmm? Not that.
[Though the idea of being stuck in the middle of a beautifully terrible mirage like the one still staring them in the face is also problematic, if poetic. He's not the most poetic guy, though. There's a small gesture with the cigarette in his hand, smoke cloud wafting through the cloud of Space-Time Thoughts crowding in from Rideaux's direction.]
It's hard to make it back, but if it's happened, then there should be rations to cover it. If they learned something from last time.
[He doesn't actually sound skeptical! Maybe he is an optimist.]
no subject
I'm just saying, we have about a month's worth of rations -- which seems generous enough -- but if it somehow ends up taking two months to get to a point where we can return, there's going to be a problem. I don't expect that will be the case, but I can't rule out the possibility either. Our experience isn't necessarily going to mirror the last group's.
no subject
Not to say he's bad at teamwork, but please see: why is he a medic.
Also see: local man continues vague possible optimism in the face of general public grumbling.]
When we return is up to our judgment.
[Which could be real good or real bad, depending on the group. Well. And the Shimmer, but that's neither here nor there.]
We don't know enough about the last group yet... or the assignment. Maybe they want the briefing over dessert?