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
[Anyway, he'll take the book back...and brush it off out of instinct. There better not be any crumbs on it!! Get yourself a damn plate, Jean.]
If there is no context, then it will have to remain a mystery for the time being. I hardly intend to throw in the towel if a breakthrough is not immediately made.
no subject
[I mean, Heinwald more or less stated something adjacent earlier, but Jean takes a moment to remark upon it anyway -- given the somewhat divided opinions on the subject, he'll take a moment to pay his respects. May Heinwald keep his enthusiasm...? Maybe.
There's totally crumbs, though. At least there's no cigarette smell. He doesn't need a plate when his original objective was walking by with food, shshhh.]
But that's the research division for you? [why is that a question] You have a guess yet?
no subject
Don't sound so surprised, now. [Said sarcastically.] A guess about the origins of this book? I imagine it came from within the Shimmer. While it may be a coincidence that my name appears legibly within it, I will not throw out the possibility that someone associated with me ventured into the Shimmer.
no subject
Did I sound surprised?
[In fact he sounds more surprised to be called surprised than anything else.
There's a polite listening silence to the speculation and then a pause.]
I meant what's in the book. But if it was someone associated with you, you'd be able to read it, wouldn't you?
no subject
Ah. In that case, I suspect that it is the author's documentation of what they experienced within the Shimmer. As for the writing, it depends. The Shimmer may distort writing, or they may have developed a cipher for an unknown reason.
[...]
Of course, it raises the question: how would they know that I would become involved? There is only one person who I can think of that would, and she is far from in my good graces.
no subject
[It's not as though he's as enamored of mysteries, but it does pique the imagination a little bit. Seemingly he wanders off into speculation about ciphers for a bit, though none of it actually makes it to the surface other than:]
So your name means something. [tapping his fingers slightly and scattering a crumb or two] She thought you'd want to solve it?
[If Heinwald is as Heinwald back home as he is here, that is.]
no subject
[He honestly hopes this doesn't involve Akasha, mostly because she'd totally write up a cipher just to shitpost at him and piss him off.
Besides, the fact that people from different worlds have been brought here makes the probability of his name being present a coincidence much higher. Best not to chase the idea that this is about him so carelessly.]
no subject
[The tone on that is indistinct, but he's probably been thinking on it for a little bit -- it's hard to say, given how close-mouthed their hosts have been, but it's also not all that surprising.
Government secrets are an interdimensional club, it seems.]
But maybe it doesn't matter? [could be agreement, could just be the fact that he's less invested, could just be that the research div is now Mystery Inc. in his estimation] Did they give you all anything else interesting?
no subject
[Even if anyone they know was present and accounted for when they left. Time is a strange thing when you can bring in anyone from other worlds.]
No, they didn't. This and the map that we had the ability to study during training are those most interesting pieces, in my opinion. The map had the same odd writing on it.
no subject
[He's probably not complaining. But also: that's a can of worms. A can of bookworms??]
A map should be a lot easier to read. [or, not read, as it were] Was it the same handwriting?
no subject
[Alas, he won't get that chance.]
The iconography was the same, however.
no subject
Speaking of heaping he's gone through an impressive amount of bread in this exchange.]
Shimmer iconography... I still don't know how you'd read it, but maybe it'll be easier to see the real thing. [thoughtfully...] Maybe it's more impressive that we can read anything around here.
[How does multiverse communication work? Who knows.]
no subject
Or how we can all understand each other? They did manage to transport us all here, so I imagine evening the communication playing field is like child's play.
[He definitely finds it impressive though, but really, talking about this stuff is going to send them down another rabbit hole of mystery...]
no subject
Child's play, huh? I don't know which is more impressive.
[They're already so far past Alice in Wonderland, maybe rabbithole doesn't cover it anymore? Regardless he's just going to keep being somewhat vague for no particular reason. It's a night for such things.
Or maybe that's just how he operates. Communication across dimensions can only go so far.]
Maybe it's that the Shimmer's still here, even with all of this.