WEEK FOUR

[shimmermods]

FOURTH WEEK

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The Shimmer may have left you physically, but it's always with you; it's something it had insisted on yesterday, and it's something that continues to be pervasive even now, both in thoughts and within you in other, perhaps more noticeable ways. The statements that have been made weigh heavily; your surroundings continue to be influenced by something or other - plants you recognize are still present here, even as the trees themselves continue to crystallize, growing glassy white and transparent around mechanical insides - and the changes to your physical bodies are becoming more evident and difficult to ignore.

Perhaps more disturbingly, when you went to sleep in the clearing there were sixteen of you.

When you wake up, there are fifteen.

No matter how many headcounts you take, you keep coming up one short; the fact of the matter is that Rean Schwarzer is no longer among you. There's no visible evidence of where he's gone, and all of his belongings are still here; perhaps in some part of your mind, the possibility registers itself - maybe he's not with you because he went to the Shimmer. Not in the same way the cultists went, and not in the same way the ring of bodies seems to have gone, but maybe...

The thought is difficult to shake; the fact of the matter is that he isn't here, and you probably don't want to stay here. After all, your options are currently either to do what you set out to do, to return to the base and very possibly be killed for your efforts, or to remain here with the corpses.

The hike uphill is steep; perhaps it's fortunate that you're no longer tiring out like you used to. It's easier to keep going nowadays, even if it feels somewhat mechanical in doing so; your limbs know what they're doing, even if there's some reason for your mind to disagree. You seem to be making good time in moving toward the site of the initial impact of the meteorite; perhaps it won't be much longer before you find your objective.

That is, if all goes according to plan.

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Comments

[abysstery]

[While Grace handles the desk, Heinwald gives his attention to the tree. They've had some interesting abnormalities going on with them all throughout their journey, so it's a good idea to check for something new and exciting.

...okay, "exciting" might be a stretch, but new isn't!

So! What do we have on the tree?]

[shimmermods]

[You've seen how the trees have taken on a glass-like quality the further in you go, right? And before that, several of the trees were sporting weird mechanisms inside - basically, trees haven't been normal in here for a good long time.

This is a normal tree. At least, that's what it looks like from a cursory glance - it looks like an old, but otherwise normal tree. Of course, if you continue studying it, you'll see where there are some differences. The branches up at the very top seem to be crystallizing - taking on the same quality as those you've been passing recently. The bark of the tree doesn't have any openings and it doesn't seem like there are any mechanisms there, however.]

[abysstery]

[When something normal stands out among oddities, that definitely makes it an oddity in its own right.

Heinwald peers up at the top as he gently puts a hand against the bark.]

Hm. You would think this process would unfold from the ground up.

[Stranger yet, how is an almost untouched tree standing here in what looks like the most transformed town to date? The Shimmer remains as inconsistent as ever.

Is there anything to be found at the base of the tree, or anything else out of place as he explores the circumference of the trunk?]

[bornandbread]

[He’s totally not just here to spectate Heinwald vs. tree?? But he’s going to go ahead and tap-tap on the bark to see if it sounds any different from usual. Curiosity, you know.




Please don’t eat him.]

Trees don’t usually do this, so it makes sense that it isn’t usual...

[Circular logic but also what is logic in the Shimmer, really. A miserable little pile of crystalline not-at-all-fertilizer.]

[abysstery]

Fair enough. Trees aren't immune to disease, however, and anything affecting them would usually begin with the base.

[He shrugs as he steps away from it, finding nothing else.]

But the Shimmer has a way of defying expectations on the regular.

[bornandbread]

Yeah. Crystal might be a little harder for a tree to process.

[Just trying to imagine trees dealing with that, honestly, maybe the real surprise is that there are so many live trees still.

A few moments to check in on Grace and her information mining, and then:]

... Maybe we’ll figure out something about this, though. Underground.

[He does not sound terribly enthusiastic about underground.]

[shimmermods]

[Unfortunately not. It seems like all there really is to see here is a weird tree.]