westwhere | the unwinding

the unwinding

Heya! Let loose for Serthica’s Unwinding — our event spanning 24 September-15 October that doubles as a test drive.

This round’s test drive participants do not require an invite to apply. Applications open over 8-14 October. Enjoy!

THE UNWINDING

TEST DRIVE TOURISTS | OLD TIMERS | DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
SPILL THE TEA | DRIP BY DRIP | ALL A DREA —

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✘ NEWCOMERS | BARRELING IN

Soaring seagulls and splintered silence. You awaken on the shoreline of steampunk citadel Clockwork Serthica, recovered by the irritable witch Karsa.

She shares translation and communication devices, scarce healing and a rapid briefing: you have reached a world where undead forces seek to weaponise you in their battle for dominion. Karsa’s employer, the Merchant leads travel to beacons meant to return you home.

Other otherworlders have already infiltrated Serthica. Karsa steers newcomers into the impoverished underworld of the Mouse House, to board a rickety coal train serving the citadel.

■ Silver tongues can win you passage.

■ ...alternatively, hide in the obscenely large whiskey barrels the train also smuggles in.

■ Mid-voyage, the train quakes, slamming you into walls and windows. Around you, the stench of bleach, the warm crackle of embers and static magic that builds thick, nearly electric.

You feel faint and fainter, when you overhear Karsa’s murmured, “It’s too early” — “find” — “find” — “it’s like a drea” — “don’t unwind” — “all child’s play.”

And then you’re U n w i n d i n g.

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✘ OLD TIMERS | INHALE-EXHALE

Eidris, Minaras, the Neutral Zone: all abuzz with residential whispers of imminent Unwinding — an annual fixture natives dread without fully remembering.

■ In the two days leading to the Unwinding, characters struggle to tell apart or remember the physical features of natives.

■ Some locals steal you into dark alleys, where they become suddenly stiff, emitting a rusty, guttural Ke-ke-ke sound. They do not recall this after.

The Unwinding kicks off at 6am, when both Eidris and Minaras are overground. Jim Kirk’s fixed music box begins to play, its chipper rural tune overtaking your thoughts: “Up the mountain, in the grove, hand in hand to Ke-ke-ke — Ke-Waihu, fresh harvest’s a treasure trove, each fall we feast anew.”

Earth shatters seismically underfoot, magic depletes, the citadel’s clock tower strikes 6:00 — and an urgent communication from the Merchant is interrupted by static, “You can we-we-we-…-stand it, the white man come — remembrrrrrrrrrrrr live, you are alive, do not be convinsssss —ssss — ssssd otherwisssssss —”

But you’re already U n w i n d i n g.

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✘ DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE

Down and down, you tumble, Alice — through a cavernous tunnel that widens and chokes arbitrarily. Sometimes you float and fly, sometimes you’re thrust sideways. Mostly, you keep falling.

■ Beware objects falling into you: from grand pianos to mystical balls of fire, stray beds, love letters and sharp-pointed weapons. Even a blood-spattered umbrella that shields against anything.

■ You’re dropped unceremoniously into an underground lair, as items keep falling down. Unclaimed, they disappear within minutes. Three jackalopes smoking opiate pipes point you indifferently towards a locked door. On its handle sit a bone dice and a note instructing, ROLL FOUR TO OPEN.

■ The dice can only be thrown every 10 minutes and feels too monstrously heavy to lift otherwise. Each roll makes the effect of the previous throw disappear. If you get:

one: gravity fades, the dice floats out of reach. ( The jackalopes enjoy the breeze. )

two: the floor, barring a few narrow steps at great jumping distance, is lava. ( The jackalopes check ‘hell’ off their vacation list.)

three: an irked dragon coils beside you. (The jackalopes prepare to tan.)

five: the thrower grows and grows and grows, until they must contort creatively to fit inside. ( The jackalopes charge rent. )

six: the room fills with water that nearly reaches the ceiling. (The jackalopes are competitive swimmers.)

seven: everything about your companion irritates you. They even breathe wrong. ( The jackalopes find this awkward. )

eight: The floor slowly expands into quicksand. ( The jackalopes hoverboard. )

■ Roll four and the door creaks merrily open. A second note slips loose, I’m sorry. Head in, your newfound possessions abandoned — and keep U n w i n d i n g.

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✘ SPILL THE TEA

You wake, dressed to the steampunk nines, at a tea party, alongside a companion and a slew of eerie guests: cog droids, faceless people and animated human-sized burlap mannequins. You only hear static and white noise when they speak.

When you leave the table, a fox butler passes you the empty kettle, asking you to, ”Make tea and finish here”.

■ You’re inevitably stuck in a decrepit dollhouse. Heavily boarded doors and windows ultimately open to show plague sickness in the streets. The fox butler closes them, reminding, ”He’ll make it go away.”

■ Travel a corridor of repeating rooms to reach the kitchens, and don’t dally. Every time the clock strikes a new hour, the partygoers grab their sharpest knife and stalk down the house to pursue you. The frenzy lasts 10 minutes before they return to their seats — barricade in deserted rooms, hide behind curtains or climb up the chimney…

■ For tea, the mannequin cook directs you to retrieve juniper and rosemary leaves from the greenhouse, where plant tendrils try to trap you, leaving marks of mould; rescue the milk container from a cat that’s running on the crumbling staircase, and sugar from a dish in the lavish nursery room, where ghostly hands might seek to drag you into walls and send you back down the rabbit hole.

■ Supplied, the huffing burlap cook prepares tea. Just as you’re about to taste the black brew at the party table, a man in white takes and spills your tea out in a plant pot. You only hear, ”You don’t need this yet” — before you’re U n w i n d i ng.

■ On exiting the Unwinding, your pockets burst with plants or leaves of juniper and rosemary. They can alleviate McCoy’s sickness.

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✘ DRIP BY DRIP

You wake up in bloodied clothes in a filled bathtub. You are hounded by urgency, as if you’re hunted. The unease never wanes, as you gather your bearings and join the bustling city streets, armed with a blood-spattered white umbrella. In your pocket, two paper notes: CHILDREN LIE and WHAT IS HIS NAME?(

Your memories are confused: half of you is certain you are a content citizen of Serthica. The other riots that you don’t belong. An excruciating migraine strikes when you try to remember how you arrived here.

Gravity’s a loose concept: you walk, or you float. The city is either perfectly still, or inundated with the screeching of hearses and criers. Locals — all faceless, or man-sized burlap mannequins — mill busily, despite the forlorn rain.

■ Hold on to your umbrella: linger uncovered in the rain, and your facial features slowly fade, while you desperately try to convince your teammate that you should stay here forever. You recover once dry.

■ The inhuman locals grow increasingly more hostile with time: carriages want to run you over, friendly burlap shopkeepers push you into a ditch. They chase if you ask their name.

■ Happily, this world is vulnerable to your desires: wish gravity undone, and you can walk on walls. Think a river into being, and it bursts ahead. Imagine buildings, and they pop up. Playing God comes at a price of bad luck: the staircase you envisage thins and breaks just as you cross it, your knife rusts after the first swing.

■ Your pursuers abandon you, when you reach a deserted marketplace and encounter a drenched, battered boy wearing a fox mask. He is playing with paper boats in the middle of a large black puddle. You feel deep and building hatred for him.

■ Seeing you, the child mentions one of you previously tried to kill him. He offers his name, in exchange for your umbrella:

a. Refuse or dally, and dark hands rise out of the puddle to pull you and your partner in, scratching you bloody. The last thing you see, before you wake up in the bathtub again (or out of the Unwinding), is a man in white who collects your umbrella. He holds it over the child, scolding, ”Did you forget again? This one never hurt you.”

b. To surrender the umbrella, step on the paper boats as you cross the puddle to the boy. Walking straight on water feels like stepping on knives. The child accepts your umbrella, whispering his name is ”Hyang-Won”, before you start to fade out of the Unwinding.

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✘ IT WAS ALL A DREA —

New or old, as the Unwinding ends, you wake up in Ma’am Mariol’s modest orphanage in the Mouse House. Mariol, the orphans and Serthica at large recall nothing about the Unwinding. Karsa, who dragged you in, is pale and exhausted, her memory patchy. She urges everyone to recuperate before heading back overground.

■ Your body shows only a fraction of any damage sustained in the Unwinding.

■ Ma’am Mariol’s labyrinthine home offers limited accommodations: share beds, floors, and household chores, while the orphans led by curious Gavroche, peer in.

NOTES

■ You can make network posts outside of the Unwinding.

■ Feel free to mark if you're a test drive tourist or an old timer in your top level!

■ The Unwinding is a shifting of realities not a dreamscape.

■ You can opt out of the Unwinding by keeping characters in the Mouse House. Here, nothing seems amiss.

■ QUESTIONS!

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[Kamala wastes zero time pointing to the candlestick!!] While holding a weapon. Seriously how do you not know that's freaky?!

[She asks with a huff. The teen is reasonably confident he will not actually swing on the kid so she relaxes a little.] You know an enhanced punch which judging by your use of superpowers isn't going to land us in some weird jail or getting bombed or shot at.

[She recounts like these things were minor inconveniences and not terrifying abuses of power aimed at children whose only crime is existing.] I can do stuff too.

[ Freaky? ...Well, now he just feels awkward holding it. Nowhere to set it down, but he lowers it so he can focus on this new information that someone should have mentioned to him before now. Although from what she says, there could have been a reason she was hiding her powers.

It's impressive that she manages to effectively throw him off from what he'd been doing, and it forces him to abruptly shift gears. He has many follow-up questions. ]

What is that, like super strength?

[Kamala holds up her index finger. Her attention shifts to the orphan who she gently waves a hand at to go. While she can have this conversation with Allison's brother, she's not having it in front of a stranger. The bombing of Bruno's home is still fresh in her mind. She doesn't think there will be a repeat here. The fear still clings on.]

More like an idea come to life. [She explains vaguely once the child is gone. Kamala quickly realizes there's no easy way to explain her powers. It's better to show than tell.] It might be easier to show you. Try to hit me with the candlestick.

You're serious?

[ Any other questions he had fly out of his head the moment she makes that request. He scratches at the back of his neck as he takes another look around them. All he can think is that he has no witnesses to have heard her say that.

Despite threatening an orphan just moments ago, even Five feels like there's some possible line crossing in attempting to hit a young girl under his sister's care. Even if she did ask him. Kamala doesn't seem like someone who was brought up to be a child soldier like his family, and he hasn't seen her fight. More importantly, she doesn't really know how dangerous he is.

At the same time, it would be good to know what she can do. Necessary really, and he is capable of pulling his punches. He regrets the candlestick now, but after carefully considering the weight of it, he nods. ]

Alright then. On three.

[ True to his word, he counts to give her time to prepare, and on three he raises the candlestick and swings. ]

[She definitely is not a child soldier. In a fair fight? Kamala wouldn't last a second against Five. From her perspective, they're dumb teens talking it out. She's trying to prove a point that he shouldn't be a jerk and expect a pass because she adores his sister. Obviously she has a soft spot for him. Kamala thinks he is also the weird little sibling of the family. That is worth something even if her family is now in a much healthier place.

She raises her fists and centers her body in a way that frankly is right out of a video game. Does it work in a real fight? Hard to say because the power she wields more than compensates for the practical knowledge she lacks. By the time Five swings, the giant purple hand she creates is too big not to catch the candlestick. It's hard, clear texture further protects her; not that she needs it against someone who doesn't want to hurt her.]

See? Giant fist. [She smirks. It's hard not to be a little proud.]

[ Of all the things he thought she might do to block him, a giant purple hand was not on his list. He lowers the candlestick and reaches out to touch it and try to get a sense of what it's made of, how solid it is, then glances back at Kamala. Maybe it's because she's so young, but all he can think is that Reginald would have taken one look at that and given her parents a call.

Eventually, his eyebrows lower back down and acknowledges her very literal naming. ]

Giant fist. [ She obviously needs training, but he can't deny that she's considerably less helpless than he assumed she was. ] How do you do it? Does it only react when you're in danger, or do you control it?

[Kamala allows Five to inspect to his heart's content. She's used to it. Bruno has run every test in their limited budget. It's almost weird not to have someone studying what she is and can do constantly.

Slowly, Kamala allows the light to retreat within her. The violet light disappears as if it never existed at all.] Both. I learned how to control it, but hard light also kind of acts on its own. Once a guy tried to stab with some daggers, long story, and it protected me. If I get hurt, sometimes it'll come out to protect that spot. I have to focus really hard to get rid of it.

[She takes a breath and gets to the good stuff.] So how does your thing work?

[ 'Hard light.' He's deep in thought about how that works, not magic but an innate ability like his family's. She's too far removed to being a part of whatever gave them their powers, but it's not dissimilar.

He raises an eyebrow when she asks about his powers. Ordinarily he'd say she wouldn't understand, but he really should figure out how to describe it for the inevitable meeting with his niece. ]

More deliberately. [ He says slowly. ] To a point. For a spatial jump I calculate the distance, but there are certain things I can't do. I can only jump to a space large enough for my body, so mass displacement keeps me from ending up in the middle of a wall.

[ But he'd like to go back to what she said about guys trying to stab her: ]

What's the long story?

[Kamala perhaps surprisingly can follow along. Part of it is being a superhero fan, but mostly it's just listening to Bruno over the years. Kamala is a space cadet, but she's spent kindergarten on glued to an actual genius' side. Safe to say she picked up on some stuff.

The question earns a rare guarded look. Usually Kamala is the definition of an open book, willing to share anything that pops into her mind at any given moment. This is heavy. She treats it as such.

Kamala answers seriously:] The long story is some people thought I could do more than manipulate hard light and they were right. There is- or I guess was? [She shrugs. To this day Kamala still isn't sure if they're all dead or not.]

This group that came from another dimension connected to my world. They were thrown out for whatever reason and really wanted to go back home. They thought my great-grandmother could get them back to where they came from, where she came from too, but she knew it'd destroy our world so she refused.

[She pauses here, sucks in a sharp breath, and looks away.] They killed her. They killed a lot of people over the decades. More than I'll probably ever know.

[For a second it seems like she'll leave it there. This talk really isn't her. Kamala is content to always see the positive side of things and focus on them. There is no bright side to a group that left death and destruction everywhere they went.

Her gaze does wander back to Five and she finishes.] Some people decided to fight back over the years and since you know I'm technically related to the psycho killers they thought I was there to kill them which fair. They were awful. I get why they thought it was better to kill me first and ask questions later. We worked it out so no harm done.

[She shrugs like it's really as easy as that. Maybe it is for her.]

[ If there's one thing he can say about kids, at least ones that were raised normally, it's that they don't think to hold anything back. She didn't hesitate at all to tell him everything. That can be dangerous in other circumstances, but in the moment, he appreciates getting the full story.

It isn't the one he could have seen coming. Kamala doesn't act like someone who has been put in many life-or-death situations. Usually Five can tell. Which makes him think all of this was a very recent shift for her. ]

Right. No harm done. [ He's impressed, really. She compartmentalized that well, for someone without training. Five at least looks uncharacteristically sympathetic, before he follows up with a very important question: ]

You inherited the same powers? [ It's been a while since he's asked this, but there's always a chance he's overlooking something. ] You did technically travel through dimensions to get here. Do you remember anything about how it happened?

[She grimaces. The sympathy is appreciated. She's glad he took it so well since it is a lot. She isn't trying to traumatize Allison's brother with stories of people from strange places willing to destroy the world to get what they want.

Kamala nods at his question. Given her conversation with Bruno before he left and the signs of strange abilities that her grandmother shared, there is no doubt in her mind this is something passed on. It's probably the only thing they can be certain of.]

My grandma has it too- kind of. Sometimes we have the same visions. We saw something that was important to my future or I guess her past at the same time even though we were literally across the planet from each other. She turned my light into stars when she was basically a baby.

[Kamala explains knowing that won't make this conversation any less confusing. She thinks Five can pick up she only knows one aspect of what she can do pretty well. The rest is still a mystery to her.

Kamala swallows, trying to gather her thoughts as she explains the most unbelievable part about all of this.]

I do now. I finished my patrol and my bangle started to glow. [Her hand falls on it for emphasis. Aside from sleep and showers, it never comes off.] Usually when that happens I get weird visions or I accidentally travel through time. This time I ended up where Allison found me.

[She sucks in a sharp breath and adds softly:] I'm not sure if I brought myself here to be honest. That freaks me out because last time I did something like this it was because I was meant to save my family in some weird time loop. I don't know what that means for us.

[ Five doesn't understand all of it — turned my light into stars — but it explains that whatever she has runs in her family. And unlike Five, she wasn't pushed to master her powers from the time she could walk. Although apparently she was still going out on her own to... patrol.

He scrutinizes her bangle when she points it out, and thinks very hard about what she just said. Usually he's famously opinionated when it comes to time travel, but she's already established she was figuring it out on her own. Which hits a little too close to home. ]

Accidentally. Are you saying you can control time, but you don't know how you're doing it? Or something else is taking control of you?

[Kamala looks down at her bangle as the implications of that wash over her. She's only really discussed any of this in depth with Bruno. His best friend has tried to unlock the science behind what's happened to her. The truth is they're two broke kids from Jersey City. They can only figure out so much with an old Ipads and a high school science lab. The Red Daggers could only give her the history of those hunting her during their time on Earth. She shakes her head after a long beat and sighs heavily.]

I'm saying that the only thing we know for sure is that all of this is coming from inside me. The light, the visions, going to the past to save my family... Bruno thinks I have some kind of mutation in my genes or whatever label you want to put on it.

[Her hand gently passes over an inscription in Urdu etched into the bangle, What you seek is seeking you.] This bangle just keeps waking up all this stuff inside of me, I think? When I put it on, the visions started and then I created my first construct. When Najima hit it, I travelled through time. I guess in theory one day I'll control the visions and time travel stuff like I do the hard light. I just don't know when. Or how.

[She shrugs as she finally glances back up at Five, throwing in a sheepish smile for good measure. Like all things, Kamala appears to once again be ready to take it all in stride.]

[ It's one thing to know that you can time travel and choosing not to, and another to know that you can trigger it accidentally. Five wasn't the same. He knew that in theory he could try it, and as a kid he wanted to prove to his father that he was capable of so much more than he thought he was. With Kamala, it seems like something she hadn't even considered doing until it happened.

The bangle is obviously dangerous, but it also triggers her one form of defense. ]

That can't be a theory. You need training so you'll know how not to do it. [ She might be ready to drop it, but Five isn't. ] You went there and back to exactly the same point?

[He surprises her by arguing against the narrative she's run with all this time. Kamala's eyes go wide. She opens her mouth to dismiss the idea of training when he tosses another question at her. Her mouth closes as she contemplates not answering at all before thinking better of it. Maybe this will get Five to chill out.] Yeah maybe a few seconds passed if that. Everyone just looked confused. Believe me any longer those guys would have killed everyone there. It was kind of their thing.

[ Someday she'll learn that there is no chilling out when it comes to Five. Not when it comes to this. From the look on his face, what she says bothers him more than she could understand.

As little as she seems to grasp her powers, he's not positive she did time travel or if it was simply a vision, but he's going to find out. ]

Right. [ This is his way of expressing sympathy. ] You managed to accomplish one of the hardest thing to do in time travel, purely by chance.

Does Allison know about this?

[Kamala can miss facial cues at times. Five doesn't give her a lot of room to misread things. What she is sharing is clearly bothering him. She really can't guess why. No one even knew time travel was possible on her world until the Avengers were left with no other choice but, to make it a reality. It's success or failure isn't really something that can be taken personally from her perspective.] I guess?

[She shrugs dismissively. The whole thing still remains something that just happened versus something to actively worry about. At the mention of Allison, guilt colors her features. Maybe she should have mentioned this to her guardian/roommate at this point.]

I haven't told Allison. She doesn't really ask about what happened back home. I don't want to scare her or make her feel like she has to protect me. [She sighs softly and concedes,] You know. More than usual. I've got this.

[She says it with full confidence despite literally just admitting she doesn't understand her abilities.]

[ Five takes in a deep breath and tries not to let himself get worked up more than he should. It only took him decades to figure out how to get back to the right time after he jumped into the future, and even then he screwed up the math. He's going to be touchy.

It's better hearing that Allison doesn't know and wasn't keeping things from him. They're going to have to deal with this, and he's got a lot on his plate already. ]

You don't even know how you did it. [ She's got nothing. Five runs a hand through his hair. ] How long has it been since you discovered you had powers?

[She pouts as Five points out a fact she literally admitted to without any hesitation. It's okay when she says it, but not him!!! Kamala cuts the silliness at the question. That is relevant, isn't it? It also gives her room to find out how long Five has been at this. Depending on his answer he may actually be able to give her some pointers. She's still acting on the assumption Allison is the Black Widow of the group. Diego is no longer around to ask which sucks. She feels like he would have told her what's up.]

A couple of months. What about you?

[ He could have guessed as much, given everything she's said and done to this point. A couple of months and she's already been toying with time travel.

He gives her a flat look at the question. ]

A lot longer. [ He honestly can't remember a time when he didn't know about them, and he trained to use them every day since he could walk. Up until he screwed up and pushed them too far, because kids do stupid things. Especially in the situation they're in now where anything could trigger her powers if they don't figure it out. ]

...We'll have to work it in.

[She narrows her eyes at him. Kamala can't be sure if he's showing off or just being a jerk. Maybe both. She can't deny he clearly has a much better idea of what he is doing than she does.

After a few seconds she huffs and crosses her arms over her chest.] Sure, why not? Pencil me in between harassing small children and getting involved in crazy stuff.

[ That was pointed. He doesn't seem to know which part she took offense to, or if he's misinterpreting. Teenagers, right?

Like not getting involved is an option. ]

Right, as soon as I wrap up the crazy stuff. [ Or whenever it stops for more than a day so he can focus on unimportant things like Kamala inadvertently breaking time. ] You've avoided it so far?

[Kamala offers a thumbs up. She doesn't stay annoyed for long with anyone. Lucky for them, unlucky for her given the Najima situation.] So far, so good. I'll let you know if I ever accidentally drop in on historical events or see more weird train stuff.

[ It's unfortunate that Five has no sense of humor when it comes to time travel. Even a thumbs up fills him with dread. ]

...Good. If you have more visions, it could be a signal that whatever triggered it before is about to happen again. Let's try to stay on top of it. [ He frowns, not making the connection. ] What weird train?

Yeahhh... you're probably right about that. [Kamala concedes. It actually makes a weird amount of sense. She's shocked that her crew didn't put it together themselves. It's almost like Five has some kind of experience or something. Kamala lifts herself out of whatever daydream was about to spark to answer his question.]

Oh! So that's kind of how I know you're right. When I went back at time, all the things I saw before in the visions I visited minus the creepy purple place with the faceless people, were there. I ended up at a train station, Najima was there to murder her way through that crowd to my great-grandmother, and yeah. Basically it all came true in that weird way that only makes sense after it happens.

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