Carmen's Re-entry

You do as Maddox says and captchalogue one of the turrets in the hall
You also do as Maddox says and decaptchalogue the CDs you found earlier
When you summon your sylladex tree and pick the leaf of the CDs, you notice there's tons of other leaves and branches in here
You don't.... think you remember captchaloguing most of this shit?
Why the fuck do you have grenades???
You get back to Maddox
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
You're not happy at all
Why do you always feel like everyone else knows what's going on besides you?
It sounds like Maddox even knows about your drug stuff too
You're tempted to sit here and mope for a bit, maybe write in your diary to help you out, but Maddox has a point.
You don't really have time for anything now, what with that forest fire
You hate feeling powerless, especially when you already feel sad, so it's time to try and change that.
Maddox said something about a "client disc". You look at the CDs you decaptchalogued and see if one of them is whatever that thing is.
nanakishi09/01/2018
You do see on both of them writing. one says client, the other server
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
You put the client disc into your laptop
nanakishi09/01/2018
It loads for a bit befor eletting you know it's done
You hear several thumps from your living room
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
You leave your janky laptop where it is and summon your captchalogue tree to get out your phone
You take the phone downstairs to see what Maddox did, checking messages and notifications on it as you go
nanakishi09/01/2018
You see the three massive machines. One of them has actually crushed half your couch.
Maddox (Skippito)09/01/2018
((I wouldn't have done that, if that's okay.))
nanakishi09/01/2018
(that's fine i was just saying it as something funny)
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
After admiring some sweet photos on your phone that you apparently took but don't remember (Is that a pyramid? Hey, it's Maddox!), you check them out.
Maddox (Skippito)09/01/2018
((Ah, alright.))
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
Maddox says you have a buffalo and that you took him to the top of a pyramid???
Sounds pretty sweet and kinda familiar, but you wish you could remember taking that picture.
You rub your thumb gently back and forth across the smooth screen of your phone, longingly looking at the photograph
You look so happy in it! And you're there with Maddox...
All that reddish grass everywhere looks damn pretty too. Whatever it was that got you to be with Maddox seems like it was working out all right.
It's weird feeling like it's so foreign and far away that something like that would ever actually happen and not just be a dream, but it also feels so familiar like duh why would it be anything else?
After trying to think for a bit to figure out what's going on, you shake your head, putting away your phone and trying to focus. Hopefully this shitty nightmare will make sense soon?
Maddox said to look for a tall machine you can take the top off of or something. What do these three fucking-magic-outta-nowhere machines look like anyways?
nanakishi09/01/2018
One of them is a tall tube with a wide base and a wheel on it, another is some sort of lathe, and the last is a big platform with some sort of post and smaller platform attached to it
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
You pull out one of your axes and go over to the tall tube one and see if it has a top you can pry off or something
nanakishi09/01/2018
Roll ath
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
/roll 1d20+6
SidekickBOT09/01/2018
@Carmen Chapman:  1d20+6  = (6)+6 = 12
nanakishi09/01/2018
You push... And with a pop it comes open, sending you tumbling to the ground and out pops a glowing green orb and a few cruxite dowels
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
"Oof!"
That orb is already kind of getting on your nerves...
That feels familiar
You steer clear of it and pick up one of the sparkly tube things
nanakishi09/01/2018
Feels pretty solid, like a hunk of rock or something
Carmen Chapman09/01/2018
Huh. Kinda pretty!
Before you do as Maddox says, you try turning the wheel thing on the machine to see what it does.
November 18, 2018
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
((okay, @nanakishi @Maddox (Skippito) , I think we're running here and in #maddox-land and #chat-room-1 ?))
Maddox (Skippito)11/18/2018
sounds about right.
nanakishi11/18/2018
Roll str or ath to turn the wheel
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
((oof, sorry about that))
((there was a big boom outside and my apartment lost power))
((back now on my phone))
Maddox (Skippito)11/18/2018
> Tries to play for first time in 2 months
> Random Explosions
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
/roll 1d20+6
SidekickBOT11/18/2018
@Carmen Chapman:  1d20+6  = (13)+6 = 19
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
((too real))
nanakishi11/18/2018
You successfully turn the wheel! Damn thing must've been stuck pretty good. A colorful glowing orb floats out as stone similarly colored cylinders fly out of the top. ~totally didn't forget your text color~
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
((I think that already happened from prying the lid open?))
> You push... And with a pop it comes open, sending you tumbling to the ground and out pops a glowing green orb and a few cruxite dowels
Even more of these tube things???
Ugh
nanakishi11/18/2018
Woops
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
You steer clear of the orb thing for now to do what Maddox told you to do
nanakishi11/18/2018
Something happened, you have cruxite
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
You pick up one of the tubes and take it over to the carving thing Maddox put in the living room
You look around for the card thing Maddox said he put somewhere nearby
nanakishi11/18/2018
You find it on the ground next to the lathe and together they carve you a weird vase
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
Weird!
It reminds you of that one time you tried to carve a vase and it turned out horribly... except this is even weirder somehow?
What's going on anyways???
You pick it up, keeping an eye out for the green orb
You check in with Maddox on your phone to figure out what the hell to do now
nanakishi11/18/2018
The orb just floats around the ceiling aimlessly, until you get close to the last machine. Then it dive bombs the area in front of you and starts bobbing around in your way
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
"Aaaugh!!!"
You yelp in surprise, jumping back out of the way
nanakishi11/18/2018
It floats there
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
You do what Maddox suggested
The living room is kind of a disaster from that shitty monster thing earlier, so you summon your captchalogue tree to see what you can pull out in a pinch
You rifle through the leaves at the top to find something not really bad cuz apparently you shouldn't do that?
You almost pull out the pistol you grabbed from the basement, but catch yourself and yank off the leaf next to it to de-captchalogue some homemade Play-Doh
Dismissing your tree, you look at the orb
Do you just like.... toss this at it?
You'll miss this play-doh but whatever
If Maddox says he knows what to do you guess you'll trust him?
You chuck the Play-Doh at the green orb
nanakishi11/18/2018
The play-doh hits the sprite and there's a flash. Afterwards, you end up with floating green play-doh
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
You make a :neutral_face: face
You... try and approach the last machine now?
Maddox said to put this vase thingy there, so you reach out with your left hand and try to dash up to the machine before the fuckin weird ghost playdoh can mess anything up
nanakishi11/18/2018
The sprite doesn't bother you and you successfully make it to the machine unmolested
Carmen Chapman11/18/2018
You give the thing a glare just for good measure on your way past and you put the vase thingy on the machine
January 12, 2019
nanakishiToday at 3:44 PM
With a flash, a lime green mirror appears. It is large, standing upright, and is stylized so that it is in fact many mirrors in the shape of a rose.
Carmen ChapmanToday at 3:46 PM
((Just to refresh, this is the entry procedure with Maddox, Carmen knows something is off but can't really remember what's going on, Maddox remembers everything from before, and Carmen's dad is nowhere to be found?))
Maddox (Skippito)Today at 3:48 PM
((Sounds right to me.))
((Based on what I can recall))
nanakishiToday at 3:48 PM
(Same)
Carmen ChapmanToday at 3:48 PM
((cool))
You stand there for a moment, blinking in surprise that this thing just appeared out of nowhere(edited)
You walk around it once looking at it and the complexities of the rose
((what do you mean by stylized so it's actually many mirrors?))
nanakishiToday at 3:52 PM
Each petal is a separate mirror, and on each one you see yourself. However, each version of you seems slightly off. One is smirking, one has a shirt in the wrong color etc. The stand has been made up to look like the stem of a rose complete with thorns as wide as your hand at their thickest
Carmen ChapmanToday at 3:53 PM
Your jaw drops in awe at just how damn pretty this whole thing is
You pull out your phone and send a photo to Maddox
You look up from your phone, returning your gaze to the rose
You pick one of the petal mirrors at random and look at it more closely
You poke it
nanakishiToday at 3:57 PM
The Carmen inside mimics you, but it still doesn't look quite right. Roll perception
Carmen ChapmanToday at 3:57 PM
/roll 2d20k1+5
SidekickBOTToday at 3:57 PM
@Carmen Chapman:  2d20k1+5  = (17+5)+5 = 22
nanakishiToday at 4:06 PM
The room around her looks charred, and there's a smudge of soot on her face. There are approximately 15 different petals and of the ones you have looked in so far, none of them are quite right.
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:07 PM
That's probably not good?
You can't really do anything about whatever happened there though...
Best move on
You start looking at different petals to see what differences you can spot
Maybe there's a petal with a good difference? One where you remember what the hells going on?
nanakishiToday at 4:11 PM
The next one you look at is the one with the smirking you. She looks exactly right, except she isn't actually copying you and it's really creepy. The one after has tear stains on her face with puffy red eyes, like she was crying. Another is exactly the same as you except this Carmen is wearing a green shirt. Finally, you find one with no apparent difference, and seems to be just you
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:12 PM
Well some of those are definitely things you've done in the past
You can't really remember if you've done any of those things recently though!
Ugh
If you're honest, you've probably done both smirking and crying in the past couple days
You focus more on the one that doesn't seem to be different in any way to see if you can find anything subtle
nanakishiToday at 4:14 PM
You can't see anything weird about this one. It feels comfortable and safe, while the others make you feel like you're being stared at by strangers.
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:15 PM
You message Maddox real quick before going back to the mirror
You try looking at that particular petal from different angles to see if you can see anything in it that might help you figure out what to do
You also try touching that petal to see if anything happens
nanakishiToday at 4:18 PM
Standing on your tip toes you finally find a difference: a bunch of broken mirror shards around your feet
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:20 PM
You take a sharp intake of breath as you see it
You don't really want to break this though.... it's so pretty!
You look around, wondering how or what you're supposed to break
The smirking one catches your eye out of the corner of your vision, and that decides for you
It just doesn't feel right having yourself stare back at you all smug like that
What is it anyways? She think she's better than you or something?
You know she's wrong because she's not special.
None of these versions of you are. Even you.
You pull an axe out of your strife specibus and try to knock that petal off to the ground
Or at least crack the glass
nanakishiToday at 4:27 PM
You slam your axe into her smug, smirking face and it suddenly disappears. The glass crumbles like nothing, falling to the ground, and the weird mirror gives off a quiet humming noise. The other yous start to get nervous, moving in ways that aren't reflecting you anymore. Except the one in the middle, the real you, who is mimicking you perfectly
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:28 PM
That's creepy as hell
You don't like it. Not one bit
You try and break the green shirt one too, then others
Not the crying one though yet. You save that one for last
nanakishiToday at 4:31 PM
As you smash them, the hum gets louder and the reflections get more frantic. They try to talk to you, but they have no voice. The only noises are the hum and sound of smashing glass
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:32 PM
This feels kind of wrong in some way, like you're killing versions of yourself(edited)
You almost feel bad for them
But whatever. You try not to overthink it too much. They're just mirrors, right?
You keep trying to break them until it's just the normal mirror and the crying one left, and then you see what the Carmen in the mirror does
nanakishiToday at 4:35 PM
The crying Carmen simply stands there, eyes defiant despite the fresh tears on her cheeks. The middle Carmen watches you as much as you watch her
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:36 PM
You put a hand, shaking slightly, on the mirror with the sad Carmen staring at you
You don't know what she's been through
But you can appreciate that she's still standing there in defiance
You mouth the words 'I'm sorry' before trying to break that mirror too
nanakishiToday at 4:39 PM
You smash the mirror, the hum deafening for a moment before everything suddenly explodes into bright light that leaves spots in your vision
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:39 PM
You jump back, yelping in surprise
nanakishiToday at 4:41 PM
When you can finally see again, the mirror and all its pieces are gone. The light coming from the window seems pretty red, too, compared to before. Like it's a particularly pretty sunset outside
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:42 PM
You look around the living room, still somewhat stunned from the light burst
Eventually you try and make your way over to the window to see the reddish light
This feels kind of familiar for some reason...
nanakishiToday at 4:50 PM
Outside, you find yourself somewhere wholly alien. There are strange 'trees' that seem to be entirely made up of red rose bushes, but most of the trees tower over the strange, pink, overgrown land that is covered in thorns. The only clear spaces you can see are small rivers or creeks with pale pink water. Out of the tickets of thorns, you see the occasional white marble structure. The sky above seems to be a permanent sunset, with bands of yellow clouds across a gradient blue to pink to purple sky.

Welcome to the LAND OF ROSES AND RUINS
Carmen ChapmanToday at 4:53 PM
You make a quick double take that what you're seeing is actually real
Your mouth drops open in awe
You run over to the front door, opening it and taking in the vista from your front porch
It's just so..... unreal!
After a moment of standing, soaking in the incredible environment, you take some photos and update Maddox and respond to Orea(edited)
Carmen ChapmanToday at 5:07 PM
You look back up from your phone, out at the horizon
Seeing that brilliant, deep reddish light pouring in through the window seems familiar somehow, but you just can't remember
Surely if you really went through all of this like Maddox said, you'd remember, right?
It's not like you get transported by a video game to another planet every day
...and you're apparently dating Maddox too???
You stomp a foot on the wooden porch in frustration
Surely you'd remember something as awesome as that!!!
Good job, past Carmen, whatever you did for that
But why can't you remember???
You sit down on the edge of the porch, looking out at the roses, trying to see if you can jog your memory