Layers of Unreality
General Summary
Dec. 14, 1995 - Thursday
One night in Orange County, CA, a couple of aspiring paranormal investigators started snooping around an abandoned shopping mall where a couple of people had disappeared during last year's Black Friday. A security guard showed up that same night to pick up some belongings left behind by the sudden closure of the mall, reluctantly agreeing to help since one of the investigators was his ex. They reviewed the footage and confirmed that the missing persons disappeared somewhere in the back hallways of a shoe store, and very quickly they discovered a vast liminal space of offices that stretched far beyond the space of the mall. Floating office supplies, people with faces obscured by shadows, tar-black creatures capable of warping human flesh into new shapes, this liminal space proved to operate by its own ruleset as reality bent to its will. The investigators stayed cautious on their journey through the offices, avoiding fights with the office drones as they pushed ahead into more and more stress-inducing rooms. Patrick managed to help guide the group with an old spellbook from a previous encounter with the supernatural, but his magic was unable to protect Sawyer from losing her face to the tar-black creature. Offices turned into pools and cathedrals, Sawyer feeling herself merging with the liminal space with every passing room. A series of phone calls led them deep into the space's interior where a series of gates branched off into different reality-warping destinations. After some debate the group agreed to go to a meeting of interplanar beings, angels and devils divvying up souls for obscure purposes. At this point Carter decided that the nightmare had gone on for long enough and started marching back to the entryway, but Sawyer and Patrick stayed behind in the meeting room. They offered up their souls to some being of order (an angel from Celestia? a modron representative of Mechanus?), one of their conditions being Carter's safe passage through the liminal spaces. Carter made it back to the shoe store, collecting his belongings and driving home after waiting a day to see if the others ever returned. They never showed up, and Carter took his belongings back to his grandmother's place (including a family photo with his face mysteriously obscured by shadows). He tried not to think about the mall that often.
One night in Orange County, CA, a couple of aspiring paranormal investigators started snooping around an abandoned shopping mall where a couple of people had disappeared during last year's Black Friday. A security guard showed up that same night to pick up some belongings left behind by the sudden closure of the mall, reluctantly agreeing to help since one of the investigators was his ex. They reviewed the footage and confirmed that the missing persons disappeared somewhere in the back hallways of a shoe store, and very quickly they discovered a vast liminal space of offices that stretched far beyond the space of the mall. Floating office supplies, people with faces obscured by shadows, tar-black creatures capable of warping human flesh into new shapes, this liminal space proved to operate by its own ruleset as reality bent to its will. The investigators stayed cautious on their journey through the offices, avoiding fights with the office drones as they pushed ahead into more and more stress-inducing rooms. Patrick managed to help guide the group with an old spellbook from a previous encounter with the supernatural, but his magic was unable to protect Sawyer from losing her face to the tar-black creature. Offices turned into pools and cathedrals, Sawyer feeling herself merging with the liminal space with every passing room. A series of phone calls led them deep into the space's interior where a series of gates branched off into different reality-warping destinations. After some debate the group agreed to go to a meeting of interplanar beings, angels and devils divvying up souls for obscure purposes. At this point Carter decided that the nightmare had gone on for long enough and started marching back to the entryway, but Sawyer and Patrick stayed behind in the meeting room. They offered up their souls to some being of order (an angel from Celestia? a modron representative of Mechanus?), one of their conditions being Carter's safe passage through the liminal spaces. Carter made it back to the shoe store, collecting his belongings and driving home after waiting a day to see if the others ever returned. They never showed up, and Carter took his belongings back to his grandmother's place (including a family photo with his face mysteriously obscured by shadows). He tried not to think about the mall that often.
Report Date
14 Jun 2024
Featured Characters
- Carter Johnson
- Patrick O'Hennesy
- Sawyer
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