Osiris Fraternal Order

Floor 2

The elevator doors open, and as you walk out on to a wood parquet floor into what seems twenty or thirty years back into the past, you find yourself walking into a department store full of clothes that belong in the 80's, and pastel colors that cover the carpets and walls. The sounds of smooth jazz and pop echo through the store's speakers. You decide to take a look around at this time capsule of a store.

While browsing the various clothing racks, you realize you're the only person in the store. There were no shoppers, no employees, absolutely no one to be found. The entrance of the store was closed off by its gate, and no amount of effort could raise it. Outside of the gate however, was a mall which was only visible by the light of the store. You could make out the artificial palm trees, fountains, skylights, and various stores that were closed for the night. The whole scene makes you yearn for a better time, when people would meet at the food court and hang out, and everyone when everyone was optimistic of the future.

Taking a final walk through the store, you pick up a windbreaker removing its tags, and put it on. You leave the tags and enough money by a cash register, take in one final look before muttering "goodbye," and heading back into the elevator.

FLOOR 3

You step out of the elevator warm in your jacket to find yourself in a completely dark room. The light of the elevator illuminated the ground in front of you to reveal some weathered yet ornate tile, but beyond the ground in front of you, the rest of the room remains a mystery. Cautiously, you step into the room and the elevator dings closed behind you. For a moment you stand still and try to give your eyes time to adjust to the dark, but everything is hopelessly dark. You slide your feet across the floor like Michael Jackson doing the moon walk in reverse, trying not to step on anything that might be on the ground. Slowly, you feel your way down the wall. Every one of your senses are heightened now. You creep slowly in the complete dark with only the sound of your breathing. A thought crawls up your spine and whispers in your ear that you're not alone here and suddenly you're filled with panic. You walk the wall more quickly now, less carefully, until finally your hand makes contact with something, and you scream. After a moment's pause, you reach out to touch it again with shaking hands. What is that? It feels... almost Human...

Whispering thoughts tiptoe up your spine again and settle around your shoulders, wrapping their fingers around your neck, and you start to breathe heavier. Your panic becomes uncontrollable. You're feeling dizzy now. Without warning, the room fills with light, and your eyes so accustomed to the absolute dark burn in their sockets. Screams of pain and fear fill the room followed by a loud thump. You run into a corner of the room and squat on the ground terrified and try to gather your thoughts. You still hold the object from the wall in a vice grip and in relaxing your fingers, drop it. The noise spooks you, and you look down to find a disbodied arm. You throw it away from you, mortified, and scramble closer to the corner. Are you going to pass out? You feel like you're going to pass out.

"Ow," you hear, from across the room. Looking up, you see someone standing in uniform across the room, rubbing their arm. They're staring at you, annoyed and a little confused. "What the heck are you doing? How did you get in here?" You stand slowly, carefully avoiding the forest of mannequins around you, several of which have been knocked over in your mad dash for the corner.

"Oh, uh... Sorry," you sputter apologies as you attempt to pick up a one-armed mannequin, "Yeah sorry about that, I guess I got a little.. mixed up.. there..." Backing up against the elevator, you frantically press the button to open the doors, "It was just so dark in here and, y'know, haha..." The elevator doors open up and you plop onto the ground on the inside. "H-have a good day!" The elevator doors close on the confused face of the man and his maze of mannequins.

Well. Okay. Moving on, I guess. You press the up button and the elevator whirs to life again.

FLOOR 4

As you step out of the elevator, you see that this floor has a balcony. Wanting to get some fresh air, you walk outside. You notice a "Made in Europeia" marker on the balcony. The balcony instantly abandons you and collapses, causing you to fall. Fortunately there was a net right below the balcony to catch your fall and you quickly get back up to the floor. You sprint into the elevator before anything else can collapse.

Floor 5

Exiting the elevator, you stumble out only to be hit with the smell of cigar smoke. Looking around, you notice that you're in what appears to be a bar. Though, it is unlike any bar that you've ever seen or heard of. The best way to describe it would be deserted. Stepping into the room, more details of this old bar make themselves known. A rusted knife sticking out of the wooden bar, having spent who knows how long stuck in the wood. Further down, a solitary drink with...ice cubes still floating in it. After the previous two floors you think to yourself, "hell, what can a little liquid courage do to hurt moving forwards?". Downing the drink, you move onwards, feeling a bit braver now.

That is, until you find the next thing in the room. Is it...no it couldn't be...but could it? These thoughts race through your mind as you step around what seems to be a dried up pool of blood. Following that, you turn to head back to the elevator, but even from where you stood it was obvious that the door of your ride onwards and upwards has disappeared. So, you do the only sensible thing. Start running further in the direction you had been walking. As you got closer to the other wall, you could see the clear make up of an elevator, but the scent of cigar smoke, which you had been used to by this point, has switched to one of what you can only imagine is decaying organic matter. Reaching the elevator, you quickly press the button to open it before hopping into the elevator cabin and rapidly pressing the button to close the door in desperation, knowing that once the doors closed you'd be saved from the scent.

As the doors close, standard elevator music starts up, and you press the next floor's button, continuing the adventure that you have undertaken.

Floor 6

When the elevator doors open you're met with a cool refreshing breeze from .... somewhere.

You step out of the elevator into a short dark hallway. As you keep walking you are met with what looks like a room modeled after a mountain peak. Although it's inside, it feels very real. Complete with the smell of fresh mountain air. In the middle of the room is an old man sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed and his hands folded in his lap. As you approach him he speaks in a soft voice.

"Did you know you're very funny?"

You stare at him blankly for a minute before he opens his eyes with a grin,"funny-looking!" He laughs.

After a moment he turns serious. "My child, I will give you the wisdom of the fathers, my father, his father, and his father. It will take you far." He pauses," would you like to hear it?"

You nod, unsure of what he could possibly say.

His voice lowers, "why do melons have weddings?"

He closes his eyes, leaving you with pure confusion. You start to notice that the room has grown very quiet and the room starts to dim around you. Bit by bit, the vivid colors of the sky, the ground and the trees all seem to disappear around you. Everything seems to be turning to a dark nothing closing in on you.

You panic looking back at the man but he sits perfectly still. Unaware of the horrific scene happening around him. The ground begins to shake and you grasp at anything to stabilize yourself. There's nothing there.

Suddenly everything stops. And you're left in a dark room by yourself. The man apparently disappearing as well. The only thing left is a single fruit with a spotlight on it. That fruit being, a cantaloupe.

In your mind, you hear the man's voice soft and peaceful as ever. "Because, they cantaloupe."

From behind you the elevator opens, you scoop up the cantaloupe and walk into the elevator continuing your journey upwards.

Floor 7

The elevator opens again to reveal a room entirely empty, save one pillar in the middle of the room, reaching about as tall as your waist. You walk up to the pillar to find a chest with an inscription on it which reads "Answer and you may leave." As soon as you find yourself centered with the pillar, a grate slams down in front of the elevator, your only way of escape. You sigh at the drama of the thing, and open the chest. Inside you find two red buttons and a piece of folded paper. You smooth out the paper, which contains only two sentences:

1) Choose the left, and your region will be safe and stable forever, but the NS salt mines close permanently.
2) Choose the right, and NS will be its most interesting, but your region will be in chaos.

You step back from the pillar in shock. No! NO! You care for your region deeply, would do anything to protect it. But the salt mines! How will we live without Salt? Is there a NS to speak of in a world where we all just get along? WHAT WILL WE FLAVOR OUR POPCORN WITH? IS THIS THE END OF POPCORN?! Oh, dear God. The horror! You run back to the elevator, shaking desperately at the gate. Are you being a little overdramatic? Maybe. But this is for the good of the game! NS cannot survive without salt! But you can't be the guy that chooses chaos for your region. It's too much. You won't do it. Tears no doubt fueled by OOC toxic harassers roll down your cheeks. Years of espionage, spying, and stealing chocolate from innocent natives flash before your eyes. You completely empty your pockets of all of the logs you'd been keeping there to ruin someone's day on a special occasion. Crouching on the ground, you draw out a treaty that you'd been meaning to write with some UCR that will ultimately fail a week from Thursday. After a moment of self reflection, you solemnly return to the buttons and gently place your delicious cantaloupe onto one of the buttons. You don't deserve cantaloupe. Not anymore. The gate trapping you in the room buzzes and lifts away from the elevator. Filled with remorse, you hop back on board to your next destination.

Floor 8

After witnessing a floor full of salt, you hope for a much more hospitable floor. You are quite disappointed with what you see. You step out of the elevator into a room full of self-righteous people shouting at each other about their absurd political views. You realize that you have entered no ordinary place; you have entered the very special place of NSG. You instantly feel sick, as if you have been hit with radiation sickness. You make a note to go to a doctor whenever you get out of this tower. You step back into the elevator, disappointed with your luck. A floor full of salt followed by a floor full of cancer, what will await you next?

Floor 9
As the elevator assents you pray that you will not have another floor of salt nor of cancer. You are not disappointed but be careful what you wish for
As you exit the elevator the smell of ink hits you, so pungent is the smell you stagger backwards you hammer on the elevator walls to try to make it start so you can escape the overpowering smell, but to no avail. Steeling yourself you enter the room, planting your foot on the ground you walk bravely into the room, yet the floor feels rough and your feet begin to ache, looking down it dawns on your that you are walking on pieces of papyrus, you look up and soon relaise that there are bits of papyrus strewn on the floor for the entirety of the room. Stepping forward once again you suddenly slip and fall, lading flat on your face. You realise you slipped on a torn bit of papyrus that was wet through with ink. Upon closer inspection of the floor you realise that most of pieces of papyrus are written on with words such as. "Article II, "Shall be amended" and "Section 7, you cannot read more than that as the words are faded and the parchment torn to shreds.

In the middle of the room there is an ornate desk, upon which another piece of papyrus rests, this one seems to have been a speech of some description with only the words "Honour" "Stepping down" and "replacement" being visible. On the desk lay many discarded quills and ink pots. Ink is spilled across the speech. The room itself has some ostentatious fittings, the walls are of marble and a quill and papyrus are etched in gold on the back wall and roof, however it lacks the trappings of the first floor indicating that perhaps its occupant was not as important as others.

At the end of the room there are 7 marble plynths upon which rest scrolls of various length, each scroll is capped with gold caps and the text is written in golden ink. The words "Scroll of Horus are etched in large Golden writing. Trudging back towards the elevator you muse upon the meaning of this room. As you enter the elevator it begins to ascend and you wonder with trepidation what will come next.

Floor 10

You exit the elevator and are immediately assaulted by a cacophony of raucous children. It all blurs together and it seems impossible to pick out any specific words, but they sound excited. Happy, even. You recognize the noise as the melody of recess, which doesn't exactly add up because well... you're staring down an empty corridor.

The floor is marbled granite and seems chaotic against the stark white of the walls. Fluorescent lights glare down from their perch, interrupting the ceiling at regular intervals and washing out your surroundings. The noise continues and you can swear you smell recycled rubber and cut grass at the edge of your scent. But it must be a lie. There is only the corridor, and there is no end in sight.

You take a step and then another. Eventually you find yourself walking at an uneasy pace. Before long the click of your shoes beats an anxious rhythm. Click clack click clack. It takes a moment before you begin to realize, but the sound of children seems louder, doesn't it? Uncomfortably louder. You hurry your pace, unnerved by the increasing noise and the unending distance ahead of you. What if you never get out? No, don't think that way. You're fine, you know you'll be okay just keep moving. Click clack Just one foot in front of the other and what is that smell? Why does it smell like something is burning!? Clickclackclickclackclick You're running, you have to get out the volume is louder and why does it sound like they are screaming a-

You're suddenly, inexplicably in a large, round room. It's stiflingly quiet now but your ears are ringing from the sudden lack of sound. Confused you look back to where you came from but there is no corridor. Just an elevator door. You turn around again.

In the center of the room is what seems like an unfilled sandbox. You walk closer and notice that it's not actually empty, but in the middle is the motionless body of a small girl. Her hands are clasped together over her stomach, and they are caked in dried, coagulated blood. She's holding something. Without fully knowing why you reach down and pry her hands apart to find a broken piece of a tiara, covered in the same dried blood. Then you realize she's staring at you, smiling.

You run into the elevator and press the button as fast as you can.