| abstract | - Urduuk woke up feeling much the same way. More, perhaps. Definitely not less. He rubbed his eyes and looked around, noticing that Karna was cooking breakfast. He shook his massive head. "How is it that we live like this?" he asked aloud. "What?" she grunted back at him. "Live like what?" "This place," he said, rising to his feet, "it's nothing more than a jumble of rocks with some crude rugs on the floor. Yet we've lived like this for years and never thought twice about it. Doesn't that seem odd to you?" Karna was baffled. "This place is our home. Oggok is as it has been all of our lives. I don't understand this sudden... change in your thinking." "Dissatisfaction, you mean? Don't you feel it, Karna? Don't you feel something rising up within you? It's as if a fog has slowly been receding and my mind understands things for the first time. We are a race of kings, Karna. Once we held all of Norrath in the palm of our hand. Yet for centuries our people have lived in a city that is nothing more than a shambling pile of stones and rotting vines. Doesn't that seem ridiculous to you? Doesn't that seem absurd?" She bared her teeth and slowly shook her head. "My mind... it's fuzzy, Urduuk. It scares me a little. I know of what you speak, but still... it's like I'm trudging slowly through deep water. I want so much to move faster, but I simply cannot." He wrapped his huge arms around her and pulled her close to him. "I'm sorry, my love. I do not mean to upset you. But I can see it in myself and in the others. I can hear it in the way we speak. Something about us is changing, Karna. We are not what we once were." "I think you are right, Urduuk," she said, almost vulnerably. She squeezed him because it made her feel better to do so. He kissed her brow. "That's enough nonsense out of me for now. What about that breakfast?" ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Pathetic," he muttered angrily to himself. Then, to the old man, "Are you sure this is all of them?" The silver-crested ogre slowly shook his head. "I have told you twice already that it is. We simply have not kept many written records of our history, young man. Those scrolls and tablets are all that our shamans have scribed over the centuries." "Ridiculous!" he hissed to himself as the old man sat down. "It's as if our entire civilization has been in a stupor. Stories have been passed down from one generation to the next through the telling, but there is so little concrete information. And this shambles of a library is laughable. Even the cursed frogloks have better books than these." Urduuk pushed the scrolls and tablets away and clenched his fist. "What's that, young one?" the old ogre asked. "Did you find the answers you seek?" "Sadly, I think I have, old one." Urduuk shook his head. "At least, the only answer there is to find." He stood up and walked out of the library, his feet pounding angrily on the crumbled cobblestones of the street. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Be careful how you speak to your chieftain, Urduuk. My word is law here in Oggok." Urduuk held his tongue a moment before speaking again. "I meant no offense, Chieftain Orrek. I simply feel there is a better approach." "My plan is sound. We will expand our farmlands and feed our bellies. We will strengthen our outposts in the Feerrott and ensure that our borders are safe. Oggok will grow and prosper under my hand." "We need to do more than survive! We are not a race of farmers, Orrek. We are a race of warriors and kings. Norrath knew our domination once, and it must know it again. But we will never see that glory if we till the soil like oafish farmhands." "Your tone offends me, Urduuk. Say another word and I'll have you in chains before this assembly." "Assembly? Are you joking? Look around you," he said, gesturing at the crowd in the square surrounding them. "The center of our city is nothing more than broken boulders and fetid ponds. How can this be enough for you?" He looked at the other citizens. "How can this be enough for any of you?" Many of the ogres murmured in agreement. The chieftain sensed the dissent growing around him. "Enough! I lead this city, and I determine its course. This meeting is over." "It is not!" Urduuk growled. "It is time for us to show the courage to embrace our destiny." "Those are the words," announced a deep, booming voice, "that I have waited for one of you to speak." Urduuk turned and gasped, as did the crowd. Out of nowhere a massive figure stood, twice as tall as any ogre, with a thick, imposing frame. It wore dark metallic armor that seemed to faintly glow with power, and a horned helm that hung just above its burning eyes. It was like an ogre but more than an ogre, a creature of power and terror and death. Urduuk stood transfixed for a moment, then stammered a question almost in a whisper. "Lord... Lord Rallos?' "No," answered the voice, echoing throughout the square. "I am not your maker, but rather the one who has remained behind to carry out his will. I am the hand of Zek while he must be absent. And I am the one who will guide you to once again dominate all of Norrath." Urduuk looked over at the chieftain, who stood awed and terrified. Urduuk sneered at him and then turned back to the dark figure. "Avatar of War, emissary of our maker, we live and die at your command. Tell us what to do." A dark smile seemed to cross the being's otherworldly face for a moment. "You will build. You will waste no time growing wheat or baking bread. You will take what you need from others and make this a city fit for kings. You will expand your knowledge and relearn the dark arts lost to you for so long. You will raise a new Rallosian Army that shall conquer the world and wipe out the children of the lesser gods once and for all. This is your destiny, son of Zek. Will you make it yours, or will you wander about the jungle with lizards and toads?" Urduuk stepped forward and stood in front of the avatar. "We will seize our destiny. We will build a new city of Rallos that will be grander than any other on Norrath. One by one the lands of those who oppose us will be burned to the ground. On this you have my blood oath. We will not fail." The avatar reached to his side and drew a runed, flaming blade. He touched it to Urduuk's shoulder and watched as the ogre refused to flinch. The avatar nodded. "You, Urduuk, will be my general. You will lead your people to their rightful destiny. By the touch of Soulfire I ordain this to be so." He sheathed the blade and drew a second weapon from his belt. "This sword was blessed by Vallon Zek and forged in the fires of Drunder. The unholy blade Vel'Arek must drink the blood of the weak, and in turn it will make you strong. Use it to claim what is yours, Urduuk." Urduuk took hold of the massive weapon and felt its weight. It looked as if it would take two hands to wield it, but he could easily swing it with one. It had a long, dark blade with ancient words inscribed down the length of it. He looked up at the avatar a moment, then turned and walked to Chieftain Orrek. "Would you still have us be farmers, chieftain? Would you still have us be weak?" "I... have devoted my life to the service of Zek," he stammered nervously. "I will not fail him." "You are correct, chieftain, for your death shall serve him as well." Urduuk thrust the blade forward suddenly and drove it through the chieftain's chest, staring into the ogre's eyes as he crumpled to the ground. Urduuk withdrew the blade and lifted it to the sky, watching as it seemed to drink in the blood of the fallen chieftain. "This," boomed the voice of the avatar, "is the force of will necessary to rule these lands. Even now my ally, the Avatar of Flame, is bringing this same message to the orc legions. Together the children of Zek will conquer this world and cleanse it of elves and men." "The word of Zek shall guide us, Avatar," General Urduuk proclaimed. "We will build this city and your army. We will learn the dark magics and once again become the masters of this realm." The avatar watched as the ogres knelt before their ruler. Urduuk narrowed his eyes and looked to the east. "And when the time is right," he said with disdain, "Gukta and the wretched frogloks will be the first to fall." ---
- After they died, the main characters created a shared realm within which to find each other. They initially forgot post-crash events and imagined new situations for themselves, but they gradually awoke to their previous lives. Mild deja vu, pain, unconsciousness and brushes with death sparked initial memories. Eventually, each character awoke fully after interacting with something specific, often a loved one.
- They came from beyond the world, from over the world, from under the world. They came from inside the stars and from behind the rain. They came from the known lands and they came from the secret places of old. The vast ones who drank of the nebulas, the small ones who did not care what happened beyond the banks of their rivers, the ones who bathed in the light and the ones who watched from the shadows, the ones who loved us and the ones who forgot about us, the ones who hate us now and the ones who love us still, the ones who sung with the rats and the ones who swam with the leviathans, they came from far and near, they came one and all. They came to end the world. The machine labeled SCP-720 put the last finishing touches on the final model planet in its most recent solar array. It trained its claw upward, as if looking once more, wistfully, to the stars. SCP-720 had no name, no thoughts the way humans would account for thoughts, and certainly no internal mechanism for vision. But you would have to say that it could 'see' nonetheless, for what else could you call what it did when it directed its mechanical parts towards the sky? Either way, this time, SCP-720 'saw' something different. Something prowling between the beautiful orbs and masses of color… something looking towards Earth. Looking back towards SCP-720. A sea of glimmering eyes. Words formed in the not-mind of SCP-720. Today is the day your prayers will be answered. A long moment passed, and then a single other word formed in the not-mind of SCP-720, and vibrated there for a long time. Awaken. And so it did. What appeared to be a vast wall of fur approached the Earth, sank through the sky, and landed on the ground, to find everything it had loved gone. Her fellow gods were on their way, but as always, she had arrived first, a mother eager to be reunited at long last with her children, now that the time of the end had come. She had been gone for thousands and thousands of years. She had gone as her children had first looked to the stars, and it was then that she had known that they would be alright. And now there was no trace of them. Their beautiful webbed cities, their songs that had filled the planet with joy, their vast works of art to stun even a god's eye - gone. All gone. All that remained were their bones, and living on top of them, the hairless apes that they had once kept in zoos with other animals, now risen to dominate the planet. And they did not even remember her children. They moved through their lives like ants, building their wooden and metal hives over the graves of her greatest loves. This was sacred ground they defiled, and they did not know or care. Ur-An-Uum raised her head to the sky and cried a rending wail of anguish. She mourned for a long time, a noise heard on high, her wails causing earthquakes and tsunamis across the planet, weeping for her children. She did not quell her sorrow. The only things left to die from her pain were the furless apes. This was to be a time of joy, but there was only sorrow left. She would not be comforted, for her children were no more. And then… She felt something. The tiniest glimmer in her mind. And she felt hope. Ur-An-Uum called out for her children, the creatures that she now knew the furless apes called a sea of derogatory names, the least insulting of which was "SCP-1000". Her children answered. The entity awoke with a start, not knowing where it was, or, on reflection, who it was. All it knew was that The Time Had Come. It rose from its grave, shattering a mountain as it did so, and hurtled itself into the atmosphere, trying to get its bearings. The entity gazed across the world. Everything was different. Humans - they were everywhere. Not just scattered here and there across the great expanses, but living in massive villages, villages the likes of which the entity had never seen. Not that it was complaining. Humans had fed it well with their worship and blood sacrifices in the olden days. Now that there were so many more humans, why, the entity would certainly soon be satiated beyond compare. This was fortunate, because it had been asleep a very long time, and it was very hungry. The entity cast about for a place of power. And found far too many. Far more than there had ever been before. It did not understand what to make of this knowledge, but, again, it did not complain. It only needed to pick one place of power for now, a simple one, to give it initial shape again. It chose the nearest one. A "Foundation Containment Site". Yes, this would certainly do. The humans had already invested this place with much of their energy. It must be a sacred place to them. An Es See Pee, they called it. The entity would dine well indeed. It wasted no more time, but hurtled directly into the place of power - a body of water, it saw - and landed inside it with a massive impact. It drank in the place of power and everything in it - the water, the local wildlife, the human-made metalworkings and detritus - and took the shape of a massive titan be-straddling the countryside. Man-shaped, so that the humans would understand the form to which they would soon direct their hearts and their prayers and their blood and their pleadings for mercy. The eldritch entity that had merged with SCP-765 opened its mouth. "QUACK," it said, its voice reverberating across the land. First the rooster of crimson crowed, then the rooster of gold, then the rooster of soot-red. A bloodstained watchdog bayed in its cave. Its eons-old bindings broke, and it ran free. The sound of a great trumpet echoed across the Earth, with no apparent source. People stopped in the streets in New York, Delhi, London, Cape Town, and listened in confusion. The Midgard serpent Jörmungandr stirred in its slumber. The shifting of its form caused tsunamis along several coastlines, demolished a number of villages in Greenland. A massive wolf, visible from hundreds of miles away, stalked across Denmark, accompanied by an army of burning giants. Ragnarok had come. The Administrator swung around in her chair to face the man who had just entered the room behind her. "You knew I was coming," the man said. "You let me in." "Yes," said the Administrator. "You know you're dreaming, I'm sure," the man said. "And of course… you also know who I am." "SCP-990," the Administrator said. She looks at him again. The suit, the bowler hat… or was that a fedora? "Nobody," she said. "But most importantly…" She picked up a file folder on her desk. "The first Administrator." The two Administrators looked at one another. "I saw you in the crowd in the Valley," the current Administrator said. "I knew to expect it, but… tell me it isn't true." "I'm sorry," the first Administrator said. "It's true." "This betrays everything we stand for," the current Administrator said. "You said it once yourself. We secure. We contain. We protect. We keep humanity out of the dark. For you to become one of these things…" "I also said that the Foundation must stand in the dark, so that humanity could live in the light." The first Administrator hesitated. "Please believe me, if there had been any other choice to make, I would have made it. This has to be done. I hope you'll see why, soon." He hesitates. "I came here hoping to recruit you, you know. You and yours. I am sorry that I cannot tell you more, but I hope you will consider my offer." "Tell me something," the current Administrator said. "This 'Harbinger'. Who are they?" "I don't know," the first Administrator said. "It's true that I anticipated this for a long time, but… this chain of events blindsided me too." "I know it's one of yours." The current Administrator's voice sounded impatient for the first time. "Who is it? Someone loyal to you, of course. Only someone with level 5 clearance could have pulled this off, so that does narrow the list down. Charles Gears? Jack Bright? Alto Clef? Kain Pathos Crow?" She paused. "I know it's not Sophia Light. Frederick Williams? Chelsea Elliot? Hell, Simon Glass?" "I sincerely do not know," the first Administrator said. "Listen. The O5 Council is already compromised. SCP-343. And… well, you know the rest. I've cut off their communications, but they won't wait long to move. We should be in this together." "I agree," the current Administrator said. "I know enough to know you don't have to do this. You'll have a compulsion, but I'm told it's minor. Easily overcome. Perhaps will not even return." "The world must end," the first Administrator said. "Help me end it in the only way the Foundation — the only way humanity — will come out on top. There are more world-enders coming. You already know that dozens are already awake, and that hundreds soon will be. More and more will be waking up, the longer the Lock is open. And worse, more will arrive. The ones not already on Earth. This is the only way forward we have." "Then we do not have anything left to say to each other," the current Administrator said. "I am truly sorry to hear that," the first Administrator said. "As I am truly sorry to say it," the current Administrator said. The two Administrators nodded at each other, respectfully, and turned away from each other. The first Administrator walked away and dissolved into the dreamscape. The current Administrator turned back to her dream-desk and waited for the sedative she'd taken to wear off. Then she woke up, and got to work.
- "Awakenings" is the eighth chapter in the comic book series Arrow: Season 2.5, and the eighth chapter in the Blood arc. It also included the sixth story in the Suicide Squad: Crisis in Kahndaq arc. It was released digitally on December 8, 2014.
- Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sacks's 1973 memoir "Awakenings". Directed by Penny Marshall, the film was produced by Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, who first encountered Sacks's book as undergraduates at Yale University and optioned it a few years later. The films stars Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, and Max von Sydow.
- Awakenings was the first expansion and the second set to be released, both in the United States by Interactive Imagination (2i) in English language and by Epoch in Japanese. The expansion was the first to feature the Core and introduced special rules for the denizens of the centre of the Moonlands.
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