Dujakdron

Draft

Elevator Pitch:

It's about….grief, and loss. Not giving up on the past, and your hopes, and ultimately that leading to your demise. Thinking that there's a chance your loved one is still out there when all logical signs should tell you to stop. It's about this person chasing after the entity, fully believing it could end well. And we've got the reader doing that too, despite them knowing it shouldn't work out, they're hoping it could.

these characters searching for something and they just keep falling back onto the past

i think each character should have something from their past that they're clinging to, either tangible (a loved one) or abstract (a missed opportunity, a feeling)

Summary:

• Catastrophic containment breach leads a Foundation facility to be sealed off, with staff still inside. Communication goes dead, no-one goes in, no-one comes out.
• The facility/site is the main anomaly here.
• Description details the site, the site history, and the details of what happened in the breach (vague, ambiguous). It then details a log of anomalous events / occurrences in/round the site since it was sealed off. The last is [REDACTED].
• Addendum: It is announced that either a) to investigate the [REDACTED] event or b) to retrieve an unidentified anomaly, a team of 3 will be sent in. Small team so not to attract attention, move stealthily through the facility.
• Team of three: Team captain formerly stationed there, Researcher, third member.
• Log takes the form of their exploration of the facility. The Researcher has a sibling who was inside the facility at lockdown. As the article progresses they think they see them: a curl of red hair darting round a corner, a shape in the distance. These are kept ambiguous: he chases her down a corridor, but finds nothing there. Implied he's losing it a bit, can't handle the pressure. (e.g. bodycamera goes down, he looks up at a balcony, the bodycamera is on his chest so doesn't capture).
• It is revealed the [REDACTED] event was the sibling's palmprint being used to activate a security lock. Leads the reader and Researcher to believe they're still alive. There are signs of life and movement: feasting in the canteen etc.
• As they make their way through the facility, they have weird and wonderful encounters with anomalies.
• End of the article: The Researcher grows stressed, tense, wants to be reunited. Captain of the team urges caution, a level-head, they don't know the full situation.
• He sees them one last time, and chases after them, against advice. Is separated from the group. Chases them into a corner. Approaches them, goes for the reunion - realises just too late something is wrong.
• There's a monster, something horrifying wearing her skin. It strikes him, he dies in a cacophony of panic and regret.

Team:

• Primary Protagonist: Foundation Researcher
  • Had a sibling (brother/sister/sibling?) that was at the site when the event happened. Feels guilt that he wasn't there when the event happened.
  • Older brother(sister?) = heightens feelings of guilt.

• Secondary Protagonist: Team Lead
  • Previously stationed at the Site. Away on a mission when shit went down.
  • Wants to return to their old room. Have a lot of personal stuff there, not been able to retrieve.
  • On reaching the room/dormitories, there's an ambiguous anomaly (Crystals? a sheen in the air?) in the way. They're really tempted, but don't take the risk.

• Tertiary Protagonist: ?
  • New to the site? Allows us to have someone with no connections, to explain things to.

Other:

• Primary Prot's Sibling
  • Physical traits: Bright red hair
  • Inside the site when it went down. Not mentioned until during the logs. Revealed by the Researcher after a few hints / encounters with "them".
  • Is seen out of the corner of eyes, form a distance, but never caught by security footage. Leaving it ambiguous as to whether they are there or it's a hallucination.
  • In actuality, died in the event / a little after. An anomaly has taken to wearing their skin around the site.

Setting:

• Not your standard site. Interesting.
• Containment breach happened, not quite sure what went on. Only been a few months since the breach, maybe a year. Possibility of survivors still inside.
• Very old site. One of the first, but also forgotten (forgotten before the event? Or forgotten after?).
• Mix of old and new.
• Hosted first anomalies discovered
• Taken over by rust, time and decay.
• All anomalies featured are new. No crosslinks or references.
• One anomaly has memory/amnesia vibes - you can see memories happen in realtime? Replayed by holograms in front of you?
• Claustrophic, labyrinthian. Takes a few days to travel through?