thisavrou_log | If God Was In Hell We Would All Be Dead [OPEN

If God Was In Hell We Would All Be Dead [OPEN | MINGLE]

Who: Who wants to kill some slavers? You do! Of course you do!
When: May 15th and onwards
Where: Slave trade outpost in the Runoff
What: The slavers that targeted the crew of the Moira in July are overdue for some justice. Chara breaks some regulations to make that happen. THIS IS A MINGLE LOG; anyone and everyone who wants to get in on this and kill some slavers is absolutely free to do so! Chara is relying on there being some chaos for this to work.
Warnings: PROBABLE DEATH. Probable references to slavery, trauma, and also death. Chara.

The Ingress opens to a spilling wash of gray and white, a monochrome cast of shadows and hard angles. The Runoff, it seems, is not a place of many colors; every inch of it is drab and washed out, cold and impersonal as the people who would employ such a place for their own twisted ends. A swirled nebula of stars glimmers overhead. It is night.

Knives are useful tools, but their reach is limited. A quiet transmission to the network, a select few messages delivered to a select few individuals, the hissing strike of a match igniting on the edge of a box. The place is angular and looks to be comprised of some sort of galactic equivalent of asphalt, likely inflammable. Still, it is entirely too dark. Too gray. Too poorly maintained. Tents and shabby establishments line the streets, places where, evidently, personal agency may be bought and sold on a whim.

It does not take long to find a structure of cloth and wood, and the whole of it soon emanates the rank, coppery tang of some interdimensional brand of gasoline.

Knives are useful tools. But they did not come with knives.

Or rather, they did not come only with knives.

One of the stalls is alight in a matter of moments. Red and gold tongues of flame gobbling the establishment whole, filling the place with both the color and light that it so lacked. Knobs of wood harvested from the wreckage form handy torches to set anything else aflame, to thoroughly raze the entire area to the ground, every stall and ship and vendor that supported and enabled the inflorescence of slave trafficking and slave keeping. Armed guards begin to converge on the disturbance at once. But small as said disturbance is, there is no guarantee that it will not come to grow.

That is, of course, where you come in.

One child alone cannot possibly take the entire place down, and flame can only take things so far. It is hardly enough when their aim is one of total destruction, however unrealistic an expectation that might be. They'll need help. Lots of it.

So won't you join the dance?

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Laura isn't entirely herself as she arrives. Her thoughts are lost in what she used to be, and where she had been made. She remembers the feeling of captivity, of being tortured and prodded. She knows what it's like to be little more than a slave, a being made to be someone else's weapon. She's lost in those thoughts, Chara's call to arms triggering her to slip back into her more feral state.

She wants to be good.

She desperately wants to make her father proud.

But she also needs to do this. She needs to stand up for other children, to make sure they aren't exploited and used. Her face is a blank mask, void of expression apart from a dark and animalistic anger in her eyes. She moves through the establishment quietly but precisely, claws extended and ready to go. She's come here to kill.

Fire;

The fire that's started spreads with an alarming speed. Laura ignores it as best as she can, moving through the chaos to hack and swipe at anyone that carries themselves like they dare to own another being. Screaming as she leaps and tackles them down, she makes quick work out of hacking off limbs. Instead of straight up murder, her instincts scream at her to make them suffer. The cruelty she was shown growing up has shown her what torture is, and what it can do to someone in a position of power. How it can knock them down enough pegs to make them beg for you to take their life in order to end the pain.

In some twisted way, she knows that Pierce would be proud of her here. The thought makes her sick and panic, and she winds up running away to try and hide. She ends up on the second level in a structure that's quickly burning down. Her skin is being charred by the flames but she heals right away. She still whimpers and cries, attempting to wipe all the blood on her hands off onto her clothes. There's just so much of it that she can't get it all off.

As the floor beneath her feet burns and gives way, Laura crashes through it and lands roughly on the ground level. Smoke inhalation combined with being knocked so roughly on the head make her see stars, and she's a little slow to get back up to her feet.

Capture;

Eventually she's caught by the slavers here, ones who are much larger than she is and who realize her healing ability. With a metal rod through the chest, Laura dangles up in the air, grunting and screaming in pain as she's carried at a far enough distance that she can't reach anyone. Her hands are secured tightly behind her back, and without the option of hacking at the metal through her, she sharply screams as she tries wriggling her way free. It hurts so badly, but she's worked up enough that it's not really registering.

There's still blood on her hands, and she's in a blind rage as she tries to free herself. She has to make it back home.

Jean saw the message on the network. Saw the conversations and videos and knew she couldn't just stand back when Laura was getting involved. She cares about the little girl too much. And, in truth, there's a small part of her that is burning with fury at the thought of children being in such a situation.

If that really is on the other side of the portal, Jean will make damn sure it won't stay that way after she's done with them.

She mentally tails Laura until she goes through the Ingress. Her mental signature is lost but Jean knows where to go from there. Catching up with her, however, is a challenge. Jean opens cages for people and sends guards flying several yards away. By the time she finds Laura, the fire has consumed the building. She can feel Laura's pain and fear.

Jean tries to calm her own fear and closes her eyes, concentrating. After a moment, she opens them and they are glowing as she moves her arms and it's as if the fire and building are peeled away. She pushes the smoke away with it. She keeps going until she can see Laura.

Teeth gritted from the effort, she mentally picks up Laura's form and moves her closer while holding the rubble up.

Edited 2017-05-16 04:36 (UTC)

Laura vaguely realizes that she's being moved, but is still too dazed to know what's really going on. She grunts a little and tries to shift, but Jen's hold on her keeps her safe. As her senses come back to her, Laura realizes that someone's keeping the fire away. Panic rises up in her chest at first, until she lifts her head and sees Jean.

"Let me go," she pleads with her friend, seeing that she's having trouble holding all of the things at once.

If she allows Laura to move, she'll climb up to her feet and run over, letting the fire and debris be Jean's main focus for now. The fact that she even bothered to come here at all impresses Laura. But now that she's here, Laura feels a sense of responsibility for ensuring that Jean stays safe. She's the monster here, she'll take care of her friend.

Through her gritted teeth, "You shouldn't even be here!"

But she lets her go and waits until she'd clear of the rubble before using her powers to push it back as much as she can. She's breathing hard as she turns to Laura, a mixture of relieved, concerned, and kinda pissed off.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" She had hoped Laura wouldn't actually come here.

The only response Jean receives at first is a snarl. She takes a step back and turns away, like she's just going to run off without answering. But she has a great affection for Jean and winds up turning back around. The Laura that she knows isn't here right now, though. In her place is a feral and detached weapon in a little girl's body.

"They will not hurt children anymore."

If Laura had tried, Jean already knows she would've stopped her and make her float in the air. But because she turns back to her and actually talks to her, she sighs heavily, "You can't stop them all on your own, Laura."

"This place is dangerous for you even with your powers and all your strength."

The lecture is cut short, however, with men running at both of them on either side. Jean raises a hand and sends the ones coming up behind Laura flying backward and into covered stalls.

Laura is quick to hop to turn around, and screams in rage as she attempts to charge forward. Her protective instinct is running incredibly high, which has her launching herself toward the man that was just thrown so effortlessly. Claws extended, she hits her target square in the chest. He falls and she goes down with him, screaming each time she stabs at his chest. Over and over she gets him, blood spraying all over her. When life leaves him and he stops gurgling and screaming in pain, Laura jumps off of him and moves on toward the other.

She makes a motion on her way, a signal that she's going to cut his head off. Even if this place is dangerous, they've never dealt with a child like her before. She's got the upper hand for now.

Jean calls out to Laura before she can stop herself but then turns and throws a punch into the air, towards the other men heading towards them. The telekinesis she sends into the punch knocks them down like bowling pins. She then raises both hands and jerks their weapons away from them.

That sends most of them running. The others look behind her and run from the sight of Laura's work. Jean turns to look and she can feel her stomach twist. It's very much like when she first met Logan. Covered in blood and killing everything in his wake, sounding much like a wounded animal.

She's so focused on her that Jean doesn't realize there's anyone else behind her until there's the crack of a whip and it's stinging her neck and jerking her back and to the ground.

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coercive - 2017-05-19 02:05 (UTC) - Expand

He doesn't want to be here. He would have been content to let it all lie, preferring to mind his own affairs in the end. The dead are dead- what is he supposed to do for them now? Vengeance has a price, blood has a price, something he thought he had taught Laura.

Logan is nauseous with fear when he emerges from the Ingress point, the blood pounding in his temples so hard he can't see straight, led on by his ears and nose, the world tinged red.

A man cries out for help, a voice he doesn't recognize. Dismissing that, he sets out for the scents pulling him across the bleak grey and fiery landscape: Sweet hay. Sweat and sunshine. Blood. Adamantium. Laura's screams over the conflagration spur him into a sprint. Any slaver that tries to stop him gets left behind in a pool of their own innards.

He returns her scream as a snarl, harsh and ferocious, a feral rage that pours out as he comes upon the group. Something hits him in the chest, something that should hurt like all hell, that should have staggered him, but he has momentum and adrenaline and a berserker fury on his side.

It's a sick satisfaction he feels when the first slaver, the one who had turned and fired on him, flinches, the look of fear adding weight to Logan's own savage enjoyment. He catches one of the slavers bearing Laura's horrific metal rod in his claws next, the group erupting into pandemonium.

They've taken his child. They're all dead.

Edited 2017-05-16 04:43 (UTC)

The second she hears that snarl, she knows that her father's come for her. Her screams continue as the sound of his killing everyone in his way floods her senses. For a few moments, the pain in her chest can be ignored. She stops struggling and just dangles there on the rod, trying to sniff at the air and determine just where he is. It's easy to tell him apart from the overwhelming scent of blood and burning. She calls out to him once more right before he edges in close, a sound close to a young animal signaling a need for help to its parent. They're both filled with a feral rage, though Logan knows what to do with his far more than she does her own.

When he arrives in close, she screams once again, eager to get in close to him. She resumes her wriggling and attempting to slide her body off of the pole that's run through her. Without use of her hands, it's hard to do, but she's managing. Memories of her father's slow healing fills her mind, and it's concern for saving him that drives her to struggle harder. As one of the slavers holding an end of the rod falls, Laura can feel her body sliding further back. Screaming in pain as it happens, she uses force to try and shuffle her way forward, her feet on the ground now enabling her to move.

The other slaver falls and she's able to stand up with the rod inside her. She's off balance with how long and thick it is, but she shimmies and moves. It starts to slowly pull free. Gritting her teeth, she pulls at the bonds around her arms until they snap. Claws extend and metal is hacked off at both ends, and she pulls the remainder out before tossing it carelessly over her shoulder. Seeing the frightened faces of the slavers as she heals while launching herself forward with a fearsome snarl excites her.

Caught up in bloodlust and the thrill of doing this alongside her father, she attacks at his side. She doesn't stop until there's no targets left. Breathing heavily, she looks very much the picture perfect image of the lost and feral little weapon that he saw when she was first brought into his care. But seeing him calms her, enough that the claws slowly retract.

He's here and he's not, the hot memory of other fights breathing down his neck. Logan moves with a fluid grace that takes him from slaver to slaver with brutal efficiency, fed by his daughter's vicious screams and his own incandescent rage.

Laura joins him not a moment later, a little whirlwind of dark hair and claws and equally feral menace. Soon - too soon, he thinks wildly, aching for more - their enemies are all dead, a loose circle of corpses ringing the pair of them.

Metal glints at his cheek, a souvenir from a blow that's stripped the very muscle from bone. He can't even feel it, not really, more like an itch as the flesh knits, slow and sure. There are other hurts, a collection needing to be catalogued, but for the moment he just stands, catching a shaking breath, coming back to himself from that bloodthirsty high. He's wet up his arms in glittering red and dark ichor, the stink so heavy it makes his gorge rise.

Then he rounds on her:

"What were you thinking? What were you thinking?"

Hair stands on the back of her neck as he turns and yells at her, and her first instinct is to lash out. As much as she wants to please him and make him proud, as much as she loves him, she's a very damaged and traumatized girl that needs a lot of help. On the inside, all she can feel is anger and upset, and she isn't sure why. So she lashes out, making an angry growl as she tries to throw a punch at his chest.

"Because!" She cries, pummeling lightly at him. It's a short lived fit that soon has her pulling away and looking like a wild beast that's about to run off to keep attacking.

"Because they did to children what was done to me! And they should be punished. Like Pierce and Rice, and all the others."

He's helped her here. She doesn't understand why he's angry at her. She vaguely remembers Chara's words over the TAB making her upset as she thought about him, but it feels like a distant memory now. That doesn't matter. The here and the now does, and she's covered in blood from head to toe and is caught up in wanting to spill more. Her instincts have consumed her, and it's hard for her to come back down from this one.

Laura comes at him and he lets her, because she can't hurt him any worse than she already has. Now that he has her back, now that he can focus on everything else, it's betrayal that comes right up to the forefront, scalding him from within and making all those physical pains seem so much less by comparison.

The fires burning on the hill behind him make his shadow stretch long and black across the grey terrain, catching Laura in its wake.

"That fucking psycho kid got you to do their dirty work." He reaches to take her by the arm, his claws an ever-present threat. "Just like Rice wanted, Laura. Did you forget every single fucking thing I told you?"

Logan's so impatient, so incensed he actually shakes her.

She screams at him again as tears fill her eyes. His shaking her does a good job to snap her out of things, and she's filled with a sense of self-loathing as the crushing blow of reality is dealt to her. Her mind thinks of his dying back in the world they came from, thinks of what he told her. She thinks of how close they've become here, about the home they're building together, about the fact she's finally called him Daddy without her being upset.

She can't call him that now, not when he's looking at her like that and shaking her. Struggling against his hold on her, she growls and snarls and tries tearing away. The urge to run and hide fills her, shame and fear of losing him driving her actions.

The men she killed back in their world, she felt no remorse for. Here, right now, with the bodies piled around them? She feels something she doesn't understand. It consumes her and smothers her, and makes her gasp for air as her breathing comes on too quickly for her to keep up with.

Unable to answer his question with words, she shakes her head and goes limp in his hold on her. Her legs give out from under her and she drops to her knees.

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el_paso - 2017-05-16 07:37 (UTC) - Expand

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coercive - 2017-05-16 07:46 (UTC) - Expand

It seems the other child saw fit to arrive after all, a display of commitment they cannot help but admire, albeit from a safe distance. Whatever she is, she cannot possibly simply be human - the way her skin knits together after the sparking blaze chars it black, the way she moves with a reflexive ease, none of that is what Chara would call reminiscent of humans.

Though she looks well enough like one. They're not the sort of person to help someone to their feet, even another child, but Chara can, for the moment, ensure that nothing attacks her while she recovers.

So Laura picks up a shadow in the meantime, a child in a striped shirt with a Knife in hand, scarlet eyes watching her six.

It takes a while for Laura to actually register that she's not alone. She can sense it, of course. But she's so blinded by what she's doing, so into the action of attacking, that blood fills her senses. It's a miracle he doesn't attempt to take a stab at Chara, but Laura sees the other child's size and moves past them the same that she would any of the children she had been raised with. She hacks and slashes and screams, cutting off limbs and heads as she goes.

These are bad men. And bad men will pay for what they've done to innocent children.

Eventually though, the bodies in the area have all fallen. Laura stops, covered in head to toe in blood, and turns her eyes over onto Chara.

"There will be more." It's not a warning. Just a simple statement, a fact. An invitation.

One cannot blame her for that; Chara in particular cannot. Adrenaline, determination - those are all motivators in their own way, intense and inescapable, particularly now. She's stronger than they, fierce and abrupt in dealing out punishment.

A SOUL as yellow as any, if they were qualified to make such judgments.

When she straightens up, she's tacky with other people's blood, sticky with red, and Chara acknowledges the words with a curt nod.

"There always are." Their chin lifts to indicate one of the armed guards approaching, rapidly, a gun of some sort swinging upward to train on the pair of them. Whether it is meant to be lethal or a stun weapon of some sort is beyond them, and they do not care to examine it. Chara peels to one side to attempt to flank him before he can fire a shot off.

Of course Erik's here. There are people here who think it's okay to use children like this, and adults too, although it's the thought of the children that makes the anger rage. Mostly he's here because of the chance to fight something. He feels better when there's a target for the anger and the pain.

It doesn't surprise him when he catches sight of Laura in the distance, not after the conversation they'd had about things being done to children. He still doesn't know many details, but he knows that she had used the word "made" to refer to herself, and he'd used that word in reference to himself in the past. So it can't be good.

He hears her crash through the floor of the building more than he sees it, and he comes hurrying over. He doesn't have any abilities to heal her or anything, but he can at least get her away from the fire. When he speaks, it's in Spanish, in an attempt to be slightly more reassuring.

"Just relax and keep still and I'll get you out of here."

Laura knows that she shouldn't trust Erik. Her father doesn't care for him at all. And while Laura doesn't like the Magneto from the comics, she's come to find that she likes Erik as he is here. He understands her, he talks to her like she's an equal. He lets her sit in his lap while he reads to her, and teaches her new things. She's become very fond of him, and that's the only reason she doesn't snarl at him when he tells her to relax.

"Hurry," she tells him in Spanish, her voice a scream.

She doesn't care for the fire and how it constantly stings her and fills her senses, disorienting her completely. It would be nice if the fire just went away. But since that isn't happening, she waits for the room to stop spinning and hopes he can get her out quickly. Listening to him, she stays still.

This probably isn't going to be pleasant, but it's got to be more pleasant than being caught in the fire. He'll do this as quickly as he can, but while also doing his best not to hurt her any worse than she already is.

He holds his hand out flat, fingers spread, feeling for the metal he knows is contained within her, then lifts her lightly off the ground (but not very far) and draws her away from the fire and back down onto solid ground, out of the flames. She'll be safe now.

He just hopes Logan didn't see that.

Even the fact that he's helping her doesn't change the fact that she's freaked out by his using his powers on her. Her eyes are wide and she grunts a little as he moves her. Logic tells her that this is the easiest way to be brought back up to safety. She can't afford to get emotional right now.

"You came." She can't hide the disbelief and confusion in her voice.

Why is he here? Is it to help her fight, or to retrieve her? She doesn't have long to think about it before several men come charging at them, weapons drawn and ready to strike. Laura screams as she charges forward, hacking off the arm of the one that's holding a blaster. It falls to the ground and Laura slides past it on her knees, so she can slice at another's leg. With a roar she leaps up to tackle down one of the others, and stabs at his chest with her claws so that blood splatters and flies in the air.

This place is on fire, but it doesn't register. She needs to protect Erik.

"Of course I did." He hadn't come over to this place with the thought of making sure anyone made it back, but someone might think it was that. Or maybe she'd just meant that he came into this place to get her, which he had done, once he knew she was there.

The knife he's carrying flashes through the air and ends up deep in a slaver's belly, then flies through the air back to Erik's hand. He doesn't need protecting; he's capable of taking care of himself.

"We should get out of here."

Rey remembers. She remembers the hell she'd been put through the last time she had been on this planet. She remembers the blood on her face and the grit in her teeth every time she'd been knocked to the ground for disobeying the gelatinous alien who had claimed her as their own. It had made her feel so weak, and on Jakku, weakness had meant death. But she hadn't been ready to die, had forced herself to persevere and live.

She knew that not everyone who had been taken to this planet had, and the thought makes her stomach turn in a way it never would have a year ago.

She knows there are people who had listened to that child's words and had taken them too close to heart. It had been stupid of them, of the child, of the people at the Ingress to let the coordinates to the Runoff be found. But Rey can't just sit idly by and let it all happen. Since leaving Jakku, she hasn't been good at that sort of thing, especially not with her Jedi masters whispering in her ear. You have the power to change this. She knows, she knows, but fear of this place sits heavy in her gut. Still, she makes herself travel through the portal, set foot on this damned ground again.

Everything is chaos, everything is screams.

But one scream sticks out above all--a child's, enraged and in pain. Rey forces herself to move towards it, dodging the flames and ducking out of sight when she senses someone approaching. When she finally reaches the group with the girl, she wants to vomit. The child is skewered like a bloggin over a campfire. Horror turns to rage, and Rey doesn't think before rushing forward, lightsaber already drawn and ignited with a hiss. She throws her arm out, sending two of the girl's captors flying without even touching them.

Edited 2017-05-17 05:15 (UTC)

Laura only screams louder when she hears someone else approach. Grunting and trying to wriggle her way forward, she wants to shout out that she doesn't need any help. She can do this herself. But before she has time to start yelling in Spanish, the woman acts. Laura watches in awe as two of the slavers go flying. She goes quiet for a second, and still too. Thinking that Rey must be a mutant like her, she decides that they can finish this off together.

The two that are holding the rod that's run Laura through are stunned too, and she uses that chance to strike. Screaming in pain as she lurches far enough forward to be near one end of the rod, she uses all of her strength to burst the ties around her wrists. Her claws are out in a second, stabbing and slashing through the alien. His end of the rod drops, lowering Laura toward the ground. She hacks off the rod behind her, pulling the remains free as she scrambles up to her feet.

The remaining captors need to be dealt with, and Laura launches into action alongside Rey so she can help strike and kill.

Rey is still rushing forward, giving the lightsaber an experimental twirl before preparing to use it. She hasn't wielded the weapon as anything but a tool in so long, but for some reason, it feels good to have it in her hands again, ready to strike an enemy. It feels right. She sees the girl basically disembowel one of the slavers, and it makes her stomach turn. But there is no other escape, as the alien's companions are drawing weapons of their own. Rey cannot find the focus to grasp the Force and perhaps use it in a nonviolent manner.

If her masters could see her, she wonders what they would say.

Before she can think about it too hard, the saber cuts through a slaver's arm, immediately searing and cauterizing the flesh. The creature screams, aiming its blaster pistol at her--the shot ricochets off the lightsaber's beam, finding a home smoking in a nearby boulder. Rey's elbow smashes into the alien's face, and it drops to her feet.

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If God Was In Hell We Would All Be Dead [OPEN | MINGLE]

Laura | ota

fire

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capture;

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fire it up

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fire

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