pillz: (Default)
joseph kavinsky ([personal profile] pillz) wrote in [community profile] thisavrou_log2017-07-09 01:05 pm

The Demon Plot: DEATH OF GRINDING MADNESS [July Player Event]

Who: Ensemble production, all individuals who opted in to the plot
When: July 9-21
Where: Two inhabited planets around the Ingress
What: The demon plot kicks off, in which malevolent shadow beings, copies of existing characters, begin to materialize and harass the PCs across the worlds. Plotting post is here, and a network post will go up within the next 2 days from several PCs advising on how to end the plot.
Warnings: Violence, psychological themes, possibly past trauma, etc.


Death of Grinding Madness
The Demon Plot
(mild spoilers for The Raven Cycle)

On July 9, a demon begins to make its way through the Ingress, summoned through by a shitty teenager.


July 9-12
Harrying
It's innocuous in the beginning. A movement in the corner of your eye, a shadow through a curtain-- merely a tree. But then the shadow figures begin to emerge into full being. Black-eyed wraiths that look like enemies, friends with whom you've had past conflict, or even you yourself. At first, it's merely harrying, minor harassment. Threatening gestures, broken gestures, jump scares.

Pursue them, and they disappear-- you might even catch a glimpse of how. They melt down into black slime, racing away across floors, through sewer grates, up walls, impossible to follow. By now, the worst of the climate freeze is over, but residual ice does pose a needles extra obstacle.


July 12-15
The Violence Escalates
In the days that follow, the situation only gets worse.

Sporadic harassment turns into outright attacks. The targeting is unmistakable. The shadow beings who can speak tell cruel tales of animosity, spite, even hatred. They are as deadly with their hands or strange powers as their doppelgangers are, and worse, they're functionally indestructible. Rip off one's head and it merely reforms out of sticky black ink. Limbs regenerate just as easily. The being might dispell for a few hours, but no doubt— it'll be back, if not to hurt you then someone you know.

The Savrii begin to notice. It's hard not to. While there is hardly an epidemic of panic, the disruptions are hard to miss-- broken windows, screams, random violence. Soon, the authorities begin to open safehouse facilities at which characters can seek shelter.


July 15-18
The Golem
On July 17, something horrific begins to happen— several shadow beings merge to form a massive golem in Kauto R1. It is a grotesque, horrifying spectacle, of limbs and eyes and pulsating flesh. It reaches almost sixty feet in height. Combined together, this shadow creature is considerably less intelligent than the individual beings were. However, it is also immensely strong and regenerates just like the smaller ones did.

Within the mall, hundreds of daytime shoppers are trapped within. Luckily, they have food and climate control. Perhaps you're one of them-- or perhaps you're trying to get in to provide medical care.

In the meantime, the attacks from the individual shadow beings don't stop. Despite the intelligence exhibited by some, all of them seem mindlessly bent on tormenting their targets until they are killed.


July 18-21
The Sacrifice
On the 9th day, a network post goes up (link pending, will be OOCly forward-dated to July 10th latest) revealing how to remove the invincibility of the attackers.

And by the 21st, the remaining beings utterly vanish without explanation— unless you happen to bear witness to the events that take place at St. Monmouth.



notglitching: (Default)

[personal profile] notglitching 2017-08-03 01:34 pm (UTC)(link)
"Of course you did."

He didn't even cut her, and she's bleeding. How weak is she? He takes his time, leaning forward. Weight pressing a little more on that throat. Black eyes linger on the pathetic flinching, the desperate efforts to escape—in mind, if not in body.

Still lying, if only to herself.

"You stifled your own voice. You blamed your flaws on those around you. You scorned and judged and spat your petty insults all to fake importance you've never once possessed. You pretended anyone could love you."

He's close enough this time for J to feel the soft breaths of laughter. To taste them in the air. A hot sizzle of ozone layered over another scent: deep wells and dark swamps. Something left to sit for much too long.

"You pretended you were strong."

Pressure flexes, an almost languid stretch as the enforcer's frame draws back. His grip stays in place, closed around the user's throat, pinning it against the ground. And it's now, at last, that Rinzler's other hand comes forward.

The one closed around his disk.

"You lie every moment of every day. But now... hold still." The weapon's edge lights with a soft whir, pulsing brighter and then dimmer in lazy pleasure as its program speaks. "Don't be a coward." A private smirk, a joke between the two of them. She remembers, right? Of course she does.

"After all, I took off my mask."

The disk comes up, curved blade set almost gently against the edge of J's cheek. If she opens her eyes, she'll see the moment that smirk grows. And then, the disk digs in. Slicing. Burning. Clean and sharp and perfect, carving flat across her face.

He'll cut it off. Carefully. And slowly.

"It's only fair that you do, too."
a_shadow: (Say that again)

[personal profile] a_shadow 2017-08-03 01:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Tex sees the scene from far off, sees a black-suited figure attacking another figure, and doesn't hesitate to run forward to intervene. She already knows the score—it's most likely someone's shadow attacking someone that the original person has some kind of beef with. It's not until she gets closer that she realizes it's J who's being attacked. There's still no hesitation in her rushing in to save the victim—but she can't help remembering that night a couple of months ago when J essentially mocked her for being with Daniel. She grits her teeth; J has her own standards for what's proper and right, and what's worthy of derision. Tex doesn't plan to be petty about the incident—but she probably won't stick around when this rescue is finished.

Tex doesn't know about the fight between her shadow and the real Rinzler, so she has no basis for comparison on how difficult this will be. She mounts the shadow from behind, pummeling the side of its neck with her fist. She needs to distract the shadow enough to cause it to let go. Should this work, she'll roll the shadow over, off of J, and start punching it in the face.
notglitching: (red - flip)

[personal profile] notglitching 2017-08-03 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Distance might be in his favor, considering the reach offered by weapons. Still, she attacked him. She grabbed him. He's not letting her escape.

As soon as he touches ground, Rinzler lunges after, dual blades scything in from either side. The target: that melted region in her back. The goal? To dig in, charge up, and slice her frame in half.
cockade: (Programme)

[personal profile] cockade 2017-08-03 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh? I'll do more than that.

[His shadow can't help the grin that spreads across his face. A hand flicks out a throwing knife he's carrying, twirls it once, then puts it back.]

If he's so concerned about losing people, I'll just oblige him instead. A dead friend or two can work wonders, I think.
notglitching: (red - enforcing)

[personal profile] notglitching 2017-08-03 03:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Lights blazing. Disk out. So ready, so eager, but she falls one step short. Black eyes gleam as Rinzler appraises her. His disks are in his own hand, merged and inactive. His dock isn't empty. But without the enforcer's usual bowed hunch, there's no way for her to see.

His smirk cracks wider, opens to speak. The noise made by Clu's pet is nowhere to be heard, but the harsh, cutting tones persist... if not without some value of amusement.

"You have to earn that."
lavelly: (approve missives)

the first one

[personal profile] lavelly 2017-08-03 04:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[This is... different. Lavellan has encountered quite a few of these creatures by now, and they'd all been hostile. Aggressive. Violent.

He hasn't seen her in a while now, and something about her makes a lump of dread settle deep in his stomach. But he hadn't run away from the other shadows, either, and in this, at least, J is the same.

He keeps a healthy distance from her, just the same.]


I don't think so.
lavelly: (my own privy)

and now for something completely different

[personal profile] lavelly 2017-08-03 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[If Arno notices this one before it approaches, it's not on purpose. Arno isn't one of those it's seeking out, after all. Nothing personal. It's just Lavellan doesn't harbor the man much resentment, relatively speaking.

But there's still enough association there for the thing shaped like him to slink up and drape an arm casually across Arno's shoulders like they're old friends.]


What do you know. It's the Orlesian.

[The stress is deliberate. Of course Arno isn't Orlesian. But this thing isn't about giving a shit.]
cockade: (La prochaine fois)

muffled "i'm not ready" in the distance

[personal profile] cockade 2017-08-03 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[Keeping an eye on yourself is probably one of the most aggravating things he's had to do in a long list of things he's had to do over the past four years. He's made his way across rooftops, through streets, followed clues left behind that only his sight would notice, and still hasn't fully apprehended his other. The entire mess leaves him completely blindsided to everything else.

So if he was expecting Lavellan's shadow to come up to him in his efforts to track down his own shadow, he does a poor job at hiding it (spoilers: he wasn't expecting it at all). He freezes upon the arm being linked over his shoulder, head turning to notice the shadow acting as if this is completely normal. He balks just a little before furrowing his brow.]


French, not Orlesian. [He's not sure he likes the tone he's hearing. Was that a jab at him?] Though it's easy to mistake the two.

[Arno, why are you trying to speak reasonably with a shadow, of all things.]
lavelly: (promote synergy)

1 and also hi again

[personal profile] lavelly 2017-08-03 05:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[Lavellan, or something that looks like him, lounges against the side of a building as Sideswipe runs past. Its head is tilted and its eyes are hard to see, so Sideswipe might be forgiven for not realizing what it actually is at first. There's something very out of place about its casual body language, however.]

I don't know. You look pretty "angry" to me.
lavelly: (visit brothels)

[personal profile] lavelly 2017-08-03 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[Lavellan steps back and down, automatically, both under and away from the sword. He's not thinking straight anymore. All he can process is that this is Sideswipe, and he's angry with him.]

What do you want me to do?
lavelly: (get rejected)

[personal profile] lavelly 2017-08-03 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[At the moment, it doesn't seem interested in doing much of anything. In fact, it makes a show of being utterly bored. It shifts from foot to foot, inspects its nails.]

Do I? And after I've put so much effort into slacking off. Really, why do you put up with me?
lavelly: (Default)

[personal profile] lavelly 2017-08-03 05:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[It laughs, or something like it; it lets out a piercing shriek as its grin spreads impossibly wide.

At least it stops moving toward her. But its hands are still outstretched toward her face.]


Have I? What are you going to do? Throw me out?
lavelly: (Default)

[personal profile] lavelly 2017-08-03 05:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[If life is what it wants to see, then that does it. Lavellan can't stop a cry of pain as she forces his broken body to move, or from instinctively struggling--however weakly--as she pins him to the brick.

Physical strength was never his strong suit, anyway. His own decision not to fight her is forgotten as pain whites out his thoughts--all he can manage is to scrape together the impulse to get her off him.

He manages to summon a blast of magic to shove her back. It's pointless; it's all the energy he has left, and it doesn't amount to much at all. But maybe he can get her to lose interest if he struggles.

He should be so lucky.]
notglitching: (red - faceless)

[personal profile] notglitching 2017-08-03 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Rinzler won't be tricked. Rinzler won't let his guard down. Rinzler doesn't have to, when each and every blow slides in beneath it.

He stills at deserve. Stalls at friend. Tension winds tighter and tighter, but he doesn't move at all through the litany of aid. Still, the user's marks brighten, and Rinzler's dim, a ragged fluctuation that builds up in his noise. Sheer shock jerks his mask sideways for one brief fraction: he didn't ask for that. Not for Nihlus to save him, and especially not for him to offer anything to Clu—

But he did ask Nihlus to protect his disk. He asked, and Nihlus kept it, and the user never—not even—

Nihlus attacked him, Nihlus broke him, chopped off his limbs and put him in a cage. That wiped any slate. And Rinzler had to obey Clu; Rinzler belonged to him. Clu took his code back because Nihlus—

Rinzler does know, did know, him more than anyone—

(There was no rescue—)

NO. The first clawed talon closes around his mask, and Rinzler flinches back, a graceless stutter that half-collides with the wall before he slips sideways and retreats a pace. Advantage lost, defensive position weakened, but that doesn't matter but it does, this isn't Nihlus, it's a threat.

LYING.

Glitched. Infected. Again.
gentlemenpreferblondes: (I'd like to share)

[personal profile] gentlemenpreferblondes 2017-08-03 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
My, my. [Oh? No, no, no. Distance will not do. Whistling cheerfully the creature wearing J's face skips towards Lavellan closing the gap between them, movement fluid and fast. Her hands shoot out and grab to cling on his arm.]

Never seen you object to little kiss before, love. [The shadow chirps and stands on her tip-toes, looking for skin with her lips.]

Please, give some validation for this poor little body.
a_shadow: (Default)

[personal profile] a_shadow 2017-08-03 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
His strike is true, leading to the shadow contorting wildly to try to get away. Instead, it melts into a heap of black goo, moves a small distance away, and starts to reform.
patchricide: (38)

thought I replied to this! whoops.

[personal profile] patchricide 2017-08-04 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
The ground you've covered. In case you don't find him soon, I can start plotting out the next best route to check. It would be far easier if I had the ship's mapping system, but I should be able to make a good guess, at least.

[And that way, Pidge can focus on the search itself.]

[It's actually a reasonably good map that she's drawing, considering the medium. Not enough to get into the cartography business, but all the streets seem to be going at the right angles, at least.]
beautifulspaceraptor: (...)

MORE PAIN ROUND 3001

[personal profile] beautifulspaceraptor 2017-08-04 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
[ He finally makes it.

It took days to shake off the shadows completely. The few hours he'd managed before, Nihlus had taken to go to his own condo. Grabbed his armor, grabbed his guns and an extra hand, grabbed some supplies- and then he was out again, getting chased down again. Being hunted again.

He looks like shit. A lot of his hardsuit was scorched to the point where the red Hierarchy Spec Ops markings were completely gone. New nicks and dings, hairline cracks in his visor. There's a whole chunk missing from his cowl plating where an omni-blade had cut a neat line through- along with a good bit of his actual cowl.

He's worn down to the bone. He's limping from a bullet wound in his left thigh.

The EN-Line up had been empty. Most of the population had been moved to safe houses by then. It'd been just Nihlus backed into a corner seat, doing the quickest bit of maintenance he could afford to do on his rifle.

Nothing happens. The lack of attack was oddly surreal.

Most of the Complex itself was empty too, asides from the stray security and a few other fighters.

Shepard's office is where he checks first. Finds the smears of black goo, the remnants of a fight. Acid marks.

And now.

Now...

Nihlus stands, frozen in the entrance to his lover's apartment, feeling his breath catch, heart sink.

She's still alive, a stubborn, logical part of him says. She's still out there. But he'd exhausted every reserve of optimism just enduring and surviving and it's too much to fight the despair at the moment.

It's energy he needs to keep his guard up.

There's a sound in gloom. The creak of hinges, someone moving around in the bedroom.

Limping further, as quietly as he could, into the living area, he raises his pistol and presses up against the side of the door frame. Another breath and he very, very carefully peers around the corner-

The sight of the pistol and flash of red hair was more than enough. He disappears back around the corner with a sharp curse and nearly makes a break for it again when-

She speaks.

He freezes, back still pressed against the wall, heart hammering in panic. Okay. The shadow hadn't spoken to him at all and the shadow always immediately tried murdering him on the spot. Neither of those things were happening right now.

How does he know for sure, though?

Shepard gets no reply.

But she does get a proximity ping on her omni-tool. ]
beautifulspaceraptor: (Shadow!)

[personal profile] beautifulspaceraptor 2017-08-04 04:21 am (UTC)(link)
"Am I?"

Whatever gap Rinzler might've eked out stumbling back is quickly closed again, the shadow following, pressing the advantage, trying to corner now. Trying to trap.

"You saw."

Nihlus' mechanical arm splits, splinters. Shards of metal sprout through and shred the sleeve of his tunic, blue-lined cables spilling out of the cracks and black fluids dripping, leaving a trail on the floor where it trickled off of his claws.

"You saw."

There's a fissure in his throat that grows and grows until the now eyeless skull hovers, disconnected, the gap set perfectly over the line Rinzler had carved, severing his head in the dream.

"I never had to lie to you, you're doing a fine job pulling that off yourself."
notglitching: (red - watching)

[personal profile] notglitching 2017-08-04 07:07 am (UTC)(link)
"Not even when you cut off my legs?"

The words are calm. Conversational. Obscenely so, for a topic neither of them has breached since the event. Not so directly. Not in as many words. Rinzler meets the user's gaze with no flinch or anger in the slightest. Just a raised eyebrow. An easy shrug.

"You had to know I wouldn't have been useful."

Not without his limbs. Not leashed to Clu's rules. And not free to follow his own will.

But that goes without saying.

The program's stare drifts toward the suggested route before his head ducks slightly: courtesy, not submission. Of course. He takes a half-step toward the tunnels, action following assent. They wouldn't want Nihlus to be uncomfortable.
redshitlord: (More than we can win)

[personal profile] redshitlord 2017-08-04 07:09 am (UTC)(link)
[WELLP.]

[The problem with being built like a noodle, while it means he's capable of incredible speed, also means if something hits him too hard, he's down. Like now.]

[Hitting the pavement and skidding hard across it. Bullets and all, right into a storefront. Laying in a daze amid the dust and falling debris.]
redshitlord: (another kind of guest)

[personal profile] redshitlord 2017-08-04 07:10 am (UTC)(link)
Stay with me.

[As one long arm reaches down. Fingers moving to try and enclose Lavellan in its grip. Probably with crushing strength.]

[Sideswipe isn't strong, by Autobot standards. But by organic standards, he might as well be the Hulk.]
redshitlord: (It's getting close to sundown)

hello again

[personal profile] redshitlord 2017-08-04 07:12 am (UTC)(link)
[He skids hard to a stop, his feet actually pedaling in the air for a few steps before he slows enough to look again. Oh! Great!]

[Sort of.]


... yeah that's hilarious -- have you seen me or not?
shiro2hero: (all right i'll stop and ask directions)

[personal profile] shiro2hero 2017-08-04 07:45 am (UTC)(link)
"Sure -- back door's open."

Like it always is, while he's on the clock. He's pretty confident in dealing with anyone who wanted to try anything funny, at least. So no worries about leaving a door unlocked.

And it really had been freezing out. This is probably fine.

Probably.

All the same, he doesn't offer the passenger seat up front. Either out of habit or their last talk still bouncing around in his head.
beautifulspaceraptor: (bring it)

[personal profile] beautifulspaceraptor 2017-08-04 08:38 am (UTC)(link)
The agreement comes as a welcome surprise, even if it accompanied the feeling that he's about to be lead into a potential trap. Nihlus takes it up anyways, carefully putting some distance between them and the stray civilian.

What Rinzler says draws him to a slow stop at the bottom of the stairwell however. He casts the Program a sideways stare, mandibles clamped against his jaw and expression carefully neutral.

It still comes back to him. He fights it, but it comes back. The stray scent of ozone against the back of his tongue, the crinkle of voxels, Rinzler-

Nihlus takes in a slow shaken breath, letting his claws dig in hard enough to cut into his palm, lets the pain ground him, knuckles white.

"Not even then," he manages, barely managing to push the words out beyond a strained whisper. Swallowing the hard knot in his throat, Nihlus turns a crooked smile on the program.

"You're not useful. You're a pain in the ass and even the Monolith knew that. I only hang around you because I think you're cool."

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