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

[pillz]

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.

Comments

closed to j;

[pillz]

Nine days since the first alerts began to come out, reports of strange, black-eyed clones across the worlds. As if the shutdown of the Ingress and the catastrophic freeze that followed had not been bad enough. Of course there's something else. There's always something else.

But J hasn't met her own copy. Likely, she'd begun to suspect she didn't have one. By now, that's known to occur— some people just don't. It hasn't stopped other shadow beings from attacking them, it confers no protection at all from the fear and confusion about what the Hell is going on. However, at least she hasn't had to deal with anybody wearing her face. At least, until she wakes up on July 12th, climbs out of bed, and finds a woman in her bathroom.

She's in the bathtub. Her blond curls damp plastered against the white ceramic. Bubble bath filled up high enough to cover her chest, and slender toes perched on the rim. Only her eyes are wrong, black as ink, no whites.

"Look at us," she says. "Productive citizens of Hell and Hell. Good morning."

[gentlemenpreferblondes]

Just when you thought you had seen and lived through all the nightmares and terrible shit that there is something just needs to happen and prove you wrong. Knock the wood, be careful what you wish for and so on because it's dangerous world outside of New York.

Although, she has to admit that this time it's something new. Ssh. These.. fake people, clones, demons or whatsoever were real this time instead of product of her mind. They weren't some kind of nightmares or visions that she had experienced before. They were breathing and alive, ready to hunt anyone down. Luckily they were easy to tell apart from the real ones, though that still didn't mean there wasn't any paranoia.

And speaking of paranoia, lack of her own copy sure did grow her nervousness about the situation. Granted, J hadn't exactly gone out to seek it either but as far she could tell no one else had to? So just where was her copy? And just what it was doing? If there even was one. It's like walking on her toes all the time, fearing what will happen next.

But just as her nerves are starting to calm down and she's learning to live with the uncertainty, adapting it to her everyday life, things change again and she finds her own clone taking a bath apparently. It's a freaky sight, one that makes her wonder what's real and what's dream. Someone pinch her.

"Well. Fuck." She breathes the curse out. "That soap is freaking expensive."

tw rape

[pillz]

Well to pinch her, J would have to come all the way over here to the tub. The shadow being definitely isn't getting up anytime. She levels a stare on the real woman for a long moment, chin lowering. And then her mouth tucks into a sneer. She glances away— which J can only tell because she moves her whole head. Pupilless black eyes make tracking a girl's line of sight pretty difficult.

"So like a rape victim," she says. "There's a monster in your bathtub, who might be violent, but you're going to comment on the soap."

There's a muted squeak of skin against ceramic as the shadow being slides down slightly in the water. The foam reaches up to her chin, daubs it slightly with the shimmer of silvery-iridescent bubbles. There's something rather sulky about it. "If you're going to run away from problems some more, you should make sure your feet are dry. Between the two of us, only one is going to have a bad day if she falls and breaks her head open on the tile." She tips her head back on the tub wall. A muted, blonde-curled thud.

[gentlemenpreferblondes]

The comment makes J balk. It's not as much as the accusation but the comparison-- or insult, that makes her nearly flinch. Victim. That's the word that makes her frown and breath harden both from uneasiness and infuriate like she had just been met with the greatest offense. Normally she probably wouldn't react this badly, despite disapproving with the word, but it's different hearing it from mouth of someone who looks exactly like you and spoke with your voice.

But like always, she masks the irritation into something else. J crosses her arms around her chest, leaning on the door frame and staring her copy with harsh eyes. "My only problem right now," she starts, voice low and full of annoyance. "Is this bitch in my bathroom that tries to look like me and uses my things. So fuck off."

[pillz]

"Well this bitch isn't getting out of this bathtub," comes the curt reply. The shadow clone sits up, suds dripping off her chest-- flat too, no editing performed by Kavinsky's subconscious— and she slides over to the foot of the tub, her tush rubbing the ceramic audibly underwater. She opens the drain at the bottom of the tub just for a moment, her soapy hands moving steadily over the metal parts. Then she turns on the faucet again, adding a few cups of deliriously hot water. Just in case J was thinking she was going to be able to-- chill her out of here.

"But if you're staying, I'd appreciate it if you'd do your business in another bathroom." She waves one bubble-covered hand at the doorway, where presumably she is aware there are zero other bathrooms available. The passive aggression has no defined limits, apparently; the shadow attacks have truly taken their toll on the lives of those who had come through the Ingress. Not even conveniences of hygiene are immune.

[gentlemenpreferblondes]

Lips pressed into a thin stressed line she watches her copy slide inside the bathtub, soaking and enjoying the warm and soothing water. It's uneasy thing to watch and even though the thing is right that soap isn't the important thing here, seeing it go waste like this makes her anger raise. And anger is easier and more comfortable thing to latch onto rather than the fear. It helps her to keep the situation under control.

Arms crossed over her chest, she taps her finger rapidly against her elbow before approaching the creature with caution. "Then, for god's sake," she growls while attempting to keep the signals of a threat in her posture: "What does the bitch want here? I'd say you're pretty pathetic attempt for a copy."

[pillz]

"A bath and a place to sleep that isn't run over with screaming mutant teenagers," dark J retorts. Referring to the X mansion, which had admittedly had better bathrooms and places to sleep, but there had been teenagers, even if they certainly hadn't been 'screaming' on the regular.

"Mostly, I'm here to tell you about the end of the world, and how people can stop it.

"Or not." Dark J reclines slightly further in the tub. Foamy water coming up to her chin. She regards the other woman in cold silence for just a fraction of a moment. "There's a demon coming. It's going to try to kill the world. All of it. The shadow beings are just the first step." Her fingers emerge from the water. She peers at her nails.

[gentlemenpreferblondes]

The mention of the mansion makes her expression shift a little. The sternness ceases and is replaced with a question. It's been a while since she's lived in that place in rage or had anything to do with the other residents over there. What's the point in bringing it up again..

But what makes her drop the defense completely and ignore the irritation of seeing her expensive products to go waste is the what the clone says next. "A demon?" She repeats, disbelief almost dripping from her tone. "What? Some kind of apocalypse bullshit? Should I prepare for final fucking judgement?"

[pillz]

The other J is silent for a moment. Thinking about that question and the right answer. "Maybe," she says. Plink! Her hand dips back into the water, the surface rippling bubbly against her exposed knees. "I wouldn't worry about the... accuracy of the judgment. Demons don't really care about your virtues, if you have any. It's just here to kill it. And there's no chance of going back home, if we're going to be honest about secretly hoping you could."

She straightens slightly, her narrow back squeaking against the tub. "This doesn't have anything to do with religion. Would you do anything different if it did?"