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

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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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

1) SIDESWIPE SHENANIGANS; OTA
Did I just go through here?

[Says the bright red, giant robot jerking to a stop in the middle of the roadway. And yelling across to whoever might be passing by. He looks more harried than usual. And someone took the time to doodle "angry eyebrows" on his face.]

Not like me but... angry me? Freaky optics? Probably drawing really ugly things on the buildings?

2) SHADOW SHENANIGANS; OTA
[... it's definitely drawing on buildings. Scrawling things in Cybertronian that are probably dirty words, or slurs, or worse: SIDESWIPE WAS HERE. How it found a spray can in robot size is a mystery. But it's happening.]

[Alternately, maybe you catch sight of a bright red sportscar drag racing innocent drivers. It won't slow down for anything. Not even for a pedestrian.]

[Or a store front. Property damage is also included on the shadow's To Do List. If it's petty crime, the shadow is doing it.]

3) CLOSED FOR LAVELLAN
[... for a while, anyway.]

[At some point or another, the shadow will spy an elven figure. One it distinctly hates. A very great deal. One who last spoke angrily to them. Who didn't understand. Refused to understand.]

[The engine revs.]

[No matter where he's standing, there will be a sportscar charging straight for Lavellan. Headlights turned up to blinding.]

4) wildcard! Choose your own adventure!

[Cars are one of the concepts that Lavellan has had the most difficulty adjusting to. There's so much about how they work that he can't even begin to understand, and just when he thinks he has a handle on them hey do something else bizarre, like make loud noises or turn into golems.

One thing, especially, that he's never quite comprehended is the speed. Nothing in Thedas moves anywhere near as fast as cars can. It makes him slow to react.

And with the headlights that bright, so he can't even tell what's coming for him? It makes him even slower. It's pure instinct that makes him throw up a barrier right before impact; it means he doesn't die, or even break anything, but it does send him flying. And then rolling.

And then he's stunned for several moments afterward.]

[The car swerves as Lavellan goes flying. Spinning in a complete circle. Engine revving hard. After a moment, a simple moment, its tires squeal loudly against the pavement, throwing up smoke.]

[That's all the warning there is before it rockets forward again. Intending to run down the stunned elf. Run him down, and back up over him again. And again and again.]

[He deserves it. Doesn't he? All of them do.]

[Lavellan recovers just quickly enough to roll out of the way; he just barely staggers to his feet when the car comes around for a third time. By now he's had enough time to recognize the shape and color.

With all the strange things that had happened recently--strange, malevolent copies of the people he knows appearing from nowhere--there's only one person this could be.

He holds his bruised torso and stays in a crouch, ready to dive to the side even as he tries to shout the robot down.]

Sideswipe! Enough!

[And he brings his staff to bear. Just in case.]

["Just in case" might be the case. Actually. Because the car shows absolutely no signs of slowing. If anything, it picks up speed as Lavellan seems to realize who this shadow is meant to be.]

[Flashing its headlights more brightly than before. In an effort to blind Lavellan again.]

[It's going to do what Sideswipe would never, could never do.]

[It's still coming, and there's no point to getting out of the way. If he does, Sideswipe will just keep coming back around. If Lavellan's going to get out of this alive, he needs to take him out.

He swears under his breath, and then apologizes to Sideswipe with the next. Even if this isn't really Sideswipe, the meaning isn't lost on him.

He waits until Sideswipe gets as close as Lavellan can allow and still have enough time to react. Then he pushes forward the strongest, hopefully non-lethal burst of magic he can muster. He doesn't want to hurt even this mockery of Sideswipe any more than he has to, so he hopes it's enough to knock the robot unconscious until Lavellan can get away.]

[It clearly wasn't expecting that. Not even a little. Sideswipe has never really seen Lavellan use his magic before, so it's no surprise his shadow doesn't know. That lack of expectation, combined with the Autobot's lightweight build is a bad combination.]

[The car flips.]

[Flips and rolls like something out of an action movie. Skidding across the road until it smashes into a nearby building. Dust balloons outwards. But, for a moment, nothing stirs.]

[Then it comes charging out in robot form. Swinging a sword at the elf.]

[Lavellan bites out another curse as he only barely manages to summon his own sword in time, the impact nearly sending him to his knees. He'd never used the thing for dueling, and he knows he has no chance in defending himself for very long his way. He needs to get the advantage now.

His only consolation is that this isn't really Sideswipe. That this isn't really Sideswipe he would be hurting. It's very little comfort. Still, he uses his own stumble to get some distance between them, and uses the opportunity to drive his sword at the place where Sideswipe's ribs might be, were he flesh and blood.

Part of him hopes that this not-Sideswipe will see through it and kill him, so that he won't have to do this. The other part of him tells himself that's the coward's way out. He still has work to do before he can lie down and die.]

[It probably doesn't help that when Lavellan hits, the shadow screams. It's doubtful the poor guy has ever actually heard the Autobot scream, but still, it's there, and it sounds real enough. Black ooze spilling from the wound in place of the normal, glowing fluid it would be otherwise.]

[It rolls away from him. Looking for all the word as if it's sobbing. The shadows are nothing if not good actors.]

What are you doing!

Are you trying to get rid of me again?

Sideswipe | open & closed

guess which

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1

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1 and also hi again

hello again

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