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

Obviously, the answer here was "no, she's not." Kaz took a step back, a quick movement back.

The sad thing is that he believed that he probably would let her down. Were that voice, he'd not deny it.

"Not sure Mei would really want that," he said despite himself. These things had all the memories of their originals. He knew that there had to be some bitterness there. Kaz, for once, was glad that he'd always openly expressed his.

"Where is she? Is she alright?"

"Oh, she's around somewhere with her dumb little freeze blaster, trying to stop me. But I always come back." The shadow smiles in a way that's very different to Mei's usual expression. There's an undercurrent of smugness there, because the shadow knows she can't be defeated. Mei can't kill her or hide her away behind a locked door and pretend she's a good little girl who never gets angry with anyone. Mei had told Jack she forgave him for everything; that she understood how the position he was in meant he hadn't remembered her. How pathetic. Mei just lets people walk all over her and thinks they're her friends. Well, it's up to the shadow to do what Mei can't.

"Better stay out of my way," she adds, her voice almost amused as she turns away.

"What's she trying to stop you from doing?"

Hurting people seems like too obvious an answer. And if Dorian's shadow taught him anything- hell, if the 'villains' he'd encountered taught him anything -it's that there was a valuable amount of pontificating that came with damaging ambitions.

This time, though, if she came after him, he wouldn't hold back like he did before.

"What needs to be done. She's too meek to make them pay for abandoning her, but I'm not." So if Mei won't step up and do anything about it, her shadow will. Her shadow feels all the pain and loss that Mei does, but amplified to an extreme degree. Mei still hurts, but she doesn't want to lash out at others because of it. The shadow does.

"They shouldn't have abandoned her, no, but there was a war. Pharrah told me about it. They had to survive."

He didn't know the full story. He knew that the original Overwatch crew had, apparently, made a ton of mistakes and hurt a lot of people (this is the end of the story that he's heard). But he also knew that from what he did here, things were pretty complicated. Mothers, fathers, daughters were being split up.

"Look, I'm sorry they couldn't get to her, but she doesn't let them off the hook because she's meek."

At least, he didn't think she did.

The shadow scoffs. "There was a war that humans won. And a few battles after. But, no, Overwatch outstayed its usefulness and was shut down. And instead of recalling all their agents out in the field, they forgot about them." Overwatch's end was swift, set in motion by the explosion at headquarters that supposedly killed their leader. Messages were sent out to all agents on their computers or other devices, but that didn't work for the team at the bottom of the world, locked in cryo tubes with a broken signal tower, waiting for someone to notice they were no longer in touch with HQ. No one waited for confirmation that the Ecopoint: Antarctica team had gotten the message and were flying back to civilization.

"Doesn't she? She forgave Jack. The man who could have saved her if he wasn't busy hiding like a coward. But I'll find him. I'll show him that Mei should punish him."

Kaz realized fully that he wasn't going to reach the shadow self. He very well knew that. But what he could do, at least, was play distraction until Mei could show up and deal with her herself.

He tucked his hands into both pockets as if to further shield them from the cold and managed to open a voice channel to Mei. Then held it, hand thoroughly muffling the speaker but microphone end left uncovered.

"Do you know that for sure? That they forgot, or could they have mistakenly assumed that everyone managed to get out of the field?"

"They forgot!" She sounds sure enough of that. "They didn't value us at all! They should have looked into it! Should have come for us! They're all to blame. Every last one who knew we were trapped down there." And when she finds all the ones here who knew, she's going to make them feel the pain she felt. Hers was lodged in her heart, but she'll rip them limb from limb. Pain is pain, after all.

The real Mei is a few streets away, scrolling through her TAB to find a way to read where Kaz is based on his signal. She's heard her shadow say such things already and she hates that it's coming out in her own voice. She hates that her sorrow has been twisted into anger and revenge. Mei would never do this. Not if Jack Morrison was dangling off a cliff and all she had to do was watch. He'd been betrayed and hurt, and was trying to survive long enough to find out who had destroyed Overwatch. She'd forgiven him, but this shadow is something wicked and wrong, and it can never be reasoned with.

Not knowing the speaker is covered, she stays silent, but starts jogging over to where her shadow is. Hopefully it doesn't find a reason to turn on her friend.

It was actually a little bit funny how many of these shadows were constructed of anger and revenge. But that's what Kaz has been made of for ten years. A shadow of a happy, smiling and sunny soul who walked sandy beaches and loved sunsets. These shadows are him.

But these shadows aren't their originals. Mei especially, since she's been nothing but pleasant.

"I'm sorry. Someone should have come for you. Someone should have waited for you. But no one was probably expecting to have a war. Losing everything sorta takes some of your concentration."

Come to think of it, how many of the soldiers lost to the sea have people waiting on them?

"You're not sorry! You don't care! No one cares about naive little Mei, or they would have remembered she existed!" The shadow doesn't want sympathy. She wants revenge. And it's only now after several minutes of talking that she realizes Kazuhira is distracting her from her goal of finding Jack and the others. With a growl of frustration, she points an angry finger at him.

"Stop it! Stop talking! It's not you I need to confront."

This was such a strange argument to make. He'd been so angry at Big Boss for so long for what he did to him; even if they'd made peace in a way, finding out truths about each other aboard the ship, often he still is. Just the idea of being abandoned to die by anyone is depressing, demeaning.

He can see now that, at least, there had to be something more weighty there that he didn't see before.

"You don't need to confront anyone! If you really feel that you didn't matter to them, then they shouldn't matter to you." So he said. So he said. Kaz has been a little good at hypocrisy. But he also held Mei to a better standard than he did himself.

It's honestly a good argument, but it only works to rile up the shadow even more. She's consumed with the need for revenge. She can't quit now and let them all off the hook. Mei was forgettable to them. Well, she's going to make sure her face is the last thing they all see!

"So they can walk free continuing to forget me? NO! They'll pay! And so will you!" The shadow flings herself forward, wrapping her hands around his neck and squeezing. She may be Mei's short stature, but her strength is far beyond that of the tiny climatologist. Kaz isn't one of those who abandoned her, but he's against her. He's trying to stop what needs to be done, so the shadow will get him out of her way. What's one more body in the quest for revenge? Sometimes you have to scorch the earth to reach your target. Sometimes you have to cut a bloody path through. He's just collateral damage.

Why is it always with the choking?

Kaz hurks as the hands go around his neck and he reaches up to grip at the space between finger and thumbs, leaving grooves of red on his own neck where he has to jam his grip in. "Let go!" He chokes out through gritting teeth, and hopes that either someone interferes but it seems unlikely. There's actually a Savrii bystander who wandered out that's now running away.

Here's hoping that the real Mei actually got his message or this is going to be real difficult to deal with. He does manage a sharp kick on her kneecap though, the sort that comes with defense training rather than a clumsy jab of foot.

OOC:I'm used to writing in past tense for third person and am trying to switch to present tense with my threads. So that's why I'm shifting mid-thread.

The shadow cries out in pain as he kicks her kneecap and the action causes her to briefly let go. Her black eyes narrow in anger. It doesn't matter what he does; she'll keep coming back stronger. But before she can attack again, a pointy icicle flies into her side at high velocity and she's pitched to one side.

"Stay away from him!" Mei shouts, her endothermic blaster held up and ready to fire again. The shadow growls, gripping at the icicle.

"I already told you: that doesn't work!" She tries to yank the icicle out, and the pause gives Mei the opening to fire a second shot straight into her shadow's face. The latter pitches backwards, black ooze escaping the wound before her whole body dissolves into the stuff on the ground. Mei rushes over to Kaz and grabs his hand in her free one. She looks out of breath and her hairpin has slipped down from running, but she's got a look of determination on her face.

"How fast can you move?" she asks. "We have to go before she reforms."

[ ooc: that's okay! i tend to always mess up if i switch off of present tense, so i know to give leeway when trying new things! ]

He gasps to catch his breath, staggering back away from the thing that looks like Mei and is glad for the rescue scenario played out by the real one. His hero, huh?

"Come on!"

He takes off with her, still holding onto her hand as he runs.

"It's going after the other Overwatch members?" he asks out loud, just to confirm, concern evident in his voice. "She's blaming them!" For what, he supposes, will be obvious.

OOC: I'd always kept my prose to past tense because I used to write fics and I wanted to keep everything in past, but I've not written a fic in a while so...

Mei nods, holding on tight. There's a worry in the back of her head that her shadow will slither along the ground after them and grab Kaz if she doesn't keep a tight grip on his hand.

"Yes! It's not-- I mean, I don't feel that way! I just get sad sometimes. But she's a twisted version of me." There are so many facets to Mei, and it's the hollowness left behind in her heart from that sad event that has manifested itself as this creature. But instead of being her sadness amplified, it's resentment, loneliness, and anger.

"I can't freeze her," she goes on to explain, "But the icicles work. Well, for a little while. We'll go some place safe and then I'll go out again. I heard that one way to stop them is to explain to someone why they're doing this." Mei casts a worried look at him. "But it won't work with you. I've already told you everything. I need to find someone new."

"Funny how you managed to open up to me too soon, huh?" He jokes dryly. Kaz's true self isn't that different. Or at least, it wasn't that different. He needed an apology and an explanation to attempt peace again.

"Come on. Let's get out of the way so we can think of something."

He pulls her hand and takes her off to the side, around an old building (it looks like it was probably once some sort of bakery but has long since closed), crouches, and starts picking open a padlock locked back door.

It doesn't take him long; he probably could be a thief at the rate he handles that. He opens up the door and lets her dust kicking up off of plastic tubs and various boxes of items that were left behind by the former owners. Once they're in, he pins the door with a few of those boxes. He knows Mei probably wants to get out there and stop that thing, but he's pretty sure she should come up with a battle strategy first.

"Who would be best to talk to?"

"Never thought it would end up being a bad thing." She's frowning to herself, but pays attention as he manages to break into the back of the building with what seems like practiced ease. She does worry he might be keeping her in when she told him she has to go, but then she sees he just wants them to take a moment to think.

"Anyone, really. You're the only one other than those who were in Overwatch who know. I'm willing to grab someone I see out on the sidewalk and tell them as quickly as possible."

"Maybe it's not just telling them what happened. Maybe you should think about why you don't like talking about it, and that's a big part of what you need to say. There's something about it that makes you feel wrong, even if you know it's not your fault and it's not their fault."

He looks through a box to see what's inside. Nothing useful for them. Not in the next one either. Except a panda oven mitt. He actually looks at that, and puts it in his pocket because it deserves a good home.

Then he rubs his throat where there are red marks that match the shape of her fingers. "So the icicles let you take her down briefly?"

Mei considers that carefully, unsure if she really even knows why. It's just been better not to talk about it. Watching him, she notices the marks and realizes that she didn't get there soon enough to prevent them. It makes her stomach turn.

"Yes. The freeze part doesn't affect her." She briefly demonstrates, turning the gun away to shoot out a short blast of ice particles. "But the icicle is like any sharp projectile." Even as she speaks, she sounds distracted, still thinking over what he's suggested.

"I think... I think I don't talk about it because it hurts and it makes me feel helpless. I like taking care of myself and helping others too. And back there in that place, I couldn't do anything but wait."

"I..."

His heart goes out to her. What else could she do except accept the one fate that gave her an opportunity to survive and weather a disaster, no matter how slim that opportunity was. His pause is palpable, he knows. It's hard to find the right words.

Even Venom Snake spent his last moments as his own man saving someone. All Mei could do was sleep.

"It's not your fault. None of it is. Is there any part of you that thinks maybe after all your years of helping people and making the world a better place, that it would have been nice if someone helped you?"

Mei is generally a better person than Kaz, but he knows he would have felt that way. Scraped barren and then left with no back-up.

Looking down at her feet, Mei frowns. It's not in her nature to expect others to take care of her. One lives with dignity and honor through adversity. And yet... isn't it human nature to be a little selfish sometimes? What matters is how you approach it, and Mei doesn't act like she's owed anything just because she's been a good person.

"I guess... a small part thinks it would have been nice. But to expect that sort of care all the time isn't me. It's dishonorable to live your life demanding things of others. I wouldn't do that."

"But you weren't looking for recognition or thanks. You were looking for help from people you depended on. It was their duty to help you, and you know that.

"Not that I'm saying that you're wrong in being understanding of their situation. But you have to know that, deep down. You performed your duty, but they were unable to follow through with theirs." And this isn't a case like John, where he just decided to leave for his New Country. He knows this.

"They had a good reason, that part I'm sure you realize now. How do you feel about depending on people now?" He asks genuinely because he knows if it were him, even at his most optimistic, he'd be in the mindset that he'd want to take care of his own damn self.

This type of talk is awkward for Mei. She isn't used to people really focusing on her for very long. Then again, she does tend to try and draw conversation away from herself, or at least from the deepest parts of herself. She'll talk about work, her favorite foods, where she likes to shop: simple things like that. Delving deep into her feelings isn't something she really does, and a part of her wants to shrink away from it; to say she can't speak of it, or she doesn't know what she's feeling. But Kaz isn't doing this to be nosy. He's doing this because he cares, and this might be the way to get her shadow to disperse. She draws in a deep breath, trying to clear her fuzzy head. Too many thoughts are swirling around as she battles with whether or not she can discuss this.

In the end, she knows she has to. She can't let that shadow with her body and voice hurt others, especially those she considers her friends.

"It's... it's hard. I'm--" Mei hugs her arms around herself self-consciously. "I'm afraid to. What if I trust someone to help me and they let me down?"

Kaz sits on a box beside of her and tugs off his gloves by the fingertips. Then he tugs her down and gently puts his arm around her. His right arm, the phantom fingers resting around her upper arm and he gives her a squeeze against his side. She sounds like she needs it.

He doesn't think he has it in him to convince her to trust again. That seems unfair (a decision that she'd have to come to on her own). Kaz's own feelings remain complicated, like knowing that Venom Snake saved him but he can't be sure he'd try to live for him yet. You don't have to dislike someone to lose some trust in them.

"I don't know." Is the answer, heavy with truth that he really dislikes. "Do you worry how they'd feel if they knew you felt that way? Like holding back on your part might make it easier on them?"

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

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