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: (red - shadow)

[personal profile] notglitching 2017-07-20 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
There's a hitch of breath, soft and amused. Another step, almost in reach, and Rinzler pauses, head slanting in a familiar tilt of curiosity.

"So desperate for something to take care of."

The harsh, quick edge to the program's voice remains—a natural artifact of Rinzler's speech, perhaps? It blends oddly with the quiet, almost musing tone the words take on.

"Why is that, I wonder?"
warandpeace: (ιт'ѕ мy owɴ reмorѕe.)

[personal profile] warandpeace 2017-07-20 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
That head tilt seemed familiar. Desperate for something to take care of. Was he? Maybe. Kaz had started taking care of people early in life. His mother first, then his father, then his soldiers.

"Does it really matter?"

He had no idea why.

"I'm on his side. It's not a perfect alliance. But I'm on his side. So I'm here, looking for him." And trying to make sure Rinzler's shadow would do something he'd really regret.
notglitching: (red - almost a smile)

[personal profile] notglitching 2017-07-22 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
The program meets his gaze, mouth turned up in the same jagged line.

"It might."

Not perfect. Oh, Rinzler knows how far away this is from that, but it's the possessive term that draws a small headshake. His side. As if he'd had one. As if this user could lay claim.

"I listened, you know." Another step, not forward (not just), but at a tangent.

"To your stories. Your asides, comparisons 'in passing'." The enforcer's face twists with a sneer. "I never cared, of course. But even then, I understood. Your first base. Your unit. Every trap you fell into, every soldier you failed to keep safe."

Another step. Another. Slow circling, and for all that Rinzler's frame is no longer bowed or hunched, it's not hard to read the same control: power, coiled and waiting to be spent.

"So many failures. It must be nice, isn't it? Pretending you're still capable of more."
warandpeace: (I cαɴ ѕee вeнιɴd yoυr eyeѕ)

[personal profile] warandpeace 2017-07-22 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Pretending he's capable of more. Is he wrong? He tries to tell himself he is. But with Ocelot around, he fills his mind slipping back into its old place, its self-destructive place. But there's one advantage to that same thing.

Kaz has heard this. Things got better for a while, aboard the Moira, some while here. But he's heard this every single day for nine years before that.

He just has to go find that hollow place again.

"You didn't understand, then. The point was that when something's destroyed, you can always build something new. That you don't stop until you reach a goal. It might not be the one you started out with, but you just don't stop." The point was also that he'd cared. But that was a subject that didn't feel relevant.
notglitching: (red - shadow)

[personal profile] notglitching 2017-07-24 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Another huff of air. This one might be loud enough to call laughter: if a laugh were a weapon, forged from bitterness and glee.

"That's what I said."

Pretending. Lying. Users are so good at that, aren't they? Especially to themselves.

"You wanted a replacement. A pet project you could fix. And wasn't I just perfect?" Rinzler leans in as he steps behind the user, voice hissing in a mocking lilt. "Violent. Misunderstood. Your own silent killer on a leash, too strong to die and too stupid not to look to you for guidance."
warandpeace: мαde вy мe (Nιɴeтy-ɴιɴe red вαllooɴѕ ɢo вy)

[personal profile] warandpeace 2017-07-25 11:07 am (UTC)(link)
The words stung, mostly because he knows so much about replacements, and draw a frown.

"No." He said it flatly. "He wasn't like anything I wanted to replace." He was like someone he'd have been happy never seeing again. Kaz kept himself swiveled to stay at some sort of safe angle. Kaz had never been good at fixing anyone, either.

He avoided further explanations, saying that he just had wanted a friend. It sounded as pathetic as it felt to think it. He avoided saying that he had been trying to break cycles.

"What do you expect? You lose your home, there's only so long you can stand in the rain before you find a roof to put over your head." He had to figure out where the actual Rinzler was, though. Stop letting his mind get side-tracked by the weight of rejections.