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

Re: July 18 / Closed to Tony Stark and Washington

[notyourrookie]

This is one of the ways he'd thought he would die. Tex has been tied to death for him for a while. Hard not to be when he remembers Allison, remembers her death and everything that came from it, when he remembers York bleeding on the training room floor, and Connie... That post on the network had pissed him off. He knows it isn't entirely justified, but he doesn't care anymore. He hasn't much cased about anything in a while.

He remembers fighting Tex in the snow, and the sudden appearance of the shadow throws him back there hard enough that he expects to feel the chill. It throws him off guard, leaves him open.

[a_shadow]

And the shadow takes that opening, barreling right through him, punching him right in the jaw and, it hopes, throwing him completely off balance. The impact is loud, armor against armor, and the shadow is ready to turn and continue to attack as soon as the punch follow-through is completed.

[arcreact]

On an ordinary day, Tony might not automatically assume malicious intentions in two armored people beating each other up. This place sees weirder things, pretty much on a daily basis. But right now - pretty much everything and everyone is suspicious. His own encounters thus far are proof enough of that.

Chronic hero syndrome is probably what compels him to interfere.

He sends a concussive blast at the armored figure he's reasonably sure is Tex - or some nasty shadow copy of Tex, at any rate - in the hopes that it will at least knock her off the other guy long enough for him to regroup. He lands some distance away, wondering how much he'll regret this.

"Awkward. Am I interrupting a domestic?"

[notyourrookie]

She still hits like a freight train. Wash curses himself. Curses everything. he should never have let his guard down. Should never have trusted that things would be okay. The punch throws him off balance, although the armour mitigates some of the pain... and a smashed jaw. But he's harder than Tex might remember him. He's worked and trained; he'd had to do twice as much to prove himself fit for duty.

As dazed as he feels, he has the presence of mind to jump back, back a few steps. he needn't have bothered.

Suddenly there's a blast, a bomb? Something, and he manages to get his space as someone else, another person in armour, appears on the scene.

[a_shadow]

The shadow is knocked for a loop and doesn't respond, not at first. Eventually it rises, planting its feet strong. It doesn't comment on Tony's quip, instead punching its fist into its other hand. It's as though the shadow knows it's vulnerable, and hangs back a bit to gather its bearings.

[arcreact]

Is that a threat? Considering the hostility presented up til now, Tony's going to go out on a limb and assume it is. He raises one hand, the light in the center of his palm flaring a warning, but doesn't fire. He instead turns his attention to Wash.

"Hey, Thing Two. You still have all your parts attached?"

[notyourrookie]

Thing two? What is that supposed to mean?

"I'm fine. Just a little bruised." He wants to ask more questions, but this is really not the time when Tex is acting like this and he knows exactly how hard she can hit.

ugh I thought I subscribed to this

[a_shadow]

The shadow is well aware that keeping its distance is now best, and it's only a few feet away from a street sign pole. It's the perfect length to grab and fight with, so the shadow grabs the pole and yanks it up out of the ground, gripping it tightly in one hand and swinging it downward to smack into the other palm. The sight of this should be intimidating enough, even for the two men in their armor, and the shadow then runs toward Wash to swing the pole into his helmet.