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

[mylawn]

[No, that's not all it's got, but she manages to put temporary distance between them. As soon as it recovers, it's lunging again, just barely missing her as she displaces herself away.]

What do you think you're going to accomplish with this?

[With any of this, is the implication. The Recall. Dragging Overwatch out of the grave where it belongs. He reaches out, trying to anticipate her blink.]

Keep throwing yourself at the wall to see what sticks?

[desynched]

[ Lena just barely skims away from him, though it's getting very, very close to predicting where she'll appear. She's trying to be unpredictable, but there's only so much she can do while still guaranteeing that she's keeping its attention on her.

She doesn't catch the implication. Her mind is far, far away from their argument months ago about the Recall. ]

What're you tryin' to accomplish? Shadows aren't a chatty bunch.

[ It wants something. Whether to needle her or... is it distracting her too? If so, from what? ]

[mylawn]

[Needle her, distract her--maybe a little from both columns. The shadow lashes out again, not providing a straight answer to her question so much as prove that he isn't actually interested in talking. It lashes out again, looking to get her back into its hold, but all at once it’s interrupted by a burst of gunfire—pulse fire, at that.]

Lena, get out of here!

[It's Jack--the real one, sprinting onto the scene and making a beeline straight for his doppleganger.]

[desynched]

[ The burst of pulse fire is enough to tell her who has arrived before he even speaks. She has the presence of mind to blink away from the shadow. But she's reluctant to leave. ]

I can't just leave you with it!

[mylawn]

I’m the only one who can fight it.

[That’s all he really has time to get out before the shadow is on him—because that’s what they really want, and Jack is bringing his rifle up to try and put something between him and it. When pulse fire doesn’t slow it down, he switches his grip and swings it like a baseball bat, sending the shadow reeling and allowing him a split second to growl in Lena’s direction.]

That’s an order!

[desynched]

[ A long time ago, she would've obeyed. Even now, she hesitates.

But he's not her commanding officer anymore. She still respects him and values his insight, of course, but she no longer has to obey.

So she doesn't.

Instead, Lena grits her teeth and fires off a round at the shadow. ]

No, you're not.

[mylawn]

[Jack heard the network post--knows, theoretically, what he has to do to get rid of this thing, but all of it is easier said than done. He hasn't exactly given up on the hope that he can just pummel this thing into oblivion, because the alternative is having someone else privy to a secret or a confession, even if Lena won't ever use it against him.

He's not her commander anymore, and he doesn't expect her to listen, but he'd hoped that he could get her out of harm's way.

Of course that's a ridiculous thought. Lena has never shied away from something like this, and if she's going to stay, then Jack is going to have to use her presence to put this thing down once and for all.]

I have to confess something to you. A sacrifice. Right?

[That's what they'd talked about over the network. What has to be done to damage the shadows.]

[desynched]

[ Lena keeps up the pressure on the shadow, trying to disorient it to give Jack some room to work. But she knows there's no way to take it out permanently.

Except the sacrifice. Lena nods. ]

That's what they said.

[ Lena isn't sure what to expect, but she's prepared. Whatever he has to say to get rid of this thing, she'll listen. ]

[mylawn]

[Jack isn’t sure where he can begin with this, especially since he’s fighting the shadow at the same time. The only saving grace is that the thing is off Lena, more interested in causing harm to the original than her. Still, he can’t afford any wasted time, not when this thing is as strong and as fast as he is.

Even more unfortunately, the only confession he can think of is something that’s going to hurt.]

I thought you would all be better off without me. That’s why I didn’t come back.

[He punctuates it with a one-two punch on the shadow, throwing a glance at Lena as if asking her whether or not it’s working.]

[desynched]

[ Lena keeps up the pressure, for all the good it's doing. Maybe if she annoys it enough, it'll start slipping up and giving Jack more openings.

His confession brings back that dull sting in her heart. But she isn't surprised. He'd said as much before, right? ]

To keep us out of the crosshairs.

[ Does it count as a confession if she already knows? Or maybe she just thinks she knows. ]

[mylawn]

No.

[She isn't entirely wrong--of course Jack wanted to keep his people safe, but it's also something he tells himself to swallow down how selfish all this really is.]

I needed to be done. Overwatch did more harm than good in the end.

[desynched]

[ That confession does more than sting. It dredges up those old feelings of loss and of being abandoned.

His reasoning is incredibly selfish and it throws her. ]

You stayed away because you wanted Overwatch gone? You wanted them to tear us apart?

[mylawn]

No, I--

[He stops short, realizing that he hadn't quite worded that correctly--or perhaps his feelings about it are too complicated to explain. All of this is most certainly exacerbated by the fact that he's still trying to fight off his own shadow. He's not so good at swinging punches and explaining himself eloquently at the same time.]

I don't know. I needed to be done. I couldn't go back to that. Is this thing taking damage yet?

[Maybe she can see better from the outside.]

[desynched]

[ 'That.' He makes it sound like Overwatch is a curse.

It twists the knife a little more. ]

But you knew what they'd do.

[ She grits her teeth. ]

You ran away.

[ The shadow grunts in pain, Jack's pummeling finally getting to it now. ]

[mylawn]

And you all needed to get on with your lives.

[He’s adamant about that, and he channels the anger in his voice towards wailing on the shadow, who finally seems to be responding in kind.]

You didn’t need me anymore.

[desynched]

You don't... [ Lena's knuckles go white around her pistols, and she stops firing. It's not needed now, not when Jack's punches are affecting the Shadow. ]

You don't get to decide that! Overwatch was our lives.

[ Lena had a place to go, a family, a home. But the thought of Winston losing his family, being holed up in Gibraltar because he had nowhere to go, that's what makes it hurt.

They all lost something when Overwatch was dissolved. Some lost more than others. ]

[mylawn]

Not like it was mine.

[He imagines that this is comical on some level, trying to have a discussion full of deep confessions while he's holding his own doppleganger by the collar and punching it in the face. The good thing is that it seems to be working, the shadow clawing weakly at 76's sleeve as he wails on it, but all of his attention is really on Lena.]

You got family? Friends? A girl?

[They'd talked about this back on the farm, when they had the argument about the Recall. He still doesn't think she really understands that she's throwing it all away, and since this whole thing is supposed to be about his confessions, he might as well make it clear what that really means to someone like him, someone who spent his entire adult life setting aside the things he wanted for the greater good.]

I couldn't have that.

[He's not unlike Winston in that regard--Overwatch had been his family, and his responsibilities ensured that he had nothing outside of it.]

[desynched]

[ Lena immediately feels defensive. "Not like it was mine?" As if she didn't pour her heart into Overwatch? As if she didn't make sacrifices? She's just about to start on that when Jack changes the direction of the conversation.

He's so set in his thinking. Didn't he have Ana? Didn't he have Reyes? He had friends and a family. Has he forgotten? Has his bitterness blinded him?

Lena looks at him with a mix of pity and hurt. ]

You had people willin' to be your family. [ Quietly: ] And you walked away from them.

[mylawn]

[Of course that’s not exactly what he’s talking about, but he doesn’t expect Tracer to pick up on what he really means, not in the middle of a fight like this. All he needed was some kind of sacrifice, right? A confession? If this isn’t that, well, then he’s not sure what else he can do.

In a way, it’s a little relieving to get some of his own selfishness off his chest, though of course his knee-jerk reaction to her accusation is to continue to defend himself.]

Everything was for you.

[To keep them safe. To let them get on with their lives. Jack punctuates his assertion by throwing his shadow off him, leveling his rifle against its struggling form and finally—finally—blowing a hole in it.

He finds himself holding his breath, waiting for it to regenerate, hoping that everything he’s said to Lena will be enough to keep this thing down for good.]

[desynched]

[ Lena stays where she is, neither moving to help him up or making sure the shadow really is gone. Instead, she's staring at him incredulously. This argument again? No, he's not getting away with it this time.

Sharply: ] "I needed to be done. I couldn't go back to that." Remember?

Not everythin' was for me.

[mylawn]

Yeah.

[She's caught him in it, but Jack is stubborn. He still believes it was all for the best--the best for everyone, even if it was partly motivated by his own selfishness. At the very least, it looks like the shadow isn't regenerating, so as far as Jack is concerned, the mission is accomplished.

He looks at Lena--stares her up and down, as if he's expecting her to drop the argument now that the shadow is dead.]

And you were all better off without me.

[Both things can be true!]

[desynched]

[ Lena sets her jaw, not willing to back down this time. They've dredged up things that Lena just can't let go of. She's pushed everything to the side for too long, just happy that he's still alive.

No, now it's time to put it all to rest. ]

Why? Why were we better off without you?

[mylawn]

[As soon as Jack realizes that they’re actually going to fight about this, he sounds less angry and more tired, like he certainly wasn’t planning on getting into this today. Lena, however, can be just as stubborn as he is, and he’s not about to concede. Maybe he hadn’t made himself clear the first time.]

Because I was wrong.

[Wrong about so many things, not the least of which is Overwatch itself. At what point does the suffering he caused outweigh all the good he did? Removing himself from the equation ensured that he could take all the blame; that the rest of them could get on with their lives instead of being dragged down with him.]

And none of you needed to be punished for my mistakes.

[desynched]

[ The stubborn set to her jaw and the way she squares her shoulder says it all. She's going to see this through, no matter where it leads. Maybe something will change. Maybe nothing will. But it's better than stamping down her feelings. ]

They punished us anyway. Only difference is you weren't standin' at our sides when they did.

[mylawn]

It would've been worse if I was there.

[Jack isn't sure what else he can do to make her understand that. He'd been so tied up in politics and bureaucracy that he knew exactly what was coming. The others didn't know that world so intimately. Of course they think it would have been that simple.]

I don't expect you to understand. I just wanted to keep you all out of prison.