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.

[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.

[desynched]

[ Lena stiffens, and she gives him a hard look. ]

No, I want to understand. How'd all that keep us outta prison? You didn't think they'd go after us more 'cause they couldn't put you up on trial?

[ It's strange, perhaps, to ask a dead man for closure. ]

[mylawn]

I was the target. Not you.

[Maybe it doesn't make sense to her, but Jack has had plenty of time to reason it all out. He's not sure what else he can do or say to make it less inscrutable, especially when it seems so logical and obvious to him.]

I know what woulda happened. You'd stand by me and they'd decide you were complicit. The best thing to do was remove myself from the equation.

[desynched]

Complicit in what?

[ She already has a suspicion. The UN would pin Blackwatch's actions on Jack and, by Jack's logic, pin it on everyone else too.

Which makes no sense to her. ]

[mylawn]

In everything.

[The buck stopped with Jack, so it might have all come down on him either way, but he wasn't about to take that chance. What he knows they would do is use everyone close to him to bring him down, whether they knew anything or not. With Jack gone, the rest of them served no purpose. They could suffer through a few cursory hearings, but in the end, it had been Jack and Gabriel they'd wanted. Without that, there was little they could do but close the book on the whole thing.]

All they would've done was use you against me.

[desynched]

[ Lena shakes her head. ]

If they had you dead to rights, why would they need us?

[mylawn]

To punish me.

[Jack's self-sacrificing nature wasn't exactly a secret, and he imagines that Petras knew full well that he'd take the fall for all of them with no complaint. If they wanted to make it hurt--which they most certainly did--the easiest way to do what would be to drag his people into it.]

I wasn't gonna let them use you like that.

[desynched]

[ That stops her short long enough for her to really think about it. The world-- not just the UN-- blamed Overwatch for a lot. Maybe attributed some personal loss to their actions. Or to Blackwatch's actions. Everyone was whipped up into a frenzy and calling for blood. They'd want the leader. The 'mastermind.' ]

You think they'd chuck us in jail to punish you worse than you bein' thrown in jail right next to us?

[ Though there's no doubt Lena and Winston would be in a different kind of jail. Why not begin their repayment to society by being science projects? ]

[mylawn]

I was ready to go to jail.

[He'd been ready the moment he gave the order to move on Null Sector. That had been his choice, but of course the UN wasn't going to let him get away with something he'd willingly accepted. Jack thinks he could have stood the dismantling of Overwatch if it meant his people could go free.]

I wasn't gonna let them throw you in with me, but they would have if it meant they could make it hurt.

[desynched]

You make it sound like it's all personal.

[ Political, maybe. It was popular to stand against Overwatch, after all. And maybe some of them really believed the world was better off without them, separate from any political machinations they had in mind.

But personal? Petras, perhaps, but why would the rest of the UN go along with it? ]

[mylawn]

Maybe it was.

[When he was so inextricably intertwined with Overwatch, any attack on the organization felt like an attack on him, personally. But perhaps Petras' mistake was assuming that Overwatch would die with Jack Morrison. That the people who served under him didn't believe in the cause so deeply that they wouldn't take it up themselves.]

They didn't really like how I went off the rails towards the end.

[He'd been given command because of the assumption that he could be controlled. That, obviously, had not been the case.]