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]

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.]

[desynched]

[ The UN didn't like Overwatch pushing against its constraints, to say nothing about what Blackwatch was doing. ]

Like the Uprising.

[ She still stands by her assertion that what they did was right. Thousands more would have died before the UK or UN got it under control. If they ever did.

Still, she wasn't blind to the conflict on Jack's face then.

And that can't have been the only time. ]

If they wanted a puppet and an organization that'd do whatever they wanted, the UN picked the wrong people at the start.

[mylawn]

You know why I got the job?

[Sure, there's what was generally accepted by the public. The reason that looks nice in biographies and allows everyone to speak fondly of war heroes who were otherwise just people that made mistakes and did bad things like everyone else. A great deal has been said and written about his tenacity, about his ability to form a cohesive team out of conflicting personalities, about his heroic and self-sacrificing acts during the Crisis, about his ideas for bringing humanity back from the brink, but Jack knows those aren't the only reasons why.]

Reyes was too freewheeling for them. They wanted a good soldier.

[Jack is more than a little bitter when he says that. He'd never been naive--it was easy to see the ulterior motives when he was offered command.]

Good soldiers follow orders.

[desynched]

[ Lena had a feeling that was part of it. Jack always seemed more restrained, more willing to take the hits without hitting back.

She's not deaf to his bitterness. A small part of her understands. ]

Good people know when to ignore orders. And you ignored plenty.

[ No matter how angry she is, there are two things she never doubts about Jack. One, he cares about his people, even when he's being an asshole. Two, he's a good person. For as much damage has he's done to earn the title 'terrorist,' killing people isn't on the list. ]

[mylawn]

Yeah, and look where that got us.

[He says it dejectedly, but he can't deny that intervening in London was the right thing to do. They'd been able to liberate King's Row quickly and relatively painlessly, something he knows the Prime Minister wouldn't have had the faintest idea as to how to get it done.

Ignoring a nation's sovereignty, however...]

It's not easy to get out there and save the world.

[Especially when they don't want to be saved.]

[desynched]

If it were, everyone'd be doin' it.

[ Lena's expression falls-- she knows how it feels, the way the world turned on them. It's hard not to become bitter, but it's harder for her to sit on the sidelines and watch everything fall apart. ]

I know it hurts.

[mylawn]

[Jack screws up his face, wanting to affirm that sentiment, but knowing that anything he says in response will pale in comparison to what he actually feels. It hurts, yes. It hurts in an unimaginable way that he doesn't think he can properly describe. The only way Lena will truly understand is experiencing it herself, and though of course Overwatch's fall was painful, it was all necessary. He'd do anything to keep her from hurting the way he does.

He takes a deep breath that almost shudders, as if he's trying to bottle something up.]

It doesn't go away.

[desynched]

[ Lena sees the way he tenses and the way his face screws up, like he's trying to hold in a soul-shattering scream. To have your life's work thrown in your face and what used to be praise turned into insults.

Lena knows she got off easy as far as all of that's concerned, but she has a taste of the way it feels. ]

I know. It's a risk you take when you care about somethin'.

[mylawn]

[He laughs bitterly, because Jack is well aware that his whole problem is caring too much. That's what got him into this mess, and that's what keeps him hurting so many years later. There isn't anything he can do about it, either, and that's the worst part. He can't make himself stop feeling.

All he can really do is hope it's worth it in the end. That the pain he's felt is at least proportionate to the good that comes out of it.

Jack knows, however, that the world is rarely fair. He finds himself without anything to say, shoulders curling inward and head bowing as he lets out a deep, shuddering breath.]

[desynched]

[ The bitter laughter shouldn't throw her anymore-- it's been months since she's come to know Jack as he is now. Still, she tenses slightly, as if startled. But it passes quickly, quicker than it probably should. Instead, she steps forward and places a hand lightly on his bicep.

Right now, she doesn't see Soldier 76 or her former commander. She sees someone who has suffered and has resigned himself to it.

She can't tell him that things will get better or everything will turn out okay. He doesn't need empty platitudes, and she's not in the mood to dispense them. ]

[mylawn]

[Jack has his moment--and that's all it is, only a moment, before he breathes in again as if to compose himself, and straightens. If he registers her hand on his arm, he doesn't show it, instead doing his very best to look like he has it together. Some things never change. Jack has painstakingly trained himself to never show weakness. Even without people counting on him the way they used to, he can't help but want to be that pillar.

As quickly as the mask slips, he replaces it, the fight with his shadow hitting him all at once, exhausting him.]

Let's go home.

[He is, above all other things, very tired.]

[desynched]

[ All at once, he's back to himself. But Lena's not going to forget that moment where the mask cracked, not unlike when he revealed himself only a few months ago.

She can see the exhaustion-- physical and mental-- etched into his features and removes her hand from his arm in favor of walking at his side. ]

Yeah.