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Breakout and Beyond: September Plot Log

Who: Everyone
When: September 9th-23rd
Where: Kauto
What: Escape from Dino Jail and taking the fight to the Savrii
Warnings: Probable violence and mental manipulation. Label your content.

the escape

Over the last few days—or weeks, for many—a number of preparations have been made. Some gathered resources. Others fashioned weapons or small bombs. A few pored over the schematics Mother provided, looking for a weakness in the field generator, while others took her offer of assistance more directly. Whether with information or training, tools or trades or promises, everyone has had a part to play. And on September 9, all of that comes to fruition.

It starts at the gate. Through careful observation of the supply groups, one team of insurgents has correctly identified when the gate will open: and prepared their very own dinosaur-mounted EMP. With the controls damaged and the gate locked open, the Savrii guards are met with a host of individuals armed with shock-sticks, home-made bombs, and one improvised laser—many of whom appear oddly immune to the pacifying effect of the intermediary present.

As terrifying as this proves to their morale, it seems possible the Savrii could turn the battle their way. They have superior weaponry. They have a single chokepoint to defend. They can and will call for backup as soon as the danger becomes clear. Still, there's one factor they couldn't have anticipated. One vulnerability of the dome field, pulled from the schematics by the more technically minded captives who spent time on the endeavor. This place wasn't a punishment, after all. The Savrii didn't want to inflict harm. Merely contain these dangerous people, for their own good. And so, the force field has a safety feature built in.

It decreases power, just slightly, in proportion with the biomass that comes in contact.

While the guards at the gate are busy with their fight, a brilliantly colored array of hazards break free from the forest grounds. Perhaps you're riding one of your new friends. Perhaps you're dangling dino-catnip just in front. It's possible, of course, that your dinosaur is motivated without help—possibly by the array of prey animals running in front of it. Regardless of the motives and the methods, when several hundred tons of dinosaur make contact with that wall?

The force field shatters.

Charge.

A World of Peace

The fact (and methods) of the "newcomers'" escape puts an end to any pleas for peaceful resolution. Within the hour, Thisavrou is placed under a state of emergency: transport locked down, all responders called in, and every combat force their peaceful worlds can gather called to defend against this menace. The Ingress Complex itself is sealed off entirely: a full-strength Artifixx force field raised to deflect (or destroy) incoming ships. Not that the storms outside the Ingress—or the cracks they've begun carving in the sky—look easy to navigate for even the best trained of pilots.

While those looking to fulfill their promise to Mother will need to find a way offworld eventually, events on Kauto are likely to keep Thisavrou’s Most Wanted busy for some time. The Savrii are in self-defense mode, ready to protect their world against those who refuse their gift of peace. Whether looking for a fight or trying to find shelter, travelers are most likely to encounter these groups as their hunters:

Security. These Savrii have been taken from their usual work in Ingress Security or similar professions. More like police than soldiers, they are still armed and formidable. Each small squad will almost always be accompanied by a single intermediary, capable of both detecting nearby targets and enforcing the non-violence field on those who did not accept Mother's link. These groups may try to talk characters into surrender and prefer non-lethal force at first. But as the days go by, they are likely to recognize this is futile and be willing to take ruthless measures.
Off-World Kill Teams. Those who traversed the wreckage of the true Midway hub, or participated in the extinction of Thiri have met these Savrii before. The ones who take dangerous away missions and purge worlds that have misused Ingress technology, these groups are versatile and ruthless. While less likely to be accompanied by an intermediary, they are more likely to have powers and advanced weaponry of their own. Regardless, they are specialists in their fields and fully willing to kill innocents for the greater good. Their skillsets range from fighters to hackers to assassins and more.
Civilians. The majority of civilian Savrii are more likely to hide than to fight, but among their number are non-professional fighters who are more than willing to form amateur groups or go out alone to take down the dangerous invaders. Their mindset may center on protecting their homes or taking revenge for past encounters such as the Shadows. While the weakest of the groups, they're still capable of doing damage. However, not all civilians are hostile or afraid; those who had good relationships with their newer neighbors or who were personally aided may show sympathy. This could come in the form of food, supplies, or temporary shelter, though they won't stand directly against the authorities of Thisavrou.

Regardless of whether fugitives are are caught unaware or go out looking for trouble, one thing is certain: they are likely to do better if they work together. While Mother's link isn't the only method with which to fight the intermediaries, groups without at least one immune person may find themselves put down with ease. At the same time, even those who can resist intermediary manipulation may be overwhelmed by force.

Still, death is rarely the end on Thisavrou, and even now, the technology that allows for resurgence remains in your hosts' possession. Those killed fighting the Savrii may be seen again, and there is always the chance to rescue those who are captured. But would the reunions be happy ones?

Points of Interest

Where to go? What to do? Even without leaving Kauto, there's a literal world of possibilities. Still, the conflict at hand won't go away, and some of your peers have been preparing for it for some time. Between Mother's request, your own needs, and data gleaned from a Trojan implanted in the Savrii's systems, a few objectives might present themselves. And whether you're hunting, hiding, or helping, there are a few places you might want to keep in mind.

Home
As soon as characters were unknowingly brought into the Midway Hub simulation, Savrii agents were dispatched to enter homes and search them for any items of potential danger. Mundane possessions will still be there, including pac-discs for those who had them. Settling down for a night at home is likely to get people caught, but now is a great time to pack anything travelers want to keep. However, to find weapons and items taken during the simulation...
Reclamation Depot
Established just one month ago, this unremarkable complex is buried in the maze-like streets of Region Five. Rumors describe it as a research site: somewhere to examine hazardous materials and see how they could be turned to the societal good. You might better know it as an impound center. Specifically, where they put your weapons after throwing you into "detainment".

Fortunately, research efforts haven't gotten far. Less fortunately? This is the first place all those reinforcements go. The facility contains a set of laboratories aboveground and a storage complex underneath, as well as an adjoining kennel for containing pets. Your companions won't have been harmed, but you can bet the Savrii will harm you trying to get to them.
Network Hub
The data recovered from the Trojan indicates one very important fact: that all of your data has been monitored from day one. Those interested in safeguarding their communications (or disrupting the Savrii's) may wish to make a certain site in Region One a priority visit. A towering skyscraper over a hundred stories in height, the communications tower that controls the TAB network is a masterpiece of engineering. It's also, predictably, guarded. Still, the amount of reinforcements on this site will vary strongly depending on how openly—or how literally—you broadcast an attack.
Mediation Centers
Simple buildings designed for a sense of comfort and peace, these structures can be found in all residential centers of Thisavrou. They serve as the workplaces of the intermediaries, the so-called glue that binds Thisavrou together—or, the mind-controlling oligarchs, if your new acquaintance is to be believed.

Under the current crisis? They're a little understaffed. Still, if you're looking for the intermediaries, this is a better place than most to check. Just don't walk inside alone, or your friends might end up looking for you.
Sewers
With so many forces acting against them, where can travelers find shelter where they can rest, regroup and plan? A base of sorts may be found in the sewers where a team once sought the contaminant. With access to much of urban Kauto, enough distance from the surface to go undetected by intermediaries, and a few larger spaces to provide some breathing room, the sewers may not be a pleasant sanctuary, but they may be the place most able to give characters more than a moment's rest.

A Dinoriffic Note: While characters may keep their dinosaurs with them after the breakout, now that their prehistoric pals have reached adulthood at an artificially fast rate, they will find that dinosaurs are also designed to wean off dependence on their handler, and over these weeks, character-dinosaur pairings will grow farther apart. Although the dinosaurs will always have a softer spot for those who were around during their adolescent days, alas, these partnerships are not destined to be permanent.

[OOC: Please check out this OOC post for more information on character options and objectives! Additionally, this is the last chance for free exploration of the current setting, as events will push toward the arc climax after this log. If there is anything you OOCly want your character to have or do, please take advantage!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Pfft.]

I'm as safe as it is possible to be during times such as these.

[Which is to say, no, not very. His priorities are sadly skewed but well-noted, as they are, as fate would have it - completely and utterly predictable.]

Then might I inquire what it is you have against sewers as a concept? Have you something against indoor plumbing?

Thanks... I think.

[Yeah, he can read between those lines by now, Chara. But he's going to be thankful for what he gets.]

If we all know they're a safe place, who's to say the Intermediaries don't know too?

One would think they would have taken action by now.

[But he makes a fair point. Which is precisely why they're not staying there any longer than is strictly requisite.]

Unless they're waiting for the right time.

[He shakes his head, dragging his human hand over his face.]

... anyway. If you need it, the doctor's house is in Region Three. With the trees.

I won't be.

[They're in perpetual motion at this point. They have a fairly linear structure here. Reclamation center. Ingress Complex.]

[There is no after. They don't expect there to be.]

I'll be certain to pass it along to those that may.

[He doesn't say anything for a few seconds too long. Just staring at them. After every conversation they'd had... there's a different sort of finality here. And it bothers him.]

[Badly.]

Chara.

What are you planning?

Who says I'm planning anything?

[They'd make a show of being affronted that he would suggest as such, but underneath it all - ]

[They don't let things fragment. Not by nature. Not by necessity. It only ever ends poorly when they do. A vulnerability for one to take advantage of. A chink in the armor through which the appropriate force may be levered.]

[So they don't.]
[They don't dare.]
[So for once, there are no theatrics. Just a smile, small and almost wry - far from the wide, cutting thing they so favor.]

[They're tired, Shiro.]

[They're tired. And so is he. Everything he'd tried to build here is falling apart at the seams. Everything for his team, the people he'd met and cared for. Chara themselves among those, somehow, even after everything.]

[Because he knows, deep down, if they ever found the need to call, he'd come.]

[He levers himself down to a knee. To better look them in the eye. Exhausted eye to exhausted eye.]

[Who says either of them have a plan?]

Then... plan on seeing us? Later?

[Losing someone else, even if it's to something unknown, even if they don't actually have anything in mind, feels like it might make something come undone.]

Call me selfish if you want. But ... I want you to get through this. See the end of this.

[...ha.]

[There's no guarantee they'll be coming back from the other side of this. They understood that when they set things in motion. The moment in which a child scrubbed at the streaks of red over their cheeks and dulled them to a rust brown with the cuffs of their sleeve, and decided to climb a mountain from which travelers are rumored to never return. The moment in which a child picks a handful of buttercups and says it'll be easy and we'll be strong and we'll free everyone. The moment in which the Ingress opens to a planet they've never been to, full of slavers they've never met, and they watched it all burn in recompense for a crime they never saw committed.]

[The moment in which a child colors their irises dark with the black-rot that seeps effortlessly from their mouth and nose and eyes, and equipped the Real Knife, and tried to rush those that could snap their bones like breadsticks.]

[The moment, now.]

[In which a child knows there is one path left to them, having razed all others, and does not plan on turning back.]
[They're sorry. They're so sorry.]
[They've done a terrible thing.]
...
[They know they'd call for help.]
Why?
[~~And they know he'd come.~~]

[Why?]

[Because they're a child. They're just a kid. He has no idea why they are the way they are... but they're a child. First and above all. A child who could be something great, someday.]

[They all could be. Every kid.]

[The children, the teens, he's taken as his family -- who were all so broken, in so many ways, who ended up being amazing. And himself... who couldn't stop trying even if it wore him down to the bone. Why wouldn't he see the potential in someone else? See their determination for a strength, instead of something that could destroy them.]

[It's why he's still alive, after all. Isn't it? Why else would he have survived?]

[He spreads his hands, the lines under his eyes, the weariness in every motion show. For all his focus, for all his own determination, he's exhausted by it. The question of "why" feeling heavier, more draining than anything else Chara could have asked him right now.]

I don't know any reason why I wouldn't want you to make it.

[He reaches out. Like he'd hold onto them, shield them, if he could.]

[Not saving someone is the hardest thing I've ever lived through.]

[Don't be another Matt. Another Commander Holt or Darin or Keith or Lance. Another name on a list that never seemed to end.]

Come to the house with us, Chara. Please.

[He keeps doing this. He does it again.]

[It's not really an answer at all. Ha ha, why wouldn't he? Good people like him don't exist. There's always something layered beneath. Something he must want. Something he has to have from them, some sick thrill he gets out of playing the savior, the hero.]

[So why, then, are they allowing themself to buy it?]

[Their smile cracks feebly. It's not the confident, polished-edge flare of humorless bite they've so perfected, they've so savored.]

...

[They could. They could, and the promise of us should feel like a curse. It's almost a temptation. Almost enough to turn their decision to something they can stomach.]

[Almost.]

I'm afraid...

I cannot accept your offer, sir.

[There are people they still need to hurt.]

Send your companions my regards.

[Maybe he is being selfish. Maybe he does just want to be someone's hero. Be the Defender of the Universe. To save someone. Just once. Save them. The one who didn't want it.]

[Maybe that's why he needs to help them so badly.]

[The one who didn't want to be saved, and the one who didn't think he ever could.]

Don't --

[He doesn't grab them. Doesn't try to restrain them. But the hands spread turn to supplication. To offering. It should be enough. Why isn't it ever enough?]

Where are you going? Can you tell me that. At least.

There are people that still require my attention.

[The smile is...it is not absent. It twists vaguely across their features, stunted and tinted with cold. A clear indication of what attention means, in this respect. Not the good kind.]

I have promises to keep.

[And miles to go, Shiro.]
[Miles to go before I sleep.]

[People that still require their attention. People they still have to ... settle things with, he assumes. It twists something up in his chest, realizing that.]

[Even more than knowing this might be the last time he can say anything to them. To try and show them he genuinely just... wants them to be all right.]

[Which doesn't seem like it's going to be possible, now.]

So I guess I can't ask you to promise we'll talk again, huh?

[What right does he have to ask them that?]

[The image of their shadow in his yard is still in his mind. Still making something prick in the corners of his eyes.]

[Maybe he has no right. But he has to try.]

[An endless list of transgressions for which they can never be redeemed. Ones that start with the reason a child treks up a mountain, streaked in someone else's blood, and end with a long list of those they've doomed to the intermediaries and their mind games - through action, through inaction, through the wrong choice, the wrong unfurling of the wrong dialogue tree.]

[It's a human thing, the desire to cling to that which you cannot hold. It was Asriel's flaw too - just as it is theirs.]
[They could go with him, if they chose. He would let them.]
[It's not his fault that he is the way he is. He cannot fault himself for being born to a cursed species.]

There's a story that some humans are told. [One human.] It's a rather morbid tale - detailing the death of the crown prince of the Underground, and the child that led him gently to his doom. The unrest they caused, the war they reignited, the marriage they fractured as a result. Perhaps knowing what they were doing every step of the way.

[Cunningly orchestrated, because that's the only story anyone will believe upon meeting them.]

I always found the parting words to be particularly interesting.

"Aren't you excited?"

"Aren't you happy?"

"You're going to be free."

[It sounds like something breaking. Their voice. The story slowly unfolding like crumpled, stained parchment. He closes his eyes for a moment, as he listens. His voice coming soft, resigned.]

That's why you're going. Isn't it.

[It's not a question so much as a sudden, sharp realization. A painful understanding cut through his chest. Like the mark from their shadow's knife. As everything they say starts to fall more and more into place. Puzzle pieces connected by magnets.]

[I would have brought you with me.]

[There's always hope.]

Chara... this -- won't make anything right. You've got to know that. Nothing we do here can change what happened anywhere else. It doesn't bring anyone back.

[It won't bring back Matt. Or Commander Holt. It won't change the fact he'd lost Allura, or the lives he must have taken in the Arena. It won't keep Darin here. Won't erase what those whispering voices in the dark with yellow eyes made him into. Nothing he does can change any of that.]

[But looking for a way out? You're going to be free won't do anything but make more things painful. Hurt more people.]

I'll help you. Figure out some other way. Me and the others will too...

[There are no happy endings, Shiro. Happy endings don't exist. They already ruined them.]

[History will only ever repeat and repeat. They can try and break that cycle all they like - they know that, at its CORE, at the very end, it is all as hopeless as their first failed attempt to bring about their own destruction, limping up a mountain clutching at bruised ribs, wiping away the last of the stains on their face, combing away the wet redness matting their hair.]

[There is one End for them that will stick, and one end only.]

[It's the kind that unfurls in a world that's exactly the same...]
[...except they don't exist.]

I know full well that it will not fix anything.

[But it will give everyone else the chance they never would have otherwise, with this old demon still dogging their footsteps, haunting their lives.]

[Refusing to let itself be put to rest.]

But I daresay it is high time we all looked to the future. Wouldn't you say?

[No. It can't end like this. He can't let them walk away, gently to their doom. They have an agenda. They have something in mind that ends with someone, maybe Chara themselves, dying. Hurting.]

[He can see that much.]

Looking to the future is hard when you're not there to see it.

[But maybe he shouldn't be speaking in abstract anymore. He's tired of it. Tired of dancing around whatever it is this almost-friendship is. This thing he's stubbornly held onto while they kept insisting he should do otherwise.]

[He didn't have it in him to give up on someone. Anyone.]

Whatever happens, we've all made it this far.

[He makes no effort to hide the way his voice gets thick, ragged. No effort to hide the weariness in his face, the way everything pulls at him, drags at him.]

I don't want to get through this, and not have you around. Don't... you think you deserve to see this through?

[Don't you think you deserve to see this through?]

[Spoken like someone who still refuses to see them for what they are. Chara's smile is wry, and bland. It's easy to let things trickle down from that point. Not seeing a tomorrow without them in it...it sounds so very much like those final words, the desperate cries of a lonely child.]

[Not in a world without you, Chara.]

[But they know how this dialogue tree ends. They know what rests at the end of it.]

[They all have Frisk now. The friend everyone wishes they've always had. The far superior sibling, the far superior savior, the far superior friend.]

As it happens...

I've been reliably informed that kids like me should be burning in hell.

[He wants to take them by their shoulders, hold onto them and press home just how much that can't be true. Maybe he's missing something. Maybe he is refusing to understand, but... but for all the people told they were something dangerous, something meant for a darker purpose, there were those who fought to pull them out of it again.]

[Like Angela. Like the faces in the dream.]

[Like you?]

And people like me should be an alien weapon! People like me shouldn't have a family, or ... anything like I do.

But I'm not. And I have.

Chara, you don't have to be what they tell you. You can change it.

[He's not going to give up. Not yet.]

Why not? I can't seem to be anything else.

[All they need to do to ruin anything, after all, is to simply...exist.]

[There's never been a single thing in their life that wasn't hurt, just for having them there. Desecrated a marriage overnight. Staged an upheaval of the peace monsters worked so very hard to preserve. Doomed the crown prince to a lifetime as a soulless, smirking weed that languishes in the dirt. Whispers hideous things, terrible things, into the ears of a fallen child that wakes on a bed of golden flowers, wipes a line of chalk over across their name and scratches it out until there's nothing but * It's me, Chara.]

[That is what they are.]

Try as I might, I continue to be myself.

[Despite everything.]

Then let us help.

[It wouldn't have been possible without that help. Without someone reaching out, someone being there and saying he could do it. Without some goal to work for, without people to work for. People to be better for.]

[People holding hands out to the darkness. Pulling him out of nightmares and every single time the team looked to him with trust in their faces. People who wanted him to be better. Needed him.]

[They don't have to be this way. They don't have to throw anything away. Be terrible, be hell bound or whatever it is they believe.]

Yourself... you can change it.

I mean that.

[Since when has he told them anything less than what he truly believes.]

[He can't mean that.]

[He can't mean that.]

[No one looks at things like them and sees something worth picking up off the ground. No one looks at a creature like them and pegs them for anything besides the demon, the corrupting thing that worms its way into everyone's hearts, cunningly and cruelly stripping everything they are away. Look at them, here and now - pulling the strings, leading him along, drawing him deeper into this web of theirs, because they must have wanted it this way! Must have been waiting to play their cards in just the right way. Waiting for his most vulnerable moment.]

[Why should they.]

[Because there are people worth FIGHTing for? They've already ruined them.]
[Because there are Endings that might still fit them into their story? Their Endings will never be as easy as slotting a smiling face alongside one of many, beaming out from a picture frame.]
[Because there is something here undamaged by their influence? Soon, it won't be.]

[Because people like them don't change; not really. They tell themselves all sorts of lies, every day. It's okay, it'll be all right. You'll live, you'll grow, you'll change. It won't always be like this.]

[It gets better.]

I commend you for your efforts, Shiro.

[They cannot dismiss that. His determination to SAVE them is...admirable. In many respects.]

But you cannot SAVE someone that is already dead.

the escape

A World of Peace

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