A Spacemas Carol: December's Mod Event Log

[savmods]

Who: Anyone and Everyone
When: December 19 onwards
Where: Avagi... and beyond?
What: Your past, someone's present, and potential futures.
Warnings: Body horror and an associated image in the second part. Otherwise, label your content.

While the Ingress may have been destroyed, the energy powering it remains alive and well. The residents of Avagi know this intimately: from their own arrivals, from the portals that have appeared, and the short-lived changes (as well as longer-lived possessions) that have cluttered the station over the last few months. Recently, whatever force is manipulating this has even gone so far as to revive the dead—demonstrating, perhaps, an unwillingness to relinquish those it has brought to this place. To say this entity is seasonal would probably be a mistake. In the heart of Avagi's storms, there are no stars to mark the seasons, much less connect them to a certain planet's holidays—or the literature thereon. Still, from luck or from intention, the current fluctuations comes with a certain theme...

Past

It starts at the turn of the station clock's midnight. Flickers at the edge of one's vision. Indistinct whispers, ghosting through walls and down corridors. Those who are sleeping will be untroubled, but the wakeful and wary can watch the light build: from flickers to pulses, from pulses to pools. Over several hours, silver mist fills rooms and corridors, varying from a thin veil to dense, obscuring fog. If you step into the mist, you'll feel a sense of displacement; of sound and color, energy and a shift of life. Ingress travel. Except... not quite. Shortly after entering the mist, you'll find yourself free of disorientation and apparently free of physical form, unable to interact with your surroundings. As a quasi-ghost, you've been transported to somewhere and somewhen—a location from the past, back on a world of someone’s origin or from any place you've been since first arriving through the Ingress. While these experiences can vary wildly, some things remain consistent: The past matters: These visits to the past are not repeats of idle afternoons—each has emotional significance to someone currently on Avagi. The past cannot be changed: As real as any given scenario seems, you're fundamentally incapable of altering it. The past event will play out as it did in real life and dissipate when it reaches an ending. Trying has consequences: Attempting too hard to interfere increases the emotional significance, and will consequently draw onlookers further into the scene. You may find yourself anchored to any participant in the scene: first physically (experiencing the scene through their eyes) and then emotionally (experiencing their emotions and thoughts). If drawn in too deeply, you may lose track of your own nature during the experience, drowning in the sense of being someone else.. You are not alone: While immersed in a scene, you'll see nothing but the history playing out. However, at the its conclusion, the fog will once again displace the world around. As it melts away, you'll find themselves back in Avagi's halls—and face to face with whoever else was also viewing that piece of the past.

Present

Whether through one memory or several, eventually, the fog disperses. Only a faint mist remains, gathered in corners of the station's halls. It's simple enough to avoid, and nothing obstructs efforts to return to your rooms, your friends, or any other destination. Nothing, that is, except finding them. The layout of the halls has shifted. The clutter you so painstakingly cleared is back. The GPS on your ACE mistakenly reports that you are floating off in space far outside the station, and any efforts to locate or call your companions results in glitchy static. Something is interfering with your calls—more effectively than the distance between worlds. Inference and intuition are all you have to put together the pieces. The layout has changed, but the construction stayed the same. You're still on the former Ingress station. But not the same area that you called home. This is a different section of Avagi. An inhabited one. Dank, warm air pulses in and out of the vents in odd rhythms. Water damage stains the walls, and some seep dark liquid. There's an odd symphony in the distance: four notes, hummed to a pattern that buzzes in the back of your head. It's possible to wait it out. But if you do explore, you might come across your friends. And together, you might find the source. Further in, a wall of flesh fills the pathways, rising and falling with intermittent, massive draws of air. A fluid wash of features glues it to the bulkheads. Claws and eyes, hands and faces: half-made bodies shifting in and out of recognition with each pulse of breath. And always with the same gold glow beneath the skin. It's a familiar shade, to those who witnessed Thisavrou's destruction. It's the being who destroyed it. Those who flee will escape her notice. Those who wait may watch in secret for a time. Mother's focus seems to be elsewhere...or, perhaps, something else is hiding your presence here from her. Any attack on Mother's flesh shape, or any overt effort to draw her attention, will meet violent, immediate reprisal. You'll experience an immobilizing psychic force before the flesh consumes you. But whether you hide or fight or run, your time on this section of the station will end in the same way: a burst of brilliant, clear light providing transport back home.

Future

You flash back to reality amidst a burst of light—but this time, you recognize your surroundings. You have returned to the Avagi you know, and the silver mist that filled the halls has cleared. Over the next few days, most of Avagi will settle back into a state of normalcy. The ACEs are working properly, and station residents will have all the time they need to compare notes on their experiences—and, perhaps, on any plans to act on what they've learned. Avagi is not as empty as it seemed. And one place in particular will remain changed in the wake of the event. The Ingress Memorial, once inactive, has come to life, emitting a swirl of silver light that shifts and flickers, like the light of the portal it once contained. For the next five days, it will offer a vision to anyone approaching it: a single, brief scene from their potential future. Players have the following options: Canon future: Your character catches a glimpse of their future if they were to return from Avagi to their own world. This consists of a canon event. Avagi future: Your character catches a glimpse of their own future on Avagi. This can be a short-term future (i.e. an actual vision of a future scene you plan to play out), or a potential longer-term one in which they stayed on Avagi for months or years. Storm future: Your character catches a glimpse of themselves as a Mirtos—a desiccated husk and incarnation of the storm's hunger. As seen in Thisavrou's destruction, these creatures are carried by the storms and destroy all they come across. The visions can observed by any present when the Memorial is approached. And while the past is fixed, the future is always capable of being altered. What will you do regarding yours?

---

[OOC: Check out the OOC post for more information!]

Comments

rey | star wars: tfa | ota

[ventifact]

feelin' like a ten, the best i ever been [memory 1: i]

[Adrenaline and fear course through her veins, pushing her to run faster than she's ever run towards the quad jumper. Ships scream in the air around them, sending Niima Outpost up in flames. If they can just get to the ship--

--which has just blown up.

Rey freezes where she stands, having to make a split-second decision or else she and Finn are dust. The garbage ship will have to do. Rey's heart pounds as she takes the captain's chair, palms sweating and hands shaking as she urges the ship to life. The engines sputter and roar to life, and she thinks she's got it. But her elation is cut short by the ship dropping off to one side. It's all she can do to get it righted again, and then the chase is on. The scavenger is focused only on her flying, on escaping. Her life, Finn's life, and the Resistance depend on it. She knows the destroyer like the back of her hand, but the First Order pilots are skilled as well. The first ship is blown out of the air, and she thinks they've got this. When the gun gets stuck, only on idea presents itself.

The garbage ship goes into freefall, Finn makes the shot, and Rey hopes against hope that the engines will start again. They do, and they're home free, and euphoria floods her.]

and yeah, i know how bad it must hurt [memory 2: i]

[Rey wakes up in an uncomfortable chair in a cold, sterile room. The man in the mask is sitting in front of her, and a cold dread fills her stomach. She doesn't let it show. Fear is weakness on Jakku, fear will get you killed. Her face is stone, even as her heart beats nearly out of her chest.

The knowledge that he has no idea where Finn and BB-8 are is her only comfort.

She spits out an insult as a defense, but her thoughts take pause when he removes his helmet. He's... not at all what she expected. Younger. Softer, somehow. But the moment he begins to speak, the illusion is wiped away. She hides her terror behind a smartass answer about the droid, but he doesn't bite. He insults her, threatens her. I can take whatever I want.

Rey realizes, fully, how entirely vulnerable she is.

She flinches away from his hand, but realizes he isn't going to touch her. Not physically, anyway. At first, it's like needles--sharp and precise, pricking away at her mind. It's all calculated, planned. He's looking for what hurts her most, and he finds it without even seeming to try. Shame, pain, regret--they all well up until she thinks she'll burst.

And then the needles turn into what can only be described as daggers. He digs into her mind, no longer taking care, no longer caring about breaking her down before he roots around in her psyche. She grits her teeth, tasting blood. Sweat beads on her brow. The only thing that makes her keep fighting is that she can see the strain on his face. This isn't so easy, not when she's pushing back. Minutes pass, feeling like hours, and then finally, there's a moment when she breaks through--into his mind.

Rey doesn't know how this happened, or why. But she sees something there, something he's tried to buried but she's somehow dug up. The words fly from her lips without a thought. His darkest fear.

He retreats from her mind, and she realizes, shocked, that she's claimed a victory she was never meant to have.]

to see me like this, but it gets worse [memory 3: i]

[When she finally regains consciousness, it's to the sound of Finn's screams.

She watches with horror as Kylo Ren, even injured as he is, slashes up Finn's back. Her friend falls into the snow, and she can't tell whether or not he's dead. Fear wells up, but it's soon replaced by determination. They've come so far, they've done so much for the Resistance. This cannot be the end of them. She will not allow it.

Ren turns away, reaching out for the lightsaber. Her lightsaber. She knows that now. So she reaches out too, hoping and praying to whatever power is out there, Force or not, that it will answer her call. The weapon flies to her hand, and she does the only thing that feels right: she ignites it. The weapon is awkward in her hands, so much lighter than her quarterstaff, but it will have to do. She makes the first move, and immediately realizes that she is outmatched. Finn, at least, has all kinds of combat experience. She does not. But she will not give up.

The planet is falling apart around them, and he pushes her back to the edge of a newly-formed cliff. He looms over her, and it's all she can do to keep her guard up. Clarity comes when he mentions the Force--of course. That's the answer. It's the only one she has. Rey closes her eyes, tries to reach for it, to draw on its power, and somehow, it works. There's a newfound determination in her eyes.

Rey pushes him back, each swing holding a new kind of power behind it, one she doesn't understand but clings to desperately. He's tiring, making missteps, and finally, she lands one blow. Then another. Kylo Ren falls before her, and she is intoxicated by the power she feels. Rey stalks around him, teeth bared, merciless. She forces his saber from his hand and immediately swings again, striking him across the face. He lies in the snow, defeated, and for a brief moment, she thinks that she can end it here. She can kill him, and cripple the First Order. The look on his face tells her that he knows she could, too.

But the earth shakes again, and she is snapped from her thoughts. There's no time, she has to go. She has to save Finn.

As she flees, leaving him there to bleed in the cold, she knows they will meet again. And next time, she will not run.]

now you're out here lookin' like regret [wildcard]

[hit me up at watchet if you wanna do anything specific! i didn't post any future prompts to avoid spoilers, but i'm willing to do some closed threads if anyone is interested!]

memory 2

[redshitlord]

Rey-!

[It doesn't matter if the vision has ended. Or that he's not actually present in the room she'd been in. Because all he can think of, seeing that play out, is how much he needs to do something. He's got to. She's the only one who never left him, never gave up on him.]

[What kind of friend is he if he doesn't do something for her?]

[He actually almost runs into a wall in an effort to take a swing at the man in black. It doesn't occur to him that he should not, ever, strike a human being. This is his friend. Someone who means everything these days.]

Get away from her!

[The vision has already faded. But he's standing there, in an effort to protect her, regardless.]

[ventifact]

[When they're finally freed from her vision, Rey is left gasping for breath. She remembers exactly what it had felt like to have Kylo Ren prying around in her mind, can still feel the knives in her mind. She falls to her knees, one hand slamming into the ground for support.

She feels so weak, and tears threaten to fall from her eyes. She hears Sideswipe's yells, realizes he's there, and that somehow, he's seen her memory. She looks up, sees him above her through bleary eyes.]

What... are you doing?

[redshitlord]

[What he's doing, in that moment, is stepping over her. Standing over her. Some weird guy in black isn't going to be as big as he is, right? Maybe that's all he has to do. Just stand up for her. He'll run away.]

[He drops to one knee, so he can fold an arm in front of her.]

It's okay! It's okay, I got this. I got you!

[ventifact]

[He's curled himself around her, a protective cocoon, and it makes her want to cry even more. Nobody since Finn and Han had ever tried to save her, had ever come back for her, and here Sideswipe is, literally shielding her with his body. Rey chokes on a sob, fingers curling into the hard metal floor.

She feels safe, despite the pain she'd just relived.

Crawling forward, she places her hand on his arm, finally finding her voice.]

I know, I know! I'm okay. It's okay. It--it wasn't real. Somehow, I know it wasn't real.

[Not this time, at least.]

[redshitlord]

[It makes perfect sense to him. She's always been there. She's never once disappeared or left him. Not even when the shadows happened and everyone went crazy. When everyone made it clear how little he mattered. Rey had never faltered.]

[How can he do anything less for her?]

How -- okay. Great. So it's not real, but what was that?

[He doesn't sound entirely convinced. At least not enough to drop his guard. Even with her hand on his arm.]

[ventifact]

[Her breathing is ragged, and it takes her a moment to figure things out. Honestly, that had been real--but it had happened well over a year ago. For the life of her, she can't figure out how they'd both been pulled so completely into what was only a memory. It hadn't been the Force--she'd have known if it was. No, this was something else.

Rey takes a deep breath, finally managing to calm herself down. She shifts until she can lean her back against his arm as she sits on the ground.]

It was... a memory. Something that happened to me a long time ago.

[redshitlord]

Who -- who was that guy? Did he just -- he looks like he just walked out of a Spicy Subject!

[He's rambling. He's worried. And thus the words probably don't make any sense to her. But when he's concerned, his lack of filter just gets worse. He can feel her leaning on his arm. That's... a good sign, right? She's talking better.]

[A good thing. Right?]

But I mean. I mean it's cool. He's not here. And it he was? Dude I would totally kick him out a window!

[ventifact]

Kylo Ren.

[She spits the name, but her rage at seeing him again is mixed with a hearty amount of fear. He'd been here once before, back when they'd still been on the Moira. He hadn't stayed long, but she remembers trying to attack him, to end things--but how he'd beaten her, even confused and injured. He'd left her alive, though she couldn't say why.

And despite how unfunny the situation is, she can't help but give a dry, mirthless laugh at his proclamation.]

Maybe not when we're floating in space. Humans need to breathe.

3

[ascendit]

[Nate starts trying to help the second Rey looks outmatched, reaching for his gunblade, reaching for his magic, and instead anchoring to her. In her literal shoes, he keeps trying to lend her his gunblade training, his strength, only giving up when she finds - the Force, he hears within her memory. And then he rides it out.

[He's awestruck when they find themselves on Avagi again.]

That was the coolest - hey, your friend, is Finn okay?

[ventifact]

[When they're pulled out of the memory, her skin is still covered in goosebumps from how cold the Starkiller base had been. She shivers once, breathing hard as she comes down from the high of victory against an opponent who should have killed her. Against Kylo Ren. Just thinking his name makes her grit her teeth until she tastes blood.

Part of her thinks she should have killed him when she had the chance--but she doesn't think she could have done that to Leia, not even after what Kylo had done to Han.

She turns to face Nate, surprised that he thinks the battle was... cool. To her, it had been life-and-death. She'd had to win. The Resistance depended on it. But in hindsight, well. Yeah, it had been pretty cool. But before she can answer he asks about Finn, and her heart skips a beat. She looks away, brows pulled together and lips turned down in a frown.]

He was... in a coma when I left my universe. They said he'd be alright, but--but I have no idea.

[ascendit]

[Sympathetically:] That sucks.

[His older brother Sam had been in jail when he'd left his own universe so long ago. He'd more or less trusted then that the most Sam would have to worry about was getting punched for being a gringo or maybe having his food or smokes stolen; there hadn't been any uncertainty of even life or death like this, only future knowledge from his older self and then his brother showing up years older.]

He could show up here, though. And people have turned out okay here after... some really weird things.

[Like his older self's wife coming back from the dead, but that's probably not comforting. So, a change of subject:] That lightsaber thing. Do you have it here?

[ventifact]

[Rey has to hold back a snort at his words. Of course it sucks. Her best friend, the only person who had ever come back for her, was half-dead on a starship in some other part of the universe.] Yeah, it does.

[At least he gives her a bit of hope to go with the raw feeling in her heart.] I know. Maybe it would be better if he were here. [After all, the First Order wouldn't be hunting them. He could start a new life more easily.

The subject change is welcome, and Rey nods, unclipping the saber's hilt from her belt.] Yeah.

[ascendit]

[Nate nods in reply to the thought of it being better for Finn to be here, and then looks admiringly at the lightsaber.]

I was just thinking: I took bladed weapons classes on my last world, and my teacher didn't know much about my weapon, but she was a swordswoman. You wanna train together? Some of the things she taught us might work better for your lightsaber than they do for my gunblade.

[Although really, even if it turns out he can't show her anything new, Rey is cool and he'd like to hang out.]

[ventifact]

[Her brows raise--this is the first time someone has offered to train her with just her weapon. But honestly, it makes sense. It's practical. Better than trying to train both her Force powers and her combat abilities at once. Slowly, she nods.]

Yeah, I think that would be good.

[ascendit]

[Nate grins.]

Cool. But, uh, do you have something else you could train with? From what I just saw, I bet you'd melt my gunblade.

[Beat.]

We might be able to find a couple of beams of rebar or something; I don't want to cut you if I land a hit any more than I want my gunblade wrecked.

[ventifact]

[She considers for a moment.]

I've got a staff, but that wouldn't help with learning to use a sword. Someone around here has to have something.

memory 2

[seeingscarlet]

[Wanda's gathered through other conversations with various people from Rey's world that there are people there like her. Not entirely, of course, but close enough that they don't recoil in fear from her abilities.

So when Wanda's drawn into the vision, she's not confused and gets straight to struggling. She fights against the intrusion with all the strength of someone who's conquered an Infinity Stone...which only makes it even more intense. She struggles until it's no longer possible to tell which thoughts belong to Rey and which thoughts belong to her.

It's hardly the first time she's lost herself in someone else's mind, though it's no less disorienting when the vision finally clears. Wanda blinks - was she crying? - until her eyes will focus.]

Rey? What...? [Did she do that somehow?] Are you all right?

[ventifact]

[Reliving the memory of Kylo Ren's interrogation is one of the most terrifying moments of Rey's life. And somehow having Wanda there (she doesn't know how, but she can tell that someone else is somehow seeing this as well) just makes it worse. By the time they're released from the vision, she's gasping for breath, falling to one knee just to steady herself. The mental strain of fighting him was so much more draining than she remembers.

Breathing hard, she finally looks to Wanda, trying to figure out what had just happened.]

I... I think so. What--what happened?

[seeingscarlet]

[Wanda hasn't fully shaken off the effects of the vision and isn't the steadiest herself, but she's rushing forward anyway to try to help her friend up.]

I don't know. [It's incredibly rare for someone to be conscious that she's touched their mind or rifled through their memories, though guiltily she remembers that Natasha had reacted something like this when she'd forced her to relive it.

Except she'd been...well, literally minding her own business. It was more like...] It felt like something pulled me in...

[But that's not as important right now as making sure Rey is (relatively) okay.]

Just try to breathe, to focus on here and things you can touch. It will pass.

[ventifact]

[She takes Wanda's advice, using the other woman as a crutch to get steady on her feet. She listens to their breathing, feels her own heart beating, concentrates on the things in her immediate vicinity. A slight nod, and she's reaching up to place a hand on her forehead.]

Yeah, same here.

[Another moment's pause brings forth a thought that seems worth sharing.]

I've... had the same kind of thing happen to me before. Seeing the past. But it was never this intense, even when it was my own past. I never... felt so much.

[seeingscarlet]

Maybe it was more intense because it was both of us? I can...make people see things like that, but normally it is not so much.

[She doesn't confess to that lightly, but if this is in any way a result of her powers going haywire, Rey deserves the explanation.]

Does this happen to you often?

[ventifact]

[That catches Rey off guard, and she just stares at Wanda for a moment. She... didn't know about that. But after a beat, she shakes her head.]

No, I don't think it was you. And it definitely wasn't me.

[She squints around, seeing only wisps of the strange mist that had recently filled the station.]

The last time it happened, I touched something very--meaningful. Powerful. I wasn't doing that this time.

[seeingscarlet]

[For a long moment Wanda almost regrets saying anything.]

No, we were just...walking.

[Just passing through that stuff.

Weird noises aren't uncommon and neither are parts of Avagi not working, but usually that's all it is. Something completely mundane with a rational explanation, even if it does tend to go over Wanda's head. Her scientific education was woefully lacking.]

Do you think something's broken? I don't remember this...smoke? Mist?

[ventifact]

[The scavenger exhales slowly, trying to make up a list of things that could cause a hallucination like that. But once she factors in the fact that the both of them had experienced it at the same time and that it had been so real, she comes up empty.

Slowly, she looks around, searching for some leaking pipe or broken vent.]

Maybe. It could have come from inside the station. We still don't know everything about it. [Including why it had been abandoned in the first place. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and grits her teeth.] I think we should get back to the suite.