logsinthenight | EVENT CONCLUSION: BEYOND THE SEA

Entry tags:

EVENT CONCLUSION: BEYOND THE SEA

characters: everyone!!
location: in the helix station under the lake, and back to the surface! (hopefully)
date/time: july 19th ish
content: After successfully exploring the Helix Station, characters have all they need to deal with the world eater stuck in the portal down below. How are they going to do it? Click and find out!
warnings: injury, body horror, monster horror, blood, maiming, you know, the usual

game plan.

Based on the votes, the consensus is quite clear: it's time to see if a creature that can destroy worlds can be killed. Characters are well armed from the finds in the test lab. Having recovered Weaver from the R&D wing, they have her assistance in attempting to use the MK VIII to assist with this task. The Key Extraction group found strong potions that might help to pacify the creature long enough to fight it. They have all they can hope to in this impossible fight — the idea is simple. Open the doors, distract the monster with brute force and attempt to pacify it with the narcotics they've recovered, while Weaver does what she can to get the drone restarted and hopefully in place for a killing blow.

If things go badly, though, the team has all agreed on a Plan B. If the tides start to turn, then the group will finish what Alastair started and shunt that bad boy back into space. It's not possible for them to change the trajectory, the World Eater will end up back where it started. However, it won't be in their lake anymore, so that's still some sort of a win. As Weaver is controlling the drone remotely, she will be the one in the control room, and will run the reversal routine if the attack begins to fail. Cao Pi is in charge of the radio to call if things start going south. Hopefully someone taught him how to use it!

boss battle.

Javert, Fitz, and Law (armed with a key Weaver provided him), with a coordinated use of the lockdown keys, manage to open the Portal Bay. Even with power restored, it is practically pitch dark in the room. It's as if the World Eater trapped in the portal manages to suck in and contain any light that dares get too close. They can hardly see the monster before they brave entering the room, though as they walk deeper into the darkness the group can see its shadowy form lodged in the portal. It's trapped around the torso, with only a small part of it visible to the group. Impossibly huge, and perhaps somewhat reminiscent of something that might have resembled a green eyed spirit, once, though it has started growing new extremities and limbs, as well as a few more sets of eyes. It rouses as they enter, and just looking at the World Eater manages to send an unspeakable wave of unease, anxiety, and hopelessness through the group.

Gregor, Stone and Jill throw the fragile bottles of sedative. They crack and settle on the skin and wide empty eyes of the monster. While it's clear it did not incapacitate the World Eater, the mental effects lessen and its movements seem to slow.

With that, it's a free for all, all members of the party armed to the teeth and determined to fight for all they have. The weapons recovered by Cao Pi, Link, and Reiju prove especially useful, though as they cut and slash, the World Eater seems to recover new limbs, new tendrils, seem to generate at random. Like a hydra, every piece they cut down seems to restore itself. Braving closer to its torso leaves the creature leaking toxic black blood over the floor. Touching it proves it is bitterly caustic, easily burning through rubber and clothing and flesh alike. It's a bitter, ugly battle, and not without damage to the fighters themselves.

The fight seems doomed to fail, even with the World Eater slowed and mostly immobilized. It's more than just slashes, heavy hits that can send bodies flying across the room. A flash of attention can leave an attacker immobilized, dark swirling terror clawing through them strong enough that they might try to hurt themselves or their company instead of the monster itself. Worse yet, any time the World Eater seems to lull, it seems to draw the living energy from any lantern nearby, rousing itself and dampening the fighter that might have been feverishly fighting a second before.

However, with the distraction provided, Weaver successfully reactivates the MK VIII. It sounds much like a giant sized bumble bee, until it rockets through the air toward the monster. The beast manages to swat the drone away, once, and for a moment all hope seems to be lost. Until the device lurches in the air and zooms right back to its task, landing on the monstrosity and scuttling deftly over the surface of the World Eater in attempt to find a weak spot. The battle swells, attempting to keep the World Eater from clawing the drone from its body before the drone has a chance to work properly.

It feels as if it takes hours for the drone to locate a weak point, though the reality is it doesn't take much longer than a handful of minutes. The sickening churn of flesh, bone and blood resonates in the room as the drone buries successfully inside the monster. Those lingering for the fight aren't spared, as even as the device whirls inside of it, the World Eater keeps up the fight, reaching for and lashing out at whoever remains close enough. There's no running for cover, as the fight rages until the very last.

There's no warning for when it happens. The World Eater cries out, a terrifying bellow that echoes throughout the station. With the cry comes a flash of bold light, brighter than any of them have seen since arriving in Beacon. The light builds, pushes outward, and the explosion deafens suddenly and completely. The room is bathed in light and anyone in the Portal Room is thrown to the sidelines, bouncing like ragdolls off the sturdy metal walls. The implosion paired with the light existing inside the creature floods through the room, likely to leave characters blinded and deafened for a few seconds after.

However, as they come to their senses, they find the World Eater felled, lying in multiple bloody burnt pieces. Troubling, some of them do seem to keep twitching and moving. Still, it seems to be over. The fight was not without consequences, and certainly not won easily, but it was won all the same.

return to the surface.

With the beast felled, and the party much worse for the wear, the group collects back in the submarines which have thankfully had a chance to charge this time around. The ride isn't exactly fun, but there's no alarm messages or rides in pitch darkness, at least. Even if there's still a good chance that characters might suffer decompression sickness, dizziness, queasiness, and headaches as they head back topside.

It's a battered and bruised group that makes it back to the docks. Plenty will need medical attention, and there might even be some with broken lanterns that will need to be taken to the lab and repaired immediately. Those that died in the fight will awaken in 3 days, however, there might be some consequences when they revive.

Those that are in better shape have a lot to share. What they've seen, what happened, and what should happen next. They've had a rough go of it, characters on the surface have their own oddities to share, too. There's a new guy in town, after all... And boy does he have some ideas and opinions.

ooc notes.

For refreshers on the first part of this event, please see the first event post! The results of this event are based on the voting found here. If your character was involved in the portal room fight, we have provided a comment for injury rolls here. If your character died in the fight, please head over to the Death Page to report it. Thanks for taking part in the first major event of our Next Night! It was quite a ride but we hope you had as much fun as we did!

Feel free to use this post for action tags set during the fight, as well as meeting up and sharing information with the others topside. As of this event, new NPC Weaver will be ashore with her submarine to offer her aide to the residents of Beacon after their help with the Helix Station. Keep an eye out for more from her soon! She will be staying at the docks in a submarine. If anyone has a cot a bunny can borrow, hit a girl up...

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"You might say it is almost as though death is not supposed to happen more tha'once."

Ok. He was mostly done. Though now his scolding will simply manifest as laidback sarcasm.

"Do you need anything?"

Yes, sir.

[Soldat takes his own half-step aside to let Javert continue on his own path, while they turn to continue their own patrol, with a lighter step, at least.]

"Ah, it's okay. It's gotta be some ridiculously big number, anyway," Soldat says with half a smile. "Better for everybody if we don't know for sure."

Their piece of cake might be halfway gone, already. It's pretty good, and they, as always, are starving.

They do pause to consider her last statement, though, and add, "Rather keep track of how long it's been since I got here. Since I got free."

Stone grunts and ducks his head to butt lightly against Ashford's shoulder, before going back to the simple lean. "None of us are supposed to be here, Ashford. You know I died of old age, before waking up here? Only person here who did, as far as I can tell." He'd been ready, finally, after generations and generations of children come and gone... and then here he was, "alive" again.

He huffs a little sigh, turns the lean into an arm all the way around Ashford's shoulders as they reach the church door and steps down. "Just get me back to the inn. I wouldn't mind a real nap, and not a being-dead-nap. And something to eat." That will probably help the nausea, right?

"Think we'd have already missed it, but maybe we start celebrating the day we turned up in Beacon. For you anyway, close as any to a birthday."

Of sorts. Not like there's a wild variety of provable dates to seize upon.

Defectors. What a term -- what a term for either of them. Sanji, sprung from his cell by her and discarded by Judge; Reiju dead in battle, no one bothering to notice that she was in trouble before she drowned. Could either of them really be said to have defected?

But if Law doesn't know about the circumstances of Sanji's leaving, she has no need to enlighten him. "You could put it that way," she says instead, simply. "There's certainly no going back for me, is there?"

Your second option is to put in requests with the team at the lab. You'll get something, just, maybe not exactly what you wanted.

( as they worked on the portal, they'd hopefully be able to refine the system to get exactly what was requested and needed, all the time — instead of just some of the time. until then, though, they had to make do with what they had.

as for whether he could hold his own... fair enough question, and he's not actively offended by it. )

I'll be fine. ( that's a lot of confidence for a guy that recently died... . . .. ... but hey, he can at least hold his own. usually. ) You'd trust a blind man's navigation but not his ability to defend himself?

( it's never going to ease her conscience, no doubt, but Matt wouldn't hold any malfunction against her, or any other members of the lantern repair team. for starters, not even Dr. Solis herself had been impeccable in lantern repairs — so even by the highest standards, the chance of error was high. beyond that, he knows that nobody is an expert at the complicated science required to repair lanterns.

if something is a bit wrong, well... he'll learn to adjust. so far, a dizzy spell upon waking doesn't even seem like a particularly bad consequence. it'll take more time to realize the worst of it. )

Elektra. ( it's said with a tired, quiet resignation. if the roles were reversed, would he have done any different? probably not, but that doesn't mean he needs to approve of her spending ... days? how long has it been? — holding a hopeless vigil at the church. ) I suppose we've got plenty to go over. How long has it been since you surfaced?

( how long has she been cooped up in here, is another way of phrasing that. )

"Not yet. It was September, so we're not quite there yet." Almost, though. Maybe they ought to do something for that, too, hmm. The spirits had an anniversary for the whole round, after the last reset, but probably won't care about individuals. "But you're right. Probably closest to a birthday I'm ever going to get."

"I wouldn't say ever," Misty notes gently, and pairs the point with a delicate nudge, "But it's a very…fitting one, I think. You were almost a different person entirely when you showed up. Weren't a person, or-- I mean, that's a whole thing, but you've come so far since then. I'm really proud of you, and it'd be nice to have a you-day to look forward to too."

Enough people have been tossing "person" around for long enough that they don't even twitch, just gives her a bit of a look for the slip. Since she corrects herself, though, that don't say anything. (Not like you should, anyway. Sarge. She asked you not to! ... right, that's right, she did. Ugh. No. You said it, Asset.)

The proud statement melts the last of the annoyance into a sigh and a sheepish head-duck. "Yeah, okay, I'm not quite what I was then, anymore." They'll give her that. "But I still don't think I'm likely to remember any birthdates. We'll just stick with September and leave it at that, yeah?"

[ she knows that he wouldn't, and that she'd probably view anything that went wrong if their positions were reversed the same way. it doesn't mean she'll feel any better once they realize the true consequence. ]

Matthew. [ she sounds equally as tired and resigned, but firm. he can disapprove all he wants, he's not even the first to admonish her for how she's been handling things and taking care of herself. there's not exactly much she can do to reverse her actions (or inactions) of the past three days, and he's right, they've got a lot to go over. ]

Three days. I went to the labs first, then to pick up this one. [ she gives treeby a pat on the shoulder, who turns to her and nuzzles their cheek against her hand. ] The man who fixed me up stopped by in between. [ see, a doctor's seen her, she's fine. ]

Edited 2020-08-21 02:41 (UTC)

"That suits me fine," she agrees, brightening proportionately to the sheepishness on display. "Celebrate growth and not numbers. You're gonna need to pick a flavor for me to work with, you need cake too."

Maybe ice cream too, if she feels ambitious. Of course she will-- a safer bet than cake anyway, without the number of trial runs she's envisioning.

"And then it won't be too far to Thanksgiving, we're rounding on holidays again," she notes, with some surprise. "Hard to feel like summer's happened at all without the sun."

It's warmer, but not at all what she would call hot.

Soldat gives a startled little twitch at the phrase "rounding on holidays again", because they don't have gifts worked out for anyone yet! Christmas can't be that soon! Are they behind??

Then the panic gets drowned under remembering what day it is. And the point their fork at Misty with a mock-irritated expression. "It's four months away. Misty. Gonna give me a damn heart attack. I'm not ready for Christmas yet."

"Your new birthday in September, Halloween in October, Thanksgiving in November, Christmas in December," she rattles off in reply, barely withholding a laugh. "I don't mean just the winter ones, it's the holiday season."

And she's twirling her fork right back.

"Cute that you'd be riled about it, though. Don't stress too much about gifts when that time comes, okay? It's about the people."

( they've been out on patrols together hundreds of times, maybe more times than can be counted. that's more than enough time to get a sense of exactly the sort of man Javert is. no nonsense, determined, more worried about the well being and safety of others than he easily lets on.

it's new, though, for his concern to be so obvious. usually because Matt is more than able to hold his own. it does hit a bit differently to have someone visibly and openly worried for him, even though Matt is more than aware what is going on with him.

he definitely would argue about being carried somewhere, and Javert telling him he can't is just dismissing the lawyer in him. either way, he shakes his head. ) I know. This has been happening since I recovered. I'm not sure what causes it, just some... defect, or... ( he grimaces, keeling heavily to one side as the lantern dims especially low. ) But it passes. When the light comes back, it'll stop. Just... help me find a place to sit down.

( because if he falls over, he really doesn't want to take his friend with him. )

"But the people reacted so nice when they got the gifts," Soldat says, quietly, looking vaguely embarrassed. "It was. It felt good. You know? It was some of the earliest good things."

They want to feel that again. To make people smile like that again. Be that happy because of something they did.

Christ, he's cute.

"You know people feel that a lot around you, right-? You're thoughtful, you're helpful, you're doing things for people year-round. Holiday's just another time to show it off." People must statistically be smiling quite often at things he's done, or at least contributed to. But she smiles, encouraging still. "It's a good tradition to keep up, but don't think it's the only chance you've got."

If there's nothing at the hospital, I'll do that.

[ said with a nod that can be interpreted to be some sort of a thank-you.

at the question, law huffs out a breath, amused. ]

Not everyone needs eyes to see. But you need to know how to fight to defend yourself.

"That could be said for all of us. It doesn't mean you wouldn't want to go back."

Said with his eyebrow raised — she's trying very hard to avoid saying anything definitive, isn't she? And he has little patience for that.

"I don't really care if you defected, or if you didn't. As you say, none of that matters here. But if you start causing trouble, if you do anything to Cora-san... or Pudding-ya, I won't hesitate to make sure there's not enough of you or your lantern left to bring you back."

You're not entirely wrong, [ he says wryly, because he had lived for years, all the while waiting for his own death, his condition worsening... but that had only lasted for three years, not sixteen.

he focuses then on the wounds, mouth opening to tell her to relax when she does, on her own, and law looks at her with some grudging respect. ]

... looks like you're no stranger to wounds like this.

"I already said no! Are you always this much of a mother hen?"

Yep, there it is, the growl — but it's rather difficult to take it seriously, given how he's still munching on the bacon.

"I was a Warlord," he says with a smirk and a roll of his eyes, the meaning clear — as if the World Government would appoint someone who is weak.

And then, with a wry tone, "Besides, isn't saying that the same as patting your own back?" He knows full well he would never have made it to who he is now without Cora-san... so he doesn't really mind, because he made it more than clear in Dressrosa that he's aware of owing literally everything to the man.

[ she notices the look and returns it with a gruff chuckle. ]

What gave me away, my demeanor or the scars? [ aside from the ones on the arm he's attending, there's one on her neck and several on her opposite arm. and those are just the ones that are currently visible to him. ]

Clearly that's a joke, or at least, Rosinante takes it as one, and laughs it off. Compliments? Nah, he doesn't deserve them.

"All I did was give you the tools, Law, you're the one who learned to use them," he says. Law could easily have done so many other things with that new life of his, that newfound compassion and strength. He's the one who made the choices, in the end.

"But you're welcome," he teases with a smirk, because he doesn't want this to get too mushy, nor does he want Law to really understand the depths of his self-deprecation.

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EVENT CONCLUSION: BEYOND THE SEA

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