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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i. fight the world eater they said, it'll be fun they said — closed to rosinante

One moment, he's in the middle of the fight. Another, and he's... not. He can hear the flies, the insistent buzzing, he can smell the cloying, metallic blood, almost like the air itself is unable to be rid of the scent. And there — the creaking sound of wheels, one-two-one-two, slowly but surely moving.

Law can't breathe.

This can't be.

There's shouting — he wonders who it is, because no one should be there left to shout. Everyone is gone — he feels a pressure on his chest, and he doesn't know if it's panic or the weight of corpses that's preventing him from drawing breath.

He turns towards the sound, or tries to; he knows he must have yelled in pain but he can't hear the sound from the buzzing. Slowly, the two overlap: he can see the walls, just as he can see his home, can hear Cora-san's voice just as he can hear the wheels turning, still.

Faintly, he realizes he must be bleeding.

And yet... all he can manage to say, when he has enough air to do so, is,

"Cora-san... don't —

Don't take me back there." Because he is here and he is in Flevance and they both exist, at once, overlapping in the hazy mess of his mind, and even if it's just in his head... he can't go back. He won't. Don't let them take him.

ii. it's like the injured treating the injured — closed to elektra

[ it's only once he's stopped the bleeding and stitched his wound up well enough that he's 99% sure it won't just open again if he moves a little that he makes it to where elektra is; he asked soldat to look after those with smaller injuries, knowing that he wouldn't be able to treat but only the few more serious ones, before he'd be forced to rest. even now, he's mainly running on adrenaline and sheer force of will; his wound throbs, still, and he's careful with his movements, enough so to actually shambles himself next to her to avoid walking.

maybe it's a weird sight, a guy with a torn-up shirt and blood all over his chest and arms suddenly appearing next to her, staring at her with intensity. ]

Your arm. If you want it to heal well, it needs stitches, now.

[ what's that about introductions?? who needs them. he gets straight to business. ]

iii. two days laterrrrr — open

[ for those coming back from helix station, they may notice that while law is certainly there with them on the submarine... his seat has been weirdly assembled so that it leans back, and though he rests on it, he's clearly far from conscious. and this is the way he remains, near-comatose there on the submarine, for two whole days after they make it back to the surface. in case anyone thinks of moving him and isn't strongly discouraged to do so by rosinante, they'll find there's a note stuck on the chair next to him, written in handwriting that clearly belongs to a doctor that reads:

Don't move — wound opening leads to death.

and he'd rather avoid that, thanks.

but on the evening of the second day after returning from helix station, law wakes up... and in short bursts of shambles, makes it back from the submarine. feel free to see him on the way, stopping at certain intervals because using his powers so soon after being so badly wounded is a whole strain on its own... or run into him when he finally makes it back to the invincible, heading to get a cup of coffee before going back to the room he shares with rosinante and mary. ]

iv. wildcard

[ u know the drill! hmu with anything and everything, no need to ask, or if you want to plan out something specific shoot me a pm or holla at me on plurk @ celen! ]

Edited 2020-07-21 20:22 (UTC)

Whatever Law is saying don't to, he doesn't much care right now. He'll care in a second. Rosinante's priority, above all other things, is to get him out. "Out of the way!" he snaps at those behind him focusing on their shared enemy, at those who might rush forward to try and help. Others can finish this fight, Rosinante just wants Law to live to see the end of it.

There's a balance to be struck here, between quick and careful. It's a good thing he's big enough to carry Law easily, to try and keep him level in his arms while his blood spills around them on the floor. Once just outside the room, out of that thing's life-eating gaze, he sets Law down next to the wall, then both their lanterns beside, and tries to keep calm - another war, here, between a lifetime of training to handle crises in combat, and the sheer panic over the severity of Law's wound.

"What do you need? Tell me-" he gasps, and shrugs off the pack he'd brought along. Mostly filled with things like ammo, honestly, but whatever first-aid supplies Law would have put in here before they stepped into the submarines, whatever's left after his own various injuries from before, he should still have it all now.

Law's vaguely aware of being moved — but the sensations mix, memory and reality, and he blinks up at Cora, eyes looking at something that isn't there. He's barely breathing; not because of the wound, though. In fact, he barely seems to realize how badly he's hurt, or how badly it hurts.

Instead, he lifts his hand, grips Cora's wrist, his fingers slipping because of the blood.

"The corpses... I can't breathe," he says, barely more than a whisper. "If I die, do you think they'll burn me with them?"

(The part of his mind that is fully aware of what is happening is calmly cataloguing his state: lingering hallucinations, a wound that's barely missed his vital organs, deep enough to cause severe bleeding that's already leading to light-headedness; potentially life-threatening if not treated immediately. No chance of blood transfusion.

He needs to snap out of it, and fast.

If only he could just manage that.)

Slowly, Rosinante's eyes widen. It brings him back to the fever dreams - those rare times when Law was so bad off as a kid he could barely stay conscious, toward the end. The muttering in his sleep spoke more of the horrors the child had seen than anything he'd ever said directly, and what he already knew of Flevance was bad enough.

Think, Rosinante. Law is losing blood fast. He wants to press something against it to stem the flow, but there's so much that might not help. At least Law's grip feels solid enough for now. That's probably a good sign, if it lasts.

"Law," he says firmly. "Law, you're here. With me. You're not going to die."

That's something he insists on. He looks away for a second to dig through his bag again, one-handed now. Cloth bandages, okay, not super helpful immediately but he sets them out. Antiseptic, that's probably important. Smells like -

blood, like a thing freshly-slaughtered

That's something he's going to worry about later. He pops the lid of the antiseptic open and waves it past Law's nose, hoping the burn from the vapor will snap him back into something resembling wakefulness, then extracts his hand so he can pull off his shirt, because if Law can't fix himself at least he can shove that against the gaping injury and try to buy him time.

This time, the hallucination works for him instead of against — he takes a gulp of breath, halfway towards hyperventilating, and the smell of antiseptic fills his nose and lungs, strong and sharp. It's jarring enough to push the part of him that's been fighting for control over the hallucination to the forefront, and his grip on Cora's arm tightens.

"Cora-san —" There's surprise there, eyes wide, like he can't quite believe what he's seeing.

Then Law blinks, gaze focusing, slowly.

"So... that's what happened. Shit," he mutters, because the world eater must have trapped him in a hallucination like the green eyes, leaving the real him unable to defend himself. Promptly, uncaring of the way his wound feels like it's on fire, he grabs the antiseptic and just pours it on the jagged edge of flesh and blood.

Hissing, he lets go of Cora's wrist and instead motions with it.

"Kikoku," is all he says, and while he could probably shambles it to him, he's trying to conserve energy here.

"Fuck," he breathes, as if reacting to Law's own pain. Good gods, dude, that antiseptic looks like it hurt. But at least he's here, now. Present, in a way he wasn't a second ago.

Kikoku - right, Law mentioned that at some point, that's the name of his sword, right? Rosinante hadn't kept a close eye on it when dragging Law out of the fight but now he wastes no time in scrambling to his feet. He'd just about got his shirt off, but tugs it back down as he winds around the corner and back into the portal room, where somehow the presence of the world eater trapped at the far end feels even more oppressive than before.

There, on the floor, is the sword. He tunes everything else out as if the fight isn't even going on in the same room. Just grabs it up and swings right back out, then skids to his knees beside Law. "Here. What else?"

He tries to focus on his surroundings, on the sounds of the fight still going, on the throb of the wound — everything he knows to be real. If he closes his eyes... there's no guarantee that when he opens them again, it'll be to the same sight.

As soon as Cora is back, Law grabs Kikoku, and gestures to the contents of the first-aid kit he packed before they left.

"I need to stitch this," he says, gritting his teeth. "If I lose much more blood, I'll need a transfusion." And just trying to find someone with the same blood type as him would likely take too long.

So the gesture means: get me a needle and suture. (Absently, with his free hand, he swats at the air, at the flies that only exist in his head. He needs them to be quiet, for this.)

Then, without wasting any time, he creates a Room that covers only just them... and slices towards himself. The side of him that isn't bleeding out comes off cleanly: a thin piece of his own skin that he then moves with a flick of his fingers to stick over most of the wound, covering it and halting the blood flow temporarily.

.... it's probably good no one is watching this, because it's sure to look creepy as hell.

"There," Law sighs, slumping slightly, "that should buy me some time."

Without hesitation or even too much fumbling, Rosinante retrieves the supplies and passes them over. The rest, he watches with complete fascination.

Horror, probably, is what he should be feeling. This is Law, trying not to die, carving himself up so he can patch his own injury. For some awful reason it briefly puts Rosinante in mind of bacon but he recoils and rejects the thought. Probably just really hungry after everything they've been through. He'll make sure they both feast on whatever they like once they're at the surface and Law is safe.

"Good. I'm staying with you," he says. The fight isn't over, but he's not going back in there and leaving Law alone. Or, well, with people who aren't him, since there are others surely willing to help.

"You think you can drink something?" he offers as he turns to reach into it again. There's still water in his bag. And, well, juice boxes.

Luckily, he's well practiced when it comes to operating on himself — it's only a few more seconds until he threads the needle with the suture and gets to work. He moves as quickly as he can without aggravating the wound; even if the blood flow has temporarily been stopped, the wound itself is still there.

He breathes; the needle pierces his skin.

"In a moment." Maybe. He probably should... but he can't stop to do anything else before he's finished with this. Little by little, he peels back the layer of skin he placed on top of the wound, exposing it, blood soaking his hands and the floor as he keeps stiching.

About halfway through, his head swims, and black spots dance in his eyes. Law jerks his head up, looking at Cora, and he can't help the way the panic that grips him bleeds into his voice.

"Shit. I can't — don't let me pass out, whatever happens. If I do, I don't know if —"

If he'll wake at all... or if he does, where it will be.

"Do whatever it takes... to keep..." And then he sways and slumps forward. Not unconscious, yet, but not far from it.

"Law!" he shouts, jerked right into that state of panic. He can easily finish Law's sentence in his mind - both of them, but more concerningly, the first. If he's out, he might not wake up again. Might not make it.

The antiseptic trick won't work a second time since Law already dumped the whole thing onto himself. Shaking him by the shoulders seems like a horrible idea that will just make all of this worse. So he settles instead for pushing his hat aside so he can grip a fistful of black hair and pull his head back up straight, hard enough so it probably stings. He can't bring himself to slap him but hell, that'll be the next thing if this doesn't work. And if that fails, maybe he can finish the stitching himself - he's sure had to do that for his own injuries before, though his hands are far clumsier than Law's.

"Law, wake up. You have to stay with me," he pleads.

trafalgar law | closed prompts + ota | will match format

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wildcard - a thousand years late

that's fine though!! don't u worry

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im sorry he's such a gremlin

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and then work killed me this week... rip