EVENT CONCLUSION: BEYOND THE SEA

[nextnightmods]

EVENT LOG:
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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Comments

[callada]

Rosinante smiles back and nods. He can hear the thanks even if it's not voiced, and so he replies in kind with a nonverbal you're welcome, then passes Law his lantern and gestures to the open hatch. "After you."

Which is partly so he can help Law out if need be, but he's not going to lead him by the hand or anything. He gets frustrated enough when people try to help him up when he falls, and he can see Law wants to stand and walk on his own. He's just there behind him to lend an arm if Law looks unstable. But it's also out of practicality - he's too tall to even want to push past Law anyway.

And it turns out it's him who faceplants onto the pier when trying to exit, which just figures. A new scrape on his chin and palms, but he shakes it off with a grunt and stands back up, feet now on the wooden planks.

"I didn't really get a chance to say it earlier, but Law - you're amazing," he says, grinning as he straightens his own lantern and the strap of the bag carrying his stuff. "The way you fight? With your devil fruit and that sword? Never seen anything like it before."

[countershocks]

His first few steps are indeed somewhat unstable, the unavoidable vertigo after lying down for so long, but he makes it out of the submarine without issues... unlike someone else.

Law looks back at the sound of Cora falling over, and simply sighs, shaking his head. Some things truly never change... and for some reason, his clumsiness is weirdly endearing.

Adjusting his hat, he can't help but smile a little — he's not really the type to care much about compliments in general... but Cora-san is different, in this as in everything else.

Then, with a matter-of-fact tone, "That was nothing."

Because it's true. It was him at low strength; it's not like he could go all out, what with them being underwater and all.

[callada]

"Well, your 'nothing' is amazing," he insists, laughing, as he waves a hand to gesture at Law from head to toe while they walk. "Can't believe you went from a scrawny, shrimpy kid to this."

Except he can, obviously, because Law is brilliant and strong and he absolutely deserves to be. It's the best contrast in the world, comparing him when they first met to who he is now, and he's in awe of the transformation even though he played a large part in making it happen.

[countershocks]

"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.

[callada]

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.

[countershocks]

There's a part of him that wants to argue back — in his opinion, what he did is far more than just give him the tools, but this is neither the time nor the place to try and convince him of just how grateful Law really is.

He sighs and keeps walking, glancing back to see that Cora follows... and doesn't fall over again.

"Did I miss much?" While he was unconscious, that is.

[callada]

"No, nothing important. Everyone needed to rest up after that fight. Weaver's not settling in, she wants to move back to the station, and she's asking for help in making it livable again. But otherwise... no."

His birthday, but. That's not a big deal. He got drunk and stumbled right back to the submarine. Discovered eventually with some certainty that he craves raw flesh and nothing else, but he's not comfortable enough with that himself to even think about it right now much less bring it up.