logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: WHEN THE NIGHT IS OVER

Entry tags:

EVENT LOG: WHEN THE NIGHT IS OVER

characters: everyone.
location: Everywhere
date/time: March 15
content: The World Eater arrives.
warnings: probable violence, gore, death; mark threads as needed

Everyone here was brought to Beacon for this one reason: to try and find a way to strike back at the thing that threatens to end the world entirely. You've spent the entire time learning, preparing, and for many, making this dead world your home. You've made friends with each other but also with the forest spirits, you've discovered much of the town's past and have set out to ensure its future.

This is the moment that every decision, and every person, shall finally come together, or be lost forever.

i feel the weather change

At the missile silo, Weaver and those helping her have been busy for over a week straight hammering scrap metal into place, wiring the controls to the launch system, and running new cables from the silo to Solis' lab to get the place set back up onto the Beacon power grid - a feat possible only because several batteries were recovered from the power station some time ago. Disassembled drone pieces lie scattered for easy repurposing, and networked tablets allow easy network chatter between the silo and anyone at the Helix Station who has offered to observe from the lake.

In the distance, those around the missile silo begin to hear an eerie droning hum. Weaver's eyes go wide and her ears lay back against her head. "It's here," she says with a shudder, then quickly bounds over to the control system. "That's the sound that the lighthouse used for the reset. If I don't need you down here, get up top, and get ready to fight."

At ground level above, the snarls and warbled growls of spirits call back, but immediately, there's rapid movement in the trees and some of those calls are cut short with a gurgle. Masked figures with green eyes dart through the brush, giving the silo a wide berth as they move in to fight, but those who would be allies must be outnumbered as aggressive forest spirits, both green-eyed and otherwise, break through into the clearing and seek out the people of Beacon. Their many-eyed leader has been kept occupied, but these ones are still looking to pick off every creature with a lantern. It's time to stand and fight before they make it to those still below, who are preparing to aim and launch the largest bomb Weaver has ever built. If this wasn't difficult enough, the green-eyed spirits are up to their usual tricks - you may find yourself suddenly fighting someone who looks just like your best friend, or perhaps your own animated, dismembered body - a cruel vision of what might soon come to pass. They are fast, they are ruthless, and only with the effects of the potions will you be able to shake off these horrible visuals, so make good use of them.

i hear the river say your name

Those at Helix notice it first - the droning hum that had first been noticed as a minor vibration in the hull swells in volume until it can be heard throughout the station. Thanks to the tablet network, they hear when those at the silo do that the sound is the speech of the World Eater - and it must be very, very close.

Inside the station there's little means to act directly against it; however, you'll find yourselves plenty occupied anyway. The little spirits (and the large corpse-wearer, shrouded in decaying bodies) that had previously been docile and had tucked themselves into hidden corners in the station scurry boldly out of hiding, with teeth and claws at the ready to devour and dismember anyone they find. And proximity to the World Eater once again has its effects - you may feel nauseous, disoriented, or despairing; you may find that it's hard to breathe, that your fingernails fall off their digits, or that sabotaging your fellows is the only way to survive. The potions help substantially, even if the effects aren't completely removed, so drink up, stand your ground, and keep an eye on those tablets to help let those at the silo know when to fire, and if they've succeeded.

Because eventually the creature itself is visible against the night sky over the lake, a void in the place where stars should be, and that means it's close enough to be targeted.

i watch the birds fly by

Soon, Beacon Square and the harbor as well as the general reaches of town become a dangerous place to be, but perhaps you feel you need to brave the run - to get supplies, to check on your friends, to flee and hide as spirits emerge to do the World Eater's bidding. There aren't many, thankfully - for those who care commanded by the many-eyed spirit are busy fighting those at the silo and the green-eyed allies, and nearly every friendly spirit seems to have gone missing. But alone and in the open without anyone to back you up if you need help is a frightening prospect, made even worse when you see the distant figure silhouetted over the lake, vastly taller than anything else you've seen since arriving.

The disruption from all the fighting must have delayed the launch, or perhaps something else went wrong. Just looking at the World Eater from a distance creates a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as it takes one long stride after another, drawing nearer to the town and singing that eerie song that drives the spirits to hunt you and to destroy everything you've built.

And then, suddenly, you hear something else. A counter-drone, a song like birds, like cicadas, like howling wolves and the strange whistle-warbles of the spirits, all merging into one. It's sung from every tree all around, and it drowns out that jarring hum of death.

The spirits so bent on drawing blood and viscera slow, and listen.

The World Eater slows, one foot raised into the air, then swings its head, seeking the source and finding it everywhere. And that's when it happens.

At the missile silo, Weaver has been successfully defended, but just barely. One of the spirits got to her before it could be killed, and a horrible gash has ripped through her clothing and the fur of her back. Her lantern is flickering desperately when she presses the button, and the makeshift missile roars and arcs into the sky.

From the square or the lakeshore, or for those watching monitors at Helix, the streak of vapor from the bomb's tail vanishes somewhere high above. And then moments later, it drops - landing not on the World Eater, but into the lake at its feet.

Rather than a blinding light, the tablet monitors go fully black as an intense roar and rush of water fills the audio channel, and the Helix Station shakes horribly, creaking and groaning as the rush of water from elsewhere in the lake strains every element of its construction. The noise and the confusing darkness persist for several minutes. It feels much longer.

But eventually, the darkness diminishes as stars shine through the mist and ongoing falling rain. There's still a tall column of water vapor in the air over the lake - it stays for nearly half an hour, slowly dissipating as powerful waves smash into the shore, triggering a small series of tsunamis that swallow the harbor and threaten, but never fully inundate, Bonfire Square.

The towering void has buckled where it stood, and only a few pitch-black spines jut out from the surface of the lake before they are slowly swallowed by its returning waters.

i see an emerald in the sky

When the spirits stop singing, the rain persists. Clouds billow up into the sky over the lake, and fall back down. The droplets are warm - warmer than the frigid air, than the ice and snow that surrounds the town.

The damage has been limited - most of the buildings still stand, for there were too few spirits that sought to attack, and those that did now sit in place or pace around curiously as if they hadn't just tried to tear out your intestines and dismantle The Invincible - which, actually, hasn't even seen a single scratch, as suits its optimistic name.

Many of Beacon's people may be injured, and many may be dead. But those whose lanterns still burn bright now find themselves in a slowly thawing world, as the deep and endless winter seems ready to launch into a new spring. Cautious and curious, spirits watch from the trees, then point out at the lake and chitter with excitement.

There is light in the water. It funnels upward from the foam left by the bomb, and with each ever-gentler wave, it touches the shore. And in a few tiny patches of sand, sheltered between rocks, green grasses begin to sprout.

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Drop your character in here, and optionally feel free to describe where they are (silo, helix, wherever). Results will be RNGed. Death will be possible for all of these, but if there are any specific limits otherwise you'd like to clarify, please do so!

Any threads posted under this header will have mod-controlled spirits. While it is possible that some spirits will help, expect that most are here to kill you, so opt-in at your own risk.

Roll for Link (location: Silo)

The pointy-eared warrior will be out there with sword and board trying to protect other people at the silo from the spirits.

Rosinante will be among those fighting to defend the silo.

I will cross my fingers for his sake, but let the dice fall as they will.

Pudding is topside at the silo, but as close to the entrance (and Weaver and her team) as possible. She's using a combination of her revolver and Flashback to try to keep the spirits at bay from as much distance as she can manage.

And he's doing just that, protecting someone else, when he notices an unnatural whistle of wind. It seems to permeate his senses, throwing off his ability to hear clearly, and the sound itself comes from no obvious location. Rather, it's everywhere - and briefly he wonders how much worse it would be if those potions weren't so readily available.

He spots movement, suddenly, and turns with his shield up. Skirting along the surface of the snow is a spirit that's paper-thin and paper-white, and glitters subtly more in the lantern light than the snow around it. It rears up once it has been spotted just feet from Link and throws itself at him with a horrible hiss, trying to wrap its body around him and suffocate him. It's much harder to cut than paper, as when Link drives his sword through it as it surrounds him, its body parts and re-forms behind the blade as it passes. It grapples for his head while Link tries to wedge the shield and the flat of his sword under it, hoping to fling it off if he can't cut it.

From beneath the mask, an ice-cold spear-tipped tongue darts out, straight into his right ear. It's brain freeze and severe pain all at once, and in his desperate movements Link finally forces his shield through its body - a hole apparently too large at once for it to repair. It dissipates into ice crystals, leaving blood pouring from Link's right ear.

Link has gone deaf in his right ear from the trauma, but at least he's alive.

This spirit has green eyes.

That's about the only thing Rosinante is sure of. When he raises his shotgun to fire at it, he's aware that its visage is shifting rapidly - hallucinations blurred and unwinding as his potion-enhanced mind battles to make sense of the reality rather than what the spirit wants him to see. It whispers, it laughs, it uses his brother's voice and drags up the horror from within him that shrouds his vision in gray-red-pink, his sense of smell in death and gunpowder. For one sickening moment, he's a child again.

If not for the potion he may have bolted for the trees, once again to run with no goal but to escape, but he swallows and forces the fear and nausea down and refocuses on his target right as it's inches from closing with him - a hulk of muscle equal to his own height, its stomach-mouth a whirling circle of bladelike teeth that quickly envelop his arms the very moment he pulls the trigger.

His shotgun, once Winters', is damaged; the shot comes out as an explosion that knocks him back and would burn if it could. The spirit twitches, gnaws at the snow where it fell, then is set upon by one of the allied green-eyes and torn to shreds in its moment of weakness.

Rosinante's arms are shredded with dozens of deep cuts - he'll have to back off and heal up if he wants to fire a single further bullet with any other weapon. Worse, though, will be the hallucinations, for at random, on occasion, when speaking to anyone he deeply cares for, he'll see them die an abrupt, violent death and be unable to do anything about it only for things to go right back to normal moments later.

Flashback is a useful tool for sure - already, she has stunned a few of the smaller spirits that have slipped past defenses farther ahead as she holds her position in front of the bunker door that leads down into the silo. Most of the spirits either hold long enough for her to shoot them, or go skittering off into the trees, no longer a threat.

Several minutes pass in which she's able to catch her breath. Their allied spirits are doing good work, as are the other Beacon residents around her, so she pauses to reload her revolver, and that's when the door opens.

Not the one behind her, but one in the air before her. A gap in the forest and snow widens until it's large enough for her to walk through, though of course she doesn't - this is clearly a trick, and the potion keeps her focused enough to know that what she's seeing can't be real, especially when the spirit walks through that door.

It's roughly her own height, and stands on two legs, with two tiny arms, a long tail, and a toothy head. Picture a human-sized Tyrannosaurus rex, and then picture (instead of dinosaur skin) that it seems to be composed of overlapping, twisted small humanoid bodies, with more lumped over its face as a sort of mask.

It lunges, and she fires. Each shot, in those few seconds, knocks one of the bodies off; they fall limply to the snow, revealing another layer of limbs and heads just below. It's more than she can fight on her own, and an attempted use of Flashback only seems to provoke a shocked expression on one of the small human-ish parts of its torso.

Others notice and try to come to her help (she even sees a green-eyed spirit turn and stare in her direction before galloping toward her) but none are quick enough to save her life as it grapples her and pries those tiny hands on tiny arms into her abdomen. She fires again and again, dropping parts of its head and chest to the snow as it tears through flesh and intestines and throws them carelessly aside.

The green-eyed spirit bowls into it and knocks it off of her, but it's too late - that flash of green eyes is the last thing she sees before she succumbs to her injuries. But her lantern is unharmed - so as long as someone manages to survive, as long as that World Eater doesn't succeed in its single-minded goal, she'll be back eventually.

Please report your death here!

A. at the silo, fight fight fight

[Cao Pi is armored and ready to go, pacing and patrolling until the first gleams of green eyes and then fighting almost nonstop until the bomb is launched. He routinely exhausts his ice magic, whipping veins of crystals that rip through the ground and burst upward and raining shards of ice from above his head until masses of spirits are down or he can't magic anymore. Fortunately, it just takes a set amount of time manually cutting down enemies to recharge, but doing so leaves him both exhausted and shredded.

Fight alongside him, or tell him to go take a break while you take his spot for a bit. He needs an adult to tell him to stop before he'll stop, which is good to see - it means he's not the kind of commander who sits back and lets others fight for him. No way, not this time. This is their last and only chance.]

B. aftermath, Invincible/beach

[when it's all over and they know who's dead and who just needs first aid, Cao Pi withdraws to the town proper in order to pitch in with recovery. He can carry the injured, bring back lanterns, and collect scattered resources. Once at the square, though...

First thing's first. The Invincible, looking great, is his headquarters as always. Bring him a report and in return, there is a magical, bottomless bottle of red wine for everyone. He leaves it on the bar with an array of clean-ish glasses, help yourself, but he will personally be around to pour for anyone who wants.

Later, though, he's on the beach, staring at the glow in the water. Is that...light? What kind of light? Not sunlight, or else he'd be scrambling for dark glasses before it melts his eyes. But what is it? And what's it doing?]

I. Missile Prep - Silo

Soldat spends most of their time helping Weaver get the missile silo ready for action, and the missile(s) in question ready for deployment. They even skip patrols when needed, though they never miss lunch in the Invincible, and they sleep like the dead they technically are for the four hours late at "night" they allow themselves. (Midday sleep is done as a catnap in the silo itself, in a corner.)

But it's coming into shape, and it's important. They're learning all sorts of things about wiring and explosives. Not that they didn't know plenty about bombs before, but usually it would be C4 or grenades, not plutonium in a warhead.

II. Showtime - Silo

And then it's time. Soldat convinces Misty to stay in the silo itself to guard Weaver, while they prowl around directly outside of it, a knife in one hand and a handgun in the other. Their rifle is slung over the opposite shoulder as their lantern, ready to swing around if a threat at range presents itself.

They keep their other defenders within sight as much as possible, letting the points of their lanterns guide their attention as much as their focus on rustles and calls in the woods. Anyone in trouble may find themselves suddenly with their attacker felled, or at least distracted, by a rifle shot out of the dark.

III. Aftermath - Silo, Invincible

There are too many spirits for Soldat to come out of the fight unscathed. They're too desperate to keep Weaver safe and get the bomb out safely, for their one chance to maybe save this world and stop the rest of the World Eaters out in the rest of the universe, to be entirely focused on their own safety.

So when the bomb goes off, while they wait for confirmation from Helix Station, while the spirits flee from the site of the missile launch, they slump to the ground, panting, flesh hand pressed to a bad gash in their side that managed to get through the kevlar and leather, and finally recognizing the blood soaking one leg. They're bleeding from one brow, which they did notice since it kept getting in their eyes, and the metal arm is whining unhappily, overheated again.

But they're still, and quiet, and listening to the fading hum of the spirits. Did they do it? They didn't bring their tablet onto the battlefield, so someone will have to let them know.

The first task is to check the wounded, including themselves. The second task is to collect lanterns to return to the lab and let... anyone who is still there... do repairs. The third task is to limp into the Invincible and wearily dole out bowls of their ever-simmering siege stew, the only meal they have the energy for, but knowing no one can get energy without food.

IV. Plans - Around Beacon

Once they can fucking walk again, patrols resume. A lot of time is spent lingering at the lakeshore, staring at the glow, at the grass... A lot of time is spent seeking out the spirits, hoping for answers. Hoping for friends.

A lot is spent sitting in the Invincible, watching things cook and thinking. They're not gone. The world is coming back, and the dead are not vanishing. There are choices to be made, that they never considered before.

They don't know what to do, now.

He will of course make it all of thirty impaired feet before met with a Misty, satisfied that the mission is as accomplished as they're capable of seeing through and chillingly, harrowingly nervous.

With good cause, one could surmise, the way her eyes widen at the sight of him.

"Holy shit- are you okay? Soldat?" Good enough to move, but she knows well enough how misleading that can be. The approach is a jog, to an abrupt halt, hands hovering and eyes flying from one appendage to the next. Assessing, guessing, imagining worst case scenarios. "Which is worst? And can you make it inside, or are we doing this here?"

It's a ways to get to the Invincible, Soldat may have stopped to lean on a tree outside the open area around the silo. The lab is closer, but like hell they're going to go in there.

They're so tired and distracted they actually miss Misty's approach, and jerk in surprise at her sudden curse. "I'm. I've had worse." They give a strangled almost-laugh at that, verging on hysterical. "Leg is worst. I think." The tac vest protected them from at least some of the abdomen cuts, and the one over their eye is shallow. Head wounds just bleed a lot.

"Down." Meaning on the ground. It's covered enough here. No way he'd endure contact long enough for her to help him anywhere else.

She's kept a bag prepared, enough for anything short of mortal injury or surgery. "Had worse is never gonna be the brush-off you might want it to be, you know." Anyone acquainted with what he's had could say as much. "Leg first then, we'll work quick. Layer on, wrap, sit a minute and then get you inside to look over the rest, yeah?"

"Misty, no, I. I have to do my job." They do ease down, though, using the tree for support, since they can, and since it's right there. The last couple inches go in an uncomfortable slide and thump. Once sitting, though, they bring their lantern around to their lap with their bloody right hand... and the lantern hanging from the same strap. Pudding's. "Got to get it to the lab. Where it'll be safe. And the others can bring her back."

"How good are you gonna be at it if you bleed out?" She shoots back, a deadpan meant to bite while lacking any real teeth. The sentiment is too selfless to hate, after all. "I'm guarding the pack of you right now, those aren't going anywhere."

All the while she's appraising his leg, as best as one can without touching or turning it.

"First thing once you're bandaged, alright? You need it."

[Link sees Cao Pi on the beach, silhouetted against the gentle glow rising up in the lake. He makes his way gingerly up to the other man and stands beside him.]

...What do you think it is?

[good, faithful Link. The voice is welcome, someone Cao Pi has subtly come to trust without knowing...almost anything about him, really. He has funny ears and knows his way around a sword and shield, what's not to like?]

I don't know. But, I can theorize.

[it's like he's been waiting ages for the right moment to theorize]

Some of the information we uncovered over time suggested that the World Eaters consume light. I have wondered, ever since, if killing one would release the light it consumed - if, it does not literally eat the light, convert it to darkness or whatever, but merely stores it. Perhaps what is out there is something like that, light released from the carcass of the consumer.

"Not gonna bleed out, Misty. Not even really sure if I can." They do kind of flinch at the word bandaged. But it's Misty. Misty's fine. She's not gonna hurt them. "I have some. In a pocket. Needle and thread for stitches if it needs it." They're pretty sure nothing needs stitches, though if anything does, it's the leg.

"Still weaker, still slower, so I'm still right."

Almost, almost a joke. Doesn't make her feel any better at his flinch. The tear in his pant leg is carefully pried further open - not so much that there's direct contact, but enough to assess damage. Lanterns in his lap are a help, at least.

"No stitches," she concludes, shaking her head and digging into her pack. "I'm going to give it a once over to clean it, and then just a bandage, alright?" He should know what to expect. Minimize surprise as much as possible. "Want to grab me whatever wrap you've got on hand?"

While he's working, a scrap of cloth is soaked and passed quickly and carefully over the wound. Another pass, a third, and it's clean enough. She pulls back, affords him space while she waits for bandages.

They make a little whine between their teeth, not from pain. Pain doesn't matter, they can ignore pain. But fear is harder to hide, these days. (Not afraid of a goddamn horde of spirits, but afraid of somebody cleaning you up. Christ. You're not much better! I'm a little better! Then you get out here and do it!)

The metal hand digs into the ground to keep it from shoving her away, and they fumble with the flesh one for the bandages in their tac vest's utility belt pocket. They don't hand the bundle of gauze and ace bandages over, though. "I can do it. I can. I can do it."

It hurts to hear, but she perseveres.

"Let me get salve on them, at least?" She asks with a sigh, nodding down at the bandages. "Something to speed it along, I want you back to you."

[Link listens but hears the words as if they're being spoken under water. Most of it is muffled. He sighs and shifts around to stand at Cao Pi's opposite shoulder, tapping one ear.]

Sorry...I didn't catch all that. One of those bastards got me good, right in the ear.

[Some blood from that would still stains his collar and crusts around his earlobe.]

You were saying something about storing light?

[His gaze follows the light to shore and he looks down between his feet to see a tiny sprout of grass.

No, impossible!

He shakes his head and looks again. He squints at it with one eye then another... Each time he sees the same thing: A small, green tuft peaking out between the pebbles.]

Look!

[With a sharp gasp he lifts his gloved hand and points downward.]

[distracted as he was at first, Cao Pi definitely didn't see the ear damage. Oof, sorry about that. His brow knits in the briefest expression of regret before he speaks clearly and more directly.]

Yes, it was only a theory. That the World Eaters do not completely get rid of the light they consume, it's still inside them in some form. It is only a guess...

[the startled cry and the point work to redirect him from idly pontificating about light to see a most splendid sign of life]

...ah! It's...real. Not a dark shadow version of a plant, a real plant.

A real plant.

[Link crouches down and gently brushes his fingertips over the grass. It's the first true sign of hope he's seen in far too long.]

...Life is coming back. Maybe you're right about the world's light being trapped in that...thing.

[Well, life is coming back to the world at least... The people they'd lost are still gone.

Suddenly just the effort of crouching becomes too much and he falls backwards into a sprawl.]

I mean...it is over, right? That thing is dead?

[After all of this time it's almost hard to believe.]

Okay. That's acceptable. They can do that. They hold them out, finally, resting on their hand. The edges are a little bloody, but most of the blood on that hand is dry, now, so it's not too bad. "I need a whole goddamn bath. Is what I need."

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EVENT LOG: WHEN THE NIGHT IS OVER

INJURY ROLLS

MOD-CONTROLLED SPIRIT INTERACTIONS

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Re: INJURY ROLLS

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Cao Pi | open

Bucky/Soldat | OTA

III

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B

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cw: ear horror

poor Link

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