modblob: (Default)
Mods ([personal profile] modblob) wrote in [community profile] redshiftlogs2019-08-02 02:02 am

august 2019. welcome to the void.

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Second Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of August 2019
Where: Around and outside the city.
Warnings: Please add any warnings in the subject lines.

Redshift: Welcome to the v͖͕̺̲̘̱̜͎o̴̦̣̠̦̘̹͞i̯̖d̛̪̬͈̱̦̝͍̕.

Click here to read what characters will experience when arriving in Anchor.

a. bright spots in the darkness.

The redout and accompanying power outage has been going on for over a week now - even though someone must have managed to get the generators up and running so things are a little less dismal, that doesn't mean that everything is fun and games. The generators are enough to power the essentials, like lighting, the MedBay, resident sat phones, sanitation facilities...basically just the things that make life livable instead of kicking the whole city back to the dark ages.

Sometime during the second week, though, around the end of July, residents might start to notice bright spots in the darkness, mostly around the Agricultural levels. Little bobbing blobs of bright blue or vibrant green or glowing red that move soundlessly through the night, poignantly noticeable because everything else is so dark. At first, and from a distance, they might look like your typical swamp gas fake ghost, little glowing smudges in the darkness. Could be promising...but it could be dangerous too.

If residents are brave enough to head up to the Agricultural levels in the darkness and investigate the source of the light, a mildly harrowing mission, they will find that the source of the glowing is...animals. Barely differing from the usual animals one might see in a daylight in the Agricultural levels, these animals prove to simply be nocturnal versions of the usual animals that might survive in the wild and who have made their homes in the faux forest and grasslands. And when everything else is dark, these creatures roam the night, letting off a curious and almost radioactive glow.

There are, however, a slightly wider variety of these animals, who are descendants of animals exposed heavily to radiation that mutated but did not kill them. While there are the usual deer and wild horses, foxes and monkeys, rodents and insects, there are also domestic creatures that seem to have thrived in their glow-in-the-dark forms where non-glowing ones were picked off by predators. Anyone investigating may find glowing kittens and puppies, domestic mice and rats, snakes that are open to being touched, and even a few more exotic domesticated pets like ferrets, hedgehogs, turtles and foxes. While these creatures are still wild, they are the descendants of domestic stock, and with a little effort and coddling, they might turn out to be passable pets, once they're scanned in the MedBay and found to not give off dangerous radiation.

It's not all puppies and kittens, though. Some of these seemingly predatorless glow-in-the-dark creatures are mutated, just like their regular counterparts, but to a more extensive degree. Keep a close eye out while you're trying to tame that adorable glowing purple kitten, because you might find yourself as the prey to a huge mutated lizard or spider, or maybe an oversized glowing wild warthog.

Nighttime exploring, after all, is for the brave at heart...and comes with pros and cons!

b. nightmare swarm.

As if the mutated glow-in-the-dark creatures in the Agricultural levels aren't bad enough, there's something new in Anchor to cause problems. A couple of weeks after the generator room was opened, strange apparitions start showing up in various places around the city. At first they're nebulous clouds that gather in places where there's strong evidence of past violence - in the upper levels of the city where there's serious fire damage, near the security station, hovering outside the armory or wherever there are burns and gouges into the stone walls of the city. But as the month wears on, the clouds start to take shape, and some of those shapes might be very familiar.

Starting at around August 8th, whenever a resident passes by one of these ominous clouds, it will start to coalesce into a solid form, the particles coming together into a concrete shape - the shape of fear. Whether the particles coalesce into the shape of a monster or villain from a character's homeworld or previous game setting, the nebulous representation of their worst fear, a person or thing from their past that evokes a terrible memory of trauma, or even just a generic horrific monster that would particularly frighten that particular person, it's something that is guaranteed to terrify. Essentially, they will turn into the worst thing that your character can imagine.

And these representations of fear? They're not ghosts, they're not digital afterimages, they're not apparitions or holos. They're real, or at least they feel real, they can do real damage, and they're almost impossible to kill. The best way to survive an encounter with the nightmare swarm? Run fast. Because they're generally confined to areas where the echoes of old violence linger, and the quicker you leave those areas the better. Get into whatever light you can, get somewhere safe, and the fear creature will dissipate back into a nebulous cloud, lying in wait for the next victim.


c. power up.

On August 2nd, the dust storm causing the redout and power outage will subside, and a stiff wind will take its place, washing away about two thirds of the red sand piled up on the dome. This fortuitous change in weather will make it possible to start work on getting the power back up. Residents will be able to exit the city through the usual channels so they can work on clearing the dust out of the various installations outside the city that transform wind and radiation and sunlight into power that keeps the city up and running. After they're cleared off, residents can start to get the power up by making repairs to the dust-damaged computer systems. Thankfully, once the power installations outside the city have been cleared off, an automated computer subroutine will boot up on some of the computer panels in the common areas of the residential quarters, with a user-friendly guide to repairing sand damage to the power system.

Mind you, the user guide assumes that residents have a lot of tools, supplies, and assistant bots that the current population doesn't really have on hand, so user-friendly or not, it's tougher than the system seems to think it is.

Thankfully, there is another option. Anyone with a particularly tech-savvy mind who's encountered the nightmare clouds might have picked up on it already, but the clouds are actually swarms of nanites. Released from the room that held the generators, these nanites were originally intended to conduct repairs on the city (there was a reason that room and those generators were so pristine!) that have been corrupted and are malfunctioning due to the ambient radiation in the city that has only increased since their creation. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of computers (and a very strong spine) could collect a sample of the clouds in one of the containment units from the labs or the R&D area, where the semi-functioning computer can be used to work out what's wrong with the nanites...and fix them.

If characters are able to work this out and deploy repairs to the various swarms around the city, those nanites might be super helpful for fixing some of the malfunctioning tech around the city. Food for thought!


d. the wreckage in the wasteland.

Once the emergency situation with the power is sorted out, residents might become a little curious about what caused all the trouble in the first place. The dust storm was, after all, initiated by a loud crash landing outside the city. With the dust storm abated and the windows in the Observation Area cleared off, residents will be able to see the wreckage of a spacecraft crashed into the ground, several miles out from the city. Far enough away to make it impossible to see any identifying marks, but close enough to be a tantalizing mystery for anyone so inclined.

Adventurous souls will be able to suit up and trek their way out to the site of the crash in the battery Jeeps to see what's going on, risking the rough ever-changing terrain and the possibility of a red shift, to see what might be salvageable from the crashed ship, or just in pursuit of knowledge. Once those characters approach, they will find the hulk of a badly-damaged spacecraft, about as big as a medium-sized cruise ship. The hull is badly burned, with tears in the metal, and it will be obvious to anyone who's got any experience with space travel (or even anyone who's watched enough sci-fi movies) to see that the ship didn't do well on its slow fall through the atmosphere. The metal is melted and punctured, anything that might have extended away from the hull has been burned off and lies in tatters, and the sand around the crash site is littered with metal and plastic debris.

But the one thing that's still possible to tell from the wreckage? It probably came from Anchor.

The ship is pieced together from salvaged materials, the tech will be familiar to anyone who's been in the colony for more than a couple days, and there's even a few corpses of very familiar bots lying in the sand. Approaching a large tear in the side of the hull will reveal a way inside the husk of a ship, giving access to the ship's small crew quarters section. If explorers choose to proceed inside, they'll be able to dig through what few personal items remain and find personal tablet computers and sat phones with their hard drives corrupted but possibly salvageable with the right skillset and the right technology repaired back in Anchor. They will also be able to find a way down further into the ship, though it's dark and clouded with sand and...well, quite menacing.

Because it isn't just the darkness and the danger of the red shift coming while you're trapped down there, or the danger of the ship's hull cracking with the weight of the sand piled up on its shell from the dust storm...but looking into the darkness, there's a flickering bluish glow. Digital and glitchy, it flickers from wall to wall, with the faintest impression of a human form. A face. A hand. The movement of hair or clothing. And then there's the echoing sounds - soft laughter, snippets of childrens' rhymes, unintelligible whispers or mumbles.

Well. Enter at your own risk.


ooc: exploration info.

As you can probably tell, this final prompt is kind of a doozy! While the first level of the ship is available for anyone to explore with the information provided in the prompt, going further into the ship will require mod guidance, via an NPC.

Any questions can be asked in the mod questions thread below, and if your characters have progressed to the point of wanting to explore deeper in the ship, please hit up the NPC request thread with a link to where the NPC should tag in.

Have fun guys!

itsnotaonesie: (OK I CAN EXPLAIN)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-08-11 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[Peter instantly goes from trying to avoid the subject to "SHIT HOW DID I FUCK UP AGAIN"]

I-- shit. ...Okay, um. Well, two things I guess. One, I thought Drake was going to handle it? And uh, two, I honestly just forgot. Like, I didn't forget what happened, obviously, but there's been so much happening and my mind keeps getting pulled in like six directions at once and-- and I'm sorry. You're right. I should have been on that as soon as it happened.

[But he wasn't. It left him pretty shaken up and his default coping mechanism for dealing with trauma these days is avoidance. Because he's Peter.]
Edited 2019-08-11 17:35 (UTC)
theweakhavepurpose: (He's coming)

[personal profile] theweakhavepurpose 2019-08-12 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
[It takes a few moments for Ben's words to even process in his brain, and he makes a few half starts at an answer before actual words come out.]

Yeah he'll have his rifle. I think he had it. He usually does.

[Pratt's mind is scrambled even at the best of times and he's struggling to stay lucid right now, pieces of himself falling apart and trying to push him back into line to be the obedient dog he'd been trained into.]

You don't understand he--

[Pratt moves behind him because in the state he's in he'd obey just about any order given to him without hesitation. But he freezes as soon as he's in place, because there's Jacob again, rounding the corner.

He certainly looks real, though he's half in shadow, but that's definitely the man who'd destroyed Pratt's life and his sense of self. With an evil glint in his eye Jacob tilts his head to look down at Pratt.
]

There you are.

[And he reaches into his pocket for something.]
benhargreeves: (Default)

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-08-12 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
how almost impossible to kill is 'almost impossible to kill'? If Ben were to say pick up a nightmare-person made from nanites and hypothetically say rip them in half with tentacles, would their body react as a human body would? would they ... burst into a cloud and re-form? getting into some combat here and am just wondering what that would look like and if running has to be the only option or if they might go back into a cloud / switch to a different nightmare / etc.
queenofthegirlscouts: (humans are the perfect hunters)

nightmare swarm

[personal profile] queenofthegirlscouts 2019-08-12 07:17 am (UTC)(link)
[ The swarms? Have been getting on Shepard's nerves. Weird shit like that is never a good sign, but so far, they've been avoiding a decent scan from her omni-tool. It's hard without EDI to supplement, it's hard without Mordin or Tali and their specialised data-collecting programs. But until now, the swarms have just been lurking.

She doesn't see this swarm form the husk-like creature. She doesn't have to.

She sees the blonde girl backing away from something, sees the husk, and the only hesitation is for her gun which she doesn't have. Biotics it is, then. ]


Come back straight towards me.

[ It's quietly, calmly said: the reason for the instruction comes clear a second later as Shepard throws a ball of mass effect energy directly at the husk with nearly hurricane force. ]
bardish: 40s; SCD (scd462)

a cool dad | ota (plus one closed prompt!)

[personal profile] bardish 2019-08-12 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I. BRIGHT SPOTS: A (not so) Meetcute [Closed to Cam]
So. Jeff's stuck in a tree.

To be a little more specific: he's stuck in a tree, with a glowing puppy cradled in his arms and a small pack of Day-Glo abominations pacing around the trunk, waiting for their tasty dinner to drop down. The things look like the goddamn love children of a wild boar and a crocodile, and judging by the way they're snorting and salivating, they're fucking hungry.

They also have a talent for ramming head-first into the tree, sending insistent tremors that resonate all the way to the top. Jeff clutches the puppy harder, closer to his chest, as it whimpers and tries to bury its lumescent little face into the crook of his arm.

"It's okay, little guy," he shushes, like the dog can understand him. "We'll get out of this. There's nothing we can't handle with... uh... with optimism and a can-do attitude!"

Maybe he's trying to convince himself more than the dog. Is it working? No, not really. But what else is he gonna do? Fight a pack of boar-o-diles? He's not a hunter, man! Or even a zookeeper! Jeff's only got two moves in a life-or-death situation: use his words, or run. And since the creatures don't seem particularly open to his words…

After a while, Jeff cranes his neck, trying to get a look down to see how many creatures are still down there, waiting for him and the puppy. He manages to count to four before one rams its head into the tree trunk, shaking it enough that he nearly loses both his balance and his hold on the puppy.

What follows is a very dignified yelp, and an equally dignified: "FUCK ME!" He gulps, tries to steady his breathing, then calls out: "Anybody out there? I could use a hand!"

A beat.

"Please?"

II. NIGHTMARES: Monster Mash
It probably comes as no surprise that Jeff's a fearful person. Anybody who saw the anxiety explosion that was his first (and so far: only) transmission to Anchor could pick up on that. Jeff's nervous, high-strung, out of his element, a total civilian, a suburbanite fish out of water. The nightmare swarms ought to have a lot to work with when he's around.

At first, they scratch the surface, pulling at that nebulous, ever-present anxiety and forming it into something solid. Well. Solid-ish. It's a twisted ghoul that can't quite settle on one face, or which way its joints should move, or how many limbs it ought to have, but it's solid enough to tear at his clothes and claw at anything blocking its path. And the way it howls and keens... It's at once familiar-- intimately fucking familiar, like he's known it all his life-- and so utterly inhuman that the first time he hears it, he can't do anything but go into a panic and run.

It's a good thing Jeff's fast. When he suddenly comes racing into the room (pick a room, any room), slamming the door behind him, it's almost like he's been running from nothing. Either the monster's stopped chasing him, or it's just taking its sweet time catching up. Regardless, Jeff's just going to hold his body against the door as he looks to see if it's got a lock or anything. It's only when he glances up that he realizes he's not alone here. For a moment, he's got a total deer-in-headlights look on his face-- please don't be a monster out to kill him-- before he forces a nervous, slightly manic smile.

"Oh. Hi! Sorry to barge in here, it's just-- I. Uh. I..." Was being chased by a manifestation of his extreme anxiety? "--thought I saw a space rat outside. It's probably nothing, I'm sure everything's fine!"

EVERYTHING'S FINE.

Just ignore the scratching at the door.

III. NIGHTMARES: Personal Demons [warning: addiction]
Sometimes, the nightmare cloud manages to dig a little deeper. It finds his old wounds, the root of all the fear and anxiety, and pulls them to the surface. It's a monster that wears his face, but younger, brighter, sharper. He's twenty again, and his eyes are like stars. Jeff can't run; all he can do is stare at his own face as a sick feeling squeezes his heart and twists at his stomach.

Is it narcissism or just total self loathing?

"Look at you. No matter how long you run, no matter how deep you try to bury me... You're still me."

He draws in a sharp breath, pulling his gaze away from that face. That twisted funhouse mirror version of him seems so healthy and beautiful-- vibrant, at its peak-- until Jeff blinks and notices the rot spreading from the track marks on its arms. He can't help but look at his own arms, just in case, half-expecting to see the same infection.

"You'll always be me."

No matter how sick he feels, it's almost a comfort when the ghost of his past puts its arms around him, embracing him, pulling him down to kneel with it on the ground. He wants to scream or cry or shout for help, anything, but Jeff can't find his voice. He can barely find his breath as he looks into his own eyes. There's hands on his throat. He realizes that belatedly, feeling those fingers constrict as he tries to breathe, as his own voice soothingly, sweetly shushes his rising panic.

"C'mon, rockstar. Sing us a song."

Jeff might need some assistance here before he gets choked to death by his own shitty past.

IV. WILDCARD: Catch-All
[ Just a catch-all for anything taking place before or during the event log! For all your gen or day-in-the-life needs. ]
Edited 2019-08-12 15:33 (UTC)
sleepyhollowed: (nervy feller)

Kieran Duffy | Open

[personal profile] sleepyhollowed 2019-08-12 07:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[Kieran has no way to be sure if the chaos that surrounded his arrival is par the course or just something special that he’s managed to encounter with his unique brand of luck, but he is pretty sure he doesn’t like it.]

[It could be that your character has already met Kieran within the first couple of days of entry. It could be that this is their first time coming across the hapless cowboy. Regardless, it’s going to be a bumpy ride—because that’s how these things usually wind up.]


-------

[A]

[Kieran Duffy doesn’t rest much, but when he does, he prefers laying down under an open sky with a chorus of frogs and crickets lulling him to sleep. It’s why, even though there’s a dormitory out there with his name on it, he prefers sleeping in the rafters of one of the barns. Dilapidation aside, it’s as close to ‘home’ as he’ll get—in that it’s not a cold room with artificial lights and gadgets that he can’t even begin to explore.]

[But he can’t sleep tonight. Not with the way Branwen is scraping the barn floor with a tiny hoof and whinnying softly, and he’s pretty sure it has to do with those ethereal splotches of light outside. So, Kieran climbs down as quietly as he can and runs a hand down Branwen’s velvety nose.]


I’ll go check what’s there, alright? Just shhh…

[His confident energy (and this is one of the few times he actually has confident energy) is enough to put Branwen’s nerves at bay. The now miniature horse is silent in his stall as Kieran sneaks out through the large doorway and ‘outside’. He has his hand on his revolver as he sneaks closer to one of the light sources. It’s more of a gesture meant to calm his own nerves—he has absolutely no idea what to expect or how dangerous it’ll be, and he’s pretty sure he’s not going to like the answer.]

[Still, he manages to keep his breathing quiet and his footfalls dull and—]

[…Huh.]

[Kieran Duffy doesn’t know much, but he knows horses. Everything about the animal in front of him says ‘Hey, I’m a horse’, but the way it’s glowing in the darkness points to otherwise.]


…Well, I’ll be damned.

[He rises up to nearly his height—slooooowly—and well within the horse’s view, his arms out in a pacifying gesture as the horse eyes him, gently stamping its hooves.]

Heeeyyyy, buddy… wooaaaaahhhh….

[Maybe your character is taking a nighttime stroll along one of the agricultural levels and comes across this scene. Maybe they’re also trying to catch this funky horse. Maybe they’re just lost and have an incurable case of the ‘GOLLY THIS SURE IS WEIRD LET’S CHECK IT OUT’s. Either way, feel free to jump in!]

-------

[B]

[WARNING FOR POTENTIAL RDR2 SPOILERS.]

[Although not a survivalist by trade (and barely by experience), Kieran understands the importance of exploring your surroundings and learning about the land. So that’s what he’s committed himself to, today: checking out Anchor and absorbing as much as possible about its layout. That includes some of the darker areas—areas that he’s certain will come with bumps and scrapes that’ll all but make him jump out of his skin.]

[What he doesn’t expect, though, are clouds of what he suspects to be smoke wafting around, almost as if they were sentient; purposeful in their movements. The idea alone is enough to keep Kieran on his toes as he continues exploring, every sense on edge, and actually seeing it in action keeps him alert.]

[Except he was always a klutz and was never one for decent spatial recognition.]

[As Kieran’s gaze focuses on one of the clouds, he forgets to pay attention to the clutter around him. Sure enough, it’s only a matter of seconds before his boot hits some stray debris and the rest of his body slams to the ground.]

[He swears loudly amidst the THUD that is six-foot-three and maybe a hundred and seventy pounds of clumsy cowboy suddenly meeting a hard surface. Sprawled on the ground as he is, Kieran can’t see behind him, and that’s no good. He starts to climb to his feet, shaking, when he hears a voice that slithers like a snake and sends ice into his gut.]


Kieran Duffy… we’ve been lookin’ for you all over the place. We missed ya something fierce.

[He doesn't want to. He doesn’t want to and every fiber of Kieran’s being is telling him not to, but he slowly turns around, green eyes wide with fear.]

[He can see the glint of a knife.]

[He can hear the jeers of a gang of outlaws that were never his friends, but only recently became his enemies.]

[And it’s all thanks to this all-too-real image of a man who, although well into his years, is as intimidating and dangerous as someone twice his size and half his age.]


C-C-C-Colm…?!

[Kieran steps back. Once, twice, and too few times to keep Colm O’Driscoll from roughly grabbing his collar with both his hands and dragging Kieran close. The stench of cigarettes and alcohol wash over Kieran's senses. This isn't a ghost, and it isn't some kind of sick mirage.]

[For all intents and purposes, Colm's here... and he's still mighty pissed.]


Did you really think you could hide from us forever, boy?!

[It takes a bit to fight through the shock, surprise, and sheer terror coursing through Kieran's body, but the realization does finally hit that he can move. He isn't tied up. Not like last time. Not like in the agonizing days before his sudden arrival at Anchor.]

[Kieran pushes at Colm with a strangled cry, breaking his hold on him, and bolts into any direction that'll take him as far away as possible from the head O'Driscoll. He's not looking, and he's barely registering anything or anyone around him. Maybe someone will want to stop him, and maybe someone will do so unintentionally.]


-------

[WILDCARD]

[Have another idea? I’ll probably roll with it. Want to chat about stuff first? Get in touch over at [plurk.com profile] Sheepi!]
Edited 2019-08-12 19:06 (UTC)
bardish: 40s; SCD (scd324)

bright spots!

[personal profile] bardish 2019-08-12 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Jeff spends a fair amount of time in the mess hall. It's the dad in him: there's a lot of young people, and he wants to make sure they've got food to eat! And no, he's not desperately overcompensating in a futile attempt to keep from drowning in his own grief and depression over being separated from his daughter! HOW DARE YOU IMPLY OTHERWISE.

Anyway, he's making sandwiches. ]


Oh hey! Hi!

[ A beat as he furrows his brow and mulls over that question. ]

You mean like... in nature? Or is it, like, a riddle...?
benhargreeves: (* tentacle time)

cw violence and gore

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-08-12 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ben gives a quick, curt nod when Pratt warns him about the rifle. The news that this man is armed doesn't seem to daunt him. It won't be anything like the first time Ben has faced down a hostile stranger with a gun. Sure... it's been a lot of years and he doesn't have his siblings here, but that's life.

He proceeds forward, jaw set, not waiting for Pratt to finish his objections, his explanations. Jacob is a big bad monster to him, and Ben totally gets that. But this isn't his own big bad monster. If this had happened some other way there would be time to get all the information, come up with a smarter approach. That's out the window, now. The guy is here and armed and Pratt had been very clear about him not hesitating to kill people, and wanting the deputy dead in particular. Ben doesn't know Pratt super well yet, but he isn't about to let that happen. So he just repeats: ]


Stay back -

[ Then it is all happening so fast. There's a man in front of them and Ben's not sure what he had been expecting Jacob to look like, but this definitely isn't it. The hairs on the back of his neck stand up when Jacob speaks, not to him, but straight past him, to Pratt. Ben doesn't know the history, but he doesn't need to. This is fucked up and he can just tell.

He hadn't wanted it to go down like this. He was going to get Pratt to wait far enough away that he wouldn't have to see Jacob again or see what Ben was going to do to him. Probably this is going to scare him almost as much, Ben knows it, but he will at least not end up shot. It's just a shame, He was kinda hoping he and Pratt could get to be friends. That's probably not going to be an option after this.

As soon as Jacob reaches for what Ben assumes is some king of weapon in his pocket, his instincts kick in. As deeply as Ben resents everything his father had put him through, training him for the Academy, it sure did make him into an effective killing machine. He clenches his fists against the pain as the portal in his stomach opens, and then he isn't thinking or worrying any more. All Ben's concentration is swallowed up in directing the violence of those horrible creatures towards his intended target. Not at Pratt, not at the wolf. Just Jacob. He has to stay conscious and hold tight to control, so it is only Jacob they lash out and wrap around. Jacob they lift off the ground and bash into the ceiling as if he weighed nothing.

Ben has to keep that violence all pointed in one direction, and just that, and staying conscious through the pain (he doesn't even notice himself screaming) is all he can manage. Moderation would be asking too much. So the tentacles don't just let that one killing blow be enough. They slam Jacob into the ground even harder, and the sound is wet and crunching and terrible. Then they heave him into the air like a rag doll, twisting and contracting in key leverage points. It's basic physics, where to pull and how hard, to rip a human body in half. Ben knows the feel of it intimately, before it even happens.

Except when he is torn apart, Jacob explodes into a shimmering, dark cloud, and that definitely is not something Ben was expecting. The tentacles thrash, suddenly deprived of anything to hang onto. Ben feels them feeling around, something alive, something with blood, something to mangle... and slams the portal shut as fast as he can, breathing hard, swaying slightly on his feet. ]
benhargreeves: (! rescue)

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-08-12 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ben has seen a lot of footage of himself using his powers. His father was a big fan of recording parts of their training and going over the footage to point out flaws, mistakes, etcetera. But that had been so many years ago. And it is different, seeing it on a tiny little fuzzy screen, and standing right here and seeing it happen. Experiencing that wrongness up-close. No wonder people lost their shit, when they saw this. No wonder people called him a horror.

He feels cold all over his brain is just - empty. No plans, no logical connection back to the cloud. Just thick, icy, paralyzing fear. Peter's voice barely breaks through, like he's shouting from a huge distance. Ben is numb and floating, even as he sees Peter leave the ceiling and make his way over, so fast and agile, but he doesn't know how deadly this enemy is...

It isn't until one of those tentacles actually grabs Peter that enough adrenaline surges into Ben to dislodge him from his shock. In a few more seconds, if no one intervenes, it's going to be game over for Peter. Peter, who is nice. Peter, who is kind of starting to be his friend, maybe, he hopes. Ben's brain is still a mess, but the concepts of danger and friend about to die are simple and impactful enough that he doesn't need to think.

Ben does snap out of it. He snaps out of it, and yells, long and awful, like his insides are being torn out. Which is, essentially, what it feels like, as he opens the portal in his stomach and unleashes his powers on this other version of himself. He doesn't try to grab Peter and haul him to safety, himself. Rescuing isn't something the creatures are interested in. Instead, Ben merely focuses their malice on the other tentacles, with the hopes that distracting them will free Peter and keep him safe. Safer.

Except he's never had a fight like this. Against, well. Himself. Tentacle grapples with tentacle, twisting at each other, trying to find leverage to tear, and it is - really, just the most intensely gross thing to witness. Later, when he's not screaming his lungs out in agony and doing everything he can not to accidentally murder Peter himself, Ben is going to be way nauseated by all this. ]
itsnotaonesie: (...?)

B

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-08-12 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
[Peter was on his way over to investigate this yeehaw commotion, but upon rounding a corner he gets plowed the fuck into by a full sized howdy partner. Luckily, Peter's a lot more sturdy than he looks, so he isn't hurt at all. Rather than falling on his ass, he reaches out to grip Kieran's arms, because he is very obviously having a freak out. I mean most people were freaking out lately, so it's not a huge shocker, but Peter likes this cowboy.]

Whoa, whoa! Easy, buddy, where's the fire?
benhargreeves: (! crisis pose)

b

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-08-12 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ben doesn't recognize her, from a distance, and from behind. All he knows is that he is wandering past a place where he knows those nightmare-conjuring clouds have been lingering, and he glances up to look as he passes by. Just force of habit.

That is, until he sees someone standing right near it. Someone backing away from - well whatever the fuck those things are, which clearly have some kind of awful significance to her. His errands are forgotten in a moment; he jogs over, why has no one warned her yet not to come close... ]


Get away from it! Quick!

[ Aaaaand then he is close enough that, with a jolt, he recognizes her. Julie. Klaus's friend from Hadriel. This would be awkward, if it were less perilous. Probably the awkward will come later. ]
Edited 2019-08-12 23:33 (UTC)
deadlycurves: (Watching)

B-1

[personal profile] deadlycurves 2019-08-12 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Diego's walking at a bit of a brusque pace down the hall when the voice that's been etched into the foundation of who he is causes his breath to catch in his chest, a stumble in his step that slows him to a freeze. He hasn't actually heard that voice in over a decade, but he never really forgot it. How could he, when it was the same one that constantly reminded him of every short-coming he had?

He cautiously rounds a corner, and it's Ben his eyes land on first. Shit. None of them deserved to deal with Dad like that, but Ben-- Ben deserved a lot of things, and nearly every one of them had been stolen from him when... well.]


Number Three, I see you've decided to join us. [Reginald snaps his focus toward Diego for a moment.

Diego instantly feels something in him try to shrink under the judgmental gaze of his father. He doesn't. Refuses. Stubbornly lifts his chin in something akin to defiance and takes measured steps forward.]

Come on, Ben. [He catches his brother's sleeve and tugs a bit, thankful that his voice is steadier than any other part of him feels just now.]
benhargreeves: (? lecturing)

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-08-12 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[ If he were thinking straight Ben might question whether this is something like what he'd encountered with Peter. But that would require rationality and logic and both of those had flown out the window the second he heard that voice, saw that face. Ben doesn't consider this might be a trick or illusion. It's mysterious how he and his siblings had gotten here. Why couldn't it have happened to his father? Sure he'd been dead, but so had Ben. ]

Dad?

[ And even with how still he's standing, Ben's heart is racing. Fear seeping through him, permeating every inch. And amidst it, wretched, worst of all, hope. He'd reunited with Diego, with Vanya. Spoken to them after all these years. Seen their wonder and devastation at getting him back. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, after he'd died, after what had caused it, and after all these years, maybe his Dad would show just a glimmer of happiness to see him. Even the tiniest sliver of actual love. ]

You recognize me?

[ Before the specter of Reginald can answer, though, Diego is coming around the corner, interrupting, and for one moment Ben feels a stab of white hot anger towards his brother. Ben is so starved for that hypothetical tiny little scrap of affection, and Diego had ruined his chances for it.

Then Diego is tugging at his arm, and Ben pulls away from him, confused, hurt, angry but now not sure which one of them he is angry at. It's getting harder to breathe, he can feel himself panicking, but he can't seem to find the brakes to slam on. To Diego, he asks: ]


What're you doing?
Edited 2019-08-12 23:58 (UTC)
deadlycurves: (Default)

ii

[personal profile] deadlycurves 2019-08-13 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
[He has come across these things once already, so when Diego finds Vanya frozen in front of what appears to be Allison, screaming at her about how her apologies didn't fix anything, he's a tiny bit more prepared for it. Not by much, but a little. The scar across their sister's throat, uncovered and bared for the world to see, makes bile rise in his throat as his eyes slide from the scar to Vanya's face.

Vanya's face, which is shattered and panicked, no dulled senses or masks of sedatives to hide behind, no vitriol to burn the world that hurt her screaming its way to the front. Just Vanya, looking as broken up and guilty as he thinks he ever remembers seeing her.

Weird how much can change in just a few months. Not all that long ago, Diego was ready to do something that would have haunted him for... likely... the rest of his life. Ending the lives of bad guys was written into his bones, but... he never in a million years would have predicted that one of the bad guys could ever be one of his siblings, and least of all Vanya.

Still. That feeling of being so ready to kill her, if it meant they saved the world, stopped the Apocalypse, has been run through a wood chipper in the last few months. He can't reconcile it with what's happened to him in that space of time, with the look on his sister's face, staring at Allison.

He keeps his eyes on her, instead of Allison, because he just keeps staring at that scar and he doesn't know how to process words if he's looking at it. So. Vanya is his focus, her and attempting to keep his voice steady, no trips or wavers in his words.]


Vanya... she's not here. [At least that, he's sure of. He's kept an eye out for any of his other siblings showing up since he got here. This... thing is not their sister, anymore than the one he'd found with Ben was their father.]
itsnotaonesie: (72)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-08-13 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
[As soon as Peter's leg is free, he hauls himself to safety. It's all good. Said hauling consists mostly of dodging even more tentacles and sticking himself to the wall for a minute to come up with some sort of game plan. Right now, Peter's way more concerned about how much it sounds like this is hurting Ben than how freaky or intensely gross this whole display is. Freaky he can handle though, so studying this wiggly throw down isn't really doing much to creep him out.

He has no idea how strong this thing is compared to Ben. So far they seem to be pretty evenly matched, but who knows how long that's going to last? Fake Ben obviously isn't human, might not even be organic, so trying to wear it out isn't a viable strategy. Trying to approach from the ground is probably also a bad idea. There's not much wiggle room with all those tentacles flopping around, so Peter's better off sticking to the walls and ceiling and getting around with his webs. He can work with this.

After mapping out a route to fakey-fake Ben, Peter slings some webs at the containment unit and yanks it over to himself, and he's off. Bouncing to the ceiling, webbing over to the far wall, using the tentacles themselves as leverage to swing himself over to the ceiling just above the freaky not!Ben, dope spider stunts. He pops the latch on the containment unit's door and lets himself drop from the ceiling right on top of not!Ben, and that's it, that's the whole plan. Not too complicated.

Except it is complicated, because Peter isn't quite able to get the door closed before another tentacle breaks away from the tentacle slap fight it's having with Ben in order to take care of this fun new problem. Unfortunately, Peter's being a stubborn ass about wrangling this thing into the containment unit, so rather than trying to dodge the tentacle, he decides to try to out muscle it BECAUSE THAT'S SMART. SO, with one foot smooshing down on the containment unit and the other sticky'd firmly to the floor, Peter now has a tentacle wrapped around his waist trying to dislodge him. Just ignore that popping sound, it was probably just a rib. It's FINE, he has more.

Its getting kind of weird over here, but hey! They've almost trapped the bad guy thing?]
deadlycurves: (Default)

II

[personal profile] deadlycurves 2019-08-13 12:29 am (UTC)(link)
Stubbornly, Diego's trying to wait out this... nightmare cloud bullshit. He hasn't done well with it, he's ran into them more than once, especially because he can't just stay holed up in the house he shares with his brothers forever. Literally and otherwise, because Diego is entirely too much of a doer to sit idle very long. However, this happens to be one of those moments when he is, in fact, sitting idle. He's propped across the bed he'd claimed as his own when suddenly, the door flies open and slams shut.

Little else might get Diego into action like unexpected visitors. Every muscle in his body coils and tenses, ready to act. He gets to his feet, fingers curling easily around one of the knives that he always keeps on his person and before Jeff will see Diego, he'll see that knife fly right toward him, hitting the wall with a solid thunk!, just an inch or two to the left of his ear. "Who the fuck is in my house?" He snaps, finally emerging and finding--

"Aren't you the flip flop guy?" He squints, somehow even more confused with both the man standing here, and the words pouring out of his mouth. Sure, it's... probably the ghost things that keep chasing people that led him here, right, but... "A space rat?" He echoes, pulling a face at those words.
deadlycurves: (RU4Real)

Nanites

[personal profile] deadlycurves 2019-08-13 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
Wherever Diego was headed doesn't matter the second he turns down a hallway and finds webs just... everywhere in the weirdest design scheme ever. There's a definite pattern to it, a purpose, but hell if Diego knew what it was. Mostly, he's just blinking and staring at the mess of it all.

He glances around for the culprit and frowns, canting his head a little to one side as he finally looks up to find someone chilling on the ceiling. "What the hell?"
itsnotaonesie: sissybars (what is his hair doing though)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-08-13 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
Well hello there, Peter was just putting some finishing touches on his stupid web shit. He looks up from his work when he realizes that Diego's hanging around, and for a moment he just stares because he hadn't expected to actually have to explain what he was doing. Uhhhhh.

"...So, I know this looks weird, but it's-- it's not."

That's real convincing, Peter. Good job.
queenofthegirlscouts: (uh...what)

n a n i t e s

[personal profile] queenofthegirlscouts 2019-08-13 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
The swarms have officially pissed Shepard off. That they register as tech on her omni-tool (finally, after enough run-ins) doesn't help the creepy factor in the slightest. She has visions of the poor scientists on that derelict Reaper behind her eyelids, two men remembering the same wedding day to the same woman. Technology did that. Reaper technology.

So, okay, compared to that, random nightmare-fuel is just peachy. Memories aren't melding.

But still.

It's pissing her off.

Which is probably why she isn't at her most gracious when, while on a run around Anchor, she runs into this hallway and-

Well, she doesn't actually run into the pulley system. She slides into a crouch, automatically pulling up her tech-armour and reaching for a weapon. Which she doesn't have. So the glowing, holographic armour will have to do, but that gives her enough time to assess what it is she's run into. But just in-case, her left arm is glowing blue with readying biotics.

"What," says Shepard, "the hell."
itsnotaonesie: (OK I CAN EXPLAIN)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-08-13 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
Imagine Peter's surprise when this glowing lady comes-a trundling into his web hallway. He realizes, maybe a little too late, just how fucked up and creepy this must look. And how awkward he must look, standing there and staring at her like a deer caught in headlights. He stops fiddling with his webs and turns to face her, hand up in sort of a whoa buddy let's chill sort of way.

"H-hi, sorry, these are, uh. These are mine. I-I mean, they're not real, that would... that would be weird."

As if it isn't weird anyway.
queenofthegirlscouts: (uh...what)

[personal profile] queenofthegirlscouts 2019-08-13 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
Shepard's first thought? Why is everyone here a baby?

Okay. It's not her first thought. Her first thought is tied up in threat-assessment and a sharper analysis of the situation and all of that. But then she thinks about the youth of so many of the people here. It's...

Concerning.

She gets up to her feet, the biotic-blue fading away. The armour stays up because, no, she doesn't trust everything about this, and honestly with the swarms, its easier to have it up until it fades away.

"Found the town Halloween supplies, did ya?"
sleepyhollowed: (awwww this can't be good)

[personal profile] sleepyhollowed 2019-08-13 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
[THE FIRE IS IN HIS PANIC REFLEX.]

[It's a good thing Peter is sturdy, because Kieran sure as heck isn't. The air is knocked out of his lungs when he collides into the kid, and for a good few seconds he's stuck in the blue screen of death between flight and fight.]

[But the nice(???) thing about having to breathe is, well, you have to breathe. So he takes those few seconds to suck in a couple of deep breaths to refill his lungs and actually process what's going on.]


P-Peter! Sorry! Sorry, I... he...

[Kieran whips around so he can see behind him...]

[...except there's nobody there.]


I-I-I-I swear... he was right there...
itsnotaonesie: (nice sweater dork)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-08-13 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
The blue glowy junk she was doing looks super familiar, like something he'd seen someone do back in Hadriel. As badass looking as it is, he decides to maybe not bother her about it right now, since there was this whole other thing going on that was slightly more pressing.

"Nah, brought 'em with me. S-sorry about the mess, these'll dissolve in a couple of hours. You probably don't wanna go down this hall right now anyway, there's one of those uh, cloudy spots up ahead."

He turns his attention back to his webs for a moment, double checking his like, web calculations and the containment unit he has suspended in them.

"...Maybe this was overkill. Eh."

SHRUG, too late now.

Page 5 of 24