open | no need to be afraid there —

[realists]

WHO: ANYONE ( outside the sim )
WHERE: New Magellan
WHEN: During Phase Two
WHAT: Cassius Rescue Mission!
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence, monsters, possible death, etc

--

> WELCOME TO NEW MAGELLAN

The mission is simple: get Cassius before Johann can delete him. Simple.

The Displaced slip between cities through the gates, arriving in New Magellan with ease and moving on to the laboratory where Cassius is located. It's frigid, the southern tip of the South American peninsula a collection of dry, cold islands, and creeping wintery chills, the temperature as unfriendly as the mission they're moving toward.

Cassius's map leads them on a road outside the city which brings them to the laboratory quickly enough and they're able to get into the facility itself with little trouble.

It's not until they're inside that the trouble begins.

> WHO KNOWS WHAT MAY BE LURKING

The laboratory is devoid of people, seemingly abandoned, and it's not hard to see why. Once they get inside, the monsters set upon them. Some are the same golden-eyed creatures that have become strangely familiar to the Displaced, all sorts of creatures just slightly off in some way, their DNA altered, modified, spliced, warped.

◉ A large snake, except that it also has four small legs (two near the front of its body, two near the back) which allow it to skitter around rather than slither, making it much faster than any snake has a right to be. It's large and strong enough to strangle its victim, making it difficult to remove by a single person. Don't let it unhinge its jaw, it's got way too many teeth.
◉ A hyena-creature with impressive amounts of agility, due to the fact that it seems like almost all of its joints are double-jointed. It can turn its head almost completely around as well, making it an extremely skilled hunter. Its fangs protrude from the top of its mouth in rows of three like a shark. Even if it's disemboweled or it loses a limb, this creature will still continue to attack in a frenzy.
◉ A stag beetle, except that it's the size of a medium-sized dog. It's still able to fly and its pincers can do damage if it's allowed to get too close. Worse than that, they tend to move in swarms of three or four. Beneath the hard shell are human-like eyes with dilated pupils that follow shadows and light.
◉ A humanoid creature that stands on two legs. Its eyes glow in the dark, catching bits of light from a distance. Upon closer inspection, the creature has snake-scale skin, a long, flickering tail, and claws for hands. These scales are incandescent in nature, shimmering whenever they're underneath enough light.
◉A sloth-like mimic that cries from a distance for help from hidden, high places. Once it hears a voice, it can mimic it, drawing someone in toward it due to it sounding like another Displaced. Getting too close will leave them within reach of the creature that's all arms and little else, leaving a toxic and poisonous trap to weaken its prey. Its hiding places include the rafters, where it may drop on those looking for their friends. Under certain lights, the slothly creature's eyes are humanoid in appearance, sharp and aware — yet still gold.
◉ Humanoid creatures that give off a thick, putrid smell of decay. Not unlike zombies, they move sluggishly, but upon closer inspection, it appears that something is off about these people. They have claws, sharp rows of teeth, and skin that flakes off with every shuffle of their feet. Potentially some early or later stage experiment of the snake-skinned humanoids. They're highly aggressive and will follow someone with the intention of attacking until they're incapacitated.
◉ A cross-breed insect that looks like a mix of a wasp and a mosquito, but is only the size of a dime. Its sting can draw out a large amount of blood, sedating the individual. The toxin that they inject will leave large, red welts, depending on the efficiency of the immune system. They're blotchy and painful. Once they have found a target, they will swarm around that individual all at once.
◉ A naked creature resembling a dog with a reptile's body, with patches of hair. This creature has long rows of crooked fangs protruding from its lips, mouth and tongue, with a large, dilated eye. It has sharp scales on its back to keep it from being touched, but it has a thirst for blood. This creature will attempt to surprise its prey from around corners, jumping onto someone's shoulders with hopes of sticking to them and drawing blood like a reptilian tick.

In addition to the type of monsters seen previously in the research facility outside New Amsterdam, there is an even more horrifying threat, a new monster:

◉ An overwhelming brand of eyeless, bipedal creatures with large rows of teeth that are 7-to-8 feet tall. They're both incredibly aggressive and violent, ready to tear apart anything that comes close to them with open jaws. It'll almost seem like they're inflicted with an insatiable hunger. They're fast, strong, and merciless. And they are not an easy kill.

All of the monsters, both new and old models, will rapidly regenerate and continue to fight even with mortal injuries, unless they are taken out with a killing blow (a head taken out, their heart located and removed, or they're burnt to a crisp). No matter how physically unsettling it may be.

Hopefully someone brought a flamethrower.

> OOC NOTES

This is part of the SAVE CASSIUS PLOT and so it's located outside the simulation, but everyone that has since been woken up by Gabriel and Tony and brought out of New Amsterdam can also participate. For more details, please see the mod write up HERE. This is just for the infiltration/monster fighting, the success or failure of the mission will be addressed in the aftermath post.

Comments

daenerys targaryen (ota)

[dragonwarder]

ZALDRĪZES [before transformation]

[In truth, Daenerys had been holding back the transformation for the better part of a few days. Having a power fueled by anger and adrenaline when you were a naturally angry person turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.

They have virtually no time to plan -- but even the Mother of Dragons has learned the value of measured assault especially when dragonfire happened to be involved.

If she was not careful, she would quickly become just another enemy for the other Displaced to fight.]

I will clear a path. Experience tells me that this would work best if someone stayed by my side.

[Or multiple someones.]

Volunteers?


DRACARYS [after transformation]

[A full grown dragon easily dwarfs castles and walls, but Daenerys Targaryen's transformation is not quite so large. The transformation itself would not have been a pretty sight to behold, and while there is a recognizable determination in her eyes, there is also a marked reduction of restraint.

A So long as a Displaced remains in physical contact with her, she is easy to command and control. There is a separation of woman and beast, where Daenerys seems to be directing an entire other piece of herself while the empathy bond remains active. Emotions are stronger and overwhelming at some points, but simpler in nature. Mostly, there is anger. And with anger, comes dragonfire.

B But if a Displaced loses hold of her for an extended period of time, the dragon rapidly deteriorates into confusion. She is less sure of her steps, more furious in the way she barrels forward and in what she attacks -- but she is considerably less discriminatory in whom she aims for. It is an advantage, in its own way -- because she is less concerned about whom she strikes, she strikes with much more ferocity. But, for reasons she's made clear, it would not be wise to leave her this way for long.]

[OOC: Feel free to PM or hit me up on discord @ Kayleesi#3402 or stabs if you want to talk specifics. For planning purposes: Daenerys will need to have some kind of physical contact with one of the other Displaced in order to stay on task. If you want to talk success or failure regarding that, hit me up. :) I'm open to anything.]

the even earlier invisible wildcard which we have discussed

[northerndragon]

[He’d felt like a child earlier, walking in a chain of people holding hands, but now that it’s been a while since they’ve gone through the gate, they don’t have to stay as close together as they had been.

He doesn’t know much of the rest of the group well. Their faces might be familiar, but they haven’t talked. So when asks something, he directs his question to Daenerys first.]

This place we’re going to... how much do you know of it?

[dragonwarder]

We have a map, and a location. We know we will be met with opposition -- twisted creatures that are likely to kill us. I have encountered some before but--

[Something about the look on her face says she has some first hand experience with them -- with all of this. But also, she's not remiss of the fact that she will need to be more honest with Jon Snow, before long.]

It is probable that we will be injured. Or worse. It is why we must be swift with our work.

[northerndragon]

[He absorbs that, nodding his acceptance as they walk on.]

How big are they? I’ve seen mammoths, and giants, but I only fought them from the top of the Wall.

Wights were men once. It’s their numbers, not their size, that are troublesome. You fight one, then you’re fighting five at once.

[dragonwarder]

It varies. Some are small, others large. Some are swift. They are varied -- and it may be that they are not those that I am familiar with.

[Or anyone, for that matter. She only knows a few in their number, and she was not particularly close with any of them -- but that was not saying much. She was hardly close to anyone, strictly speaking.

What's worse is that she has nothing to fiddle with on this journey. They'd left in such a hurry that she was still in her work clothes -- the ones she had been wearing before they'd descended into the simulation.]

It may be that we are facing giants. Or these creatures you call wights.

[northerndragon]

How would giants have come here, or wights? The same way we did?

I’ve tried to find tales of them. They’re all legends, the way they used to be back at home.

[He gives his head a slow, pensive shake, then adds,]

You don’t count this as me throwing myself into the dark?

jyn erso ✧ open

[realists]

one fighter with a sharp stick ✧

[ as far as plans go, this is exactly up jyn's alley. six assholes and an aggravating robot. luckily the people outside the sim learned quickly how to work together and organize a rescue mission -- unluckily they had to push that plan up at near hyperspeed, so they're working with a little less wiggle room than anticipated.

still up jyn's alley.

she fights like a demon, almost as ferocious as the beasts themselves, throwing her entire weight behind her blows. however vicious jyn may be, the monsters are relentless, coming back from her every blow despite how many times her drives her fists and truncheons into their bodies. she manages to get one disoriented enough to duck into a doorway, just out of sight, so she can dig into her bag, pulling out a bomb. ]

Cover me, [ she says to whomever is near. ] Detonator needs to be reset.

we'll find a way to find him ✧

[ there aren't enough bombs to clear them all -- jyn had only hung on to the two when the plan had changed and there wasn't enough time to make more, nor is an emp even useful against the monsters themselves -- but jyn is determined to find cassius so she doesn't slow down battling her way through the monsters as she follows the little dot to find her buddy.

at one point she laughs, truncheon jamming into a shimmering snake-humanoid's maw before it sparks with electricity that arcs through the creature's body, shaking around the truncheon that jyn only just manages to keep a hold on. it slumps to the ground but she knows it won't be out for long so she leaps over it. ]

That's not even a real number.

[ who is she talking to? herself? the monster? the ai in her head telling her the ever increasing odds of their success because she asked him to do so as an assurance that he was still alive? it's probably that last one but who is to tell. ]

We need to clear this hallway.

wildcard ✧

( go where your heart takes you or hit me up @ baleinette#3692 )

tags along with jyn to help

[laozu]

Is it a good number, at least?

[ lightly, he leaps over the twitching body as well, curving around jyn to lead the way for but a moment - the flick of shining blade his helpful addition to the push forward. the snake-beast's jaw is carved off of its face, sword slicing like water through a valley across its throat until he takes the whole head off with a grunt of effort. shaking a hand, he flicks blood onto the walls and floor and turns to make sure the rescue party is keeping up. the occasional beast is better than the bulk of them, so thanks hunting arm of the team.

that'll keep it from getting up, best not to leave their escape route full of any threats. ]

Mm-hmm! I'll do my best. It's been so long since I've been properly night hunting. If you stun them, I can dispatch them. Ready?

[ monsters! meet former monster slayer! ]

[realists]

Almost one percent!

[ said with surprising lightness and optimism, jyn seems to thrive in having something to actively combat, cooler under pressure than she ever is just chatting. she is good at this, good at impossible odds, fast and loose plans, a bunch of jerks doing their best and raisin' a little hell.

this feels like home.

she crouches to touch the monster, chest flaring bright blue as the water slips from the monster, curling in tendrils around her fingers and hand before it seems to disappear into her skin, until all that is left of the monster is a husk, dry and sunken. she nudges it with her toes as she stands and her boot cracks through the skin, sinking as the body flakes away around her foot. she pulls back quickly. ]

Gross. [ she steps away, regrips her truncheon with an idle twirl. ] Ready.

[ no further ado before she launches herself at the next monster. ]

[laozu]

Every moment, we're further and further from zero and closer and closer to him!

[ if jyn feels confident, he's able to echo that. it's almost fun, to throw down in the face of horrible monstrosities. at the least, it's a familiar task to him. though without the full extent of his power, he's still deft enough, agile enough to weave into and out of the fray, relying on her to stagger the beasts before he dispatches them. jyn sets the pace. when she needs to pause and draw water from the corpse until it is dessicated, wei wuxian keeps his eyes on their surroundings until she's done, and then putters on with her. ]

What a gross power, [ despite saying it, the smirk on his face is teasing. ]

Oh! Pour it out on the floor and use your bashing stick, Miss Jyn! What a brilliant idea, I take back what I said about your power being gross.

[ mass electrocution!!!! ]

[realists]

[ jyn had done that once, in a dream -- she and daisy had made what was effectively a dome of lighting, arching across all of jyn's water droplets and surrounding the beast until it collapsed in a shower of golden sparkles. these monsters don't vanish in golden glitters and it is honestly disappointing. ]

Get behind me. [ she doesn't want to electrocute him. the water explodes in front of her in a huge gush of water, sending the closest of the creatures backwards from the force. water sloshes down the hall, scooping up the walls like tiny waves. the creatures keep coming, lumbering through the water. splash, splash, splash.

a tiny shimmering shield of water keeps the floodwater from splashing back on jyn and her surprisingly adept monster mauling master, and keeps them from being electrocuted when she flicks the truncheon on and simply drops it in the water.

she siphons the water back once the monsters start to collapse, cutting the electricity from the baton so wwx can go ham. ]

tommy shepherd ( open )

[speediest]

HEY GUYS I GOT THIS

( you know those scenes in action movies where everything suddenly starts going in slow mo and the protag does the cool action move thing? this is kind of like that. tommy's chest glows a bright blue as everything within about a 2 meter range of him just slows, barely moves at all but if one looks close enough, they can see that the monsters coming at him are still sliding forward just. barely.

and tommy? he's grinning right in the middle of it. taking his time to swing his fist forward into faces, shove monsters over into each other and hop right out of their space as the glow dulls and the chaos resumes. monsters fall over their feet, smack into each other, take bits out of one another, all that gross monster stuff before they realize their target has actually moved.

and tommy's raising a fist up in the air in celebration before yelling, )

Next time try chomping on someone your own size!

THAT STUNG A LITTLE

( battered and bruised from what was probably one too many monster fights, tommy opts to try something else.

namely: tearing off panels from whatever he can find and ripping out every wire, cord, and movable object he can find that looks like it may belong to something of mild importance. he turns, holding a handful of wires with what's left of his hair sticking up in close to every direction and yells to the closest person he can find, )

Did it do anything yet?! I'm running out of stuff to pull out!

( does he really know what he's aiming for here? probably not. but he's going for it anyway. )

WILDCARD

( yolo. )

[realists]

[ it isn't really in jyn's nature to just watch a fight. she wants to be in the fight, it makes her feel alive, but she doesn't know how his power works or if she will interrupt it if she intervenes so jyn waits and watches instead.

and snorts a laugh when tommy celebrates. ]

Might not want to say that too loud, there's an insect about your size.

[ big ow.

jyn creeps forward to start sucking some of the dazed ones dry, their bodies slowly becoming shriveled and dried, dehydrated husks of monster. it's gross, but handy. ]

[speediest]

I'm not afraid of any bugs. ( he'll take on all of them, thanks. but tommy does cringe a little when he watches her. uh. make the monsters all nice and shriveled up. a little disconcerting, but probably not the grossest or weirdest power he's seen ever.

it does get his attention enough that he stops what he's doing and moves over towards her, raises a hand for a high-five. )

Ten down, five million left to go! What are these anyway? Lab experiments?

[realists]

Yeah, that's about the size of it. Dr Grey's pet project, I think.

[ maybe he is jealous he wasn't involved in making the displaced so he made his own crazy creations? jyn doesn't know for sure, but she returns the high five out of a habit instilled in her by daisy. ]

Hideous guard dogs?

[speediest]

Dr. Grey?

( nts: add that name to his shitlist maybe. not that he knows who this guy is or what he's done or even why he felt like he needed a pet project, but. )

Honestly, these dudes look like they might just want to be put down.

u kno;

[wittingly]

[ And then there's Ian across the room with a bag of tools laying on the floor next to him. He's got his upper body shoved into some of the panels, a wire cutter in his mouth and a screwdriver in his hand.

He doesn't even bother looking down anymore, because he's 99% sure what he's looking for is in here and not... anywhere near whatever Tommy's pulling out. He's pretty sure it's mostly just fans and display cables. ]

Nope.

[ Said around the handle, mouth full and voice slightly muffled.

He dips his chin down to drop the wire cutters onto his chest. ]

It's gonna be thick, probably a massive port at the end. Like-- the end of a drier cable, maybe.

[speediest]

End of a drier cable, huh.

( thoughtfully. except. what does he know about drier cables, tommy has never looked behind a drier in his entire life. whatever. a big cable, he can manage that. but first he's going to pull everything else out of this spot and leave the wires hanging out before he's running over to a panel just a bit closer to ian and yanking that off the wall to.

sift around inside there for any do-hickeys that might be a little bigger than the stuff he had been pulling on. )

This would be so much easier if I could just explode stuff still.

[wittingly]

Please don't explode anything my head is in or near.

[ Requested remarkably calmly considering the implication. ]

Here, take this-

[ Distractedly, passing a thick metal pipe out of his hidey hole to Tommy. It's promising, actually - the cable likely wouldn't generate heat, so they'd want to stick it in an extremely secure casing at the very back of the console. ]

You can use it to whack stuff with if you think it'll help.

[ Followed by a short- ]Shit-

[ Yelped out while shaking out his hand. It happens, you stick yourself inside a massive electrical box you're bound to get shocked. Isn't his first time. ]

[speediest]

Don't worry, dude. My ability to explode things is gone, I'd have to do it the normal way and I don't think I have the stuff for that? Here anyway. Maybe later!

( ian's head is safe from potential explosions, for today. tommy does whistle when the pipe is held out to him, reaches out to take it with an excitement one should probably not have when accepting the gift of pipes.

except he grabs hold right when ian gets shocked and it travels through his hand, through the pipe, and right into tommy. causes his hair to stick up even worse in a static mess. )

If there were carpets around here I'd go for round two, 'cause I've gotta give you the win there. Thanks for the pipe!

( now he's going to smack everything with it. )

cassian andor | ota

[evasives]

i. it's time to slam now.

[ cassian has now been to several cities on this planet, and he's sure new magellan is theoretically fine, but there are too many monsters in the way of really appreciating any of it, not to mention the ai countdown hanging over their heads, the rescue plan pushed up a lot sooner. good thing he's great at working in a rush! why is this his third experience storming a heavily armed enemy stronghold? and the second one today? ]

[ it helps that he's never going to run out of ammunition, so to speak, while they're on the ground here and making their way towards the facility. the earth is his ammunition and it's a very comforting thought. ]

[ the eyeless, eight foot tall monsters are the worst, quickly becoming the biggest threats. one of them speeds towards him and whoever is nearby, but he holds out his hand to stop the other person. ] No. Wait.

[ the creature's speedrun is interrupted as cassian curls his fingers into an almost fist, and when he opens them back up wide, the earth beneath it literally explodes. cassian is far enough away to avoid any pushback, but it's loud like a bomb; the dirt and rocks and beast together soar through the air from the force of it. it's probably not dead, but at least it's delayed. ]

ii. we got a real jam going down.

[ once inside, the monsters don't really lessen, cassian just has less to work with. but his control over metals has gotten better with time, so really it's just working with a different, more precise tool. ]

[ however long it takes them to move through the facility, to find cassius's room, cassian plants himself outside it fully anticipating being boxed in. he forces the metal door sealed as an extra barrier, with barely any time to spare as one of the weird doglike reptiles bounds into the hall. unfortunately for it, cassian is already ready. his chest glows and he pulls down a piece of four foot long piping from the ceiling, flinging it almost like a whip to encircle the monster's neck. it squeals and stumbles, falling over as cassian tightens the pipe, choking it out. ]

I was not going to touch it with those scaly spikes. [ he pulls one more time, blood or something like it gushing out of the creature's mouth and new sudden neck wound before the piping rips right through, decapitating it. ]

We have to hold this position.

iii. wildcard.

[ hit me!! romanitas#5368 @ disco ]

[realists]

[ jyn bristles at the order -- it's not an order, but she is too jittery to take it as anything but -- and walks into cassian's hand. she does let the weight of it there stop her instead of barreling through so there's that.

it is only a moment later that cassian detonates the ground beneath the monster and jyn understands why he'd told her to wait, ducking as a piece of frozen ground ricochets off the monster and almost clobbers her. it's habit to yank cassian down with her, despite the fact that he can control the earth, something he very much just demonstrated.

(with his mother's ring on her finger, so can she to a point but jyn is not nearly grounded enough to be successful most of the time.)

she hums, thoughtful. ]

Show off.

[evasives]

[ he does deflect the debris from flying towards them, soaring over their heads higher than it should even with the way jyn pulls them both down. ]

It is not dead yet. And it is not showing off to use what I can. [ gonna argue with her even in the midst of this mission. ]

[ the blow was enough to daze it, not kill it, and the monster stumbles back to its feet, wobbling like it's got a concussion. cassian lifts up a chunk of the earth and sends it flying, crashing into its head with a loud crunch. a second rock slams into its jaw only a few seconds later, successfully knocking out a tooth or two. ]

[realists]

Don't mind me then, I'll wait until you're finished.

[ now she is just being a brat for the sake of it. it makes her feel better, amidst all the stress, to tease cassian for being so good at everything. force, cassian, save some talent for the rest of them. ]

What if you brought up a wall right between its legs and-- [ she pantomimes spliting the monster in half with her hands in front of her face, a small explosion noise. ]

[evasives]

[ the only thing he has time for on that remark is an eyeroll, but it's the exact amount of necessary dramatic. nothing is stopping her from attacking too! ]

[ the monster is undeterred by the shoddy dental work, but cassian takes jyn's suggestion; he pulls up a piece of the earth, fast and hard enough to literally rip through the creature starting at the legs. it doesn't completely tear it in half, but it's definitely dead now, corpse torn up the middle and soon to be abandoned - there are more! there's an ai waiting! it's gory, but there's going to be a lot of that here. ]