meadowlarklogs | open | no need to be afraid there

Entry tags:

open | no need to be afraid there —

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She pauses for a time, wondering briefly if she ought to make him swear before she tells -- but that would be dishonest. And, from what she does know of Jon Snow, he would never think to give his word without knowing whether or not he would be able to keep it.

And she could not afford him straying the path once the fighting had started.]

I am here to lead the charge. You must surely wonder how I intend such a thing without a Longclaw of my own.

[She reaches to pull her glove off of her hand as she walks and talks.]

We spoke once, of the strength this world gifted to you. I, too, have been gifted great power -- but it does not come without cost.

[He nods. He does know why she’s there, but only the words, not the meaning of them. He owes his freedom to his ability to assist the attack, to being a strong sword, and he knows they’ve taken his word for it, that most of them have not seen him fight.

In that light, it makes sense that he’s here to help, not to lead. He wouldn’t want it otherwise. But she isn’t a fighter at all. She didn’t spend her childhood with a wooden sword in her hand. The people here are not her men. So why is she taking the lead?

Great power. Her ability as one of the Displaced is something she hasn’t wanted to speak of before.

And why is she taking off her glove? She wouldn’t do that unless—]

Go on.

[As he bids, she does not speak further. She holds his stare only for a moment before letting her eyes drop to her hand, which she then clenches tightly to a fist. It takes a few long moments, until her fingers dig small half-moons into her bright white skin before the blue glow appears. Black scales sprout across her hand until they cover up through her forearm.

With the demonstration done, she is quick to relax her fist, and the breath she had been holding. When her fingers uncurl, so do yellowed claws. The scales linger, but do not grow further. The singular act has her whole body more tense than usual, like a spring waiting to snap.

She clears her throat, but avoids his eyes.]

If I allow it to take full hold of me, it transforms me to a dragon. Not full-grown -- but large enough to carry a man.

Edited 2020-06-06 07:39 (UTC)

[At first, he doesn't know what to say. There is no time to absorb what he's seen, to think on what it means -- past that they have a dragon.

As they walk, the thoughts come anyway, quick as arrows.

A dragon is a dragon; it has never been anything but a dragon. Before she was brought here, Daenerys had never been anything but a woman, and he doubts that anyone asked her if she'd like to be something else. He can't control the great strength with which he sometimes finds himself fighting. She can control this, or she wouldn't have been able to show him, but that doesn't mean she always could.

He notices that she isn't looking at him now, and he frowns down at the scales and claws that have overtaken her soft little hand.]

Does it hurt?

At first, if I force it.

[She wriggles her fingers some, and the scales flex strangely with the muscles as they move, and she eventually lets the hand drop. She walks forward with new vigor, as if it will chase away whatever seems to haunt her now.]

The price is that I cannot control it unless I tire, once it is done.

[Or she is killed -- but best not mention that out loud, lest some angry god hears her.]

It comes at the cost of my mind. I become filled with rage beyond tempering. But with the glow, the dragon can be guided...so long as the her rage can be withstood.

Edited 2020-06-06 08:26 (UTC)

[So what she had done to show him... that had hurt her, at least a little. He walks alongside her, troubled.]

... I know the rage of battle.

[He says it quietly.]

Is that the favor you wanted from me?

How?

It is. I care not how you manage it -- it must be done, if we hope to succeed here.

[As she regulates her breathing, the scales start to shrink, slow and smooth. She pays it little mind, now that she's gotten her point across. The more she ignores the anger, the faster it will go away.]

You must remain in contact with me -- skin to scale. If the bond breaks, my focus will waver and people will be hurt.

The wrong people?

[It's not really a question. He assumes they're there to hurt someone, whether it's just the creatures, or whoever else stands in their way.]

I'll do what I can. You'll have to keep to my left side, or I won't be able to use Longclaw.

[But if she's really to become a dragon, that seems more useful than one strong man with a sharp blade. It doesn't seem right to ask if he should prepare to ride her like a horse.

How does someone ride a dragon? He's not a Targaryen. Even then, she's the first to ride a dragon in well over a century and a half. It's mad to think of it.]

-- This place we're going belongs to someone. What do you know of him? Anything?

[She cannot help the smallest scoff when Jon attempts to give her guidance.]

This is likely the only instance where you will hear me tell you that you overestimate my capabilities. But I only say so because I do not want to see our allies harmed by my lack of control.

[She combs her hair out of her eyes to keep her hand busy as her scales continue to disappear. May as well make use of the claws while she has them.]

We do not know if it belongs to him -- but the man you speak of is Johann Grey. I know little about him -- only that he is bent on causing chaos.

[That takes him aback, and then he chuckles, nearly in disbelief.]

Right. A flame is better than a sword, then, if it’s between the two.

[No further argument. Nothing about the past few months has seemed real, certainly nothing about the days since the simulation started... if the best thing he can do now is to wrangle a dragon that’s usually something else, so be it.

She goes on to speak of Johann Grey.]

Why? How did you hear of him first?

Options are helpful. Who is to say we cannot use both?

[Though, she would be impressed if he could keep hold of her as a dragon and still manage to swing his sword. Daenerys won't shatter his dreams quite so swiftly.]

I do not know. I heard of him mostly through the whisperings of others. He is a mysterious sort of figure -- I have had no direct dealings with him before, and I daresay we will likely not see him today. I do not gather he is the sort of man who comes down from his battlements if he can help it.

I’ll keep it in hand, but if I can’t use it without cutting you or having to take my hand off of you, it won’t do much good.

And these whisperings, what do they say? Only that? Nothing in particular they think he has his hand in?

We are in the center of his focus. He has control of Judas, at the present. But we are not sure what he wants, no.

[She hadn't asked -- there had been other matters in front of her to deal with. But there was one thing that suggested Jon's hypothesis was correct -- and that was the fact that he had once hold Cassius captive.]

Cassius had mentioned that...he was not responsible for setting things in motion. Only for moving pieces. So he may very well be in control here. But we are unlikely to be certain without further investigation after our task is complete.

He knows what Judas is doing. He’s letting it happen, whether or not he made it happen himself.

[Which is it? Could this Johann stop it, or is it only that he doesn’t want to? If Cassius faces death as a result of what Judas had learned, the implications are bad.]

So what can we do? Talking to Cassius once he’s secured might be a place to start.

[He tries to ignore, for a time, that Cassius isn’t a person as Jon understands the term.]

It may. I am more curious as to where Johann is hiding, and Cassius has not been very forthcoming about that thusfar. I am not convinced we will receive cooperation from him in this regard -- not unless there is something for him to gain.

[It had taken Daenerys some time, but Cassius behaved enough like a person, if not for his odd outbursts regarding numerical data. Sometimes, it was easy to forget that he wasn't human ... until she had desired to meet with him, face to face. But it was not a common thought or desire; she would be lying if she tried to claim that his talk of the stars had not thrilled some adventurous little girl still lingering inside of her.

But that was neither here, nor there.]

Our priority needs to be his rescue. What comes after that...I cannot say. If we can make the facility safe to travel through, we may be able to find some extra information -- that is, assuming it belongs to Johann, or anyone connected to him.

[She rubs her arms some as the temperature continues to drop around them. She was not necessarily underdressed -- but this was not a climate she preferred.]

I would have brought a heavier cloak, had I realized it would be so cold.

[He had worn his jack that he’d bought to take into the mountains, though it only feels cold to him in an ordinary way here, not the way it feels at the hour of the wolf up in the Frostfangs.]

Will you need it, once you’ve — changed?

I don’t understand how we’re meant to rescue someone who has no body, but I’m assuming someone else here knows how to handle that part. Someone like the man who pulled you out.

[The question makes her scoff.]

Certainly not. Though, I've yet to experience this sort of climate as anything but myself.

[As to his second question, she nods.]

I suspect they have device they will move his self into. Sort of the way we send information with the thing in our heads. I experienced something similar a few months back, before you arrived -- when we first encountered Cassius. Before we were ... friendly.

[His dragon experience is limited... but it’s hard to think that a creature with so much fire could feel the cold.]

What sort of device?

I do not know. I was not made privy to that part of the plan, because it is not something I am much use for.

[It had to be something small and easy to carry. Jyn would know, but she did not know the woman well -- not well enough to potentially reveal her ignorance here.]

[He shrugs. This explanation is as good as any other.]

Don’t suppose it matters.

I haven’t fought anything — not really, not like we’re all saying this might be — since I found myself here. If I die... I wish you good fortune, here and in the wars to come. Burn my body, if you can.

[He does not sound troubled to say these things: they’re just practicalities.]

You are not going to die.

[Daenerys says this with confidence and certainty. Normally, she might have expressly forbade it but -- well, Jon has made his position on her declaring authority over him very clear, so she skips it for now.

The truth is that she needs to hear her own bravado right now. The transformations were stressful, frightening, and painful. Jon would be witness to most of it, and would feel it through the empathy bond once he reached out. There would be no secret for her to hide -- but being honest about that now is too much honest vulnerability for her to deal with.

So he'll be surprised by it, and figure it out.]

You have a dragon. Don't lose hold, and you win the battle.

Is that the way of it?

I had no dragon at Hardhome. [He sounds philosophical about this, dismayed, not challenging.] I lost then, but anyone would have. I don’t want to lose again.

I will do what I can to keep hold, so we all live to fight another day.

The others — are they used to fighting with a dragon about? Do they know when to keep clear, and not to?

Will you fly?

So many questions.

[It is charming, in its own way. And, of course, valid. He would not like the answers she was going to give him.]

No.

[That was the gist of the answer to all of his questions.]

I will be too large to fly indoors. And if the others are not intelligent enough to keep clear, well...

[She makes a face, which says really everything that needs to be said. Surely nobody would be stupid enough to get in front of the giant fire-breathing reptile.]

How many times have you fought as a dragon?

[Troops need to train, and to drill. He’s had his whole life to learn how to fight. Her... well, that clearing she had brought him to suddenly makes sense, with the claw marks in the scorched grass. But it might be that they could learn to fight better as a group. Not today, but for some day yet to come.

There had been talk of a dragon in New Rio, too, mentioned in passing around the tavern. He hadn’t thought much of it — had thought it might have been one of the golden-eyed beasts.]

With luck, they’ll have the sense to keep to your flanks, or behind you.

Do you doubt me, Your Grace?

[Because it sure sounds like it!!! She might have even been offended, were it not for the fact that everything she was telling him was probably pretty unfathomable.

So instead of grilling him on that, she switches gears.]

You must only make certain I move where the danger is. I will do the rest. And yes, with luck, you should not need to advance ahead of me — you will only need to protect my flank.

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it was an Aibo, wasn’t it.

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN

Re: IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN

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