meadowlarklogs | EVENT #010

Entry tags:

EVENT #010

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam and any other megacity the Displaced happen to be in/travel to!
WHEN: May 28, 2512
WHAT: Golden-eyed monsters stream into New Amsterdam and other megacities the world over.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence, death, body horror, mind control, and transformation.

> EVENT #010

It starts in the middle of the night, when most everyone should be fast asleep in their beds, whether they're still taking up a cot in the safehouse or staying in their own apartment. One moment it's quiet, with most of the rest of the city having also turned in for the night, and then in the next? It isn't.

There will be mass confusion as the scope of the situation becomes clear. Monsters stream out onto the streets, thundering up the stairs of a train station, skittering out of construction sites, or climbing up the walls. Some of them fly. Others slither. Others run, loping forward with only one goal in mind: to find something to sink their teeth or claws into and to leave destruction in their wake at every turn. They are a horde, a swarm, a teeming mass of creatures that have no intention of stopping. All of them have eyes or bodies that shine gold and wherever they go, they seem to leave decay. Concrete turns black and porous where they step; plants wither and die.

There is no real preparing for an attack of this scale. New Amsterdam will awaken as the sound of these monsters crashing down on cars or bursting through storefronts or into homes forces people to run screaming from their dwellings or places of work. There is no discrimination in who these beasts might target, and no discernable pattern in where they go.

All that one can really tell is that they seem to want to spread out. They're constantly on the move, leaping from victim to victim, and they're relentless. No one knows why they've come, where they're come from, or what will make them stop. At least for now, the only option seems to be to cut down their numbers. It's time to fight the horde.

The first night will be utter chaos as everyone reacts to the monsters' sudden appearance, but by the morning hours news reports will start streaming in. This is not only happening in New Amsterdam, or wherever else a Displaced might be staying, but seemingly everywhere. Some cities seem harder hit than others, but practically every megacity is overrun with the creatures.

With no way of knowing who might have unleashed the monsters, all of these cities have essentially been turned into battlefields. Not many civilians are prepared to fight for their lives, and it will take a mobilization effort from the police, Morningstar, the Displaced, and anyone else who's willing to take up arms in order to survive.

◉ As a note, this attack starts simultaneously in multiple cities. While it's the middle of the night in New Amsterdam, the monsters will appear at other times of the day in other parts of the world depending on the timezone!

> BESTIARY

So as to not make this post overly long, we have compiled all of the monster descriptions into a Google doc here for everyone's reference!

> (NOT SO) SAFEHOUSE

For those Displaced who stay at (or spend any time in) the safehouse under the hoverbike shop or the Red Wings bar, they may become aware of the presence of the monsters sooner than others, due to the fact that at least a few of the giant mole monsters will end up burrowing up through the concrete basements to wreak havoc. The screeching noise of steel claws tearing through the floor will be sure to wake up even the deepest of sleepers.

This won't just be an occurrence on the first night of the attack, either. Unless something is done to deter them, tunnels leading straight into the safehouses will continue to be created, allowing even other types of monsters to find their way through (the smaller ones, that is). Where exactly they're coming from won't be entirely clear, though it's a safe bet to assume that they must have originated in the cave system somehow.

Suffice to say that El won't be happy about the safehouse being compromised in this way, though this isn't a possibility that ze or anyone else could have really prepared for. While ze can't do much to physically help with containing the invasion of the monsters, ze will offer whatever resources ze can—though Morningstar is going to be busy in plenty of other locations, as well, and they only have so many resources.

The Red Wings, being a Displaced-operated location, will also be in need of assistance, especially if it's meant to be a point of safety and a hub for handing out supplies. Speaking of—

> RED WINGS HQ

As things begin to deteriorate, Clarke Griffin and Stephen Strange sink their resources into Red Wings, adapting it into a base of operations for the Displaced. Clarke also called in PRESERVE to set up a checkpoint here, too, and anyone—from the Displaced to civilians—will be able to seek aid here. (Of course, Red Wings will be just one of a few locations throughout the city where they attempt to set up shop, but Red Wings may prove to be more fortified thanks to the talents of the Displaced.) Civilians will not have access to Red Wings' safehouse, however. That's still something that Clarke and Stephen want to keep under wraps, for now.

In the bar proper, there will be medical aid, supplies, and even weapons for those who can use them. During rare moments of downtime, the gang at Red Wings will also work on reconnaissance missions to find safe spots throughout the city to provide much needed protection and safety for the people of New Amsterdam. This task may be much easier said than done. Gathering intel on the monsters is a high priority, too, and for anyone who tries to capture a monster to learn more about them, the basement might be a good place to hold them. If the Displaced are going to be able to fight back, they need to know exactly what it is they're fighting.

However, the truth of the matter is that this attack happened quickly, and in the middle of the night to boot. As much as the group at Red Wings tries, resources are stretched thin, and they didn't have time to prepare as much as they wanted to. Supplies need to be rationed, bandages and stitches used for wounds that really need them, and if you're not a great shot, it might be best to let someone with more training take that gun you're eyeing.

More than anything, despite the difficulty, this is a way for the Displaced to help out as many people as they can, and a way for them to cement their humanitarian efforts and affect the population's opinion of them. The citizens of New Amsterdam are sick of this cycle of destruction, and are just waiting to be empowered. Now's the time to teach them to fight back and help them protect their city.

Red Wings' safehouse underground will be damaged by burrowing monsters as well, and will need protection. The bar itself will escape relatively unscathed.

> INVESTIGATING / GATES

Maybe the best way of dealing with the monsters isn't violence at all. Maybe there's a more strategic way to deal with this.

The monsters will be moving from city to city via the gates, just like the Displaced do. There might be a way to keep them from spreading, or at least slow them down, by shutting down the gate network. Of course, with the mag trains shutting down, getting back home could be an issue. One option is the delivery network of hover trucks. They'll still be running to get supplies from city to city, but their batteries don't run indefinitely, so these will be relatively local trips only. No getting from New Tokyo back to New Amsterdam with this method, unfortunately, and convincing a driver to let you hitch a ride might be a challenge, but it's doable.

Of course, there's also the question of where these things are coming from. Intrepid characters might be able to track them back to their nests, which are tucked away in wildly different places depending on the city. In New Amsterdam, they might be in the caves below the city. In other places, they might not be in the city proper at all, but just outside of it. It's important to keep in mind that the nests are far away from any of the action taking place elsewhere. Tracking these origin points may provide some answers, but the cost would be less involvement in the crisis taking place.

And then there's the matter of the monsters themselves. How can you fight an enemy you know nothing about? For those determined or crafty enough, capturing them might be an option, although this will take some creativity. Once these creatures are captured, they'll need to be kept contained, and kept alive. Just because they're monstrous doesn't mean they don't have to eat, after all, and some will need special environmental considerations as well, such as the mind control slugs.

What happens after that is up to the Displaced. Is dissecting them the best bet? Their internal anatomy won't be wildly different from most "normal" animals, with the exception of some creatures who have strange appendages or the like. Still, this might give the Displaced a better idea of how they operate and what their weak spots are. Sending samples to a lab is another possibility, if the Displaced can figure out how to safely store those samples. After all, the world is in a crisis, and no one is running tests at the moment.

All monsters, though, seem drawn to the blue light. When a Displaced uses a power or activates the empathy bond, the creatures will lock onto it, utterly transfixed, and if this is done enough times, that gold glow of theirs will intensify. What does it all mean? Maybe figuring that out will be a pathway to stopping their attacks.

> PITCHING IN

While all of this is going on, it certainly won't be just the Displaced who are heading out into the streets to try and stem the flow of the monster attack. These creatures are certainly not holding back, and no matter how much work might be put in, their numbers are overwhelming. Plenty of people will end up dead as a result, ripped to shreds or dragged off somewhere to be eaten. Yet, for some reason, these monsters are not as vicious toward the Displaced. They'll engage them in a fight and injure them, but they never go so far as dealing a fatal blow.

Seeing how that's not the case for the rest of the populace throughout the world, however, some groups and organizations will be rising up to do their part.

Police departments will be mobilizing in every megacity to put the monsters down, and while they are armed, it's not on the same level as the UNA. They also don't have any sort of training that's prepared them to fight monsters, but they'll still be putting their lives on the line to put a dent in the monsters' onslaught. When it comes to enforcing regular law and order, they certainly won't have the bandwidth for anything like that. Then again, most people won't be in any position to take advantage and commit crimes either, given the chaos that will be a constant everywhere.

Morningstar will also be jumping into action around the world. The New Amsterdam branch will be most likely to work alongside the Displaced and share some of their resources, particularly with those who are signed up as official agents or those who've supported them in the past. In cities like New Prague and New Beijing where the Displaced have made some contact with Morningstar before, they'll also be open to working with the Displaced. However, their resources are by no means robust. Morningstar is an organized rebel group, but they're hardly an official army in any sense of the word. They might be able to hand out a weapon here or there and they have a safehouse set up in almost every city, but beyond that, they'll mainly be getting boots on the ground to help with the fighting.

UNA soldiers who have been left without any sort of purpose or guidance will now have an opportunity to put some of that training to use. Their involvement will be much more scattered, though in some cases small groups of these soldiers who used to work in units together will reconnect in their effort to fight off the horde. However, having been cut off from the UNA in an official capacity, they won't have much in the way of gear or weapons. They're still formidable fighters, though, and now might be the perfect time to reach out and make a connection with some of them.

Mercenaries belonging to various different outfits, depending on what city they're based in, will also be joining the cause. Whether they're acting out of a basic desire to survive the attacks or if they're actually being paid by someone to go out there and risk their lives will be less clear, but they're some of the best-equipped fighters (other than the police). They also won't really find much reason to protest any of the Displaced pitching in to fight with them. The more firepower, the better, right?

A group of regulars from the New Amsterdam fighting rings will be rising up to add their fuel to the monster-fighting fire, as encouraged by Hawke and whoever else might know them well enough to reach out. Given that some of these people have illegal mods to enhance their strength or cybernetic attachments that can do impressive amounts of damage, some of them might hold their own against the monsters. Hell, some of them might even ask the Displaced to demonstrate some of their powers if they end up fighting together, as word of their abilities has become more known among their ranks. Either way, they'll be jumping into the fray with quite a bit of gusto.

PRESERVE will be involved on the other end of these efforts and will be doing their best to tend to the wounded and the dead, along with finding shelter and safe spots for people to barricade themselves from the attacks. It's not like the grand majority of civilians could stand a chance against these monsters, after all, yet not all of them can rely on their homes to be safe enough to stay in. They'll be quick to accept an offer of Displaced help, as they'll be doing their best to try and drag the recently dead to hospitals to get them put into medi-units before they're too late. Along with what's set up at Red Wings, they'll also be cobbling together other relief spots throughout the city for taking care of wounded and offering up what supplies they have (food and water, medical supplies, etc).

And what are the corporations doing in all of this? Well, suffice to say, mainly just panicking. Unsurprisingly, they're not much help during a crisis like this, with most of the super-rich opting to hide away in whatever highly secure bunkers they might have. Too bad that these bunkers might not prove so secure in the face of these attacks. Could that prove to be an opportunity if someone went looking?

> FINAL OOC NOES

Please refer to the OOC EVENT POST for all OOC info, including suggestions for directions on how to engage with the event. Given the spread out nature of this event, as well as the amount of additional details provided here, please direct all questions to our QUESTIONS thread below. This is, naturally, a huge event in terms of scale, and so we're certain there are aspects of it we haven't covered and questions that have yet to be answered. We do encourage that all of our players use the event planning post for any additional ideas and for touching base!

Please do not begin to thread out any aftermath until AUGUST 8, 2020, which is when we will put up the aftermath log and OOC post. If this date changes, we will provide a gamewide update as needed! As a note, the August calendar will be posted alongside the aftermath!

As a reminder, there is one power level up available for this event, granted for a thread of at least 5 log/action comments containing your character utilizing their power in some way during the event itself. They will need to reach the 5 comments required by SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 to be eligible. Submission will be handled on the wrap up post.

Our Activity Check will be posted AUGUST 1 at 12 AM UTC. It will run for seven days and close on AUGUST 8 at 12 AM UTC.

Have fun and fight some monsters! Or … whatever else you might do with them. 😉😏 Your secret's safe with us. 😙

> NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

v. slugtastrophe; closed to Carolina

[ Sometimes, in the heat of battle, you don't feel a slug landing on your shoulder.

...yup.

Wash does feel something in his ear as he fells the last of the monsters he and Carolina were fighting and reaches up to swat at it, but he's too late. His hand comes away slimy but there's nothing in it, and the slug, it is in. He goes rigid, his eyes going from blue to a glowing gold, and he turns to the person asking if he's okay with no recognition, no humanity. He snarls and launches himself at her, one of their kitchen knives tight in his grip. ]

[ carolina's mentality about a lot of the last few days is that it could be worse. there could be more enemies, there could be enemies with advanced weapons instead of just teeth and talons and other organic things. she could not know where wash and maine are. she wishes the response city-wide was more organized, that she had more weapons than the stun baton daisy had made for her her first week in new amsterdam, that she had her godddamn armour, but things could be worse.

they get worse when there's a break in enemies and out of the corner of her eye, carolina catches wash swatting something near his head, reason to stop scanning the area around them to check on him. she barely has time to register the golden glow from his eyes before he lunges at her.

she's too close to get entirely out of his way, but a step back and an arm between them means his knife slices her forearm and not her chest and that'll have to do. it's not until she has an opportunity to dart past him, make him need that tiny bit of time to turn and follow her, that her mind supplies an awful connection between this and her encounters with maine's power.

shit, she needs to figure this out fast. ]

Wash, come on. Don't do this.

[ carolina honestly doesn't expect talking to work, but she has to try, has to give him an opportunity to back off before she has to fight him. ]

[ There's no recognition, no indication that Wash even heard her, he just lunges again. This time it's for her throat, but he isn't moving like he normally would. This is an almost blind sort of violence, lashing out and taking over.

She's going to have to fight him, but she may have heard tales of a sickness that leaves people with glowing gold eyes and reckless viciousness. The empathy bond will cure it, she just neeeds to get a good hold on him... ]

[ yeah, she didn't think that was going to work, but it was worth the try.

wash comes for her again and carolina ducks as she sidesteps, waits for the arm he has the knife in to move far enough away from his body that she can grab it. she plants one foot between his, interrupting any forward motion he may have been continuing with, and twists his arm back, trying to get him to drop the knife without doing more harm to him than necessary. ]

[ It works! Wash lets out a snarl like Carolina's never heard from him before as his arm is twisted, but he drops the knife. Regains his footing and tries to turn towards her on the side she's twisting, and aims a hard punch at the side of her head to stagger her. ]

[ the knife out of his hand immediately means she has an advantage and carolina intends to take advantage of her. from all their training together, wash can beat her at close quarter combat, but it usually requires tactical thought and something sharp. now she just has to get him on the ground and one of her gloves off without hurting him.

she dodges well enough that wash's blow to her head is glancing, but she still sees stars from it as she steps past him, trying to turn him further in the direction she'd been twisting his arm, one hand gripping his bicep. ideally, he'll stumble a little so that when she ducks and swings one of her legs out, she'll be able to sweep his feet out from under him.

if not, she's got other ideas. ]

[ Normally, Wash wouldn't fall for her gambit, knowing how Carolina fights. But now he's too enraged to be thinking straight, berserk from the slug. It works, and he goes down hard.

She'll have a limited amount of time to get on his back and keep him from snapping back into the fight, but the aid is knocked out of him for a moment before he can push himself up again. ]

[ working under time constraints is something carolina's capable of, at least, and she's on top of wash a second after he hits the ground, straddling him so one of her knees is on the ground next to his ribcage. the other has his dominant arm pinned, one hand catching his opposite wrist to pin that down as she uses her teeth to tug off her other glove, dropping it onto his back. enough strength exerted in the right direction would knock her off his back from here, but she's exerting enough pressure on him that it would take knowing how to do it, not just instinct.

so she's really hoping he doesn't know that right now, hoping that he'll stay down long enough for her to get his sleeve out of the way and wrap her fingers around his wrist, engaging the empathy bond between them. ]

[ Wash snarls at the knee in his back, desperately trying to toss the offending weight off but not prescient enough to do so properly. And with only one arm, which he's bending up to try and get more leverage... which exposes his wrist for her, she just needs to grab it.

It takes a hot minute from when the glow starts up for the bond to actually cure him, though, and in that time Carolina gets a wave of pure rage and pain. But it is working, even as he summons enough brute strength to topple them. But with Carolina's tight grip on his wrist, she's barely fallen over before the slug drops out and leaves Wash crumpling into a heap on top of her, stunned and terrified. ]

Oh god--

[ He doesn't notice the slug, doesn't know that's what did it, just rolls off her and turns frantically to make sure she's okay. ]

Carolina?

[ the point of contact while she does... whatever it is she's supposed to be doing to help him— it burns in a way it shouldn't, a way that makes her worry. she likes touching wash, does it a lot. never wants to feel like it's unpleasant.

but it works, at least, and carolina's no sooner trying to right herself on the ground than she sees something drop from wash's shoulder, from his head, and the fact that he's himself again is much less important than making sure she destroys whatever just did that to him. his knife is still nearby and she grabs for it without a second thought, stabbing it down hard next to wash, the slug little more than a mess on the tip of the blade when she finally looks up at his face.

his eyes are the blue they're supposed to be and exactly as concerned as she'd expect. ]

Let's not do that again, please.

[ it's a weak joke, but the only thing she can think to lead with. ]

[ Well he looks traumatized. There's no response to the joke, just the fear and horror on his face as it sinks in that another thing was in his head and made him it attack her.

He'll be angry about it in a minute, right now he's just going to grab her and hold on tight. It can barely be called a hug, he's so freaked. ]

[ carolina lets the knife drop with a clatter and wraps her arms around wash, her grip firm, trying to be a comfort. one hand slides up, touches the back of his shoulder as an announcement of her intention to touch the back of his neck before she does, her hand fully covering the scars there. it's a protective gesture, it always is.

through the bond, he'll be able to sense her relief, more than anything. she's glad he's okay. ]

[ The gesture is familiar and comforting, as is her presence in his mind, something he'd never thought he'd say before this place. But it's so different from the possessive whirlwind of the slug, steady and predictable and she's not afraid now, which helps him calm down faster.

...but then comes the anger, and he pulls back from her before she can feel just how hot that can burn. It frightens him sometimes. ]

Something else to be paranoid about, great... these fucking bugs, at least it wasn't one of the ones that turn us into monsters. Hawke said that's much harder to fix.

[ He looks like he could murder someone, but this anger? This rage, almost as intense as what the alien bug brought on? It's all him. It was in his head. ]

Did I hurt you?

[ how abruptly wash pulls back has carolina visibly startled for a moment, instinctively about to reach for him again before she catches herself, lets him have the moment alone in his head. he needs it, she can guess.

that doesn't make it any easier to keep her hands off of him when all she wants to do is help.

so she keeps her hands to herself, rolls onto her knees so she's ready to stand if a threat approaches while he's still handling this however he has to. at his question, she shakes her head. ]

No, I'm fine.

[ the blow to her head was just hard enough to remind her that she's still trying to walk off a concussion and she hit the ground a little harder than she would have liked, but neither of those things are a real concern to her. ]

[ He just needs to get a handle on his anger, let it fade to a background roar... the concern for her isn't a good thing, but it does help in that regard. He studies her face to make sure she's telling the truth, that he didn't make anything worse or concuss her again. She's not bleeding, her eyes are focused... okay. Okay, it's not the end of the world, Wash, just one of your stupid trauma buttons, he scolds himself, taking a slow breath to center himself.

Then he's climbing to his feet and offering her a hand up. ]

Come on, we're sitting ducks. Literally. There must be a pharmacy around here somewhere... one's on Elm, right?

[ wash moves to stand and carolina reaches out to grab her discarded glove and his knife, ready to stand on her own when he offers his hand. she doesn't need it, but she takes it, her still gloved hand squeezing his gently once she's on her feet.

then she lets his hand go, hands him the knife, and sticks her glove into her back pocket rather than putting it back on. she's not going to offer the empathy bond to him again right now, isn't going to push the matter, but if he wants it, she's readily available to offer it to him. ]

Elm and Fifty-Sixth, I think. I didn't hurt you getting you down, did I?

[ He wants it. He thinks he has his anger under control, anyway, even it he kind of doesn't have as good a grip on it as he thinks. Intentionally, Wash takes her ungloved hand and squeezes that one -- he feels more pissed off than she's ever experienced in him, and it's just an echo. Maybe she can figure out why he pulled back like that, now. But there's also determination as he figures out how far they are from fifty-sixth. ]

What? No. They'll have either cotton or real earplugs. The shitty kind you can still hear through, but it'll keep anything from getting back in.

[ it's rare that wash's emotions startle her in any way, but the anger clearly does, carolina blatantly alarmed for a heartbeat before she manages to catch herself, force anything intense in her down so he doesn't have to feel that, too.

she takes a deep breath and has it under control, she thinks, projecting love and concern in equal measure as she takes the first step the way they need to be headed, needing to move before she starts overthinking anything. ]

Right. Good idea.

[ Guilt seeps through as he realizes he doesn't have his anger as muted as he thought, and he considers pulling back his hand but... maybe he shouldn't? She's clearly trying to calm him down. He strokes his thumb gently over the back of her hand instead, falling into step beside her, his knife gripped tightly in his free hand just in case they come across something between here and there. It isn't far, though, they might get lucky. ]

...I'm sorry.

[ she's glad wash didn't pull away, glad he let her keep holding his hand so that maybe she can help him. carolina couldn't prevent this from happening (and maybe she should have worried about this before, looked into ways of making sure wash wouldn't have to deal with this) but she can try to soothe him now, she thinks. she hopes. ]

You don't have anything to be sorry for, David.

I didn't want you to ever feel me like this.

[ He doesn't like himself so angry, it feels too much like the time where that's all that kept him going. He has more than that now, though, he has people to ground him. He has Carolina here. It'll be okay, he tells himself, forcing himself to take slow even breaths. She's not going to run. ]

But I know you've felt like this.

[ not recently, but she knows how their new team described the recovery agent they first met, knows that they've both got lots of experience with anger and vengeance. they don't talk about it, but she knows wash has been angry, knows he tries not to be anymore.

carolina's mostly watching around them as they walk, eyes flicking from one potential monster hiding place to another, but after a pause, she very deliberately looks at wash, bumps her elbow against his to get him making eye contact. ]

It's okay, really. I just wasn't expecting it.

Yeah...

[ He's quiet for a long moment, until she bumps his elbow again and he finds her looking up at him, expression patient. She says it's okay. And something in him is almost painfully relieved. ]

At least it's just at a bug?

[ It's a weak joke, but he's trying. ]

[ she takes that weak joke with a little smile and a lot of affection for wash to feel. ]

And it didn't keep you down for long.

[ She's going to get that affection right back, and his smile comes easier this time. ]

Only thanks to you.

We do need to find some better weapons.

slugtastrophe; closed to carolina

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