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

𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒
gory, gory what a helluva way to die;
medical-action oriented, cr-building, new and old cr alike both welcome!

( he's covered in blood that ain't his own an' don't seem all that mindful of it. instead, he's cleared off a bartop an' is feedin' an IV line into a civilian. is he about to do field surgery right here just adjacent the bar's supply of whiskey? you bet he is. )

You there.

( he don't seem to care much who he's addressing, an' his tone has the crack of command ain't but a few folk here've ever heard from him. )

I need another set of hands. Press here, an' don't let go.

𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑
at the death of every darkness there's a morning;
eye of the storm-oriented, a moment's peace, potential for epic fights+union attacks, cr-building, anyone needing a moment back from the fight. new and old cr alike welcome!

( it's obvious there's been one helluva fight here. civilian bodies are strewn about an' monsters too, there's a ruined fountain that's gone rust red with blood. gene's sittin' on a block of stone eatin' a protein bar of sorts, a rifle leaned up beside him. he looks like he ain't slept in a while, but seems alert enough for all that. he tosses another of the bars to your character. )

Ought to grab some rest while you can. How's your ammo count? Got a few rounds I could spare.

( medics were still trained in combat, an' though gene only ever carried a 1911 in the fight he's a damn crack shot, an' though he ain't come up against but a few of the monsters he's learned how to make his shots count against 'em.

but christ o'lordy, he'd straight up kill a man for a cigarette about now. )

𝐒𝐀𝐅𝐄𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐒𝐄
when does it get quiet;
ambush!! fighting+cooperation, potential for union attacks, feel free to have your characters get injured for that sweet, sweet h/c. new and old cr alike both welcome!

( he's leanin' up against a wall, head tipped down against his chest, rifle slotted up against his shoulder. ain't been like that more than a quarter hour or so — old soldier's trick, to catch sleep when an' where an' however the hell you can. at the first scrape of those claws against concrete, he's up an' alert, kickin' his boot against the nearest bedframe if the first of those scrapes didn't rouse the sleeper in it. )

Rise an' shine. If you ain't a fighter, get upstairs an' find Clarke.

𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃
all those empty rooms, we could been anywhere, anywhere else

( gene will be healing people as best he can, and patching up those he can't or is two exhausted to heal. He will be checking in on anyone he encounters and gauging their mental and physical ability to keep on fighting. he's willing to grab/recruit others to go look for the injured regardless of prior or existing cr.

if anyone seems to be suffering from combat stress, he'll sit with them a time and tell them stories about back home in agathine. and if anyone dies and needs to get hauled to a medi-unit, he's available to grab bodies too, probably with a jeep he's using from PRESERVE. anything not listed here? go nuts, or hmu on vitarays)

[Lance has mostly been staying out of the way of people who actually seem to know what they're doing, handling minor injuries and some stitches when necessary; he'd done that enough in Hadriel to be confident in taking care of people to that extent here.

So although he's seen Gene he hasn't really bothered him, just letting him handle things, and it takes a brief moment for Lance to realize he's suddenly being addressed. Oh, he's getting pulled into this. Okay. He'll learn something, he supposes.

He puts pressure where indicated, hesitating to ask, but--]

Okay, got it. How bad...?

[Is the injury. It seems bad, but he's hoping he's wrong.]

Unchecked abdominal bleed. I gotta find it an' clamp it off.

( 'bad enough'. but his tone is so easy an' casual an' calm that he may as well be fixin' to repair a hangnail. it's mostly for the benefit of anyone else listenin', the civilians who are lookin' on in horror an' fear, huddled together for what small comfort proximity can grant. ain't no point in stirrin' 'em up. he always did hate those surgeons that barked orders in the operatin' theatre.

but in the interim, he's about to go spelunkin' in this poor man's guts. lucky for him there ain't a perforated bowel on top of that, but his blood pressure keeps droppin' despite the relative stability of the injury an' that can only mean it's internal somewhere. gene pulls out a pair of medical forceps from his musette bag on the counter beside him, douses the whole lot in whiskey as they ain't got much else to use for disinfectant an' then feels his way into the injury where the skin's curled back from the atrophy the creatures cause at their touch.

his expression's set with purpose, eyes closed, goin' mostly by feel. it's obvious this ain't his first rodeo. the man's pulse is a weak flutter, gettin' weaker as he searches. if he arrests, ain't nothin' else for it, they'll have to let him go. but they ain't got enough medi-units for everyone. some of the dead are gonna have to stay that way, so he'll try until he's sure of the outcome.

to lance, in that same soft murmur, )

Where you from, son?

( says the 25 year old to the 30ish year old man. it's not his fault lance has a baby face! )

[Lance has some medical knowledge from a combination of directly learning, overhearing his friends talk, and surviving a whole lot of injuries of varying severity, so although he doesn't understand specifics he still has an idea of how bad it is from Gene's answer despite the calm tone. So he just nods once to show he heard, focusing on doing his part of the job and letting Gene work.

He can't help but watch in morbid curiosity, trying to ignore how useless he feels in this and instead focus on learning whatever he can. It's knowledge he'd of course hope to not need, but anything he might be able to pick up from watching is better than nothing.

He doesn't want to distract Gene and so he doesn't say anything, just watching and continuing to apply pressure where directed, though at the question he manages to feel faintly incredulous despite everything. He's nearly thirty-two now, why does this still happen.

It takes a moment before he decides how to answer; people could be listening, but probably not that closely and so he decides he can get away with giving a real answer as long as he keeps his own voice similarly low.]

Washington DC, if that means anything.

[Worlds are different, after all. And since Gene started the conversation, he thinks it's probably safe to ask--]

You?

Surely does.

( lord, it's almost a relief to hear that there's another fella from earth. it ain't like there's a shortage of them, but sometimes a man just craves the familiar.

he ain't never been to washington, but kenton was from there, too. )

Alabama. Conecuh County, little town by the name of ( wait, is that it? his fingers just brushed passed the rubbery end of what might've been the artery in question, one he'd immediately lost again. there's a faint huff of effort as he redoubles the search, an' damn the lost sensitivity in his fingers from those fuckin' nights on the salm. ) — Agathine. Ain't hardly but a thousand souls these days, that bein' 1947.

[It's always nice when there's some recognition, even if he's gotten used to the alternative. Some sort of very basic common ground is always useful.

The mention of the date is a little surprising, but it's at least still within the last hundred years, so could be a lot worse.]

I've never been to Alabama.

[He's been to Florida, and it sucked; it was hot and full of utterly ridiculous people. But he won't mention that.]

It was 2014 in my world.

[And speaking of time--]

How long have you been here?

gene hicks | ota (blanket cws: blood, gore, potential for death+related injuries))

red wings!

cw: literal human mess

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wildcard!

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sorry for the wait I am alive

all good you know i take like 10+ days sometimes lmao

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city center

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