EVENT #010

[larkers]

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

Comments

[personalwar]

[ Now that they're close enough, Jack can see it too. It's like she's dangling there, her arms hanging limply at her sides. Maybe a monster found her and strung her up, but his instincts are telling him that there's more to this.

The fact that Bucky's now lifted his gun to point it at her is a clear sign that he senses the same thing. Jack mirrors the action with his own handgun, jaw clenching as he waits for a clearer sign.

Why.
Why won't you help me.

He watches carefully, but the woman's mouth isn't moving.

Jack holds his ground, not willing to step an inch closer. ]

Come out into the light. Show yourself.

[ The alley's bathed in blue light as his chest glows. That wasn't just a suggestion; it was an order. ]

[freightcars]

[ Show yourself. The order carries down the alley, and after only the briefest of hesitations, the woman begins bouncing along toward them. Bobbing, sort of, with limbs flailing like the loose arms of a fresh corpse, no stiffness set in yet, all heavy swinging weight.

Her feet, he realizes, don't move across the ground. The toes barely touch before they're hopping again, or— jolting again on the next forward "step".

The thing holding her up by the neck slowly becomes clearer. It's a flesh-toned band of muscle, or skin, or thick branch. It's not just hanging her by the neck, it's part of her neck, stretching long and getting wider behind her the more that it comes toward them.

He's watched his fair share of Monsters of the Deep on the Discovery channel, one of exactly six that came in on the shitty, antiquated television in one of the hostels he lived in for a few weeks. Even if he hadn't, it doesn't take a genius to come to the conclusion that it's bait connected to something much larger.

She's about four feet away when the first row of teeth juts around the corner of the alley. ]

Yeah, that's enough of that.

[ He intones grimly, the last word barely out of his mouth before he pulls the trigger. ]

[personalwar]

[ While Jack's fought all sorts of monsters since this all started, none of the experiences had been quite like this. Most of them had just attacked head-on, and while a few had lingering side effects, the build-up of this thing drawing them close by tricking them with a person in need is a whole different brand of sick.

Granted, it could have been a bit more convincing in its methods. The sense of wrongness had been there almost from the start, though Jack couldn't have guessed at just how wrong. As the monster reveals itself, a massive form packed with rows and rows of teeth and dead, hollow eyes, he can see what the creature is based on -- an angler fish.

All of the monsters are mutated animals to some extent, but this is so far beyond the pale that it's hard to process it. Something that should be deep in the lowest reaches of the ocean hiding in an alleyway is almost impossible to reconcile -- to say nothing of the fake corpse it had used to lure them.

Bucky's right, though. They need to put it down, and thankfully there's still some space between them. For once, he doesn't think about the possibility of wasting ammo. The entire encounter has been disconcerting enough that he doesn't hesitate to lift his gun and fire off a few rounds at the monster's massive face.

He shouts over the gunfire. ]

I'm guessing it won't go down easy. Any ideas?

[freightcars]

[ Maybe expecting a flawless recreation of human mannerisms is a little too much to ask from something that, at the end of the day, is still just an animal. Like a parrot echoing sentences out of context, or like dogs standing on their hind legs — they don't really know the intricacies of what it is they're doing. They're just doing it, and subtle nuances are lost on them. All that matters is they do it effectively enough to ensnare.

Judging by the high heel wedged in between two teeth, it's doing just fine on that front.

It's made of blubbering mass, thick pounds of flesh that take bullets like pinpricks. Painful, but not enough to stop or kill it. ]

You got strong opinions on sushi?

[ He suggests in deadpan, finally lowering his rifle when it becomes clear it's not a high enough calibre to actually accomplish anything.

His feet start backpedaling as it gets closer; getting in range of that lure seems like a bad idea. ]

You gave it an order, can you do that again?

[personalwar]

[ It seems like the bullets are doing little more than annoying the monster, and it's a good thing that it's so slow. The idea clearly was to draw them close enough that it could devour them in one gulp, as it's done to others. There's not just a shoe, but bits of flesh and skin caught between its crowded teeth. Talk about nightmare fuel. ]

You wouldn't want to eat any of these things, believe me.

[ Bucky had obviously been speaking facetiously, but Jack knows for a fact what might happen if someone were to eat the tainted meat. Monster parts got turned into some sort of rage-inducing drug before, right? It was before his time here, but he'd read about it all the same.

Using his power might be the best option they have here, short of outrunning it. Jack doesn't like the idea of leaving it alive to ensnare someone a little less suspicious than the two of them, though. He's not sure if his power will work again in such quick succession, but he's willing to give it a try. ]

Stop in place. [ Once again, his chest lights up. The angler fish does as it's ordered. ] Turn around. [ That works too, even if it takes a good ten seconds for it to slowly turn its back to them.

Jack shoots a glance at Bucky. ] What about you? Got any tricks up your sleeve?

[ Something a little more destructive, hopefully. ]

[freightcars]

[ Don't worry, pal, he didn't need that warning. There isn't a force on God's green earth that could have him taking a bite out of whatever toxic waste is fueling this monstrosity.

Something in him zings a little at Jack's commanding tone, about what it does to the creature before them. The absolute obedience following it, mindless and immediate.

He chews his cheek for a second, and then he's moving on.

His rifle goes back over his shoulder, slung and hanging by the strap in favor of going for the knife he's got on his thigh. It comes up and out with an absent flourish, but there is no cockiness accompanying the gesture. It's just muscle memory. Everywhere from the shoulders up is looking a little resigned and a little incredulous at himself at the same time. ]

Aside from making it forget every order you just gave it?

[ Sure, he could make it think it ought to go the other way for a better meal, but that just leaves some other poor bastard to wind up as a shoe and a shred of flesh between its teeth.

They're gonna have to take it out. ]

Just the stupid kind.

[ That involves getting on the goddamn thing and looking for a more effective place to shove a knife. Stupid doesn't mean he's not gonna do it.

Just means it's stupid.

Unless you got a better idea... ]

[personalwar]

[ Jack frowns at the implication regarding Bucky's power. He can make people (or creatures) forget things? While there might be a few instances in which that could be useful, the overall concept is enough to rub him the wrong way. He thinks of Zerzura, where his own life and identity had been supplanted with some idyllic dream.

Suffice to say he's not a fan.

Now isn't the time to talk about it. They've got a fish to gut, and when Jack sees the knife come out, he at least has some idea of what Bucky's planning. It might be stupid and reckless, but both of them are trained soldiers who've been through their fair share of fights. If they don't take this thing down, who's going to?

So after a pause, he tightens his hold on his gun and nods. ]

I'll cover you.

[ If anything goes really south, Jack will figure something out, even if it that means prying Bucky from the beast's jaws so they can make a break for it. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. ]

[freightcars]

[ Don't worry, Jack. Not a single person is more uncomfortable with his power than he is. Nobody on the goddamn planet. What he's done with it — which isn't a lot — has been at the request of others, and only for situations that really mattered. Qi's repressed memories, Natasha's haunting her to the point of exhaustion. The latter was bordering fatal considering it was happening during a goddamn monster apocalypse.

He doesn't count the monsters. That's a whole nother thing.

He's used it. He's getting used to it.

But he still doesn't like it.

It's not gonna do him any good here anyway. Fortunately, it's kind of one of his least useful skills. He slips his rifle off of his shoulders and onto the ground so he can demonstrate a far better one: running up the thing's back like goddamn Legolas on an Oliphaunt.

You'd think a two hundred pound man with a bulky metal arm wearing boots would move with clunky, heavy aggression. Nope, not this light footed ballerina looking asshole. He ascends rubbery, malleable flesh with minimal impact, then thrusts a metal hand down deep into the muscle at the base of its illicium.

To say the thing is not stoked would be an understatement. Who knew fish could scream? ]

[personalwar]

[ As soon as Bucky puts down his rifle, Jack can be almost positive that he knows what he's going to do. He takes a few steps forward so that he's standing next to the rifle, just in case he finds himself needing to use it. Somehow he doesn't think Bucky will mind if Jack uses some of his ammunition if it's for the purpose of saving his skin.

But what follows next is something far more interesting. His ability with a gun is one thing, but to see Bucky in action now is something else entirely. He moves with an unexpected grace, each action efficient and practiced. No movement is wasted. It's impressive, there's no getting around that.

Not that now is the time to admire a fellow soldier's skill in battle. (This isn't the sort of thing they teach you in boot camp. So where the hell did Bucky learn it?) When the fish's giant maw opens, allowing it to scream, Jack squeezes off three quick shots.

Its outer layer of skin may be armored, but the inside of its mouth is soft, vulnerable flesh. Those shots do hurt, causing it to thrash and flail in a desperate attempt to throw Bucky off like it's some kind of bucking bronco. ]

[freightcars]

[ And there's a new career path he hadn't considered: rodeo. It might be an unfair advantage with the metal arm, but frankly he thinks he could take it off and do just fine one-handed. The serum didn't boost his internal gyroscope, that's not something that comes in a drug. That's years of attunement to your body, hands-on practice.

The bastard thrashes, Bucky's fingers dig in, one foot on heel and one on toe riding the momentum out mostly gracefully. He'd have done better before losing a little strength, but it doesn't matter. He's got a grip enough that he can plunge the knife in at the top of it's head and--

-accomplish absolutely nothing. He slices through skin and fat and muscle, but there's a whole lot of nothing there. ]

Where the hell is its brain?

[ Called out incredulously to Jack, as though he's a monster marine biologist or something. ]

[personalwar]

[ Jack is definitely not a monster marine biologist or anything even close to that, but he can't begrudge Bucky his frustration either. After working under the assumption that the brain was always more or less located in the same place, to have that suddenly get changed around in the middle of a life-or-death situation? Not a great time.

They've done some damage to it, at least, enough that it's now the one on the back foot (or fin, as the case may be). Jack doesn't think that pumping more bullets into it, even its squishy parts, is necessarily going to get the job done. All of this translates, in a few quick seconds, into this: he needs to buy Bucky more time.

Realizing that Bucky will have much better luck finding the thing's brain if he doesn't have to also ride it like he's on a mechanical bull, Jack steps forward and activates his power yet again. He's not sure how many times he can rely on this hat trick, and he feels a stinging in his nose and behind his eyes when he triggers it -- but he can worry about that later. ]

Go prone.

[ The monster does just that, its entire bulk seeming to deflate as it settles down against the alley floor and its lure flops unceremoniously to the ground as well. It stops moving.

Jack tilts his head up to look at Bucky, and while he speaks an order of sorts, his power has nothing to do with it. ]

Dig deeper.