Event Log: Extinction V.2

[hadrielmods]

Who: Everyone participating in the event!
What: The event log for the Extinction event!
Where: All around the city
When: July 22nd-July 29th
Warnings: Fighting, the cruel slaughter of innocent monsters who definitely don't want to eat you, wholesale destruction, and maybe some painting

On July 22nd, Hope puts the call out for a little help with this monster problem he's been having - for the second time. In exchange for some prizes, he'd like you to go into the caves and kill him a few monsters! He'll be keeping an eye out and rewarding you for each kill, so grab a friend and a sword and get to work. Just try not to get lost in the caves - they're pretty extensive, and no one seems to have a decent map. Also, you know. They're full of slavering hellbeasts.

If you're not a fighter, don't worry! Hope also wants to clean things up around the city a little. There'll be caches of cleaning supplies, tools, paint, and other various piece of beautifying equipment available to find in the shops, and he plans to reward people for the time and effort they put in there, too! His sense of artistry is not particularly advanced, so don't worry about impressing him. You'll probably get an A for effort regardless.

For those characters participating in the beautifying portion of the event, please comment here with a brief description of what your character will be doing - for example 'painting three buildings and cleaning up the roads around the clinic'. If your character will be killing some of the monsters, please comment here and let us know how many they've taken out - for example 'three cacodemons and one troll'. For reference, here is a list of the amount of each monster that can be found in the caves:

Monsters Bereskarn (10 1) Blobs (3 1) Cacodemons (14 0!!!) Coeurls (4 0!!!) Deathclaws (6 1) Hunters (1 0!!!) Malboros (9 1) Mimics (11 4) Rodents of Unusual Size (15 0!!!) Skulltulas (12 5) Smokers (5 0!!!) Taxxons (8 2) Trolls (12 1) White Walkers (2 0!!!) Wraiths (8 6) Yeti (2 0!!!)

► This log covers July 22nd-July 29th.
► Feel free to make your own logs, as well
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you happen to lose a monster fight or accidentally drink some paint, please notify us of your death here!

Comments

late tag for the anywhere option, whenever works best

[thechoiceisyours]

[Chris, generally, doesn't have much desire or reason to talk to Sharon; he didn't before the whole thing with her and Kate and Bianca happened, and doesn't now. But as he's passing by on the way home from the bar--holding a late-night cup of coffee, of course--he catches sight of her, and more interestingly what she's painting.]

I think uh... I think that one was almost entirely Rage's fault, actually.

[His voice is quiet, since he's trying not to startle her as he approaches, his gaze fixed on the image of a wendigo devouring a person.]

[unitas]

[ Sharon stiffens when he speaks, only glancing back at him with a scowl before her attention returns to the painting. ]

It was the both of them, or that's what Hope said. [ Or what she remembers Hope stating. ] I could always be wrong.

[ But the way she says it, it's like she doesn't even care if she is. ]

[thechoiceisyours]

[He returns the glance, though his expression is far more neutral as he shoves his hands in his hoodie pocket and steps up a little closer.]

They both screwed with the food for sure. But um... I think only Rage knew what it would do. Fear could've been lying about that, but I don't know why he would've.

[He isn't arguing, just offering what he knows. Or some of it, anyway.]

[unitas]

Because it's fucking Fear. [ As if that's the answer to everything, and, to Sharon, it really is. She was afraid to eat meat for weeks after, and even now, there's still this instinctive twist in her gut when she gives her food any amount of thought . Any of it could be used against them.

Everything here can be used against them, whether they know it or not.

She dips a brush in red, and drags her fingers across its bristles, spraying the paint across the wendigos face and torso. ] You never know the next thing he'll use against you, the next thing he'll make you fear.

[ The fear that never, ever really goes away. ]

[thechoiceisyours]

[Chris really doesn't think arguing the logic of that first statement would do much good with Sharon so he doesn't even bother considering it, instead watching her add the spray of blood to the picture and reminding himself firmly that it's just paint; he knows that, it's obvious, but the sight still somehow is enough to make him a little tense and agitated.]

Yeah. Maybe not.

[They can't predict what will happen and just have to deal with it when it comes and that sucks, but...]

Don't you think that, you know, maybe obsessing over it just makes it worse?

[unitas]

[ The spray of red stops at the question, but her thumb remains pressed against the rough bristles of the brush. She licks her lips. He's right: she obsesses over the gods, and every little thing they've done, but what else is there to do? When she's been wounded, vengeance becomes the only thing that really matters, and she will allow those wounds to fester until she gets it, or dies trying. ]

Not really. [ It does. It makes it worse, but worse is better than pretending, worse is better than pushing it all to the back of her mind. Remember. Always remember. Never forgive, never forget. ] It's better than trying to forget it.

[thechoiceisyours]

I think um... I think there's like, a happy medium we're all supposed to be aiming for. Ideally.

[But he says it with just enough humor in his tone to indicate it seems kind of unrealistic to him too, even though he knows it's probably the correct thing to try for.]

But I mean... I dunno. Doesn't focusing on it just make your life even worse and give them what they want at the same time?

[unitas]

[ She appreciates the humor, if only because it seems like such a far fetched thing to try for nowadays. The first month, sure, but after so many it gets harder to not let it swallow you alive; it's much easier to give in than fight it. ]

I don't mind feeling worse. [ There's some dark part of her—likely birthed from years alone in the basement of a hospital as Alessa—that wants to feel worse; the worse she feels, the more powerful she feels. Power through pain. ] And there isn't a day that goes by when we don't give them what they want.

[thechoiceisyours]

[His sense of humor's gone a bit morbid after being here but at least it still exists.]

If you didn't mind feeling worse, then it's kind of hard to believe the events would even bother you.

[And he's pretty sure the events bother her, considering the whole obsession thing.]

And there's a big difference between kind of, you know, general dread and actively focusing on what happened. I mean, unless you don't remember exactly what it was like when you think about it.

[And that applies to most of the events, even if Chris has a particular one in mind that actually isn't the wendigo one.]

[unitas]

I remember exactly what it was like when I think back on what they've done, but I also... [ There's no reason for her to even bother to explain it, it's unlikely he'll understand, but she still finds herself trying despite her doubt. She licks her lips, looking back at him. ]

I feel an incredible amount of hatred, so much that it overwhelms those other feelings. [ Like a wildfire, it devours everything it sees. This is how Alessa survived the years in Silent Hill, by slowly letting that wildfire eat every other emotion until it was the only thing left. ]

[thechoiceisyours]

[It's true he doesn't understand, but he's trying to. He's really trying to be sympathetic and see things from her perspective, partially for his own need to understand why she did what she did but also simply because he's empathetic.

But what she describes kind of makes sense, at least emotionally, but that part doesn't at all fit with the logic.]

I um... I get being angry. Especially since it's a lot less awful to be angry than afraid.

[He rarely feels that angry, but when he does it's so much simpler than being heartbroken or terrified or guilty. It's just easier.]

But then you're just... Then you're just giving Rage what she wants instead of Fear. Is that really any better?

[unitas]

It's not... It's not anger, Chris. [ though such an emotion plays a heavy part in the development of her hatred, it's not what it's made of. it goes above, and beyond rage. it is a feeling in its own right, and she's far too comfortable with letting it control her. ]

It's a feeling that is much worse than rage, more useful than it, too. That's how I can do... [ She hesitates, and then opens her free palm. At first, there is nothing, and then fire sparks in the air, dancing violently above her open palm. The heat burns at her fingers, and singes the edge of her sleeve. Her palm closes, and the fire extinguishes. Her stomach rolls with a sudden wave of nausea, but it passes quickly; she's getting used to these powers. ]

I get more powerful the worse that feeling gets. [ though, that comes with a general lack of control. ]

[thechoiceisyours]

[Chris doesn't typically have a problem with relating to emotions, but hatred--especially to that level, where it's not just synonymous with anger--is one of those things he isn't sure he's ever experienced. It takes a lot to make him angry and it passes too quickly for it to turn into something as intense and long-lasting as true hatred is.

He's half listening to her and half lost in thought when she opens her palm, and although he's getting used to the idea of people having magic and superpowers it's still startling. More so because it's Sharon, who has not exactly shown to have the best discretion when it comes to her powers.

So he flinches back subconsciously, briefly alarmed, but she extinguishes the flames as quickly as they came and he tries to will his heartrate to settle back down.]

Oh. That um... I guess that explains a lot.

[About a lot of things.]

[unitas]

[ She sees him flinch, and her jaw tightens. The moment the flame is gone, she stuffs her hands into the pouch of her hoodie, hiding them away as if to hide what she was capable of. ]

Yeah. [ Hatred had been the last thing Alessa ever felt. One day, it will be the last thing Sharon feels, too. ] It wasn't always like that. Before, it was... It was easy. I couldn't conjure fire, or shift dimensions. I would just make butterflies dance.

[ It used to be innocent. ]

[thechoiceisyours]

Before what?

[He knows there has to be a story here, something to explain why Sharon deals with this place the way she does, just as the rest of the people here handle things in their own ways for their own reasons. And though some part of him doesn't think there's a real excuse for any of what she did, he still genuinely wants to try to understand.]

[unitas]

Before I was burned alive. [ She states flatly. There is a story there, but it isn't an easy one to tell, let alone to someone she isn't close to. She chews her lower lip a moment, uncertain how to start. ]

The cult I was born into, they wanted me to give birth to their god. [ And people wonder why she's so vehemently against the gods of this place. She tries to keep up a sense of detachment, but it's impossible to keep a frown from settling into place, or the sudden emotional strain to her voice. ] I was eleven years old when they strung me up above hot coals, all of them crowding around, fucking chanting.

[ A pause, a moment to reign in the rolling rage and hurt in her chest. ] Despite what was happening, I managed to stop the ritual before they could complete it. But after... [ She shakes her head, eyes downward, far away. ] I was alone, and hurt, and something inside of me changed.

[thechoiceisyours]

[Chris couldn't have hid the look of horrified shock on his face even if he wanted to, but he isn't bothering to try; he's heard--and lived--some screwed up stories, but it's hard to beat that one. What the fuck, seriously.

It's also suddenly a lot more difficult to be truly angry with her about what she did; it doesn't make it right, and it doesn't mean he even slightly trusts her judgement or decision making now or in the future, but... It makes it more understandable. Something like what she's describing would mess up anyone, especially if they were eleven at the time.]

I'm really sorry. That's super fucked up.

[It's quiet and genuine, but he doesn't mean it pityingly. She survived, no matter what mark the event left on her, and that part of things he truly can relate to.]

[unitas]

[ Sharon waves off the show of sympathy, turning from him to hide her expression. It's a difficult thing to discuss, so much so that few have been privy to it in the last nine months she's been trapped here. ]

I think that's an understatement. [ She swallows out, forcing some hint of amusement into her tone. ]

[thechoiceisyours]

Are there, you know, strong enough words to make it not an understatement? Because I'm not thinking of any.

[There's a hint of humor in his voice as well, to match hers; it's a lot easier, especially here, to try to find whatever levity is possible even if it usually ends up being somewhat morbid in nature.]

[unitas]

There's probably some German word out there that covers it pretty well, but... [ She shrugs. She doesn't speak German, or anything other than English and Vengeance. She starts to pack away the supplies she'd pulled out, finished with the mural for the moment. There are still more she has to do, preferably before Hope stops supplying them with brushes, and paints.

She swings her pack onto her shoulder, and begins to move past him, leaving the alley. ] See you, Chris.

[thechoiceisyours]

[He moves to let her pass, but it's out of politeness instead of wariness.]

Yeah. See you, Sharon.

[He waits for her to leave, casts a last glance at the mural, and then begins home.]