hadriel_logs | Event Log: End of Arc 2

Entry tags:

Event Log: End of Arc 2

Who: All characters
What: The event log for the End of Arc 2
Where: All over the city
When: November 25th-December 12th
Warnings: A full-scale battle, including character death, NPC death, and various other ways to suffer

It was bound to happen. The Null warned you, after all, and this has been building for awhile - and now it's here. First comes the initial attack, the agents of the Null attacking Hope's temple. Then, an SOS, warning the city of what's happened: a betrayal, and Hope being injured. Luckily for everyone, thanks to the actions of his guards Hope survives the attack. Unluckily, his attacker, the goddess Delight, escapes and lets the Null in.

Flooding into the cave, the Null will attack anyone who they believe is resisting them. They'll destroy buildings and deploy dangerous crowd control weapons, in addition to their sheer strength and speed. Confusion empties the monsters in the tunnels into the city, to help distract the Null. Some gods fight, others provide safe havens, but everyone is in danger.

After about a week and a half of the attack, Fear summons enough power to teleport the city. This stops any new Null from arriving through the tunnels, but the remaining Null must be hunted down and destroyed, or else they'll signal their location to the rest of their species. The danger will lessen as Null are taken out, but things won't really be safe until Fear moves the city again, so don't get too comfortable.

What will you do? Run and hide? Fight? Help the fighters? Turn on the gods yourself? Whatever you do, it's time to make a decision.

► This log covers November 25th-December 12th.
► 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 get taken out by the Null, please let us know here.

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[It seems like he's trying to say something, and that's a good sign; Lance listens carefully, trying to get anything he can out of the few words he can make out, but suddenly Ephemera's far too close again.

His immediate instinct is to protect his ribs, and so that's at odds with the warning Ephemera gives; therefore it doesn't register quickly enough for him to actually duck. But he does dodge, a little, and the blow ends up being a glancing one; that isn't saying much considering it's in the face and thrown by someone in armour, but at least it could've been worse.

As it is, it's enough to throw him off balance, but he still manages to stay up through sheer force of will long enough to fire his gun; he doesn't want to, but he has very little other choice unless he wants to die the same way he did at home, which he absolutely does not. Once was more than enough.

But the dizziness and his draining strength leading to his aim being lower than intended, toward Ephemera's leg instead of his chest. Lance doesn't really see immediately if it hits because his own legs give out shortly afterward, and he sinks to the ground with his head spinning and has to struggle to remain conscious. Apparently, avoiding the full force or not, the blow to the face was still strong enough to give him at least a minor concussion.]

Edited 2017-11-26 02:59 (UTC)

[The sharp crack of gunfire registers. There's pressure in his leg. A tear in the Kevlar of his survival suit.

Ephemera doesn't flinch. He coughs. Tries to calm his breathing, to force his vision to clear.

Sweets is on the ground.

Oh.]

Get....up.

[He's kneeling. Picking up the gun. The Null buzz in his head, pressing in. Holding his limbs hostage.]

[Lance vaguely registers that the shot--if it even hit at all, because he doesn't know that it did--apparently had no effect, which on some level he's glad for because he didn't want to hurt Ephemera. But it also means Lance is still in the same very precarious situation, and actually even worse of a one as he realizes Ephemera is picking up the gun.

He can't let Ephemera take it, because if he does there's no chance that Lance is going to avoid getting shot this time; he really, desperately wants to find some way to break the Null's control, but not dying takes precedence. It has to, and he's made every effort he can to avoid having to give up on trying to help, so now it's a matter of survival.

As injured as he is, he's still able to focus enough to ignore the dizziness and pain and fear, and concentrate. He gives himself only a moment to make sure he can feel the beginning of a rush of magic, before ignoring Ephemera's words entirely and instead just twisting around to grab the front of Ephemera's armour with both hands. Magic surges through his fingers, sending a non-lethal but still significant electrical shock into the metal; Lance maintains it only long enough to be sure he'll have a moment to grab his gun and get to his feet while Ephemera is, hopefully, stunned.]

[There's a strange moment of clarity when Sweets grabs at his armor. There's a crackle. Not to reason with him, but

Magic, Ephemera thinks, and almost smiles.

Then it hits his implants and he goes still, head tipped back, as the lightning works through his armor and implants.]

[It works, and Lance isn't sure if he's more relieved or more sickened by that, especially considering the actual result. But he's made his decision and needs to take the opportunity, which he does; he grabs his gun and lurches ungracefully to his feet, trying with less success than before to ignore the pain as he does so.

It goes against everything in him to leave, but he has to if he doesn't want either of them to end up dead. That would benefit no one but the Null, so although the guilt twists in his chest he takes the opening he has; he wishes he could think of something else to do, or at least something he could say to make any of this any better, but he can't. So he just silently disappears between the nearest two buildings, getting out of sight as quickly as possible to give himself a better chance of evading any attempts to follow him, as well as avoid any Null that might've been attracted by the fight.

But now what is he going to do?]

[In the end, he goes down. Doesn't die.

Wakes up in the clinic. Alive. Feeling like he got hit by a train and the god of angry, vengeful hangovers all at once.

His armor is somewhere else. Kyna took care of that. She's thorough. A good fighter. Solid.

One day, Ephemera might even admit that to her.

Today he's staring up at the ceiling, one hand covering his bad eye - someone either removed the prosthetic or knocked it straight out of his skull; he can't remember - and trying to count the scratches on the ceiling. It gives him something to focus on.

There's a shadow, a scrape of shoes against the floor.

Ephemera turns his head slightly. Oh.]

Hey, Doc.

[Lance hasn't really visited the new clinic locations much, for a few different reasons, but now that things are finally starting to calm down a little he's decided to do so. He's purposefully avoiding any staff as much as possible, but is surprised--in a good way, for the most part--to see Ephemera there as one of the patients. Although he certainly isn't pleased to see him injured, the fact that whatever was going on regarding the Null's control is now apparently over with is a huge relief.

Still, the guilt if being unable to do anything to help has still settled into his chest and makes itself known again when Ephemera addresses him, though Lance offers a weak smile despite that. It's also despite that the left side of his face is still very obviously bruised, but he's had worse; neither that injury nor the one to his ribs were as serious as he'd initially thought. Painful, sure, but ultimately they could've been a lot worse.

Hopefully that'll reassure Ephemera, a little bit.]

Hey. You're looking better.

[Not great, obviously, but definitely better.]

[The bruise on Sweets’ face is dark, but it doesn’t look like anything is broken beneath the surface. Small favors, Ephemera thinks, sadly. He could have killed Sweets. It wouldn’t have been difficult.

But they’re both breathing. That’s something.

Ephemera gives him a thin smile, bad eye still covered.]

All me up in here. Got electrocuted a couple times. Think it shorted out my implants.

[He isn't sure if anything is broken or not, but it's definitely not serious even if it is; he knows from experience that a cracked cheekbone will heal fine if he avoids smashing his face into anything for a few months. Even he can probably manage that, Hadriel or not.

The comment about implants suddenly makes things make more sense, as far as how the Null could've controlled him; he doesn't know anything about what kind of implants Ephemera has, but if they're technological in any way then it isn't too much of a stretch to guess the Null might've been able to reprogram them. It explains a lot, actually.]

So this means I shouldn't feel guilty about zapping you a little.

[He says it as a joke, clearly, with a waggle of his fingers for emphasis. But then he goes serious again, because more importantly--]

And you shouldn't feel guilty either.

[For what happened when they ran into each other, or any other encounter Lance doesn't know about.]

Nope. Since when do you know magic, anyhow?

[His tone is teasing, light. Anything to diffuse the situation a bit. He used to be good at that, Ephemera thinks. Making people laugh in the aftermath.]

Nah. This is on me. I had a feeling they might try. Wasn't fast enough to get it looked at.

Since about three weeks ago. But I'm not really making it public knowledge, so...

[If Ephemera could keep it mostly quiet, he'd appreciate it. He doesn't really care if he tells Drake or someone like that, he just doesn't want it public knowledge in general so that he can keep it as an unexpected advantage.

But at the last comments he shakes his head, which he immediately regrets and has to take a moment for the dizziness to pass; still, he's not about to allow that line of argument.]

It's easy to say that looking back. And even if you'd known it was a risk the entire time and did nothing, it still wouldn't make what happened your fault. Nothing you did or didn't do justifies the Null's actions.

[And he realizes, as he says it, that this is a similar topic to the one they'd discussed the last time they met formally. It's just flipped, this time.]

[Learning a new skill, huh. Timing worked out all right, didn't it? Turns out he'd need it to avoid getting curb-stomped by someone who should have been on his side.

Ephemera drops his hand from his bad eye, exhaling.]

Wasn't sure. I heard stories, back home. Parasitic AI and stuff. Didn't think the Null could get in so easy.

[A mistake. Obviously.]

Good news, electricity shorts out the implants and they don't stick around after that.

[Bad news is shorting out the implants makes him seize.]

[Lance is really amazed it took this long to get into an actual fight for his life, honestly; that it was with someone who was basically possessed is a lot better of a situation than he could've asked for. He was much more expecting someone to very willfully and purposefully try to kill him, considering the volatility of many of those here and his own tendency to get on their bad sides.

So although he's a little rattled--and that's more because of the memories brought up by the fight than from the fight itself anyway--he's more than content to consider himself lucky in this whole mess. He'd just like if Ephemera could do the same, instead of holding onto any unwarranted guilt.]

Then you had even less reason to expect something like this might happen. And we know how to counter it in the future, also, although it might be better to look for a different solution than electrocution. That's kind of dangerous.

[And painful. And can lead to serious side effects.]

It's fine. Works. Rather seize than hurt someone.

[Ephemera's grin is just a touch dark.]

Think I've bene having them for a while, anyway.

That makes it an option that works as a last resort, not a 'good enough, no need to figure out any other method of handling it' one.

[He raises his eyebrows when he says it, the touch of sass obvious, though it isn't pointedly at Ephemera. And that last comment is more than a little worrying.]

Have you seen any of the doctors here about that?

You got a better idea?

[He needs the implants to run his armor. They're probably all sorts of fucked up after this mess, but they're still necessary. And hopefully he can coax them into running again.

Survival is key in a war zone. And if he's not fighting, he might as well be dead.

Ephemera shakes his head.]

Didn't need to. Weren't that bad.

I appreciate the implied faith in my ability to problem-solve, but I do need more than three minutes to come up with something.

[Again, the dry sarcasm isn't directed at Ephemera exactly; it's more at the idea of giving up just because there's no immediate solution. He's pretty sure they can find someone here who might be able to do something, and even if not it's better to try and fail than do nothing.]

'Weren't that bad' in that they're a normal part of a condition you have and therefore don't require medical treatment, or 'weren't that bad' in that you just decided it wasn't necessary to get checked out?

[Because it could easily be either.]

[Ephemera snorts, pleased that Sweets doesn't cave or treat him too gently. There's a sharpness to the tone. Just enough to hear.

Good. That he can deal with.]

Doc, I got a building dropped on me. I've got way too many conditions. Corpsman in prison said they were probably microseizures. I walk 'em off.

Nothing about any of that was reassuring.

[Just, you know. Saying. And it's a good thing Ephemera isn't bothered by the sarcasm and sass, because Lance is exhausted physically and mentally and it's easier to resort to that than maintain the appearance of being completely calm and composed.]

Considering everything that happened, and that we have qualified doctors and healers here, you should probably have that looked into.

[Going to a healer would mean laying everything out. All of it, every plate and screw holding his sorry ass together. All the surgeries and treatments that CT arranged for and Ephemera only half remembers. That time is a blur. The only thing he remembers for sure is the way CT stayed with him in the aftermath, how his commander had started yelling at the doctors (if he dies I will fucking hurt you) when he'd never once yelled before.

He watches Sweets for a moment. Thinking.]

Why're you telling me this? I've done nothing but cause you trouble.

[Lance would understand that concern in general, about having to tell a doctor things you might not want to just so they can do their job, but sometimes it's necessary. This is a case where he'd very much consider it worth the stress.

But he doesn't know what Ephemera's thinking at the moment, which is evident by the question that's asked; it's definitely not one Lance is expecting, and it tells him a few things that he files away mentally for later.]

Even were that true, which it isn't, I'd be telling you this because it's the right thing to do.

[It's a simple, truthful answer that can stand alone, although he doesn't leave it to do so.]

You haven't caused me any trouble I haven't signed up for. The Null did.

[It's his job as a psychologist to deal with issues he might find stressful or difficult, and there's no way he's going to hold that against Ephemera; the opposite, actually, in that as much as he wishes the issues they've discussed didn't happen or the discussions might not have gone well, they're signs of progress. That's not something he considers trouble.

And as for what happened a few days ago, that was firmly the Null's doing. Ephemera had even warned him, and Lance had been too stubbornly determined about trying to help to retreat before either of them got hurt. So really, Ephemera's the only one actually blameless in this situation.]

[Ephemera doesn't know what he expected to hear, really. The thought of people caring enough to deal with his bullshit is foreign still. But there are people who care for him, who he cares for in turn. Drake. Lup. Even Kyna, sometimes.

He takes a breath. Lets it go.]

I'll go. After we clean this shit up. There's people a lot more fucked up than I am.

[It won't be fun or easy. Won't be clean. But they'll make it through.]

Can you do me a favor? Look in on Drake for me. He got hit pretty bad.

[The agreement is also unexpected, but pleasantly so, and he offers another genuine smile.]

That's fair.

[Lance is waiting for a similar reason, so he can't really judge. As for checking on Drake--]

Do you know which location he's at? If not I can look around.

[He's not doing anything but helping clear out remaining Null anyway; he's definitely willing to check on Drake and ferry messages back and forth.]

Not sure, [Ephemera admits. There's a lot he's not sure about.] He was at the temple when the first wave hit. Not sure where they have him now.

[Last time Ephemera had saw him, it hadn't--

It hadn't been good. But he'd been alive.

He meets Sweets' eyes, expression serious.]

Thank you.

Okay. I'll figure it out.

[It'll give him something to do, at least.]

Of course, you're welcome. Is there anything you'd like me to tell him while I'm there?

[Provided Drake's well enough to talk to.]

Event Log: End of Arc 2

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