Event Log: End of Arc 2

[hadrielmods]

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.

Comments

[mismanagement]

Oh, thank the stars.

Maketh shivers. Tries to remember her medical training. It's been so long--

No. Control yourself, soldier. Consider your objective. Break it into steps.

She takes Rey's hand gently, trying to take in the damage. All of it. Rey's chest is a sunken mess, her face swollen and bloody. But nothing is spurting, no arterial pulse, and--

Yes. Yes, they can work with that.

"Where?" Maketh's voice is even, controlled. "Rey, where are you bleeding?"

[circumitus]

Why do you care? a part of her almost says. There's still that half that is angry with her, and that authoritative voice doesn't help. Feels like a punch to her guts.

But, at the same time, she doesn't want Maketh to leave. She doesn't want to die here alone.

"Inside." Her head slides back against the wall, struggling to get air passing through her throat.

The internal damage is real. Can't do anything about that. She can stop the bleeding on the surface level, but she can feel her organs struggling to function and her bones won't be able to correct themselves without proper treatment and time.

None of that matters if her body dies, though.

[mismanagement]

Internal. Maketh breathes. Takes in the wreck of Rey's chest, the exposed bone. Possibly a punctured lung as well. It's hard to tell. "Stay awake. I'm going to call someone."

Even if it were safe to move Rey, she's simply too heavy. Maketh can't take the weight. That means help has to come to them.

[circumitus]

There's a feeling that twists up inside Rey, more so than the injuries that riddle her body. It's sheer willpower that she uses to tug at the hand Maketh is holding hers with, once she's made the call for help.

"Don't leave me. Please?"

Pathetic, she's shaking. Her voice is shaking and she's terrified.

She doesn't want to fall into the black again.

It's so close now. Except she's damned for being so resilient. Dying is such a slow, agonizing process.

[mismanagement]

That shakes her, suddenly. The plea. Maketh swallows. Squeezes Rey's hand hard.

"I'm not. I'm right here. Look at me. You cannot die. I have rehearsed several speeches where I yell at you, and I do not intend to waste them!"

[circumitus]

Somehow, the anger that had been boiling inside of her these last few weeks simmer at Maketh's voice and grip, speaking to Rey like that. It sounds so normal to her. And she fights to stay conscious; the pain is so strong that she has become numbed to it by now.

"Didn't want to-- hhhurt you," Rey admits between watery coughs. The taste of blood in her mouth is strong. "Wanted things to... to be how they were. You wanting good-- do good... ah."

Like she confessed to Rose -- what she regrets is the fact that what she did hurt Maketh. But that was inevitable. One of them was going to get hurt in the end.

Her good eye squeezes shut. If her wounds overtake her here, she can't let this conversation end in anger. But she's struggling and dizzy. "So... I'll be here... you can yell at me. I don't mind. Just don't..." The blood leaks through her teeth.

[mismanagement]

"No," Maketh snaps, holding tight to Rey's hand, so hard that she almost imagines bones snapping under the force of it. But of course Rey is made of stronger, less human stuff.

It's simple. Rey cannot die. Maketh will not allow it. "No, you look at me! We -- we are going to fight. I have decided. And then we -- we are going to understand each other, Rey."

Somehow. Between the blood and the dying and everything they've both done, there's going to be fucking reckoning.

[circumitus]

When Rey coughs again, it's more of a laugh. A very strained and agonized laugh, no less.

"Been fighting my whole life..." This time, Rey does look to Maketh, lifting her chin a few inches from her chest where it rested. "Sorry if the idea of domestic warfare doesn't sound very... appealing to me anymore."

Her expression is soft, smile sad. But it's there. Despite everything, she manages to bring her good hand to Maketh's face. Doesn't register the blood she's smearing across the other woman's cheek. Rey can barely see what's in front of her, yet she knows what's there. She just wants to feel something.

[mismanagement]

"None of that," Maketh hisses. She doesn't like this--this stillness. The way that Rey is looking at her. Like this is absolution, or some bullshit. No. The fight continues. They are at war now, and they are soldiers both. They will fight. There is no other choice. She grabs Rey's hand, squeezing tight. "You are going to live and annoy me fiercely."

[circumitus]

Live... Live . It's an odd word to hear when she doesn't want to die. Not like this. But she can feel her insides twisting and her blood go cold. She generally knows what happens next...

No, no. There's still so much she needed to say. Why now? Her breath stops in her throat. Suffocation, like drowning, is agony.

"Please, don't..." Maketh is fading into the static noise, screaming in her skull and blinding her vision. "Don't go. Please don't go, please don't go... please don't g..."

White turns to black. Body goes limp. Alone again. Pulse weak and dying from within.

[tongueamok]

Thankfully, Maketh and Rey don't have to wait much longer -- Carlisle arrives less than a minute after Rey passes out, and can see that he hasn't a moment to spare as he enters the dilapidated room and his eyes fall upon his apparent ward. Oh. Oh, that does answer the who is Maketh talking about question he'd had, now doesn't it?

"Miss Rey!"

He drops one satchel hanging off his shoulder and sets the other down carefully, pulling at his gloves. His nails are blackened with inky residue -- he's been at this for days, but there is still more to be done, more that must be done. "Miss Tua, if- if you could hold her arms, so- well, I'm not sure you could keep someone as strong as- as her from striking me should she snap awake, but let us at least m- make the attempt."

He could work on his bedside manner, but he'll do that when Rey isn't possibly dying. He can heal the organic wounds, and he hopes that will be enough, as there is nothing he can do about the metal parts within her.

[mismanagement]

There's no time for hysterics or tears, so Maketh does none of that. She holds herself perfectly still and waits, listening to Rey's shallow breathing. And she holds while blood gathers on her coat and soaks into the ground below. She holds.

Until, finally, there's something she can do.

She exhales sharply. Takes Rey's arms as carefully as she can.

"She is dying. I suggest you hurry."

[tongueamok]

"She's not dying," Carlisle snaps, attempting to assess where best to put his hands -- Rey is bleeding so much that it really doesn't matter, but a correction does, apparently. "I mean- she probably is dying, but she will not die if there's anything I can do about it."

And there is, thankfully. Carlisle closes his eyes, sucks in a breath, and puts his hands upon her ribcage, hoping the approximation to her core will help evenly spread his energies. They roil in his gut, pouring from his arms, through his hands, and into his ward with all the searing tenderness of scaling water. To someone not as accustomed to fire as Rey, such an influx of energy would burn fiercely.

But, she is accustomed to such things. Also, she is unconscious. That helps a little.

Carlisle pulls in a breath, trying to steady himself as he seeks her internal wounds, feeling them out by the way his own energy bumps back and ripples against them. There are tears, openings, organs marred. They will need mending. He keeps his eyes closed, but asks of her condition.

"Sh- she doesn't look like she will awaken yet, does she?"