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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Rhy is perhaps not the best suited to fighting the Null, given his lack of advanced weaponry, but he has other useful qualities. He has been out doing what he can, though all he's got is a sword - which means he hasn't really taken down any Null himself. What he has done is helped people, given them a chance to strike where he can't or a chance to get away.

And that's what he does now, when he sees someone cornered by one of the creatures. Rhy does not hesitate, he throws himself right in the way, raising his sword to block the Null's blow. He does not seem at all worried about being injured.]

Are you all right? Can you hit it?

[She expects the thing to come down straight on her head, bracing herself for the impact and the probable pain that would come after, but what happens instead is an arm in front of her face, a sword-- (a sword?)-- blocking the blow, and she doesn't waste the opportunity.]

Yeah. [The word comes out almost as a grunt and she shoves the barrel of the assault rifle straight into the robot's chest cavity, the sound of gunfire rattling out loudly as she lets loose two volleys directly into the creature. It doesn't struggle for long before it falls limp.]

... I can fucking hit it.

Very nice.

[The compliment seems both honest and as if Rhy is somewhat impressed - which of course he is. Modern weaponry is still impressive to him, and people who can use it are as well.

He steps back, looking around them for more Null. The area is clear for now, but he knows from experience that it's unlikely to stay that way. Still, a moment to breathe is valuable.]

Are you hurt?

You too.

[She pushes herself back up to her feet using the wall behind her, looking around as well. For now, it seems the coast is clear, but they have been finding her quickly no matter where she goes.]

Few scrapes and bruises, but I'm fine.

[Said scrapes and bruises are evident on every part of her that's visible. A bruise and some blood mark the line of her jaw and there are several cuts into her clothes that show blood as evidence that more than just fabric got sliced into.

Her expression, though, is like steel. This is a girl who has not been beaten yet.]

Thanks for the help. You didn't have to do that.

Of course I did. I'm not going to run off somewhere and hide, leaving people to whatever fate the Null have planned for them.

[He doesn't sound indignant, just confident. Certain that helping was the right thing to do. After all, the alternative is not something that he could ever live with.]

That's more than a few scrapes and bruises. I know there are healers around - at the clinic, at least. I can accompany you if you'd like someone to watch your back.

[Rhy looks her over, assessing.]

You'll be in a difficult situation if you don't take care of yourself.

I'm trying to take care of myself. [She squints at him, disliking the appraising look he's giving her as she straightens herself up and brushes herself off.]

And if I need a doctor, I'll go and find one.

[She's stubborn, but at the moment is not of the opinion that she needs any kind of urgent medical attention. Not to mention that, well, the things are following her and if she's not taking them back to the springs if she can help it. She'll need to shake them, first.]

Right now, I don't need to waste their time.

If you're sure.

[He sounds doubtful, but presumably she'd know her limits better than he would. And he can't say much, anyway - he doesn't bother to go see anyone when he gets hurt.]

Just don't hesitate if you think they can help you. I doubt they'd see it as you wasting their time.

[Judging by all the healers and doctors he's known, anyway.]

Were you going somewhere?

I'm looking for people.

[She keeps her voice quiet, using as much of the peace and lack of immediate danger as she can. Moments like this, outside of various safe zones, have been rare in the last couple of days, especially when every Null that sees her seems to zero in on her immediately.]

Anyone, really. There must be people still stuck out here.

[They can't just be left behind.]

Yes, I think you're probably right about that.

[Rhy has tried to keep an eye out himself, for all that it's worth. If anyone is out there, they're hopefully being smart and hiding, but - well, Rhy knows well enough that he wouldn't be able to hide if it were him.]

Supposedly, if they don't oppose the Null they'll be safe. But I don't know if I believe that.

Not something I'm going to get to find out.

[Julie pulls a face, rubbing her elbow. By this point, everything hurts, but she hasn't had the luxury of hiding since the moment the creatures started flooding into the tunnels.]

What the hell did she think she was doing, anyway? How is this helping us?

I don't know. They're not like people, these gods - they don't have the same priorities as us.

[It's a generous interpretation. Rhy isn't sure he believes it.]

Still, after all the hell we've given them, she ought to have known we wouldn't just take this laying down.

[A nod. She doesn't know much about these god things yet, but one thing's for sure - they are definitely nothing like her. Even her father wouldn't have pulled a stunt like this, and these days she has doubts about just how much her father really considers anyone else in his plans at all.]

No kidding. If she thought she was going to save us this way, she really got it wrong. [She lets out an annoyed sound.]

I was on their shitlist before they even got here.

Really? It sounds like you're not the only one. They must have short tempers or very delicate egos.

[Rhy is only so-so about using his phone - it's not technology he's familiar with - so he managed to miss most of that sort of thing.]

After this, I doubt they'll have any allies here at all. Even those who were unsure must see that they don't have our best interests in mind at all.

Bet they'd not admit to either. [What use does a robot have for a temper, or an ego? But there's something about them, clearly, that makes them feel so threatened by the slightest resistance that they see it as worthy of death.

She's run into that sort of ego before. It can be used as a weakness, but Julie is no strategist, and she wouldn't know the first thing about how to use something like that to her advantage.]

Do you think they need allies? They seem pretty good at killing us off without them.

[The only alternative is that they are so brutally callous that lives mean nothing - that any kind of resistance must simply be snuffed out completely. Rhy hopes that isn't the case, because if it is, there's very little they can do. At least they could work with fragile egos and short tempers - use those things to their advantage.]

Now that they're in the city, I suppose they don't. They only needed help to get in here. But I find it unlikely that they'd simply throw away any possible allies. They don't seem stupid.

But do they need allies. That's the thing.

[The Null didn't seem like they'd wanted allies, even when they were proposing tasks for the people living in the cave. They'd wanted someone to give them an in, to open the door, but after that..?]

Would you trust something like them? I don't think we matter to them, so why would our alliance matter, after it stopped being useful?

Everyone needs allies.

[Even murderous robots do. After all, they'd needed help to get in the city - even if that didn't last.]

But I agree. I think they'll only value allies so long as those allies are useful. The moment anyone stops being useful, they should expect to be turned on. Isn't that somewhat similar to what happened to the gods?

If you turn on someone when they're not useful to you anymore, were they ever really your ally?

[Maybe she has the wrong idea about how this kind of thing works, but 'using someone until they stop being useful' doesn't feel like the kind of thing that constitutes an alliance.]

It is a brutal, utilitarian way of waging war, but it's not unknown. Still, in the end all it does is create more enemies. I suppose they think that doesn't really matter, since they're stronger than us.

[Rhy doesn't think it's smart, but he's considerably more empathetic than a Null might be.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event Log: End of Arc 2

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