hadriel_logs | 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

The knife might have been more of a problem, maybe, if she actually looked like she was trying to be threatening with it. As it is, it looks like a small tap could knock it out of her hand.

"No! I'm not! I'm..." A deep breath. "I'm not. I..." Her free hand rubs over her face, scrubbing the still damp tear tracks away when a few rapid blinks don't produce any further moisture. God, what was that?

"I'm not hurt." Julie's voice sounds distant and detached, and she doesn't quite look at Ghoul's face for a few moments longer. "I just... felt like..."

Never mind that.

"Are you okay?"

He acknowledges her answer with a nod, not trusting his voice to stay steady after his choppy inhale, and drops his head so he's left staring down at the ground. With shaky hands, he reaches up and rakes his filthy hair out of his face. He doesn't look back up at her as he bites out a tense, "I'm fine," even though he's not completely sure of that himself.

What the fuck was that? He's suspected there might be something wrong ever since he'd woken up here. He hasn't felt quite right- oddly melancholy most of the time, although nothing like what just happened. Unless whatever's wrong is getting worse.

But she'd been blindsided by something too, right? So it must be something different. Maybe it was some kind of attack, perhaps a last-ditch defense from the Null lying dead on the ground. It doesn't really make sense, but it's easier to blame it on her and be done with it. "What did you do?"

In the face of his demeanour, Julie calms down quickly, though she can still feel the response of her body thrumming through her like a low hum at the end of every suddenly frayed nerve.

"Me? You think that was my fault?" God, if she was capable of doing anything like that she could have definitely put it to better use than practically paralysing herself. She moves away from the Null 'corpse', looking around as if expecting a horde to come rattling around the corner at any moment.

"It wasn't me. That was... something else." A lame finish, and one of the first moments she's wished that she'd taken the moment to find out a bit more about this place.

"Like... the temples. But worse. Come on, we shouldn't stay here."

Some secondary part of his brain registers the order and forces him forward, shuffling towards her in a mindless way- Ghoul can't think and argue at the same time, so his body decides to drive itself while the rest of him struggles with understanding what happened.

The confused look on his face is so intense that it might've been comical in any other circumstance. "That was from temples?" Why the hell haven't they been demolished yet?

"I don't know what that was from." And she really wishes that she did so she could have some idea of what or who she needed to be angry at about it. That said... she can't help but feel like whatever just happened was Bad News.

"But I've been in one of the temples of those people who call themselves gods. They make you feel things."

"That's how it happens?" Oh, sure, he's heard about the gods and their feelings-deal since day one, although he thought it would be different. Less intense and intrusive, but if that's how it usually is... Ghoul visibly flinches against the sudden sick-feeling in his stomach. All he's done is traded a place that forces people to feel nothing at all for a place that forces people to feel way too much.

Is this some kind of a joke? Or a lesson? Who the fuck brought him here for this? "But I don't, um- I don't wanna feel like that. That's too much?" Oh, that's ironic.

"I don't want to feel like that, either."

Julie looks at him, then lets out a heavy, rushed sigh and reaches out to grab his wrist gently in one hand. She tugs on him lightly. Everything about how she feels - the buzzing of grief still tingling along every nerve in her body - is telling her that they both have to keep moving.

"Come on, Ghoul. I think something really bad might have happened."

It's not often that he allows himself to be grabbed or led around like a dog, but in this case, he doesn't seem to notice. He keeps pace with her, having enough presence of mind to watch for any upcoming Null despite still feeling off. "You think maybe somethin' important got trashed? Or somebody got hurt?" Problem is, there are a lot of important places and important people here, so it's tough to pinpoint where the trouble might be.

It's also difficult to tell whether they're heading away from danger or further in to it. "Where do you wanna go?"

Her grip on him is loose enough that he could easily pull away, but she's grateful that he doesn't. It makes this whole thing a lot easier that he doesn't resist, but it doesn't take long for her to be forced to admit that she has no idea where they should go.

She slows down, still lightly gripping his wrist, and stops at a crossroads near the edge of the city.

"I don't--... We need somewhere safe, somewhere to think. Where's your place?"

Judging by the face he makes, that place probably isn't a viable option.

But the last one... "I think the one before that's gonna be better." Because, of course, he hasn't settled in one spot yet. What an absolute surprise. He turns his hand in her grip, securely latching on to her wrist this time, and tugs her along. It's not a long journey, but it does take them to a quieter area- if only because there aren't a whole lot of people who tend to hang around an unrestored spire.

There's a tiny, oddly-shaped building that he pulls her in to. "Oughta stay here for a while anyway. Girl maybe got spooked enough to move. If she did, she'll come back here." Ghoul chews at his lower lip, only turning to look at her once he wipes that stupid, anxious look off his face. "You still shook?"

She allows the grip much like he had and trots along behind him to wherever he's thinking of leading her. There's an almost mindless trust in it - one that he hasn't earned but she gives him regardless - but she can't let herself relax even as the area around them grows quieter.

Or perhaps it's because the area around them grows quieter.

Julie follows him into the building and gives him a long, silent look following his question. She shakes her head. "I think I'm alright. Are you?"

Ghoul's answer is a shrug.

He doesn't know, really. Whatever that was has made him feel kind of fucked in the head, like he's not really in control of himself. Knowing something can just barge in like that and take over is scary.

But he leaves that unsaid. Waves a hand at her and says, "Might as well sit down," even though he doesn't seem to be making any motion to do that himself. He's still moving around- looking for something, first.

Event Log: End of Arc 2

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