Event - Apocalypse How

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Apocalypse How

(cw: spiders, manipulation, brief physical control/restraint)

All at once, it's over. The last room–you know it is the last–and whatever lies beyond it. You and your companions or you, by yourself, open the door and find yourself faced with a grand, circular ballroom. There are too many doors leading off from it–around the walls, in the floor, in the ceiling–and they all seem to open simultaneously to reveal the other off-worlders who entered this house. The ones who are still alive, anyway.

The space you look upon must once have been host to extravagant balls and feasts… if it ever actually existed. Now, its gold and blue gleam are smothered beneath thick, ropey webbing. At the center of the room is an archway of webs along with two familiar faces: Reyes Amador and Bonnie Gale, the latter with a half-healed cut over one eye. The pair are hugging one another, but pull apart as they find their solitude broken.

Reyes flexes their fingers and for just a moment, your body is not your own. You can see faint strands connecting to each and every person to their fingertips. The spider silk simply holds people in place, rather than forcing them to do anything.

"My friends," Reyes says. "We have found it. We have done it. We have created a way to get out of this place. To get home. Thank you for coming when we called. When my Bonnie and the house called." Bonnie raises her hand awkwardly before wrapping it around Reyes' arm. "Witness now. We are ready to make this happen. I learned from someone who came to this world the same way we'll exit. I know what we must do."

They take a breath, then turn to the archway. Reyes raises the arm Bonnie isn't holding and speaks, their voice reverberating unnaturally in the space as the webs vibrate and hum and seem to draw something from everyone.

"Upon a wide and open plain, there sits a house that once was famed for fifteen windows tall and thin, designed to let intruders in. Twisting round this white-washed frame are vines and thorns and metal chain… and links that rust in dusty brown and burn and bite into the ground. Come to this house and see inside, all ups and downs and side-to-sides. And feel the things we fear the most in broken self and time and ghosts. Come here upon this hallowed ground and hear my voice, my call, my sound. Hear me now, oh, dreadful things, the blood that sings inside my veins:

"Hear me now, you things that bite,
And rot and dig and flee and fight.
And burn and hide and change and know
And bleed and fade and spin and show
A side that is not truly there
And stretch the endless, cosmic tears.
Hear me now, you things that weave
Who pull the strings to let us leave!

"Hear me–hear us. And exit!"

A deafening sound rips through the room at the same time everything is overtaken by a blindingly white light. The power holding people in place is gone, severed with the burst. When sight and hearing return, the ballroom is shaking, the webs straining and snapping in places, but at the center, in the archway, is a bright, sickly glow of deep purple energy. Bonnie is holding Reyes where they seem to have partially collapsed on her shoulder.

Reyes lifts their head. "My friends… go! We must go while we can."

➥ Mod Notes

• GENERAL - Players may speak with Reyes, Bonnie, and/or each other here. Ultimately, they are going to have an ICly limited amount of time to make a decision about what to do. You may tag in for NPC threads until 11:59 PM Pacific Time on 8 January. Players are welcome to tag in for threads with each other beyond that!
  
  The choice is to stay or to leave. For those who wish to leave, they will be able to do so before anyone can stop them. If your character would choose to stay ICly, but you OOCly want them to leave, easy enough to say a friend pulled them or the power of the portal dragged them in because they were too close.
  
  For those who wish to stay, effort will need to be made to get out of the house before it collapses or you may find yourself dead. If your character would choose to leave ICly, but you OOCly want them to stay, easy enough to say the portal destabilized before they could get through for one reason or another. There's no fear gauntlet to face on the way out of the house. All of the Entities are pressing at the barrier to the places beyond this world that have opened up. However, it is still dangerous as the house falls down around your ears.
  
  A final post will be made after the results of the poll that will provide an overview of the world anyone who stays will be stepping into. For those who leave, your ending is your own to choose, whether that's another DWRP game, going back to your own reality, or going to a different reality. Regardless, if you leave, you are marked and you carry some piece of the Dread Powers with you to infect the next world you arrive in. Perhaps they get there before you or perhaps it's after, but they will be present in this new reality now, whether or not your character lives to see their rise and potential fall.
  
  Please be sure to vote in the OOC POLL so that we know where characters will be going to decide the endgame state. The date to respond to this poll is the same as the NPC tag-in cut off: 11:59 PM Pacific on 8 January.

Comments

NPC Interactions

[apocalypsehowmods]

Reply here if you would like your character(s) to interact with Bonnie and/or Reyes. Please put the name of the desired NPC in the header. Players are welcome to tag their character in individually or with a second character. The cut-off for tag-ins for NPC threads is 8 January, 11:59 Pacific time.

Reyes (Bonnie is welcome to interject though)

[dangerousmind]

[Aelwyn's angry - sure. But there's a curl of a smile on her face, and none of the fear that you might expect.

It's not the worst plan, if she's understanding it right. And even if she isn't, maybe on some level it's just too much effort to continue to pretend to care about this stain of a planet.

People are dead. People she thought of as... maybe not friends, but something close to it right? And yet... she feels nothing.

So she laughs.]

So. How long have you been planning this?

[apocalypsehownpcs]

[Reyes uses Bonnie's help to stand a little straighter as they meet Aelwyn's gaze.]

Since we arrived. But talking with Jon Sims... this gave me the idea. He did something like this in his world. He was drawn to this one in the same way. So, if it works in coming, then it should be in going.

[dangerousmind]

[Aelwyn's lips thin, a thread of visible irritation and anger on her face.

Fucking Jon. Even when she borderlined blackmailed him about it, he didn't share his whole story, but he shared it with Reyes? Someone who Aelwyn pinpointed as suspicious long before he even disappeared?

That cagey motherfucker.

Still, the irritation vanishes as soon as it appeared, replaced only with a smooth indifference.]

You wouldn't be able to control where you go.

Is it your hope that the Spider will guide you back home, rather than plunge you deeper into another world about four times as nightmarish as this one so you can pull this exact scheme again?

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Jealousy is unbecoming.

[Their tone is dry with that, and there's a darkness and intensity to their gaze that Aelwyn may be able to pick up is them reading something off of her.]

But I hold more strands than you imagine. We all do. These things wish to enter the worlds we came from. So, they will send us back there and ride our bodies with them. The Web does not speak to me, but I feel I know this. It is a small price to pay to reach home, bringing them.

And if they do put me somewhere else, then I will do this again. And again. And again. As many times as I need to, to keep my Bonnie safe and get her home. This was not a world for her--for us. Perhaps the next one will be.

Reyes (and Bonnie too if she wants!)

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

[The giant, seven-foot lynx-like huntbeast that Sheppard now is prowls up to Reyes.]

What did you just do to us!?

[He has an idea of what they just did, but he wants to hear it. Because he has a sinking suspicion this isn't going to be as easy as stepping through a Gate.]

[apocalypsehownpcs]

My friend, I apologize.

[Reyes raises a hand briefly.]

I could not be sure none of you would rush at me before we could open the portal. We needed all of our strength, our marks, to make it. You are free to make your choices from here. I have no hold on you.

[ferriswheelsandfootball]

But we weren't free to make this choice.

[He snarls, dropping down to all fours and pacing back and forth in front of Reyes.]

Tell me exactly what is going to happen if we step through that portal.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

[Reyes is watching the beast that stalks carefully.]

I would be lying to you if I were to give you exacts. Or at least... I would be assuming a great deal. I can guess. This will take us to our homes. These things that mark us, ride us, they will come with us. Some piece of them, at least. This is what happened to another who did something like this. He and his brought these beings here. But they seem to have arrived before him. They grew and grew in power and then he came here with us. Time is not a linear progression across universes.

So, when we step through, we may arrive after the Entities or before them. I offer no guarantees on this. I can see the threads of possibilities, but they are only threads. Splitting, shifting. Every choice and change alters them.

Bonnie

[ruevealing]

[It is the half-healed cut above her eye that Rue notices.

A month ago, Rue might not have cared, but they still have Nia's blood dried into their feathers, into the fabric of their ruined dress.]

You were the one who called us here, disguised as Nia, were you not?

[apocalypsehownpcs]

[Bonnie can't seem to suppress a giddy smile as she looks around at all of them, even as she also looks ready to burst into tears. That expression shifts to concern as she takes in all the blood.]

Are you--

[She bites off the obvious question with an obvious answer as her face tightens and shifts, Nia's face staring back at Rue for just the blink of an eye before Bonnie shakes it off and it's her again, rocking back on her heels as if surprised by her own shift.]

Sorry. I--yes. That was...I'm sorry we had to do that. Reyes needed my power.

[ruevealing]

I do not understand the deception.

[Bonnie and Reyes are not enemies. As far as Rue's always known, they have been rather well liked. So why this? Why now? It feels wrong.]

Nia's dead. She made me promise to gather up everyone I could and get them out of this house. She did not trust what was going on here.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Nia- What?

[Reyes breaks in, their eyes wide, confused.]

That- No. No, she was not meant to be able to get in here. What happened?

Either

[bossyboiler]

DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE'VE BEEN THROUGH? Who we've lost?

[ She is screaming at them. Kate is beyond angry, beyond hurt, beyond grief-stricken. ]

You expect us to trust you now? How do we know that portal won't lead us to someplace worse?

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Too many.

[Reyes' gaze turns to her.]

We have lost too many who have died to these Entities, to each other, to the forces in this world that try to control us. This is our choice, though. One of the first choices we have truly had, Kate.

You need not trust me. You need not step through. I will be with Bonnie. I believe this portal will lead us home. I cannot guarantee it... but it is the option that makes the most sense. These things in us, the Fears that ride us, they want more. What better way than to take them to our own realities?

[bossyboiler]

[ Her best friend, her adopted sister, her goddamn BFF is dead. ]

Our choice?

[ She can't believe what she is hearing. In some sick and twisted way, it makes sense. The Entities want to spread out. What better way to do that than by sending everyone home? ]

You would have us infect our worlds with these beings? After everything they've done to this City and all over this world, why would we agree to that?

Reyes - but happy for it to be Bonnie who answers

[canofmanji]

"Go?" He's doing his best to hide how unsettled he feels after being held in place by those webs. "That's awfully vague. Go where?"

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Home," Reyes says. They're regaining their strength to stand now, but they keep a tight hold on Bonnie, all too aware of multiple people here looking at them with suspicion and anger. "That is where I believe this will lead us.

"Home to the worlds we knew. Perhaps... with these Entities in tow, but I like my chances to fight them at home better than here."

[canofmanji]

"Why the secrecy?" He asks even as he looks at the portal with renewed interest. "Did you not think most of us wouldn't come running if you told us: Hey, I have an idea to get us all home?"

Reyes and Bonnie!

[lowficharm]

[Martin's pretty sure he's screaming during the ritual, but he really isn't sure. Everything feels like it's dying in his throat, and as soon as he can move and he's completely figured out what's going on he's running up to the two of them, intent to grab Reyes by the shoulders.]

Reyes! What-- you-- you can't do this!

[apocalypsehownpcs]

[Reyes doesn't resist as Martin rushes to them. If anything, their expression softens.]

It's done, Martin. I know this is not... what you wanted. But it is what my Bonnie and I needed. We did it. For all the risks we needed it. Even just to have this choice, to share it with others.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

[Bonnie, on the other hand, reaches out her free hand to grab at Martin's shoulder in turn, holding Reyes up with one arm and trying to keep a grip on Martin with the other as though afraid he'll knock Reyes down.]

Reyes and Bonnie + Eda and Raine

[edalyn]

Eda does not, in the slightest, enjoy the pull of the webs, even if all they’re doing is holding her in place. For someone who didn’t used to mind spiders, she’s certainly not fond these days. And she’s not fond of being held, controlled, puppeted… she *hates* the lack of control.

She’s not sure if it makes it better or worse that it’s someone she… likes. Trusted, even.

She’d like to trust Reyes and Bonnie now. She’d like to hope the spell they’re doing is a good thing, that there really is a chance of getting home. She wants it to be true, desperately.

But that doesn’t mean she does trust them. Not after the trip through the house.

Meaning that once her body is her own she rushes to them, not the portal.

“Is this what you’ve been up to?” she asks Reyes, not quite accusatory but not quite approving, either. “And you didn’t… let us know? Do you even have any proof it leads home?”

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Reyes has the grace to look at least a little guilty when Eda charges over to them. "It was too much risk, I thought. Too many chances for someone to derail everything if word got back to ADI. Nia would have never..." They trail off, clutching Bonnie as they work to push down the emotion that rises within them. Rue had told them she was dead. She never should have been here.

"I have no proof, but I have sense enough. We've fallen through some sort of rift to this world, one that connects to so many others. These things, the Entities, they wish to expand their reach, escape. We are their vessels. So send us back to our worlds to infect them."

[rainestorms]

Raine had managed to catch up to Eda after all, thank the Titan. They'd separated, and though it was momentary Raine felt that any close proximity to the people who were at the core of all of this was dangerous. Especially after what Martin had told them. They didn't want the monsters to follow them home. The Boiling Isles had enough of those.

"Nia would've never what? What did you do with her?"

Anger is not something Raine had ever been drawn to easily. But the pain, the The glow of the portal, the grand speech and lack of control made something stir in Raine that was a deep seated feeling of alarm that had become to the stairs, to Zyrian, to the museum, to what they'd left at home.


"Martin told me they'd follow us through. You're okay with it, then? Dooming countless other people to these things? Causing us- causing people you know, people you consider friends to suffer-"

Raine doesn't necessarily get louder, but anger seeps through their tone.

"I had to put Eda back together after she was pulled apart by some horror for your fucking need. To be selfish?"