Event - All In Your Head

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All In Your Head

➥ Night's Embrace

(cw: supernaturally-induced hysteria/intense emotion; violence; maiming; assault, burglary; murder; implied violence against children)

There's been a sense of unease hanging over Gloucester as the Ides of March approach. First a few, and then a great many locals begin to hurry indoors each evening, lights kept blazing in the windows of homes and businesses all night…when they can be. Stories of assault, burglary, and vandalism dominate the news and no one can seem to agree on the cause, psychiatrists weighing in on air as reports flood in of a woman, a creature, that hunts in the night, along with perpetrator after perpetrator with no history of violence before they suddenly broke into a neighbor's home to smash every source of electric glow. It might be mass hysteria, the talking heads hypothesize, or perhaps pranks taken too far. The alternative is not spoken. It's safe, though, with the lights on and the door bolted. Stay inside, stay in the light, and nothing can harm you.

Too bad about the blackout, then.

It's the night of March 16 when the efforts of the shadow woman meet success thanks to the earnest efforts of a kindred spirit. Gloucester is plunged into darkness with only the waxing moon to dapple the city in silvery shadows, the entire grid taken down. ADI Headquarters and apartments flicker weakly back to life on emergency power, though there's more shadow than light in their halls. Bonnie's Flophouse, like much of residential Gloucester, doesn't have even that saving grace.

The attacks are swift and furious. The shadow woman seems to be in many places at once, appearing simultaneously in family homes, all night businesses…and ADI properties. Where there had been some reprieve in the last days for those in ADI apartments or spending the night at headquarters, as of tonight those places are no safer than the city streets. Some of those she catches she kills or maims; others are sent spiraling into blind terror by the touch of her claws and released to run and be chased again.

But still she does not step into the light, seemingly repulsed by what little brightness can be found or made. Best hope the batteries in your flashlights are fresh.

➥ Illuminating

(cw: derogatory language; mention of long-term imprisonment and murder attempts)

un: n.lehrer

To All Staff,

Report to ADI HQ for an emergency meeting at 11 AM in Conference Room 6. I will be broadcasting over the network, but I would prefer to have everyone together so that we can hand out equipment. Reyes has briefed me on what's been going on while I've been away.

Katie Dunn, an avatar for the Dark native to this world, was recently set free by Deepthi Anand. Dunn is practically allergic to light. We'll be handing out supplies for those who attend the meeting in-person. More soon.

- Nia Lehrer, Warden

It's only a few hours after the message goes out that people who come will find Nia Lehrer stepping up to a podium in the designated conference room. There's also a filming set-up so people can watch the broadcast on the network. Questions that come from the network will be… read by Reyes for Nia to answer, but a back-and-forth conversation may be more challenging for those not physically in attendance. On the wall behind her, there's a projection of a seemingly harmless-looking woman.

There's a definite air of relief among the native staff, along with a significant uptick in focus. Non-native staff may notice a similar sense of renewed determination and attentiveness for themselves, if they let themselves be swept up in it. Whatever fog and oppressive sense that's hung about for the past month or more appears to have dissipated… at least for the moment.

"Thank you all for coming. I'll make this brief: Katie Dunn is one of the most dangerous avatars we've ever encountered since I joined the Apocalypse Disruption Initiative. We've had run-ins with her more than once, but haven't actually figured out a way to kill her, yet. Her capture was a major achievement about two years ago. Which makes her escape particularly frustrating. What's done is done, though.

"Deepthi Anand developed a connection of some sort with her while she was assigned to assist with guarding her while here at ADI. I suspect that's why she returned to free her. And make no mistake, everything I've seen about the attack points to Deepthi… with her boosting Katie's abilities somehow. Right now, we're most concerned with keeping the lights on. Cape Electric has been trying to restore power, but each time they fix something, another piece of the grid gets hit. Whoever blew the entire town's power supply gave her the in she needed to wreak havoc.

"We're going to need all hands on deck. First, we block her ability to cause problems. For that, I need people willing to help with requisitioning generators and high-powered lights, and getting them to the places and people in town who need them most. Hospitals, nursing homes, food supply warehouses, all-night locals, playing interference for electric company personnel. I'm also going to need PR folks spinning up some reasonable explanations for these blackouts and what's been happening with people who get touched by her. Electromagnetic storms? Something about tectonics. Experimental drug from the military that blew through on the wind. Whatever you can come up with.

Little Ms. Blackout wants to play games to create fear and turn people on each other? We cut off that power flow to her, and she becomes an inconvenience, more than an actual problem. I expect her to start targeting us more directly once we start squeezing her, so we'll be issuing flashlights to everyone here. If you know someone who needs one, tell us, and we'll get them one, too."

Nia takes a breath. "While Dunn doesn't like the light, she can survive in it. Direct exposure to it will ward her off, but as long as she can find some kind of shadow, she can squeeze herself into it to stay alive. We know she has the ability to split into multiple shades of herself to cause wider problems. We caught her by trapping all of those in beams of light last time. We need a more coordinated response to be able to handle her, though. I'll be here, working on that if anyone wants to weigh in. In the meanwhile… let's make that bitch's life harder, huh?"

➥ WALKING HELL

(cw: altered mental state, hallucinations, violence, scopophobia, body horror)

Suddenly and without much warning, the world changes. Or….it changes for some people, some of the time. Anyone who finds themselves outside the sanctuary formed by ADI’s buildings will feel woozy, perhaps drowsy for a moment before they blink….and find themselves trapped in a nightmare.

The exact flavor of the nightmare isn’t always constant. In fact, it may not even feel like anything at all is wrong….at first. Characters may continue on after their brief dizzy spell, going about their business until they slowly start to realize that the strangers that they pass in the street are watching them. Watching them as they pass, watching them as they walk away, watching them as their heads turn at unnatural degrees to just keep watching.

Or maybe the nightmare is more immediately obvious. A hole you fall down and just keep falling down for what feels like forever. An angry mob of townspeople who descend on you at random, hands like claws that seek to rend your flesh. It can be any number of things. And it can change. Characters might find that seeking to get away from the source of this horror might work….for that particular horror. Get far enough away, and trade one nightmare scenario for another. They might even find familiar faces stuck in the same situation and can try and work together to get out of whatever nightmare they’ve found themselves in. (It won’t work. But they can try.)

The nightmares don’t come over everyone at the same time, though, and they may even be intermittent for some. Characters might find themselves walking with a friend, only to have one of them begin to react to something that the other can’t see. (..Any injuries sustained, however, will become visible. Even if what’s causing it isn’t. Where did that chest wound come from?)

Even if you’re alone, snapping out of a nightmare might mean finding some of Glouscester’s townspeople staring at you in something like distress or horror. Trying to get medical help from them…will only exacerbate their concern. What wounds, you don’t have any wounds. But you do…don’t you? They’re definitely there.

The only true safety seems to be in ADI Headquarter or housing. ADI staff will be concerned when they do hear reports of the nightmares, but most will swear that they can’t see any wounds that characters have either. And they understand it might be terrifying….but things still need to get done. Characters will be asked but not pushed to go out into town. Or they can just stay inside until this is fixed. Whenever it’s fixed. If it’s ever fixed.

➥ Dunn With This

(cw: attempted capture and imprisonment; reference to attempted murder; violence)

There comes a time when the best defense is, as they say, a good offense. The work ADI has done to cut off Dunn's power by turning back on the lights and calming the public is working; though there are still sightings around Gloucester, she does not seem to have the full free reign she enjoyed in the first nights of the blackout. It's clear that she hasn't given up on whatever she means to accomplish, that she isn't prepared to retreat or lie low.

It's ADI's turn to go on the attack. Word comes down from the top that all staff with field or combat experience are requested to assist in a coordinated effort to recapture Katie Dunn. The plan, as it stands, is to lure each of her shades to a location where she can be pinned in a beam of light. The catch, of course, is that they've done this dance before and she'll be expecting them to try just that. As such, the floor is open for suggestions.

Characters who volunteer to participate in the effort will be informed that the planned procedure for an encounter with one of the shades is for an agent (chosen from those quickest on their feet) to act as bait and try to get Katie to chase them to a predetermined location where other ADI agents lie in wait with a rig of floodlights. It's tricky, dangerous work, and there's no guarantee she won't catch on and avoid the trap or even attack the agents waiting there for the return of their comrade. Worse, it's unclear whether the multiple shades of her roaming the city are separate entities or if they're a hive mind instantly aware of whatever trap one of them falls into.

Characters may also propose alternate plans and methods, and agents will be allocated to assist with any such plans that are deemed to have a decent likelihood of success. Or, of course, they could strike out on their own, though ADI strongly advises against it.

➥ Mod Notes

• GENERAL - Players are welcome to play background NPCs for themselves when they are needed in a thread. If you need more information on general behavior for these types of NPCs, please feel free to ask! In general, the information provided in the prompts should be sufficient and ordinary people will act like… ordinary people! You're welcome to make up any details beyond that for your specific scene. Nia Lehrer and Katie Dunn will be available as mod-played NPCs for their specific prompts via the starter below. Also, please remember that character deaths are permanent and plan accordingly!
  
  
• NIGHT'S EMBRACE (16-18 March) - Characters may find themselves the victims or the perpetrators of the violent and wild acts induced by the shadow woman and her touch. They may also be able to ward her off of an active attack if they're lucky and happen to have a good flashlight with them. After the 16th, nowhere will be safe in town, and characters may find sleeping a challenge when there's a good chance they'll be attacked in the middle of it. Sucks that the coffee pot runs on power, too.
  
  
• ILLUMINATING (19-23 March) - Nia will be available to take questions directly from PC's during the meeting. Players will generally be welcome to threadjack as everyone will be hearing Nia's responses collectively at the same time. Network interaction will be possible, but less focused on quick back-and-forth, and more Q&A-style things that Nia can respond to. Characters in the Administration and Public Relations departments will get a particularly heavy tap to assist with requisitions and spinning up stories, but everyone is welcome to help with either the logistics of acquiring supplies or actually bringing them to people in town or setting up extra floodlights around town. The locals will be very grateful, but confused by the gifts of the generators and lights. Characters with mechanical knowledge will be asked to help with actually installing these for people. If you would like your character to come up with a specific IC story for the blackouts and/or crime streak, please let the mods know in the Questions header on the event OOC post! We will incorporate these into our Headline News items next month.
  
  
• WALKING HELL (22-28 March) - This prompt is very much open to players inventing their own nightmare patches. As stated in the OOC summary, the nightmares can last for any amount of time (including days). Anyone not experiencing the nightmare (including other PCs) will not be able to see what the character is reacting to or see any sort of wounds they suffer while stuck in the nightmare. Any wounds sustained during the time in the nightmare will continue to be visible to PCs and some NPCs even after it ends, but will not be immediately life-threatening no matter what. Two characters in the same place who are both stuck in the nightmare will see the same thing. Please remember to appropriately warn for any triggers/content warnings, especially considering that they are going to vary greatly between different threads. Here is list of player-requested content warnings to keep in mind specifically.
  
  
• DUNN WITH THIS (29-31 March) - While characters are advised by ADI to use the tactics noted above, they are welcome to employ alternate methods of dealing with Katie Dunn. They will have ADI's general support regardless of whether they follow ADI's playbook or come up with their own tactics, including equipment as well as the ability to recruit background ADI NPCs to their plans. However, NPCs generally will not agree to take part in anything that looks like a suicide mission (if you have any questions about whether background NPCs would agree to your character's plan, please submit those under the Questions header on the OOC post). Katie will be available for (hostile) NPC interactions. Please note that the outcome of all encounters with Katie must be decided by March 31, as the outcome of this event will impact the April TDM. If threads have not reached their natural conclusion by that date, players will be asked to decide OOCly on the outcome (and are welcome to continue to tag to reach that conclusion ICly).
  
  

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QUESTIONS

[apocalypsehowmods]

Please respond HERE.

NPC Interactions

[apocalypsehownpcs]

If you would like to interact with Nia Lehrer in the "Illuminating" prompt or Katie Dunn in the "Dunn With This" prompt, please reply here!

Please note that the outcome of all encounters with Katie must be decided by March 31, as the outcome of this event will impact the April TDM. If threads have not reached their natural conclusion by that date, players will be asked to decide OOCly on the outcome (and are welcome to continue to tag to reach that conclusion ICly).

Katie Dunn (Night's Embrace) cw: violence, altered mental states, hallucinations, death

[cacophonish]

When the shadow woman's influence wears off, it's like the worst comedown from the best high.

Jeff had felt so sure of himself, dragging others into her path, watching as they became a frenzied mob. They trashed the lights, and as darkness spread, so did the infection. Madness, violence, vandalism--

But it wasn't enough. There was still light. So he helped guide the mob towards the biggest source of all, and he laughed and sang as Gloucester went dark.

And then he came down. He doesn't know how long it took, how long it's been since the blackout started. Time feels funny. Fuck, everything feels... wrong and unreal, and he's pretty sure it's because he's wrong and-- and--

He hears someone screaming outside, and it's his fault. All of this is his fault. Fuck, he doesn't even know what to do-- what can he do? He can't make this right (he can't make anything right), and if he stays, he'll only keep hurting people and making everything worse. He could turn himself in, and let the ADI do its thing, or he could just-- run.

Run from his problems. It's what he's always done, what he's good at. He'll just keep on running, which is what he should have done months ago.

Jeff gathers what little courage he has, what little he's even capable of, and he makes a phone call that's... too little too late, really, but he hopes... He hopes, if everyone survives, they'll be safer, once he's left town for good.

There's madness outside, but now it's quiet here, inside the empty club, where Jeff sits at the edge of the stage, alone with an audience of broken glass and busted furniture. He thinks he sees something moving in the dark. For once, he doesn't look away.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

He gazes into the dark...and the dark gazes back. That human form lurking near the doorway--has she been there, watching, or did she only just now appear? It's impossible to catch the shift between empty shadows and the moment she's definitely there, shoulders gently rising and falling with each breath. If she has a face it can't be seen in the darkness; there's just the unnatural glint of her eyes and...teeth.

She's smiling at him.

He's done a good job.

[cacophonish]

It's like she goes from an impression to a person (sort of) right in front of his eyes, and he can't even tell when the shift happens, only that it does.

Jeff's heart beats, rapid and stuttering, battering inside him with some kind of animal panic, and he should run, but even those instincts can't override everything wrong with him. Because there really must be something broken in him, there has to be. Why else would he feel a little flutter of fulfillment at that creepy smile and the tacit approval within?

People are screaming. People are suffering. But she's like him on... on some level. So if he made her happy, then that's gotta mean something, right?

God he's so pathetic. The bar is so fucking low...

"Who are you?" he asks the woman in the darkness, his voice soft and curious. Then, with an almost hopeful note, "Are you... are you like me?"

Yeah, sure she's got a big Darkness theme going, but there's madness, too, and really, isn't there some symmetry? Seeing things in the shadows, tricks of the mind...

Not to mention the frenzied madness outside.

Garner Cinderbrooke | OTA

[whisperedone]

➥ Walking Hell (CW: Hallucinations, feelings of insanity)
A) He's been practicing going for walks, they help clear his mind and give him something to work towards: familiarizing himself with walkways and the patterns of day-to-day noise in the town. Each day he can successfully make it out a little further without having to turn back too soon, is a day that marks as progress.

He's focusing on the sounds of the traffic and the passing of someone on his left, another someone a few paces behind him, when the sounds all vanish. If anyone is unfortunate enough to fall into his nightmare with him, there's nothing at all to see. Darkness stretches on forever and a bone-deep chill like death creeps over the shoulder and brushes the backs of it's fingers behind the skull. Only then do the whispers start: quiet, then louder, constant and pressing as they fill his mind. Secrets, insecurities, facts, trivia, the mundane mixes with the useful in a melted mess of cacophonous presence. There's no escape from them, they are everywhere.

Anyone passing by might notice as Garner stops dead in his tracks, then looks around wildly as though clouded eyes might finally see something, before his hands clamp tightly over his ears and he falls to his knees there on the sidewalk right next to the street. "Go away!" His own whisper is sharp and ineffectual, as it always is.

B) After his own brush with the hallucinations, he's more keen when passing people, listening for sounds of distress or anything out of the ordinary, anything that might indicate someone nearby needed help with their own waking nightmares. Of course, he could hardly watch where he was going, so if he accidentally stumbles into one, it will be hard to tell until he can hear something.


➥ Dunn With This (CW: Referenced Self-harm)
'Don't head out alone.' It was wise advice, it would be wiser still to heed it. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option. Garner listens to the activity of others around him as he straps down the armor he'd arrived in, practice making the buckles easy to secure. He pulls his cloak around him and unwraps the long leather strap that covers his left arm to tie it around his waist and out of the way. His arm is a labyrinth of crisscrossing scars, some pale and older while others stood scabbed and fresh. He would need his skin available.

He lingers in his corner, listening to people plan using things he can't begin to imagine with tactics that would all require a keen eye. He was no use here, he would be better off out there. He takes a deep breath and, quietly, turns toward the exit.

Katie Dunn (Dunn With This) cw: self-harm, blood, potential for suicidal ideation

[whisperedone]

What ADI is planning sounds...good. Their advisement to not go alone is equally wise, but there's little else he can do. He can't aim a light, he can't see his fellows to aid them, he can't coordinate a trap. So he doesn't.

Bloodhunters work alone more often than not, trained to hunt the monsters that prey on innocents, so he heads out with glaive in hand and the single-minded focus of finding his quarry.

He carries a single candle as he makes for where they'd said she might be. The whole city was her hunting ground and everyone her prey. She attacks with shadow and affects the minds of those she injures. Facts run through his mind and low whispers just behind them. Garner strides to an open area cool with a lack of light upon his face but for the candle in his hand. He crouches to place his fingers to the ground, listening and feeling for the sounds of disturbed earth, but surely a shadow weighs little to the earth...

With a final, calm, inhale, he blows out the candle and leaves it on the ground as he stands. And listens. And waits.

Misty Quigley | Yellowjackets

[citizendetective]

ILLUMINATING; OTA
[Misty has been here for less than a week, but by all appearances, she's all in: she takes a seat at the front of the room and, pad of paper and pen in hand, spends the entire meeting studiously taking notes. She stays past the end of Nia's speech and into the Q&A section, paying close attention to anything that gets asked - and, potentially, throwing in some questions of her own, depending on what topics come up. It's not until everything is clearly, definitively over that she finally stands.]

Wow, what a ride, huh!

[She says - to the person sitting next to her, maybe, or to someone who just happens to be heading down the aisle towards the door at the same time that she is.]

I can't wait to get started! I've never helped kill someone with flashlights before.


WALKING HELL; OTA
potential cws: cannibalism, plane crashes, physical trauma (direct mentions or depictions of these will not be touched upon without player permission, and can be avoided entirely on request); emotional trauma, physical isolation, emotional isolation, wilderness survival (depictions of these are integral to Misty's nightmarescapes and cannot be avoided in threads taking place within them)
[Generally, the things in Misty's history that most people would find terrifying are happy memories for her - or, at worst, bittersweet.

Nevertheless, anyone who falls into her nightmares with her will invariably end up in the woods.

The air is cold, but luckily, they'll find themselves wearing a heavy but amateurly-made fur cloak. Misty wears one too, and her hood is down, showing the panicked, stricken look on her face as she trots through the undergrowth, looking wildly around her.]

Wait!

[She calls, though she's clearly not talking to her companion - she hasn't even noticed them yet.]

Wait for me, I'm coming, I-- Shauna? Is that you?

[Another cloaked figure flashes by, moving faster than should be humanly possible; Misty tries to sprint after them, but they're out of sight in seconds.]

Shauna, wait; don't leave me behind, I want to come with you!

[The crack of a rifle shot sounds from the opposite direction, and Misty whirls around to face it, eyes wide and confused and hopeful.]

Natalie?

[She murmurs to herself under her breath - then, louder:]

Nat, where are you? Shauna? Tai? Nat?

[Shouts and gunshots and bird calls and wolf howls sound from all around her. She spins in frantic circles, unsure of where to go.

No one she calls out to acknowledges her.]

[OOC: content warnings for this character!]

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Yes," she breathes out in a happy, whispering sigh. Congratulations, Jeff; you're the first to hear the voice of Katie Dunn since all this chaos began. She tilts her head back, listening to the screams outside, still grinning that cheshire grin.

Then in a blink (literally a moment in which he blinks) she's closer, stood in the aisle quite near the stage. Closer up it's easier to make out some of her features, to recognize her as the woman in Nia's slideshow (if, indeed, Jeff had seen that rather than fled from it). But closer up comes very suddenly; she's not within reach of him but there's the sense that she could be if she wanted to.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

He has some waiting to do. Whether she's watching him, stalking him in turn, or whether she simply hasn't noticed him yet is impossible to say in the stillness of the air around him. Distant screaming speaks of others having a much less peaceful time of it.

There is not really a moment in which she arrives, per se, no feet landing on the ground, not even really the sound of a shift in the air. It's simply that for a while he is alone, and then he will realize that he is alone no longer. She wants him to notice; she's appeared in what would be his line of sight if he had such a thing. She's watching for a flinch, a start, a spark of fear; should she see one she will draw in a sharp, pleased breath and charge.

[cacophonish]

Yes. The confirmation floods him with so much relief, he almost feels lightheaded. After drifting around Gloucester for the better part of a year, in the wrong time, in the wrong world, never belonging, all while being told to turn his back on that special spark inside him (the only part of himself he ever loved fully, and completely) because it's evil and twisted-- now, finally, he isn't so alone anymore.

No wonder he'd felt a strange connection, the first time he saw her.

(Run, the only sensible part of him screams. He blinks, and suddenly she's closer. Run run run now you have to run.)

He doesn't want to run, in spite of the spike of fear that comes with her movement. But he does stand, and he takes a few steps to center stage because... well. Isn't that where he's always felt at home? His legs feel noodly, and he's unsteady on his feet, still lightheaded.

Everything feels so unreal.

"Does it ever stop hurting?"

Whatever 'it' is. Guilt, loneliness, the struggle of being magical and strange in a world full of people who want to snuff that out?

[whisperedone]

There’s no sound that tips him off, it’s a feeling like an inaudible whisper at the back of his mind, a familiar feeling: he’s being watched.

For a moment, he doesn't move, just makes a decision. If normal weapons could hurt her, he wouldn’t be here. Jon said don’t feed the entities. Garner himself had told Manji he’d do what was needed. He shifts his footing and swings his glaive over to place the blade to his bare arm.

There, to his right, she makes a sound and already feels halfway to him. The blade cuts into his skin, his blood running over the edge as he reaches for the power in it. It feels a bit like trying to pull sludge. It’s weaker than normal, but he can feel the faint glow of radiant energy on his skin just as he whips his glaive around towards the sound of her.

‘Just don’t feed them.’

But what if he needed to hunt?
She is his quarry.

Nia Lehrer - Illuminating

[canofmanji]

"Her initial capture." Manji raises his voice once all other questions have been answered. Thinking his concern isn't actually a pressing one, but regardless, he feels to be important. He's come dressed in the kimono he arrived wearing and he has his sword at his hip. The one armed, one eyed, immortal samurai had come prepared to be sent out to a fight. "Was that done because she was doing as she is now? Corrupting people? Causing blackouts?" Or is this because you pissed her off by locking her away? Is the thought he keeps to himself for the moment.

A. Walking Hell

[canofmanji]

Not every day, but sometimes Manji would join Garner on his walks. Not because he thought the man needed a guide or help, but because for all his talk about being fine on his own it was sometimes nice to have company. He wanted to get a better understanding of this strange city and map it out better within his own head. So, when it seemed like Garner was going in a similar direction Manji would join his roommate.

He's usually pretty quiet on their walks. Striking up friendly chatter if Garner seems to want it, but normally he was pretty happy with the companionable silence. When the nightmare hits it takes him by completely surprise. "Wh--what the hell?" The last time the world had gone so dark his remaining eye had been damaged. Immediately he reaches up to feel it. Had he been attacked and missed it somehow? "Ow!" Nope, that eye was still there and in tact.

[canofmanji]

[The man next to her is dressed a little strangely. Like he's jumped right out of an old samurai movie. Dressed in a black and white kimono and even a sword on his hip. Yet, the most striking feature on Manji might be that he only has one eye and is missing his left arm. In his one remaining good arm he's inspecting the flashlight he's been given. He's never used one before, but it's simple enough and he's starting to get the hang of it.]

This? This is suppose to kill her? [He sounds skeptical.]

[apocalypsehownpcs]

She cocks her head at him; watches him move to center stage. It's like being watched by an admiring friend, proud of him, happy to see him come into his own. It's like being watched by a tiger crouching in the brush, hungry, ready to spring at him.

But he doesn't run, and she doesn't chase. Instead she considers his question, and there's something more human now in the way she relaxes her stance.

"It can," she decides. "If you let go of the hurt you've given yourself, and don't let anyone else give you more of it."

She steps toward the stairs at the edge of the stage, and Jeff might realize it's the first he's--the first anyone's--seen her simply walk from one spot to another rather than appear and disappear or charge at her quarry in a claws-out sprint. It's the most human she's looked. It still doesn't look right.

[apocalypsehownpcs]

His reaction isn't what she's looking for. He seems to ready himself with a blade, but that doesn't frighten her and she wants very much to be the one to frighten him. If he thinks he's ready, he's wrong and she'll show him that; she flickers closer to him and this time announces herself with a rattling, inhuman hiss--

And lets out a much more human yelp of fear herself as a blade edged in brightness swings through the air in her direction. The glaive touches her only at the extremity of its arc, dealing a shallow wound, but she screams in pain and turns to run all the same. This is not at all what she was after.

Dunn with this

[myfavoritemurder]

Callisto understands the purpose of a coordinated attack - it's not that she doesn't see the point of all this. It's just that standing around and listening to the discussing and the strategizing and the arguing has her wanting to crawl out of her skin. Step one, take lots of lights; step two, shine them on Katie Dunn; step three, profit. It really should be that easy.

So when she Garner turns to slip out of the room, he catches her eye, and she follows.

"What, do you have a better idea?" she asks as she comes up behind him.

Manji | Blade of the Immortal | OTA

[canofmanji]

NIGHT'S EMBRACE
A. CW: Physical violence and blood

Those foolish enough to try to attack Manji in the darkness are going to find him to be a harder man to scare or attack than he seems to be. He looks like he should be an easy mark. Dressed in weird clothes, one arm, half blind, and walking around with just a candle to light his way. A candle that can so easily be blown out.

Manji is quick to turn the tide on those who try to take out his light and rob him. He's been trying to hold back on scaring people to feed his powers, but no more. Not on people like this. "So... you think it's fun to pick on the weak, do ya?" Screams still fill the air, but they don't belong to Manji.

He has the skills to let them go, to chase them off, to hurt them just enough to incapacitate and leave them for the authorities, but he doesn't. Instead he stalks and strikes. Doing his best to cause fear in the only way he knows how. His sword cuts through the night air and across his attackers. They weren't going to leave here without some scars for their troubles.

B. CW: Gun violence, blood, and worms that could be considered body horror/feeding the corruption

It takes almost no time at all for the first person to try and shoot the crazed man swinging at them with a sword. The shot rings out and Manji will fall back with a spray of blood. He must be dead. Only after a couple of still moments, Manji stirs. In the darkness it may be impossible to tell exactly what is happening, but try and look close enough and there is movement happening at the point of impact. "Oh, now you're gunna get it. Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean blood out of this thing?!" Manji snarls as begins to rise back up to his feet. Blood streaked across his face and eyes wild he looks a every bit like a corpse come to life.

Illuminating

Manji attends the meeting. Quietly listening to what is said and even has a few questions he wants to ask by the end. He takes the offered flashlight and looks it over. "Heavier than it looks." He's at least smart enough to not shine it directly into his own face and one remaining good eye, but he might not be overly careful to the people near him as he tries out the switch.

WALKING HELL CW: altered mental state, hallucinations, violence, car accident

Manji doesn't even realize he's walked into a nightmare. Everything seems completely normal until he hears a familiar, mocking laugh and catches a glimpse of what he thought looked like a kimono with a sun on it. Was that a man with white hair ducking through the crowd? The phantom has Manji stopping in his tracks. "Shira?!" Doesn't matter if Manji had been in mid conversation with someone, he takes off after the man.

"SHIRA!" He screams out the man's name. Violently pushing through the crowd of people. Uncaring of who he's shoving, even if it's a kid, he can't let this man out of his sight. "You bastard! Stop running!" No, wait-- he's suddenly to the right. When had he gotten so fast?! Manji skids to a stop, spins to turn to the right to keep up. "What have you done with Rin?!" Blindly Manji continues the chase. He doesn't even hear the honking of horns as he dashes out in front of traffic.

(OOC: Feel free to save Manji from getting hit by a car or watch him get hit. He'll survive the accident. If you want to see him get hit, please tell me if you want no description of worms as that is how he heals. I can skip a description as needed. Also don't google Shira. The man is a walking trigger warning with the things he's done, but all things I don't plan on bringing up for the nightmare.)

Dunn With This

Have you made it known that you have a plan to stop Katie, but you need someone to play bait? Have a one eye, one armed man dressed as a samurai approaching you. "I might be able to help, but what's your plan first?"

[cacophonish]

That mix of admiration and predation puts him at a strange sense of ease, add odds with the warning sirens blaring in the back of his head. It reminds him of home, and of a demon that was terrifying and so divorced from human understanding that it might as well have been an alien... And that had become so familiar that its sudden absence drove him right into confused desperation, always seeking shadows and hallucinations, just to find it again.

In a way, Ziggy brought him right to this place, and this moment.

Jeff swallows, and he nods, because what she's saying makes sense. He has that power-- guilt and alienation can only hurt as much as he allows it-- but it feels impossible to just let go. Not without flooding his system with drugs and alcohol, anyway, and even he knows that's hardly sustainable.

He laughs, a note of hysteria bubbling just beneath the surface. "I wish I could."

But he's so weak, too soft and too sensitive, to ever let go of the hurt and guilt and misery, and everything else holding him back. It's just like home. Like all he's been doing is just circling the drain, slowly, in the most pathetic, drawn out, whimpering decline. He can't even crash and burn right.

It's funny, the more human she looks, the more unnatural it seems. His eyes are wet and lost as he looks at her.

"What's gonna happen now?"

To him, to her, to the people screaming outside, and the friends he's made, and the monster hunters he's grown to hate.

Nia Lehrer - Illuminating

[setthetone]

Carter listens quietly at the meeting, carefully watching his own emotional response to everything that is being said, then taking it and putting in on a shelf. It sits like a jack-in-the-box that wants to come out and yell how insane all of this is. Women with the power of darkness haunting the streets.

But it doesn't matter. There's no time for that. People are in danger and he sits up a little at the mentioning of hospitals and nursing homes. The idea makes his blood run cold, imagining all those people in need of medical attention, helpless if their caregivers suddenly turned violent...

He tries to think practically, like he did these past few months. Make do with what you have.

When there's an opening, he raises his hand slightly.

"You wrote that she's practically allergic to light. If that wards her off, could that also interrupt her hold on people? There are some strong light treatments like phototherapy. They're not exactly for... dark magic afflictions, usually, but maybe it could help those under her influence? If you can spare a generator I could run some tests. Or set up at one of the hospitals when we bring them over."

He frowns, the box on his shelf rattling.

"If you think it's worth a shot."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

"Yeah." It's a simple as that. "She took out the entire grid in Portland, Maine two years ago just before a major blizzard hit. There were nearly a hundred deaths recorded from that storm, people freezing to death or going wild and attacking the technicians trying to fix the grid, snowplow operators trying to clear the streets. She'd been hitting smaller targets all across the Eastern seaboard before that."

[apocalypsehownpcs]

Nia inclines her head. "That sounds like a real good idea. Reyes, make sure they bring up the extra light tech from the lower level and into the medical bay." Reyes offers a brief salute and makes a note on a clipboard next to him. He's seated at a desk next to the podium, a laptop in front of him for streaming over the network. "We know a basic flashlight isn't enough to break someone out of her influence, but something stronger... maybe. 'Long as we aren't intentionally blinding anyone in the process, I'm willing to try it."

Luka Kovač | ER - OTA

[cuttypie]

I. Nights Embrace

cw: minor wounds

[Luka's out with a flashlight, a little aggressively maybe. He tries to get the light switch to work, but alas.]

If this is what I think it is...

[He looks over and points the flashlight towards the hallway. His voice sounds...shaken, maybe. Nervous. He points the flashlight back towards himself, on his face, where there are fresh scratches healing.]

She's gotten me before. The other night, I was...not myself. Don't let her get you.

II. Waking Hell

cw: graphic descriptions of war and destruction, major character and child deaths due to war, PTSD, trauma, contagious illness, gunshots, explosions, fire, brutal violence, blood, suicidal ideation

[He doesn't notice the world shifting around him. He doesn't remember where he was going, initially, until a desperate need overcomes him.

He has to find them. His family. He can hear their cries, their voices in the distance. Some are Danijela's voice--why hasn't he seen her in awhile? He can't remember, why can't he remember?--and some are the children's voices.

Luka?

Luka!

There's explosions in the distance. It's simultaneously tropical and hot, with bright lush tropical forest around him, buzzing with mosquitos, and also nothing but rubble--buildings, smashed to pieces, craters in the ground, debris everywhere, small fires in windows. It shouldn't be possible, it shouldn't make sense, but it just does, right now.]

Danijela! [Luka screams, he knows this story, he just knows he's not going to reach them in time.] Jasna! Marko! I'm coming--

[Bullets whiz past him, and the sounds of trucks coming in the distance get louder. He recognizes the voices of the Mai-Mai and he knows that if they catch him, he's dead. They're all dead. He has to get to his patients, he can't leave them, they're coming and he has to get them, and his family, too--

--the mosquitos are louder and louder and he feels sick. Like he has a fever, like he's burning up. Sweat starts to pour off him and he stumbles through the rubble-and-trees, looking for a place he can't find. Looking for people he lost.

And then he sees them. Patrice, shot because he was helping people, shot because they got to him first, shot because he followed him and stayed with him and wanted to help, his body lying in the dirt. Other people--lying around him, because they wanted to help. Because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

His wife, Danijela, crushed under rubble, even though he remembers this being in what was left of their apartment. Why are they outside? It doesn't matter. Blood lies in a pool around her, because he didn't get to her in time. Because she followed him.

His children, next to her, lying there was if they were asleep, but he knows that it's not sleep. It's his fault that they have died, they should have been priority over his career, he was stupid, so stupid

He falls to his hands and knees, trembling, all the strength sapped out of him. There's more shouting nearby, more gunshots, more explosions, but it's too late.

He's too late.

He's always too late.]

[apocalypsehownpcs]

His laugh makes her smile again and it's too wide with too many teeth. She doesn't stop smiling when she should. The sound of screaming hasn't stopped--and perhaps his friends and the monster hunters are among them.

She doesn't answer the question. She pauses, seeming to think about it, before finishing her ascent onto the stage. "C'mere," she says, holding out a hand that doesn't look like it could ever have been tipped with claws. "I want to show you something."