January Event: Setting Fire to the Sky

[lifeaftr_mods]

JANUARY EVENT: SETTING FIRE TO THE SKY

Who: Everyone!
What: The sun dies, and the creatures of the night emerge from the depths
When: January 21st - January 28th
Where: Everywhere! Ensō, Monsun, Chol, and the Islets
Warnings: Character death, possible body horror and violence. Please mark any additional warnings as needed!

So We Can Take the World Back From the Heart-Attacked

The night of the 21st, the sun begins to dim. It dips in the horizon, sinks to nestle itself in the center of Chol like a star falling in slow motion, where it begins to smolder quietly - massive, smoking, and hot, like a massive egg. The night grows colder, the sky reduced to an inky black. The surface of the surrounding water is still but for the occasional ripple, the odd, strangely subdued wave, with not even the hollow lights of distant stars to glint off its reflective waves.

The Jormun gather around the sunken, dying sun with their scaled hands on their weapons, their expressions grim. They fan out across the island of Chol with arms in hand. Their fortifications have settled around the island's center in a dense ball of bristling weapons. They have been preparing for this. They are ready to fight.

Are you? No island is safe. From the well-trodden mainland of Ensō and its islets to the stark dichotomy of Monsun to the craggy shores of Chol, all manner of strange things have begun to haul themselves, dripping, from the watery dark.

No more preparation. No more running.

From here on out, it is fight or die.

One Maniac At a Time, We Will Take It Back

As the Storyteller has promised, there is sanctuary in their temple on Ensō, which will keep out the worst of the creatures. It will not, however, protect characters from the cold and dark, and so they will have to keep themselves warm some other way.

The Jormun fight fiercely, but they do not fight alone. Aside from the help that the willing of your number have offered, you may glimpse the Storyteller battling alongside the rest in a flurry of strange, shifting animal shapes: a heavy-antlered reindeer, a shrieking owl with outstretched talons, a slavering grizzly bear with the Storyteller's signature tome strapped across a broad, furry back, to name but a few. Those creatures that the Storyteller defeats will burst into a flurry of paper and dark, spattering ink, rather than being felled in the conventional manner. How odd.

As this is an event with a high risk of death, the Storyteller will impose death penalties for one week only. However, deaths succumbed during the event will count towards the character's total.

Then I'll Raise You Like a Phoenix

Come the sunrise on the 28th, the sun will launch itself into the air with a victorious shriek, its wings trailing plumes of fire behind it. The phoenix takes flight, reborn from the ashes. The shores of Chol are littered with corpses, both shadowy and scaled, along with an even smattering of crumpled paper and splotched inkstains. Despite the triumph of the fight, it did not come without its costs. The Jormun gather their dead and prepare to mourn them quietly. Those who perished in the fight will not see the sunrise from this unique perspective, watching the murk of the night tint to soft, milky yellow and pink, and then to a glorious new day.

Munin will greet the survivors with a mixture of solemnity and relief, thanking them profusely for their help. There is not much more that her people can offer you, at this point - they must grieve their dead, and she must return to the sea to prove that she has cemented her worth as a leader in the eyes of the other Jormun - but that does not mean that your stories will part forever.

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] January 20th: Monthly Storytelling occurs as usual
[ ♆ ] January 21st: The dark arrives, the temperature drops further, and the first hostile creatures begin their assault
[ ♆ ] January 28th: The dark ends and the sun rises
[ ♆ ] January 30th: Those who perished are revived, suffering from a reduced death penalty

Event Specifics

[ ♆ ] If you have any questions, feel free to look over our OOC Info Post.
[ ♆ ] Feel free to make your own logs if necessary!
[ ♆ ] If your character perishes in this event, please let us know!
[ ♆ ] Item trades with the Jormun can be found on the OOC plotting post here! Even if you were only recently accepted, you are free to participate!

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Comments

[catpiper]

[The add-ons are there. Ghosts would spawn in her world-the malicious thoughts would appear at random and give chase for awhile. The erratic robots followed far longer, but there was always a pattern to it and it's one Ren learned quick. If she could duck and bend and take herself out of their line of sight, they would leave.

But like the monkeys, she can't shake them. They don't follow a pattern. They can read her heart-predict the path she's going to take and block her exit every single time. Quite frankly, she doesn't know how to deal with it and in this mental hysteria, all she can do is keep running. She doesn't know where she is, can't tell where the temple might be at, can't recognize the rocks she's passing, doesn't know if something's about to come out of the sky or if she'll hear those distressing cries get louder.

And suddenly, she's not running anymore.

She's trapped again. She's caught. Something grabbed her and she barely has time to register how terrified she is, how she can't see a cat or Seto and her mind wanders to the 800 escape plans she's made in her short life. None of which apply to now because she doesn't see a blue or red glow surrounding whatever's nabbed her. Doesn't hear the sound of a dog barking and all she can make out from her pendant's small light is-

An arm. One she recognizes and knows she absolutely has to get away from.

She can't use her bag as a distraction and doesn't think to attack. Plan B? Squirm and keep running. She tries to pry herself free from his grasp and dig her feet in the ground to avoid being dragged anywhere. Not that this will do much-she's not exactly known for her brute strength.]

[unpurify]

[He almost lets go.

Almost.

She doesn't stand a chance against the Batter in a battle of pure physical strength. That much was obvious. If Ren hadn't succumbed to her panic and found a hiding place, then maybe she would have been safe. But not this time. A skinny child has nothing to fight back against a monster.

Again. Always again.

The Batter doesn't drag her anywhere immediately. Aside from the sounds of Ren struggling, he can't hear anything unwelcome approaching. So they're fine for now. He can...

Calm down, probably. His heart was beating erratically and he doesn't understand why. It's not from physical exhaustion. This for wasn't physically cumbersome but mentally so. The increase in mass in this form changed nothing. It's. He.

Ah.

Oh.

The Batter was here again, wasn't he? The Queen. Hugo.

Throttling the life out of a world that was dying. Crush the bones and turn them into fine powder. Look here. Eat. Continue eating, King of the Rot.

Until your stomach was fit to burst. Help me.




No. Not now. Not now.

The Batter takes a deep breath and his free hand snaps down to hopefully end the girl's struggling.]

....calm down. You'll hurt yourself.

[His hands ended in claws. It's very possible Ren could cut herself on them.]

[catpiper]

[The sharp edges dig into her skin and struggling becomes difficult. There's no way to pull herself free without cutting her arms and she almost doesn't care. She needs to run. Her burning hands are a reminder of why she has to escape because it's going to hurt regardless.

She tries again.

And again and again.

Until the weight of her panic starts to lift and she feels something familiar-a reaction easier for her to bear than the anxiety making her heart ram against her chest because-

It's impossible to escape. Even if she gets away, he's right there. His eyes are on her. The circles are out there. He would catch her because there's nowhere to run-no one to run to. There's no safety in these woods and she messed up. Completely and utterly messed up. It's only now as her mind starts to clear that she realizes she should've risked another burn from the circles and ran towards some rocks she knew were in the area.

Her movements become shaky, less forceful, as she starts abandoning thoughts of escape and starts resigning herself to whatever's about to happen here when-

It all comes surging back and she freezes. This isn't her. It's too sudden. It's new. She can't tell if it's panic or fear or make out the mess that's starting to cloud her mind again. But she knows it's not her. Absolutely can't be her and her eyes fall to the monstrous man who brings down another arm that stops her right in her tracks.

It's him?

She would try to speak, maybe realize at this point she couldn't because of an outside force over her own fears, but something keeps her from trying. The wrong sound might make him snap, literally, at her. A sudden movement could startle him into bring those circles back she-

She's visibly shaking, but all at once her movements cease.]

[unpurify]

[As Ren's movements cease the emotions that are not her's fade, as if something is clawing everything back to zero. It's unnatural and beyond the Batter's own control. He doesn't recognize he's felt anything to begin with and beyond that may be the product of something else.

But that's another story.

Instead, the Batter slowly breathes. He can't do anything about his appearance to make it less threatening but his grip slowly loosens. The purifier is hesitant to completely let go of Ren but he no longer has a death grip on her. And then, finally, he casts Save First Base. Ren will feel the burns on her hands healing. It's a basic healing spell so her hands may still feel a little stiff, but the burns themselves will be gone.

The Add-Ons are still here and while the healing is going on, Omega is going to cast Inverse Perspective. The blindness is gone but it will remove the block on Ren's voice. There you go.]

...we need to leave.

[Keep things calm. Even. Zero. Pure.

It's fine. It's all fine. They just need to go back to the temple.

Everything is fine.]

[catpiper]

[Surprise registers before anything else as his grip loosens. Things-creatures-they don't tend to let go when you stop struggling. They seize victory in your weakness and she had been, ultimately, prepared for that. Because she knew she couldn't fight-that she wasn't brave and her terror would overwhelm her in moments, so why bother? Why even try when she knew she could only run and that solace had been taken from her.

And it's that shock from this unknown situation that keeps her still and quiet as the burns in her hands vanish and the lump in her throat dispels. She doesn't recognize she was silenced. Thinks that maybe Batter did something to take away some of her fear because that never goes away on its own.

We need to leave-they're going together? He's not going to eat her, like he did to that other guy? That unrecognizable person that had come from the shadows for safety and comfort and-

She doesn't want to talk. Wants to leave this tentative, delicate situation where it stands because it feels like she's teetering on the edge of a cliff she can't see. But-]

I'm not scary.

[I want to go back alone is what she really wants to say, despite how lost she is in a jungle that should be easy to navigate. And when she looks up at him, she can still see the blood on his face, the fragments of that body-

The fear and panic that overtook him, only seconds before, and she repeats-]

I'm not scary. You don't have to hurt me.

[He might be calm-she's not.]

Did that guy scare you? Is that why you-

[She doesn't even want to say it.]

[unpurify]

[The Batter has fought only two beings that never found back.

A man on the tracks of Zone 3. He did nothing but scream for help so the Batter helped him. There was no going back from the state he was in, no going back from where the Batter stood. Keep going. Just keep going.

The other was Hugo himself. And thinking about that was enough.

It was enough.

Now he can add a third: Ren herself. From the way she freezes up, the way that she simply seemed to be waiting for him to finish her off already. From that frankly pathetic attempt to escape his grip and the surprise that he wasn't going to hurt her. It seems the both of them were aware that the Batter could kill her.

It's not hard. Being something like him, killing someone was never hard. An executioner was simply an executioner. You don't think about what happens to them after they're out of people to behead. Once they're put to rest in unmarked graves.

Don't think about it. But that brings things back around. Don't think about it.

But things always come back around.]

I....

[Was he scared? The Batter only was scared once in his life.

"Look...he has your eyes."

"They are full of fear."

Neither of them were only talking about Hugo at the time.

And the Batter doesn't want to say that Ren was the one who scared him.]

There's no time. We need to go back now.

[catpiper]

[That isn't the affirmation she was looking for. She was desperately reaching out for some kind of answer, a way to reach a conclusion on her own that she's safe, despite all the evidence pointing otherwise. He's saying we need to go back and she thinks he means back to the temple, maybe.

She hopes.

But that tremor of fear-of something that ran through her doesn't leave her mind. The fact it was there to begin with, from a man who rarely felt anything at all-

She wishes he could smile and her eyes fall to his grotesque face for any indication of that. For a quirk-a curve-a sign of the man who once stood on the beach and held seashells in his hand. Before she knew all that she did about him. Before she saw Shin in his shadow.

Thinking back to her friend by the fire makes her shudder and while she tries to avoid that thought, it's difficult not to given the situation she's in, but he's not trying to hurt her. Not yet, anyway. If she can remain calm, he might too. If she doesn't make any sudden movements and goes along with all of this, there might be an opportunity to escape somewhere down the path. She might spot someone she can run to.

Or maybe he's scared and wants company back to the temple. This eternal night could be too much for him and he lashed out in his fear. He just healed her after all. The burns on her hand are gone and the fear that caused her throat to close up vanished with the magic he used from his heart.

It's not like she has an option with the tight hold he has on her anyway.]

...Okay.

[unpurify]

[There's nothing.

Without the pressure of memories gone by and his own mind bending in on itself, the Batter can keep his composure. Enough to stay in control, to shut down his feelings when they appear even if for the briefest of seconds they got the better of him. It's okay. It's fine.

It's a resounding feeling. It's fine. Something he's repeating to himself over and over. It's fine. It's okay. An emotion pushed forth and then pushed into the nothingness

Everything is fine.

But despite that, there's no change to his expression. It's not quite his inability to smile properly to blame this time - this form was simply incapable, even with Zacharie's lessons on hand. All Ren will find is teeth and two large white eyes staring back. Nothing to go on.

Nothing. It's better like that.

The Batter loosens his grip somewhat but doesn't let go completely. But he figures it won't be easy to walk like this so he'll just hold Ren's arm. He's careful to not jab the girl with his claws but it's still a decently tight grip.

He knows he can heal Ren again if she cuts himself. But he doesn't want things to come to that. He's done enough.]

...this way.

[And back to the temple they go. If Ren runs from him once they get inside...well the Batter knows he deserves that. Either way, he's going to head back outside once she's safe.]