synflux | PRE-FIGHT EVENT #1

PRE-FIGHT EVENT #1

PRE-FIGHT EVENT #1

CONTENT WARNINGS: natural disaster, PTSD, mind-control, psychological trauma, violence, delirium from heat, temporary blindness, hallucinations, dead bodies.

▶ 001. STORM CHASERS.

After weeks of searching for clues on the kaiju and missing people, the desert landscape begins to blend together. Didn’t you pass that cactus earlier today? That rock formation looks exactly like the one you passed the other day. It’s natural to loop back around when conducting a search but doesn’t it feel like everyone has been going in circles more frequently?

The heat isn’t helping either. Temperatures start to rise and continue to rise to all time highs. The sun is unrelenting and the only reliable shelter they have are their campers. Prolonged exposure outside will result in heat exhaustion, dehydration, and delirium.

Warnings will be sent to the Outsiders via their implants to keep them up to date with the weather as well as providing health tips such as reminders to stay hydrated or seek shelter during the hottest parts of the day. They will also receive warnings for sand storms and tornadoes called dust devils. The storms start of short and relatively weak but gradually begin to last longer and become more powerful. Pretty soon, Outsiders will not be able to see ahead from the dense sand and wind.

Outsiders will be told to chase after the storms and if they progress far enough, they will begin to find traces of people. They will find random belongings, articles of clothing, and occasionally, human remains in varying states of decomposition. Eventually, however, they will start to find survivors suffering from extreme fatigue and dehydration. They speak incoherently to themselves and as soon as they regain their strength, they try to run into storms while calling out to things that people can’t see.

Outsiders can wait for emergency caravans to arrive from Vegas to take survivors back to the city or they can take back the survivors themselves and use the opportunity to restock on supplies.

▶ 002. THE STORM CALLS.

The sandstorms increase and grow stronger until eventually, they last entire days. The sands shift, the grounds shake, and something thunderous can be heard in the dust. It becomes harder to see out in the desert and it’s almost like the storms are trying to hide something. At the edge of a storm, sharp eyed Outsiders may catch sight of a great shadowy serpent in the heart of the storm. Messages to their implants will urge them to get closer and investigate but be careful.

The storm grows stronger as they approach and the camper vans may slow down or get stuck in the shifting sands forcing some of them to proceed on foot to make visuals. Eventually, they will get close enough to finally establish clear visuals on their target: A giant sand worm. It’s size is not immediately clear due to the poor visibility and it being partially underground. However, the worm also sees them and when it does, it glows. The light catches on and reflects against the sand particles and that’s when it hits some of the Outsiders: A sudden splitting headache followed by an inability to look away.

Some outsiders may suddenly find themselves entranced by the worm; hypnotized. They will begin to see mirages and hear voices calling out to them in the storm. Captivated Outsiders will find themselves wanting to run into the storm to chase after the phantoms, some of them images and figures of people from their past and present back home. If anyone attempts to stop them, they will become irrational, violent, and turn on their friends and allies. Some Outsiders may begin to view their allies as enemies and attack, turning on one another in a gruesome frenzy. Some of the hypnotic beams will effect those still in their campers, turning on their friends and other Outsiders.

Outsiders will have to restrain each other to keep them from running into the desert or harming each other. In the chaos, the worm disappears into the storm. The psychic effects of the monster will weaken after the worm disappears and the storm dies down but it may leave some characters feeling overwhelmed and confused in the aftermath. Some will remain in an erratic state for several days, occasionally acting normal. In the insanity of all of this, Outsiders may have picked up another Outsider into their camper van for their protection or camper parties remain shuffled. It's up to the ones unaffected by the psychic attacks to watch over the others while retreating from the desert.

▶ 003. CITY OF DREAMS.

Following the disaster of the first sighting, LILITH will order characters to return to Vegas so they can assess what happened. En route to Vegas, some Outsiders may notice some side effects from the prolonged exposure to the sandstorm. They may experience shortness of breath and coughing as a result of breathing in so much dust. Furthermore, they may experience a splitting headache or pain behind their eyes. Their implants may lag, glitch, or go completely offline which will render them temporarily blind in one or both eyes. It seems that the fine sand and dust combined with whatever psychic damage the worm did may have messed with their implants and crossed some sensors which is all the more reason to return to Vegas for treatment.

Outsiders may become lethargic and experience vivid daydreams while they are awake or regular dreams while sleeping. In these dreams, they may relive memories. Some of these memories may be pleasant but others may be traumatic or things characters would rather keep secret. Unfortunately, being in close proximity to someone suffering from these effects will force a link through a glitch in their implants and drag other characters into the dream.

These links will function similarly to how simulation training works. The dreams they visit appear to be very realistic and characters can experience pain and be hurt within the memory. They will be able to interact with the memories. While in these memories, they can try to wake up the memory holder to bring them back to reality. Who knows, maybe helping each other understand what is real and a dream may even make them more resilient to the worm’s attacks the next time they go into the desert...

▶ 004. REST & RECOVERY

As characters recover from the psychic effects and implant glitches, LILITH will try to assess everyone’s biometrics to understand what happened. Characters who need therapy or counseling after reliving some horrible memories of theirs will be provided sessions via their implants. They now understand that the worm has some sort of psychic mind control power that it can use on victims. It is currently too dangerous to go back into the desert until they can come up with a proper defense against it.

Outsiders will be ordered to stay in Vegas and focus on recovery, given two queen side bed hotel rooms again OR if they would prefer to stay in the camper vans, that is also fine, with their same room mates or new ones. They are confident that they can fix the implants with the right upgrade but they aren’t sure what to do to stop people from following the call of the desert and making them act erratically. What is important is that LILITH sticks together.

In the meantime, those who have recovered, and even those who are experiencing these issues are ordered to remain close to one another; a buddy system of sorts. Each Outsider will be given designated groups to keep tight watch over one another while in Vegas. They will be responsible for physically checking on those in their groups and making sure one another’s whereabouts are properly tracked in order to avoid losing anyone to the desert.

LILITH encourages Outsiders to hang tight and wait for instructions before adventuring back out into the desert.

▶ 005. AFTERWORD.

In light of the results of the scheduling poll, here is our first event with a preview of the kaiju. All side effects from either the sandstorms or the worm kaiju can last for as short or as long as players would like.

For the daydreams/memory share, players can decide how they would like characters to experience the memories, whether it plays out in front of them like a movie or if they're reliving it by acting out the scene all over again or a mix of both. We encourage you guys to have fun with it and use whatever format feels most comfortable.

As always, feel free to leave questions under the QUESTIONS thread. All tags on this log are worth 2 points and will count towards June AC.

EVENT BREAKDOWN (CLICK TO EXPAND)

1. STORM CHASERS: Outsiders, still in the now expanded Mojave Desert, face problems with heat and sandstorms, resulting in dehydration and delirium. Still, LILITH encourages them to press onward in their camper vans and desert approved attire. Many dead bodies are found, but those that survive, Outsiders can keep an eye on survivors until emergency care can come pick them up.

2. STORM CALLS: A glimpse of the creature causing the problems is seen beneath the sands surface: a giant sandworm. It attacks LILITH recruits with psychological damage, causing Outsiders to hallucinate memories of their past, act erratic and violent and turn on LILITH crew. Outsiders are tasked to wrangle in one another and retreat back to Las Vegas to recover.

3. CITY OF DREAMS: Seeking refuge back in Las Vegas, character's implants go haywire from the psychic attacks, causing a memory share between characters that are close enough to one another.

4. REST & RECOVERY: Outsiders are placed in hotels again, or if they prefer to stay in the camper vans. They are tasked to keep an eye out on one another and sit tight for further instructions while LILITH assesses their data and next move to wrangle in the sandworm. Outsiders are to wait until given instructions.

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[ They're on a road.

Kugisaki is beside him, nails in hand, hammer ready, and Yuji is staring at Eso as tears gather in his eye. Beside Kugisaki's leg is the body of the other brother, resting on the ground, and Yuji... Yuji looks between them, eyes wide, the realisation settling around him. Not curses, Kechizu and Eso, but flesh and blood, as close to human as a curse can be. It makes the emotion thrumming from Yuji grow stronger and stronger, the realisation of the loss of human life burning through him.

This Yuji does not know of their connection: their brotherhood. This Yuji is unmarred by Shibuya, unaware of the world to come. This Yuji sees Eso's tears, and feels... Something. Yuji chases, Kugisaki sends her nails, and Yuji catching up to the car Eso had stolen. Nails push through his chest as her Technique comes into play, and Yuji punches.

Right before he does, the word comes out, quiet, soft - sad, almost. ]

Sorry.

[ The moon above him, staring at his fist, at the burn of blood that should hurt him but doesn't, and Yuji bows his head. Blood, so much blood, but his life of theirs, sent on a mission to kill one or the other. That is how things are, isn't it? In this world of sorcery, it's win or lose, the horrors mingled with greyness and sadness. ]

Damn, that hurt...

[ They cried.

... They cried for each other, in the end. ]

[ the journey back to the city is the longest one yet, and somewhere in the harrowing hours does choso find himself nodding off into a fitful Something in his seat. (buckled in firmly; dr. ratio's lessons were ones seared into his bones by necessity by now)

between one breath and the next, between one blink and the next, he passes through the thin veil of reality and into nightmare.

It's cold. The breeze carries the chill of a coming winter on the air, warmth fading quick and at this time of night their breaths come in vague clouds quickly dissipated. Choso feels it, and yet he doesn't; as with the Memory that was born, it simply is, it simply exists, he is simply there to watch with a growing dread understanding that there is no him present that could possibly lift a hand to change what is unfolding before his unblinking eyes. Choso could not blink if he wanted to. He cannot turn his head aside from the diorama of his brothers' final moments played out in perfect, agonizing detail.

Kechizu's blood on the pavement pools black as ink, and Eso's first tears fall in his agony, beautiful even in this. Yuji's stuttering breath, the rabbit-y thud of his heart threads under it all like a bass line, so entrancing that Choso loses himself in the beat of the dream, jerked out of himself with the jarring scream of the truck horn that sets the end into motion. He loses himself in the thud of Yuji's sneakers on the asphalt, in the rumble of the engine, loses himself so that he is helpless to even think as he takes in the look on Eso's face when the black spikes of Kugisaki's technique burst out of his chest; even in this, Eso was beautiful.

The sound it makes when Yuji's fist erupts out of Eso's back is not one Choso will ever forget, but Yuji's voice in the aftermath, small and pained in the echoing silence left behind, lodges somewhere in Choso's ribs like a bullet. ]

Eso. [ He surprises himself, his voice jarring, ugly here in this hallowed scrap of time removed. Something in his chest twists. ] Kechizu.

Yuji.

[ Hearing Choso in front of him makes Yuji lurch, and there's a strange disconnect for a moment.

The Yuji of reality, the one who has been trapped in Neo Tokyo for months, is well aware of the fact that the man in front of him is his brother - the dearest, most wonderful creature, all that he has to cling to in a world of loss, hurt and ache. The Yuji of the memory has no recollection of that, just a vague sense of discomfort, his hands shaking. Behind him, Kugisaki is moving closer to him, and the memory unfolds, but Yuji doesn't let it.

He pauses, staring at Choso, even as Kugisaki doesn't react to him.

Slowly, stepping forward, Yuji swallows and lifts his arms up, gazing at Choso with a dark, concerned expression, the bodies of the curses - were they curses? - beside him. ]

... How do you know my name?

[ Thus far, he's just got 'Sukuna's vessel'. ]

Who are you?

[ Yuji lifts his hands up like in expectation of a fight and something in Choso shudders and curled like a living thing, some terrible dread with its roots settled deep that which germinated way back in the dying guts of Shibuya Station. Behind Yuji, a beautiful cadaver lies cooling on the black asphalt. The pound of footsteps is distant, but growing.

Who are you? ]

Yuji. [ Pay attention, Choso. Focus on the one real thing here, the anchor in this whirling maelstrom of a world, real or remembered. Yuji’s name is a stone holding him in place, a charm against this painful, bloody night. ]

I am your older brother.

[ His hands hang empty and open at his sides, but the shift of his attention is unmistakable, eyes dropping to the spreading pool on the road.

There is a quiet ringing in his ears. ]

As I am his.

What?

[ Frowning, Yuji adjusts his weight, gazing forward as he stares at the creature in front of him. There's definitely something, like there's an echo under the surface, that makes him yearn, want to reach out. The desire to comfort this man is overwhelming, and Yuji doesn't know what to do with that sensation, especially not coming out of a battle where only his possession by Sukuna had saved him.

He swallows, shaking his head, moving to stand between Choso and Kugisaki, just in case. ]

I don't have any brothers.

[ No parents. No grandfather. No brothers. ]

And if you're their brother, that makes you our enemy, doesn't it?

[ Since these guys came with the purpose of killing him... ]

We were never meant to be your enemy, Yuji.

[ For all that Choso wants to curl around the re-opened wound of his brothers’ bloody deaths, he holds himself upright, voice even but tight with a self-control he didn’t think he had in him.

But he must. An older brother must be above. ]

A great mistake was made, and it lead to this. They were your brothers, too.

A mistake? My brothers...?

[ Yuji blinks, gazing at Choso for a moment, before he turns to look at the surrounding corpses. It doesn't sound wrong, and it makes his stomach churn. He feels horrifically uncomfortable all of a sudden, and he breathes out. ]

Are you telling me I killed my own brothers? They're curses! That can't be possible!

[ But they were also... Human, weren't they...? ]

My parents didn't have any other kids.

[ Look at him, this boy unmarred by the horror that awaits him in Shibuya, as green as the leaves during Hanami. Look at him, with Eso's blood still hot on his human fist.

Three months ago, Choso knows this would have shaken him to the core, would have crumbled him into hateful, furious debris.

Now, he is still shaken and raw, but he remains on his feet. He must be an example. He must be better than the Choso this Yuji met in Shibuya's dying guts. ]

Think back, Yuji. Our parent had stitches on his forehead. Though we were not born in the same manner, we are brothers, through and through.

[ Keep it simple. Keep it to facts. What a difficult thing, when all he wants is to beseech that Yuji remember him, remember him, say his name again and remember him. ]

I don't remember my parents.

[ Or... Does he?

There's a flash of something in his mind. Blinking up at a man with pink hair, hearing his grandpa's voice, seeing someone that could be... But none of that makes sense. It sends shivers up and down his spine, the idea of stitches and parenthood, something that he hasn't experienced yet but shoves him in the gut all the same.

Stitches... A parent with stitches?

Shaking his head, Yuji takes a step back, adjusting his stance. ]

Grandpa would've told me something like that. Who are you really?

[ This, truly, is agony. There is a sting somewhere in his sinus, a tingling that waters up his eyes until they shine most dangerously.

He holds his hands out, palms up and open. ]

I am Choso. No matter what anyone has or has not said, I am your older brother. We [ three ] two are one.

[ The guy doesn't seem dangerous, and there's something... There's something.

Yuji wants to believe him. He's desperate too, a void inside of him that feels warm and filled at the other man's presence, and he breathes out a soft noise before he swallows. What is he meant to do with this, the strange, conflicting feelings? He wants to fight this creature - this Choso - just as much as he wants to embrace him.

Glancing behind him, at the bodies littering the pavement, he blinks back his own tears, stinging at him.

How does this make any kind of sense? ]

... We are one... [ A breath. ] I... Wait, you...

[ It takes everything Choso is to avert his eyes, to keep them on Yuji, Yuji, Yuji. Mirage or hallucination or dream, Eso and Kechizu are beyond reach now; he must focus on the living now, his remaining little brother.

Hands still outstretched, Choso swallows thickly, struggles to breathe around the stone lodged in his ribs, obstructing breath.

This is only hallucination, right? Right? ]

Yuji. Yuji, now that I know who we are, I will never hurt you.

[ It's reminiscent of the torment that Choso had been through in Shibuya, with memories impressing themselves into his mind and leaving him aching and unsure, swallowed by the grief of it. Yuji stares at the man in front of him, eyes wide, hands shaking, as he feels the recollection come to him.

Choso, fighting beside him. Choso, holding his hand. Choso, embracing him as he cries. Choso, Choso, Choso...

Choso, his aniki.

Reaching out, unsure, nervous, his fingers wrap around Choso's, holding onto him. Stepping closer, offering, a gift. ]

... Aniki?

[ The relief that washes through Choso nearly buckles his knees, so great a rush it is, but he stands strong and he stands tall, content to let Yuji come to him on his own terms.

Besides which, Choso is certain that any errant motion now could kick loose the fragile supports keeping his composure upright. Already his mouth trembles at the corners, eyes watering as his nose threatens to run as well. ]

I'm here. I'm here, Yuji. You see? I'm right here.

[ Yuji does go to him, stepping closer, arms wrapping around Choso and drawing him close. Face in his chest, warm and secure, the foundation and scaffolding of his happiness here.

Choso is here. He's always right here. He's always where Yuji needs him to be.

Breathing out a shaky noise, he collapses into his brother's body, squeezing his eyes shut, blood on his hands. ]

You're here... You're with me, even now...

[ Yuji in this dream is warm, a burning engine in the cool of the autumn night, and it is such a relief when blood-tacky hands let go that Choso can only shake with the shame of it. With Yuji’s face hidden in his chest, Choso’s expression is free to crumple, his own arms curling around the boy’s shoulders, looping around his back to hold him close, but Choso’s hands don’t quite settle down. He can’t bring himself to wipe the drying red smears from his palms, can’t tear his eyes away from the flaking remnants of Eso and Kechizu left in the creases of his useless fingers.

The night stinks of iron and asphalt and cooling meat and Choso swallows it all like glass with a thick and audible gulp. ]

I came to you too late. Forgive me, Yuji. Forgive me, Eso, Kechizu. I let this happen.

It's not your fault. We didn't know...

[ Leaning into Choso, Yuji presses his face into the solid warmth of his chest, tucking himself into his body and squeezing. It's hard, feeling that guilt, that pain, and he has to blink rapidly to stop himself from crying. It's as if the memories have hit him all at once, and his breathing is shuddering.

Shaking his head, he sighs. ]

Aniki... Do you want to bury them?

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PRE-FIGHT EVENT #1

▶ 001. STORM CHASERS.

▶ 002. THE STORM CALLS.

▶ 003. CITY OF DREAMS.

▶ 004. REST & RECOVERY

▶ 005. AFTERWORD.

choso - brothers

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