Update

[synfluxmods]

▷ DECISION UPDATE

▶ OUTCOME: BURNING BRIDGES

The decision has been made. LILITH Japan orders the Outsiders to mobilize to pursue the Imugi.

Given that they are in a foreign country, they are largely dependent on LILITH Korea’s resources. In response to the decision, the Korean branch provides some assistance: the Outsiders are given just enough vehicles to help transport them, essential supplies, and only a few operatives to help guide them. This is the most the Korean branch is able to give, as they must focus on relocating people and restoring peace following the attack.

LILITH announces that the Imugi is currently resting near Gangneung on the east coast and they must move quickly. The effects of Rift poisoning will grow stronger as they approach the source; a sign that they are close to a kaiju. Upon reaching the mountains just outside the city, LILITH informs them that they are right on top of its location.

However, there is no Imugi to be found. After searching the area, Outsiders will discover the source of the trace and the poisoning: eggs. They will find about twelve eggs. When they report their findings, Seokdang will curse. In their rush, they had followed the wrong trace. They didn’t track down an injured and resting Imugi—they tracked down the Imugi’s nest. So where is the Imugi?

Not long after, Outsiders will receive an update on their implants: the Imugi reappeared in Seoul. After seeing the corpse of its mate, it went berserk and attacked the city again. While many of the citizens were evacuated to nearby Incheon and remaining shelters, just as many perished, with the death toll at 168,000 and rising. LILITH’s Korean base is destroyed.

The Imugi was last seen flying north, but the Korean government prohibits the Outsiders from pursuing it again through their territory. By choosing to pursue the kaiju, the Outsiders have abandoned humanity and thus will receive no further support. They are ordered to leave the country immediately.

LILITH Japan will order them to collect as many eggs as possible and continue to the abandoned city of Gangneung, where they will arrange pick up and return to base in Tokyo.

▶ AFTERWORD.

Thanks everyone for participating in our first major Event Decision! We hope you had fun discussing what to do both ICly and OOCly.

After failing to capture the second Imugi and also failing to save a large portion of Seoul's population, characters will be shipped back to Japan. The events of the TDM will springboard from there. Feel free to use this post to thread out any aftermath threads if you would like.

All tags on this log are worth 2 points and will count towards August AC.

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Comments

okada izou, fate/grand order, brimstone

[hitokiller]

* to all those who wish to be witness to a certain assassin breaking the rules on-base...

( —in A:

he's clearly had too much to drink, beyond too much to drink, a foot propped on top of a cafeteria table and a hand pointed at ... whoever. you, over there. YOU. that's right. don't look away from this scruffy idiot and his flushed cheeks. )

Hah, hahah... What're ya, lookin' so down for? Times like this, you gotta... drink up, and move on. Clear up that melancholy, and... have fun, or you're never gonna be able to forget yer cares.

( he's two seconds from tipping over, but. don't worry about it. )

( —in B:

drink the night away until you reach nirvana? drink, and drink, and don't even worry about an aftermath you can't change? mistakes you made and agreed on? the words "you've abandoned humanity" are as sharp as the burns inflicted on him in life during bouts of torture, and yet. he's used to things turning out for the worst, and when people died, and no one laughed, the whole world didn't stop for it. the whole world didn't care. but he was a servant made flesh... a supposed protector of the human race, and this time it was just...

but that's when you run into him, and izou uses the steel wall to support himself while glaring at you. )

What're you, lookin' at, huh? Don't even, start with... Don't even say shit, about... about it.

a.

[yuwon]

[ it's clear not everyone is their proper frame of mind after everything went down the way it had. while yuwon remains perfectly impervious to it all on the surface, it's clear there are certain points that still remain with him. likely buried deep down, just like his memories of seeing izou behind bars in that one experience he chalks up to being a simple dream. when he sees the man inebriated like this, however, for some reason the memory resurfaces in full, and he has difficulties washing it down for once. ]

You're embarrassing yourself.

[ he says as he comes up and tries to whack his leg off the table. fortunately for izou, yuwon is here to help. (he's not). ]

[hitokiller]

( our lovely reunion...

it's the man who calls him a dog, and izou squints that one eye to focus on him. really focus.

until yuwon knocks the support out from under him and izou topples into a chair, his elbow and upper arm clattering down onto the table surface hard. he's the picture perfect image of a drunk, this flesh body making it hard to sober up as quickly as he used to, and him making no real effort on his own to power through it.

cool. just... give him a minute. )

[yuwon]

[ the way izou slips right into the chair is nothing short of comedy gold.

yet, yuwon isn't laughing. instead, he just sort of stares down at the man, half-wondering if he should help him, or if he should leave it to him to reap what he sowed. within seconds of deliberation, he's reaching an arm out, attempting to scruff him up from the back of his collar, as if to straighten him up. ]

Hey, can you hear me?

a.

[axethrows]

Rodya has arrived! Snack and drink therapy is important here-

[She showed up with an average-looking metal water container that actually contains some alcohol and a bag full of various snacks that she gathered from the nearest convenience store. She is going to take a seat near Izou and cross her legs after tossing the bag onto the table. Chips, pretzels, other crisps and a few gummy sweets.]

Get yourself a snack, Zou. A stomach filled with only alcohol will bite back hard later.

[hitokiller]

( someone who gets it. someone who GETS it!!

izou lights up, a stupid smile plastered across his face. well, more stupid than usual, and it's enough encouragement to get him to ease on down and take... a seat... carefully. the nickname doesn't even register yet. )

Onh.

( acknowledgement said around a handful of crisps, like a child. )

Now's when... yghotta partee it orf.

( and... now a mouthful of food. )

[axethrows]

I didn't understand a word you said, bud. I still agree~

[She giggles as she takes a swig of her drink, sighing in relief to have some alcohol going down her throat to help her feel something outside of the dread in the air. To start to get her throat burning and hope that LILITH doesn't catch her with her sly use of an ordinary container.]

How much had you had so far? I guess it's a lot, right? I can't blame you... Shit sucks right now. Best to drink away to numb your senses if you got nothing else to keep you busy.

[There's a lot of options, but alcohol will always be ol' reliable.]

a.

[wheft]

[ ish has been... doing all right, outbursts aside. at least she's calmed down since, but that is a result of keeping to herself since coming back to base.

normally she would've told izou to pipe it down. but instead, she takes a seat beside him with a long-suffering sigh. ]

Got any drinks on you?

[ just realized that they... probably didn't get paid for failing this mission WELP ]

[hitokiller]

( wtf we're not GONNA GET PAIDDDD

but for the first time, that's the furthest thing on his mind... being that he's too OUT of his mind, which is kinda the point right now. cue izou licking his lips, stumbling into a seat next to ishmael. and i mean... really, stumbling, as he scoots it closer to her, lacking the usual boundaries he raises around pretty much everyone. )

I got this, soh-ju here... from Malkuth. Help yourself.

( malkuth... is that a taboo thing to say to ishmael right now? maybe. as if he cares.

and he'll even pour ishmael a glass, ... p-pour her a glass, that kind of spills onto the surface of the table. at least he's enthusiastic. )

[wheft]

[ APPARENTLY WE'LL FIND OUT ON THE NEXT TDM but our paychecks..... 😭

at the mention of malkuth's name, ishmael makes a thoroughly offended face. like... ew....... but the soju brings back that one time of throwing herself up silly because of a preconceived notion, and maybe that's just something she needs right now.

so she takes the glass and chugs it until it's half-empty. ohhhh man, that hit the spot just right. ]

Mmm, that's... [ would've been a lot better if it didn't come from that bitch but beggars can't be choosers. ] That felt great. Pour me one more.

b :)

[fursuit]

[ Secretly. This is all what Tezcatlipoca expects. He’d held this opinion a world away in a place called Kenos, but even here, where he didn’t think of the questions as so dire… It still feels like too much. These weights are the sorts that gods are meant to carry. They’re not meant to be the sort of thing that mortals bear, even if “mortal” became a loser term in their current state of being.

He’s watched the laments relatively passively tonight. He could egg them on, sure, but… He felt no need. His ties to conflict and chaos were perfectly satisfied with the natural flow of things. There was no need to incite anyone further, since they’re feelings carried them far enough.

So, it’s only eventually that he starts to head back to his quarters. He’s bored of seeing the whining and self-destruction. He understands it, sure, but he doesn’t care for it. It’s when he’s heading back, as nonplussed as if none of this affected him, that he finds Izou essentially in his way. He’d just go around, but as he speaks to him…

…How’s he supposed to resist that? ]

What? You’re the one in my way.

[ He nods down the hall, since they’re teammates, much to Izou’s chagrin. ]

Hm. Drink your thing of choice? [ It’s a rhetorical question and an observation. He steps closer with a shrug. ] Gloomy motherfucker, ain’t ya?

>:/

[hitokiller]

( truth be told, izou expected some loss himself. death is nothing new for a man who took so many lives, and even when cornering and felling calamities bent on embracing humanity in a path of destruction, they hadn't been able to save everyone. you can't save everyone. his hands certainly can't, so soaked in the blood of others.

it's the failure hanging over him that stings the most, his purpose being called into question after swinging his blade so hard for this timeline. the destruction hanging over him and the pained expressions of everyone upon their return.

to have the very last person on his list he wants to see interrupt him in their wing... well. let's just say all that teamwork from earlier went right out the window, his too-red cheeks burning deeper with annoyance and his one eye flashing like a dog backed into a corner. )

Even think, it'd do you some good... t'shut up for a change? "Gloomy"? Piss off. You're the one with... all that smoke and shit.

( izou tilts his head up and to the side, in an attempt to look down on tezcatlipoca despite being the shorter of the two. it's pretty clear his fuse is shorter than usual, which is... telling in itself. his fuse is always short. )

[fursuit]

[ Izou’s senses are sharp enough that he’ll likely get that sort of hair on end sensation as Tezcatlipoca looks at him. It’s nothing more than intuition, the sort of reflexive reaction of the hindbrain to a perceived danger, but it’s still present because Tezcatlipoca’s attention is intense. Even with his sunglasses partially obscuring his eyes, the way he stares is notable. It’s like he’s sizing Izou up.

…Which. He is, but not for the sort of dangerous reasons that it might feel like. Tezcatlipoca’s serious attention just comes off that way.

Izou’s position is a unique one, after all, and privately, he’s sympathetic to it. Tezcatlipoca is more empathetic and understanding than he seems (or even wants people to know about, apparently), so he gets this. Tezcatlipoca could shrug off the accusation that they’d abandoned humanity, since he wasn’t human or beholden to it. A real Servant, and a loyal one to Chaldea, though?

The sharp, almost dangerous feeling tension abates as Tezcatlipoca shrugs.]

Nope. That’s what gods are for, yeah? Can’t get our opinions, but we’ll criticize after. [ …Okay, maybe that’s just him. Whatever. Won’t matter to Izou. ] Anyways. You want one?

[ What “one” is isn’t clear, and Tezcatlipoca doesn’t elaborate either, since he steps closer… But then to the side as he’ll go around Izou to head towards his room. ]

Wasn’t any reason to take ‘em with me to Korea, but finally found a place here that’ll just sell me what I want so I can roll my own cigs. Better that way. Still lookin’ for some more fun stuff, but this country’s real strict about drugs. No fun allowed.

b)

[zauneyete]

[ Really, who's doing the running into here? ]

Drinking to forget something?

[ He says, automatic. Look, you run a bar for almost a decade and you start to really notice the smell of alcohol — even when your sense of smell is nearly burned out from the scent of horrible cigars. He doesn't take a step back, despite his (very) small frame, and only stares at him with a half-unblinking gaze.

Which, of course — ]

What I seem to be looking at is a drunkard. Hard to miss, when you're stumbling about, hm?

[hitokiller]

Hah. What's my drinkin', got to do with you?

( the one with a different scent from most on-base—izou remembers him, features unmoved from a scowl until...

a light-bulb goes off in that drunken head of his, and his expression transforms into that of a stupid asshole's smirk. )

'Speakin' of hard to miss... didn't see you nowhere out there. Weren't you, in Busan?

[zauneyete]

I was, and if you're asking if I participated — I did.

[ Minimally. Though to be fair, this elder twink would be more likely to break a hip than actually stab a kaiju. ]

I can understand the confusion, however. I have the mental fortitude to handle misfortune and disaster without dipping into malaise.

[ No, he's just an ass about it. ]

b

[bowtography]

[ It's been a while since she's seen him... this drunk. Reminiscent of the bridge at night when he'd already been slurring his words. Reminiscent of the time in Vegas when they'd sat on the curb. And it makes sense, why he's a mess now. He'd told her himself, that what he had done before this was for the good of humanity.

So to hear that the popular choice to chase the kaiju had been construed as abandoning humanity had to have hit him hard.

So she doesn't say anything, eyes darker in a strained face. She's not planning on crying anytime soon. She's already realized that there are things she needs to do first.

Instead, she just holds out a water bottle to him. ]

[hitokiller]

( his one eye flashes, wild and bright in contrast to the shadows passing over hers. a beast backed into a corner—frustrated, even in the face of someone he knows isn't here to rile him up further.

but the obvious sympathy makes him feel especially pained, his glower searching for something new to focus on until it settles on march reaching out to him again.

this is how... it's always been for him, even when sober: him trying his best to cling onto anger as his defense, to shut everything out when it felt like blame was coming for his neck like steel did once upon a time. izou's skin prickles, his usual reason lost in the inebriated haze.

and then he snatches the bottle, almost dropping it in the process, a hand still using the wall to support him. )

Lookin' after me, each an' every time... You know you don't, gotta do that, right? I can clean up myself. Just like, I'll clean up...

( on the next mission. and the next one. )

[bowtography]

[ Her eyes narrow, slightly. Her everything feels frayed right about now, but. She's sober. She's fine. She can help out right now. ]

I know I don't have to do it. But right now, you can't even stand up straight.

B (cw: drug/alcohol references)

[penaltypoints]

[ What crosses Yesod's mind is not the issue of rules being broken — he thinks of Netzach, day after hopeless day in that facility. Perhaps, if Netzach were still here, he and Izou would commiserate over the mission's outcome on common ground. Of course, whatever escape substance abuse provides is temporary; that oblivion eases nothing. The anguish beneath it stays there, accumulating, unbearable.

Try drinking some Enkephalin. Close your eyes, and open them again.

But above all, even in such hopeless circumstances, they don't want others to suffer, Yesod thinks, in hindsight. He meets Izou's glare. ]

Do you have a specific destination in mind?

[hitokiller]

( oh, they would definitely commiserate. or something else, if izou could read his mind, and if he knew what that word even meant. for him, it's less drowning in feeling sorry for each other and more drowning the sorrow away, drinking being a cheap escape from all his worries. a casually accepted past-time and vice for most men who would look for any stupid excuse to partake. for all his bravado in protecting others, when things got difficult...

izou was the type to run.

the urge is there, even now, as yesod's unbending gaze meets his scowl that tried to chase him away. )

... Room. Mine. That's where, I'm headed. So either, gimme a hand or... get outta the way.

( a soft pat against the wall. )

b

[newphew]

[ oh boy. well, hunter's doing just about the same, but he's not out drinking his sorrows away. just brooding in that teenage fashion. seeing izou like this, barely keeping himself upright, man. it feels bad ]

I'm looking at you. Can you even walk straight?

[ it'd probably be better for hunter to leave him alone, but the least he can do is make sure izou gets back to his room safely. even if it means he takes a punch or two. that's about what he'd expect from the last team he was part of before here. ]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN TAKE A PUNCH... cries

[hitokiller]

( grips you tightly because i wanted to tag hunter...

if only izou were also a teenager to brood with him in a normal teenager way. instead, he's just a loser adult who drinks for pleasure and for an escape. often.

his one eye narrows, inclining his head to get a better look... at this kid. come to think, he kinda recognizes him... from... )

You. We got brats like you in Brimstone? ... Anyway, if you're lookin'... then you can see, that I'm literally standin', right now. A genius... at standin', in fact? Headin' for my room, which is...

( points past hunter. but, actually... points behind him. that way? )

wildcard-y

[redsoil]

[ Do human-spirits ( "Servants", Set reminds himself ) get hangovers, after they're through coping poorly with the consequences of their choices?

Finding Izou after his naughty little bender isn't hard. He's a fairly recognizable guy, with his chin that needs desperately to be shaved and Set's aggression towards facial hair ( body hair tbh ) that is waiting and watching for Izou to DARE GROWING IT OUT ANY FURTHER.............. he'll shave you in the dead of night, buddy. Ironic, that the only times he's really mashed up against the swordsman in person are when he's drunk or recovering from drinking. Maybe it's a sign.

In the days after Seoul's end, Set has spent his time recovering and scheming. He's unstoppable in that regard, but has taken time to engage a few others — his bedside manner isn't great, but at least he shows up. Like now, as he runs a hand over the back of Izou's neck, folding a cool compress over the back of his neck. He brings no other attention to it, because nobody needs to know he's being Nice in any way. ]

— I did see you, in battle. You are a beautiful warrior, Okada Izou.

[ dw he knows izou's got someone this is just how he speaks ]

[hitokiller]

( i'm losing it over set's aversion to his scruff... he can't get rid of it, it's a charm point—

honestly, it's the contact that startles izou first in all his head-pounding calm, his shoulders stiffening and head whipping back hard enough to clatter the inside of that little brain of his. and then it's phrases strewn with brilliance that bring life to his face like someone rubbing two sticks together to make a fire. phrases that sound sickeningly sweet to a man so starved of praise all the time, and— )

Y-...

( chokes. visibly from his seat. like, what the hell... how can he say that so blatantly? )

Sure you should be comin' up behind guys to tell them they're beautiful like that? Though, in a fight... I... I am real damn decent. Ought to be, after all the killing I've done. It's my job.

( this is normally where you would say THANKS... )