Event #003, Part I: The Symphony of Disruption

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Magisteria Event #3

🌠 The Symphony of Disruption 🌠

Part I: The Darkness

CW: elemental disasters, madness, possible death, various forms of destruction and chaos, totally open-ended.

OOC Notes: Here it is! The game's first "Intense Event"! Some special notes for this event --

* Death is possible, and PCs can also kill citizens or creatures in the distrct. This event will have special revive mechanics which will be explained later, and PCs will not have to go through the usual revival process for an in-game death. "Light Sentinels" can even kill fellow PCs as a means of saving them, and this will be briefly explained to them, though the means of revival and specifics around this won't be revealed until the event's second half.
* For the corruption element: your character does not necessarily have to be corrupted. If and how they are is up to player discretion, as is the extent and manifestation of the corruption. They can just get lucky or manage to resist through will power, however you want it. Characters can be brought back to themselves by the power of Light Sentinel allies, or by the alignment switch Blessing from the game's third TDM. If you wish to engage with the event both corrupted and un-corrupted via separate prompts/TLs, that is Fine.

Dark City

Locals familiar with the Supernatural Undercity will tell the Otherworlders that, during the autumn and winter seasons, it’s not unheard of for Magisteria to feel different. The spookier residents have a way of making their presence more known, and those with spooky potential have a way of going… more feral. The succubi and the demon women of the Entertainment District are known to come with a lot more bite, and only the biggest of daredevils would be advised to purchase their services during the apex of the season.

It’s different from year to year, but these seasonal changes are always mitigated by the Authorities of each district and their powers. The spooky season in Magisteria becomes a respectful celebration of the diversity of the undead, demons, succubi, and other creatures, and both locals and Otherworlders are encouraged to cede respectful distance to those who may be experiencing enhanced primal urges during these months.

This year, something is different. One night, a darkness falls which overtakes the Bios in the Entertainment District and the bright corners of High Rise Village.

The darkness is as heavy as a tangible thing. At night, the stars and moon disappear. When day comes, the sky is grey as slate.

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A Grey Day

Some citizens wear protective gear. It may be of assistance, but may not offer complete protection from the algorithms and the lepidoperatives' corruption tokens.

When dawn arrives, those living in High Rise Village will begin to hear notes of music. Dissonant, eerie, chaotic: disruptive. A symphony composed of a cacophony of sounds. Moreover, different people may hear different tunes. The only commonality is the lack of rhyme or reason, the lack of cohesion.

The songs play and weave through invisible algorithms, beckoning to the district’s citizens to unleash their inner turmoil, and other sides of themselves.

Holograms appear informing residents to take shelter and advising of the safest locations within the district. For weeks, most of the people and creatures of High Rise Village have been migrating to Evergreen Terrace, entrusting their protection to Arwyn. The apartments are brimming, full, and busy. The streets, by contrast, are ghostly, empty, and disorganized.

But not everyone can simply wait in the apartments and ride out the storm. After all, if this is an attack, someone(s) has to form a counter-strike. So Enforcers and other members of Magisteria’s various law enforcement agencies and vigilante groups are out and about, along with others who are not afraid of a conflict and who have sufficient training for battle.

No one demands that Otherworlders leave the safety of the apartments unless they have specifically expressed a will to do battle or unless they have a specific role to play in stopping – or ending – what’s coming, but should they enter High Rise Village, they will encounter the Chaos.

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Chaos Comes to High Rise Village

Everything has the potential to become or manifest a twisted version of itself. The people, the animals, the buildings – even those in opposition, such as the fighters and those aligned with law enforcement. Even they can be Changed and altered by the chaos in the district.

Of course, those with powers are using them to resist in various ways, relying on their forces of will, but it’s like the whole district is in a trance, a hallucination, or perhaps a simulation.

But if that’s what this is, it feels all too real.

Throughout the district, spider-shaped lepidoperatives on thin, silver webs jump and move about. They’re fast and small and difficult to spot. Connected to the invisible mechanisms of Phantom Cipher’s Manifestation, these metallic insects can affect everything they touch by planting tokens on them: known as void imprints, wraith marks, and eclipse sigils, these tokens can induce a being to manifest or become a phantom version of themselves.

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I. Alignment Shift(ed)

Otherworlders, natives, and creatures may become, or manifest (or both) different versions of themselves. In keeping with the spookier time of year, this other version could be a werewolf, a vampire, a ghostly manifestation, or a cryptid, or it could be One’s Self, Inversed: there is no apparent rhyme or reason to what you may become or what you may apparate. There may even be more than one “you” at a given time, depending on how far the effects of the corruption tokens reach.

Affected Otherworlders may find themselves attached to the silver webs, becoming like puppets. You may find that allies are now enemies, or enemies are allies. Nothing is as before, and everything is thrown into Chaos. Your actions may no longer be your own, and what you do or whom you fight may no longer be your choice.

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II. Mecha Monstrosities

The district pulses with cyborgs and phantom creatures, and those who, like Phantom Cipher himself, seem to be a mixture of both. The Fractured have returned. Only now, they are walking about in the daylight, or what passes for daylight in the corrupted district.

Androids with barbs and spikes patrol the district, and many are not shy for conflict. Like Lysa’s “pet,” Grimm, these androids are powerful and can regenerate a certain number of times when attacked. Some will attack on sight, and others may try to “play” with the Otherworlders, or with citizens or creatures in the district, whether the latter are corrupted or not.

Of course, alignment-shifted PCs may also be able to ally destructively with such entities. Those on the path of destruction may find common ground in trying to take down the infrastructure of the district.

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III. The Party of the Damned

All around, people, organic and inorganic, appear with skull-like features. There may even be faces you recognize, from work, from the clubs, from elsewhere in the district. But now, their features have changed.

These skull-faced citizens of Magisteria insist upon partying just as they do within the clubs in the evening. They dance and sing along with the music, encouraging Otherworlders to join them.

If anyone speaks to them or asks what is going on, the answer is the same:

Nothing. Nothing at all. This is who we are, who we’ve always been. Why do you look so strange, Otherworlders?

This is the paradise city… the city of all our dreams. Magisteria. Light and Darkness.

Bios and Umbra. This is what’s always been inside all of us, all along. Inside of you all... inside of Everyone...

Are you only just now seeing it? But this is what we’ve always been. The skin hangs over the bones, but the bones are inside, underneath…

Party, party while the city burns... party like it's the end of the world...

They move and move, like puppets, but with a strange sense of freedom nonetheless. Beckoning. Whispering. Just let it out. Let out what has been inside of you, all along. It's inside of us all. The darkness that walks with the light. Bios and Umbra. Look at what we can become when not forced towards "Perfection." Inside of Magisteria, all along. And these party-goers do not slow or tire. Though their movements are haphazard, like zombies from films, still they keep moving, keep going, never growing exhausting, never ceasing...

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IV. Elemental Nightmares

News comes that the source of the “hack” is Magisteria’s Elemental Control Center. This central zone is a bit like a giant brain that regulates elemental magic within the district. Now, the magic becomes chaotic. Giant tornadoes of raw elemental power sweep through the district. Alleys and buildings explode into gust-fed fires, and tides of water burst forth over the district. The ground trembles and all of the elements are out of control.

Those with magical powers are (if still in control of themselves) encouraged to work to stem these tides, to ebb the flow of the elemental disasters which are occurring throughout High Rise Village.

Comments

[lunardreaming]

Tenma is too quick for Lucy to avoid, but as her webs are slashed, she flips to cling to the side of a tall building, hanging sideways as she stares down at her attacker. More Fractured are pouring into the street, but she thinks, now, that they won't be a match for this imposter. She could funnel as many as she wants towards the imposter and they'll be cut through like nothing, like a hot knife through butter, like a scythe through tall wheat.

Fine. She needs to be the one to crack this imposter's varnish and dig into the real Musashi beneath.

Lucy leaps, and lands with a heavy thump on the street, half-reared, front legs held menacingly in the air. For the moment, the thought of Adam Smasher isn't forefront in her mind, only the imposter in front of her. It's a strange relief, and yet, somehow even more infuriating. To see this stranger with a face she feels so fond of--

"Bring her back," Lucy demands, voice sibilant, echoing in eight parts. She doesn't wait for Tenma to make the first move; her hands whip forward, monofilament wires firing from her wrists to aim for Tenma's sword.

[floweroftheapex]

Slicing through the webs, Tenma propels herself, sheathing a katana in one fluid motion so she can reach out and grab onto a sign protruding out, something to hang off of as she and the spider she's come looking for stare at each other from across the way. Where Lucy glares with anger at her, Tenma watches with a small, confident smile. It's a smaller, more subdued expression than the grins Lucy has seen Musashi—her Musashi—give, the big wild ones of barely contained excitement that fighting strong opponents brings out. Another reminder of how this isn't the woman she knows, not exactly. Familiar and yet a stranger all the same.

As Lucy drops down, so does Tenma, landing on her feet and giving a quick hop backwards to put a little extra distance between them. So, she's resolved to do this herself, has she? Musashi'd be proud of her for that, despite everything, Tenma knows.

"Be glad to, Kushinada-san." She replies easily. "The sooner you let me sort you out, the sooner I can hand things back to the me you prefer. That's the promise I made her, after all."

She slips into a combat stance, swords drawn and ready. "But, if that's not satisfactory, well...come and get me."

[lunardreaming]

[ This far gone, Lucy doesn't know what being sorted out would entail.

A small, hopeless part of her can see this for what it is: a corruption. She's been turned into a monster and there's fucking nothing she can do about it. But that's only a small piece, and the larger portion of her is being drowned by a torrent of internal screaming. About Smasher. About keeping people safe. About wanting run to away, wanting to find him and fight.

All she knows is that, like this, she can keep people safe. She can wrap them and store them and keep them away from Smasher.

So. She will have to go get Tenma, and hope that in doing so, she can shred that false skin and bring Musashi back.

The noise that comes out of her can only be described as a hiss. Like this, she towers over Tenma, and she intends on using that size, going for a tackle. On the way, she lashes out with her wrist wires, slashing through the space in front of her and hoping to trap Tenma's swords. ]

[floweroftheapex]

Oh, wrist-wires? Extremely elegant weapons! They quickly wrap around her swords, as Lucy prepares to bowl her over, which would not be the most advantageous position she's ever been in. What to do, what to do, what to do...

Tenma pulls back quickly, pulling her swords down to her sides, and lowering herself into a crouch. Lucy fights her as she does this, as expected, hoping to yank the swords out of her hands, leave her weaponless, with the back and forth drawing the monowires taught.

So when Tenma pushes off from the ground, the snap-back is all the great. As Lucy charges her, the samurai Heroic Spirit rockets forward to meet her, aiming a knee right for her abdomen, the part of Lucy that's still mostly organic above the metallic thorax. Should knock the wind out of her nicely, give Tenma time to cut some of those legs, throw her off-balance. Immobile and trapped by the alley, cleansing her should be a relatively straightforward procedure.

[lunardreaming]

[ Predictably, Lucy raises her arms, trying to haul back as soon as her wrist-wires get a good grip on the swords. She digs all eight points of her legs into the road, straining backward -- if she can just get those swords out of Tenma's hands, she thinks, this fight might be a lot easier.

(If she were in a clearer state of mind, she'd likely gamble the opposite: that Tenma and Musashi are just as deadly with their bare hands.)

So when Tenma launches herself, Lucy isn't expecting it. Tenma hits her squarely, and Lucy's lungs collapse with a choked noise, half of her legs crumpling underneath her, arachnoid abdomen scraping the ground. As she sucks in a wheezing breath, she realizes her wrist-wires have gone limp, pooled uselessly on the ground. Lucy retracts them, and goes for Plan B instead; tossing out a spindle of techno-web, a bundle aimed at Tenma's advancing form. ]