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

[emet_sulk]

"Oops. My apologies. That wasn't meant to miss."

He doesn't really understand this control that Phantom Cipher has given him. It's not that he doesn't understand the machine itself or its workings but that there is some fundamental disconnect between hardware and sorcery and it's inhibiting his ability to fully control the Sentinel. That said, infusing the thing with Bios seems to be a step in the right direction.

A familiar would be more useful, he thinks idly. Oh well.

"Let's try again." Another shot of Bios and the Sentinel focuses on Katsuki again. This time it feels a little more responsive to Emet-Selch: it fires a few bursts in quick succession.

[xploud]

Oh, this sack of heaving cat puke...this is the game he wants to play? Fine. With a snarl, the blond immediately leaps to the side, using a burst from his palms to lengthen the distance and give himself some speed as well. He can't get a clear shot of his own at ground level, and Katsuki isn't sure quite yet how to properly deal with fucking Geppetto and his puppet. He could temporarily blind the bastard with a Stun Grenade, but that then risks the robot breaking its bonds and coming after both of them...and Katsuki is bound to make sure this stupid fucker actually comes out of this alive. Hopefully tossed ass first into a jail cell, but still alive.

"Don't underestimate me!!"

Leaping up into the air, using some additional boomies from the soles of his feet to get a good several yards up, Katsuki uses the advantage of height to fire his own volley down at the robot. Better to take that thing out first, then deal with the other guy.

[emet_sulk]

Emet-Selch merely has to thrust his palm upwards and a magical barrier shields himself from the fire raining down. He could technically shield his new robot ally as well but, well, then all those lasers it's attempting to fire back at Katsuki might hit him instead.

Fortunately for the younger man, this mage doesn't seem to be planning to add his own firepower to the fray just yet.

"Curious power you have there, boy," he calls out from his shelter. "Explosive power rather than fire itself? And such precision of movement. I've never seen anything like it."

[xploud]

Katsuki clicks his tongue in annoyance - ugh, a goddamn magic user. He still doesn't really get how that shit works, but understands the fundamentals enough to equate it to something he can make sense of in his head. He's encountered enough people with quirks that cause a barrier effect, but those were amateurs...or students like himself. Shattering those with even his raw, brute strength was easy, but someone who clearly knows what he's doing? It's going to take more firepower.

"Yeah? Well keep the bullshit going and you're gonna see a lot of it, you pickled prune."

Perching on an exposed steel beam from a partially destroyed building, Katsuki waits, but he has one palm pointed out and still glowing, just in case he has to attack or counter whatever comes next. This fight is pointless, but he's obviously not going to back off - a Villain is a Villain in Katsuki's book, even if they play stupid games to win stupid prizes.

[emet_sulk]

"Oh? Not going to attack this time? Very well, then--"

The mage knows that Katsuki is waiting to counter whatever he conjures. If the boy can manipulate explosive power then he wonders how well it will fare against some less...tangible elements.

His shadow seems to waver. Then like a drop of ink on the thinnest of paper, it blooms: spreading from his feet across the ground towards Katsuki, before a great maw explodes from the ground and tries to swallow the boy whole.

[xploud]

The blond doesn't say anything, just narrows his eyes and waits. He can't exactly kill this bastard, and if he's got some sort of shielding qui--uh, ability...then it's going to be difficult to get any damage in on him. For that, he'd have to really pull out all the stops, and that's not a good idea. The buildings are damaged, but they're still in tact, and if he puts any more 'oomph' into his explosions, that won't be the case anymore. If there's one thing UA drilled into his skull, it's to reduce the property damage as much as possible, that comes out of civilians' pockets when the city has to repair it all.

Thus he waits and observes, biding his time to see what comes next, and his lips curl into a sneaky little grin when he sees that shadow start to move. Probably not quite like that birdbrain's quirk, but similar enough, he'd wager. Shadows aren't exactly too keen on light, and if that moron's got his own eyes locked on Katsuki, then he can take advantage of that. Right before the dark tendrils swallow him up, he extends his arms out and detonates. But, instead of a resounding BOOM, the explosive blast is more akin to a thrum. It's a pulse of bright, yellow-white light that bursts from his palms, like two stars going supernova.

Katsuki's flashbang move - Stun Grenade. Hopefully Emet wasn't watching, because that light is Literally blinding - that's what it's used for, to stun, blind, and disorient his enemies so he can swoop in and take them out. It ought to tear through those shadows, too. It would Tokoyami and and Dark Shadow (the poor little guy hates bright lights), so here's hoping.

"That the best you got?! Tch, you really just a shitty old man..."

[emet_sulk]

Emet-Selch flinches from the light. He shades his eyes too late. The world flashes shades of white and the mage fumbles for the nearest wall, using it as an anchor to reorient himself.

"I'll kill you, boy," he spits out furiously. It's not that he hates bright lights specifically...but that the flash has sparked an old, hated memory. One that he still struggles to move past (and is, frankly, not inclined to whilst under another's influence).

He throws out elemental magic haphazardly now, more to defend himself until his vision is restored than with any kind of aim. Fire, borne by the wind, roars through the air; the earth cracks and boulders toss themselves wildly.

[xploud]

Well, Katsuki anticipated something like this - wild movements, a retaliation, born of the anger and desperation from being blinded. He has no idea what old wound he opened, not privy to that sort of thing, but he does know things are going to be a razor's edge from now on. The young Hero has to act, and he has to act quickly and without hesitation if he wants to cinch this.

"Tch...creativity's not your strength, is it?" Because he's heard that shit a thousand times. Empty threats made toward him or any one of his friends. He's utterly shaking, truly.

Leaping from his position, and to avoid a flurry of flame and rocks coming his way (the last point where Emet knew he'd be), his mind starts to whirr with any strategy he can think of to close in and knock this guy out. He's got elements magic, shields, and also the robot's basically a bodyguard as well...probably covering any blind spots the guy's got. Hm...this won't be as easy as he anticipated, especially cuz he can't kill the guy, just his stupid bot, but he's never shied away from a challenge.

Waiting for an opening, Katsuki tests his luck, attempting to fire an AP Shot - a much more dumbed down one, since he's not aiming to blow the guy's limbs off, just injure him enough not to stand - at one of his aforementioned legs, or even a knee. Anything he can do to get the bastard on the ground long enough to tackle, pin, and knock him out. Or just slow him down.

[emet_sulk]

In the chaotic elemental storm, the robot is having a surprisingly difficult time aiming at Katsuki. Its beams slice through a rock that Emet-Selch tosses and sears harmlessly over a metal beam. But of course, given a clear view, the robot does cover the mage fairly well. And while Emet-Selch may not be using any finesse right now, he makes up for that with sheer, brute force.

Unfortunately, Emet-Selch is also very much human. Enraged by the flash of light, he marches forward with his hands up and casts a flurry of dark magic bolts right as Katsuki looses his AP shot.

Boom! The impact of two attacks colliding has Emet-Selch taking an unsteady step back and covering his mouth against the smoke. Katsuki has the opening he's been waiting for.