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[reparator]

Who: ? ? ?
When: OOC: 11/03, IC: 11/18
Where: Cerealia
What: Well, that sure went wrong quickly.
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for dangerous/scary situations

---

//event???.EXE

The quiet of Cerealia is interrupted almost all too suddenly. Things were broken and not working before, sure, but that was before the sky opened up -- and the clouds part. And then, above the planet, hovering almost innocently...there’s a ship. The peace only hovers there for a moment. Because then...then the Flamines come. There’s a debt they have to settle. And the time has come to pay up. We're here. :)

//SCENARIOS.EXE

PHASE I [ ❓❓❓ ] And then the Flamines are there. They just appear, suddenly, as if from nowhere. They’re a race of mercenary aliens, and fighting is all they know -- they’re definitely not going to be easy to kill by any means. They seem to have a natural resistance to magic: aside from very specific types of magic (in particular, light magic and anything highly spiritual), they absorb it. Light magic and spiritual magic can harm them, but it will take a lot to take one down. They can be stabbed, if you can get that close. But good luck. Of course, they look like nondescript black shapes with masks until you knock the mask off...and then you can see the true shape of the Flamines. They’re here to kill you all. :) PHASE II [ ❓❓❓ ] As if that isn’t enough… it seems the Flamines’ arrival was the last straw for Cerealia and the Nexus Code. There’s a tear in the sky, and from it… the Nexus Code, where all of the lost friends from before, can be seen. It can be entered, even, though remaining there too long can be detrimental to your health. But people are there. Old friends, strung up and lifeless, can be seen there, unmoving. And… Then some of them move. They open their eyes. They remember how to breathe. And they’re able to return, able to stagger their way back into Cerealia and take their first breath of air in a long, long time. Welcome back to the chaos of Cerealia, friends. Unfortunately, you’ve got nothing but the clothes on your back while murderous aliens are rampaging, so hopefully you’re able to think fast. It’d be unfortunate to die so soon after coming back. As for spiritual and magical characters who were not in the Nexus Code...well, when they return, they’ll find that they’re covered in old, dried blood, and their clothing might have tears in it, as if from a knife. There are no scars, though, and they’re otherwise fine. Strange. PHASE III [ ❓❓❓ ] As if this chaos isn’t enough… there are also the masks. Regardless of whether or not characters were around to receive them the first time, regardless what they did with them before, the masks will suddenly reappear in your characters’ hands. They can be tossed aside, but they’ll reappear again eventually, unable to be truly shaken. Characters who received them before will receive the same mask they had before. Characters who didn’t receive them before will receive a mask according to the trait that’s more prominent for them. Either way...it’ll have a profound effect on the Flamines. They will go after any character with a broken mask in a bloodthirsty rage, intent on murdering them. Characters with a barcode mask or bloody mask will be the next likely to be chased down intently by the Flamines. Characters with a :( mask will be killed if they get in the Flamines’ way, though they will not go out of their way to chase them down. Characters with a vine mask or feather mask will be treated with wariness, though they may still be attacked if they get in a Flamines’ way. Characters with a grey mask will not be killed unless they are first the aggressor, as will characters with a bloody fingerprint mask. Naturally there will be exceptions to every rule, but the masks will change how the Flamines’ generally act towards characters! PHASE IV [ ❓❓❓ ] But something’s not quite right. Regardless of the battles against the Flamines, it seems Cerealia’s just been under too much pressure lately. Something had to give -- And it’s the code building up the characters that really suffers. Their code has been hanging on by a thread without CERES to maintain it, and now… it’s finally giving out. The glitches that afflicted characters before will be even more prominent now; they might glitch from place to place, or have their powers go totally awry in odd ways. There may be a lack of powers suddenly, or a sudden difficulty staying on the ground as gravity stops working on the character. They might suddenly be unable to breathe, or go cold, or very nearly die -- But it can be controlled, too, with effort. Characters can learn to control the glitches, gaining an ability to almost teleport, or ways to tweak their powers in exciting new ways. With a lot of effort, they could even possibly reverse a death -- but only their own, and only once. BONUS [ ❓❓❓ ] There are also… birds? Flamingos, to be exact. Who knows where they came from, but either way, there are plastic flamingos chilling all over the place. They’re just normal plastic; they don’t move, they can very easily be destroyed -- But if you touch one with your bare hands… it’ll have an interesting effect. Characters will suddenly find that they have the abilities or the last person they touched -- but without any of the practice or ability to control it, of course. Still, it might help with that pesky Flamines problem, right? [ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ]

//RUN.EXE

Welcome to the beginning of Cerealia's endgame event! Please visit the OOC information here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. This event will begin 11/03, or IC 11/18. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you!

Comments

[metalist]

ᴘʜᴀsᴇ ɪᴠ.

[ Using her magnetic powers to hurl a dumpster at one had seemed like such a great idea, until it had been volleyed back at twice the speed, as ineffectual to the Flamines as a ping pong ball.

Black shadows continue to cling to her clenched fists, her trembling arms. Panicked, she whirls around, ]

- look out! [ Pyrrha's breath draws frantically, as she struggles in desperation to stop it in time. ]

ᴘʜᴀsᴇ ɪ.

[ As the code spills apart, Pyrrha is far from disaffected. Chills spill up and down her arms, her neck, as she attempts to smother the tremble her lips threaten. Ice feels grafted to her bones, even if it's not affecting her in any real sense: goose prickles and shivers aside, her skin isn't showing any of the signs of frostbite. Thankfully.

It threatens her concentration, but she's been through worse.

And there's more important things to be concerned about. It's not hard to find her through out the city, fighting when necessary, trying desperately to maintain order when not. Familiar faces will get a familiar greeting; strangers, a bit more generic. Worry is a common thread through all of them, the sort that darkens her eyes and puts some desolation back into her voice. ]

ʙᴏɴᴜs.

[ On the plus side, she found Wednesday! He's safe.

And... chewing on a Flamingo. Huh. ]

You probably shouldn't eat that.

ᴡɪʟᴅᴄᴀʀᴅ.

( Come at me! If there's something specific, feel free to hit me up at propast but I'm pretty much down for whatever. )

phase iv.

[deontology]

[Sousei can deal with a lot of things--

But flying dumpsters are not really his forte. He's used to striking quickly and at weak points and using his speed and precision--

That's going to do nothing to a dumpster.

So rather inelegantly, he's diving out of the way, tucking and rolling, but then a moment later he rises to a crouch and slashed out at the blackness clutching to Pyrrha, holy sword shearing through them like a hot knife through butter.

And then he stands, dusting himself off. Sup, Pyrrha.]

[metalist]

[ The lingering traces of her Semblance fade, muscles ceasing to quake exhaustively with the effort. The dumpster skids against the ground with enough friction to draw sparks and she raises one arm, protectively covering her eyes from any debris.

After a moment, she turns and sees—

oh.

Her face seems to hover between a smile and uncomfortable shock. Noticing the scar, the hair, but she ends up breathing with relief against her hands, a breath that threatens to tremble and break. ]

Captain? [ Even after all this time, she still defaults to that particular term. ]

[deontology]

[Sousei straightens further, turning to inspect her briskly. He notes the exhaustion, but there's no injuries from the first glance, and in a situation like this, that's the best they can do, he'd think.]

Nikos.

[sup.]

Your status?

IV.

[heiroglyphs]

[There are many different ways to deal with a flying dumpster. The most intelligent one would be to get out of its way. The most interesting one would be to freeze it in place with a flourish of Ice Dust. So Weiss will just adjust her stance, select her Dust, summon her Glyph...

And get completely screwed up by her Semblance going nuts. Instead of freezing the metal bin in its place, the Glyph explodes with great force, reducing it to smoking shrapnel. This might be just a little bit worse, so now instead of standing there with a confident smile, the heiress is now diving for cover behind the nearest sturdy object.]

Ack! Take cover!

[metalist]

[ Fortunately, Pyrrha's Semblance isn't going nuts so much, which - after weeks of barely being able to dredge up the smallest fragment of her ability, seems about freaking right.

Ironically, Weiss's failed glyph made Pyrrha's job a little easier. The pieced apart bits of shrapnel raining down are far easier to stop than one solid, cavernous dumpster, and that's what she does. No longer choosing to be subtle about it, the show of ability is clear and unmistakable and, once all the charred bits of metal rain ineffectually down on the ground, tiresome.

Banishing any weariness from her voice, she looks over at Weiss. ]

It's okay. You can come out.

[heiroglyphs]

[And popping right back onto her feet.]

What? I'm fine. Totally wasn't worried at all. Ahaha...

bonus!

[zerotohiro]

[She found Wednesday, and Hiro and Baymax found Pyrrha and are now staring at the pair of them with a very perplexed look. Hiro's resumed his position on Baymax's back and doesn't seem to be wanting to come down at any time, but.]

...Pyrrha, what is that? [It's unclear if he means her pet or the flamingo.]

[metalist]

Oh, hello, Hiro. Hello, Baymax.

[ She has to greet both of them, because of course she does. ]

This is Wednesday. He used to belong to one of the casinos; I take him for walks to make sure he's fed, but today he got out on his own.

[ At some point, it could have been theorised that he had been looking for Pyrrha? She is Mommy, according to Mabel... and Jaune... But he has gotten distracted by all the "edible" garbage laying around and had abandoned that effort just in time for Pyrrha to find him.

She watches, slightly bemused, for a moment longer as his fangs tear into the plastic of the flamingo. ]

[zerotohiro]

Hello. [Baymax at least is more polite than his partner who's examining Wednesday closely.]

His diet is pink flamingos? [He gives her a quirky little smile.] At least he won't go hungry. I don't even know where all of these came from. [But he pauses enough to glance back and make sure they're safe for now.] How are you holding up out here?

iv

[beaconed]

[ And then there's Jaune, who's been separated from Pyrrha ever since the chaos begun. He appears bloody and battle-worn, but seeing Pyrrha from a distance doesn't make him run any slower. In fact, he picks up speed, which thankfully is enough for him to evade the flying dumpster.

Dumpster?

Jaune makes a mental note to try something new here, but first thing's first: ]

Py-- WHOA! Pyrrha!!!

[ Oh shit, does she even have weapons?? ]

[metalist]

[ By contrast, Pyrrha doesn't have a scratch on her. It goes without saying that she's more skilled at avoiding the messiness of combat than Jaune is as a general rule, although exceptions have proved damning in the past.

And yes, she's still unarmed. Perhaps a bit too stubbornly, she's refused any weapons that aren't hers—but now, looking over even before she hears her name, such dedication feels remarkably stupid.

The dumpster screeches against the pavement as it slides, friction drawing sparks from air. ]

Jaune!

[ She's at his side in a second. ]

Where have you been?

[beaconed]

[ Does he give her the long answer or the short answer? Recalling everything that happened until now just makes his voice tremble again. ]

P-Pyrrha, we... n-nothing is working... we lose too many just to get one one of them! So many lost... The Flamines are here and we weren't ready! [ Could they ever have been? ]

IV

[meowbel]

[The moment that Mabel heard a familiar shout nearby, it proved to be a little bit too late. When she saw a flying dumpster coming her way, that's when she had finally seen everything! Of course, try as she might to run away from said flying thing, the problem was if she was going to get out of the way in time!

Hope you like a brunette and her piggy trying their best to run away from the dumpster of doom!]

[metalist]

[ If there's one thing Pyrrha definitely doesn't want, it's for a sweet young girl and her pet friend to be squished by her renegade dumpster. It's a lot more difficult for her to re-aim the trajectory of a metallic object in motion than it is for her to manipulate stationary items, and the dumpster is heavy and full and flying back at double the velocity she had sent it flying with.

To put it simply? Not good.

She moves on instinct, muscles trembling in a display of pained effort as she sends the dumpster careening safely away from Mabel and any other passersby. Ordinarily, Pyrrha is economic with her displays of ability: this time, her arms move in clear conducting motions, hands guiding the dumpster to its new spot.

It comes to a crashing halt, metal shrieking as it splits apart, met with an equal and unmoving force - a wall, maybe, or a fence. It's hard to see as her vision doubles, the strain palpable as her Aura clings to mediocrity.

That's not important, though. Mabel is.

Because Pyrrha is a consistent cliche, she calls out, ] I'm sorry!

[meowbel]

[Yes, Pyrrha, Mabel does not want to be a squished pancake and would love it if she weren't! Although, knowing that there wasn't much Mabel could do, the poor girl had no choice but to hug her pet pig tightly hoping that it wouldn't hurt too much.

Luckily, that wasn't the case. While closing her eyes tightly, she was wondering why nothing had arrived. (Seriously, that dumpster sure was taking its sweet time coming toward her!) Next thing she knew, she suddenly heard a loud screeching sound nearby before looking back at the older girl in awe.

She didn't know what had happened but one thing was for sure.]

That was awesome! How did you do that? If I had known you were some kind of epic superhero, I would have totally talked to you earlier!

[/blunt]

Bonus

[niceguypose]

[Rock Lee happens upon the curious scene and glances between Pyrrha and Wednesday.]

Pyrrha-san! Ah... Perhaps that is part of a healthy diet for a creature like that!

[metalist]

It's certainly possible. He does eat a lot of garbage.

[ Her shoulders rise, halfway to a shrug, before she looks over at Lee. ]

[niceguypose]

Hm, I see... That is a very unique diet! Although, once I saw another of his species who ate cabbage leaves... [He leans over the creature, wondering what to do. But he glances up towards Pyrrha, because this is just a respite in the midst of a deadly storm.]

...Have you been well, Pyrrha-san?

phase i!!

[retorter]

[ souji's a good enough friend to merit a warm hello, isn't he!!!

even if he isn't, he'll acknowledge her with a sharp nod of his own, sliding his sword out of a flamine with an expression akin to true cheer on his face. He hasn't come out of it without injuries of his own. The Flamines are difficult opponents, of a brand higher than the scum ViViD churns out on a daily basis, and far more skilled than he had expected.

which basically means that he's in a very great mood!! and clearly spoiling for a fight, with the way he's recklessly charging after them. for now, he wipes the gunk off his blade. ]

You don't look so good. [ if worry meant someone being ill, and you know, not an actual normal response. ] Bored already?

[metalist]

[ He had threatened to continue to embarrass her after she rather unfortunately humiliated herself by sending him a picture meant for Jaune, but as far as Pyrrha knows, Souji hadn't actually gone through with any of his bizarre threats. That's enough to get a familiar, if not overtly friendly, greeting out of her.

Even if the casual way he addresses the situation galls at her. ]

Don't you think that's inappropriate? People are in serious danger, perhaps even dying.

[ His remark on her appearance goes unaddressed, but Pyrrha does bring up her hands to blow into them. ]

phase i

[youraffection]

[ It really is a no good, very bad day. With probably the freakiest friggin things he's seeing coming down from above and his best friend running around playing decoy, Yosuke is already pretty fed up. But he wants to keep his promise, watching out for anyone else on his way to track Yu down.

They really need to stop meeting in such shitty conditions. ]

...Pyrrha?

[ She looks like she's had quite the day herself. ]

[metalist]

[ He's not the only one with best friend woes, except hers is nowhere to be found and CereVice contact is pretty much nil, so this formerly dead girl is doing her best to keep a clamp on her nerves.

When Yosuke finds her, she's got her hands cupped around her mouth and is attempting to blow warm air into her palms to thaw them.

Spoiler: it doesn't work! ]

-- Oh, hello, Yosuke. [ She only sounds slightly better than she looks. ]

Bonus, im not late ur late

[feytality]

[So, Maya's back in Ceres!!! Except this is more of a party than she anticipated. And what better way to wind a party down than with... flamingos?]

Is this little guy yours, Pyrrha? He's....

[She's not sure cute is the word, but she's about to reach out and try to take it out of his mouth. Will she brush hands with Pyrrha? This could be interesting]

I am totally late :(

[metalist]

[ Wednesday isn't especially resistant to Maya's seizure of his newest chewtoy, but he will belch loudly as she does so. Maya may feel a second of blistering heat next to her retreating fingers. ]

He's... more like a babysitting charge. I certainly didn't think I'd find him out here.