SILENT HORIZON - [Part 2: Facing the Faceless/Escape] [modplot]

[letsgolegion]

Who| Everyone in Silent Horizon plot
What| Fighting the Faceless, a perilous escape, and a chance to have a breather
Where| In the In-Between, the Silent Horizon, and then the Legion Cruiser
When| Chronologically, only hours have passed in the outside world from when the team disappeared, but it's up to players whether their characters perceived it as being hours or days
Warnings/Notes| Gore, blood, body horror, all the usual


They hear the voice again, calling out to them. Not the Faceless, not the dark whispers of this world. It's the same tinny voice that warned them, that told them not to give into the Faceless' offer. It's the voice that told them their Phalanxed teammates can still be saved if the Faceless is killed in time before they die.

It calls out again. Wherever they are, whatever the landscape is doing, they can hear it.

"I know you have no reason to trust me. I know you've been probably hearing lots of voices in this place, telling you all kinds of things. But I'm trying to help you. There's a way to end this, to stop the Faceless. Just follow my voice. My language synthesizer is broadcasting in the telepathic range like telepathic earplugs and I've managed to reconfigure it to broadcast through the entire In-Between. You should be hearing it wherever you are and you should be able to use its broadcast strength to navigate. I think I've managed to secure it from the Faceless and his Phalanx but there's no way to be sure."

How loud the voice is changes as they get closer or farther away. They can use it to navigate, albeit very crudely. And now that it's clearer, it's far more recognizable: it's the voice of the Robotican in the horrible footage that played before they were taken -- the one that had his head knocked off.

"My name is N-45LEN/Keth Series. My organic crewmates call --" He pauses, and sounds distraught. "--called me Lenny. I was a crew member of the Silent Horizon. This entire dimension is called the In-Between. It's made up of the body of the Faceless and I'm currently trapped at its core. I can see you Legionnaires from here through...what appears to be some kind structure for processing what equates to ocular stimuli for the Faceless. If any of you get lost, I can see enough to guide you here."

If they need it, they'll find that he can give them individualized directions, no matter what the landscape does, and he can give them to multiple people simultaneously. Having a complex processor for a brain has its perks.

"My organic teammate and I managed to discover the core of the Faceless and its nature, but I'm currently incapacitated and Bob...he just lost it. He nearly destroyed what was left of me and ran off before we could stop the Faceless. I saw him eventually accept the Faceless' offer and turn. If you make it here where I am, you may be able to destroy the Faceless' body enough to kill him, save your teammates, and destroy this dimension once and for all."

A pause.

"And if you could maybe take me with you when you leave, uh, I would appreciate that. Like, a lot."

[ooc post here]

Comments

[i_got_this]

"M'fine." She continues to sip at the water. "Nothin' worse than a bad hangover."

Which she's of course dealt with a thousand times before. This time, however, with the emotional exhaustion on top of it and the physical exhaustion from fighting monsters. She looks out the window at space for a few more moment, then glances back at Connie.

"You're still here?"

[short_changed]

"Well- yeah."

They had talked (and fought) things out when Connie had first got here but they hadn't really...settled things. About what Connie did and why, whether South was willing to understand or not. Connie wants to be the team mate she had been to South before she had known about the Project's secrets but maybe that's a fool's hope.

"I'll leave if you want me to. Just wanted to see if you were okay."

[i_got_this]

She scoffs incredulously. "You think anyone would be okay after that shit? Are you?" She stares at Connie, but she's not asking her to leave. "Like, what kind of answer are you expecting? No, I'm not okay. I'm tired as fuck, I feel like I'm going to hurl, and I just know if I try to sleep I'm going to have nightmares for the forseeable future. Tell me where to get the Vicodin and then I'll be okay."

[short_changed]

Connie would talk back but she's tired to argue, definitely too tired to fight anymore. And-well, she probably could have phrased things a bit better. But she that's the whole point, she doesn't know what South's been through, doesn't know if she had become a monster like Delta and York or if she'd been fighting for her life like she and Azucar had been. If she's got it in her to be angry, though? She'll be okay.

By comparison, Connie's probably doing the best out of the three of them, so she has no room to complain as far as she's concerned.

"Medbay," she replies with dry ghost of a smile, "they'd probably have something to knock you out until we get back too if you want it. The good meds don't usually let you dream."

[whyarewehere]

"Then I sure hope you have a plan!" Grif yells back. Unfortunately, only the panicked running aspect of this is in his wheelhouse.

In the meantime, he grabs a long, distorted leg bone (too long to be human, or at least completely human). Speed means he's still fast enough to get close to the creature and shove the femur into the churning whirl of the monster's legs and scramble out of its way as it staggers.

He's delayed it, just a little. Please oh please have a good idea, Freelancer, he's counting on you.

[whyarewehere]

Grif settles his head back into his pillow.

"The thing is," he says, thoughtful, "so are you."

Who can he trust here, York?

[i_got_this]

South was never very good at dealing with defeat, or of emotional struggles she couldn't punch in the face. That she made it through at all without transforming had a lot to do with running into the right people who helped distract her enough to ignore the pull, but it still left its mark on her and had given her plenty to think about.

But she didn't want to think about it, and as much as she doesn't want to visit the Medbay, the idea that it had the good stuff was really enticing.

"You're not just fucking with me to get me there, are you?"

[ghost_bait]

"I'm..." Miku trailed off and seemed to be steeling herself for the handshake for a moment. Nothing worse than seeing things you didn't intend to. "Miku Hinasaki. Recall, I guess, when I'm a super hero." She took Pidge's hand and shook it firmly, though she was unused to the situation.

[short_changed]

"I'd offer to get it for you but I don't think they'd give it to me even if I said it was for a friend, but I'm not gonna make you go."

She gives a halfhearted shrug, cracking open the leftover bottle of the strawberry flavoured drink to take a sip.

"York's down there, though. Resting well enough after everything so they can probably get you to sleep without nightmares."

[i_got_this]

South looks at her, trying to read her. The last time she'd seen York, he was being increasingly overtaken by wires and attacked by -- by a North lookalike that South had been forced to shoot. She shivers, letting out a breath and glancing back at the window.

"He still look like a cyborg or what?"

[short_changed]

"No," she murmurs, mouth going a little dry at the 'cyborg' comment.

"He's covered in scars now but he's back to normal."

[i_got_this]

"Yeah, well. Some people find scars sexy so, there's that." She takes another sip at the water. It's helping, somewhat, but overall she still feels like shit. Not wanting to feel like shit, and a sort of morbid curiosity to see York (tempered with a fear of it, of having a witness to what she'd had to do), is what eventually gets her to stagger up onto her feet. She spares a moment to recover, her stomach and head both vying for attention, before she turns towards Connie.

"Where to?"

[fantasmaniac]

That drags out a series of mumbles under his breath, unable to actually voice any complaints because there are little nuggets of truth to it. It's not like someone made up the identity and the mask for him. The name came after the outfit, before the mask, and he just kinda went with it for a variety of reasons.

"A lot of room to work."

Gabriel isn't the type to put all his eggs into one basket. Not anymore. Whatever Jack speculated was going on while he was in command of Blackwatch, it might've been then when he started to realize that putting all of your effort and faith into one organization was just being ill-prepared. For all anyone knows, he could just be using Talon to further his agenda.

"Not that any of that matters right now, anyway."

Talon isn't here, and he isn't doing any of Talon's work here. He can't even continue his own missions, so what's the point in bringing it up? It'll just give Jack too much insight into his motives and plans, something he could use against him once all this Legionnaire bullshit is over.

[short_changed]

"Sometimes they are. Less so when you know how they got there."

She shudders at the memory of the wires sewn in and through York's limbs and pushes herself to her feet. She almost sways once she's up but she steadies herself with a breath and nods her head in the direction of the medbay.

"It's this way."

[short_changed]

With the brief lead she can get as the thing stumbles from the strike she looks around desperately for something that would work- and with that moment of clear thinking she finds it. There's more than enough sharp and boney protrusions around the room thanks to the nightmare quality of it, and Connie takes the next sharp turn towards a grouping of sharp, jutting bone in the shape of gnarled teeth, something that looks like it's meant to catch an unobservant runner in a very...piercing way. The footsteps of the beast are still right behind her as she turns on her heel, feeling the solid, sharp threat of the bone behind her back as she watches the beast get closer and closer.

Right as it leaps for her she takes a sharp breath- the talons angled towards her neck swiping down- and hitting air as she teleports into the space directly behind it, spinning as she does to bring out her pistol and unload into the monster's back even as it hurtles towards the giant spike.

[zippity]

To that, Lena shrugs, finding the nearest surface to pull one of her legs up against. Everything was in the aching and cramping stage, and there wasn't much to be done for it except moving around. Or maybe it was just nervous energy.

"You are doin' an awful lotta that," she replies, still holding that sincere smile. She actually seems to be fighting a small chuckle -- just because its rude and she knows Jack is upset. "Just goes to show you ain't changed all that much."

Everyone made mistakes, everyone made bad decisions, but everyone also had a chance to understand their errors. The apology is what counts, and Jack always has one for her. So what if he's a bit of a slow learner?

[isthisapidge]

That's weird. Pidge has a feeling she overstepped a boundary somewhere, but Miku still returned the gesture...? She may be from a culture where handshakes aren't common.

She pulls her hand away and puts it behind her head. This is awkward and she doesn't know what to do yet.

[isthisapidge]

She nods, and does. She bolts to the next heart, firing up her bayard and sinking it deep into the heart before slashing it to the side. This was cathartic in a way, take it out on the heart of the evil that tried to destroy them.

She then fired a her bayard right at the creature's head, which should serve as both an attack and a signal to Connie that she's ready to move.

[goddamngrenades]

"I have just been through hell. Why would I fuck with you?" Right now is not the time. "ANY other time, seriously, I'm probably fucking with you."

[mylawn]

76 has his suspicions about Reaper using Talon for resources and intel, but he doesn't quite know how to breach that subject and he doesn't think he ever will. It still stands that he's collaborating with the terrorists that took Ana from him (among innumerable other things).

"It matters."

Even if Talon isn't here, Reaper still runs with them. 76 isn't willing to forgive that so easily.

[ghost_bait]

Miku furrowed her brow in reply. "I don't think I'll ever really be used to Western customs," she said finally. "But my brother used to say that it was just something that trumped Japanese customs in business." Which was a laugh, really, since he ended up studying folklore.

"What was it you did before..." she motioned around the area, "All this happpened?"

[whyarewehere]

Grif shrugs. "It's what I'd do," he points out.

This is dangerously close to self-awareness, for Grif.

"So. Connie," he says, shifting the subject back and making an effort to commit that one to memory. "Got it."

He'd rather admit defeat on this tenuous and stupid ground than dig into how bad off York is right now. He can deal with being wrong about something stupid. He can't deal with that.

[i_got_this]

South lets Connie take the lead, falling in behind her her helmet tucked under her arm, sipping at her water now and again. She really did feel like she was hit by a truck. At the very least, she was a live, and hadn't had to deal with anything like York had so there was that. She's counting her blessings as she heads into the medical bay.

[mylawn]

He doesn't snap out of it, of course, but the spray of bullets aimed at nonlethal places does a good job of keeping him distracted. There still isn't any noise from his end, like he's been rendered incapable of verbally responding, even with grunts or snarls.

If it bothers him, however, he doesn't show it, seemingly preoccupied with eliminating the current threat and not much more. Lena is doing a good job of keeping him off Sombra--the downside is that it keeps him on her, instead.

The potshots to his feet only keep him away for so long before he's lunging at her again.

[mylawn]

It all comes back to the fact that he just keeps failing her, which he thought maybe he'd be used to by now. But, no, it hurts just as much this go around, and he doesn't expect it to stop.

Of course, he could just take extra care not to let her down, but he doesn't trust himself not to screw it all up every time. They all deserve so much better than what he can give the. What he gave them in the first place. He shakes his head a little, sighing, but doesn't disagree.

"Not exactly like the good old days, huh."

Just generally speaking, not that Lena was really around for the true golden years of Overwatch, and not that he can really compare anything fairly to that.