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

[goddamngrenades]

"Don't tell her I told you to." Or he'll get dragged in and he's not ready for the planning a prank off will entail. Not yet, anyway.

[meanmonkey]

Monkey growls softly, making sure Kubo is prepared before diving for the nearest heart, sword at the ready. He is too compassionate, too ready to allow mercy and redemption. It's a weakness that could so easily be exploited.

She wouldn't change him for the world.

"Shout if you're in trouble!" she calls as she takes off, finding a heart and driving the sword deep into it. She cuts down, ignoring the spray of blood across her face as the organ ruptures. The first one was easy.

As she sees the next closest, at least 25 feet off the ground, she also sees faceless monsters start to peel out of the shadows to come for her. The next one won't be so easy.

"Kubo!" she calls, her voice firm and steady. "Distraction!"

[short_changed]

"My lips are sealed."

She shakes her head with a fond smile, giving his hair a light ruffle.

"You gotta rest up so you'll be ready for the next prank war. I think we might get a little carried away now that we've got a captive audience of fans."

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland accepts his loss without thinking about it - can't stop to think, not at a time like this. What he can do is see the advantage it affords him. He no longer has to stay close and so he doesn't, moving to run behind other little battles happening nearby in the hopes that the cord will get caught on something else, instead, if he can put enough between them. This particular battle is lost; there's more to do elsewhere. He goes.

cw for emetophobes for a bit of gagging/mostly dry vomiting, i'm not sure how to phrase it

[ka_sera_sera]

Roland nods back and staggers away, but realizes soon enough - and buries the frustration, the anger at the thought, because that feeling's not useful just now - that until he has some evidence whatever's come over the other man has passed, he'll have to do a little shepherding. He lurches back, reaching for the nameless Legionnaire's shoulder. His eyes have almost moved back into the same spot they used to be and this throws him off, might send his hand reaching for the wrong place. He'll have to get used to his face being on his head again and the thought's bizarre, disturbing, the last little detail that loses him the war he's been fighting with his stomach.

He turns his head even as he reaches out, gagging, but only the smallest stream of that black bile is left to come trickling out. Once that passes he tries to lock eyes with the Legionnaire again, if the man's aware enough to do something like that. His voice, at least, is raised; he has some evidence that, if nothing else, his voice might get through.

"You can find the way out, can't you? You can feel it? If you can, run!"

[agnominal]

The kick connects, a solid blow that knocks his head back, black bile spraying from between his teeth as he staggers. But the corpse on his back only snickers in response.

That's more like it.

Reaching down, it twists at something in Locus's back, and he lurches forward again, swinging heavily for South's torso, intending to knock her to the ground.

[i_got_this]

Haha yes! She stumbles back with the release, chuckling that she was able to get a leg up no pun intended in this engagement. It's enough of a hesitation that even though she goes to block his hit, she's successfully knocked on her ass.

Recovering with a frustrated grunt, she throws all pretense to the side and transforms into a rhinoceros and charges the pair.

[mylawn]

He hopes that he didn't do any of that, but despite remembering most everything that happened, he can't actually be sure. It seems best not to think about it, even though the wounds are ugly and he doesn't know why she hasn't sought out real attention. It takes him a moment (76 isn't so good at social cues anymore), but he realizes in short order that she's inviting him to administer first aid.

For someone who doesn't let anyone touch him on a good day, much less after an incredibly traumatic spaceship adventure, he understands that she's putting some degree of trust in him. That's unexpected, and he isn't quite sure how to feel or what he should be doing.

So he falls back on his training, reaching for one of the nearby kits, popping it open and starting to sort through the bandages and gauze. He settles on a bottle of sterile solution for flushing wounds, motioning for her to turn a little as he settles next to her.

"Could always drink the antiseptic."

[mylawn]

Reaper makes that sound and it reminds 76 of just how old they really are. It's easy to forget, when you're performing superhuman feats more often than not, but in the aftermath of this experience, he feels his age and he imagines he looks it, too. Reaper isn't much better off, from what he can tell.

After another protracted moment, 76 gives up and sits on the bed opposite him. They're both too tired to go at each other, clearly. He'll take the risk.

"Take that thing off."

The stupid shirt-mask thing he's got going on.

[fantasmaniac]

He eyes the old man sitting across from him, like a cat that's crouched in waiting to see if the other one will do anything startling. Tired or not, his mind will try to exhaust him if it means keeping him one step ahead of Jack.

When did they get so old? Being on the cusp of living and dead can make the notion of aging seem irrelevant, but like this, and seeing the old man across from him reminds him that they're exactly the same age. He gives up being on edge, it's not really worth it right now and judging by Jack's body language, there's no point anymore.

You gonna make me? Is the first thing that crosses his mind. Yeah, he's not really keen on taking orders from him. Never was (even though he did when he absolutely had to) and never will be.

"What for?"

A passive reaction at best, still-stubborn at worst.

[agnominal]

What the fuck--

Well, zombie!Felix certainly seems taken aback by this tactic, though not for long. Locus, meanwhile, just bears down to take the brunt of the hit, rattling deep in his bones and shoving him back across the ground...

But his hands still swing up to take the animal by the jaw, in an attempt to wrench it over to the side. The pain doesn't matter. The size of his opponent doesn't matter, he's going to fight until he's dead regardless.

[vata]

"Please. I'm not that desperate."

Been there, done that. Though he doesn't need the details — wouldn't like them if he had them. Still, it manages to drag a scoff from her as she turns onto her side (maybe for that fact alone), one hand tucked beneath her head; the ghost of a smile that never quite clears.

"But you owe me a drink for this one, hermano."

[i_got_this]

South's horny head swings to the side with the hit, but she's much better equipped now too shake it off and swing back, attempting to god Bob with her horn.

She's not the fight 'till the death sort of girl, but Felix calling her sweetcheeks rules get up enough to put some effort into the attack.

[mylawn]

"Because I don't want to have this talk with you wearing that stupid thing on your head."

THAT'S WHAT FOR. Jack's arms are folded, but his tone of voice indicates he's about ten seconds away from leaning over and ripping said stupid thing right off Gabriel's stupid head.

[fantasmaniac]

He almost laughs. Not in that bad-natured villain chuckle sort of way, but in a way that reminds him that they used to have these sort of 'talks' but they never turned out good. At least the tone of voice Jack takes gives him a fair warning of what would happen if he continued giving him a difficult time.

"That's not giving me much incentive to remove it, now is it?"

It's not like he removed it just for Ana. She only saw it because she ripped the mask off his face by accident (or was it). He picks at the shirt, the soft crackling sound of smoke billowing out from the opening puffing out like a bizarre chimney. Yeah, he looks ridiculous. HE DOESNT CARE.

[mylawn]

There's a noise in the back of his throat that might be a laugh at the joke, but it's more than a little half-hearted. He doesn't imagine she'll begrudge him. 76 tries to be as careful as possible, but with wounds like this, there's no way it doesn't hurt.

"That sounds fair."

Seems like the least he can do, really. The wounds look better with some of the blood cleared away, but that doesn't change the fact that they're not exactly pleasant.

"This might sting."

For Cortana and Sombra

[prettycoolguy]

There's a flurry of activity around the bay when the Cruiser docks, and an imposing figure in a suit of armor carves straight through it. The Chief's suit is a mess, pitted and striped where acid chewed into the plates. A tech trails after him, struggling to keep up with the Spartan's long strides.

"Master Chief, you need to report to-"

John pauses and turns with his whole body, shoulders broad and head high, and looks directly at the man. He's silent. The tech, who's been trying for the last ten minutes, swallows what he was trying to say. (And, possibly, his tongue.)

"Wait," says the Chief.

The tech waits.

No one else tries to stop John as he hunts through the disembarking team, looking for one person in particular.

One person, and the Legionnaire carrying her.

[steelandtemper]

"There you are." Cortana's voice comes over their secure channel just like it always does, and a navpoint appears on his HUD, a glowing arrow floating over Sombra's head no matter where she moves.

Simultaneously, without waiting for an acknowledgement from him, she speaks to Sombra. "The Chief's on his way."

The possibility that he might not immediately come for her doesn't even cross Cortana's mind.

[vata]

There aren't any obvious signs she's in pain: a tension that ripples through the muscles of her jaw, her throat - intermittent and slight as she swallows down any inherent urge to react as he works. She's had worse, and not just from allying with Talon; at least being a terrorist had left her with upgrades, escape plans. Gabriel had done his part to make the alliance more than worthwhile in stealing translocation technology, after all.

Before that? It was whatever she could get when she could get it, and Los Muertos always had their share of troubles.

So it's too quiet for a while, those seconds between breaths when neither of them are talking. Just the hum of the ship as it runs its course, life support systems thrumming away through narrow vents. A pulsebeat. "Hazlo de una vez."

His hands are warm, at least. She doesn't know why, but she hadn't expected that.

[whyarewehere]

"You know, new chick? Short?" Grif extends an arm to mime something roughly approximating Connie's height in the air.

"She's alive," he adds, after thinking about it for a moment.

Helpful, Grif.

[vata]

Of course he is.

It's a mild thought, and given how connected they've been throughout the course of this mission, probably entirely audible to her AI companion. The one that'd been so certain throughout their entire ordeal that he'd come for her.

And— true to that notion— Sombra hardly has time to set foot off the ship before nearly walking face-first into the man himself. He's...tall. Glancing upwards in awe, there's only a slight exhale on Sombra's part as she watches him through unkempt, bloodied hair, looking so little like herself that she'd normally regret having a first meeting like this. But they are where they are, and she can feel that eagerness on Cortana's part to be reunited.

After a beat, she finally speaks up.

"You're late."

[prettycoolguy]

The Chief's reply to Sombra - Azúcar - is to tilt his head. He can't figure out what she means.

"Cortana?" he asks, though whether he's asking Sombra or Cortana herself isn't quite clear. Perhaps both. It's blunt, but not harsh the way he was with the tech just now. The Chief is a difficult person to read, though to Cortana his concern is clear in every line of how he stands.

[steelandtemper]

Cortana pops up one of Sombra's holographic screens. It's two-dimensional and the picture cuts off just below the shoulders, but it's her familiar avatar, blue-white against a background of her scrolling code, and smiling in a greeting only one person in the multiverse ever gets.

"Hi."

[goddamngrenades]

"Just- as long as we don't get to Casbah levels of shennanigans." Cuz that was some crazy shit right there and would have the fans talking for years.

[short_changed]

"Yeaaah. I don't think there's enough booze on Legion World for us to get close to it. Which is both a blessing and a curse, I guess."