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

[mylawn]

76 wants to think the two of them are far too exhausted and injured to start shit, but he can't put anything past Reaper if he wants to be smart. They're both fresh from medical attention and 76 in particular is out of his tactical gear--mask and visor included. It makes him feel more than a little vulnerable, a feeling that only gets worse when he staggers out of the way of the med techs and nearly runs smack into Gabriel.

He hasn't seen Reaper without the mask since...well, ever. 76 had his own theories about what might be under there, but seeing it is another thing entirely. Does he even have a face anymore?

"Jesus, Reyes."

It's clear from his tone of voice that he doesn't want to fight, and is really just some combination of exhausted and surprised. He doesn't make any moves to get closer.

[fantasmaniac]

His first instinct is to draw back, put up his guns, but his body doesn't listen anyway. Surrounded by scraps of some his tattered clothing and discarded gear, he's just staring at Jack through the black shirt around his head.

Even around people like Jack and Ana, he doesn't seem particularly comfortable with revealing his face. Ana just got lucky... or unlucky, from how he remembers her reaction.

"Morrison."

The tension slowly eases out of his shoulders and slumps against the wall again.

"You look like shit."

But that's the extent of his animosity for tonight.

[mylawn]

"I feel like shit."

He's not even going to pretend. 76 doesn't know if Reaper remembers any of what happened on the ship, but he does, so he sees no reason to think that it wouldn't be the same for his former friend. If it is the case, the last thing he probably wants is to be bothered, but 76 has already interrupted and he's not about to back off, not when he's finally getting a good look at what really happened to Gabriel.

He's not immediately at 76's throat. He'll take that as a win, for now, but he doesn't move to sit down, only stands in front of Reaper like he doesn't know what else to do with himself.

"At least I ain't dead."

That's probably offensive.

[fantasmaniac]

Reaper definitely remembers most of it. The little details like the monsters he'd attacked or the layout of the ship, each crevice and portal, those things are a bit hazy... but otherwise, like 76, he remembers it all.

He wheezes out something that might've been a laugh, like an old man sick in bed trying to find amusement in anything be it light or morbid. Even if 76 standing in front of him like that is kind of weird, and feels possibly imposing, he doesn't motion him to sit or do anything.

"Yeah," he replies, not at all offended by it. "What a shame."

[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.

[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]

This is not an acceptable answer, and it's immediately evident on his face. Of course he expected Reyes to put up a fight about this, but one of Jack's defining features is his bullheadedness. Sure, they tamed up on Murderworld out of convenience, but fighting for one's life isn't exactly conducive to talking about certain things that maybe need to get talked about. 76 is going to make Reaper talk about it if only because he knows it'll piss him off and he's too tired to fight back.

So 76 reaches forward, grabs the stupid t-shirt, and tries to yank it right off Reyes' head.

[fantasmaniac]

Gabriel has half a mind to dodge the hand that he knows is snapping in his direction, but he doesn't, and when the shirt is ripped off his head, it almost looks like it explodes into a cloud of smoke. He growls, tilting his head away as far as he can until he's basically pressing himself against the wall.

The mask sits on the bed next to him, about an arm's length away. He could make a grab for it...

"Yeah, this is way better," he drawls, the smoke starting to slowly dissipate. It starts with his smirk, bitter and cracked with multiple scars. The evidence of the damage is all the thin, stretch over and scarred skin covering half of his face (or at least what's currently visible of it). His skin is no longer that dark, healthy brown but ashen and dry on top of everything else.

The smoke seems to be stubbornly taking its time with the reveal though.

[mylawn]

76 tries not to flinch, but he is standing again, t-shirt in his fist. He's at a complete loss for words, facing Gabriel's...well...face, but he tries not to let it show on his own expression. He can't let Reyes seize on any weakness.

This is harder to look at than he thought, however, because even though they're enemies now, he can't quite shake all the years they spent as friends. Closer than friends--brothers. What Reaper is now is something that 76 wouldn't wish on anyone.

"You're doing that on purpose." Not that he isn't going to be completely petulant about the immediate situation. He wants to see Reyes' entire face. "Stop it."

[fantasmaniac]

The brief pause has him stilling too, unable to think of anything biting to say. Or maybe he's just letting this moment soak in, staring straight back at Jack through the dark cloud, trying not to remember that despite the bullshit that's happened around them, that they'd been like brothers.

He laughs— it's a tired sound— and the smoke ripples gently, almost cautiously. Even if it's deliberately slow, it's making progress, revealing more and more of the heavy damage. A large jagged scar starts to show up along his cheek, hinting that it might've just gone straight through his eye and took the eyelid with it. The exposed teeth on the most damaged part of his face clack sharply.

"No," he snaps, tension returning in his shoulders for a brief moment before relaxing again. "What do you want, Jack?"

[mylawn]

The more he sees, the more something twists in his stomach, icy and uncomfortable. The explosion hadn’t been either of their fault, at least he thinks. Given what he’s dug up, he’s reasonably certain that Reaper did not intend to die as a result of his mutiny.

Jack lucked out, in that regard. His own face is marred, but certainly not to this extent, even if he can’t see it in full.

Not yet, anyway.

“What happened to you?”

[fantasmaniac]

He tries not to focus on how stupid Jack looks with his anime scars, but in reality is probably a little envious of how the boy scout had gotten the better deal out of the two. At least in regards to their physical appearance. He's fine with everything else.

"Beats me," he finally answers, perhaps a little too casually. With his arms folded in a slightly defensive position, he tilts his head and more of the smoke recedes. "I gonna guess someone tried to toy with death, and they got their results."

His first guess had been Mercy, and he can only assume it's her doing— what with the biotic technology she'd practically dedicated her life to. Clearly it was a failure, but he wouldn't give them the satisfaction of having properly brought him back to life only to throw him back into a situation he wanted no part of.

Like Jack, he has his own questions and battles to fight.

[mylawn]

There’s no sympathy on his face, but perhaps his expression softens a little, eyebrows pinched together as he doesn’t seem to know what to do with his hands. In another life, reaching out to place a firm hand on Reyes’ shoulder wouldn’t even be a question, and it seems that 76 hasn’t quite lost the muscle memory for such a gesture. It takes a conscious effort for him to keep his arms at his sides. He folds them, instead, trying to feign indifference.

“I hear you eat souls.”

His voice is dry, but there’s the slightest hint of wry amusement in his voice, letting Reaper know that 76 doesn’t really believe it. A commentary on the things people say and how ridiculous those things can be, maybe.

[fantasmaniac]

Their ever so familiar brand of dry banter continues, and a muscle on his face twitches beneath the smoke. It's pretty handy during these moments. He can feel the atmosphere shift around them, as if they're both trying to fight the air of familiarity of What Once Was, and it's making him anxious. His arms fold a little tighter against his chest.

"Sounds like you've been reading one too many tabloids," he retorts, a single eye emerging from the cloud. "But guess I made an impression on some poor schmuck being click-baited into whatever sensational bullshit he could get his mitts on. Infamy travels fast."

His eye is open wide, the brown color of his iris a duller version of it. His eyelid blinks carefully, the skin wrinkled and textured, utterly void of any eyelashes and most of his eyebrow too for that matter. His facial hair, for the most part, had taken quite a hit. There's some scraggly patches along his jawline but anything heavily scarred over is completely hairless.

[mylawn]

"Mercenary circles can get pretty imaginative."

Especially when they don't understand powers that might seem supernatural at first glance. But, good. Reyes doesn't actually eat souls. 76's gaze is fixed squarely on him as the smoke continues to dissipate, waiting for some kind of terrible reveal that...doesn't really come.

He looks old. Tired--they both do, and the apparent disfigurements don't exactly help. What strikes Jack most of all is that he still looks like Reyes, and there's a part of him that aches at the sight of his old friend. His fingers itch again, wanting to reach out.

"Not what I expected."

[fantasmaniac]

Well, he certainly eats something. The stories of the gruesome shriveled up corpses might be a wild exaggeration, but usually with tall tales there's a grain of truth hidden in there somewhere. No matter the reason, he's not going to say a damn thing anyway.

Half of his face is still covered, the smoke still lingering like he's trying to avoid a full reveal. Like he knows what might happen if he affirms that underneath the unfamiliar and overly edgy exterior, that he's still the same man. That it might change things. He has to keep telling himself not to forget.

"Good thing I wasn't aiming to meet it, then."

He bristles a little. The skin stretched out over his cheekbones suddenly disintegrate, like his skin was made of old clay.

[mylawn]

Rest assured, 76 takes everything with a grain of salt--desiccated corpses left in Reaper's wake doesn't mean souls, but it does speak to some kind of other life-draining ability. The real question is whether or not Reaper needs to do it to survive, or if he's just that sadistic. He certainly wouldn't put the latter past him, at this point.

76 can deal with the smoke, but watching parts of Reaper's face crumble is a little disconcerting, especially when he doesn't know the nature of these strange powers.

"Jesus, you're falling apart."

[fantasmaniac]

He snarls, the sound strained as if trying to reign it back but failing miserably. The black cloud swarms around his head like a plague of insects, the other side of his face dissolving to reveal bone and teeth, his eyes bloodshot from fatigue, as his anger spikes. But as soon as it had happened, he's pulling himself back together again, head turned away from Jack.

"Yeah, no shit," he finally rasps out. "Think I wear a mask for fun? If you think making me see how far I've fallen will goad me into spilling my guts about Talon objectives, you're sorely mistaken."

Or whatever it is Jack really wants to talk about. He can't be convinced otherwise that everyone now has an ulterior motive for everything, especially when all they've been doing since they met on Legion World was try their damned best from beating the shit out of each other.

[mylawn]

"I don't know. You always had a commitment to aesthetic."

He shrugs, letting Reaper know that he didn't think it was out of the question that he'd wear the outfit simply because he has a flair for the dramatic. Of course, the weird smoke powers made it evident that wasn't the case, but 76 had never thought it out of the realm of possibility.

"They offer you anything?"

76 doesn't really think that Reaper is all in as far as Talon is concerned. If he knows Gabriel--and he likes to think he does--then he's got something else in mind. Some other end goal that even Talon won't see coming.

[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.

[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.

[fantasmaniac]

There's a faint hint of a smile, laced with the usual bitterness. The difference between then and now, is that they can much more candid about their feelings. No red tape, no bureaucratic nonsense, just two old soldiers that just won't stop fighting for what they believed in, no matter how much they tried to mask that with a cold sense of obligation. Or in some cases, indifference.

"Still as stubborn as ever, boy scout."

But he's not going to tell him, and 76 can remain angry at him for what Talon did to Ana. If that's what it takes, then so be it. Even as some still-human part of him sags in defeat, wishing he could simply succumb to the way Jack had looked at him earlier (something like solidarity of world-weariness), he's been nothing but steadfast in his ways.

Still stubborn as ever.

Feeling like he's a the end of his ropes here, at a stalemate, he heavily considers walking away. He's not above distancing himself from Jack. So he slowly straightens up, popping stiff joints before pushing slowly off the bed, mattress groaning from the weight.

[mylawn]

"Just about the only thing I've got."

He isn't about to let Reyes forget that. If he can make his stubbornness the bane of Reaper's existence, so much the better. Jack is under no illusions about his own bullheadedness, and he aims to make it his greatest asset in the 'get through to Reaper' department.

But he knows when a conversation is over, and he's too tired to delve deeper into Talon. When Reyes stands and makes to leave, Jack doesn't stop him.

"I know it was bigger than both of us. Maybe you really did try to kill me, but I don't think you meant to blow yourself up, too."