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

After the talk with York

[short_changed]

Connie left her helmet by York's bedside, something she'll pick up the next time she goes to check in on him, but right now there's another Freelancer she's been meaning to talk to. She had seen South at the beginning of the mission, but not while they were all fighting for their lives (in one way or another) in the ship. Connie has no idea what sort of state the other woman might be in from her ordeal but...she's come as prepared as she can be.

That being when she finally does find South, still in blood splattered armour, she takes a seat beside her and taps a bottle of what appears to be strawberry yoohoo and a bottle of water against her arm.

"They don't have any booze on the ship, but until we get back to base this is the best we'll get."

[i_got_this]

South turns her head slowly to look at Connie and the offered beverages, then reaches up to remove her helmet and set it aside. She looks ill - face pale and clammy, forehead furrowed in pain from the headache. Without a word, she reaches for the water over the yoohoo and opens it slowly in order to take a few sips.

"I won't need it." South turning down booze; you know it's bad.

[short_changed]

Her eyebrows lift a little at that but she doesn't push it. She's probably pushing her luck with South enough as is but even without York asking her too she'd want to stay with South a bit.

"You don't look so good, have you seen the med techs yet?"

[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."

[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?"

[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?"

[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."

[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.

[short_changed]

Connie glances over when they're about halfway there, eyeing the gore still splattered across South's armour and across the visor of her helmet.

"Y'know, they'll probably clean your armour if you ask. Not that you don't rock the blood and all."

[i_got_this]

She looks down at her helmet as Connie mentions it, swiping her thumb almost absent mindedly over it and then whoops now she's got gore on her thumb oh well.

"Yeah ... I'll probably do that. Better them than me.?"

[short_changed]

"They've probably got some super efficient space shower thing that'll get it all off," sooner they get South to a bed the better it seems. If South's too out of it to sass back she definitely needs some sleep.

[i_got_this]

"Hm, good. Less work for me, the better."

South is now running 'Sass Lite'; Low Sass, Low Sodium! Doesn't quite taste the same, though. She trudges along next to Connie, quietly grumbling to herself about her various hurts as a way to ignore the deeper psychological scarring.

"You got cleaned up alright."

[short_changed]

"'Cause I put their people sized car wash to good use. Still need to check over the weapons though, make sure they don't get jammed."

Connie gives her half a smile, nudging South's arm lightly with her elbow.

"I can clean yours while you get some rest."

[i_got_this]

South gives her a look, it's a crooked smile but there's the ghost of trauma underneath it.

"Rest? Nah, don't think it's going to be too restful for a while. I got the carwash."

[short_changed]

She snorts softly under her breath, "I meant afterward that, when the med techs get you the good stuff 'n knock you out. Or loopy, if you're anything like Tay."