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legionmissions2017-09-23 02:44 am
letsgolegion) wrote in legionmissions2017-09-23 02:44 am
TOTAL ECLIPSO THE HEART [modplot/log]
Who| Everyone who signed up
What| "Total Eclipso The Heart"
Where| Apokolips
When| The same time as "The Ninth Gate" and "The Gone-Away World"
Warnings/Notes| cw: suicide, due to the Catastrophists MO
Apokolips was intimidating enough when it was bleak and dead but now it's even more of a living nightmare. As Eclipso, Catastrophists, and monsters menace the defense garrison, screams cut through the air the way they used to back when Apokolips' old ruler was alive.
Catastrophists toss themselves into the firepits in droves and smoke starts to rise from them. Somehow their sacrificial bloodshed seems to be doing something to the core of the planet. It groans and strains and the ground shakes as machinery under the surface starts to slowly get stoked back to life.
Some of the Catastrophists even rise into the air while wearing winged uniforms and clash with garrison members capable of flight - Apokolips' old parademon troops, reborn in a new form.
This world is a death engine, and if they don't manage to stop it it from restarting, Chronoblivion's forces will have an entire world to make war from.
What| "Total Eclipso The Heart"
Where| Apokolips
When| The same time as "The Ninth Gate" and "The Gone-Away World"
Warnings/Notes| cw: suicide, due to the Catastrophists MO
Apokolips was intimidating enough when it was bleak and dead but now it's even more of a living nightmare. As Eclipso, Catastrophists, and monsters menace the defense garrison, screams cut through the air the way they used to back when Apokolips' old ruler was alive.
Catastrophists toss themselves into the firepits in droves and smoke starts to rise from them. Somehow their sacrificial bloodshed seems to be doing something to the core of the planet. It groans and strains and the ground shakes as machinery under the surface starts to slowly get stoked back to life.
Some of the Catastrophists even rise into the air while wearing winged uniforms and clash with garrison members capable of flight - Apokolips' old parademon troops, reborn in a new form.
This world is a death engine, and if they don't manage to stop it it from restarting, Chronoblivion's forces will have an entire world to make war from.
no subject
But he starts to hear a strangely musical sound in the chaos of the battlefield, washed over by the stinging air currents, and Rico cocks his head to the side as he puzzles out what it is. It sounds like... giggling? Is that children?
Rico curses under his breath and starts running towards the sound.
"You! Nova Prime!" he snaps as he passes the man in question, gesturing him to follow with a hand. "You hear that? There are children here."
no subject
But then the sound of giggling children echoes around them and his hair stands on end. Between the Lovecraft monsters and the space zombies back home, he's learned that the instincts carefully honed by years of watching horror movies are sometimes on point.
"Like hell there are," he says. "Just think for a second. Why would there be random kids in a fight like this? The only people here are us, the garrison, Catastrophists, and monsters."
The giggling is getting closer and starting to surround them.
no subject
Sure, it's strange that the children would be laughing instead of screaming, but Rico would be a hypocrite if he said he didn't understand that reaction.
"Exactly. If you won't help, then fine." He snaps. "But their presence is so far-fetched that you'd assume..."
He doesn't quite get to finish that thought. The laughter suddenly surrounds them, and it's pretty difficult to defend his reasoning when several things that are most definitely not children flashes into a corner of his vision from a distance. He grips his lawgiver, training his aim as he backs slightly towards Nova.
no subject
They start to see them, little creepy etched figures moving towards them with jarring movements. They're not even close to being solid and alive. The only solid thing about them is the very real and solid blood that's spattered on them.
"Oranges and lemons" say the bells of St. Clement's
"You owe me five farthings" say the bells of St. Martin's
"Creepy nursery rhymes? Seriously?" Rich blasts at them but it does nothing. "Physical attacks don't seem to be cutting it"
When will you pay me?" say the bells of Old Bailey
"When I grow rich" say the bells of Shoreditch
"When will that be?" say the bells of Stepney
"I do not know" say the great bells of Bow
They start creeping closer and closer, their movements almost playful. Rich blasts one of the pillar-like constructs of Apokolips so it falls on one of them, but the little sketchy creature just pulls itself out from under it.
"Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
Here comes a chopper to chop off your head,
Chip chop chip chop - the last man's dead."
"Oh come on."
Way over the top.
no subject
Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall
And down will come baby, cradle and all-
That's quite enough. "High-ex!" Rico barks, squeezing the trigger with a little more force than necessary. A nearby Abstract Child just a little too close for comfort blows apart in an angry scribble, but only for a second. It reappears back in real space only a moment later, seemingly unharmed. But as it does, it flashes an almost-garbled message to both Rich and Rico, the information entering their brains. Rico jolts back as it lances straight into his mind, and his face freezes for a split second in confusion.
"Lullabies?" Rico echoes dumbly. Of all the things. What even was it? Nothing but an emotional comfort, something sung to coddled children to put them to sleep, who dreamed knowing they were loved and cared for. It takes a second to even remember what it is, being so far removed from any relevance or experience in his life. He shoots it again just on principle, and snarls when it has no effect. Drokk it.
"Nova Prime! They need to be sung a lullaby! That'll put these creeps to sleep!" he exposits, just a tad unnecessarily.
There's a very expectant pause and look after the end of his sentence.
no subject
"Don't look at me. I can't carry a tune in a bucket and I haven't been around kids for years," he says, blasting one of them, but it just reforms.
Lullabies just haven't been something he's needed in his mental rolodex for a while so it's hard shifting gears from the combat that's been his entire life since Xandar fell...to whimsy. God, can he even remember the ones his mom sang him? There are plenty of common ones that he probably knows, that are on TV all the time, but it's not like he's used to mentally going there that often.
"I'm many things," a soldier, a cop, a superhero, "but one thing I'm not is the singing star of 'Happy Funtime Gymboree.'"
no subject
"What, and you'd think I'd know any 'Happy Funtime Gymboree'?" Rico replies sardonically. Whatever the hell that means. "I don't know any lullabies! You think the Academy would allow me to hear that? So unless you want be part of a new finger painting, out with it!"
If it really comes down to it, Rico's already thinking of a tiny strain of music in the back of his head. A melody that he knows, that he caught on the Tri-D display in the Mega-Mega-Mall while he was on one of his jaunts. But he's not quite sure if that would count as a lullaby...
Just that second, an Abstract Child creeps just that little bit closer to Rico and tries to 'tag' him. Rico ducks under the attempt, but the next one scores a slash down his uniform despite him throwing himself to the side. He backs into Rich and snags his other arm, shouting into his ear.
"Try!"
no subject
Shit shit shit.
"Uuuh. Rock-a-bye baby on the treetop," he sings, wildly out of tune. "When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. And down will come baby, cradle and all."
It's very obviously not working. One of the children darts forward and slices his thigh right through his uniform before he manages to blast it back.
He can't tell if it's because he can't sing for beans or ... wait. Wait, he knows what it is. The feeling's wrong. He can't just recite a lullaby at them like a spell, these creatures feel like...like they're made of ideas. And feelings. And even though these little monsters very obviously want to turn them inside out, they also want to be put to sleep the same way little kids do when they're the ones scared of monsters. He can't just shout musical words at them, he has to comfort them to sleep, like they're actual kids.
He has to comfort them as he puts them out of their misery.
The idea of that, that something made these twisted things so malformed that all they want is to be comforted to death, causes something to pang in his chest, and that feeling helps. It's a road that leads outside the soldier mentality, and that means something finally clicks, and he remembers. His mother'd never sung normal lullabies. She'd always sung lullabies from things like musicals, like stuff from the Sound of Music. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...
But this was the one that always made his heart ache a little, as if he somehow knew, even as a small child, that life would never get that simple again. The song is still a little out of tune but there's more feeling behind it and the more morose sound to it is something he can manage better.
"Summertime, and the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy's rich and your ma is good-lookin'
So hush, little baby, don't you cry..."
This seems to be working better. The little stick children slowing down and swaying in place as they listen.
"Hum with me," Rich says quickly under his breath. "It's the same melody every verse."
Hum if you want to live, Rico.
no subject
It's the feeling behind it. His involvement seems to make the Abstract Children agitated and restless again, some stirring from their half-slumber. It could be the sentiment behind it, grudging and only just technical. Rico notes this with some slight mental surprise, and starts humming harder. It doesn't help.
Drokk. What is it that Rider is doing that Rico isn't?
There's something undefinable in Rider's voice, in his expression, something Rico can't quite pin down. That must be it. The secret behind how he's doing it. But what is it? He rakes his mind as he quietly puzzles at it, staring at Rider with an intent focus, but suddenly something just clicks, shifts mental gears, and an entire world opens up for him. He gets it and it's right there like a diamond in a safe, bright and shining in his mind's eye, and he darts forward and snatches at it with eager hands.
And suddenly, whatever the hell Rider is feeling, Rico's feeling it too. There's his own ache in his chest (except it's not his - not really) that makes him feel horribly uncomfortable and strangely jealous, the hairs on the back of his neck prickling with unease. The ghost of the love that Rider's feeling settles badly in the hollow of his throat, but the melody manages to come out of him with genuine emotion even as his thoughts are jumbled and alarmed and confused.
As the lullaby progresses, some of the Abstract Children settle, and lie still.
They don't get back up.