EVENT #7: THE SIGHT

[abraxasmods]

Event #7 - The Sight

go to the OOC event info and plotting post

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The night before APRIL 18, your dreams are disrupted by a vivid image of the same eclipse that occurred last month. The black sun seems to be an endless void in the sky, growing ever darker - until it suddenly opens into an eye that stares straight at you.

When you wake up, much of your night seems a blur except for the vivid dream of that eye. Whether you find it unsettling or try to ignore it, the image is something you cannot get out of your mind. If you ask, you will discover that none of the locals of your faction saw another eclipse. Speak with your fellow Summoned, however, and you may learn that while there was no eclipse that formed over the world, you were not the only one who had this dream.

Of course, dreams don't need to mean anything. You can't feel or see any immediate effects, and nearly everyone around you is going about their day as usual. Maybe you should do the same.

The Awakening

It might happen that very morning or a day or two later. You could be discussing the dream with a fellow Summoned or perhaps you simply brush shoulders with them as you walk by. Whatever it is, as soon as you make brief physical contact, one of you is struck with a sharp pain in your temple that grows into a terrible headache. It's disorienting and painful as the world around you shifts to someplace you may or may not recognize. Like an old film reel, you watch the events of the past play out before you: the past of the other Summmoned. It might be something they would rather hide, a moment of failure or despair, or something they are immensely proud of and brings them great joy - or even a jumble of several images over the course of a person's life. But you see it as if it were real and right in front of you all the same. When you come to, you'll likely find yourself on the ground or bent over, possibly with one or more people around you to see if you're okay. It'll take you a bit to gather your bearings, and the subsequent pounding in your head could last from minutes to hours.

Or, maybe you aren't the one who receives the vision. Instead, as you watch, another Summoned might grasp their head and crumble in front of you. They may go silent or groan in pain. They'll be impossible to shake out of their stupor until it's over. If you ask what happened, they may be inclined to tell you the truth - that you, you were what happened to them.

Or, if your Arcana signs happen to line up in a specific way, you'll see each other in the shared memory itself. You may also find that for certain Summoned, you can help soothe the effects, calm their emotions, or help draw them out of the memory before it consumes them for too long. It's not entirely clear what determines which effect, but one thing is for certain - within each memory, every Summoned as they appear in the past seems to wear the mark of their Arcana somewhere on their person.

For some, they might experience this only once. For others, they might experience it multiple times: with the same person, with several other Summoned, or with a different memory each time. Over the next 7 days, you'll find the Summoned around you are all receiving a glimpse into each other's past, as if the Singularity has awoken an eye within each of you.

Flee for the safety of the Horizon if you want, but you'll find that in there, it's much the same. In fact, inside the Horizon, the other Summoned don't even need to be anywhere near you - just existing in the Horizon space itself together will be enough to possibly set off a headache-inducing vision.

The Factions

What has occurred between the Summoned will not go unnoticed within the factions. While it's difficult to say how faction officials have picked up what's happening, it'll be obvious they do know.

In THORNE, characters will be asked to remain in the castle walls until further notice. Characters will not be allowed to leave the castle grounds, not even to go into the surrounding city, and anyone who is already outside will be requested to not leave again as soon as they return. If asked, they will be told it's for their own safety, given the Singularity is behaving unpredictably and the Summoned have a unique connection to it. Soothing potions and healers are on hand to offer assistance, if anyone is particularly suffering from ill effects.

In the FREE CITIES, characters will find the army by the outposts show more activity than usual. A higher number of guards will patrol the streets throughout the event, particularly in areas frequented by the Summoned. Anyone who publicly and visibly experiences the effects of the memory share (pain, doubling over, etc.) will be offered assistance by the guards. They are generally there to help, but they are also there to maintain order and ensure anyone behaving erratically due to this incident is properly contained. This might include confinement for a day or two if anyone is especially posing a risk, but no one will be punished except in the most extreme cases, as the locals are aware this is not within the control of the Summoned.

In SOLVUNN, the locals will be watching what's happening with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity. Host families and neighbors will be on hand to help with charms meant to offer protection, as well as general care and assistance (soup, blankets, and so on) if your character seems to be especially under the weather or afflicted by the event. Towards the end of the event, more elders and mages will be out and about to check up on the Summoned to make sure they're doing okay. If asked, the mages will say they aren't sure what's going on, but that they are currently divining with the gods and hope to have a definitive answer soon in the upcoming days.

None of the factions appear to be doing much more than keep a watchful eye on the situation - but as the week comes to a close, officials will start making a decision as to what they want to do and how to handle the Summoned who have demonstrated this unforeseen connection to the Singularity.

Comments

Mutable!

[fourarmedandangerous]

Currently pinning Shepard down with a hail of assault rifle fire is one of Saren's krogan, one of the survivors of Virmire. The massive bulk of the heavily armoured warrior advances down the path, the stream from his rifle keeping Shepard from poking out to return the favour.

"Hm. That one looks almost a challenge. Stay here."

Something big passes by her quickly, charging towards the warrior. The krogan is taken off-guard by the sudden appearance of the Shokan, but a few stray bolts hit Goro, burning into his flesh and causing him to roar in anger, less so in pain. The projectiles burn, but his is the blood of the dragon. Shokan are forged in fire.

It takes very little time for Goro to close the gap and get within striking distance of the krogan. He bowls into the alien, knocking him over. A fist comes down. Then another. Then another. And another.

The krogan jerks under each hammerblow, and Goro doesn't let up, cracking through the warrior's sealed helmet, splattering the Shokan with blood in his death throes.

"You may advance." He calls out nonchalantly, stepping off what until just recently had been a krogan. He points with an upper arm towards the bulk of Sovereign far ahead (above?) of them.

"What is that?"

[earthborn]

"Well, I coulda done that," Shepard grouses, impressed despite herself, and annoyed about that fact. It was in her to declare that it didn't count, for a dozen equally valid reasons; he wasn't obeying the laws of gravity, wasn't wearing a hardsuit, wasn't even of a species with this galaxy, wasn't—

Wasn't relevant, any of it, because none of this was actually happening, despite her persistent, instinctual urge to stay in cover. It was another of those damned visions, flashbacks, whatever you'd call them. And even if it had, pointing out that kind of thing after the fact didn't usually work; it wasn't subtle, but something about this guy made Shepard sure that he was used to doing things the Krogan way.

"Soveriegn," She looks up; never a wise move, but just the same, he had asked, "A Reaper. Personal enemy of mine. We're about to kill it, once we get up there."

She gestures with her gun, up ahead, past the rushing waves of Geth Primes and brainwashed Krogan, husks, and though he wasn't visible; Saren himself.

"This was a couple years ago. These are a pain in my ass."

[fourarmedandangerous]

The perspective doesn't bother Goro simply because he has no idea what he's looking at for the most part. This is some sort of strange...bridge? He's facing forward, and his apparent enemy is in front of him. That's all he needs to understand.

"A Reaper..." He muses. Sounds like some sort of unholy Netherrealm war machine. "I understand. I shall act as the van. Cover my approach."

Geth are now rounding the corner, clicking in their machine tongue. Goro raises an eyebrow.

"Is this...usual for you?" He asks, moments before the synthetics open fire.

[earthborn]

She makes a face, I'm the Vanguard, but it's made invisible by her helmet, and she makes no audible objection, only falls in line. It's good tactics, reputation and reality aside: he's a big, blunt instrument, the ideal shock infantry. Operating on blind muscle memory she swaps to the assault rifle and lays down intermittent fields of covering fire with smooth, professional grace.

Just because she has a preferred style, it doesn't follow that Shepard is inflexible. She knows her work, and does it well.

"This was a busy day," She replies, when the initial blast subsides, and then leans out to punctuate the moment with a return volley; one of the machines bursts into flames, which are quickly snuffed in the airless atmosphere, "But yeah, most of the time. I'm not the kind of commander who leads from the back; if it's bad enough for my men, it's good enough for me."

[fourarmedandangerous]

Goro makes as best use of cover as he can, but Shokan hide is tough, and this is an illusion, so he charges through the pain. Shepard's cover fire keeps a good deal of geth fire off him, to their misfortune. Goro grabs a synthetic bodily, raises it up and rips the geth in half, the machine letting out a garbled mechanical shriek as Goro tosses it's rapidly-failing components to either side, falling upon those few that have not yet been downed by Shepard already.

"Good." He nods approvingly at Shepard. "The place for a warlord is at the front. One who sheds no blood, and no glory cannot expect to lead in battle."

There's a break in the battle now, and Goro has some time among the remains of the dying Geth to take stock of the situation. "What is this place?" He asks, looking around at the vast...space that surrounds them, the distant lights of the wards blending into each other at this distance. "Where does this bridge lead, before the Reaper-machine came to devour it?" And...to what end? Is that even what it's doing? What kind of bridge even us this? That's glass under his feet and under that...it's hollow?

[earthborn]

"Took you a while to notice," Shepard says, calmly cavalier, "It's not a bridge, it's an elevator shaft; enemy's got control of the elevator, stalled us out. So we blew out the wall, somewhere back."

She jerks a thumb over one shoulder, where the long shaft leads back to where it eventually meets the broad bulkhead of the Presidium Ring, looming behind them like an impenetrable fortress. Shepard knows it's just an illusion; the Citadel is all too vulnerable.

Then he asks his next question, and she fails the test of composure; Shepard barks out a laugh, and decides: alright, why not?

"Sovereign isn't here to eat the Citadel Tower," She grins, hands moving to ready the particle blast. God, how long had it been since she'd done this? Years, had to be, "It needs to access the systems at the top. If it can hold that position long enough, the relays will open, and hundreds of thousands of Reapers will come through, and start killing everything. All the people, at least."

She let fly, and the carnage blast rushed downfield in a blaze of light. The Geth Destroyer, incongruously huge and unbothered, was met mid-charge, and disintigrated with an unpleasant squeal.

"If this were real, you'd already have died, by the way. There's no air out here— wait, you do breathe, right?"

[fourarmedandangerous]

Shaft? Tower? Goro takes another moment to look at his surroundings in curiosity as understanding begins to dawn. "We are walking up the side of this building." He turns away from Sovereign to the distant floor of the Presidium behind—below—them.

"Truly? Fascinating." He remarks, like he's just learned some neat bit of trivia. "Yes, I breathe air. Most Outworlders do." A pause. "Do you not?"

"So we must make it up the tower, destroy this Sovereign Reaper, and prevent the arrival of...more like it." The stakes seem...rather high. And yet this woman in front of him, small and frail-looking as most humans are, has already lived through it. A busy day, she called it.

"There are more of these between us and our goal?" He gestures to the smashed geth and dead krogan, and grins with hungry anticipation.

"I think I'm going to enjoy this busy day of yours."

[earthborn]

She watches him come to terms with it, or the reality it would have otherwise been. Airless, sideways, and— there it is, the evaluatory once-over. She's seen it a thousand times, can almost see him trying to match up five foot two inches, female marine, merely human and the behemoth looming over them with apocalyptic intent. She says nothing, just cocks her head in the forward direction, as if to say, shall we get on with it?

It's fair enough, really. She wouldn't believe this bullshit either, had she not been the firsthand witness to the insanity.

"Few hundred," Shepard replies, and answers his grin with one of her own. Oh, she does love a Krogan, and this guy isn't less than halfway there in spirit, "Well then, let's get to work."