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

[princessvegas]

[ The Julie next to Sam doesn't respond, doesn't notice him. Her attention is locked on Flagg's balcony, where he continues his sermon.

"These deluded fools worship an old witch," Flagg says. He is impassioned, magnetic. His voice carries a certainty that would surely be in short supply in a world like this. "An old witch who has brainwashed them into believing that Captain Trips was the apocalypse. But you, you know that the apocalypse happened long before anyone had even heard of Captain Trips. 'Cause there's never been enough to go around! Nature contains winners and losers. Predators and prey. Only now? We are the predators, and they are the prey!"

The crowd cheers as Flagg paces back and forth, absorbs their rapture. His voice lowers. "Now let's get this party started."

Down on the ground level, where the pool is, Lloyd appears from the back halls. He approaches a large wheel, a shutoff valve, and turns it. Water begins to pour into the empty pool; the woman in the pool begins to panic, tug at her handcuffs, but the man is stoic.

Dance music begins to play, and the crowd roars. Flagg breaks into dance. Julie bounces around too, and the screens show various shots of the crowd enjoying themselves. Despite what is very obviously an execution taking place in front of them, this is a party.

"First we drown the rats, and then we burn the witch!" Flagg calls as the music ends. "Rid ourselves of this infection for good!"

The giant screens switch to live footage of the airport just outside of the city, the lights of Vegas shimmering in the background.

"As we speak, a plane is being readied to carry the biggest fire mankind has ever seen to the witch and her minions!" The crowd cheers the idea, and Flagg continues. "One of my loyal servants is on his way to the plane with his precious cargo, and as soon as it's loaded, I will personally board that plane and unleash holy hell on the other side of those mountains!"

The screens change again, to show a single vehicle traveling down the Vegas Strip. The street is otherwise empty. The crowd chants, "Burn them down! Burn them down!" As the camera circles the person driving, it becomes obvious that it's someone hauling a nuclear warhead. The crowd keeps repeating themselves, "Burn them down!", with Julie enthusiastically echoing on her mic. Flagg goes quiet, looks down into the still-filling pool.

Lloyd appears on the screens, enters into the pool area. He walks down the steps and into the water, carrying a baton. He does not seem happy, but he yells anyway, "Yeah!". He approaches the prisoners, then bends slightly. Appears to speak softly to the man, then looks back up and begins projecting again.

"All right, any last words?" he asks. "Now's the time."

The man in orange breathes hard, then says, "I will fear no evil."

Immediately, Lloyd loses his bearings. The man repeats himself, "I will fear no evil," and Lloyd hisses at him, "Shut the fuck up."

Again, the man says it, yells it this time, and Lloyd panics. He whips the baton across the man's face, screams, "Shut up!" as the woman cries for them to stop. "Don't make me fucking do this, shut up!" Lloyd's voice is desperate as the man keeps repeating himself, "I will fear no evil!"

Lloyd begins to strike him again and again, a continuous interchange of "Shut up!" and "I will fear no evil!".

On his balcony, Flagg seems amused.

In the pool, Lloyd is clearly losing his will to keep this up. He doesn't seem angry with the man, he just seems... scared. Then, from somewhere in the enormous lobby, a single woman's voice calls out.

"I will fear no evil!"

Flagg's smile immediately falls. He begins to stalk in the direction of the voice. "Who said that?" he asks sharply. "Who was it? Who said that?!"

In the pool, Lloyd looks around, bewildered and terrified. The woman repeats herself. Someone cries out, "I think she's over there!"

"Lloyd, shoot that woman," Flagg immediately demands, pointing into the crowd. "Lloyd, shoot that woman!"

Lloyd doesn't move, just looks up at Flagg, who orders him again. Julie, angry and also beginning to get scared, calls down to Lloyd too. ]

Lloyd, get your head outta your ass and shoot that motherfucker!

[ He looks up at her, says simply, "No. No."

Flagg's face contorts as he leans over his railing, screams. "You're weak, Lloyd! You're a weak little lamb!"

As Lloyd looks at Flagg, then at the prisoners, another voice rises from the crowd, a man this time.

"I will fear no evil!"

People begin to attack each other. Scattered voices begin to chime in as Flagg looks on in horror, confusion. "I will fear no evil!" they holler, starting group beatings dotted throughout the room.

"Lloyd, do as you're told!" Flagg screams.

Throwing his baton down into the water, Lloyd turns and begins to speak to the other people on the ground. "Gimme the key. Get me the keys! Let's fucking get 'em out of here before they fucking drown. Get the keys!" He ignores Julie as she calls his name. She looks betrayed and angry.

Flagg begins to laugh.

Outside, in the real world, the real Julie puts her hands on Sam's face. She's scared. ] Sam? Sam, can you hear me? Jesus fuck, please, Sam.

[falcony]

[ sam's eyes go from julie, and the way she doesn't react to him at all, to lloyd, and then to the scene around him. this obviously isn't one of those situations where they're in this together, where julie is watching him see what it is she didn't plan on showing him. and while sam doesn't have a long list of experiences with this, it's enough that it feels vaguely voyeuristic. like he's invading julie's privacy, her memories, without her permission. without her even knowing what it is he's seeing.

the sermon continues, and that uncomfortable feeling in sam's gut gets worse. like he's watching someone walk closer and closer to a ledge. further and further out into a street full of traffic.

he tries to follow what happens around him - the mention of some witch, of the mountains, some mystical fire. the way sam wishes he could tell him to just shut up for a moment, and yet even here, in julie's memories, he knows he wouldn't be able to get close enough. so, instead, his focus turns to the pool, to lloyd, to the screens above that show the events as they unfold. is watching the moment the man says i will fear no evil and something in the room snaps. sam doesn't have any association with the phrase other than church on sundays and the vague recollection of the passage. but it obviously means more, much more, if the fear on lloyd's face is anything to go by.

and then there's the woman, somewhere off in the crowd, and something in the room snaps again. the man up front (flagg, that's what they introduced him as. flagg.) the smile is gone, the air is different. sam's stomach drops.

everything that happens after is...not expected, necessarily, but it carries the same feeling as watching something spin wildly out of control. flagg loses the grip he has on the room - all because of that phrase, that one phrase - and lloyd refuses to shoot the prisoners. the crowd seems to scream and boo and cheer for different reasons. julie, herself, yells down at him and looks genuinely hurt when he doesn't do it.

flagg begins to laugh.

on the outside, sam's face is tight in pain, eyes closed shut as he works himself through the memory. as he sees whatever it is this magic of the singularity apparently wants him to see. but he is still there. ]

I'm- ugh... [ his head pounds, somehow almost worse than before. worse than he's felt it so far. ] 'm fine, it's just...

[princessvegas]

[ "Wonderful!" Flagg yells sarcastically. He opens his arms, gestures at the crowd. Many of them are still fighting each other, or watching the violence closest to themselves. "We have more traitors in our midst! Oh, the old witch must have been desperate. Are there any more? Point them out. Better yet, tear them to pieces!" His face grows harder, angry, and he looks around the lobby with disgust.

Screams are beginning to emanate from the back of the group, the ones furthest from the pool, from Flagg. But these screams are different. They aren't angry, they aren't violent. These are screams of terror. But Flagg and those near him don't yet seem aware of the secondary commotion.

"Traitors! Parasites!" he continues. "Rip them out! They don't deserve to live in this world!"

The frightened screaming grows closer, and on one side of the room, people are fleeing, but it's not related to Flagg or the rebels. Instead, the vehicle from before, the one that was driving down the Strip, comes to a halt inside the room. It's a sort of deconstructed dune-buggy, with a full-sized nuclear warhead strapped to the back. Driving it is a truly disgusting creature -- it looks like a wax figure has come to life but only after melting in the sun. Its hair is falling out, its flesh is covered in open wounds. It looks up at Flagg lovingly.

Flagg is clearly surprised to see them. He stops ranting, looks down at the simpering being. "You shouldn't be here," he snaps, but there's apprehension on the edge of his voice.

The thing on the buggy, obviously once a man, mumbles, its voice barely intelligible. "I brought you the fire," it says.

"I told you to bring it to the plane!" Flagg responds, furious.

The two of them lock eyes, and the deformed person cries out pitifully, "My life for you! I did it." He wretches, splutters. "My life for you. My life for you."

Suddenly, thunder sounds loudly throughout the room, and everyone looks up. Through a series of circular light fixtures, there's a skylight. It's shattered open, something that would have been difficult to fix even if they had the replacement glass. The hole becomes obscured as what looks to be clouds begin to slowly fill the room through the space, coming down through the lights as if in a tube.

Everyone in the room, even the people who ran from the warhead, begins to come back, looking up in curiosity, confusion at what's happening. Julie is frozen in place on her balcony, staring up as well. Her cameraman has his lens turned up to the sky.

The clouds within the rings light up with lightning. There's more thunder. No one speaks.

Suddenly, a lightning bolt shoots from the cloud. It hits one of the big screens, which explodes, and ricochets to the other side of the room, where it sets a red banner ablaze. More lightning, many bolts, begin to strike downward from the cloud. Into the crowd. People go scattering in every direction.

"Don't run!" Flagg yells. "I command you to return!"

Julie and her cameraman both take off, through the room and out the door, running down the hall. She shoves a woman to the ground as she runs. ] Get outta the way!

[ She takes another few steps, and another lightning bolt strikes toward her. The memory abruptly ends.

In the hall of Mag's building, the real Julie clearly doesn't know what to do with herself. She just strokes Sam's shoulders, his cheeks, trying to soothe but at a loss. ]

[falcony]

[ sam watches, because that's all he really can do, a participant in whatever moment he's now become a part of for however long it will go on. he's caught up in the swell of it more than he expected he would be, pushed up against the balcony to watch the moment play out. the chaos, the warhead, flagg desperately trying to hold onto any control he previously had.

it's like watching a car crash in slow motion, and there's nothing sam can do about it. there's a moment where he doesn't catch the full exchange between flagg and whoever it is that just drove the weapon into the middle of this hotel, if only because he's looking for lloyd. looking for what's going on on the ground level, too. but his attention is pulled, a mirror image to where he stands next to julie, up into the cloud that descends upon them. on he static, threatening, that fills the room.

sam's stomach drops, if only because he has a sense of what is going to happen here. an idea, but one that curls at his chest. he looks back at julie, even though he knows she can't see him. run he tries to push to her. run. the lightning continues to build, the thunder too, and sam's hands tighten around the railing. he looks back around the lobby, at the eyes that are all up on the cloud, the almost reverent curiosity that pulls people step by step forward.

that's when the first bolt strikes out, destroying a screen. people go scattering, crying out, and sam's hands tighten on the rail to keep himself from trying to run, the survival instinct kicking in. instead, he looks around, watching the lightning grow in number, in speed. julie bolts, then, which means that sam's taken with her - the memory shifting to what she sees, what's around her in that moment. it hurts that he can't help her, that he can't push her forward just that much faster. he sees her shove the woman over, watches her run, and then-

the floor shakes from the proximity, and then the memory ends. sam comes to with a groan, if only from the splitting, angry, overwhelming pain that shoots through him. but he is back, it seems. back from wherever it is they go when they see it. he reaches out to steady himself more than anything else, his hand finding and gripping onto julie's arm, his other he presses to his temple, grinding his teeth in an effort to push through the sharpest part of it. ]

J-Julie? [ nausea swells in reaction to the pain, but sam swallows it back. steadies himself. he's in the inn, mag's inn, he'd been heading down the hallway to check on her and- ] Fuck.

[princessvegas]

[ Back in reality, Julie has her hands on either side of his face, her brows furrowed deeply with concern. There's nothing she can actually do to help, just wait, and it's clearly a major frustration to her. She's not a person who does nothing; she may not always make the right call, and sometimes her call is to just go find someone to take care of the problem for her, but she always does something. But all she can do right now is just hold on until it's over.

Sam seems to come back into himself, albeit shaky, and she gasps with relief, her eyes searching his face. ] Sam, oh my god, are you okay? I'm so sorry, whatever you saw, I am so sorry.

[ She really is. It isn't that she has no good memories -- she does, of course. But nothing looms as large as the horrible things she's seen, lived through. Even Nadine, a woman from the exact same world and timeline, had been upset by Julie's memories. Julie doesn't really expect anyone else to see anything better. ]

[falcony]

[ he tries to shake her head to wave off her concern, but the movement ends up spiking something awful through his temple, and he needs another second to work through it. it's getting easier, and he no longer feels like he's attached to that place, to that hotel. though part of him can still hear flagg's voice echoing somewhere in the back of his head, each passing second is more grounding than the last. ]

No, it's okay, you're fine- [ she's apologizing, and from what she's told him about her life, what he's just seen. but sam is still trying to put it all together - the speech, the lightning, the warhead. he blinks, his vision steadying as seconds pass, and then he's lifting his head back to her. ]

I'm okay, really. It was- shit. A hotel? And Flagg, and lightning. You-

[ it clicks for him, then. the strikes of lightning, the way the crowd ran. the suddenness of the end of the memory. his eyes widen a bit as he's looking at her, his hands where they're holding her for balance tightening.

his stomach turns. ]

Oh Julie...

[princessvegas]

[ She keeps hold of his face, trying to stop him from shaking his head, or at least minimize the movement. Sam mentioning the hotel and Flagg don't particularly strike her as off, given how large a part they played in the last months of her life, but when he says the word lightning, there's a shift in her demeanor.

She blanches pale white, releases him as if he's burned her hands. Her face is blank, not hurt or angry or anything else specific except perhaps slightly scared; her stomach goes tight and she loses the breath in her lungs.

He looks at her and she can't bear it, cannot bear that fucking pity in his gaze, his voice, the way he says her name. She doesn't want that, doesn't want anyone to think of her as a wretched, poor little broken bird that they need to put of its misery.

Especially not Sam.

Inside, she suddenly feels sort of hollow, like there's an echo inside of her. She can't formulate any real words or responses to him. Instead, she just takes a large step backwards over the threshold. Closes the door. Locks it. Walks into the kitchen and pours another drink. ]

[falcony]

[ he doesn't mean it, not like that, but the reaction comes from his gut - knowing how she'd reacted when lloyd had disappeared, the honest fear she has about her own connection to the singularity. and now that sam has seen what she's remembering, now that he knows what it is she knows, he gets it. and it hurts.

but what julie sees in his reaction he doesn't realize until it's too late - pity that he hadn't meant, at least not in that way, except it doesn't really matter what he means when julie sees his reaction and jerks away. pulls back and before sam can even really gather his bearings through the pain of the headache, closes the door and locks it. all while he stands there, still trying to catch up. ]

Shit- [ sam curses out when he's finally caught up, reaching for the door to find it locked (he knew it was locked) and knocking, hard, against the wood. his temple throbs, but that doesn't matter. ]

Julie! [ he knocks again, no answer. tries a couple more times. ] Julie, come on, I'm sorry. I didn't mean- [ he winces again, the throbbing in his head somehow worse, before he sighs and pulls away from the door. waits for just a few more moments to see if she'll answer, even if it's just to tell him to fuck off.

if she doesn't, he'll head back to his own room, but he has to make sure before he leaves. ]

[princessvegas]

[ There's no response. She doesn't come back to the door. Instead, she just stands in the kitchen, leaning over the counter, hand curled around a glass. Listens to him bang on the door and call for her as she silently drinks.

She doesn't have anything to say. What is there to say? Julie had never had a shot at living in the post-superflu world -- she knows that now. The witch didn't want her, and whatever came after Flagg was determined to take out everyone around him, too. She would have eaten a bullet if she'd stayed in the warehouse all alone forever. It was always her destiny to die.

It had been two months before her twenty-third birthday. She doesn't know how old she actually is now; time doesn't seem to mean very much anymore.

Nothing that Sam can say will change any of it, will make it any better. All that will happen now is that he'll see her as the pathetic, lost little girl she died as, desperate to not be alone and punished for it, the same one who still cries under her bed during thunderstorms even in a totally different world.

The neck of the bottle clinks on her glass when she pours again. ]