abraxaslogs | EVENT #10: AFFLICTION

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EVENT #10: AFFLICTION - IC POST

Event #10 - Affliction

go to the OOC event info & plotting post

With tensions heavy across Abraxas and all the destruction that's happened, it's no surprise that the dark shadows which sweep over the land go unnoticed...at first.

Winds initially stir in Solvunn, where the influence of the Old Gods remains the strongest. Slowly each Herald infects Thorne and the Free Cities, as well. The Summoned are the first to feel its effects and are the most heavily impacted.

Though no one will realize it until well afterwards, Nocwich remains unaffected. After all, the Summoned don't reside there.

NOTE: This event will deal with themes of death (people and animal) and horror imagery.

Emergence

It begins sometime in mid-October, around the 18th. Not everyone will experience it at the same time. You might even believe you're spared until days afterwards when you're visited by an unusually vivid dream.

The dream starts the same for everyone: you are going somewhere, anywhere, walking to your bedroom or enjoying a stroll on the beach. You might be driving down a familiar neighborhood. Wherever you're headed, you eventually come upon a stone tablet engraved with your Arcana. Laid on the tablet are three objects:

◎ A dead moth trapped inside a wilted rose, symbolizing Koth of Festering Lands
◎ A teacup inside which sits a single nightshade berry, symbolizing Adlewyrd of Poisoned Tongues
◎ An ornate cracked hand mirror that contains no reflection, symbolizing Sannleikr of Many Faces

Make a choice. Something inside your soul will be drawn towards one of the objects. Maybe you spend hours in the dream deliberating, but sooner or later, you'll pick one of the items up. The moment you do, the other objects vanish and the chosen Herald appears before you. Where one might expect a god to seek subservience, the strange figure instead extends a friendly hand towards you - as though it's greeting you as an equal.

Whispered around you, you hear its name. Then it fades and with it the dream. You awaken.

Affliction

You go about your day as usual. That's when you realize something isn't right. Creatures and people around you behave strangely. You begin to sense that you are the cause.

Depending on your chosen Herald, you'll experience at least one of its afflictions. The effects might start small, then grow. They might rush you all at once. You can't shake what haunts you, though you can try. Spells, potions, and willpower can help keep the afflictions at bay but you won't ever be completely free.

As the afflictions seep into your mind, you start to find shadows of it following you: a dead moth here, a nightshade bloom there, a cracked mirror elsewhere. You may even wonder if it's following you in the first place. What if instead, you are the one leaving these signs behind?

Corruption

The first time you inflict your ability on someone else, you don't mean to. It might be a stranger, some unsuspecting soul, or it might be another Summoned. Regardless, the afflictions that ail you seem to spread through you into another. Someone falls down as if in the throes of an invisible death or secrets spill. You brush by someone and they're suddenly upset and confused.

The more this happens, intentionally or not, the better you feel. You may grow full of life and energy, gain a renewed strength of heart, or radiate a charm that turns heads and garners compliments. The afflictions haunting you could even start to fade or completely vanish. And if you use your newfound power deliberately? You'll feel better even faster for longer. Of course, these boons are temporary, lasting at most an hour or so. When the feeling wanes, you might miss having it.

You are not possessed. You can't control this power that spreads through you, but how you respond or behave is up to you. You could be attracted to the allure of power, enjoy the boons you are granted, or realize you can gain relief from your afflictions if you choose a victim. Not everyone will fall headfirst into the pull. Some are not easily swayed by power, some struggle to overcome their dark impulses, and others would rather endure their suffering than inflict it on someone else. But others still might succumb to temptation and turn on those around them with purpose: once, twice, multiple times. The choice you make is yours alone.

Blight

With the call of the Herald at your fingertips, the world around you twists. No one knows whether this stems from you and your newly imbued afflictions, or if the Heralds are exerting power on their own. It's for sure easier to think of what occurs as the influence of something monstrous beyond your control. No matter the cause, the earth is changed all the same.

Omens

The omens arrive shortly after the initial Summoned receive their dreams, but they don't come to every faction at once. SOLVUNN is first, being home to the Old Gods' shrines, before THORNE and the FREE CITIES follow only days afterwards. Depending on where you are, the omens will affect things a bit differently.

Solvunn

In Solvunn, the ground stirs. A desiccated hand breaks through the grass, a cloven hoof. Human or animal, they crawl forth, animated against their will. Some might attack, but most do not. At the same time, crops around the settlements begin to fail. Some chickens lay rotten eggs while cows produce spoiled milk. Any livestock that perishes overnight will surface in the mornings with empty eye sockets - pecked out by crows or gnawed on by rats. From a distance, the ocean can be seen bubbling as leviathans beneath thrash.

Worth noting is that many of the dead are concentrated around the shrines, especially the ones deep in the woods. They're too decayed to recognize, and some might not even move from the site, as though they are waiting for the earth to take them again...or as though they once chose to give up their life at this very spot.

Summoned can assist by helping to cast spells or place warding charms around shrines, farms, and gardens to protect crops and livestock. As a commune, the Solvunnites will share their resources as much as possible and would appreciate those who might lend a hand bringing supplies, herbs, and offerings to neighbors who are lacking. The Summoned can also brew a common herbal remedy to aid any animals who have fallen ill or to help purify the well water.

Free Cities

In Libertas, the dead buried under the rubble dig themselves out. More crawl forth from graves in Cadens' cemeteries. Beasts and bandits slain in the desert wilds rise, hungry or searching for the ones who killed them. At the same time, dead fish wash up onto the shores of Aquila while birds fall dead from their perch, dropping like flies from an unknown illness. Vultures and other scavengers begin to prey upon the eyes of the dead, leaving behind hollowed-out corpses.

Worth noting is that in the Badlands, a few very old and skeletal corpses rise with a metal plate or two screwed onto their bones, which are also oddly elongated. Only one or two make their way near the city. The army is quick to dispose of them before many can notice. They will not disclose any information about this and will claim these are just monsters like anything else.

Summoned can assist by going on patrol with the soldiers to put down any risen dead. Merchant caravans are also hiring escorts for their journeys. Additionally, they can help look through any received supplies and packages to make sure the food isn't rotting or worse, use a special dissolving compound to purify the waters, and donate staple food items to refugees and the less fortunate who can't afford the rising prices.

Thorne

In Thorne, the dead emerge only from the outskirts of the castle city. Thanks to information from one of their Summoned and their recent monitoring of the Singularity, Thorne was able to act swiftly and was able to ward any royal or otherwise significant burial sites. Graves and tombs of less importance, though, will not be protected in the same way. There are fewer encounters with eyeless corpses, though some animals might appear outside the castle in such a state. Normally extravagant dishes from the Castle's kitchens use simpler ingredients as they struggle to ration their food stores.

Worth noting is that a few unexpected corpses make their way up from deep under the castle in places beyond the dungeons. These are twisted and mangled, missing limbs, heads, fingers. The castle guards are quick to dispose of them before they get too far into the rest of the castle, but one or two may be spotted.

Summoned can assist by contributing to the wards around Castle Thorne and the city, using spells to put down the dead without mangling the corpse, and taking inventory of food stores. Further, in Nott the situation is more dire for anyone who is traveling there to continue assisting with repairs following the attack. Nott will welcome help with any problems caused by the omens. It'll be clear the kingdom has neglected the city somewhat. Thorne will claim the Castle takes priority, of course, due to King and Queen residing there along with the entire royal court.

Apprehensions

Across the factions, locals are beginning to catch on that something isn't right with you, the Summoned. No one will say it outright, but there's an air of caution and wariness around you where you go. Merchants might be quick to hand you your wares so you'll leave or locals give you a bit of space when they walk by. Chatty innkeepers are more reluctant to hold lengthy conversations.

Much of the time, it may not be conscious. The natives might simply sense something off that instinctually makes them want to put some distance between them and you. The only exception? If you've chosen Sannleikr of Many Faces, you'll continue to exude your charm towards people you encounter. At least for as long as you continue to inflict that ability you've been gifted.

Displacement

Everyone responds differently while in the Horizon. You might exert better willpower over your afflictions or you might feel its effects more strongly. It all depends on the individual and their mindset. Regardless, the Heralds are only one part of the equation. There's a much bigger disturbance going on.

It could happen as soon as you enter or it might be as you're stepping over the threshold into another's domain. Whatever the case, you are suddenly not where you're supposed to be. Instead, you're in one of two places depending: transported into a domain you never meant to go into or in a foreign setting altogether.

Visitation

Whether you're the one transported or someone teleports unexpectedly into your space, the Horizon becomes unpredictable for the next little while. Rooms normally locked to strangers, areas you yourself may not even realize exists - you and your fellow Summoned continue to pop in and out despite your intentions.

The effect isn't painful, just disorienting, like missing a step you didn't see or stumbling through a door into a too-bright room. The person whose domain you've inadvertently visited might sense an unwanted presence, whether they're inside the Horizon or not, or they may be completely oblivious. This will depend on the strength of their connection to the Singularity and the Horizon.

Not to worry. You won't be trapped or anything in these cases...unless the domain you land in happens to seal from the inside. You might stumble on secrets you weren't meant to find, though, locked away in someone else's mind.

Ensnared

The less fortunate will be pulled into a space that they've never encountered before. The bizarreness of it resembles the glitchy visions that flashed through a few months ago, but rather than an image flickering by, you are now inside the space itself.

Trapped between minutes to hours, you can't use the Horizon's creation magic as normal. Attempts will falter or go sideways: trying to fly out might cause you to tumble, tools and objects are broken or not quite right, wounds don't vanish or heal completely, etc. More significantly, you can't seem to send or receive messages through your connection. Anything that manages to come through will be garbled and distorted. It's as though the place you are in is just out of the reach of your control.

Luckily, you may not be alone. Someone else may have gotten lost alongside you. They might already be there when you stumble through or they might arrive after you do. They might even fade out sooner than you, unintentionally leaving you behind.

Eventually, you'll be released back into the Horizon proper, spat out in a random place in the Horizon. While you're stuck, though, you can try to survive, explore, sit and wait it out, or make friends with your fellow trapped partner. Each area has its challenges and quirks that you'll need to deal with.

Scenes to Explore

JUSTICE ◎
FULL IMAGE

High in the clouds, these snowy peaks are as cold as they look. Giant marble hands reach out, though their sheer scale means you might not recognize them as hands from up close. You can scale the mountain, but if you try to go down, the hands will flip the mountain, which sends you tumbling to the top again.

It's up to you whether you can be injured when you fall. Maybe the snow will feel like marshmallows, or you'll break a bone on the jagged rocks. No two experiences are the same. If you have a partner, they could end up faring better than you despite being in the same place.

Conjure some warm clothes or a log cabin even if you wish - they might not manifest perfectly, but it'll be better than nothing. At least the view's fairly nice...while the sun is up. A blizzard will come through by nightfall. With it arrives a strange hovering light that entices you or your friend to follow it into the frozen darkness. What draws you out depends on you. It could be a familiar voice, an image, or a simple compulsion. If you're lucky, the person with you is unaffected and can try to stop you. Or maybe you're the one desperately chasing after the other person?

THE CHARIOT ◎
FULL IMAGE

From a distance, it's hard to tell if they're shipping containers or houses stacked atop each other. A gooey mess covers the ground below. Oddly, the smell isn't as unpleasant as the goo looks. It smells like bubblegum or cotton candy, artificial and sweet. When you first fall in, you might land inside one of the homes, on top of the stacked structure, or the ground. You can try to reach anyone else who's there with you, but be careful: the ooze is spreading. Climb if you must or move from room to room. If you don't keep moving, you risk getting sucked into its sticky mass.

Each block of a home is different. Some are furnished, whereas others are empty or filled with strange knickknacks. Some might even have subconscious creations spawned by you. Keep ahead of the gloopy substance, and you'll be fine, probably. Or you can try to fight it back or block its path by sealing yourself in a room or otherwise, which can slow it down significantly. Mostly, you'll have to hope you fade out before the pink mass completely consumes the landscape.

THE WORLD ◎
FULL IMAGE

The hazy neon glow obscures a nothingness that seems to extend forever. In the middle of the wet ground are several stacked television sets with wires plugged into nothing. Inexplicably, there's also a cat. At first, it appears perfectly normal, but keen observers will notice that its behavior is on a loop where it will walk a certain path, pause at specific intervals to lick its paws, and meow at set points. It does not acknowledge any of its intruders. You can break its loop by picking it up, at which point it'll go limp as a ragdoll. As soon as you set it down, it'll resume its actions as before.

While you can see the same images as someone else on the screens, it's also possible you'll each see something different despite being in the room together. What you see is up to you. It could be an old fuzzy movie, home videos of your childhood, trivia questions you have to answer correctly, or even a memory or vision you wouldn't want to share. Words or faces taunting you could appear between staticky flickers, or maybe your very thoughts are projected onto the screens for anyone with you to read.

Break the televisions if you want, but given a few short minutes, they'll reform between one blink and the next. Looks like you'll have to keep watching until you're released.

THE FOOL ◎
FULL IMAGE

Sprawling and massive, you're unlikely to recognize at first that you're trapped in a labyrinth. Stone walls rise around you, and your surroundings are pitchblack. Manifest a torch or a flashlight if you can, though these will be prone to going out at inopportune times. Escaping over the walls will only send you into another section in the maze.

As you navigate the twisting corridors, you'll encounter any variety of trials and troubles: gaps in the ground, spiked traps, haunting whispers, monsters, decaying corpses. Some of these might've formed from your mind, others might've spawned from anyone else who's trapped with you.

If you aren't alone, do your best to locate your fellow Summoned. Voices do carry and echo over the walls, and there could be landmarks that help you find each other. Finding the exit, however, is another matter. Walk and climb all you want. A way out is impossible until the Horizon chooses to set you free.

Players can pick any scenario that interests them from the four choices above. Unlike the visions from before, characters can accidentally be trapped in as many of the scenes as you want, as many times as you want. Another option is that they can stay trapped in only one scene while a variety of characters fade in and out to join them, or some combination of the two. Choose what works best for your plans.

Each scene will once again carry an associated Arcana etched somewhere inside it, which can change from person to person or instance to instance. It might be on a wall, a table, or on the ground. Characters with a stronger connection to the Horizon are likely to be trapped for longer but the extent of this is your choice and it won't ever exceed a few hours. It's also your choice whether the afflictions continue to haunt them or not. If you want characters to deal with both problems while stuck together, you're welcome to!

Generally speaking, there are no restrictions other than that they won't be able to communicate with anyone outside the area, they can't escape it until the Horizon chooses to release them, and their creation magic will go wrong just enough that it'll make things tricky.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Took me a while, too."

No shame in admitting that. Even as Garrus approaches the man with the slightest of swaggers he can't really subdue. The proud little cant of his head is harder to keep under wraps. It was a good shot. But there's no real shame in trying to figure out a new weapon.

He looks down, still holding the crossbow at the ready. Just in case. You never knew when the husks would pop back up, after all. It made sense that these organic corpses would follow the same pattern, didn't it? Or maybe they were different, without Reaper tech to spur them on. "Practice makes perfect. And it looks like we're getting a lot of practice."

This corpse may be grounded. But more were out there. However, for the moment, they have some breathing room. He shifts the crossbow to one hand, and offers his newly freed one out to the man. "Garrus Vakarian," he says, by way of greeting.

A while or not - he's still impressed. Rightfully, he thinks, since while most of their opponents, so to speak, aren't especially quick on their feet (or what's left of them in some cases), it's still a moving shape and that requires both extra and extra quick calculation for said shots. The mention of practice being easy to come by gets a bit of a wry smile from Claude. "More practice that we could've ever hoped for, given I didn't realize how many cemeteries are around here. Or just a short walk from the streets, whichever it turns out to be."

Something the other likely knows if he's also been out on patrols, so that's just restating the obvious. All the better to take the hand offered to him for a hearty handshake in return. "Claude von Riegan, nice to meet you. I'm not sure we've met before."

Or if they have, it was quick and in passing, and he's discovered there's still plenty of others he's yet to have met properly. Claude's interest is caught more on that crossbow, something still a bit of a novelty to him as might be surmised from the standard bow in his own hands. "Is the crossbow your preferred weapon, then? They're something rather new to me since arriving here, so I haven't had much practice using them."

"Tell me about it," he mutters, with a dissatisfied little flick of mandible. "Apparently, it can even get worse, if you can believe it." If what Himeka said was true. Fighting dead bodies was, in some ways, easier than "ghosties", as she'd put it. But eventually, a cemetery had to run out of bodies, didn't it?

Would there be skeletons next? Once the more fleshy corpses ran out? How the hell did you kill a skeleton?

The handshake is quick, simple. Any kind of grip posturing has always been lost on Garrus - it's a human thing he doesn't understand. "Probably not. I hear I've got a memorable face. Probably the scars and all." Oh he's hilarious.

He glances down at the crossbow with a frown. "No, but I guess rifles don't exist here. So I'm making the best of it."

Whatever 'worse' is relative to the dead coming back to life to roam: Claude's pretty sure he doesn't want to know what it is. Easier then to give a short laugh over the face commentary since, well, he's not wrong about that. But the weaponry is something Claude finds more interesting for now, and at the mention of rifle it takes him a second to place it in his recently learned firearms terms. The one he knows doesn't particularly match what he was shown. Or so he thinks; there had been a lot of guns.

"I take it the ones you know might be more like the ones Shepard has, if you've been to her shooting range?" In his limited timeline built of where worlds fall based on what he's heard from Summoned, Shepard seems to win the first place prize for being farthest in the future. "Mostly because the only guns I'd ever seen before heading there were Jesper's revolvers, and they're not--"

No time to finish that thought since a sizeable group of shuffling corpses come around the nearest corner. Because of course they do - they're supposed to be on a mission here and not hang around talking. Fortunately none of them are particularly fast moving so there's not too much of being caught off-guard. As he lifts his bow and tests the string's tension while nocking an arrow, Claude shoots a glance Garrus's direction. "Any chance you want to make this interesting and see who can take out more of them first?"

Sure, he's going up against a crossbow here, but Claude's confident in his own bow skills from having to launch many a rapid-fire attack himself. And he could use the slight distraction from what they're actually doing by making it a competition... sort of.

No, no one needs to hear about "worse" beyond what Himeka had warned about. Ghosts seemed doable with the tech they had here, but if Husks ever made their way into this world? The people were probably screwed. No need to think about that now, though. Not with the task at hand. If you got distracted, you got casualties, even if it was just a patrol through shambling bodies.

The mention of Shepard has him grinning - a lopsided flare of mandible. "You could say that," he drawls. "We serve on the same ship. Same war." Shepard had also done way more with her whole Horizon deal than Garrus had, but he's not at all surprised by the fact. While he had his forward battery, she had far more detail, far more gaps filled in. Fitting, for someone who could crush people with her brain. "So, yeah. I've been around her area of things once or twice."

Movement pricks his attention about the same time it does Claude's, and Garrus has the crossbow lifted in a beat of time. Disable the legs, go for the head. Nice and methodical - nice and distant. Just the way he prefers things.

Honestly, if he had eyebrows to arch, he would. "Winner buys a round?" he suggests, without so much as taking his eye off the sights. Off the enemy.

Same ship and same war. That certainly gets Claude's attention so while he'd been readying his bow, a glance communicating that interest is sent Garrus's direction before he turns it back to which shot to take first. He'll have to place a bookmark in that for later since it falls under his curiosity about other worlds but now's no time for a proper discussion about it.

Especially not when Garrus suggests making it a proper competition with a round at the end - Claude immediately grins both at his suggestion being taken up and turned into something better. "Count me in. You'll have to let me know what your favorite drink is so I can buy it then." Cheekily and more out of confidence than anything intended to be arrogance even after seeing that skill with the crossbow only a few moments ago. A good opponent just makes testing each other's skills that much better in his opinion.

All the more reason to let an arrow loose into the knee of one corpse on the fringe of the group followed by another quick shot into where an eye might've once been when whoever it was wasn't, well, dead, and down they go. That's one out of many, and to make sure there's plenty of space for them both when it comes to aiming, Claude takes a few steps to the side while taking his next shot. No need to accidentally interfere with each other when they really do have an important task outside of keeping count for those drinks.

"Better yet, you point out yours so I can buy two."

If one of them is going to boast about winning, so can the other. It's not actually a bad idea, though, all things considered. Hell if he knows what's good to drink here. Besides water, obviously. That conversation can happen later, though. Banter is one thing, thinking about your relaxation order in the middle of a mission is another.

A far more dangerous one.

Kneecap - head - quick succession. Only as long as it takes to reload between the two shots. Disable, kill. Disable, kill. Normally, he'd just go for the headshots, quick and clean, but with these things? If their nervous systems, their brains, weren't actually functional, disabling them was almost just as good. At least, squirming on the ground, they were easier to dispatch at closer range. They'd pose less danger to people, this way.

That is better, and the quick grin he flashes over his shoulder in Garrus' direction hopefully confirms as much. Though he's confident in his own abilities Claude also isn't interested in being a distraction when they have enough of them present in the dead shuffling towards them.

Better to continue nocking one arrow after another; better to keep the dead mostly organized in the sense of not letting them wander away. A couple who seem to have the idea of wandering off also get taken down to the ground in no time at all, and Claude wheels around when there's a disturbance of air far too close to him.

He hadn't noticed stepping forward while taking his shots but it seems he was the target of a missed blow, on the fortunate side of fate for the owner of the decomposing arm to have the best aim. Just a matter of darting away to relatively safer ground to add this one to his count, and a good chance to check in with Garrus as the crowd grows smaller and smaller. "You doing alright over there still?"

This is way too damn close for comfort. He's a sniper. Everything is supposed to be a nice, comfortable distance away. That's how he operates. That's his job, his role. He's not an up-close fighter. That's for Tali or the mass of biotics in their ranks.

Add to that, the slow rate of fire and reload for this damned archaic weapon, the sheer numbers of the corpses... he's not going to be able to hold position and fire like he's used to. He'll have to back up.

"Not used to this front-ranks fighting!"

Even as he says it, he shifts the crossbow, to brain the nearest corpse with the butt of the weapon. It crumples, drops.

"You?"

The response he gets is enough for mild alarm, the kind meant as concern for a battlefield companion rather than anything close to panic and alarm that serves as a warning about changing tactics. Claude spares as much of a glance as he can in the other's direction after firing yet another shot, then nimbly weaves around the shambling masses from where he's posted himself to get closer to his patrol partner.

"Not terrible, but I'm used to being on frontlines," he answers when he's closer, and now in between arrows Claude's scanning for somewhere to move to. If it could be slightly elevated that'd be ideal, though there's no balconies or even terraces for them to fall back towards that he can see. This open area - convenient as it is to avoid striking anything they shouldn't - is working against them.

From there it's an easy slip back into a commander's role, mind working through what tactics they could enact without too much planning. What he wouldn't give for a wyvern though he'd settle for a horse at this point for the ability to maneuver with more speed, and neither of those are available now.

"Here," he says after spotting the storefront of a merchant he knows and who still has heavy tables set out front ready to be tipped over as a makeshift barricade, and he gestures to it with one hand. "If we regroup behind that, it'll put some needed distance between us and them and a better view of the situation than being in the middle of it."

Frontlines, sure, but not in the exact front. That was the place for their biotics and heavy hitters. He was a sniper, he preferred to be a nice distance from the oncoming hostiles - when possible. He didn't carry the assault rifles for show, after all. But that's back in his world, where crap makes sense, and the only walking dead are Husks.

On second thought, maybe that doesn't actually make a lot of sense.

His grip is hampered, somewhat, by the crossbow in one hand, but he gets his free hand around one of the nearest corpse's wrists. A simple, rapid twist. It should be pinned in a better position to throw an elbow in its face - or... or the arm could just break off. Right there at the elbow. Garrus looks down at the limb. The corpse looks down at the limb.

He throws it in the corpse's face, and high-tails it in the direction of Claude's voice. When in doubt, distraction, and tactical retreat.

"Got it in sight! I'm with you!"

The sight of the arm breaking off is enough to make Claude pause where he is despite being ready to take off in the direction he's pointed out, though he recovers from being startled when Garrus confirms their plan. That's enough to get him moving with the mental note to avoid touching the corpses, something he'd already planned on, but it never hurts to have further confirmation of that.

It's a short jog to where the tables are and given that both of them are faster than the advancing dead, he feels safe enough to set his bow down safely out of the way to grab one end of the table with a nod to Garrus to take the other if he can to create their makeshift barricade. He'll probably have to apologize to this particular merchant next time he shows up for work, but maybe the man will understand.

"I figured that this way we get the benefit of both a little cover and some added range," he explains even if the plan's probably clear enough. "Distance tends to work a little better for bows though that goes without saying, really, but now we can also appraise what's approaching us."

And speaking of that - once they're settled, Claude grabs his bow and readies it again though now he blinks in slight surprise when it seems like there's much fewer corpses standing. "Did... we take more down already than I realized? I have a running count, but." Well. No matter; that can be figured out later. Better get back to firing arrows.

The whole arm incident was a surprise, to say the least. But it helped? Sort of. At least that was one corpse that was going to have a harder time grabbing onto unfortunate people. Right? Nah, he'll count that as a win. Especially in terms of a contest.

He has to match his stride to Claude's - not that unusual, considering he has to do that for most humans - so they're even when they hit the tables. A quick glance over to what Claude's doing, plus the nod, and he's shoving another table into place as a barricade. That makes two of them apologizing - if Garrus ever meets the person running this particular stall. Shop. Whatever it is.

"Range, I can work with." He's scooped his crossbow back up. Tracking the movements of the corpses. THWACK - one of them takes a bolt through the brain. "More time to pick your targets. Smart move."

The question gives Garrus pause too. He had his own count, sure, but not a grand total. It does seem like they're thinning out... "Think the wave's dying down?"

Garrus gets a nod at the smart move comment, mostly because Claude's relieved this was a good move for both of them. And as the other resumes shooting, all those bolts hit true. Range will work out nicely for both of them.

Even if now being at a range doesn't quite explain the feeling Claude has about there having been more corpses around originally than there seem to be now. Something which works out in their favor when the job's to take them out, but he offers Garrus a quick shake of his head. "It seems like it, but I could've sworn there were more a second ago. Guess we've taken down more of the group than we realized, huh?"

Hopefully. He's not eager to find out if this is some other illusion on top of the others he's been experiencing lately. That thought gets shoved firmly aside as he takes another shot and one more of the remaining bodies falls to the ground, and them having a clear (or clear enough) lead over their 'competition' is enough for Claude to sink back into a bit of banter now that things aren't quite so potentially dire. "You feel like sharing what your number is now, or are you gonna make me wait until they're all down?"

"Maybe we did." He trails off, sighting another corpse head and squeezing the trigger. "But, what's that human saying? Looking gift animals in the mouth?"

Maybe they shouldn't be looking at this gift animal too closely. Just accept it for now. Maybe some other squad had come up the rear to thin out the ranks from behind. It could happen. They're not the only ones out here, after all. That's hopefully all it is. But he's going to stay on his guard, just in case it isn't. Just in case they're being deceived somehow.

Another corpse falls. He runs a quick mental tally - "Depends. You want to plan ahead for drinks? Or be surprised and spontaneous?"

Either way, it's fine with him. He's pretty sure he's ahead. And if he had any idea of the reference, he'd say he's ahead forty-three to forty-two.

"Something like that, except specifically it's horses, pegasi, or wyverns you're not supposed to look in the mouth." In case that matters, but in reality it's Claude attempting (once more) to find if the latter two are common anywhere else except but where he's from. So far, it hasn't been successful.

That's just him getting slightly distracted now that things feel slightly less dire - or as less dire as they can be with the dead coming back to life since that's still a major factor in everything being awful. One more arrow through one corpse that'd managed to get up from the ground sends it back down, and he contemplates Garrus's question while reaching for his next, then thinks better of it and grabs a few arrows.

"You know, even with all of the spontaneous things we've been 'gifted' since getting here, I think I'll still take the element of surprise. For this much, anyway, since this comes with the guarantee of a drink no matter what happens."

A couple more quick shots and down goes one more body leaving only a scattered few left, and then something else important occurs to him. "In case we somehow end up tying since I suppose that's a possibility in all of this - one of us buys drinks, the other buys something to eat? Probably wouldn't hurt to offset whatever the drink is."

"Pega what?" He's not even going to question what the last one there is. It sounds like some alien thing anyway. It sounds like a conversation from Manae actually. Except then it had been fish in barrels. Why the hell were human idioms so weird? And so numerous?

A snort from Garrus' direction, in between the double thwack of arrows impacting corpses. If this is going to be his new weapon around here, then he'll need to look into bigger supplies of ammunition. No convenient heat sinks here, damn it.

"You're getting gifts? Damn, I'm already jealous." Another thwack, another downed corpse. "Starting to think this place has a thing against turians for all it's throwing my way." It's not really a serious complaint. Not in the least.

He pauses, for a moment, to consider that idea. "Smart man. I like that plan."

The mention of jealousy is unexpected after he goes back to focusing on a shot, and Claude's laughter is (unfortunately for him) timed with the exact moment he lets another arrow fly. That sends the arrow wide though he can't be too upset about it now that they have the situation rather firmly under control. "I'm not sure I actually want whatever the Singularity's gifting us, between this and the nightmares a while back. I would've settled for a better bow instead, or a sweater. Maybe a bottle of wine if it was feeling really fancy that day."

He's assuming the Singularity's behind all of this; it has to be, right? There's enough strange magic he's heard of from others that it makes sense. Well, as much as anything about these last few days makes any sense whatsoever.

Easier to grin at Garrus being in for the plan for a tie where everyone gets to win regardless in that case, and with a nod he gets back to their task at hand. Mostly; one part of that's sticking in his mind. Even though they're wrapping things up it still might not be the best time to chatter away, and yet -

"Only a couple left now. Wanna race to the end?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

EVENT #10: AFFLICTION - IC POST

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claude doesn't know this reference either but it is an EXCELLENT one

FINGERGUNS

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