beneath the black, the sky looks dead

[couldbeavoided]

WHO: THE VOID and YOU?
WHERE: Around the City and the Brooklyn Bridge
WHEN: Sunday, 8/2
WARNINGS: Violence, death, chaos
SUMMARY: The Sentry loses control.
FORMAT: Quick.


[ There was no abrupt revelation, no struggle; when Robert Reynolds had opened his eyes that day, the Sentry was simply nowhere to be found. He'd flown from the mansion into the sky, a poisonous oily creature wearing Bob's skin and the Sentry's clothes until even that began to shed. Red eyes and an aura like fire and toxic ash, sharp tendrils coiling out behind and around him like sentient shadows.

Years. Years here, trapped, ignored, denied. Bob was done fighting, and hurting; his mind went blank so that someone else could use his body to fight back. But it was his body, too -- the Void celebrated his freedom by flying into the sky, raising his arms and calling upon the sky to darken in deep reds and purples. Clouds collected and rain started pouring; he raised his face to the rain and smiled, before he dropped from the sky and flew cleanly through the Brooklyn Bridge. ]

Comments

CASUALTIES/DEATHS

[couldbeavoided]

( WHERE: Anywhere! Specify your location.
OPEN TO those who signed up here + Loki. Feel free to either start a new thread or get injured with your friends in an existing one (though I recommend asking first before doing so)!! It is okay for people not signed up to participate in threads as people being saved by or witnessing said casualties and deaths, but again, ask the thread-maker first. )

[ He was only getting started. He kept on flying, bringing the rain and the darkness with him; the tendrils that grew off his back like long smoky tentacles whipped out in every direction, striking at buildings and cars and getting fire to what they touched. He flew over the City, looking for anyone or anything to unleash pain upon. Bob had hurt. Everything else must, too. ]

open!

[ex_mostlyarmless446]

[Connors had been walking around the City almost every day: it gave him exercise and saved money on transportation. But, when the sky turned dark purple, Connors wished that he was in a car. As he saw the dark tendrils whip from the figure flying through the sky, he wished he was in a building. He dropped the drink that he was carrying and started to run, hoping to run away from the tendril behind him, but then-

-then he was in a hospital, slowly waking up to the smell of anesthesia and bleach. A doctor slowly came into view. Well, Mr. Connors, to be honest, it's a miracle you're alive. Most people don't survive at that radius. However, we do have some bad news. He knew what it was. His arm just wasn't there. He ws missing his arm. The doctor tried to smile and said something in a calm voice, but Curt was just so panicky, so distraught at the fact that his arm simply wasn't there anymore and-

-he was sitting at his desk, learning from a police officer that Richard Parker had died. Richard Parker, the only chance of him getting his arm back, the only chance for him to have a normal life, he had died. The crushing reality of the situation slowly came down on Connors and-

Curt Connors was lying on the sidewalk, curled up in a fetal position, screaming his head off.]

[couldbeavoided]

[ The torment sustained him; the Void let his tentacle stab Connors deeper and only smiled while he watched this man he didn't even know writhe in the grips of his darkest, deepest fears and traumas. Yes, suffer. His voice is cold, so cold, acidic but gentle. ]

It's all so hopeless, isn't it?

[ex_mostlyarmless446]

[There's a voice. Someone is talking to him. Someone who understands. It is hopeless-it always was. It always will be. Connors manages to stammer out a reply, through choked sobs, his throat tight from the screaming.]

It is. Oh God, it is.

[Open]

[wisecracked]

Like most things that went wrong in Kenzi's life she didn't see them coming. And this was just another thing to add to that list. One moment she was walking alone, minding her own business, practically lost in through with her headphones blaring in her ears and then--

She was that little girl again. That poor frightened little girl. Small hands banging on the closet door as she screamed and begged to be let out. Screaming until her throat grew sore. Her small frame bruised from the few times she threw herself against the door in an attempt to get it open. More often than not her hands would be bloody from constantly beating on the door.

But her deperate pleas always fell upon deaf ears.

Eventually she'd curl up in the corner and cry until she fell asleep, only then would the door be unlocked.

And just as quickly everything changed again.

The girl was older, on her own now. The streets were a cruel place for a young girl. She had learned that quickly enough.

The alley was dark, darker than she remembered it being. There was a knife at her throat and the jerkoff holding it had this creepy grin on his face. She didn't beg and plead with him to take the knife away, to please leave her alone. No, she'd learned long ago that begging never got you anything. Pleading would only make them laugh and likely make things worse.

She knew what he wanted and all she could do was let him have it. She couldn't fight back, no she valued her life too much for that. No, it wasn't pleasant. Far from it. And now she was reliving it all. Only it was like it was all slowed down. Like a movie that was suddenly playing out frame by frame. And she wasn't unable to just block it out like she had before. Every movement, touch, sound. All of it played out in full detail. Magnified.

As quickly as that came it changed again. This time it was something more recent. A brush with death that could have been avoided.

She was in pain. Her insides burned as the venom worked at breaking down her body. No matter how much pain killer was being pumped into her system it wasn't enough. She was feverish. Delusional. Loosing blood faster than they could keep it in her body.

She was dying.

And the only one that could save her might not not have the time. And the Fae, they couldn't save that Aswang and she was one of them. Why would they save some human? Dyson had left her side even though he'd promised not to.

She was alone and dying.

And then it was all over, as if someone had ripped the film right from the projector.

Left in the Void's wake was a small woman doubled over on the sidewalk retching up what little bit of food she had in her stomach. She was sobbing like a scared child and for the most part she was. At the moment she couldn't think straight, her mind was muddled by the memories that had resurfaced. She couldn't even tell if she was really on the sidewalk.

((im so sorry for the wall of text :[ ))

[couldbeavoided]

(I know this is short, but I hope you don't mind the response!)

The Void had passed her by, tendril swinging out like a scorpion's tail. She was so small, so sad, like all of them. Any of them. He hoped he had illuminated to her just how sad, how amusing her suffering was.

"Poor girl," was all he said, a quiet taunt that his storm would carry in her direction no matter how far away he was.

[invoking]

[ Gil had been quick to regret his decision to head out to the grocery store and pick up food he wanted to experiment with. He was halfway to his destination when the sky's color darkened ominously. Somewhere, he could hear the sound of cement crumbling. An explosion. Screaming.

His left hand began to tingle as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

The crowd around him grew uncomfortable fast, though they remained rooted to the sidewalk, trying to figure out what was going on. Gil stood among them, his throat feeling caught in someone's grip.

Something was terribly wrong. ]

[couldbeavoided]

[ The Void swooped low again, his tendrils fanned out like wings behind his cape. Wherever he went, darkness followed, and he hit the ground, landing on one knee like a knight, with enough force to ripple and crack the street under him. ]

We know you. [ He said: soft, cold, thoughtful. ] Don't we?

[centurybaby]

[ She couldn't call herself a protector of humanity if she didn't do anything. Sure, their little pissing contest on the Scottish countryside had been an entertaining act of rebellion, but Jenny Quantum was born for one thing-- to protect-- and like hell she was going to hide in outer space while this went down.

She'd made sure Striker and Quentin wouldn't follow her. That they'd be safe. Terry she'd brought-- immortality, fucking convenient at a time like this-- and Julian too, because unlike the others, he probably was the least likely to take no as an answer from her. Besides, three was more than enough, wasn't it? They all were stronger than any angry teenager should ever be.

Out on the street, Jenny wipes rain-soaked bangs from her face. They'd followed the trail of destruction, trying to catch up. She shouts out into the wreckage: ]

Where the fuck are you, asshole?

[hellionated]

[ Jenny was right. Julian wouldn't have stayed behind for this, wouldn't have let her go alone. He didn't know what was happening outside. This time there were no network posts warning about fighting, no one issuing any threats. This came from nowhere. Fire and darkness had spread across the sky. This wasn't some run of the mill attack on the City. This was something else, something bigger. He didn't know what Jenny imagined any of them could do about this, but finding the source seemed like a good start.

Whatever. He didn't want to be inside right now anyway. Not since Sofia left.

Again.

No, he couldn't think about that. Not now. He needed a distraction of any fucking kind, and tentacle rain definitely counted. God, tentacle rain. He looks up, trying to see through the darkness. If anything, it looks like the sky's getting worse. ]

This is fucking retarded. I can't see anything in this mess. It's starting from up there. I'm going closer. [ He raises a few feet in the air, surrounded by a glowing green aura that's muted by the darkness all around them. ] Any objections?

open like an open thing

[cawky]

[Davesprite had a lot of things on his mind, as of late. People were coming and going, a few of his friends had been experiencing trouble from the hellbus activity, in addition to his own usual issues. It was usualy easily brushed off with a candy bar or two, or a walk around the City.

He had been in the middle of both when the sky turned dark.

After what had happened last week, Davesprite wasn't about to sit idle. He turned to shift, the spirograph on his neck glowing to release his spriteform, taking off to the air. In that brief moment, he'd be struck from behind by one of those ominous tendrils, halting him in his tracks.

The world is a light with green fire, a platform that almost appears to exist in hell itself. Davesprite isn't alone, he's battered and beaten, bleeding a brilliant golden and missing a wing. He's trying to follow the movements of a creature that's too fast to keep an eye on, a creature with a black shell and the face of a dog, with great black wings that easily exceed 6 ft in length. The creature has a sword, and he's not shy about using it.

Dave isn't alone. The next time he's struck down, he struggles to get back up as he looks over just in time to watch a taller male with similar sunglasses get stabbed straight through the chest. Dave doesn't move again after that.

The sprite gasps sharply from the reality of the memory, glancing down to realize he's been impaled for a brief moment before another memory assaults him.

TG: thats it i cant take it anymore
TG: it was such a huge mistake prototyping seppucrow with this useless mindnumbing jackass
TG: im going back
TT: Already?
TG: what do you mean already shit took 4 goddamn months
TG: or something
TG: i dont know im kind of losing track of how long its been with all this time hopping

It hurts. The conversation is physically painful. It takes a lot of energy to just stay in the air.

TG: we cant finish the game with a dead heir and witch
TT: We don't know Jade is dead for sure.
TG: yeah well she had a big fucking meteor bearing down on her and we never heard from her again
TG: or the trolls for that matter
TG: after they tricked john into skipping way ahead and getting his ass handed to him by the denizen
TG: i guess once they managed to sabotage us they were done with us
TG: and since john died he couldnt get jade in on time so whether shes alive or not shes as good as dead from our perspective
TG: only thing left to do is change all that

He knows what comes next and he tries to banish the memory, or to struggle away from the tentacle. It lands him on the ground, but not before it finishes.

TT: After you go, what do you think will happen to me?
TT: Will I just cease to exist?
TG: i dont know
TG: i mean your whole timeline will
TG: maybe
TT: Maybe?
TT: Is there a chance it'll continue to exist, and I'll just be alone here forever?
TT: I'm not sure which outcome is more unsettling.
TG: the thing with time travel is
TG: you cant overthink it
TG: just roll with it and see what happens
TG: and above all try not to do anything retarded
TT: What do you think I should do?
TG: try going to sleep
TG: our dream selves kind of operate outside the normal time continuum i think
TG: so if part of you from this timelines going to persist thats probably the way to make it happen
TT: Ok.
TG: and hey you might even be able to help your past dream self wake up sooner without all that fuss you went through
TT: I think the true purpose of this game is to see how many qualifiers we can get to precede the word "self" and still understand what we're talking about.
TG: the true purpose is to make a sprite that doesnt make me want to flog myself raw with my own brain stew
TG: anything else is gravy
TT: If my past self can wake up sooner, maybe I'll be the one to visit you first this time.
TT: I'll fly by and remind you you're already awake and don't know it.
TG: yeah thatd be cool i guess
TG: im gonna go now
TT: Good luck.

What happens next is almost too hard to follow. A reversal of time, the merging with a bird and sword, and the erasure of life in general. The girl he had been speaking to, a blond the age of 13 with lavender colored eyes, fades to nonexistance with the rest of Davesprite's life as he leaps backward in time.

Dave had failed in his quest to stay in the air -- he wasn't sure if he had broken anything, but he knew he had to get up. Had to get up and fight off whatever was coming.

Thinking about that made it easier to forget the terror welling in his gut, the incredible urge to throw up on the sidewalk. It made him ignore the fact that he was shaking, that his glasses were slightly askew and that his bright red eyes had shrunken in fear.]

[couldbeavoided]

[ The Void's tentacle is sharp, like the stinger of some kind of insect it wrenches even deeper before it extracts itself, dripping with pain. The boy struggles, suffers, and every moment pleases the Void. ]

Hopeless. [ His voice is soft, musing, though cruel. ] To be all alone at the end of it all. Will anyone look for you?

[hiddles]

[Loki was in his tower, feeling quite satisfied. He'd have it, his escape! At last, at last. Tt wasn't as he dreamed it, but there is a human saying: any port in a storm.

He did not enjoy propping himself up on the crutch of another's power. But he took some satisfaction in the fact that he did not ask permission. The foolish mortal was a swirling cacophony of potential, and all Loki had to do was coax it out. It had been so simple, really. Yes, Loki leaned back in his old and wooden chair. All was going according to plan.]

[couldbeavoided]

[ The darkness loomed; it didn't take the Void long to locate Loki in all of the City, the Void could feel his power, his deceit, from a long way away. His tendrils fanned out menacingly. Loki -- the Void owed him thanks, perhaps, for allowing him power enough to break free of Bob's control. Yet at the same time, the Void despised being used. ]

Well hello there.

closed for kate kane

[futurebatwoman]

[ She hadn't meant to fight him. Evacuation had been the order of the day for her, enough sense in her to know that she didn't stand a chance against him. But that hadn't been good enough. She doesn't really remember most of what happened after she apparently caught his attention. It's all a blur, a panicked attempt to get away and the rather crushing failure to do so.

Crushing. Ha. Somehow that's funny, isn't that weird, kind of like how everything's cold except for the spots that feel like they're on fire. This feels like deja vu, dragging herself to sit against an alleyway wall with crippling pain battling every movement she makes. But she's lost her comm, lost the communications in her suit. It's just her this time. If she can get the suit off, get down to the t-shirt and pajama shorts she threw it on over, flag down someone. Someone not running away.

Everything's swimming. Her hand drops to land in water. Water? No, blood. Where did that come from? Ripped suit, that's why she's cold, she has to stop fragmenting and think clearly if she intends to get out of this. ]

[gevurah]

[ Not too far from Max, there's a roar of an engine. She drives fast, but manages to narrowly avoid any holes or broken parts of cement and steel strewn around the streets.

The thing that's doing this is out of her league, though she remains certain that the ensuing fight she overheard from above would stop him. It.

She stays focused on damage control and helping any stragglers. It looks like most of the area has been evacuated. She makes a sharp turn on her ride and that's when not just the smell of copper hits her, but the familiar blotch of red pooling on the side captures her attention completely.

And the tuft of pink hair.

And that bat sitting on her chest.

Kate bolts off her bike and makes her way to Max's side. She's glad her mask obscures her eyes and the emotions conveyed in them. ]

Stay with me, kid.

[demonspawn]

[ Terry really had meant to listen, for once, and stay put like Jenny had told him to. But the atmosphere was so charged with that unsettling tension of fear and confusion that he just couldn't stand still. He had goosebumps all up and down his arms, and a restlessness that was on the cusp of threatening his tightly wound control over his powers. He couldn't just stay there. He just couldn't.

Jenny and Julian would be fine. He'd never met two teenagers more confident in their own abilities.

So, he lasts all of ten minutes on Jenny's order to wait before he's turning on his heel and walking without even knowing exactly where he's headed. ]

[inspirefear]

[ Alex was lost in a midst of the chaos. He wanted to help, fight the monster that had killed his father but his powers weren't of much help and honestly he didn't have the strength to hold his own against it. That wasn't going to stop him, though. He had skills and he intended to use those skills to their max.

It so happens on Alex's way to go kick some Voidy ass, he runs into Terry, nearly bouncing off him and on to the ground. ]

Terry. [ Alex looks surprised to see him here ]

OPEN

[aliveandticking]

Aradia wasn't about to let a chance for action slip her by, not when things were starting to seem a little mundane here. Oh, a break was nice, and when you got right down to it teenage drama was easier to handle than the myriad threads of fate (most of the time), but in the back of her mind was the rising knowledge that she had things to take care of that definitely didn't have anything to do with this universe.

An enemy is an enemy, and a purpose is a purpose, so she ran against fleeing bystanders, trying to get closer to the center of this thing. She stopped on a street corner, looking left and right up towards the sky to try and find the source, and that's when it hit her in the back-- the same sense of doom that she had lived with for sweeps, all the more crisp and urgent with the relief that a few perigees had brought. Where does she get off?! First she totally goes out of line with Tavros, and now she's trying to get a rise out of everyone else? Nuh-uh. Aradia won't forgive her, and what's more, she'll make sure she gets what's coming to her.

First though, she has to check. Vriska doesn't talk to Sollux much, but maybe she's done something to him, too. If he really did come all this way, maybe Vriska hurt him somehow too, and sent him to Aradia's hive just to get on her nerves. Ooh, she has so got it coming to her!!

He's in the sky after all, floating with his psiionics. "Sollux?" There's relief at first that he's not bleeding or missing any limbs, but something... something about the look in his eyes isn't right.

And then there is blue, and red, and white-hot pain.

[couldbeavoided]

The Void stabs the tendril deeper, watching the girl become overcome with her past pains and torments. He doesn't know her -- he doesn't know most of them -- but their suffering still satisfies him. It doesn't matter, really, who it it. The Sentry would have protected this little girl, regardless.

The tendril coiled about, unrelenting.

TAKE DOWN

[couldbeavoided]

( OPEN TO those who signed up here + Midnighter. Obviously, the Void dies in conclusion! )

[ He barely felt, noticed, saw any blood on his hands. His victims hadn't been enough; he circled the sky again, admiring what he had done so far and raising his arms to let the thunder roar louder, the rain pour harder. With dull recognition he consider that he might not be satisfied with anything less than the entire City in flames, and he dropped low again, shooting down over the East river toward the City again. ]

[symmachy]

[Scathach didn't step into the affairs of humans often. Not unless she was asked. Jack was usually the one who did the asking, and that was fine. She liked him, cared for him, even. He was an ally, a friend.

But to step in of her own accord? It was nearly unheard of.

But losing Cassie had been such a hard blow. She'd had so much pent up frustration (yes, she knew what it was, that it was what she should have been feeling), and needed an outlet. A direct attack on the City was the perfect opportunity, as far as she was concerned. She had only her nunchaku and short swords with her, dressed in all white as was her habit. And she ran to the bridge, knowing that it was her best bet for taking him down as quickly as possible. There would be others, but she wanted her shot first. Scathach knew, after so long in the City, that she wasn't as strong as she should have been. But it could be enough.

She hated the rain, of course, but could ignore it for the first part. When she saw him, The Warrior Maid let out a loud whistle to catch his attention.]

[dupable]

[ You can't have a friend who goes completely out of her mind and sprouts dark tentacles and makes literal pieces of darkness rain out of the sky without knowing that something bad went down when you see the sky mess up like it has.

Of course, you don't really need to have a friend like that in the first place to realize that something bad has happened. You don't even need to have lived in the City where things go wrong often to realize that ominous color and rain is probably a dangerous thing.

Then there was the whole attack on the bridge itself as well as the other victims, so really, it didn't take a genius to realize that someone here needed to be stopped.

Unfortunately, it looked like John wasn't the first person on the scene, judging from the lady in the white outfit and weaponry who was whistling to get the attention of a man who's appearance sort of screamed out 'culprit behind it all' in John's opinion.

So he zooms through the air towards her, hoping that if he doesn't get there first, at least she really is as capable of handling herself as she looks. ]

oh good i'm only an entire week late sob

[bringerofwar]

[ Midnighter wasn't thinking very straight. Because Jenny. She died and he felt it, the Carrier felt it. He even recognized it; his daughter dies on him just a bit too often.

It doesn't take long to figure out how, even from space, even while only half-aware of what he's doing. The City is the first place he checks, the first place he can get the Carrier to focus on, and everyone's making a pretty big ruckus while fighting Bob.

He hits the armory first; luckily for him, the computer in his head thinks tactically with or without his input, and he pulls a sonic weapon. The thing about invulnerable powersets is that they tend to come with super-enhanced hearing, and he's gambling on it. Not that he's not without contingencies; at this point, he doesn't care if he has to take out half the City with the Carrier's laser canons to take the Void out.

Because Jenny's gone, and she's the only one that mattered. ]

nahhhhhh

[couldbeavoided]

[ The Void circles in the air, having separated from the others; he flies up high, out of their reach, hovering menacingly in the sky while he looks down with anger. Oh, he expected a fight, but he was fast getting annoyed with how it was delaying his plans for further destruction. Moments in that fight he had felt almost evenly matched -- he was weaker, now. He could feel it, and it enraged him more than anything else. He had flown away, they had weakened him.

So he waits, and he listens, because he knows it isn't over. And moments later, he can see it isn't for himself. ]

You're not planning to drop that thing on me, are you?