Futuristic Night Fall - IC

[ERode]

~ NF 281, November 7 | Heavy Rain ~
​

Tensions were rising.

Three versus one was a dangerous situation, but there had to be something to Tsukiko that made her confident enough to approach the Ivory Towerz in such a brazen manner. It was foolishness to do in the Outlands, and so long as Tresfor remained a city of the dead, they were still in the Outlands. Her allies were nearby, certainly, but what did that matter when combat in close proximity could end within a half-second between Lunatics? The living artifact in Ivory’s hand continued to pulsate and evolve. Magia remained transformed, a juggernaut of eclectic capabilities. And Mimic, who knew what strange creatures they could shift into?

Atop a rickety two-story shack that she had hopped onto after tunneling through the insides of Tresfor’s walls, Janus had a clear view of the back of Magia’s head. The transformed Lunatic, awash with a strange glow, made for an easy target in that moment. But Tsukiko herself had yet to enter through the broken gate, and the other two members of the Ivory Towerz hadn’t yet either. If she took the shot, she could reposition within the maze-like backstreets that every city pushed to its perimeter, but if she took the shot, that could easily spark a conflict all on its own.

The others of the motley crew hadn’t joined her side yet, and even if they did, was force-on-force the best way to handle things in this dead city? If everyone in Tresfor was dead, how would the Ivory Towerz even receive the ‘package’?

The rain continued to fall. The skies continued to brighten.

That malignant aurora would be saturating the world soon, its siren call of indulgence and egoism soon to claw at the minds of those beyond the glow of the Beacon. They were Lunatics. They could all resist the corrosion that would twist and contort the bodies of other beings. But they were Lunatics, and the Black Moon still called them to madness. No rest would be found in Tresfor, no respite. At best, they could get a roof over their heads and a soft bed, appropriated from a dead man.

It was a city with no security though, a city now inhabited only by Lunatics with unknown intentions, a city fallen by unknown means.

Magia, of course, knew what to do.

She sought to get to the bottom of this, to travel into the city’s center and to enter the Foundation’s tower. And yet, neither ‘Magia’ nor ‘Luna’ nor ‘Everheart’ were in ‘Ivory Towerz’.

So what could they do?

In place of law, when faced with enigma, was there any solution beyond violence or disengagement?

 

[Tau]

Ivory

Ivory sighed internally. It had been an elegant solution she'd proposed, in her own mind, anyway. Alas, she was now left with a group of mysterious lunatics, lurking about a dead city, and Tsukiko hadn't even bothered with the pretense of a lie. It spelled nothing but trouble.

"Tsk tsk. You know, you can make for awfully unpleasant conversation. But I can appreciate how you spared the three of us a difficult return trip..." Ivory mused with her usual, discomforting smile. "You're right, though. If you were assassins, you ought to have struck by now," Ivory shrugged. "If you learn something about what happened here, do let us know. In the meantime, we'll be..." she held up the tablet again. It now displayed a more-detailed oil painting of a small city, with factories spewing out black smog. "... steamrolling our way to the beacon."

It wasn't the first time she'd used that pun, nor would it be the last, even if everyone wished otherwise. "I suppose you're welcome to join us pro bono then, Miss Secretive." Turning her back to Tsukiko, Ivory wandered up to the door giant hole in the gate. Flicking her finger, she bing'd the other white-haired lady in the head. "Next time, ask me for a mechanic. I expect more tact from my team than a stone-age warrior. 'No smashy-smash.' Mmkay?"

Ivory walked past Magia and into the city, making straight for the beacon.

 

[ERode]

~ NF 281, November 7 | Heavy Rain ~
​

But the tensions did not break out into violence.

Confidence in numbers, or perhaps just confidence in Magia, allowed Ivory to move onwards, taking to the front of the group as the uncommon quartet marched for the heart of the dead city. The bodies of the terrified dead could be found in any and every corner and alleyway, their corpses so plentiful that it became banal. None were spared the scythe of the reaper: in their mad dash away from something, the weak were trampled underfoot while the strong were overrun by those who followed after. At some corners, Syndicate members had fallen with their weapons in their hands and gas masks over their face. At other corners, gore-splattered ID cards were all that remained of Lunatics, whose bodies turned into what could only be described as ‘boulders of red meat’.

The Ivory Towerz marched on regardless. There was no saving the dead. Even less point in worrying about the dead poor.

As backstreet slums transitioned into urban sprawl, greater scenes of destruction presented themselves. Pileups were everywhere, clogging up the arteries of the city with the blackened skeletons of burnt out vehicles. Those richer citizens of Tresfor had not been spared either, sickle swing cutting their own plans of escape down. Through the windows of residential and office buildings alike, the Ivory Towers could make out the collapsed forms of those who hadn’t even made it to the ground floor, their bodies pressed against glass that they could not break. Some did manage to break it, but who could survive the drop after? Corporate mercenary units laid inoperable, their metal armor given a slick sheen in the rain and the gray light. By this time, the city’s lighting system would have kicked in now, streetlamps illuminating the roads, but there was only a gloom instead. The infrastructure was present and intact, mostly.

…which meant that CCTV was intact as well. Any office building would have outwards-facing cameras. In the same vein, they would have rooms where those recordings would be. If the Ivory Towerz could enter one of them, locate the security room, and then figure out a way to power the devices within, perhaps they would be able to uncover at least an inkling of what happened in Tresfor?

The further they advanced too, however, the clearer that it wasn’t only a panicked escape that caused the damage to the city’s buildings and streets, bridges and underpasses. There was a path of destruction that could be caused only by Lunatics. Great swathes of the environment, beyond the capacity of C-Rank Lunatics, was torn asunder or completely erased, as if two beasts rampaged through, leaving a wake of destruction that could easily be followed. There was no blood, of course; the rain had washed any sign of mortality away. And was it so wise, to follow after whatever caused square-shaped gaps to appear in their surroundings, whatever gouged out train-sized chunks of concrete from the roads? Yet those warring Lunatics must have survived whatever turned every other Lunatic in Tresfor into over-sized meatballs. They must know something if they had survived.

And then, within striking distance, was their original objective once more, a needle pristine amidst the chaos. Even in the dreariness of heavy rain, the Foundation’s tower, made of white stone, stood out starkly against the darkening sky. In a 100-meter radius around it, there was naught but four pathways cutting through fields of grass, providing no cover at all. Silent as a grave, silent as a marker of a grave, the inert building stood, the Anti-Lunacy Beacon unpowered even as the first hues of the Bright Night stained the skies like oil spilling into a puddle.

The Ivory Towerz had received permission, but apprehension and the strangeness of their surroundings persisted still. There was no one to receive them. Would they still be safe to intrude then? To break in like they did that gate?

 

[Steve Jobs]

courier.

mimic.

Footsteps in the rain

location

Beacon Tower, Tresfor

outfit

N/A

interactions

Ivory, Magia, Tsukiko

tags

Tau , Skyswimsky AnonyMouse

"The client's business is my business,"

the courier muttered under her breath, copying the quirks in Tsukiko's voice. Regional accents were not uncommon due to the isolation between cities but English seemed almost foreign to her. Was there a pocket of immigrants Dahlia had never heard of?

They had to know more.

Mimic stayed behind the newcomer, unbothered by Ivory's chiding of Magia. If she hadn't done it, Mimic would have (and they couldn't guarantee that a Centibear would have been less boorish).

What would have been shocking to civilians (and new Couriers) was another day for the Ivory Towerz (and the unnamed newcomer). Corpses spilled from alleyways and littered the streets, leaving a smattering of burnt skeletons to break up the otherwise, bloodless carnage. Even The rain had done well to wash the sins of the attackers, but not so well that Mimic couldn't discern the work of "their" own.

Was it Jasper? Phoebe? Horagium? A rogue of some other sort? The square-shaped craters implied intentionality that wouldn't be present in mindless creatures (even if they'd be trained and airdropped by the Foundation). What's more was that the beacon was somehow untouched by the rampage. Though these signs could have validated Ivory's hypothesis of a civil war, the damage was too one-sided for Dahlia's liking. A more interesting theory rolled off their tongue as the intact beacon came into view.

"Maybe there was a civil war and whoever did all of this was sent to put it down."

Mimic stared at the four paths ahead of the group, still straying behind the raven-haired newcomer.

"So Ivory, do you want to paint us a locksmith or should we try for another scout?"

 

[Tau]

Ivory

Ivory's perpetual smirk wore down slightly as they pressed in. One could only see so much death and destruction without it taking a toll on the psyche... something that impacted more than just her own mind.

Ivory answered Dahlia with a nod, staring down the tablet to see what appeared to be a detailed technical drawing of a run-down, condemned slum district. "I guess I should've seen that coming, she whispered to herself. "We'll go with a scout this time," she answered aloud, holding up the tablet and then pressing it with her hand, until it shattered. In its place, a dark shape leapt into the sky and gracefully landed before her.

It was a man, covered completely in dark clothes: black cloak, black hat, short black hair coming off the back of a black mask with the beak of a crow. Even his arms were covered with a black, elbow-length gloves. It was hard to gauge his reaction to the new situation through the mask, but he didn't appear frightened for someone suddenly thrown into a city of death. In fact, he looked perfectly in place.

"Find a way into that tower, explore the inside if you can, then return to me and tell me what you learned," Ivory commanded, choosing every word with careful intention.

He simply nodded, then ran off. Summons never protested, which made them such lovely little soldiers. "In the meantime, this building here has a camera, which should have a perfect view of what happened close to the beacon. Unless you'd like to escort bird boy, I say we have a look."

 

[Nellancholy]

Of course Tsukiko had gotten entangled with the Towerz, approaching them without a plan. Or at least, a plan that actually made things easier for the rest of the group to follow up. With the Towerz on the move, it suddenly became an even worse idea to snipe any of them with an attack that wasn't guaranteed to be lethal.

Attacks that would be lethal to even a Lunatic...

Her aiming arm involuntarily lowered as she lost herself in thought. That's right, she'd been seeing a few of the remains here in THAT state...

She'd been so preoccupied with trying to head off the Towerz while avoiding notice that she hadn't really stopped and paid attention to what had gone on around them, really taken in the details that the silence of the city was not the silence of abandonment, but of...the grave.

The body in the building that she had climbed for a vantage point, decayed and deformed in what was likely less than a minute, and a few other bodies strewn around...

They had been struck by munitions that should have been strictly controlled by the Foundation. That was one thing.

The other was that the beacon was down. The two were likely connected: whoever did this (likely a lot of whoevers), didn't just intend to attack one location or one group of people. Their assault appeared to be one of total extermination. The beacon being down and the fleeing residents could have been the result of some tragic mechanical failure or sabotage. But the use of anti-Lunatic munitions meant that those responsible were ready to attack on every front, and moreover to address any...belligerent Lunatics hiding among the crowds, who might jump to self-defense, if not the protection of the populace.

Maybe...maybe they were still here.

A chill ran down her spine as the urge to run welled up.

Her fingers wobbled as the duration of her gift expired, the fragmented plastic pieces jumping apart and snapping back into a cube before clattering onto the floor.

Wait, if they were still watching, it'd be foolish to run out in the open.

No, it'd be better to be within arm's length of the group. Metaphorically speaking.

The Towerz seemed to be gathering evidence: as if anyone would believe the reports of Couriers that exceeded the scope of their assignment so severely.

Still...

Janus dug into her bag. She'd follow them without crossing the ground.

She pulled several lengths of PVC pipe out, each about a foot long, plus a much longer coil of the stretchy twine she had used earlier. With a quick application of her ability, the scattered parts glowed pink, and then wove together and pulled tight in an approximation of a rope ladder, albeit considerably more rigid.

With that, she plonked it down on the edge of the roof, angled towards the nearest other building. About two feet longer than the gap. Good. With that, Janus crossed, repeating the steps for the next gap, and the next.

Eventually she had followed the group to the Foundation's tower. She couldn't enter or get closer without descending to the ground, where the stench of death was strongest.

Kneeling on the edge of the roof and making sure her hood was up, she instead pulled out an entirely ordinary pair of binoculars that hadn't been kludged together, watching as one of them conjured some manner of avian figure, sending it in to scout...

 

[AnonyMouse]

Tsukiko Yamada​

Tresfor, City of the Dead​

Tsukiko followed her new... companions? teammates? former enemies? Tsukiko followed the other Lunatics into the dead city. As she walked, an ethereal bird manifested from within her. Its wings spread and it took flight, emerging from her back as if a fragment of her spirit had left her body. Each beat of its wings left trails of silvery mist, as if a strong breeze or a stern look might erase its existence. For a time, there was only one and it was always near her. But anyone with a keen eye would notice it was not alone. A perceptive Lunatic may spot movement, in the corner of their vision, or a silver phantom perched on a power line, a pale shape roosting on a windowsill, or on a gutter, or standing vigil on the mangled rim of an overturned vehicle. They numbered less than 'many,' but more than 'a few.' There were 'just enough.'

Tsukiko did not draw her bow, despite the urge to do so. Her flock would buy her time, if necessary. She was still coming to terms with life above ground. To be quite honest, this situation embodied her worst fears. Despite having been out of the bunker for years, she was only now adjusting to the reality that people could find safety under this twisted sky. So much risk, for some silly clouds. They braved the Bright Night, trusting only their beacons and the SSS to keep them sane and safe, respectively. The destruction of Tresfor was like a wake up call. Their precious beacon? Deactivated. Their proud SSS? Reduced to giblets and scrap.

Their Foundation? Well, that remained to be seen.

Their tower stood tall, a pristine sepulchre presiding over the fallen city. What might they find within? As they traversed the streets choked with corpses and wreckage, Tsukiko gazed up at the spire evey time it peeked between the other structures. Ivory's ignorance to this crisis proved the Foundation was not all-seeing and all-knowing. Even those within their employ could be caught unawares. And yet, Tsukiko could not shake the thought that they were the key. Rather than chase ghosts or lend her ear to the dead or dying, she wished to know what they had to say about this matter, if they had anything to say at all.

The Night had not done this. Not alone. That much was clear. Unfortunately, little else was. More information was needed. There is no such thing as chaos. What we perceive as chaos is merely patterns we do not yet understand, Tsukiko thought as she drank in the details of the scene. Her master's words. This world frequently challenged that notion, but, as she followed Ivory and the others, Tsukiko continually reminded herself, On a long enough continuum, all becomes clear.

But she was not willing to wait that long.

When the party stopped, Ivory deployed a costumed man and gave it orders. So, she was a summoner of some sort. Tsukiko filed this knowledge away for later. For now, she regarded these strangers as allies, but she had not fogotten her mission.

"I wish I could accompany your minion. I feel the Foundation holds the answers we seek and the beacon must be reactivated sooner, rather than later," she said as she watched the beaked infiltrator dash away to do Ivory's bidding. Her birds all gazed skyward, at the encroaching Night. "However, that would be unwise. I lack the necessary clearances or knowledge. If you feel this building's surveillance can provide insight while we await his return, so be it. I defer to your wisdom," she said as she stowed her bow and drew her sword instead, while also tightening the strap on her weapons case to ensure it won't hinder movement in the close quarters of an indoor environment.

It might seem bold of her to not only deploy her gift, but draw a weapon as well, with the enemy so close. However, in Tsukiko's mind, she was only better equipping herself to be of use to them. She idly wondered if her own companions were observing from the shadows and, if so, how might they perceive such an action...
Interaction(s): @Madeliefje | Tau | Skyswimsky | Steve Jobs

 

[Skyswimsky]

Luna Everheart​

"Well, I tried!" Magia responded in protest as Ivory made it known she wasn't too happy about how they opened the entrance, though their skit was cut short by the intrusion of the newcomer. The white hair continued to be on guard as they ventured, now on foot, through the city again. Witnessing, now even closer as opposed to before, the unknown catastrophe that had befallen the city. Up so close it was... different... .

Stay strong, Luna. The girl thought to herself as her grip around the wheelchair's handle tightened, nearly crushing it. "They.... they will pay for that..." She whispered as her eyes searched for something, anything, that would give them a hint past the apparent battle that had taken place. "Justice will prevail." She mumbled on as her face took on some darker expressions. Luna would stay transformed.

...

Eventually, the gang came to a stop and deployed one of Ivory's 'summons' to investigate further ahead. "Let's take a look..." She agreed, although did add. "Wouldn't it make sense for Dahlia or me to fly up there and investigate further?" She gave their guest another glance. Still suspicious. Maybe it was better to not split further after all.

Tau

 

[ERode]

~ NF 281, November 7 | Heavy Rain ~
​

• Ivory Towerz
• Group B

• 
  Birds of a feather flocked together, and if it came down to an ambush, a proper Lunatic, even a C-Rank one, still had a better chance of making it out with information than one of Ivory's summons. With the leader of the Towerz's assent, plague doctor and samurai left together, slipping into the tall shadows cast by the neighbouring buildings as the skies darkened beyond the rain clouds.
  
  The remaining (or perhaps original) members of the Ivory Towerz found respite within the office buildings instead. It took but a few minutes for them to come across one that seemed to have it all: entirely intact, outward cameras facing streets that were both clogged with the dead and streets that were covered in the aftermath of destruction left by another. Entering into the unlit premises, they were greeted by the stench of death, unwashed by rain, as well as the opulent decor of the lobby. Marbled tiling, classy couches, and plants that had not yet wilted set a grim reminder that it was only humanity that suffered in all of this. The lobby's security desk, though currently unpowered, would likely contain the records that they needed, so long as they could find a way to rig an alternate power source into the monitors and machines present. Or they could just rip out the hard drives themselves, if any of them had the technological know-how to.
  
  As they puzzled such subjects out, however, there was another thing to note too.
  
  The doors to the office tower had been relatively unobstructed by corpses. Rather, the well-dressed businessfolks had, in their dying moments, clustered around the elevators instead, their hands over their faces even in those last moments. They had wanted to get inside, even from the ground floor. They had clawed against the small crack of the elevator doors, had trampled each other to get closest to the doors, had waited, perhaps even prayed, that it would open.
  
  But it did not.
  
  The digital display of the floor level was blank.
  
  Could it be, that there was the possibility of a bunker built after all, one that operated off of an auxiliary power supply, one that the executives of the office would have travelled into while the proles and the lesser employees suffered their terrible fates? If so, was it even worth investigating?
  
  Was it worth saving them?
  
• 
  Perhaps Tsukiko had sensed the opportunity.
  
  Perhaps she wasn’t thinking of anything at all.
  
  Regardless, Janus watched as the Ivory Towerz entered a separate building, leaving Tsukiko and the strange bird-faced humanoid to proceed towards the Foundation’s Tower. There was an opportunity there then, to reconvene with her partner and to reconsolidate their information.
  
  Or perhaps, in a city of the dead, it would be better to remain hidden still, a wildcard, an observer.
  
  …
  
  The plague doctor marched ahead, possessing a boldness and a poise that was inhuman in nature. The straightest path taken did not trigger any traps or instant dismemberments, while the front door itself, lacking any guards, presented no issues either. Ivory’s summon, possessing the same flagrant lack of respect as the rest of the Towerz, simply raised their boot and stomped against the glass door.
  
  Dull thuds sounded successively, before the glass eventually shattered. It took a few more blows in order to clear out a large enough hole for the doctor to dip underneath. The jagged edges snagged and tore at their outfit, but that only revealed another outfit underneath. Dark bandages with a faint herbal smell covered the summon’s flesh.
  
  They marched in, not waiting for Tsukiko to decide whether to follow after or not, swiveling their head to take in the surroundings.
  
  There was something remarkably clean about all this. The disabling of the Anti-Lunacy Beacon and the direction that the civilians of Tresfor had ran in seemed to indicate everything that happened to the city had been a result of something happening in the Tower itself, but here, on the first floor? No one was present. An elevator shaft would lead to the upper floors, but there were spiraling staircases too, allowing one to climb up to the lower floors without issue. It was a familiar setup for anyone who had been commissioned by the Foundation before, meeting rooms upon meeting rooms upon meeting rooms.
  
  The Foundation would not have their technologies and laboratories somewhere publicly accessible. For that, Tsukiko and the plague doctor would have to head downstairs, into the underground depths that no doubt was shielded by heavier doors, doors that may yet be booby-trapped in a way that didn’t require digital sources.
  
  They could head up the stairs too, but encounter the same thing after a certain point, reaching approximately one-third the way up the tower before it leads to a dead-end, no sign of any further progress possible. Perhaps there was a hidden way of entry, perhaps brute force would show the way.
  
  But throughout all of this, there was not a single sign of Foundation personnel suffering the same fate as Tresfor’s residents.
  
  The Tower was empty.
  

 

[Skyswimsky]

Luna Everheart​

Luna took a moment to absorb the grim interior of the bottom floor, her eyes resting on the untold tragedy in front of the elevator. Yet... she wouldn't dare to draw any conclusions just yet. "We're going to save them," Luna stated matter-of-factly. ", maybe none of them had a choice. If there's anyone alive, it is our mission to save them." The girl spoke, moving towards the elevator. The other two members of the Ivory Towerz were already aware of where Luna's morals aligned, so justifying what she was about to do was sort-of meaningless... maybe if Tsukiko had still been around.

Stopping in front of the corpse pile, the stench seemed unbearing... though she had it worse. With a sad sigh, the white hair made a swiping motion with her hand, left to right, creating a gust of wind that blew the debris and dead bodies aside. With the new-found space, she proceeded to pry open the elevator doors herself, intending to inspect further.

 

[Tau]

Ivory

Ivory nodded to Tsukiko, "Well, I would say one of you is far more expendable than the other, but if you want to follow my lovely birdman, I’m sure he’d appreciate the company."

He did not appreciate the company.

"Have you no shame, woman? All that uncovered flesh? Every second you spread disease… plague and death." He spoke after realizing Tsukiko was more than capable of keeping up with him. It was, perhaps, tempting to just shoot an arrow through his head. After all, Tsukiko could likely handle things alone. "I don’t know what kind of land I’ve been summoned to, but it doesn’t surprise me to see this many lifeless bodies, given this carelessness."

---

Ivory was starting to feel a bit ill from all of the mangled bodies strewn about, though she was trying hard not to show it. "They seem a bit beyond saving, Luna," Ivory commented, thinking she’d gone mad at first. Then she noticed it. "Oh, I see. Hm… I wonder how deep this goes…"

Ivory pulled out a small copper coin and stood beside Luna to drop it down the shaft. They waited.

…

"Well then," Ivory chuckled, wondering if they’d even be able to hear it when (or if) it hit the bottom. "Alright, go ahead and see if anyone’s alive down there. Although, if so, you might leave them there, given the time…" she glanced at the brightening sky outside. "We’ll see if there’s something we can do something to get the computer working."

Ivory was an expert when it came to computers. She unplugged it, then replugged it. "Hm. Any other ideas?" she asked Mimic with a shrug. "Ah, wait, of course that wouldn’t work, there’s no power! I guess… we need a battery, then? A place like this with so many computers should have one somewhere, right?"

With no other clear ideas, Ivory wandered around, searching for a giant glowy thing and screamed "giant energy tube" to her. She was obviously clueless.