Cold posted:

Yan'Tyr is evacuated. The team that they tried to dreamshuttle after her didn't make it. That entire wing is locked down now, Agents doing their best to hold out for backup while dealing with their fiery prong of the fourway threat. The Duke and Ulthar had insisted on staying around, knowing that there wasn't anything here that could meaningfully threaten them. Just when she thought she could stay on standby, she got a call. It was Amey. They have bad news; D-21 has breached containment. You're not sure why that's remotely important until he clarifies that 21's medical report has come back during the chaos. It's been flagged as being of interest to Dark. Marshall personally sent down the order;

Acquire asset at all costs.

Black August posted:

Black August posted:

TheLastThingFrankieToldMeWasToRelax

The Ocean Sensation posted:

Did you know there are more than FIFTEEN worker deaths per DAY? Fifteen completely preventable deaths!

The Ocean Sensation posted:

How preventable? Why, as preventable as a installing proper fall protection! Having reliable communications! Good respiratory guards! Functional ladders! Robust training! Not installing a lath-

S̨͟ì͜l̛v̶͝èr̴̶ ̴I̢͘n͜ ̛̀M͞ì͜d̷͠ņ͜i̕gh̨͢͠t̸̷͟ posted:

Cassandra has faced death plenty of times. Enough times that she was permanently deformed by it, changed by it, made intimate with the heartbeat sway of the scythe's advance. But even that scarring exposure, day after day, did little to prepare her for the raw harvest she stood in.

'AMEY WHERE IS OUR BACKUP? WE HAVE SIX DEAD, THREE COMPROMISED, TWO LIVING, FOUR BREACHES ON TOP OF US!'

Still no answer from the psychic circlet, which is already fighting for its life to block out the now-free Ocean Sensation. Two of the Agents have died to it, driven mad by the thousands of violations the facility is made up of. She throws another firebomb, not even caring about how badly her salary was being reduced for the property damage. Backup from the dream should have arrived the second the request was sent, but nobody had come more than an hour into the breach.

Her circlet begins to cool on her head, which means an incoming thought. One more firebomb is thrown before she slams around a corner, leaping over a trip of apples, to hide from the wicked bladesight of the Mythos-faithful Knight.

'Amey?!'

Their returned thoughts are succinct, exhausted with resignation. 'I know, Cass. The breach isn't salvageable. They're abandoning the facility until it blows over. We have direct orders from Marshall to only detain D-21; all other assets, including living, are secondary.'

Her stomach drops. She was used to being expendable and a tool. But to hear MC&D completely abandon every single employee and item of interest just to acquire one asset...

'Cass, stop thinking and listen. Duke Sauber and Ulthar are close to your position. Try to fall back to them to buy some time. Stay away from the west entrance; Merkja is somewhere in that area. The lower levels are already radioactive slag. If you get out, don't go into the woods; Kaigen's entire pack is picking off anyone fleeing. If you can find Crocell, stick with her. I'll think at you once I know more. I'm gone.'

Just, how?! Kaigen turning on the company, berserk nuclear cultists attacking, the former Hierarch of the Run being caught and escaping, a multi-mass containment breach; the sheer improbability of it all at once overwhelms her usual fire-fast thinking. But at least she has a plan to follow. The Knight would fall to the UHSOM eventually, or choose to retreat and try to drag some part of the facility into Carcosa's corpse. The Murdering Space will stay where it is until the chaos clears and it can hunt, but that wasn't much comfort while still trapped indoors.

Fall back to the Duke and the cat. That was all she has to do. Touch that homebase and no other player on the board can even approach.

But in retreat Cassandra realizes something is wrong; her footsteps are growing heavier and harder to take, as though a great current was gently pulling her back.

quote:

Fall back to the Duke and the cat. That was all she has to do. Touch that homebase and no other player on the board can even approach.

Razakai posted:

I am curious as to what the reason is that Śmiercią is having us do her dirty work for her, beyond blaming us for her daughter's death and wanting to gently caress with us. Presumably she's one of the top powers in the setting, so why not pop over and scythe some lords up? Maybe this 'island' is something even she doesn't want to get tangled up in, or there's something protecting the lords directly from her.

Randalor posted:

I feel like I missed something, but when/what happened with the Dreamlands anyways? Last time I remember us dealing with it, it was when we were the representative of Ulthar. I might have missed an update dealing with it.

habituallyred posted:

Not a whole lot of solid information on what exactly happened. But I am pretty sure our little star boosted dream turned into a bad trip. A thermonuclear bad trip that managed to hit the rest of the Dreamlands, probably thanks to the Singer of Cadenza(sic).

Rubix Squid posted:

Take your time. Hope you feel better.

Vorpal posted:

When he feels it, he pays attention. When he bit his way to the top, the Duke learned the unending truth that there would always be something greater than him waiting out there.

Gravity weighs him down, pulling him towards its mass as the shadows of the cold halls turn pitch. Lights and sirens dim as the power fluxes under duress. He smells it clean; suffocating dream-like assurance that the gravity is angry, horror with mad, all-knowing and all-hating.

The Duke walks towards it, no longer able to stop himself. But he doesn't want to; something like this had happened before in a dream, and he's certain he recognizes the smell. It is a gift to be able to feel like this again; mighty with uncertainty.

ANXIETY: [ X ][20%]

Ulthar posted:

In a hall lit only by the glow of emergency white, there swims a cat in the ground. He meows once, showing his deference to his follower, a small and unconcerned kitten. The kitten cleans herself after the two had dealt with a large group of escaped products, which separated them from the Duke.

The cat which swims smells the air intently, because he knows that he scents someone important to Ulthar. His Ambassador is here, for reasons he could puzzle through but doesn't care to when he knows the answer will be the same. What matters is that the Ambassador smells of unacceptable stress, which has to be addressed.

He doesn't need to move when he swims. The gravity pulls him. The kitten follows.

ANXIETY: [10%]

Iron posted:

She's badly hurt. She's falling back. She realizes what's drawing her in after it's too late.

Sainthood would only go so far after the legion assault she's suffered. Being captured was draining enough; finding the iron to survive an escape given in a moment of miracle is a limit she isn't ready to break. She fights the despair boiling up in her tired arms, mind keen on the eerie silence of the alarming halls. Nothing to stop her from being dragged in after she fought for every inch on the way up; that was fearsome.

It's in that fear that she understands what it was she had felt earlier, a familiar evil scratching past her mind. It was silver. It was something that tricked and bit; shining shining shadow.
When did its teeth grow so dark?

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][40%]

Fire posted:

it was right there it was right there where is the exit going in circles it was right there everything getting dark keep tripping over the same body it was right there it was right there it was right there looking staring hating it was right there please please an exit please god it's so dark when it's dark it was right there right there right there did you see it RIGHT THERE

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][80%]

Ice posted:

When she wakes up from her blackout, she's walking sleep-shuffle down a dim hall. It's perfectly silent and her stomach is coiled in loathing. All the ice of her veins doesn't manage to stop the disquiet. Something happened, is happening, that is facility-ending. She knows she's been left to live or die as she can manage.

All she can manage to do is clutch her gun, and walk inexorably into gravity. She thinks of her old boss from her last life, the one who had won her Princehood and revenge. The now-dryad steels herself, and repeats what he'd have said the terror of the situation.

"Hardcore."

ANXIETY: [ X ][20%]

Might posted:

He paces incessantly. The attack is over; he called everyone back, scratching stone and wailing to the Moon in mourning of those who had died. But now his tears were a different hue, choking him with heart-tearing longing. He smells something now, FEELS something from inside the Emain Ablach. It's something that had been stolen from him, killed and crushed inside of him, made ash cold still inside the nightmare of two weeks ago.

But it was still alive in someone! It was still REAL! Hope strangles his strength, bringing him to the dark earth as he whispers and prays, pleading for its reality. His heart is beating so fast he cannot stand, only crawl with the weeping humility of a beggar.

Please. Please. Let the gravity be real. Let destiny live.

ANXIETY: [ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][ X ][60%]

Sun posted:

She is well out of range when she begins the ritual. Casted chunks of uranium, plutonium, thorium, and more. Murdering salts. Chemical flame paths. All of them to safely prepare and cast forward from her great height the most awful and final answer; to punish those who would steal her sacred wealth.

But then she feels it, shaking her from her wrath. Something midnight, a force stronger than nuclear within the distant fortress. It troubles her heart, the ritual evaporating in the moment of lost intent. She sits down on the grassy ridge and stares out into the moonlit world, and waits for the others to come find her.

She opens her robe, and stares down at her t-shirt. She doesn't think about why she hasn't thrown it away.

ANXIETY: [10%]

Black August posted:

What matters is that the Ambassador smells of unacceptable stress, which has to be addressed.

Black August posted:

"Hardcore."

Arcanuse posted:

Voted Duke. I don't know whether this is to calm Tyrant down or to offer a sacrifice, but here we are.
Can hope for the best, but I'm not seeing a happy outcome here.
Bit too late for that, I think.

Razakai posted:

I am curious as to what the reason is that Śmiercią is having us do her dirty work for her, beyond blaming us for her daughter's death and wanting to gently caress with us. Presumably she's one of the top powers in the setting, so why not pop over and scythe some lords up? Maybe this 'island' is something even she doesn't want to get tangled up in, or there's something protecting the lords directly from her.

quote:

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.