CHAPTER FINALE ♔ as i went down in the river to pray

[telekinection]

♬ dead bodies everywhere - korn

WHO || Tia Ellison, Rose Hathaway, Sterling Archer, Spike, Klaus Mikaelson, Violet Reedhym, Finnick Odair, Myrilandel de Tanos, Anastacia O'Keefe, Faith O'Keefe, Nick Starkweather, various others
WHAT || The night following Luthir's death and the concert
WHERE || NYC, New York
WHEN || June 7th to 8th, 2014, middle of the night.
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread.

The night has not gone as planned.

With the help of the unicorn Nick Starkweater, Faith O'Keefe used her dreamwalking powers to take Violet and her new husband Luthir into Vi's dreams to face down the shadow remnant of Malaak'a that had consumed her nightmares and prevented her spirit from returning to full strength with the return of spring. Keijen Blade's warning, however, that such an attempt would end in blood, proved true: Luthir gave his life to allow Vi to do what must be done.

Meanwhile, the 'reconnaissance' mission meant to gather intel on what Keijen Blade was doing at his concerts went south when several of the team members fell prey to Blade's compulsion. After almost prompting Archer and Rose to commit suicide onstage in front of an eager crowd, Blade let the team walk out with their lives, which was almost as unsettling as the power he'd displayed in controlling such a large mass of people.

No one is really in the mood or shape to take a flight that night, so it's crashing at a hotel for the Knights tonight.

Some people might need the sleep, while others may be less than able to get any. Feel free to single-thread tag what your character is up to at 4AM or so.

Comments

[silvermaid]

I hope no one ever comes to feel familiar with this.

[ anastacia has just emerged out on the stairs, staring at the scene before them as some of the zombied people get trapped in vi's snare. they're so few and far between that it's not... a lot of them, but it's enough to let rose get a better look.

her theory doesn't seem very far-fetched when she sees that many of the people up and down the length of the river coming closer to it appear to be in their late teens or early twenties. some sport piercings or tattoos, odd hair colors, raccoon-like makeup they didn't bother washing off when they got home. a few are even still sporting bright yellow wrist bands from entrance. it's not all of them - but there's definitely a solid representation of people who look like the concert goers from earlier.

anastacia sets immediately to work, casting break enchantment as she moves down the bank, trying to halt as many as she can. ]

[graveflowers]

[ well, that's done and since vi is still, hilariously (only not), incapable of giving a single fuck, she just sits down on the sidewalk and pulls her knees up to her chest. suicidal ideation is actually super familiar to her, but she doesn't bother speaking up. she did her thing, she's done, she's retiring.

now that's a thought... ]

[moonheart]

[ faith comes down behind anastacia, and then books it down the street the other way. where she runs across people, she puts her hand on their shoulder and closes her eyes. they gently fall to their knees, and she lowers them to the ground, asleep. ]

[bigbad]

I dunno, it's starting to be a bloody habit. [He glances around at all of them, frowning as he considers it.]

All right, Faith's got the right idea. Knocking 'em out's probably better than leg breaking, cause if they can still crawl, they will. [He felt that determination. Leg breaking wouldn't make a difference.] Few bumps and bruises, can't complain if it keeps them alive. Finnick, put your mermaid skills to use and try and pull some of 'em out, if you're sober enough. Vi, get up, you'll probably feel better if you're hitting something. I always do.

[Yes, he's elected himself leader now. Sorry, Tia. He glances over at Brendan.]

If you want to help, new bloke, I'll give you that apology you want so badly.

[And now he's gonna give Myri a reassuring squeeze and head towards the river without waiting to see if anyone's gonna listen to his plan. TIME TO KNOCK OUT SOME ZOMBIES.]

[asuma]

[Classy as fuck, aren't you, Spike? He shrugs toward Tia, because it seems as good a plan as any right now, before breaking away toward another group of concert-goers.

As much as Klaus wouldn't mind knocking a few random strangers out cold, he's going to give that domination thing a try first. He hasn't had many opportunities to practice in order to work out the finer differences between how it works here and the compulsion that he's used to, so now seems as good a time as any.

Of course, if ordering these people to stop marching to their death doesn't work out the way he hopes, then beating them senseless makes for a nice fallback plan.]

[graveflowers]

[ no, spike, hitting things will not make her feel better about her husband being dead. nor could she manage to actually knock someone out without her bow. she doesn't move to follow spike's directions, but she does cast another entangle so some more people are caught in her snares to make punching easier on everyone else. stationary targets, get. ]

[craic]

Mermaid skills? [ The new bloke arches a brow and kind of looks around. Are they serious, here? They're serious. Okay. He shrugs. ] Why not. [ He turns and starts punching people out with what should maybe be slightly alarming readiness but given the company and the circumstances probably isn't. ]

[witchwoman]

[Myri isn't a fighter. She's not going to be able to knock anyone unconscious, probably. Plus, she doesn't want to just leave Vi sitting there. So she hangs back, but she's too nervous to sit down beside Vi, so she's just hovering and watching. Go team go.]

[littledhampir]

[When Rose Hathaway is the person to consider that violence maybe isn't the answer? This could in fact be the Kolpocalypse but seeing people that reminded her of the concert, reminded her of what happened to her. She'd been able to break free and okay, so it's a long shot and probably the cheesiest thing she will have ever done in her life but if it works, in theory there could be a way to make it work on a grand scale.

Approaching random zombie # 8754 she tries to slow their progression (Str 24) all the while talking to them, asking them about their friends, families, girlfriends or boyfriends and I'd write it out for you all but really this is going to start looking like a hurlmark movie.

And ya know... if this fails she can always just punch them in the face.]

whoops i forgot to refresh the page lmfao

[65]

[dryly, to ... new dude (THANKS FOR THE GREAT INTRODUCTION BTW SPIKE)] I'm a good swimmer.

[and now he's going to take off stuff that would weigh him down (like idk his shirt /waggles eyebrows) before heading off into the water. so vi can boost his str. coincidentally he's also leaving his stuff with vi since she is ... just sitting there.]

[graveflowers]

[ before finnick can go fishing, vi reaches out and pats his leg, giving him a +2 bonus to his strength score for four rounds. (quick boost) then she reaches out to take myri's hand just to hold because she needs a tether so she doesn't float away and myri is... it. ]

[65]

[and then ... finnick goes out in the water to do his mermaid shit. (swim 24) he'll probably try to save anyone who's already like glurg glurg glurg jack from titanic first so he doesn't have to fight against them in the water.]

[bigbad]

[Spike's just here to hit people (though he's being nice and only doing subdual damage) and try and knock them out. Possibly tossing some of them at Vi's vine patch, when it's convenient, but he's really doing his best to make it to the edge of the water so he can stop the most people. For all the good it can do.]

[telekinect]

[ klaus tries to bend his will on the first few people that he sees... but for some of them, they won't even focus to look him in the eye, and it's like trying to dominate a brick wall. he manages to get one or two to zone in on him, but it's a slow going process and pretty hit or miss.

rose manages to pull one zombie to a stop easily with her mighty strength, and her string of questions is met with listless struggling at first, but when they ask about a girlfriend, the guy's expression furrows a bit, and he starts shaking his head slowly and finally says weakly: "Linda?"

finnick easily fishes people out of the water and deposits them onto the shore, where tia helps reel them in. it's chaotic and crazy, and in the distance they hear sirens, and screams and wails and other sounds of the city reacting to what is going on all down the length of the river. ]

[littledhampir]

It worked... [Complete and utter disbelief because really, Rose sure as hell didn't see that one coming and neither did her mun really.]

IT WORKED! [Explanations are good Rose, who grabs Mr now not a zombie by the arms and urges him.] All these people are going to die if you don't help me. [Diplomacy 16 - First time ever doing diplo over intimidate - night full of firsts.] Stop them, ask them about their loved ones. [A beat.] And if that fails punch them in the face.

[Releasing him she tries to repeat the process on another (str 19) but even as she's trying, she knows this is a slow way to do this. (Wis 17)]

Is there a spell that can give people warm fuzzy feelings about their loved ones?! Or... a really really big megaphone?

[craic]

This all seems kind of hit or miss, [ the new guy calls as his fist meets another glaze-eyed face. ] No pun intended.

If you know the guy behind all this shouldn't you be doing something about the source instead?

[graveflowers]

We are. It's a hydra. [ so easier said than done. vi doesn't mean to sound so unenthusiastic or apathetic, new guy (she didn't bother to retain his name), but she's had a bad day. which is an understatement. ] But we could call Nick?

[bigbad]

It's a rather large city, if you hadn't noticed, and knowing him isn't the same as knowing where he is. And while we searched, people'd keep drowning. [Plus, Blade can kick all their asses FAR too easily.] Go for it, pet.

[He isn't entirely sure how a unicorn will help but anything that gets Vi doing something...]

[witchwoman]

Trust us when we say that it's better that we stop them now and worry about the rest later. These people could die. [And its only by the grace of a will save of 30 that Myri's empathy isn't dragging her into the ocean to go after them... because she's done that before in canon, so let's not repeat that.]

Nick. Yes, we should call him. Is his number in your phone? [Myri didn't really get the unicorn's digits tbh.]

[graveflowers]

Yeah. [ which... she doesn't have with her. ugh moving. she gets up, using myri to help herself to her feet and heads inside with a "be right back" to call the unicorn and ask him to breathe in people's faces with his unicorn breath. please. please and thank you. ]

[craic]

[ He's kind of incredulous that they can make vines spring out of the ground and stuff but can't find a dude, but magic. Magic. Who the hell knows. ]

It's a lot of people. [ is a helpful and encouraging thing to say, ] You're never going to get them all unless you've got a bigger trick than this up your sleeves. [ But in the meantime because this is all very little skin of his nose he's just going to continue punching people, switching up to give his off-hand some practice. He eases them to the ground, though less gently than others. ] Nick another mermaid or magician?

[silvermaid]

[ officially out of spells to break the connection, anastacia comes back to catch that much, pulling out her phone. ] He's a unicorn. [ said like THAT SHOULD EXPLAIN EVERYTHING. ring ring calling nick and letting him know what's up. GET YOUR FURRY WHITE BUTT OUT HERE. ]

[craic]

A unicorn. [ He eyes Anastacia for a second (and then another second because hi there) before he nods and smiles. ] Right, of course. And I'm a dragon. [ You are crazy, lady. ]

[desperatewarning]

[Apparently, Nick was awake as well when he got the call, but that's understandable, considering someone died in his living room tonight. It's mere moments (greater teleport get) before he arrives in unicorn form. People might stop a gangly seven foot tall kindergarten teacher, but ain't nobody gonna stop a giant horse with a horn, moving through the swarms of people and casting mass hold person on a group of afflicted persons he passes (caster check 23, since ALL THE UNICORN WIKI SAYS IS COMPULSION AND THAT'S JUST A SPELL CLASS, APPARENTLY, SO BEST BE SAFE)

Now you can talk to them before they try to jump.] This is madness.

[witchwoman]

[All the chaos going on makes it a little hard to follow but she understands enough to see that she can try to talk them out of this madness. She doesn't want to leave Vi alone but if she can help save these people, she needs to try. She moves towards a group of people that Nick has held and starts to try to talk to them, asking them to remember the people that matter most, trying to help them remember what they have to live for (diplomacy 25).]