spoofer: (piano)
Xistentia: Mod ([personal profile] spoofer) wrote in [community profile] xistentia2017-11-04 03:08 pm

War with D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.

Characters: Ensemble cast, any/all characters of Xistentia!
Summary: D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. comes to Xistentia for the first time, bringing with it violence and havoc. Combat against enemy agents, healing, emergency sanctuary, and "Drift Compatibility" happen here. Refer to the OOC plotting post and the mod announcement!
Date(s): November 4-18
Warnings/Notes: Violence, death, psychological themes, trauma. Please warn for anything else in your subject headers!

WAR WITH DESTINY
By headsman's blade or battle-axe
Fight For Your Life

Everything is, in short, super fucked. Era Ra's warning came at the right time, forewarning of some of the weapons and fighting styles that could be expected from D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.'s agents, but still, the people of Xistentia have not faced a force like this before. The ragtag combination of fighting styles and tactics promises both versatility and confusion.

For better or worse, D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. is in similar chaos.

The first to come are ships from the Western sea, bearing a mix of warriors in and monsters. Some wield old-fashioned steel swords and others bear laser blasters, and their armor is just as varied. Some creatures appear domesticated, while others are feral and snap at their own. However, one primary feature identifies the enemy: their war color is red, which adorns flags and uniforms. Interestingly, the sea and sky of Xistentia seem to be fighting back in their own way, massive waves and a storm, even animals pestering them as they attempt to land the beach. However, it's only a matter of time before the mainstay of their forces reach land, some two hundred fighters. It's then that sentient fires start to whirl into the forests, leaping from tree to tree.
You have the home court advantage. Even the foliage itself seems to cooperate with you, aiding in efforts for stealth by keeping you downwind, twigs failing to crack when you misstep. Soon, you're joined by Xistentia's other forces-- a handful of battered ships taking air, an odd assortment of elves and talking dogs, demons and aliens from outer-space, coordinating counter-attacks.
BATTLE MODE: ATTACK

You're locked in combat with a woman who seems oddly familiar, though you don't know her face and can't think of her name. You hit her in the head, and now a narrow slice of her face shows through her red-rimmed helm. She wields a rifle tipped with a heavy blade, though it crackles with electrical energy. She is a proficient swordswoman, deftly parrying and striking against you, her face eerily expressionless. Her blade has a switch that, when activated, will send out a net that numbs your limbs and drags you to the floor. Here's hoping you won't face this demon alone.

She's not your only problem. You may have noticed, that in every epic battle with evil wizards, there's always some kind of a problematically gigantic elephant. This is one of those days. At least, there's only one, its trunk as wide as a car, its feet moving slow, so that it might crush the trees rather than trip over them.

Fight one or both, or fight the hordes of nameless minions around them. Either way: there's plenty to do. Those of you who thought things were too quiet here? You'll be busy today.

SEEK SANCTUARY

Fighting isn't for you? Well, you'll want to get out of the way, then. The "wards" protecting the city are failing, and people are heading toward The Temple where the protections remain the strongest. Here, the injured need healing in the stone beds. The civilians do their best, comforting children, cooking food, trading intelligence, repairing weapons and armor where possible. Feel free to pitch in; they need all the help they can get.
BATTLE MODE: SUPPORT (PSYLINK)

And here, you've reached the Temple, you've laid yourself down on one of the many glass-and-stone beds within the safety of its stone walls. You know what the other Xistentia residents have told you about it— this is the next phase, after the memory share had raised shields against the psychotropic rain. This is the PsyLink. Through this bond, you are said to be able to activate special defenses. No one seems to know exactly what they are, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And beyond the Temple walls, times are desperate indeed.

Each drift requires at least two people. Your daemons will find and connect you, seemingly at random— and you may find yourself with the unlikeliest of partners.
Drift Compatible

The Kissing Booth participants find it easiest. Everyone else-- it's a wild jumble, finding yourself caught up in a firehose of not only your own memories, but that of someone else. Everything they think, everything they feel, is intertwined with your mind.

You can't get caught up in it. You have to let the memories of the past, your predictions for the future, and the terror of war flow in and out of you, without neither resistance or pursuit, gently tuning them out. And in this serenity, this psychic silence, this acceptance of not only yourself but the other other, you find perfect connectivity— harmony with your PsyLink partner.

In this space, you find yourself having strange conversations. You and your partner will share ghostly images, some of which seem to be images from the past— while others seem to be present-day moments from the battle outside, fighting the enemy, as if you are somehow in two places at once. You must find traction and stay in the now and stay calm, but it's harder than you think.

The instant you latch onto that memory or emotion, it's a mistake... but you forget.

Your shadow is here. Whether out-of-context, or right here where it was meant to be, it's trying to kill you.

But you're not trapped here alone. Someone is calling your name, a familiar voice in the pandemonium. That voice comes from your drift partner. It's up to them to pull you back, remind you of who you are, and balance you. Hold on to them - they're your anchor, but you'll have to do the same for them. A successful drift means helping each other. Do it well, and you'll help to power the temple's defences. Fail, and there'll be trouble for everyone seeking sanctuary here.
pillz: (another icon with tongue stuff in it)

[personal profile] pillz 2017-11-21 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
[and kavinsky is now

covered in mud, and sitting gracelessly on his ass, his shoes sprawled out, the shirt laminated against his skin. he feels slightly singed, but the reality is, that certain water wizard had managed to stop the flames just in time. he's just. kind of warm on one side, and dirty on many of his others.]


Yeah, man. Well. For a quantity of 'all right.' [he grimaces, looking up-- flinching when the gout of flames tries to lunge at them once more. he throws a bloody-smeary hand up over his face. then starts to get up warily, accepting a hand if it's offered.] Sheeit. Can you bring us on a fucking monsoon or something, maybe?
cantseame: (That's what the water gave me)

[personal profile] cantseame 2017-11-21 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Tricky thing about affecting the weather. The more natural forces you try to manipulate, the more unpredictable it can get.

[He does indeed offer a hand, helping Kavinsky to his feet.]

We'd all probably be neck deep in water if I really went all out like that. That's assuming the wind doesn't tear the city apart first.

[What he will do, however, is erect a wall of water tentacles from one of the pools around them. When one of their foes draw close enough, it comes crashing down on them, thrashing and slamming them into the ground repeatedly.]

Can you still fight, or do we need to get you out of here?
pillz: (eyebrow)

[personal profile] pillz 2017-11-28 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
[kavinsky unsticks himself from the moist and slimy earth, still making a mightily awful face, like a child confronted with unwanted salad greens. by now, farraige is already pretty grimy-looking from war, probably, but he now has a few more ounces of dirt on his hands as the baby vampire scrapes himself off.

but the silly look on kavinsky's face dispels as he watches the tentacles extrude from the pooled water. he stares as they lash out, striking the enemy.]


I can fight, [he says. he wipes his mouth with the back of his arm, spits a mouthful of blood, mostly to look badass rather than out of any biological need to get the leavings of his lunch out of his system. he'll be troubled later, by the way he'd killed, but for now— not his concern. he then settles in low, bending his legs, like a panther about to spring. (please ignore the fact he isn't a panther. he's a skinny, tattooed white kid, with poofy lips and the remains of gel in his hair.)]

I'll take the ones on the left, [he suggests. more enemies threading through. some of them have rifles now.]
cantseame: Icons from hollowart (Default)

[personal profile] cantseame 2017-11-30 05:57 am (UTC)(link)
[He nods, willing the tentacles to strike and gathering more water to his side. The streams lash out, cutting deep into the new foes coming to meet them. It almost looks as if there are splashes of red in the water Farraige conjures, and the tentacles seem to give no mercy to any foe caught by their watery grasp.

While the cuts aren't deep enough to keep them disabled, the next step of his plan is. Those soaked with his water will feel a chill seeping through their armor. Farraige figures it prudent to take one or two alive. Any information they could gain from a prisoner could prove valuable, and keeping them on ice seems the best way to preserve them and keep them out of the fight.
]
pillz: (hay)

cw sexual vulgarity

[personal profile] pillz 2017-12-04 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
[perhaps predictably, the vampire boy demonstrates much less precision and finesse in his assault on the enemy. he crashes around! rips half the surface of a tree off because his aim is off, crushes somebody with his feet, before kangarooing off to tackle someone else, his jaws agape, fangs exposed. it's a macabre mess. rafa had taught him to make war, but he'd probably have advised slightly-- different tactics, probably. maybe something even resembling a fighting stance.

he recovers his balance afterward. all three of his wind up dead or dying, one wheezing within an inverted breastplate, another bleeding out of their neck, the last pummeled into the dirt. he composes himself-- to the extent that joseph kavinsky is ever composed, anyway. his grimy face empties out into a pleasant, empty smile as he looks over at the frozen lot that farraige has left choreographed in between the trees, his eyebrow ticking up.]


Well sheeit. Can you do steam, too? You'd come in handy for the smutty politician-on-twinks scene, assuming that ever happens in this world.
Edited (more vulgarity) 2017-12-04 03:37 (UTC)
cantseame: (Between the two of us)

[personal profile] cantseame 2017-12-04 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
I can manage water in all of its forms, even drawing it from the very air itself.

[Surveying his work during the momentary lull in combat, Farraige quirks an eyebrow and turns to Kavinsky, puzzled by his statement.]

What's a twink?
pillz: (sly)

cw sexual vulgarity

[personal profile] pillz 2017-12-07 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
[kavinsky looks appropriately impressed, his eyebrows pitching high on his pale forehead. u no u no. works for him. he spits another half a mouthful of blood on the ground, and tramples over some leaves to get a better vantage point of the further reaches of the forest. no movement yet. his ears can't pick up any movement in proximity.]

Twink is a hot young piece of man ass. Couple requirements, I guess. Not a lot of chest hair, usually. Skinnier side, not too big on the muscle. Bubble butt is a give or take, parameters of the hole therein likewise kinda. Flexible. [he's the worst. hopefully farraige has no idea what he's saying!] Favored by old men and women across the multiverse. Hey, can you get me some clean water to wash my face?

I feel like I'm gonna start itching here. Some kind of AIDS joke to apply.
cantseame: (Let the only sound)

[personal profile] cantseame 2017-12-07 05:45 am (UTC)(link)
Who has time to think about all this?

[He has some earthly idea and yet he wishes he didn't. Keen to change the subject, he conjures a ball of water within arm's reach of kavinsky, quietly bobbing and rotating.]

Just cup your hands and curl your fingers through the water. It'll separate from the rest.
pillz: (hay)

[personal profile] pillz 2017-12-09 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Man. [kavinsky makes a face at the mage, but he does as instructed. he puts out his hands, presses his fingers together, bends them in order to make receptacles for the water.] Who doesn't doesn't have time to think about it sometimes?

Besides, I know you're dating Rosie. You got time to think about sex. And do it too.

[he beams. gory vampire grin, shit-eating and absurd.]