the head | the hand (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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dualislogs2019-10-19 06:55 pm
headandhand) wrote in dualislogs2019-10-19 06:55 pm
Entry tags:
- !event,
- adventure time: finn mertens,
- dc comics: cissie king-jones,
- dc comics: jason todd,
- dc comics: stephanie brown,
- dc comics: tim drake-wayne,
- destiny: drifter,
- detroit: become human: hank anderson,
- ff7: sephiroth,
- ff7: vincent valentine,
- ff8: nida nomura,
- freakangels: arkady,
- mass effect: thane krios,
- mcu: loki odinson,
- mcu: pietro maximoff,
- mcu: wanda maximoff
we’re ready to make you one of us.
WHO: Open to all Dualizens
WHAT: When Roboclones Attack
WHERE: Anywhere in the city!
WHEN: The night of Oct. 19
WARNINGS: Please use these if applicable! And if you happen to end up dead by roboclone, please fill out the death form!
It’s an ordinary night in Dualis, until it suddenly becomes a very dark and stormy night in Dualis. There hasn’t been a single day of unpleasant weather since any of you arrived, but soon after the sun begins to sink behind the city’s skyscrapers and the neon lights intensify for the night, storm clouds begin to gather overhead and unleash a cacophony of thunder, a deluge of rain, and brilliant spikes of lightning arcing across the sky.
It’s a violent storm, to be sure, but surely severe weather is no challenge in such a technologically advanced city as Dualis, right? As long as you stay indoors, you can keep safe and dry until the storm passes.
Except … less than an hour after the storm begins, the power all across the city goes completely out. All buildings are dark except for the illumination cast by lightning across brick and steel and glass. All electronics - including phones - are dead, all biometric locks are disabled, and no attempts to call, text, or reach the internet or the network succeed. Eerily, the streets are silent and empty.
Under normal circumstances, such a widespread blackout would merely be odd and inconvenient, but tonight, circumstances are anything but normal. About half an hour after the blackout begins, something approaches you, wherever you are. In the dark, you’ll be able to make out that its shape is humanoid, but maybe its motions are jerky and mechanical. As it draws closer and you get a better look, by candlelight or flashlight or flash of lightning, you recognize the face staring back at you.
That face is your own.
The face, like the rest of the body, is likely some degree of incomplete, an incongruous jigsaw of metal and flesh, but it’s definitely yours. And this machine doppelganger’s mission is soon made apparent as it launches a targeted attack on you:
It’s here to kill you.
After nearly four hours, the storm subsides and the power is restored and the city falls back into its normal rhythm. Will you survive until then?
May the odds be ever in your favor, friends.
WHAT: When Roboclones Attack
WHERE: Anywhere in the city!
WHEN: The night of Oct. 19
WARNINGS: Please use these if applicable! And if you happen to end up dead by roboclone, please fill out the death form!
It’s an ordinary night in Dualis, until it suddenly becomes a very dark and stormy night in Dualis. There hasn’t been a single day of unpleasant weather since any of you arrived, but soon after the sun begins to sink behind the city’s skyscrapers and the neon lights intensify for the night, storm clouds begin to gather overhead and unleash a cacophony of thunder, a deluge of rain, and brilliant spikes of lightning arcing across the sky.
It’s a violent storm, to be sure, but surely severe weather is no challenge in such a technologically advanced city as Dualis, right? As long as you stay indoors, you can keep safe and dry until the storm passes.
Except … less than an hour after the storm begins, the power all across the city goes completely out. All buildings are dark except for the illumination cast by lightning across brick and steel and glass. All electronics - including phones - are dead, all biometric locks are disabled, and no attempts to call, text, or reach the internet or the network succeed. Eerily, the streets are silent and empty.
Under normal circumstances, such a widespread blackout would merely be odd and inconvenient, but tonight, circumstances are anything but normal. About half an hour after the blackout begins, something approaches you, wherever you are. In the dark, you’ll be able to make out that its shape is humanoid, but maybe its motions are jerky and mechanical. As it draws closer and you get a better look, by candlelight or flashlight or flash of lightning, you recognize the face staring back at you.
That face is your own.
The face, like the rest of the body, is likely some degree of incomplete, an incongruous jigsaw of metal and flesh, but it’s definitely yours. And this machine doppelganger’s mission is soon made apparent as it launches a targeted attack on you:
It’s here to kill you.
After nearly four hours, the storm subsides and the power is restored and the city falls back into its normal rhythm. Will you survive until then?
May the odds be ever in your favor, friends.
Aleifr | OTA | Scintillation
Of course, the fact that this is the first time he's so much as a drop of rain in Dualis doesn't do anything to make the storm less ominous.
Crystal had noticed his hackles were up. She'd come to him with a drink and told him that he was worrying too much. Her demeanor had changed a bit when he'd responded by asking if she remembered the last time there was a storm.
Still, the night went on as it usually did. Liquor flowed freely and stilled the fears of most. The girls took the stage, the patrons cheered, and all was fine until the lights went out.
Startled yelps and screams filled the place. Aleifr got to his feet, slipping his knife free of it's sheathe, but the owner's voice rang out.
"CALM DOWN!" Aleifr couldn't see where the man was, but he turned in the general direction of his voice. "Everyone stay calm! Lightning probably blew a transformer or something, that's all. Everyone. Stay. Calm."
That settled the room down somewhat, but the discomfort was palpable. People didn't seem to know what to do. They didn't know whether they wanted to brave the storm and go home or ride it out in the darkened interior of the bar. They split up into little groups and filled in the silence with hushed chatter as the owner went into the back room to grab torches.
Then the door swung open, and the room went silent.
All that Aleifr could make out about the man in the doorway is that he was big - big as Aleifr himself, more or less. Everything else was hidden in shadow as the man stood in the doorway for an uncomfortably long time, perfectly motionless.
Aleifr took a step forward. His right hand drifted toward the knife on his belt.
"Something I can help you with, friend?" Aleifr asked in a low, even voice.
The man's head snapped toward the sound of Aleifr's voice, and he could feel the man's gaze settle onto him. Without any other warning, the man swung a right hook at Aleifr's temple.
Whoever he was, he was quick. Quick enough that Aleifr was barely able to block the first punch, and quick enough that Aleifr didn't notice the follow-up left through the darkness until it thudded into his ribs. He was barely able to circle away in time to avoid another strike - a kick that was so near a miss that Aleifr could feel the displaced air on his face.
The figure pressed forward, but Aleifr backed him up with a left jab and spread his feet into a fighting stance. He didn't press forward. He wanted the enemy to move in and strike again, and when they came at him with another wild haymaker, he ducked under it and stabbed his knife into the soft flesh of their armpit ...
But they didn't react. He felt the blood leaking out of them on his hand, but they didn't so much as flinch. Instead, they just swung their arm back around and slammed the back of their fist into his jaw. It was a blow that stunned Aleifr. Left his vision swimming for a moment and forced him to stagger back as he started to taste copper.
That's when the owner came back into the main room. He shouted, demanding to know what the fuck was going on as he turned on his torch. Its light fell on the two brawling giants and revealed the intruder's face.
It was a mirror of Aleifr's own. Identical in every way save that the skin on top of it's skull was flayed bare, revealing smooth plates of steel underneath.
For a moment, Aleifr was stunned. Staring stupidly at the doppelgangrel in slack-jawed horror with all the rest of the bar as it pulled Aleifr's knife out of it's armpit with an eerily emotionless calm. If it felt any pain in doing so, it didn't show. It was heedless of the blood dribbling out of the open wound on its side.
Its attention was fixed solely on Aleifr, and the scene dissolved into chaos as it started moving forward after him again.
The doppelgangrel slashed at Aleifr's face. Aleifr leaned back enough to avoid the cut, but the room around him erupted into panic and screaming. The patrons of the bar scrambled in all directions. They bolted for the door, retreated toward the back room, cowered in the recessed booths in the wall.
Where they were going wasn't important, they only wanted to flee. As they did, they bumped into the owner or blocked the beam of his torch, causing the light to swing and strobe erratically. It played hell with Aleifr's vision, and allowed his double to catch him flat-footed with another slash. He tried to back up, but he still felt the edge of his knife bite into his shoulder. The duplicate caught him on the temple with a haymaker from the opposite side. He was reeling, and it could smell the blood leaking out of the wound on his arm and the split lip it'd given him from the back-fist. It rushed forward, pulling back for a stab, but caught it this time - square in the chest with his massive boot.
The doppelgangrel practically flew back from the force of the impact, and it's back slammed into the bar hard enough that there was an audible cracking of wood. Finally having the advantage, Aleifr rushed forward. He blocked a wild slash at his head, slamming his double's arm aside with his own forearm and throwing a hard straight into it's chin.
It's head snapped back, but it wasn't stunned by the blow the way that a flesh and blood foe would be. It retaliated without needing to lower it's head to see what it was swinging at, but Aleifr was able to duck under the punch and score two more shots into its rib cage. He felt something crunch, but apparently the damage wasn't telling enough to give the monster pause. It just slashed him again, this time slicing into the meat of his forearm and cracking the hilt of the knife into Aleifr's temple.
It was sloppy. He should have seen it coming, and he might have been if he wasn't rattled by the sight of a monster wearing his face. He feels the bite of the knife again as it slashes across his ribs. He throws up his hands to block a punch, but doesn't stop it from cracking into his nose.
For the first time since he's been here, he feels like he's truly in danger.
This thing could kill him.
That thought ... it's difficult to describe what comes over him as that thought drifts across his mind. Strange as it might sound, the fear goes away. He gets angry. A veil of red settles over his eyes, his jaw sets, and somewhere deep down, he fucking refuses the idea that this is going to be the end of him.
This fucking city is not going to kill him.
The doppelgangrel slashes at him again, and this time, Aleifr catches the knife by it's blade. He feels its edges cut into his palm and fingers, but he doesn't let go. He swings a hard right over the top of the doppelgangrel's guard and cracks it across the temple with it's knuckles. It's not knocked senseless, but the impact opens it up. He lifts up his boot and stomps it down on top of the thing's knee in oblique kick that leaves the joint bent the wrong way.
The doppelgangrel staggers, trying to find it's balance. Aleifr maintains his grip on the knife and turns into the monster. His pivot puts him back-to-chest with the thing, and he wraps his free arm around it's knife arm. He plants his forearm underneath the doppelgangrel's elbow and levers the joint until that one breaks too. He disentangles his arm and snaps his elbow back into its face. Twice. Three times. Four times, and finally it lets go of his knife. He flips the knife around and plunges it up through the bottom of the doppelgangrel's jaw and into its skull.
It goes limp, but he stabs it four more times for good measure. Just to be sure.
The room finally goes silent again. He can't see the people scattered around the room well enough to see their faces, but he can feel their eyes on him as the rush of adrenaline starts to fade.
He can only imagine what he looks like to them. Wild-eyed, blood-spattered giant standing over a corpse with the knife he'd used to make it.
They were scared of him.
He forced himself to catch his breath. Puts his knife back into it's sheathe. He tries to find words that might calm them, but he doesn't have his wife's gift for words.
"I don't know what's going on." He says after a painfully long silence. "I don't know if any more of them are out there. If there are, they have to go through me."
He doesn't know if that does anything for them.
He hopes it does.