[EVENT] A STROKE OF SABOTAGE

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL
Date: April 16th-April 30th
Location: Keeliai, various
Situation: Just when you think things are working a little too well...
Warnings/Rating: To be added as needed.

---

It starts small - a few greenhouses have seen their crops wither, and the kedan frantically scramble to find the cause. By the time they do, it’s too late. Three days later, the problem seems to occur in every single one of the major greenhouses and hydroponics stations; plants withered and dead, and several kedan sick and showing signs of Dust poisoning after contact with the water supply. While there were no deaths, all had to go to the Healers Guild and several had severe enough reactions that their stay was more than just a brief treatment and overnight observation.

The initial response from a few of the more superstitious kedan is that the run of bad luck has culminated in the ruin of their efforts. More level-headed kedan will be inclined to take a more scientific approach. Kyde and a number of chemists are called in to take samples.

As one might expect (or not, as the case may be), Dust had been somehow integrated into the water that feeds the hydroponics and greenhouses, which wound up killing the plants and sickening the kedan. While it hadn’t made it into the main water supply for the city, there was clearly enough of an organized effort that it affected the public greenhouses and hydroponics systems. Every piece of equipment that comes in contact with the water will have to be flushed to prevent another die-off. It's a big setback, and the process will take several weeks to complete, reigniting concerns about food shortages.

The culprits even left a calling card - painted on the walls or tarps is a message: MALICANT WILL RISE.

Tensions are high everywhere in the city, and morale is low as the culmination of the kedan and Foreigner’s hard work was ruined and, while they aren’t back to square one, there is an enormous amount of work ahead. Going forward, there is an urgent call for the development of better filtration systems to keep out toxins while still distributing essential nutrients, and better security. The kedan will be looking toward Foreigners for assistance in these matters.

---

OOC: Various starters are included in the comments below for different facets of the plot, or you can make your own! Please direct any questions to the April Game Itinerary post. Thank you!

Comments

cw: implied gore/body horror

[upshore]

He's about to say he's okay when he hears the sound of bone shears slicing. Trager. He's stalking Miles again.

"Somebody's got to win and somebody's got to lose here, I don't make the rules." The shears slice again. They're closer.

Miles starts shaking and looks down at his mangled hands. "He's here," he says, choking back a sob. "Trager's here, he's going to take more--"

Fingers first. Then balls. Then tongue. The nanites start prickling at his skin again, and he suppresses a shout as they emerge, remaining just above his skin.

[lasergrenades]

Oh, crap. Pepper gives herself about five seconds of sheer panic when the nanites start to hover over Miles' skin again, and then yanks her helmet off. It might help for him to see her a little less armored.

"Miles, look at me," she orders. "Trager is not here. It's just you and me," Pepper reminds him. "Just you and me. I won't let anyone hurt you, okay? I need you to trust me on this one so we can get you some help."

And keep the healers safe. It would be seriously, seriously bad if he freaked out and sliced one of them up by accident.

[upshore]

He looks at her, but he doesn't really see her for a moment, lost as he is in his terror. He thought he'd put it behind him, Trager's dead, Walker's dead, Billy's dead and that one was directly on Miles, he's a murderer, oh God...

Tears are beginning to leak out of his eyes, but he wills the nanites back, and he shakes with pain as they're re-absorbed, biting his lip until it bleeds, trying not to make a sound. If he makes a noise, if his clothes rustle, if he breathes too loud, they'll have him. He's still shaking, clearly not quite in the present.

[lasergrenades]

Stopping a drug-induced panic attack is not something Pepper has training for, but she has to try. If Miles kills her, at least she'll come back in a few days; kedan won't be that lucky. Really, though, she'd like not to activate the revenge protocol she's accumulated.

He's in pain and he's scared. There's only one of those Pepper can do much about, unfortunately. Whatever he's seeing and hearing, she needs to disrupt again.

So she hugs him. Gently, but firm, wishing it were easier to get out of the armor like this and hoping it's still enough. "Take some slow, deep breaths with me, Miles. In and out. You're safe. Slow down, just focus on breathing. Nothing else matters but that right now, just breathe. There's no one else here."

[upshore]

Miles jolts when she hugs him, and his skin prickles, but the nanites don't re-emerge. It'd take too much energy, and his head is swimming already. At least it's not his wrists. At least she's not holding his wrists.

He tries to breathe like she says, but it comes out as more of a gasp. The fear is still there, roiling in the pit of his stomach like angry snakes, but he tries to listen. Her words sound like they're coming from very far away, but he tries to focus.

He gasps and shudders a few more times before he can get a decent breath in, and even then it's not much. But it's more normal and less like someone fearing for his life, so that's a little better.

[lasergrenades]

It takes effort to be still, but Pepper waits, and listens. "Good, there - just like that. Air is good for getting your brain to think straight. In and out, nice and slow. I've got nowhere else to be, we'll get you through this."

The thread of words mostly dissolves into a comforting ramble, half to give Miles something to listen to and half to keep her calm.

[upshore]

He keeps trying to breathe, and he manages to get a few deep breaths in. The sounds are gone - no more chains, no more shears, no more Trager.

There's some heavy breathing in his ear that isn't his own. Little pig.

He tries to ignore it, and tries not to hyperventilate. It takes great effort to keep his breathing even, and after a few moments he starts sobbing.

"Fuck," he whispers. "Fuck."

[lasergrenades]

Pepper can't help it - she laugh, but it's a desperate, almost hysterical sort of sound; the kind of laughter that happens when you're sobbing your eyes out. It's incredibly hard seeing him like this, and Pepper has to keep it together for him.

"Yeah, sounds about right," she agrees, drawing only far enough away that she can look him in the eye again, keeping her hands on his shoulders to steady him. "Just keep breathing, nice and slow. Breathe with me, Miles. That's all you have to do. Nothing else, just breathe. You're safe. Just breathe and I'll take care of the rest. That's all you have to do."

Vee, intangible, is still on guard. She'll protect Pepper, but she'll also keep anyone from stumbling upon the pair and disrupt the fragile balance Miles has managed to reach.

[upshore]

He keeps trying to breathe like she says, but even though the worst is over, the worst has happened anyway.

He'd lost control. He'd almost killed someone. Drugged or not, in control or not, murder was still murder. He already has one death on his hands. He doesn't want any more. And everything the Walrider had done - no, that he had done - is burned into his mind with crystal clarity.

He can't look her in the eye. Not after what just happened. Not after what he just did.

[lasergrenades]

It seems like Miles might have scrabbled back enough control to keep an even keel, hopefully long enough to get him to the Healers Guild. He's got his gaze elsewhere, though, and she wants his focus on her right now.

"Hey. Hey, c'mon, look at me. You're okay. I'm okay. No harm, no foul - right now we just need to take care of you, okay? Let's just sit here for a while and see if you can stand later," Pepper tells him soothingly. She'll carry him if she has to, but if he can make it on his own that would be a good sign. "Breathing is step number one, just keep going with that. Do you remember where you are? You don't have to talk, just nod."

[upshore]

Miles thinks he remembers. Somewhere in Keeliai. Not sure which sector. He nods tentatively, still trying to focus on breathing. He's never been so glad to be here and not there, and he's pretty damn happy not to be at Mount Massive every fucking day he wakes up not in a basement lab with one broken leg.

He looks up at her and he really hopes he isn't crying.

Hopes dashed. He totally is.

[lasergrenades]

"Good. Good." Miles is undoubtedly still disoriented, but this is a step in the right direction. She smiles at him worriedly when he looks up.

"There you are," Pepper says, a little nonsensically. She really doesn't care that he's crying; if there was any situation for tears, this is it. "How about me, do you remember my name?"

Being drugged and going Walrider-crazy could have scrambled his brains pretty badly, and perhaps getting him to think about something other than the nanite swarm would help a little, too.

[upshore]

He stares at her, still a little confused. Faces flicker in front of him. She's Aisha, for a second; Beatriz, for another. He closes his eyes and shakes his head to try and clear it. This is Keeliai. They're not here. As much as he wishes they were, they're not here.

Marie? No. He'd met her once. Not her. Young, redhead. Friend of Tony. "...Pepper?" he says, still unsure.

This is your brain on nanites. Any questions?

[lasergrenades]

"Yeah, it's me," Pepper says, nodding more enthusiastically than she really needs to. Progress! She might get out of this in one entire piece. "You got it, you've got this," she assures him, encouraging. Maybe if she keeps giving him prompts to latch onto, she can pull him back together and get him to Raine or one of the other healers.

"Okay, um... How about where you're staying, do you remember that?"

[upshore]

Oh, God. Nothing makes sense. His head's still swimming, and he feels like he's going to pass out, falling right onto his old bed in his ammi's house. No, his couch in Seattle. No, his dorm bed back at NYU. No, his bed in the barracks in Afghanistan. No...

...under a bed. Under a bed. Under a bed under a bed under a bed under a bed under a bed!!!

"Nonononono," he moans quietly, trying to hide his face.

[lasergrenades]

"Okay, okay, it's okay," Pepper says hurriedly when Miles begins to fall back into fear. It's most definitely not okay, but it's not a horror show in reality. In Miles' head is anyone's guess. Gently, she puts her hands on his shoulders.

"Miles, you need to be here. Not anywhere else - you need to be curled up on a street in Keeliai and nowhere else, do you hear me? Because that's where you are, and I don't want to take you anywhere else until you know that."

[upshore]

He cringes back a little when he feels the touch on his shoulders - it's Trager come to drag him out from beneath the bed! Any minute now he's going to feel the white-hot stab of shears in his shoulders, he has to run, now, now--

And suddenly that's gone. The scar on his shoulder where he'd been stabbed twinges, but it's the memory of pain, not the reliving of it.

"Fuck," he says, still hiding his face and shaking. "Oh, fuck. Fuck, I'm sorry. I could have...fuck!"

[lasergrenades]

Pepper shakes her head slowly. This isn't going well, and they can't stay here forever. He won't stop freaking out until whatever is in his system gets flushed out of it, and she holds onto that despite her own panic: there is a solution to this problem.

"Miles, you aren't hurting me. You're only hurting yourself at this point, seriously. It's okay." It's not, but it's as okay as it can be. "Really, it's okay, you're okay, I'm okay. But I need to get you to the Healers Guild." She offers him a strained smile. "How do you feel about being carried around by a girl?"

Since flying seems like it would go very poorly with him in this state.

[upshore]

He nods - she's making sense - and then laughs weakly. "Wouldn't be the first time. Only usually I'm drunk."

Well, he's...kinda...drunk? Except he's a happy drunk, not a murder-everything-in-sight drunk. Fucking Dust.

ancient reply is ancient

[lasergrenades]

"Okay, carrying it is." Screw the patriarchy? She's carried Tony and Gene before. Pepper takes a moment to put her helmet back on but leaves the faceplate open before carefully sliding her arms under Miles' knees and around his shoulders.

"You must know some pretty awesome girls if they're carrying you around when you're drunk," she remarks, standing up and beginning to walk - rapidly - in the direction of the Healers Guild. Fun conversation topics are probably better here, maybe she can distract him a little.