Event | Satellite | Spectres!

[ironwood]

Characters: Any and all!
Date: May 23 - 26, 2013
Location: Keeliai, turtleside, ARSHEPHELIOS cluster remains
Situation: Repairs and salvage operations operating innocently have triggered an invasion of spectres that possess and wreak havoc upon all they see.
Warnings/Rating: Please put CW in your subject lines

Satellite Crash Event

Crash Landing | Salvage Party | Shocking Spectres


Questions | Keeliai | ARSHEPHELIOS


Salvage is sweet, but not all is well on board the ARSHEPHELIOS cluster. The seamless cylinders salvaged from debris and the cluster, now being frequently traded, turn out to be pods the first time one is penetrated or cracked open. Each breached pod releases a flood of energy-based apparitions hellbent on world domination -- or, more accurately, person domination (and it's not the fun kind).

These apparitions -- spectres, if you will -- are driven by a need to protect the technology of the satellite cluster that their pods are associated with. They will stop at nothing to see this through. Each is immune to physical attacks, but seem to be injured or dissipated entirely by things like electrical shock or other energy-based projections. If people touch them, there is also a brief window of vulnerability, but it acts also like a door that swings both way. Through contact, these spectres can and will invade one's psyche, take over their body and cause them to attack friend or foe alike! Should the possessed body be subjected to sufficient electrical shock, the possession should fade. Strong natural will can also drive the spectres out, but it is no walk in the park to do so. Possession is not the only tool in the arsenal, for these spectres use electricity as their main offensive weapon. They'll leave deep-tissue burns on anyone they fight, and show no degree of fatigue after constant use of it.

Ten thousand of these creatures will be freed from pods, resulting in a veritable flood of Keeliai, the turtleside, and the satellite cluster. With such a driven enemy, it comes down to killing or being killed.

Meanwhile, those taking shelter indoors may notice that the spectres will get into the biomechanical functions of Keeliai. Consoles will be malfunctioning during this time, with lines of mysterious code and strange, ghostly images. One might hear people screaming for help or hours of patchy radio static.

Comments

[district7]

[There's no time to fight back as he bears down on her, barely avoiding being knocked back as his full weight slams into her, hands finding her throat to choke the life out of her. It hurts, dragging a muffled gasp of pain from her lips as the current travels through her body, jerking her limbs with each wring of his hands around her neck.

Her free hand finds purchase on his wrist, squeezing and digging her nails in deep. In her panic she lashes out with the scythe, blade at the ready and cuts into his side - anything to get him to let her go.]

[insecrets]

[He's stronger than her. Can feel the way his fingers tighten over her neck, and it sickens Finnick. He fights back to regain control of his body, to force the spectre out, but maybe he's let it use him for too long. Or maybe he's not as strong as he needs to be. Of course not. Finnick is practically useless.

He registers the pain when her nails dig in, but his possessor doesn't seem to care about that. Didn't seem to care about the arrow Katniss shot at him earlier, either. But the scythe, the slash in his side, that makes him howl - him and the spectre - and back off from her, hands immediately going to the wound as he stumbles back toward some of the wreckage from the satellite.]

[district7]

[The pressure dissipates, her focus coming back as Finnick backs off. Her gasp is desperate and the air flooding her lungs is a sweet relief, is a sweet relief, fingers touch the newfound burns around her neck. It's another scar to add to her collection, similar ones on her head, her breasts, and the rest of her body. They won't fade but they will heal, and that's what matters.

Her muscles are still twitching, spasming as she charges, aiming a kick at his chest to push him into the wreckage.]

[insecrets]

[He's regaining his footing, ready to charge again when her foot comes at his chest. His body isn't prepared for it, the invader isn't, Finnick isn't. But he's glad for it, the way the pressure of the kick slams into his chest and leaves him gasping for air, leaves him flailing back.

He hits the wreckage, loses his balance. Doesn't even notice the exposed wire before it's too late. His fingers brush over it, and it's live. It's live.

Muscles twitch as his body spasms, pain flaring through him. His skin burns. It's probably the worst pain he's ever felt, but it's the most exquisite because it's not long after the shock begins that his mind is his own again, the spectre leaving his body and dispersing from the electrocution.

And then he barely feels anything, eyes rolling up in the back of his head as his body continues to convulse, heart stopping even as his hand moves from the wire.]

[district7]

[It takes a moment before she moves to Finnick, her body still twitching from residual shocks, her heart racing from fear. When he doesn't move, doesn't breathe, she rushes to his side, her fingers going to his throat for a pulse.]

No. No, you fucking - [She hisses, hands pressing down above his heart repeatedly, moving methodically in the movements she's familiar with. She leans over his body and breathes into his lungs.] Not again.

[insecrets]

[The thing about being dead - even for a couple of moments - is that there's nothing. That's how Finnick remembers it when he takes a sudden gasp for breath, consciousness hitting him like a tidal wave. There was pain, and there was darkness, and then there was pain again. Pain and light, like every nerve was on fire. He takes another gasp, as if testing it out, that whole breathing thing.

He remembers getting his body back, and he remembers Johanna hovering over him. Except that's happening now, he notices, as he stares up at her, image blurry, distorted.] Gonna break my chest. [His voice is raspy, throat dry, pain shooting through him at her touch.]