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It was inevitable

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Total Members Voted: 35

[NAV]

Tsar my comwire, use repair too if it helps for whatever reason. Yell into River's head as loud as I can, hopefully the tsaring makes it very loud. The main objective isn't even to get him to listen, just to distract or distrupt him. Brute force style diplomacy.
<GET BACK HERE YOU TRAITOR! GET THE HELL OUT HERE YOU MONSTER! DON'T YOU DARE HURT OUR TEAMMATE, IF YOU DO WE WILL HURT YOU WORSE! JUST FUCKING COOPERATE AND STOP THIS, WE WON'T EVEN HAVE TO KILL YOU IF YOU JUST FUCKING SURRENDER AND LET IRENE GO! YOU'RE WEAK, YOU'RE THE COWARD, YOU RAN AWAY, YOU'RE HIDING! GET OUT HERE AND PROVE YOU'RE NOT!>
Just keep shouting more stuff like this into his mind. LOUD!

While doing that barricade the top of the stairs with whatever I can. Who knows, it might slow River down a bit.

[Lenglon]

<If that's the price to protect my companions, so be it. I wish I could save them all, but if it's either you or everyone else, I'll pick them. No River, I'll take you with me rather than go quietly to my death. Especially if you're right and this isn't some kind of mind control - this is the real you.>
<River, remember when I acted treacherously at the tower? The moment you're using to justify your actions? Riddle me this. You've felt now what it's like when I fight back, when I resist you. Why didn't I resist then? I stood still without dodging and willingly let you into my mind when you chose to stop me that way instead of physically. >
I give him a pause to respond, but I interrupt him as soon as he starts to give a wrong answer to dodge the question.
<It's because I knew I needed to be stopped. My goal was to stop you from hurting yourself. When you focused on me, you avoided causing yourself harm. I knew what I was planning to do was wrong, but trusted my companions to know to stop me, and made sure they could when the time came. I had to make my actions real or they wouldn't have stopped you, but I also needed to fail.>
<It's your turn River. This. Is. Wrong. You needed to stop me from talking publicly about what I saw. You got that. I swear, if you let me go, that I'll keep quiet for a while longer, and seek you out privately in my fox-form to ask my questions.>
<We need to talk River. Just talk. Without all the threats and without you strangling me yet AGAIN because I ask questions to try to learn. But what you're doing now is destroying our last chance to just talk this out. If I'm rescued without you letting me go on your own, then we aren't going to be friends anymore. I'm not sure you ever actually were a friend to me at all, but I've been doing my best to be one to you. But you've assaulted me, choked me, strangled me, and now you're trying to eat me alive. That's not the actions of a friend or companion River. That's the actions of an abusive monster. As much as I've scared you, I've never actually caused you or any of my companions physical harm. I've said some mean words, but that's the extent of the damage I've done.>
<I've told you all my secrets, I've put myself in harms way to protect you. You, in return, have attacked me over and over again. This is your last chance. If you don't stop of your own free will, then I will see to it that you never get close to my friends. Never have the opportunity to do to them what you've been doing repeatedly to me. I will protect Theri from you River, and make sure that you NEVER see her again. Because if I let you get near her, you'll do to her what you've done to me. And friends don't let friends get abused and murdered like that. Right now, the thing most likely to hurt Theri is you. And if I have to die to save her from the monster that you're choosing to become, then SO BE IT!>
If he doesn't let me go then I shift to Hybrid form. without any flames, at all, to support the change from my smallest form to my largest. Lets see how he likes being encased in ice with me.
As he stops me from doing that, I generate all the fire I can directly ON TOP OF us both, and immolate us both alive.
And when he shifts to suppressing THAT, then I go after his mind, assaulting him with images of pure creation. He's shown himself to be a creature of void, but I have within me the memories, the thoughts of a goddess that created a universe. I form an entire universe in his mind, assaulting him that way too.
and as THAT is forced back, I switch back to physically clawing and biting and scratching at him, attempting to free myself or at least cause him as much harm as I can, screaming telepathically to all that can hear and screaming verbally as well in the way that foxes can.
and so on, going on the attack and constantly switching the style and basis of my assault upon River, only showing self-preservation in the mental war and maintaining my own identity, which is still paramount since if that breaks down then his essence will suppress all of me. I remind myself that I am a creature of creation and change, burning eternally, and shove that concept, the reality of reality itself and my presence in it against and through River's power of void, creating from nothing versus nothingness applied to creations.

[Xantalos]

((Slightly edited my action to merely continue firing dog treats at possibly supersonic speeds if I read the description right))

[Parisbre56]

Campaign

<If that's the price to protect my companions, so be it. I wish I could save them all, but if it's either you or everyone else, I'll pick them. No River, I'll take you with me rather than go quietly to my death. Especially if you're right and this isn't some kind of mind control - this is the real you.>
<River, remember when I acted treacherously at the tower? The moment you're using to justify your actions? Riddle me this. You've felt now what it's like when I fight back, when I resist you. Why didn't I resist then? I stood still without dodging and willingly let you into my mind when you chose to stop me that way instead of physically. >
I give him a pause to respond, but I interrupt him as soon as he starts to give a wrong answer to dodge the question.
<It's because I knew I needed to be stopped. My goal was to stop you from hurting yourself. When you focused on me, you avoided causing yourself harm. I knew what I was planning to do was wrong, but trusted my companions to know to stop me, and made sure they could when the time came. I had to make my actions real or they wouldn't have stopped you, but I also needed to fail.>
<It's your turn River. This. Is. Wrong. You needed to stop me from talking publicly about what I saw. You got that. I swear, if you let me go, that I'll keep quiet for a while longer, and seek you out privately in my fox-form to ask my questions.>
<We need to talk River. Just talk. Without all the threats and without you strangling me yet AGAIN because I ask questions to try to learn. But what you're doing now is destroying our last chance to just talk this out. If I'm rescued without you letting me go on your own, then we aren't going to be friends anymore. I'm not sure you ever actually were a friend to me at all, but I've been doing my best to be one to you. But you've assaulted me, choked me, strangled me, and now you're trying to eat me alive. That's not the actions of a friend or companion River. That's the actions of an abusive monster. As much as I've scared you, I've never actually caused you or any of my companions physical harm. I've said some mean words, but that's the extent of the damage I've done.>
<I've told you all my secrets, I've put myself in harms way to protect you. You, in return, have attacked me over and over again. This is your last chance. If you don't stop of your own free will, then I will see to it that you never get close to my friends. Never have the opportunity to do to them what you've been doing repeatedly to me. I will protect Theri from you River, and make sure that you NEVER see her again. Because if I let you get near her, you'll do to her what you've done to me. And friends don't let friends get abused and murdered like that. Right now, the thing most likely to hurt Theri is you. And if I have to die to save her from the monster that you're choosing to become, then SO BE IT!>
If he doesn't let me go then I shift to Hybrid form. without any flames, at all, to support the change from my smallest form to my largest. Lets see how he likes being encased in ice with me.
As he stops me from doing that, I generate all the fire I can directly ON TOP OF us both, and immolate us both alive.
And when he shifts to suppressing THAT, then I go after his mind, assaulting him with images of pure creation. He's shown himself to be a creature of void, but I have within me the memories, the thoughts of a goddess that created a universe. I form an entire universe in his mind, assaulting him that way too.
and as THAT is forced back, I switch back to physically clawing and biting and scratching at him, attempting to free myself or at least cause him as much harm as I can, screaming telepathically to all that can hear and screaming verbally as well in the way that foxes can.
and so on, going on the attack and constantly switching the style and basis of my assault upon River, only showing self-preservation in the mental war and maintaining my own identity, which is still paramount since if that breaks down then his essence will suppress all of me. I remind myself that I am a creature of creation and change, burning eternally, and shove that concept, the reality of reality itself and my presence in it against and through River's power of void, creating from nothing versus nothingness applied to creations.

He remains silent to your question, so you continue.

<Mrgh. You believe that? You are like them. If that is the way it has to be...>
The world continues disappearing behind light and darkness.
<This is who I am. What you call a monster. I do what I feel is right. I will not apologize.
Talk to Ike. He knows. Maybe then you will see. Talk in private. Away from the others.
I will be watching. If he lies, if he is doing this out of malice, then I will kill him myself.
Tell Theri, if you want. If I find that you told anybody else about this, even one word, then I will kill them before I kill you.
And I always get my prey.>
With that, he lets go of you and you fall to floor as everything becomes normal again. You feel fine, except for your slowly receding shapeshifting sickness and the small cut on your tail where it blocked Ike's sword.

Do a bit of a stab at the wall to my left. Experimental-like. Try to recall what movement I made to get some blood on there, repeat once more with feeling!

You stab at the wall to your left but nothing happens.
Which turns out to be because Irine materializes on your right. Hm. Must have been a distraction.

Before you can do anything, something hits you from behind, breaking apart as it does so. It's not very strong, but the pain and surprise is still enough to push you to the ground.

Keep firing those doggy treats! Rover will soon be unable to resist.

To be specific, plant myself at the foot of the stairs and sweep the room left to right, machine gun turret style.

You fire a few more doggy treats, but you manage to hit the ceiling with all except one, which hits Ike from behind instead. Which is quite a feat on its own considering your shots have no recoil.

Ike falls to the ground but gets up a moment later. Another bruise to add to the pile.

Tsar my comwire, use repair too if it helps for whatever reason. Yell into River's head as loud as I can, hopefully the tsaring makes it very loud. The main objective isn't even to get him to listen, just to distract or distrupt him. Brute force style diplomacy.
<GET BACK HERE YOU TRAITOR! GET THE HELL OUT HERE YOU MONSTER! DON'T YOU DARE HURT OUR TEAMMATE, IF YOU DO WE WILL HURT YOU WORSE! JUST FUCKING COOPERATE AND STOP THIS, WE WON'T EVEN HAVE TO KILL YOU IF YOU JUST FUCKING SURRENDER AND LET IRENE GO! YOU'RE WEAK, YOU'RE THE COWARD, YOU RAN AWAY, YOU'RE HIDING! GET OUT HERE AND PROVE YOU'RE NOT!>
Just keep shouting more stuff like this into his mind. LOUD!

While doing that barricade the top of the stairs with whatever I can. Who knows, it might slow River down a bit.

You tsar your commwire. It becomes gigantic. So large that it starts chocking you and you fall to the ground from the weight. You disregard that and just start psychically screaming. Every one of your teammates, even those not wearing commwires, feels the need to fall the ground and put their hands on their heads from the pain in their minds.

They won't listen to me, Zechariah thought to himself. I can't let River or Irine be harmed.

Summon the Shadows and spread them out, across the basement, using them as a probe for River and Irine in whatever dimension or cubby hole they vanished to. If I find them, use the Shadows to choke out River to diminish his powers. Attempt to separate him and Irine, too.

"Ike, don't hurt them. Don't hurt either one of them!"

You are about to go downstairs when you hear a sound somewhere on your right, behind the bar, just as Nikolai starts painfully screaming into everyone's minds. You turn to look but there's nothing there besides a new bloodstain on the ground.

[Harry Baldman]

"Well, shit. Have you by any chance been unspeakably violated?" Ike asks Irine. "That'd be the perfect cap to my life, to be sure."

[Lenglon]

wideband: <Stop! He let me go!>
Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow my head! effective idea but OW!
private to Ike: <Ike, We need to talk privately.>
private to River: <If you try it, I'll kill you first. I'm tired of being hurt by you River. I'm not going to let you get away with doing this again. It doesn't matter that you're bigger and stronger than me, If I have to start that fight, then I'm never going to be able to go back anyway. And the options are very different for a suicide attack than a straight up fight. I WILL take you with me. You'd better leave my friends alone. But hopefully I won't have cause to start that fight.>
public again: <I'm okay, I think. River left me with deaththreats to myself and anyone I talk to about certain subjects, but he let me go. Thank you for trying to save me. I... feel like I'm not hurt, but I'm shakey from adrenaline letdown and my forepaws still aren't very strong. I-Ike? Do you mind carrying me for a bit?>
private to Ike: <Apparently River left you with secrets too Ike, a lot more than me. He said for me to talk with you. Also, he's mad at you right now, watch your back. He seems to think you should have been either agreeing with him trying to eat me, or to have told me things earlier. He's got a death threat for you too, based on "I will be watching. If he lies, if he is doing this out of malice, then I will kill him myself." So please be careful.>

[Harry Baldman]

"Oh, so I'm only conditionally dead. And here I thought this was going to be complicated," Ike says, picking up Irine.

To the team: <Right, so this is seemingly a very sensitive situation and River'll want me very dead if something goes wrong. Me and Irine apparently need to talk in private, so nobody bother us, will ya? Don't screw me on this, guys.>

Carry Irine to a more secluded location.

To Irine, private: <To be perfectly honest, I'm kind of re-examining that situation myself, and I dare say that, in retrospect? Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done. But there's just something about other people's poor decisions that drive me to make my own. And I don't think he really left me with any secrets, at least not...>

Ike thinks a moment and a limited realization dawns upon him.

To Irine, private: <... shit, was that what this whole misunderstanding was about? Well, I guess it is privileged information and all, but... well, seems like I might have been a bit better informed than I thought. And here I was, complaining about not having enough information.>

An internal laugh comes upon him, and Ike grins.

To Irine, private: <I think there's two important things I know about this that you don't, both of them because I was awoken first, but maybe River will disagree, because who knows how much he knows about all this and what he thinks I know. I do have to warn you though that the truth is neither pretty nor ugly nor terribly impressive. You still want to hear it?>

[Lenglon]

((I don't know if I still have my comwire. River was grabbing it earlier and it wasn't secured when I was shifting forms. but if I don't have it, you could just walk somewhere that people can't hear you so I don't think it matters. I'm using my innate telepathy, not the comwire, in any case.))
<Yes, very much. I need to know who else is attacking us.>

[Harry Baldman]

<Yes, very much. I need to know who else is attacking us.>

<That brings me to Fact One: someone wants River dead. Big surprise, am I right? It's one of the guys in the staging area, which doesn't narrow it down much since I'm pretty sure a considerable majority of them are criminally insane and most of them at one point or another have wanted to either jump each other's bones or kill each other. He knew someone wanted him dead, but came here where someone actually could plausibly kill a part of him off anyway. Probably because the thing he wants us to kill offended him that much, or maybe some kind of don't-show-fear thing animal people seem to like, but it could just as well be some other reason - it's River, so who the fuck even knows.>

<And then there's Fact Two: River's got himself a wingman for this dangerous mission, and it's none other than my attention-seeking main man RDD. He's in his head or something like that - I haven't got a single fucking clue how any of this magic shit works. I do know it's apparently illegal because them's the rules, and River himself could get into quite a lot of trouble over it or something? I imagine my main man ought to be up shit creek in that event as well. Me and him had a conversation when River was still regenerating himself, and he seemed pretty fine.>

<Oh, and Fact Three is that River had some kind of auxiliary body or something like that, and he might not actually be a wolf guy originally. He might be insecure about that, I dunno. But that's all that I remember at the moment that he might not want everyone to know.>

<All in all, this has all the makings of a clusterfuck. And to be perfectly honest I kind of forgot about all that until you reminded me. Sheesh. It's almost like not paying attention to important facts causes critical mistakes to be made.>

[Lenglon]

<Well, that... that is close to what I know. But I have an add-on for Fact one: An attempt has already been made to kill us all. the way the relay broke was "something like River" struck it from the direction of the Staging Area. River and I found it together and he swore me to secrecy over it. The body I was talking about was what actually struck the Relay. But I don't know if it's a backup body for River, or maybe even the original River that's been somehow replaced by the one we know. or something else entirely. But not only does some Entity want him dead, but they're willing to take all of us out at once, and have already launched an attack. Are you sure River is the target? He's refused to tell me anything about this, but that attack would have killed us all if it had hit, not just him.>

[Parisbre56]

((I don't know if I still have my comwire. River was grabbing it earlier and it wasn't secured when I was shifting forms. but if I don't have it, you could just walk somewhere that people can't hear you so I don't think it matters. I'm using my innate telepathy, not the comwire, in any case.))

Well, if River had pulled it hard while you were transforming he would had cut your hand off, so it's probably either still on you or on the floor where you transformed and Ike could had picked it up and given it to you on his way out. Go with whatever works for you, I don't think I need to roll since either would result in the same.

[Lenglon]

<Wait, D's here? He could... That... I... I need to try to talk to him somehow or... but then why... Wait. You said River had a backup body? Could that be the body we found at the relay?>

[Lenglon]

((I don't know if I still have my comwire. River was grabbing it earlier and it wasn't secured when I was shifting forms. but if I don't have it, you could just walk somewhere that people can't hear you so I don't think it matters. I'm using my innate telepathy, not the comwire, in any case.))

Well, if River had pulled it hard while you were transforming he would had cut your hand off, so it's probably either still on you or on the floor where you transformed and Ike could had picked it up and given it to you on his way out. Go with whatever works for you, I don't think I need to roll since either would result in the same.

((wait - what? why would that cut my hand / forepaw off? It's not like I've got a physical body at the time. I mean, my clothes just kinda fall through me, I thought the wire would too. That's why I commented on it not being secured - normally it'd just fall to the ground, right?))

[Harry Baldman]

<Well, that... that is close to what I know. But I have an add-on for Fact one: An attempt has already been made to kill us all. the way the relay broke was "something like River" struck it from the direction of the Staging Area. River and I found it together and he swore me to secrecy over it. The body I was talking about was what actually struck the Relay. But I don't know if it's a backup body for River, or maybe even the original River that's been somehow replaced by the one we know. or something else entirely. But not only does some Entity want him dead, but they're willing to take all of us out at once, and have already launched an attack. Are you sure River is the target? He's refused to tell me anything about this, but that attack would have killed us all if it had hit, not just him.>

<Here's a clue for you: nobody cares if we live or die. Nobody. In the grand scheme of things, you and I are hopelessly insignificant and, due to living in a multiverse of infinite possibilities, infinitely replaceable. I don't see any entity shedding tears over our collective demise. I'm not sure they're physically equipped for that, in fact. Sure, there might be exceptions like River's weird comatose girlfriend and maybe others, but by and large we're insignificant to pretty much all entities.>

<And I was explicitly told - by my main man, no less - that it's River exactly who is wanted dead by somebody unknown. He could have been wrong, but I don't see why somebody would bother with assassinating drooling incompetents like us. The main man himself proposed the green-talking thing as a suspect before confessing initial, easily defeated feelings of perverse sexual lust toward it.>

<Wait, D's here? He could... That... I... I need to try to talk to him somehow or... but then why... Wait. You said River had a backup body? Could that be the body we found at the relay?>

<Maybe? I dunno. There was dimensional fuckery involved, so I couldn't say. In fact, I can't say I understood much of anything that happened back there, but I guess that's why our respective stories are complementary to one another, right? You have the magic bit, I have the political bit.>

[Parisbre56]

@HB: You might want to take into account that I'm using darkling.

((I don't know if I still have my comwire. River was grabbing it earlier and it wasn't secured when I was shifting forms. but if I don't have it, you could just walk somewhere that people can't hear you so I don't think it matters. I'm using my innate telepathy, not the comwire, in any case.))

Well, if River had pulled it hard while you were transforming he would had cut your hand off, so it's probably either still on you or on the floor where you transformed and Ike could had picked it up and given it to you on his way out. Go with whatever works for you, I don't think I need to roll since either would result in the same.

((wait - what? why would that cut my hand / forepaw off? It's not like I've got a physical body at the time. I mean, my clothes just kinda fall through me, I thought the wire would too. That's why I commented on it not being secured - normally it'd just fall to the ground, right?))

You're vulnerable while transforming. I think I got that in your upgrade tree? I'll check my notes, but I'm pretty sure that's true. And I think I had told you about it when you made your character. At least, I remember thinking about that in previous missions, so I think it must have been true in the past. Then again, my memory is not the best... I dunno, maybe I'm making a mistake, I'll search through my PMs.

But I thought it made sense as a disadvantage. And from an "what happens" perspective. For example, what happens if you change shapes while falling? Or while standing over a grate? Or while wearing clothes or other things? For me, it makes sense to treat your body as semi-physical, so that it can remain standing (or keep falling) and resist and push the wind or clothes or burning things over it or other stuff like that and avoid having things phase through it (or worse stay in you after the transformation is over), but can still be damaged during the transformation if something hits her with enough power.

I thought it also made sense because you say injuries do not heal and yet you also say she turns into fire. So that means that the fire she turns into has something special, like it holds the data needed to rebuild her body, so any damage to it could be bad. So it also makes sense for it to have some magical resistance against damage to that fire.

I dunno, if I made a mistake I guess we could change it to "things phase through you".