JULY EVENT LOG 2.0

[recollecters]

EVENT

CRASH AND BURN The last day of the ReConvention finds con-goers crowding the convention center for last-minute panels and purchases. The halls fill with attendees bartering for wares, attending autograph sessions and showing off their cosplays. But for a select number of people, time is of the essence. Those who scanned their QR codes at the Retrospec booth will notice that their countdown clock draws closer to zero. With each second ticking closer and closer to the end, a sense of urgency settles around the crowd. But, perhaps you’re one of the ones who will carry on as if nothing is happening. Or maybe you didn’t scan your code at all. It doesn’t matter though. There’s nothing stopping the clock from its descent backwards, and as the timer strikes zero a loud, piercing roar echoes off of every wall of the convention center. I. Those who were brave enough to scan their received QR codes (and even those who didn't but received one regardless) will find that their mobile devices shock them, a quick electric burst that leaves behind a white-hot sort of pain. When you open your eyes after the initial hit, a floating treasure chest appears. While there may be multiple chests surrounding you, it seems you may only open those with your name on them. Another beam of light shines upon opening your prizes, orbs skyrocketing through the air as they circle briefly before settling around you. A surge of energy ignites within, and for some lucky few new companions and items have also been rewarded to those who played Jim's game. But…perhaps they aren't the ones you expected. Perhaps they make no sense at all. Why not give them a try? II. But seeing how the convention center continues to shake, it might be better to find out what’s up. The source of chaos can be traced back to Seto Kaiba's gaming booth as a projector in the wall releases monster after monster that pour out of the projection and come to life. Though the TV above Kaiba’s booth is shattered, the projector keeps rolling and the monsters appear while destroying the booth itself in their haste to be free. Among the rubble left behind the blue glow of the Retrospec symbol shines brightly from a side-panel of the projector. For those in the convention center, there is the option to run and hide. With the building shifting due to the onslaught of attacks, piles of drywall, cracks and crevices and more provide for good hiding spots to give you time to make a new plan. Of course, there's always the fight option. What will it take to bring these beasts down? Maybe it's best to lure them outside instead and away from civilians. III. Or perhaps that was a bad idea. Whether citizens manage to wrangle the monsters outside or not the beasts will make their way out on their own, fighting amongst themselves and chasing people through the city's streets. Even those who didn't attend the convention will find that the infestation spreads to every district of the city itself, and their QR-given items and abilities kick in. They aren't going for the kill, but they will follow any moving target including those who aren't on the Retrospec network. Though these citizens may run, hide or need rescuing, if asked they will simply remark that the city's always had a bit of a monster problem. However, now that the fight's moved outside, it's easier to see the distinct red tint to the monsters' eyes every time they blink. A monster that has to forcibly change direction will flicker for a moment, like an image buffering and loading. Even when a monster unleashes an attack, some fighters may take the full impact while others get away with minor to no damage. In those moments, it's easier to bring them to a halt. When a monster meets its demise though, something strange happens. The flickering is more rapid and faster, and the creature will dissolve into black blocks and spores that evaporate into thin air. What the hell was that? Now probably isn't the best time to ask questions. IV. The fighting rages on but with the sun still hanging in the sky it's impossible to tell what time it is. One of the monsters seems to have knocked out the nearby cell phone tower, too, taking down not only cell phone reception, but the entire Retrospec network as well. It goes on for what feels like hours with the sun beating down from above. Retrospec users battle monsters and fight to reconnect while the network errors out any time someone tries to send a message about the city under attack. It seems as though a new wave of monsters appear just as the last one dies down. It's with a sudden jolt that reception on your mobile device returns, but Retrospec appears to be in a maintenance mode where the network is still inaccessible. A quick glance at the date on your phone reveals that instead of the mere hours you thought, nearly five days have passed by and you realize the date is now August 3rd. Upon that realization everyone's devices begin to chime with several notifications and the monsters all seem to pause for one brief moment. Not long after, Retrospec members will also find themselves frozen in place no matter how hard they struggle. The spell on the monsters breaks as they swoop upon these unfortunate few, picking them up in their claws, hands or mouths. A large swirling portal opens not far away and one by one creatures dive straight through the portal with the Retrospec users. These portals may spit you out anywhere in the city, but several of them send residents to Peach Beach. Strangely, the monsters are nowhere to be found, but way out in the distance appears to be a creature, swallowing up the ocean in a swirl of waves. You can try to run out to fight it, but the moment your feet touch what used to be the ocean floor a forcefield throws you back to the sand allowing the ocean to slip away right before your eyes. The moment the last drop is drained, that monster disappears, too. What happens next? To be continued… And welcome to the wrap-up of the ReConvention! As Prompt IV says, monster attacks will continue through all five days (July 30th, 31st, August 1st, 2nd and 3rd) and the network will not be accessible to anyone in-game from now until August 3rd when a mod-posted Retrospec post goes live! Please feel free to play with the monster attacks as you wish! You can have your characters escape via glitches in the monsters, or you can fight the monsters and and your character can actually take damage for a real battle (though death is not an option at this time.) We leave that up to you! Please do not post any threads in this log or in your inboxes set for after this log just yet! We will be setting up August's event via this log and for plot purposes we ask that you refrain from doing anything prior to our Retrospec post on 8/3. Those who are in Group One or Group Two will learn more about their small-focus teams on August 3rd when your logs goes live. Please direct questions about this log to the mod comment here. Thanks!

Comments

III

[scythegun]

[Jaeger's first thought when he saw monsters attacking people wasn't "what the hell" it was actually "well, time to go find Wesker" so here he is! It admittedly took quite awhile to actually locate Wesker, but he's here and there's a monster that Wesker's shooting at. It's sufficiently distracted, so it probably won't even realize that it's about to be slammed with Yeager's giant fuckoff scythe.

It's a damn good thing he remembered how to fight with this stupid impractical weapon.]

Figured you could use a little bit of help!

[Hi, Wesker. Nice day we're having, isn't it.]

[manufactured]

[This is the best day.

Or, well, it will be. Once he's done not entirely being certain what he's doing. He appreciates the giant fuckoff scythe usage, however, it'll give him time to shift his grip on the gun because that...

Okay, he's still not here for guns but that felt weirdly sexy, he's here for this when it comes to fighting things like that and not unloading them into a person.]

It took you a while, didn't it.

[Yes, yes, it's nice to see you too.]

[scythegun]

I wasn't sure where to find you at this time of day! I was a little delayed, ja.

[He doesn't seem to mind though and he'll keep the thing busy while Wesker gets used to that gun. He's not the most agile person, so dodging that thing's attacks certainly won't be easy or fun, but for now he can keep it occupied with scythe swings.]

[manufactured]

Would have been far easier if we could use the network.

[Just...let him aim again - with such a silent thank you to the "Albert Wesker" whose memories he's been regaining for requiring a laser sight, it makes his life at least slightly easier, even if he does have to put forth entirely too much thought into not jerking upwards on the gun when he fires.

He'll get off another shot - enough to distract it again, anyway, though he's not hitting anywhere vital.]

That's probably the one time I'll ever wish we had access to the godforsaken thing.

[scythegun]

Ja, agreed!

[Thanks for the distraction, that gives him enough time to sink a particularly hard cut to the thing's arm.]

You're not injured though, are you?

[He doesn't sound too concerned, but he wouldn't be surprised if Wesker had gotten hurt and was still fighting like nothing's wrong.]

[manufactured]

Not yet, at any rate.

[He is totally okay with saying this like it's going to happen eventually, because holy shit look at him.]

Yourself - any difficulties in getting over here?

[Another shot, another hit; at this point he's considering it a success if he's hitting things that aren't Jaeger, honestly.]

[scythegun]

[THANKS, WESKER...]

Not particularly! I've run into a few monsters by now, but nothing I can't handle!

[That much is true, though he's eventually going to tire out just because he's not used to swinging a scythe around. Adrenaline can only get you so far!]

[manufactured]

Do try to keep it that way.

[Try not to get your head punched off or something by things like this, in other words.]

[scythegun]

And here I thought you wouldn't care! I'm touched~

[He's obviously being sarcastic about the first part and just annoying with the second. We should probably be close to bringing this thing down by now, right?]

[manufactured]

I happen to prefer your presence to your absence. There's a difference.

[In other words, oh my god, shut up, this thing is almost dead and why are you like this just kill it already.]

[scythegun]

That still means you're fond of me! There's no escaping it~

[Anyway, he'll deal the last blow and then take a moment to try to catch his breath. This is fun, but boy is he going to be sore tomorrow.]

[manufactured]

[And once that thing is dead on the ground, Wesker will...actually approach it, lowering the gun a bit in the interest of crouching down next to it to look it over.

...And maybe reach out to touch, because Wesker is like that.

He pulls his hand back at the flickering, though - that seems like something that probably shouldn't be happening? - and eventually the thing just...breaks up into glitching and weird black spores, and while the glitching is fascinating the spores are actually super gross? It's sort of super fucking gross.]

...Well.

[Well.]

[scythegun]

[Jaeger starts a bit when Wesker reaches out for the thing, but before he can say "don't touch it" it's already disappearing. The glitching is fascinating and the spores do look super-gross, and he watches all of that without comment until it's gone.]

...That was strange.

[Understatement of the year, buddy.]

[manufactured]

...Slightly, yes.

[And he'll just get back up like that wasn't just a thing he nearly had his hand all up in. No worries, man.]

[scythegun]

You should be more careful! Don't go touching things like that! We have no idea what those spores do.

[Not to mention the glitching. There's no telling what that could do to you!]

[manufactured]

It wasn't as though I had any way to know it would do that - most things don't.

[Just saying.]

[scythegun]

Well no, but you should be careful now that you do know!

[manufactured]

It's fine, Jaeger.

[Just...let him check his damn gun to see how many shots he's got left; this things magazine capacity is ridiculous.]

We ought to get to the shooting range eventually; it's one of the places more likely to actually carry decent amounts of ammunition.

[...We're going to loot the place, he is absolutely suggesting that we're going to loot the place.]

[scythegun]

That sounds like a wonderful idea! Shall we head there now?

[On the one hand he should probably be a bit concerned about how eager Wesker is to fight. That's his duty as Wesker's fear response! But on the other, looting and killing monsters. He's actually having a blast and so far Wesker hasn't really been in all that much danger, right? So it's totally fine.]

[manufactured]

Let's.

[Wesker is totally fine with how eager he is to the fight, for the record. It'll probably strike him a little strangely later, maybe, in that way that most of the odd things he does strike him strangely well after the fact - but again, for the time being he's content assuming that his fight or flight response is just a little more fighty than most.

Either way, come on, let's go.]

...I was at the convention where this all broke loose a short while ago. This is still a concern, but far less so than it was there - all of this was in an enclosed area for a while.

[scythegun]

Is that where all this started? Huh. Do you know what happened to cause all of this?

[It's interesting in a way that it wouldn't have been a few months ago, before he could fight. He's pleased he doesn't have to spend this time holed up in his house or his shop and can actually have fun, which is something that'll probably be a little strange when he considers it later as well.]

[manufactured]

Unfortunately, I can't be sure.

[He's keeping his gun low for now, though he isn't holstering it or putting it away - as soon as he does that they're going to get jumped by something, because his luck is terrible.]

[scythegun]

Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. We'll deal with these things as they come, ja?

[He's still got his scythe out as well. It's easier to carry when it's a briefcase, but he doesn't want to waste time transforming it.]

[manufactured]

I take it you're staying with me for the duration, then?

[He doesn't sound like he's protesting, just verifying.]

[scythegun]

Of course I am! I did say I'd be your fear response, ja?

[I MEAN HE'S NOT DOING A GOOD JOB OF IT but shhhh.]