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

[manufactured]

Elda and I saw it earlier; we were trying to lure it outside, away from the convention proper.

[i mean on the bright side, he and elda managed to not die against it while armed with, like

a boat oar, a baseball bat and somebody's waifu figurine

we'll probably be fine]

[scythegun]

And you two didn't die! Color me impressed!

[Seriously how did you guys manage this, you couldn't even shoot yet...]

It's probably still out and about, then. We should be cautious anyway though; I'm not sure I want to try fighting a dragon.

[manufactured]

It has at least one particularly strong attack that we're going to want to avoid. Just for reference's sake.

[scythegun]

Oh boy. Let me guess, it breathes fire?

[He sounds sort of amused, at least?]

[manufactured]

Some sort of energy beam, I believe.

[...he is not fucking with you.]

[scythegun]

[...are you fucking with him...? No, you wouldn't fuck with him about something like this, right? It's kind of hard to tell.]

Lovely. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any laser beam-shooting dragons.

[manufactured]

It's a bit difficult to miss.

[No, really, it was huge.

Anyway, thankfully this area seems clear of monsters for the time being; he can't be sure how long their luck will hold out in that regard, but for now it's...good, really.]

Either way, my weaponry is better now than it was - I couldn't precisely bring my gun to the convention, nor did I want to.

[scythegun]

Understandably so! We should hopefully be able to get in and out of there fairly quickly.

[Assuming whatever's drawing us there doesn't want us to stay. But he's not going to think about that!!]

[manufactured]

[...You know...]

...If we see the other people with the app collectively drawn there, we aren't going inside.

[scythegun]

[Oh, that's...]

That's a good idea. I don't know what Retrospec would be doing with that, but it can't be anything good.

[manufactured]

We were all lured out to the woods once, and nothing good came of it.

[Those fucking flowers...]

[scythegun]

Ja, I'd prefer to avoid a repeat of that...

[And look, the convention center's just up ahead! There are still monsters around, but maybe we can make it inside before they spot us?]

[manufactured]

[His concern isn't so much with the monsters milling about as it is with the fact that a large amount of Retrospec users aren't - that's a good sign, surely, though admittedly rather than focusing too hard on the monsters on the ground, his gaze is trained upward for the time being once he's determined that this isn't some sort of mass summons to this place.]

It seems that our dragon friend is occupied elsewhere, for the time being. We should move while we can.

[scythegun]

Thank goodness. Yes, let's get going!

[Making a break for the convention center shouldn't be too difficult, are we going to get in safely?]

[manufactured]

[...You know, we probably should have gone pure stealth here, given that these things like to take "people running away" as "an invitation to chase them" - but you know, running like hell is an option too, it's a very good option, and thankfully this will end with no one getting mauled! Yay, indoors.]

Well, that wasn't -

[You know, everything that's been happening for the past hour or so has trained him into looking up? And it's kind of fortunate that that's the case, because adhering to the ceiling...somehow are a small group of these creepy bastards.]

- No.

[...thanks for the input, Wesker.]

[scythegun]

[Jaeger looks up shortly after Wesker does and his expression defaults back into the usual when he's mildly inconvenienced in some way.]

Oh joy, just what I was hoping to see. More monsters.

[And they're fast too, better get ready to shoot, Wesker! Jaeger's already transforming his weapon back into its scythe form.]

[manufactured]

[He will, but - ]

Jaeger, these look more like people.

[...OKAY, THEY'RE INCREDIBLY CREEPY UNNATURAL PEOPLE THAT ARE PROBABLY GOING TO WANT TO EAT OUR SKIN OR SOMETHING? BUT PEOPLE.]

[scythegun]

[They do look like people don't they, um...]

Well then what do you propose we do? Wait for them to kill us?

[He's shifted the scythe a bit though, his finger over the button to shift it back into briefcase form.]

[manufactured]

[He sees Jaeger shift his grip on the scythe, and between that and the question his brain fucking goes places and he just...hesitates, and he doesn't say anything outside of just kind of staring for a moment too long before he turns, sharply and abruptly, and shoots one of the damn things in the chest.

...So apparently that's a no? It's an awkward as fuck no. He may have just killed a person for that no? But it's melting into black boxes and spores, so maybe not, he can't be sure but holy shit, he sure did just kill someone.]

[scythegun]

[...Oh.

Oh okay. Alright, that's. Fine. Yes, totally fine. It's clearly a monster even if it looks like a person and now it's dead and the other two have paused for a moment. That's good, since Jaeger kind of needs a moment to stare blankly.]

...Well, it definitely isn't a person.

[WHAT DOES HE DO WITH THIS]

[manufactured]

[...It takes him a moment, you know how he gets, sometimes words aren't going to be a thing and it takes a moment - ]

...I suppose not. Come on.

[He levels his gun again; he'd really prefer not to, but here we fucking go.]

[scythegun]

Maybe we can outrun them? Maybe we don't need to...

[He doesn't finish the thought and just trails off instead, looking a little lost. It's obviously not a person but it sort of looks like one and holy shit he doesn't know what to make of this.]

[manufactured]

Do you really want to risk it if we can't?

[His aim isn't as solid on the next shot, however; the damn splicer is fast, and he manages to embed a bullet into the join between the wall and the ceiling near it rather than actually hit it.

He backs up a bit, putting some distance between himself and that thing's advance.]

We've been at this for hours, and these things don't seem to tire. I'd rather not take the chance.

[His resolve seems far more solid as he aims again. Looks like he's made up his mind; the next shot catches this one in the head, and it drops hard to the ground.]

[scythegun]

[Of course he doesn't want to risk it, but they look like people and even though he knows they're monsters, he's not sure he can fight them.

Still, he tightens his grip on his scythe and steels himself, just in case Wesker misses another shot. That thing's close enough to drop at any moment and if it does, Jaeger won't have time to hesitate. He'll either have to kill it or it'll get them.

So are you going to manage to hit the last one?]

[manufactured]

[When he shoots, he does in fact get the last splicer to drop; the problem is that it isn't dead.

It falls to the ground, writhing and seeping black spores out of the gunshot wound to the abdomen; it's making a fuckawful noise, really, and it's something that would almost be pitiable if it weren't just trying to kill them.

Honestly, though, it's enough to get Wesker to lower the gun for a moment, because this is...

...

He should probably have a stronger word than "awkward" for what this is, but that's about the most he's got.]