⇨ THE MATRIX: Plot Finale

[ringleaders]

Who: EVERYONE! Especially Tamaki, Carly, and Childermass.
When: S1:D40 - the first day of the second performance week.
Where: The carnival, while the gateway to the Matrix is open.
What: Agents find the carnival. They don't like it. Neither does the Ringmaster.
Warnings: Body horror for some people, gun violence for others. Also, a pissed off Ringmaster.

MATRIX: RESOLUTIONS↴ The days following the kidnappings and attacks are tense. The performances go smoothly enough, but are delayed by those that have been bedridden or captured - only for the vanished workers to return a few days after the initial attacks. Bad things have been done to them, clearly, but the specifics are unclear, as is why they seem to have been released without a fight. Maybe the machines just had no further use for them, as unlikely as it seems. Regular humans from the Matrix come and go. They experience the carnival, balk at the possible unreality of their lives, and then go home. What it accomplishes is ambiguous and perhaps unsatisfactory to some. All the while, the threat of something more ominous lurks. The sensible thing to do in this situation would be to pack up and leave, but even if it is broached to the Ringmaster, she will be resistant. She spends much of the Off Week mulling over the idea, only casually recommending that people might want to stay out of the Matrix for the time being, but not enforcing it. When the next week rolls around, she makes the somewhat unpopular decision to declare that the carnival is opening its gates to the Matrix again. Workers are directed to prepare for another week of performances. This turns out to be an irresponsible choice. ► AGENTS ATTACK: Mere hours after the carnival gates open, theoretical threats assertively make themselves a reality. It may not be entirely clear what happened to all observers, but the generalities appear something like this: the gates open and performances start, humans enslaved within the Matrix start to come in, just as before, and then... chaos breaks out. Suddenly Agents are there, something the Ringmaster had assured wouldn't happen. The numbers of Agents present seem to multiple within a short time period, but with some luck you may spot the original source - it's the three captures carnival workers, Tamaki, Carly, and Childermass. ► THE BUGGED: For Tamaki, Carly, and Childermass, this is sure to be an unpleasant experience. How much they experience or remember of this will vary, but what will essentially happen to them is that three Agents are going to use their implanted bodies in an attempt to import themselves into the carnival's reality - that is to say, they are going to try to upload themselves into their bodies through the implanted bugs, and overwrite them as they do with the Matrix natives. (For an example of how this usually, watch the helicopter be overwritten by an Agent about ten seconds into this clip.) This won't really work like how they intended, given that the carnival's reality is a mixture of code, magic, and matter at the moment. How exactly this pans out with your character is up to you - you can have them completely turn into an middle aged white man with a gun (or a different middle aged white man if they already are one) but have the Agent's control falter after a short while, or they can only partially change and partially take over. Or, they can just try to possess your characters body for a while, with no physical changes. Motivation wise, the Agents are pretty simple. They discovered the anomaly of the carnival and wanted to know what the fuck was going on, but what happens after arriving isn't really what they were expecting. They will be attacking primarily out of reflex and out of a lack of better ideas. They are machines, programmed for a purpose, and will do their best to accomplish that - right now, that is eliminating a threat. The bugged characters can be saved by being taken down/knocked out/restrained enough that the Agents will make the jump into another nearby Matrix native. From there, they will multiply, for a short time. ► KICKBANNED: After the Agents enter through the three bugged characters, more Agents will appear by overwritting some of the nearby Matrix natives. Overall we are talking about 6 Agents spread out around the carnival at any given moment, but if you kill or injure their host they will be able to jump to a new human and take them over. The attack will be short, but unpleasant. After about 15 minutes the Ringmaster will realize what is happening, and put a swift end to it. If any of the possessed characters haven't been knocked out/saved by then she will literally and figuratively rip the Agents out of them, returning them to normal. After that she will tear apart the coding/consciousnesses of the remaining Agents and kick all of the remaining visitors out, slamming the gates behind them. She will be very pissed, and it will be scary to watch. Then, she will declare that they are packing their figurative bags and moving the fuck on, thank you very much. OOC GUIDELINES: The carnage here should not get excessive, though people are welcome to get hurt if they want to. The fight will be short, and ultimately the Agents will be too confused to be super effective - however, it's more than enough to provoke the Ringmaster into being done with this shit. Any Agents killed will revert to the dead body of whatever human they were possessing. These bodies will also disappear when the Ringmaster kicks everyone out. If they jump from a live host, the host will be left with whatever injuries they sustained. The bugged characters will have to get their implants removed by the Doctor. Overall, this isn't meant to be a total bloodbath, and the carnival workers will have a good shot at handling the Agents on their own turf. It's mostly the fact that they keep coming back that is the problem. Character's abilities function as normal inside the carnival, and they may possess a small portion of their One powers for the duration of the fight, too. OOC questions can be directed to the original plot post. If you are one of the three possessed people and really don't want to do this plot, we can figure a way to minimalize it for you, but I'm hoping this is something the plot volunteers find exciting.

Comments

⇨ FUCK THIS SHIT WE'RE OUT

[lordofthering]

It's not the first time some veterans will have seen her furious, but it's always memorable. It seems both a very long and a very short time after the Agents arrive that she is there, appearing in bursts of flame and ripping the Agent's very essence out of their humans shells. Her eyes glow ember red, now, showing their inhumanity more clearly than usual - her hands seems clawed, and her teeth particularly sharp.

She snorts smoke in disgust as she tears them apart, and then heads to the gate with an irritated roar.

"GET OUT!" she commands, and all of the remaining residents of the Matrix seem to be sucked back out the way they came, leaving only some shed blood and collateral damage in their places. She doesn't give a shit about the injured humans of that world. All she cares about is that this whole planet has turned out to be a huge waste of time and absolutely no fun at all.

Once the dust has settled, she stands at the head of carnival, staring at the space where the gate just was, her claws clenches at her sides.

"What the hell is wrong with people?!" she yells at no one in particular. "Am I cursed or something??"

[pipers_son]

Well. It's been some time since this has been seen, hasn't it?

After taking care of Tamaki- and by that he means possibly tying the poor boy up with a whole lot of rope- Joker had been making a fly straight to try and find the Ringmaster because this? This is just cause to bother her. No one, not him or the other veterans or her, surely, want a repeat of the vampires. He's just about to fumble for his radio, wanting to yell maybe a little bit at her, when-

The Ringmaster angry is always a show all its own. From above, winder under his wings, Joker watches it all happen, and gives a low whistle as the gate disappears.

If this never happened in the first place- if she'd listened when he'd brought up that maybe they should just leave with such antagonistic forces in the Matrix, a thought he mulls over with no small amount of bitterness- then he'd be a lot happier. Still. At least this has been taken care of quickly, before anything too disastrous had a chance to happen.

From a little ways behind her, there's the sound of wings as Joker comes in for a landing. He's a little battered, bleeding in a few places, but not apparently shot at, which is the most he can ask for. A short second passes as he looks over her, trying to figure out what exactly to say.

I told you. No. Funny, most people just sit in the cookhouse complaining when they don't like the games. No.

"Bad luck, I'd say," he ventures with instead, using practiced care, "since we didn't have much trouble with Morpheus' and his lot. Care for a drink ta wash away the bad taste of this whole bleedin' mess, ma'm?"

[lordofthering]

She seems to hear him, but doesn't address his question like a normal person might, not that it is any surprise with her. Instead, she takes a moment to kick a pile of used packing crates - which more or less explode into flames on impact.

She's pretty sure he said something about luck and drinks but she doesn't actually care because she's pretty sure whatever he said was stupid and ignoring the gravity of how incredibly pissed she is. She whirls on him, jerking a finger in the direction of the gate like she can't believe the audacity of it all.

"Tell me, when did this get so difficult?!" she demands, sounding like she would be happily flipping a table if there was one available. "That place was perfect, and yet -!"

She snarls.

[pipers_son]

Probably for the best she refuses that drink, honestly. He’d offer to to normal humans, because sometimes all you can do is get drunk after an event like this, but the Ringmaster is a handful while (presumably) sober. Best not tempt fate.

Joker keeps his calm as she points a claw at him, all frustration, and swallows back any negative feelings like a hard pill. One of them needs to keep their cool here, and it’s obviously not going to be the Ringmaster right now. Eugh. Right now, he thinks he might actually miss Gil a little bit right now, if only because the other would have served as a good distraction right about now.

“We just overstayed our welcome this time,” he tries, forcing his tone to be nonjudgmental. “It’s happened a few times before, hasn’t it?”

[dorkypantsuit]

Psi is nearby, but definitely isn't part of the conversation. He knows better than to talk to dangerous authority figures when they're angry. And right now he's angry too. He is angry that this has happened again. He is pissed off that they got attacked on their own turf, again. He has no where to direct that frustration, so he forces himself to stay silent, though he has to curl his hands into fists to do so. The ringmaster has just kicked a box into flames, he knows better than to show his anger to her.

He's sure Joker knows better too, but just in case Psi is staying close. The worst thing that could happen now is for someone else to get hurt. Now is not the time for the leadership to show dissent. Now is not the time for people to turn on each other. He's ready to stop a fight, should it come to it, but right now he's hoping it doesn't.