trustycrowbar: (Default)
Dr. Gordon Freeman ([personal profile] trustycrowbar) wrote in [community profile] exsiliumlogs2013-01-26 12:05 am

Zagreus

Date & Time: Late in the timescrew
Location: 2nd & Main, The Singularity Timeknot
Characters: Gordon Freeman, The Doctor, AND YOU.
Summary: Time may be endless, but we're gonna kick anti-time's ass.
Warnings: Weird science, timeline-eating megamonsters, violence, graphic imagery.

The singularity sat and silently twisted in unnatural knots as the combatants start to amass around it in the early light. The spheroid on Main Street is large enough to take up the entire intersection. Clearly showing day, night, snow, summer in some parts and smokey with filth in others, like blood-spattered crystal, it constantly shifts in chaotic patterns from smooth to gnarled and faceted, shredding the feeble light of the sun into component colors better left undescribed. Gordon set down the tech box he'd carried from the Hold and looked over the numbers.

They're more than he'd expected, but fewer than he'd hoped.

"There are the temporal stability devices I mentioned last night." Gordon begins without prelude, reaching into the box and retrieving a strange, LED-studded thing about the size and shape of an old audio disc player, with a strap to secure it. "Everyone gets one. Turn them on before you jump in and be sure to keep it on you at all times. If you stray out of a six-foot radius of these things you're subject to the ravages of the singularity's dilation field."

He waves back to the singularity, which pulses eerily behind him. "The Doctor is in there. I found this out last night; he's still not completely disassociated from Zagreus. That makes this a rescue mission as well as a full-on assault."

"First objective: find the singularity and throw this stuff into it." He retrieves a large vial of something black and churning. "This is Zero Matter. Whoever's fastest, take it. But if you hold onto it for too long, it might start to... alter you, so don't hold onto it for too long. Second objective is to find the Doctor, and get him the hell out of there. Third: Take out Zagreus, any way we can."

"This isn't going to be an easy fight. The temporal potential of billions of ruined timelines is behind that thing. Pay attention to your surroundings and use them to your advantage; no matter how insane it gets in there remember that if something is a hazard to you, it might be a hazard to him."

"When everyone's ready, we head in together. Good luck everyone."
shoesfitperfectly: (time itself)

The only time I'll ever use smalltext....

[personal profile] shoesfitperfectly 2013-01-26 10:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Something stirs in that crackling nucleus.

As Swann walks forward, time pulls and swirls like a powerful eddying current, slowing him down and speeding him up, but his knowledge of this is... detached, at best, as the stabiliser flashes its lights and does its job keeping him cogent and in the same place. The warmth is almost heartening, isn't it?

Only now it's accompanied by rain once he gets a little further in; big, fat raindrops, undeniably wet but not cold.

Ahead, the nucleus wavers. Then, quicker than thought, a tendril snaps out from it and grazes against Swann. He doesn't feel anything from it but he can hear something: a voice, barely more than a whisper, eching in the mind.

~~i'm here...~~
kingdom_of_song: (2)

Re: The only time I'll ever use smalltext....

[personal profile] kingdom_of_song 2013-01-27 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
Swann stops, listening, rain going ppt ppt ppt on his hat. It's a nice sound, and he tips his head back for a moment, letting the rain hit his face and run in rivulets over his chin and through his beard.

"Ooyah!" The tendril startles him and he steps backward, hand not going to his gun but to his banjo. It gave him more comfort than weapons could. He's surprised the whip of light doesn't come with pain; it looks like it should have. But something--

He squints into the weird light. "There ye are." His grip tightens on the neck of his banjo. His head feels almost like it's being pulled in six different directions at once.

"Ye couldae found a better place tae go on holiday, Doctor!" He wipes the rain from his eyes. "Right. What do I do, now?"
shoesfitperfectly: (time itself)

[personal profile] shoesfitperfectly 2013-02-01 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
The spinning light wobbles dangerously. Images flicker into Swann's mind. He can see an image of himself playing the banjo he has with him. Sound accompanies it, fragmented, only just recognisable as a heartening tune, something you could sing words about life and nature and happiness to.
kingdom_of_song: (young04)

[personal profile] kingdom_of_song 2013-02-01 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
As Swann listens, watches, feels, a smile spreads over his face.

"I can do tha'," he says, and his fingers find the notes. It's nothing he's played before, and if he's heard it, he doesn't remember, but it feels right. The starts quietly, building in volume and pace as he begins to walk again.

He's humming, not quite yet to any words yet. Can you hear it, Doctor?
shoesfitperfectly: (time itself)

[personal profile] shoesfitperfectly 2013-02-02 09:05 am (UTC)(link)
The Doctor can hear it.

The nucleus appears to slow in its spinning, and time almost seems to reach some kind of an equilibrium, at least in the nucleus' vicinity.

It's distracted, its hold weakening.

Reality holds its breath for an instant. But only for an instant. The nucleus suddenly shrinks, accompanied by a psychic scream, and then expands again, twice as bright. And then it takes a form.

((OOC: *points down to next thread* ^,^ ))
Edited 2013-02-02 09:07 (UTC)