The Loop: Reawakening

Community Role Playing
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A loud ringing echoes through your ears, and your vision begins to stir as you begin to make out the fiery wreckage of an airship strewn about on the ground around you. A giant metal bird like colossus towers above you. You watch as a man in a blue jumpsuit, in vain, begins unloading his revolver into it, but he is quickly cut down in a fiery explosion.

As you watch his gore be strewn about the newly formed battlefield of the docks around you, your senses come into focus. As you observe the military move in on your position, you can barely make out from the distant sound of screaming and explosions the order to kill all involved in the attack on sight. You seem to believe this is good for you, but quickly eat your words as the men quickly turn their weapons on you.

@Ghid Your leg has been torn to shreds by shrapnel, and a particularly large piece of metal has found a new home in your thigh for the time being.

@wild_toa Fortunately, you seemed to have absorbed most of the impact of the airship crash with your skull. Unfortunately, you absorbed most of the impact with your skull and are most definitely suffering from a severe concussion. Do us all a favor and try not to fall asleep.

@MakutaOisli You seemed to have lost your entire right arm in the fall. Mind you, it’s still attached to your body, but you’re certain your arm isn’t supposed to have this many ninety degree angles

@TheCobaltCorsair you have found yourself perfectly alive inside a warehouse; unfortunately, you landed feet first and barreled straight through the sheet metal roof. Maybe you would like to take a long nap, if not for the threat of impending doom.

@NOTaHFfan you seemed to be doing pretty well. If not for the various burns covering you from the crash, you would be fine. Intuitively, you check your arm to find you only have one charge left. It’s best to use it wisely.

@DuneToa You seemed to have broken a few ribs in the fall; you cough only to be met with a vast amount of blood. You’re bleeding internally, it seems, but hey, that’s where the blood’s supposed to be, right?

@T4k4nuv4 Believe it or not, being below deck during the crash saved you from most of the trouble; however, you are currently trapped inside the wreckage by a fire, which I’m sure you can manage.

@GX_05 You find yourself behind the platoon of military officers who seemed to implicate you in cahoots with the metal colossus; luckily, they haven’t noticed you quite yet, as you’re currently covered in trash from your very rough landing in a dumpster.

@Cordax Ah, Meemaw Aardvark, It seems you’re in quite the pickle here, trying to fight off drifting into unconsciousness from your newfound stump of a leg. It seems in between the fall and now the colossus made a slight landing right on top of your shin.

prologue: Skirmish

Welcome back to The Loop, hope you’re ready to die.

Bit of a unique start to the rp but a figured a little trial by fire would be a fun start to an rp so here we are.

If you’re an outsider reading this rp many years in the future and are interested in learning more here is the discussion topic

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The watch had stopped working. It wasn’t clear if this was because it had somehow been impacted in the crash or if it had ears.

Ottar Mordred, general vagabond, street urchin, and master tobacco roller, was screaming so loudly it was threatening not only the eardrums of all in the vicinity, but also some of the surviving glass as well. At least the horrific pain was convincing him not to vomit at the sight of his guide exploding into a stringy, organic confetti.

He was also beginning to question just whether or not this was a dream. So many times it seemed like the day just kept repeating, over and over; some times he died, other times his unconsciousness brought the day anew, and on rare occasion it just restarted while he was perfectly awake. But all suspicions could be cast aside at the idea of lucid dreaming, even though he didn’t know what that meant.

This, however. He stared at the shrapnel in his leg as he scooted himself backwards, behind the convenient cover which hid his rather small body, somehow finding the time to think strategically, ponder current events, and scream his head off all at once. This is real.

As he tried to elbow himself upwards, the ruined leg split open further, like a gnarled mass of roots, prompting him to try and escalate the screaming further. But he couldn’t. His voice suddenly cut off, as the pitch grew too great even for him to manage. All his throat muscles contorted and growled in an attempt to politely inform the whole world that he was in a wee bit of hurt, but the sound refused to comply.

The wrench was still nestled tightly in his grip. But what would that do against men with guns? Who have more than one functional leg?

OOC: Let’s goooooooo :sunglasses:

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Today was clearly not the best day for Aristomache Grimm, also known as Ari by those who could probably be considered her friends (she was never sure, but at least those people didn’t actively try to kill her), and “that crazy drunk girl with a metal arm and no survival instinct” by literally everyone else.

But was it the absolute worst day for Aristomache Grimm?
Well, she was about to find out.

Ari slowly rose from the ground, shaking off the wooden debris she had been covered in, with a loud ringing in her ears, a burning pain all over her body and all her thoughts completely scrambled. Was the latter caused by the impact of… whatever in hell just happened, or an excessive amount of alcohol, Ari didn’t know.

She wiped the mix of blood and sweat off her face with her left hand, only to notice that it was shaking a lot more than usual and had the number 3 cut carved into the skin. Now where did that come from?

Arm.

She threw a sharp glance at her right arm. Apart from a couple of dents and scratches, the mechanism didn’t seem to be damaged. She quickly checked the cylinder, working on pure instinct. She has repeated this movement too many times.
Just one charge left. How did she manage to run out so quickly?

A loud scream of pain tearing through the sounds of chaos and destruction made her snap out of her thoughts. It was impossible to mistake for anything. That was the kid’s voice.

Ari frantically looked around, trying to assess the situation around her. She was surrounded by the burning debris of the airship. It was utter chaos. Beyond the destruction it was impossible to see where exactly she was. Did anyone besides her and the kid manage to survive?
She could barely hear an unfamiliar voice shouting something out not too far from her. What did it say? The only words she was able to make out were “kill”, “all” and “attack”. Saying that it didn’t sound reassuring would be an understatement.

Ultimately her eyes locked on the enormous vile machine in the shape of a bird towering over the scene of the crash.
Ari cracked her neck, preparing for action. There was definitely no getting out of this situation without it.

Why can’t this just end already?

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“Bleacchhhh…”
Jacques Lefarge shook his head, staring dazedly at the red goop now spattered everywhere from the explosion. Why does this feel so… so familiar?
He heard voices, someone screaming in obvious agony, others barking orders (the military, of course. They’d be quite mad that the titan was smashing the docks apart…) and then he realized the noticeable deformation in his chest. Oh heck. My chest. It’s squished…
He coughed again, the forearm of his jacket now soaked with a dark, stick wetness.
No wonder I feel like I’m getting horrific allergies, my lungs… my lungs?!
He pulled his watch into his vision, his left arm feeling distinctly sore (just bruises, though, no serious injuries), and was dismayed by the sight of the remains of a watch, missing most of the face and all hands.
There’s nothing left! It’s… it’s… the end… I’m gonna wake up… I’m gonna wake up… it’s just a dream… right? RIGHT?!

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Silas grumbled to himself as he stood up, as painful as that was to do. Were he 20 years younger, this probably would have been slightly easier, but his legs had grown weak over the years, making his cane almost a necessity. Speaking of which, where is that blasted thing?

He surveyed the warehouse, and saw his cane was just out of arm’s reach. He limped over to the place where his expensive ivory cane lay. He turned it over in his hands, revealing a decent number of chips in the originally pristine finish. But the sudden drop in the item’s value was far from his biggest concern. As of right now, the military was the foremost threat, though the colossus was right behind them on the list. With any luck, his position in the government might be enough to talk them down.

And if that fails… His thoughts drifted to the derringer in his suit’s interior breast pocket. Maybe he could use it to get something with a little more firepower…

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“Ufff” Rose grumbled. She had been in various bad situations but none quite as unique as this one. She also had been in quite a few dumpsters but this was the first time she ever landed in one after an airship wreckage caused by a giant metal thing.

The situation was clearly out of control and looking at the platoon of soldiers trying to kill anyone involved with this mess didn’t give her much hope. One or two soldiers she could possibly deal with but given her less than ideal equipment and various injuries even that would be a challenge.

Hiding in the dumpster for a while seemed the best choice, but eventually they would find her anyways. Rose decided that sneaking out while the explosions and the giant distracted the soldiers was probably the safest bet. She dragged herself out of the dumpster trying to be as quiet as possible.

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Pain is all Norda Aardvak could possibly feel in the current moment. The exact order of events that lead to what she currently was witnessing evaded Norda’s mind.

During her escapades as a weapons saleswoman, Norda had begun to fancy herself quite strong; especially for a frail old lady like herself (or at least, that’s what most who saw her believed). The second she saw and felt the absence of her lower leg, however, her entire history of toughness and indifference slipped away in an instant.

It was the most repulsive and grotesque thing Norda had ever seen. Her entire lower half was entirely splattered with blood, and bits of bone and flesh lay beneath her. As a torrent of vomit and blood erupted from her mouth, she started to feel her mind slip away and drift into the void of nothingness.

Using all the strength she could muster, Norda began to drag herself on the ground in an attempt to crawl towards a large piece of scrap metal that she could use as cover. She barely made it a few feet before she had to completely stop all movement. Just as Norda’s face was about to hit the rough, dirty ground, she caught a glimpse of a torn lilac bag right in front of her wrinkled and bloody fingertips. Using the last of her energy, she opened the purse and inside laid a small photo.

A single tear ran down Norda’s cheek…

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Adam wiped the combination of blood and soot from his eyes, trying to keep his head straight against the heat and smoke overloading his senses. The fire was encroaching on all sides, and Adam didn’t know which wall was closest to the outside. Regardless, he had to act. He used is right leg to shove off the board pinning down his left, which was enough force to dislodge it and free his leg. He got on his hands and knees to avoid the blanket of thick black smoke building above his head. The smell of the burning wood filled his lungs and made him choke as he quickly crawled to the nearest wall that wasn’t completely engulfed in flame. He pulled his gun out of his pants and noticed he only had one bullet left. Nuts he thought Better make this shot count. He leveled his gun at the crack between two boards in front of him and pulled the trigger, blasting a small hole in the wood. Looking back, he saw the fire quickly approaching, so he started desperately hacking away at the edges of the bullet hole, trying to widen it enough so that he could squeeze through it. No matter how much he hacked, the he hole didn’t seem to widening fast enough until Adam started kicking the boards, getting more and more desperate as the hungry flames approached.

Finally, he hit a week spot in the boards and a huge chunk splintered away, making it just barely big enough for him to wiggle through. He started pushing himself through the hole head-first, pain shooting through his back and chest as he pushed his way through the jagged edges of the hole. His clothes ripped and tore, and he felt his feet get hot as the fire overtook them. Finally, after getting past his hips, the fell out of the hull onto the ground, and he immediately began to roll around, trying to put out the fire on his pants, legs, and feet, screaming in agony as rubble pricked at his open scrapes and flame burned his legs.

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Tod coughed. His whole arm felt like it was on fire, his body sore, but he was in one piece. He doubted that many had that luxury. He pulled himself out from the rubble, the crumbling place around him filling his gas mask with the smell of asphalt and oil.
Alarms blared in his head, as his ears rung and vision blurred, before he started crawling towards the nearest bit of cover.
Idiot. Tod yelled at himself. You should have known better than this.

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As you scream out in pain, it pierces all the other sounds ringing out in the night. You soon learn to regret the decision to announce just how much excruciating pain you are currently in as you watch several members of the platoon break away from the main group and towards your position.

Ari, as you take in the situation around you, you spot one of the high-pressure water canisters that you had originally planned to use on the colossus near the group of soldiers heading towards the screaming member of your party. Maybe a well-placed shot might provide a distraction. Unfortunately, to get into a position to hit it, you will have to risk being seen.

Unfortunately, Mr. Lefarge, your begging to the heavens doesn’t bring any answer that this is just a terrible dream, but here’s to hoping, right? You curse yourself as you begin to slightly recall the day’s events. In hindsight, blasting a giant metal beast with a glorified fire hose from a very flammable airship wasn’t the best choice.

It seems the soldiers haven’t noticed you quit yet, but who knows? Your position might be enough for them to spare your life, and if you play your cards right, perhaps the rest of your crew. Your legs are currently screaming in pain, so getting over to them in a timely manner seems like it may be an issue.

Unfortunately, you seem to have made quite the ruckus climbing out, but on the bright side, the soldiers seem more intrigued by the giant steel colossus and the screaming member of your party to pay attention to you at the current moment.

Norda aardvak Before you can drift into a state of unconsciousness, you are rudely awakened by the sound of a child screaming, and unfortunately for you, your child-caring instincts keep you from giving up just yet, whether you like it or not. However, your bleeding leg is still an issue. Although a tourniquet is not out of the realm of possibility,

Fortunately for you, Adam, you land right into a puddle of water, no doubt caused by a leak in one of the pressurized water canisters. I still can’t fathom how you thought something like that might work, but hey, it was coming in handy now.

Mr. Rot, as you climb towards the rubble, you watch the colossus stumble from an explosion planted straight on its chest. To your dismay, you watch as it begins falling towards you.

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Oh.

Unfortunately there was not a lot of possibilities for a speedy getaway, what with being in horrible pain and also missing a foot. Don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it-

The gag reflex was pushed back down, at least for now, as adrenaline raced through Ottar’s veins. He would have to move and he would have to move fast, but how he was going to do that outside of a very painful army crawl was yet to be determined. His position was completely compromised; he had to make some serious space between himself and the area his attackers heard him from.

Her.

She had a… Whoa, Ottar wobbled violently as his memory seemed to inject dizziness directly into his brain. Something. She can hurt people, I know that much. But uh…

Thinking too hard about how he even knew her or what it is she could hurt people with was simply too much. He didn’t think she had been spotted, yet, and perhaps she could carry him away from this nightmare of a situation he had found himself in.

Well, ALL of us really.

…All of Who?

So saying, he pushed himself upwards enough to crawl, angling his thigh to not scrape against the ground as well as the cover he was hiding behind as best he could, quickly moving towards Ari’s position, all the while tears running down his face from the excruciating agony he now found himself in.

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Ehre slowly opened his eyes, only to find that all he could see was a mass of what looked like the airship in flames to one side, with the bright day to the other, broken only by a massive shadow somewhere above. Trying to use his other senses, Ehre found only silence broken by muffled cracks coming from a ways to his front. Feeling the heat of the burning airship, he pushes himself upright and stands. Taking a few shaky paces forward, before falling.

Hearing what seemed like gunfire, Ehre jolts awake and begins to scramble out of the way, though where that was, along with where he was, he had no clue. Finally noticing the pounding in his head and aching across his body, Ehre tried to remember what had happened, only to black out

Ehre came to, only to find he was in some sort of hell. Having no idea where he was, what was going on, or how he had gotten here, there was only a few things certain: to one side, there lay a burning structure. In front of him, there seemed to be some sort of gunfight. To another side, he saw a large swath of ground hidden from the suns light that he could not explain. Attempting to stand and figure out how to get out of here, he hobbled towards, then dove behind some piece of the wreckage before the ever-growing blackness in his vision caught up.

Ehre Okarr woke up on a battlefeild. Not knowing what was going on, he fights desparatley to stand, to find out what happened before he regained consciousness. Barely reaching his feet, exposing himself from the cover he had conveniently woken behind, a sudden pain cuts through the dull ache and pounding in his head. Something small ripped into his shoulder at high speed, barreled through his flesh and bone before rocketing out the other side. Suddenly thrown back by the impact, Ehre falls, only to hit his head and watch his vision shrink to a small tunnel of light. The first complete thought he makes after waking forms only now:

I think Ive finally lost

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Tod internally screamed as he quickly crawled to his feet, limping away from the metal beast.
His arm was another kind of pain. It seared his body into smithereens, laying limp against his body.

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As Aristomache stared at the metal bird, dumbfounded by the fact that such a vile mechanism could even exist, memories started flooding back into her mind. Bird. Ship. Water tank. The details of what just happened were still blurry, but now Ari knew what she needed to do.

She quickly turned around and eyed her surroundings, trying to see if at least one of the canisters managed to survive, and sure enough, there it was, nestled neatly in between the leftovers of the ship, somehow seemingly undamaged from the impact, positioned perfectly to carry out her plan if she hits it hard enough with the last charge. How lucky. This day just got a bit better all of a sudden…

…and then got much worse again. As Ari watched a group of soldiers appear in between her and the canister, that stupidly optimistic thought disappeared from her mind. Fate really is a heartless witch, never lets you have anything your way.

The soldiers didn’t seem to notice her yet, but she couldn’t just wait until they pass by. She needed to act now. It was now or never. She couldn’t miss her only chance.

Ari started moving towards them, picking up a mangled metal sheet from the ground on her way. She put it up in front of her, using the piece of metal as a sort of improvised shield, and bolted towards the group of soldiers. There weren’t many. She could probably take them on. She was pretty sure she’s had to fight larger groups of armed people in the past. But were they well-trained soldiers?

She was limping slightly and felt the pain of her severe burns, but it was significantly numbed by adrenaline rushing through her body. Dealing with it will be a problem for later… if there is going to be a “later”.

As she ran, she realised what was the source of the screaming from earlier that attracted these soldiers. It was a kid with an annoying face trying to crawl towards her. The kid with an annoying face that she… knew? Her memories on that matter refused to return, but for whatever reason she had a feeling that this was not just some random child caught in the middle of this mess, but someone she had a reason to… care for?

Nah, it can’t be. He looks too much like a total brat, she thought as she bolted past him, rapidly closing the distance between her and the soldiers.

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She’s coming.

Ottar’s rapidly-whitening face lit up as Ari seemed to dart towards him. She’s going to grab me and run, and we can get out of here and then never had to deal with this ever again… Does she have a mechanical limb? Can’t only rich people afford those?

She definitely didn’t look rich, but Ottar didn’t look like he was racked with anxiety and guilt at every waking moment, either - as far as he knew, anyway. Regardless, he, pushing past his pain, reached out his hand towards her as she approached, so very grateful for her doing this-

Ottar stared at the air where she should have been if she decided to stop and pick him up, but instead she rushed on by, DIRECTLY TOWARDS THE ARMED SOLDIERS. Great. I’m bleeding out in unfathomable agony and the most efficient help I could receive is from a headcase.

Ottar’s face continued to fall as his muscles seized in rapid convulsions, his wounded body’s attempt at turning around enough to see where Ari went. What… What do I do now?

“A-Ari!!” He weakly tried to get her attention, immediately following up the cry with a hiss as he gripped his thigh, having bumped the metal jammed inside it just the wrong way.

…What did I just … Is that her name?

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Adam splayed out into the soothing cool water, staring at the airship burning above him. The blood from his scrapes mingled with the water, turning it red. Then a loud cry and gunshots pierced his ears, bringing him back to the current moment. He stood up out of the water and moved out from under the burning ship, just in time to watch the whole thing collapse and cover where he had just been lying. As soon as he realized that the gunshots were coming from the military, he sighed in relief, reaching down to get his military ID out of his satchel… only to realize that he didn’t have his satchel. He swore under his breath. If only his handler were here, then he wouldn’t be worried, but there was no way these soldiers would recognize him, nor was there any guarantee that they would even know his name. He looked around for the highest ranked military person, hoping it was someone he knew.

As he looked around, he noticed several soldiers approaching a small pile of shrapnel from which the screaming he he had heard was coming from. The child! Adam thinks. And then he doesn’t think, there’s no way he’s going to let these soldiers harm an actual child. Adam looks to his empty and battered gun, deciding it’s not worth grabbing it. Then he starts speed walking as fast as he can towards the screaming (now silent) child and the soldiers approaching him. Adam expected his legs to hurt from being burned, but strangely he could barely feel them at all, with most of the pain being center on his scrapes and cuts. As he approaches the soldiers he puts his hands up, attempting to display that he is not a threat.

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Thanks for the distraction Ottar Rose thanked the screaming kid and started to slowly move away from the soldiers wait who? She stopped in her tracks trying to recognize the voice, but all she got was a worse headache who the hell is Ottar?

“I better get away as fast as possible” she thought, but something was stopping her, something wasn’t right. She was worried? Maybe curious? About a kid she didn’t even know. Impossible. She hardly ever forgot a person. Rose grabbed her knife and hid behind a pile of rubble.

Rose didn’t even have time to think before seeing some kind of crazy lady running full force towards the soldiers is she crazy? Well i know she is but… I know? Her headache worsened. Another person who seemed familiar but that she couldn’t quite place.

Rose decided that a close ranged fighter with a knife couldn’t do much against a platoon of soldiers with rifles couldn’t do much. “If only i had a gun or something” She muttered. “Maybe i could make a sling?” She thought

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Choice? What choices are left now?
Jacques shakes his head, feeling slightly better (still with a sticky feeling in his lungs), and looks up to see the Titan falling from an explosion that has ripped a chunk out of its chest. Unfortunately, it seems to be falling in such a way as to destroy more of the docks, and eliminate much of the escape routes from the area.
“Drat. And now I need to stand up.”
He climbs to his feet, looking dazedly at the destruction of the docks.
Ok, at least I’m not in a crossfire yet, he thought. The soldiers weren’t paying attention to him yet, instead seeing some crazy old lady charging them and a girl armed with an expensive-looking prosthetic arm preparing to take action.
I suppose I can turn myself in, Jacques thought. Or should I…
He glanced at the surroundings again. There were several buildings, including a few warehouses… he began walking unobtrusively towards a nearby warehouse, hoping the soldiers weren’t paying attention to him.

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Norda slowly began to lower her head, having given up any hope of surviving.

I suppose this is where I will die, Norda thought to herself. The photo that she so desperately clenched in her hand was covered in blood, so much to the point where she could barely recognize her own face.

Suddenly, piercing scream rang throughout Norda’s ears. She recognized it as that of a child’s, the voice seeming to belong to a boy somewhere near the age of 12.

Against her better judgement, Norda began to inch closer to the wailing cry for help; a strong maternal instinct had suddenly shot into her mind. Scraping herself on the ground, her body tore and she left a trail of red in her wake. If Norda didn’t do something soon, she would lose consciousness due to her lack of blood. After enduring this agony for around a minute or two, Norda caught a glimpse of her government issued ID. It was badly burnt around the edges and a lot of the text was unreadable, but the photo was unmistakably her.

If I can find anyone in this hellscape, they could help me protect the child

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Silas, now somewhat steadied by his cane, began limping towards the way out of the warehouse. He produced his golden pocket watch to check the time. While the watch’s delicate crystal face had developed multiple cracks, it was still quite readable.

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