EMPTY CHAIRS AT EMPTY TABLES

[onemind]

CHARACTERS: All
WHERE: Concordia - VEN DIAGRAMS HQ + BOUT IT OUT PARLOR + BEARINGS APARTMENT BLOCK
WHEN: Late Day :022 + Early Day :023
SUMMARY: The results of all your hard work - for better or worse. One win, one draw, one loss. Anakin Skywalker bites the big one.
WARNINGS: Violence, non-graphic character death.

IT’S BEEN A LONG DAY. Unfortunately, that’s not about to change any time soon. In the late hours of the evening, two things are happening: the final round of the Bout It Out expose between Kun-Kun and The Darkling is spooling up; meanwhile, the infiltration team at Ven Diagrams is working to retrieve information on H+H1 from the company’s security drive. Unfortunately, neither is going to reach the natural conclusion.

At the REGAL STREET GAMING PARLOR, emotions are running high. After a long day of simulation violence and the reveal of Kun-Kun’s new automaton fighting avatar, the crowd has been stoked to a few pitch. The music’s loud but the crowd is louder: cheering and booing, shouting for every landed or evaded strike. There’s an electric pulse of excitement in the air-- and then there’s a very literal one as an electromagnetic pulse rocks the Regal Street Parlor. The Bout It Out ring shorts and the entire parlor is pitched into total, window-less darkness. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds for the crowd’s excitement to melt into panic. Pushing, shoving, shouting - a piercing shriek as one of Kun-Kun’s representatives is stabbed. The nearby hosts (Lexa, Sam Alexander, and anyone in their faux attachment) should be able to help Kun-Kun and his reps to safety, but the crush of the crowd tangles up everyone else. When a rudimentary bomb goes off in the center of the parlor, it catches plenty of people in the crossfire.

There’s a white hot flash. A pulse of heat. A sizzle of agony. It’s a pain that guts, that persists long after the flash of the bomb and extends all the way to the infiltration team at Ven Diagrams. It’s like a limb badly severed. Anakin Skywalker is killed by the blast and every host knows it before they’re aware of anything else.

Unluckily for the infiltration team, they won’t have much time to recover. News of the bombing hits Extraspace in a matter of seconds, which triggers Ven Diagrams - paranoid from the recent attack on their own properties - to lock down their headquarters. All systems are tightened and security clamps down before the infiltration team can access the private servers. If you’re somewhere you’re not supposed to be, now’s the time to get the hell out of dodge.

Retreat, regroup. Upon returning to the Bearings apartment block, the hosts will find that two of their previously comatose friends have woken up: Hux and Aoba Seragaki will probably need to be briefed on the current situation.

     I. THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS
In the Regal Street Gaming Parlor, a pulse flashes. Electronics sizzle. A fight reaching rhythm is shattered and darkness consumes the parlor in its entirety. There’s something like a collective inhale - and then the panic sets in. Screaming. Pushing. Elbows in the dark and a wave of bodies forcing their way toward wherever they think the exit is. Parlors like this one are supposed to be shielded from this kind of problem, but today that doesn’t matter. In just a few short moments of panic, a bomb - basic compared to the one that blew out the Ven Diagram warehouse only days ago - goes off.

There’s a buzz. An electrical hiss. In the wake of the explosion - in the wake of the agony of Anakin’s death -, the parlor’s fire systems go off flooding the upper and lower levels, the spectator balconies with flame retardant powder and coolant. The emergency lighting kicks on, throwing the carnage into stark fluorescent light. The probable intended victim has escaped, along with his entourage, but there are plenty of wounded - groans and weeping permeate the chemical stale air. In addition to Anakin, three people have been killed and two androids have been rendered into scrap by the explosion. Countless others could use help; maybe even a few other hosts have been wounded by the blast.

     II. MEANWHILE...
If you’re part of the infiltration team, you’ve officially overstayed your welcome. Security tightens to a chokehold; if you’re somewhere you shouldn’t be, it’s time to leave. An alarm blares through the development laboratories. The building is evacuated and then sealed throughout. The powerlifts cease operation. All networked systems go offline.

     III. FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT
Back at the parlor, the evacuation continues. The parlor is half-collapsed, there are injured to tend to and local authorities to deal with. In a matter of minutes, the the parlor is swarmed by public security and medical personnel. If you’re able bodied, you’re welcome to assist with rescue efforts - or try to find a lead on who could’ve been responsible for this. Some evidence, some sign - anything to make this worth it. During this time those with Kun Adetokunbo will have the chance to make their case.

It’s a long, protracted clean up and triage; it’s absolutely possible that some of the infiltration team members might make it to the site of the explosion to assist or care for their friends. 

     IV. WE TEND OUR WOUNDED, WE COUNT OUR DEAD
In the early hours of the morning on Day 023, the hosts limp back to Bearings. Maybe it should be achingly quiet, but it’s not - there’s a murmur of activity in the mental air as Hux and Aoba muddle out of their way from out of their comas. From here, it’s up to to the hosts to recover, to discuss how they want to proceed, and come up with a way to recover from this setback - and from Anakin’s death.

---

((OOC NOTES: Here it is, your wrapup log for the event! You may have noticed that the Hosts didn’t succeed at the Ven Diagrams infiltration. We thought this was a better way than asking everyone to handwave a huge amount of plot or simply having the NPCs get the evidence. Don’t worry though - there will be other mysteries to unravel soon. Very soon, in fact.

There will be an NPC top-level for the escape with Kun-Kun, but otherwise you’re free to make your own top levels! If you have any questions please feel free to ask them in the event OOC post.

Thanks everyone!))

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( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

BOOM - Fear Effects

[erbier]

[ She had always imagined dying like this. The impact of a great ball of fire, her skin melting from her bones in excruciating, glorious agony. It was her destiny and as the heat and the shock of it slams in to her, the adrenaline is divine. Briefly. Until the realization that it is not she who has been snuffed out takes hold of her. As she realizes that her nerves are singing, ears ringing, vision double, body aching. As she realizes she has been wounded deep down in the depths or herself.

A heavy knife falling...

The crack spreads from the impact, her pain and her anxiety begins to spread outwards. Spectators crawl away from her in panic. Even in the stampede of it all, there is a wide bubble of space between her and everything else. No one can stand to be close. And so she sits there, singed face, singed dress, bleeding palms, and watches the masses dispassionately. Eyes the other still bodies, the sparking equipment and burning synthetic materials, the smoke spreads through the parlor like a plague.

She thinks of a great phoenix that shoots out over the sky, the monstrous shadows left in its wake, the scorched world...

The empty space where Anakin Skywalker no longer resides. She purses her lips. Sits, and watches this little corner of Concordia burn. ]

[unsea]

Ilde. [ Before, he'd called her Saffron. It's useless to do so now.

There's no need to pretend as though the ache he feels behind his ribs compares to hers. That is the difference between the nest and the brood, but he wonders if he would react like her, were he to lose any of those who belonged to him. ( Anakin was killed. Whether he was a target or a bystander, someone's actions killed him. )

The room crumbles around them, infrastructure damaged and groaning as it supports rubble, bodies, threatening to collapse around them even as people flee. Crawling, limping, carrying one another. Those who can't, remain. Maybe at some point, he'll shake off the numbness and the edge of Ilde's anxiety that he can feel - acute as the loss of the one who belonged to her. With a heaving sigh, he folds to his knees before her and peers at her. Brushes a lock of dirty hair from her cheek. ]

Vengeance, [ he repeats carefully, because he does not know her mind right now ] is its own currency.

[ -- a promise? ]

[erbier]

[ Her attention centers on him slowly, shifting in inches from the smoke and the flames to look deep into his face. Her gaze is piercing, the vibration of her symbiote ability ringing shrilly, a telepathic scream that does not leave her lips. She looks gaunt and wounded far deeper than the cuts and bruises from the blast. She lifts her hand, pressing her fingertips to her cheek where his touch had been.

Her lips part as if to speak, but no words leave her, not at first. ]

Worlds burn. Men die.

[ Kylo Ren's rage echoes in the back of her throat, an undercurrent of wrath to her monotone recitation of fact. ]

But one day...

[ She trails off, but the grand vision of her longing for power and control is there. She would surpass even Dreus. A terrible angel with a smile like ice and the glory of the universe. ]

[unsea]

[ He's patient. Wounded, but patient. Ilde's focus comes to him in all its vibrancy, on her time - not his.

The room burns steadily around them, and he waits for her. Mindful of the danger the smoke poses, the crumbling room, the rushing bodies that could trample them but seem naturally inclined to flinch and shy away from Ilde's figure. He stays close to her, for that reason, and enjoys sheltering under her power, for the moment. ]

One day, [ he echoes. ] They'll be taught who is a toy, and who is a weapon.

[ He has little doubt that Ilde will be their tutor. ]

[erbier]

[ Her thoughts are a whirlwind, but in the maelstrom there is both the Prince and Cathaway. One warns her against violence, preaches the sanctity of life. The other slyly suggests the time and place for violence.

I wish to be more than I was. I do not want to merely be her dagger. Scorned into silence. Reservations she had voiced once to Ren, but she sees it all so clearly now. The balance of softness and bite.

She sees it, the true ambition of the witches of her world. Dreus was merely a catalyst, not an end. Gratitude swells in her for all the fear he inspired. ]

You frighten me.

[ In this context, perhaps not such a terrible thing. ]

[unsea]

You're not the first to tell me so.

[ There's a measure of pride in his voice. Something hard-earned, dutifully accepted as truth because there was no protest to be found in the voice of anyone he'd ever known. He was born to be followed, obeyed. Not loved. Not understood. There are no others like us.

Something seems to have... manifested, in Ilde. Conviction? Confidence? Hunger. ]

[erbier]

[ An inhale. His response does not surprise her, not in the slightest. So familiar, like the well-worn grooves of a reoccurring dream. Her eyes fall closed for a moment, so many memories alive inside of her. Being young and coming to the Godking's court, witnessing his madness first hand, the crazed orations, the brutal and tender torture of anyone unfortunate enough to rouse his depthless paranoia. He had frightened her, but she had lost the ability to cringe... He had admired her for that, and she had learned to love him.

She lifts her chin slightly. ]

Am I so alike to them?

[ A crisp edge of accusation. ]

[unsea]

You are unlike anyone I've met before.

[ It's neither a compliment nor an insult. A remark, perhaps - of admiration, of disorientation.

Not many people begin their life afraid, and come to find themselves power in that fear. Not many choose how they will feed it, or starve it before unleashing it upon their enemies. And yet, Ilde sits before him. Small, drawn and dreaming of the day she wears a crown of her own. ]

He was yours, wasn't he?

[erbier]

[ It satisfies her. Though within the Hive there are several who are quite alike to her, and she is proud to love them and be close to them... She has been treated as special all of her 'adult' life. She does not like to be treated like any other, if she is quite plain about the matter. Her strange little flare of ego concluded, her attention returns to the situation at hand. (Perhaps not so strange, her mind is clearly rattled, unfocused and battered by the brewing storm of Kylo Ren.)

Although her blue eyes stare deeply at him. ]

He was. He did not wish to be, he kept his distance from us. He made us weak.

[ She says this with simplicity. Losing Anakin is a physical pain to her, perhaps even psychic, but it is not an emotional one. All the emotion comes from elsewhere, any she might have had are stolen from her by Ren, dragged into his whirlwind and away from her. ]

Ren will be stronger without him. [ Her head tilts slightly. ] As will I.

[ But they had already ascertained that part, hadn't they. ]

[inflori]

[ Most of the people are gone by now. Petre has fed himself and is confident he can get away with it, until he spots the wretched Ilde sitting by her lonesome in a bubble where no one will approach. He does, but something stops him in his tracks, speeding his heart up with a spike running down his stomach. He doesn't know what fear is like, not in any rational way that he can put into words. The closest thing he can feel to it makes him react like a cornered animal.

He doesn't attack her. Instead he steps back again, with the weight of Anakin's absence in the pieces of his mind. ]

It should have been you.

[erbier]

[ She eyes him coldly. She has been watching him. His true face and his true hunger. She has seen it before, what is there to flinch from. So single and solitary he is almost laughable... where is his swarm, where are his brothers? The scars on her body pulse in memory.

She touches her fingertips together, staring down at her hand in contemplation. The pain inside of her is shrieking piercing ache that permeates the air around her.... She'd like to see Petre try to get close. ]

You belong to Kylo Ren. [ She says softly. ] And he belongs to me. Insult me, and you insult him. Insult him and you insult yourself.

[ An inhale, an exhale. The flames and smoke are... just like home. The fear and the aching. She is at peace with all this, and even Petre cannot rile her. ]

Do you understand what I am saying to you?

[inflori]

[ He laughs, and it is a cruel sound, the way only children know how to be. Belong. The word alone is an offense. If he ever belonged to anyone, it was to his maker, Diana, and in turn her maker. ]

No. I don't. Could I get it in writing? I'm gonna need Kylo's signature agreeing that he belongs to you, too.

[ The idea is ridiculous; Kylo belonging to anyone here. What a manipulative little bitch, he thinks. He can see right through her. ]

[erbier]

[ Her eyes flicker up, unsteady, in pain. No, he clearly doesn't understand. ]

We are at an impasse, demon. Those I love see use in you.

I will wait until you disappoint them. It seems in your nature to fail.

[inflori]

[ He sees that, the pain. Her self-righteousness is irritating at best, but as soon as there's a vulnerability the demon giddily locks onto it. ]

Why wait. What, are your hands tied? Is that it?

[ He angles his head, a cat playing with a mouse. ]

I get it. It's you who belongs to them. You're afraid of what they'll do when you turn out to be the disappointment.

[erbier]

[ She blinks at him slowly. ]

I will kill you one day. Rest assured.

[inflori]

[ With a sibilant tone, ]

I can't wait for you to try, Ilde.

[ Because it will finally give him the excuse he needs to tear her to shreds. ]

[erbier]

Now, return to the Bearings before anyone else sees you.

[ Or you get caught in Kylo Ren's whirlwind of rage. ]

[whowhatnow]

[Nathaniel's race is a proud one. He grew up among others who would not cower in front of others - after all, with their abilities, they could change themselves into anyone's worse nightmare. What reason would they have to be scared?]

[So, fear is not something that Nathaniel has felt often, but this time hits him like a hammer to the chest. He clutches his neck unconsciously, the feeling twisting through his entire body like a writhing snake, and gasps. It feels like the world is pressing in on him, threatening to squash him like a mere insect. His eyes bulge from his sockets. Nathaniel twists his head, trying to find the source of it all, and-]

[There. It has to be her. He approaches on unsteady legs, his teeth gritted in an attempt to speak over the pounding sound of his beating heart.]

Hey. Hey, stop d-doing that. It's you, right? [He swallows.] Please.

[erbier]

[ Her head turns to look up at him, her expression distant. She does not immediately seem to understand what he's even trying to ask her, but it sinks in slowly. She lifts her hand pressing the heel against her temple. It hurts her too, the kind of stabbing headache that one equates to a thousand knives. But... ]

I can't. [ She swallows. ] I'm sorry... it...

[ It's not entirely under her control right now. There's a subtle vibration in the air that leads away from her and her miasma of fear. That's pulling everything she has from her, leaving behind someone shellshocked and weak. She sits here to await the one she's tied to, not merely to stare dourly at those trying to escape. ]

[whowhatnow]

[Can she not control it? is the thought that comes over the mental link, unconsciously said, but instead of berating her, Nathaniel just bites his lip, coming closer, even if every fiber in his body is screaming for him to stay away,]

I-it's going to be okay. [He says, trying to sound reassuring, his hand held up as if to say "I'm not going to hurt you, please trust me".] Do you want some company? Maybe it'll help you feel better?

[He's digging in his feet into the ground in an obvious attempt to prevent himself from acting on the urge to get the heck out of dodge.]

[erbier]

[ Surprise flashes across her face, mouth opening to tell him to just get away from her, but she can't quite reject his attempt so cavalierly. ]

Don't hurt yourself.

[whowhatnow]

Pssshhaw. [He says, with a sort of flippant gesture, putting on a smile that he is trying very hard to make as casual as possible.] I'm invincible, I'll have you know.

[Says the man who looks like he's just walked through a warzone. (At least he doesn't have any serious injuries, he tells himself, that's a blessing.) He bites his lip, doing his best to override his irrational fear, and moves to plop down on the ground beside her, crossing his legs like he's a kindergartner ready to hear the teacher's daily story.]

By the way, I don't think I've ever formally introduced myself, y'know. [He says, offering her a hand that is clearly trembling.] I'm Nathaniel. Nathaniel Horn.

[erbier]

[ That look of just confusion remains painted across her features. This casual interaction, the small pleasantries of an introduction are so distant from what she is experiencing. ]

Nathaniel.

[ She repeats his name clumsily, and that is as far as she manages to get. ]

It is... not safe here.

[ A statement of the utter obvious, but she isn't sure what else to converse about in this moment as her minds trembles with the effort of focusing on him at all. ]

[whowhatnow]

[Casual is all he CAN do at this moment to keep himself from having a nervous breakdown right then and there. He's fooling himself and he knows it. It's better to turn away from the fire than try to deal with the fact it exists.]

Yeah, I think you're right. [He says, as if he had just noticed the chaos of what was going on.]

Maybe we should split this joint. Find another place to hang out. [The offered hand from before is still hanging there.] Shall we go? I think it'll do us both some good.

[erbier]

[ She just stares at his hand, and then turns her head to look off through the smoke at nothing. ]

Not without him.