station72 | EMPTY CHAIRS AT EMPTY TABLES

Entry tags:

EMPTY CHAIRS AT EMPTY TABLES

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!))

NAVIGATION • SETTING • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay.

[ It is, admittedly, pretty easy to stop worrying about that. There's plenty else to burn all his bad feelings on, even if he hadn't hit that point where worrying about anything feels like more energy than he's still got left in him.

Wait, he's forgetting something - ]

Thanks.

[ She smiles, letting the blanket settle finally after her fussing. ] You're welcome.

[ About to leave then, straightens up - not that she's shockingly tall, granted. But lingers just one moment more. ]

I'm Angel. If you need anything, just call out for me, I'll be there.

I'm Sam.

[ Despite his lack of movement, the mental shrug comes across easily. Yeah, another Sam. He wasn't sure how it happened either.

But as she got ready to leave, he realized he did have one question - it hadn't really been at the front of his mind in all the chaos, but now that things were calming down... ]

Hey, uh. You were with the group that went to Ven Diagrams, right? How did that go?

[ Someone needs to come up with another way to distinguish them, really, before they get another one and it gets more confusing. ]

I did, and not well. They shut up tight the second word came out of the explosion. They're understandably paranoid... which wasn't great for us. We had to get out as quick as we could before we were too heavily detected.

[ They were, but - it had been dealt with, no less by herself. But that - she keeps to herself, like most things. It was relevant when it was relevant, but not now in the aftershock. ]

But everyone got out okay?

[ For a relative value of okay. Clearly nobody bit it like Anakin - because now he knows what that feels like, and he'd know if it happened again. But everyone's been such a mess of injuries and distress, and he's still new at this, and it's kind of hard to tell where everyone begins and ends. ]

[ She tastes his worry, even if it's no more defined than that, hard not to when - there was a thick of emotions that compounded in the link, a loop of grief that feels global, endless between them all. ]

We did. The injuries were all minor. Even so, the symbiote heals us very quickly. [ She wets her lips, unsure if it's welcome to broach it - she had taken to the link easily and happily. Her mind was her domain where her body seldom was. ] It does fade, with time. The... hurt. [ it's too small a world, for the agony that comes from loss. She will never forget losing Parker, she will never be whole again, she knows now. The hand that has been cut off but - like any serious injury, it was possible to continue. ] It's hard to imagine when it happens, but it does.

[ That's good news, technically.

It's just the entire concept as a whole that he's still having issues with. ]

It just...feels really weird. I never actually met him, but...

[ But here they are, and it hurts and they can all feel it, and they can all feel each other feeling it. ]

You feel it. Whether you want to, or not, you feel it.

[ She sits then, on the other end of the couch. Tucking her hands underneath her legs, wriggling getting comfortable. She's not so tall, less so sitting down, looking across to him. ]

Has anyone talked to you on how to help dull the connection? It won't... do a lot, it's a little raw like this... but it might help you find some quiet for a little while.

Not really, no.

[ Which is possibly a little surprising, given his tendency to radiate teenage angst across the nest, but it hasn't come up and he hasn't asked for help. ]

Well, would you like me to show you? Won't take a moment, and the more you do it, the more natural it becomes.

[ It's an encouraging smile. How many people has she helped with this now? Enough. Being a siren counted for something useful after all when too often she felt the keen edge of her own confinement. ]

That'd be cool, thanks.

[ Because god does he have no idea what he's doing. Mental powers aren't his thing, flying into things at high speed and wrecking them like a cannonball is. ]

[ Just like home, really... ]

If you're comfortable, it's easier if you're close to me I've found.

[ She beckons, then, for her at least, this isn't that familiar, and yet, it is. To be coaxing for the bereft and mad. Vault hunters were always so variation of both. Only the lost end up on Pandora. Leaves herself open to that same thing here, whether he wants to take her hand or lean against her, she doesn't mind. Adapts to whatever she is needed to be.

Gives him a lopsided smile. Comfortable, or she's learnt to be since she came here. ] Promise I'm less dangerous than a skag.

What's a skag?

[ But he scoots over and closes the length of the couch to put himself next to her. ]

Close like this, or should we be touching?

[ She looks at him a second and then - well, it's part of being outside, part of being the hive and gently she hooks an arm around his shoulder - the blood and dirt doesn't bare much concern now, not like she hasn't been covered in as worse since it all started. ]

What about this? Alright?

[ Let's him settle and takes a deep breath, settling herself calm and centred. ] A skag comes from my planet, Pandora. They're very common and known for their... bite. Amongst other things. [ As she speaks, she begins to glow - eyes going bright and blue, torchlight out from underneath them, the markings just seen on her fingers where her long sleeves cover her up otherwise go blue to white and she twists her fingers in a lazy manner. ] I could show you one after?

Yeah. That's...that's fine.

[ She is a girl and she is touching him.

It's not like that, but he's not super well practiced at staying cool about that kind of thing. ]

I mean, like this is fine. And showing me the skagthing later is fine. All of it's fine.

[ - and she gives him an all too encouraging smile. Whether she is aware or not, she acts perfectly oblivious and nothing but open. ]

Well, if you're fine.

[ Okay so maybe a little bit teasing. But she continues, the lesson she's given half a dozen times now to different people and she settles herself back against the couch, a mental brush - soft like her fingers in his hair. ]

Just close your eyes and take a deep breath, alright? Just in and then out again. Hear the connection first. I like to imagine it as a night sky, that each person is their own constellation of stars. [ and each word she is coaxing, in word and the comfort of being close to another person. ]

[ Space metaphors are the way to Sam's heart, so when she puts it that way, it's that much easier to follow what she's saying and put it into action. Deep breath. Night sky. Stars. Translating everyone into stars -

His own, he pictures as bright. Like novas. Maybe not as many of them, not yet, but they're clearly not going to let anyone forget that they're there. ]

[ Any easy commonality, dreamed of planets and stars of far off places, and one she can continue with better than she does most things. Bleeds her own mind comfortably with it. Safe, warmth, that feeling of laying back and staring up at them. ]

( Once you've got that... I imagine it like a sunrise... that point just between, when you can still see the stars, but it's dim. )

[ Still there, still there, always there, never gone completely, but with that easy feeling, she turns it quiet, like turning down a radio, muffling it. Making it peaceful and quiet and removed. The pleasant chatter of company another room away.

And, after everything that happened, a place to mourn their own losses. ]

[ He opens his eyes with a start, then blinks and - a little sheepishly - closes them again. It takes him off-guard, how easily she tunes down what's been starting to get weirdly normal. Like when you have your music turned up loud, and then it stops seeming so loud, so you go louder, and before you realize it the window is shaking and Mom's yelling at you to turn that mierda down right this minute -

He'd been starting to lose his sense of how loud it really is, until it suddenly isn't. ]

[ She holds it, the quiet, her fingers fiddling idly against his shoulder as an absent point of contact, grounding for them both. Or at least for her - she's too easy to floating adrift in her mind. She had ever been more comfortable in her mind than her body. ]

Just like that. After awhile, it becomes natural. [ Sighs, tired as it is, but happy to do this. Alternates in and out of thought and word and feeling comfortable. Pleased she could help him, comfortable in these images, laughing with his suddenness. ] ( Just draw this feeling up, the next time you want quiet. It should come to you. )

[ He's not entirely sure it'll be as easy as she makes it seem; inner peace has never been something he's been good at. But the star metaphors help a lot, and definitely take it from "how do I even" to "okay, maybe I can get the hang of this." ]

( Thanks. )

( It's no problem, and whenever you need me. Just call for me, and I'll help you, however I can. )

[ She leans back, giving him space if he wants it, but she's just as comfortable with him leaning there, doesn't make any noises about it. ]

( Still want to see a skag? )

[ He doesn't back off, although he'd probably never admit that it's kind of comforting. Teenage egos and all that. He's just there already, so why bother? Yeah, that's totally it. ]

( Yeah, let's do it. )

[ her fingers fiddle a moment, and she takes in a breath, slowly, and with it comes the light. Always light, with this, white and bright in her eyes and from the barely exposed blue markings that peek out on her palm. Especially here, with so much technology and so much need to connect with it, granted. But this is different, not something she finds herself in much need of.

It's nice to be able to share, though, nice to be able to do something that's not about need and more about fun. Something they were all in sore need of at present so far as a distraction went. ]

Alright. Ready? [ the smile is small, but there. ] Skags can be pretty... disgusting the first time you see one. Not that I think I need to be worried with you, but just in case... It's only an illusion, so there's nothing to be concerned about.

[ and she lets the breath go, and tries to blend it like its normal, doesn't just conjure it out of the air, rather the skag appears to walk in through the door way. Not a pleasant animal, by any means. Big hunkering thing, more jaw than face, spines down its back. Beady eyes peering around the room. It slowly makes its way in like its looking for food, mimed from the way she's watched them countless times move about. Meandering this way and that as it came closer to them, until it's a a couple of feet away and comes up easily to the height of the couch. Dog like, if dogs more often then not, ripped people limb from limb and as this one does, seem to have poison laced into its spine, glowing bright yellow in a way that looks toxic.

Turns from them to bark, a hideous noise, and it's jaw doesn't work like a more familiar animal, rather it's face splits open from north to south and a huge red tongue hangs out, panting, and then it calls again. More to something this time, and from where it had come, two smaller skag pups follow after its apparent mother, barking and barrelling into her, almost immediately going to bite at their parents legs.

It'd be almost cute, if it wasn't clear that even a pup would have an easy time ripping someone's fingers off. That theyre dangerous, is apparently. But she's made them tame so far as her illusions go. ]

[ He watches for a few minutes. Sam always wanted a dog. That had never happened, for a lot of reasons, but he definitely didn't want one like this. ]

Wow. You weren't kidding. It looks like Cujo had a baby with the Xenomorph Queen.

EMPTY CHAIRS AT EMPTY TABLES

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