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!))

NAVIGATION • SETTING • FAQ • MOD CONTACT • GLOSSARY

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[vocalis]

Y-yeah... it does.

[ Awkward, painful to linger on. Even more so with someone new and outside his brood. Though they are all connected and loss is fresh within their portion of the Nest, Aoba can't and doesn't expect everyone to understand.

So enough about his diminished, sleeping brood; he needs details on what's happening now. More than the news and extraspace can provide as information comes trickling in. ]

So... what happened out there? Was it that hate group? What were you all trying to do?

[ And then, remembering how tired Sam looks- ]

Er, excuse me... if you're too tired to explain, that's fine too.

[headinjuries]

No, it's cool.

[ He is tired. But there's still too much mental buzz for him to expect he'll be able to just go pass out and sleep it all off, and any distraction is a good distraction.

It's only half a distraction, but at least this gives him an excuse to focus on the facts and not the feelings. ]

I dunno if you were following Bout It Out, uh, earlier? But there's this one player, Kun-Kun - really big name, but he's been saying some stuff that's kinda suspicious lately. Like he's pro-android, so lots of people are turning on him. And we figured if we could get a chance to talk to him, maybe we could find out more about the pro-android groups.

[ He pauses to chug another third of that glass of water. ]

So there was this tournament, and we got some of us in as competitors, so we could try and get to the finals and talk to him that way, but in the middle of the last match, the bomb went off and everything kind of went down the toilet.

[vocalis]

Yeah, I remember that much about Kun-Kun. Vaguely... I'd been following Bout it Out a little.

[ A lie, but one Aoba isn't aware of. He had been following Bout it Out - religiously. Played every night trying to make a mark by pushing through the ranks faster than anyone. Trying to crush the competition the way he did in Rhyme, years ago.

He just wasn't entirely himself in those moments - at least not the self he usually is. And it's that other self that slips out at the mention of other Hosts getting involved. ]

Other hosts... were allowed to face the Champion?

[ Though attentive, (perhaps overly, yellow eyes now fixed on Sam) his attention is going to the wrong details. ]

[headinjuries]

[ A wave of nausea hits him when Aoba speaks - brief, passed by the time he's done talking, but for that moment, it's intense, and the glass slips a couple of centimeters in his fingers before he tightens his grip and saves himself from spilling it all over as something in the back of his mind whispers: that's not true.

He blinks.

What the hell?

Sam, unfortunately, hasn't had much opportunity to figure out his symbiote ability yet. ]

Yeah, uhhh -

[ Weird as that was, there doesn't seem to be any point in commenting on it. Despite whatever he just felt, wouldn't Aoba be the one who knows whether he's been following it or not? It's a stupid thing to lie about. He's got to be imagining things. Better to just plow through this conversation and ignore it. ]

One did. I don't know him that well, the...kind of spooky-intense guy from Gacrux?

[ He's not actually sure what he's supposed to call him, now that he thinks about it. Which is also weird, because names seem like they ought to be obvious through the mindlink stuff. ]

[vocalis]

[ His (their) attention remains fixed on Sam, and though he notes the glass slipping and the briefly ill look, he doesn't comment on it. Aoba might've shown concern, but Sly Blue doesn't care. He's more fixated on who this 'spooky intense guy' from Garcux is. Searching his (their) memories brings up nothing - Aoba doesn't know of anyone from Garcrux brood yet. That will change, faster now that he knows one was involved in Bout it Out - the one thing he's cared about on this planet. So similar to Rhyme, it satisfies that ever present craving to destroy within him. Within them. ]

Is he skilled in the game, this... spooky guy?

[ His voice is different. Compelling, easy to listen to and get lost in. He's focusing more on details that don't really matter to the overall mission Sam described. But this isn't about the mission anymore, this is about winning-

Wait no, of course this is about the mission. Who cares about who played against the champion of a video game? Or winning? He doesn't play those kind of games anymore.

Something in Aoba's eyes shifts. He blinks as if refocusing them. Closes them, rubs them between the bridge of his nose, then blinks again and looks back at Sam as if just remembering where he is. Maybe it's just the dim light, but they're distinctly less yellow. ]

Sorry... I think I spaced out there for a second.

[headinjuries]

[ Weird.

But, okay, what about everything that's happened since he woke up on the station hasn't been weird? If he thinks too hard about it he's just going to drive himself nuts, probably. ]

S'cool. But, uh...yeah, he's pretty good at it, but he plays like he wants to be smacking people up for real? So it's not really surprising that he made it to the finals, I guess. A lot of the players don't seem like they've ever gotten in a real fight in their lives.

[vocalis]

Heh. With virtual reality being so popular and accessible here, maybe they haven't.

[ It's easy to think of Midorijima becoming like Concordia in just a few years. Rhyme was growing so much right when he was taken away, eclipsing the real fighting game Ribsteez. And if allmates were given enough time to progress, maybe they would soon be fighting for allmate rights the way androids are here. If it were for his allmate Ren, Aoba would fight to defend him always, virtual or not. ]

There was a game similar to Bout it Out on my world... that's why I asked.

[ Was it, though? Aoba isn't so sure, but he says it anyway since it seems like the right thing to say. But he doesn't care about Rhyme anymore. Virtual reality games are only in his past. Though some part of him feels... angry, oddly jealous for missing part of his mission. A part of him wedged deep in the back of his mind. A part he chooses to ignore for the time being. ]

Anyway, sorry to keep you from resting. Thanks for helping me get up to speed, Sam.

[headinjuries]

Yeah, no problem. Glad you're awake again.

[ Truth, even if this is the first he's met Aoba. Despite his general tendency towards "moody and irritable," Sam would rather see everyone okay than not. ]