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

[erbier]

It was... good that the rest of you came.

[ She had not expected the members of the infiltration team to appear, but they had apparently been more than sorely needed. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ He smiles sadly to her, not wanting to think of what would’ve happened if they hadn’t shown up, but already aware of how badly Ilde had been left with it as it was. Between the crash of wills Ren and Steve were caught up in, she’d been helpless to stop it. He can’t fault her for it - the two of them could probably move mountains if they ever put that kind of determination together. ]

Just wish I’d been there to begin with. [ a beat, and he huffs a little. ] At least before frakking Dark-whatever decided to ‘help’. Who has a name like that anyway that doesn’t just scream ‘I’m an asshole’.

[erbier]

[ Oh. She opens her mouth to say something and then closes it again. It's not that she thinks the Darkling's actions were appropriate, but... He had come to her first. He had asked her what he could for her--for them--and she had answered. He had attempted to fulfill her wish.

She burns inside, the electric dissonance of all she feels about the Darkling. Him. With his whispers of vengeance and power, with his subtle madness that makes her fond and frightened in the same measure.

But what does she say to Sam. He is not incorrect to be perturbed but-- ]

He did not realize... How his actions would cascade.

[ Is she... making excuses for him... ]

[frakkincylons]

[ Carefully, his head tilts to her, frowning, as he tries to process that. Sam Anders is stubborn, and he's had hard times forgiving things he'd seen as wrong that came from people outside his circle of care in the past, and what the Darkling did, nearly getting Steve killed, seemed beyond all of that.

But here's Ilde, defending it, and Sam's kneejerk response is to assume he'd done or said something to her as well, preying on those in his brood that have been hurting, and have been manipulated by crueler forces before.

It takes a lot of 'not necessarily the truth' repeated to himself to bring his mind back from that, and instead, he asks, albeit a bit warily. ]

So... you knew what he was doing? Did he tell you?

[erbier]

Not in so many words, Sam.

[ A sigh. She understands his need for a tidy explanation, but there isn't one. She looks off at nothing for a moment, trying to formulate the words, ]

He wished to alleviate our grief, and could not. So he gave what he had.

[ She purses her lips. It had been a mistake, and she at least has had an apology. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ For a moment, Sam's quiet, nodding as he takes that in, along with the emotion within it, and open link between that Sam doesn't shy from.

He still can't make the mental leap between 'alleviate grief' and 'mainline the murderously enraged guy more power to kick of a disastrous outburst', and it feels like there's a piece missing somewhere.

What does seem clear is that the both of them, Ilde and Ren, have been chatting with this guy enough that there's sympathy and defense for him, despite how badly one of their own had been hurt for it. ]

What's he been telling you two?

[erbier]

[ She ruffles, expression narrow and irritated ]

Do you somehow think I don't realize he is dangerous.

[frakkincylons]

[ He blinks a moment, lips parting to reply, but she’d caught him being overbearing about it. Ah. ]

Sorry. No, I’m sure you know. [ Ilde’s quiet and passive but she isn’t imperceptive, far from it. Sighing, Sam slumps, back into the seat of the chair, with arm flopped somewhere behind Ilde where she sits, watching the cityscape for a beat. ] He acts like I don’t know anything about Ren. Like I don’t know anything about grief or anger, and I’m all sunshine and kittens and sunrise yoga.

[ Sam’s head lolls, to look over at her. ] You don’t see me like that, do you? [ like he doesn’t have any place with them. ]

[erbier]

[ Well. That is an entirely different conversation, and she forces herself to take a breath, brows pinched for another moment longer, irritation still prickling. She touches her temple with a fingertip gently, reflecting back on a conversation she'd had with Steve, the first time Ren had lost control, before Sam had even joined them. ]

I do not see you that way, and I very much doubt the Shadow sees you that way either. [ She has her own name for him, something between them. How unfortunate. ] What I believe is that you view these circumstances much differently than we do.

[ We: Ren, the Darkling, herself. They all share something, a festering pain. ]

It is not a fault. You have reason and compassion where I do not. But, today, trust me that the situation is not how you see it.

[frakkincylons]

The Shadow. [ Sam’s brows raise, having some intense difficulty with taking anyone seriously who has a The in their name, and something as grimdark as ‘shadow’ or ‘darkling’ as the other half. ]

Can’t we just call him, I dunno, Phil? Or something? Dave? Something that doesn’t sound like a horror film title?

[ it’s hard to have good faith in anyone advertising themselves as that. All in all, though, this petty bitching is more just Sam being uncomfortable with ‘we’ being another group. Something separate. When there’s already so much that’s been split between them.

More than that, it’s the idea that it’s something binding them that he doesn’t have. Beyond murderous intent - there’s plenty here that could offer that and yet aren’t wedging themselves between what’s left of castor. ]

What is it? What’s the part I’m not seeing that you three do?

[erbier]

You're a good person, Sam.

[ How much simpler can it possibly be? She knows that there are plenty enough under the delusion that she is sweet, and she has tried once before to explain to Steve that he was mistaken about her... But without Dreus to artificially martyr her, she is all too aware she is poisonous.

Sam had said it to her himself in his vision. ]

[frakkincylons]

[ Such a simple statement, and it's meant to utterly validate a mind. 'good person', in two words. he thinks of the Galactica. of Laura, Adama. of Gaeta, who was so devoted for so long, who did horrible things in the name of protecting the fleet. of gaius frakking baltar, who never knew what he was. ]

There's no such thing as good and bad people. [ just people. you learn that most when they're pushed to what survival means. sam himself, back on new caprica, had set up, supported, done things abhorrent in the name of desperation. there's flashes in his mind, of smoldering corpses, the face of a young man as he'd helped wire explosives to his chest, under a police uniform. cylons, so many dead cylons - he'd later know them as his creations. his children, that he'd slaughtered mercilessly, joyfully even. ]

It's an easy out. They're excuses. [ He shrugs, looking back to her. Sam knows what she's capable of, that what's tranquil about her isn't so sincere. He's known a lot of things about a lot of people, and still called them valuable. ] You call someone bad, it's an excuse not to do better. You call someone good, they think that justifies whatever comes to mind.

[erbier]

[ His strong opposition to her words merely validates her statement. His regret, his self-reflection, his desire to do better. ]

That may be true.

[ But she's not changing her answer. ]