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

[circumspector]

[ She pulls back only when she speaks. Looking up onto Lexa's face - even if she must stand on tiptoe to do so. Like she's reassuring herself - glad - even if she's not sure anyone is really managing happy at the moment.

Detangles herself though, stepping back a little, sighing out slowly. ]

Didn't think it'd be that easy. [ it's a slight attempt at humour. Keep some attempt at brevity. The way she does best, apparently. ] It wasn't easy but... we managed it. They picked up on presence easily enough.

[adamance]

[Surveying what has happened comes easily to her, like she's finding the rest of herself in the process. It's falling on a habit, but it's important for her. There's a sense, still, that she's doing it because she's still recovering from the surprise of the intimacy.

(It may be surprising that she doesn't mind intimacy when she's been aware that it's coming. She just was surprised here.)]

Will there be a risk of them using any surveillance to find us later? Given our involvement at two scenes of ... chaos, we might be implicated. [In an unfortunate way, she means.]

[circumspector]

[ Agel clears her throat as she smoothes out her clothes, in contrast to when she had scrambled the androids brains, there is no shake to her about this. In purpose, seldom was there ever. She had made no mistakes in her actions this time. ]

What I encountered at least, was handled. I don't expect too much, but I can't be sure. [ she breaths out. ] I tried to make sure none of us were seen, and we are hidden from view, thankfully.

[adamance]

We may need to perform damage control. If they think whoever infiltrated has anything to do with the bombing, they will be thrown off track. We'll have to keep tabs on the news to see if people incorrectly make that connection, and see if we can find a means to right things.

[Ven Diagrams looking into things is important, as they have many more resources than any of the Nest does given their connection to this world. She almost wishes they could have planted some kind of surveillance, but lacking that knowledge herself, it seems like it's too late to change it.]

Other than that, I'm relieved that we had ... minimal damage. [One loss versus many. There's a hint of guilt that rises up inside of her from utilizing that phrase, as if she's fully aware of precisely how callous it is. But it's how she views things, and she internally struggles to change things.]

[circumspector]

[ She nods, it's nothing she hasn't considered in partial thought thus far. But between her and Sam, they kept up a semi-constant surveillance as much as possible. ]

We're keeping track as much as we can. There's... well there's a lot flying around at the moment, so it definitely doesn't hurt for us all to keep our heads down when and where we can.

[ To not draw excess attention to themselves if they could at all help it. Though she glances up at Lexa with a small frown. ] I wouldn't call it minimal. We lost a lot. Not just an opportunity, either.

[adamance]

There were many of us in that parlor, but only one of us died. [Later, this would occur to her as someone's failure, given the attention they've drawn. But not here, not before they receive that contact.

No, for now, she simply reflects that they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. That seems to add up, since while she likes to complicate matters, she doesn't think they've drawn ire just yet.]

I realize you may think that's callous. I know you've lost someone close to you before. But it could have been more of us. If it were, we may have risked being seen as more than bystanders.

[It is most certainly callous, and Lexa seems to almost be mentally untying herself from the events of the day. But it's a mental action that, though done with some fortitude, comes all too obviously just before Angel. Repression is something that comes easily to her, but not today. She is too tired to be subtle, and as such, she is precisely the opposite of that.]