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

[inflori]

[ But no - it doesn't work. He can't stop thinking about his hunger, and the fact that nathaniel's thoughts indulged in joining him only fuel the fire. He curls his lips, snarling quietly, growing increasingly irritated by his reasoning. Blah blah blah; he's wasting the demon's time.

Petre grabs Nathaniel's shoulder and shoves him, hard. ]

No.

[whowhatnow]

Hey!

[Okay, that's not cool. That's not cool at all. Nathaniel grimaces as he stumbles and hits the ground through the force of the shove, and immediately tries to scramble to his feet.]

Snap out it it, Petre! For crying out loud, I'm trying to help you!

[inflori]

[ Helping a deranged demon is proving to be useless, though, and the longer Nate says, the more dangerous it'll become. Getting back up on his feet is interpreted as a threat from Petre's end, and it may just be his symbiote that's stopping him from wanting to tear off his head. He's fresh meat, after all. Moving, blood pumping underneath that skin, he's sure. He wants to help? How about he lay down and let Petre have his fill.

(All thoughts that spill from his head, their chaotic flow accompanying the growth of teeth. He's back to nothing but fangs again, all teeth, all hungry.) ]

No!

[whowhatnow]

[Great. A bomb has gone off, Anakin is dead, the whole brood is in disarray, and his demon buddy is trying to eat him. Really not one of the better days of Nathaniel's life.]

[Anytime else, he would've paused and maybe cracked a joke about those teeth (hey, Petre, how do you floss those things?) but he's in danger now, and he's going to do whatever he can to get out of it.]

[Even if that means suddenly making his hand swell into a large, crab-like claw and whacking it hard across Petre's face. A shapeshifter's gotta do what a shapeshifter's gotta do.]

[inflori]

[ It's surprising enough to knock him right off his feet, crashing down against debris and a mangled corpse. The bruise that causes is visible for only a few seconds; the surprise, then anger, become more lasting than that. With gritted teeth, Petre starts to produce a sound that's like a grunt, a groan - then a monstrous cry that grows into a scream, like claws scratching in his throat. In a flash, the monster is back on his feet, fully transformed, to lunge at Nathaniel, claws ready to rip right through him. ]

[whowhatnow]

[He really didn't expect Petre to be down for the count, but there was a hope that he would - Nathaniel grits his teeth when he pushes himself back to his feet. Ugh. He really doesn't want to unleash himself on Petre and hurt him, but running doesn't seem like the best option right now.]

[As soon as Petre leaps at him, Nathaniel's form cracks open, a fissure opening in the middle of his head and neck and chest - while his clothes are in the way, tendrils quickly whip out and around them from that opening, instantly moving to wrap around Petre's body and limbs in an attempt to try to restrain him as much as possible. He even squeezes hard, just for good measure.]

[inflori]

[ As soon as he's trapped, Petre releases another scream. He's in berserk mode, symbiote screeching in his head with him, impossible to reason with in these conditions. Try as he might, his strength isn't enough to break him free, arms constrained and mouth too far to even try to rip away at the tendrils, or snap his teeth at Nate's body. He's still dangerous, but he's been rendered helpless. Where this should eventually lead him to exhaustion, though, it only fuels him even further - demons will thrive on cardinal sin, and his blood is boiling with wrath.

And that's when it happens. Triggered by strong emotion, desperation, and physical contact with the original shifter, his iota ability switches on for the first time. At first he starts to shake and grimace like he's in pain, sounds accompanying the new, alien shifts taking place: his teeth change first, sliding back into his skull, which cracks open across his face. His skin curls backwards, changing color; a crown of jawbones branch out of his head and his limbs all become the wrong size, the wrong shape. The boy loses his human figure; multiple eyes spread across his body, black instead of red, staring back at Nate.

He can grow his own tendrils, now. They slip out of him, surrounding Nate's body, then wrapping around him tight, an instinctive attempt to try and suffocate him. ]

[whowhatnow]

[He thinks that's enough. He thinks Petre will tire himself out, and then they can go back to the Bearings and everything will be okay.]

[Boy, is he wrong.]

[He's never seen Petre like this, change like this, and momentarily, he's stunned. The jawbones, the eyes, the limbs...in a way, it's beautiful. He almost wants to reach out, to let his fingers drift around the black eyes on his skin...but Nathaniel really can't admire them for long, not when the creature that was once Petre is now trying to strangle him.]

[Okay, clothes? Forget about clothes. He could care less if he ends up buck naked by the end of this, as long as he survives. He pushes all he can into his mass, his form suddenly expanding into the full size of his true form, clothes ripping and face fully unraveling into it's characteristic flower-like form.]

[He reaches out with a bulky limb to grasp the back of Petre's neck, ripping him off like one would an offending scab off of skin, and slams him right into the ground.]

[inflori]

[ He all but collapses when he's thrown off, misplacing every one of his new limbs, tendrils slapping down on the floor right next to him. He hasn't a clue how to gather the correct balance for this body yet, so he clumsily tries to set himself upright, guttural sounds replacing the horrible screams from before. That should give Nate enough time for his next move. ]