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

[snippycup]

No. We should walk.

[She has been sitting for hours. Her limbs have grown stiff and her head feels numb with the buzz of the rest of the Nest, and the phantom limb that stings whenever she thinks too strongly of Anakin. The empty wind of where the Force had once shined so brightly.

They all need to be away from it, if they are going to recover. So she moves to join him, to lead them if he will not.]

You must think me childish.

[deployed]

No, [ Bellamy assures her. ] I think you're grieving.

[ And grief was difficult to bear silently. Bellamy knew that very well. He doesn't blame her for radiating waves of misery. It's impossible to curb something like that, particularly when their nest is so interconnected. Asking her to suppress her sorrow, even inside her head, seemed unfair. ]

Why would you say it's childish?

[ Jedi were something of a mystery. What he knew of them consisted of the strange, near painful buzz of the Force in their connection, and the weapons they carried. Bellamy knew it was more complicated than that. Things typically were. ]

[snippycup]

[She glances at him quizzically for a moment, before she remembers that a Jedi's discipline was not shared by the majority of the population. The sigh comes out of her nose.]

Its nothing.

[It has not yet occurred to her that it was to everyone's best interests for her to be happy, and not grieving.]

But I appreciate your concern. Really.

[deployed]

[ Discipline. It means something different to everyone else than it does to Bellamy, it seems. He glances at her, studying her face for a long moment. He isn't sure whether or not he should be pushing the subject. ]

Would it help to talk about him?

[ Her grief cuts sharply, makes him think of Octavia. He hadn't been able to comfort her either, though she hadn't given Bellamy any room to even attempt. ]

Or to talk about something else?

i'm so sorry this took 8 years

[snippycup]

[Her answer is slow to come. If she keeps talking about Anakin, she'll never let him go. Someone had told her once to think of the happier times, and that doing so would bring comfort. Just thinking about happier times makes her heart twist.

So she shakes her head and makes up her mind.]

Your name is Bellamy. Mine is Ahsoka.

[A proper introduction feels like a good place to start.]

never be sorry ok

[deployed]

Ahsoka. [ Bellamy repeats, mostly to get the cadence and pronunciation down. He can hear it correctly in his head, but he'd like to pretend that's not a factor. ] Right though. That's me.

[ What a time to introduce himself. ]

Are you hungry?

[ When in doubt, find food. Or drinks. Bellamy's opting for the former, mostly because he doesn't know Ahsoka's opinion on the latter. ]

[snippycup]

[No is the thought that comes over the link between them first. She feels like she might never eat again. Ahsoka's blink is hard, forced, and angry though not directed at anything in particular.

When she composes herself, her body is quick to remind her that she has not in fact eaten. As such, her "No" becomes a:]

Hardly.

[Which is closer to the truth.]

[deployed]

I understand.

[ Bellamy recognizes both the initial denial and the amended admission. After his mother was floated, Bellamy hadn't wanted to eat anything. He'd felt sick at the thought of rations, preferred to forgo everything rather than try to attempt choking down food alone at their table.

But he'd eaten eventually. He'd survived. Ahsoka would too. ]

I can make toast now, [ He offers, mostly proud that he's cribbed Lexa's studies of various kitchen appliances and hasn't burnt anything yet. ] Clint made me some. It isn't too much.

[ Not too much to eat, not a real meal, but just enough to take the edge off. Bellamy's expression is faintly hopeful, the implied offer hanging between them. ]

[snippycup]

[It isn't the offer of toast that encourages Ahsoka to stand, but Bellamy's sense of hope that she feels resting at the corner of her mind. She couldn't bare to let anyone else down today -- being strong for others always came much easier than being strong for herself.

She offers him the lightest of smiles, not entirely forced and at least a little sad, but full of understanding in spite of it.]

Show me.