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

[deployed]

[ If he wanted, maybe he could push hard enough to hook into the flow of thought Lexa's keeping so carefully walled off. He's capable, but he doesn't make the attempt. He doesn't always trust Lexa's intentions, understands her pragmatism may someday necessitate the kind of manipulations that left Bellamy stranded in the depth of Mount Weather but he trusts the shift in their circumstance and he trusts her promises. He knows what he'd do on Clarke's behalf. He can leave well enough alone with the realization of how deep those feelings run to safeguard the present.

He'd never have seen that question coming, even if he'd plucked the tick of logic from her head. Bellamy flinches from it, expression shuttering. He's guilty. He's always been guilty, from the moment he put boots onto the soil of Earth. Guilt is a constant companion. He acts in spite of it, understanding that it is the cost of the actions he's taking even if he believes those actions are necessary. He'd been sick with guilt even after he'd put an end to her army, unable to meet Lincoln's eyes and spout the well-worn justifications. Killing never comes easily. There's no detachment, even if he'd desperately needed to find some in the wake of Mount Weather.

None of it absolves him. There's no comfort in knowing his actions were necessary. And this guard is just another casualty to bear up under, though Bellamy's at a loss as to how to communicate this to Lexa without revealing too much. He isn't even sure how to answer her question, though his thoughts flick through the counts against him, from his mother to the three hundred who had perished in the Culling the the graves outside the dropship to the scorched bodies in Mount Weather to the massacre of her army to Lincoln. What value did he have left, when he'd caused so much damage? ]

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

[ He can't give her an answer. He doesn't try, tamping down hard rather than risk exposing too much to her. He frowns, but doesn't look away, afraid that breaking eye contact would reveal something more damning than the expression on his face in this moment, as raw as it may be.

The sacrifice that she puzzles over is, for Bellamy, the only worthwhile thing he can do. Protecting his people regardless of the cost, even if that cost is his life. And he'd always trusted that in his absence, Clarke would protect their people. That made it easier to consider such a roll. ]

[adamance]

[Odd that they should come to this moment. Lexa recalls standing in a tent mere moments before Mount Weather prepared to launch a missile toward TonDC to kill hundreds there. Octavia had been outside. Indra, one of her most trusted generals, had been outside. Even so, she had made the choice, and Clarke had made the choice, and they left together with the mindset of returning and giving hope. Here, there are no inspirational leaders. There are those all the people in the Nest seem to care for (Angel) and those who may earn everyone's protection (Sam, the boy who also calls himself Nova). But there are no leaders who will sweep in and save the day by merely providing the morale necessary.

As someone raised to believe in her leadership skills above all else, she has seen this gaping hole from the very beginning. Her first urge had been to patch it over with herself, but she recognizes the value of compromise. While many of the people here do respect her experience and efforts toward her people, they are not her people. Only Bellamy is her people, one remaining individual from a group of thousands. And he is reluctant, to say the least.

The flicker of thoughts about his death leaves her unwavering. She remains stoic as she thinks through them and recognizes them, pausing only when he reaches Lincoln. He had been a part of Trikru, a part of her original people, a boy training to be a scout when she had been brought to Polis. There is some hesitation as she considers that, and her mind slips to Luna, who had always been closer to him. If he had gone with her instead of trying to forge a better way for their people, would he have lived? She knows (knows through reports from others, knows because Lincoln had always struggled under the weight of what her people consider to be strength) that he had considered leaving. That he had the means to leaving. But he never left.

Her thoughts are a sort of eulogy shared with Bellamy before they swing back toward the point. Somehow, she doesn't think to blame him: if nothing else, she knows that Bellamy would not hurt Lincoln. It would not have been a strike by his hand. A month ago, would she have felt the same way?

(She knows the truth to that answer: it's a simple no.)]

We are at war. [Back to his quarters, back to where they are, sitting in a place that isn't so different from where she had been with Clarke. It's just as intimate, with her given more space between herself and him. At that moment, she already knew the stirrings of her feelings for Clarke, but they weren't as important as the war at hand. Nothing like that can ever be the same for Bellamy, but she knows that she respects him, like it's a point of acceptance long since passed, perhaps solidified the moment his hand slipped into hers and he showed her the remainder of her home.]

We left one war and entered another. You would not have been there if the owner of that company hadn't withheld information. The people of this world do not know that they are a part of our war, but they fight their own.

[Her words are callous, yet ones she believes in entirely. Death is not always the means to an end. Since she has joined the Nest, she has maintained that thought: her last resort is death, almost like a living, breathing promise to Clarke. But there are times when it may come.

Besides:]

You didn't mean to kill him. You'll be more careful in the future.

[None of them are trained because they are all expendable pawns waiting to be rescued while they fight their war poorly.]

[deployed]

[ She's sharing these memories of Lincoln willingly. Bellamy realizes that, but the urge to turn his face from them still rises. It's too much. It's undeserved. He'd cared for Lincoln, but he'd stood by and let Pike push him and his people into a cell. Octavia's accusations had been fueled by anger, but they had only been an echo of what Bellamy believed himself. ( You're the reason he needs saving. ) The bittersweet progression of memory burns like salt in an open wound instead of soothing like a balm, and he flinches when it's cut short.

Lexa doesn't blame him. That simple reprieve is surprising, but he suppresses the need to question her about it. She's in his head. The desperate need to save Lincoln, Kane and Sinclair had propelled Bellamy out of Arkadia, had broken wide the fissures of doubt in Pike's rule that had been cracking since he'd pushed to attack the village. He'd delayed and he'd stalled and people had died because of it. He runs a hand over his face, back through his hair. His sweat-damp curls stick up wildly. There's a dissonant moment where he can't differentiate between her feelings for Clarke and his own, punctuated by a wash of nausea which is only partly because of the blowback from his powers and partly from the sense of feelings and thoughts briefly blurring.

What he did and didn't mean to do never mattered. He'd babbled that he hadn't meant to bring death to innocents before when confronted with a field full of imagined Ark workers and it had rung out hollowly then. Lexa's pragmatic assessment does little to chip away at Bellamy's ample store of guilt. ]

What I meant doesn't matter, [ Though that's a statement that refers to more than a single guard, a tacit acknowledgement of his sins even if he can never quite bring himself to speak more specifically of them to her. ] And we didn't get what we needed.

[ The entire infiltration had been for nothing. A waste. As necessary as the altercation had been in the moment, it doesn't alleviate the regret that followed after.

She'd made promises to Clarke, explicit in a way Bellamy never had been with her. But he tries. He's trying now, attempting to change course even in this strange, removed world. He can try to be careful, but getting a handle on this kind of ability seems as difficult as controlling his thoughts. The fallout would be more disastrous than a revealing slip of memory. ]

Next time we can't fail.

[ Whatever came next. It's hard to think about the next step when grief and anger are so thick in the air, muddying the shared consciousness of the Hive. Even as much as Bellamy tries to hold himself apart from it, he can't escape the slow bleed of emotion dragging against his own. ]

[adamance]

It does matter. [Lexa will never understand all that Bellamy's done to bring him to this point, but she will know this: how he feels right now is crippling him. Being caught up in thoughts that blur together these notions will only make things more difficult down the line. She sees above all else that he has to differentiate between them, or he'll drown in the process. It will prove impossible to keep someone alive who has been severed from everything that matters most. That's a life she refuses to accept.]

The day we found my people dead on that field, I had intended to make Clarke my prisoner. [Despite her promises.] I was angry. [Emotional. A point she regrets but can't change.] Despite everything, she swore that she could get through to you. That you would see the error of your ways. She believed in you. You proved her wrong. You dug your heels, and Clarke had to come back and beg for me to show a different side. [It's one that she still struggles with, which is apparent here. Her restraint is shown every day, even though Lexa has a feeling that Bellamy's the only one aware of it.]

What you did when everyone failed in there was a matter of poor planning. Things will change. I intend to change them. But to me, you are making these things one and the same. When you killed my people beside Pike, you acted with purpose. Here, you didn't. But sitting here, it feels the same to me. Why is that?

[Clarke had accused her of repressing her emotions, but when she looks at Bellamy, she wonders if this is really any better. If his emotions blind him so that he can't make clear, reasoned decisions, how is that any better?]

You will never be the man Clarke believed you could be if you don't work through this.

[It's clear to her that he attempted to deflected toward the mission itself.

But Lexa has already made up a plan for how to handle things in the future. Here, she's quick and decisive. With him, she wonders if it will be necessary to do the same. If this is the leadership hand he requires, then she'll offer it.]

[deployed]

[ There's a flash of anger, a lingering I knew it that Bellamy can't suppress. For all that he likes to think he's past the furious hurt that had risen up when Clarke had chosen Lexa and the grounders over their people, it's still present, still far from having healed and faded.

But still, focusing on that over focusing on how he put Clarke in danger and rebuffed her attempts at reconciliation is a distraction. It had been a distraction then too. He can't bring himself to tell Lexa of all people that he'd seen the error, and doubled down rather than try to face that reality and pursue what had felt like an unstable peace.

He can feel the sacrifice Lexa has made for Clarke, the effort involved in reshaping an entire worldview. It's impossible to dismiss and he doesn't bother trying anymore. ]

You're right, [ He tells her, though the words come out rough, reluctant. It's the truth, though he is not the man Clarke believes him to be in so many ways. ] I know that.

[ But nothing goes away simply because he understands that he's bogged down with his own guilt. ]

It's...difficult to explain to you.

[ For so many reasons, not the least of which hinges on who she is and the fact that discussing emotions is simply not in Bellamy's wheelhouse. Lexa's asking him to articulate something he's never attempted to put into words, and never imagined attempting to do so for anyone other than Clarke.

He doesn't often wish to be the man who had taken control of things at the dropship. But he misses that sense of resolute belief in a purpose. Self-doubt has done as much to destabilize him as his guilt. He sighs, shoulders bowing as he rubs his hands over his face again as if to shake off his physical weakness and better equip himself to tackle this conversation. ]

[adamance]

[In response, she leans back. It occurs to her that this may be too much to combat in one instance. Lexa had tried with Clarke after Finn died. Her efforts there were less successful for a different reason: the reason being that they proved too successful. Clarke had stifled all of her emotions so that she could do monstrous things in the Mountain after Lexa abandoned her, and only Lexa could see the error of her ways. The privacy of their conversations had granted her that, and she knows it's not her place to explain what Clarke had gone through.

But she does strive to do better this time. There is still the gnawing in her mind that his emotions are only hurting him, preventing him from being who Clarke believes him to be, but she ignores that. He may sense it, may know that she's obscuring that perspective, because while it's how she copes and survives, she knows better than to push that on others. (Besides, she had begun to balance out that notion herself before she came here.)]

Our people handle these matters differently. I know I'll never fully understand where you come from on this. What we view as strength make most of Skaikru struggle. It's surprising that Octavia has done so well under Indra's training.

[It's one way of saying what she's thinking without saying it. It hints to Clarke and it hints to how she may be the worst for this particular conversation.

But if she means for him to live, he has to do it without finding some means to harm himself with his thoughts.]

[deployed]

[ There's something yielding in her thoughts, as if her line of questioning had been pressure and the change in topic and posture signals an easing away from it all. Bellamy exhales slowly, processing the flicker of thought and emotion emanating from her. With Lexa, Bellamy always has the sense that he's being deliberately allowed every inch of vulnerability and insight he gleans from her. Lexa isn't prone to the same slips and revealings that Bellamy constantly falls into.

If she's holding back, it's on purpose. It's a sign of something, a growth that Bellamy doesn't presume to attempt to name. She's not the only one thinking of Clarke in this moment, understanding that to some extent what Lexa tells him now is because of Clarke's influence and example. ]

It's not, really. Octavia doesn't count herself as Skaikru.

[ And why should she? She's Bellamy's family, but for all his protests, she'd been raised under the floorboards and imprisoned upon discovery. It had set her apart.

Bellamy can't hear her name aloud without a painful mix of pride and sorrow. Losing Lincoln had severed an already frayed bond between them. Bellamy would never have the chance to fix it. Not here. Maybe not even if he'd survived the battle in Polis. But still, the love and affection he feels for Octavia thrums warm in his chest, coloring his thoughts. ]

Indra was good for her.

[ Something Bellamy can admit now, finally. Maybe long past when such a statement would have mattered. ]

[adamance]

What she thinks and what is true are two different things. [Lexa will always see Octavia as Skaikru. It isn't a bad thing: she simply sees her as a part of their people, just as Lincoln would always be Trikru even when he had abandoned and betrayed them. It's why she had to put a kill order on his head. His actions necessitated that from her as he had betrayed his people countless times.

Still, the point isn't how Octavia defines herself. It's how Lexa defines her, and her people, and all of Skaikru. They all have their own ways of handling things, and their own sense of honor. There are times when they are no different. There are times when they are radically different. In the end, both had a culture of killing those who needed to be gone, but their approach to the matter often varied.]

Just the same, you and her are a lot alike. You're both emotional. You hide nothing from others. Even when you've convinced yourself that you are.

[It's one of the things that frustrates her about him: he is mercurial and unable to keep himself from feeling everything.

Some part of her wonders what it's like to be in Clarke's head, idly, distantly—but she knows she would meet with the same guilt. Clarke hides it better, but it would be just as suffocating.]

[deployed]

[ Bellamy draws a ragged breath. Talking about Octavia is difficult for a multitude of reasons. It's baring a private, vulnerable part of himself to Lexa, though at this point, what does that matter? He's already weak, and he's already admitted more than he should to her. It feels like something she could have picked from his head without even trying. Octavia is always present in his mind.

But it's difficult because of how she had disowned him. Her face comes to mind, spitting You're dead to me, as he'd struggled to his knees. She hadn't hidden her grief, hadn't made a secret of who she blamed, and the severance of the bond between them had felt like a limb being ripped away. He can't get a hold of that pain, wrestle and mute it before it floods through his mind. His jaw tightens, shoulders dropping. ]

I helped raise her. Makes sense she'd pick up my bad habits.

[ It's an attempt to pass over the comparison, something he knows Octavia wouldn't be pleased with were she here. He can sense the shift in Lexa's thoughts, the flicker of Clarke there.

Bellamy's eyes close, and he pinches the bridge of his nose briefly. He already knows the guilt Clarke carried. He knows it's the twin to his own, and he knows that Clarke had the strength to bear up under it without lashing out beneath that weight. She's more controlled than Bellamy is. That's never been in question. ]

You don't have to stay.

[ Because he has the sense he's being selfish, keeping her here because she's a familiar presence and he finds unexpected comfort in that even as they skirt around difficult topics for both of them to speak of. ]

[adamance]

There is very little that you could tell me to do, Bellamy. [Lexa could leave, but some part of her wants to force herself to remain. It is hard to meet guilt like that, especially when she has a special ability to burn it away within herself. Once, she might have thought that the Flame helped her, incinerating everything inside that weakened her, but now she knows the truth. The Spirits in her are alive and real, but they are no more a flame than the false flickering of candles in her chosen setting for her room.]

It wasn't surprising that Indra took to Octavia, [she begins, not to speak of Octavia but of Indra.] Though she was a strong leader in Trikru, she had always been angrier than most. Clarke was once afraid that she might rise up to the role of commander, but she lacked the right blood. It wouldn't have been possible. [A smile plays over her lips.]

My people can be loud. And angry. But sometimes it is more one thing than another, without any bared truth.

[deployed]

[ The right blood. Bellamy's thoughts hopscotch from the grotesque innards of Mount Weather to the ink-dark drip of Ontari's blood before he finds his focus, Indra's face swimming up out of his thoughts to displace everything else. ]

She loved my sister, [ Bellamy admits, because as difficult as it had been to find common ground with Indra he had recognized that over the fire. ] After everything's finished, Indra will be able to help her and Clarke.

[ Indra's fate is uncertain. Bellamy's speaking hope aloud, praying as much for the survival of their people as a whole as for Indra specifically. He knows he'll never be able to return. Whatever happens next, whatever needs to be rebuilt and remade, it will have to be done without him. As capable as he knows Clarke is, she'll need people she can trust. There's precious few of them left. ]

[adamance]

Clarke will need a strong hand like Indra's. The members of the coalition may not accept her as their commander, but given the circumstances, there may be no other choice. After what's happened, she is the strongest choice for a leader. If Indra respects that, there's a higher likelihood that others will follow. [There will be some who won't, but Lexa can only see them being changed by this experience. Her people are not so stubborn and inflexible that they will rise up against Clarke.

Some will, as people do. She may need a champion in that time, but again, that's where Indra will help and step in. Having warriors from her coalition on her side will help her right everything in Polis.

Blind faith in Clarke comes with a sense of her believing that Clarke will do the right thing for all their people, and that she would know the ramifications of undertaking the Flame, even through such unusual methods.]

[deployed]

[ This is potentially Lexa's way of offering reassurance, explaining while reaffirming all the things Bellamy knows Octavia believes of Indra as well. He leans forward, rubbing a hand over his face. Indra will support Clarke. The others will follow. She'll hold all the people left on their world together. It's a given, as far as Bellamy's concerned. All that he had done to unite their people had been a flash in the pan. Clarke was substantial. She wouldn't waver this time. ]

I should be there.

[ But he won't be. Bellamy will never be able to go back, and he'll never stand at Clarke's side again. All Carata's assurances and urging for him to sever those ties crumple when Bellamy stacks the cost of his presence in this world against his absence from his home. ]

I can't tell if I made the right choice anymore.

[ About anything. Ever.

But he thinks in this case, when speaking about this specific thing, Lexa can sympathize. They've left their people. In the moment, it had felt like the only possible thing to do. But now, he wonders if he should have thought of something else, come up with a solution that didn't remove himself from the equation entirely. ]

[adamance]

If you had stayed, Clarke would have had to see the remains of your body. And that's if she lived to experience it. [The words are harsh and concise, but everyone came here for the same reason: there was the threat of death hanging over their heads. It is in their nature to survive. Some are willing to sacrifice more than just their worlds for this opportunity. Others are like Bellamy and Lexa, who cling to the memory of their homes because it defines them too strongly. They are protectors in their own way, Bellamy not unlike Indra, a general who needs to be guided, but is trusted just the same.]

We were not selfish to come here. In fact, we gave up more to make that choice, because we didn't just survive, we ensured that our people would, too. [To a degree, it seems as if she needs to believe this. But more than that, she fears what Polis may have become if she had been ripped away by these Enemies, and whether or not Clarke would have survived that experience. Clarke (freshly gone, with Lexa still having the taste of her on her lips) had been on her mind when she took the hand of her savior. But there is Titus and the women who did her hair every morning and more.

These are people who should not have been lost, either.]

If it turns out that we are here because of something more than what that seems, we will put an end to it. [If it means sacrificing themselves and the Nest in the process—so be it.

It will just be another way to protect their own.]