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]

[ 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.]