MISSION: THE FOX AND THE HARE, PART 2

[ximilian]

● ● ● M I S S I O N   7 . 2

INTRO • HAXX0R • GET THE GOOD • FABLE FORETOLD • PRODIGAL PIONEER • FYI

// INTRO. OUR REBEL'S REBOUND  

One month ago...

// VIVECA.AI

But if you run into the Fables, if you see the Hare —

As the platform slowly begins to empty of Orbers that disappear into the light, Viveca’s floating body hovers close — and she hesitates until only two Orbers are left: Percy and Gwen.

// VIVECA.AI

No, wait —

It’s her voice, soft but suddenly urgent, insistent, that stops them in their tracks. The humming of the machine suddenly cuts off, leaving them on the station surrounded by deafening silence. Viveca looks at the two remaining orbers, her expression torn to contrast the perplexion on both Percy and Gwen’s faces. But finally, Viveca takes a breath she doesn’t need, appearing to have made some decision she’d been grappling with.

// VIVECA.AI

"There's been a mistake in the mission file," she says, plunging into the explanation of getting the words out as fast as possible, as though it would make it easier. “The orb's not in the First Circle but in one of the labour camps. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but I — I needed you to see it for yourself. All of it. What it's all like. Without my perceptions colouring your view.

She hovers closer.

// VIVECA.AI

The orb is your priority. I'm sending you two to the water purification site. Your clothes will change to match theirs, and there'll be a collar around your necks, but it only looks like one the others there wear. It won't explode, trust me. I don't know how long this delays you ... it could be anything from days to several weeks. But when you get there, please tell the others.

The low hum of the machinery resumes, and Viveca continues to speak, this time over the din of the powered up teleportation platform.

// VIVECA.AI

Tell them I'm sorry. Tell Cal I'm sorry. I never meant to abandon him to fight my fight for me. But I had to do this.

The sound of the platform now running at its full power, nearly drowns out her last remark.

// VIVECA.AI

And if you can — punch my father in the face for me!

What follows next will be familiar to Gwen and Percy: the pull that transports them across space and time and away from the station drops them several weeks forward to align them with the rest of the team. They’ll find themselves in the midst of the fourth labour camp as Viveca had described, collars around their necks, and surrounded by others similarly outfitted. This camp has been built over the centre of the site of the earthquake all those years ago.

● ● ●

Two days following what the official press has referred to as ‘a terrorist attack that threatens our innocent’, with those involved marked as ‘dangerous criminals’ (and conversely what many on the streets of the Arch have touted as bravery on behalf of actual innocent people), an unfamiliar voice begins his special broadcast across the HOLONET, reaching every available access point at once.

The mayor of the Arch fills the screen, standing tall and visibly vulnerable in a way that appears restrained. Too much and he would appear as weak, but too little and he would be seen as emotionless, and Jacques Reman has always been presented as a strong, unshakeable leader with the people’s best interests at heart. Half of his face is entirely, organically human, demonstrated with the lines that crease around one eye and the corner of his lips; the other half is a reconstruction of what his face might have looked like but it feels too perfect, too crisp, like an artist’s rendition — never aging at the same rate as the rest of his organic body. He has red hair that might strike some of the orbers as familiar, and as he lifts a hand to address the people, one might notice the stiffness in his joints that seem natural enough, but isn't quite right.

Behind him are his guard, and his secretaries, and as he speaks now from the parliamentary hall within Chacier House, he is surrounded by other senators and the press. Flashes of light go off in a flurry as the photographers capture his image for their headlines. Mr Reman takes a breath and begins to speak.

JACQUES

Good afternoon, citizens of the Arch. Today I speak with you about the attacks that our city has endured these forty-eight hours passed. The terrorist group who call themselves the Fables have targeted our city, our people, and violate the infrastructure that keeps all of us safe and feeling protected within our own homes. They threaten the security of our families, and they threaten our ability to live our lives freely as is our right, and they do so without justification. This is wrong.

They have managed to get through our very robust systems in order to scare us, to make us believe that we are not safe unless we succumb to their whims. And they do so without ever showing their faces, scaring us into believing that monsters are real and they are not simply hiding under our beds but that they walk among us. And they are right, citizens. If we allow them to continue this way, we give up our right to safety and we make these monsters as real as they want us to believe. We give up our freedom to walk out of our own homes without fear. We will not hand over our lives, our well-being, our power to these criminals.

We are concerned that these fear-mongering tactics will only increase with intensity, causing more needless conflict, and threatening more than just our use of the HOLONET. They have violated countless laws in their attempt to speak with us behind their masks, and this is dishonest. Next week our heads of homeland security and our best voices will be meeting together to devise better and newer ways to curb this movement, and to ensure that we maintain the safety of all the Arch’s citizens with stronger sanctions against terrorist activity.

We deserve our right to feel safe, secure, and free to live our lives and this cannot be extinguished by the acts of these terrorists. We will be stronger, and we will endure and we will not succumb to intimidation. On behalf of the government of the Arch, I thank you for your time.

The feed continues, leading in to press coverage and a question period. Depending on where you are at the time of the mayor’s speech, you may find those around you cheering with renewed hope and support … or you may find some rolling their eyes, or sneering with disbelief that someone could be so bold-faced with their lies.

● ● ●

In the days that follow the mayor’s speech and the growing unrest in the Arch, those who have been called upon by the Fables will finally receive their invitations. There is a date and time, and when you make it to the Den, you’ll find Yvonne accompanied by Dean behind the bar, waiting and watching for the small bar to slowly fill up with people until it appears that everyone who has been invited is here.

YVONNE

I have to admit, I didn’t think all of you would actually show. Now — maybe some of you are frustrated. I get it. It’s been years of waiting. Years of planning, preparing. But we’re finally ready. The Fables are making a move, and if you want to make a change… if you’re prepared to do whatever it takes, come with me.

Throwing an old dish-rag over her shoulder, she starts forward, leading the group down a small set of steps into the basement. Chairs and tables have been stacked up and kept to one side of the small space alongside crates of manufactured liquor and other stock, all of it suffering from neglect and disrepair. She walks past it all and continues towards a single door to the back that looks as though no one has been past it in decades. With its rusted lever and discoloured surface, she pushes it forward and leads the group towards a hatch. It’s a careful and meticulous path that eventually leads into a series of old, abandoned metro tunnels, the cool, damp air greeting them. It smells stale and very, very old, and it’s quiet — save for the occasional creak of a pipe above, or the drip of some leak overhead.

It’s after weaving and winding through tunnels that Yvonne finally stops, raising a hand up to give the group some forewarning, and coming upon a reinforced steel door that easily opens before her. Inside, you step into an old metro station that has been completely adapted to become a bustling base of operations for the Fables. It’s dry and warm and well-lit, and those already making preparations hardly notice your group when you walk in, assured by the sight of Yvonne that whoever you are, you’re clearly on the right side.

Yvonne lifts a hand in Callan’s direction, and the two exchange a small smile before she approaches to join him on one of the platforms. The rest of the group, including you, will gather before them while he begins to explain the plan. On the first day of the parliamentary meetings, the Fables intend to make their move. It will include four different groups, and the following are their tasks:

CALLAN

Each group will be led by one of us: Ya-ting is with the hackers and Cassie will go to Chacier House, where a small team will have to infiltrate the mayor’s penthouse to get the data we need. Emry, you have the towers, while me, Cinder, and Alessia will go to the camps. Chiayi will be waiting in the sixth circle for the prisoners who might want to leave. We do this in phases, remember — the infiltration has to succeed for our hackers to do their job, and we can’t take the camps unless they succeed. Keep in contact. And do not kill people unless absolutely necessary. If we do, we’re no better than them. So… good luck. In a week’s time, we’ll see if we sink or swim.

There is no time to mingle, or even to rest. In order for this plan to work, everyone must do their part and it must work like clockwork. The preparations are intense, and they are calculated. Any orbers in the meeting will be encouraged to pass their information to others, delegating tasks, and finding ways to get involved — if they’re going to be involved at all. After all, you might recall that the point of this mission is to retrieve the orb, isn’t it? And it still remains at large.

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// PART I.HAXX0R  

On the morning of the first parliament meeting, Daisy, Clara, Kaidan and Spock join Ya-ting at her work station, a cozy space that had obviously once been a ticket office, the words ‘TICKET’ and ‘INFORMATION’ half-scraped off and fading from the passage of time. Unlike the rest of the Fables, she doesn’t seem to don a mask, nor does she look like she cares either way. Instead, there’s a small sticker of a raccoon adhered to the corner of her green visor, highlighted around its shape with fluorescent ink to add a little flourish.

She gestures to the group with a casual shrug and gestures to the space around her, signaling that they get comfy while she breaks the plan down.

YA-TING

Oooo-kay, so here’s the deali-o. You guys are gonna need visors too. They sync up with mine, y’know, so I’m always on top of stuff. My brain’s wired a little differently — like, actually wired, Cin’s mods are crazy awesome. But yeah, that’s how I get through the HOLO-shit. And that’s what’s gonna make you get through it too.

She passes the group their own visors, each with a different colour (bright ones in pink, blue, orange, yellow) and sits back. Once the group puts them on, they’ll find that the system is less what they might be used to — the network feels almost alive, parts of Ya-ting’s brain connecting directly into the complex system that allows them to bypass the HOLONET’s tight surveillance measures. It speaks of limitless space and boundless opportunity, but there is an unmistakable part of Ya-ting in it all.

YA-TING

So, I kinda figure, there’s four of you, so let’s do a little divvy-up. Flower girl, you’re with the Chacier House guys, help them get through the security, and once they get the data, connect it to your visor. Then, Star-eyes, you’re with the lookouts, hack those detonator things the guards have, yeah? Feel free to join us in the camps when you're done. And the Strong and the Silent, you guys are with me. We’re going to the camps, and once everyone else is ready, we attack their security and we reverse the heck outta it.

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// PART II.GET THE GOOD  

The Infiltration Team have received their instruction and are situated within the Chacier House at their designated stations. Conveniently covered by their initial guises as political figures within the Arch, Yzak and Xichen attend the meeting directly, while on the outside, Natasha, the Eleventh Doctor, the Darkling and Rosinante will busily be tending to their daily jobs, nothing quite out of place. Bucky will stand guard in the halls under his military role.

Yzak’s collected intel on exit locations and stationed figures is put to good use when Yelena, Clarice, Rey, and Zhao are directed towards one of the lesser used entry points. They are joined by Daisy — and surprisingly Callan himself — sneaking into the Chacier’s main building.

1.0   The assembled parliament have gathered in the large conference hall. Politicians from across all Circles take their seats within the rows, pulling out their tablets, and gathering their interns and secretaries to their side for additional notes and speaking points. There’s a soft murmur of conversation that quickly quiets the moment Jacques Reman steps up to the main podium, the sound of his microphone suddenly going active with a crack of static.

JACQUES

Good afternoon everyone. I won’t waste anyone’s time with niceties today. We all know why we’re here and what we aim to do. We have several draft bylaws already set to discuss and the sooner we can sanction these as official ruling, the better. Let us begin with our first ticket, shall we? If you’ll all turn to your HOLONET —

Suddenly the entire hall goes dark, only the emergency exit lights (powered by backup generators) blinking over the entrances of the doors. There are surprised shouts and the shuffling of panicked ambassadors before someone shouts, “Hold on, my HOLONET isn’t working!” and others start to join the throng with increasing panic.

It’s the cue the Infiltration Team needs to begin moving, and it's thanks to Ya-ting’s group. But they must move fast — a door behind the main podium will be their point of exit before the emergency protocols are set into place, locking the crowd in. In the mayhem of confused and frustrated politicians and military personnel, the group will need to maneuver themselves towards the door; stealth will be essential.

2.0   The halls are full of chaos. Screens displaying the parliament’s goings-on within the room have gone offline, sending people hurrying up and down the length of the corridor in search of help to power the systems back up. It is towards the crowd of gathered press and curious parliament workers that Callan disappears into, leaving the group of Orbers to manage the heist on their own — though not before he wishes them "good luck", of course.

Members of the militia can be found dashing forward, either trying to get into the assembly hall itself, or to catch any suspicious figures. Some may try and stop you, question who you are and where you’re going, which will require an expert lie or perhaps more physical means. Just remember that there are security cameras all around the building, so those hoping for a more quiet approach will have to be mindful of being watched or will have to find a way to disarm them entirely. Violence might not be the best option.

3.0   It will take some doing, but the elevators are still in working order, allowing the Infiltration group up towards the penthouse. The doors, however, are locked — and as there is very little time before possible discovery, and the HOLONET is inevitably pulled back online, the group will need to decide whether it’s worth physically breaking the door down, or hacking the security system for access.

Either tactic will eventually reveal a large penthouse space with large floor to ceiling windows that overlook much of the first and second Circles. It’s clean and sterile, almost as though nothing here has been used, not an object out of place. Everything is coloured in monotone, a narrow staircase leading to an upper floor and an interior balcony that overlooks the main foyer of the double-height space.

A dark door has been left ajar, and if the group decide to investigate they will find the mayor’s study, the only room that looks as though it has ever been occupied. A screen has been left on standby, and a locked safe sits right beneath it. Upon closer inspection, there appears to be a security mechanic that, once triggered, will fill the room with a gaseous sleeping agent — enough, of course, to buy the militia time to arrive and apprehend the thief. But with a hacker’s particular skills, this security measure can be bypassed — and when it is, a HOLOdisk will be found within. Once connected to Daisy’s visor, they’ll have the last piece they need to send over to Ya-ting, but will now need to find their way back out without alerting any military or alarms.

Of course, while you’re here, perhaps there’s just a little time to do a little investigating … especially when the room up the stairs looks a little suspicious, a long row of locks with encryption keys protecting something behind it. There is not much time to spare — will you try to get through the door?

4.0   Whether or not you do — soon you hear noises in the hall leading to the penthouse, making it clear that it's time to make an urgent retreat.

Heading back down the staircase and out towards the door, it seems like a quick and simple exit, but the moment the group opens the door —

JACQUES

Who the hell are you, and how did you get here?

Not everyone has caught up to the front exit, which might be seen as a blessing in disguise — maybe there's another way out, or someone in the group can help with making a quick escape... because the time has come to leave Chacier House behind.

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// PART III.FABLE FORETOLD  

Undercover within the darkness of the Seventh Circle, the Lookout Team will gather near the towers, spreading out into position at Emry’s command and by his signal. He is a grave soldier, sharp with his commands — but for now they lie in waiting, hoping to hear some good news from Ya-ting and the Infiltration Team, which will be their cue to act.

Finally, in between moments of boredom and the increasing cramps from their crouched positions, they’ll hear their communications devices come to life with the pleasant peal of Ya-ting’s cheerful voice.

YA-TING

Bingo! We totally got the files. Commencing camps' security tear-down in three, two, one —

Emry’s answering grin is fierce.

EMRY

Right, our turn. Hacker Girl, you make sure their detonators stay offline. Everyone else, make sure those doors stay locked. And if they don’t, you do whatever the hell you need to do. The guards stay in those fucking towers, got it?

His tone doesn’t really allow for protest. Looking over to the side, he adds:

EMRY

Dustie, don’t wander off. And some of you will need to protect Hacker Girl. She falls, and the people in the camps are dust.

Well — you heard the man. It’s time to get to work.

5.0   Ya-ting’s team manage to keep the doors locked and held — but as Jack attempts to listen in on the guards communications devices utilizing his vortex manipulator, through the interspersed static and voices of other channels overlaid atop the one he wants, he manages to make out Lieutenant General Blair’s voice loud and clear:

LT GEN BLAIR

This is a Code Red! The camps’ security has been compromised! I want every member of the militia mobilized within the next thirty seconds!

It doesn’t take long before the sound of commotion comes through from the towers, people yelling and running, accompanied by the frantic beating of fists banging against the doors that still seem to hold, keeping the military soldiers locked into a prison of their own making.

But it’s hardly a time to get comfortable — determined to break free, the clear sound of glass smashing alerts the party towards the upper levels of one tower, and then another, before the barrels of guns are pointed in the Lookout Team’s direction. Physical bullets and blaster fire start raining down from the towers towards the team, and the doors sound like they won’t hold for long, the metal becoming more and more malleable under the force projected upon it in the shape of hard objects and cybernetic fists.

It won’t be long until they come down entirely.

6.0   It becomes clear pretty quickly that each tower requires the team’s attention. Under blaster fire, it isn’t easy to hold the doors closed and keep the guards trapped within. Eventually one of the doors breaks, and like a dam being broken the others follow and the militia begin to swarm out. Motivated by their fellow soldiers, others escape by any means possible, including jumping through windows and over the parapets, slinging rope over the sides to guide themselves down — down towards you, and towards the camps themselves.

What will you do to stop them from advancing?

7.0   Inside one of the towers, Blue, Finn, Peter, and Zari do their best to hold the guards back — and with all their powers combined, it does appear to be a successful effort, something that has the guards shouting about their ‘malevolent tricks’ and their ‘dark sorcery’. But suddenly Blue begins to sway, looking as though he might collapse on the spot — and then he releases a horrific explosion erupting from where he stands.

It shatters the glass windows of the two adjacent towers, spraying bits of wiring and metallic shrapnel in every direction. The force of the blast’s power digs into structure too, causing the foundations to crumble from every weak spot. The entire tower quickly falls apart, collapsing under its own weight, sheets of grated metal platforms loosening from their hinges, concrete walls breaking apart into chunks. Chaos spreads, and not just for the guards within the tower, but outside of it too. People can only watch in fear as their colleagues are buried and trapped and crushed by the falling building, coughing up dust and blood and debris. It's clear you need to act, fast — if not to save the guards, then at least those on your own side from being crushed by falling debris or bleeding out from glass shrapnel wounds.

In the midst of the chaos, the sound of several engines purring in the sky above signal that reinforcements have arrived in the form of flycycles: vehicles that look like a cross between a motorcycle and a speeder. A figure jumps off of one in mid-air, swooping through the air with her black, metallic wings and landing delicately on her feet. It’s Cassie.

CASSIE

What is going on here? Emry! Guys! You’re supposed to keep the guards alive, remember?

Another flycycle lands next to her — on it is General Eshaq in full military regalia.

EMRY

Cass? Weren’t you supposed to be in Chacier House?

CASSIE

Yeah, but… I switched with Callan. He told me to.

EMRY

And you fucking let him? Goddammit! Who the hell is leading the camp team, then?

In response, Cassie just grins, wide and triumphant.

CASSIE

Someone who’s been out of active duty for way too long.

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// PART IV.PRODIGAL PIONEER  

Yvonne, clad all in black, steps forward. Strapped to her back are two electric batons that form an ‘X’. Behind her are the Camp Reinforcements Team, eager to rescue those who have been wrongfully arrested and those sentenced to a life of imprisonment in the labour camps.

YVONNE

Right, listen up, everyone. The second Ya-ting and the two guys get the security down, we’re moving. I’m taking the first one, the Snake with the second, the Wasp with the third, and the fourth — there’s one of us in there. The Lark’s going to soar again. Chanming will be waiting for you.

Cinder and Alessia both activate their masks as the Snake and the Wasp respectfully, and search for any of the team willing to follow them.

YVONNE

Our task is simple: get rid of the collars while the Raccoon reverses the camps' security. Remember: we’re taking over the camps, so the less accidental damage you do, the better. Now, we have a guy here who’s been working on figuring out how to deactivate the collars. Some of you will need to make sure he doesn’t get hurt. And if you can somehow spread to all camps and not just one, the better. Getting the collars off the prisoners is our number one priority. But don’t get rid of them — save them and get them to us.

Finally, remember the orders: we need as few casualties as possible.

With that reminder, Yvonne taps at her temple and a mask — that of a wolf — spreads over head and her face to conceal her features. She turns towards the first camp, and the team begins to split into four: Yvonne will take her group to the plant camp; Cinder and Alessia to the engineering camps, and Ya-ting leaves with the group headed to the water purification camp.

8.0   The Camp Reinforcements Team manages to pass through the outer rim of the camps without triggering any number of alarms, signalling the successful disabling of the initial barrier — all thanks to the Infiltration Team’s efforts.

However, it’s easy enough to spot the hoverbots that circle the sky of the dome, supervising the actions over each camp from above, and transmitting data to those militia housed in the nearby barracks. Anyone without appropriate clearance, or a collar, is immediately marked as an intruder and a silent alarm will be raised. These hoverbots will need to be dealt with, either through expert stealth, or by shooting them out of the sky — with the caveat that doing so may risk your position and lead to you being discovered.

9.0   For all that you intend to be cautious by dodging the deep red glow of the hoverbot’s scan, a second one crossing the path of the first might still manage to find you or your fellow orber. Either way, if an alarm has been raised before the hoverbot can be stopped, it will send an alert out to the guard buildings. Its eye starts to blink and you might hear a series of commands being communicated from beyond the dome's barrier, which is all the time you’ll be allotted before clusters of guards in heavy-duty armour file out in search of intruders, blaster rifles and taser rods in hand.

Lt Gen Blair emerges from the towers near the engineering camps, lifting a hand to signal that his militia move into the camps for what he expects should be a quick, and efficient detainment of the intruders — and with his fully armed men and women, they are more than prepared for a fight. He roars in the direction of the Fables, bullets clattering off of the armour across his chest, the more vulnerable parts of his body modified with cybernetics and weaponized for battle.

At the sound of the alarms blaring across the Seventh Circle, another platoon of the Lieutenant General’s soldiers will have been ordered to find and protect Dr Bahiti Fouad and her team of scientists at all costs. Found at the water purification camp, they’ll have surrounded her with the aim to escort her safely from the camps — but they will not hesitate to fight their way through, stopping any Fable or ally who might get in their way. You might catch sight of them, or be witness to the gunfire and the physical skirmish. Will you let them pass, or will you try and stop them?

10.0   As it becomes clear to the militia what the Fables intend to do within the camps, quickly moving in to wrangle groups of labourers together and working to remove the collars from around their necks, a new order is given to the surrounding soldiers, their last resort: detonate all collars. Better that the prisoners sacrifice their lives rather than see the ranks of the Fables grow. Shrill cries and screams suddenly sound off across the Seventh Circle’s camps as one by one guards with detonator arm-bands begin to set them off. There are shouts of panic, prisoners frantically trying to tug their own collars off before the detonation device goes off on theirs. It smells of fear and blood and burning flesh under the domes.

It will be crucial that Fables and orbers alike work together to remove as many of these collars as possible, either by stealing them from the guards before they have a chance to use them, or passing manufactured copies of the arm-bands around. Any arm-band, hacked or pilfered, can be used to remove these collars. But they will need to act fast.

11.0   Once freed from their collars, some of the labourers will be eager to do their part and join the Fables’ cause, angry and frustrated and wanting their revenge. Others will want nothing more than to be out of this place and to escape into the other Circles, looking for camp entrances. Not all of them will be so ready to move however, injured and weakened by their years-long torture, giving more evidence to the belief that conditions within the labour camps was far from what the government of the Arch have promised. Medical assistance will be required for these people, and any Fable or orber with the medical know-how will be needed to help the weak and injured before they can be escorted out.

Across the domes, tinny speakers begin to emit the sound of voices. Though the lot of them may have been shot down, many of them no longer usable for scans and sounding off any alerts towards the guards towers, the Seventh Circle’s hoverbots still function to broadcast the Fables’ message. In heaps of metal, they lie useless except to communicate the voices of the four Fables leaders across each camp. It seems that Ya-ting and the rest of her Hacking Team have managed to find a way through the hoverbots as well.

THE FABLES

Everyone in the camps, listen up! If you want to return to the city, the Fables will see to that. We have a way to get you there and hide you until it’s safe. But we’re taking over these camps — everything here will belong to us, now. All the technology, all the research, all the supplies, everything. So if you want to stay here, free and without fear of anyone hunting you down… we won’t drive you away.

A group of prisoners who had been scrambling to get to the exits now pause in their tracks, turning back towards the hoverbot speakers as though some are deliberating their next move.

12.0   Admittedly not all of the prisoners feel the same as they resume their path, determined to leave the sight of these camps behind them for the remainder of their lives. Neither do the guards who still fight back against the Fables despite their lessened numbers, more and more of them knocked unconscious, detained by the Fables, or having fled the premises.

As the water purification camp clears out of prisoners and militia alike, it will be possible to come across an older man with short dark hair, peppered with white at the temples. He is dressed like the rest of the labourers in loose fitting linen and a thick collar settled around his neck. He is Tai Chanming, though Yvonne called him ‘the Lark’, and at the moment he seems calm, collected, and almost appears to be expecting someone to come for him. Seated cross-legged, he has his eyes closed until an Orber arrives to neutralize and remove his collar. He looks up at the closest Orber with dark eyes, straightening to his feet.

CHANMING

Thank you. We need to get to the city — now. But, if you don’t mind, we will need to stop by the camp where they grow plants to pick someone up first. It’s imperative that we make it to the First Circle as quickly as possible!

Just outside of the camps, a number of van-like speeders and loading vehicles are parked, Fables waiting to direct any escapees into the back where they’ll be taken away from this place — presumably into the Sixth Circle where those who have stayed behind at the Fables headquarters will be able to help with supplies and medicine and food. Some of these vehicles are without drivers, and the Fables might look to you if you know how to drive. They’ll tell you to find Chiayi when you arrive, as she’ll direct you to where you need to go. Of course in order to get to the Sixth Circle, you’ll have to get past the towers at the boundary between the Sixth and Seventh Circles where the remainder of the militia are holding strong — or as strong as they can, using all of their weapons and training at their disposal.

13.0   Amidst freeing prisoners and subduing the militia, those Orbers who have joined the camp reinforcements might remember the reason they’ve been brought here in the first place: to find the orb. Work stations and laboratories will be abandoned, and each of the camps will now have lost surveillance as it is no longer under the government’s control. The Fables themselves will be busy ushering people out towards the headquarters — in other words, it will be the perfect chance to start the search for the orb without distraction. According to Viveca, it will be in one of the camps, and while there are theories about the orb’s specific whereabouts, no one has actually seen, heard, or sensed it. It’s time to investigate.

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F Y I

• The events in this log take place during early July. ICly, the first week is to prepare, and the actual takeover of the camps happens within one day.

• The voting for how to get the orb is now open! Please head HERE to submit your idea for how the team should proceed to get the orb, or +1 others’ ideas.

• The conclusion of the mission and the return to the station will be posted on July 16. We ask that no one starts any threads with Viveca prior to the conclusion going live.

• If you have questions about any of the prompts in the log, please direct them HERE.

• Everyone can participate in parts III and IV, even if they have not signed up for any of the groups HERE. This also includes those in part II, after they have escaped from Chacier House.

• If your character is doing something that you believe may affect the conclusion, but you haven't included it in your group sign-up comment or the orb vote, please let us know HERE.

• And finally, your soundtrack for this log: ♪ ♪ ♪

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Comments

QUESTIONS.

[ximilian]

For any questions regarding the events or information on this log, ask them here.

[firstroar]

just a quick one! what's the time frame between parts 3 and 4?

[singlelogbridge]

Hello! Would Wei Wuxian be able to kill a guard/a handful of guards and then use those guards to fight? No more than six. Just checking since I haven't done this before!

[dichotomized]

Will characters be able to keep those handy hacking visors? :>

MINI-SEARCH • CLOSED TO THE INFILTRATION TEAM.

[ximilian]

If those in the infiltration team want to try and open the locked door inside the mayor's penthouse and search the room, please do so here. You can treat this like a regular search request:

1) First, decide who is participating in this. Everyone who wants to, out of the infiltration team, can do it, but it is not obligatory.

2) Then, tell us what the characters are doing to open the door. We will go from there.

The deadline for this search request to be closed is July 13.

[starer]

So, the full group will be joining in. Meaning that it's an eleven person team.

Currently the plan is as follows:

Rosi will start off by silencing the area to keep the group as hidden as possible. When he needs to head off to intercept the Mayor, Xichen will then take over using silencing spells instead.

The silence will be used to allow the rest of the team to break through the main door to the office. From there, they'll break off in to smaller groups to begin snooping around. They'll be looking for anything that stands out/seems off. And once they find the door, anything that looks like it may help with getting inside quicker.

Upon finding the door, the groups will regather and decide what to do. Taking a closer look at the locks, they'll decide to try and work their way through the encryptions rather than resort straight to trying to break the door in. With Rey's mechanical expertise, Natasha's hacking experience, and The Doctor's...Doctoriness, the group would try to find a way to either hotwire the locks or break through the encryption. Zhao also has some local tech with him (a set of goggles) that he would use to help analyse the locks. He'll also be recording the attempts, just in case there's something they've missed.

The results of those attempts would very much dictate what the team will do next.

(Just to check, will the team be interrupted by guards during their search, or will they be all clear until the point the Mayor turns up?)

NPC THREAD(s).

[ximilian]

NPC THREAD — JACQUES REMAN (closed to ROSINANTE @callada)

[ximilian]

This thread is meant to be a continuation of the log as Rosinante opens the door of the mayor's penthouse and sees Jacques on the other side. As we want to give you the freedom to choose how to approach and start the conversation, you are encouraged to write your own starter.

ACTIONS REPORT.

[ximilian]

Is your character doing something that could potentially affect the conclusion that you have not reported in the group sign-up or that can't be included in the orb vote?

In that case, please let us know here!

[bindsthedead]

Sabriel will be attempting to purify the infection in any samples she can obtain or affected prisoners she meets, using similar spells to what she used in Gyeonje, to see if it reacts similarly or if there might be a way to purify the water and stop the infection without using the orb to do so.

EDIT: Also, Sabriel, Megatron, and Drift will be attempting to capture and interrogate Dr. Bahiti Fouad, after first dealing with her guards and dragging her someplace isolated.

With Doctor McCoy joining them to provide subject-matter expertise, they will attempt to learn the exact epicenter of the earthquake, if the infection seems to be strongest at a specific part of the reservoir, if anything has been recovered from the epicenter or the reservoir, and if so where it was taken, and anything else she can tell them about the reservoir and the infection in the water.

joe | reinforcements | open | cw: deaths, dismemberment, gun violence, blood, sorry y'all

[malta]

☾ PRODIGAL PIONEER

8.0 ☀[ with minimal time to plan, joe didn't pack an entire vest full of bullets, but he has enough to play duck hunt with the hover bots. he isn't the impossible shot that nicky is, but joe doesn't miss often. however, he isn't super human either so when the bots lock on to him, he's out in the open. the dark red beam scans him and joe's arms lift slightly from his sides. come on, man. ]

Well, fuck. Come on.

[ he gestures to whomever is nearby for them to get a move on, away from the others so that even it they're detected the others can still slip in. ]

―

9.0 ☀ [ joe has very little fear of bullets, there is no way around the burning pain, the crack of bone and ripping of muscles, but his will knit back together and they try to do so even as he runs at the guard. his body absorbs the bullets, teeth grit in pain, but he manages to reach the guard, wrenching the gun free with one bloodied hand and punching him in the throat with the other.

joe goes down like frazier in the second round against george foreman in the sunshine showdown, wobbling unsteadily on his feet before he crumples to the ground next to the unconscious guard.

it can't be more than thirty seconds, maybe less, before joe's shoulders roll with a grunt and he pushes himself back to his feet, shoulders rising and falling with his uneven breaths as bullets, misshapen and flattened, fall to the ground around him like macabre confetti. he lifts a hand, the guard's armband between his first and second fingers. ]

Got it.

―

10.0 ☀ [ somewhere along the line, joe gave up his gun (out of bullets he chucked it directly at a guard's face, improvised weapon, baby) and drew his sword. in a world of holonets and cybernetics, it seems even more archaic than a scimitar in the 21st century, but no matter. joe wields it as an extension of his arm, graceful and fluid, knocking guns from guard's with a reach they aren't expecting. at this point he is wearing more blood than rambo, dark curls damp with it.

he is trying to keep the violence non-lethal, this isn't his revolution and he is not willing to compromise their morals for a more expeditious outcome, but when the collars start exploding, he decides there is some leeway available to him. a guard reaching for his armband quickly finds his arm no longer attached to his body. joe snatches the arm band from the dismembered limb and tosses it to a passing orber. ]

Quickly!

―

10.5 ☀ Shh, this way, I've got you.

[ despite his bloodied and disheveled appearance, joe has a gift for calming panicked people, perhaps only a by product of his longevity, perhaps a natural inclination of a man who used to be called al-tayyib, the good. his own calm tone and ease translates to calming the prisoners as he ushers them away from the guards. ]

Quickly, quickly.

[ he's passed off all his arm-bands to the others so he's ferrying these poor people in the direction of any other orber or fable that has one in hand. they're almost there, so close, when a guard sets upon them. at least this guard doesn't have a detonator, but they still have guns. without hesitation, joe rushes the guard, shouting for the prisoners to run. again he finds himself under a barrage of bullets, this time simply too many to compensate for to do anything else but slump dead on the ground, blade slipping from his fingers.

not again. ]

☾ WILDCARD

( go where your heart takes you, joe will be around! catch me on plurk @ baleinette )

10.5

[morethan084]

[With her job 'done', Daisy is rushing to the camps. She's still got her visor on her after realizing just how useful it is. And it's about to become useful again, she's hacking into the arm-bands as quickly as she can to stop even more of the collars from detonating. It's hard to completely block out the screams and sounds of some of the collars going off, but she's good at focusing on the task at hand.

Having found Joe, she's staying nearby as he herds the prisoners. She spots him running out of the corner of her eye and realizes too late what he's doing.]

No!

[It doesn't matter that she knows he'd, likely, come back. She raises her uninjured hand but she's too late. The solider goes flying after he's already unloaded his clip on Joe. Her heart sinks as she reaches for her gun and hands it to one of the prisoners who says they know how to use it, instructing them to take out any soldiers they see with an arm band.

Even though Joe will be back at any moment, Daisy doesn't want to leave him vulnerable to more attacks just as he's coming back. Standing guard, she works quickly to hack into even more arm-bands.]

GWEN STACY

[construing]

( personalized starters below! if you'd like one, feel free to pm me or hit up my plotting comment here. ❤️ )

ITACHI & WEI WUXIAN

[construing]

〈 second camp visited today, and the drill’s starting to feel familiar. gwen, masked and hooded once more, whips her head toward the hoverbot just as it changes direction toward them. she vanishes. a second later, the bot wobbles wildly in the air before something unseen flattens it. gwen and the disk-that-was-formerly-a-bot drop to the ground. one down. dozens left.

the newest addition to her arsenal is an armband borrowed from one of the guards after she knocked him out and webbed him to the ceiling—which gwen promptly removes from her wrist and tosses to itachi. 〉

I’ll take out the bots, you find Wei Wuxian! 〈 taking aim, she sends the disk flying toward another bot fast enough to slice it in half. preceded by the thwip! of the web-line, gwen swings up to the dome. 〉

MINIMUS AMBUS | CAMP REINFORCEMENTS | OTA

[legalcy]

Collars

[Minimus parks himself outside the entrance to the water purification camp and sends his holoform inside. The notes on the local geography are tucked away in the seat, safe for anyone to take if his avatar becomes compromised. The giant robot is too noticeable for an initial charge, but it's not entirely abandoned.

Despite having lived in peacetime for centuries at this point, the combat skills he learned 4 million years of war hasn't completely disappeared, and he keeps to the frontlines, shooting at guards that pursue them, removing collars, and corralling prisoners to a central area. A short avatar ducks and dives through the crowd, searching for orbers and Fables without armbands.]

Bands! Bands! You, take this and get to working! [It's quiet so far, and he's focused on distributing these devices to free prisoners.

Once the explosions start, it's time to get serious. The holomatter avatar disappears, and soon, Minimus Ambus the Cybertronian emerges. At his size, he has an easier time running between groups of collared prisoners, closing distances quickly and using himself as a shield from the guards' bullets.]

The Reservoir

[The group surrounding the deadly lake is growing with a mix of orbers with plans, powers, and perseverance. Minimus doesn't have much to help with cleaning the water, and he doesn't have the best detection skills, but there are a few advantages he has over the organics: one, his lack of need to breath, two, durability to most toxins. Compared to the other Cybertronians, he's smaller and capable of reaching into tighter spaces...and there's also the matter of his second layer of armor. If that one disintegrates, his true, smaller form is relatively unharmed.

While the others work, he stands to the side, adding in his comments and suggestions, and when the question of going into the water comes up-] I volunteer to retrieve the orb.

[And before anyone interjects:] We cannot guarantee that there is enough air or the water is purified enough for a human. I can be easily repaired.

The Reservoir

[flickerandfade]

If anyone should go, it should be me.

[ Megatron says it insistently, a hand pressed to his chestplate. ]

You have a future to go back to. No matter what happens here, there's something waiting for you--a life.

[ Megatron isn't about to let Minimus just put himself in danger if he can help it! There's a resigned sense of despair to what he says, an acknowledgement that these missions, however they end up, are his real last gasp. A final lap before the end and the slow dwindling into nothingness that waits for him back in his home universe. ]

I'll go.

Natasha Romanoff | MCU | OTA

[deaddrop]

0.0

[Natasha tries to keep up appearances in the wake of the mayor's announcement, but it's a struggle. Not that her mask slips when she's on the job. She's far too much of a professional for that. They're nearing the point where all of the time she's invested into her cover story is finally going to pay off, and there's no way that she would endanger the mission like that.

It's just that the effort wears at her more.

Instead of going out and exploring the other circles, she stays in during her increasingly limited free time. It's a break from the clothes and the makeup and the wigs. More than that, it's a break from the act. From pretending to be one of these people—the greedy, ambitious, short-sighted people who are clearly bleeding this world dry.

Better to stay in for the night, ensconced in the luxury of her First Circle accommodations, and pour a drink or two. One for herself and one for anyone who wants to join her.

Or two for her.

It's that kind of night.]


3.0

[With Daisy focusing on the safe, Natasha is free to explore the rest of the mayor's penthouse. The locked door get her attention. How could it not?

She pauses her hand over the various encryption keys without touching them, considering. She's broken into military facilities and government black sites, she's broken her friends out of one of the most high tech prisons her world has to offer. It's not completely unreasonable to consider trying to get through this. It's just a matter of if her equipment is up to it and if she has the time.]

You don't put this much security on a door for no reason.

[Her tone is even as she muses to whoever on the team might take an interest.]

Either he doesn't want anyone getting in, or he doesn't want something on the inside getting out.

[Under the circumstances that's almost reason enough to want to open it. If they're going to do something, it better be quick, though. The clock is ticking.]


11.0

[After their escape from Chacier House, Natasha is quick to join the reinforcements in the camps. It's mostly luck that she ends up in the evacuation push. She doesn't have any medical skill, but she understands triage and evacuation, and she's quick to take control of a situation. Not everyone listens to her (why would they?), but there are enough prisoners respond to her guidance that she's able to get some traction.]

Some of these people can't even walk. We might be able to put together some makeshift stretchers so at least we can get them somewhere with better light.

[Some place further away from the holes they've been locked in for months, some of them even years.]

Give me a hand?

[She might not be a big woman, but Natasha is stronger than she looks and she's determined to help where she can. For no, the others can look for the orb. She'll join in later, if she can. For now she's going to do what she can for the people in front of her.]

0.0

[laviny]

[Once evening has fallen and Natasha is settled in with a drink, Yelena will invite herself in. Specifically she will climb through her sister’s window decked out in black for once instead of the bright colors she wears during the day or when they’re back on the station.]

I swear I don’t know how you dealt with any of this hero shit.

[She says this in lieu of a greeting as she helps herself to a drink.]

The hardest part of these missions are the moralizing debates about the orbs and interference with local problems. A few missions ago interfering was considered bad, but now that has changed. It’s exhausting and I don’t understand it.

[She huffs, shaking her head before she tosses back her drink. Honestly it doesn’t help that her own moral compass is kind of fucked. Moral debates give her a headache.]

Finn | Towers + Network

[hatejakku]

I. Before Collapse | Lookout Duty

[ Just keeping the guards locked in the towers sounded too easy to Finn. He was all for trying it, of course, but he didn't expect it to last very long. And it certainly didn't.

His second issue was the Fables request for non-lethal means. Admirable but not practical and absolutely not safe for the team. Still, he's trying his best, trying to be more creative, trying to use the Force more to push back would-be attackers or render them unconscious.

Regardless of the Fable's intentions, it's entirely too clear that the guards aren't following the same set of morals. So, eventually, neither does Finn. He's not one of the Fables, anyway. ]

Get down!

[ Whether or not you were trying to take the highroad, Finn just shot and killed a guard that was way too close to you for comfort. ]

II. Tower Collapse

[ The mission has become incredibly complicated but isn't a total loss to Finn yet. They're holding their ground inside a tower, at least, and keeping guards from spilling out of it. Their collective powers have the extra benefit of bafflement, apparently, the guards having never seen anything like it and being largely too afraid to do something exceptionally stupid.

But then-... It starts like a skipped heartbeat, Finn feeling something in the Force flicker and fade and jolt, and he looks to the side in time to see Blue sway. ]

Blue, are-

[ A pulse, someone screams, and the world fades to black...

When he opens his eyes, he's on the ground, half of his face slick with something, but he can't think beyond the sound of metal grinding and moaning and reverberating in his ears. Briefly, he gains enough clarity to look around, the scene entirely different from what was there a second ago, rubble and fire having sprung up to make it look like somewhere else entirely. He sees no one he knows, isn't sure if he can sense them.

Then the metal groans louder and a gigantic roar sounds from above. Unfortunately, Finn knows exactly what that sound is. He stands and reacts even as the floor begins to crumble away, his hands lifted like he can actually hold the whole thing up, but then-

It stops. Or, well, it slows. The floor is in pieces, the walls have fallen loose, and the ceiling is halfway through caving in. But there's Finn, keeping everything afloat even as he looks as stressed and scared to death as he feels. ]

Get out of here! [ And if you don't immediately listen- ] Go, get out! Now!

[ He'll only last a minute, maybe two, before his strength fails and gravity retakes the tower with him still in it. ]

III. After Collapse | The Rubble cw: injury

[ The sound of coughing and a sharp pain in his chest wakes him. Takes a second for Finn to realize it's him that's coughing. The air tastes like dust and a part of him is immediately teleported back to Jakku. The memory makes him groan before he even tries to assess for injuries.

But right. He opens his eyes to darkness, pinpricks of light from somewhere above. He landed on his back and nothing's visibly pinning him (he wiggles all of his extremities just to check). Back hurts, head hurts- Actually, everything hurts, but that looks like a piece of rebar sticking out of his thigh. Probably a bad thing.

He thinks back to McCoy's training and, yeah, that's a bad thing. ]

Hey- [ Talking's a bad idea, just makes him cough again which makes him hurt more and- ] Hey! Anyone here?

[ He coughs, curses, and starts trying to decide if lifting the rubble with the Force is a good idea with how badly he knows he'll screw it up. Never mind even thinking about moving yet. ]

IV. Network | OTA

One of the towers collapsed. People are inside. I don't know how many of our own.

[ Short, sweet, and not even going to brush against the fact that he's sending this out from beneath several tons of rubble. ]

V. Wildcard

[ ooc: Got another idea? Hit me with anything!! If you want to run things by me first, just PM the journal, but I'm cool with anything. ]

text ↪ 朱 (private)

[blackfire]

Are you injured?

andromache | the old guard | ota

[oiorpata]

IV 🗡 8.0 PRODIGAL PIONEER
misc cws throughout: death, blood, violence (guns, axes, dismemberment)
limited two tag ins for 8.0 please

[ she wonders what it speaks to of society as a concept that andy has infiltrated camps like this many times before. but on the flipside - there are quite a number of people trying to stop it too. she's armed with mostly guns, but her axe is in its holster on her back, always the backup. ]

[ andy pegs the hover drones immediately and throws her hand out, pushing the person behind her so they keep out of sight. she lifts her gun and fires, hitting the bot neatly and sending it crashing to the ground. it stops them from being seen by one bot, but it does draw the attention of another that soars through the air to find the cause. ]

This is gonna be a fucking problem. I fucking hate these things - Move! [ andy shoves whoever is with her aside, hard enough that they stumble far away by the time the bullets start reigning down on her, and she gets shot several times. she collapses in a heap, drawing in a few heaving breaths before she, well, dies. ]

[ how annoying. ]

10.1 🗡

[ normally, andy is more reckless with killing. she's forced a disconnect with it, because there's no other way to go forward with all the death at her heels. but she will respect the wishes of the fables as best she can, because she also knows how hard it is to build up again after. she knows there will be death here, but it doesn't have to be a massacre. ]

[ except when they start making use of the collars. that's about when andy doesn't give a shit about how she neutralizes the guards. she shoots one in the head before he can detonate a collar. she comes up from behind another and shoots him point blank in the shoulder to disable his arm, grabbing the arm band and kicking him over in unison. another surprises her and shoots her in the back and she swears, turning around to return the fire - though she does her best to aim nonlethally, one shot in each leg and he falls over. ]

[ the bullet pops out of her as she scrambles for the arm band before he can detonate, then she kicks him in the head to knock him out. ] And why aren't we just destroying these collars, exactly?

10.2 🗡

[ she runs out of ammo and yes, she has her axe, but she thinks it'll be less deadly to simply steal another gun from a guard. she scrambles to help pass out newt's arm bands in the same breath, not oblivious to the relief on people's faces as they're freed but pocketing it away for later. ]

[ andy spots a guard taking aim but her gun is empty, so she throws herself in front of the target (whether it's a fellow orber or a prisoner). it pierces near her throat and she spits up a spray of blood, wobbling on her feet, lifting a shaky arm to reach for her axe. she falls to her knees and coughs up more blood. for a few seconds her body slumps, almost too still and teetering over, but then she jerks and suddenly takes a deep breath, coughing up more blood. she also coughs up a bullet. adjusting her grip on the axe as she scrambles to her feet, she rushes towards the guard, slicing his arm clean off with her axe to part him from the detonator, then she elbows him in the neck and swipes his weapon before he collapses on the ground. ]

[ she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, puts her axe back in the holster, and immediately starts checking the status of the new gun. ] Does that guy have any extra ammo?

0 🗡 WILDCARD

[ hit me up on communism or on disco @ romanitas#5368! i never threw up a plotting comment, sorry! limited the first death prompt to avoid repetition there but if you want to see andy die or get injured mid-fight in a way not presented here, we can do that too! i'm easy c: ]

10.1; cw: broken bones, death

[choicely]

[ Yennefer is a little less discerning when it comes to the manner in which she wields her power — not extreme, not resorting to complete immolation of any and every single one of their foes here — but certainly when it comes to the fate of the guards themselves. Though she's been making a concerted effort to injure alone, not to let herself resort to causing more fatal wounds, that plan dissolves the moment she realizes they're trying to detonate the collars.

When she can still feel the recent weight of one around her neck, the claustrophobic pressure, and the dim knowledge that someone could have very well done the same to her with enough opportunity and wherewithal, she doesn't think twice after that. The next guard who attempts to reach for their arm-band suddenly has their fingers wrenched back by an invisible force directed by Yennefer's outstretched hand, violent and sudden enough to make the bones poke through skin. The next guard drops limp to the ground mere moments later, his head tilted onto his shoulder at an unnatural angle courtesy of the chaos used to snap his neck.

While literally bearing witness to seeing Andy shot in the back gives her sudden pause, she watches with nothing short of surprise as the woman moves forward, practically shrugging off the injury. ]

That's what I've been wondering. [ She nearly pauses to ask whether Andy's alright before she realizes the bullet has emerged from skin, clattering against the ground. ] Are we really going to just hand them all over for someone else to make use of?

blue | towers (+ some mindscape stuff for funsies)

[firstroar]

i. everything is under control - cws for gun violence/violence in general

'We need as few casualties as possible.'

That suits Blue just fine; the feeling of death, the visceral, psionic snap of a mind abruptly going from life to death...he hates that feeling. It's something he can never acclimate to, no matter how many times he's experienced it. As much as possible, he wants to avoid it - that's the mindset Blue brings along as he takes on the task of keeping guards at bay. This has to be the focus, even though the worry his dear friends have for his sake keeps rippling the atmosphere around him.

It'll be alright. It will be, because it must be.

While others take more direct efforts to keeping guards from leaving, Blue focuses on ones that might get missed or could overwhelm his team: Stationed at a safer distance, his psionic presence pushes through the area, giving a heaviness to the atmosphere as he imposes the notion of stop. Stay. He slows limbs, staggers steps, and deflects focus away from his friends. The more reinforcements arrive, the more focus shifts to them as the threat to neutralize, the harder it'll be.

For now, though: Stop. Stay.

When a fresh face emerges and starts to fire, Blue's eyes flash. A pale blue barrier lights up where bullets are caught just shy of a team member's body. Should eyes meet, he nods only briefly at them before shifting his focus while sending them a telepathic message:

I can cover you for the time you need to knock them out. Hurry!

Before more come to overwhelm their efforts.

ii. ...until it's not

The medicines McCoy and Viveca worked on to keep him upright...they really are remarkable. He can barely feel the strain until he really pushes himself, and even then? Blue can find that his body still stays upright as all that psionic power courses, as all the heightened emotions of friends and foe alike barrage him like a ceaseless torrent.

This can't go on for too long, though. He knew that at the onset: The risk that his psionics would shut off was real, and beyond that? He can't overexert his body even when he feels fine; the repercussions would be too great.

But more keep coming! And he can't let those bullets hit his allies! So he must persist, he must not falter, he--

"-?!"

His vison blurs, and he can smell blood.

No--

His heart flutters into a rapid pace, making his head swim and swirl, taking his breath away. Yet his body still burns with effort.

No-- it sears. His psionic power...it's not stopping at all, it's ramping up. Unfettered by the confines of his frail form, coaxed by the urgency of the moment, and rapidly, rapidly out of his control.

"No-!!"

He sways, and a tremor surges from him, sparking and exploding out. That blast comes in tandem with a shrill, psionic surge that many psychic-sensitive and close friends can feel, whether it's just a sharp tone or just a surprise shiver of dread.

The tower groans from the destabilization, and while the explosion has done its job, Blue...he can't stop. Power surges in flickering pulses, pushing more people and infrastructure further and further away, cratering some of the floor bit by bit.

Blinking through blood, Blue turns his head and sees Finn briefly, so briefly - a shade of power unlike the chaos whipping around him...

Until he doesn't. Floors above them drop, and while Finn holds it for a beat, Blue's heart clenches with horror as his vision is obscured and sense of that power gone. And his own won't stop.

"No...please...!"

He clutches his head as more and more weight bares down on him, pounding at his psyche like a sledgehammer to the skull. Whatever strength he has he desperately directs to try to stop himself, fully aware of the danger that'll come to him if he can't get back in control, begging himself and crying out in the midst of the cacophony.

His power doesn't listen, his body doesn't obey...but it all cuts out quite suddenly and without his doing. All at once, his psionic sense vanishes, the light fades, the vortex of pressure and levitated rubble ceases...

And the rest of the building drops.

iii. dust - cws for severe injuries

Dust and darkness is all there is within the space Blue's form is buried in: Pressure from the explosion and subsequent cutoff caused a hemorrhage in the brain, nuking all but the barest survival functions. Breathing in dwindling air and suffocating dust won't bode well, however, and even lighter bits of rubble was enough to crush a rib into a lung. Blood streams out his nose, pools in his eyes, and starts the gradual flood of that affected lung.

Yet he's alive - that's enough to yield signs and hope enough to be found, and there is no choice but to entrust his fate to others. Not that he has it in him to decide either way!

iv. whereto next?

Blue the body is in dire straits, and Blue the mind is faring just a little better...yet that mind has always been stronger, has been the safeguard for himself and many others.

Other psychics and psionically sensitive people can get here in this strange state of being. It's not limbo per se - such a thing isn't really a place Blue could construct, let alone properly perceive - but more of a...layer of himself, wrapped in himself, still protecting himself.

Here, he's only vaguely aware of anything outside of himself, because rare is the time when someone delves this far; he's usually quicker to sensing others, to approach them, rather than be approached.

Are you coming, too?

He is alone, but he doesn't visualize himself alone: Here in this dark place, Soldier Blue kneels before the collective of Mu children of his memory - the ones he couldn't save. Ones from Altamira, from the planets well before finding Jomy, even those who did live long enough to grow up...only to perish on Nazca. They're still children to him. It's one of those children who posed the question to the intruder into this space, prompting Blue to look over his shoulder toward them, too.

To Terra. We're all going, right?

i.

[spacedisaster]

[ Peter lets out what can only be labeled as an offended squeak once he sees what almost hit him, the thing frozen in mid-air thanks to Blue's psionic. ]

Is THAT a BULLET? Wow, what is this, ancient times? Holy shit, I haven't seen one of those in decades.

[ And he's got no wish to see them further up close, so perhaps he should focus. He readies his blasters again, he's only been using the stun function, and nods at Blue., ]

Thanks, man! I got this now.

Newton Geiszler | Pacific Rim | Camp Reinforcements Team

[groupiedrifter]

I. CALM BEFORE THE STORM | (pre-revolution / collar-removing)

Okay guys! This one's easy.

What I've got here is The Geiszler Extemporizer — The Extemporizer for short, and the Extemp for even shorter.

[As he stands among the others at their little temporary camp, Newton holds up one of the newly made devices, which looks a hell of a lot like a handheld thermometer; in fact, the outside components of some were definitely used from thermometer shells. Yvonne has just given her instruction, and now he makes his move to provide some of the Extemps from the box he'd brought along with him; there aren't as many as he'd like, but judging by the gray-rimmed remnants of exhaustion under his eyes and the sticky leftovers of a caffeine patch on one arm, he made a real fucking attempt to recreate them in bigger numbers.

(Thanks Edward, for helping whip these together.)

He holds up a disarmed collar as an example, presses the Extemp to the device.]

You're gonna act like you're scanning the whole thing, okay? Just pull the trigger until the light comes on, then scan the collar until you hear the click. That'll mean one of two things: a.) that the collar is disarmed won't explode, and b.) that it's removeable. This isn't long-ranged, so you're gonna have to get up close and personal in order to get them removed, but it'll work. 100%.

Anyone got any questions?

... Other than asking me how I ended up as handsome as I am?

'Cus that one is a mystery I'm afraid we'll never solve.

II. THE EYE OF THE STORM

[It begins, and there's not really a lot of time for jokes now. In fact, Newton is uncharacteristically stone quiet up to the encampments, skin a shade paler and palms sweaty. He wipes them off on his pants and focuses on the task at hand; with Kovacs on one side of him and Yamato on the other, he only hopes the other people who were given the few additional Extemps will be able to get to the prisoners he can't reach. He rushes from person to person as bullets fly, keeping himself low and composed as he scans their collars. Every person he moves up to gets a rambling, sincere comment, anything that may comfort them — and himself, too.]

Don't worry, okay? I gotcha! I'm not gonna let anything happen; you're gonna keep that cute head of yours, cool? Cool. Don't sweat it, okay? There we go; there ya' go...! Find somewhere to hide, it'll be over before you know it.

[His hand is steady through it all, even as his heart beats fast with the distant sounds of combat.

When he sees familiar orber faces among the group, he is quick to rush over, the disarming tool held up overhead.]

Hey, a sight for sore eyes!

I'll take care of that for you. Get over here, let me see that collar!

[His focus is one-track, at least. He knows his job here, and he plans to do it well. He's a pretty big target after so many collars removed and dropped haphazardly in the soil, but he figures he's already lived a life here of having a big ol' target on his back; what's one more pissed off guard?]

III. THE STORM (cw: explosive deaths from collars, anxiety attack/trauma reactions)

[What's that generic saying? Things go from bad to worse?

Well, that's what it is when the order to detonate the collars goes out.

Newton's in the middle of rushing toward one of the prisoners when his collar detonates, and Newton watches in frozen horror as the lifeless figure slumps to the ground — too far gone to piece back together. The sounds of panicked screams and distant explosions rings in his ears as he walks toward the man's body with the disarming gun still poised. He looks at the tool in his hand and sees a weapon. He looks down and feels the rolling feeling of a train's floor speeding underfoot. He hears the distant sounds of the bombs that his hands had planted, going off over and over and over —

Newt's frozen, breaths coming and going fast.]

No... no no no — fuck...! No, I'm —

[Crouching down with his hands over his head, he can only squeeze his eyes shut to block it out. The precursors laugh, but they're not really here. They're just reminders, like how the body crumpled in front of him reminds him of the train guard he'd pointed a phaser at and shot. Just like how the familiar, urgent sounds of his fellow crewmate reminds him of those who had gone after his possessed body. He slaps a hand against his head hard, sucking in a breath.]

Stop it, stop it.

[One of the guards takes note of Newton's crouched figure — as easy as fish in a barrel, unmoving as he is — and turns to drop to their knee. They aim their gun carefully, with Newton's bowed head sharpening in their sight as they line up their shot to try and take him out.]

IV. THE AFTERMATH (cw: continued death from collars)

[He shakes it off as best he can, with a little help from the others who're waist-deep in the violence. There's no time for that kind of freak-out, right? Not when they're neck-deep in even more endangered prisoners than moments before. It feels kind of like he's walking through a surreal dream, even after all these missions — it's Scorpion's Bend all over again, only instead of trying to save his crewmates from fatal flames he's one of the people who are standing between a civilian and a horrific, violent death. No pressure, right? None! He's fine he's fine he's got this-

He stops, turning toward one of his crewmates, someone else's blood on his cheek and glasses lens.]

Help me get this lady up! We've gotta — we need to move her to the medical station. Shit, she's lost a lotta blood.

[Once the collars have been either disarmed or have gone off, Newton finds his new position as a helping hand in addressing injuries. He's not that kind of doctor, but he's been trying his best to learn the proper field aid to keep people alive: tourniquets and stitches and how to elevate limbs. CPR and chest compressions. He's not very strong, so he'll need some help in carrying people out of there, especially once the exhaustion really starts to kick in. He's not sure how much he should do, but he moves with purpose anyway, trying not to let the sounds of past explosions ring over and over in his head. He blinks heavily and sways where he's crouched, sighing at the ground. He's... really tired.

So he sits now in the small make-shift medical tent with his hands in his lap, aimless as he peers out at the distant combat between the Fables and the crew and the guards.

His part is mostly done.

He'll just... have to leave the rest to the much more capable fighters in their group.]


V. WILDCARD

[Feel free to PM me or hit me up at simpledog if you wanna plan something particular!]

iii

[shumi]

( with one of his shadow clones already stationed in the restricted area as a guard, kakashi has no problem re-infiltrating and releasing his jutsu to take his clone's place. his main priority is to seek out the orb, but when the order is given out to detonate the collars, even he can't turn a blind eye to those in need.

still dressed in the all black gear of a guard, he is shielded from being marked by the hoverbots, giving him more leeway to dismantle collars with his armband.

in the midst of the chaos, he spots the crouched figure of a familiar face — one that he only interacted with briefly — and the guard a distance away with his gun aimed at him. within seconds, he has wrapped his arm around newt's waist and hoisted him out of the range of both the guard and the trajectory of his firearm. )

Get it together, Newt. ( this isn't the time to have a meltdown. ) We can't save them all, but the sooner you snap out of it, the more of them you'll be able to release. ( he really isn't the best guy to handle a panic attack, but they don't have the luxury for patience and niceties right now. )

Jack Harkness | Doctor Who | Lookout Group

[captainjacktoyou]

Before the Collapse/Early Lookout

Jack seems completely laidback and at home on lookout duty, this is not his first time. He is worried about his people, spread out as they are, but trusts that they'll make it out as they usually do. His eyes always seem moving, watching, knowing that shit could go wrong at any time. That's what he has a blaster for. He agreed that removing arms seemed the smarter step than killing upfront, although he is smart enough to know that might not be a possible line once things get started.

Feel free to come up to him when things are still quiet, and he'll have his vortex manipulator up in the air, listening in. Sometimes he only gets static, sometimes a word or two, but Jack knows what he's doing so he keeps tweaking at it, modifying the transmitter. It's alien tech which means it always requires a little changing for him to get to the right frequency. The vortex manipulator always comes through though.

Jack represents that exact calm before the storm. Relaxed, focused, and waiting to see if this ends up easy or not.

The Warning

Jack is following much of the conversations as each group seems to be doing their part, and so far things are going smoothly. It was inevitable it all goes to hell. He hears the Lieutenant's voice clear as a bell through his vortex manipulator. This is a Code Red! The camps’ security has been compromised! I want every member of the militia mobilized within the next thirty seconds!

Jack's voice can be heard on the comms to his teammates, having learned all their names right away in case of this, as he shouts: "They're coming! Get ready!"

The Fight

"Damnit, watch out, they're firing from above." Jack swoops down to make himself less of a target and pulls his teammate with him, making good use of anything around them that can block the attack. He snaps his manipulator closed and unholsters the two blasters he brought, glancing around the situation to get a read on it.

"Alright. We have to stop them, no matter what it takes." The smiling and warm Jack is gone replaced with a man with cold eyes and a firm, determined chin. Captain Jack has left the building, the two thousand-year-old immortal has taken his place. He is never afraid for his life, but the life of others, that's a different story.

As soon as the action starts, he's already moving. With almost perfect aim he snaps shots at rope as it slings down, the soldiers trying to get out, breaking the rope so they fall rather than glide down well. He starts out only shooting at arms and knees, but after the first time he takes a bullet to the upper chest, he swears and starts going for headshots. There are too many of them. This isn't the time to be nice.

People may see Jack always shooting, never seeming flustered or worried, fighting guards one-on-one whenever they get close. Come fight beside him, or witness Jack be shot two different times (upper chest and hip), and while injured for a few minutes, he seems to right himself and keeps going.

The Tower Comes Down

"Oh shit," is the breathed automatic response when Jack sees the explosion rock the tower, and it starts to shift. He knows what is going to happen from a single look so he starts waving at his teammates. "Get out of the way, it's coming down." While Jack has no intention of helping the guards to safety, he is there for the other Orbers and their allies. He may hurry to your side to get you out of the way or trip a guard trying to stop you both.

"If you're in there, hold onto something." You can hear him yell at one point, realizing it was their people in that spot, and as soon as it comes crumbling down, Jack moves. He's covered in blood and soon in soot, but he runs right for the rubble to see if anyone survived, although he fears they didn't. He starts desperately sorting through the rubble, looking for familiar faces.

TEXT; UN: CaptainJack: happens immediately after he picks up on the code red

A code red just went through, we'll try to hold them off. Watch out everyone. Go for the arms, so they can't use the neck explosions.

Wildcard: hit me with your best shot

[ooc: feel free to message me on waftingcurtains or reply with anything you want!]

Yzak Jule | Gundam SEED

[coordination]

01. Infiltration | (closed to those present in part ii)

[ The faint illumination from the emergency exits only give vague sight to the hall - but not only was Yzak prepared for this, his Coordinator eyesight give him a better view in the dark. So the moment everything goes black, he moves, taking advantage of the confusion to zigzag his way through other politicians who are already on their feet and trying to collect their bearings. Unlike them, he knows exactly what's going on, so easily slips out of the conference hall and into the turbulent halls of the parliament. He moves swiftly and assured of which way to go.

The Orbers who have snuck inside who aren't supposed to be there might run into some trouble. Yzak turns a corner, seeing one of the militia stopping one of his allies roughly in their tracks to question them threateningly. Do they have clearance to be here? Where is their badge? Identification? Proof, now. ]

Hey! They're with me!

[ Yzak's voice rings out harshly toward the soldier. Who gives him a raised eyebrow. "And who are YOU supposed to be?" The question gets a scowl in return that absolutely isn't acting on Yzak's part. Because how dare? ]

You don't recognize me? [ He jams his badge right in the guy's face. ] Councilman Yzak Jule! Now fuck off because you have more important things to focus on than hassling us! Go find whoever's responsible for this mess!

[ Sure enough, Yzak's menacing and commanding aura does the job, and the soldier nods at him with an apology and takes his leave. Yzak spins to face the Orber he just got out of that potential jam. ]

Stick with me for now. The elevators are close, but these guys are going to get worse the closer we get to them.

---

02. The Boo Blue Blew Up | (ota)

[ Things are certainly escalating, aren't they? Back at the parliament, Yzak had to compartmentalize, and fast, after he felt that sharp, alarming and familiar spike ripple through his mind, getting only silence in return regardless of how he tried to reach back out to Blue. And even when he got in touch with others to learn of the situation over there, it didn't help. But one can't get far if one is panicking, and Yzak had to ensure he aided the infiltration team well enough so they succeeded, otherwise things might have ended for him right there.

Once their work is done and Clarice teleports them out of the Chacier House, it's near the towers where Yzak (along with Rey) heads next on Peter's information, wherever around the collapsed one there he managed to duck away. And the scene is busy enough to catch anyone's attention. Peter and Finn are dusty and bleeding, Blue could be assumed dead if not for the fuss over him with the way he looks. But after some of Rey's force healing for the mind and Yzak's Charter Magic for his lung, Blue looks less dead, but only by so much. And it's in Yzak's desperate actions of healing and the anguish in his expression that the cracks he's held together become that much more clear. Flashes of Badrock and memories that Blue's shown him and things he's dreamt up in nightmares run through his mind because not again. Not now. Not when he finally has a chance to...

Things around them aren't calm by any means, but once Blue is confirmed to be Okay For Now, it's then that Yzak take a brief moment of (what can be considered anywhere close to but still hardly a) respite to catch a breath. He sits against the wall of whatever structure they made it to, knees up, forearms rested on his knees and head tipped back against the wall for a quick recharge before he decides what to do next. If you've got some water, he looks like he could use a swig! ]

---

03. Wildcard & OOC | (ota)

Closed starters will go under here as I've got a few planned! But I'm always open for more! Contact at gaignun, Tara#1768 or PMing this journal for any ideas is more than welcome if the prompts above don't catch ya. But also throw a random wildcard at me if you feel it, I'll roll with whatever.

Rosinante

[coordination]

[ Anyone who has checked in with Yzak and knows what he's been up to for the duration of this mission is well aware of the fact that he's butted heads with quite a few of his fellow politicians; as many as he's caught favorable attentions of. And anyone who's had any experience in politics knows how dirty it can get, especially when one feels threatened or jealous.

And what better time to get dirty than now, in the midst of the chaos when the Fables' plan is underway? After the lights go out in the conference hall and the hallways of the parliament quickly start to fill with confused and alarmed folks, it's hard to make sense this way or that way of who's who and who's going where and why. Wherever Rosinante is at the moment, three uniformed politicians all sticking close together swiftly march through the crowd, talking amongst themselves. They're trying to be quiet in the loud disarray, but Rosinante will be able to pick up a couple of alarming mutters.

"—won't hear us on the cameras—"

"—three long-standing congressmen's word against his, Jule is still new—"

"—perfect opportunity since I've wanted to smash his face in ever since they chose him over me to—"

"—say we overheard him communicating with the Hare and took matters into our own hands—"

"—saw him heading that way—"

Uh oh! That sure as shit doesn't sound good! Sure enough, if Rosi opts to follow these guys when he hears that familiar name, he'll be led right to Yzak, who seems to be in as much of a rush as everybody else in the crowds. He dips down one of the lesser used hallways and it's there where the three politicians make their move. A bold move to make when there are cameras everywhere, but they sounded pretty sure of their alibi getting them cleared if they had to explain themselves later.

Yzak hears their approach, though, stopping and looking over his shoulder. There's a long stretch of heavy silence, Yzak's brow furrowing with that knowing look in his eyes when he sees the three pairs staring back at him. He's not an idiot, he clearly knows these guys by now, and yet there's a flicker in those blue eyes of his that are a little surprised that they'd have the actual balls to do this. He moves when they do, and they aren't aware that Yzak is a Coordinator, so he's quicker than they anticipated, grabbing one of their arms and twisting it as hard as he can as he flings him off to the side. But it's still three on one-Coordinator, so he can only do so much in the narrow hallway when they're all coming at him together.

He could definitely use some help! ]

Edward Elric l Fullmetal Alchemist

[chrysology]

Part III: CW: shrapnel injuries, impalement mention

[Ed's been trying to make himself useful, looking up what information if any he can from the library, helping Newt figure dealing with those collars. And while, realistically, he knows of war, of fighting and guns and all. It's another thing to be caught in the middle of it. Especially given how much more powerful and advanced guns and other weapons are now in comparison to back home.

He does his best to do what he can though. He just might initially kind of freeze up under all the commotion. Under the sound of so much gunfire and all. But it's easy enough when in the moment to focus on defending others. Trying to protect as many as he can in his vicinity from the fighting, from the guards. Either by creating barriers with his alchemy, or by jumping in and fighting hand to hand. Which tends to throw others off given how young he is but also in dealing with his auto-mail arm and leg. He's small, but he is capable enough in defending himself for the most part.

Ed claps his hands together, pale blue sparks emitting as he creates something of a barrier from the materials of the ground, to try and protect others nearby from the explosion, causing some of the ground to rise up, to curl around them to spare them from the debris. He winces as a bit of the shrapnel embeds in his side, cursing under his breath as he instinctively reaches and lays a hand to find it wet with blood, that metallic tang and smell all too familiar. Bringing back the vivid memory of his last moments he recalls back home, falling down the mines up North after fighting Kimblee, being impaled in the fall as the mines had collapsed. He closes his eyes to it, shifting from where he crouches to the ground, keeping a hand at his side to apply pressure still. But the important thing was that the others were hopefully alright.]

You guys okay?

Part IV: CW: Injuries/death, collar deaths from explosions.

[It's one thing to hear about war. About what humans are capable of doing to each other. It's another to experience it, to see it like this, firsthand. Ed can't help but to freeze up in seeing some of the aftermath of it all. He can't be sure on how similar this is to what went down in Ishval, given the different weapons and such used in comparison. But it's enough. Enough to give him some sort of understanding on what Roy and the rest went through. How they probably felt during that fighting.

His golden eyes widen and he pales as he sees someone with a collar they hadn't managed to get to in time. His hand raises to cover his mouth as he gags. Tries not to throw up. It's....a lot. He's been involved in fighting, but usually a much smaller, less lethal scale compared to this. The homunculi were mostly just messing with him, he knew they weren't allowed to kill him because they needed to use him for what they had planned later with the Promised Day. This is different. Much more real. Much more confronting. And Ed is not sure he is a fan. At All.]

Aftermath:

[Ed's taken along with other injured to the makeshift medical tents set up for the injured, but he doesn't seem thrilled about it. More resigned. It's probably better than dealing with hospitals though. None of that smell so much. He's just always restless when told to rest up and let himself recover after getting himself hurt.]

Not the first time. And at least this doesn't seem as bad as before.....

[He gets so antsy. Knowing he has stuff to do. Things he could be doing to help. But hating that he is stuck being tended to because he had to go and get injured in the middle of it all. He might at least sit or lie down for a bit though. Given he can't deny it does hurt.

But eventually he might try and get up and about again. Whether that might be a good idea or not may be debatable.]

Wildcard:

[Wanna do something else? To plot feel free to PM me or over @ caprican.]

aftermath

[romancekiller]

[clarke has been sticking with tending to people in the medical tents, knowing she'd be more help there than out in the camps. she was slowly recovering from her own injury from the last mission but she wasn't about to let that stop her from helping where she could here. she was making her rounds checking when she spots ed moving to get up] Hey— you should be resting.

billy butcher — the boys | camps ( cw: language, violence )

[cheapbastard]

8.0 ROBUTTS

( it's not what he expects. this place, these camps, it's not what he expects but there's little that he can do about it now, is there? he's there and he's got a job to do.

but, just so everyone knows — )

I hate these fuckin' orbs!

( he just wants everyone to know that. unfortunately, the little outburst seems to have gotten the attention of the goddamn fucking flying robots. one comes close enough that billy's able to swing at it with a pipe he's been carrying to bring it down. it hits the ground and he stomps on it over and over and over again. )

Fuck you.

( he's over this whole thing. he's over this whole fucking station and he hates these orbs and he just wants everything to explode.

panting, he looks up and sees a slew of hoverbots approaching and — )

Oh shit.

( time to run. )

10.0 COLLAR ME

( when he sees the first person's collar explode, it knocks him backwards and onto his ass. he stares because this fucking place, he hates it.

after he shakes off the shock, he gets up and runs, hitting a soldier at full speed and taking them down. he rears back, driving his fist into the soldier's face and trying to stop him from exploding any more collars. he beats the guy until his knuckles bleed and his hand might break and only then does he stagger off.

there's someone nearby with a collar around their neck and billy moves forward, holding his good hand up and trying to show that he wasn't there to hurt anyone. but the prisoner had just watched him beat someone to death so he runs off.

billy grimaces. )

Fuck. ( he doesn't chase though since he doesn't want to scare that person into their collar exploding. instead, he rubs a hand through his hair and across his face before he takes off and finds another soldier with a hard on for blowing people up and barrels into them. )

11.0 OW

( billy doesn't linger in the medical area too long. someone wants to bandage his hand and billy allows it for a second before he gets impatient and pulls away. his fingers are the only thing bandaged, stark white with some blood soaking into the dressing.

he stalks away, gets himself some distance between people and himself and then leans against some debris that might have been something useful at one point. leaning down, he spits a few times, getting the taste of ash and dust out of his mouth, before he straightens and sighs.

he hates the fuckin' orb. )

14.0 WILDCARD

( for anything that might not fit elsewhere! )

11

[victorylap]

[ Rodimus has seen that look before. He's pretty sure he's had it on his own face before. Might be on his holoform's face right now, all things considered. Everything has gotten weird and almost out of control, but - hey. They're winning. Right? He's not so sure. But he does see Billy get out of the way and the holoform follows. ]

Hey.

[ He has to think about what to say. Something solid and dependable, maybe? Something that'll reassure? He doesn't know. ]

How are you holding up? [ He doesn't know Billy well, if at all. But he knows the feeling that he can imagine is running through Billy's head. ]

rita farr | doom patrol ( ota, team lookout )

[farr]

[ rita farr was not built for a battlefield. she started wearing heels at four years old to perfect her posture, went to every dialect class that her family could afford, and trained on her range of performed emotion until she became a critically acclaimed golden globe nominee. yet, here she is now, in a black uniform and sturdy boots, ready to partake in what seems to be — a revolution?

I. ( SNATCH ) being on the lookout crew sounds simple in the name, except it's anything but. once the guards start to spring free from the tower, chasing down some of their own group, the chaos begins to be in full swing. as for rita — well, she's trying not to panic.

you can do this, you can do this, she reminds herself, and as she sees a guard with a gun held in their hands, rushing towards a fellow orber, she lets herself stop thinking and simply acts, as she holds out her arm, skin suddenly stretching outward to extend its length, until her hand snatches at the back of the guard's collar, yanking them backwards to the ground.

II. ( BLOCK ) with the stretch of her arms in control now that she's running on pure adrenaline, rita becomes devoted to actually doing her part. as one of the doors begin to slam from inside the tower, guards beating against it to weaken it enough to break it open, rita swiftly presses her back against it, stretching out her arms like pulled rubber alongside either wall, adding a bit more strength to keep the door held in place.

but she feels the harsh thumping against her back. if they're determined enough to get this door down, it might not be enough.

she takes another slow breath. she's done this before, has practiced it enough times, and maybe, just maybe, she can pull it off here.

one moment, she's rita farr, five foot seven, one of the most famous faces of cinema from the fifties, and the next, she's — well, she's still rita far, just a rita farr that's about sixty-five feet tall, seated against the tower as a much larger blockade than before.

III. ( SHIELD ) but even when the ground floor is under control, the shots still begin to rain down from above as guards start to use smashed windows as a means to shoot to the orbers on the floor. she has to act quick, and so she snags the largest metal slab she can find, nearly weightless with her grown size, and holds it overhead, a makeshift shield for herself and any orbers by her.

IV. ( RESCUE ) eventually, there's the explosion. she doesn't know the cause or where it comes from, only that it jostles her enough, even more unstable because of her large size. she falls backwards, luckily landing on no one, despite her large hands tearing up some of the ground when she tries to steady herself. she has scabs now along the heels of her palms, burning with an ache, but it doesn't stop from trying to scramble back up on her knees, hands reaching out to block clusters of falling debris from landing further on anyone on the ground.

she has to squint her eyes to block away from all the dust, feeling more susceptible while she's this large, but coughing it away and waving her hands, she blinks her eyes open to peer around at the piles of rubble around the floor, looking for any signs of life so that she can start picking off larger pieces weighing down on them to free them out from beneath. ]



( ooc: feel free to use any of the prompts above to meet with rita on the field. she's be normal sized and stretchy for i and half of ii before becoming giant rita for the rest of the options, but also open to doing things with normal-sized rita in other scenarios before the explosion hits. pm or hit me up at hepburns if you want to discuss things further! )

iii.

[construing]

〈 five foot five spider-woman stares up at a giant woman. looks back down. 〉I think I just learned something about myself.

〈 newly identified appreciation aside, gwen fires a web-line. she alights on rita's shoulder and waves. 〉

Hi! Sorry, hope you don't mind the whole climb thing! I'm gonna go take care of those guys!

〈 and flashing rita a thumbs up, she swings herself atop the slab. the sound of shouts starts to interrupt gunshots, and then a very wilhelm-like scream followed by a loud CLANG! and the rattling of the metal slab. 〉

Rosinante | Infiltration team

[callada]

0. Unrest, unease
The Fables' actions leave Rosinante shaking his head, but he isn't fond of Mayor Reman, either. The world is in a tailspin both environmentally and politically, the latter building and feeding off not just itself but the former as well. As badly as he wants to help the people of each world they come through, this one is going to be tougher than most on that front.

He sits on the curb by an older alleyway drinking establishment, and listens in on the conversations around him. Two elderly men at a table nearby are chatting about the state of local affairs over their card game, and it's clear that they're tired. Tired of terrorists, but tired of being taken for idiots by the government also. It reminds him a little of listening in on the conversations of older Marines when he was a kid keeping the decks and cannons clean. Comforting, in a way, only this time he also has himself a cup of something like cheap vodka. His lit cigarette sends sparks drifting that threaten to set his jacket or his too-long bent knees on fire.

Should someone familiar walk past, he lifts his head and nods in greeting. "Strange times we're living in, aren't they?"

II.1. Chaos erupts
The screens go dark and people start to panic. Rosinante immediately steps away from his "work" poking around in people's files, and claps a hand to his chest. Now completely silent, he makes his way into a crowd, and palms his pistol.

He's keeping an eye out for those on their hacking team. The Fables want their revolution, and it seems most of the Ximilia crew are on board, and so even if he doesn't care for the plan, he's going to do his part to keep their people safe. The smoother this goes, the better the outcome for them all.

And if he spots one of his charges to protect, he'll raise his empty hand and give a nod. They know it's him, nobody else is that tall, right? "Go. Got your back," he mouths - and hopefully it's simple enough that it doesn't take too much deep lip-reading to work out.

II.2. Good luck, bad luck
What he doesn't intend to do is trip in the hallway as his gun is raised to shoot out a security camera. There's a flash, soundless, as the shot goes wide and the bullet embeds in the ceiling. A weird silent domino effect ensues as he stumbles into a couple of other people as he falls, taking them down with him, and not only do they make no sound when they hit the floor, but the startled yelling and the struggle to get away by those trapped under him is also completely noiseless - at least until they (or perhaps, you) pull free.

One of the people was definitely government militia, though, rushing forward to intercept the intruders - and now the guy is fully freaked out and reaching for his own weapon while Rosinante shakes the stars out of his vision. Maybe give him a hand with that?

wildcard.
Take any part of the above and make it yours, or throw another prompt my way, I'm down for anything. Also feel free to reply in brackets if you like those better, I'll match.

[morethan084]

[Having found a safe-ish, quiet place to work. Daisy's using the visor provided to her in order to hack into the system. It's different tech, sure, but it's not hard for her to navigate. It's very clear when things are starting to work in her favor, hearing the panicked voices from those realizing the system has been hacked.

She's so focused on what she's doing that she doesn't even see Rosi at first, and when she finally spots movement out of the corner of her eye she raises her hand. Ready to send whoever it is flying back. Her hand hesitates there for a moment once she realizes it's him, before she lowers it and uses her ear piece to communicate with him.]

Are they coming this way?

Wei Wuxian | CW for gore and violence

[singlelogbridge]

Part IV: A

[Following events from mere minutes ago, Wei Wuxian can be found still fighting off the guards who remain behind at the camps. For those who'd seen him fight in Giva, they might recognize the bamboo dizi at his lips playing an eerie melody, along with the inky black smoke that curls around him as if alive. At his alternating notes, the smoke shoots away from him to knock more guards off of their feet here and there.

New to the scene this time though is Wei Wuxian’s entourage. Beside him walk three former camp laborers. Two young women and an older man. All three of them share one thing in common; their necks have been blown open and their heads sit on their shoulders awkwardly, blood and viscera covering their chests. It had taken a while to find victims whose heads hadn’t been torn clean off or completely eviscerated by their exploding collars, but these three had answered his call.

The dead that walk with him ignore fleeing laborers and orbers alike. A group of guards approaches though, and they spring into action, moving with more speed and strength than any of them had in life as they catch hold of one of the guards and begin to literally rend him limb from limb.

On his end, Wei Wuxian only continues to calmly play his dizi, resentful energy continuing to swirl around him as he watches the chaos unfold.]


Part IV B

[As Wei Wuxian continues to fight off the guards, the three camp laborers turned walking corpses that he’d summoned fight in the distance, chasing down guards and pulling them apart.

A group of terrified prisoners is huddled not too far away, and he makes his way over at the same time that three guards reach them. He throws himself bodily at the closest guard as he screams at the prisoners to run and just manages to get his hands around the man’s neck and snap it before the other two train their guns on him and he dives out of the way for cover.

Dizi lying somewhere between them on the ground, he whistles a quick tune and is satisfied to hear a second guard scream as his recently dead comrade rises to his feet and drags him backwards. From there it’s only a matter of time before both dead guards take out the third.

And then Wei Wuxian has three more walking corpses at his disposal, his dizi back at his lips to play some more.

Only he’s barely gotten out a few notes when he drops the dizi and crumbles to his knees, his body racked by a sudden coughing fit that leaves blood dribbling down his chin. He pulls his hand back to look at the blood gathered there and lets out a soft humorless laugh.]

Ah…fuck.

Closed to Yennefer

[singlelogbridge]

[It's still chaotic by the time he and Gwen get to the water purification camp, but after a while of fighting, most of the drones at least seem to have been taken care of. Gwen has gone off to take care of the rest of her plans, and Wei Wuxian is wandering the site alternating between picking off guards and helping to make sure prisoners have been de-collared and then helping them to get somewhere safe.

After guiding another couple of recently freed prisoners away, he continues scouring the area, though he isn't exactly alone. Three hungry corpses search the area with him, a somewhat grotesque sight as the three extremely dead guards are missing chunks of their bodies, and in one especially grisly case, an entire arm. He's put the other three corpses he'd had earlier to rest for now, unwilling to keep the prisoners around for longer than it took for them to be satisfied with the vengeance his calling them up had allowed them. They deserve to be at peace.

The guards can get fucked though.

Movement catches his attention out of the corner of his eye and he turns around to see the familiar figure of Yennefer confronted by a handful of the remaining guards who have stayed behind to fight. Thankfully, none of them appear to have any guns on them.

Probably, and if the pattern of him "rescuing" people holds, she doesn't need any help. For one he knows she can portal away, and even if she'd said she didn't do much fighting, that hardly means she doesn't have a way to defend herself. Probably, anyway. But he's not going to risk walking away, and knowing what the guards have done to people at this camp more than any of the others makes his blood boil.

So he doesn't walk away, playing a soft eerie tune on his flute instead that sends his corpse soldiers straight to the men.

One of them reaches the men before he does, catching a man from behind and grabbing him with so much force, Wei Wuxian can hear the sound of his shoulder dislocating even from where he is several paces away. All of the men turn on the corpse, losing focus of Yennefer as they attempt in vein to kill something that is already dead.

Wei Wuxian walks past all of them and waves at Yennifer, summoning a grim smile.]

Did I ever mention that you and Lan Xichen are the worst academic sponsors ever?

Zhao Tianyou | RGG/Yakuza | OTA

[essenceofdeadlybeasts]

Zhao prepares for the infiltration of the Chacier House with a casual nonchalance. It's not the first mission that has given them a brief moment to assemble themselves before the shit hits the fan, nor is it the first time he's stormed into enemy territory with the intention to sneak in without being noticed. Of course, that had only lasted so long once inside and he hoped this infiltration fared better on the stealth checks. Not that it hadn't worked out last time, but maybe a smoother incursion would be nice for this one.

All that aside, he was ready for the action at least. A part of him hoped to get back out and find his way into a fight or two once the sneaking was finished. It was his forte after all. But he was already set up in the First Circle and had even been inside the Chacier House before so it felt logical to head back in to help any way he could. In his shared apartment, he gathered his things slowly--some in bags he could easily retrieve later and others he managed to hide on his person that he was certain he could get inside without causing trouble--and still found time to sit back and relax as he waited for the appointed time. He apologized to Kaidan for no other reason than he wasn't joining his boyfriend but he would have been useless where the military man was going other than if they needed protection while hacking. Then told him 'see you later' with a charming wink before leaving.

I. Part II - Get the Good

1.0 darkness and infiltration
[Zhao made use of his previous time in the Chacier House and, once inside through the lesser used exits with the others, found a good place to lay low. He'd noticed the area on his first time through, very little foot traffic through this section, and it was easy for him to pretend to be staff for the few passerby that did come through.

Then the lights went out.

He wasn't far from the main room where the speech was happening so he easily made it inside and started passing through the crowd. He needed to reach the other side where the doors to the secure areas they needed to search were located. Zhao passed through the crowd with relative ease, used to such endeavors, and leaving very little trace of his passing. Eventually he made it to the doors.

On the other side there was still chaos but muted, less obvious, less people in the area. A guard was positioned at the next corner, busy trying to get his HOLONET working so he could communicate with his superiors. Too bad for him that he wasn't paying attention enough to notice Zhao walk straight up to him and execute a perfect knockout. Zhao lowered the body to the ground to keep the interaction quiet and then drug the body out of immediate notice.]

If it'll just keep at this pace, who knows... maybe we'll actually make it to our goal without the alarm going off.

[He said as he spotted a fellow Orber coming around the corner. His tone was cheeky but beneath that he was focused and ready for what they had to do.]

2.0 that one little hiccup
[Well, clearly he spoke too soon. Of course there was going to be trouble. Thankfully, no one ever did find that body he left behind or if they did it didn't cause him any further trouble. What did was his own carelessness.

He very nearly walked right into a guard as he was rounding another corner. Damn blind spots.]

H-heyyyy-- [a quick stutter and beat later, he came up with a plausible lie and a chagrined smile] ...I think I got turned around in the dark. I was just hired to help for the evening, I have no idea where to go at a time like this. Help me out?

[But his last question was more for any Orbers close by also looking for the best way to the secure information they were here to steal. A quick distraction for him to make a move or stealthy takedown would be nice right about now before the guard got too interested in where his visitor's badge was.]

3.0 steal all the things
[Once they got into the penthouse it was time to get down to business. There was no less level of tension but Zhao kept calm as the search began. Their limited time here meant they needed to clear heads and move methodically.

Never mind the fact that Zhao pulled out a new little toy to play with at a time like this. He pulled out a pair of purple shaded goggles that were clearly bought in one of the shops around town. They looked sophisticated despite the simple design.

He pulled them on and began to look around, fiddling with settings for the first time as he went along.]

Oh, cool. These little babies are gonna come right in handy at a time like this...

[Best last minute purchase ever. Let's do this.]

II. Part III/IV - Aftermath

fighting
[It's been a long day for most of the teams. Zhao arrives in the far Circles after much of the chaos has already had a chance to play out and calm down only to resume in pockets where soldiers meet resistance fighters and duke it out. He has no qualms diving right in. The infiltration team had it relatively easy--tension was high, shit was crazy, the finds were both amazing and terrifying--and now he was ready for the action.

It gave him the chance to put everything discovered out of mind. The codes needed by the Fables to push this mission where it needed to be, the traps left in surprise for thieves like themselves, and then the big discovery--the body that looked oh-so-familiar and was in a weird state. How they managed to pull off that heist was...

All these thoughts were shoved to the back of his mind as he entered the nearest fray. A smattering of guards against a small group of freedom-fighters. Zhao descended upon the soldiers with powerful strikes, graceful footwork, and smooth acrobatics. When the initial surprise attack wore off the gangster returned fire with a stolen blaster from a guard as he moved in for more martial arts melee when he got the chance. A blue aura accompanied him as he got fired up but maybe it was just a trick of the eye, or maybe it helped him lay flat some of these enemies with heavier armor.]

13.0 the real search
[This was what they were truly here for. While Zhao's bleeding heart reached out for those in need, he had to stay focused. It was easier said than done but he didn't make that obvious. He was good at forgoing his own desires to see to the needs of others, and in this case he was ignoring the locals to continue the search for the Orb while everyone else was distracted.

Other Orbers may have wanted to help the locals get to safety but the gangster ignored that noble cause. So while a majority of people stuck around to continue the fight or tend to the injured, Zhao moved further into the Seventh Circle and found the camps that everyone had talked so much about. He didn't think about what they were for as he searched them relentlessly. His theory had been that the Orb might still be underground (or rather had been taken from underground at some point but that had been before they were told it actually wasn't in the First Circle... either way, it still worked out in his mind). The epicenter for the disaster that fell upon this world made sense as a point where the Orb had lain in rest.

That probably meant the water reservoir but on the off chance it was somewhere else, that it had been discovered and moved into one of the other camps, Zhao kept looking. He wasn't as well versed in the Orbs as some others--by which just meant he hadn't had any personal interaction with them--but he could follow clues well enough. If there was anything to find that pointed towards an unknown tech or rock or whatever then he would head towards it.

A moment of respite and if anyone was around he glanced at them. Opened his mouth as if to speak, closed it again. Slumped against a wall.]

...so how's your day been so far?

[Dry and wry, a hint of dark humor, and topped off with a sardonic smirk.]

III. Wildcard!

[Something derived from these prompts, anything else unmentioned here, let's go. Have at me. Wildcard!]

13.

[blackfire]

（ it isn't really him — the real itachi is elsewhere, and what stands beside zhao is a clone. it isn't discernible from the real thing in any particular way, save its susceptibility to disappearing when struck, and it cants its head at the question.

it knows the man for an orber only because the ximilia is not an especially large space, but they have not spoken prior. even this — meeting in this place — was mostly by accident, though there's no present way of knowing it's a matter of like minds — both of them invested in finding the orb. ）

Adequate. Yourself?

（ chatty fellow. the clone is dressed in the same garb as the prisoners, eyes red and lit with a faint inward luminescence, unbothered by the chaos. ）

Ziggy Berman | The Lookout Team + A little OTA

[shadysided]

I. Before the Lookout | OTA

[Ziggy sticks close to the Fables, but it doesn't mean she isn't keeping her eye on the other orbers, too. Somtime before the operation goes off, she approaches from the sidelines — dressed in that fancy Fables uniform, though hers are complete with fancy little stars — and quietly holds out a bottle of Man-Wa and one of those plain, boring food rations.]

Here. You need to eat before you fall over.

Pretty sure the job can handle you taking five. And don't bitch about it, because people have already done it to me.

I'm paying it forward, and I don't do that a lot, so.

[Don't comment on her little gold nugget heart.]

II. The Lookout Team

[Blaster fire kickstarts a battle Ziggy knows she's not very experienced in. But she'll do her best — is determined to be able to keep up with the older members of the orb team, even if the Fables are trying to keep her close and out of harm's immediate way (sorry, Emry, she's not gonna hang back too far). Her blaster is set to stun, not because of any urge to save the people who are trying to kill her; really, she's just doing it because it's what the Fables want, and she respects it.

But it's easy to start getting overwhelmed by the barrage, and she has to tuck herself down into kneeling as gunblasts sail overhead. The guards are advancing fast; the best she can do is blindly offer return fire and try to keep her wildly beating heart from coming out of her throat. Just try not to be in any immediate danger, too, huh? She'll pop out of her hiding spot to come give you back-up otherwise.]

III. The Explosion

[... And here she'd told someone she wouldn't get hurt on this mission. In her defense, a lot of you guys didn't predict that there'd be a big psychic blast of energy coming from one of their own. She looks up, sees a tower falling down toward her, and manages to set off the jetpack on her back that Peter had lent her — it shoots her backward, away from the trajectory of the wall coming fast at her, and she almost avoids it altogether.

Almost! That's a big fucking theme in her life, almost getting out of danger scottfree.

When she startles back into alertness, peppered with cuts and no doubt due for bruising later, she looks down and finds her leg pinned under twisted, hot steel. Trying to pull it loose shoots a pain up and down her leg that makes her cry out before biting her lip hard. H'okaaaay. Might be broken. Might not. Either way, she's not really sure what to do, because trying to pull on the heavy beam just makes the rock under it shift; if she tries too much, she's pretty sure it'll slip and the beam'll just crush her leg more.

Cool.

Cool cool cool.

"Hey!" one of the guards hiss, and she turns her started gaze up to the dust-covered guy aiming his gun in her general direction. That's not good.]

IV. The Afterward / Wildcard

[Once she's freed up and out of harm's way, she'll still be trying her best to hobble around on a fractured tibia, but it'll be slow fucking going, and she may need a little help getting back and forth until a new idea strikes her: the jet pack. It at least helps a little... until she's falling from the sky with a startled sound because she has no goddamn clue how to master the art of jetpacking. Pretty sure she almost completely breaks that fractured leg a few times before she gets the hang of barely moving with the thing. How does Peter do it so effortlessly???

When she finally does master hovering off the ground, she folds her arms over her chest petulantly.

Her expression is a little pinched with pain, which she tries in vain to play off.]

I can't land right now.

... My leg's busted, so I have to float like this. Okay?

iv.

[oiorpata]

[ there's concern to had about ziggy's injuries, but there is also amusement and not an ounce of surprise that she's somehow found herself a jetpack instead of crutches. she watches the girl fumble around with it in the air, but she's ready to play catcher if need be. ]

[ andy is fairly blood spattered - she's died like three times so far, it's fine - but she isn't moving like she's hurt. though ziggy's already seen her get stabbed, so she's not worried too much about unnecessary worries. as the reigning axe king, the labrys is with her, just holstered at her back. ]

I mean, you don't have to, but I have to say it's a creative choice.

Leonard McCoy | reinforcements @ water camp | closed & open starters

[homeostatic]

( usual CWs: death, dismemberment, blood loss, mentions of terminal illness and grody medical stuff )

JIM

[homeostatic]

( Bones has broken away under cover, moving toward a few prisoners cowering behind a low wall. Holed up behind the engine block of a grounded transport vehicle, he presses himself back against the wheel well to breathe, his chest feeling heavy under the equipment he carries. Taking a hand from his phaser, he motions to the three figures behind the wall: stay down.

The pulsing volley of stuns he and Jim send back at the small line of militia are effective, but not enough— the body hits go partly deflected by their heavy armor. As a commanding yell goes up from their squad leader, Bones risks peering around the fender to witness the quick reshuffle of rifles, and guards going for their armbands under the new orders. )

Jim! ( Horror bleeds into his frantic shout, sure he's heard the same thing. Bones slides his thumb automatically down the side of the phaser, regretting the resultant hum and red glow with his whole heart.

Fuck. )