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f20202020-09-23 03:48 pm
FINALE: Synod & Conclusion
The Synod should have ended on the 21st, but a blackout traps all the attendees in the facility. The train won't move. The Gates won't reverse. The anomaly outside would eradicate anything attempting to cross the stygian wasteland. All anyone can do is wait.
A hastily-assembled team of various faction members rushes to the Porter's defense. When they arrive, they find that their extremist opponents are imPorts themselves. Some of them might have once been called friends. Others have remained in the shadows, sleeper forces of the Resistance. While the saboteurs continue their work, fighters leap into battle against all those who've arrived to defend the Porter.
[OOC: Please tag the above top-level if you'd like some mod-run NPC combat! We'll be able to back/tag several PCs for at least 2 weeks from today.]
Not only must enemy combatants be defeated, but a complex series of timed explosive devices threatens to destroy the Porter controls, forcing a desperate call for technical experts and finesse powers.
Only partway into the showdown, a minor explosion rips through the crowd and takes out combatants on both sides. An alarm begins to scream. Total annihilation has been averted, but the Porter's shields are crumbling.
ESCAPE THE SYNOD
Though the terrorists are now in custody, there's a bigger problem. The facility is no longer safe. The Gates, echoing the damaged Porter, still haven't reversed polarity. Everyone will have to escape via the Death Train, which isn't equipped for so many imPorts in high concentration. It'll need additional shielding and the reprogramming for multiple trips, which means tech-minded imPorts will have to cooperate to overcome its automated settings.
ImPorts must divide into smaller groups because the destination station at the White City may overload too. Batches of ImPorts pile together for the ride in much more cramped quarters than they're used to. Several are injured from the attack, others are dying, and it'll be a long and harrowing journey before they can reach a hospital for treatment. ImPorts steal moments for hurt and comfort, as well as moments of revelation and intimacy.
Even for those left unscathed, they must swiftly transfer through the White City and travel back to their home factions via conventional means, or risk causing dimensional chaos as more ImPorts arrive behind them.
Once the Death Train arrives at the White City with the last of the Synod attendees on board, it seems like the worst is over. While anyone wanting to leave the city is free to use conventional means to do so, some choose to remain in Florida to recuperate, strategize or tend to the wounded.
For three days, everything looks like it might be returning to normal.
ImPorts are likely to resume life as usual, continuing with politicking and personal lives alike. After all, there's a year to go until the next Synod-- and despite everything, new ImPorts still arrive through the battered Porter facility.
DEATH DOME EXPANDS
On September 26th, sensors indicate a wave of cosmic radiation moving toward the White City. The reason is obvious enough: damage to the Porter has destabilized the Death Dome and now it's rapidly expanding. If it isn't stopped, it'll swallow the city within days. After that, scientists fear it may tear through the entire planet.
The White Tower immediately puts out a call for aid. Citizens of the city will have to be evacuated en masse. They plead for every imPort who is able to come forward and work to halt the growth of the Dome using whatever means necessary. If they don't work together, no one's getting out of this alive.
Most terrifying of all, the Death Dome's "cosmic radiation" causes permanent death, shredding and scattering energy and matter across the multiverse. Unshielded contact means no resurrection within this world ever again. To those who dream of someday returning to home dimensions, the mysteries of these physics is steeped with terrifying unknowns.
[OOC: Per this OOC plotting question, contact with the Death Dome destroys the AU version of a character permanently, but not their MoM counterpart. See the thread for more details.]
Anyone Porting in during the Death Dome expansion, whether for the first time or resurrecting, finds the Porter facility is horrifically unstable. Heavy strands of permanently lethal entropic energy weave through visible cracks in the walls. They must escape through a Gate as quickly as possible, or risk an untimely death!
Under pressure, it might be harrowing to choose an ImPort city and faction. No sooner than they do, and step through the Gate, that they find that the world is in uproar, though their new home may well be in denial, strategically or otherwise.
Faced with a cosmic anomaly, ImPorts take heroic measures in the ground and air in Florida and beyond to save natives and perhaps even their kind alike.
[OOC: The above character 'sub-rosters' reflect the IC involvement based on this plotting form. We'll attempt to link top-levels here, and further incorporate your RP into a conclusion post on or by October 1. Feel free to top-level, and of course backtag/sandbox indefinitely!]
At the nth hour, on September 30, two ImPorts, Shouta and Tomura of Equality Before Law make it into the Porter and manage, incredibly, to stabilize the damaged Fate technology with use of reality-warping abilities.
As the Death Dome begins to shrink back to its original circumference, it leaves behind a bizarre, scarred landscape, and a fine dusting of eerie crystalline particles of inscrutable chemical makeup. It may take years before the land is arable again, but the day is saved. For now.
OOC Links
- Plotting Post
- Volunteer signup: Resistance Extremists
- Volunteer signup: Porter Defenders
- Plotting form: Finale Roles
- Reminder: 'Hacking the Death Train' does not require signups (unlimited slots), and sharing your finale role is not mandatory.
David Alleyne ⧓ Krakoa
OTA | Death Train Hacking | CW: Character Injury/Blood
Somehow he’s gotten here, gotten back, and the Krakoan leader pushes past the gathering crowds. People part for him. Maybe it’s the injury. Maybe it’s the fact that they recognize a Synod Faction Leader. Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s mumbling technopath coming through.
In the end, he collapses near one of the control panels, broken down and tired. Only then he puts his hand against the panel, using it as a tighter focus for his technopathy, forcing his awareness into the systems.
“Okay,” he says to whoever is near and working on the system. “Where are we on getting this baby to obey our will? I’m diving in. Tell me where my efforts are most needed.”
Once he’s got it working a bit more, stewing in the back of his head, he looks to the milling, worried crowd.
“Any chance we’ve got any doctors here? Other than me? Otherwise, clean cloth would be nice.”
The pain he can push through. Not knowing where the people he loves are he can push through. Survival is what matters right now. And if nothing else, he was a mutant.
They found a way to survive.
OTA | The Last Train Out
Which didn’t bother David in the slightest. He was... Tired. Tired but too pained to sleep. He hadn’t bothered yet trying to reach out to his fellows among the Five. He hadn’t bothered trying a lot of things, afraid of who might have been lost in the conflict, in the destabilization. Afraid of who was gone and might never come back.
David took the seat someone else offered him and leaned back against the window. He hadn’t been on the train in years. Seemed like he wasn’t likely to do so again, if the Porter couldn’t be stabilized. They’d all... No, he wasn’t borrowing morbidity.
“Well... ImPorts sure know how to throw a party,” he muses aloud, trying to make light of the situation before his hands come up to his face to rub at his eyes. His glasses are gone, the small computers lost in the unending hours of getting the train running for everyone.
“Next time, let’s pick somewhere with Pina Coladas?”
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The door hisses and she steps through from the vestibule just in time to hear a quip about Pina Coladas. The voice a loved one freezes her for a split second, breath stopping and heart skipping a beat before relief washes over her. Unfortunately, that's quickly replaced with a minor terror at the sight of him.
"Jesus. David." She jogs over, reaching for him automatically, carefully trying to assess the state of him, to form a way out if necessary.
"Oh, my god. Are you--" She cuts herself off. She doesn't want the answer to be 'no.' Her hands are shaking now, so she moves them from plucking at his clothes to cup his face, staring into it. "I'm glad you're here."
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"Hey love," he says, trying to sound as composed as he can. He loves her, he's going to be strong for her. "You see that fireworks display? We outdid ourselves this year."
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Laurie hopes that his being able to joke means that he's well enough to keep going and make it home. It could also mean that he believes the opposite's true, though, and it just doesn't want anyone else to get wind of it. Either way... Best to remain in the here and now and figure things out as they unfold.
She stands up straight again, shrugging out of her jacket and letting it fall to the floor. There's a little blood splatter on her t-shirt, but it's plainly not hers. She pulls it up and off, passing it to David. Comparatively, it's clean-ish, and David needs something to wipe off with if he doesn't need more makeshift bandaging. It leaves her in a cami, a little sweaty but less bloodied.
"I should've made quicker work out of more of them. Maybe things wouldn't have gotten so messy. Sorry."
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Had to kill a thing. David was almost sick over it. That wasn't what he did.
"Laurie, really, we're in public. You shouldn't be undressing for me."
Oh it's bad. Really bad. He's trying not to pass out.
"I... I wanna go home, Laurie."
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She picks her jacket up and slides it back on. People have also re-shuffled to make room, so she moves to sit beside him. She tries to give him another once-over.
"Anything I can do?"
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"Laurie, I'm not sure I should be allowed to sleep. I don't... I think I need to see this."
For Krakoa. He has to witness what they lose here today.
"Everything is horrible. It's like it's all ending."
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"Maybe it all is," she answers, tone gentle but nonchalant. "I hope it isn't, and we'll fight it, but..."
She shrugs, letting out a huff of a breath. Maybe there's not a solution. But that's not very helpful, is it?
"Sorry, I... I've had a lot of space to square with the concept of borrowed time, you know?"
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“I suppose you have. And I’m... lost. Kavinsky, he... died for me.”
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A Return Home | Open to Refuges, Locals, and New Arrivals | Krakoa
He made the rounds of the inhabitants that hadn’t gone to the Synod, offering his comfort and reassurances. The fact that not everyone was back didn’t mean they were gone for good, after all. They were just busy. As for David, his part in things could be achieved from here.
And of course there were the others, the refuges and the new arrivals. Those David made sure to set time out for. Each one were approached individually with an extended hand and a soft, tired look.
“Welcome. I’m David Alleyne of the Council. I’m sorry to say we can’t really put on our normal raucous greeting for your arrival with how messy things got. But if you have any questions I’m happy to provide. And forgive me if I ask you just what you’re capable of doing and if you’d be willing to help with some things. It’s not normally our way to be this forward, especially since most of our residents are young, but sometimes we work best by working together.”
Longer term residents might also find him, most hours of the day, sitting outside of the Council building in a lounge chair, surrounded by several different electronic devices, distracted in one of his technopathic focus trances. His mind is too deep in the tech to be focusing on usual things. Like sleep. Or food. Or listening when people approach. Which is why he flinches and jumps about a foot in the air when he finally registers footsteps nearby.
“Holy fuck, I did... I didn’t expect you there.”
council building, let me know if this works for you!
The words stop as abruptly as Billy's footsteps as he finally registers with his brain what his eyes are seeing. Yeah, this is definitely still David, but he does not look like he did when Billy last saw him no more than twelve hours ago.
Oh no.
"Uh...stupid question, maybe, but...do you...know me...?"
'Do you know me' is possibly also code for 'do you want to murder me' or perhaps 'what is our current and/or former social link level and ALSO do you want to murder me.' Because let's be real, their track record in these dimensions? Not great. Either way, he's not casting anything, or backing away, but he does look perhaps comically like a deer caught in the proverbial headlights.
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With a wave of a hand, why yes maybe he is showing off just a touch, all of the screens on all of the monitors around him dim or turn off. All the better to not distract him.
"William, welcome to Krakoa. Never thought I'd be saying that because I distinctly don't remember this happening. Then again, this place really is a trip. Don't worry, you're not going to run into Mother or her influence anywhere around here. I think."
And, well, if David's looking at Billy with something like hope when he takes his glasses off, that's not a mistake. A reality warper of Billy's caliber? One with magic to boot? Even with part of his power wrapped up in the Mother spell, maybe they could coordinate his work with Wanda and Strange and between the three of them and Allison, truly stop the expansion of the death dome.
Does he maybe ping a quick message off to the other members of the council of We may have an issue here. No in person assistance needed yet, but hold for more instructions. Yep. That's a thing he does.
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"Still Billy, dude. Not William. You, uh. You grew up fast, considering the last time I saw you was maybe twelve hours ago, max," he says, but honestly even as he's saying the words he's kind of putting it all together. Between what David's saying, and what he'd heard from Josh when he came through, there are enough dots to connect. "But...it's been a lot longer for you than that, hasn't it?" Like, a decade or so, considering how old David looks. And tired. Man, does he look tired.
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Still, the conversation seems friendly so far, so David spares a smile for the guy he once fought beside.
He moves a bit away from where he'd set up, gesturing for Billy to follow. It might be easier to have them both settle down in chairs that aren't, you know, surrounded by tech.
"Do you need something to eat or drink? I can get someone to bring something. Most attention is on refugee management right now, but being one of the Five if I so much as suggest I'm parched, someone is by with a mojito and nachos."
Maybe feeding Billy will make this feel more real. But really, David doubts it. A lot. This is so surreal. He's seen so many people come and go, but never one of the Young Avengers. And given the improbability that America could drive her holes through space AND time, he had to wonder what that said about himself and this place. Perhaps he was one of the plethora of evil Davids that had chased him. God, that was a scary thought.
Closed to Josh | Don't Say Goodbye
All of him is weary.
And yet he was quick off the mark once he heard the whispers that Josh was going to the White Tower. To help.
Perhaps Josh already knows what he's going to say when David finds the man. Perhaps not. David still doesn't even know what he's going to say other than 'please don't.'
"Hey."
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He knows.
He knows, because that's the kind of person David is. Self-sacrificing to a fault. Believing in the possibility of a happy ending because he believes in people. Josh, ever the cynic, no longer trusts what he can't help shape with his own hands. David aims to save everyone, and Josh...
Well. Josh plays a number game.
He's looking out at the sea. The setting sun is reflected in his golden skin, his pale hair catches the light and glows with shades of red and pink.
"How are you holding up?"
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"I got in a fight with a terrorist and nearly died as a result, got badly burned, pushed myself to the point of nearly passing out to keep the train running, had my life saved by someone that I had to watch die after that, and then finally get home to be rather quickly approached by a young and lost William Kaplan."
And now, he doesn't say, you're leaving.
"It's been a light week, really," he jokes as a more appropriate conclusion. "But I'm ready for ice cream and wine."
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He turns to look at him. His expression unusually somber. He hears what David doesn't voice.
"If we don't get this contained we're all going to die," Josh says, turning to look at him properly.
"I can't stay."
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Communication and coordination needs to be handled from a number of hubs. Ones that are secure, that won't have to jump back every quarter hour. Given his technopathy, Krakoa becomes a prime choice for David's work. It just hurts.
"Was what he told me true, or was Kavinsky prettying up things when he said that if it came down to it, you'd..."
Choose David over Kavinsky. That David's life mattered more. No, it was a stupid question. Of course Josh wouldn't do that. It was likely a misquoting to make David do what he wanted. To feel like the one who won. Which he hadn't done in a very long time.
"Never mind. It's not important. Just don't die, okay?"
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He can't say it. Can't give David the answer he knows he wants, the answer that Kavinsky probably twisted his words into. There was a time for them once, and maybe there would be again.
But as of right now, this is evidence enough that it isn't now.
"I'll be fine."
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"I know you will," David agrees. "I wish I could be there to be certain of it. But the last thing we need is... me fucking things up again."
Not something he's admitted out loud yet. No one wanted to admit when they were a bit too responsible for an explosion.
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"Okay," he says finally, his voice even. "That's going to stop. Right now."
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"Not Krakoa, Josh. Not the kids. The explosion. I... misjudged a throw. Badly. Turns out bombs aren't really friendly to psychic weapons. Sure, a lot of factors contributed to it, but..."
But he'd make a mistake, and it hadn't helped, and he'd nearly paid a final price for it.
"Strangely enough, I am aware that not everything is about Krakoa, or us, or my decisions related to either of those two items."
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