FINALE: Synod & Conclusion

[modormenace]

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.

On the 23rd, a network message informs all imPorts their time has come to an end. Their presence is tearing this world apart, and in order to save it, the Resistance must destroy the Porter. All imPorts depend on it for survival, and will die along with it—

but humanity will triumph.

THE CATALYST TO

THE FINALE

THE

REBELS

ATTACK

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.

THE QUIET

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.]

UNTIMELY ARRIVALS

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.

UNITED

FRONT

CHARACTER

(FACTION)

CONTAINMENT

Alison Hargreeves

Krakoa

Anakin Skywalker

Luminary

Jane Foster

Krakoa

Joseph Kavinsky

White Tower

Luke Skywalker

Empire of Light

COMMUNICATIONS

David Alleyne

Krakoa

Kang

Seekers of the New Dawn

Padmé Amidala

Luminary

SUPPORT

Ysanne Poirier

Northwestern Imperium

TRANSPORTATION

Luther Hargreeves

Krakoa

Minimus Ambus

White Tower (R)

MISCELLANY

Rey Palpatine

White Tower

 

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!]

FINAL OUTCOMES

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.

Comments

Wen Ning ⋈ House of M

[deadwenwalking]

i. Wen Ning vs The World (closed to Lan Xichen)

It's been a while since Wen Ning has let himself get so consumed by negative emotions that the only sounds he can release are angered growls. Dark energy swirls from the base of his robes to his shoulders, and the black veins that usually only reach up his neck have crawled up his cheeks to his forehead.

The source of his anger can be seen clutched in one hand - a bloodied Chenqing has stained the fingers of that hand red. Though he's in control of himself just enough that he doesn't grip it hard enough to break it, he won't be wanting to put it down any time soon.

He doesn't see civilians or enemies anymore. Everyone is the latter and everyone is in his way. As he runs out a nearby room, an armored extremist member held above his head, he doesn't care who he throws the still flailing figure at.

ii. aftermath

Wen Ning stands to leave room for others on the train while he grabs anything worth holding onto to so he doesn't fall over himself. Usually he would be more proactive in helping the other passengers, but right now he can only stare vacantly out the window, looking exhausted.

There's a black flute with a red tassel tucked into his waist sash, and the only time he moves is to cover it up if someone gets too close to him. That's the only sign that he's even paying attention to his surroundings.

Approach at your own risk.

iii. the quiet

(NETWORK - un: qionglin)

If anyone has seen Wei Wuxian recently

please let him know that dinner is ready.

[He was told that he'd be back. That death isn't permanent here. If that's the case, then he's going to be waiting at the house the man had been kind enough to share with him - keeping the place clean and having a meal ready in the refrigerator to set out at a moment's notice.]

iv. wildcard

Anything else! I can be reached at laverinth for plotting purposes, or you can PM this journal.

i.

[ze_uwu_jun]

While Liebing could not stop Wen Qionglin and Baxia combined, this is a very different situation. Xichen doesn't take the xiao out until he knows what the reason for the rampage is - but there does not seem to be external resentment, and the dizi stained in blood is answer enough.

So Xichen does not try to contain, or stop, though the music does sometimes shift people away from Wen Qionglin's immediate reach.

Instead, he uses it a little to calm, and a little to persuade. Listen. Listen.

But he will not stop to speak until there seems to be an opening.

[deadwenwalking]

The terrorist in his hands is tossed aside and Wen Ning's focus shifts to the one playing the music. He does not want to listen, and the very attempt angers him further because how dare he.

How dare he attempt to calm him down when his anger is entirely justified? Where was he when Wei Wuxian was killed? Why hadn't he helped him before now?

There are chairs nearby, set up for a meeting of some sort, most likely. Wen Ning begins to grab them one at a time and throw them in Lan Xichen's direction. Try playing the xiao around this.

[ze_uwu_jun]

Protecting people who could defend themselves less, in all honesty. But Xichen is not going to try to defend himself.

All his choices are wrong, and he is ever too weak. That is known. And it gives him no right to stop trying. He has too many amends to make.

His cultivation is strong enough that he moves against the thrown chairs almost effortlessly, though he does need to take away the xiao from his lips for a time or two.

"He will not be gone for long. This place returns those who lose their lives, within days."

That is said far more soothingly, though with tired certainty than placation, than the music itself.

[deadwenwalking]

Wen Ning doesn't believe him. He hears the words, but they pass almost literally through one ear and out the other. He doesn't even believe that Lan Xichen would have any reason to lie to him, but that doesn't mean that the other man has all the right information.

He's even heard similar information from Wei Wuxian himself, but it doesn't matter. It's a whole different thing when he's actually laid eyes on the dead body of his friend with no sign of them getting up and moving again. The thought that he might simply reappear again, good as new, seems too impossible - no matter what else this place has already done.

Still unable to form proper words in his grief, Wen Ning rushes bodily at the older Lan sibling.

[ze_uwu_jun]

Xichen sees the rush, and while he knows that will be dangerous, takes it on, mobilizing his body to meet the rush, if only for a moment to slip on a few talismans, before he leaps off and takes Liebing to his lips again. Restraint, this time.

"If you saw him, then you saw his body disappear. The nanites in us make the bodies disintegrate on death... and then reassemble a little later, alive. It happened to Lan Jingyi. You could talk with him, if you wish to know for yourself.

"Young master Wei will come back, and he will not wast you to regret your actions on his account. He carries a heavy enough burden already, does he not?"

[deadwenwalking]

When Xichen leaps away, Wen Ning tumbles forward. He catches himself on his hands and knees, panting and glaring at his chosen opponent. The music and the talismans make it feel like there's a hand grasping his ribcage, holding him down and causing his heart to flutter uncomfortably.

He can't cry, but his eyes hurt from how much he's trying to. And he knows the other man is right. Wei Wuxian wouldn't want this. But why can't he be allowed to vent his anger? Why can't he just break everything in this room if he wants to?

He starts to get back up, but ends up sitting again, hands in his lap. He's still a ball of frustration, dark lines etched up the sides of his face, but for the moment his fuming won't involve further attacks.

[ze_uwu_jun]

Xichen eases up on the music immediately. (Breaking down everything in the room - Xichen isn't sure who is going to pay for it, but considering the big-scale chaos, he would allow it.

It's always breaking people that he would try to stop.)

He hesitates, then puts Liebing away and comes back down. Yes, he is in reach - the talismans alone, he knows won't ensure his safety. But aside from the resentment that powers Wen Qionglin, there is pain, and he has yet to find out how to stop himself from trying to soothe pain.

"I am sorry. What is happening - I don't understand it. It feels wrong, it is wrong, and for young master Wei to pay for it - again - is not fair.

"But this time, it is not hopeless. Your anger is righteous. Just remember that it is not all you have in your hands. Not all that your future must contain." He tries to get out fast, his mind working to figure out how to alleviate the suffering.

For himself, it has always been a matter of restraint. But it is high time to realize that he has many people in his life who have had to let out the anger in order to survive it.

"If you want to vent the anger, you can fight with me. No blade, no music. If I get hurt - nobody but us will know how it happened." He knows that he is not the person responsible for young master Wei's demise.

But neither were the people Wen Qionglin was attacking earlier.

[deadwenwalking]

There's darkness at the edges of Wen Ning's vision. For a brief moment he considers accepting Lan Xichen's offer. They could fight it out here - he's surely strong enough to take on whatever he could bring his way, with or without weapons. He wants to fight. He wants to break bones.

But the offer is also very similar to the one he'd given Jin Ling, and the memory of that breaks through the shadows of his anger in a painful flash. He closes his eyes and shakes his head, unnerved by the comparison. The pause allows him to hear the unusual beat of his heart in his ears, feel the furious intake and exhalation of breath from his lungs. He's thrown off by the sensation. His anger falters.

The dark, seething mist around his body slowly dissipates into the air as he sits there and says nothing. His shoulders quiver with pent up emotions.

When it seems like he might be about to say something, to give Xichen an appropriate response to his offer, he instead tilts his head back and lets out a frustrated scream toward the ceiling. Only after he's done that does he curl in on himself, knees pulled up to his forehead.

II.

[inquiryguqin]

Lan Wangji refused to leave at first. Not until he is certain that Wei Wuxian isn't anywhere to be found. He searched for him, and then casting Inquiry and playing it, the spirits never lie. It's true what the spirits say, and that is his only confirmation. Consumed by the heaviness of grief, a feeling he knows so well, he quietly decide to finally leave too, suffering from exhaustion to figure out what is happening in this fractured world.

He sees Wen Ning standing there, looking out the window. He trusts his other family members has the common sense to take their leave on the train and meet again in the city.

"Wen Ning." He approached him carefully, expression stony and stoic. It's so odd that Lan Wangji approached him alone, when he is used to travel with Wei Wuxian together. "Let's not linger here. We have to go to the train and leave with the others."

It's going to be a long journey ride back to the city.

[deadwenwalking]

At the voice, even a familiar one, Wen Ning pulls away and glares. Then he takes a moment to truly recognize who's approached him and his whole body language shifts. His shoulders relax and his expression eases from anger into sadness.

He doesn't even address him. He starts to, but the name doesn't make it out of his mouth. Instead he just nods, allowing Lan Wangji to lead him away from the window.

The other man has to know about Wei Wuxian by now - if not from his brother than from any other number of methods. He keeps a hand on Chenqing. Even if the younger Lan sibling might deserve to hold onto it just as much as he does, if not more, he's not willing to give it up yet.

[inquiryguqin]

No need for a formal address. Wen Ning is a friend and Lan Wangji knows of him. While he tries to appear stoic and he badly wanted to grieve, it would do no favors by lingering around.

"The others already left. This could be the last train. I believe...we'll meet Wei Ying again, but not here in this place. So, it's my duty to make sure we will all meet again."

Considering a gentle nudging that he wanted to take Wen Ning to the train while everyone else is boarding. So he's going to take the lead and join the crowd on the train to take their departure from this place.

[deadwenwalking]

That's what Lan Xichen had said - that Wei Wuxian would return somehow, even though he'd died. It wouldn't be the way it had been in their world, either. Apparently returning from the dead is commonplace here. But even having seen others like Xue Yang and Jin Zixuan who shouldn't have been able to have been brought here in the first place, it's still so hard to believe. What if this incident was special? What if this is the one death he can't come back from?

He feels as though he failed him. He was supposed to stay by his side, but he hadn't been able to prevent any of this from happening.

Wen Ning follows Lan Wangji onto the train without a word, but he stays close so that no one else in the crowd can come between them.

[inquiryguqin]

Lan Wangji doesn't know what would come next. He doesn't have answers. He was just as grief-stricken, ridden with guilt and regret that he too wasn't able to stay by his side. A part of him wonders if Wei Wuxian ever going to come back and if he dies in this one, what would that mean if they ever return home? Personal experience taught him that if a dead person ever coming back, it's a slim chance, a miracle.

No words are needed, silence is necessary. He can't offer words of comfort. They can agree that Wei Wuxian is special to them. Shuffling into the train, and finding a seat, it's going to be a long journey to the city, leaving the tragedy of the event behind. Lan Wangji felt a measure of relief that they finally leave, but at the same time, the guilt and grievances of Wei Wuxian's death weight heavily on his mind.

[deadwenwalking]

Wen Ning spends most of the trip with his arms crossed in front of him, his empty gaze cast downward. At a couple points he nods off, eyes slipping shut until some movement of the train jerks him awake again. At those points he'll glance around briefly, making sure there's no danger nearby, before relaxing again.

At some point he slips sideways, and he's in a deep enough sleep that he doesn't register his head coming to rest on Lan Wangji's shoulder.

[inquiryguqin]

Lan Wangji wished he has a book to read for the entire trip, but he wasn't in the mood to read. He just sat there for the entire trip in reverie and memories, unable to believe that Wei Ying is gone.

But he didn't mind that Wen Ning is resting his head on his shoulder. Normally, he can't tolerate people touching him in general, so he didn't disturb his sleep for the entire trip. He merely crossed his arms and meditating in a light trance, and doze off as well.

Once the train arrives at its destination in the city, he woke him up by gently shaking him awake. "Wen Ning, wake up. It's time to get off."

[deadwenwalking]

The jostling is enough to rouse Wen Ning, and when he realizes he's up against Lan Wangji's shoulder he immediately straightens up. "Sorry," he mutters automatically as he blinks into further awareness.

He's surprised to have been allowed to get that close to the man in the first place, given how much he seems to dislike physical contact. But then these are special circumstances. Whatever the case, he's grateful for his leniency.

He stands only after checking to make sure Chenqing is still where he left it. "Where is it dropping us off?"

ii

[wro]

Reeve is likewise exhausted. Having been thrown right into the thick of things, he immediately realized that his technical skills could be - quite literally - a matter of life and death, and thus it was that he's devoted most of his time to making sure that the train's settings were properly overridden to ensure that it would be able to make it to its destination safely. To say that it's been nerve-wracking would be the understatement of the year. At last some of the other imPorts noticed how worn down he was getting and sent him off to one of the other cars with a promise that they'll come find him if he's needed again.

So out of it is he that he nearly bumps right into Wen Ning as he tries to find a space in which to stand without getting in anyone's way. An apology tumbles from his lips before he even registers Wen Ning's presence, more automatic than anything else: "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

But he trails off, the gears in his brain winding down to a halt before he can finish the sentence. Aren't they both quite the pair right now...

[deadwenwalking]

The first response anyone will get from Wen Ning under these circumstances is a harsh glare, but he doesn't actually have the anger to back it up, so the look withers fairly quickly into tired annoyance. He keeps his arms crossed in front of him, blocking the flute from harm or theft.

"Just..." He sighs, taking a step to the side to allow the other man more room. "Don't bump me." The words don't carry much of a threat behind them. What's he going to do if they get jostled? Tear the man's arm off? They're both in the same position here, but he wishes he could be taking the train alone.

[wro]

Reeve slides in next to him with a grateful nod, careful to keep what little distance he can in such crowded quarters. It's closer than he'd normally get to a stranger, but it can't be helped, so he just makes sure that he's making his best good faith attempt to do what's being asked of him. Once he's certain that he's got at least something of a grip on the back of the seat next to him, he turns his attention back to the man standing beside him.

This stranger looks just as exhausted as he feels right now. It's probably the pot calling the kettle black and he knows it, yet at the same time he can't override his instinctive concern.

"Are you all right?" He means physically, because at this point he's fairly certain that no one is quite all right mentally or emotionally after everything that's just gone down.

[deadwenwalking]

Not in the mood for conversation, Wen Ning nevertheless peers sideways at the other man when he asks his question. He doesn't feel like he should need to point out the obvious answer, so he doesn't give it.

"I lost a friend back there," is all he can really say. He's been told by more than one person that he'll be back and that death isn't permanent. This should have already been proven to him on account of how he'd had a conversation with a man he'd killed himself... but it's easy to believe that this time might be the one time where he doesn't come back. And he feels as though he would be partially to blame for not getting there in time.

His hand clenches around Chenqing and remains there.

[wro]

Ah. That's a heavy subject, and Reeve knows that any attempt he might make at comfort will likely ring hollow in the face of their current circumstances. It isn't as if he knows this man or knows anything about what happened... but, in a way, he doesn't really need to. "Back there" says it all, and lets him know that whatever occurred was mostly likely neither peaceful nor painless.

"I'm sorry," he says again, sure that it's probably at least the dozenth time this man has heard that sentiment since it happened. Even so, it's sincere, and he hopes that much comes across at least in part. None of this should have happened. None of it...

The movement of Wen Ning's clenched fist draws his eye down, and it's then that he notices the flute for the first time.

"... does that belong to them?" he asks softly, with a tone that indicates that he understands. Even though the ribbon he'd worn on his arm for so long hadn't been the actual one that Aerith had worn herself, it had filled the same role for him, and so he finds his brows furrowing in gentle sympathy.

[deadwenwalking]

Asking about the flute causes Wen Ning to draw back further, as though Reeve's inquiry might be followed up by a grasping hand. Of course this is mere paranoia.

"Yes." It feels wrong for him to even be holding it. It doesn't belong in his hands, but he has to make sure it gets back into the right ones. "And he'll need it if... when he comes back." He wants to believe the right word is 'when'.

He's come back from death once in their own world. Why shouldn't he be able to come back here where it's so apparently commonplace?

[wro]

There's no grasping hand, no outward motion of any sort. Instead, Reeve just smiles, giving a slight nod of agreement to those words. "He's lucky to have a friend who will keep it safe for him."

Then, in the hopes of making the conversation a little less depressing, he continues, "I've always been a little envious of people who had the time and dedication to learn how to play an instrument. The ability to bring joy to others with music isn't a skill that should be taken lightly."

Oh, he has practical skills aplenty, but something like that? Sometimes it can be far more useful than being able to repair a piece of electronics.

[deadwenwalking]

There's a moment of silence before Wen Ning makes a noise of agreement. "... I've never been any good at music. My sister was..." he trails off, deciding not to follow that particular train of thought. Not when he's already focused on this loss - no need to drag up others.

"It's more than just something to play music on. A Cultivator can use an instrument to channel all sorts of energy. Mas... my friend could - can fight with this." And could control Wen Ning with it if he had to, though in the past this had led to an unfortunate incident of counter-control when they hadn't realized someone else was playing at the same time.

It's a skill that's beyond him, in any case.