london ♔ when the gusts came around to blow me down

[wynn]

  iron sky - paolo nutini

WHO || Everyone and their dog.
WHAT || In the aftermath of the attack, the Knights attempt to recover
WHERE || Knights HQ, etc.
WHEN || Dec. 1st-8th, 2015
HOW || Actionspam

As darkness falls all around the castle, the remaining Knights straggle out of their broken castle to survey the damage and count the dead – of which there are three: Rose Hathaway, Kali, and Killian Jones.

What began like any other day for most quickly descended into a nightmare, after Wynn and most of the Section Heads were lured out to downtown London to face a threat of dual dragons, who turned out to be only clockwork creations of deposed Andres dictator Dimitris Sarandis, robotic menaces that were nothing but a distraction from the real threat. Having rallied support from some of the Knights' other enemies, Dimitris sent an army of chipped creatures, Shadowkind, robots, and a giant tank to destroy the Knighthood's headquarters, dropping part of the roof down onto the training room and med center in the initial explosive blast. Sarandis' alliance with a mysterious hacker named One (who turned out to have been the man who invented technomagic in the first place along with Zero) not only downed the Knights' communications, but also their defensive and surveillance systems (with some help from a mentally dominated Eleven). Whatever preparations Zero had made for an attack by One were undermined by the sudden but inevitable betrayal of the humanized robot GlaDOS, who introduced a learning virus into the system before taking off, likely having made some kind of deal with One to restore her robotic form.

The Knights rallied under the remaining sect leaders – Lis'sa and Koraith – to make a plan to fight back and try to take down Dimitris, who sent a taunting message out across the Drakenet, announcing his intentions to leave the castle as a smoking crater littered with corpses. Fearing that the attack might also be meant to target Myri and Vi's children, a group moved them to the Round Table Room, perhaps the most secure location in the building. The attack was a smokescreen of sorts, something Vi realized, taking Elena, Des, and Faith O'Keefe with her to the library in hopes of saving the elven mage, Lazarus, whose blood the villains required to unleash the nightmare god Malaak'a upon the world. The library, however, was already in shambles, thanks to a fire-slinging red half-dragon who had confronted some Knights there (and led Kate Beckett to discover something strange about herself...). Des remained in the hallway to confront a demon, in the same place where Skye had nearly died to an ifrit pyrokineticist named Serafina, one of Dimitris' chipped experiments. Sawyer Kelly and Alex Karamazov butted heads when it came down to sparing the enslaved ifrit, but in the end, Alex made the decision by putting a bullet in her head when Mars wouldn't act – much to Sawyer's horror. Things went to hell pretty quickly when the villainous Mind Master drove into the library on a motorcycle and proceeded to almost slaughter Vi, Elena, Faith, and Gar, making vicious comments to the former about going to see her deceased husband again. When Elena grabbed the Mind Master, she abruptly vanished, and Elena's whereabouts remain unknown. The Mind Master proceeded to make her way into Lazarus' secret chambers beneath the library, slitting his throat and collecting the magic that coursed through his veins in lieu of blood, the lasting effect of his having survived the ritual that sealed Malaak'a away in the first place.

Meanwhile, downtown, while Carol Danvers and Clark Kent played superhero around the city, Sam and Buffy ran into the archangels Raphael and Zerachiel, who were assisting the wounded of London, and Buffy cut a deal with Raphael after he cautioned her that some sort of big demon was also involved in the attack. In exchange for allowing Hell's forces further freedom of movement (the necessary cost to maintain the balance of the universe), Raphael transported Buffy right into the middle of the fray. The demon already gone, the angel advised her to go and protect the children – which turned out to be necessary indeed, as Sarandis had sent chipped, invisible raptors after the babies. Will Graham nearly died in the attack, but no children – or dogs – fell prey to the beasts.

Outside, a number of Knights armed to the teeth with grenades, rocket launchers, and flame throwers took on a towering seventy-foot tall Colossus that was ripping the castle apart. However, when Steve Rogers cut its head off with an expertly thrown shield toss, the monstrosity fell into the front of the castle with all of its three hundred tons, (and on fire, courtesy of Baal) and many barely escaped with their lives. Wolverine was the only person trapped in the ensuing rubble, but Nathan Young and Amy Pond dug him free as his body healed up the massive wounds suffered.

A strike team was sent out to take on Dimitris in his tank, and Spike and Dean drove Archer's car straight into the oversized military vehicle as a distraction, while Cora Hale, Rose, and Kali disabled the tank and its weapons and broke their way inside. What they found, however, was merely a projection of Dimitris taunting them, as Cora's werewolf senses alerted her immediately to the fact that no one was actually inside but them. Too late, the girls tried to escape – as the tank exploded in a volley of shrapnel and gout of flame, that also caught Christos La Krail and Grant Ward off guard, who had just arrived at the gate so that Ward might meet with Wynn for his official Knighthood interview. As everyone scrabbled to save the injured, a bag of grenades that Kali had dropped caused a secondary explosion, that took Rose and Kali's lives. Dean and Spike proceeded to look insane when the archangel Michael showed up to collect the souls of the dead, and they were the only two who could see him, but Cap stood his ground anyway with them. Dean angrily refused to give up on Rose's life, despite the fact that the death of her bondmate Lissa less than twenty four hours prior had left her connection to life weakened already. Michael cautioned him against doing 'something stupid', as Dean stalked off with her body.

Meanwhile, after realizing Zero's role in all this and helping return him to his senses so that he and Skye could restore communications and defenses, Lila Zacharov-Gray took off with Alex to the upper floor to find Amara. They discovered the homo magi using her powerful magic to keep the ceiling from collapsing into the entire castle, and while she entreated them to evacuate, Lila refused to leave her, prompting Amara to use her most powerful spell to repair the structural damage that was threatening to capsize the castle, at the cost of alerting her father to her exact location.

Just when it seemed like all might be well, Emma Swan, cursed by Poseidon to turn into a flesh-eating kelpie if she wasn't in water by sundown, came across the body of Lazarus and found her monstrous hunger awakened. Dissatisfied with the bloodless corpse, she decided to make a meal of Killian Jones, magically teleporting him into the pond behind the Knighthood, where in spite of Faye and Alex's best efforts, Killian was drowned. Luckily, however, they prevented Emma from eating her true love.

The other Knights fought bravely against basilisks, clockwork mages, and giant scorpions, while trying to assist the wounded, rescue the trapped, and do everything they could to protect the Knights' assets from falling into Dimitris' hands. With the smoke cleared, their home – thanks to Amara – remains standing, but the damage to it is substantial and won't be repaired overnight, even with magic at their disposal. More lasting will be the emotional scars of watching the only home some of them even remember ever having broken around them, their illusion of safety shattered, and their peace violated – not to mention the looming possibility of the Nightmare God being freed.

[ You are now free to make top posts for your characters in the wake of the attack. These top posts may include multiple sections (with different instructions for whether you want them to be open to multiple threads for that scene or closed to a single thread with multiple participants), that deal with anything directly after the events of the event post, and in the week following. I recommend using letters or numbers to indicate each section, so that those responding can put what they are doing in the subject line, to help others quickly know where to go to jump into any single threads.

There will be a thread about Wynn's return and a subsequent Drakenet post addressing IC-ly where people will live. Those with rooms in the Dragon's Tongue, Dragon's Hide, Dragon's Hoard, and Dragon's Fire wing will find their rooms almost entirely undamaged and still livable, but there is a percentage chance that anyone in the Dragon's Light or squire rooms will have their room destroyed. Please ask me for each of your characters this applies to and I will let you know the extent of the damage. Your characters are free to try searching the rubble for their personal effects – just include it in their top post with a search check please, and I'll let you know how much of their stuff is recoverable. Rebuilding efforts will commence within the week, so if your character has any way of contributing to putting the castle back together, that's also top post fodder. There is limited space in the Knights' downtown London office for some Knights to stay, while others may have their own apartments, etc. Other options may open up eventually. If your character is no longer living in the castle, please use your top post to establish this! I will put up top posts for each potential resurrection attempt, as rezzes take multiple days IC-ly to even be attempted.

Destroyed/heavily damaged sections of the castle: front hall/lobby (the Colossus is still there)/stairs, but there are currently ladders to access the second floor; the Dragon's Light wing/office/small library/bathrooms; the chapel; the med center; the training room; the armory; the bowling alley; the piano room; billiards room; parlor; the Dragon's claws bedrooms; parts of the dining hall; the library is intact but heavily damaged, many of the books destroyed by fire. After the first couple days, additional doors have been added to the castle at the far west end of the horizontal squire bedrooms hall, and beside the Dragon's hoard wing to enter the building, and a door has been installed at the southwest corner of the dining hall to allow people to cut through it to circumvent the Colossus still taking up the lobby and blocking access to the main hall. ]

Comments

Clark Kent | ota

[clarkfuckingkent]

Later that day - single thread

[It's dark by the time Clark comes back to the castle. It isn't that he didn't care about what was happening here, but London was a mess and he didn't feel right leaving it behind. Buffy had it under control, he hoped, and Sam had gone back with most of the more seasoned Knights (and Wynn of course) so Clark could only hope that if anyone really needed him at the castle, he would get a phone call.

He focuses on getting as many people safe as possible, reinforcing broken structures, helping everyone out their lives back together. There hits a point where he's less concerned about concealing his abilities, because who actually cares about how much rubble he can lift over his head when people are injured all around him? He's here to help. Even at the risk of exposing what he is.

Super speed gets him back to the castle eventually, but as he walks up, he's looking rough. Worn out. Still badly injured himself. But he's here.]


Throughout the week - multi thread

[Clark focuses most of his efforts on helping people rebuild. His own room wasn't damaged hardly at all, so he doesn't need to worry about that. In fact, he ends up opening his doors to two fellow squires that he barely knows. Shawn and Baal are unlikely friends, maybe, but he's trying to do what he can to ease some of the trauma here. At least they have a place to sleep.

At this point, Clark is done trying to sneakily use his powers. If you need that chunk of ceiling moved? He'll grab it. With one hand probably. He's not being flashy about it, but worrying about hiding things just seems...so unnecessary in the wake of this tragedy. They all need to work together, to rebuild. And he can't do that if he's only giving a quarter of his best.]

Later That Day

[incantatio]

[Sawyer is still lingering outside the Castle when she catches sight of Clark's approach and while others are still lingering under the low glow of twilight, it's not nearly the heavy numbers that had been there soon after the evacuation had sounded. Most had dared to go inside, see what damage had been done to their rooms, leaving Sawyer to be torn between two dreaded options.

She could return to the ballroom with all the Knights who were grieving for one of their own, while she was there for one they might see as an aggressor. Or she could head for her room, see if she had anything left of her belongings. The things she'd brought with her that had been special to her grandmother. Her mother, and of course to her. To see if maybe there was a chance that Oscar, in one of the extremely rare moments where he had not been with her when the attacks began, had been able to escape the carnage.

It's no wonder then that she's relieved by the possibility of something to prolong her making that decision, the sight of Clark drawing near getting her full attention but it's not long before her own worries are pushed aside. Oblivious to the fact that she looks like a horror show - covered in blood and scorched from fire magic - she's moving quickly towards him once she notices how bad he looks. (Spot 23)]

What - [Blinking a couple of times.] Did you just walk here? [Wis 19]

[clarkfuckingkent]

...Sawyer? [God, he almost didn't recognize her with all that blood on her. He swallows hard, not really avoiding her question but not finding it the most important thing right now.]

Are you..? What happened? I mean- I heard. Sort of. We got the message, but I didn't think... [Even with the rebuilding that Amara started, the place is still a mess. There's evidence of the fight all over the grounds. He's wondering if he made the wrong call staying in London.]

[incantatio]

[It's a question she's been asked so many times today that the reply has lost any meaning to her, Sawyer quick to shake her head and yet offer a contradictory;]

I'm fine. [She would at least appear so, for the most part. If you could look past the blood on her clothes. The burns were by no means extensive and the shock of the evening had left her all but numb to the pain.] There was -

[It's a simple enough question but the reality she is, she doesn't really know what happened. While Knights were meeting in staircases, deciding what to do. She was with the group from the bar.]

I'm still, trying to piece it together. There was a lot going on... [And not everyone made it, but she doesn't have the heart to tell him that yet.]

Roommates thread

[byyourleave]

[Baal was sadly upset about his room getting destroyed. It was the first place in a long time he had been able to call his so losing it had hurt. He was grateful for Clark, though, opening his door and offering a spot on the floor for him to nest into with some spare blankets and pillows he had found around.

He mainly keeps quiet at night, and the gun he had found during the weapon hunt was tucked under a pillow just in case. He didn't want to risk either of the men in the room getting hurt because they felt safe in their sleep still.]

[clarkfuckingkent]

[Clark doesn't mind turning his room into a makeshift hostel. It's really no issue for him.]

Either of you need anything? I'm heading to the kitchen for a bottle of water or something.

[pwnspatrickjane]

[He might not still be saying it by the time his tenure with Shawn is over, but Shawn appreciates the offer all the same. He also brought the grande-est nachos for everyone's eating pleasure.]

Nope, I'm pretty much set for now in terms of snacks.

clean up

[byrned]

[ Matt's doing his best to clean a doorway, but when a building is constructed from stone, it makes it harder than picking up a shitty old bit of plasterboard. It's slow going then, as he manages bit by bit. He turns his head towards the guy he doesn't know and calls to him. ]

Hey mate, mind grabbing the other end of this?

[clarkfuckingkent]

Yeah, no problem. [No, seriously it's not a problem at all for him. without any issue, Clark lifts the other end, like it's a piece of paper.]

Where are we taking it?

[byrned]

[ Way to make Matt feel inadequate. Seriously, he doesn't look that strong. Rude. ]

Out? Just trying to clear shit up.

[hacker]

[ Skye's touch-and-go to get a hold of the first few days. She's wandering on her own, vanishing intermittently, or at Kali's side in the ballroom. It's on her way out of the ballroom that she finds Clark working on shifting some debris around, and her eyes go wide. ]

... That thing was like three hundred pounds.

[clarkfuckingkent]

[Despite telling himself that he can't hide his abilities when people actually need him, it's hard not to feel that reflex when Skye just... calls him out on it like that.]

Uh... really?

[Play it cool, Kent.]

[hacker]

[ With a scoff of an expression, ]

It's solid marble. [ duh, smallville. ]

later in the week

[cigam]

[ eventually in the week, zatanna makes her way to the castle to help out with her magic -- and wanders up the front steps all fishnets and tuxedo jacket as clark is carrying an unnaturally large pile of scrap out. she stops in place, eyebrows climbing, and her lips curve into a grin, tongue poking into her cheek as she looks him over. ] With muscles like that, maybe Wynn doesn't need me after all.

[clarkfuckingkent]

[Clark stops in the middle of hauling away a piece of rubble and looks a little sheepish. He takes the scrap over to a new pile (???) before heading back towards the woman.]

I don't know about that. From what I hear, magic is the only reason this place is still standing.

[cigam]

Oh? How's that?

[airforceful]

[Carol is similarly using her powers to help clear things, lifting giant chunks of ceiling or colossus or whatever else and bringing them outside, or blasting them into smaller pieces if they're too stuck to move.

She comes up alongside Clark, similarly lifting a piece of wall that should be way too heavy to move.]

So. Wanna talk about it yet?

[clarkfuckingkent]

I don't know if I even know how. [He says with complete honesty. It's been his secret for all his life, after all.]

[airforceful]

You don't have to. [She can respect a secret identity even if she doesn't keep one herself.] But it might help. As you might have noticed, I'm one of the few people who can really relate.

[hivern]

Oh my... [ winter's eyes widen when clark just hefts up the chunk of marble that was impeding her progress. that is some impressive fucking strength wow. ]

You're like the Rock. The white Rock, at least.

[clarkfuckingkent]

...Thank you? [He at least knows who the Rock is with a pop culture check of 13. Okay so he knows like one movie maybe. Or just the wrestling stuff. That's probably actually it.]

[hivern]

You're welcome. Do you work out or is that just... natural?

[succubestie]

[Bo approaches him later in the week, once things are a bit more settled, or as much as they can be in this situation. She's watching him appreciatively from a short distance away, leaning against the inside of a doorway as he lifts things that are way too fucking heavy for a normal person.

It's okay, she tasted his chi back when he busted in on their mission. She probably kind of already knew something was up.]

Hey you.

[clarkfuckingkent]

[Clark has been pretty much nonstop on the helping train since he got back. Catching sight of Bo, he casually sets a large piece of rubble off to the side and gives her a sheepish sort of smile.]

Hey. Glad to see you made it through this mess in one piece.

[succubestie]

You too, handsome.

[She grins at him, her arms crossed over her chest.]

I heard you fought a dragon.