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

david levin | ota

[generaldavideus]

[David tends to keep himself busy in situations like this. Just like on Andres, he can usually be found in the reconstruction areas, trying to help things get back to normal again. He also takes the time to check in with his friends as well as his squires, hoping that everyone made it out in one piece again.

Towards the latter end of the week, however, he becomes a bit more withdrawn, dealing with grief in his own way. The grief isn't for Kali - not yet, anyway - but for Lissa. He ventures into the Dragon's Light wing eventually, making his way to her intact room. He doesn't linger long, just long enough to scoop of Oscar and take him back to his room (handle animal 17).

Lissa helped him adjust to the castle. The least he could do is take care of her cat now that she's gone.]

[immuno]

[ When David comes to pick up the cat from the Light wing, Lydia's there trying to do what she can to clean. She's not much use at moving things, but she can help clean out some of the rooms that were still usable but half-ruined. ]

Whose was it?

[ if David is collecting the cat, Lydia can only assume that its owner can't, and she doesn't believe for a second that it's him. ]

[generaldavideus]

[Hey. David could totally be a cat person.

Except he's not, exactly, but Oscar was important to Lissa.]

Lissa Dragomir? She was killed on the Paris mission.

[immuno]

She hung out with Faye, right? [ knowledge local 22, lydia is always up on the gossip. ] I didn't know her. [ Then, ] I'm sorry.

[leftenants]

[Abbie happens upon David while he's working, Abbie herself in the middle of hauling some of the refuse collected during cleanup. She slows to a stop, setting the bag she'd had slung over one shoulder down on the floor-- she won't keep him for long, but given all that's happened, she can't just keep walking without saying something.]

Hey. How you holding up?

[He's been here a lot longer than her. She knows that the people they lost were more than teammates to him-- they were friends.]

[generaldavideus]

[They were friends. Not that he particularly knew Rose well, but Lissa and Kali were important to him, and he and Hook had been through a lot on the homo magi missions and Max was important to Lissa. It's hard not to feel those losses.]

About as well as can be expected. You?

[This was a hell of a thing to get through, no matter how well you knew dead.]

[leftenants]

[If only a smile or a sympathetic hand on the shoulder were enough.]

Still kind of reeling, but I'm on my own two feet. Figure that means I'm doing pretty well.

[She'd been lucky. She wasn't going to take the fact that she'd escaped the incident mostly unscathed for granted.]

First time I saw combat with the knights.

[bittersweeter]

[ it's the cat that leads david to lila, oscar's bushy tail standing up as he pads down the hall and headbutts the open door to sylar's room, slipping in like he owns the place and meowing loudly. it startles both lila and her own cat, jumping and dropping her book with a thud as she stands up. ]

Who the fuck are you?

[ like the cat is going to tell her. ]

[generaldavideus]

Oscar!

[Yeah, Oscar's so not going to listen to him. He likes David, but David isn't really able to give him the attention he truly thinks he deserves. He clearly wants to run free, with the wind through his fur.

He follows him into the room and gives Lila an apologetic look.]

Sorry.

[bittersweeter]

Oscar? [ she looks down at the cat wrapping himself around her legs, frowning before realization dawns on her expression. ] Lissa's cat.

[ she looks up at david. ]

I'm surprised he survived up in the Light wing.

[theshadowspeaks]

[ Deryn had been walking along a bit dusty midway through the week, mostly walking to clear his mind when he saw David. He nodded to the other man and stopped long enough to offer a weak smile.]

Hello, are you doing well? [ He asked mostly because he felt he should ask something but wasn't sure what. No one is okay, he had been told that much that night, so well would work.]

[generaldavideus]

[David pauses for a moment, before glancing up with a small smile of his own.]

Fine. Thank you.

[There's enough grieving going around, he doesn't feel the need to have his own to the pile.]

[theshadowspeaks]

[ Deryn nodded to the reply.]

Do you need help with anything? [ he asked offhanded since he wasn't really sure what to say, but wanted to speak to the man.]

[sakurasmile]

[In the training room, Kyomi is strugglebussing trying to sort through the rubble, but she is a sadsack example of strength and is having some trouble with a heavier practice dummy, only managing to drag it a few inches at a time. (str 12) She's muttering to herself as she does it.]

Oh, bloody hell. You're gonna move, damn you. Like hell if I'm not gonna have space to work on bucklin' my swashes just 'cause you're a piece of shite.

[generaldavideus]

[He chuckles softly at that, before making his way over to help and easily aiding it the rest of the way (strength 14).]

Here. Let me help.

[sakurasmile]

[she blows hair out of her face and grins toothily at him he assists.] Bless. You're a gentleman and... well I won't call you a scholar with muscles like those, but a gentleman's good enough for me.

[buttholy]

[dante is trying to sort through the training room today, as is his wont. sorting through the remainder of the armory that spilled into the training room the colossus team left behind, putting like weapons with like.]

It's all so ... it just makes you feel depressed.

[generaldavideus]

[David glances over at the statement, before nodding his agreement, because yeah, it is. With the villages back in Everworld and with Andres, the things that were destroyed were meant to be built into something better.

With this, they were losing something that meant the world to them.]

I know what you mean.

[buttholy]

This is supposed to be a safe place. The castle. There was always something magical about it to me. Not magic-magic, just ... hopeful. That kind of magic.

And now ...

[he glances down at the mess around them. and now it's rubble.]

[bitchywolf]

[And here's one squire, checking in. She finds him pretty quickly after she gets back in.]

Sooo... [She starts as she looks around, still thinking: wow she missed a lot. And then on another train of thought: ] I feel like I should be asking are you okay? [Considering the state this place is in and all. He seems to be in one piece too, but he'd been here - whereas she hadn't been.]

[generaldavideus]

[Is David okay? That is a question that should probably never really be asked because the answer is always complicated because he's never actually okay, he just thinks he's okay because he's found a way to function through it. Or at least fake it.

Either way, he nods because he's also not going to give his squire reason to worry about him. He's supposed to be looking out for her.]

Yeah, I'm fine. No serious harm done.

[bitchywolf]

The wording of that sounded ridiculous. [just saying. not in the sense that she thinks it's bullshit, because guess who crit failed her sense motive check, but simply just the words he chose to use to express that.] But okay, you have all your limbs, good. [thumbs up here.]

[silverguardian]

[ nyna gets back within a day, is definitely discomforted by the air of death hanging over the place - considering she only just barely escaped it recently. she's surveying the minimal damage to her room when david finds her. ] It's livable, at least.

[generaldavideus]

[He takes a deep breath before nodding, leaning in the door frame as he gives the room a look.]

That's good. A lot of squires weren't as lucky. Erica's crashing with me until some of the repairs are done.

[silverguardian]

I heard there were casualties.