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

[layonhands]

[ the mood of the room is no doubt tense after a few days, in which one knight is successfully rezzed and another pronounced finally dead. but risa continues to pray with quiet diligence over the body, before reciting the final rite to the healing god: ]

Shine forth thy light
Drive back the darkness

Bring life where there was death
Bring growth where all was barren
Bring peace where there was strife
Bring warmth where clawed the fingers of ice
Bring mercy where there was none
Bring knowledge where there was ignorance
Bring comfort where there was fear

Let the sun rise!
Let the shadows flee!

Both in the world...
and in the minds of men

[ light flashes beneath her palms, and then... hook's eyes flutter open. ]

[unhand]

[Killian's hand curls around Emma's, and he blinks. He doesn't really know where he is or what's going on. Last he remembers, he was kissing Emma, and then.... not much? He's waking up here with no real idea of what happened or even he got from here to there. He vaguely remembers getting wet, but really, everything was dominated by Emma, even more than usual.

He sits up slowly and looks around.]

...what happened? Why am I here?

[reallywicked]

[At the first stirring, Faye stands a little straighter. She keeps her distance, not rushing to his side but definitely paying more attention. She doesn't dare to hope, not until his eyes are actually open. Once they are, a lump begins to form in her throat, but Faye does her best to keep her emotions in check (will 17). She raises one hand, covering her mouth, unable to speak for fear of that lump dissolving into tears if she dared try.]

[uncurse]

I— [ She opens her mouth, but words fail her. Tears break the corners of her eyes. No matter what she tries to tell him, the words won't come. No explanation. No confession of her feelings. She chokes it off, dropping her gaze and hunching her shoulder. ]

[unlost]

[Snow's hand gently squeezes Emma's shoulder again, her eyes bright and full of tears, her smile exuding her relief.]

Welcome back, Killian. Try to relax, okay? Everything's alright now.

[unhand]

What wasn't all right? Welcome back from where? What-- [If you were trying to make him relax, you all suck at it. He reaches for Emma because she's crying and he needs to comfort her. Unfortunately, everyone's expressions, combined with Snow's words, are enough to tip him off.]

Was I dead?

[uncurse]

[ The tears slow, and it dawns slowly on Emma that this is something she has to confront and admit to. She can't just fall apart. She can't make it about her own grief instead of what Killian has suffered. She lifts her head, turns to look at her mother. ]

Can we get a minute alone?

[reallywicked]

[even if Emma isn't addressing her, Faye just assumes she's not wanted here right now. Things are...weird anyway. And any conversation she has with Hook? She's not entirely sure it's best to have Emma around for anyway. So she'll just slip away from her spot further back.]

[unlost]

[Snow turns to look at Emma before she nods.]

Of course.

[She leans in, kissing her daughter softly on the forehead before she stands and moves to leave. Emma and Hook need their time. She can come back a little later.]

[unhand]

[Killian watches them leave, frown deepening with every moment that no one tells him what's going on. He turns to Emma.]

Please don't make me ask again. I need to know, Emma.

[untethered]

[ belle was just as relieved to see killian back, but she's still a little uncertain about this whole weird emma situation and that's probably why she just kind of... hangs back there a second, but when everyone starts moving away and killian starts to question her, she sucks it up and walks off with risa to give them their space. ]

[uncurse]

Killian. [ She sits up straighter, urging him to do the same as she holds tightly onto his hand. ] I know that you're confused, and scared, but just try to stay calm. Something happened during the attack. And for a few days, we lost you, but it's okay. [ earnestly, she tries to dismiss it. ] You're back now.

[unhand]

I'd be less confused and scared if you'd bloody tell me what happened! [He slides his legs off the table, turning towards her.] Last thing I remember is us kissing. Last I checked, that wasn't the sort of thing that can kill me.

[uncurse]

[ Emma's expression finally crumples, unable to continue hiding behind blind reassurances and platitudes. Her hand withdraws, curling steadily into her lap. ]

It can after sundown. [ There's something chilly and detached about her voice, as though she can't bear to expose herself to vulnerability in this moment, can't allow herself to be affected by how he reacts because she's more afraid than she's ever been—he has more reason to turn her away than he ever has, than anyone ever has. ] It was me. I used my magic to lure you to me, brought you to the lake, and let you drown.

[unhand]

What? [Killian stares at her, not sure how to process this. This is Emma. The woman he loves. The woman he's sometimes thought may love him back, despite her resistance to letting him in. He leans towards her.]

But... you wouldn't. I'd been helping you control it. You'd been all right all evening.

[uncurse]

[ She shakes her head. ]

I was barely holding it back. Then, when we got below the library, what we found down there ... it was like all I could see was red.

[unhand]

[It's a lot to take in. He trusts Emma implicitly, loves her, knows that what she does after sunset... it's not entirely her.

But that doesn't change the fact that he died by her hand.]

Why don't I remember? Was it a spell?

[uncurse]

I used my magic to ... [ She searches for the right word. ] Sedate you, in a sense. [ She's careful to keep the focus on herself. What she did. Her magic. She doesn't disavow any of it, or deny responsibility. Curse or no curse, these were her actions. ]

[unhand]

Ah. That'd be why all I can remember is you. [He pulls his hand back into his lap, hunching over slightly. It's... a lot to take in. It's not like Emma's ever needed magic to make him want to kiss her, but usually he's at least got enough self-preservation to not do it while he's bloody drowning.]

Suppose it's a proper death for a pirate. Besides it being fresh water.

[uncurse]

Are you cracking jokes? I just told you that I killed you.

[unhand]

What do you expect me to do, love?

[His expression sobers, his eyes raising to meet hers.]

Break down in tears? Start yelling? Throwing things? Because I'd really rather not at present moment.

[Later, maybe, but for now, he needs to hold it together. He needs to bloody think. Needs to figure out how he feels.]

But, you know, if you think I'm doing it wrong, you should let me know. I'll be sure to get it right next time you turn into a monster and kill me.

[uncurse]

[ The outburst doesn't shock her, precisely, but it does snap her back to some uneasy, reserved expression that seems to be tenuously holding back her own reaction. She doesn't know what to feel or do, and her fear is keeping her from exposing that to him. ]

Faye was the one who stopped me and dragged you out. But I thought you deserved to hear it from me who dragged you in. [ She gets to her feet. ] And I promise you, I will stay far enough away that you never have to worry about there being a next time.

[unhand]

[He catches her arm before she can leave. He doesn't know what he wants either. But he knows he doesn't want her staying away. He's never wanted that.]

Running away from your problems, Swan? I thought we were past that.

[uncurse]

[ It's not an unfair barb, and the least of those he could make, but Emma bristles all the same. ]

That's not what this is.

[unhand]

Really? Because you killed me. Least you can do is have the decency to let me make the call on whether I want to never see you again or not.