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

wynn's return || outside the castle, as everyone gathers

[wynn]

[ ♬ to build a home - the cinematic orchestra

it's dark by the time zero sounds the evacuation order. surveillance shows that the grounds are cleared of threats, and even with alex assuring him that the situation is under control, he'd rather be safe than sorry. knights begin to pour out in front of the front steps into the twilight, one by one or in pairs or groups, hurrying to try and catch sight of their loved ones, ensure that they're among the living.

not everyone is.

dean and ward are carrying the corpses of rose and kali, but not everyone has even had a chance to see who's alive yet before a long black Knights car comes racing past the tank, winding down the drive and coming to an abrupt halt behind them all, in front of the ruined castle.

the front passenger door opens first, and the imposing figure that rises out of it is wynn himself.

there are those who have seen wynn angry, seen wynn mourn, seen him wrestle against an uncertain future. but even the most seasoned knights have never seen the expression of loss that paints his features now as he surveys the wreckage, as his eyes scan across the bruised and battered knights attending to each other, embracing each other, staring in horror themselves at what is left of their home.

perhaps it's more than loss. it speaks heavily of a deep, personal sense of guilt.

for a moment he can't move, his hand resting on the open door beside him, and it's anastacia who gets out of the back and notices that he's paralyzed in place, reaches over to place a hand gently on his arm, her expression riddled with concern. hasmed and solace step out of the other side, and while solace's face falls in horror looking at the castle, hasmed's eyes are entirely on wynn, and he lightly nudges solace, prompting him to look at him as well, and then raising a sharp eyebrow at the cleric, a disapproving frown on his face.

dovan hurries around from the other side as well and comes to an abrupt stop, his mouth dropping open as he surveys the damage and then the gathered knights. "Oh no. No--" he mumbles, and anastacia turns to look at him with sympathetic tears in her eyes. fred jr. climbs out next, and gapes, his forehead furrowing in disbelief. "This can't be happening," he says, looking to wynn as if for confirmation, but their leader is still frozen, oblivious to anastacia's attempts to rouse him.

jack gets out of the driver's seat, his expression stoic as he takes in the sight, but after scanning the crowd, his attention shifts to wynn, and he steps up beside him, as if to afford a sense of solidarity, even if he says nothing.

despite this, wynn still doesn't move at first, and when his hand finally drops off the door and his feet start taking him forward, it's with slow, heavy steps, almost as if he doesn't have any idea that he's taking them. he heads towards the crowd of knights, sparing no more attention for the castle itself, his pained expression taking in every face he can find, meeting it wordlessly, never stopping until he sees where rose and kali's bodies lie with their hovering guardians, and he finally stills in place entirely, before taking a few final steps forward and bending down on one knee in front of them.

he studies both their faces for a long moment, before reaching out a hand to wipe black streaks from both of their cheeks. he doesn't look up, doesn't acknowledge anyone else for a long time, but those standing close can see him tilt his head slightly aside, squeeze his eyes shut against what most certainly seem like tears, something that seems to surprise him as much as it does anyone watching.

∂

note: this is a single thread starting with sam's reply for anyone who wants to interact with this scene in this moment. please use the dibs plurk. wynn will have his own starter thread for anyone who wants to approach him at a later time. players may reply directly to this thread with other specific reunion threads they desire between any people out front. ]

outside single thread // wynn & bodies

[familybusiness]

[As Sam steps out of the car, his chest drops into the pit of his stomach.

When he saw Sarandis' message out in London, he'd had no idea that it could have been this horrible. Maybe he'd just assumed, since the place was filled with what accounted for a militia, that they couldn't possibly take this much damage. Maybe because all Raphael had mentioned was one demon, he didn't even to worry about this kind of destruction.

He should have tried to come back with Buffy.

Dean.

He doesn't wait, just starts booking it towards the Castle, running at full steam even as he starts to shout. He can't see individual faces, but he can see people, and one of them might be his brother.]

Dean!?

[And then he gets close enough to spot him, a very burned figure at his feet, and while his very first reaction is relief, he realizes all too quickly by the color of the hair of the person he's carrying that this is...really bad, considering the rest of her features are horribly marred.

He runs the rest of the way up to his brother, his face a mask of horror and pain.]

What the hell happened?

rafael || ota.

[romanticidal]

[ a. single thread

it's the same night as the attack, and the castle is lit by dim backup power, more or less, as well as magical lights set here and there by the dragon's fire members. the ceiling is still open to the stars in some places, so at least rafael and buffy have some moonlight to go sifting through the rubble in. how romantic. or something. is it still romantic when it's like your ex-girlfriend's mom/current girlfriend's patron goddess or sth...

either way, he seems a bit at a loss as to what to say for a bit, before finally saying: ]

What will happen now, do you think?

[ b. multi-thread

luckily rafael's been staying in buffy's room while he's here, which is still intact, so he's... still around the castle. maybe he doesn't have a ton of skills in the way of home building but he'll do what he can, and wants to stay close to the other failboaters and his bae. he'll at least keep himself busy in trying to help put the kitchen back together for everybody. there's something he's well versed in. oh my god, he really is a kept woman.

otherwise he can be found outside at times, using the trees for target practice, twirling his guns like an asshole. he stops in now and again to check on rose's rez progress, tries to help watch the kiddos whenever the babies are around. ]

A

[slay]

[ Buffy paces the rubble like a lost puppy, trying to reconcile the fragments and rubble with the only home she'd ever known. It's unrecognizable, and having missed the worst of it, she's suffering some cognitive dissonance as she continues to process. It doesn't quite fit, won't click in her mind as being real quite yet, leaving her despondent and her mind fuzzy. ]

I don't know.

[ She admits weakly, her throat dry with disbelief and uncertainty. ]

Nothing like this has ever happened before. He hit us where we live. [ She crouches to sort through the rubble for her belongings (search 18). ] If there's any justice in this world, next is the part where we hunt him down and rip him apart. [ It's cold and unapologetically violent in a way Buffy can't usually bring herself to be, but this violation cuts deep, and even if Amara has already set about rebuilding some of the worse damage, she can't remove the taint of Sarandis' presence on the castle walls. ]

zero || ota, multi-thread

[spellfile]

[ a. multi-thread

zero has a lot of work ahead of him repairing the damage done by one and glados, and he throws himself into it with a level of determination that's much more solemn than his usual demeanor, as if he's trying to get through it as fast as he possibly can.

there's plenty of rumors flying around the castle that zero has some kind of connection to the hacker who left them vulnerable, and his obsessiveness with fixing the problem might speak to a little bit of guilt.

he spends most of his time, as usual, in his computer lab in the dragon's hoard, although

b. single thread

... he can be seen leaving lis'sa's office the next day like a particularly kicked puppy. or a sullen one. one of those. ]

( a )

[bittersweeter]

[ after sleeping off her blowback, lila slips into zero's room without invitation, flopping down in his spare chair. she may have slept for a day straight, but she doesn't look like she's slept at all. her blowback had been particularly bad on her already fragile body and it shows in her pallor and dark circles. her hands cradle a mug of something steaming, but she doesn't drink it. she doesn't even say anything at first, sitting quietly before she pipes up in her rough, raspy voice, ]

I'm sorry.

[ it's not a phrase often heard from lila because she only says it when she genuinely means it. ]

wynn (ota).

[wynn]

[ multi-thread.

the knights' leader doesn't really leave the castle grounds the entire week, for any reason. in some ways, he seems like a ghost wandering the halls. he comes by to monitor all construction, to check on all the wounded and the dead, to confer quietly from time to time with his section heads and jack, but he also locks himself away in the round table room for long periods of time, or in the adjacent hallway that leads to it, staring so hard at the artwork that lines the wall that it seems like he just might be considering tossing it all on a fire. we just don't know.

either way, there are no fiery rousing speeches about justice or getting back at sarandis broadcast on drakenet or delivered in person, merely a utilitarian announcement about where people can stay in the city, and a pained acknowledgment of the dead. he seems to be on the verge of some weighty decision, but gives no hints as to what that might be.

he can also be found walking the remnants of the upper ramparts, or occasionally in the portrait and statue lined hall of heroes. ]

[ambitionist]

[the same day, probably not too long after they sort out what to do with kali and rose, alex tries to approach wynn without a bazillion people huddled around. he can wait. it's fine.]

Uh ... sir, we need to talk about something. It's kind of really important.

operation save elena | single thread

[graveflowers]

[ part of her feels bad for not lingering around the resurrections, but vi's always felt funny about them. it's a struggle for her to really contextualize bringing someone back from the dead even though she was there when fred was brought back because she straddles the line between life and death and, to her, it's a very solid line. things aren't supposed to make it through, even when her mother begged hades to allow orpheus to free eurydice, the dead always returned.

so instead of loitering where she is not needed and can't contribute, vi takes it upon herself to find elena gilbert if it's the last thing she does. she starts with letting rafael babysit lucia and stalking hasmed because he's the head of the dragon's fire and if he can't find her precious friend then vi is going to have some words for him.

she also leaves a voicemail for alainn to call her when she's not busy on andres. ]

[eldritchweaver]

[ HE NOTICES YOUR STALKING OK, and finally detaches from solace long enough to answer her. ] Can I help you with something?

steve » ota

[recruited]

[ a. reunion - multi-thread

Steve miraculously is still on his feet right now. Which is surprising due to the injuries he sustained, exhaustion of the day and seeing a friend dead like that (fort save nat 20 comes to 31 total and will save 22). He feels like his body could give out, but he keeps moving. Walking almost like he's in a daze of sorts. Steve doesn't seek out solitary like he should. He doesn't take a moment to himself. He doesn't even look for a cleric to get patched up. Instead Steve moves like a man possessed looking for the people that he knows. Hoping to make sure they're okay. Status updates are important despite the blood, soot and dirt that's covering him. The arm with the shield on it hangs limply at his side.

b. multi-thread

The next couple of days are a blur for Steve. His room is mostly intact and once he's checked it over he puts up a handwritten note for everyone to see if they need a place to sleep. He's already got Natasha in there, but he's pretty sure a few more could slide in. He'd happily give up his bed to sleep somewhere if they needed that. If that doesn't suit people then he's easy to find trying to help clean up and move rubble. He spends a great deal of time removing the Colossus from the lobby piece by piece. He still feels pretty bad about lobbing the things head off and sending it toppling forward into the lobby. Whoops. When he's not doing manual labor he can just be found around. ]

B.

[byrned]

[ Matt tries to work out as often as he can, but he's definitely no Captain America. Not that he knows who Captain America is, but he's seen the guns on Steve and fuck God was generous the day he was putting him together.

He's taking a break with a beer in hand when he sees Steve doing similarly, and he nods towards him, pulling a beer from his cooler. ]

Want a cold one?

amara | ota.

[besmitten]

[ a. single thread

after expending so much magic, it's probably not surprising that amara is out cold for days. i'm sure lila makes sure she's got a nice room to chill in, and she's probably the one there when she finally stirs--

b. multi-thread

the usually aloof magi actually makes herself useful throughout the rebuilding process, but she doesn't push herself anywhere near what she did to keep the castle from collapsing inward. she probably spends a lot of time in the library, helping mend busted up and burnt books. ]

( a )

[bittersweeter]

[ waiting for amara to wake up is kind of terrifying. (is this how people feel when she goes into her mini blowback comas?) but lila waits patiently for her to rouse, having enlisted sylar into helping move her to his untouched squire bedroom that neither of them often use since they don't live in the castle. but for now she does. she forces herself to leave the room a few times, because the claustrophobia of staying in one place too long drives her insane, but she's back sooner rather than later.

when amara stirs, lila is curled up on the leather couch, draped with blankets and rubbing her head as she reads, door perched open with one her high heels to allow the breeze from the open window to filter through the room. one of the cats, ferried from the apartment to keep lila company, is on the bed with amara, so she wakes up to a small white cat with big blue eyes passive-aggressively purring at her like that will make the woman pet her. ]

Morning.

colossus removal squad | single thread

[adamantiumed]

[ so, there's still a giant robot blocking the lobby and main intersection of the hallways, making cheryl's job harder than it needs to be, p much. logan might have a personal score to settle with the colossus in question, so it's probably not surprising that he's definitely on the team tasked with trying to remove it.

obviously getting a 300 ton behemoth of metal out of there isn't going to be an easy feat, even with magic, but luckily it's a lot more portable when it's

sliced up :)

logan may or may not be taking out some aggression over here as he dismembers the thing piece by tiny piece. ]

[recruited]

[ Oh my god, Logan, let it go. The Colossus is dead and pretty much buried. Get over it. Steve does pitch in though because why wouldn't he? He's Captain America. He lives for this tedious crap. Plus he can lift crap like this for the most part. He does however keep side-eyeing Logan with all the weird overly aggressive stuff with a dead robot. Dude, get a hobby. ]

the king of andres nbd || ota

[nosdacariad]

[ within a couple days, mark arrives, in a shiny plane with the andresian flag on the side. if you don't think he's going to make a beeline for his fellow failboaters to make sure they're alright, you don't know him.

he insists to his bodyguards that they don't need to follow him everywhere through the whole building, at least... ]

[delicere]

[The moment is not lost on Avaleen as she spies Mark moving about the Castle while she carries an arm full of wildflowers. A small, private smile graces her lips as she stands before a table, exchanging an arrangement of withering blossoms with the wildflowers she'd gathered from Castle grounds.]

I imagine this must feel heartbreakingly familiar to you... [The smile fades a little, a rush of empathy going through her as she casts her gaze in his direction. This was not the first time he'd seen the place he'd called home, tarnished by Dimitris Sarandis. It wasn't even the second.]

Your Majesty. [A little of that sparkle returning to her eyes as she attempts to ease the sorrow of that reality by making reference to their first meeting.] Or perhaps I may still call you Mark.

thea ⟶ open

[withasouvenir]

[ when thea finally makes it back into the castle she finds her room relatively unharmed. the door won't close because the frame is cracked and the hideous fur chandelier thing is dangling at just the perfect angle for her to finally rip it down and not worry about insulting wynn's tastes. it was clearly a threat to her health. once that is thrown into the corner to be burned at a later date, thea collapses into bed, texts ollie that she's fine and a series of question marks at elena, and then sleeps the sleep of a concussion.

(exactly what not to do.)

a couple days later, she's sharing the room with sara and keeping her up at night when she jerks awake from nightmares of a chaotic miasma of the undertaking and the attack on the castle, and texting elena a series of worried question marks (where are you??? she only has, like, four friends. she'd like to account for them all.) before the gossip reaches her that elena is missing and the texting stops.

because she's steadily refusing to let a cleric treat her -- there are people way more injured than her to deal with and she can handle the pain, she'll heal fine on her own -- she spends most of her time limping through the wreckage in the lobby trying to clear it out and find her bow that... is probably crippled beyond repair. it doesn't stop her from trying! she was effectively exiled from the first home she'd made when she came through the veil, she wants to keep this one intact as best she can. ]

[canaria]

[The nightmares are understandable -- Sara had her share of them back home, and even now they still come back to her sometimes. So, being kept up by Thea's nightmares isn't something that Sara is going to make an issue of ... and she never asks if she's okay, because of course she's not. She just makes herself there and awake for a while if Thea wants to talk about it.

But what she's actually doing now is helping out with Thea in the lobby. And though Sara also has a high tolerance for pain, she still has to say to Thea: ]

You know, watching you limp around like that in all this makes me nervous for your health.

[Casually big sisters her for life tbh. Also, Sara knows damn well that even if Thea knew she'd hurt herself even worse, she'd give no fucks and keep pushing anyway. Which is also ... exactly what Sara would do. w/e, let her have her moment of concern here jfc.]

dumage || (ota/single thread)

[postergirl]

[ beggin for thread - banks

it's later in the week that a red car pulls up to the front of the castle, and a figure emerges from the driver's seat in a tight white dress with a fur stole and impeccable heels, drawing a pair of oversized sunglasses off her face as she looks up at the remnants with slightly widened eyes, letting the glasses swing off her index finger, back and forth.

it doesn't matter who's standing nearby - she scoffs audibly, and muses out loud: ]

... Naturally. I leave you all alone for five minutes.

[bigbad]

[Spike's not actually looking where he's going right now because he's got a bunch of chopped up colossus bits in a trash can and he's bringing them outside to idk someone's got to come collect the knight's trash right? Well I guess he thinks somewhere in the front is a good spot for it. Anyway it's piled high enough that he can't really see.]

Coming through, move if you don't want a bloody reenactment....

[Then he hears Dumage's voice as he makes it outside and actually drops the trash cans, sending the rubble spilling out. He stares.

He'll have words in a minute. Probably.]

vi → open

[graveflowers]

( a ) single thread

[ she leaves the door ajar to the secret passage when she delves into the secret rooms under the library. there's nothing for her there anymore, lazarus is no more and she's lost another support, but she can't help but be drawn to his home, regardless. eventually the body is moved and vi sits in the same worn leather chair she always occupied, holding the strange little moon in her lap as she stares at nothing, the flowers that had bloomed so brightly for him slowly wilting from her grief. ]


( b ) multi-thread

[ because vi kept her squire bedroom after she was knighted, her room was all but crushed when the colossus had broken through the castle. she's not overly materialistic so she doesn't mind her clothes and crap being destroyed. but it breaks her heart when she finds the wreckage of the crib that dovan had handmade for lucia. she'd spent so many months in this room, with luthir, it was their first home together, and now it's just another casualty. slowly, but with great determination, she ferries what she can salvage from her room to luthir's former room in the dragon's hide. it's not her sect, but she has no doubt wynn would allow it and she doesn't expect dovan to put up much of a fuss. once upon a time she was thinking about joining his sect, after all, but kyp had urged her to the light.

it's slow going, as she's almost constantly distracted by trying to find elena or attending to her daughter, but she seems fine enough to take it slow. it's hard work, but she finds the exertion cathartic. ]

(b)

[sakurasmile]

[When Kyomi returns from her mission, it's to find her room in shambles. Mercifully, most of what few material possessions she has are kept at her parents' house for safekeeping. Anything of value- her sword, her laptop, and her current notebook- were in the bag she carried with her.

it's annoying as shit to pick her way barefooted through the rubble to try and assist where she can, but she keeps having to shift into her tiny fox shape to squeeze into crevices to see if she can find anything of value. Her stuff may not be an issue, but there are plenty of others here who aren't so lucky.

So there's a red fox bopping along the hallway in the Hide wing, with a sundress tied around her neck like a cape. She passes by the door to the room Vi's currently moving into, stops, cants her head, and then ducks down the hall a ways. A second later, Kyomi emerges, adjusting the sundress and looking tired and worn, but managing a tiny smile all the same.]

Hey, flower-child.

astrid | open

[pathology]

[after astrid discovers that her room is basically garbage now, she decides to move into a hotel near the london office so she can be eloise and also be closer to starbucks. fuck, i bet her hotel has a starbucks in the lobby. she's living the dream. so she should be happy???

but she's not, because whenever she's at the castle, you can hear her in the light wing rummaging through her room, trying to salvage things and toss them in suitcases to go back to the hotel. (search 18) she doesn't have anything too irreplaceable (unless you actually ask her), just a lot of designer clothing, makeup, shoes, handbags, books, etc... there's lots of angry german screeching whenever she discovers something is ruined. which is probably a lot.

you can also catch her in the lobby hauling these suitcases of anything she happens to find. you know, throwing them down before she descends the ladder, trying to manuever around the colossus removal team. so graceful.]

lobby

[beatupgrass]

[Rocket is probably the only person in the entire castle who is benefiting from this. Some innate instinct that just enjoys climbing over things and finding quiet places that no one else can get to. He's the smartest raccoon he knows, y'know.

Outwardly, however, he's bitching as much as anyone... Probably because as Astrid's squire, he's expected to help her carry her bags.] My room freakin' blew up. Can you believe that?

[yes, rocket, because your room was a warehouse of explosive devices. where did you even get so many.]

» Wanda | open

[divaricate]

( A: multi-thread ; same night )

[While those here who have only known this place as home are understandably and rightfully upset about it being violated, that’s actually not the worst part for Wanda. The worst part for her is the fact that every place she has called home has been violated like this – her apartment with her family when she was ten? Hit by a shell – an attack which her parents were killed in. Most of her country? Sent into the sky and blown up (so that it didn’t crash back down and kill everyone on earth) – with basically everyone off of it, sure, but still, the place she’d grown up in was blown up into a million tiny pieces. And now this castle – it’s been attacked by a bunch of shit.

Once she comes out of the dungeon where she’d taken shelter with some others after doing some fighting, she’s still in pretty bad shape and looks it too, but she doesn’t care about finding a cleric. Someone else probably needs one a lot worse. But she is around, though not very social, having found herself a place to sit and watch the reunions of others and glance over at where the bodies of the dead knights are. She didn’t know them, but losing members of a team isn’t a great feeling nonetheless.

She’ll go up to her room in the Dragon’s Fire wing after a while.]


( B: multi-thread ; any time later throughout the week. )

[As the days go on, Wanda doesn’t get much sleep. Every time she closes her eyes, something blow up – she sees the scenes from her home and here played out. So, when she’s out of her room where others are most likely to see her, she looks pretty damn tired. She’s definitely one of the knights who is in need of a good therapist right about now.

She’s still not terribly social, and most socializing she does is done within the Dragon’s Fire wing; being close to her sect in their wing is what she finds most comforting at this time – though, anyone not in the sect who wants to specifically seek her out for whatever reason is obviously more than welcome to.

She does choose to help out with cleaning efforts in the bathrooms, so anyone helping out there as well, and who might not seek her out specifically, will get a chance to see her outside of the Dragon’s Fire wing.]

a }

[bredinthebone]

[Wanda isn't the only one not sleeping much, but it's more from Malina's natural compulsion to keep busy rather because of nightmares. But Wanda is one of the people she was looking after, so she wanders through the crowds until she finds her, placing a hand on her shoulder gently.]

You need a cleric.

[Never mind that Malina is still in need of one herself, but that's a problem for another time.]

lila ♔ open

[bittersweeter]

[ for a few days, all of lila's concern is with amara, blinders on to anything else happening aside from her husband. gossip carries easily in the castle, however, and lila finds out soon enough what happened while she was trying to save zero and amara. even word of casualties and elena's curious lack of whereabouts aren't enough to pull her from amara's side.

once the blonde sorceress is awake and lila has worked through the worst of her blowback, she ventures out more, clearing out some of the stuff in her room that remained when she moved out so sweets won't have to contend with navigating rogue heels on the floor and make up all over the dressers. (she promptly dumps it in sylar's room with the intention of bringing it home eventually but that's unlikely to actually happen any time soon.) that taken care of, she sets about finding her friends, because some of them are in mourning, and her squire to check on the state of him.

there are many things she should do, but mostly she rifles through the remains of the library to recover some of her precious books when she's not running herself ragged making a handful of new dreamwork charms which leave her looking a perpetual state of exhausted almost all the time. if she's feeling energetic, she heads down to the lobby to supervise clean up in her bossy way. ]

Put your back in to it, my dead Babu could carry more than you!

[ the constant supply of new york style pizza and chinese food that starts cropping up in the kitchen is courtesy of lila's sleepless habits. you're welcome. ]

same day

[watchmaker]

[after getting directions as to where she might be, he makes his way upstairs (i'd imagine someone probably put ladders in at this point in the day), goes into the hide wing, and just ... listens with his superhearing until he finds her. that was easy. ish.

so he looms in the doorway like]

I got your Nando's.

Avaleen ][ OTA

[delicere]

a ) That Night: Multi-Thread

[In the calm that follows the storm, it is a battered yet still mostly in one piece Ava who emerges to survey the devastation. Ethereal blue eyes that will glitter with light in even of the darkest of hours have been rendered dull in the wake of tragedy. Her face is a mask of disbelief as she casts a sorrowful gaze across the Castle. Across the faces of Knights who have seen such loss tonight that even Ava, who will find the good in everything and do all that she can to bring a smile to a person face, isn't sure that there's anything that can make them smile now. Perhaps not for some time.

It begins with just one person, stopping somebody as they stand lost in the sea of faces to ask if they may need her assistance as a Cleric. One becomes two, then three and as the night wears on. The blonde looks increasingly exhausted as she channels all her time and energy into the healing of those around her. So exhausted that as she runs out of spells, she's barely able to stay on her own two feet. The crimson color of blood that darkens her golden blonde hair a sign that the healer should perhaps have taken time to heal herself.]

b ) The Week Following: Multi-Thread

[Avaleen learned quickly from her time in Andres that there were just some things she wasn't particularly good at doing. She wasn't suited to manual labor and while she might wish to provide assistance in the kitchens? Anyone who didn't want to spend an evening worshiping porcelain gods was probably grateful that Avaleen found better ways to be of use around the Castle.

Much of her time is spent providing aid to those who injure themselves in their attempts to remove the traces of what Sarandis had done to their home. The rest is divided between hopelessly trying to help salvage what they can from the Medical Center (Search 6) and doing what she could to assist with the process of the numerous resurrections they plan to attempt. She's perhaps not well equipped in the magical side of that but she can bring food and drink to the healers who appear to work night and day. The comfort of a smile and a kind word whenever she can.

In those rare moments when she is not keeping herself busy with Castle activities, Avaleen retreats to the sanctuary of nature. Wildflowers are picked to add color to the Castle in an attempt to combat the somber air that hangs over it while at other times, it's rest that's needed. The blonde found under the shade of a tree as she looks to her Goddess for guidance, or to the sun for just a little warmth.]

A)

[somepagesturn]

[Paige is exhausted herself and Henley is following along beside her, nudging her as if he's afraid if he leaves her alone for five minutes, she'll collapse in a corner. Not one to ever think of herself in a time of crisis, however, she notices Avaleen, looking dead on her feet and steadies herself to go to her.]

Sweetie? Are you okay? Let me see. [Mama Paige is just gonna get all up in your face to check your injuries. Don't mind her... or her giant black dog.]

Kenzi ][ OTA

[morethanasidekick]

a ) Immediate Aftermath: Phone Call to Bo & Andrew - Single Thread

[Soon after being found by Natasha, Kenzi takes it upon herself to reach out to the other, super hot bestie in her life.

Oh yeah. And Andrew.]

If you two could stop mingling limbs long enough to check your damn phones! Maybe you could. I don't know. Call? [It's entirely possible that she's left more than one colorful message for them since drakenet came back up.] Or Text. [A beat.] But FYI! I was maybe almost eaten by a giant scorpion, and a bear so... [No Kenzi, no you weren't.] I'm pretty sure a phone call is the standard best friend protocol here. [Her tone however softens a little as she adds;] Bobo? I'd kinda like to hear your voice, okay? [Never mind that she has bad news to bestow on Bo but she'll tackle how to tell her about Rose when she's able to talk to her. Even Kenzi knows there are some things you just don't want to learn from a recorded message.

She is however going to keep calling until you pick up so... ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring Banana-phone.]

b ) That Night: Multi-Thread

[With everyone still at the Castle gathering in one place? Kenzi will of course take the time out to check in with those she knows best. Venus will be handed back to Mars, Natasha will be asked about her musclebound friend who Kenzi thought was maybe, possibly... a stripper when she first met him and at some point? As one would expect. Hawley's (not-so to her) secret booze stash in his bedroom will be raided and Kenzi will find herself a place to sit, away from all the grief to grieve in her own way. Grief for Kenzi however, looks an awful lot like a day ending in a Y as she sits on the edge of a half wall, her legs swinging freely, drinking straight from the bottle.]

c ) The Week Following: Multi-Thread

[There isn't a lot that Kenzi thinks she can actually do to be useful in the wake of a disaster of this magnitude. She doesn't clean. She can't cook. The most amount of lifting she does involves the pouring or consumption of alcohol and she's not exactly got height on her side. What she is oddly good at? Seeing when somebody is isolating themselves. Flopping herself down next to a perfect stranger just so they don't feel completely alone. Adding some much needed comic relief when laughter is few and far between.

With her room in a state of almost complete disrepair, she's taken over Hawley's bedroom and in turn, his booze stash under the promise that she doesn't leave it trashed. That... probably would be an easier promise for her to keep if she hadn't pretty much turned his bedroom into an open bar for people to flock to but she figures if it gets really bad? She took photos of the Colossus in the Lobby to show him just in case he comes back before she has a chance to clean.

There probably isn't much to salvage in her own room, barring her secret booze stash, Excalibur and whatever she can find by way of clothing... provided she can actually get to her wardrobe. The room doesn't exactly look like a safe place to be digging around in but it has alcohol and her favorite pair of leather boots so. This is what she do. (Search 15).

d ) The Week Following: Single-Thread

[So about Kenzi turning Hawley's bedroom into an open bar for people to flock to? This is a thing that is happening on any given night in the Castle. Come one come all. There's an open door policy in that... Kenzi literally just, leaves the door open.]

c.

[sakurasmile]

[While Kenzi searches, a fox has appeared wearing what appears to be a bright yellow sundress around its neck, making it look like a weird little vulpine superhero. She stops in the busted doorway, sniffing the air, and tilts her head at Kenzi's searching, before letting out a... foxy bark.

That's what the fox says, Kenzi. You have learned the answer on this day.]

Frankie ][ OTA

[thetokenaussie]

a ) That Night: Multi-Thread

[It's not until they're finally able to evacuate the Castle that Frankie is able to see what's been going on. Holding down the R&D lab had left her and the others shut away from the chaos that was surrounding the Knights this evening and while the debris falling from the ceiling hadn't exactly made for a fun night, seeing what had caused it now made her appreciate just how unbelievably lucky she actually was.

As people come together to grieve, to be with loved ones? Frankie feels the responsibility to be useful now, wasting no time in getting to work on trying to restore power to the Castle, or at the very least, to get a good start on it. (Repair 31)

There will however be time for breaks, for her to check in with people she knows to make sure they're alright, to field phone calls from her Mum when news of what happened with the Mechanical Dragons in London makes it to the headlines. Those eavesdropping on that one will get to listen to Frankie lying her ass off as she assures her Mum that she not only wasn't anywhere near that stuff, but that her job with 'The Karthur Institute' was boring and would never put her in danger... (Bluff 17).]

b ) Later That Night: Single-Thread || Text to Andrew

Just checking in. Figure you probably heard what happened by now.

c ) The Week Following: Multi-Thread

[The kind of person that will stop and deal with what's happened when everything is done, getting five minutes alone with Frankie won't be the easiest. Not unless you plan on chatting to her while she's working on repairs to various parts of the Castle. (Repair 33). She'll eat lunch where she's been working, pause only for a drink and she'll probably spend half the time asking you to pass her a tool that you've never even heard of but she's a pretty good multi-tasker, so there's at least that. (Concentration 19).

The only time you might catch her not working, is late in the day. Usually with a bottle of beer in hand, either out the front, just looking over the slowly improving grounds or maybe out in the garage where this Knight seems to feel most at home. As long as you don't mind the fact that she's probably covered in dust, grease and assorted cuts, bruises and burns? You're always welcome to join her. She might even let you have that second beer sitting beside her.]

(A.

[beatupgrass]

[Most people don't want raccoons in their wiring, but in this case, it's a fucking mercy that the castle has one that can get up in tight spaces to deal with jerry-rigging some things that have been torn apart by the explosions.

And cussing up a storm while he does it (repair aid another... nat 20, which is great because man if he fucks up, he'll probably die in there). Fortunately, he's not so far into the walls that he can't be heard, even if he's not saying anything worth noting.]

Flarkin' Sarandis and his flarkin'... flark.

lance sweets | ota

[likeababyduck]

[(a) rearrival > onwards ~ multithread]

[Sweets get them back on English soil as soon as humanly possible, which fortunately turns out to be pretty fast. No one wants to deal with the wrath of Ella, not even poor TSA agents. Between the flight and knowing what's waiting for them on the other side of this, Sweets is anxious at best, panicking at worst, hoping that everyone is alive, but not calling, out of not wanting to distract them if the threat isn't already eliminated.

But if they want to call him, so long as he's not in the air, he'll answer.

When he finally does make it back to the castle, the devastation he finds there hits him harder than he anticipated. He knew it would be rough, all things considered, but he didn't think it would be like this. He didn't anticipate coming back to find his room completely demolished in the fight, or his office heavily destroyed. He had hoped that he would be able to come back to the castle and go right back to work, to help his fellow knights in the best way he knows how, but now that's going to take time.

For the first few days after his arrival, he can be found picking through the wreckage of his room (search ... 5 sob) and his office (search 15), before shuffling whatever personal effects he can into Lila's room which she's graciously given him for the time being. He is also taking the time to track down friends and make sure they're all okay. They have a lot of work to do to rebuild and he's willing to pitch in in whatever way he can.]

[(b) sessions ~ ota ~ all session threads are closed, please no threadjacking]

[After a few days of seeing what's salvageable, what would be out of the way, and what is safe, he manages to find a spare room with enough space that he can sit and talk with the knights who need it. He places a sign on the door of what used to be his office to redirect people to the room in question if they're looking for him, and gets ready to set up shop.

On the door to the office itself is a clipboard with a thin paper schedule, a seven by eleven grid with dates for the next week listed at the top, and hourly brackets listed along the vertical, beginning at 8 am and going until 7 pm. There is a black line across where the 1 pm boxes should be, because he has a feeling if he doesn't take some semblance of a break for lunch, Alice will storm in and drag him out by his ear to make sure he eats. All of his normal weekly appointments have been written in already (though one of them is missing and he can't help but feel the weight of that loss), and a pen is attached so that new patients can write in when they would like to see him and make an appointment that way.

When he is in session, a notice will be placed on his door indicating as such, but otherwise his door is always open, and anyone is welcome to stop by.]

(b) 1:00

[somepagesturn]

[At some point during that first week, Paige is standing outside of the room with a bag of takeout clutched against her chest, waiting for Lance to leave... Hopefully, he leaves for lunch, and doesn't just sit in there with something he brought. That would be awkward.

She should probably just knock. That sounds like a good idea, but even that takes some courage she has to build up and when she does knock, it's very slight. Way to go, Paige.]

ashley magnus ; ota

[bagsthem]

[It might be slightly horrifying how many times Ashley tries to get a hold of her Mom in the first 24 hours after the immediate danger ends. No matter how many times she dials, it never goes through, never gets answered, and either her messages are falling on deaf ears or her Mom simply doesn't have her phone.

She doesn't know where she is, why she hasn't come home, or when she'll be back. At least she knows that she didn't come back in one of those body bags.

Ashley tries to keep herself as busy as possible helping out with the clean-up, and she's strong enough that she can do some of the heavier lifting, carrying out decent sized chunks of rubble, but leaving the really big pieces for those with supernatural abilities.

Her room was also massively damaged, so she's taken to living in her Mom's room in the Hoard wing, if someone would rather catch her there.]

[sakurasmile]

[There's nothing quite like coming home to find your room destroyed. Kyomi stares at the smashed to pieces room in the squire wing dropping her leather laptop bag with a huff.]

Bollocks. That's what this is- utter bollocks. [she was mostly saying it to herself, but when she notices Ashley passing by, she turns to her.] How'd your room fare, then?

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]

abbie mills → ota

[leftenants]

a. after the attack, multi-thread

[Abbie knows she got off easy, all things considered. The attack had been one hell of a first 'mission;' there were too many casualties for her liking and if the worst she wound up with was a bunch of cuts and bruises and a decimated room, she knows she was one of the lucky ones.

She waits until she's sure everyone who's badly injured is being cared for and the dead have been recovered to go off to survey the damage on her own, hoping a little time to think will help her process some more. She keeps to herself as she makes her way through the rubble, slowly coming to a stop outside the squire's room and folding her arms as she lets out a sigh upon seeing the state her own is in. She does a quick pass to see if anything can be recovered (Search 13), but she's not particularly hopeful. Doesn't matter, anyway, or so she tries to tell herself-- they're just things, and they've lost a lot more than that today.

She'll spend most of the night moving about the castle, offering aid to anyone who might look like they need it-- in the wake of everything, she needs to feel useful as much as she needs to process, and despite all she's dealt with before coming here, for the first time she feels out of her depth. Demons she could handle, witches and monsters and whatever else, but tanks? The colossus? New territory.]

b. after the attack, closed to hawley

[Not long after visiting the remains of her room, she reaches for her phone and attempts to call Hawley. Wherever he is, she knows it has to be far enough away from headquarters that he has to be safe, but she won't be fully convinced until she gets through. A part of her is glad he wasn't here, but a bigger and more insistent part of her wishes that he was. For all her complaining, he knew how to lighten the mood. She needs that right about know, almost as much as she needs confirmation that her friend is still in one piece.]

c. the following week, multi-thread

[As self-sufficient as she's always considered herself, Abbie isn't much of a handywoman, which means her efforts towards helping with actual repairs are likely to be minimal. That said, she still spends most of the week going out of her way to find other things she can help with, offering herself up for odd jobs and doing what she can to lend a hand, stubbornly refusing to let herself sit back and be useless. She'll be remaining on castle grounds throughout the week, although she'll be noticeably keeping a close eye on Kate Beckett, concerned about the changes her mentor seems to be going through. Anyone who wants to encounter her is free to run into her anywhere within the castle itself.]

[Phone Call]

[procurer]

[ He's been trying to get a hold of her for hours now, ever since the original broadcast had alerted him to the fact that shit was going down and he was stuck halfway around the world from her. A ten hour flight where his phone was off certainly didn't help matters any, but when his phone finally does ring, it's while he's hopping into a cab at the Heathrow.

Almost dropping his phone in his haste when he sees the caller ID, he answers as quickly as he can, a note of alarm the only hint of the simmering panic he's been feeling for hours now. ]

Abbie?!

Sawyer ][ OTA

[incantatio]

a ) That Night: Multi-Thread

[It's with great reluctance that Sawyer is dragged from the ballroom when the call for evacuation sounds, like she fears that leaving Serafina there will subject her to the possible ire of a grief stricken Knight who is not in their right mind. Like she thinks that protecting a corpse should matter when deep down she knows it's a poor substitute for not being able to protect her in life.

Covered in blood, she is painfully unaware of the fact that she looks like a walking horror show and accompanied by the burns she'd received during the battle tonight? It probably looks like Sawyer had been one of those who'd come frighteningly close to death this evening. While that was true, the death had not been her own.

She doesn't appear to really able to focus on what is happening around her. Arms folded across her chest, something weighing heavily on her mind as people bump past her on their way to find loved ones. Being so new to this place? She finds herself feeling desperately alone and disconnected from those around her. Especially without her little furry companion who has thus far, yet to be seen.

b ) That Night: Single-Thread

[As the numbers disperse and people are headed back to their rooms to try and figure out what, if anything they have that remains. Sawyer lingers outside longer than most, one of the last of the Squires to head back inside in an attempt to get to her things.

It probably would have been better for her if she simply hadn't bothered. She doesn't even need to try and open the door to know there's nothing left of her belongings. There was no door. The ceiling had completely caved in. A thick layer of dust covering everything inside while large pieces of heavy debris lay strewn about the room. If there is anything in here that could be recovered, it won't be happening tonight and after what had been, a horrendously long day in the world of Sawyer. It seems she has finally reached her breaking point.

Her legs turn to pieces of spaghetti underneath her weight and she sinks down to the ground outside her room, tears glistening in her eyes as she tucks herself against the wall outside her room. Pulling her knees into her chest, she wraps her arms around them, rocking back and forth as she hugs herself and for the first time in all of this. Sawyer finally lets herself cry.]

B

[somepagesturn]

[Paige's room isn't touched, which she's thankful for, but it also distresses her, because so many other squires are sorting through the broken remains of their homes, and with that knowledge, she can't rightly just curl up and sleep off the night's horrors, even if she needs it so she can prepare her spells tomorrow. So she paces the halls in her nightgown and robe, while Henley sleeps off the adventure on her bed.

She isn't really expecting to see a poor broken girl crying outside a room, but she wastes no time in joining her.]

Hey, honey. [she pulls her knees up to her chest.] D'you need a place to stay tonight?

Nick Hawkey | OTA

[procurer]

[ The Week Following: Re-arrival ]

[ Nick had been in India in the middle of infiltrating a job with a band of disreputable individuals when he realized something was going very very wrong back at HQ. Especially when he couldn't reach Abbie's cell anymore. It hadn't taken much debate after that, dropping his plans and boarding the first flight back he could catch. He's been away a few months now but he's been keeping in touch with the few friends and acquaintances he'd made in the Knights before setting out to reacquaint himself with this world. In his line of business, he was useless if he didn't have his connections. Or even know what was history, what was myth, what was valuable. So far he'd been kept busy with making inroads into the business circles in this world, because not everything was different. There was some new mythologies he was going to have to brush up on, and names and faces were strange here and there, but he was doing his best to adapt to the new landscape he'd been dropped into.

That took a backseat, however, in light of Abbie and the others being in trouble. Thirteen grueling hours after he'd first realized something was wrong, he's getting himself dropped off in front of what's left of HQ, stepping out of the car and shouldering his duffel as he stares at the mess and wonders what the hell happened.

He doesn't hesitate in heading in, searching for familiar faces, offering a hand or aid wherever he finds someone that needs it. His other plans put indefinitely on hold for the time being, Hawley instead turns his attention and energy to helping the Knights recover and rebuild. The rest of the world will still be there afterwards. At least, he's pretty sure it will?

What's left of his bedroom has been temporarily overtaken by Kenzi and her need to redistribute his alcohol reserves, but he lets her do as she wants, letting her crash there for as long as she needs to. Most of the rooms around them are utterly demolished and his isn't looking so great either, but it's at least one of the ones in better condition than some. He's only in it to sleep himself and offers surfaces and floor space to anyone that needs lodging as well. If he's feeling a little guilty over not being here to help in the middle of their disaster, he's making up for it by throwing himself head-first into the recovery efforts. ]

[bitchywolf]

[Erica has missed her friend, so when she does spot him soon-ish after he heads in too (she'd been to Disney World with Sweets, Ella, and others, so she missed this mess too, but once they got the creepy message, they left and were able to get back as quickly as possible), she's yelling something that would probably catch his attention: ]

Trail mix!!!! [Yes, that's just what first came to mind to her. And she's running over to him.] Oh my god how long have you been back were you here for all this? [Run on sentences, yes.]

lorne → ota, multi-thread

[highnotes]

the week following, re-arrival

[Traveling has never been Lorne's favorite thing, considering all the undue attention he draws, but the hassle of having to explain his 'skin condition' or 'costume makeup' to people while in-transit pales dramatically in comparison to how badly he and the others needed to get themselves back to London. Sweets and Ella had done good work getting them back in short order, but even knowing what they had the potential to come home to, Lorne finds himself overwhelmed by the reality of the situation. The destruction, the lives lost-- Kali...

It's the destruction of Caritas all over again, except with more casualties, and that alone is enough to make him want to pack up his things and head to a hotel. The only thing that keeps him from doing exactly that is the fact that he'd made a promise to himself upon joining the Knights, a promise to serve the cause and fight the good fight, to try and counter-act all the less-than-heroic things he'd been accessory to in that last year back in Los Angeles.

This is where he's supposed to be. He can't turn and run just because things are rough.

Throughout the week, he'll be be doing what he can to help, even if it's largely working to boost morale and make sure everyone gets fed. If he's not helping, then he's probably drinking: in fact, it's rare to see him without a cocktail in hand. All things considered, he's glad he put off instituting Open Mic Knight, although once things are back in order, he intends to get to it as soon as possible-- they're all going to need one hell of a pick-me-up.]

[somepagesturn]

[♫ poor wayfaring stranger- kristin chenoweth

paige has been trying to help where she can, but once she's out of spells, she's spent up, and can only offer emotional support. eventually, even that part of her is spent up, and she ends up in the garden, where anyone will hear a sweet, but broken voice singing like her heart depends on it. (perform 25)

for lorne, that's... probably pretty hard to miss. you're not the only one longing for an open mic night.]