knightsoflegend | london ♔ when the gusts came around to blow me down

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london ♔ when the gusts came around to blow me down

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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There's enough in that conversation that passes between Dean and Sam for all of Myri's worst fears to be confirmed.]

Rose...

[It's not that she doesn't care about the other woman - Kali, she thinks she heard someone say. She just doesn't know her. Taking another step forward, Myri manages to keep from falling apart only for the sake of not upsetting her daughter (will 28).]

He's right. [Myri says, officially stepping up and interrupting Winchester conversations.] We'll fix this. I can-- [the words catch in her throat, a promise she's not entirely sure she can follow through on.]

[ When Zero sounds the evacuation, Skye floods out with the rest of the knights, right at his side, but she strays when she sees Malina drifting towards Wynn and the others. She knows the group, saw them on the video, and without a second thought, Skye is hurrying over towards them as well at a light jog. ]

Kali? KALI! [ She tears through the crowd to get to Malina's side, and for a wild, hateful moment, her eyes flash with an accusation on the man who'd carried her. Her haunches never truly raise, though, not high enough to get through the grief of loss. Diverting her attention down towards Malina, Skye rests a hand on her shoulder with steady reassurance, then crouches beside her. ]

She was always protecting us. [ Tears well up in her eyes, but they never fall. She keeps one hand steady on Malina's shoulder while the other reaches to hold Kali's limp hand, searching for warmth in it and finding none. It wrenches her stomach, but she keeps herself composed through every effort she can muster (will save nat 20).

For now, she'll support Malina. Misery will set in again later, when they're not in the crowd. ]

[Malina feels Skye's hand on her shoulder and part of her feels like this should be the other way around. She's the senior knight. She shouldn't be falling apart like this and looking to the squire of the knight she's mourning for comfort. She shouldn't be the one here - she's been a knight for ten years, been in more near-death scrapes than she can count and she's always come out the other side.

Hell, she was in one only a few hours earlier.

Part of her can't help but think about what everyone always says about parents burying their children, people who have lived and experienced the world having to say goodbye to someone who still has so much more to learn and do, but she's not giving up yet. Once the initial shock has passed, one and moves to Skye's back, returning the favor of the steady hand with one of her own.]

We'll bring her back.

[She knows it's not what everyone wants for themselves, but she doesn't think Kali has given it much thought.]

We at least owe it to her to try.

[The blonde had been so light, so fragile that he wonders how she'd managed to take so much damage prior to her fall. He can't let his thoughts linger on that for too long though, surrounded by her friends - her fellow Knights. He remains silent the entire walk from the site of the wreckage to where they finally find a place to lay them to rest. He steps away, surveying the scene - watching the hurt and confusion that falls to all their faces. He knows they never expected what came to their front door.

When attention turns to the oncoming car, Ward watches. He assumes the one is Wynn, but the others are unknown to him and he feels strangely out of place. He's usually capable of holding his own, but in the face of all this destruction he truly has no sense of his place. It's almost familiar enough to keep him quiet even as he sees a familiar face emerge in the crowd. He hadn't expected to see her. Maybe hoped - but hope is a fool's errand most times for Ward. This is - well it's her shooting daggers at him, but seeing her crouch to the ground he can assume the wrong connection has been made. He jaw clenched with that slight moment of recognition, but he hold to his silence. (Will save 22)]

[ at sam and myri's words, dean's crumpled face hardens into something else, anger seeping into his features as he stares stonily down at them, not meeting anyone's gaze. ] The clerics can't help her.

[ Steve doesn't speak up. Not yet. He lets them talk. He's going to really contribute. Not really. He's not entirely certain what's to come of this, but then Dean says something that floors him. His head whips up and he looks at the younger man. ] Who can? [ There's an edge to his tone, but only because he remembers what happened out there on the lawn. ]

What? [Myri's head snaps up to look directly at Dean, shock and horror covering her expression at how certain he sounds.]

You can't know that. [Her voice shakes, her hands stilling on her daughter's back instead of a steady rocking that she was keeping up until now.] Dean, I can't-- I promised to keep her safe. [Promised herself, that is. But she's not about to lose anyone else, not again. Not without doing everything in her power to make it right.]

I have to try...

Myri... love.

[There's a note of anguish in his voice. Spike steps towards her, putting his arms around her, mindful of the baby. The baby he still hasn't properly met. There wasn't time. There still isn't.

At least he was here now. Maybe he managed to help a little. Not enough. Rose's body in Dean's arms is enough to make that clear.

They can know that. They were told. But he doesn't know how to tell her that. Wants to spare her the futile effort and let her keep hope alive all at once. He can't do them both. There's nothing he can say or do to make this anything but terrible.]

You should know by now you can't truly keep a hero safe. If we could you'd never see a minute of action.

[ The look Skye exchanges with Malina says all too clearly that not everyone wants that attempt, but she isn't arguing. Standing, she looks back at the castle. ]

Whatever we decide to do, we can't leave her out here. It's … [ Wrong. Turning her stomach. Making her feel like they're just flopping her corpse around like garbage, and making it harder for her to keep it together.

This is Kali. Kali, who brought her here, who believed in her, who's training her to defend herself. Kali who promised to keep her safe and made her feel like she was valued—one of the only people to do that in a long time. Who means more to her than she can say, and she's trying too damn hard not to show it right now, bangs heavy over her brow as she keeps her head cast down. ] How long do we have to be out here?

[ vi doesn't say anything as she approaches, looking down at the women with a fragile sadness etched across her features, lucia silent in her arms, clutching her bunny and vi's hair.

she crouches first next to rose, brushing her fingers across her cheek as a warm green glow spreads out from her palm, murmuring softly under her breath as the magic slips across the fallen woman's skin. there's no real healing, but the burns on rose's face and throat fade to nothing. she moves to do the same for kali, a woman she didn't even know who barely looked like she could punch a teenage boy much less take on a tank. the magic seeps from vi's fingers to kali's cheeks, smoothing away the burns and shrapnel marks, leaving her looking calm and serene. it's a small kindness, to take away the ugliness of death and give them both some...

something. it's all vi can do for them. they could be sleeping now. ]

[alex splits up from thea as he makes his way towards the crowd where presumably wynn is going to be, so he can tell him about hook and emma and no really though what the fuck wynn needs to know about this shit. as he pushes his way into the huddle, already looking like he's been through A Time with the color drained from his face, damp, and now with random leaves stuck to him, his expression freezes and immediately falls as the feeling he had in the pit of his stomach is confirmed and he's greeted by the sight of kali's lifeless body. the girl he loved like one of his sisters is dead. he failed her.

he immediately pushes his way out of the circle again to throw up on the grass.]

[When Dean speaks, the tone allows for far more insight than anyone should need. Loss is difficult, but Ward assumes that they all knew the risks. He's not the right person to speak for them, but with what he knew of this group - giving up didn't seem their slogan. As others speak and a brunette offers some small relief to their appearance, Ward tries to not stare at Skye. Tries, but fails. Watching her this upset over the loss of a friend, a teammate - he knows that feeling. That guilt. The heaviness that sits on your chest as you try to replay all the ways it should have been differently.

His interview with Wynn will be rescheduled and while he truly only has a brief idea of where he is at, regionally, he knows he shouldn't stay here. Not when they are trying to find their footing. He's a distraction. An unknown. Except to one person -- and Christos.

Ward takes a few more steps back and tries to depart away from the small crowd that is getting larger the longer he lingers. ]

Edited (LOL award. Nope. ) 2015-12-01 04:31 (UTC)

[Malina knows that not every one wants it. She is all for respecting a person's wishes, but she also knows, logically, that it's also not something that Kali has probably given a lot of consideration. Moreaus are man-made after all. There's a chance that this might not even work.

On the other hand, she thinks that Kali would want them at least to try.]

I don't know. Even if we could go back in, I don't know where we could take them right now. The med center's gone.

[Along with most of the Dragon's Light wing. But speaking of clerics, Alex stumbles up, looking like a wreck, and then disappears again, and she gives Skye a small squeeze before starting to get to her feet.

As much as she could stay caught up in the dead, eventually she does have to worry about the living too.]

Alex?

[ faith purses her lips together, trying to fight past the emotional shit to think clearly, and pipes up: ] The ballroom. That's where they moved all the cleric stuff. If the roof is okay now--

It should be safe?

[ wynn finally rises to his feet again, his eyes never leaving the dead girls. ] Bring them there.

[ lis'sa hovers back by the other section heads and koraith, speaking up to add her cool voice of reason: ] They'll have to go around. The lobby's blocked.

[ dean glances at steve at his question, and there's something dangerous in his eyes, some fevered idea that answers the man's question even though he says nothing.

it doesn't look like good news. either way, he turns to look at myri and spike again, bending down to pick rose back up at wynn's order. ] Trust me.

Your magic's not gonna do it.

[ the crowd parts a bit, probably b/c a giant tree is moving alongside him, who knows, but peter manages to catch a glimpse of the blonde being discussed as well, skids to a halt next to skye. ] Kali? Oh, no, no. No way.

[now that he's thrown up everything he didn't throw up in a bush just a short while ago, he tries to make his way back into the huddle as malina speaks to him. like everything is just fine. even though it's distinctly not.]

Hey, Malina. I'm — [he starts to say fine and shrug everything off like it's his autopilot mode to do, but he can't bring himself to say the words. he's at max pretending everything is fine capacity. so he just ... leans against her.]

[another car pulls in behind Wynn's, and Topher practically jumps out of it before the thing is even in park, holding a bag of Nando's in one hand.]

Holy cats... What the frak happened here? [he notices the crowd gathering and the solemn group of people starting to move back inside, and without worrying about things like decorum and asking nicely, he begins pushing aside people to get through, probably hitting them with the greasy Nando's bag in the process. He manages to get to the middle and the second he lays eyes on Kali, the bag slips from his grasp and hits the ground.

Sorry, Lila.]

Oh no. No, Kali. Kali. [a choked noise escapes him.] No, this isn't fair. They... They built her better than that. She can take anything. [he bites his knuckles as he tries to move closer, and the urge to throw up keeps him from it. He's seen bodies before. Plenty of them.] And I made her... She was smarter. Smarter than that. Too smart to... [he covers his mouth and turns away.] Oh God, I'm gonna be sick.

[sylar reaches out and catches that bag like there's actually a bomb hidden inside (ref save 21) because FUCK YOU TOPHER HE CAME TOO FAR FOR THIS NANDO'S FOR YOU TO THROW IT ON THE GROUND.

he also takes in the bodies of the people he didn't actually know that well like oh that's ... sad i guess?? especially because rose is dean's girlfriend so he should probably be extra sad. but instead he's focused on what's most important to him here. which is finding what's most important to him in his hot chaotic mess.]

Where's Lila?

[ When Dean looks at him he ca see it. Written all over his face. He's gonna do something dumb like Spike said. Something really stupid. Something they talked about out there. He looks off to the side before looking at Dean again. He knows that this is right even if it's completely stupid. He gives Dean a nod. Because he gets it. Doing stupid things for people you care about. Do it, Dean, he's got your back. He stay quiet for the new arrivals. ]

[You know who's not quite sure about all this?

This guy.

He catches the look that Dean gives Steve, and while the latter might give him the okay, Sam knows all too well exactly how bad Dean's ideas can be, and if Dean has ever had a 'disasterous ideas' look, it's this one right here (sense motive 21).

He swallows past a lump in his throat as he looks back down at Rose, now gathered up in his brother's arms, her face clean but cold, no matter how much it might be nice to imagine she's just sleeping.]

Dean.

[He murmurs his name under his breath. It's not a no. It's a don't you dare go off and do something idiotic without me.]

[Malina looks him over and nods because she knows. She knows very well. So she just nods and turns to nudge him ahead of her and back in side.]

C'mon. Ballroom, just to sit for a bit. You look like shit.

[And she means that fondly. But now Topher is freaking out and Peter is here, so she moves towards the latter, placing a hand on his shoulder gently to get his attention.]

Can you help get her inside?

[She trusts Peter to handle her with care, if nothing else. Skye will probably go with him too, which leaves Topher, but he's probably going to need a moment.]

[he shakes his head adamantly. sort of. adamantly right now is like shaking his head twice. he tried.] Just a minute, I need to do somethin' first.

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