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. ]

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[ 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.

[ peter, who had been ready to do as malina asked, pauses at alex's words, casting him an uncertain look ] Okay...

[alex finds it in himself to stare at peter like seriously??? HIS SOMETHING DOES NOT CONCERN YOU.] What are you waiting for? Get her inside.

[Myri knows what Spike is trying to do, knows that he means to comfort her. And maybe Dean is right and her magic will be useless here, but that can't stop her from making the attempt.]

If it were me, would it matter to you what anyone said about whether or not it would work? Would you simply bury me without trying?

[She doubts it. She knows her friends would go to hell and back for her. They have before. So why is it ever a surprise when she would do the same for them?]

I have to try, Spike. [She turns and starts to follow those that are bringing the bodies to the ballroom, unable to imagine herself anywhere else right now. She couldn't save Jade. She couldn't save Luthir. She couldn't save Finnick. And maybe she won't be able to save Rose, but it won't be because someone told her it was impossible and she gave up on the spot.]

[Malina watches him for a moment, giving him a shrewd look that indicates he should be taking it easy, but she'll nod to Peter to keep going, and then looks back at Alex.]

Fine, but after? Cleric and sleep.

[The way she's talking doesn't really leave room for a lot of argument, because if you don't think she will find you and make sure you are resting you have another thing coming.]

[ Skye takes a moment to reach for Alex's arm, concern flooding into her gaze. For a moment, she searches him, then nods. ]

Be careful. [ Turning away, she moves to help Peter lift Kali. ] Help me with her. [ She says, despite looking as if she doesn't need much help (str 18). ]

And if it were me, I bloody well hope you wouldn't try.

[Some people can't come back. Spike knows he's one of them. It's the price of eternal life. When it stops, it stops all the way.

He sighs, walking after her.]

In any case, I never said give up. But we're going to have to get... creative. Talk to Dean.

[He probably shouldn't be encouraging Dean doing something stupid, but Myri's not wrong. If they gave up just because something was impossible, they'd have quit their never ending mission a long time ago.]

[All this talk about not being able to rez the other girl and Topher's stuck on Kali, because he doesn't know if she can be either. He's never really bought into it much- he lost a lot of people when his division of Pegasus decided they weren't taking it anymore and staged a coup. The architecture in the Actives' heads would have made them impossible to rez- that was part of the contract when the volunteers agreed.

Kali's not an Active, but she was created by humans, and even if he doesn't believe in the power of the divine, he still can't imagine any god taking pity on the follies of mankind. It says something about how far he's come as a person that the idea that Kali might not have a proper soul doesn't even enter into his head. If there are gods and if she could be brought back, they'll probably refuse because her entire existence is due to humans being arrogant enough to play god.

He doesn't say any of this. He wants to be proven wrong. He wants a reason to believe in this stupid divine bullshit.

He kneads the heel of his hand into his eyes to wipe away tears threatening to fall unchecked, and swallows down his anguish, but even as he hovers, waiting to follow Skye and Peter inside, he can't look anyone in the eye.]

[sylar will ask his question MORE LOUDLY since everyone tried to ignore him a moment ago:]

Where's Lila?

[Malina glances to Sylar like take a chill pill, though it's a gentle one because she can understand why he's stressed out.]

I haven't seen her. But if she isn't out here, she's probably inside. Have you tried her phone?

[she asks, not realizing Lila's phone may have met a wall earlier.]

[like seriously YES I HAD THAT IDEA TOO WOMAN BUT] I don't have a phone. I thought the system was down.

[ a sidelong look at Sylar as she begins carrying Kali towards the castle. ]

I brought it back, but she was borrowing someone else's phone earlier. She left with Alex last I saw her, looking for someone named Amara.

[that moment when u realize that you're the last one who saw lila. DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF DAY HE'S HAD????]

She's with Amara in ... some room in the Hide wing.

[he wordlessly stalks off with his big ol nando's bag. gonna get his wife. go back to mourning your dead.]

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starprince - 2015-12-02 05:36 (UTC) - Expand

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bredinthebone - 2015-12-02 14:28 (UTC) - Expand

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london ♔ when the gusts came around to blow me down

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