chapter five ♔ it'll be a day like this one when the sky falls down

[eldritchweaver]

the blues - switchfoot

WHO || The Knights
WHAT || Failboat returns from the disaster in LA as the Knighthood goes on lockdown
WHERE || The castle, London
WHEN || Directly after this, Fall 2017
HOW || Actionspam

Hasmed's announcement does not brook any rebuttal: all Knights are recalled to the Castle, where they must remain until the Section Heads and Jack Chessing have spoken about the events in Los Angeles that have left the Knighthood without their usual leader.  

The entire Los Angeles area is now covered with a dark miasma that has interfered with any signals that might be sent out from phones, etc., leaving the whole world wondering what exactly is happening down there.  Final images showed horrendous monsters, a panic of citizens, looting and violence from humans and Shadowkind alike.  

Hasmed has warned of extra magical wards on the castle, and anyone arriving will immediately take notice of one very prominent one: above the entire roof of the excessively large building hovers a black and red sigil in the air, a pentagram in a circle surrounded by runes or words in an unknown language, stretching for miles.  

[ This is the social log for post-LA lockdown.  Failboat must complete the top log before being allowed to tag outside of it. ]

Comments

thea queen ➙ open

[withasouvenir]

closed to barry ➙

[ thea's always been familiar with loss. what happens in la reminds her of the undertaking, which only serves to make her miss her mother completely and has her texting felicity just to check on her. just in case. she'd mentioned earlier that she was going on a trip and when she doesn't answer right away, thea assumes she was just as caught up in watching the news as everyone else.

as the black cloud lingers, reports start to come in about planes having gone down but thea thinks nothing of it until her phone rings, vibrating right off the side table, forcing her to slip off the couch and kneel down to reach it. it's for the best because once she answers, her whole life explodes at once.

thea was her brother's in case of emergency contact. she was felicity's as well and their bodies -- bodies, thea gasps out a sob -- had been recovered from a downed plane just outside of la. she doesn't manage to listen to the rest of the conversation, shoving the phone into barry's hand so he can deal with it. maybe when he's done, he'll be able to tell her it was all a mistake and she didn't just lose literally the only family she has left. ]

open, after the first couple of days ➙

[ thea wants to leave. she wants to fly to la and find her brother's body and bring him and felicity back so they can be rezzed, but she can't leave or she won't be able to come back. she has to leave her brother and the woman who became as close as family and it breaks her heart. barry makes her get out of bed and eat and after a while she manages to do so on her own, showering and drinking some coffee and... milling. she mills about the castle like a ghost, drawn and pale, and suddenly indifferent to the end of the world. oh well.

she runs too, making a loop around the castle at the very edge of the wards, running until she has to stop in the woods, using nearby trees for support. she picks at food in the kitchen, she walks into common rooms and walks right out immediately when she notices the news on, she goes to the firing range to attempt to use her bow but after the first few arrows fall short of their target she just gives up, abandoning her pretty red bow at the range. ]

[supertardiness]

[Barry Allen isn't any stranger to loss either.

He's lost at least one parent that he knows of, and there have been so many people he hasn't been able to save. Death is a part of life, and as much as he consciously knows that, it doesn't really make grief any easier in the long run.

He takes the phone from her without a word, speaking to the person on the other side as succinctly as he can, but the news about Oliver and Felicity hits him square in the chest. Not as hard as Thea, he would never claim to be feeling this grief more than her, but Oliver and Felicity were his friends too. And the idea that they're gone and there's nothing they can do is a punch to the gut.

He talks through the rest of the information with the man on the phone, using his own to take notes of the important information, before saying his goodbyes and hanging up.

After that, it's only two steps before he's moving to pull Thea into his arms, willing to offer her whatever comfort he can, even if he knows it isn't much. He'll have to tell Cisco, let the section heads know, but for right now, Thea needs him here.]

[withasouvenir]

[ barry envelops her in a hug and thea crumples, sobs breaking free. oliver was all she had left and she's already lost him once, twice, losing him again... it's unbearable. she had seen that cloud over la, she knows there won't be some miracle when oliver queen comes back to her. the veil had given him back to her, but what can it do now?

the hozen feels cold against her chest.

she hadn't known the others, only in passing, so the concert itself was a tragedy in an abstract sense. a tragedy happening to someone else. but now it's happening to her and thea can't cope. ]

[supertardiness]

[He closes her eyes as he keeps him in close, letting his lips rest on top of her head as he does. He doesn't know what to say to her, or if she even needs him to say or do anything other than be there. But he's not going anywhere, and he just rubs her back gently as she lets it all go.]

[withasouvenir]

[ it takes... a long time. thea can usually bounce back pretty quickly, she's used to grief after all, but this was the last. the last of her family, the last straw. oliver and felicity both is just gutting, felicity had become family, and now they're both gone.

eventually, thea stops crying, but she doesn't move, head pressed against barry's chest, silent. what is she supposed to say? ]

[supertardiness]

[She doesn't have to say anything. In fact, she doesn't have to do anything, as far as Barry is concerned. But eventually he'll talk.]

I told the cops that we were overseas and wouldn't be able to make arrangements right away, and they gave me all their contact info to deal with that whenever you're ready. Want me to get you anything, or tell anyone? Whatever you need me to do, I'll take care of it.

[withasouvenir]

[ thea shakes her head, that is... too much. she doesn't know what she needs, she doesn't know what she wants... maybe... ]

Can you get me french fries?

[inacup]

[Jade has been feeling restless as fuck. There's a lot of tension in this place, and she doesn't know enough about what's going on to be useful. So she does what she does best. She bakes. So when Thea comes into the kitchen to find food, it's like a bakery barfed on the counters. All sorts of pastries are cooling on the various surfaces. Jade is busy mixing frosting.]

Want one? Or twenty?

[withasouvenir]

[ that's so many cupcakes and cake cakes and, yeah, like a bakery barfed on the counter. thea stares for a minute, she just wanted her leftover mac and cheese, but... ]

Do you have any batter left?

[ straight up, uncooked, salmonella warning be damned. thea just wants to mainline a bowl of batter. ]

[inacup]

Uhhhh... [She does a quick sweep of the room, trying to remember.]

Check the blue bowl? I think there's something with lemon zest still there.

[withasouvenir]

[ she's not opposed to the lemon zest so she paws around on the counter trying to find the blue bowl with something left in it. there is more than one blue bowl but eventually she is successful. ]

Thanks.

[inacup]

[She blows a stray piece of hair out of her eyes and nods.]

No problem. I'm just trying to keep busy. You're welcome to any of it, by the way. Call your friends. I definitely can't eat all of this on my own.

[withasouvenir]

I'll call Barry when I'm sure I'm done, he can eat all of it.

[ that sounds like a fact, not a hyperbole. ]

[grumpypuppy]

[confinement to the castle - yeah, not really making it easy to stay indoors when you're told you need to. Which is why Derek ends up spending time outside so that the oppression of being trapped doesn't rattle him as much as it could.

He's not good at being a sympathetic ear. He never knows the right things to say, or how to help. Pain usually gets funneled into anger with Derek, and he will end up working out on the very edge of the castle's perimeter where he hopes he won't be disturbed.

Until he is almost mowed over by a running Thea, that is]

[withasouvenir]

Shit! Sorry!

[ thea blurts out the apology while she's busy yanking her earbuds out, cord already tangling around her arm and itself. ]

I didn't see you. [ or hear him. nor was she even paying attention to where she was going so she's honestly lucky she almost plowed into derek instead of say a tree or directly into the lake. ]

[grumpypuppy]

[he will get back to his feet easily because werewolf]

It's okay. I was trying not to be seen, so I guess that is on me.

[withasouvenir]

...why were you hiding? [ THAT'S WEIRD AND UNNECESSARY DEREK. ]

[grumpypuppy]

I'm not sure how far the mandatorium on us not leaving extends into the forest.

[withasouvenir]

I think all the grounds count, honestly.

ring ring ring. oliver queen calling. flexible timing.

[yeahihidmypants]

[He realizes how it looks. Whoever these people were, whatever they were involved in - he's only been able to get so far.

He'd been to the flat in London. Seen the operation. It wasn't as small as he'd thought it would be. It was elaborate, but it also seemed to be out of use. The only evidence that someone had even been there within the last few months was a few receipts. The computers though, he already took those and handed them off to have someone to take a look at those. He recalls a few scattered maps, but it seemed more like someone was looking for someone -- not taking over their life. Which, they hadn't really done. His life was fine. All of his assets secure. A little light on the bank balance, but he wasn't hurting for it.

He just wanted to know why. Why and how far it went.

The answer could be on this slip of paper. Both of them had the same emergency contact and he didn't feel like it was a coincidence that her name ended in Queen, too. He wasn't able to find much on her -- or him. The last letter could be an O or an A. Penmanship is a dying art.

He waits. Probably too long, but he wants to wait to make the call until he's sure that he's at a dead end. But, dead ends are a long ways off and he just wants to talk to this person.

So he calls. Late at night. After a long day of trying to make sense of what has started going on in the world. He has ice on his shoulder and a bandage on his left side. It had been a long night, too.

He dials the number and it rings... which is a start.]

[withasouvenir]

[ thea isn't coping well. as much as it feels like oliver already abandoned her, again, she never thought he'd up and die. the finality of that seems impossible. oliver simply can't be dead.

except he is. oliver is dead and she's all alone again and he isn't going to swoop back into her life with a souvenir of the mysterious island he spent five years on trying to become a superhero without so much as a collect call to his family. ollie isn't coming back this time and thea doesn't know what to do with herself.

she's in bed when the phone rings, watching reruns of some terrible british soap opera on her phone, cut off when an unknown number pops up. she doesn't want to talk to anyone, but she answers anyway. ]

Hello?

[yeahihidmypants]

[The voice on the other line isn't a call service. It's not a voicemail asking him to leave a message. He sits up a bit straighter, clearing his throat.]

Hi. Sorry. I -- I didn't expect a real person to answer. Is this Thea Queen?

[withasouvenir]

Yes. [ said like duh? ] Did you call me and not think I would be me or are you a telemarketer because now is seriously not the time to get me to sign up for solar panels to get a tax credit in Delaware.

[ look. telemarketers are weird. ]

[yeahihidmypants]

[He chuckles, shaking his head.]

No, no. I mean, that'd be weird. I mean, I own a company that is working on a new solar cell structure for solar panels, but -- I don't need to sell them.

I was calling because you're -- [The sentence halts. Clearly a real person got the call about those deaths. He can't just ask her if she's aware of the identity theft.]

This is going to sound insane -- but you have the same last name as me and for the past few years, someone has been skimming from my company. Back door hacking, a little here -- a lot there. Well, not the past few years. It got better. Which is a weird thing to say about identity theft, but I was still looking.

I was trying to find the source and then recently I had an interesting discussion with my legal team about a plane crash. They needed to verify that I didn't... that I was still alive.

[withasouvenir]

I don't... what are you saying?

[ plane crash, she knows he means the plane crash, but she doesn't understand what he is trying to tell her. someone stole her identity? there's honestly too much going on for her to suss out the point. ]