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apocalypsehowcomm2023-06-16 07:57 am
Event - The 25,000 Light Year View
The atmosphere in the lower level gym at ADI headquarters is… tense, to say the least. Nia, Neil, and Rae are present with the rest of those remaining at the organization (or willing to come when called by Neil and Rae for a final statement) seated in benches and chairs that have been dragged in. It's not the usual, orderly meetings that some might have gotten used to for mission briefings.
Neil speaks first. "Thank you, everyone, for coming in. Lot's been happening, but we've come to… an understanding about where we need to go. The artifacts that were in the Vault have all been accounted for or noted as destroyed in some manner with a few exceptions. We're still chasing- ADI is still chasing those down with help from anyone who might want to give it. Won't pretend this is going to be a kumbaya moment, so let's get down to brass tacks. There's an apocalypse on. Whatever this organizations stands for now, its original mission was to uncover and stop those. That's still my mission."
"Mine, too," Rae chimes in.
"It's one we all share," Nia adds.
Neil nods before continuing. "So, we stop this, and we go our separate ways. I'll be leaving ADI and starting my own organization. We've seen a large number of threats in the Appalachian region and a lot of folks heavily impacted by decisions ADI's made. I'll be taking my organization there. Already been in touch with our- with ADI's field agents in the region. Some will be joining me. Along with a certain newsperson who keeps sniffing around. We'll do what we can to do right by the people who've been hurt most. That's going to be our focus. Support and security. We're not feeding the Hunt anymore by running down threats."
Rae steps up next. "And I'll be going where I need to. Lot of threats out west. If you're looking to do some good that won't be working for the Hunt… maybe think about heading that way."
Nia is the last to speak. "And I'll be staying here in Gloucester. ADI will be staying. And I will be its final Warden. We're stopping Zyrian, then we're figuring out what the hell is going on with Dogtown to get all of you people from other worlds home. Or at least stop anyone else coming in. After that? I'm out. What happens after that is still in the works. But Neil's agreed to stay in touch to help with everything… once I'm gone." There's a flicker of emotion across Neil's stoic expression. Regret, frustration… grief. "But right now, we look to Wolf Trap. I-"
There's a pause, and Neil and Rae look to Nia in concern as she puts a hand to her temple. She recovers, though. "Huh… We look to Wolf Trap, Virginia. We'll have buses to get everyone down there. We'll be arriving just as Copernicus' launch of the New Horizon's project is underway. That's where Zyrian Steel's going to do his ritual. We need to find the server rooms at the event. Those are important."
Rae squints at Nia, "You sure?"
Nia nods. "Yeah. I'm real sure about that. It'll be dangerous, though, and that's not the- it's not the only threat that's gonna be there."
Neil's looking wary. "Nia?"
"There's something else. The Web? It's not just the Vast that's involved in this, I don't think. It would make sense, right?" She shakes her head. "We'll be facing multiple Entity threats down there, not just the Vast. And I'm sure Zyrian's gonna kick the ritual off on the last day, once he's had time for-for something… not sure what. But he's a dramatic bastard, if nothing else. And timing's everything."
Neil and Rae exchange uncertain looks before Neil speaks up again. "Coming is voluntary, like always, but we'll want boots on the ground to cover as much ground as possible. They'll be holding the biggest events and productions at the Filene Center stage. But we're expecting tech booths scattered all throughout the park. Be on your guard."
"And bring a gun," Rae advises.
(click the map for a larger version)
Lt. Col. John Sheppard | Stargate: Atlantis | OTA
John steps out into the park, and admittedly, it's not a bad-looking place. The peaceful woods contrasted with a brimming energy from all the nerds running around.
"Almost reminds me of home," he says with an amused smirk as a gaggle of techbros excitedly chatter and pass in front of them.
"I mean, Atlantis, was--it's full of scientists, and researchers, and you should have seen the DnD game nights and Lord of the Rings marathons," he scoffs, as if he wasn't right there with them, nerding out even more, and organizing several Star Wars movie nights himself.
B. Wired 1:
This is probably what he gets for thinking this was a perfectly non-supernatural activity even on the cusp of an apocalypse.
Because John knows morse code.
He glances down at the little robot toy in his hands (and two more at his sides because he is so into this) and it starts clicking. And whirring. And so do the others. Frantic messages.
WHY
HURT
...
Well, that's disconcerting.
"I think mine is broken?"
C. Wired 2:
Admittedly the thrill of the hunt is getting to him. It's...nice, in a way, to be able to embrace it, to not have to worry so much about it (even though he knows he should still probably worry about it), but eventually his pursuit leads him here.
The server room is suspiciously unguarded which probably should have been his first clue.
He glances at the person next to him, and back towards the server doors. If Zyrian is anywhere, he's probably in here.
It's probably fine, but he checks his gun just in case.
"You have a weapon on you?"
D. Enter the Matrix:
cw: ptsd, cosmic horror/madness, hallucinations, derealization/depersonalization, potential drowning
So that didn't go well.
And now he was stuck inside the machine, one of the tangled bodies in the wires, and he really, really hopes someone either pulls him out in time or he figures out how to beat this.
Cause this is gonna be really, really hard.
He's been here before--not here, exactly, but he's felt something similar to this before, in Dogtown--stars, innumerable, screaming at him and Rodney, them unable to escape them, filled with that which is unspeakable, unknowable.
They knew nothing.
But something is making him know too much now.
He is a bird crashing into the ocean, he is a dandelion falling into the sky, he is an asteroid forever lost. It's difficult to stop the knowledge from infiltrating his mind, from pushing its way in, and he can feel his mind buckling--there is so much, so much, too much--
He's in Atlantis, a city floating on an ocean, and the ocean is wide, stretching from horizon to horizon and even the giant city feels small--
"No," John growls, holding his head, standing on the balcony, trying to turn away from the ocean and towards the Gate room. The bright lights of the active Stargate cast their own, eerie, water-like reflection over everything.
There's a storm outside, and the waves are starting to crash against the city. Giant waves. Waves big enough that he can start to feel the ocean swells, as the city begins to get tossed to and fro.
E. Wildcard - Anything goes!
b - wired
HELP
HURT
He remains quiet enough for John to hear what the robot's tapping before sighing, "If yours is broken, mine is as well."
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“That’s…a little weird.”
He pauses looking at Elias’ robot, and then his own.
“Or a lot weird.”
HELP HELP HURT
“I don’t think robots are supposed to be in pain? Especially not toy robots?”
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"I know Nia mentioned the possibility of the Web being involved. But something like this...it feels too blunt. The Web is manipulation, pulling you from behind the scenes, the Mother of Puppets slipping into unseen places and whispering from the shadows. A tiny little robot chirping that they're in pain is hardly subtle."
Elias's robot keeps on tapping out it's message. GOD WHY HELP. He ignores it entirely.
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“Really?” It’s not incredulous, just…interested. “Sounds like you really know your Entity stuff.”
He might be trying to cradle his bot and reassure it.
HELP HELP HELP
Okay, so maybe not so reassuring.
“What is this, then? I guess it induces fear, kinda.” Existential horror, maybe. “You know what? It’s probably not even supernatural, maybe there’s a code in these things set to do this to freak people out.”
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As for the robot...Elias frowns, looking at the thing and holding it gingerly, like it's something disgusting.
"The Entities are never cut and dry. Something supernatural can have traces of multiple Entities. Is being trapped in a cave the Dark, the Buried, or both? Is picking at a scab the Corruption or the Flesh? It all depends on what you find terrifying. For these little things? I would guess either the Stranger trying something new or the Web being surprisingly unsubtle."
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D! CW for unreality/rot mention?
In whatever this was, was difficult when Raine struggled to keep hold. It fractured the small memories they tried to focus on. Snapdragon fields would be turned to vast, endless expanses only to be brought spinning back by a glimpse of orange hair, and the hallways of Hexside.
But the halls warp into endless expanses of gratified walls, staircases and tattered banners, green rot growing along them. It threatens to overcome them, to drag them further and further into the endless and incomprehensible.
That was until Raine heard something, barely there but enough to draw their focus. A voice. Somebody else?
They turn in the direction of the voice to a doorframe leading to a more eerie hallway, one cast in strange light. Light that looked unnatural and natural all the same, but it was grounding in how strangely it looked like the way magic could light up when it was free. Unhindered by Covens and sigils. Eerie. But beautiful.
Raine didn't hesitate to step out and into the hallway. It changed- in some capacity it still felt like a hallway, and looked like one. But in others it became a doorway to a balcony, to strange buildings and the ocean waging war on them.
And John. They jump, surprised by the sudden appearance of a person that wasn't from any memories they clung to for sanity. But he was the human they met who was memorable- and quite amusing- and they focus on him, trying to break out of the hallway.
"Is this- John! Are you real?! I don't know if you remember me but we.. I think. No. I know we met on a bus. You're from... space, right?"
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“I remember you, I think—“
It helps, the memory. A bus, a bus is big but also small, much smaller than an ocean, or space—
He covers his mouth, and the sky shudders, a thin crack appearing in it that shows endless stars, like if the rolling storms above them were just a projection and the vast universe was threatening to peek at them—
“Don’t—don’t mention that word—don’t even think about it! We have to think of something else, anything else—”
(CW for depersonalisation/derealisation)
"John I need you to calm down. Please. Please I don't know if I can do this again."
Raine focused harder on something to try and ground themself, and in a sudden and rather violent upheaval their surroundings shudder. Raine fought hard, not to slip back fully into the memory. They were there to help their friend, not deal in escapism once more.
But the world around them flickered, and the strange hallway and oceanic terror disappear in fragments.
Instead, the two are surrounded by a rather peaceful field of snapdragons, in a clearing with enough room to move around. Raine looks disoriented for a moment, having fallen to their knees, but Raine also looked different. Younger. They're surrounded by a bell cittern and a violin, as well as a small closed basket.
When Raine gathered their senses, almost as if on a script they look frustrated.
"Eda, we planned to meet an hour ago. I understand things are hard now, but I-"
As soon as their green eyes lift to John, they widened in surprise. Raine recoiled back from John, and scrambled a few feet away from him.
"Who are you?!" They exclaimed, spell circle drawn and at the ready. The guy didn't look like a Coven Guard, but who knew what the Emperor would do to capture Wild Witches. "You're not Eda."
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“I—“
But then suddenly their surroundings change. Thankfully, perhaps, as he wasn’t in the best state of mind at the moment to resist the Vast’s pull.
Being away from it grounds himself, brings him back to himself a little more. He blinks, staring at the scene around them—a clearing, full of snapdragons, this is nice, actually, and-
“Raine?”
They look different. Younger. Is this…is this a dream?
Except—uh-oh. Raine doesn’t recognize him and that’s not good.
“No, I’m not Eda but I know Eda, Eda is a friend of mine, too.”
He holds his hands up, in an easy, placating gesture.
“And I know you, too, Raine. We work with ADI, we’re on a mission right now. I’m John. Do you remember me?”
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Raine had been in and out of memories to protect themself from what the Matrix had to offer. But something was different. Something was wrong.
This wasn't a good memory; and Eda was missing from it.
"What? You're- You know Eda?!"
They processed the rest of what John said- the mission, the ADI. It made sense. They remembered. But Eda wasn't there. Everything was wrong Here.
"I don't- I.."
Raine pushed their glasses up off their nose and covered their face with their hands. Their head hurt. A lot.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Wired 1
She's going to stop everyone she knows from playing with the machines and games.
"Broken? Your brain is broken. What are you doing playing with them?"
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One of his robots is whirring frantic horrific messages so…maybe not as cool and fun as he’d hoped.
“I don’t think they’re sentient. It’s probably a joke. A mean joke.”
He really, really hopes they aren’t sentient.
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Kate lets out an exasperated breath. "What do you mean it's a mean joke?"
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…that is actually a really good point, Kate.
He holds up the droid. “They’re communicating in Morse Code. Stuff like help, God, why, pain, like they’re alive or something. But I think someone’s just preprogrammed them to be like this to freak people out, harvest fear.”
A beat.
“At least, I hope it’s just programming.”
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A - Arrival
Meanwhile, he’s probably been around her enough that it’s also no huge surprise that she immediately leans into being kind of obnoxious at the first opportunity.
“Yeah, I don’t know what half those words mean,” she drawls, “but remind me not to visit if it is anything like this.”
See? Just two people who definitely aren’t nerds. Because Eda absolutely doesn’t have a more than passing interest in strange Human Realm games and movies.
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"I guess that means I'm gonna have to tell you all about Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons," he says. Maybe just a little too excitedly? "The Lord of the Rings, now that's a movie marathon. It's possible to do all the movies in one day, but you have to account for the extended editions or the theatrical editions, plus make times for meals and such..."
There's a beat, realizing he just admitted he knew about those things...and was just a big a nerd as anyone else here.
He clears his throat.
"I mean, what I picked up from, being around Rodney and the scientists all the time."
...nailed it.
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It's possible this particular brand of rambling excitement reminds her of another human she knows, and currently misses quite a bit. But she's not about to talk about her kids.
"...Yeah, I can tell that's just what you picked up from them," Eda says, giving him a flatly disbelieving look, but not actually arguing the point.
“Oh, but I suppose if I have to pretend to fit in here I maybe ought to learn more about these things.” You know, for cover. Is she implying she could be talked into a movie marathon? Possibly. If you squint.
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He is not as cool as he thinks he is.
“Maybe you should.”
The sound in his tone suggests that he’s about to tell Eda all the things.
And all the movie marathons are on the table.
“So Lord of the Rings is kinda like, where a lot of modern fantasy gets its inspiration from. And the movies are great. You got hobbits, elves, dwarves, humans, wizards, Balrogs, orcs, trolls—and one big bad guy trying to take over the world. The reason it’s called Lord of the Rings is because there’s this ring the good guys have to destroy before the bad guy gets it, cause then if he does? It’s game over. The hard part is the ring is all the way on the other side of the continent and the good guys have to travel all the way to Mordor, this volcanic place, where the bad guys live, to destroy it.”
He starts walking towards the tech booths, still going on.
“But I think it’s not as popular now as it was in my time. Star Wars, on the other hand, seems to be more popular. Which I’m all for, it’s exciting seeing new stuff come out all the time when I grew up with the original movies…”
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B
"You're really bad with machines, aren't you?" The joke is as much a distraction as anything else, because she really doesn't want to think about being born into suffering, trapped and unable to die.
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He makes a face, looking down dejectedly at the poor robot. He can only hope that it isn't real...and it's just some kind of prank. Or messed up programming.
"Believe it or not, back home, I could connect to some machines with my mind and make them do what I want."
D
Since he managed to fight back at least a little and rip out one of the many cables still trapping him in the machine, Rodney's been flung through the metaphors, through the endlessness and other people's interpretations of it, so manifold but ultimately the same - the Vast is coming for them and it is relentless and they are so very insignificant.
It's too much and he can feel the knowledge pressing down on him more and more, it's so hard to pull away from it and its maddening revelations--
But suddenly he's in Atlantis and the familiarity of the tall spires and the Gate's glow is shocking. He stumbles, he's flung to and fro by the city's wild movements and he looks around frantically. The ocean is endless and for a moment he stares at it, paralyzed in the wake of its looming depths, waiting to swallow him whole.
How can he hope to fight back? What difference will it make? He can just fling himself into the depths now and be done with it, it's unfathomable that the outcome should be any different.
... Except this is Atlantis and he's Rodney McKay and he already knows more than other people can even hope to learn in their lifetime and while that is not enough to battle the infinity of the universe, it still is something. Something he clings to, a single thread, a single speck in the expanse above and below.
And he's not alone.
There is Sheppard, too, and that is another speck, now they're two specks, the smallest prime number, and the only even prime number, often called the oddest prime.
He reaches and he grabs his arm, straining to hold on to him before he can get flung into the endlessness of the ocean below.
"John!!"
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The city rocks, bucking, churning in the waves but suddenly that doesn’t matter because Rodney is here, holding into him and stopping him from being tossed into the endless ocean.
“Rodney?!”
The sea spray and rain flatten his hair (somewhat, anyway) and he blinks through the water on his face, but his eyes are wide as he clings to Rodney.
“You’re here?!”
It’s not the first time he’s come to save him from himself in his mind, and maybe it won’t be the last.
The ocean seems furious, the city is spinning now, being sucked down into a giant whirlpool.
“Probably a bad idea to be here right about now—“
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He's yelling against the raging storm and it brings back bad memories of Kolya and working in the rain until his entire body was blue and numb...
"We gotta go inside!"
Away from the sky, away from the water. Maybe they can use the Gate, metaphorically, to get out of here?
"I almost managed to break free! I think I can do it again! We can get out of this!"
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Right. Inside. The Gate.
The city lurches, the waves crashing against the piers, the structure shuddering against the strain. It’s twirling faster now, caught in the currents of the maelstrom, and it’s starting to become difficult to walk, centrifugal forces starting to turn against them.
John grasps Rodney’s arms, trying to walk to the Gate against the forces conspiring against them.
“You did?!”
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