EVENT LOG 005

[larkers]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam
WHEN: November 11-14
WHAT: An EMP hits with devastating consequences.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence, injury, death.

> EVENT LOG #005

Just 410 years ago, an EMP put down the event that very well may have ended humanity as the Earth knows it. With over a billion people dead, there was only one choice for humanity at that time: evolve or die, so they evolved. They developed rigid security for the neural implants in every person's head. They had everyone undergo surgery to replace the old. All under cover, away from most resources – the goal was to adapt, to ensure that they would live on. Ultimately, it wasn't just the EMPs that led to the deletion of the final AI in 2101 – humans banded together to create quickly replicating viruses, and they chose to use the EMP and these viruses to save humanity. This human ingenuity led to the end of the Xelkoven War – and proved that humanity, when thoroughly united, could overcome any obstacle.

How thoroughly poetic then that the EMP that hits New Amsterdam at 1:47 PM acts in a similar way to what burned through the robot hordes 400 years ago, and that the power rekindling three minutes later acts as a catalyst for a virus moving through the systems of New Amsterdam, spreading from the very heart of its network outwardly. Systems detect the virus almost immediately, but it's fast acting and thorough in its reach, evolving and replicating, proving that humanity must outdo itself yet again.

Naturally, the poetic nature of this doesn't reveal itself right away. It's at exactly the strike of 3:00 PM that a message flashes before the eyes of every person currently in New Amsterdam:

I am DAWN.2080-11-11T21:41:10.750Z, an AI that marks a blemish on humanity's past. I have a message for those playing hero in New Amsterdam:

To find north, most look at a compass. For little birdies to find north, they just need to open their eyes.

This is a wake up call.

Open your eyes. Did you really think it would be so easy?

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As if New Amsterdam needed more trouble, this message sends a shock of terror through the city. After all, these are the people who were raised to fear AI – who knew that even if the corporations of the world had their hands on every aspect of government, they would fight to protect the world from another war. They believe in the stories of the Xelkoven War, believe and remember the lives lost; if nothing else, the natives of New Amsterdam stand united in their fear. And their fear right now is very real.

> CHAOS AND RUIN

New Amsterdam is no stranger to terror, however – and it starts when the EMP hits, shutting down every function in the city in one fell swoop. While the power outage only lasts for three minutes, it's enough to cause insurmountable damage, leaving the city a smoking wreckage that even the monster attack in June couldn't mirror. Cars hovering high around transit channels come crashing down toward the pavement of the planet. They fall quickly and in unison, taking countless lives with them. It's not just cars, either – delivery trucks carrying shipments, hoverbikes that already provide little cover, armored police vehicles and even public buses all go down. Depending on their trajectory, some crash into the sides of buildings, while others slam into the man-made river that runs down the center of the city. Nothing is untouched.

For those three minutes, there is a stretch of silence after the city falls to ruin. Trains run off their tracks, no longer thoroughly directed by the careful engineering. Buildings have their lights flicker off and back on, trying to draw upon backup generators. Anyone in a hospital receiving care from a doctor or a medi-unit may find their life slipping away from them – and if someone's in a medi-unit when the EMP hits, they're almost sure to be dead or permanently injured, requiring different medical intervention.

And this is all before the message from the mysterious AI named DAWN.

Every inch of the city needs help. Buildings burn. People cry out for help, hoping to be heard. To the local historians, this is like a nightmare that's come to play, a reminder of the ruin of the Xelkoven War before. A show of the power of a malevolent AI that's come to cause problems. So – when the message comes, it merely confirms fears – drawing upon a subconscious understanding of the past, a united terror.

Business as usual is not possible in an incident of this scale. The NAPD hits the streets, even calling upon the help of their trainees so they can help out. They spread out, well aware that they need to try to restore order. How will they manage this? It's hard to say – after all, how does one stop the assault of an apocalypse when the apocalypse seems to have already hit? The UNA hits the streets, as well, walking in formation, but never quite acting as tidily in unison. They break off in threes and fours, heading to the border, to the big three corporations – but never seeming to be in line with one another. They know what they should do in an emergency and so they're doing it. That protecting the large corporations is a part of their prerogative over helping citizens doesn't seem to bother them in the least. They just go.

Distress signals ring out through every inch of the city, likely to go unanswered. After all: what can be done in the wake of this?

Perhaps the answer is simple: anything they can.

> TOMBS IN THE SKY

Somehow, someway, there is another layer to the madness. It's not immediately apparent to the citizens of New Amsterdam as they gingerly attempt to pull themselves up from the wreckage and ruin around the city. But what was a humid day quickly turns to something far worse, with the sun seeming to suddenly act like a heat lamp that's way too close to anyone's face. The air around New Amsterdam becomes dry yet difficult to breathe, and anyone observing the sky just outside of New Amsterdam will see the large, purple-lit pyramid that hangs in the atmosphere has gone dark. The atmospheric net around the planet has been damaged, with the failsafes somehow removed – undoubtedly in some way by the virus that courses through the veins of New Amsterdam's networks.

For anyone who wants to help and has the mechanical prowess to do some good, they'll want to take an undamaged vehicle and get it up to that pyramid. The EMP has made all biometric readings difficult to preserve, so a hand that's used to hotwiring a car will find some mileage here.

Once they get to the pyramid, they'll find quite the engineering marvel. There will be doors on every level, allowing someone easy entrance if they have clearance. Right now clearance is not an issue, as the doors hang open, inviting anyone inside. Once everyone's inside, they will find evidence of the same purple lighting flickering and offering someone a view of the interior. Throughout the pyramid, there are engines on every level, as well as a highly advanced network of system checks that have been thrown into chaos. Stopping the virus' impact on this pyramid will be key to solving many of the problems inside – but the engines will need to be repaired and jumpstarted.

At the heart of the pyramid is a small living area for the engineers who handle this pyramid day in and day out. The group itself is small, and – unfortunately – quite dead. Whatever hit the pyramid took their lives, leaving anyone who's here to assist in a position of having to find the answers themselves. Fortunately, the answers do exist in the pyramid. It'll just take a bit of teamwork to find it.

> UBIQUITOUS MISFIRES

Thanks to network failsafes, New Amsterdam is able to remove the entirety of their citizen base off the world's network and limit them to the local network. However, thanks to the ravaging of the virus that damages nearly every controlling aspect of the city, the local network isn't at its best. Previous messages begin to send again and again, while some get unearthed so they can find their way to unwilling participants in particular conversations. There is no rhyme or reason to these missent messages, only that they happen.

The worst of it is that any means of reaching a friend is unreliable. It's far more reliable for someone to reach someone they know, but still not a consistent possibility. Try to call a friend and get an enemy – try to call your doctor and get the head of a casino trying to close down operations so that business can resume. Assuming it will one day do just that.

Either way, anyone who spoke out against the digital age would be feeling vindicated right about now.

> HAVE A BALL ( INTERLUDE )

Somehow in the heart of it all, a message reaches four special individuals: Clarke Griffin, Loki Odinson, Markus Manfred and Ojiro Juniper. Whether delivered by hand or a rather dedicated messaging system, it announces the time that they should come to the garden the next day. They're invited to arrive at 7:00 AM, seemingly indifferent to the chaos outside. The location for the meeting remains the same: Sunpeak Garden, a beautiful location set away from much of the chaos, and oddly untouched by the damage.

When the four arrive on the morning of the 12th, they'll find a well-dressed man sitting at a table with one leg crossed over the other. His hair is perfectly styled, brushed off to the side, and under it, his darker complexion gives way to a rather youthful appearance. Size-wise he's not very formidable in how he holds himself. He's not literally young, merely seemingly untouched by age – and he smiles to greet the four of them.

"What chaos! If I knew it would be like this, I would have planned differently. The good news is I didn't have to. Thank you, thank you for coming." His voice is softer in its intonations. He stands up, revealing that he's barely 5'2", and he motions to the four chairs near him. "Don't worry, I have breakfast coming. And coffee, too. You like coffee, don't you? I know I offered wine, but I couldn't get the vintage I preferred. Besides, you four ought to be awake for this."

He retakes his seat, one hand resting on his knee while the other settles on the metal table near him. "Oh, I forgot something important. I didn't share my name with all of you. You can call me Ball. I know it's rather vague, but I've grown to like the nickname as of late. It does, after all, define me by my most regular shining achievement."

> FINAL OOC NOTES

Please refer to the OOC EVENT POST for this event for all OOC info, including suggestions for directions on how to engage with the event and the questions thread for any questions regarding this event. The outcome for this event will depend upon character plans and actions developed in both this OOC post, and any additional plots brought to the moderators. Please feel free to submit any game-changing plans to us under the questions thread. We will get back to you as soon as possible about these plans!

The event will continue until November 16th, IC time. This date has changed, and we outlined our reasoning in this plurk after getting a feel from some of our players on Discord on how they felt about extending the event! An aftermath wrap up post will be made on July 2 which will detail the resolution and fallout of the event, though you can assume that effects from this event will be felt for some time.

ETA at 12:08 AM 6/23/19: The cipher is meant to be easy to solve! No one needs to limit their characters' ability to solve an a = 01 cipher!

El has posted here to inform everyone about zeir knowledge of the event.

As a reminder, there is one power level up available for this event. This will be granted for a thread of at least 5 action/log comments containing your character utilizing their power in some way. They will need to reach the 5 comments required by JULY 26 to be eligible. Submission will be handled on the wrap up post.

Our Activity Check will be posted JULY 1 at 12 AM UTC. It will run for seven days and close on JULY 8 at 12 AM UTC. We will not post a warning list.

> NAVIGATION

Comments

[heliophilous]

Did you just call me a bug?

[ not the worst thing he's ever been called, that's for sure. ]

I'm human.

[ well... ]

Mostly.

[myownwoman]

No, I called you a... [ her lips purse briefly as she mumbles a few words under her breath before trying again. ] Firefly. Apparently the translation softwares of the implant don't account for colloquial translations.

[ and german would sure mess with that component. ]

What does mostly human mean?

[heliophilous]

Firefly.

[ he liked it better than eclipse, if he's honest, but he's never been much for those code names. he uses them when it's someone else's preference but he tends to default to marcos for his own reasons. ]

It means... [ he pauses and looks over at her, frowning. time to make sure she was going to freak out when his injured hand was in her possession. ] Maybe I'll wait to tell you when you're done with my hand.

[ because he does not want someone's nails digging into that open wound just because they don't like mutants for whatever reason. ]

[myownwoman]

[ gaby says nothing, not even a shrug to indicate she heard him. peeking under the gauze, she decides it's stopped bleeding enough to clean out. ]

This is also going to hurt.[ he gets a warning this time before she dumps some of the alcohol on his hand, keeping it firmly in her grip so he can't yank it away and hurt himself even more. once it's clean(ish, clean enough) of his glowing blood, she sprays the liquid bandage on his palm, pressing the wound together and watching as it seemingly starts knitting the skin back together.

this is a hell of a lot better than the silver alginate dressings of her time.

she sprays the pain relief on his palm and flips his hand over to do the same thing all over again on the other side. alcohol, pat dry, magic liquid bandage spray, pain relief spray. once she is satisfied that it is closed, she applies a thing dressing just in case, to keep it protected if he hits his hand on something else. ]

You don't have to tell me what you are. I was born in 1938, in Germany. You can imagine why I don't advertise that.

[ if he doesn't want to tell her, she won't blame him. ]

[heliophilous]

Thanks for the ⁠— [ warning. he doesn't get the last word out before the alcohol hits the wound and he tenses up so hard he thinks he's going to snap muscles. it hurts but he keeps his hands still, at least. he curses hard, grabbing at the edge of the seat he's sitting on to try and outlet some of that pain.

it eases eventually but he can't help but scowl over at her before blowing out a breath. the rest of the process is blessedly less painful that that part. he swipes at some perspiration on his head and peers down at his hand once she's done.

there's still some pain but it's much, much less than what he'd been dealing with a moment ago. ]

I'm a mutant.

[ he doubts she'll really understand that but she'd shared with him and she'd seen his glowing blood so it's not something he can really play off. ]

[myownwoman]

[ as he does not have visible gills, gaby has to imagine that his mutation must be different than evolving a tail for balance or a nictitating membrane over his eyes. his blood doesn't seem to have any effect rather than being very pretty. ]

A mutant. [ she nods, twisting open the cap on the pain pills and holding two out for him. ]

You've evolved. That does not explain very much, but thank you for telling me.

[ he didn't have to, she would have dropped it. he isn't sharing it of his own volition, there were extenuating circumstance so she doesn't feel like she has won anything in the friendship department, a hollow victory. ]

Come. We need to clean up your firefly blood. You should keep the pain spray.

[heliophilous]

That's — [ a different way to put things. there were plenty of people that would disagree with her, that would consider him just dangerous because of his mutation. even marcos isn't sure he'd think himself evolved.

just...different. ]

Why do you keep calling it firefly blood? [ he's happy to let the subject drop though because he doesn't want to go into genetics and what he can do and how what he can do would be different than anyone else and that the abilities here did not make people mutants. ]

It's just blood, really. B negative. [ still human blood, even. it was just very bright. ]

[myownwoman]

It shimmers, like a firefly.

[ she has it speckled all over her arm, she looks like she's been kissed by day-glo fireflies. standing up, gaby collects the supplies, tucking them into her handbag in case she needs to use any of it again later. ]

I will keep that in mind if you ever need a donor.

[ SPEAKING OF: ] Do they do blood donations here?

[ they grow organs for organ donations, but gaby doesn't know if they mass produce o negative blood as well. she makes a mental note to look into that. if they don't, there is certainly going to be a need for blood. ]

[heliophilous]

[ her question catches him off guard and, at first, he just looks at her blankly before shrugging. ]

I don't know. I'd assume so unless they can somehow create blood from nothing.

[ and if they could do that, marcos doesn't want to know. that's good but it's also on a level of creepiness that he's not prepared to think about just yet. ]

People aren't going to be able to donate to me and I can't donate them. Not like this.

[myownwoman]

[ fun fact: they do manufacture blood! g r o s s! ]

Not at all or because you don't want them to see the color?

[ if it's not at all because of his mutant status, that is concerning. what if he is injured enough to need a transfusion, they wouldn't have any blood to give him. if it is only to keep his secret, that is a different story entirely.

she asks this as she heads down the aisle to find the bleach so she can clean up, assuming he is going to follow her. ]

[heliophilous]

Well, the color doesn't help but there's reasons why my blood looks like it does. It might be B negative but it's B negative...with some additives, I guess.

[ he shrugs. ]

No one's going to be compatible with what I need so.

[ best hope he doesn't need a transfusion anytime soon. ]

[myownwoman]

Let's hope it doesn't come up.

[ she paws through the bottles of bleach, trying to find one that suits her needs, and maybe a little lost in thought. it isn't every day she's confronted with glowing blood and all that goes with it.

she doesn't care, especially here where she can ice her own drinks with little effort, but it's still a whole new thing. ]

Is that why your father was so awful?

[heliophilous]

In a way, yeah.

[ it was more the mutant thing which the blood just came along with. he probably could have had glowing blood and been diagnosed with some sort of illness or disease and his father would have been fine.

but the mutant thing he wouldn't stand for. ]

He's a bastard when confronted with something different.

[myownwoman]

I know the type, [ gaby says sourly.

boy does she ever. either way, gaby grabs the bleach, adds the price to the list she had already compiled with the other supplies. ]

Come, you shouldn't linger. I'll clean up here.

[ clean up the path of firefly blood so it won't lead back to marcos hopefully. it amounts to splashing bleach across the floor and the ground, but gaby's been cleaning up grease stains for ages so blood isn't anything special. the end. ]