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

[realists]

[ this is some harry potter bullshit and jyn doesn't know harry potter and i'm really sad she can't make the reference to the forbidden forest!

instead she grumbles: ] Kriffin' salamander, [ as she grabs her truncheon and flicks her wrist so it opens to full size. with her right hand she turns her hand in a circle and the water she draws from the air -- leaving the air around them a little dry -- coalesces into a large shield in front of her outstretched hand. ]

Spider Man would be useful right now. [ what she wouldn't give for a spandex guy with radioactive spider senses. it's too bad she only met him in a dream. one of the spiders launches itself at her, just the one, and smacks right into her water shield, drowning as it tries to wriggle through the water. maybe the other spiders will get the message.

they don't stop moving, she doesn't think they were all that put off. ]

[mercurio]

[prompto is immediately complaining]

Why bugs? Why is it always bugs!

[sorry, gals. he's always this loud and it's annoying. not even gladio could intimidate him into shutting up. he moves out of the way and away from the other two, giving all of them room to handle the spiders individually.]

[(technically, they're arachnids, but they fall into the same category for prompto.)]

[at the very least, he's making use of the knife and a mixture of shaking his entire body to get them off of him when they get too close.]

We should've brought repellent!

[strove]

Repellent wouldn't help. [Besides, there's always the risk of what would happen when mixed with sunscreen and everything else that's out here. And their blood, which is undoubtedly running fairly black. If these spiders get them? Well, Clarke knows she'll give what needs to be given, but it'll be risky. Very risky.

She would rather not shoot the spiders, but her gun is out anyway.]

And they're arachnids. Where I come from, anyway. [Hey, it could be a world thing.] Just move quickly and don't be afraid of stepping on them. Remember that we're bigger.

[Bigger, but not numerous like the spiders. She shuffles off to the side the moment a spider hits her shoe, trying to kick it off.

It doesn't work. Well, they'll be at this for a while.

For Clarke's sake, and likely the others', too, she drops her gun to the ground and tries to handle taking care of the problem by stepping on them. It goes ... not terribly, but not well, either. Meaning: she gets bitten sooner rather than later, and it doesn't seem like they mind the blood.

Anger begins to course through her veins. Not at the spiders—not entirely, at least.]

Kill them faster or I'm leaving you both behind.

[Yes.

It's definitely at the two of them.]

[realists]

[ anger has always been easier for jyn to handle than any other emotions. there was strength in anger, an armor she could protect herself with, anger was more productive than being some weepy eyed, helpless cow. she's made a lifetime of weaponizing her emotions, she wouldn't even notice when some outside force weaponizes it for her. ]

Thank you, for your input, [ jyn snaps back and it's probably all her own attitude at this point as she tilts the shield to maybe drown the surge of spiders against the ground. it's successful for a bit until it splutters out entirely, too new and too week to be twisted at such an angle. the spiders crawl over their dead friends, coalescing into a cluster so tight that it looks like the entire forest floor is writhing toward her, thin light from the canopy reflecting off their many eyes.

she backs up, shoves her truncheon back through the loop so she has both hands free. they can't swim, the water was working. she needs to try again. ]

Cover me, for Hutt's fucking sake. [ her hands push out and the shield of water comes back, but a number of spiders have breached the bottom edge and are busy biting their way up her legs.

at least their powers run on emotions, the surge of anger fuels jyn. ]

[mercurio]

[prompto is not a fan of this at all, and the more he stomps and kicks and tries to get at the spiders with his knife doesn't really do much to deter them. but they're making slow movement past them, even if their biting and crawling is leaving an itch on is skin.]

On it!

[he hears both clarke and jyn, forcing out imperatives, and prompto's wondering how they ended up here at all. it takes him a hard moment of concentration before his chest glows blue, his power activated, making him more efficient on moving quicker than the spiders can regroup, more effectively shooting at each individual one, snapping off the ones crawling over their legs.]

[their eventual struggle leads them, without their knowledge, closer to a figure that has been watching them. with a defeaning roar, it rushes towards them.]

Guys! Watch out!

[it's best to jump out of the way for now]

[strove]

[The problem is, rather than pointing her gun at the moose-ape, she turns it on Prompto. He calls to watch out, she sees it as if he's led them into a trap. Anger isn't an emotion that Clarke bears well. Guilt. Sadness. Grief. All of those are easier. Anger is emotional. Cutting. When she's angry at someone, she takes action. She's decisive. She may not think clearly, and her brain convinces her that she is right now.

So, yes. Her brain tells her that Prompto—who she loves, who she cares for—has led them into a trap.

That's why she points a gun at him.]

You knew that was out here.

[A trap. The look in her eyes is crazed and uneasy, like she's looking for a reason to snap.]

[realists]

[ jump out of the way isn't exactly in jyn's wheelhouse. but she does duck aside from whatever prompto was warning them about, in order to jump in front of prompto himself because diving in front of dangerous people with guns for people she tolerates (sorry, prompto, leveling up friendship takes a while!) is jyn' wheelhouse. ]

Clarke. [ what. the. fuck. jyn protectively puts her arm up behind her, like her small frame can cover prompto, but also so that shield of water can cover both their backs. fighting two things at once is not exactly what she wants to do but here they are.

she is getting real tired of people thinking they know best! ]

Do not waste ammunition on him. [ he is a twig. a buff twig, sure, but a twig none the less and those bullets will be better suited on the giant antlered gorilla beast that probably wants to fucking eat them because jyn can't just have a relaxing and educational camping trip, no everything has to be a death trap. ]

[mercurio]

[ah, this brings him back to when noctis wielded a sword against his throat, claiming prompto was to blame for everything—his back to the train's door, with no chance of escape. does he really seem the type to betray his friends and lead them to an uncertain fate for the fun of it?]

[he's already raising his hands in an attempt to placate the woman,] Clarke—

[and then there's jyn, putting herself between the two. he can agree he's not worth wasting anything on himself.]

[it takes a moment for him to recover.]

I've literally never been here before! I don't like this situation any more than you do!

[it really isn't the time to fight about this; prompto reacts, however, raising his gun and shooting towards clarke, over her shoulder, a perfect shot that lands on the large creature's chest just as it rushed behind clarke. it stumbles back heavily on its feet, a loud groan as it tries regaining its bearings.]

Now's not the time for this, Clarke!

[strove]

When will it be the time for it? [The bullet behind her doesn't change her disposition. Her body is tense, limbs taught and ready to respond. The gun pointed toward Prompto only lowers because she turns toward the large creature behind her.

It's huge, and it reminds her of something, somewhere. Vaguely. Not in the way it might if she weren't focused on her rage toward Prompto right now. He led them into this trap, never mind that they would've ended up here in the first place.

She huffs out a sound.]

Fine. We'll deal with this. [Clarke's gun raises up and then she turns it on the apemoose, sending a series of bullets into it.

A series that just makes the creature angrier. Whoops.]

[realists]

[ the way jyn throws her hands forward is accompanied my a string of curses that sound incredibly foul, even if the implants don't know enough huttese to translate her swearing. the mooseape barrels into jyn's wall of water almost like it's nothing, huge hands (paws? hooves?) ripping through the water until the construct falls and jyn has to throw it up again just to give them a little more time.

a bullet, spiders, the rogue monkey she could stop, but this thing is too huge and too powerful and she is still being set upon by the smaller animals as if they know to divert her focus as well. ]

I can't keep this up. [ as if on cue the wall falls again and jyn has to shove it up once more. ]

[mercurio]

[situation with clarke momentarily appeased, prompto bites down on his words and slams down a couple more shots out of the barrel of his gun—getting out of the way whenever the apemoose charges his direction.]

Just keep the smaller fry off of us!

[jyn's water shield is immensely useful, but she's right; this larger creature is more than what they can handle with their current array of weaponry and defense. prompto rolls on the damp ground, mud and moss residue on him as he pockets his gun. the blue glow on his chest permeates over his clothes—and everything seems that much clearer for him, now.]

We gotta get a clean swipe at him. [to whoever can listen, and he starts, running towards the creature to meet its charge, his focus ability allowing him to easily sidestep the beast, his hands grabbing at one of its arms and pulling himself up onto its back, feet first (stealing a move set from legolas, surely).] Slow down, buddy!

[the glow on his chest intensifies even more, hands pressed onto the hair on its back, the beast suddenly sluggish and seeming to move much more slower than usual. now's a good chance as any, anybody...]

[strove]

[That's the point when Clarke slides in against her better judgment. There is still a rage boiling in her veins, but she ignores it. She shoots the apemoose twice before latching on to it herself. Pain sears through her body, making her knees buckle and she falls to the ground, spiders crawling over her. She can barely pay it any mind. In reverse, she tries to send the pain back, but she struggles and suffers, bit by bit, as her eyes turn gold and the blue in her chest begins to take on a different hue, right along the edges.

Clarke begins to transform on the spot. Her mind is gone, boiling over, holding on for dear life, right as her skin changes, her fingers turning into long, talon-like claws. She doesn't realize it, but she's screaming throughout this—a wild, ferocious anger, one that she can barely manage.

She might need to be pulled away, because it's starting to look like Clarke is losing herself.

Right here.

Right now.]