meadowlarklogs | OPEN PLAYER PLOT: OPERATION LOST BOYS

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OPEN PLAYER PLOT: OPERATION LOST BOYS

WHO: Anyone
WHERE: A research outpost not far from New Amsterdam proper
WHEN: November 28
WHAT: The Displaced arrive to save the captured Morningstar agents, including one of their own.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence, mentions of interrogation/torture, etc.

> DEPARTURE BY TRAIN
Early in the day on November 28th, Prompto and Poe will conspire to get an out-of-service train car onto the same tracks where the Displaced were guided by Cassius earlier this month. By all measures, the train car doesn't look operational. There are telling dents in the side, and it does not appear to be powered on. Yet those involved in the rescue operation already assembled are climbing on board like they know that this is their ride.

Inside, the train is fairly battered. Some of the seats on the far wall seem to have been damaged when the train collided with something during the EMP, and the rattling of the crash took out some of the internal handrails as well.

Once everyone is settled, though, the car begins to move. At the front of the car, Poe uses his power to move the train car on the tracks and out of the city. As they hit a checkpoint, the car doesn't slow down to be inspected; instead, it accelerates and blows right through the barrier, which makes for a pronounced jolt for all the passengers inside.

Once the train is rolling outside of the city limits, the Displaced can grab scrambler masks that have been provided by Morningstar for use in infiltrating the outpost when they arrive. It is imperative, El suggests, that they don't allow their identities to be compromised. They will also remind the Displaced to keep this project under wraps, lest Morningstar as a whole has its operations compromised.

This is a good time to solidify any plans about what to do when the outpost is reached. The train ride won't be especially long, but long enough for some tension to settle over the car.

> INFILTRATE THE OUTPOST
The outpost they arrive at is a less grimy version of what the Displaced saw earlier in November. The interior is almost identical to what was present there, with some wings repurposed as jailing sites. There are bright, fluorescent lights with white walls and a sterile smell throughout. Even cleaned up, these labs do not recognize any of those that the Displaced may have seen in their dreams.

The description below is borrowed from the arrival log for reference:

The building is six stories tall. The first floor has a lobby/waiting area, a cafeteria, and some office spaces. The second floor is the dormitory floor, which is where the employees would usually sleep if they chose to stay at the facility while working rather than returning to the city in between shifts. This is where the new arrivals woke up. Floors three through five are dedicated to lab spaces, which is where the actual research work is usually done. Most of these laboratories are going to be locked, but that won't stop Displaced from breaking into them if they want. Some of the lab rooms also have exam rooms. Displaced will be able to swipe lab equipment and medical supplies, such as syringes, vials/beakers, first aid supplies, scalpels, bandages, multi-lens microscopes, etc. The top floor is dedicated to offices for higher-ranked scientists, so think of it as the C suite. All floors also have bathrooms, of course, and the dormitory wing also has showers.

✦ Notably, this outpost is also empty of scientists. However, stoic soldiers stand guard at every door. These well-armed warriors are with the UNA, who has taken over the outpost. These soldiers are not an easy fight. In the fights with UNA soldiers, PCs might die and need to be revived in New Prague by Morningstar.
✧ DISTRACTION: Some of the PCs may choose to deal with the UNA by attempting to distract them using wit, charm, or apparent helplessness. PCs may search for a way to draw attention away from some of these doors to let others sneak past.

✧ INFILTRATION: Those who sneak past will find the jailing areas similarly guarded, and eventually, stealth and quiet infiltration is no longer an option. Rey and the other Morningstar agents are being held in well-secured cells, and UNA soldiers must be engaged in order to get past them.

✦ Inside the jailing sites, they find the missing agents in terrible shape. These Morningstar operatives have gone through extreme interrogation, and if they can get persuaded to talk sense--or talk at all--they might impart on their rescuers that the subject of that interrogation was most recently about the blue technology. However, most are catatonic, seemingly unaware of who they are or where they are, and some react negatively and violently toward anyone who displays the blue glow in front of them as the result of a conditioned response.
✧ Agents from the September raids will explain that Rey's arrival worsened the interrogation. Some of these agents may admit to confessing that Morningstar started helping a new group that emerged. It was clear in their interrogation that the UNA was not involved in the June firefight because they only then put together that the Displaced were involved in it. They're only aware because they were tasked with cleaning up after it.

✧ Some of the agents taken during the raids will still be resentful of the Displaced, and this will help convince the UNA that the Displaced are separate from Morningstar.

Once the agents are freed, the Displaced can make their way back to the exit of the outpost, where Poe Dameron waits in an armored truck liberated from the UNA. This flying truck is meant to transfer large numbers of UNA soldiers for load-outs, so despite the Displaced and rescued agents' numbers, it will be sufficiently spacious to fit them all. Though it flies, it's smarter to stay low in the interest of staying off trackers on their way to New Prague, where they can hopefully wait out the heat of pursuit by the UNA.

> NEW PRAGUE
When they arrived in New Prague, El contacts local Morningstar agents to escort them to a safehouse. Notably, El will warn the Displaced that no other parts of Morningstar know about zeir identity as an AI. El is hoping that the Displaced will keep their secret, but is more concerned with helping than with keeping them separate from the New Prague Morningstar chapter.

These Morningstar agents will bring the Displaced to an abandoned chain convenience store at the edge of town, Zesco. The convenience store is located near the edge of the city, and it's meant to be a temporary stop. The upper part of the store is just an empty space, though there is a wall where it's clear that there were once icee machines. All of the Morningstar agents will be held under an abandoned convenience store.

✦ The inside of the safehouse is like most safehouses, but since it's meant to be temporary, there aren't any clothes or food in place to help someone out. There will be Morningstar agents who come in to supply these things throughout the stay, showing up about an hour in to help out.
✧ It will be apparent that this safehouse is not one of the ones that's typically used in New Prague, but instead one of the miscellaneous ones that they've had around. Unlike New Amsterdam, most of the safehouses in New Prague weren't compromised. Of course, there is a high likelihood that this safehouse will be decommissioned after all of this.

✧ Notably, the New Prague agents are all quite impressed that the missing New Amsterdam agents were able to be saved at all—previously, NPC Morningstar cells had believed rescue to be impossible.

✧ Anyone who kept their scrambler mask on during the infiltration of the outpost is allowed to leave the safehouse and explore New Prague. Anyone else … can do that if they want, but it's not a good idea! The safehouse won't be fun, but jail will be worse. Please reach out to the mods if you do this.
✦ Beyond the safehouse, New Prague is a large, beautiful city housing around 30 million people. Unlike many of its brethren, it pays homage to the "Old" Prague in a number of ways: there are impractical cobblestone streets, and the architecture adheres to an older, gothic style throughout the city. In fact, there are ordinances that demand the city continues to look as if it harkens to an older past and time. Above all else, New Prague is very green: there are trees everywhere.

Throughout the city, there is a large, man-made river that cuts through to the underground, causing there to be beautiful falls underneath the main city itself. This river is called the New Vitava River, once again paying homage to the Prague of Old. The New Vitava River is maintained to the degree that there is no littering in it, and there are strict local rules about doing anything lewd in it. (That includes using it as a toilet. Don't do that!) There are bridges all over the city to easily cross from one side to another, and all public transit has been constructed to adhere to the river and also offer its citizens views of it on the regular.
✧ The weather here is just as extreme as it is in New Amsterdam, so anyone who's not been checking the news will find that the world really was screwed over by Cassius.

✧ Food throughout the city is just as eclectic as it is anywhere else. Visually, it looks like they want to remember Prague, but culturally, it's just as varied. This isn't an Eastern European city in anything but aesthetic.

> THE RETURN
The train ride back to New Amsterdam will resemble the ride to and from New Tokyo, but it is a considerably shorter trip. There is no stop for the train at New Amsterdam, so they will need to devise a way to get off the train without dying in the process - this will be difficult, but not impossible. This should not be too much of a surprise, as some of the New Prague Morningstar agents will join them on this train ride, and will explain the situation.

Once they're outside the city, these agents will get them back into the city, as they've done this rodeo before. They can sneak in easily through the opening made by Cassius earlier in the month, which if it has been found, has not yet been addressed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Rey had slept through the car ride to New Prague. On arrival at the safehouse, she'd slept some more on one of the cots, and eventually, one of the Morningstar agents had chased Kylo off. She wakes up while he's gone, and one of the local agents, Alexei, has to keep her from trying to leave the safehouse to find him.

Her position is clear in the question she keeps asking: 'But he was here, right?'

Hallucinations would be a fun new addition to her stack of symptoms from the sleep deprivation and experimentation of the interrogation, but she can't rule it out. Kylo was gone when she was captured. She knew better than anyone since she'd been sleeping at his apartment more often than her own for the better part of a week.

They shepherd her into the shower and get her clean clothes. She's been wearing her current clothes for a week. It's probably time to just burn them and take the loss, particularly with how her shirt is cut up, but she won't let them take her jacket and she won't let them take the golden chain of dice that she clips stubbornly around her neck when she gets out of the shower. The new clothes are patchy and secondhand, but they're comfortable, and they're clean. She feels more human already, but she's still dragging her feet.

Someone pushes her back into her cot. Hope brings ration bars. Rey chews at them and dips in and out of restless sleep while they wait it out. Right up until she sees him come back in. Rey's on her feet too fast, staggering towards Kylo when she sees him, but she's underfed and overtired still and weak from days of mistreatment, so she has to grab onto a bed railing to keep herself on her feet when her vision goes black.

By the look of it, that's not going to stop her ontinued attempt to get to him. ]

Rey!

( the urge to go to her is immediate, of course, if somewhat hampered by the fact that there's a pile of clothes in his arms. women's clothes; all of them in her size, purchased while he'd wandered the city. )

They were meant to tell me when you woke. ( granted, it's understandable why they might have hesitated. since their arrival he'd done nothing but hover, reluctant to leave her side; if they'd given him even a hint of her stirring he would have abandoned what he was doing to come running and, really, what more could he do for her that the medics themselves could not do?

but he's here now and that's what matters. )

C'mon, ( an arm is looped awkwardly around her shoulders, ) back on the cot.

[ Reluctantly, Rey lets herself be escorted. She's not coherent enough to argue, dizzy as she is from the sudden drop in blood pressure that came with standing. When he helps her ease back onto it, Rey doesn't climb all the way under the blankets. She just sits, and rests, and reaches out to hold his arm.

She wants the contact, at least. Even if the pile of clothing has barred her plan to throw her arms around him. ]

You were gone. [ Even she can hear how pitiful it sounds, but the fear is present and cloying and immediate still. He'd only just reappeared after vanishing. Then she woke up, and he wasn't there. She'd been afraid it was all a dream. ]

( it's unfair, perhaps, that he's exploiting whatever traces of the compliance drug might linger in her system — and star's only knew what else. )

They said I was hovering.

( they hadn't said it quite as nicely as that, but the sentiment had been clear. that he was getting in their way and that it wouldn't be tolerated.

once she settles on the cot, he'll lay the clothes out in front of her. winter wear in shades of pale blues and greys; a splash of purple, here or there. )

I thought you might like something that hadn't been worn by anyone else. ( and, it turns out, he's pretty terrible at leisure time. )

[ Rey looks down at the clothes. She's slow to process, still. The mild sedatives haven't fully worked their way out of her system yet, although she'd retched as soon as she woke up. They weren't orally ingested. It hadn't done any good. The ration bars, at least, had settled her stomach. Even if they were terrible and not filling.

The clothes aren't anything special, per se, but they are clean and new and well-fitted in her size. Which is special by Rey's standards, even fancy. She manages a lopsided smile and looks up at him. ] You would think that.

[ Ben Solo probably never had to worry about secondhand anything unless it was some kind of meaningful heirloom. Rey prefers things that are worn in, though. Durable, made to last. Salvaged. Still, the sentiment is appreciated because it comes from a place of his values being applied to her. She gathers up one of the shirts in her lap. ]

Thank you.

[ They're a little warm for the current weather, stock that was put out before the EMP trashed the climate further. But she'll be glad for them if it continues to cool down. ]

( kylo inclines his head as if to say, "it's nothing, really." except that it's not nothing. nothing between them lacks meaning anymore — if it ever did. )

I brought food, as well.

( obviously. if there's one thing that he can be counted on, it's to find whatever's edible within reach and bring it to her. like a male porg trying to court a mate.

there's every change that she isn't hungry, of course, but with the sheer variety of pastries the city offers, he thought it better to err on the side of caution. )

But it's in the kitchen.

[ Rey looks at him, then towards the kitchen, then down at the clothes in her hands. She ought to change. Put on something clean and new to show him she appreciates it, and to make sure that the donated clothes she's borrowed from Morningstar Prague are returned to them. But she doesn't really want to be without him, at this point.

The last two times he's left her sight, she's had to wonder if she'd ever see him again.

It feels like being caught in a trap. ]

I can go with you to get it. [ That, ultimately, wins out as more important to her in the immediate. Even if it took a pause to get to it. She sets the shirt aside. Food and Ben win out over changing her clothes again. ]

All right. ( there is a time to argue, to insist that she remain behind and rest, and there's a time to concede that he's frankly too tired and too selfish to press her to do the responsible thing.

and she would probably only follow him as soon as his back was turned, anyway. stubbornly determined to keep him in sight when she had so recently thought him just another hallucination conjured from her self-deprived mind. )

But you lean on me, and we take it slowly.

( thankfully, it's not too far of a journey from where they are and everyone is so caught up with the rescued agents that nobody is likely to pass comment. )

[ Rey nods and gets to her feet, leaving the clothes behind. She reaches out for him immediately, grabbing a fistful of his sleeve to keep herself steady. Already, she's feeling better than when she woke up, leagues ahead where she was when he picked her up from the exam table. ]

Did someone already tell you what you missed? [ She wants to fill the space. ] You were gone for days.

A little.

( most of it he'd gathered on his own, picking over news feeds and the network. the messages she'd left him while he was gone had been their own sort of informative. the desperate tenor of her voice when she had asked him to speak to her. )

I don't remember anything.

( not where he had gone or how it had happened. others had claimed to have been sent back to their homes, some of them claimed to have been gone for years before they had been returned, but not him. all he had to show for his time away was a half inch of hair growth and crumbs in his sheets. )

Just going to bed in my apartment and waking there again, days later.

( the experience mad all the stranger by the obvious signs of someone else having been in the apartment. and it could only have been her. nobody but rey knew where he lived, much less had access to his apartment.nobody else would have cared enough to come looking for him. certainly not after his plan had placed them all in jeopardy. there were plenty that would have been glad to see him gone. )

To crumbs in my bed, my lover missing, and everything within reach on fire.

[ She does not doubt the literal nature of the fire he describes. That is the way of his power after all. She just has to wonder if he expects her to replace the sheets because of the role of her crumbs in the fire. A later problem. ]

I stayed over. Waiting for you.

[ He can't be surprised by that information. It is in her nature. He must have known to expect that she would inhabit his space. ]

And I got hungry. [ Exhausted from work, she hadn't bothered to eat at the table. Seventy hour work week limited her energy for anything else. ] I found snacks in your cupboard. And the doll.

Did you like it?

( because that's the most important take away from this, right? that the gift she'd found ㅡ a gift he is sad, now, that he was unable to give her in person ㅡ be to her liking. )

I saw its wings and thought of you.

( that its fur was soft and its large, gawky ears somewhat reminiscent of his own was a happy accident. that was his story and he was sticking with it. )

I did.

[ Her voice is quiet, saying it. Accepting gifts does not come easily to her as no one else has given them. She had left it at his house, kept it in his bed, aware that his choice of gift meant that he had seen what she kept in her own bed. The bat made a poor replacement for him, though. Her pilot doll had always assuaged her loneliness. Kylo was a better cure.

They reach the kitchen area. Rey leans against the counter top, letting go of him with some effort. ]

I meant to be there when you came back.

Good.

( buying the doll had felt different to buying her food, more personal. perhaps even a little invasive. but there had been something appealing in the idea, as well. that she could keep a part of himself with her even when they were parted.

so he's glad that she'd found the doll; glad that the doll had given her some small comfort while he had been away, even if it is comfort he would rather have been able to give her, himself. )

I know. ( and so he won't tell her how it had felt, waking up in that bed, surrounded by her without actually having her there. that he'd reached for her, unthinking, before reality had slapped him across the face with not only her absence but the fact that she had been taken. the arm around her tightens, briefly. ) It doesn't matter.

I guess not.

[ Sheepishly put. A sure sign that she has taken his meaning wrong, internalizing this as a sign that intention doesn't matter, only that she hadn't been there when he'd arrived. Rey won't apologize for it: they got the agents out of it, and she wasn't sorry for pointing out that the UNA was spewing lies. She wouldn't do it again, but she's not quite sorry. She's just ... learned.

She's sorry for the circumstances it created, though, so she understands why Ben wouldn't see meaning to be there as sufficient. She lets him hold her to his side, pliant and penitent in her own way. ]

Don't do that — apologize for not being there. ( just so they're clear on what he means. they've come a long way since their first tentative days in new amsterdam, had managed to find each other, to reforge what had been damaged in the wake of crait and the supremacy, but there were still missteps. still raw spots that could, unknowingly, be hit.

he knows her well enough by now, can read the dip in her voice that makes her seem chastened when she's really just digging in her heels, for what it is. and, sure, he's angry. still burning off that anxiety that had hit when he'd arrived at her apartment only to be told that she'd vanished for days and nobody had thought to question it.

but that anger isn't for her. it's for himself, for not being there. for daisy and poe, for not thinking to look for her until he'd blown in and insisted. )

Or for what you did, for that matter. You wouldn't mean it and I wouldn't believe it. ( softer, this time. drawing her closer, because now that he has her he's reluctant to allow even the illusion of distance between them. ) You finished it.

You got them out.

That's what matters.

[ It catches her off-guard, if only for how selfless the sentiment is. Rey would agree, of course, but she's surprised to hear it from Ben. Not that she hadn't known him capable, only that she had believed the armor he had built for himself as Kylo Ren was too strong. But here he is. Valuing the mission of the resistance instead of his own interests.

It's enough to bring a slow smile to her face, her palm settling over his sternum. ]

We got them out. [ More important is making sure he acknowledges he gets credit in that too. (And, of course, the rest of the team.) It feels good to have someone else independently recognize the importance of that. Enough that it chips away at all the grief and frustration she's been holding onto while he's been gone. ] It's been so hard. Seeing all the consequences of what we did and feeling like it was for nothing. [ Alone, worst of all, while some of her friends couldn't even understand why it devastated her like it did. ] But it wasn't. They're safe. We did it.

[ He's right. That's the important thing. ]

Mm. ( a soft hum of agreement. there would be a time and a place to cover the rest; her "involvement" specifically, and how he would like to avoid seeing her caught in such a position again.

but it could wait. right now everything was too raw, too exposed, and frankly he could probably use the time to pick his words carefully. he didn't have his mother's aptitude or his father's charm. he only had himself and his blunt, artless view. )

I hope you're hungry. ( as subject shifts go, it could use a little work but they're also drawing up on the kitchen and he should probably prepare her for the sheer amount of food he'd brought back. far too much for just her to consume. )

[ Initially, the abrupt left turn out of the conversation catches her off guard. Surprise shows the whites of her eyes. Her brain recovers slowly, spots the avoidance for what it is, and gradually, her grin crinkles her nose, silent amusement at Ben Solo's own admission, while empathetic, that he isn't much good at talking through feelings.

Rey isn't either, to be fair. With anyone else, at least. ]

I'm always hungry. [ Which is a better thing to point out than the fact that she hasn't eaten anything in days except for the ration bars that Hope brought by. ] What did you get?

A little of everything.

( that has always seemed the sensible choice when venturing into parts unknown. he’d erred on the side of caution, at least, keeping his purchases to the sort of thing that would keep a little while if necessary.

klobásy, with several different condiment packets; fried cheese sandwiches, topped with a dollop of mayonnaise that smelled as inviting as they looked; crunchy bramboráky and dill soup. there’s mulled wine too, of course, with extra honey. all of it spread across one of the tables like a feast, waiting for her. )

I might have been a touch excessive.

A touch?

[ The spread could sate twice as many people. Maybe more. Rey grabs one of the bramboráky and dips it into the soup before shoveling it into her mouth. A satisfied groan slips out, and she shoves the rest of the bramboráky into her mouth too. Nothing has ever tasted this good. When she has made room enough in her mouth, she goes for the klobásy, breaking one of them in half so she can stuff a piece into her mouth.

The approach is animalistic. She never bothers with a plate or anything like that. Just picks off out of the various containers, occasionally emphatically offering in a voice muffled by food: ] This is amazing.

Just a touch.

( still, when she digs in with her typical enthusiasm, he exhales a breath he hadn't know he'd been holding, and settles himself against one of counters. )

I didn't know what you'd want. ( only that she'd need something. )

The UNA don't strike me as being particularly mindful of the comfort of their captives.

[ Oh.

She swallows it all then. Even hesitates with another bramboráky in her hand. Her tongue works around inside her mouth to dislodge stray food while she works over how to respond to that. They're doing this, after all. ]

Could say the same for the First Order. [ Just to be clear. When he decries the UNA practices, he needs to understand explicitly that he's disavowing his allegiance to the First Order. She pulls off a bite-sized piece of potato pancake and looks down at it. It feels like the wrong time for this conversation, disoriented as she still is. Achey. Daenerys had needed to intervene in her shower, after all. ]

( he doesn't flinch ㅡ and while there are several retorts poised on his tongue, he settles merely for tilting his head, watching her as she picks over the pancake in her hands. )

You're deflecting. ( flat. matter-of-fact. she will not derail this conversation by bringing the first order into it, but he will also not deny that she would have not faired much better if she had remained in their custody. that even if he had wished to spare her that, it would have been difficult. required sacrifices ㅡ and that in the end snoke would have used her against him just as he had used han. )

Tell me what you remember from when they took you.

[ She's suppressing. It's what she does. Rey does not feel ready to confront what the UNA did to her. So she hides it away, the way she does with every other terrible thing she has experienced. She should have known that Ben would not allow it. He never has.

Buying herself time, Rey stuffs the piece of potato pancake into her mouth and chews it over. ]

I was just off work. Heading home. [ Wait. ] No. Not home. To your place. I wanted to check on your plant. I never saw who grabbed me. Just black, and then I woke up in the outpost. I never saw any scientists. Everyone there was UNA. And they started referencing videos I'd made, talking about how the UNA lied. They started asking how I was connected to Morningstar.

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