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meadowlarklogs2019-07-26 08:19 am
forcevisions) wrote in meadowlarklogs2019-07-26 08:19 am
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.
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.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.✧ 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. > 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.> THE RETURN✧ 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.✦ 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. 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. |
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[ She sounds distant. Confused. The safehouse is dingy, the lights flickering. The grocery store is long since derelict, and the plumbing and electrical are as dubious as that would imply. These details all tell her immediately to trust Octavia's assessment. They got out of the outpost. She sinks back to the cot gradually, catching her breath. ]
Where are we? [ She thought she'd seen Kylo. She was sure he'd been back. That it wasn't a dream. ] How did we get out?
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[ She offers it as confirmation, but not as comfort — out of her own doubt that Rey will take her presence as reassuring. It's startling, beyond that, to realize Rey can recall her identity at all in her addled state. Improvement from the condition they'd found her in, Octavia thinks — or decides to interpret it as, more aptly, able to trust in that hope with the evidence for it right in front of her eyes. ]
We're in New Prague. Got here by flying truck. [ Bellamy would have painted her a picture as a child, trapped and waiting to see beyond the floorboards. Octavia considers it distantly before she decides it would be rubbing salt in the wound. ] You're not missing much.
[ With a long, questing look, she adds, ]
But I'm guessing there's more you're worried about than just that.
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She gathers her consciousness incrementally, and realizes that most don't know him by 'Ben Solo.' She pivots. ] Kylo Ren. He was there at the outpost. I saw him. [ She searches Octavia's face. ] Didn't I?
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Who do you think sent for me?
[ Belatedly, Octavia has the good sense to realize that a rhetorical isn't helpful. She shakes her head, leaning back in the creaky chair at Rey's bedside. ]
He asked for my help. [ She corrects. She hadn't questioned his investment in Rey then, and she isn't questioning it now. Whatever they are to each other, it's clear Rey is one of his people — and vice-versa. One of their people. In the moment, that had been all that mattered. ] If you're looking for him, they sent him on a walk.
[ More dryly: ] Pretty sure he was making them nervous.
[ By looming, to be honest. ]
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Rey's eyes close and she settles back against the cot more fully then, able to be fully at ease knowing that yes, he had been here. Yes, he was real. Yes, he was home. It's strange to think of Earth that way, and they're not really home given that they're in a different city, but it's the feeling that Rey settles on. Really, it's not about the planet or the city. It's about being with her.
That's the closest to a family she's ever had.
On the heels of relief comes amusement, though, and Rey opens her eyes again to look at Octavia with a thin, curling smile, soft enough to not look conniving but instead mischievous. ]
That sounds right.
[ He looms. It's what he does. ]
I didn't realize you knew each other. [ Because she's not thinking before she speaks, Rey says, ] It makes sense. [ Would she even blink if she found Ben punching a wall until his knuckles bled? Probably not. ]
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[ She corrects — notably without any hardness. Mistaking it as friendship isn't particularly egregious, after all, and Rey is already in a fragile state, but the truth remains: Octavia only knows how to process relationships as alliances, symbiotic relationships. Kylo Ren had called on her, and she had answered.
She isn't surprised Rey has softened that into something more. From the moment they've met, she's burned bright. Octavia still levels her with a look, mildly skeptical of what conclusion has been reached. ]
What part of that makes sense?
[ And, more importantly, should she be insulted or flattered? Given Rey's burst of relief, the tilt of her smile, the latter feels more plausible. ]
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Fighting pits.
[ They have something in common, the two of them. Rey will not examine too deeply the way she seems drawn to that type of person. To damage and discord and distress, as if she needed to find a way to fix herself by fixing others first. She knows now that it doesn't work that way, at least. It doesn't stop her urge to sniff out suffering and strive to help. ]
And the rest of the agents? [ Ben had said they were fine. She knows now, more cognizant than before, that Ben would have said anything to get her out of the outpost without her putting up a fight. She doesn't begrudge him that selfishness. ]
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We escorted them out. They survived.
[ What was left of them, at any rate. Octavia has no way of discerning if others had been taken and executed, ultimately deemed an unreliable source of information. She knows better than to tack that on when Rey is looking for confirmation, and possibly the reassurance that comes with it.
The selflessness, too, of concerning herself with others even in her state. She doesn't, however, have the tact to sugarcoat: ]
I'm not sure they're too happy about that, but they're alive. [ And run less of risk of revealing much, now. ] That's what matters.
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Good.
[ Because that's what matters. Then, ] You came.
[ To help them? To help her? ]
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[ She presents that reminder as though it's simple, hoping Rey will swallow it. Delving deeper into it demands self-reflection Octavia isn't willing, or ready, to offer herself — let alone another person.
A shoulder raises, shrugging with an air of casualness that's more affected than genuine. ]
You helped me out when I was in the safehouse. Consider it returning the favor.
[ That's how Octavia decides to present it: as a trade of sorts. As fairness, as respect for Rey's answers that first day. Anything more would be making too big of a deal out of it for Octavia's comfort. ]
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[ It sounds sad, to Rey, but she's familiar with the concept. Most people who operate this way on Jakku, however, don't keep their debts. Octavia would, she thinks. But maybe that's just Rey's endless optimism talking. Regardless, she can't help but get the feeling that's not the whole story. ]
Was there anyone there other than the agents and me? [ Bellamy, for instance? They had found missing parts of the first group at the other outpost. It's not impossible to imagine the UNA might have scooped up some of the others along the way, except of course that they would have, by now, already learned about the blue light and not needed to interrogate her. The possibility is logical enough to have gotten Octavia on board, at least. She thinks. ]
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[ Or, more aptly, that Cassius has discovered. Reminding herself of his participation does nothing to satisfy Octavia, restless with the knowledge of what tools Cassius possesses — everything at his disposal that could help her find Bellamy and the others. Everything he isn't sharing.
Octavia's jaw shifts. Beneath the skin, a muscle jumps, tense with what she's withholding. ]
No. [ There's a lot to unpack in that word, emotionally speaking. ] If they had the others, they would have interrogated them first. They would have cracked, or ...
[ They'd be dead. Octavia clamps down on the thought, refusing to let it air. She switches tactics immediately. ]
It's not something you need to worry about right now.
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[ That sounds boring. And it's telling, of course, of something deeper. Rey doesn't like sitting still and being in the moment, at least not like this. Not when the moment involves too much time to think and reflect. She prefers to occupy herself. If not her hands, then at least her mind. ]
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[ She isn't going to sugarcoat it. But just as she isn't going to sugarcoat it, Octavia differs from others that have hovered — in the sense she isn't going to treat Rey with kid gloves on and force her into bedrest. It's probably a terrible idea, but she still offers, ]
Unless you think you can stand long enough to get around.
[ Not outside, of course, but to at least stretch her legs, change clothes, drink water, entertain herself with whatever junk is sitting around this safehouse. Whatever. If nothing else, it'll give her the opportunity to feel less like chained to a bed. ]
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[ Rey offers this blandly, sitting up fully. Her vision goes black temporarily, and she stills, maintaining her sitting position and holding tight to the edge of the cot while she waits for it to return. There is a moment where she rethinks her hubris. Maybe she should have, instead, stayed right where she was and learned how to rest like a normal person.
She can't. ]
I want to get a change of clothes.
[ At the very least, so when she showers—when she feels ready to shower—she can put the entirety of her accrued stench behind her. ]
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[ Sardonic attitude aside, it isn't far from the truth. Rey's fortunate they hadn't had the time for worse atrocities — for those same cruel measures Octavia had once seen taken. Those she had doled out herself as punishment. ]
You knew the consequences. [ It isn't a criticism — Octavia wants to believe Rey had measured the risks, the rewards, rather than make the mistake that so many others have — but a lead-up when she asks, point-blank, ] Was it worth it?
[ That's what matters, in the end. Even the most agonizing pain can have a purpose, a meaning. It would be a greater torment if any of it were to go in vain. Octavia lets the question hang in the air as she slides out of her chair, its legs scraping across the floor, and offers up her arm. It'll serve the same use as the cot Rey is gripping like it move out from beneath her if she releases it. ]
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[ Rey says this with utmost certainty and seriousness. She doesn't even hesitate. As far as she is concerned, it isn't a question. Then she reaches out to take Octavia's arm and slowly, achingly, pull herself out of bed. She's surprised by the stiffness of her joints. They have forgotten how to articulate in her time confined. ]
We saved those agents' lives. I thought we'd missed our chance, after the EMP.
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[ To Octavia, it's the simplest interpretation. A projection, more than that, of each moment she had been stranded — left for dead, deemed a lost cause. The wound is still fresh from Bellamy's desertion, yet to heal. ]
But not you. [ Her lips twitch, an approximation of a smile that never fully blooms to match its true potential. It fades the moment Octavia shifts her attention to coiling an arm around Rey's waist, nearly hefting her the rest of the way. ] Too bad you felt the need to act alone.
[ Through CoolTalk, no less. It's not a criticism, entirely; Octavia commits firmly to the belief she operates best on her own. But Rey isn't her — this is evidence she cares too deeply, that others care too ardently for her, for her to feel the need to investigate without an ally in tow. ]
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[ She isn't used to being accountable to anyone else, and anyone she had assumed would come with her had either scorned her, tried to urge her to patience, or disappeared. Rey had felt alone at the time, even when people were trying to comfort her. Perhaps it was only because Fitz and Peggy and Kylo had left, and Daisy had felt so distant, and in so it had felt like she was right back where she'd begun. ]
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Her answering grunt is noncommital, working it over in her mind. ]
Sounds like a dumb decision from someone who told me we should be working together. [ There's no sugarcoating it. Rubbing salt into an open wound isn't her intent, but neither is softening how she feels about Rey's logic. ] Or does that philosophy only apply when you're not the one who needs help?
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[ She wasn't planning anything. That's the problem. Octavia is entirely right that it's a dumb decision in the context, but Rey had just finished explaining that she wasn't used to this context. To that end, she tries to shrug Octavia off now, too, rejecting the help in making her way to the supplies that the Morningstar agents in New Prague have laid out for them. ]
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[ Not directly, but it speaks for itself all the same. Rey is good at offering that philosophy, but not quite taking it herself. If there is a lesson to be learned from her capture, all of Rey's stubborn wriggling — another attempt to push help away — proves to Octavia that Rey has yet to absorb it fully. Prideful, to the very end.
But she won't offer help where it isn't wanted. More the point, holding onto a partially drugged just-escaped-interrogation person doesn't make for a good look. Octavia releases her without hesitation, despite the urge to dig her fingers in and continue on their way, and steps to the side, pointedly out of reach. ]
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So abruptly, in fact, that it surprises even her. She makes it one step before she realizes she's still weak, still foolish, still dazed from being in the same stiff position for so long. But she doesn't moan about it when she's down. Rather, she starts trying to pick herself up.
No. It's not just that she hadn't planned on needing it. Rey is terrible at asking for it — not just help, but for anything, from anyone. Her own warped self worth, resulting directly from parents who had seen her as worthless, refuses to allow her to see it as deserved, warranted, or even possible. ]
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[ Which is a different breed of reliance, in Octavia's mind, for how similarly unwilling she is to ask for help. Demand it, yes, too used to rallying those around her. But Octavia has never been well-adjusted, criticizing others for exhibiting the same traits that had birthed Blodreina.
On a personal level, she isn't willing to investigate how insulted she feels — undervalued, undermined. Like her contributions have meant nothing, the same way Clarke and Bellamy have overlooked her participation, given Rey's unwillingness to lean on her.
Even after she's risked her ass for a cause she doesn't believe in. It lends itself to the cruelty of allowing Rey to fall to the floor without intervention, purposeful in remaining out of her reach, simply to prove a point. She needs the help, whether she's willing to address it or not. Without it, Octavia believes her likely to end up just like her.
In the end, Octavia justifies it as cruelty designed to be kind for what it teaches. After a few seconds of watching Rey struggles, she swoops in, hefting her up beneath the knees to settle her in her arms. She's stronger than she appears, after all — compact, stocky muscle beneath the shroud of her jacket — and she suspects Rey is too weak to do more than wriggle if she's going to take an issue with it. ]
You needed help. We came. Consider this a lesson.
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In exchange, Octavia receives a powerful dose of Rey's shame and disappointment with herself. Disappointment for not being able to look after herself, but also for not looking around at the people who had only tried to be her friends. ]
I appreciate it. [ She says quietly, stubborn rather than reassuring. Defensive, even. Then after a beat, ] But it's different. You offering it, and me asking for it.
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tmw you forget to write a concluding tag