meadowlarklogs | EVENT #009 AFTERMATH LOG

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EVENT #009 AFTERMATH LOG

WHO: Everyone! Monsters, trains, and New Amsterdam citizens.
WHERE: New Amsterdam, a train, and New Magellan.
WHEN: May 3, 2512
WHAT: The aftermath of the simulation.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Mentions of monsters, as well as deaths and memorials.

> EVENT #009 AFTERMATH LOG

The simulation ends abruptly. Whether someone was in the cold and artificially lit underground New Amsterdam or rushing the work camps to set every inch of them on fire, they'll wake up wherever they were before the simulation started. Given that it came down midday, many are likely to either be at work or enjoying a day off. The city takes a couple hours to "wake up" and "recover" from the long and traumatic period of time. Many of the New Amsterdam citizens will have to check a calendar to see how long it's been, and they'll also want to take care of any bodily functions and shove some food into their faces. While Judas' Suspended Animation helped a lot in this arena, everyone who's waking up will have to make up the difference for themselves.

After a couple hours left in recovery, people all around New Amsterdam flock to the streets to take in the state of the world. Numerous local corporations send out messages announcing that all employees will be paid for their time spent in the simulation, and that everyone will have a brief reprieve from work while New Amsterdam takes inventory on itself. Anyone in corporate jobs will have five days to take care of themselves, while anyone working in restaurants or lower-end jobs will only have two days to get themselves back together before they're expected to return to work.

Once everyone takes to the streets, they'll find a New Amsterdam covered in green and trees. It marks a striking difference to the cold, lifeless underground New Amsterdam that was present in the simulation. Many take to camping out on the first night, relishing the fresh air and lack of bustling city life that New Amsterdam has to offer. These same campers will need to move the following morning, but there will be little enforcement of any quick movement on that front.

On a more somber note, Governor Lydia Gill-Jade gives her final address to the city. She announces that New Amsterdam is the strongest megacity in the world, and that it's ready to persevere and prevail over any and all obstacles. She asks that everyone remember the lives lost when the simulation was lifted. By now, there are a couple hundred deaths reported, and among them are Katelin Jovavich and Matek Kattan (AKA "Ball"). Memorials spring up around the city in honor of these losses. At the end of her address, Gill-Jade declares that she's stepping down as Governor of New Amsterdam, effective immediately.

> NEW MAGELLAN AND THE MANY MONSTERS

Thanks to Ian, the simulation has come to an end in New Amsterdam. Anyone who went into the laboratory will need an exit strategy. What comes next? Daenerys will be setting off an EMP bomb as everyone leaves the laboratory, and will have set a large majority of the monsters on fire. But what about any that might be chasing them out, and how do they prevent them from following? It's time to have a plan to get out of dodge, so to speak. That's assuming that anyone has a plan. The accelerated timeline has meant that everyone is moving without having all the bricks laid.

Either way, now that Cassius has been transferred and is mostly secure in the hands of the Displaced, it's probably a good idea to not dawdle for too long. The lab is thoroughly on fire, the monsters are up for a chase, and it's time to get moving. Should they leave the building itself burning in the meantime? Then again, is that really anyone's biggest concern?

The problem is: where to? A quick hop back to New Amsterdam won't be on the horizon. The gate there is still down after the event, as recovering it fell by the wayside. If anyone wants to visit New Amsterdam, they'll have to fast travel to a city close by (New Prague is a great choice!) and take a train ride home.

That's right: it's train log time again!

> GATE BUSINESS

While people are either heading back from their adventures abroad or eating a lot of protein to boost their energy, there is still that little problem with the gate in New Amsterdam. Tony Stark identified the missing objects there, but the acceleration of everything meant that the gate never got fixed up. Now, it's up to the Displaced to put together how to make this gate work! If they have a relic sitting at home, wouldn't it be worth trying to see if they can slot it back in there? It might take a bit of teamwork, but this is the type of puzzle the Displaced can piece together.

The only thing that the Displaced might want to do is look for additional clues or information for how the original slots got changed up. When did it happen and who had the means to do that? Even if the fast travel system is back up, will there be any chance of someone messing things up again in the future?

> FINAL OOC NOTES

And that's all for our ninth event, folks! Please direct any aftermath questions to our Wrap Up post! In terms of the gate, we're happy with assuming that the gate is back up and running by time the arrival log is posted on June 13th.

Thanks again for helping make this a great event!

> NAVIGATION

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Quentin watches her do that and it is a very sweet gesture. He knows that Greeks give offerings, so it isn't a surprise. Probably any offer of comfort right now is helpful, and food is what everyone tends to shove around when grief is happening. He nods at her guess.

"Ball was the name he went by with his group. His real name Matek Kattan was only known to a few people." So only a few of them automatically will go to the shrines, knowing who it is for, but it doesn't take away from the sincerity of a gesture without knowing who it is for.

Quentin waits until the other people are out of earshot again before continuing. "His group is the one that believes we're chosen by gods and divine. I think between him pushing it in the simulation and us being active in there, people are starting to catch on to our existence." It's just whispers for now, but whispers turn into words and turn into shouts. He's still on the fence about where he's at with that; he also agrees they've been chosen in some way, but no guesses as to who by yet. "But without a leader I'm not sure if they'll know what to do."

"Give them a leader."

The name sounds familiar, one of the rich people at Caroline's gala probably, or one of those charity meals on wheels things. Maybe both. Sometimes the names run together for Silena, the candidates certainly do.

"Maybe not you, if you don't want to, but I'm sure they could use the reminder that their artwork matters. I've been looking around cooltalk and there's a bunch of neat art in New Beijing about Morningstar and the UNA and it looks like it spread fast because it's art." Art is important! Art is how Silena knows what her mom looks like, street art is common in the city, it uplifts and amplifies.

Beauty is necessary in mourning.

If things had gone differently in the simulation, Q might be in a hurry to take that sort of responsibility, high off his own importance in the narrative. The thing with Judas kicked him back into being more aware of how quick he is to think he can fix everything. "I'm not sure the leader should be one of us? Gaby said something back when I first met her, about how this is still her world. And their world."

He wants to talk to Gaby again but hesitant to, considering everything. He worries, wants to know if she's okay, but he isn't sure about the welcome he'd receive. Still, she was right. There is an element of unfairness to the idea that they're the special ones, even if that isn't intentional on their parts. "I mean, the worship is about us, so not sure if we'd be formulating an active cult." It's different when Ball is a native and preaching that. If the "god-touched" themselves take over, it's a different power dynamic.

"But we could at least provide support, I was thinking. They know we exist. If they think they can come to some of us with problems, they won't be alone." And it would mean their own spy network of a kind. Quentin also wants to find out more about Ball, see if there is any insight into what the man knew. "They should know that their art is appreciated too, maybe that can come from you." Quentin smiles thinly at her, leaning over to playfully bump her shoulder with his.

"Oh for sure it should not be us."

Demigods used to find themselves in positions of power all the time but the fact that that coincided with times of global unrest was A Problem. But that didn't mean they couldn't help people whose voices should be heard. Demigods were meant to protect humans.

This whole planet is human.

"But I wouldn't mind helping."

Edited 2020-06-25 01:25 (UTC)

"They already think we're like god-touched or divinely picked or whatever, so there will always be that power divide." Quentin hasn't spent much time engaging with them because he is already a mess as it is as a human, he really should not be someone people take their cues from. This entire experience only proved that more to him; he should not be followed.

"I mean, you are half-goddess. If anyone fits the mold it would be you." Not that he would put that on her. "Do people like know about you and openly worship, or are you very don't ask don't tell like we are with magic?" Quentin thinks eventually they'll likely do something so huge people will have to notice magic is a thing, but so far they've kept under the radar. The earth is giant and magicians are only one group.

"No one knows about us, mortals think all the stories are myths anyway and worshipping the Olympian gods went out of style a couple millennia ago. Hippie dippy wiccans or pagans, whatever, they will worship, in their own way. The gods adapted, they're invoked when their essence is. Like part of Mr D is at every party, there's always another Hedy Lemarr to give Hephaestus his power."

Mortals still love to create wars from nothing and invoke Athena and Ares, Artemis loves hunters. Her mom lives off love and that is hard to squash. They get by without the offerings and gifts.

"It's like how muggles never noticed wizards and witches, they all brush is off as something explainable. Percy fought Ares in public and the mortals thought his sword was a baseball bat." Not that she blames mortals, the Mist is designed to trick them to protect them, there aren't loads of stories that end well for mortals.

She shrugs, looking back up a the mural. "I would, you know, I would totally be a figurehead because I do want to help, but I also want to go home and it's not fair to want both. Charlie's gonna win out every time and they'll be back at square one."

Edited 2020-07-01 05:18 (UTC)

"Yeah, same. We've done some very suspicious magical shit in public and no one has ever seemed to look twice." And it's not really a mist or anything in their case, just people who don't want to bother with something that doesn't make sense to them. "Hell until a few years ago I really thought I was crazy for believing magic could be real." At the time it was an obsession and everyone told him he was crazy, and he was in an asylum so you know, he had reasons to think that. But he held on anyway and it paid off in the end. Everything he hoped for was real.

It's only that getting what you want doesn't guarantee happiness. He's learned that so many times now it might as well be an anthem.

"I was a king once, but I wasn't great at it. I'm not sure leadership is right for me." It's the opposite of what his heart desperately wants, to be special and good and heroic and save the world. And he's technically done the latter, but it's not the same as what a fantasy can make of it. He wants to help, but he second-guesses everything he chooses, and therefore is not decisive enough as a leader. He wishes he could step up and help Ball out, but he'll just have to do the next best thing, which is look out for his people, and be nice to them.

He glances over at her, raising an eyebrow. "Charlie? You have a guy back home?"

Silena's expression softens immediately. Like butter on warm bread, she melts for a boy that isn't even there. It doesn't matter, she would love Charlie anywhere. On a boat, with a goat, in a box, with a fox. She does so love him, Sam I am.

"Yeah. He's the best."

The blessing of Aphrodite can't breach through time and space into this universe, but Silena absolutely seems to glow just thinking about her boyfriend. She doesn't need a divine blessing, their love is a blessing all on its own.

"He would be a great leader. He was commanding. Everyone looked up to him but he treated everyone like they were equals. It didn't matter if they'd been there for years or days, everyone can still learn something, we can all do better, every day, so there is no point in acting superior." She waffles between past and present tense, like she can't settle on one for Charlie. Their love, their romance, is always present but everything else is... fluid.

"He was an artist, too, but his art was mechanical. Automatons, weapons, armor. He built me these little doves that would bring me notes. They'd fly through my window and wait on the foot of my bed."

She'll circle back to the whole KINGSHIP, that will be addressed, but well. She already said it: Charlie's gonna win out every time.

Edited 2020-07-12 06:18 (UTC)

Quentin watches her just transform into this glowing sweet girl in love and how can he do anything in the face of that but smile genuinely? It's so damned nice to see. He understands that kind of love. He didn't until Eliot, really. While he loved Alice very much, their relationship was fraught with miscommunication and pain. It just couldn't find this purity. But living an entire lifespan with someone and raising a child, that was different.

And seeing it on Silena's face now makes his chest ache all over again because Eliot is gone and he might never see him again, but he listens anyway. He listens to her gush and adore this Charlie of hers, because it might hurt him, but the truth is Charlie isn't here either, so Silena would understand. He does catch the past tense a few times, but he isn't sure if that's because Charlie isn't here, or because of something else. As a walking dead man, he's well aware of the possibilities.

"That's insanely romantic, the doves. And in general, the way you talk about him." He knows true love when he sees it and hears it. "Mechanical and armor ... was he a demigod like you? Like ... Hephaestus? Or am I stereotyping based on mythos." Who knows maybe a child of another god would be into armor. It's just an educated guess.

Silena snorts a laugh, which still manages to be charming, and nods. "Yeah, I know it's a little on the nose, Aphrodite and Hephaestus, but I'm not immortal so I'm not gonna be a ho like my mom."

Silena Beauregard: I don't believe in slut shaming.

Also Silena Beauregard: My mom is a straight up ho.

She sobers a little, loss making her smile a little less bright. "You would've liked him. Everyone did. And he totally wouldn't have gotten distracted and focused on, I'm sorry did you say king?"

"That's extra romantic, the children of a married couple who aren't in love finding love in one another." Quentin isn't so sure about how all the greek demigods are technically related, she's said cousins but with the fact all the greek gods are related, is that a whole lot of Lannister happening? Not that he's going to ask.

God, Quentin, you can't just ask people if there's incestuous relationships in their friend group.

"I'm sure I would have. He has the good taste to date you, so, that's enough." Quentin's free with compliments when it comes to her. It's impossible not to. She's just pure good in every possible way. "Oh. Um. Yes." He shrugs. "It was very Narnia, we went into another world and they're like oh you're human people destined to rule us, here are some crowns you're now in charge." Literally!

Quentin doesn't ask but Silena is apparently used to explaining it so it comes out regardless: "Gods don't have DNA or whatever so we're not related, that would be super gross."

Folding her arm across her chest, she tucks her elbow into her hand so she can tuck her chin into her other hand, humming happily at the idea of Quentin in Narnia with talking badgers and UNICORNS and the Star's Daughter and hopefully less sexism.

"Were you High King Quentin the Valiant?" So what if that is Lucy's title. Pssh.

"Oh good, I mean I didn't want to ask." Listen there are weirder things in the world than that but he's still glad he didn't have to tiptoe around that. "Does that mean you guys don't really feel like siblings if you share a parent or is that the exception and it's everyone else who isn't related?" Hey she brought it up he's just curious!

Quentin laughs and shakes his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "Actually King Quentin the Moderately Socially Maladjusted. Margot gave it to me, it's pretty fitting." Sure he wanted something like the brave or the amazing, but like most things in his world and with his friends, there was a grain of truth.

"Eliot's spectacular, Alice is wise, Margot is the destroyer, and thaaaaaaat's me." He just shrugs. Those are all super accurate titles to be fair. "We're not anymore though, they had an election and Margo won through popular vote."

"I can't wait to meet your hot friends."

It truly doesn't matter what they look like, everyone is beautiful to Silena until they open their mouths and piss her off (see: Akechi) so Quentin's friends could look like damp poodles with bad haircuts and she'd be like WOW.

"My siblings are my siblings, yeah. There's thirteen of us in the cabin: Drew, Milo, Mitchell, Remy, Hana, Lennon, Theo, Pippa, Esme, Dylan, Amandine, and Lacy." A beat, and a breath because that is a lot of siblings. "And me. I'm the oldest."

Almost like an afterthought, Silena's mouth turns down. "I guess Drew's head counselor now."

"They are so hot," he agrees and/or confirms. Seriously. An impressively hot group of people. "I'd say even our least conventionally attractive friend Josh is cute and funny." Quentin is barely saying that much, because he does think Josh is attractive, just in a different way from the openly sexy people otherwise in their group.

Wow, that is a lot of siblings! "That sounds ... well, awesome, honestly, but I'm an only child. I desperately wanted siblings." Quentin grew up lonely and self-isolated, too shy to make friends easily, until Julia. Even a mean sibling would've been better than none. "It's probably not a surprise that the godddess of love would have a lot of kids." He's not saying she sleeps around, she just loves a lot, okay!

Oh he saw that look. "Not your favorite sister then? Eventually you might go back and take the job back though." Not that Quentin wants her to leave. Selfishly, he'd miss the hell out of her.

Aphrodite is a ho.

Silena's nose crinkles which is answer enough that Drew is not her favorite. Philosophical differences at their cores. She puffs out a breath, looking up at the memorial to Ball for a moment before she looks back and Quentin, smile a little brittle around the edges.

"Head counselor is based on seniority. Drew's been there longer than the rest so she'd've inherited it when I died." Silena doesn't do Quentin the disservice of trying to brush past her own death, she knows he will be sad about it and she doesn't want him to feel like he can't be. It's sad, she guesses.

"Charlie's waiting for me," she says, soft and still so very full of love. "In Elysium."

Quentin would be surprised if the goddess of love wasn't kind of a ho. He may or may not be secretly considering whose 'house' he would be in if he was a demigod, which is ridiculous because this isn't Harry Potter, it's real life. (But he thinks it would be Athena, tbh.) His parents were pretty normal and boring and he had a normal and boring childhood.

Quentin's told people about his death and saw the punch to the stomach it was, and now it's his turn on the receiving end of the news. It shows on his face, the shock, because she's so upbeat. But he knows people can hide all kinds of things. It's tragic; not only for her, dead so young, but that Charlie is gone too. It's really fucking unfair. He reaches out to snag her hand, the sadness strong in him, but also love. His eyes shimmer with unshed tears.

"I'm dead too. We have an underworld but I'm not sure about the layers." As far as he knows ... not really? But there's no answers about that, people just die and hope for the best. It's easier for him to accept his own death than someone else.

Whilst Silena is admittedly full of grief turned sour from her own self-loathing, the love is almost overpowering. She is full of it, and full of it for Quentin, immensely grateful to have him by her side.

"Percy said they're the all same, but the people who die see them differently. Chiron tries not to get into metaphysical discussions with us, but I know that is because he gets persnickety with organized religion." Slightly off the point, but she claws her way back to it, gripping his hand. "Maybe I'll see you there."

Quentin isn't a child of Aphrodite, but he does have a very loving and open heart. Feeling so much love from her only makes him pour it right back at her. Coming here he's had to find some reasons to live, and he has, many of them, but there's also people to live for. And friendships that he counts as important as others in his life.

"He may be right. It's definitely not a heaven or hell thing, we have a Hades and Persephone, so there's probably layers." Quentin smiles sadly and shakes his head. "I mean ... I did die saving people, and I really did try to do good, but I'm pretty sure I'm not Elysium quality." He believes that Silena would be, and Charlie, but him? He's just so damned normal at the end of the day.

"Your worth is more than your mistakes, Q." Her grip is probably too tight but these words are important and her expression is imploring. Quentin needs to know this.

"I was a spy, for the Titans. I thought I was doing the right thing, that I was protecting kids like me from their parents, demanding their accountability, but somewhere along the lines it got twisted. It wasn't my fault or Luke's, not all of it, we were manipulated by the Titans the same way we were manipulated by our parents." Chess pieces no matter who was in charge of the board and Kronos was never going to give Luke the power to be the player and not the pawn. They figured it out to late.

"He promised me it would keep the camp safe, it would keep Charlie safe. But Charlie died because of me." The ribbon of love flowing between them – curling around them the way the blue light has flared around them – isn't diminished by the threads of grief and shame, instead it seems stronger as if the other emotions only serve to bolster the foundations of Silena's core.

"If I am destined for Elysium then so are you."

Edited 2020-11-14 02:49 (UTC)

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EVENT #009 AFTERMATH LOG

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sorry i am alive or mimicking life

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