Event | Console Crash Chaos | Phase One

[cherrywood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: April 17-30, 2014
Location: Keeliai
Situation: In an unexpected and bold attack by Malicant, the console system is completely shut down while food and supply locations all around the city are targeted by bombings.
Warnings/Rating: Explosions! Possible descriptions of related aftermaths, injuries, death, etc.

Shortly after eight in the morning of the 17th, the consoles experience a strange glitching effect. They'll display 15-20 seconds of static, interrupting anything being done on them at the time, before going utterly dark. No power, no signal, completely offline even to detection of their normal bio-mechanical signatures. No amount of energy influx will get them going again, though taking them apart (or trying to) will still cause them to melt into goo.

Within minutes of the console shutdown, explosions will begin ripping through Keeliai. The bombs are all timed as close to simultaneous as coordinating a city-wide attack can be, with many going off within seconds of each other, throwing the thriving morning rush into chaos. They tear into businesses and across public spaces, collapsing walls and blowing piles of debris into the streets. Places of high traffic quickly become evident as prime targets: marketplaces, hospitals, schools and cafes. The streets take only moments to fill with panicking, screaming kedan trying to pull their injured fellows out of harm's way. All told, the explosions take place across approximately a 10-minute stretch and their explosive yields are fairly high.

In addition to the bombs that cause destruction through their blasts, smaller bombs are going off around the city that specifically target food and water supplies, particularly where large stocks of it were kept such as grocers, produce markets, and the like. Rather than cause mass damage, these explosions spray out a fine mist of spores. Any perishables in their immediate area that are splattered develop an oozing black mold within minutes, eventually breaking down organic substances that turn to foul smelling rot and release their own mist, perpetuating the cycle. While skin contact with the mist doesn't harm, inhaling or ingesting it will produce shakes, fever, vomiting with a cumulative effect that has the potential to be fatal. It is much slower to infect the water supply but the sheer volume of rotting perishables will eventually put enough of the spores to taint water sources, approximately 6-8 hours after the original bombings.

The police force are out as soon as possible and within the hour are helping move the injured to safer locations with Evandau in charge, right in their midst and shoulder to shoulder with his subordinates. Not being stockpiles for any of the apparent targets, many of the Foreigner residences have been left undamaged and, wary of putting them in further danger by collecting large groups in public spaces, Foreigners may even be asked to take in a few individuals or a kedan family.

Despite the number of explosions, there are far more reports of injuries as opposed to casualties. The person or persons (or That Bad Guy) responsible for this were, for this attack at least, more intent on damage than on death.

---

LINKS
Fire Sector | Earth Sector | Metal Sector | Water Sector | Wood Sector
Treating the Injured & Safe Houses | Investigations | OOC Plot Post

OOC NOTE: Remember that the consoles and network will be completely offline for the duration of this aspect of the the plot running April 17-23, though Foreigner tech is not affected. Plot questions can be directed to this comment. Have fun!

Comments

[corage]

['Special' yeah you got that right, you jerk.]

You're in no position to speak yourself. [He snaps back without really thinking about it.]

[animosus]

[A while ago, that remark would of hit its mark, but Hal's made peace with his past.]

I know I've made mistakes, but I've owned up to them unlike you.

[corage]

[Hal just lets out a snort in a way that shows his own disbelief over that response.]

Funny, I don't seem to see that at all.

[animosus]

I was trying to give you space! What the hell do you expect from me? You hate me, I get it and I thought you could do with a bit of breathing room, but then you had to go and throw away your ring.

The most powerful weapon in the universe and you just throw it out where anyone could find it. So I'm sorry for what I did, but right now I have to clean up your mess.

[corage]

[Try as he might there's only so much goddamned hypocrisy Hal can put up from his counterpart, and at the end he just turns around, eyes glaring daggers at the other Hal as he all but snaps, letting the words and anger fly.]

My mess? My mess? Who was the fucker who killed me in the first place? Who let himself get overtaken by fear? Who turned against everything we've lived for in our lives just for power?

[That's the crux of the entire matter - that Hal - the other Hal, Hal the Great and Almighty and Ever Fearless - actually let fear take over him. And if even he fell to it, then what chance had he?]

Don't you even remember what dad told us? What he said? That its our job to be fearless! To remember the courage inside of us! And you just threw that all away in a fucking heartbeat! Don't talk to me about messes when you haven't even fixed your own!

[He stops after that, if only because he's run out of breath, panting to catch said breath but continues to glare at Hal all the same. He's done with your bullshit, Hal. He's so done with it all.]

[animosus]

[While other people may have looked up to Hal and put him on a pedestal, he's always known how fallible he could be especially after the whole Parallax incident. It was also a little known fact that he didn't originally want the ring and the responsibilities that it brought.]

I screwed up! I'm only human. [He doesn't want to admit it, but bringing up their father is hitting a lot of sore points. He falls silent, he no longer wants to yell.] I have never been fearless. Fear always has and always will be a part of my life. I know I'm not living up to dad's words. [Words he's never heard his dad say, but if this Hal says he did say them it's good enough for him.

Hal's always wondered if his dad would be proud of him despite everything he's done and it's things like this that make him lean towards no.]

I screw up all the time. I know, but this isn't about me. You're using me as an excuse to dig yourself a bigger hole and I'm not going to enable that.

[corage]

[Like it or not, the response hits Hal in a few spots as well. I'm only human. He had said that before, too, before the Guardians, before Sinestro, when was pleading to them his case to have them help him defeat Parallax.

(There's a saying we have on Earth: I'm only human. We say it because we're afraid, we say it because we've screwed up.)

As much as he wants to Hal can't find the energy inside of him to flare up again, and he just slumps back down to his chair, tired and exhausted, just so done with all of this. He never asked for this, never for this life. He knew he was never cut out for this life and he was trying, god he was trying, but--if even the other Hal can't do it, then how could he? What chance did he have?]

Fear is part of your life, but so is courage. [He eventually says, the only thing he can say - the words that Carol told him, the words that gave him the strength to go up against Parallax.] And that's all we need to overcome that fear.

[animosus]

Then show it. Take the ring back. Be the man Abin Sur wanted us to be.

[While Hal doesn't take the shadow he casts into account, he can take into account that while he's had years to grow out of Abin Sur's shadow, this Hal hasn't had that opportunity.]

[corage]

[And this is why this Hal will never understand him. Abin Sur was one thing, but when you're overshadowed by another version of yourself? It's another thing altogether.]

I don't need a ring to prove myself.

[animosus]

You're right. But at least take it back so it's not out there in unknown hands.